Chapter 28
Lenny Thorul may have thought that Lois and Clark didn't spot him getting into the elevator on the ground floor, but Clark recognized his heartbeat and turned his head just in time to see him staring intently at Lois before the door closed. Since that very first time when Lois nearly had a panic attack meeting him, Clark had memorized the pattern of Thorul's beating heart. Only he knew that when Leonard Thorul looked at Lois, his heart started to race wildly. He covered his emotions well; the poker face he displayed did not betray the now-obvious infatuation that dwelled within. Strange how two men, who couldn't be more different, had that in common at least. Now it was clear why.
Since Lois was already distraught and seemed to be in her own world since the hypnotherapy session, Clark kept this tidbit of information to himself for the time being.
"Lois, Boyle's expecting me to be there by 10 a.m. I know you don't want to go back to the Planet until Monday, when Perry's there. We have an hour. What do you want to do?" Clark asked, in an effort to break Lois' stony silence.
"Let's go to Star Labs so they can do a DNA test. When I met Lena, I picked a hair off of her jersey and saved it," Lois replied, matter-of-factly.
Lois never ceased to amaze Clark. "Wow. You are really that sure she's your daughter? Let me play devil's advocate, then, Lois. If she is, what are you going to do about it? Confront her? Confront Thorul? Are you going to sue him for rape? Wouldn’t that ruin Lena's life?"
Lois started to cry, right on the sidewalk in front of the medical building. "Oh, Clark! I don't know what the *right* thing – the *perfect* thing - to do is. All I know is, when I met Lena, there was a connection there. They say that a mother always knows her child, her own flesh and blood. How would you feel if Lana had gotten pregnant and never told you? And then, years later, you discovered that there existed a child of yours that had been put up for adoption? Tell me, Mr. Smallville/Boy Scout, that your heart wouldn't be broken!"
Clark looked down, staring at the cracks on the cement walk. "Well, first off, Lana and I never – "
"That's not the point, Clark!" Lois snapped back. "Just put yourself in that position, that's all I'm asking you to do!"
"Ok, Lois, you're right. I'd feel the same way you do. But the feelings of the adults, who screwed things up – are totally irrevelent here. What *is* important is the feelings of the child, who was completely innocent in all of this. Quite honestly, if Lena's yours, Thorul has gone to great pains to make sure she has a nice, normal life with loving parents and a nice home. How could her knowing you're her mother enhance her life? Think about it, honey. It's really a no-win situation."
Lois suddenly hailed a cab, grabbing Clark by the arm. "We're going to Star Labs. I really want to know. What I'll do with the information – well, I'll think long and hard about it. And while we're there, Bernie's going to have to find a way to get your powers back, 'cause taking all these taxi rides is getting *very* expensive! The only good thing is that I don't have a bad hair day going all the time!"
Clark wore a huge grin on his face as he climbed into the back seat of the vehicle snuggling next to his bipolar wife. He realized that it would probably take a lifetime to know Lois well enough to predict her next move, but it certainly kept things interesting!
~~~~~
Lucy and Will Church left the airport at San Diego at 6:00 a.m. P.D.T., expecting to arrive in Presley Airport in Metropolis at approximately 3:00 p.m., E.D.T. Once they were airborne, Lucy excitedly called Lois on her cell phone, figuring that it was about 9:15 back home.
Lois had just emerged from the Metro Cab that had taken them to Star Labs when her cell phone rang. "Hello? Hey, Luce. That's right, you're flying in today."
"Hey, Lo. We're staying at the former Luthor Tower Arms until we close on our townhouse. Can you and Clark meet us for dinner tonight?"
"Sure, Luce, we'd love to. Six o'clock okay? Good. See you then."
Lois looked at Clark. "Oh, that's right. Your super-hearing still works. You heard the whole conversation," she teased. "How am I going to tell my sister that she married into organized crime?"
"I think you're going to have to give that one the same amount of careful consideration that you're going to have to give the whole Lena / Thorul situation," Clark said in his best "Superman" voice.
"Now you sound just like my mother! Omigod! I wonder if she's inviting my mother to this little dinner soiree? Just what I need…" Lois lamented, as they entered the building and headed towards the elevator.
~~~~~
Bernie Klein was perplexed by Lois' request for a DNA test using a single strand of red hair, but as always, was accommodating and willing to comply nonetheless.
"Let me get this straight, Lois – from this *red* hair follicle you need to know if the owner is a sibling of yours?" He shook his head in confusion. "And you want me to expedite this, even at the expense of my research on Clark's Kryptonite dilemma?"
