Missing Lois - TOC Where we left off in Chapter 1: Part 2/4...Lois had just shut the journal when Martha tapped on her door.
“Could you use a break? I’ve got tea and shortbread in the kitchen.”
“Oh, yes, that sounds good.” Lois smiled. “I just finished.” She sighed and picked up the sealed letter. “Burn it as soon as you can,” she whispered. “Don’t forget.”
Martha blanched at what she was given, but only nodded.
Lois hugged her. “Thank you. I wish there was another way.”
Martha swallowed. “Me, too.”
Part 3Martha offered to make scrambled eggs for Lois the next morning, but the thought of it seemed to make the woman’s anxious stomach rebel. She was cleaning up the dishes from Lois’s bananas and yogurt, when the phone rang. Thinking that Lois was still in the shower, Martha had picked up the extension in the kitchen. Only she had been a moment too late.
“Hello?” Lois’s voice could be heard on the line.
“Ms. Lane?”“Mr. Wells.” Lois sighed in relief. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Good. I wish we could have found another solution to the curse, Ms. Lane, but in this instance, time is not on our side.”Curse? Martha mouthed to herself.
“I wanted to talk to you about that, but…” Lois hesitated. “… at the meeting place.”
“You said something about a change in rendezvous, yesterday.”“Oh, right. Are you familiar with the old Lex Towers?” Lois asked, then plowed ahead without waiting for his answer, describing the bunker built underneath. “Do you think you’ll be able to meet us there? It’s more private.”
“I believe so.” Mr. Wells paused.
“Us?”“I told Martha, Clark’s mom, everything,” Lois explained. “She’ll be the… contact… here.”
Martha could tell Lois was still afraid to go into detail. Was her paranoia not just a diversion, then?
“Do you think that wise, Ms. Lane? The more people that know…”“Martha is trustworthy and we need her,” Lois’s voice was firm. She wasn’t going to budge. “I need her.”
“As she already knows, there isn’t much we can do at this point, short of traveling back in time.” He sounded resigned.
“Precisely,” Lois said. “Ten o’clock, then?”
“All right, Ms. Lane. One hour at the rendezvous point. Good day, Ms. Lane.”Mr. Wells hung up, before Lois responded. “There’s nothing good about it.” Then Martha heard her hang up the phone, before she herself hung up the extension.
Martha continued with the dishes until Lois came out to the living room with her suitcase a few minutes later. Her hair was still wet and she was dressed simply. Shorts, a tank top and sneakers. Gone was her suit, make-up, and attaché case. This was not a Lois Lane others would recognize on the street.
“Going undercover?” Martha laughed.
“That bad, huh?” Lois asked, looking at herself in the mirror behind her Kerth Awards.
Martha went over to her. “No, sweetie, just different,” she reassured her with a touch to her arm.
“I really don’t need all that stuff, I discovered.” She put her hand against the wall and then up to her ear.
Martha raised an skeptical eyebrow. Was Lois saying that the walls have ears? She hoped this other Clark could handle Lois’s growing paranoia. She nodded for Lois’s benefit and she returned a smile.
The woman looked around the room. “How does one hug an apartment, I wonder?”
Martha watched as Lois walked around her apartment touching every little thing. Her books, her awards, her laptop, her photos of family and friends. She stopped and picked up one of Clark, staring at it as if speaking to it with her mind. Her bottom lip started to shake and her eyes were damp, when she finally put the photo down.
“Let’s go,” she whispered. “While I still can.”
They took a taxi to the old Lex Towers and quietly stole inside. Neither of them felt the need to speak.
As they stood in the elevator descending towards the bunker, Lois finally broke the silence. “Lex would have hated how lax the security has become in his building. Twice we went through those doors marked ‘Employees Only’ without a pip from the guards.” The elevator stopped and the doors opened. “I’m rambling again.”
“It’s okay, dear.” Martha patted her on the arm as they walked into the passageway. There directly in front of them was Herbert George Wells and his sleigh of a time machine. “Oh, my!”
“Martha, I would like for you to meet H. G. Wells. Mr. Wells, this is Clark’s mother, Martha Kent.”
The two smiled uncomfortably at one another before shaking hands.
