This is the third story in the Eternity trilogy. The first two are Summer Dreaming and Betrayed .~ Finding Freedom ~
Part 3 of the Eternity Trilogy~~~~~~~~~~
You were there for summer dreaming
And you are a friend indeed
And I know you’ll find your freedom
Eventually
For eternity
- 'Eternity', written and performed by Robbie Williams The slam of the door behind her was followed by the distinctive sound of a key turning in the lock. Lois tried to quell the terror rising up inside her. She
was going to get out of here. She wasn’t completely at the mercy of the monster she’d been stupid enough to marry.
She was Lois Lane, after all. Award-winning reporter. Brilliant undercover investigator. Smart and quick-witted enough to have survived several attempts on her life. She could figure a way out of this.
But she was also the Lois Lane who’d been completely fooled by the man now standing in front of her, regarding her with a superior smile on his face. He’d played her for a sucker. Hooked her and reeled her all the way in. And now he’d shown his true colours and she was at his mercy. His prisoner.
“Welcome home, my dear.”
Lex’s voice was like the slither of a snake. Gone was all hint of affection, of the charm he’d used on her so easily, so deceptively.
Home. She glanced around her. This wasn’t home. The room was large and comfortable, like a luxury hotel-room - but it had no windows. It was completely secure, offering no means of escape, no contact with the outside world. Not even a telephone by the bed.
And, just as important, nothing immediately visible that she could use as a weapon. The bedside lamp was screwed to the wall. All the furniture appeared to be screwed down as well. There was a mirror attached to the dressing-table, but it was secured in such a way that it couldn’t be detached - while she could shatter it, she decided that she was unlikely to get any usable shards.
She’d have to take a closer look at her new home once she was alone.
She’d dozed in the helicopter, the result of the injection Lex’s pet doctor had given her. So she had no idea how long they’d travelled; all she knew was that at some point they’d transferred to one of Lex’s private planes. When she’d woken up, they’d been flying over snow-capped mountains. The plane had landed in a small airfield, but she’d seen few clues as to where they were. Still in North America, she’d guessed; the couple of signs she’d noticed as Lex’s thugs had bundled her off the plane had been in English, with American spelling. Then there had been another helicopter ride, again over snow-capped peaks.
Mountains. High enough to have snow in the summer. There were several places in the US and Canada which could fit that description. The Rockies. The California desert. Alaska. The Olympic Mountains in Washington State - and the Cascades were in Washington too, weren’t they? And they extended into Canada. It would be just like Lex to see the irony of bringing her back across the border.
She was a long way from home. And in the most danger she’d ever been in her life.
But there was no way that she would allow Lex to see her fear. She pulled herself up to her full height and looked him in the eye.
“Home?” Deliberately making her tone scathing, she added, “Another one? I’m losing count of all our homes, Lex.”
“*Your* home, my love,” he said easily, beginning to stroll about the room and examining the amenities. “You need help. Dr Morrison confirmed that. And so you will be kept here, for your own good, while you receive treatment.”
Treatment. Lois shivered. What did he have in mind?
She’d assumed that he was going to find another way to kill her while making it look like suicide, or perhaps natural causes. That was still possible. His comments at the farm, and now here, made it look as if he was in the process of having her declared insane. That would make it very easy for him to take his time in doing away with her - if she were locked up and supposedly under psychiatric care, no-one would question her whereabouts. And she couldn’t contact the outside world - more importantly, even if by some miracle she did manage to make contact, who would believe her?
Or maybe he planned to punish her another way. He could have her drugged - slowly destroying her mind and turning her into a vegetable.
She shivered again, desperately trying to choke back the fear which threatened to consume her.
Clark! She clung to the only shred of hope remaining in her heart. Clark would come for her. He would save her. He loved her.
She’d had to tell him to let her go with Luthor back at the farmhouse. It had been only too clear to her what he’d been about to do - he would have used his abilities, abilities he’d never had a chance to explain to her, to save her. But she had seen how important it was to his family that what he could do stayed a secret - and she’d gone cold inside at the thought of what her husband could do with the information that a man could fly. And what he’d do with the parents of that man.
Not to mention that, if he’d made off with her in front of several state troopers and the chief of police, he’d have made himself a fugitive.
Keep calm, Lois. Don’t let him see your fear.“I need help, do I?” she observed, deliberately calm, and began to stroll around the room in her turn. “So I imagined you holding a gun on me, drugging me and trying to drown me?”
Lex shook his head, the gesture one she recognised. It was accompanied by the patronising smile she’d seen before but - and *why*? - had never really bothered her. “Naturally. You were hallucinating as a result of taking too many pills.”
“Yeah, right.” Rolling her eyes, Lois moved to the bed and sat down. It was comfortable; only the best for Mrs Lex Luthor, even if she were to be a prisoner.
“You had a very lucky escape,” her husband observed, leaning casually against the dressing-table.
“I did, didn’t I?” she drawled carelessly. “Bet you’re wondering how.”
