A Little Too Far TOC Part 1 Part 2B - The Grim Reality Ending
Just a Little Too Far – Grim Reality Ending – The EpilogueLois felt the bright sunlight on her face and it woke her up. She was lying in bed. Her bed. There were fluffy pillows under her head and a warm comforter covered her body. She wasn’t in prison garb, but in her own little nighty. Her head throbbed with pain. Had she drunk too much last night? That wasn’t like her.
Had it all been a nightmare? A horrible, horrible nightmare?
A warm body shifted next to her in bed. In as much as she wanted to cuddle with Clark, she needed to process this whole dream.
“Honey,” she whispered, knowing if he was awake he could hear her. And probably if he was asleep as well. “I had the worst nightmare. I was in jail. Prison actually. I had killed someone and then pled guilty for it. You had gone away to New Krypton thinking that I was pregnant with Lex’s baby.”
He made some kind of grunting of confusion noise next her and she knew he was listening.
“Someone had told me that I had gotten pregnant by Luthor during that whole clone-wedding-kidnapping-Wanda-Detroit debacle. But it hadn’t been true. It was just a lie. All lies. Actually this whole nightmare was about lies. You lying to everyone about being undercover with Intergang instead of heading off planet as Superman. Me thinking that you lied about coming back to me. Me pleading guilty just because I felt guilty, even though I technically didn’t do it. I had wanted to kill him, but I hadn’t, really. I had felt so alone because I didn’t think you’d ever come home to me.” She sighed.
It had felt so real. She ran her hands up and down her arms. “Look, I even have goose pimples. I cannot believe our lives got so out of control. I was going to be in jail for years. They had even given me a buzz cut because of lice.” She shivered and then ran her fingers over her hair. It was still there in that cute pixie cut. “And worst of all, you and I couldn’t be together because I was in prison. You came to visit me and all you wanted to do was marry me, so we could have conjugal visits.” She chuckled and nudged him with her elbow. “I think you were desperate; afraid that you would have to spend the next five to ten years still a virgin.” She ran her hand over the back of his t-shirt. “Well, at least
that didn’t happen.” She exhaled. “I can’t believe that I dreamed I killed Jimmy.”
Lois’s brow furrowed. If prison was a dream and this was reality, why couldn’t she remember it? She couldn’t remember Clark returning from New Krypton. She couldn’t remember making love to him. How could she forget making love to Clark? Impossible! She must have done it, if he was lying in bed with her, right? Or had he just slept over? And what were they doing at her apartment anyway? Weren’t they going to live at the Clinton Street apartment until they could find something bigger?
“Who?” he mumbled.
“Jimmy.” She shook her head, sitting up and pulling her knees to her chest. Why couldn’t she remember?
A hand with a gold band on its fourth finger rubbed up and down her arm. “It’s okay, honey. I’m fine.”
A cold sweat gripped Lois as she turned and looked not into Clark’s, but Jimmy’s sleepy face. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and then leaned over to kiss her. “Good morning.”
Lois screamed and pushed him out of her bed. She herself leapt out of the other side.
Jimmy knelt by the side of bed. “Calm down, Lois. I’m alive. It was just a dream. Just a dream.”
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing in
my bed?!” she hollered, throwing a pillow at his head. He ducked, but she got him when he popped back up.
“Our bed, Lois!
Our bed. We were married last month? Don’t you remember? Dr. Deter said that you might have relapses of amnesia. Maybe when you hit your head on the kitchen cabinet last night,” Jimmy suggested, disappearing beside the bed again.
“There is no way I’d
marry you if you were the last man on Earth!” Lois screamed, continuing to throw things at him. She had run out of pillows and she reached for a framed picture beside to her bed to lob at him next.
It was a wedding photo of her and Jimmy Olsen. She fell onto the bed, but slipped off the edge and landed on the floor with a thud. Slowly, she pulled her shaking left hand out from behind the picture frame. She indeed had both an engagement ring and a wedding band on her finger. “No. No! NO!” she shouted.
