Missing Lois - TOC Author’s Note: The “Lois” in this part refers to alt-Lois. Canon Lois will be called “Lucy” to help lessen the confusion between the two characters.
Story Notes: This story is mostly set in alt-dimension, although visits to the canon dimension do happen from time-to-time and more regularly during this chapter.
- 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 = Lucy El's husband's name, or what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Lois = alt-Lois, wife of Lex Luthor (unless we're in canon dimension, then Lois could be referring to the substitute Lois borrowed from canon Lois's pre-amnesia time to fill in for canon Lois while she was in alt-dimension)
- Lola Luthor = ‘wife’ of Lex Luthor; alt-Lois, if not referring to Clois (Cloned Lois)
- Ultra Woman = originally the costume Lucy/Lois wore to Perry's 'Come as Your Favorite Superhero' party; now, alt-Lois.
- Mr. Amazing = alt-Lois's nickname for Superman
- Wow Woman = alt-Clark/Superman's pet nickname for alt-Lois/Ultra Woman
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lucy’s doctor & Clark’s roommate
- Martha and Jonathan Kent = canon Clark's parents
- Mayor White = aka Perry White, former Editor-in-Chief at the DP
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always, this time bald
- Junior = Lex Luthor, Jr., Lex's first born son, creator of the Neuroscanner
- Gareth McTinney = new EIC at the alt-DP.
- Mayson Drake = police detective, partner to Detective (in alt-world) Henderson, alt-Clark's ex-girlfriend
- The only people who know canon Lois's true identity are alt-Clark, Sam, Moonbeam (alt-Star), Dr. Klein and alt-Lois. 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.
***
What we discovered in the Chapter 7: Part 2..In Alt-Dimension: Mayson knows that alt-Lois is alive and in disguise as Lucy El and learns that the body that was buried in her stead was that of Lois's clone Lola. Alt-Clark still fears for alt-Lois's safety despite her now being invulnerable. Ultra Woman introduced herself to Dr. Klein and asked him to be available for the birth of Lucy's child. Dr. Klein still fears Superman's wrath should anything happen to Lucy under his care.
In Canon Dimension: Canon Clark discovered that Lois had a meltdown about 5 weeks after he left for New Krypton, but his 'wife' (substitute Lois from the past) refuses to tell him the truth (that she lost her memory) and also stubbornly denies that they made love before their honeymoon.
***
Part 3Clark turned to Lois as they arrived at the Mayor’s house that evening. “I should have brought Lucy. He’s expecting her.”
Lois raised a brow. “I am Lucy now, Clark.”
“Yes, but he’ll know that you’re not her.”
“I know I failed miserably with Mayson, but I’ve learned tons about this persona since then. I can do this.”
Clark shrugged. “Oh, well. Maybe, it’s best he knows that you’re alive as he’s one of your best friends.”
“Ye of little faith.” Lois shook her head.
“Ye forgetful of Perry’s powers of perception,” Clark reminded her as the door opened. One of Perry’s assistants led them to his office.
They sat in his home office for roughly two minutes before Perry arrived. He dismissed his assistant and shut the door firmly behind him. Then the mayor turned to them with a big smile. “Clark! Lucy!” He greeted them each with a hug and then he went to the stereo in the corner and turned on Elvis.
Perry didn’t hug people and he despised people who hugged as a greeting. Clark shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Great. Elvis, too. What was the Mayor up to?
“Rough week. Rough week.” Perry sighed, heading over to his rollaway bar and pouring three Scotches. He handed one to Clark, offered one to Lois, but when she turned him down, he took the other two to his desk.
“Clark, did I ever tell you why I hired you at the
Daily Planet?”
“For my writing skills, I hope,” Clark replied, wondering at this segue.
“Yes, of course.” Perry wiped his words from the air. “I worded that poorly. Do you know why I gave you a chance to prove your reporting skills?”
“My writing samples?”
“The Borneo tree frog? Ah. No, Clark. Because someone gave you a reference.”
