Okay...so it wasn't a day early, but at least it's on time. I *really* have to thank Diane and TEEEJ for getting back to me so quickly on an emergency re-write of this part. Thanks!!!
~~~~Part 14~~~~
Clark stood and held out a hand for Lois to help her up. She took it, and together, they made their way to the center of the newsroom.
“You ready?” she asked under her breath, squeezing his hand and pasting a huge smile on her face.
He smiled back at her for appearances sake and whispered, “Only if you are.”
She nodded. “Attention everyone!” The clamor in the bullpen took a moment to subside. “Clark and I have an announcement to make.”
“Finally getting married?” Ralph shouted from his desk.
Cheers and whistles erupted around them, but stopped abruptly when she spoke again. “No, not yet. But this is more exciting. Clark and I are going to have a baby.” She gave her best smile and Clark, for his part, grinned happily and put a hand over the small swell in her belly.
The whistling and cheering resumed. Jimmy came up to Clark and clapped him on the shoulder. “Way to go, CK! Congrats, Lois.”
The celebratory commotion died suddenly and astonished gasps and exclamations took its place. Everyone was pointing at the window. Lois turned around to see what all the fuss was about and she nearly fainted at the sight.
Superman. Clark! Clark was home! He was floating through the window towards them at this very moment!
“Oh my God.”
Clark’s voice penetrated her senses. Wait! Clark? Oh my God is right. She couldn’t run straight into Clark’s arms because he was *Superman* right now. Oh! She glanced at Clark standing next to her, looking for all the world like he’d just seen a man fly for the first time in his life. Well, she guessed this *was* the first he’d seen a man fly, unless he’d brought a mirror with him...but that was beside the point. The point was that Clark was home and she seemed to have an extra one standing right next to her. What on Earth was she going to do? The worst part was, whatever she did decide to do, it couldn’t be running into Superman’s arms in front of the entire newsroom.
Superman was staring at her now, shifting his gaze occasionally to Clark, but always back to her. She could see the questions, the hurt in his eyes. He was wondering exactly who this guy was and why he was standing next to her. She could also tell he was trying to keep an air of detachment about him, he couldn’t let everyone see how much the situation was affecting him anymore than she could run into his arms and kiss him.
Superman landed in the center of the newsroom floor. Eerily quite hush had fallen over the room and they all waited for Superman to speak. He didn’t. He didn’t say a word. Oh no! He was too upset to speak.
“Welcome back, Superman,” she said, forcing the cheeriest voice she could muster under the circumstances.
That seemed to snap him out of his daze. “Uh...thank you, Lois. It’s great to finally be back.” Lois wasn’t sure where he found the courage or the rational to do so, but he then turned his gaze to Clark, “Clark, good to see you again.”
“Good to see you too, Superman. Good to see you too.”
Everyone in the bullpen suddenly erupted with cheers and welcome backs and the scene began to take on a surreal quality. This wasn’t right. Well, to everyone else, it *was* right. Nothing was wrong, in fact things couldn’t be better for them, after four long months of being gone, their hero was home.
Perry’s gruff voice interrupted the hubbub, but even that seemed surreal to Lois’ ears. It sounded...well...it sounded shaky. That couldn’t be right. She shook the feeling and tuned into what he was saying.
“It’s great to have you back Superman.” Perry shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ve probably had a long trip, how ‘bout a cup of coffee and you could take a load off on the couch in my office.”
Superman nodded absently before he apparently realized he should say something. Superman wasn’t so docile. “Sure, Mr. White, that would be great.”
Lois watched as Perry led Superman in the direction of his office. She wanted to go! Actually, she wanted him to scoop her up in his arms and fly her away to some remote island where they could just be alone. They could stay there forever, even. No villains, no alien princesses coming to claim their husbands, no meddling time travelers. Just th—
“Lois, did you hear me?”
“Huh?” She shook her head and looked in Perry’s direction.
“Lois, I’d like it if you and Clark would join us in my office.” His tone was brusque and he didn’t wait for a response. He simply threw a command over his shoulder for them to bring coffee for the four of them.
Lois was too stunned to do anything other than make her way to the coffee machine, barely noting Clark’s similar condition as he accompanied her. They made four mugs and balanced them on the way to Perry’s office. Perry was closing the blinds as they walked through the door and as soon as they were in, he shut the door. The coffee was distributed and Lois and Clark each took a seat in the chairs opposite Perry’s desk, which Lois noted had been arranged to face the couch. The room was silent but for the sound of Perry rolling his chair across the office so that everyone was looking at one another.
