You can find the
Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois[/i] TOC here.
Where we left off in Part 3 “Lois! Lois!” Sarah was shaking her awake. “You’re having a nightmare, Lois. Wake up!”
Lois blinked her eyes and focused on the young woman. “Huh?”
“You were having a nightmare,” Sarah said more softly, sitting down next to her on the bed. “Are you all right?”
The reporter pulled her knees up to her chin. “Yeah. A nightmare. Superman didn’t even notice me.” She sighed despondently.
Sarah raised a brow. “Superman?”
Lois gazed upwards before closing her eyes and sighing, relaxing into her pillows. “He’s that man from my dreams, I told you about. He’s perfect, really. He’s a superhero. He’s super strong, super fast, invulnerable, and he even flies. And when he holds me in his arms…” She shivered with another sigh.
“A superhero?” Sarah’s jaw was hanging open now.
The reporter’s defenses shot up. “Yeah. So what if he is? Everyone dreams of their perfect man.”
“Sorry,” explained the young psych student. “I just didn’t expect that from you. You seemed so based in reality, but from everything you’ve told me about the death of your two friends, I can see why you’d be attracted by a superhero. Someone who could protect you from life’s pain. Someone who could fly you away when life got too rough or fly you into the heat of a story. Someone who couldn’t die. Yep. Definitely your perfect mate.”
Lois smiled. It felt good to have someone validate her feelings for Superman.
“But Mr. Perfect is looking straight through you, like you’re invisible?” Sarah asked. “Doesn’t sound too [i]super to me.”
“Clark thinks that Superman is just shy, that he’s hiding his true feelings for me,” Lois explained.
“Clark? Who’s Clark?” Sarah asked, confused.
Oh, crap. Why did she have to bring him up? Sarah was going to have her committed. Lois pushed Sarah out of the way and climbed out of bed. She went into the kitchen, opened her freezer, and pulled out her half-gallon of ice cream with the spoon still inside it from the last time.
“Lois?” Sarah asked again, taking two bowls out of the cupboard. “Who’s Clark?”
Part 4Lois sighed. “Clark is my partner. Kind of. Sort of. In my dreams. It’s like I’m reliving the last year and a half of my life in my dreams. Only now, my life is perfect.”
“So, was this before or after you met Lex Luthor?” Sarah inquired as Lois filled her bowl with ice cream. “Is
he alive and well in these dreams?”
Lois’s brow furrowed. The first dream was set about the time she introduced herself to Lex at his White Orchid Ball. Only instead of going stag after Mitchell canceled at the last minute, she had brought Clark as her ‘date’. So, Lex was definitely alive in her dreams. Did these dreams have to do with him? “Yeah, and he’s jealous of my interest in Superman.”
“And you have a partner at work,” Sarah stated. “Do you need a partner?”
“No!” Lois exclaimed.
“You want a partner though?” her houseguest rephrased.
“No! Yes. Well, I don’t know. I never thought I did, but Clark…” She sighed. But
what about Clark? “He and I mesh together really well. I’m logical. He’s emotional. I’m city. He’s country. I’m pushy. He’s polite. He’s not afraid of me. He doesn’t let me push him around. He actually stands up to me when he thinks I’m wrong, not that I ever am, mind you. But he also takes care of me like a best friend,” Lois explained. “He’s a yang to my yin.”
Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Okay. So, in this ‘perfect’ dream world you’ve created for yourself, you’ve got two men or three men actually: ‘the super man’, ‘the best friend’, and ‘the rich man’, right? Are you involved with any of them?”
Lois shrugged and took a bite of her ice cream. “Love takes time. And I’ve got all the time in the world in my dreams to catch Superman’s eye.”
“But, Lois, that’s all Superman is: a dream man, a fantasy. He isn’t real. He doesn’t exist. And never will. Clark is also a fantasy, but a different kind. He’s your co-worker who you always beat out for stories. He supports you emotionally, but he also keeps you on your toes professionally, right? So, Clark more real, but he doesn’t exist either. And Lex? Well, he’s dead.”
The smile dropped off Lois’s face. Why had she told Sarah about her dreams?