Lois set her suitcase onto the sleigh and turned back to Martha. “The journal is a notebook on my dresser. I’ve left a diskette of my stories and the ones I’ve written for Clark in my laptop on my desk.” She took off her purse and handed it to Martha. “This is the last of it. My purse. My home keys and Clark’s apartment keys are inside.” She pulled a second set of keys from her pocket. “Here are the bunker keys. This one operates the elevator.”
She took a step back as if suddenly dizzy. “I’ve just thought of something, she will have no idea what these New Kryptonians look like. Suggest that she look through the newspaper archives tomorrow when she goes to work to refresh her memory. I believe there is a photo of Superman with Zara and Ching at the
Daily Planet. Oh, I hope this works.” She sat down in the passenger seat of the time machine.
H. G. Wells turned to Martha. “I will return in what will seem like a minute or two with Lois’s replacement. I will drop her off so she sees me as little as possible. Are you ready?”
Martha swallowed. “I guess so.”
“No!” Lois jumped off the time machine.
“Lois?” H. G. Wells stammered. “Have you changed your mind?”
“I need to use the restroom. I’ll be right back.” She went through the door of her copycat apartment and disappeared.
Martha took his arm. “Now, that I’ve got you alone for a minute. Please, tell me about the curse.”
H. G. Wells blanched. “Lois didn’t explain?”
“I overheard on the phone this morning and I saw the newspaper article. Tell me.”
He looked down and lowered his voice. “Lois and Clark have a love that is so good and so pure that it has tied their souls together for eternity. Somewhere, at some time in history, someone has cursed this love, so that one of them dies a horrific death after they first…” He cleared his throat.
“Consummate their relationship?” Martha guessed.
“Consummate. Yes, precisely the right word. Thank you.” H. G. Wells smiled. “By taking Lois into the parallel dimension, I am hoping to negate this curse and buy us the time to rid them of it. Once we find the cure. Meanwhile, the other Clark – she did mention the other Clark?”
Martha nodded.
“The other Clark can hopefully keep her safe.”
“She has been acting strangely since I arrived yesterday. Extremely paranoid. Despite knowing that Clark won’t be back for another eight months, she thinks the New Kryptonians are only days away. This is why she wanted us to meet in this lead lined bunker.”
“Days away. Interesting.” H. G. Wells thought about this.
Lois reemerged from the apartment. “Sorry.”
“Ms. Lane, tell me about these paranoid feelings you’ve been having lately,” he asked.
Lois looked at Martha, who embarrassedly smiled. “I want to say that it is nothing, but it’s not. Since our meeting, yesterday morning, I’ve had this feeling of dread hanging over me like a black cloud. I know that Clark’s not due back for months, but I know in my heart that he’s close. So, very close to coming back to me. But that he’s not coming back on his own. The New Kryptonians are coming with him. I feel like the world – Earth – is in danger. But most of all, I feel that Clark himself will be double crossed by the Kryptonians. It’s insane I know.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Ms. Lane, I believe what you are sensing are new memories.”
Martha’s jaw dropped.
Lois shook her head. “Huh?”
H. G. Wells took her arm and sat her down at the edge of the time machine. “When we met yesterday, you made a decision to go to the parallel dimension and bring another you from the past to replace you here. When you made that decision, time started to create a new future to compensate.”
“So, I don’t have to leave?” Lois looked at him hopefully.
“No, Ms. Lane. For this new future and these new memories to solidify you must continue on the path you have decided upon.”
“Oh.” Lois appeared despondent as her chin started to shake. “Will these horrible feelings of dread mean that something will happen to Clark?”
“Possibly. But, Ms. Lane, for it to be a memory, at some point the replacement you will have to return to her own time and you to yours.”
Lois wiped her eyes. “These memories mean I will return.” She smiled. “We will survive. It won’t all be for naught.”
“Oh, Lois!” Clark’s mother gasped, hugging her. “Good luck.”
“Thank you, Martha. I depend on you. And I miss you already.” Lois stepped back on to the time machine and sighed. A minute later Martha was standing by herself in the passageway.
***
Lois waved as Martha blurred from view and was replaced by the alley behind Clark’s apartment.
“Clark, we’re…” H. G. Wells started saying before he was interrupted by a rush of wind announcing Clark’s arrival. He landed next to them as Superman.
“I thought I had missed you,” he said, taking her suitcase from the time machine. “There was a nine car pileup on…” He saw the dampness in her eyes as she stared at him. “Never mind.”
“Sorry,” she apologized with a shake of her head. “It’s been awhile since I saw Superman.”
