Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Another Lois (14/25)

You can find the Another Dimension, Another Time, Another Lois[/i] TOC here.

Where we left off in Part 13 …

“Some friends of mine have kind of a working farm vacation resort thing. You know where city folk pay to come and pay to work, eat, and sleep on a real farm. It’s not really a BnB, although food’s included. You earn your keep. Doing chores, collecting eggs, milking cows, and the like.”

That forty-five minute commute wasn’t looking too shabby in light of her only option for staying close to town.

“I can call and see if they have room,” Maisie volunteered.

“Can you ask your friends if I can pay extra instead of doing chores?” Lois suggested. Chores would dig into her precious research time. She had come to Smallville to look for Clark, not to get her farm on.

“I don’t know if she’ll accept, but I’ll ask. I know funds are limited and the chores a plenty since the accident,” Maisie responded with a sigh.

[i]Accident?

A ding of a bell announced Lois’ burger was ready and her stomach growled in response.

Less than a minute later, Maisie set down the plate and a bottle of ketchup. “Who’s your friend? Maybe I can point you in the right direction?”

Lois took a bite of a thick steak fry and moaned with satisfaction as she pondered her choices.

This was it. Either Maisie would tell her what she wanted to know or protect her own, as Clark said people were apt to do. With Clark dead – Lois winced every time she thought those words, because her heart contracted in physical pain – what possible reason was there for Maisie or anyone to hide? Still, Lois didn’t want to say his name. What if she hit a brick wall? But – on the other hand – how was she going to find out any information if she kept Clark’s name to herself?

Not yet, Lois. We don’t know how or when I died. It’s best if you do some digging first before asking questions.

Lois decided that Clark was probably right about erring on the side of caution. It wasn’t her usual form, but this wasn’t her typical case. She wouldn’t want to spook anyone by dropping Clark’s full name too soon, no matter how tempting it was to know if Miss Know-It-All Smallville had heard of him. On the other hand, she hadn’t come half-way across the country to not ask the hard questions. “I’m looking for a friend of mine who went missing, someone named…” She pressed her lips together and then exhaled. “Kent,” Lois finally spit out.

Maisie gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, hon. I don’t know any Kent in Smallville. Let me go call The Farm and see if they’ve got room for you.” She knocked on the table, despite it being Formica instead of wood, and took a few steps back towards the kitchen before stopping. The waitress turned back to Lois and asked, “You don’t mean Martha and Jonathan Kent?” Then she waved that idea out of the air. “Nah, the Kents aren’t missing. I’m betting you mean someone with the first name Kent, right?” She shrugged and continued on to the diner’s kitchen.


Part 14

Lois felt like she had fallen through the ice of a frozen pond. The French fry in her mouth was calling to be swallowed, but instead she coughed it out into her hand. She started to shake as the icy shivers and goose bumps overtook her. She pressed her frozen hands to her face only to remove them from the sweating heat she found there.

Clark Kent was real. His hometown existed. His parents lived there. Lois was getting closer to Clark with every moment. Would she really find him?

You’re the best reporter Metropolis has ever seen.

There had to be some record of Clark somewhere. She couldn’t have created all these facts out of thin air.

She took a bite of her burger to warm herself up.

Maisie didn’t return until Lois had finished. “I talked to Martha. She says she has room. She doesn’t know of any local Kents beside her and her husband Jonathan. Are you sure it’s ‘Kent’? There’s Ken Small of the Smallville Smalls, but if I were you…” Maisie lowered her voice. “I wouldn’t seek him out. He’s a few ears short of a bushel, if you know what I mean.”

Lois nodded even though her brain went numb at Martha’s name. “Martha? Is that Martha Kent?”

“Yes. How do you know Martha?” Maisie inquired suspiciously. Then she rolled her eyes and answered her own question, “Oh, right, I mentioned the Kents earlier, silly me.”

“You said that there had been an accident,” Lois probed.

“Jonathan broke his spine a few years back and can’t walk. He’s stuck in a wheelchair. It’s been tough going for a while and they sold off a fair portion of the farm to the Irigs. Plus, Martha’s had to take over most of the duties at the farm herself. She hires hands when she can, but everyone else has their own lands. They hit upon this B&B idea. They are the sweetest couple. I promise you’ll love them.” The waitress grinned. “They make me believe in true love, even if I haven’t found it for myself.” Masie noticed a new customer walk into the diner and went to greet them.

