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Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Clark TOC can be found Here

Where we left off in Part 164 …

“Ah…” Lex finally said with a nod. “I see what this is really about.”

“The ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order against the Daily Planet,” Lois spat out, stating the obvious.

“No, not exactly. It’s true, although I’m embarrassed to admit it, I bought the Planet not only because it was failing and you seemed to love it so, but out of some love-sick attempt to bring us together, bring my life in tune with yours. I wanted to help you by helping it. Then, ironically, it wasn’t necessary. You quit just as we were in final negotiations, and it was too late to back out without killing the paper instantly. I can see now that you didn’t leave because you hated Perry’s management style or your co-workers at the Daily Planet, nor because it was holding back your career. You quit as a form of protest,” Lex said, pointing at her as if trying to get her to deny it.

She shrugged. He was way off base, but she wasn’t going to let him know that. Additionally, she doubted he had ever been love-sick except that day Miranda had sprayed him with Revenge.

“You were hoping that the loss of their premier investigative reporter would cause them to back down and give you whatever it was that you wanted, so that you would come back to work for them. When that didn’t happen, you started interviewing with their competitors in hopes that you could show them you were serious about quitting and make them jealous. You wanted them on their hands and knees, begging you to return. Unfortunately, you hadn’t realized in what dire straits their economic situation was.” He smiled at her in a way that made her feel as if she was a little child. “When we got engaged, I promised you ownership of the Daily Planet after we were married. I can see that you still love the paper, and hate to see it die. Now, you’re worried that I’m going back on my word or, worse yet, that I’m going to dump you in the trash, too? Well, I can guarantee you, Lois, I am not.”

“I’m also mad that with no thought or care for my feelings, you went behind my back and sent my mother away,” Lois announced, flinging a hand in his direction. “Didn’t you know I would be worried?”

“No,” he sputtered, probably because of how quickly she shifted the topic back to her mother. “Frankly, Lois, by how little you speak of her, I didn’t think you’d notice.”

“Not notice? She’s my mother,” Lois hissed. “I love her, and now you’re accusing me of being a bad daughter. You don’t know, Lex. You don’t know what I’ve gone through with that woman…”

“I’m quite sure I know better than you think,” Lex said softly. “My father used to come home drunk and beat my mother in front of me.”

“I… I… What?” Lois stammered. Had Lex just told her something private and personal about his childhood?

“I know firsthand the toll an alcoholic parent can have on child,” he said. “I never told you how I was orphaned, did I?”


Part 165

Lois shook her head. Her knees went weak, causing her to sink onto the settee next to him. Never once had Lex opened up to her as he was now.

“Well, understandably, I don’t like to speak about it,” Lex said. His gazed drifted off for a few moments, before he cleared his throat and focused his attention back on her. “My father came home one day and hit my mother with the back of his hand. She crashed into the stove and crumpled to the ground.”

Lois raised a hand to her face to cover her gaping mouth.

“Her sin? She didn’t have his dinner ready and had been reading a magazine when he had come home,” Lex went on, standing up. “Never mind that he had arrived home hours early, because he had been fired from his job. That didn’t matter to him. For the first time in my life, I stood up to him and insisted that he take her to the hospital. This was back in the days before 9-1-1, not that that would have made a difference. My father had poured our telephone bill money down his throat, stating it would be better for all of us if my mother didn’t fritter away her time chit-chatting to her friends, when she should be tending the house.”

Lex paused and, for a moment, Lois wondered if he would go on.

“He rolled up my mother’s magazine and beat me with it, as if I were some disobedient pup.” Lex looked down at his hands. “Then he dragged me to my room and locked me inside. Eventually, I was able to crawl out of the window and get down the fire escape. By the time that I was able to convince a cop to come help my mother, the fire department was already there. My father hadn’t taken the pot off the stove before he stormed out, and it had caught fire. To this day, I have no idea if my mother died from the fire or from what my father did to her. I vowed to kill him, but he had already died by wrapping our car around a telephone pole.”

“Oh, Lex,” Lois gasped, rising to her feet. She moved the hand that was already covering her mouth in shock to his shoulder, pulling him into her arms.