“But it was only yesterday that we met at my… your Clark’s apartment…”
She put her hand on his chest.
“Oh, you mean, the suit.” He smiled. “I forget sometimes that I’m two people now.” He flew off with her suitcase and less than a minute later, Clark in slacks and a t-shirt jogged down the alley towards them. “Shall we?”
Clark opened the door to his 344 Clinton apartment. It looked pretty much the same as it had several months earlier when Lois had told him about Superman. Only a few changes in photographs had been made. Gone were the pictures of Clark and Lana, which she personally wouldn’t miss. He had replaced them with a photo of Superman, Perry and Elvis.
“This is going to get some getting used to. Charlton Heston is president and Elvis is alive.”
“Elvis died?” Clark was visible shocked. “Perry must be heartbroken.”
Lois smiled as she borrowed one of this Clark’s favorite lines. “It was a long time ago.”
He walked around the corner towards his bedroom. “You’ll be staying here.”
Lois hesitantly followed. “Where will you…” but as she made the turn, she noticed some changes structurally to the apartment. He had added a straight staircase from the doorway up to a new loft above the bedroom window.
“I know it’s a bit cozy, but as you will be here only a short time, it seemed ridiculous to rent and furnish another whole apartment for you. This way I can keep a better eye on you. I’m sure that’s what Clark would want.”
Lois didn’t think her Clark would want her this close to his twin – living with him right above her – but she didn’t say so out loud. What lengths would her Clark go through to keep her and the baby safe? She knew him to be a jealous man. But this Clark had obviously gone through a great deal to accommodate her. They could speak about it later.
“Thank you.” She sat on the bed. She ran her fingers over it thinking of it as her Clark’s bed, but she remembered that his bed was in another dimension.
H. G. Wells peered in through the doorway, before he stepped back in embarrassment. He cleared his throat and she realized that he thought it improper to enter her bedroom. Lois took one last glance around the room and followed the men back into the living room.
“We should give you a little time to settle in. We need to go borrow you from the past. Mrs. Kent is waiting.”
“Mrs. Kent? Martha Kent? My mom?” Clark looked excited.
“Clark’s mother. It’s probably best if she doesn’t meet you, just yet.”
He tried to hide his disappointment, but Lois noticed it. Like her Clark, she could read him like a dime store romance. “Of course,” he replied.
“So, Ms. Lane, unless you have anything else to say. This will be goodbye.”
H. G. Well’s words brought her out of her silence. “Goodbye? Aren’t you coming back?” Lois might have this Clark, but without H. G. Wells, she felt somehow abandoned in this other dimension.
“I will be returning Clark to you, but then I’d like to check on your future. See if it has settled enough for me to visit. I had some trouble since yesterday’s conversation locking onto it.”
“Like my memories.”
“Yes. I have to find a way of tracing your souls down and ending the curse.” H. G. Wells contemplated something for a minute. “Tracing souls movement? I wonder.”
“Will you be all right, Lois?” Clark asked, almost hovering. She could tell this situation was as unnerving for him as it was for her “There’s food in the refrigerator.”
“I’ll be fine,” she reassured him. “I’m a big girl.” She shooed them away with her hand. “Now, don’t you have a beautiful damsel in distress to rescue?”
They both stared at her in confusion. This was going to be a long year; she sighed. “Me.”
“Oh, right,” H. G. Wells answered. “Wait, Ms. Lane. I’m afraid there is one more thing you forgot to leave with Mrs. Kent.” He held up her hand with the engagement ring on it.
Lois covered up her hand. “But, surely, that Lois will have her own ring.”
“Luthor gave it to the clone when he kidnapped her.”
“Oh.” Lois gazed down at her hand, her lip starting to shake again. Slowly, she slid the ring off her finger and handed it to H. G. Wells.
Mr. Wells slipped it into his pocket. “Goodbye, my dear. Take care.”
Lois pulled the man in for a hug, which he clearly was not expecting. “Thank you.”
While she was hugging H. G. Wells, she noticed Clark step into the closet and reappear as Superman. That was different.
“I’ll be back soon,” he told her with one last smile. A moment later, they were gone.
Lois wiped the dampness from her eyes. She would get the ring back. With a sigh, she started wandering around the apartment. She noticed little things that were the same as her Clark – as his taste in wine – and the stuff that was completely the other Clark – like the lack of junk food. He had real food and real ingredients in the fridge and cabinets. Not a Twinkie, donut, or bottle of Yoo-hoo to be found.