“I assume that your country bumpkin lover was still in the area and somehow managed to find you. Or else you were more awake than I had realised and you swam to shore and went to him.” Lex shrugged. “It’s immaterial; the result is the same.”
“What I would like to know,” Lois said idly, deliberately not looking at her husband, “is how you found me.”
She glanced up in time to see him smile again. “I wondered when you would get around to asking that, my dear.”
She shrugged. “Well, you did materialise pretty much out of the blue with your minions in tow. I might almost think that you’d made me swallow a tracking device along with that sedative you forced down me.”
“Oh, nothing so melodramatic, Lois!” Lex replied smoothly. “It was a pure stroke of luck, actually. Or, perhaps, the fortuitous result of my foresight.” He smiled again, ferally this time. “You were treated by some country doctor at Kent’s place. That quack took a blood sample, yes?”
Lois nodded. Was it really as simple as that? Had Lex traced her through a
blood sample? But how?
“The sample was tested at the local laboratory - which just happens to be owned by LexLabs.” Lex’s smile grew wider. “A long time ago, I instituted procedures at all of the company’s labs. Any sample brought for testing must be run through the central computer - after all, one never knows when information of any kind may come in useful. An alert sounded at my headquarters in Metropolis when the computer identified the sample as containing my wife’s DNA, and I received a phone call. I had returned to Metropolis by this point,” he added. “So, naturally delighted to discover that my beloved wife was actually alive, though mysteriously buried in some one-horse town in the mid-west and having made no effort to contact me, I made arrangements to retrieve you.”
Retrieve her. Just as if she were a package he’d mislaid.
Suddenly impatient with Lex’s games, she snapped, “Okay, so what are you planning to do with me?”
The satisfied smirk he gave her told her that he’d just scented victory. “Oh, that would be telling, my dear. Suffice to say that you’ll find out. In time.”
**********
Clark stared after the departing helicopter, anger, frustration and terror building within him. He had Lois. He’d just walked in and marched off with her, and there hadn’t been one
damn thing that Clark could do about it.
If it wasn’t for the state troopers standing over him and his parents, he’d have shot straight up into the air and followed the chopper. But Lois had made it clear that she didn’t want him to expose his secret because of her. And that, if nothing else, told him that her feelings for him went deep. If she could love him enough to put his safety before her own, especially when she’d already only just survived one attempt on her life at the hands of her husband. She’d gone willingly with a man of whom she was now terrified - in order to keep him and his parents safe.
He had to respect her wishes, and her sacrifice, much as it tore him apart. Besides, he wouldn’t put it past Luthor to have... persuaded... the chief to do whatever was necessary to ensure that there was no interference. He didn’t want his parents arrested because of him.
Sick inside, clenching his fists, he watched the route the helicopter took, following it with his gaze long after it had disappeared from human perception.
He’d let her down. He’d promised her that he would keep her safe. And then he’d let her murdering husband steal her away.
Luthor
wouldn’t get the chance to try again. Clark was determined on that. He’d comb the Earth for Lois, if he had to. And he’d find her.
“Mr Kent.”
The irritated tone of the state chief’s voice told Clark that this probably wasn’t the first time he’d been called. He turned at his own pace, making it clear that he wasn’t jumping to do anyone’s bidding. “Yes?”
“I don’t know what was happening here, or why Mrs Luthor was in this house. However, Mr Luthor didn’t want to press charges, so this won’t go any further. I’ll just give you one warning. Watch your step.”
Clark forced back the angry words which sprang to his lips. They wouldn’t help the situation. Calmly, he said, “Mrs Luthor was here of her own free will.” It choked him to call Lois by that man’s name, but he knew that this was a game he had to play. The sooner the police left, the sooner he could be on his way to find Lois.
The chief tried to stare him down. Clark met and held the man’s gaze, unflinching, uncowed. After a minute or two, the other man looked away.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said curtly to the other troopers.
Clark moved to stand between his parents, watching as the unwanted intruders moved to their vehicles, then drove off along the dirt track at speed, leaving a high cloud of dust behind them.
“You guys okay?” he asked then.
“We’re fine, Clark. But that poor girl...” his mother murmured.
His father nodded. “I just don’t know how he found her.”
“I don’t either. But I should have expected something like this!” Clark exclaimed, his anger now turning against himself. “She told me what Luthor was like. I should never have left her alone...”
“How could any of us possibly guess that he’d find her here?” His mom turned an incredulous gaze on him. “Out here, in the middle of nowhere? In Kansas?”
“I don’t know,” Clark repeated.
His mom rubbed his arm; he covered her hand, grateful for the comfort.
“I have to go after her,” he said simply. “You know that. I have to find her, before he...”
“Of course you do,” his father said. “Just be careful, you hear?”
Nodding, Clark stepped back and prepared to take off... then the sound of an engine made him pause. Seconds later, a car emerged from the dust cloud, heading towards the farm. A sheriff’s car.
“Rachel!” he exclaimed, running towards her.
