Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Northern Lights -- Part Eleven

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Part Eleven

David stood on the spot for a moment, her sultry voice and the words echoing in his head, knowing he’d heard that sound and those words before. And he had met that woman standing in front of him before, wearing that same robe with her wet hair hanging down--and she wasn’t Anna McLaren.

When he had first entered Anna’s room, he had thought he was experiencing one of those elusive deja vu moments, but it was Anna who was standing in front of him, not the woman he had dubbed Cinderella who was as ephemeral as a memory, something that slipped through his fingers like gossamer and was lost. She wasn’t real. Anna was.

But that slip of the tongue and her reaction afterwards... His head began to pound as he felt the blood coursing to his temples. She had been playing games with him all along. Using him. How could she?

"I can’t believe you did that to me?" Words that had been stuck in his throat began to tumble out.

"David, I’m sorry..."

"What kind of games have you been playing with me? You tell me you don’t date, but you seduce me?"

"David, I’m so sorry..." Anna stepped forward reaching for him, but the last thing David wanted was to be touched by her. He waved her hands away and stepped back.

"I know there’s no excuse...but let me explain."

"Explain? There’s no explanation."

"Please!" Anna sank down on the bed, her face in her hands. David could see her shoulders shaking. He heard her sobbing, but he refused to let her tears move him. She was the one who snuck around, took advantage of him, lied to him.

"What am I? An easy lay?"

Anna gasped. "David, please. It’s not that. It’s anything but that."

"How many other guys have you done this to?"

"You’re the only one," she whispered.

"You expect me to believe that when you’ve lied to me from the beginning. Who are you, anyway? What kind of a person does this?" He strode around the room, flailing his arms in the air. "You’re a witch casting spells on unsuspecting dupes. And I’m the biggest one of all because I let you lead me on...and turn me on."

Her sobs growing louder, but he wouldn’t let them influence him. He refused to look at her in fear that she had some magic formula to sway him from his anger. She used her powers to influence him, to manipulate him to be attracted to her--twice. And she was probably using the tears to make him pity her when really she was laughing inside.

"I didn’t mean to hurt you," she murmured into her hands.

"You expect me to believe that after you seduced me and then told me over and over again that you don’t date. What are you, anyway?"

Anna gasped.

David ran his hands through his hair, trying to control the angry tears forming in his eyes.

Once again he was at a loss for words. All he wanted to do was curse and scream at her. He noticed the tray of drinking glasses on the table and, unable to stop himself, swiped the glasses off the table and watched as they shattered onto the floor. Surprised by the vehemence he felt, he took one last look at Anna who was staring at the shattered glass, and walked out of the room. Just before he slammed the door behind him, he heard Anna sob and whisper, "I knew you wouldn’t understand."

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Lois, curious to know what happened after Henderson searched the TAL warehouse and offices walked straight towards Henderson’s desk in the MPD precinct office. Instead of the laconic Henderson, she found Anna McLaren sitting at his desk. Anna looked pale, staring off into the distance, not seeming to focus on anything, Lois thought.

"How did your date go last night?" Lois asked.

Anna didn’t say anything for a moment. Then, as if she finally processed what Lois had said, she answered in a monotone, "It wasn’t a date, just dinner."

Something went bad, Lois thought and then remembered her first date with Clark. She had slammed the door on him when he’d said good-night, but neither she nor Clark had been as destitute as Anna looked. In fact, looking back now, Clark probably saw her rejection of him as another hurdle he had to jump. Thank goodness for Clark’s tenacity. If not for him and his belief in her, in them as a couple, they wouldn’t be married today.

"McLaren, line 1," someone called.

Anna picked up the phone in front of her, identified herself, and nodding her head, scribbled notes on a pad of paper and interjected an occasional "uh-huh" into the conversation. When she hung up the phone, she looked at Lois.

"It’s in the hands of the provincial crown attorney," she said. When Lois raised her eyebrow in question, Anna added, " Prosecution. District attorney in this neck of the woods. She’s starting the extradition work so we can bring Newbury to Canada for trial."