She saved the bedroom for last. He had emptied the dresser and closet for her. Where would he keep his suits? Then she checked out the secret compartment, which her Clark only used for his blue suits; this Clark had also put in his work suits.
The reporter in her knew that a check of the apartment would not be complete without a trip up to Clark’s new loft. She tread lightly onto the steps, knowing full well that they were just for show; unnecessary for a man who could fly. She stopped at the top step and surveyed the area from there. Clark had installed no hand rails and it was quite nerve racking, so much openness. He had enough space for a full sized bed, a small dresser, and nightstand with a lamp.
She saw that he had two photos on the dresser, which she had not noticed in the apartment on her previous visit. The first was a couple similar in looks to the Kents, only altered. The parents he lost when he was ten – a long time ago, he had told her – but the pain still there. Had it been Lana’s suggestion that he not display the photo before or had it been there and she hadn’t noticed it? The second photo appeared to be of her and him. She took a couple of steps closer. It definitely was a photo of them, she realized with a cold chill descending upon her. It was of when they had arrived – her in his arms – to the mayoral debate that past spring.
Lois sat down on his bed to catch her breath. This could not be a good sign. She was not only an engaged woman, but pregnant as well. This arrangement was not going to work, if this Clark became obsessed with her.
How much experience with women did he have? He had dated Lana since high school. Had he ever dated anyone else? Probably not. Lana did not seem the type to let him off her rope during college. And then suddenly last spring, she went and swooped in with a kiss and made him into a hero. Great.
What was her Clark always telling her?
“Lois, I have loved you from the beginning…” She would need to find something to keep his mind off her.
She did not want to think about how strong her willpower would be if he gave her the full Clark Kent charm. She glanced over the side of the loft and released another held breath. At least, he could not watch her sleep from his bed. She didn’t think she would be able to get a wink of sleep, if that had been the case. This was hard enough on her as it was.
Thankful she was in her sneakers, Lois carefully climbed down the open staircase.
Kicking off her shoes, Lois got started unpacking her suitcase. She placed the photos of her friends and family on her new dresser. The one of her and Clark at the Kerth Awards, she placed next to the bed, where the photo of this Clark and Lana used to be. The last item she removed from her suitcase, before sliding it under the bed, was a t-shirt belonging to her Clark. One that still held his musty scent. She slid it over one of her pillows and lay her head on it, breathing in his essence as she cried herself to sleep.
***
Clark and H. G. Wells walked in silence back to the time machine. Usually Clark hated to walk in the Superman suit; it was so conspicuous. Superman flew; Clark Kent walked. But on this day his mind was so full of Lois Lane, he didn’t even think about what he was wearing.
He could hardly believe it when H. G. Wells arrived on his doorstep the night before last and told him that only he could save Lois from death. Then he had dropped the bomb – Lois Lane was pregnant or
with child as Wells had put it. Wells believed that Lois and Clark’s love had been cursed and he thought if he removed her from her timeline – brought her to his dimension – it would keep her from dying in childbirth.
Clark had saved himself for his one true love and believed the same of her Clark. He had proposed to Lana more because they had dated so long – and she knew and tolerated his secret – than out of desire. He had thought he loved Lana until that morning several months ago, when the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, saw
him, crossed the room calling
his name and then kissed
him, like she had done it a thousand times before. Something about the kiss sent his nerve endings to tingle. He had never experienced a feeling like it before or since.
It was the most amazing kiss he had ever experienced, but at the same time, he knew it was wrong. He was engaged to Lana, who just happened to be standing right next to him. Her voice had been like a cold shower to that kiss, which he had stopped anyway. He hadn’t known Lois and beautiful women don’t usually walk up and kiss him.
Well, they hadn’t until he donned the blue suit. Men admired him; women chased him down the street. He hadn’t expected that.
Lois Lane had changed his life from the first moment she walked into it. Yet, he also knew that she did not belong to him. Firstly, because of Lana, then later when he learned about her Clark.
It was like he was a contestant on one of those game shows his foster mother used to watch incessantly.
Let me show you the grand prize – No, sorry, you’ve only won our parting gift. So close. The grand prize was the other Clark’s life – Superman, Lois, and a secret identity with a great job. Not to mention having living parents who still loved and adored him. And, if all worked out, a family of his own. But then, again, it wasn’t much of a grand prize if it was cursed.
