The Story Trailer , courtesy of Kaethel, may be found here. Thank you, Kaethel! hail

~ Summer Dreaming ~
Part 1 of the Eternity trilogy


With much thanks and appreciation to Kaethel and Yvonne for invaluable beta-reading and encouragement, and also to the IRC gang for nagging and kind words. In fond memory of a fantastic trip around the Great Lakes in summer 2004.

~~~~~~~~~~

We sat and watched the sun go down
Picked a star before we lost the moon
Youth is wasted on the young
Before we know, it's come and gone
Too soon.

You were there for summer dreaming
And you are a friend indeed.

- 'Eternity', written and performed by Robbie Williams


The view by the lake was beautiful. Completely unspoilt, with nothing but pine-trees and water so far as the eye could see. The sun beating down and causing ripples of light to dance on top of the water. A couple of Canada geese playing close to the water's edge. To the right, a white-tipped rocky waterfall where the river emptied into the lake. If Paradise existed, it would be here, Lois was sure: on this stretch of the north-eastern shore of Lake Superior.

And yet she was restless. Dissatisfied.

Unhappy.

Yet she was the last person in the world who had a right to be dissatisfied with her life. She had it all. Married to the third-richest man in the world. Three mansions, four penthouse apartments and two beach-houses, including this one, at her disposal. Servants at her beck and call. Any number of platinum credit cards. A bank balance amounting to so many digits she couldn't possibly keep track of it. A private plane or helicopter to take her anywhere she wanted to go. A top-of-the-range Mercedes SLK convertible for summer, and an equally top-of-the-range Mercedes SUV for winter.

Nothing was too good for Mrs Lex Luthor.

Including, she had to acknowledge, a doting husband. Lex was every bit as charming as when she'd married him two months earlier, and according to her mother that was something to be very thankful for. Most men, going by the Gospel According to Ellen Lane, very quickly changed their behaviour once they had the ring on their wife's finger. The charm, the courtesy, the willingness to please all went out the window, and the wife was left to adapt as best she could.

But Lex hadn't behaved like that. He still told her that he loved her at least once a day. He continually brought her little gifts - trinkets, he called them. Like the gold and ruby bracelet she was wearing now. Or the diamond and sapphire pendant which was back in the safe in their Metropolis penthouse.

Tokens of her husband's esteem. Or symbols of his possession?

But that wasn't fair. Lex loved her. She knew that - he told her so, and he showed her in so many ways, including his lovemaking. He had turned out to be a considerate, courteous lover. Okay, so what if their sex life didn’t set the sky on fire? It was good. It was pleasant. It was... nice.

And she was still restless and unhappy.

There was something wrong with her, Lois decided, stifling yet another yawn as she gazed out at the beautiful panorama in front of her. With everything she had, with a life as perfect and as privileged as hers, what right did she have to be discontented?

Oh, sure, she missed the excitement of her life as a top reporter. Who wouldn't? But then, as Lex had explained, she couldn't have expected to carry on with that sort of life once she was married to him. He needed her to be available: to escort him to functions, to act as his hostess, to be seen out on the town with him when necessary. The unpredictability of her working hours as a reporter would have made that impossible. And, of course, the truth was that, as Lex Luthor's wife, she was swiftly becoming very recognisable. That would have meant an end to undercover work in any case.

But she was still able to write. And that was what she was supposed to be doing right now, she reminded herself, glancing guiltily at the laptop on the table in front of her. Writing her novel.

This was the perfect place for being creative, Lex had told her. No interruptions. The sort of scenery which could only inspire the imagination. Every convenience she could wish for, but no distractions - he deliberately had never had a television installed in the beach house, he'd explained. And, although there was a telephone line, hardly anyone had the number and there were only two telephone points in the entire house. The house itself could only be reached by boat or helicopter.

The ideal retreat.

Except that the creative juices weren't flowing. Lex had left the previous evening after spending the weekend with her and promising to return next weekend, and she'd assured him that she would spend the entire day writing. After all, she already had the novel plotted out. It was just a matter of getting started.