All eyes were on Perry and for the moment, he was gravely silent. Something was wrong here. This wasn’t just a friendly cup of coffee. Perry was up to something. Well, more than up to something, he almost looked...confused? Angry? Maybe both. He stared at the three of them in slow succession. Lois was starting to get edgy under his intense scrutiny, though Perry was focusing more on Clark and Superman, regarding one, then the other, then back again.
*What* the heck was going on here?
“What in the Sam Hill is going on here? Someone fess up now!”
What was Perry talking about? He couldn’t possibly know any of what had really transpired. Could he?
“Perry, what are you talking about? Fess up to what?”
“I’m talking about all of you playing some kind of sick joke here. Now *someone* talk!”
She was lost. She had no clue what to say, what he was expecting them to say.
Luckily for her, Superman spoke up first, though the fact that he’d narrowed his stare in her direction worried her. “*I* don’t have a clue what’s going on here myself, maybe Lois or her little friend here, would care to explain, because frankly, Chief, I’d like to know myself.”
Lois felt herself begin to tremble. This was definitely *not* the homecoming she’d envisaged. Her Clark was furious with her. And poor Clark. He was sitting next to her looking like he was about to cry. “Clark?!”
“Yes, Lois?” The reply came in stereo, though one of the voices was clipped, harsh, and it stung her like she thought nothing ever would.
She opened her mouth and closed it again. No words were coming to her, but the tears certainly were.
Perry looked livid. “Someone, *please*, for the love of Elvis, tell me what is going on here!” Perry stared at Clark and Superman. “Why are there *two* of you?!”
Lois paled. Oh, God. She watched Clark and Superman. They were both gob smacked, though Clark looked worried and Superman looked confused and angry.
“Yeah, why *are* there two of us? And what, exactly, are you doing with my fiancé?” Clark narrowed his glare to Lois’ abdomen.
The pain stabbed through her like a knife. He thought...
“No, Clark! You...the baby’s yours!”
“Then *who* is he?!”
“He’s Clark. Remember, from the parallel universe?”
“So you just went out and got a replacement?! I thought you loved me, Lois!”
“Clark! Why are you being like this? I *do* love you! Clark here was just here to...”
“To what, Lois? Keep your bed warm? Zara told me I shouldn’t trust Earth women!”
Clark stood and his body loomed over her, blocking the light from Perry’s desk lamp and casting a dark shadow over her face. “You know, I learned to kill out there. I killed Nor’s men, I killed Nor himself, and I even killed Ching because he got on my nerves. Do you know just how easily I could—”
“Oh dear! What have I done?”
The four of them turned to find H.G. Wells standing in the office. Where he’d come from, Lois wasn’t quite sure, but she was never more grateful to see the man. “Herb! Thank God you’re here!”
“Herb?” Perry asked. “Who’s Herb?”
H.G. Wells tipped his hat politely. “I’m Herb.”
Perry grunted. “Well yes, I figured that.”
“H.G. Wells!” Lois answered.
“As in the writer? The *dead* writer?”
“Yes, quite, pleased to meet you Mr. White. See, Superman here is the real Clark whom you know. And Clark, over here, is from a parallel universe and I just brought him here to...”
Wells trailed off when Perry suddenly clutched at his chest and keeled over, hitting the floor with a thud. He wasn’t breathing and Lois was quite sure that he was dead, though whether it was from pure shock or too many hamburgers, she didn’t know. She didn’t have time to feel any grief over Perry because Superman had turned on Wells, picking him up and shaking him bodily with every word he yelled.
“So this is *your* fault?! You’re the reason my fiancé is knocked up by some counterpart of mine and didn’t run gratefully into my arms the second she saw that I was home?”
Lois had to interject, “Clark! You came through the window, as Superman I might remind you,” she flailed her arm in the direction of the red and blue he was wearing. “What did you expect me to do?! You couldn’t have waited until I was back at my apartment? *Not* in the public eye? *What* were you thinking Clark? Why didn’t you wait until I was alone?”
“Well apparently, *that* wasn’t even an option. Just how long were you shacking up with this shmuck over here?”
Clark, who must have been in a daze during all this, finally snapped out of it. “Shmuck?! *I’m* not the one who left my *pregnant* fiancé to go off and play GI Joe with my supposed *wife* on a stupid space rock!”