Clark sat down, but as H. G. Wells reprogrammed the time machine, placed his hand on the man’s arm to pause his actions. “What’s our plan?”
“There is a moment in time when Lois escapes Lex Luthor, sees the clone arguing with Superman, and then runs across a street to flag him down, when she is struck by a car, hits her head and gets amnesia. That is the Lois we want. Oh, and Lex has paralyzed her vocal chords, so she cannot speak. You need to fly in and grab her between the moment the car hits her, but before she hits her head. She will naturally be thrilled to see you, believing that you are her Clark and you bring her to me. I will transport her to the future where Mrs. Kent awaits her. Then I will return for you.”
“Poor Lois. This actually happened to her?”
Wells nodded. “About ten days after you first met her. Two days after her wedding was supposed to be.”
“I can understand rescuing her at that moment, but must we put her back there later? It seems unjust.”
“If we do not return this Lois back at that precise moment, after we borrow her, it will alter her entire future. It would change the Lois sitting your apartment. She would no longer exist. Horrible that it is, it is her life, her history. We are changing her future enough already,” H. G. Wells explained. “And yours too, my boy. Let’s just hope we are changing both futures for the better.”
“I am not comfortable with this decision. How will I be able to continue to be Superman, representing truth and justice, if I am party to a kidnapping?” Clark’s lips pursed together.
“How is it kidnapping if Lois herself suggested the time and place for the removal?” asked Wells.
“It will feel like kidnapping to the Lois we remove.”
“It will feel like a rescue to her, Clark, as it should. No one is in more need of a rescue than that Lois.”
Clark nodded. “I have one last question, Mr. Wells. How are you ever going to convince that Lois to return the worst point and time of her life?”
Wells’s eyes widened and he swallowed uncomfortably. He cleared his throat, before answering. “We all make sacrifices for the greater good, don’t we, my boy? Her Clark gave up marrying the woman he loved to stop civil war from breaking out a planet he had never seen. Lois left everything to come and live with you, just for a chance at saving her Superman. And you gave up your comfortable existence to help the woman who showed you the potential within yourself. Perhaps you should have Ms. Lane contemplate the answer to your question over the next few months.”
“It will be Lois’s decision, then. That seems fair.” Clark released hold of the mechanism. “I am ready to assist you.”
Wells released a deep breath and pulled down the lever.
The time machine reanimated itself on a rooftop opposite the
Daily Planet building. Clark stepped off the time machine and looked down off the edge of the building. He could see the subway beneath
The Planet start to smoke. Lois’s Superman arrived and sucked up the smoke. Only to be interrupted by someone looking like Lois in a hot pink suit.
“That isn’t Lois, is it?” the other Clark with confusion.
“No, that is Luthor’s clone. The one that Clark married.”
Clark listened to their conversation. “How could he even think that was her?”
“By this time, he has serious doubts.”
He then saw a woman in a pale pink silk pantsuit stumble up to the corner opposite the newspaper. She called out to her Superman; her mouth moving but nothing came out.
“I can’t hear her and I’m listening for her.”
Wells patted his throat. “Paralyzed vocal chords, remember? He was an evil genius. Thought of everything. Delusional in thinking that doing anything to have the woman he loved was better than not having her at all.” But by this time, Superman buzzed past and alternate Clark had leapt to rescue Lois.
Clark reached her after the car hit her but before she bumped her head against the lamppost.
“Clark,” Lois moaned in a barely audible whisper, kissing his neck. “Oh, Clark, you did hear me. It’s over. This bad dream is over.” She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and murmured into his ear. “Take me away. Take me far away.”
Clark zoomed above the clouds, where he let her kiss him as only Lois could. She made his nerve endings tingle again. It hadn’t been a fluke. He knew why her Clark would do anything for her. She was a dangerous drug that he would be addicted to if he did not put a stop to it soon. He shifted his hold on her so that she was cradled in his arms, releasing her lips from his.
“Take me home, Clark. I want to change out of this god-awful suit. Luthor had it made for me.” Her entire body shivered.
“Are you cold?” Clark asked, wrapping her in his cape.
She shook her head and leaned against his chest once again.
“I’ll take you home,” he murmured. “You relax.”