“So, I’m sorry that I didn’t understand your hint about the wine at lunch,” he murmured. “You had never told me about your mother’s drinking problem. I knew I needed to make it up to you as best I could… and…I wanted you to know how much I care.”

“Thank you,” she said, pulling him tighter in her embrace. Was it wrong to thank a monster for not killing her mother? “Thank you.”

“I’m not trying to take over your life, Lois. I’m trying to protect you, because you mean so very much to me. Your life hasn’t been an easy one, I’m sure, and I want to make sure that you never have to worry about anything ever again. I’ll take care of you. Just trust me,” Lex whispered. “I want to care for you. Please, let me pamper you, darling. I love you.” He brushed her lips with a gentle kiss and, this time, she allowed him to linger there. “Don’t worry about the Daily Planet, darling. After we’re married, I’ll give you the money to rebuild it, if that’s really what you want.”

For the briefest of moments, Lois wondered what her life would be like, if Lex wasn’t a horrible megalomaniac bent on ruining everyone and everything she held dear to her, including her own life. The thought of someone taking care of her for a change so that she never had to worry about anything else ever again sounded incredibly tempting. She could finally be free from this burden she had been carrying around on her shoulders since she was a child. She would no longer have to be the strong one, be in charge, or defender of the weak. That persona was so very exhausting.

This blissful image shattered when she realized it was the same childish fantasy that she had created when Superman had come upon the scene. It wasn’t real. It was based on someone taking her away from her life and worries, and solving all her problems, instead of joining with her to battle them. While a vacation from her demons might be nice on occasion, she knew that she’d never be able to leave them completely behind. She would find such a life miserable.

Anyway, she knew for a fact that Lex was lying. About what, she wasn’t sure, but something. He had tried to kill Menken in cold blood and he had shot Lois. True, he said he was trying to protect her, but was that really the truth? Worse, Lex had filmed both Lois and Lucy in the privacy of their apartment without their consent. He had hired someone to kill Clark. By giving her that horrible watch and by coating her engagement ring with Kryptonite, Lex could have just as easily killed her as well as Superman. He had destroyed the Daily Planet; for what reason, Lois couldn’t fathom. It could have been because of the paper’s steadfast support of Superman. On the other hand, Lois wouldn’t reject the idea of Lex testing her loyalty to him out of hand. Lex had given Lois no proof whatsoever that he wasn’t holding her mother hostage, let alone that Ellen Lane was still alive. Lois only had Lex’s word, which in her opinion, wasn’t worth crap. He had proved without a reasonable doubt that he never loved her. These atrocities merely brushed the surface of his other crimes. These were only the lies she knew about. She would never be able to trust him, and she couldn’t wait for the day that Inspector Henderson clasped handcuffs on the man and lead him away, so that she’d finally be able to tell him what her true opinion of him was.

Never, had Lois felt so grateful that Clark had forgiven her than when she stood in Lex’s embrace.

***

Herb looked blankly at Clark over his steaming cup of tea. “Pardon?”

“It’s not that I don’t appreciate you stopping by, Herb, but you really don’t need to keep coming back to visit every three months to check up on me. I’ve made my decision,” Clark informed him. “I’m not leaving.”

“But… what if you… you change your mind? While you stay here, your universe continues on without you,” Herb sputtered.

“I’m sorry about that. Really, I am, but this dimension is my home now. I promised Lois that I wouldn’t leave Earth, or namely this universe, until after her death,” Clark said, relaxing back in his chair. This conversation felt much different from the one they had back in his old Clinton Street apartment when he learned the fate of the Lois from his home dimension. “No matter what difficulties might arise here, in our relationship, or with Superman, I will not abandon her or this Metropolis. This is my home now.”

“Are you sure about that, Clark?” Herb asked.

“Yes,” Clark responded. This time with no doubts. He had promised Lois he wouldn’t disappear on her and with this one promise he would prove his trustworthiness.

“Even knowing what you do about the curse?” the time traveler asked.