Clark’s brow furrowed. “Who?” He glanced at Lois, but she was looking down at her hands in her lap.
“When you walked in that day, Lois Lane had been missing, I don’t know, one… two months. I missed her so much and I had been going through all her old stories, hoping to find something, some hint of what had happened to her. I rediscovered this one the night before you walked into my office.” Perry slid the story across his desk. It was a single page type-written story; the paper color had faded and it had been well read. “It was about an attempted gang rape she had witnessed on Mid West U’s campus by some drunken frat boys, who hadn’t liked the girl’s Met U sweatshirt.”
Clark glanced at Lois, who winced as if she was hurt. He looked down at the paper in his hand and murmured, “Lois.” They had never gotten around to discussing what had happened all those years ago.
“A young man from Kansas State fought against the odds, five against one, to rescue her and he didn’t even break a sweat. She even called him her hero, her Superman. Quite the story, don’t you think, Clark?” Perry took a sip of his drink.
“When did she write this? 1989?” Clark swallowed.
Perry nodded.
“You know, Perry, I searched for her for two weeks. I even told Lana I had met someone else and I couldn’t see her anymore. Every day, I flew out to Metropolis U. and wandered the campus. I asked everyone, professors, the editor of the university paper, cafeteria workers, nurses at the hospital where I dropped her off, nobody knew Lucy.” Clark sighed. “That’s what she told me her name was. It never occurred to me that she hadn’t told me the truth. Of course, she lied. I was just some guy – worse, a jock – maybe I’d end up hurting her, too. I was a broken man when I went back to Kansas State without finding her.” He took a sip of his Scotch. “What had she said that night we met? ‘This would make the front page at the
Daily Planet, if they ever believed me, which they wouldn’t. Who would ever believe I was rescued by someone as amazing as you?’ I came to the
Daily Planet because of that girl. She made me the man I am today.” Clark finished his drink. “Thank you, Perry. I always wondered what happened to her.” He set his glass on Perry’s desk.
“So, here I am sitting in my office at the
Daily Planet,” said Perry, continuing his story of why he had hired Clark. “…and who should waltz in my door, but good old Clark Kent from Kansas State, Lois Lane’s ‘Superman’. I had to give you a chance. I owed her that much. And then you just blew me away with that theater piece. I thought, hey, if he rescued her once, maybe he’d find my Lois and rescue her again.”
Clark sighed. “And I did. Took me a while. My confidence in myself wasn’t the same as it had been back in my college days. The funny thing is I didn’t even recognize her. I stared at her face and listened to her interview tapes for three years, never once did it occur to me that Lois Lane was my missing co-ed.”
Perry handed him the glass of Scotch Lois had rejected.
“Thanks, Perry.” Clark took sip a of the drink.
“I was thinking about sending that story to Gareth McTinney, see if he was interested in publishing it as part of a retrospective on Lois or maybe a ‘history of Superman’ feature, but I can’t do that, now can I, Lucy?” It was the first time Perry had acknowledged her since he had greeted them.
Lois shook her head. “No.”
Clark gazed at her as she wiped a tear from her cheek.
“And why can I not do that, Lucy?”
Lois swallowed. “Because I told Gareth that was the story of how Lucy El met Clark Kent.”
The terrible story that Gareth could not repeat? Clark’s jaw dropped. “You’re the Lucy from Mid West? Not Lois? She really was named Lucy?”
Lois wiped her cheeks again and took the Scotch glass out of his hand. “Game’s up, Clark.” She took a sip. “Perry knows I’m not Lucy El. I should have known better than try to fake my own death.” She finished off the drink and set it on the desk.
“No, Lois!” Perry slammed his hand on the desk. “You should have known better than to try to fool your old Memphis editor into thinking you were dead.” Moving around the desk, he lifted her up and spun her around. “Oh, God, girl! You are a sight for sore eyes. This is my fault for telling you I wouldn’t believe you were dead without a body.” He set her down and she sat in her chair once more, a smile brushing her lips. Perry sat on the corner of his desk. “So, you’re dead. Now what?”
