Aurora Borealis – The Complete Story 10/11
By Ken Janney
This story is rated PG-13.
Comments are always welcomed at ken.janney@kjanney.com
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
This story originated with a single scene that I had written as a suggested plot device for another author. It was rejected in favor of another one. I still liked the idea so I wrote a story around it. This is only loosely related to my Matchmaker series.
I wish to thank Artemis and Morgana for the beta on this.
< > denotes thoughts
* * denotes emphasis
Previously
After they were home Clark with anger and disgust evident in his voice spat out, “Tempus! It must be because he kept you in that active time portal for all of that time. The exposure to those energies is what has done this to you.”
Lois put her hand on his arm and in her weakened, frail voice said, “We’ll find a solution. We always do.”
Clark looked at her and with sadness in his voice asked, “How can we fix this when we can’t even be sure how it happened?”
Lois tried to encourage him, “Somebody once said, ‘Love will find a way.’ And we have enough love for a hundred couples. We’ll find a way. I believe in us.”
For the next four months all Clark could do was watch the love of his life deteriorate. By this time Lois was wheelchair bound. The children, who were all in college at this time, spent as much time as they could with their mother because they couldn’t be sure just how much time they would have.
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Finally one day a few weeks later, Clark came to Lois and kneeling in front of her wheelchair said, “I think I have a possible solution. It’s risky, but, what choice do we have?”
“Clark, if there’s a chance, I think we need to take it. What is it?”
In a less than hopeful tone he said, “Come with me.”
And now
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Chapter 10
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He picked her up and carried her downstairs to the basement. After placing her in a chair he flipped on the lights.
Lois was amazed to see Veeda Doodsen’s machine all set up. She goggled at it and vehemently shouted, it didn't come out quite as strongly as she had wished, but that was only because of her body's frailty, “No! No way. I’m not going to be the cause of that happening to you again. I don’t care what happens to me. The world needs you. It doesn’t need me.”
“Lois, I spent ninety years without you by my side. I don’t want to spend one more minute without you, besides; you’ve forgotten what I was told. I should be able to use it without it affecting me.” He continued, with tears in his eyes, “Even if it did shorten my life, it is a sacrifice I would gladly make if it means I will have you with me longer.”
He could see her shaking her head in the negative.
Deciding to continue to press his point he said, “You might not think that the world needs you, but I surely do. Look at it this way, the world needs me and I need you, QED the world needs Lois Lane. Please, let me do this.”
With a feeble shake of her head but with a voice still filled with resolution she said, “I can’t ask you to do that.”
In a serious tone he said, “You don’t need to ask. I’m telling you it’s what I want to do.”
That was when Penny came down the steps.
Lois asked, “Penny, what are you doing here?”
“Dad called and said he needed some help.”
Lois looked at Clark with an accusatory expression and said, “You’ve had this planned, haven’t you. You weren’t really asking me if I wanted to do this, you were telling me that you were going to do it. Well, I won’t have it. You can’t force me to do this against my will.”
Clark knelt in front of her and with tears in his eyes said, “Lois, please let me do this. You don’t know how much it tears me up inside to see you like this. I … I can’t bear to watch you failing right in front of my eyes especially when there is something I can do to stop it and maybe make you better. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you - again.”
Penny knew that she was Lois’ favorite daughter and even though, normally she wouldn’t have, in this instance was willing to use that knowledge to her advantage. She knelt in front of her mother and with tears in her eyes also said, “Mom, we all talked it over and Dad’s right. We all volunteered to give you some of our life force, but, Dad said he was the one that could most afford it. As he put it, his batteries actually could stand to be drained a little.”
Wiping a tear from her cheek, Penny continued, “Please, Mom, do this for all of us. We don’t want to lose you.”
Lois put her hand on Penny’s wet cheek and was moved. With tears in her own eyes, she relented. She said, “Okay, if you all feel this strongly about it, how can I say no?”
Penny burst out in a new flood of tears, this time tears of joy as she said in a hushed tone, “Thanks Mom, from all of us.” Once she had settled down she turned to Clark and said, “Okay Pop, let’s do this.”
Clark picked up Lois and placed her into the chamber to receive the life force. After closing the chamber he moved over and sealed himself into the donor chamber. He said to Penny, “Okay, kiddo. You know what to do.”
Penny threw the necessary switches and moved the lever to start the process.
It had no sooner started than there was a problem. Energy bolts like lightning started arching from point to point on the equipment creating a light show of magnificent proportions.
Seeing this Clark cried out, “Lois!” He was remembering when he had given up his life force to Conner Schenk and the same apparent malfunction had occurred and what had happened to him. He cried out, “Penny! Penny! Shut it down! Please Penny, shut it down. Hurry!”
Penny moved to comply but even as she did the display reached a crescendo and when Penny hit the final switch it finally started to fade.
Penny zipped over to Clark and opened his cylinder. Clark deliberately avoided looking at the other cylinder because he was afraid that he would see Lois as an infant lying on the bottom of her cylinder. He said, to Penny, “I can’t look. How’s your Mom?”
Penny looked at Lois’ cylinder and saw that it had filled with smoke but that it was slowly clearing. She said, “Pop, her cylinder is filled with smoke. Was that expected?”
“Yeah, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.”
“The smoke is slowly clearing. I think I still see her standing there.”
“Are you sure??? She hasn’t turned into an infant?”
“No, there she is. I can see her more clearly now.”
Clark looked and shouted, “Lois!”
Her hands were up covering her face; presumably she had put them up to protect her eyes from the light discharges. Clark was worried because she kept them there even though the light show was over.