“Yes. Even if Lois and I can never have a fully…” Clark cleared his throat. “— intimate relationship, I will not return to my dimension until after she has died.”

Herb nodded.

“Also, it would ease my mind knowing that the next time I see you, it will be because you’ve found a cure. Again, it’s nothing personal, Herb. I like you. You’ve been a good friend, bringing me here to meet Lois, despite everything, but…” Clark swallowed. “I’d become a nervous wreck if you showed up every three months to remind me once again of what Lois and I can’t have.”

Herb looked away, and Clark felt bad. He hadn’t wanted Herb to feel guilty. Herb hadn’t expressed his ‘holiday’ idea well, true, but the man hadn’t known at the time that there would a major hiccup to Clark’s ‘happily ever after’ in this dimension, either.

Clark raised his finger to emphasize what he was about to state. “I still want you to show up and stop me, if… should consummating our relationship cause the predicted outcome. I still have hope that you’ll find a cure, and Lois and I will be able to live our lives fully, someday, as man and wife.”

“About that,” Herb said, setting down his cup again. “I traveled to Brazil and met with this Padre Carlos you mentioned.”

“And?” Clark leaned forward. “Do you agree with me that he’s the reincarnated embodiment of this dimension’s Clark?”

“I must say that there is a striking resemblance. Although, I had to travel forward in time to judge him properly, as he is currently still recovering in hospital from his recent attack,” Herb explained.

“Then he recovers fully?” Clark said, relief flooding him.

“He shall. Although, the facial scarring will make the two of you easier to tell apart,” Herb said. “Of course, when his beard fully grows back in, his scars will be less noticeable.” He laced his fingers together in thought. “Even if he is this universe’s former Clark, there are no guarantees that you and Miss Lane’s souls wouldn’t still carry the curse, should you...” He stopped talking and cleared his throat, his cheeks slightly rosy.

“But there’s a chance?” Clark asked, setting down his cup.

Herb nodded. “I’d say that it’s no longer impossible…”

Clark jumped to his feet and pumped his fists in the air. “Yes!”

“But…” Herb said, raising both his voice and his hands. “I’d say it’s fairly close to improbable.”

“I’ll take a one percent chance over no chance any day,” Clark said, exhaling with three month’s worth of pent up anxiety. He knew he should sit back down, but for some reason he couldn’t relax enough to do so. “Any news on the Tempus investigation? Checking his ancestors to find our common link?”

“Still inconclusive, I’m afraid,” Herb said with a shake of his head.

“And the cure?” Clark asked with hope. “What have you learned?”

“I’ve been told that there isn’t one, but the sorcerer who cursed you is unreliable,” Herb said.

“There’s hope, though?”

Herb nodded. “There’s always hope.”

This grounded Clark’s pacing to a stop. “There wasn’t three months ago,” he reminded Herb, more sharply than he meant to.

“Things seemed to have changed around here,” Herb said vaguely, picking up his cup of tea.

Clark felt Herb must have been trying to the change the topic of his crushing news at the beginning of February. “For a while there, I thought that Lois had dumped me to marry Lex Luthor.”

Herb’s brow furrowed. “She didn’t?”

Clark shook his head, and filled Herb in on everything which had happened during the last three months: the development of his and Lois’s relationship, his repeated tries to tell her his secret, losing his memory during Nightfall, the controversy surrounding Nightfall’s projection data, and Lois learning Clark’s secret, but not telling him she knew. Then he launched into Lois's subsequent investigation of Luthor and the ruse break-up that Clark had thought was real. He didn't mention how those scars still hadn't healed. His failed proposal, and Luthor’s successful one. Finally, their reunion after she exposed him to her Kryptonite coated engagement ring.

“Interesting,” Herb said, tapping his fingers together in thought. Yet, a frown marred his usually upbeat disposition. “And you say that Nightfall would never have impacted with Earth?”