It couldn’t be true. She would never have married Jimmy. NEVER. Ewww. Anyway. she would never have done that to Clark. What could she possibly have been thinking?
Jimmy inched around the edge of the bed to sit next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulder. “It’s true. We’re married.”
Lois pulled out of his embrace. “No. I didn’t… wouldn’t have married you. What about Clark?”
“Clark?” Jimmy looked confused. “Who’s that?”
“What?!” Lois snapped. “Only one of your best friends. My writing partner at the Daily Planet.”
“I’m your partner at the Daily Planet, Lois. You write the words. I take the photos. Lane and Olsen! The hottest team in town,” he said, quoting her and Clark’s catchphrase.
“But… But… But… What about Superman?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Yeah. You mentioned him before? Who is that? Superman? And where is New Krypton? Is that like outside of New York someplace?” Jimmy inquired.
Lois’s jaw dropped and she backed farther away from Jimmy. “No. No. No, this isn’t right. This isn’t my life.”
“Sweet-ums, honey. Of course, this is our life. You love me. I love you. We’re married and…” He reached towards her stomach. “You’re expecting our first child.”
She dropped the framed photo and screamed in horror. “
NO!” Then just as suddenly she stopped screaming. “Wait. ‘Sweet-ums’? Okay. Enough.” Her jaw tensed and she started looking around her bedroom. “Where’s the hidden camera?”
“Hidden camera?” Jimmy blanched, backing up. “Why... why would you think there would be a hidden camera in our bedroom, honey?”
Lois glowered at him with a raised brow. “Because no matter what I may or may not remember, I would
never let anyone ever call me ‘sweet-ums’. Not even Clark. This life isn’t real. This is a lie. This is another practical joke for that stupid TV show, isn’t it?”
Jimmy sighed. “Can’t get anything past you, Lois. But admit it, I had you going a minute though, didn’t I?” He grinned.
“The photo was a nice touch, Jimmy,” she scowled at him. “You drugged me, didn’t you? That why I had this throbbing headache when I woke up?”
“Yeah. Well, we had to move my stuff in here and get the rings on your fingers, so yeah. But we had the camera rolling the entire time, so you can check the footage and know nothing happened. Perry would tan my hide if I had ever done anything to my partner. Miss Senior Investigative Reporter.” He nudged her in the arm.
“I’m not
your partner, Jimmy. Never have been. Never will be. At worst you’re my researcher. At best my photographer. Clark is my writing partner and my fiancé.” She handed Jimmy the fake wedding photo. “Where’s the photo of me and Clark from the Kerths that’s supposed to be on my bedside table?”
“Who?” Jimmy repeated, slowly. “Lois, you aren’t engaged. And never have been. Well, I mean, you went undercover against Luthor a couple of years ago and almost married him. But that doesn’t count. You knew he was scum and you dumped him at the altar. He was so broken hearted about it, he jumped off his balcony. Okay, I guess he does count.”
“Ha-ha, very funny, Olsen. I want my photo of Clark back, now.” Lois pressed her lips together and held out her hand. “The one from last year, when he won the Kerth and we went on our first date. Although, it wasn’t really a date-date. It was more of a non-date date.”
Jimmy was looking at her warily. “Ah. Lois. Last year,
you won the Kerth for the Bolivian Drug Cartel series.”
“No. Clark won for the Retirement Home Scandal series,” Lois told him with a definite air of ‘duh’ to her voice.
“A Retirement Home Scandal beat out your Bolivian Drug Cartel series? I don’t think so, Lois.” Jimmy shook his head.
Lois rolled her eyes. “I know. I know. I couldn’t believe it either. But Clark’s a good writer. He deserved it.”
“No, Lois.
You won and
I went as your non-date date,” Jimmy stated matter-of-factly. “Come on, I’ll show you.” He walked out of her bedroom.
Lois pulled on her fluffy robe and followed. He was standing by her glass cabinet that held her three Kerth awards. There were four on the shelf. Had Jimmy moved Clark’s award to her shelf?