“Home,” she whispered, shutting her eyes. “Take me where it’s safe. Where you are.” A minute later she had fallen asleep.
Slowly, he descended from the clouds and landed next to the time machine.
“Clark,” Wells scolded with a shake of his head.
Clark cleared his throat as he set her down in the passenger seat of the time machine. “You warned me that she would be grateful. I should have taken into consideration, how much.” He cleared his throat again and sighed. “She said that the suit she’s wearing was a gift from Luthor, so if she wakes up in future still wearing the suit, she’ll will know something is up. We’ll have to take the suit with us into my dimension, until we need to return her…” He frowned. “…home.”
Wells started warming up the time machine. “Clark, stay here. I will be right back. Do not save anyone. Do not let anyone see you, especially this dimension’s Clark. Do not intervene. Remember, this is history.” He moved the lever and he and Lois disappeared fifteen seconds later.
Clark went to the edge of the building and looked down at the corner where he had rescued Lois. A man ran up to that corner from the same direction Lois had come. The man wore dark glasses and a fedora hat pushed low over his brow. What caught Clark’s attention was that the man was muttering under his breath,
“Where did she go? I knew I should have knocked out more than just her…”A limo pulled up next to him and he hit the roof of the car before yelling at the driver. He sent the man in one direction as he went in the opposite one.
That’s Lex Luthor, Clark realized. An anger built up inside of him; he suddenly was tempted to use his strength to pound the man to the center of the earth and leave him there. Clark took a step back. Wells had told him not to change history more than they already had. But he was sure the other Clark wouldn’t mind, much.
Instead he pushed that anger down and followed the man by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Lex stopped in an alley; the clone was there, too. Clark hovered above, watching them. She pulled a gun on him. This was getting better. Lex goaded her on. He didn’t think she could do it; Clark hoped she would. This was better than TV. Finally, the gun went off; she had missed Lex, Clark could tell. Clark exhaled in anticipation and the bullet hit Luthor’s arm.
“You shot me!” Lex was shocked. Clark was delighted. Then he heard Wells calling to him. He glanced back in to the alley. Lex’s hat fell off when he hit the garbage. He pulled off his sunglasses and yelled again. “You shot me.” Clark got a good view of the man’s face. He had never seen a man resembling him in his dimension. The clone picked up her shopping bags and sashayed out of the alley. Good for her.
Wells called to him again; he had better go. Time to go home to Lois.
***
Martha felt foolish standing alone in the concrete hallway of Lex’s underground bunker. Should she wait in Lois’s creepy copy-cat apartment? She hesitated. Mr. Wells had said it would only take a minute or two. She stood with her back against the passageway wall and before she knew it the air around her appeared thick as jello. POP! The time machine was back. Lois looked to be asleep in the chair next to Mr. Wells. Martha stepped forward.
“Change of plans,” Mr. Wells called to her. “Hop on.”
Martha’s jaw dropped, stepping back. “Excuse me?”
“We need to take Lois back to her apartment.”
“Is she all right?” Martha glanced between Mr. Wells and Lois.
“Please, Mrs. Kent. I will not be transporting you through time, just across town to Lois’s apartment,” Mr. Wells explained, indicating where she should stand.
“Is it safe?” Martha asked, getting on to the time machine and standing behind him.
“I do not usually travel with more than one passenger, but it is perfectly safe.” He turned couple of knobs and pulled the lever. The air around them again appeared thick and a moment later, the passageway was empty.
They reemerged in the living room of Lois’s apartment. The furniture in the apartment seemed to anticipate their arrival and the time machine was able to fit in the room with ease.
Martha quickly disembarked. “Now, what exactly is going on?”
“Unfortunately, in the planning of our caper today, we forgot one little detail. Apparently, the clothes that she is wearing were given to her by Lex Luthor. If she wakes up in them, then all is lost.”
Martha took a closer look at the Lois next to H. G. Wells. Gone were the shorts, tank top and tennis shoes. This Lois was wearing a pale pink silk pantsuit that Martha had never seen before. “Oh, dear. What do you want me to do?”
“Clark, suggested disrobing her and removing the clothes to his universe for safe keeping.” H. G. Wells seemed more upset at that suggestion than Martha felt, although the idea was preposterous.
“How exactly are we going to do that without Superman’s help?” she asked him with a raised brow.