“Lois, it’s classic, Psych 101.” Sarah looked down into her dish of chocolate ice cream. “Okay, look, have you ever had Rocky Road ice cream.”
Lois looked at Sarah skeptically. “I think that’s a bad example if you’re going to be talking about relationships.”
“Just a metaphor, Lois. Just go with me.”
Lois scoffed, but continued to listen.
“Now, if I told you that you could have one ice cream flavor for the rest of your life. What would it be? Rocky Road or chocolate?” asked Sarah.
Lois had figured out the metaphor.
Men as ice cream. Good example, Sarah. She smiled, leaning back against the counter. “Well… I don’t know. I guess I have to try the Rocky Road before I decide.” Was Superman Rocky Road? The answer was simple. Give her a spoon!
Sarah pointed at her. “That’s the point. Clark’s chocolate. It’s good and all, but you’ve had it.”
“Yes, but you can put hot fudge on it and whipped cream.” Lois grinned. “And nuts.”
“Right. You take the great guy that Clark is and add all the super hero bits and you get… Superman!
He’s the sundae with the works. Chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, nuts, cherry.” The young woman smiled. “Bananas.”
“Oh, bananas,” Lois moaned as she rested her head on her palm and thought about eating
that banana split. Her bowl of chocolate ice cream seemed to pale in comparison.
“Don’t take me there,” Sarah begged her.
Lois grinned. She didn’t think that Sarah was talking about food anymore, although, neither was Lois.
“Okay, now, this Scardino guy, he’s Rocky Road. He’s different, interesting, chunky. He’s a mix between plain chocolate and the sundae.”
“You know, Sarah, if you go around trying every flavor that comes out you’re going to get awfully fat,” Lois said, taking the last bite from her bowl, like she was one to talk.
“That’s what I’m trying to explain to you. Superman is the sundae. Do you really want to have a sundae
all the time? He’s just a fantasy. He won’t seem so special if he’s around all the time. What you want is a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I’m telling you, Lois, it’s time to take out that little pink taster spoon and try Rocky Road.” Sarah got up, set her empty bowl in the sink, and went into the other room. “Anyway, you’ll always have your chocolate sundae in your dreams.”
Lois leaned back against the counter and thought about that. “Not necessarily.” She sighed. “I think I’d really miss my chocolate sundae if I couldn’t have it.”
***
There was a knock at the door. Lois hadn’t gotten much sleep. Between her stakeout with Scardino, which kept her up until three in the morning, then her Superman nightmare and ice cream pig-out therapy session with Sarah, Lois was running only on one cylinder, or was it half a cylinder? Dan had called her about ten that morning and told her that his researcher was finally able to hack into Golden’s old military files; he was on his way over to tell her what they had found.
She was still in her grey morning sweats. After all that ice cream the night before, she had taken some time to work some of it off. If she was going to scare Scardino off with how she looked in the morning, she might as well do it before they got intimate. Oh, God, was she thinking about getting intimate with Dan?
But luckily, the man on the other side of the door wasn’t Dan, it was Jimmy. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“I think I left my wallet here last night,” he told her, following her into the kitchen, where she set down the plant she had been watering.
“I was just about to get dressed,” she responded, heading towards her bedroom. “Help yourself to some fruit.”
Lois pulled a blouse and vest set out of her closet. It was a bit conservative, but she didn’t want to lead Dan on. It wasn’t like she owned Cat clothes anyway. “I’m surprised that Perry let you go out alone,” she called to Jimmy. She held up the shirt in front of her as she looked in the mirror. “Katherine Wilder leave her house?”
Suddenly, she saw a very angry, very determined Jimmy standing behind her in the mirror with her large kitchen knife. At the last second, she dropped her clothes and turned, grabbing his arm and twisting it away from her. The knife fell and scattered across the floor. She pushed Jimmy over, ran out of her bedroom, picking up the knife, and tried to open her front door. For some reason, it wouldn’t budge. Had Jimmy locked it?
Before Lois could try anything else, Jimmy seized her shoulders and threw her across the room. He was stronger than he looked.
Lois faced him and tried to talk sense into him. “Come on, Jimmy! Jimmy, it’s Lois! You’ve been brainwashed.”
