Missing Lois - TOC Story Notes: This story is mostly set in alt-dimension, although visits to the canon dimension do happen from time-to-time. -- This Part is set entirely in canon dimension.
- Clark = Alt-Clark unless otherwise noted (such as when we are in the canon dimension, then 'Clark' is canon Clark)
- Lucy El = pregnant canon Lois avoiding the curse by hiding out with alt-Clark, aka Lois's secret identity
- Kal = what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Lola Luthor = alt-Lois, wife of Lex Luthor
- Martha and Jonathan Kent = canon Clark's parents
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lois's doctor & roommate
- Dr. Bernard Klein = S.T.A.R. Labs scientist and Superman's 'doctor'
- H.G. Wells – famed author – inventor of the Time-Machine – the man who brought canon Lois to alt-Clark
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always
***
Where we left off in Chapter 4: Part 10:Lois flipped the loose section of the tarp over the time machine as best she could and then headed for the barn door. She fixed the scarf around her nose and mouth again and pushed open the barn door. It almost blew out of her hand, the wind pushing it open. The snow was starting to pile up, but at least it wasn’t in drifts like it had been in the future. She pushed the barn door closed and plodded her way back to the house. She was tired, hungry and still cursed.
How had that happened? Hadn’t traveling into their past lives changed the future so she wouldn’t be cursed? How had she made love to her Clark a month ago if she was still cursed? She would survive, Lois told herself. And so would her daughter. Lois smiled. She and Clark were having a daughter. Lara. Her future self told her that if she stayed the course – returned to other dimension, she surmised -- she would survive. There would be no coming back early. No hiding out in Smallville until the baby was born. She had to return to the other Clark in the other dimension or die. How does one survive a curse? Was there a way to research that?
Lois stamped her feet on the back door stoop and opened the kitchen door. The warmth on her face from the kitchen was definitely welcome. She could smell soup and her stomach growled in anticipation. It had been a long morning since breakfast. She unfurled the scarf from her face and saw that she wasn’t alone in the kitchen.
Martha, Jonathan and Clark sat at the kitchen table, all of them staring at her
Part 11Lois swallowed. Her husband was so near, so dear and loving to her in the future, tears started streaming from her eyes. Clark stood up, his mouth hanging open.
She went straight to him, wrapping her arms around him. “I’m so sorry, Clark. I shouldn’t have run away from you like that. I was scared, so scared.” She pressed her lips to his. “I love you so much.” She kissed him again, but he was not kissing her back. He was just standing there, ramrod straight. “Please, forgive me. I could not live if you didn’t forgive me.”
“Lois?” Martha said and then raised her voice. “Lois Lane Luthor!”
Lois turned and glared at Martha. “That is not my name,” she growled.
“I know, sweetie, but I was trying to tell you. That’s not your Clark from your dimension. This is our son, Clark; he’s married to our Lois.”
Lois looked at her like she was crazy. “What? No, that’s my Clark. He’s come to get me and take me home.” She looked at him with all her love. She knew the other Clark like the back of her hand. This wasn’t the other Clark. Wait? Martha said that he was her son Clark. Martha was pretending that she was other Clark’s Lois.
“No. I’m sorry, Lois, but my Mom’s right. My Lois is waiting for me in Metropolis,” said her husband.
Lois looked directly at him as the tears continued to fall down her cheeks.
Recognize me, she willed him.
Recognize in my eyes that I am your true love. Know me. Love me as your wife. Please, break me out of this hell.Clark blinked and turned to his mom. “Are you sure, Mom? Are you sure this is other Clark’s future wife? She looks just like Lois…. My Lois.”
“I know, son,” Jonathan answered. “But remember that Clark looked just like you, too.”
Lois stepped away from Clark and released a deep breath. Clark had recognized her. She smiled. He didn’t trust his own judgment because his mother was lying to him. But he had recognized her. And that restored her confidence, again.
“Well, there are some differences,” Martha said, standing up and helping Lois off with her coat.
Lois’s protruding tummy was more obvious without her heavy coat.
Jonathan’s spoon hit the table as he turned to Clark.
Clark nodded back to him. “I know, Dad.”
“How far along are you?” Jonathan asked, softly.
Lois smiled. “I’m due in roughly two months. Want to feel, Clark? I bet she’ll kick if you talk to her. She loves to hear your voice… well, Clark’s voice, anyway.”
Clark’s eyes went wide as he swallowed.
“I don’t think that’s such a great idea, Lois. He’s already quite confused,” Martha said, sitting Lois down next to her chair. “Let me get you some soup.”
Clark sat back down but continued to stare at her. “Have we met before?” he asked. “Did you come and visit me a month ago?”
Lois smiled, again, looking away. He remembered the dream. But she couldn’t let him think he made love to the other Lois, when he hadn’t. She couldn’t do that to him. “This is my first time into the past. I had tried to do just plain interdimensional travel, but I messed it up. That machine is so confusing. Clark gave me instructions; maybe you could make sense of them for me. As for meeting you before…” Lois licked her lips with a grin. “You’d have to let me have a real kiss to refresh my memory.”
Clark swallowed.