"Yes, Bernie. I'm sorry to be somewhat mysterious, but you know how these things are," Lois replied. Impulsively, she leaned over and kissed him on the forehead.
Obviously embarrassed, Bernie managed to smile and add, "Lois, I'm a real expert at keeping the secrets of the Superman family. I trust that your reasons are valid," he said resignedly. Arguing with Lois Lane was completely pointless.
”I do have *one* other request, Bernie…" Lois said slyly.
Bernie looked up, waiting for the punch line.
"Find a way to make Clark fly again?"
"I'll get right on that, Ms. Lane."
~~~~~
Clark kissed Lois good-bye and headed off to the Daily Planet, thrilled that this was the last day he would actually have to report to Mark Boyle, because Perry would be back as of Monday. The return to some type of normalcy was definitely something to look forward to. Wearing the space suit and not being able to go to work had worn him down emotionally. Since he couldn't do his Superman job right now, he needed the reporter gig at the Planet more than ever. He didn't want to burden Lois with his problems, and he couldn't fly home to Smallville right now to hash it out with Ma and Ma, so he had internalized most of it.
The staff in the newsroom did a double take, noticing that he entered the bullpen via the elevator, like any of the other working stiffs, instead of his personalized window. Linda King couldn’t resist making a snark about it.
"Hmmm… no more space suit, dressed in civilian clothes, taking the elevator. What's the matter? Has married life worn you down, big boy? Don't have enough energy to fly in?"
"Linda … let's just say I'm not quite myself right now, and just drop it, okay?" he said, realizing that if it was published in *any* newspaper that he was at less than full power, the underworld would have a field day. "Is Boyle in?"
"What, you can't see through the door for yourself?" she quipped back. She was still clearly pissed off that Clark had resisted her advances and married her long-standing rival.
Ignoring Linda, Clark headed towards Boyle's cubicle, as his super-hearing told him that he was in there, on the phone, with none other than… Maxwell Deter. What was the connection with those two? Clark stood off to the side of the partition and eavesdropped for several moments.
"So what did Thorul want? Do you think he suspects that we’ve been in touch?"
"No, he's definitely focused on another issue. He's completely fixated on Lane and what she's remembering from Africa. Can't tell you anything else. Professional ethics."
"You still have some of those?"
"Actually, this whole incident has made me clean up my act, Mark. That whole Edge Enterprises scenario scares the Hell out of me now. The money's just not worth it. Damn, I never thought I would ever say that."
"Want to meet at the Metro Club tonight? I seem to get pretty lucky over there when you're with me. We're a great tag team."
"Sure, My last patient is at 5:30, meet you there by 6:30pm."
"Good. See ya."
Clark waited a few extra minutes then popped his head in Mark's office. "We need to
talk," he asserted, in his best official Superman voice.
"Kent! Great to see you back! Sure, sit down," Boyle replied.
"I was thinking the roof might be a better spot," Clark said.
"Oh…*that* kind of talk. Sure, let's go. Want a coffee first?"
"Absolutely."
After filling up their mugs, the two men took the elevator up to the roof. Clark began.
"Look, Boyle, I know you're technically my boss until Monday, but I understand you hit on Lois. You and I already had a go-round back in Brazzaville. She can take care of herself, as you found out the hard way, but I'm warning you, back off. She's going through enough right now without any grief from you. Besides the fact that she's a *very* married woman."
"Kent, I apologize. That woman loves you to death. You probably know I have a reputation as a womanizer."
"Yeah, I've heard."
"I have to admit, I'm infatuated with her, but I learned a very painful lesson."
"You and Deter gave her some kind of trigger word, didn't you?" Clark pressed on. "What was it, to try to make her fall in love with you and leave me? She told me that all of a sudden her mind became jumbled and for a few minutes she didn't even remember who I was. I could have Deter's license revoked if I could prove it."
"Who's Deter? The shrink the Daily Planet's sending her to?"
Clark grabbed Boyle by the shoulders and floated him up in the air. It wasn't as intimidating as he would have liked, since he could only levitate about a foot high now, but it got the point across. "Knock it off. I just heard you on the phone with him. You guys are best buddies. I'm going to find out what you're up to, Boyle. I could be your best friend, or your worst enemy. You're probably in way over your head already. What's it going to be?"
"Kent, I'm not your enemy. LNN and Edge Enterprises are the owners of the Planet. Set your sights for them. By the way, my brother Philip will be joining the editorial team sometime next week also."