She'd had all day. It was now early evening, and yet all she had to show for her day was two paragraphs. Two pretty terrible paragraphs, at that. The prose was stiff, the language flowery and the narrative... boring.

That beach bum crouched by the piece of driftwood over there, a couple of dozen feet away, could probably do better than that, Lois thought sardonically, her finger poised to delete her day's work.

Wait a minute...

How had that beach bum got there?

She stared at the man, who didn't appear to have noticed her yet. He was tall, she guessed; probably around Lex's height or a little taller. He was younger than her husband, and his hair was dark, ruffled by the slight wind coming off the lake. He wore glasses; she could see the sunlight reflecting off them. And his clothes... Scruffy shorts and a loose cotton shirt which had to have seen better days. Maybe he'd slept in it, she thought.

"Hey, you!" she called.

He looked up, and she was lost for words for a moment. He was one of the best-looking men she'd ever seen. Broad shoulders, a strong chin, straight nose, hair flopping over his forehead. Young, she thought. About her own age.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." He got to his feet, brushing back his hair, and came closer. "Hi."

He was friendly. All the same... "How did you get onto the beach? This is private property."

"Oh." He looked nonplussed. "I... uh..." He waved vaguely behind him. Towards the cliffside, perhaps? Had he climbed down? "I'm sorry. Should I go?"

Perversely, now that he'd offered to leave, she didn't want him to. Not because she was attracted to him or anything like that, Lois told herself. Of course not! A guy like that, who was probably just some drifter? It was only because she was bored. And anyway, she might even get some inspiration for her novel if she talked to him.

"No, it's okay. You want a drink?"

He looked surprised, but came closer. "Sure, if I'm not bothering you. You said this was private...?"

Lois shrugged. "I was getting tired of my own company anyway. Have a seat."

He sank with easy casualness into the spare chair opposite her. "You were working," he pointed out.

"Trying to work. And not succeeding."

"Ah. You need distracting, then. To take your mind off it. And then, later... who knows?" He grinned at her. "Come back to it fresh and the words will flow like water."

Lois frowned. How did he know...? "Do you know me?" she demanded quickly. Who was he? A member of the paparazzi? A tabloid reporter? Some no-good who planned to kidnap her for ransom? As Lex kept reminding her, she was now a very powerful, very wealthy, very newsworthy woman - and thus a target for all kinds of unpleasant things.

He looked taken aback, however - or was it an act? "No, I don't - should I? Though I guess if you own someplace like this..." He waved around, at the beach, the house, the masses of space. "It's only that you have a laptop. And the way you glared at the screen just now... well, it reminded me of myself when I get blocked. It's frustrating."

"You write?" Was he a tabloid reporter?

He shrugged. "If you can call it that. I'm a freelance journalist. And would-be novelist, I guess, if I could ever manage to finish more than a couple of chapters of any of my great ideas. They all seem so wonderful inside my head, but..."

"Oh, don't I know it!" Lois exclaimed. A freelance journalist, she repeated silently to herself. Why weren't alarm-bells going off inside her head?

But she didn't want them to go off, she realised. This man, whoever he was, was *nice*. Friendly. Easy to talk to. Sympathetic. And good company.

Exactly how a sleaze reporter would masquerade, Lex's voice inside her head said. No, she told herself, her own voice. She knew the newspaper world! She didn't need Lex to warn her about tabloid tactics.

But this guy just didn't feel 'tabloid'. Although, of course, that could just mean that he was a darned good actor. She really should get up and go into the house and send the housekeeper out to get rid of him.

Lois reached into the cooler the housekeeper had given her, taking out a glass and the jug of fresh lemonade. She poured her guest a drink.

"So. I'm Lois. What's your name?"

He accepted the glass with a warm smile which made her insides curl. "Nice to meet you, Lois. I'm Clark."

"Hi, Clark." She smiled back. "Your accent's American, not Canadian. Mid-west?"

"Good guess. I'm from Kansas, though I've done a lot of travelling in the last few years so it's not as strong as it used to be. You're not Canadian either - where are you from?"