“Professor Daitch’s original data gave a thirty-five percent chance of impact, to which LexLab’s astronomers concurred. Since the data error or change in data has all come to light… ah, the wonders of not having imminent doom on your head… other astronomers have reconfigured the numbers and determined that Nightfall Major had less than a fifteen percent chance of hitting Earth,” Clark explained. “Whoever created what’s being called the Nightfall Virus and sent it from that English boy’s email account to Professor Daitch, made EPRAD’s computers and thus its scientists believe that it had a less than ten percent chance of missing us. EPRAD administrators claim that there wasn’t enough time between learning this and needing to send Superman to stop it, to confirm that these new numbers were, in fact, the correct ones.”

Herb stared at him. “You mean Nightfall wasn’t a danger to Earth? It would’ve missed? There was no reason for Superman to…” He raised his hand in universal ‘fly’ sign.

Clark nodded.

Herb patted his arm. “Do me a favor. Should you ever meet the Clark from my universe again, don’t tell him that.”

“They never discovered the computer virus in your universe?” Clark asked.

Herb shook his head. “Innocence is bliss, they say.”

Clark had to concur. Before he had learned about the curse on his soul, he had never been so happy. “If only Lois could find her copy of the virus, we might find out who developed it. Laderman proved it was a definite computer virus while he stayed at her apartment while on the run, but Lois claims that she left the disk with the virus on it in her desk drawer. I have an appointment next week with Daitch, his first interview since leaving the hospital, and hopefully he’ll grant me… or, more accurately, Jimbo access to his EPRAD email files and we’ll be able to see from where the virus was actually sent.”

“Well, knowing what a huge thorn he was to my universe’s Superman those first few years, I would guess Lex Luthor as the culprit, but…” Herb shrugged. “Well, that’s putting the cart before the horse though. You say that Miss Lane is engaged to marry him, but she’s really engaged to you?”

Clark swallowed, glancing down at his hands. “No, not exactly. She’s undercover as Luthor’s fiancée, but after we somehow find enough proof to put him behind bars… well, we still have some things to discuss… clear up… but, for now, we’re doing the best we can with stolen moments once or twice a week.” He cleared his throat, picking up his mug. “Would you like another cup?”

“That might be another thing to refrain from mentioning to my universe’s Lois and Clark,” Herb suggested.

Clark set his tea things in the sink with a thud and turned back to Herb. “Why?”

“Touchy subject,” Herb murmured under his breath.

The younger man crossed his arms and leaned casually against his kitchen counter, waiting for the time traveler to explain.

Moments passed, and Clark watched as Herb became more agitated under his gaze.

“The Lois of my universe, prior to ever developing a romantic attachment to our Clark, was seriously engaged to Lex Luthor,” Herb finally admitted, pulling his pocket watch out of his pocket. “My, look at the time.” He rose to his feet.

“Seriously engaged?” Clark’s eyes narrowed. “Did you know this when you visited me in February?”

“Completely different circumstances, Clark,” Herb said, his voice cracking as he waved the incident out of the air. “As I said, the Lois and Clark from my universe did not start dating until almost a year after she…” His voice faded to silence.

“She what?”

“Walked down the aisle to Lex Luthor,” Herb admitted, backing towards Clark’s front door.

“Lois was married to Lex Luthor?” Clark took a step closer and pointed out his windows at nothing in particular. “That Lois, the very same one who kissed me and introduced me to you?”

“No! Heavens, no, Clark. No. No. No,” Herb repeated. “They were never officially married.” He made a sharp cutting gesture with his hand.

Clark raised an eyebrow.

“Merely almost married. She changed her mind, at the last minute, and said ‘no’.”

“At the last minute?” Clark repeated.

“It’s very romantic, really,” Herb hastened to reassure him. “The historical record says that Lois Lane rejected Luthor because she couldn’t stop thinking of Clark Kent.”

“Me?”

“Her Clark, of course.”

Clark pinched his lips together. “Of course.”

“She didn’t meet you until much later. Years later, in fact.”

Clark crossed his arms again. “Uh-huh.”

Herb held out his hand. “Take care, Clark.”

Clark shook his hand. “You, too, Herb. I hope to see again soon.”