Clark opened her chamber and she fell out into his arms and she was limp as a wet dishrag. The first thing he noticed was that her hair had returned to its rich brown color. Her hands finally fell away from her face. Clark was elated when he saw her face for the first time. It was unwrinkled and as smooth as a baby’s skin and she was young again.
Penny stuck close as he carried an unconscious Lois upstairs and placed her in their bed. When he laid his burden down Penny finally was able to ask, “How are you, Pop? Any affect from the procedure?”
“I don’t think so, but it will take a trip to STAR Labs to be sure.” He had been unable to take his eyes off of Lois the entire time. He continued, “Look at her. She looks the same as the day we first met. I wonder how she’ll feel when she wakes up.”
“Yeah, she looks younger than she did in the pictures you took of her and CJ when he was born. Pop, I’m going to go back downstairs and make sure the device is all shut down. I’ll be right back.”
He stopped her before she could exit and said, “Thanks Penny. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Turning to her father and throwing her arms around him giving him a super hug she said, “Pop, you would have done the same thing for me. That’s just what love is. We all know how much you love Mom. We all love her too, but with us it’s different. She’s our mother but, to you, she’s your soul mate. That’s an even closer bond. We understand. We all wanted this. As soon as I finish up downstairs, I need to head on home. Rich will be expecting me to be there. I think he's going to be popping the question soon, which means I'll be bringing him in one the family secret."
With some concern in his voice Clark asked, "You're sure he's the one? It's a big step, bringing him in on the secret."
She moved over and gave her dad another hug and said, "Don't worry Pop, I've been careful. I've known from the time we first met that he was the one, the same way you knew that Mom was the one," before she turned away and headed downstairs.
Clark moved over and lay down next to his wife. Neither one noticed when Penny left because they were both asleep. Between giving up some of his life force and the emotional strain Clark was also exhausted.
Clark woke up to the feel of Lois’ hand on his chest. He opened his eyes to see her coffee colored orbs looking into his. He asked, “How do you feel?”
She seemed to take a self-inventory before she responded, “Better than I’ve felt in years. Thank you. I just hope you haven’t given up too much.”
“It would be impossible to give up too much for you. I’d give my life for you.”
“I hope that you know that the reverse is true.”
As he moved in for a kiss he said, “I do.”
With a wicked little grin she said, “That sounds to me like you are repeating your vows. Only the kiss came second.” She reached down and taking his hand in hers guided it to her breast. She released a contented sigh and said, “It’s been a couple of years. I think we are due. No, we are overdue. Let’s go take a long, leisurely shower and see where that leads.”
“That sounds wonderful to me.” He stood and assisted her to her feet. She kicked off her shoes and padded barefoot into the bathroom with Clark close behind.
They helped each other disrobe and then they climbed into the shower together. After washing each other they took turns each drying the other and still nude headed back into the bedroom. After turning down the covers they cuddled up together and started kissing.
Their kisses deepened and their hands roamed all over each other stroking, squeezing and tweaking as was appropriate. This started a period of marital intimacy. Suddenly Clark was startled into immobility. Even though his body was telling him to move, he couldn’t. He couldn’t believe what was happening. They had slowly started to float
First just a couple of inches and eventually they were near the ceiling. Lois opened her eyes and said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you had floated us up here. It’s just like old times.”
With a look of consternation he said, “Lois, I didn’t float us up here.”
“You didn’t??? Then how did we get here?”
“Well, if it wasn’t me, who does that leave?”
Shocked she blurted out, “What!?!?!?!? Are you saying that I’m doing this?”
“That is the *only* other possibility.”
“But, how can that be? I lost my Ultra Woman powers a long time ago.”
“It has to have something to do with the life force transfer. Dr. Branson told me that my super batteries were over charged. Between that, the Chrono-energy and the way Doodsen’s machine acted, anything’s possible.”
He asked, "Can I look forward to this every time we make love?"
There was a giggle in her reply as she threw his words back at him, "I don't know. Maybe only when I'm this happy."
They floated back down to the bed and in the afterglow of their lovemaking they lay together arms and legs entwined they discussed the possibilities of the return of Ultra Woman. After a while they got up and she dug out her old uniform and tried it on for size. Since it was spandex, there was no question of it fitting and she modeled it for him. He spun into his Suit and asked, “Who’s up for dinner in Paris?”
With a smile she said, “I just might be.”
Smiling he said, “Wait just a minute.” He sent out a mental summons, /Kids!/
He got back a smattering of replies, and then he sent, /The procedure worked, better than expected. Let’s meet in Paris at the base of the Eifel Tower in half an hour. Make sure you are all in uniform. You’re not going to believe this./
Clark Junior replied for the rest of the kids, /Sure thing Pop! We’ll all be there. We should be able to make it a late night if you want. I don’t think any of us have early classes tomorrow./
/That’s good! This calls for a celebration./
Lois gave him a look. He had excluded her from the call so she had not heard it, but knew he was up to something. She said, “Okay, what gives?”
“Oh, nothing. Let’s make sure the house is locked up and the oven is off before we leave.”
After his little delaying tactic they took off for Paris. Midway across the Atlantic he said, “Let’s stop at the Eifel Tower before we find a café.”
Now she knew something was up, but she decided to humor him. As they approached Paris she used her telescopic vision and zoomed in on the Eifel Tower. What she saw warmed her heart and brought a tear to her eye. All eight of the kids were there cheering, welcoming her.
That was when Ultra Woman made her return debut.
The next day they had gone to STAR Labs and they had confirmed her powers and assured her that they were permanent.
comments go here TBC in Epilogue