“Um, excuse me Mr. Kent...err...I guess that would be Superman right now...is there a chance you could put me down?”
Superman turned his attention back to Wells. “Yeah, I’ll put you down all right.”
Lois watched in shock as Superman stepped over Perry’s body and went to the window. Without even hesitating, he tossed Wells out the window like he was yesterday’s garbage.
“Clark!”
Superman turned back to Lois. “Shut up, woman, or you’ll get to join him!”
That shut her up quite effectively. She looked from Superman to Clark. From the man that was supposedly her fiancé – though she was having doubts about that now – to the man who had been her friend for the last four weeks. She didn’t know what to do.
The door burst open then and that Harris woman barreled through the doorway like a tank waving a gun in one hand and holding a lead box in the other. Lois got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was *not* good. Harris turned to Clark. “Clark, sweetie, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll go down to the lobby and wait for me.”
Clark just stared at her blankly.
“Now!” she screamed.
For some ungodly reason, Clark listened to her and fled the room. He was probably just grateful for any excuse to get out of the room at this point. She couldn’t blame him. She wished *she* had an excuse, but right now, she was staring down the barrel of a really big gun. The only lasted for a second, though, until she saw Superman charging towards the crazy woman.
Lois smirked at her. “Really, Harris, you ought to have—”
Harris smirked right back and flipped open the box she’d been carrying. “Ought to have what, Lois? Known better? Guns don’t hurt Superman? What, do you think I was born yesterday, Lois?” They both turned at Clark’s wail of pain and watched him hit the floor, writhing in agony.
“Who...who are you?” Clark’s strained voice cut Lois like a knife.
“Who am I, *Super*man? I’m your worst nightmare. I’m a writer. I guess you could almost say I’m like H.G. Wells in a sense. I’m going to send you to a different universe and cause you a whole new world of pain! She pressed a button on the electronic belt that Lois just noticed Harris had been wearing, and in a flurry of light and whirring, Superman disappeared.
Oh, God! He’s gone. Again! And there was a crazy woman waving kryptonite and a gun in her direction. This scenario hadn’t been covered in her tae kwon do class. The only thing she could think to do was ask meekly, “Are you going to kill me?”
“Oh, trust me, Lois, I wish. But I just don’t have the heart to. But I *will* leave you here to suffer. Alone.”
And with that, Harris shut the lid on the box, stuffed the gun in her waistband and skipped out of the room.
***
Well that had been fun. Breaking out of prison had been the most difficult part of her plan, but the rest had been a piece of cake. She whistled as the elevator took her down to the lobby of the Daily Planet building. And when the doors opened, she smiled widely at the sight that greeted her. There he was, alt Clark. And he was all hers. Diane strode gracefully towards him. Well, graceful until she fell flat on her face. She’d tripped. Correction, she’d *been* tripped. A pair of slightly worn sneakers greeted her and she looked up. “*Who* are you?!”
“My name really isn’t that important, but if you must know, it’s Saskia.”
“Fine, but what’s the bright idea? Is there a problem?” Diane got up and stood face to face with her new enemy.
“Yeah, there’s a problem. Alt Clark is *mine*!”
“Oh, no he isn’t. Sara said I could have him.”
“She said *I* could have him!”
“Well, I was here first!”
“I don’t care. He’s mine and I’m taking him home with me.”
“Oh no you’re not!”
“*You* are infuriating! Why don’t we just ask Sara and we’ll see just who she said could have him.”
“Fine!”
“Fine!”
Diane watched as Saskia dug her cell phone out of her purse and suddenly Saskia’s eyes got wide.
“What?!” Diane demanded.
“Look!” Saskia pointed in alt Clark’s direction.
There he was, curled up on the floor. And there was her Kryptonite. The box must have come open when she’d tripped. The only problem was, Clark wasn’t writhing in pain, he was dead.
Saskia growled. “You *killed* him!”
“I...I didn’t mean to kill him. *You* were the one who tripped me and knocked the box open!”
“Well how was I supposed to know you had Kryptonite?!”
Diane looked around. People in the lobby were starting to stare. “Come on. We should get out of here. I’m starved anyway...wanna go get some taquitos? I’ve had a craving for them all day.”
The (Tank) Ending
PLEASE don’t kill me!!!
/me throws her hands up in surrender. You guys *did* ask for Clark to come flying through the window.
I promise that the *real* part 14 is done and it’ll be posted soon.
Sara (who’s going to run and hide now...)