“What gave me away?” Lois asked him.
“What, other than the fact that my arms go around you when we hug? Or that you aren’t in labor on my carpet? Nothing. You had me fooled, until Gareth refreshed my memory before the funeral about the story of how Lucy and Clark met, and I had this very same story in my hand to give to him to publish in the next day’s paper. Lois, you could have warned me that you told him. When I told you to give him that story, I didn’t mean as a cover story.”
“Sorry.”
“You told her to turn in that Mid West U. story to Gareth?” Clark asked. “Why?”
“So, she could get her job back. The Superman story that no one else had.”
Lois walked over to the bar and was about to pour another Scotch when Perry took the decanter out of her hands. “I put some champagne on ice,” he said. “Just in case.”
“I could have given him ‘
Superman Flies In a Plane For The First Time’, too.” She grinned at Clark. “That would have been a funny story.”
Clark scowled at her, slipping Lois’s first story into his pocket. “You knew, even then?”
“I figured it out, minutes before the accident, Clark.” She tapped her head. “Payback.”
“What accident?” Perry asked, bringing out a bottle of champagne from his mini-fridge.
Lois and Clark’s eyes both went wide. Ooops.
“I was in a little fender bender in Kansas when I went out to Smallville to do some research on Clark Kent.”
“Oh.” Perry said. “Darn, this isn’t even cold. Clark, could you.” He handed the bottle to him.
Clark blew his cooling breath over the bottle, hiding his sigh of relief. Perry bought the fender bender story. When the bottle had frosted up, he handed it back to their former boss, who opened it and poured it into three glasses.
“Why would you do research on Clark Kent if you didn’t know he was Superman?” Perry asked.
Lois smiled at Clark. “He’s a perplexing fellow. I was intrigued.”
Perry laughed, holding up his glass. “To Lois and Clark, the best investigative team in the world.” They clanged their glasses together. “Intrigued? By Clark Kent? Enough to go to Smallville to do research? Lois, please. I know destiny when I see it. You two were meant for each other more than Elvis and Priscilla.”
Lois and Clark turned to each other and swallowed. Not good.
“Um. Chief, didn’t you tell me I shouldn’t be within fifty feet of her?” Clark asked.
“And didn’t you tell me that I’m bad for him? That if the general public were to see him dating a married woman, like myself, it would crush him? Didn’t you tell me to stay away from him?”
“Didn’t you tell me to dump her?”
“You told him to dump me? Thanks. Thanks a lot, Perry.” Lois downed her champagne and shook her head.
“And? What did you do, instead? You got rid of your husband,” Perry said pointing between the two of them. “And you two are working closer together than you were before.”
“I didn’t get rid of my husband, Perry, I’m still married. Actually, now, I’m married to two men – one real jerk and one fictitious hero. I did this to get my life back, to work on my career, not for some man. And Clark’s as good as married to Ultra Woman. I realized she’s what he needs in his life, not me. We’re just friends, now, Perry.”
“Bull hockey!” Perry laughed. “You two will be just friends when our sun turns red like Krypton’s. I’ve never seen two people more in love with each other.”
“Lucy El and Clark Kent just work together,” Clark told him. It was the closest way he could say it without lying.
“Yeah. But Lois and Clark are in love.”
“Lois Lane is dead, Perry,” Lois reminded him.
“Come on. You fall in love during college, but forces drag you apart. Then you spend the rest of your lives searching for one another, dreaming of one another, despite being out of step in time. And when you do finally meet again…” He clapped his hands together. “Instant chemistry, love at first… well, it wasn’t love at first sight, exactly... Love at first kiss for both of you. It’s fate.”
Clark cleared his throat. “I don’t really believe in fate, Chief.” He stood up and handed his glass back to the Mayor. “Thank you, Perry, for the information on Lois’s first story. Time for me to be heading on, though. Good night, Lucy. Good night, Perry.” Clark nodded.