Lois set both of her hands on the table to steady herself. Jonathan was in a wheelchair? Martha had taken over the farm work? They rent out their house to guests? They’ve sold part of the farm? She tried to take deep breaths but somehow she started hyperventilating instead. The room began to swim.

Lois, please. I need you to be calm.

At hearing how uneven Clark’s usually composed voice sounded, she got control over the tears filling her eyes and was able to breathe again. ~I’m fine.~ She wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to let Clark know it.

Maisie walked back up. “But if you don’t feel like chores, I can call Lawrence and see if they have room at their motel.” She gave Lois a grimace as if she didn’t recommend it.

Lawrence? Oh, right; that was the name of that town forty-five minutes away. “No, I’ll stay with Kents. Who knows, maybe they have a handsome son or farmhand for me to fall in love with,” Lois insinuated, knowing full well that Clark was their son.

“Nope, they never had any children and, sorry, all the hunky farmers in town are taken.” Maisie winked at Lois. “Martha’s hired Owen Poister as a farmhand…” She raised a lip in disapproval. “Sweet as can be, but I don’t think you’d find him much to look at.”

Lois’ jaw dropped as Maisie’s words echoed in her mind. They never had any children. How could that be? Clark had to exist. He had to. There were too many coincidences for this one fact to be wrong: Clark’s landlord in Metropolis, Clark’s parents, Maisie, the Irigs, and Smallville for heaven’s sake. No, Clark existed, and Lois wouldn’t rest until she got to the bottom of why nobody knew about it.

***

Lois got the directions to the Kent’s farm from Maisie. Even though Lois had been there in her dreams, it wasn’t like she had driven.

Clark was being his usual reticent self. She didn’t have a problem with that – him still being a voice inside her head and all, a voice which she seemed to follow blindly and argue with occasionally. It wasn’t like she had put two and two together and come up with sixty-four. She knew hearing Clark’s voice – and Superman’s that odd time or two – wasn’t normal… or sane.

And Lois wasn’t following Clark’s commands like some nutso with an AK-47. He hadn’t suggested that she go to Smallville. That had been her idea and her idea alone. She had still kissed Scardino despite Clark’s objections. So, in her opinion, in spite of everything, she was in full control of her mental capacities.

Clark wasn’t the type of man to beg or coerce or belittle or be nasty. Not in her dreams and not as a voice from beyond. Lois always liked that he had this quiet confidence about him, as if he was in on some big world secret – like he was the President’s son or something – that was his “get out of jail free” card. He would never cash it in. He wanted to make it on his own merits, but knowing it was there as his back-up plan made him daring and was part of his charm.

In her dream-life and in reality, Clark was the only one in the office – save Perry – who stood his ground when she went on one of her rampages. He was the only one willing to tell her ‘no’ to her face. She trusted him. He seemed only to fear for her safety. So when she had one of her cockamamie plans, instead of trying to talk her out of it until he was blue in the face, Clark just usually went along. Maybe he had Superman’s unlisted phone number.

Then Lois laughed, glancing down at the directions that Maisie wrote out on the napkin. Lois had forgotten for a moment that Superman was just a figment of her imagination in these dreams, a way for her subconscious to point her towards the bad that Lex had done in her real life. Her latest dream – point of fact – seemed to disprove this theory though, because in it Lex wasn’t the bad guy. He had been the victim. Lois shook off this thought.

Apocalypse Consulting. She had found the story on her spoil-herself-rotten night at the Lexor. She treated herself after enduring several weeks of sleepless nights at home after Ralph had forced himself on her. The Lexor was a treat, indeed: silk sheets, a big screen television, a sunken tub, a huge gift basket of snacks, and Security just a phone call away. Everything that a woman needed to pamper herself.

Lois had been in said sunken tub, relaxing in a bubble bath when Lex had called and offered her company. No, thank you, she had explained again.

Actually, she hadn’t treated herself. It had been Lex who had proposed that she spend the night at the Lexor after she explained what had happened with Ralph, and she had taken him up on the offer. She had insisted on paying for it herself but found the room comped “care of management” when she had arrived. Only when Lex had asked about the view had she noticed Congressmen Harrington in the building across the street. Luckily, she had her briefcase with accoutrements handy.