“But you just said…?” Herb said, pointing at the dining table. “Oh. OH! Oh! Right, naturally, you mean, when I find a cure…”

Clark nodded, and gave him focused stare. “And not before.”

“Unless… yes, I did try to look into your…” Herb coughed. “— problem in your future, and see what… well, but you hadn’t yet… so, it was moot. I’ll try again. I’ve found that the future, once you change the past infinitesimally such as this very conversation, tends to change. So, on my next journey… I’ll search for Miss Lane’s death.” He tossed his hands into the air. “Who knows what I’ll find? Perhaps it won’t occur for many, many, many years, decades even.”

“Good bye, Herb,” Clark said, following him to the door.

“Good bye, Clark,” Herb said, tipping his hat as he stepped through the open doorway. “And good luck.”

Clark closed the door and rested his head against the coolness of the wood. It wasn’t impossible. He hated the double negative of that thought, but he couldn’t yet risk her life to change it to the more grammatically correct ‘it was possible’. He would have to come up with another way.

Not that it was something he would have to worry about that day, or the next, or even on the day Lex Luthor was dragged behind bars, but soon Clark would need to explain things to Lois. Before then, he would have to figure out exactly what and how he would tell her why they couldn’t yet move forward that part of their relationship. He didn’t want another Centennial Park fiasco on his score sheet. He refused to allow himself to be unprepared a second time for the next surprise his life dealt him.

“Curses,” Clark grumbled, running his hand through his hair as he walked down into his living room and tried to keep his mind off the other bomb Herb had set off in his mind.

Clark could have lived without knowing that there was a part of Lois’s DNA, which could actually want Luthor for a husband. He shivered with disgust that thought brought him and rightfully shoved it back into the recesses of his mind, only to be reminded of the tender embrace Lois had given Luthor earlier that evening, when he had told her the story of how his parents had died.

Clark hated watching the two of them together, but he also refused to trust Luthor a millimeter, let alone a centimeter… an inch. He would have much preferred that the two of them had gone out in public to the opera, instead of spend a cozy evening at Lois’s apartment eating take-out Chinese food, laughing and talking about their rotten childhoods as if they were a normal couple.

True, Clark could have left when he discovered how their plans had changed, trusting Lois to protect herself, but it was such good torturous fodder for his nightmares that Clark couldn’t pull himself away. He would never forgive himself, if he left due to the churning of his stomach only to have that be the night Luthor drugged Lois and did something to her in the privacy of her own apartment.

She’s undercover, he reminded himself. Lois doesn’t love him. She’s lying to him.

It was once again his and Lois’s relationship that was hidden in the closet and taboo. Her public one was with that horrible man with whom she was allowed to do all the things Clark wished they could do together. He knew it was only temporary. Clark knew every day that the wedding approached spurred his drive all the more to find the evidence against Luthor.

*****************
Pre-Wedding Jitters
*****************

Lois slammed the receiver down, and placed another question mark on the list of the top medical facilities that dealt with alcoholism and recovery.

She had received another ‘I’m sorry but we cannot reveal the names of our patients’ response. She wanted to pick up her phone and throw it against the wall. Instead, she took a cleansing breath and picked up the receiver again.

“Hello. The Seaborne Clinic. How may I help you?” the voice on the other end of the phone said.

“Hello, my name is Lois Lane. Could you connect me to my mother’s room?” Lois asked. “Sorry, Ellen Lane’s room, please.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, but it is against Seaborne Clinic’s policies to let our patients have contact with the outside world for the first six weeks of their stay here, and I don’t see your mother’s name on the list of patients who are allowed such contact.”

“Six weeks? I thought it was twenty-one days.”

“Ms. Lane, the Seaborne Clinic wants to make sure that no outside influences tempt our guests back into their old bad habits. Our recidivism rates are very low,” the woman explained.

“Well, could you tell me if she’s there?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s against Seaborne Clinic’s policy to reveal the names of our patients,” the woman said.