“Tell me one thing, Clark, and I’ll believe you, because you always tell me the truth. Who do you love more, Clark? Ultra Woman or Lois Lane?”
Clark winced.
“Oh, Perry, don’t ask him that,” moaned Lois. “That’s just cruel.”
“Chief, I used to love Lois Lane, but the woman she used to be is gone. Now, I’m head over heels in love with Ultra Woman. If ever there was a destiny for me, she’s it. Does that clear things up for you, Perry?”
Perry’s jaw dropped. “Ultra Woman? After everything you learned tonight, you still choose Ultra Woman?”
Clark nodded as he opened the door.
“Aren’t you going to take Lois home?”
“Why?” Clark shrugged again with another smile at Lois. “She hates to be under guard. See you in the morning, Lucy. Hate to dash on you, Chief, but I’ve got a date with destiny.”
“Good night, Clark,” Lois waved. “Meeting her at the usual spot?”
“Uh-huh.” He shot them a grin as he headed out the door. “Bye, Chief.”
***
Perry turned to Lois. “You’re kidding me, right? You cannot be all right about this? You two could hardly keep your eyes, let alone your hands, off each other just a couple of weeks ago. What happened? You can’t turn off passion like that.”
Lois sat down. “I died.” She sighed. “Your life gets reprioritized when something like that happens to you. Anyway, Clark’s happier like this.”
“He does seem happier,” Perry said suspiciously. “What about you? Are you happier?”
“It’s still an adjustment,” she stated truthfully. “But I can honestly say, I’m not unhappy.”
“I don’t understand that boy. What does she have that you don’t?”
‘
Clark’, Lois thought to herself with a sneaky smile. She loved that she was still number one in Perry’s book – that not even a hot superhero babe could move her out of that spot. “Ultra Woman is freedom personified, Perry. She’s an unknown factor, unencumbered, so their relationship can’t cause a scandal. Plus, and it’s a biggie, she’s invincible. With her, he can be himself and he doesn’t have to worry about her getting hurt.” She poured herself another glass of champagne. “Anyway, I like her. She helped me deliver my divorce papers to Lex when he was avoiding me. Then when Lex threatened to hurt Clark’s reputation if I continued with the divorce, she helped me kill myself. She’s a good friend.”
“But if Clark’s with Ultra Woman now, why get rid of Lois Lane? Who would believe he and you were an item with her around? Wouldn’t his reputation have been intact without you having to die?”
Just like Perry to poke through her reasoning with a sword. “I was tired of constantly being on guard, worrying about my own safety and Lucy’s, having Clark worrying about us. I was ready to sever all ties with Lex, move on with my life. I was tired of dealing with him, fighting him. If Lois were still alive, that’s all my life would be for who knows how long. I hadn’t been Lois Lane for three years and my reputation was already in the dumps. I was ready to move forward. Start over.”
“But, Lois, you had the exclusive interview with Ultra Woman. You know her secret identity. That would have saved your career.” Perry grabbed her arms. “Who is she, honey?”
Lois smiled. “I’m not telling.”
“What?” Perry gasped, letting go. He hadn’t expected this answer.
“I’m not telling.”
The mayor’s eyes widened as the truth hit him. “You were never planning on telling anyone, were you?”
Lois smiled with a shake of her head and took another sip of champagne. “I wanted to go out back on top; with a bang, so to speak. Secret identities are meant to stay secret, Perry, that
is why they’re secret. If everyone knew who she was, they couldn’t be together.”
“They couldn’t be together?” Perry repeated, staring at her. “You know, Lois, if I didn’t know better, I’d say you were Ultra Woman.”
“I’d hate for a rumor like that to get out.” Lois chuckled, picking up the Scotch glass that she used. She notched down her glasses, held up the glass in front of her and with her heat vision cleaned the outside of the glass of her fingerprints and lip prints. “Good thing you know better. You know that I was in Singapore on the evening of your costume party. No way I could have been here and there at the same time, is there?” She set the Scotch glass down on the corner of the bar, where it dropped on the floor, breaking into pieces. “Ooops.”