Jimmy paid her no heed. He picked up her tall standing lamp and, using it like a pole, knocked the knife out of her hand. She kicked him in the gut, pushing him against her chair, which broke both her lamp and the chair, but it bought her enough time to get to the door and unlock it. Unfortunately, that was when Jimmy hit her in the back of the legs with the pole of the lamp, bringing her to the floor.
“What’s going on out here?” yawned a half-awake Sarah. “Jimmy!” she screamed, but he ignored her.
Jimmy sat on top of Lois and pulled the cord of the lamp around her neck as Lois tried to keep him from tightening the cord.
“Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy, it’s me! Lois!”
Sarah threw the plant that Lois had just watered at Jimmy’s head, but he ducked out of the way. She picked up Lois’s phone and instead of calling for the police, she threw it at him. Sarah wasn’t really helping, but at least she was distracting Jimmy from pulling the wire tighter.
“Jimmy, stop, please,” Lois begged as her front door opened and Dr. Wilder, Mrs. Wilder – the doctor’s mother – and some bearded guy walked into her apartment.
Sarah jumped onto Jimmy’s back to try and hold back his arms.
“Warrior,” Mrs. Wilder called out to them. “Stop!”
Both Sarah and Jimmy froze and turned to her for more instructions.
“Sarah, go stand in the corner. Jimmy continue to kill Lois Lane,” Mrs. Wilder finished.
The young woman let go of Jimmy and went to stand in the corner like a robot. Jimmy tightened the cord around Lois’s neck.
“You’re killing me,” Lois croaked.
“I don’t want to, Lois. I
have to,” explained Jimmy, twisting the cord around his hands.
A risky idea flashed in Lois’s mind. Relaxing for a fraction of a moment, Lois closed her eyes and whispered, “I’m dead.”
Jimmy relaxed his hold on her, long enough for Lois to shift her body. She brought up her knees, pushing him off balance and towards her, then she head-butted him. “WARRIOR!” she shouted, guessing that was the code-word to controlling the brainwashed zombies.
The bearded man ran from the room.
“Hey, Lois, what did you do that for?” Jimmy asked, rubbing his head.
“Jimmy! Jump out the window!” ordered Mrs. Wilder.
He looked away from where Lois was coughing on the floor, trying to regain her breath. “I don’t think so, Lady.”
“Let’s get out of here,” said Mrs. Wilder as she and Katherine Wilder started for the door.
“Stop them,” ordered Lois, her voice still hoarse.
Both Jimmy and Sarah grabbed the two blonde women and held them with their hands behind their backs.
A few seconds later, a bleeding Dan Scardino brought, at gunpoint, the bearded man into her apartment. Dan looked between the Wilder women and the bearded man. “Something tells me that you folks aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
“Warrior,” Lois repeated, collapsing on the floor in relief. She wanted to make sure that the Wilders didn’t try to re-control Jimmy and Sarah while Dan was handcuffing the bad guys... or gals, in this case.
***
“Jimmy will be fine,” Perry informed Lois in his office later that day. “Now, I can understand if you don’t want to partner up with him anymore… uh… being that he tried to… um… kill you…”
Lois waved that idea out of the air. Jimmy was
her lackey, and she wasn’t going to lose him over a little brainwashing. “Well, as long as
I get to still control him…” she started to say as she rubbed the red line on her throat.
“I just went to visit Jimmy and Sarah at the hospital. They’re having the antidotes administered as we speak. He’ll be deprogrammed and back at work later in the week,” Perry told her. “Of course, being that he tried to kill you, you might still have a bit of leverage there without the drugs.” He smiled knowingly.
She returned the smile. They both knew that Jimmy’s guilt meter would say that he owed her for a long time in the future.
“But I don’t want you to take advantage of the kid,” Perry warned her.
Lois rolled her eyes. Where was the fun in
that? With her lips pressed together, she returned to her desk.
“The last time I saw that expression on your face, you were sticking a plunger in my stomach,” said Dan, appearing at her desk. He had a bandage on his forehead covering the gash he had earned during his battle with Jimmy prior to the photographer reaching her apartment.
“Hi,” Lois said softly, still tired from her lack of sleep from the night before and her battle for life this morning.