Mr. Wells was shocked. “Mrs. Kent! That Clark is not her Superman. It would be…” Words failed him. “Wrong.”
Martha sighed. “I meant, how are we going to carry her into her bedroom without waking her up without Superman?”
“Oh.” He grinned embarrassingly. And then her words sunk in and his face turned pale. “Oh.” He looked at Lois and then back at Martha. “I haven’t the foggiest idea.”
“Wait.” Martha bolted down the hall. She entered Lois’s bedroom and pulled back the sheets of Lois’s bed. She set Lois’s keys and purse on her dresser. Then she returned to living room, leaving Lois’s bedroom door open.
H. G. Wells was thinking through the lift with his hands. “You are certainly right, Mrs. Kent. Clark would have been a great assistance to us here.”
Martha surveyed the dilemma again. “You need the pink suit. So, it is probably best if we remove jacket, before we take her into the bedroom.” She bent over and started unbuttoning. “How asleep is she?”
“Exhausted, I presume. She had spent the last day and half as Lex Luthor’s prisoner. I doubt she slept there. Before that, she and Clark had run around on the clone president story.”
“Yes, I remember Clark mentioning something about that at the reception.” She leaned Lois slightly forward and gently pulled on the cuff of her jacket. “You do realize that I did not sign up for this.”
H. G. Wells chuckled, holding out his hands should Lois loose balance. “Me, neither, Mrs. Kent.”
The pink jacket was draped on Mr. Wells seat and they again faced the problem of moving Lois.
“Come on. Together, we should be able to lift her in a sitting position.” Martha suggested they each of Lois’s arms be put around their shoulders and then hook their other arm under her knees. “Clark’s the planner in this relationship. Lois is more of a jump in with two feet without checking the depth kind of gal.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Mr. Wells said as they lifted Lois and slowly brought off the time machine. Neither of them mentioned out loud how happy that they were that Lois weighed under one-hundred twenty-five pounds. Steadily they made it to Lois’s room and as gently as they could muster, set her on the bed.
“We did it!” H. G. Wells was thrilled and then noticed where he was standing; quickly he withdrew from the room.
Martha exhaled, resigned with the task of undressing her future daughter-in-law. She closed the bedroom door. This would be a great and funny story someday, she sighed, if ever there was someone to whom she could tell it. Jonathan and Clark would be in stitches. She sighed, again.
A few minutes later, she returned to the living room with the pale pink pantsuit and blouse neatly folded in her arms. She had set the white shoes on top.
“Do you have a bag?” Martha asked.
Mr. Wells had been pacing behind the time machine. “A bag?” He seemed confused.
“Here.” Martha handed him the clothes and went into the kitchen. A moment later returned with a plastic grocery store bag. She took the clothes from his out held arms, placed them in the sack and set the bag on the passenger seat of the time machine.
H. G. Wells cleared his throat. “Well, Clark is waiting for me.”
“Is he really like my Clark?” she asked, dying of curiosity.
“Any many ways, yes. More sad, perhaps; not as, hopeful. Difficult though your Clark’s life may be, he has experienced much more joy and love than the other Clark,” Mr. Wells explained. “I hope…” He shook his head. “I must be off. Thank you, again, for your assistance, Mrs. Kent. We certainly could not have done it without you. Good luck with the task ahead.”
Martha smiled at him, not wishing to think about what was going to happen when this Lois woke up. “Good luck with yours, Mr. Wells.”
She stood back as H. G. Wells sat down in the time machine and turned a few knobs. A few moments later, she was again alone in the living room. A crazy day, she thought to herself. Even if she did tell Jonathan about it, he might not believe her.
With a sigh, Martha went into the kitchen and retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge. She returned to Lois’s guest room and closed the door. Who knew how long Lois would sleep after the last few days she had? Jonathan was expecting her home on the first plane in the morning.
What if Lois did not wake up until morning? Martha would have to warn Jonathan that she would be late and see if she could postpone her trip. What would Martha say to Perry, if she had to call Lois in exhausted? What would Lois do when she woke up only to find herself months in the future with Clark thousands upon thousands of miles away? She had better call the airline now. There was no way Lois would be psychologically ready for her to leave tomorrow morning. Jonathan would not like it, but he would have to deal.