“I thought it might be you. I didn’t know how logistically it could be, but I thought it might be.” Perry gazed down at her broken glass, yet not moving to clean it up. “It would explain Clark’s unwavering passion for her and her sudden reappearance. But you didn’t react the way Clark did when I turned on the Elvis music just now.”
“Excuse me?” Her brows came together.
“Superman and Ultra Woman made out for the first time to Elvis at my party, so when he hears it, it makes him think of her… romantically. He mentioned that back at Thanksgiving.”
Lois ran her tongue over her teeth with a sneer. “Is that so?”
Perry sat down on the edge of his desk with a raised brow. “None of those old feelings left, I see.”
“Fine. So, I still love him. I’ll always love him. He’s the love of my life and after being with him, I could never even look at another man. And knowing that she was there first, burns me up inside. Infuriates me to no end. There, does that answer your question? Does that make you feel better? Knowing Lois Lane will never be with Clark Kent again. Well, good thing Lois Lane is dead. I can move on with my life as Kal-El’s wife, Lucy.” She took her champagne glass and threw it into the fireplace, shattering it.
Perry stared at the second broken glass. “Oh, my God. Ultra Woman’s reaction when I mentioned the Mid West article at your funeral.” Perry turned to retrieve the story off his desk, but it wasn’t there. He looked on the floor and in the envelope, but it was gone. “Where’s the story?”
“What story?” she asked, innocently.
“The Mid West story you wrote and sent me.” He continued to look around his desk. “The story where you and Clark met for the first time.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Perry. I never wrote such a story. I told you the story, just like I told Gareth McTinney.”
His head snapped up and brows came together. “Lois,” he growled.
“Are you all right, Perry? Lois is dead. I know we look a lot alike, but I’m Lucy. Lucy El.” She set her hand on his shoulder. “You should rest. I’m going to go now, Perry.”
“Lo-is.”
“Lucy,” she corrected, moving to the door. “Don’t make that mistake again. We can’t have Lex thinking she’s still alive. And I’m an alcoholic, remember, so probably best if you don’t serve me champagne again. Who knows what I might do or say, if I were to fall off the wagon?”
“Please.” Perry took hold of her hand to stop her. “Wait, honey. I’m sorry. Don’t leave like this. Just one more question. If you’re Lucy El now, then who was she?”
Lois smiled and patted his face. “A mirage.”
His brows came together in confusion.
Lois took a deep breath and looked him square in the eye. “It must really be annoying for you, Perry.”
“What?” he stammered.
“Always being right.” Lois grinned at him and then winked.
Perry’s jaw dropped but she was already gone.
***
Ultra Woman knocked on the door of the Smallville house.
“It’s open,” Clark called.
“Are you decent?” she called back.
He opened the door, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt. “Evening, my destiny.”
“Hi, I was wondering if Superman could come out and play,” Ultra Woman said with a grin.
Grabbing her wrist, Clark pulled her inside, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I missed you.”
Lois shut the door with her foot. “Missed you more.”
“Where did you want Superman to go?”
She ran her finger down his chest. “I thought we might try the mile high club?”
Clark laughed. “Too many spying eyes, Lois. How about we just stay inside?”
“Heart of the Amazon jungle?” she suggested.
“Getting tired of Kansas, already?” Clark started kissing down her neck.
“No,” Lois murmured.
“Trying to spice things up?” Clark removed her mask and continued kissing her.
“No.”
“Then?”
“Concerned that your old family home might collapse around us one night has come to mind.”
Clark laughed. “Good point. I guess, if this is going to be Mr. Amazing’s and Wow Woman’s home, we need to reinforce the beams and foundation and add some more security systems.”
“Our home?” Lois smiled. “I like the sound of that. Speaking of security systems, where did you put the story you stole from Perry?”
“In the safe,” he unhooked her cape.