"How did you get to this point overnight?" Lois asked.

"Henderson did the work. He brought Newbury in for questioning about the license plate, wallet and shovel."

"What did he find out?"

"I can’t tell you. You’re a reporter, Lois."

"I’ve been working on this with you from the beginning, even before Henderson got on board."

Anna stared at Lois.

Lois shrugged her shoulders. "You know you can trust me."

Anna stared for another second. "Remember, all of this is off the record."

Lois nodded in agreement.

"Henderson interrogated Newbury last night." Anna seemed to come back to life as she spoke. "He had the license plate which he traced to Hamilton and, of course, Hamilton’s wallet. I called Canada Immigration and Customs and found that the Honda Civic and Newbury’s Jeep had crossed the border within ten minutes of each other."

"That’s still circumstantial, isn’t it?"

"Yes, but that’s for a court to decide. It was enough to bring Newbury in. Furthermore, Newbury was quite nervous while he crossed the border, so the customs official recorded his name and driver’s license number. That means there’s a record at the border of Newbury in his vehicle."

"No record of Hamilton?"

"No. He mustn’t have aroused the guard’s suspicions." Anna paused when Henderson arrived at his desk.

"McLaren?"

"The crown attorney has begun the necessary paperwork."

"When are you going back to Canada?" Henderson asked.

"I just have to make the arrangements."

"Wait a minute," Lois interrupted. "Can you two fill me in here? McLaren was at the part where Newbury crossed the border."

"Once Henderson spoke to the registered owner of the plates, he learned that Hamilton had bought the car from him. Then Henderson arrested Newbury. And here we are."

"Bill, did you interrogate the man? Learn anything from him?"

"Yes, I did Lois. I know my job." Henderson began riffling through some papers on his desk, as if his conversation with Lois was at an end.

"Well?" Lois dramatically crossed her arms and tapped her toe.

"Newbury, without a great deal of persuasion, admitted that he followed Hamilton into Canada. He was supposed to knock him around a bit and get a notebook that he had."

"What kind of notebook?" Lois asked.

"He didn’t know. He was just told that he needed to bring back this notebook to Metropolis. He had lost Hamilton in the woods for about a half hour, but picked up his trail when Hamilton was tossing something that looked like a shovel, into the lake. He started chasing Hamilton. When he finally caught up to him, he wanted to slow him down, so he whacked him on the head with his shovel. He says he didn’t mean to kill him."

"And you believe him?"

"Surprisingly, I do."

Lois eyed Henderson suspiciously.

"Newbury’s not too smart," Henderson said.

"Anyone who leaves the victim’s wallet and license plate lying in his car after he murders him, isn’t working with a full deck," Anna said.

"I remember," Lois said, "after the Church vigilante group was disbanded, Newbury held me up in an elevator in the Daily Planet. Like he could get away with it."

"What happened?" Anna asked.

"Superman rounded up a couple of MPD’s finest and was there when the elevator doors opened.

"Like I said, not too smart."

"Meanwhile the crown attorney," Anna added, "is deciding whether to lay charges for murder or manslaughter. Perhaps she could lay a second charge for stupidity."

"So who told him to go after Hamilton in the first place?" Lois asked.

"Newbury admitted that it was his boss, Marcy Turcovic, but she never told him why she wanted the notebook."

"Do you have evidence, other than Newbury’s word, to link the two?"

"Some," said Anna. "Henderson’s people found payroll statements in the TAL office for both Newbury and Turcovic, and Newbury’s vehicle was registered to TAL."

"Has Turcovic talked?"

"Lawyered up," Henderson said.

"The problem is that there’s no motive. Why were they after Hamilton? What was in the notebook?"

"I still think Emil knows what this is all about," Lois said.

"Very possibly," Henderson concurred. "But he isn’t talking."

"Can I tell this to Shelley Hamilton?" Lois asked.

