Missing Lois - TOC Author’s Note: I have altered the timeline of the show twice in this chapter. First, by extending the length of Lois’s murder trial (to months instead of days) and secondly, by moving Tempus’s John Doe Presidential election bid to its correct spot - after “Ghosts” and around the time of “Stop the Presses” (i.e. November 1996).
Story Notes: This story is set in alt-dimension
- Clark = Alt-Clark unless otherwise noted
- Lucy El (Lois's secret identity) = pregnant canon Lois avoiding the curse by hiding out with alt-Clark
- Kal = what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Cat Grant = helping alt-Clark out with PR on his '50 dates' charity winners
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lois's doctor & roommate
- Jaxon Xavier = Lex Luthor's son and spy at
The Planet, does website design and research for the paper
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always
- Mayor White = aka Perry White, former Editor-in-Chief at the DP
- Alice White = Perry's wife
- Dr. Klein = S.T.A.R. Labs scientist and Superman's 'doctor'
- Barry Balson = Superman beat reporter for DP
- James Olsen = owner of DP, Lois-Lucy's friend, who is working with Lois to find Lex Luthor (and hopefully alt-Lois)
- The only people who know canon Lois's true identity are alt-Clark, Sam, and Moonbeam (alt-Star). Alt-Clark told Mayson Drake that Lucy El is his sister-in-law and that he has a twin brother, but not about the other dimension. Mayson didn't believe him (thinking instead that Lucy was a con-artist).
***
In
Chapter 3: Part 6, alt-Clark went on a week-long vacation to Smallville and took possession of his childhood home, which he just discovered was left to him by his folks, who passed away when he was 10. He went on vacation to recover from his bruised heart after Mayson dumped him, his embarrassment of getting tricked into Jaxon's Virtual Reality computer, and to get some space from Kal's (canon) Lois for whom his feelings are growing stronger. He only comes back to Metropolis to take Lois out for dinner for her birthday. Unfortunately, it's the same day Lois's substitute self (back in her own dimension) has been found guilty of murder and is broken out of jail by her husband. While out on the beach in Key West, alt-Clark gives Lois his mother's wedding ring to wear as symbolic substitute for Kal's wedding ring.
***
Part 7Cat Grant sat down on the edge of Clark’s desk. “How was your vacation, Clark? We missed you around here.”
Clark leaned back. “Relaxing. What’s up?”
“New invitations for the man in blue.”
His shoulders sagged. Oh, yeah. Mayson was gone, but the ritual remained. “How many dates do I have left?”
“A few,” Cat said kindly. “You’ll be done in early December.”
“Ah, a Christmas miracle.” Clark grinned. “What have you got?”
Cat flipped through the pile of invitations. Clark pulled one out of the crowd.
“I didn’t know if you would want to go to that one. Personally, I thought it might freak you out. You want me to call one of your winners?”
“No.” He smiled. “I’ll handle this one. I already have someone in mind.”
“Really?” Cat raised a brow with curiosity. “Anyone I know?”
“They can take the girl out of gossip…”
She shrugged. “Once a reporter, always a reporter.”
“Off the record?”
Cat nodded with anticipation.
“She’s out of this world.” He slipped the invitation into his pocket and smiled.
“And?”
“That’s all I’m saying to any reporter about a woman I invite on a date. Maybe we won’t even show up.” He returned his focus to the pile of invitations. He sorted them quickly into two piles. “These I’ll attend; these politely reject. Thank you, Cat.”
“If I find out who she is, will you give me the scoop?”
“You’ll always be my first ‘no comment.’”
Cat groaned. “What’s the point of having a celebrity working at the paper, if he treats me like all the other celebrities out there?” She grabbed the invites and stomped off. “Thanks again, Clark.”
“If I’m ever in the mood for an exclusive, you know you’ve got it,” he called after her.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she replied with a wave of her hand.
Clark rolled his chair over to Lois’s desk. “I’m heading out to S.T.A.R. Labs for my weekly meeting, if you need me.”
Lois glanced up and smiled. “Can I come?”
“You don’t have security clearance.” Clark lowered his voice. “And since you don’t exist, you’re not likely to earn it either.”
“I just wanted to meet your Dr. Klein to see how different he is from the man I know.” She tapped her computer screen. “James said he’d drop by with the information he’d compiled on L.I., Ltd.”
“Do you really think it might have something to do with…” Clark glanced across the room at Jaxon plugging away at his computer. “… you know who?”