Martha took a gulp of water and dragged herself off the bed. As she picked up her purse from the dresser, she knocked the newspaper onto the floor. When she went to retrieve it, she realized that it was the future newspaper that Mr. Wells must have brought Lois on Friday. She had brought it into her room the night before while Lois was writing her journal. It was still folded in half and she could not stop herself from checking the headlines.
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for that horrible picture of Clark at Lois’s grave again. She flipped open the paper and did not see the photo. She opened the paper and quickly scanned the front section in its entirety.
Was this the wrong paper? Martha set the paper down on the bed and scanned the front page again. No, it was definitely dated late February of the following year. The top headline was exposé by Lois Lane and Clark Kent about some impeached presidential candidate name Doe. Strange, she hadn’t ever heard of him and the election was less than six months away. Then again all politicians sounded the same to her.
Could it have worked? Did taking Lois into the other dimension really change the future? Save Lois and the baby? What a crazy weekend. Now, she felt like she was the one falling off the deep end. Would it end up being a dream, after all?
***
Clark flew down and landed next to the time machine. H. G. Wells was looking at him with pressed lips. Clark smiled innocently. “Hi. I’m ready to go home.”
“What did you do?” Wells didn’t believe his naiveté.
“Nothing. I just did some research.” He picked up the bag and sat down. “I found Lex Luthor.”
Wells winced. “I told you not to intervene, Clark. He dies for good when his underground lair collapses.” Wells started turning knobs and flipping switches. “And Lois survives.”
“I didn’t do anything. I just wanted to know what the man looked like. I was curious if I had ever seen him.”
“Had you?”
“No.” Clark glanced inside the plastic bag in his lap. “Any problems?”
“I wish I had brought you with me after all.”
“Mr. Wells, really, I did not do anything.” He smiled. “Like the stop the bullet that the clone shot at him.”
“Were you tempted to?” Wells asked as he pulled the lever that brought them into the future and over to his dimension. The time machine was once again parked in the alley behind Clark’s apartment.
“To save him? Lex Luthor? The man who had kidnapped Lois away from her own wedding and left a clone for her Clark? Not in the least.” Clark grinned. “Actually, it felt good to let that bullet hit him.” He sighed, flicking a little dust off his golden S. “I know, ironic, how unlike Superman of me. But you had told me not to intervene. And in this one instance, I was happy to oblige.”
Then Wells replied with the strangest statement. “That kiss really affected you. It made you angry at Lex Luthor. Angrier than you had ever been before.”
“No, it did not make me angry at Luthor. If it did anything to me, it made me more protective of Lois.” Clark was starting to doubt his own words; he could hear the defensive tone in his own voice. Why had Lois’s kiss made him angry at Luthor? “I didn’t like how frightened she was when I rescued her. How relieved she was that I found her.”
“That
her Superman had found her. That the man she loves rescued her, not you. Remember that, my boy. Or this next year will be quite trying for you.” Wells started turning knobs and flipping switches again. “And you might want to ask Lois about her relationship with Lex Luthor. There is more to the story than I think you know.”
Clark stepped from the time machine, holding the plastic bag, and feeling like a fool. “Should I have wanted to stop that bullet from hitting him in the arm?”
“I don’t know, Clark. Even her own Superman fought the urge to rescue Lex Luthor, the first time, when he jumped from his penthouse to his death. Then again, Lex Luthor had locked him in a Kryptonite cage overnight in the wine cellar of Lex Towers, where he was marrying Lois Lane, so Superman could hear his beloved say ‘I do’ to his enemy.” H. G. Wells pulled the lever. “So, perhaps he was just too drained to help.”
Clark’s jaw dropped open as Wells disappeared. Lois Lane had been engaged to Lex Luthor? They had had a wedding? No wonder Luthor had wanted to ruin Lois’s and Clark’s wedding.
He realized he was standing in the alley, in the Superman suit, holding a plastic bag on his arm. What was he doing? A moment later, he entered his living room through the window. He dropped the bag with Lois’s suit in the secret compartment. He would hang it up later.
Glancing through the bedroom door, he gazed at Lois. She was sound asleep on his bed. He shook his head. No. Her bed. It was not his bed anymore.
Clark checked the clock to see how long he had been gone. Time travel messed with his head. One hour. It felt like much longer. Maybe it had been, but Wells had dropped him off earlier. He should really go make a check of Metropolis. He had made too many trips to the other side recently. He glanced in on Lois again, before flying off to protect on his world.
***
CommentsChapter 1: Part 4/4