Perry had put her and Jimmy undercover the next few nights as a honeymooning couple. Lois doubted anyone actually believed them to be a real couple. Not the front desk clerk. Not the bellhop. Not the maid. Especially since Cat had accompanied them to demonstrate all the toys with which the honeymoon suite came equipped. The writer of Cat’s Corner had to see for herself Lois and Jimmy as a married couple.

Lois had decided not to tell Lex about the investigation, not wanting to look like she was using his gift with another man. She didn’t care that everyone else knew. Lois refused to share the room or story with any other reporter but Jimmy. Between Claude and Ralph, it was amazing she was willing to trust another reporter again.

I’m not like them.

“I know,” she whispered.

Her mind drifted back to last night’s dream. Lois could say this much for Clark, he was much better company than Jimmy, who didn’t like to play games and only wanted to watch mind-numbing TV.

Lois had still broken into Apocalypse Consulting alone, just as she had in real life, but this time the sprinklers went off, drenching the offices and herself. She hadn’t had time to find the video of the tsunami and warn Lex because of it or discover that her credit card had fallen out of her bag. She also ended up tied up on the docks with Congressman Harrington before she could nail his sorry butt to the front page for taking bribes. Luckily, Clark found them and Superman was there to save the day.

“Clark,” she murmured with a sigh.

Her mind now meandered back to the dreamy kiss they shared on the hotel bed because the maid had barged in on them. Somehow Clark had known... Maybe he hadn’t… Perhaps he had thrown the camera and Lois onto the bed as an excuse to kiss her and the maid just happened to walk in at that point and time.

You know I’d never have done that, Clark whispered.

“No, you aren’t the type of man to tell a woman you love her,” she snapped. “Especially with your lips.”

What are you mad at me for?

“Why do you think?”

Only silence answered her angry retort.

Lois sighed before finally replying to his question, “You didn’t kiss me because you wanted to, Clark. You kissed me as a distraction.”

I was just doing what you asked.

“Asked? I asked you to kiss me? Ha! I never did any such thing, and you know it.”

Suddenly a memory from her undercover stint at Metro Club flashed across her brain…

Clark tossed Lois over his shoulder as she struggled to get free. That no-good partner of hers.

“You’ll pay for this, Kent. I swear you will,” Lois informed him in no uncertain terms.

“It’s King, remember,” Clark hissed back at her with a spank to her bottom.

“Benedict Arnold is more like it,” she mumbled as the door of the club opened and one of Toni’s henchmen watched.

“Make sure you throw out that trash,” the henchman said.

“I had no choice,” Clark told Lois as he walked her away from the backdoor.

“You had a choice!” Duh! “You could have pretended that we were sharing some fleeting moment of passion, but you didn’t think of that, did you? No!”

“No, but I’ll remember it the next time we’re in a closet,” Clark retorted as he paused in front of the two dumpsters behind the club.

“Don’t even think about it,” she told him.

“It’s for your own good, believe me.”

“No! No! Nooooooooooooo!” she screamed, as he dumped her unceremoniously onto a pile of rotten vegetables.

“So that night at the Lexor was you ‘pretending that we were sharing a fleeting moment of passion’?”

It was only fleeting because you weren’t ready for it to be any longer.

“I knew I was right. You didn’t want to kiss me at all. I was just a distraction,” Lois said, her voice rougher than it should be when one argued with someone who wasn’t there.

Trust me, Lois, I wanted to.

“How? How can I trust you, Clark?” Lois threw up a hand in disgust. “You’re just a voice inside my head. Probably not even Clark’s real voice, just my wishful imagination supplying answers to all of my questions.”

Clark sighed. I wish there was a way I could refute that, but there isn’t.

“See, I’m just some wacky woman from Metropolis trying to reconnect with the parents of her ghost boyfriend. So tell me, Clark,” Lois said in her best reporter tone of voice. “If you were really there, describe the kiss from your point of view.”

I didn’t hear any complaints, he recalled.

“Exactly!” Lois shook her head.

What’s that supposed to mean?

What kind of lunkhead was this guy she had fallen in love with anyway? Did she have to spell it out for him? “If you didn’t hear any complaints, why did you stop kissing me?”

