From Chapter 31:
"Star Labs is working on getting me back to full speed," Clark replied carefully to Will's insinuation that he was no longer *Super*man. "Bernie Klein assures me I'll be as good as new shortly. In the meantime, as an investigative reporter, I don't need any special powers – just a nose for news and a hunger for the truth," he asserted.
It was at this point in time the Lane women reappeared to save the day.
"The waiter told me that our table is ready," Lucy said, a vision of renewed perkiness. Grabbing her husband's hand, she instructed, "Will, let's go. I'm starving!"
Clark lagged behind Will and Lucy so he could have a few moments alone with Lois. "Did you tell her? He's a real SOB, Lois. I really hope you told her," he said passionately.
Lois blinked in surprise at Clark's declaration. Never had she known her husband to speak badly of someone so quickly. "I told her. Now we need to get through dinner somehow. Let's just try to keep the conversation light – you know, the weather and such."
"I hear a thunderstorm is on its way," Clark growled as he followed Lois into the dining area.
and now,
Chapter Thirty-Two: Six Days to Armageddon
Lois drank a little too much wine the night before, trying to kill the anxiety that kept welling up in her. While she had enjoyed spending time with her sister Lucy, her new brother-in-law, Will Church, was quite the snake. She just couldn't stand phonies, especially criminal ones. And the thought that the Lois in Ma and Pa's world didn't have a *sister* Lucy, only a *cousin* Lucy - kept gnawing at her. Never in her life, before now, had six days carried so much significance for her. Even when she was living day to day in the Congo, never knowing where her next meal was coming from, she was somehow able to take a "que sera, sera" attitude about it all. Now every day she was able to spend with Clark was more of a gift than ever! What was destiny all about anyway? Was she fated to be with Clark, no matter what the circumstances? It certainly seemed that way!
Lois dimly realized that it was Saturday morning, and that her head was splitting wide open with a full-blown White Zinfandel hangover. She squinted at the alarm clock glowing at her, and was more than a little surprised to see that it was only 7:00 a.m.! <Damn internal body clock that won't let you sleep on the weekend – oh, Lois Lane, what are you thinking, you haven't really been working lately! Where is Clark?>
She inhaled deeply and the smell of Columbian ground coffee greeted her. "Clark? Are you there?" she called out in a husky voice, full of latent intoxication.
Within seconds, her husband, shirtless and nearly pant less, was standing by the bed holding a steaming cup of coffee for her. He looked good enough to eat, Lois mused. What a body – those chiseled biceps, those pecs…
"How're ya feeling?" he asked, gently helping her sit upright in the bed, then handing her the coffee. "You look like you need this desperately."
"You're so hot, Clark," Lois responded, sipping on the steaming offering. "You *and* this coffee."
Clark smiled back at her. "Right back at ya, honey. Well, maybe not so much this morning…" he joked, staring at Lois' disheveled hair and puffy eyes.
"Watch it, Propaganda! I may be *hung* over, but I'm not a *push* over, in this, or any other life I may have!" Lois spit out.
"Oh… hey, we never talked about this, at least not yet. Do you believe in past lives… reincarnation?"
"Well, when LL and I spent time together she told me about previous trips she and her Clark had taken into their past, where they were together, but as different people, under a variety of different circumstances. It seems that through the centuries, we keep reincarnating together. We're soul mates," Lois replied. "So, yeah, I guess I do believe it. After all, somehow, I feel that when I was in Brazzaville, you communicated with me at night when you were sleeping, and it gave me with the strength to go on."
"Yes, being with you felt so real. I was so upset when I would wake up and find out that I had been dreaming. I felt like I could touch you, smell you…"
"We have a connection that will live forever, no matter what, Clark," Lois said, suddenly filled with hope that in one week, they would still be together, no matter what the world around them looked like.
Clark kissed her, and then winked, "Honey, you *really* need to take a shower. Your breath is a lethal weapon!"
"Yeah, I can even smell it a little myself," Lois realized, unable to argue with him on that point. "Float me to the shower? There's got to be *some* perks to being Superman's wife!" she joked.
"Yes, floating I can still do," Clark replied, lifting Lois and her best friend at the moment, her coffee mug, gently off the mattress. The three of them drifted towards the bathroom silently. Clark started the bath water, heating it to the perfect temperature with one of his remaining powers, while Lois vigorously brushed her teeth to freshen her breath.