“We should probably change all the passwords on the safe and front door. They’re too obvious,” she said as he kissed down her neck.
“Whatever you say.”
“You could have warned me that he knew about Lucy.”
Clark’s face split in half with mirth. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Lois leapt into his arms, wrapping her legs around him. “You’re lucky I love you, Clark Kent.”
“I love you, Lois Lane.” He pressed a kiss to her lips.
“You’ve got to stop calling me that,” she said. “Otherwise, you’re going to slip up one of these days and say it in public.”
“Right. Sally Jo?”
Ultra Woman laughed, kissing him. “How about you call me Wow and I call you Amazing?”
“You already call me Amazing.”
“You always have been,” Lois whispered, kissing him again. “Did you really break up with Lana and look for me?”
“Uh-huh,” Clark murmured, unbuckling her belt.
“Loving you even more.” She grinned.
Clark swallowed, placing a smile on his face. “Just one little question…”
“Uh-huh?” Lois murmured, unbuttoning his shirt.
“If you knew who I was, why didn’t you contact me?”
Lois pulled away from him and raised a brow. “Little question?”
“Sorry. You’re right. That’s…”
“I did contact you,” Ultra interrupted. “Well… I tried to. I picked up the phone a hundred times to call you. I drafted I don’t know how many letters, but how do you thank someone for saving you from a nightmare?” She swallowed. “Every time I tried to, I kept thinking of those men, dragging me into the bushes. My hands would shake, my heart would start to race, my throat would close up. I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.”
Clark lifted her into his arms. “It still bothers you?”
“I’ve always had the nightmares and they are always the same. You’re never there.” Ultra ran her hand over the blue of his suit under his shirt.
“They are just nightmares, Lois. I saved you then and I’ll save you every time.” Clark kissed her.
“You don’t need to save me anymore, Clark. I can save myself.” An amused smile slipped onto her face. “I know karate, now.”
“I know. Mr. Amazing told me. I’m telling you, Lois, that man just wouldn’t shut up about you.” He rolled his eyes. “Lois this. And Lois that. I had to check out what all the fuss was about.”
“And?” She raised her brows.
“He didn’t do you justice. Did I mention that ‘Wow’ doesn’t even come close to how you make me feel?”
“Once or twice. But I can hear it again.” Lois lovingly nudged him. “I’m so glad the rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.”
Clark winced. “Sorry about that.”
“Oh, you’ll make it up to me.”
“I will?”
She nodded.
“How?” Clark gulped.
His girlfriend whispered into his ear.
“Really?” He smiled. “Now?”
Lois bit her lip as she nodded. Clark grinned and zoomed them up the stairs, clothes flying off behind them as they went.
***
Back in the Kent townhouse in Lucy’s home dimension…Clark tossed and turned unable to sleep. He and Lois had finally found a moment to be together without the audience of a surprise party. He pulled his sleeping wife into his arms and smelled her sweet scent. Kissing her cheek, he wondered what it was keeping him awake.
Was it that Jimmy’s new girlfriend’s computer program had said that Jimmy was a ninety-seven percent chance match to him? Did it bother him that someone had just been three percent off from finding his secret identity? He sighed, thinking it must be more than that.
Clark’s brain still buzzed at mile a minute. He couldn’t believe what his Mom had done to the other Clark; even though the man needed a wake-up call, that seemed excessively cruel. All this talk about babies and precautions, or the lack there of, had started that day at the farm. His mother had been very secretive all year. Since he came back with the New Kryptonians. Lying. Keeping secrets. Drinking. It wasn’t like her.
He thought about the pregnant Lois dream he had had before Thanksgiving. Was his Dad right? Was it just his unconscious desire to start a family materializing in his dreams? He sighed. She had tasted of strawberries. Mmmmm. His mind drifted away as he relaxed into sleep.
Dream Lois floated above him, feeding him strawberries, “Our first, first time,” she murmured, kissing him. Suddenly, she changed into the really pregnant Lois kissing him at the time machine.