“Please,” Lois begged, hating the tone she was using, but also knowing that desperation seemed to work better with these people than anger in getting her point across. “Could you just check your patient records and tell me if she isn’t there? She disappeared almost two weeks ago and I’m terribly frightened. I’m supposed to get married in just over a month, and I don’t know if someone has kidnapped her due to my fiancé’s high profile, or if she’s just checked herself into rehab. Someone said that your facility was on the list of clinics she was considering. I don’t know if she’ll even make it to my wedding. She never left word with me; she just disappeared. The police won’t help me, and I’m on my last nerve. Please, help me.”

There was a pause, before the woman said softly, “What is your mother’s name again?”

“Ellen Lane. Although, she may have checked in under her maiden name of ‘Ellen Arnold’.”

“Can you hold, please?”

“Yes,” Lois said. She glanced out of the window of her LNN office, hoping her desperation might cause Clark to do a flyby to lift her spirits. No such luck.

“Thank you for holding,” the woman said, returning to the line a few minutes later. “I’m sorry, but nobody with either of those names has checked into our clinic within the last month.”

“Thanks for checking,” Lois said, her shoulders slumping as she hung up on the woman’s ‘good luck’. She crossed Seaborne Clinic off her list. Before she could lift up the receiver and call the next name on her list, her phone rang. “Lois Lane.”

“Hello, Ms. Lane. It’s Mrs. Cox. Mr. Luthor asked me to remind you of your two o’clock appointment in his office,” his secretary said, not even trying to hide the disdain in her voice.

“Oh, right. Thank you, Mrs. Cox,” Lois said, absently glancing down at her watch and noticing the time was already 11:30. She had been working on this list for over two hours and still hadn’t gotten anywhere. “Mrs. Cox! Do you happen to know the name of the clinic where my mother went?” She cringed at how desperate she really had become, asking that woman for assistance.

There was a silence over the line and Lois wondered if Mrs. Cox had hung up after relaying Lex’s message.

“I’m sorry,” Mrs. Cox finally said. “What are you talking about?”

“My mother has disappeared, and Lex said that he recommended some… uh… spas that she might like, and I thought that maybe… never mind,” Lois said. It was pointless talking to that woman, let alone requesting her advice.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Lane, but Lex didn’t contact me regarding the matter,” Mrs. Cox said, but something had changed in her tone. Lois wasn’t sure if it was pity or sadness; although, it might have been repressed anger as well. “I’m sure he would tell you if you asked.”

Lois had repeatedly asked him. All she wanted was proof that her mother was alive and safe. Was that too much to ask? “Tell Lex that I haven’t forgotten about our appointment.”

“I’m sure your mother is fine, Ms. Lane,” Mrs. Cox said with a tone that was definitely sympathetic before hanging up.

Terrific. Pity from her enemies. So much for the late great Mad Dog Lane.

***

Lois glanced at her watch. She had just enough time to make one more phone call before she needed to leave for her meeting with Lex. She had no idea why the man had summoned her to his office but, knowing Lex, it probably had to do with another inane wedding detail, about which she couldn’t care less. Why did he feel the need to put on such a show, other than to demonstrate how fabulously wealthy he was? It wasn’t as if either of them had close friends or family they wanted to attend the wedding. Oh, sure, one could argue Lex was trying to make their wedding day special. Of course, nothing would accomplish that faster than a change in groom.

She shook off that thought.

No. If nothing else, this wedding insanity had proved Lois’s point that weddings were much ado about nothing. Weddings were just a waste of money, even when one had boatloads of it. Especially then. Marriages these days never lasted, anyway, and if they did, they weren’t happy.

Take the Whites, for example. Perry had worked twelve-hour days, had to be dragged out of the office kicking and screaming to go away on vacation, and had even been unfaithful to his wife in the last few months. Granted, he had only been untrue to Alice because he was drugged on Miranda’s Revenge perfume, and he had only cheated with his heart not his body, but in some ways that was even worse. Now, when his psychotic boss suddenly knocked Perry out of work, he refused to take early retirement and move down to Florida to while away his hours with Alice taking long romantic walks on the beach.