“Lois!” Martha scolded her.
Lois sighed with a shrug. “It was worth a try. Believe me, handsome. You’d know if you’d met me before. Nobody ever forgets Lois Lane. Maybe we’ll meet again in your future and in my past.” She smiled a knowing smile. But if she was going to play someone from the future, she might as well play it to fullest. “Maybe not. It’s not good to know too much about one’s future, I’ve been told. It might make you make different choices, cause different outcomes to your future.”
“Good advice. And on that note, I shall leave,” Clark said, standing up and wiping his mouth. He kissed his mother’s cheek. “Thanks for the soup, Mom.”
Lois still wanted to kiss her husband. She craved him more, having him this close. She didn’t want him to leave. “Clark. Don’t go. I’ll be good.”
“My wife is waiting for me at home.”
Right, his wife. As opposed to the woman sitting beside him, she sighed. “Could you help me with the time machine before you go? I’d really appreciate it.” She smiled at him, a friendly smile.
Clark nodded and headed for the kitchen door. Lois stood up and Martha grabbed her arm and whispered, “Be good. Don’t make me regret this any more than I already do.” Lois nodded. Martha had indeed put everything on the line for her. She turned to the kitchen door and saw Clark staring curiously at the two of them. She smiled politely at him and pulled on her coat. Back into the storm. Ugh.
Her husband made a solid wall between her and wind. The whistling wind made it difficult for them to speak until they were inside the barn. He turned to her and, without saying another word, pressed his lips to hers.
Lois melted. How she had missed him! She wrapped her arms around him as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
He rested his forehead against hers. “I know you are my wife, not his. I know that you are mine, deep down to core of me. Don’t try denying it. Don’t tell me any more of the lies. I never thought my mom would lie to me even if my life was at stake, so I know you must have your reasons if you got her to lie to me. Someday you will tell them to me. I don’t agree with your decision, but I will trust your judgment on this.” He kissed her again.
“Thank you, Clark,” she whispered.
He unzipped her coat and stuck his hand under her shirt and rubbed his hand over her tummy. “Hi, there, baby of mine.” The baby kicked back her greeting. His eyes flashed back to Lois’s and pulled her in for another kiss. “How I’ve missed you.”
“No, Clark,” she said, her chin shaking. “You have me, back home waiting for you in Metropolis.”
“I know. She’s you and you’re her. I don’t know how that’s possible.”
“The wonders of time travel.” Lois smiled. “You are my past, my present and my future, Clark. But she is my past. Without her, I do not exist. We do not exist. Remember that.”
“So, you and little one are my future. I can live with that.” He smiled, his hand caressing her cheek. “We’ll be together again, someday, my love?”
She smiled, remembering the couple embracing in the snow bank and nodded. “If we don’t screw it up, knowing too much of our future.”
“OK. No more questions.” He lifted her up and cradled her in his arms. “I love you, wife.”
“And I love you, husband.” She still had her arms around his neck and she pulled him in for another kiss. Her legs slid down his and she leaned into him, knocking him backward and against the sleigh. “I miss you so much.”
“Why? Where am I? Have I died? Why are we not together?” he asked as she silenced his questions with another kiss.
“I cannot tell you, Clark. Please, know that,” she whispered.
“Right. Right. Sorry. I don’t want to let you go.” He lifted her up and took her onto the sleigh. “Let’s run away. Spend a few days, hiding somewhere in time, getting to know each other again.” He stuck his hand under the hem of her shirt again and kissed her.
“Don’t tempt me, Clark. We can’t.” She stepped off his lap and the sleigh, straightening her shirt and zipping up her coat. She took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions. “I can’t.”
Clark stepped up behind her, unwound the scarf as he started to kiss down her neck. “Why not? We’ve a time machine at our disposal, we can come back to this exact moment and no one will be the wiser, except us.”
Lois closed her eyes as the tears rolled down her cheeks. “Because we’ll never come back.”
“What do you mean? I trust us.”
She pushed away from him and rewound the scarf. “I don’t. The more you touch me, the more you kiss me, the more I want you.”
Instantly, her husband was kissing her again. “I want you, too, Lois.”
Lois turned away from him. “You are cheating on your current wife, Clark.”
“You are my wife, Lois.”
“I am your future. She is your present. You’ll make her suspicious, Clark. And I’ll know, because I have all her memories. Please, don’t do that to me…. Us.”
“Do you want me to make love with her when I get home? Would that make you happy?” he snapped.
Lois closed her eyes and sighed. “Oh, yes, that would be nice. Those are my favorite dreams.”
Clearly that was not the reaction he expected. “You’re weird, future Lois.” He smiled with a shake of his head, wrapping his arms around her again. “It’s this you, this wife, I want to make love with, right now,” he whispered. “That would feel better than any dream.” He began kissing her again.
“Oh, yes,” she moaned. He lifted her into his arms and carried her back to the time machine. “Oh, no, Clark.” She pulled away from him, again. “Stop. Stop, please. I want you too much.”
“Just a couple of hours. We’ll come here on Christmas Day. My parents will be in Metropolis…”
“You are changing our future, Clark. Please, stop.”