Soon they were standing in a steamy shower. Clark took the bottle of liquid soap and began to spread it all over Lois' body, giving her a heavenly rub-down at the same time.
Several romantic minutes later, they emerged from the shower, wet and content. Clark lightly ran his heat vision over Lois' naked body to dry her off and warm her up as well.
The ringing phone interrupted their moment. Lois ran into the living room with barely a towel wrapped around her to grab the phone, hoping that it was news about her DNA test.
"Hello?"
"Lois, it's your mother. I just got off the phone with Lucy, and she told me all about your dinner last night! I thought you and I decided that it was none of our business to meddle in her marriage."
Lois rolled her eyes. Clark had already heard the other side of the conversation with his enhanced hearing. "Mother, this really isn't a good time. I just got out of the shower, and I don't feel very well, either."
"Maybe you're pregnant. Do you have a home pregnancy test?"
"Moth-er! Clark and I don't even know for sure if we can *get* pregnant! Can I call you back later?"
"Ok, honey, but we're not done with this conversation yet. You've got your sister all shook up now. Would you want someone telling you something about Clark that you couldn't prove?"
"Mother, if you had been at dinner last night, you would just *hate* your son-in-law. What a slimeball. Oh, I can't talk about this with you right now. I'll call you back in a few hours." Lois hung up the phone on her mother, even though inwardly she knew that some day she might never hear her mother's voice ever again and to cherish the time they had left.
"Honey… your mother is very unhappy. She's still in love with your father, she's lonely, and she wants her girls to be happy. That's not such a bad thing, is it?" Clark asked, breaking down Lois' defenses with his puppy-dog eyes.
"Clark, if the world was going to end tomorrow, and you knew it… what would you do?"
"Spend every last moment with the woman I dreamed about for so long… you," he replied without hesitation. "And of course, visit Ma and Pa. They're family to me. Why are you thinking that way? I know things have been crazy, Lois, but we'll get through it. Bernie will find a cure for my problem… we'll nail Edge Enterprises… it will all work out."
<Thank God the telepathy is gone right now>, Lois thought to herself. "I'm going to call Bernie right now to see if he got the results of that test back yet. He was going to expedite it for me."
Clark put his hands on Lois' shoulders. "Honey… if Lena is your daughter… what are you going to do?"
"Clark, you *know* she's my daughter! It all fits…all the puzzle pieces match. I've decided that once I had the medical proof, I'm going to fly out to San Diego and tell her. She has a right to know who her mother is. Right now she probably thinks her real parents abandoned her."
"Lois, I totally disagree with this. I'm adopted, so I happen to have some experience in the matter, you know. If she finds out that you're her mother, then naturally, she's going to want to know who the father was. Are you really going to tell her that Lenny Thorul is her biological Dad, when her foster parents don't even know?"
"Well… I haven't thought it all through yet, I guess," Lois admitted. "But if the world ended tomorrow, one of the things on my list would be to spend time with my daughter, try to give her some insight and love…things I didn't get from my own mother."
"How are you going to do that? You're a complete stranger to her, Lois. I can't stop you from doing this, but if I could still fly… I wouldn't bring you out there, as a matter of principle, as I'm totally against this," Clark asserted. "Let's confront Thorul, try to break him down. Maybe we can give the Planet back to Jim if we play hardball with him. The adults screwed up things – don't make Lena pay."
"Ok, I know your position and respect it," Lois said, as she dialed the number for STAR Labs. "Bernie Klein, please."
~~~~~
Martha was just cleaning up the breakfast dishes when there was a knock on the front door. "Herb! What in tarnation are you doing here again so soon?"
"I brought some friends from your world, Martha," Wells replied. "May we all come in?"
Herb stepped aside, revealing his traveling companions - Hank Wells and his partner of many years, Bill Trask, who was the son of their mortal enemy, Jason Trask. "Omigod! Hank, Bill! You're still alive! I didn't think I'd ever see you boys again! Give me a hug!"
"Martha – you look fantastic! This world must agree with you. We miss you so much," Hank gushed. "Where's Jonathan? We have some things we must tell you before time runs out," he said rather ominously.
"He's in the barn. I'll intercom him," Martha replied, picking up their pager. "Jon! You must come to the house right away!"