Lois followed his glance and lowered her voice to barely a whisper. “It’s very possible. Everything Lex ever touched had Lex or Luthor in the name. Lex Tower, LexCorp, LNN, LexComm, Luthor Technologies, and, of course, Lex Labs. L.I. sounds like an easy abbreviation of Lex or Luthor, something. It’s that something that I’m stuck on. Industries, International, Income, we’ve tried every possible word starting with ‘I’ that I can come up with, and nada. I think we’re down to Intergang…” Lois’s and Clark’s gazes locked. “It couldn’t be that, could it?”
“He didn’t have a connection to Intergang that you know of?” Clark whispered.
“No, Kal and I didn’t trip over Intergang until months after Lex died, that first time, and LexCorp had been dissolved. But if he were the original leader of Intergang before Bill Church took over…” Lois leaned back in her chair and mouthed the word, ‘Wow.’ Suddenly, she closed her eyes and set her hand on her tummy.
Clark touched her arm. “Are you all right?”
She smiled with a nod, standing up. “Too much soccer. Excuse me.”
“It’s getting worse?” he asked, concerned.
“It’s normal, Clark. Perfectly, normal.” She winked. “Probably just a UTI. Bring me some cranberry juice when you come back, will you?” She asked heading toward the restroom.
Did Lois just say what he thought she said? What was he supposed to do with that information? He chose to ignore it. “My pleasure, Mrs. El,” Clark replied to her request though as he rolled back to his desk and took his jacket from the back of his chair.
Five minutes later, he was dressed in the blue suit and walking into S.T.A.R. Labs.
***
Lois switched off the light on her desk and stood up with a stretch. Clark had left for S.T.A.R. Labs that morning and had never returned. She was worried. She had tried Dr. Klein’s office at one o’clock and again at three, but he didn’t answer. The main security desk didn’t have Superman signing out. Not that that meant anything; her Superman often didn’t sign in and out of S.T.A.R. Labs. She had tried Clark’s home number and got that machine as well. She had scanned the wire service, MNN, and even the radio, but no major disasters had occurred. Clark had just disappeared. She turned on her light again and picked up the phone.
“Hello?”“Dr. Klein?”
“Yes?”“Hello, Dr. Klein, this is Lucy El over at the
Daily Planet.”
“Lucy! Hi. Wow! Is everything all right?”“Is Superman still there? He never returned from his appointment with you and that was…” Her voice trailed away. Of course, Clark wasn’t still there.
“No. I’m sorry, Lucy. Clark left some hours ago.”“Was he okay? I mean, I understand if you can’t tell me that because of doctor / patient confidentiality…”
“You know about that?” Dr. Klein seemed surprised.
“Well, yes. I’m the one who suggested he needed someone whom he could contact in that capacity. He naturally thought of you. I’m just worried when he didn’t return, like he usually does. He’s been unhappy lately, since his breakup with his girlfriend.”
“Has he? Oh, right, he mentioned that. Tin cans. Well, yes, he did seem a little down, more disappointed, when he left today… Physically, he was fine, though.”Tin cans? Lois shook her head, trying to concentrate on their conversation. “Dr. Klein, physically Superman is always fine. What would he be disappointed about? Did a test not go well?” Lois’s heart ached. Poor Clark.
“No. No. All our tests today went well, exceeded expectations, actually. It was a private matter, I can’t really speak about it, even with you, Lucy,” Dr. Klein said.
Lois’s mind jumped all over the place. What sort of private matter of Clark’s would Dr. Klein not feel comfortable discussing with her that would make Clark disappointed? Lois gasped. That couldn’t be it. Dr. Klein hadn’t run the fertility tests on Clark, had he? Clark hadn’t said word one about that to her. That wouldn’t have made him depressed though; he already knew he could father children. Hello, she was the living proof. “Dr. Klein, did you give Clark test results today?”
“I really cannot discuss this with you, Lucy. I’m sorry. I wish you luck in finding him.”“I understand, Dr. Klein. I wouldn’t want you to breach doctor / patient confidentiality either. I’ll try Clark at home again. Good-bye.” She hung up the phone, then picked it up once more and dialed. His machine answered again.
Lois pulled on her coat, then sat back down. She opened her purse and pulled out her wallet. Inside, behind her Press Pass, she had tucked a little orange square of paper. Clark’s emergency number. The number of his hideout, where he said he might be contacted, if he couldn’t be reached elsewhere. Where he had gone during vacation. He said that it was a private number, where he would only be able to be reached sometimes. She looked at the number and recognized the area code. Kansas.