He then crossed the room to an end table that had a framed photo. There was her and Clark’s photo from the Kerth Awards Ceremony. Ha!
“Here’s you, black dress, Kerth in hand. There’s me, monkey suit, camera in hand.”
Lois stared at the photo. It wasn’t her and Clark. Jimmy was right. It was her and him. That seemed like a real picture. “This isn’t funny, Jimmy. If anyone can dummy up a picture, you can. Where’s Clark’s photo?”
Jimmy carefully took hold of her shoulders and stared her in the eyes. “Lois, there is no Clark. There’s just you and me.”
She pressed her lips together and knocked his hands away. “This joke is already old, Jimmy. Enough. There is no
us.” She pointed between the two of them. “There’s me and Clark. Soon, there’ll be Miss Jimma Olsen if you don’t give me back my favorite photo with Clark.”
Jimmy swallowed. “Lois, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who’s this Clark fellow?”
Fine. She would play along. She crossed her arms. “Clark. He’s about 6’1”. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Glasses. A farm boy from Kansas. He’s been my partner since the Messenger explosion.”
Jimmy started snickering. “Mad Dog Lane is engaged to be married to a glasses-wearing Kansas farm boy? Yeah, right. Now, who’s pulling whose leg?” He brushed away the idea of Clark out of the air with his hand. “Anyway,
I became your partner during the Messenger mess.”
Lois pouted slightly. She didn’t like having to defend Clark to Jimmy. “He’s a wonderful man. Kindest man I’ve ever met. Sweet. Loved by all. And hot as all get out. You could even call him super.”
“You mean like that Superman guy you mentioned?” Jimmy laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. “Your Kansas farm boy has a side gig as a superhero, per chance, Lois? Wow, you’ve got an active fantasy life.”
“Clark is
not a fantasy.” Superman may have been at one time, now she knew he was just Clark’s way to help out and not be recognized. Had she just blown his cover? “And Superman is too real.” She dragged a chair from her dining room to her kitchen cabinet. Standing on the chair, Lois removed a scrapbook from her topmost shelf. “Ha!” The production company hadn’t found her Superman story book. She hopped down and slid it across the dining room table to Jimmy. “What do you think of that?”
Jimmy flipped open the book. “Hey, look at that. A scrapbook of all of our stories.”
“What?” Lois stepped up next to him. Gone were all the clippings of all her Superman stories, instead…
“Hey, look, here’s where you and I brought down both The Toasters and the Metros. You’re one hell of a singer, Lois.”
“
We didn’t bring down the Toasters, Superman did,” Lois said, stopping him from turning the page and looking down at the article. She had written it, but the photo now showed The Toasters handcuffed together. Not a glimmer of a man in blue tights. Photo by James Olsen. She swallowed. “No. That’s not right. Clark and I went undercover at the Metro Club. I was Lola Dane, lounge singer. He was Charlie King, bartender.”
“Oh. I remember now.
I went undercover with you at the Metro Club, Lois,” said Jimmy. “And
my undercover name was Clark Kent. I was finally able to put my bartending skills to use.”
Lois glared at him and turned the page. Ha! “Miranda! And the pheromones. You were chasing some fashion model named...” She snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “April Stephens. I was infatuated with Clark.” She rolled her eyes. “I even danced him the Dance of the Seven Veils. Superman stopped Miranda from spraying her perfume over Metropolis instead of that fruit fly spray.” But the photo of Superman bringing in Miranda’s plane was missing. Just a handcuffed blonde perfumer calling out to Lex Luthor.
Jimmy turned away and cleared his throat, blushing. “Ah, Lois. You danced the seven veils for me.”
She put her hands on her hips. “I most certainly did not!”
He nodded. “We slept together that night. You promised me we’d never have to speak of it again and that you wouldn’t hold it against me, since I was drugged as well.”