Oh.

~Oh?~

You do realize that these feelings you have for me now, aren’t how you feel about me in these dreams, right?

“I guess you’ll never know that for sure, now will you?” she shouted into the dead air. Sadly, Lois had to admit Clark was right… to a point. Not that she would ever say so verbally. She didn’t do that.

Even though Clark was the sweetest, kindest, most open, most honest, genuine, most all-around good guy she had ever met, he had already hurt the dream her – on several occasions. True, they were all unintentional, but that didn’t stop her heart from aching. It didn’t stop him from inadvertently nudging her towards other men, men who couldn’t hurt her with their unattainability.

The first time was when Clark told her, albeit teasingly, that he wasn’t attracted to her, while being exposed to pheromones, after she had thrown herself at him. Secondly, when he kissed her and then abandoned her during the heat wave. And thirdly, at the Lexor, when he kissed her… and stopped kissing her as soon as the maid had left, not a minute later to make sure the maid wasn’t coming back, but the instant the door had shut. He had just gotten up and picked up the camera like nothing had happened.

Lois herself had laid there and had to catch her breath for at least five seconds, because that was what kissing Clark did. It took her breath away. It was why she kept thinking about his kisses outside of her dreams. Why she was lost in the middle of nowhere trying to determine if he had truly lived, so she could start to work on how to figure out how to stop him from dying… in the past. So she could make this dream man a reality.

She hated that in these dreams she treated Clark as a buddy and Lex as an ideal. True, she had been attracted to the scumbag in real life as well. What Lois just didn’t understand was how she still could be fascinated with Lex in these dreams after everything she had learned about the man? Why would her subconscious still like Lex with Clark standing right next to her? Those aspects of the dreams felt more like nightmares.

How she could still go and have dinner with Lex after confessing – under the influence of Revenge – her true feelings for Clark? She knew that her feelings had been real. Even her dream self knew, though she tried to deny it to herself. Liking Clark scared her in the way liking the unattainable Lex Luthor or Superman didn’t. Clark was within her reach, and because of that, she was within his. Lois knew that if she let Clark touch her, he would have the ability to hurt her more than someone like Lex or Superman ever could. Her dream-self knew somehow that these two men would never open their hearts fully to her, that they would always be holding something back from her… it was what attracted her, the mystery behind the closed door. Clark had no mystery. What was it that dream Maisie had said about him? Oh, yeah. “What you see is what you get.”

Lois had once asked Clark which power he would rather have invisibility or flight… She had always thought invisibility was the answer. Now she wondered if her true answer should be x-ray vision. If she could see into the soul of men and see whether or not they were good or evil… Now that would be a superpower worth having.

Thinking of superpowers reminded her of Superman and his super-duper kiss from the tarmac after he caught Miranda’s Revenge plane. She didn’t have long to revel, because there was the sign pointing to The Farm’s driveway.

About time.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lois questioned, once more focusing on her driving.

Do you have to drool over Superman all the time?

“I didn’t ask you to eavesdrop on my thoughts,” she rebutted. “And it’s not ‘all the time’.”

Lois, I don’t have access to your memories, only to what you are currently actively thinking about. The way you were thinking about that kiss with the Man of Steel…

“I bet he is,” Lois moaned.

Really makes me feel that you lied to me about being numero uno on your list.

She bit her bottom lip as she pulled up next to a truck. “I bet you’d look hot in the blue suit too,” she murmured suggestively.

Lois! Clark squeaked. My folks!

Lois threw up her hands. ~Where? Where are your folks? Right. Not anywhere where they can hear me arguing with their dead son. If you’re going to insist on being persnickety, I’ll just stick with our inner dialogue,~ she grumbled. ~I hope we find out how you died soon, so I can get you out of my head and return my thought setting to private.~

Clark didn’t respond as she climbed out of her car and popped the trunk to retrieve her suitcase.

The farm and farmhouse looked pretty much the same as it had when she and Clark had visited in her dreams. Perhaps not as well maintained, but Lois hadn’t expected it to be without Clark. It felt weird walking up to a real house that she had dreamed about, but never before visited in real life. She got that eerie feeling she had when she had visited Clark’s apartment that first time.