Lois picked up the phone and dialed. So, that’s where he had gone on vacation: home. Smallville. Clark Kent, it didn’t matter which one, always went to the same place when he was torn up about something. Home. But this time the phone rang off the hook; there wasn’t even a machine. He wasn’t there. She hung up and turned off her light. What could be bothering him?
It was raining on the walk back to her apartment and she wished there was a cab to hail, but they were all taken. She was wet and drenched by the time she got home. She unlocked the door and called out, but no one answered. That was strange; where was everyone? She shut the door and her father padded out of his room rubbing his eyes. He looked like he was just waking up from a nap.
“Hi, Princess.”
“Hi, Daddy. Have you seen, Clark?” She peeled off her wet coat and shook it, before hanging it up in the closet. “He went to an appointment this morning and never returned.”
Sam glanced at her and looked away. Alright, he was definitely hiding something. “He stopped by this afternoon. We talked for a while and then he mentioned wanting to see Perry.”
“Perry?” She hadn’t tried Mayor White, because he was the mayor. And secondly, she hadn’t wanted to worry him. She realized that Perry was as close to a buddy as this Clark Kent had. She picked up her address book next to her telephone and searched for Perry’s new private number. She dialed and Alice picked up.
“Alice. Hi, this is Lucy El, Clark Kent’s… Oh, he’s mentioned me. Yes, I’m fine, thank you. I hate to worry Perry, but… I seem to have misplaced Clark. Is he there?... Thank you. Tell Perry hello from me. Thanks.” She hung up.
“They sent him home in the town car?” Why couldn’t he go home on his own? She shook her head. “I’m going to change into some dry clothes and dry my hair, Daddy. We have any frozen dinners left?”
“One or two. Although you should really be eating fresh food,” he replied.
“I agree. Shall we order take-out instead?”
He shook his head. “I miss Lois’s home cooked meals.”
“I’m sorry, Sam. I grew up with my mom…”
“No explanation necessary.” He smiled. “I’ve tasted Ellen’s cooking.”
When Lois had finished changing her clothes, there was a knock on the door. Sam let Clark inside.
“She here?” she heard him ask.
“Hi, Clark,” she said walking out to the living room. He looked haggard -- like he had been drinking -- only alcohol didn’t affect Superman. “I was getting worried. You never came back…”
He held up a bottle of cranberry juice and set it on the coffee table. “I just realized I forgot. Good night.”
Lois caught him at the door. “Clark, wait.”
He turned and looked at her with such sadness in his eyes, her heart ached.
Lois opened her arms and Clark stepped into them. He wrapped his arms around her and for the first time in her life, she heard him softly cry. “Clark?” Damn that Dr. Klein; this was more than disappointment -- this was bereavement.
Clark sniffed. “I’m okay. Sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” Lois took him by the hand to the sofa. She glanced over at Sam, but saw that he had left the room. She knelt down next to her friend. “What’s wrong?”
“No, Lois. You take the sofa. You should sit down.” He started to stand, but she held him down.
“Stop it, Clark. I’m fine,” Lois said, moving next to him on the sofa anyway.
He touched her hair. “You’re wet.”
She smiled. “So are you. It’s raining.”
“Hold still.” Clark looked at her and she realized he was about to use heat vision on her.
“Not below the neck, Clark,” she warned him.
“Trust me.”
Lois closed her eyes and soon was very warm. Her hair was no longer dripping. She opened her eyes and saw a tear dripping down his cheek. “Clark, what’s wrong?”
He reached out and touched her tummy. The baby gave a little kick for the first time in hours and a hint of a smile appeared on his lips for just a moment. “Can I make a strange request?”
“Sure, Clark, anything.” He was really starting to worry her.
“May I listen to your tummy?”
That was a strange request. “O-kay,” Lois replied with a raised brow. “You mean physically?” She pointed to the hem of her shirt.
Clark erased the words from the air. “Never mind,” he murmured, trying to stand again.
Lois grabbed his hand and smiled. “Of course, Clark. You’re family.” She folded up her shirt and he laid his ear upon gently upon her tummy.
Clark closed his eyes and soon was breathing deeply in sleep. Whatever had been bothering him had exhausted him. She scooted his head off her lap and set it on a pillow, then went to find him a blanket. She couldn’t believe he was asleep. It was hardly six o’clock in the evening.