Jonathan Kent, hearing his wife's voice over the speaker, walked to the barn's entrance; seeing the time machine parked adjacent to the house, he smiled to himself. <Wonder who's coming to dinner this time? Life's sure never dull in this world.>
Entering the house, his smile broadened as he saw who his house guests were. After exchanging handshakes, Herb advised everyone to sit down at the kitchen table for a very serious discussion.
"Martha… Jonathan… we have good news and bad news for you," Hank began. "Lois and Clark didn't die at the hands of the New Kryptonians, as you thought. They're still alive… sort of."
Martha jumped up. "My son and Lois are still alive? Why did you wait so long to tell us? I want to go home *now* to see them. What about my grandchild?"
Jonathan put his arm on Martha's shoulder. "Sweetheart, let's listen to the whole story first before you jump to conclusions. I'm sure they had their reasons for not coming here sooner."
"Quite honestly, until Grandpa Herb arrived in our world, we never knew what happened to you both," Hank explained. "We thought the NK'ers captured and killed you."
"You have no idea how happy we were when we found out Herb had brought you to this world," interjected Bill. "We only recently found out."
"Oh, okay. So tell me where Clark and Lois and our grandchild are," Martha insisted. "How can they be alive? I saw them die with my own eyes."
"Lex had created clones of Lois and Clark after the NK'ers arrived," explained Hank. "You watched the clones die. Lex was so sure that Clark would be Lord Nor's first target, and he was right. He didn't want to tell you until afterwards; he felt you'd be safer without that knowledge, with their telepathy and all. After it was all over, and you disappeared, we all just assumed you were dead."
"So, the NK'ers were thrown out of power?" Jonathan asked. "Those bastards. The way they killed Lana and Pete!"
"Ironically, their own antidote to Kryptonite was what killed them, Jonathan," Hank revealed. "They all died of Kryptonite poisoning in the end. Which is why we had to keep Clark and Lois and the baby on another plane of existence."
"Spit it out, Hank! Where's our son?" Martha urged.
"In a world that can only be described as… the Phantom Zone. Lois gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Clark Junior, but they can't be released back to the earth without jeopardizing the time and dimensional stream."
"For God's sake, boy, that's a lot of mumbo-jumbo. The threat is over, bring them back! What's the problem?" Jonathan spit out.
"It has to do with your *new* daughter-in-law," Herb piped up. "Remember when I took the two Loises back in time to San Diego?"
The Kents both nodded in reply.
"Well, the long and short of it is that by Lois going back in time to meet Lenny Thorul as a teenager, it created a time loop, and inadvertently – created *our* world, Martha and Jonathan. It's a tale of the cat chasing its tail. What came first – our world or the time –travel trip? Hard to say. Cause and effect – without one, you don't have the other. Which is why we're here. In six more days, Lois - *your* Lois – is going to come back to our world to make things right."
"Why Lois? Why can't you go back and fix things, Herb? Lois has had a very difficult time since she returned from Brazzaville. Do you really have to put more weight on her already broad shoulders?" Martha implored.
"Unfortunately, due to the complexities of the time and dimensional stream, yes, it has to be Lois. Hopefully, this time next week, we will all be one world again – and the danger of Armageddon will have passed," Hank said. "Since things may change dramatically, and you may never remember your time here, we have an offer to make to you both."
Jonathan and Martha looked totally perplexed. "Go on," Martha replied.
"We can bring you back to your world and you can communicate with Clark, Lois and your grandson via a phantom zone monitor that Lex created. Would you like that?"
Martha started crying. "Of course we'd like to do that. You even have to ask?"
Jonathan put his arms around Martha as she wept openly.
"Speaking of Lex, Hank, what's he doing these days?"
"He's pretty busy, Jonathan… he's the President of the United States."
~~~~~
Lois and Clark took the elevator to Bernie's office at STAR Labs. They had continued to argue all of the way there about what Lois would do with the information, should the DNA test confirm that she was Lena's mother. They were effectively at a stalemate now, not talking to each other.
As they walked through the door, Bernie turned around with a broad smile. "Lois, congratulations. Whoever's hair that was, he or she is definitely cut from the same cloth as you!"
Lois turned to look at Clark and was surprised by the expression he wore on his face.
TBC