Her gaze fell onto the new wheelchair accessible ramp built onto the front porch and suddenly Jonathan’s accident seemed more real than the gossip at the diner. She took a deep breath and exhaled. She needed to keep in control of her emotions. Okay, here went everything.

As Lois shut the trunk, she spied Martha coming out of the house. She was just as Lois dreamed her to be. Martha smiled. It was a friendly smile, but it was nowhere as reminiscent of the smile Lois had first seen on the woman’s face in her dreams. This woman might have her great big love in Jonathan, but Lois could see she wasn’t complete. Like her, Martha wasn’t whole without Clark.

“Hi, I’m Martha Kent,” Martha said, holding out her hand. “Maisie said she had sent us a tourist from town. I didn’t catch your name, though.”

Lois walked up the steps of the house, wanting nothing more than to envelop this woman in her arms in their shared loss.

“Honey, is everything all right?” Martha asked.

It was then that Lois realized that one of tears she had been pushing down deep inside her had escaped and rolled down her cheek. “Fine,” she croaked. “Dust.”

“Oh. Sorry. Dirt road. It gets like that in the summer,” Martha said with a shrug, leading the woman from Metropolis into her home.

Jonathan rolled his wheelchair into the living room. “Hello,” he said before holding out his hand. “Jonathan Kent. Welcome to The Farm.”

Lois reached to shake his hand, trying to keep her emotions in check. There were so many filling her she didn’t know where one started and the next one ended. Guilt. Heartache. Loneliness. Love. Happiness. And then back to guilt. She didn’t know if the emotions were entirely her own or if Clark’s agony at seeing his father in a wheelchair was affecting her – or if it was a mixture of both. “Lois Lane,” she finally sputtered.

Jonathan rolled back to let her pass. “Where are you from, Ms. Lane?”

“Lois, please,” she corrected him, sitting down on the couch so that they would be eye-level. “Metropolis.”

“You’re far from home,” Martha replied.

Lois nodded and gazed around the living room. She remembered distinctly seeing memories and keepsakes of Clark’s while at the Kent house in her dreams, but now there was not one photo of Clark. Had they erased him from their lives? She couldn’t picture Martha or Jonathan doing anything like that. They loved their son so much. Maybe they just didn’t keep his photos out where their guests could see them and ask uncomfortable questions.

“Can I ask what happened?” Lois inquired, doing just that.

Jonathan shrugged. “I fell off a ladder while painting the barn. Stupid, really…”

“Jonathan!” Martha admonished him. “Accidents happen. They don’t make one stupid.”

Lois touched Jonathan’s arm briefly. “I’m sorry.”

I should have been here.

“Maisie said you were looking for a man,” Martha inquired with a glance at her husband. “A man named Kent.”

Jonathan chuckled, taking hold of his wife’s hand. “I hope you’re not disappointed, but I’m already taken.”

“The Kent I’m looking for is closer to my age,” Lois answered with a wink at Jonathan. “Perhaps you have a handsome son you’re squirreling away in the basement…”

Martha stopped behind Jonathan’s chair, her hand griping her husband’s shoulder. “I wish,” she said, her voice rough. “I can’t have children.”

Jonathan covered her hand with his. “We can’t.”

“I’m sorry,” Lois instantly apologized for her tasteless joke. Maisie had told her as much; Lois had just hoped... “I’m sure you would have made a wonderful mother… parents to any child out there.”

“If we ever found a babe…” Martha stopped as both she and Jonathan’s faces drained of color. “Excuse me, I need to…” Her hand covered her mouth and ran out of the room, clearly overcome.

“It’s been almost thirty years, you’d think…” Jonathan’s voice trailed away. He cleared his throat. “Since we discovered we couldn’t have children,” he explained.

Lois dragged her eyes away from where Martha disappeared into the kitchen. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know…” She dropped back down onto the couch, her chest tightening as she once more held her tears at bay. She wanted so much to share her pain with these people. Share their pain. She hadn’t known for sure until she had seen them deny Clark with her own eyes. They weren’t lying. They had no children.

The reporter stared into Jonathan’s face searching for some clue, some hint of Clark there. Nothing. They looked nothing alike. They didn’t share the same eyes nor build, hair, or complexion. Clark looked nothing like his parents. Yet, Clark existed – she knew that, deep in her heart, that was true. These people were his parents in her dream. She wouldn’t let this setback destroy her goal.