She leaned against Sam’s bedroom doorframe. “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Dr. Klein gave him the test results today. You know the fertility tests that you asked him to get taken.”
“Obviously, he’s fertile.” She pointed at her stomach.
“That only proves that Kal can have children. Clark is another person entirely.”
Lois’s jaw dropped. “No!”
Sam nodded.
Lois closed her eyes as the tears poured out, her heart aching for him. “Poor Clark. That’s so unfair. There has to be a mistake.”
Sam shook his head. “He brought me a copy of the data to check, Sweetie. His swimmers were not moving.”
An instant later, Lois was back at the sofa, her arms surrounding him. “I’m so sorry, Clark. You would have made the best father anyone could ever want.”
***
After dinner, Lois came out of the bathroom to find the sofa empty, the blanket folded on it, and Clark gone.
“He went home,” Sam explained at her puzzled expression. “He’ll be all right. It was just a bit of a shock.”
“He didn’t want to talk about it?” She sat down on the sofa where Clark had been sleeping; it was still slightly warm.
“Some things can’t be cured with talk, only time. You can give him that.”
“I wish I could give him more. Don’t take this personally, but I hate this dimension. The Kents are dead; Perry isn’t running
The Planet, Ralph is; Charlton Heston is president – trust me, that’s just weird; Jimmy’s Clark’s boss instead of his buddy; Lex Luthor is alive and well and married to…” She swallowed the rest of what she was going to say. She couldn’t tell him. “Lois is missing. And, now, this. It’s not fair.”
Sam sat down next to her. “Life isn’t always fair, Sweetie.” He was quiet a minute. “You know Lex Luthor?”
“Do you remember I told you that I was walking down the aisle to marry someone else when I realized that I was in love with… with Kal?”
Lois’s father nodded, his face growing pale.
“Lex Luthor.”
He clutched her arm. “Didn’t you know he was a monster?”
Sam was acting strange and he had blanched at Lex’s name. “I realized it later,” Lois answered hesitantly.
He swallowed. “What did he do when you rejected him so publicly?”
Lois felt like she was having this conversation in a bank of fog. Her brain couldn’t concentrate on it clearly. She paused before replying, “Well, he really didn’t get that opportunity, because our wedding was interrupted by the police. Lex jumped off his penthouse balcony minutes later.”
“He died?” Sam was surprised. “He committed suicide? That doesn’t sound like him.”
“Kind-of. He was brought back to life by one of his Frankenstein doctors.”
Sam gulped and grew more pale. He was almost white. “Please, tell me it wasn’t…” He shut his eyes with pain.
Lois stood up and backed away from him. The fog in her mind was starting to lift. “Sam, how do you know about Lex? I’ve never mentioned him.” Her mind flashed on a memory from her own life. The boxers with super strength. It was one of the first stories she and Clark had worked together. “The cyborgs. He was funding your research.”
“They weren’t cyborgs, Sweetie.”
Lois held up her hand. “Don’t try to justify it.” She took a couple more steps back.
“It started out as prosthetics for amputees. Honorable work, but then he wanted more and more. He wanted me to create some super solider. When I rejected him, he told me what a beautiful daughter I had… not ‘have.’ ‘Had.’ He used the past tense.”
“The crazy experiments Perry mentioned you doing in your garage…”
He nodded.
“They started before Lois went to the Congo?”
Sam nodded again. “Then she disappeared. I know it was because of me. I put everything I had into trying to give him what he wanted, so he’d give me back my girl.” He buried his face in his hands. “But it wasn’t enough. I was too late... I knew she’d never be coming back to me.”
“Sam, you mentioned once that you knew she was still alive. I thought at the time you just believed that she was alive… do you have hard proof?”
“A couple of months after she disappeared Lois sent me a postcard from some South Pacific island, saying she had met someone. A whirlwind romance. They were eloping and she’d contact me as soon as they were settled.”
“You never heard from her again?”
He shook his head.
“And you never showed that postcard to anyone? To Clark?”
“Are you kidding? He was the only one still looking for her.”
“Sam, with his abilities, he could have found her two years ago.” Lois threw up her hands in disgust. “He’s been looking for her in the wrong place for over two years.”
“I didn’t know he was Superman two years ago! Nobody did.” He buried his face in his hands again. “You think I haven’t kicked myself a thousand times? It’s my fault that she’s gone.”
“That’s why you started drinking, again. The postcard.” She nodded, the fog completely clear. Everything made sense. “She’s married to him, you know.”