“Hi… uh…” Dan said, pulling a notepad out of his jeans pocket. “I’ve got some background information on Tysian, I thought you might want to know about…” He flipped through his notepad as he looked for the right page.
Sarah was right. Superman hadn’t come to her rescue that morning when her life was on the line. He was just a fantasy. On the other hand, Dan had been there for her that morning. She had rescued herself, but he
had been there. Plus, he was real, not imaginary. “The only thing I want to know is: would you like to go out?”
Dan’s gaze returned to hers. He hadn’t been expecting that question, and it made him speechless for a moment. She enjoyed that startled expression on his face.
“You mean, like on a date?” he asked uncertainly.
“Yeah, on a date,” she clarified.
His face lit up with joy and enthusiasm. “Well… Yeah! I mean…”
“Great. You’re on,” Lois said, picking up her briefcase.
Still startled, Dan asked, “Just out of curiosity, did something happen that I should know about?”
Lois glanced over at Jimmy’s empty desk. In her dreams, it was the one where Clark sat. She felt a tug of longing to have a man like that in her life. But he was just another fantasy. She shook her head and smiled at Dan. “Come on. How about a late lunch? Are you hungry?”
“Yeah, sure. How about an early dinner instead? Or I know this terrific ice cream parlor. Do you like ice cream? They make the best Rocky Road…” Dan gushed.
Lois felt a wave of familiarity to his ramblings. “Shut up, Scardino.”
He winked at her. “Call me Dan.” That was what he had kept telling her while they worked on Mayson’s murder together when she had refused to call him anything other than his last name.
“Dan,” she corrected, smiling. “So, they make the best Rocky Road, huh? I’ll have to try me some of that.”
***
“So were you and Jena more than just partners?” Lois asked Scardino as she leaned back, setting her napkin on her empty plate. The Indian food at this restaurant was good, a bit spicier than she normally liked, but good. Bobby Bigmouth had recommended the place to her the last time she had brought him food. She would have to thank him.
Dan looked down. He liked to joke around, but she could tell he felt uncomfortable talking about the personal stuff. Sometimes looking at Dan was like seeing her feelings in a mirror. That thought gave her a chill.
In order to let someone really know you, you have to let them see you as you really are, Lois told herself. Was Dan letting her see the real him?
As soon as you let someone see you as you really are, they end up using it against you, she then thought. She pressed her lips together. Certainly enough men had done that to her – used her own flaws and insecurities against her. So she had created this disguise of a tough-as-nails woman, but inside she was very different.
“Yes,” Dan admitted. Then he changed his mind. “No.”
Lois raised an eyebrow and waited. She had had complicated relationships like that. Take Lex.
“When you work with someone closely, like Jena and I did, naturally you form a tight bond.” He sighed. “I was in love with her, madly in love.” Dan shrugged. Lois guessed in an attempt to defuse the intensity of his words. “But to her, I was just her partner, a fellow agent. I had started to change her mind, wear her down. I had even pictured us getting married someday. But let’s not talk about Jena…”
Marriage is about sharing everything you have, even if you don’t feel like it, said a voice inside her head that sounded strangely like Clark. Was Clark pro-marriage? Of course, he was. He was from Kansas!
~So is divorce. Just ask my mother,~ she snapped back in her head.
Lois pressed her eyes together and shook her head. Was she having an argument with Clark inside her head while at dinner with Dan? Was this a dream flashback? Or something else?
“Are you okay, Lois?” Dan asked her, taking hold of her hand across the table.
She looked down at their hands and felt… nothing. Not hope. Not excitement. Nothing. With Lex she felt a little thrill of pride that the world’s third richest person – second richest
man – had been interested in her. With Superman she felt fireworks. But with Dan she was numb.
“I…” Lois swallowed. Lex was dead. And Superman a fantasy. Dan was real, she reminded herself. “I understand. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened with Lex if he hadn’t been shot.”
Dan nodded. “I guess we have more in common than I thought. I hadn’t realized that you two had been so close.”
You don’t need to bid for my attention, Lois, whispered Superman in her ear.
Lois turned to look at Superman, but there was no one there.
You’ll always be special to me, Lois, Superman continued.
You’re the first woman who ever… His voice seemed to falter as if searching for the correct words. Her heart raced in anticipation.