Following Lois would have to wait just a little bit longer. First, he needed to see what his childhood friend could do to help.
**********
Alone in her luxury prison, Lois lay on the bed and contemplated her situation. A captive of the man she’d married merely two months earlier - the man who, less than twenty-four hours ago, had tried to kill her.
The man whom she’d made love with. Been more intimate with than with any other man in her life before. She’d shared her body with him. In beds, in showers, in other places she shuddered to remember. Her
husband - who had promised to love, honour and cherish her.
And all the time he’d been pretending.
All the time. All his charm and affection when he’d been courting her. His kindness and comfort when the Planet had been destroyed and her whole life had fallen apart with it. Every time he’d told her that he loved her. He’d been lying, every time.
He’d left her at the beach to get her out of the way. It occurred to her for the first time that, those nights when she’d heard sounds in the background as he’d talked with her on the phone, he probably hadn’t been alone.
Why did she even care? she asked herself, horrified.
She didn’t. But she hated being deceived.
She’d been such a fool! Such a sucker. Lois Lane, galactically stupid.
Closing her eyes, she tried to banish Lex from her mind. But her brain wouldn’t let her forget the way he’d hoodwinked her. Duped her so thoroughly that she’d never even
suspected... The irony was that he’d married her because he thought she was in danger of finding out the truth about him, and yet she had no clue. Never had. She still had no idea at all what it was she was supposed to have seen.
Yet, despite his claim to Nigel that she’d been an unwanted wife, he’d made use of her. Why not? she pointed out cynically. She’d been his possession - bagged and tagged, sealed with her signature on the marriage certificate and his ring on her finger. He might not have any emotional attachment to her, but that had nothing to do with bodily satisfaction for a man like Lex, did it? Oh, she remembered it all... his hands on her body, his intimate touches, the way he’d...
Oh, god...
Lois bolted for the bathroom, her stomach heaving.
***********
“Clark, this is one heck of a story. But are you sure your Lois is telling the truth?”
Rachel was cupping a glass of his mom’s iced tea as she spoke, leaning across the table to look Clark in the eye. She still spoke with the same slow Kansas drawl she’d had since they were kids, but he knew only too well that didn’t mean anyone should underestimate her. She was one of the sharpest women he knew - just like Lois, he realised.
She’d had to ask the question, Clark told himself, even though its implication made him furious again. He’d never experienced so much anger in his life before. It was unnerving.
But Rachel didn’t know Lois, he told himself. She’d heard of Lex Luthor, of course, and, just like anyone else who only knew of the man’s public reputation, she’d find it hard to believe that he could be capable of what Lois alleged. Plus there was the fact that Luthor had brought state police and the chief with him.
“Rachel, she’s telling the truth,” he told her, his gaze never leaving hers. “It’d be a pretty far-fetched story to make up!”
She shrugged. “People do make up crazy stories, Clark. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve heard. Anyway, didn’t you say the doc said she was... well, unstable?”
Clark grimaced. “The same doctor who claimed she’d been on sleeping-pills since she got married. Rachel, she told me she’d never taken a sleeping pill in her life!”
Rachel merely shrugged, making it clear by her posture that he still hadn’t told her anything to convince her.
“I saw her face, Rachel. I’ve never seen anyone so scared in her life. She’s terrified of him.”
“She left with him willingly.”
“Yes, but that was because - ”
He halted abruptly, realising what he’d been about to say. Although he’d suspected for a long time that Rachel knew - or at least guessed - about some of his differences, he’d never put that to the test. She’d never mentioned it either - but then, that was Rachel Harris. Discreet in the extreme.
“Because?” she prompted.
“Because she didn’t want me or my parents to get into trouble with the cops Luthor brought with him,” he said after a moment.
“She tell you that?”
He shook his head. “No. I... realised it because of the way she looked at me.”
The look Rachel gave him was sceptical. Grimacing, Clark realised that he couldn’t blame her. In her position, he’d probably react exactly the same way. He had absolutely no evidence to support what he was telling her; all he had was the word of a woman whose own husband was claiming that she was crazy, and who had a doctor’s opinion to back it up.
“Look, Rachel, I - ” he began, not really knowing what he was about to say.
The phone rang. He was vaguely aware of his mom answering, saying that someone wasn’t there. Then she held out the phone towards him. He looked at her enquiringly.
“It’s Jill,” she said. “She wanted to talk to Lois, but I had to explain that she’s not here any more. So she asked for you.”
Shrugging, Clark got up and accepted the receiver from his mother. “Hi, Jill.”
“Clark. I’m sorry Lois isn’t here - I wanted to talk to her about that blood test.”
“Yeah?” He already knew what the result would be, of course. That Lois had traces of sedative in her bloodstream. No surprises there.
He listened to what the doctor had to say, and his eyes widened. Then, still holding the phone, he turned back towards the table.
“How about this, then, Rachel. Dr Jill took a blood sample from Lois. And she says the results showed traces of
animal sedative. Not prescription sleeping pills. Is that enough to convince you?”
************
...tbc