Sam nodded. “You escaped your monster; my girl did not. Who knows what he’s done to her in the last three years? I just want my baby back safe and sound.” He started to cry.
She was appalled with him, but a part of her couldn’t stand to see her father cry, even if he wasn’t actually her father. She resisted her urge to comfort him. “We have to tell Clark.”
“No!” He jumped up and started pacing. “We can never tell Clark. He will kill me. Especially after the way I treated him when he got engaged to that blonde woman. Blamed him for giving up. You didn’t hear him the other day, telling me that if someone hurt his Lois and he punched them, he could kill them.” He tapped the side of his head. “You think I didn’t see him killing me, if I told him? No! Absolutely not.”
“He won’t kill you, Sam. Not as long as he loves Lois.” She hated to, but she reassured him.
“You think he won’t stop loving her as soon as he finds out that she’s married to that monster?” He was still pacing.
“Love doesn’t work that way, Sam. You can’t turn it on and off. If it’s there, it’s there.”
“Trust me, Lucy, he would no longer believe anything I say or do and he would kill me for violating what little faith he has in me… for keeping this secret from him. He would no longer allow me to be your doctor and he’d dump me back on the streets where I belong. Without him, we will never be able to rescue her. And without me, what would happen to you when you reach nine months. You can’t go to a regular doctor. Not now.”
“Can we trust you?” she asked, her hands on her hips. “How do we know, you won’t violate that trust, turn me over to Lex, just to get Lois back?”
“I swear to you on my life, I would never give that man anything, even to get Lois back. I love you like my own child.”
“I wish I could believe you, Sam. But you lied to us.” She took a step closer to him and looked him directly into the eyes. “You’re right, though, to swear on your life. Clark and I have formed a bond. He will protect me and this baby as if we were his own, with all of his abilities if need be.”
Sam swallowed and nodded. “I know.”
“I just want you to know exactly who you’re dealing with and what you can expect if you lie to us again.”
“I won’t. I swear.”
Lois placed a hand over her growing bulge and looked out the window. “But you’re right. We cannot tell Clark, yet, about Lois. It would crush him. He’s had enough disappointment recently. We’ll have to concentrate our efforts on finding Lex. Once we find Lex, then we’ll tell Clark.”
***
The next several weeks were hard on Lois. She watched Clark going through the motions of his life. Going to work, saving people when necessary, going on lots of unnecessary dates. And when he smiled, the light never reached his eyes. Her heart ached for him, but she also knew there was nothing she could say or do to ease that pain. She had been afraid that he would start avoiding her, the personification of his pain, but the opposite happened. He wanted to spend more and more time with her and for that she was thankful. That she could be there for him, as he was there for her.
Lois watched him working at his desk. He glanced up and saw her staring. He pressed his lips together as if debating something and then rolled his chair over to her desk.
“Have lunch with me today. There’s this new sandwich shop that opened up that I hear has great pastrami sandwiches.” He was spoiling her rotten. Her radar went up. What did he want?
“I’m a vegetarian, remember, Clark. Just the smell of pastrami. Ugh.” She fake-shivered.
Clark looked concerned. “Really? Still?”
Lois laughed with a shake of her head. “No seafood, though, please.”
He glanced across the room at their friendly-neighborhood hacker, kidnapper extraordinaire and lowered his voice. “Any new news about Lex Luthor?”
She touched his arm. “I’m sorry, Clark. He’s disappeared, I’m afraid. He won’t be found until he wants to be found.” Lois reached up and touched his face. Clark was such a good man, she wished she could find him his true love, he deserved some happiness. Then she remembered he wasn’t Kal and dropped her hand.
Clark’s brow furrowed as he gazed at her and she hoped he hadn’t read too much into that gesture.
“Are you getting enough sleep, Lucy? The circles under your eyes are getting darker. Anything wrong with Kal and you?”
Lois shook her head. “Someone let a ghost loose in our apartment. She’s been inhabiting my body and trying to steal Kal.” She yawned with a shrug. “It’s not exactly sleep inducing. What is it with Charlton Heston running basically unopposed for reelection? Even in my dreams, President Garner’s toughest opponent is some unknown character who calls himself John Doe.” She shivered again. “What I could really use is a night off from reality.”
Clark grinned; this time the light did reach his eyes. Something was definitely up with him. “That’s what I wanted to speak to you about.”
***End of Part 7*** CommentsChapter 3: Part 8