Then the answer smacked her in the face and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen it before.

“You couldn’t adopt?” Lois said weakly, clutching at this last shred of hope that had just popped into her mind.

“No.” Jonathan shook his head and left it at that. That one word did more to crush her spirit than anything else.

Martha returned and handed Lois a form to fill out: liability release for doing the chores and a price list for the week’s stay. “Meals are included,” Clark’s mom informed her.

The price seemed too fair for people who needed to have strangers do their chores instead of being able to hire more hands. Lois wondered if that was because she was expected to do chores, because they didn’t know better – not that she would ever make that assumption again – or because they needed to keep the price low to attract people to the middle of nowhere in Kansas.

“I really do need some time in town to look…” Lois said before her voice faded. If she couldn’t find Clark here on The Farm, how could she find evidence of him in town? “As I mentioned to Maisie, I’m willing to do chores, just nothing anywhere near the animals. I’d pay more for the exemption,” she offered, hoping they would take her up on it, not only for her sake but theirs. Clark would never forgive her if she had it in her power to help his folks and didn’t.

“That’s not necessary,” Jonathan began to say before Martha interrupted him.

“Of course, it’s necessary. The low price is in exchange for doing chores. If she’s not willing to do chores and is willing to pay for the privilege not to…”

“She said she’d do chores, Martha,” Jonathan argued.

Lois was beginning to suspect that Martha hadn’t burdened her husband the extent of their debt. Maybe it was time to compromise. “How about I pay extra to not do as many chores?”

They negotiated a price that felt more generous to Lois, yet still fair to the Kents. Then they settled down to discuss chores.

“What farm experience do you have?” Jonathan asked.

“None,” Lois replied.

“Do you cook?” Martha inquired.

“Not if you like to eat,” Lois answered.

Martha and Jonathan exchanged a look.

“She can muck stalls,” Martha suggested with a shrug.

“What?!” Lois’ eyes widened and she moved to pick up her bag and bolt for that motel in Lawrence.

Lois, you threw Jimmy a dinosaur bone…

~Fine! But I don’t want to hear word one about my Superman fantasies ever again.~ Lois let go of the handle of her bag.

Deal.

She pressed her lips together, then forced herself to say, “That sounds reasonable.”

Martha seemed impressed by Lois’ quick turnaround. “I’ll show you the ropes tomorrow. Dinner is served at six o’clock sharp. You can clean up afterwards, while I feed the animals. Let me show to your room.”

Lois grabbed her suitcase and followed Martha upstairs. They stopped outside the same room where Lois had stayed previously – in her dreams – Clark’s old room. Lois’ heart began to beat faster in anticipation.

Martha unlocked the door and then handed her a set of keys. “The other key is for the front door. We ask that you restrict your comings and goings to before ten o’clock at night as a courtesy to the other guests. We have breakfast after the animals are fed and the eggs gathered, so around seven in the morning, but that means we meet for coffee at six.” She turned and paused at the stop of the stairs. “And we ask to be notified should you bring home any guests.”

Lois’ jaw dropped before she quickly reassured Martha’s departing backside, “That won’t be happening.”

“Good!” Martha replied from the stairs.

Lois exhaled, carrying her suitcase inside the room and shutting the door. ~You better be worth it,~ she murmured too softly to be considered outside of her thoughts.

She set her suitcase on the chest at the foot of the twin bed and took a glance around the room. She could see nothing of Clark’s. Then again, if his parents were using this as a guest room they probably would have removed anything personal. She sat down on the bed and buried her face in her hands, once again asking herself what she was doing in Kansas.

“What am I doing, Clark?” she whispered. When he didn’t answer, she said, “I’m sorry about your dad.”

Farm accidents aren’t uncommon. If I had been here…

Clark sounded so lost she wished she could wrap her arms around him. It was his biggest weakness and what she loved most about him, that he cared too much.

Lois clapped her hands together decisively. She couldn’t sit around here crying about things they couldn’t change, when there was research to be done. “Come on, Kent, we’ve got a couple hours left before dinnertime. Let’s run into town and find your birth certificate.” She stood up and picked up her briefcase. Clark didn’t respond.

***End of Part 14***

Part 15

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