"Metropolis," she said, watching for a reaction. If he really did know her...

His expression was eager. "Really? I've wanted to move to Metropolis for years. I should have gone last year, but my dad got sick and I went home to help out on the farm for a while. He's better now." Clark's expression showed how pleased he was about that. "Then a few months ago I was all set to move up - but something happened which changed my plans."

"What was that?" She'd almost had this gorgeous, really nice man in the same city as her?

Not that it would have made any difference at all, she reminded herself. A few months ago she was engaged to Lex. She would never have been in a situation where she and Clark would have met.

Although he did say he was a freelance reporter...

"I've always wanted to work at the Daily Planet," he explained. "But - I guess you know, if you're from Metropolis - back in the beginning of May the building was destroyed in an explosion. There was some problem with the paper's finances anyway, I read, and there just wasn't enough money to rebuild and get the paper started again."

Lois was staring at him. Was this an elaborate trick? It could be, but yet he seemed so innocent, so lacking in guile. She decided to test him.

"Actually, I worked for the Planet for about five years." Now she would see how he reacted. Would he oh-so-innocently make the leap to Mrs Lex Luthor?

"You did?" His expression was excited, envious. "What did you do? Oh, wait," he added, now sounding embarrassed. "What a faux pas! You write... your name's Lois... you're Lois Lane!"

Lois Luthor now, she should have said. And yet she didn't want to correct him. She simply nodded.

"Wow! I know this sounds really gauche, but you're my hero! To have achieved so much at your age... and I love your writing." He leaned forward in his seat, as if he needed to get closer to her in his admiration. "I used to read the Planet online, though I bought a paper copy any chance I got too. And I always looked for your stories. Your writing's so incisive, and you always managed to get the scoops. You're an incredible reporter."

Blushing at the compliments, Lois managed to thank him.

"So what paper are you working for now? I never heard."

"Uh... I'm not, actually." And, despite all Lex's sensible reasoning, which she'd just reminded herself only a few minutes that she did agree with, Lois felt again the pang of resentment at the abrupt ending of her career as a reporter.

"You're not? Why?" He looked shocked and disappointed. But before she could say a word, he clapped his hand to his forehead. "You must think I'm an idiot," he said, now sounding embarrassed. "Your wedding was on all the news channels and in every newspaper. How could I have forgotten? You married Lex Luthor."

Lois looked straight back at him, feeling oddly as if she needed to defend her choice of husband - and the fact that she'd got married rather than re-establishing her reporting career at another paper. "Yes," she said firmly. "I did." That was a bit abrupt, she decided. "We'd been dating for several months already. He'd already proposed by the time the Planet exploded."

But you didn't accept until after the explosion. Before then, no matter how exciting dating Lex was, your career was much more important, a little voice said to her.

And a new thought struck her. If she'd loved Lex, really loved him, it wouldn't have been a matter of choosing between her career and marrying him. It wouldn't have taken the destruction of the Planet to make her accept him. It would never have been a difficult choice at all.

She would have married Lex because she loved him. But in the end, it had almost been as if she'd married him because her preferred choice no longer existed.

In fact, if the Planet hadn't exploded, she might never have married Lex.

And the sudden rush of longing which hit her at that realisation shocked her.

As did the other sudden rush of awareness. She didn't love Lex. She liked him; admired him; found him charming; enjoyed his company. But she didn't love him.

And that, above all, was why she was restless and unhappy.

Clark was shifting awkwardly, she realised; the movement drew her attention back to him. "I'm sorry," he said abruptly. "I'm intruding. I'll leave you alone."

"Clark..." she began to protest, but he was already standing up.

"Good luck with your novel. And it was really nice meeting you."

He turned and began striding away. And a few moments later, while Lois was still struggling between wanting to call him back and thinking that maybe it was just as well that he was leaving, he disappeared from view.

He was gone. And she knew that she would never see him again.


**********

...tbc

Just a fly-by! *waves*