“I miss you so much, Clark,” she said as he kissed her. He unwound his old scarf from around her neck. He kissed from her ear to her shoulder. She was his wife, not the other Clark’s Lois.
“Run away with me,” he begged.
“I can’t,” she said. “We can’t change the future. I have to go back.”
Clark continued to kiss her, pulling aside her shirt. She stepped away rewrapping the scarf, but not before he noticed the same circular scar on her shoulder as he had seen on his dream Lois.
She faded into the other Clark’s Lois, thin and looking so much like his Lois. “Lucy misses her husband, you know, Kal-El… How about you, Superman? Do you miss your wife? Does she perhaps look something like me?... Her husband has been off on assignment since the summer, so she’s been here working with Clark. She knows all about him and Superman, too, all about everything in fact. He trusts her more than he does me.” She kissed him.
As she kissed him another voice, with a slightly Texas twang spoke, “Clark, stop this. You know how much I miss him and you sound just like him… She’s not like your wife…”
The other Clark’s Lois murmured, “She misses her husband so much…”
Then she was pregnant Lois again and he was kissing her in his folk’s barn. “I miss you so much.”
He could hear the other Clark speaking, “My friend Lucy came to me last summer needing a safe place to hide for a while… Her fiancé is the type of guy who criminals love to hate. Super enemies. He’s a close friend of mine and I would have done anything to protect his wife… They’ve gotten married since then. It’s complicated.”
Then he heard the other Clark’s Lois, “Her husband is some bigwig with a secret hush-hush job, where he negotiates peace between warring factions and other things of the sort.”
He heard Zara’s voice, “If you don’t come with us to New Krypton, we will break into civil war.”
Then he was at the office talking to his Lois, before they snuck off to Chateau Roberge. “Superman will get those two old war horses to talk peace.”
Then, he was in the other dimension at Clark’s Smallville house and Clark’s Lois was chasing him around the living room. “Lucy misses her husband, you know, Kal-El.”
“So, we created this secret identity for her as Lucy El, wife of Kal-El. It was only supposed to be temporary, while her fiancé was out on assignment, a couple of months tops.”
Clark placed his hand on his Lois’s flat tummy. “If you tell me you can see those four Double Fudge Crunch Bars I ate…”
The tummy grew to a small baby bump. “I always have a reminder of our first, first time, Clark.” He could feel a slight kick from the baby.
Her tummy grew even bigger as did the kick. “She misses her Daddy.”
Voices and faces swirled around him as he spun around and around and around.
“I have a feeling it’s a girl.” Pregnant Lois.
“Lucy and Clark work very closely together, I’ve noticed. Very closely.” The other dimension’s Lois.
“We’re just good friends… I spent two nights under your roof; two nights with your wife. Bet you’re wondering how long we were able to resist each other… I’m sorry, I insinuated that I had slept with your wife while you were lost in time.” The other Clark.
“Lucy misses her husband, you know, Kal-El.” His Lois.
“You know, you’re the luckiest man alive.” The other Clark.
“If you knew how much he has helped you and your family…” His Mom.
“No, the baby is yours, Kal-El.” The other Clark.
“Almost passing out at her desk before turning green and then sitting in the conference room repeating your name for three minutes straight. Clark. Clark. Clark. Clark. Clark…. That was eight months ago.” Jimmy.
“The baby’s due mid-February.” The very pregnant Lois.
The other Lois’s voice spoke clearly as Clark suddenly was standing still by himself. “Clark loves Lucy’s and Kal’s baby, wishing it was his own... She said that if I could beat the curse, so can she.”Clark sat up in bed, his heart racing from his crazy dream. The room felt like it tilted on its side. The baby was due in mid-February. It was the tenth. His hands began to shake. In the summer, his fiancée went to the other Clark’s dimension to escape the curse. Lucy El was his wife. His missing Lois. And she was pregnant with his child. A chill went down his spine.
*** End of Part 3 *** CommentsChapter 7: Part 4