"And Lois' sister Lucy and her husband, Will Church, Thorul's assistant, are flying in from San Diego this afternoon," Clark said. "Hail, hail, the gang's all here. I'm going to find out what you guys are up to. Trust me on that. In the meantime, I'm willing to be professional towards you in the bullpen, but that has to go both ways – for this last day only. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
The two men shook hands and headed back down the elevator. "By the way, Kent – I see you don't need to wear the space suit anymore. Have the Kryptonite rings dissipated?"
Not wanting to reveal too much to the enemy, Clark composed his reply carefully. "No, I've got Star Labs working on an antidote. During the day, when the sun is out, the solar energy negates the effects of the rings. I have to wear the suit at night."
Back at Mark's desk, Clark was given his assignment – a "puff piece" for sure – covering the new Mayor's press conference. The only perk was that Perry would be there, introducing his former deputy Mayor as the Acting Mayor of Metropolis.
As soon as he hit the street, he called Lois on the cell phone to see if she wanted to meet him there. Strangely, she wasn't answering the apartment phone or her mobile phone. Fighting a queasy feeling in his stomach, he nonetheless hailed a cab and headed over to city hall. He didn't notice that he had one voice mail message waiting on his cell phone.
~~~~~
After Lois left Star Labs, she hit the sidewalk with the intent of hailing a cab to get back to their apartment. Unexpectedly, a stranger tapped her on the shoulder.
"Ms. Lane?" asked the man, who looked to be around the same age as her and Clark. He spoke with a British accent but was dressed in modern clothing.
"Yes? And you are?"
"My name is Henry Geoffrey Wells."
"As in *H.G. Wells?*" <How many are there, for God's sake?>
"I'm a descendant of the one in my world, yes."
"*Your* world? *Which* world is that?"
"I'm from the same world as the folks you call Joe and Mary Lang. I knew their son and his wife, your twin, intimately."
Lois took a deep breath. How much could one person handle? Since she left Brazzaville, she'd been in a constant state of turmoil. "And what does that have to do with me?"
"I need you to come back to my world to fix some time anomalies that occurred when you and your twin from the other world traveled to San Diego to visit one of the Lex Luthors of your world, the man they call Leonard Thorul."
"Huh? How could a trip to a different universe than yours affect the world Ma and Pa came from? I thought that was pretty much destroyed by the evil Kryptonians, anyway."
"It appears that when my descendant in the other world plucked the Kents from my world, it created a symbiotic relationship between all three worlds."
"How can I help fix all of that?"
"Well it seems that the unhealthy fixation that both the Lex Luthor of my world and the Leonard Thorul of your world had on you created a chaos that threatens to destroy all three worlds. Only you can fix this."
Memories of the picture that Ma had shown her of the Lex Luthor of her world came flooding back. He was an exact duplicate of this world's Leonard Thorul.
"But I thought that the Clark and Lois of your world died –"
"Lex Luthor had a side company he owned called Cadmus Labs. He created clones of Lois and Clark to protect them from the Kryptonians. It's complicated. If you'll come with me, it will be made crystal clear."
"I'm not going without Clark!" Lois asserted.
"If we leave now, I'll be able to bring you back here to this exact spot, one minute into the future. He won't even know you've been gone. Please. Come with me, I implore you. You must come alone."
"I need some proof that you are really who you say you are. Where's your time machine?"
"That archaic device of my great-great grandfather? My dear, we simply hold this device, similar to a cell phone, and we vibrate right out of this time and space continuum into mine." Henry pulled two small electronic devices out of his pants pocket and handed one to Lois so she could examine it.
"Ok, so what proof do you have that you're from Ma and Pa's world? If you know them, why don't we go to Smallville so they can vouch for you?"
"It's important that they don't know of the events back on their world at this time. If we are successful in our endeavor, all three worlds will be changed for the better. I simply ask that you give me your trust, just like you have given to my descendant of your sister world."
<I must be completely nuts. I'm meeting Lucy for dinner at 6:30pm. Clark will freak out if he can't get in touch with me.>
"I'll go, as long as you promise me that I'll be right back. I need to call Clark."
"Don't tell him where you're going. Leave him a generic message. Tell him you're getting your nails done or something."
Giving Henry a dirty look, Lois called Clark's cell phone, and getting his voice mail, said in her best perky voice, "Sweets, I'm going to spend the afternoon pampering myself to make myself feel better. Hair – nails – maybe even a massage. I'll call you later. Hope everything's OK at the Planet. Love you."
Henry and Lois walked over to an alleyway. "Press the green button,' he instructed her. "And all three worlds thank you for this in advance."
Lois looked down at the small device in her palm, and pressed the green button as instructed. Shortly, the world around her faded, to be replaced by a kaleidoscope of colors.
~~~~~
TBC