Lois didn’t blame him. That sounded tedious and boring, and there was still much to be done on the investigation against Lex. Anyway, Perry was too young to retire. She had scoffed at the very idea when Clark mentioned Perry’s marital woes during one of their last discussions. Lois was a bit hurt that Perry hadn’t mentioned them to her when they had spoken at the press conference, but with Lex’s very prying ears nearby, she couldn’t blame Perry for not wanting to share his heartache with his murderous former employer.

Apparently, after Lex announced that he wouldn’t be rebuilding the Daily Planet, Alice had told Perry that their emergency savings would last them six months. She gave Perry until Lois and Lex’s wedding to prove something against Lex and/or find a new owner for the Daily Planet, or Alice would put their house on the market to help cut their expenses. He had just over a month to finish this investigation, then Alice insisted that he find another job, such as the one Lex had offered him at LNN or at another news organization, or he accept Lex’s early retirement offer, or he volunteer to stay-at-home, cooking, cleaning, and writing his memoirs, while she went out to find work. Needless to say, Perry had bristled at the idea of taking money from the very man they all suspected with blowing up their beloved Daily Planet in the first place. If only they could prove it!

Then, again, Clark was a different type of man than Lois had dated before, and not just because he flew. She knew that if her behavior over the previous couple of months hadn’t scared him into another woman’s arms, probably nothing she did would. Still, the thought of ever becoming a man’s chattel made her stomach churn, even if that man was Superman. Anyway, Clark had almost left her and Metropolis in a lurch when he had misunderstood her actions regarding Lex and her investigation.

Clearly, from all that Clark had said, he hadn’t received her note, explaining everything. Lois wondered, again, what had happened to it. She knew that she should have slipped it under his door and not left it lying between old newspapers on his front mat. Clark probably threw it out with the recycling when he returned from Brazil.

Maybe it was for the best that it had disappeared. Things were going well with Clark, and, at least, there would be no physical evidence of her ever having begged a man for forgiveness. She had no idea whatever made her put such words in print. True, she had treated Clark poorly by not telling him what she was doing before then and thus, playing mind games on him as his former fiancée had, but he had done the same thing to Lois by not informing her of his secret and, therefore, treating her as a fool. Now, they were even.

No, Lois certainly wasn’t considering Clark as husband material. He still needed to prove that he would never abandon her. Not that she was considering Clark or any other man as a husband or even a lifetime commitment of any sort, for that matter, or…

Lois rolled her eyes at herself and picked up the phone. This was a fruitless tangent she had gotten herself on. She didn’t want to get married. End of discussion.

No matter how sweet and considerate Clark had been acting lately, or how he was bending over backwards to fulfill her every desire regarding the safety of her family, it didn’t mean that Lois was on the lookout for a husband. It didn’t matter how much his lips made her knees weak when he nibbled at her throat, or the memory of how he could caress her body with his gentle touch made her flushed with longing to the core of her being. Just because his soft skin was begging for her to tear his clothes off of him in a fit of unbridled passion, it didn’t mean she would breathlessly submit to his will over and over in a tangle of hot sweaty sheets every single night for the rest of her life.

“Aaaaarrrrrrggggghhh!” she screamed in loud frustration at her rebellious thoughts and poked her finger back down at the list of clinics.

End of discussion.

Someone knocked on her door, and then Erica stuck her face into Lois’s office. Lois held up her phone as if she was already occupied, and Erica left with a soft, “Catch you later, then, Ms. Lane.”

After Lois’s engagement to Lex had been announced, suddenly Erica was bending over backwards to be polite to her… face. Working at LNN was one of the loneliest jobs Lois had ever taken.

With a sigh, Lois glanced at her computer screen and saw that her few minutes of time to make the call had been eaten up with daydreaming about Clark. She set down the receiver and gathered her things together. She would continue making these calls once she returned from Lex’s office. She could use a break from the heartache this search for her mother gave her. Perhaps she would be able to coax more information out of Lex about his conversation with her mother during their meeting or spend a few minutes alone waiting for him in his office to look around again.

And maybe polar bears would learn how to fly.

***End of Part 165***

Part 166

According to Wikipedia , 9-1-1 system in the United States came online nationwide in 1968.

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