“Lois. Lo-is…” called Dan, waving a hand in front of her face. “You seem a million miles away.”
She was a million miles away. Superman just told her that she was special to him.
“Sorry, Dan. All I feel like doing is crawling into bed. Do you mind?” she asked before explaining. “It’s been a long day, and I didn’t sleep well last night.”
His eyes popped for a moment, before he answered, his voice rough, “Sure. I’ll just go pay the check.”
Lois’s brow furrowed. She couldn’t wait to get into bed with Superman.
Dream of Superman, she corrected as she felt her cheeks redden. She was glad Scardino had already gotten up to pay and hadn’t seen her blush. By the time he had returned, she had gotten her color back under control.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Maybe I should take you to the hospital and have the E.R. doctors check you out,” suggested Dan.
“I’m fine. The EMTs already examined me. I just need some sleep,” Lois said, standing up. “Take me home, and get me to bed.”
Dan swallowed. “Lois, I like you a lot, but I think that’s a bit much for our first date,” he teased her to let her know that her words could be construed another way.
Oh, God! What had she been saying to him? She decided to play it off like a joke. “So, no double entendre with your curry sauce?”
“No, thank you,” Dan replied faux-sternly, taking her arm. “But if you want to give me a goodnight kiss at your door, I can honestly say it won’t be turned down.”
She patted his chest. It didn’t feel as good as when she patted Clark’s chest. There was something solid about the way Clark felt. She sighed. But Dan’s chest was real, not imaginary. “Why don’t we save that for a time when I’m right in the head?”
“So…” Dan paused as he unlocked her car door before going around to climb in the driver’s side. “Never?”
Lois stood there for a moment, contemplating why she wanted him to actually
open the door for her. She didn’t need a man to open doors for her; so why was she suddenly expecting such chivalrous behavior from Dan? She pulled open the door and sat down.
Once they were inside the car, he repeated his jokey question, “Never? Or lunch in a couple of days and then dinner Saturday in a week?”
“I’d like that,” she told him with a smile. And that was the truth. She hadn’t been all there for this first date and it seemed like she was getting a second chance to make a first impression on him. She would take the opportunity and run with it. She needed to get Superman and Clark and her dreams out of her conscious mind and back into her subconscious. “Lunch, that is... and dinner.”
***
She and Alan Morris – the original Invisible Man – were locked inside the air-tight vault at the Gold Repository and they were running out of air.
“Superman, where are you?” Lois gasped with her last breath.
Suddenly the wall crumbled and in came Superman. He took her in his arms and looked at her like there was no other woman in the world. He leaned towards her almost as if he were going to kiss her… oh, please, please, kiss her. Just this once!... but then the police SWAT team came in through the hole in the vault Superman had made.
Or at least, Lois thought Superman had wanted to kiss her. She was woozy from the lack of oxygen. He pulled her into an embrace instead, and in some ways that was better than a kiss. It showed her that she mattered to him and that he had been worried. Actually, his expression had reminded her of the way Clark gazed at her sometimes when he didn’t know she was looking at him looking at her.
Superman scooped her into his arms and carried her outside. It was the most wonderful combination ever imaginable: Superman, sunshine, and fresh air. Lois could stay in that moment forever.But the image faded as Lois’s alarm clock reminded her it was Wednesday. Jimmy would finally be returning to the Daily Planet after his ‘deprogramming’ at the hospital. Not that she would ever admit it, but she had missed the kid. It seemed quieter around the office without his silly comments and eager smile.
She really needed to stop thinking of Jimmy as a kid. He was twenty-two now. But for some reason ‘kid’ just seemed like the right word for him. Like a kid brother.
***
A huge bouquet of red and white striped tulips emerged from the elevator in the arms of the floral deliveryman. It headed straight for Lois’s desk.
“Lois Lane, ma’am?” the deliveryman said to Lois, handing her his log. “Sign here, please.”
She smiled at him and signed. “Thanks.”
“Whoa! Lois! Agent Scardino on a stakeout at a florist’s shop?” Jimmy teased, coming around the corner.