He wrapped his arms around her. “How am I changing our future?”
Lois sniffled. “You are making it impossible for me to say ‘good-bye’ to you.”
“Ah.” Clark smiled, snuggling against her cheek. “And you have to say ‘good-bye’?”
“Yes,” Lois whispered, closing her eyes. What did future her say about the curse? “We are only on a visit. If we don’t return, then we might not survive. And then it all will have been for naught.”
He turned her around and stared into her eyes. “All of what would have been for naught?”
Lois looked away, tears running down her cheeks. “I cannot tell you. Someday, but not now. Please accept this, Clark.”
Clark pulled her close, hugging her. “I’m sorry, Lois. Whatever you’ve gone through, I’m sorry.”
“I’m not,” Lois whispered. “If it means the three of us can be together someday, it will have been worth it. All of it.”
“I don’t want to say ‘good-bye’ either,” her husband whispered, kissing her forehead. “But I don’t want to change our future, if we get to be together then. I’ll wait.” Clark sighed. “I’ll take a swim in the frozen river first, then I’ll wait.”
She whispered in his ear, “You have me waiting for you at home.”
“I’d be lucky if you’re waiting for me at home. As you know, our schedules don’t always mesh up these days.”
“We’ll manage.” Lois smiled.
Clark stared at her for a moment then turned to the time machine. “So, what kind of trouble are you having with this thing? Are you going to make it back to whenever you came from?”
She pulled out other Clark’s instructions. “I think I understand.”
He snagged the instructions from her hands.
“No, Clark!” she gasped.
Her husband looked at the instructions. “Boy, my handwriting is a mess in the future. I must have been in a hurry. What do you want me to explain?”
Lois grabbed the instructions back from him and returned them to her pocket. “Actually, it’s my invisibility tarp. It stayed behind when I flew off earlier and is now stuck underneath. I was thinking we could set the machine for one minute in the future and…”
Clark looked at her with a raised brow. He lifted up the machine with one hand and tugged the tarp out from underneath with the other, handing it to her.
“Or you could just do that.” She laughed. “Show-off.”
Clark set down the time machine. “What’s the point of super strength if I don’t get to use it around the house?”
Lois stood in front of the machine and with a good flick of her wrist, covered it again.
“That explains the distortion when I x-rayed you earlier. So, now, I believe you are from the future.” He shook his head. “An invisibility tarp.” He gazed at her. “I’m not going to say ‘good-bye,’ Lois.”
“Thank you, Clark.” She smiled weakly at him, teardrops dotting her eyelashes.
Clark pulled her to him and pressed a long, passionate kiss on her lips. “I love you. Come back to me, pretty lady.”
“Always,” Lois whispered, savoring one last snuggle. “Always, Clark.”
“I’ll walk you back to the house.” He cleared his throat, opening the barn door. The wind smacked them in the face. “Let me see you again, before you leave. Let me have some more time alone with you.” He caressed her belly. “The two of you.”
“No. Clark. No. You’re being crazy.”
“I’m crazy?” Clark laughed. “Who’s the one traveling through time to visit her in-laws?”
Lois laughed. “Ding. You caught me.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Sunday morning.”
“I’ll see you then.” Her husband grinned.
“No!”
“Yes!”
“No!” she yelled, opening the kitchen door.
“Yes!” he countered.
“No! And that’s my final answer, Clark.” She turned and saw the Kents eyeing them suspiciously, especially Martha who just shook her head. “I’m not telling you about your future, Clark, so stop asking.”
Her husband stopped dead in his tracks for five seconds and then retorted. “I just want to know if my Lois and I can have children. Do you know anything about that? My parents would be thrilled to know they’ll be grandparents someday. Just a simple yes or no, Lois. Please?” He grinned at her and batted his eyelashes.
“No, Clark.” Lois unzipped her coat and he helped her take it off.
Clark gulped. “What are you saying, Lois?”
“No, I’m not going to tell you about your future, Clark. If you want to know whether or not you can have children, go and ask Dr. Klein. That’s who my Clark talked to.” She smiled at him and patted his face. “Anyway, it’s obvious your folks are going to be grandparents someday. Hello?” She pointed at her big belly.
Jonathan chuckled. “You want us to grandparent your and Clark’s baby, Lois?”
Martha ran up to her and hugged her. “Oh, Lois. We’d be honored. I told Clark, he could be my other adopted son.”
“Mom!” Clark gasped.
“Oh, Martha. Clark will be so thrilled. His parents are dead and my mother ran off with some plastic surgeon when I was ten. My Dad’s a homeless recovering alcoholic.” Her chin started to shake as she got into the role. “Thank you. Thank you, Martha.”
“Lois?”
“This is why Clark didn’t want me to come. He was so afraid you’d say no. He’s been alone so long. But I said, of course Martha will say yes. She just has to. I knew you would.” Lois pulled her into another hug and whispered, “Thank you.” She turned and gazed at Clark over his mother’s shoulder and gave him a wink.
Clark just stared at her as if he had no idea who she was after all.
*** End of Part 11 *** CommentsChapter 4: Part 12