Lois pulled back her fist and Jimmy jumped out of the way. “It made it really difficult, when the Chief put us undercover at the Lexor to investigate Ian Harrington the next week…”
“Oh, so it was
us at the Lexor, not Clark and I? Right.” Her words dripped with sarcasm. “So, if Superman doesn’t exist, who saved us from the Nightfall asteroid then? Who brought down Bill Church and Intergang? Who defeated that cyborg boyfriend of Lucy’s, who was powered by Kryptonite?”
“And what is Kryptonite?” Jimmy asked.
“It’s kind-of a green glowing rock… A meteorite. A fragment of Superman’s home planet of Krypton. It’s the only thing that can hurt Superman,” she explained and poorly at that from Jimmy’s expression. “Superman also captured that man who tried to bomb Uncle Mike’s café. And saved you when your Mustang’s brakes were cut,” Lois went on. “And stopped you from becoming a preprogrammed killer. And saved me when Patrick, when my old Irish friend tried to sacrifice me to the Druid gods. And stopped that man who kidnapped Perry and Alice and tried to build a modern day Ark.”
Jimmy’s eyebrows had gone up on his forehead with each of these statements until they practically disappeared under his hairline. “And if he’s real, where is this Clark character now? This Superman?”
“Uh… um…” Lois stammered. “Clark went undercover with Intergang this spring when Superman flew off with some Kryptonians to help save their colony from an evil dictator.” She didn’t like how unsure of her words she sounded.
The photographer’s skeptical expression was back. “Listen to yourself, Lois. Asteroids set out to destroy us? Cyborgs? Druids? Psychos rebuilding Noah’s Ark? Hypnotized killers? Bill Church of Cost Mart running some world crime syndicate? And aliens from outer space? Please! That sounds like National Whisper stuff not the Daily Planet.” He opened her apartment door and pulled in a man from the hall. “What did you put in those knock-out drugs? You’ve turned my partner loopy and crazy.”
Lois fell onto her hard sofa. When Jimmy put it that way, she did sound delusional. But she knew Clark. She knew he was real. Jimmy was pulling another practical joke on her. She ran to the producer. “You know who Superman is, don’t you?”
The man shrugged. “A wrestler?”
“No, not a wrestler. He’s about yea tall, wears a bright blue suit, with a red cape, shorts, and boots. And across his chest he has this yellow crest thingy in the shape of an ‘S’.” Why was she describing Superman to this man? Everyone knew who Superman was.
“Sounds like a professional wrestler to me.”
Lois shoved the man down the hall towards her bedroom. “Go remove all your hidden cameras.” She sat back down on her hard sofa.
Jimmy sat down next to her and took her hand. “Lois. I know you’re confused and everything right now, but think about this logically. Would you really fall for a glasses-wearing hick from Kansas? Could all those strange things you said happened really have happened?”
She gazed at Jimmy, dumbfounded. “But… But… The glasses were just a disguise…” she stammered.
“That’s right, I almost forgot. He’s the superhero. And this Superman guy fell in love with you at first sight, I bet.” Jimmy pointed at her with a wink. “And pair of glasses hid him from the world, right? Fooled even you, huh? His best friend? His girlfriend? The great Mad Dog Lane? Come on, Lois. Does this sound even remotely possible? Please!”
“No,” she admitted. “But Clark
is as real as you or me. Superman exists! Why don’t you remember, Jimmy?” Lois grabbed Jimmy’s by the biceps and shook him. “Please, remember.”
Jimmy caressed her face, ending up cupping her jaw in his palm. “Calm down, Lois.”
“Don’t touch me like that!” Lois shouted, jumping up. “That’s how Clark touches me.” She stumbled backwards away from him.
“All set, Mr. Olsen. All the microphones and cameras removed,” the producer said leaving the apartment with a wave, holding a bunch of cords he hadn’t had when he walked in. “We’ve got enough for a great show.”
“That’s not going on TV, Jimmy!” Lois told him. “You can’t broadcast what I said about Clark and Superman and…” She gasped. Oh, God! She had told Jimmy that Clark was a virgin. Her fiancé was going to kill her! “They can’t use that tape, Jimmy. It will ruin Clark’s life. My life.”