Lois decided not to dignify Jimmy’s remark with an answer. “Oooh. A note.” She opened it and began reading, “’Dear Lois. Sorry, but I need to reschedule lunch; I have to go out of town. Should be back by Saturday. Can’t wait. Yours in tulips, Dan’.”
She set down the note and sighed. At least it wasn’t another hideous mobile statue thing.
***
Lois sat at her desk – once again on hold – staring at the card Dan had sent with the flowers. ‘
Yours in tulips, Dan.’ What did that mean? Her heart had ached with disappointment when she had read his note. That was something, wasn’t it? Better than the numbness she had felt at dinner when he had held her hand.
She should really be working on the Intergang angle and how it connected with Multiworld Communications. Technically, since she was on hold, she was working.
Lois kept thinking back to her date with Dan. She had asked him to tell her about his current case: dead end. She asked him to tell her what he did for the DEA: change of subject. Dan told her that his work was strictly off limits. He would not,
could not talk about it. He had said this while taking her straight home. They had both forgotten about the Rocky Road. Probably not a good ice cream flavor for a first date anyway, Lois thought to herself.
The sound of the hold music changed. Super. Kenny Loggins. If she had a partner, then she could leave him with all the boring ‘calling everyone on the phone’ and ‘waiting for hours on hold’ part of her job, and she could be out pounding the pavement, getting the story.
“Partners?” Lois grumbled to her boss.
“You and Kent. The experience of the battle scarred veteran paired with the hunger of the exciting fresh talent,” enthused Perry as they walked out of the elevator and down into the bullpen.
“I’m not that scarred. And he’s not that exciting,” she clarified.
“Your tenacity. His tact. Believe me, Lois, the two of you… there’s chemistry there. It’s gonna make for great stories.”
Chemistry? Her and Superman, without doubt, but her and Kent? He must be kidding.
“But… Perry, partnership is like marriage.” This time it was definitely a whine.
“That’s right. You’ve got to work at it,” responded her boss.
“It takes patience and understanding and a willingness to be supportive,” Lois told him, like she had any experience with either… a partnership or a marriage. Or even a long-term relationship.
“I know, honey,” Perry said sympathetically, patting her arm. “Fake it. Now, go find your partner.”
She turned around and saw Clark leaning against the receptionist desk. Had that been a hint of sadness in his eyes before he smiled at her? Had he heard what she had said to Perry? Did he not like being lumped together with her as much as she hated being lumped together with him? No, he had always wanted to be her partner. She remembered the day of the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility like it had been the day before. He had practically begged her to be his partner. Perry must have finally caved to shut him up.
“Howdy, partner,” Clark said, waving a blue folder at her. “What sounds better? ‘Kent and Lane’? Or ‘Lane and Kent’? ‘Kent and Lane’? ‘Lane and Kent’?”
“Neither,” responded Lois, annoyed. Truthfully, she liked Clark. As a colleague. A reporter. And maybe even as a person. She just didn’t want or need a partner.
“‘Lane and Kent’ definitely,” replied Jimmy from behind Clark.
“Why?” asked her ‘partner’, turning around.
“Tradition. Abbot and Costello. Martin and Lewis,” explained Jimmy. “The straight man always goes first.”
Lois pressed her lips together. Terrific. They’re making jokes already. “Either way, it will never work,” she informed Clark.
“Come on, it won’t be that bad,” said an ever-optimistic Clark.
“It will be that bad. It will be worse,” Lois replied.The sound of a dial-tone in her ear let her know that whoever she had been on hold with had hung up. Had they ever come to the phone? Had she heard them? Was she too distracted with the memory of becoming Kent’s partner? Either way, she hung up the phone. No point of remaining on the line.
Lois shifted some papers around on her desk, trying to find something, anything to connect Multiworld Communication’s Bill Church, Jr. to Intergang. Perry’s yelling matches with Mr. Stern were getting progressively worse. Their publisher would be selling the Daily Planet and the only bidder at the moment was Multiworld Communications.
No. Not memory. It couldn’t have been a memory, unless it had been a recollection of her dream, which truthfully, didn’t make sense. How come she could remember her dreams so vividly recently, when she never had before? It was like they were invading her conscious self. She shook this line of thought out of her mind and went back to work.
*** End of Part 4 *** Part 5 Comments