“Lois, honey. There is no Clark Kent; he’s a figment of your imagination. His life won’t be ruined. Your life, on the other hand…” Jimmy tilted his head with a shrug. “Why don’t you go lie back down. Maybe if you got some more sleep, you’d wake up and that drug will have worked its way through your system. All these delusions about farm boy fiancés and superheroes will be gone and you’ll be yourself again.”
Sleep! Yes! This was a dream. If she went back to sleep, she might wake up back in jail. True, she might have killed Jimmy… right at this moment that option was looking tempting all over again… but at least Clark and Superman would still be real. And if she woke up and there was no Clark, no Superman? Lois shook her head to this idea. No, she would rather never wake up again than live in a life where Clark never existed.
“You’re right, Jimmy. I think I’ll go lie back down,” she said. She took one last look at her friend. “Goodbye.”
He grinned at her with a wink. “You want me to come lie down with you, Sweet-ums?”
Lois pointed at him with a snarl. “You take one step towards my bedroom, buster…”
Jimmy threw up his hands with a chuckle. “Okay! Okay! I’ll stay out here.”
She went into her bedroom, dumped her fluffy robe on a chair, and crawled back into bed, pulling the covers up to her neck. She closed her eyes. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Her mind drifted away and sleep overtook her.
***
Lois felt the bright beam of light from a flashlight hit her face, blinding her and causing her to blink. She was lying in bed. More of a cot with a thin mattress than a real bed though. There were no fluffy pillows under her head and only a bare blanket covered her body. She wasn’t wearing a little nighty, but her prison garb. Her head still throbbed with pain. But it was the most beautiful pain the world. She was home.
Thank God! I’m back in prison.The guard moved on banging against the bars of her cell as she did so.
Had it all been a nightmare? A horrible, horrible nightmare?
Lois crawled out of bed and over to the little eighteen inch by one foot window that let a sliver of light into her cell each morning. She had left her window open by force of habit.
“Clark, honey,” she called out to him, knowing that if he was awake and in the city of Metropolis, Superman could hear her. And probably in his sleep as well. “I had the worst dream. I had traded in this nightmare of being in prison and having killed Jimmy for freedom. But the cost of my freedom was that I had to live in a world where you never existed. I love you, Clark. And I would never trade my freedom for your life. So, why doesn’t Superman break me out of here already!”
In the distance, the spotlight briefly caught a glimpse of a red cape and she smiled. It was the most beautiful sight she had ever seen.
Soon a hand at the end of bright blue sleeve knocked lightly on the bars on her window. “You know I can’t do that,” Superman whispered to her.
“I know. I just needed to hear and see you, know that you were actually real,” she told him.
“I’m real.” She couldn’t see his face, because he was lying against the wall outside her window keeping an eye on the spotlight.
“Get me the hell out of here! I’m ready to go home now,” she announced in a hushed whisper.
“Good. We found a judge to throw out your guilty plea and all the charges that went along with it. Jimmy’s death was ruled an accident. Perry says you’ve been on vacation long enough and to get your butt back to the Planet.” Superman’s face appeared at the window for a moment and he smiled at her. “And Clark is miserable without you. He wanted me to tell you that he loves you, Lois, and that he’s sorry that this has taken so long. He wants nothing more that to take you in his arms and hold you.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered under her breath, holding her hand up to the window and wishing she could actually touch him. “You’ll always be my hero.”
“Go back to sleep, Lois. When you wake up, Clark will be there to pick you up,” he told her floating away. A moment later, he was gone from view.
“The next time I fall asleep, Clark, it’s going to be in your arms,” she told him, catching once last glimpse of red cape in the distance.
Lois would rather remain in prison than bet her life on the chance of waking up in that hell dimension where Clark didn’t exist and she had slept with Jimmy.
*** The End ***Gratitude: Inspired by Joss Whedon’s
Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Season 6 episode “Normal Again” written by Diego Gutierrez.
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