"I’ll let her know we have Newbury and Turcovic in custody. And Lois, don’t print any of this until you get the go ahead from me," Henderson warned.

"Got it."

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Lois leaned against her Cherokee, waiting outside the police station for Anna and Henderson to finish the paper work that would expedite Newbury and Trucovic’s extradition. She saw the two police officers shake hands at the front door before Anna left the building and headed out. Lois took two steps toward Anna.

"I was hoping we could talk," Lois said.

Anna didn’t seem surprised. She probably knew that David had told Clark and her about Anna’s episode in the TAL warehouse, and that Clark and she must have figured out who Anna was.

"I guess it’s time that we spoke together," Anna said.

"I spoke to David yesterday," Lois began as the two women got into the Cherokee. "He was really excited about taking you to dinner, asked me to suggest a romantic restaurant..."

"Is this about David?"

"In part. There’re other things I want to talk to you about, but I thought we’d go back to my place. Clark is waiting there."

"I don’t think my relationship with David is any of your business."

"Probably not, but I think I have some experience here that may change your perspective on David."

"Lois, our perspectives aren’t the same and neither are our experiences." Anna refused to look at Lois. Instead, she stared out the window.

"My first date with Clark was...well, it was incredible. Easily the best date I’d ever been on. At least until he walked me back to the door of my apartment."

Anna turned to look at Lois, who could tell that something in what she’d said had caught Anna’s attention, so she pushed on. "He went to kiss me good night and I actually slammed the door in his face."

Anna looked back at the window. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t what had happened. But whatever had, it had happened when David had taken her back to the hotel.

"Of course, our whole relationship was complicated by the fact that…" Lois hesitated. She’d not yet confirmed that Anna knew about the connection between Clark and Superman. After a moment, she realized that she had absolutely no doubt that Anna knew. "…that he lied to me for so long about Superman."

Anna snorted. "Well, at least that’s not going to be a problem for us," Anna muttered.

‘Right on!" Lois thought. Either she had told David that she was Kryptonian or somehow he had figured it out. Lois instantly changed tracks. "When I first learned the truth about Clark, I was really angry at him because he’d kept the fact he was Superman from me. That was an important issue we had to deal with."

"It bothered you that he was Kryptonian?"

"No, not at all. That was amazing. No. What angered me was that he had lied to me for close to two years."

"So you got over it and everything was fine..."

"You’re not listening," Lois said. "Because he’s Superman, we had a lot of relationship and role issues to deal with. We always talked...well, not immediately, but we talked and we worked things out. You and David need to talk. Tell him, if you haven’t already..."

"I don’t think it matters anymore. He’s figured out who I am, and he doesn’t like it."

"He loves you."

"Loved me. I know he did, but not anymore. Even if I could offer him a normal life..." Anna sighed, "he...wouldn’t want it...anymore."

"You don’t know that, not until you’ve talked," Lois said, patting Anna on the shoulder.

"He left this morning. No word. No message. Just checked out and left on the first plane out. Earlier than he was scheduled to."

"You had a fight?"

"You could call it that."

Lois stopped the car. "We’re here," Lois said.

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Clark placed the cookies on a platter and headed for the living room. To be honest, he was a bit nervous not knowing how to begin the conversation with Anna. For the first time in his life he was going to meet someone who was like him, who had experienced many of the same highs and lows of having superpowers. But up until now, this woman hadn’t wanted to meet him, and that worried him.

Lois and Anna were sitting together on the sofa drinking their coffee when he entered the living room carrying a plate of cookies.

"Anna, talk to David," Lois was saying. "I’m sure that whatever happened between you can be overcome."

"I’d rather not talk about David. You said you had something else to talk to me about. I assume, from the way you mentioned Superman earlier, that you’ve figured out who… or what I am." She nodded to Clark as he entered the room. "I’m probably Kryptonian the way you are."

"Probably?" Clark asked.

"The only reason I think that I’m Kryptonian is that I have the same talents as you do, but I have no proof that I’m from anywhere but earth."

"But Kryptonite affected you."

"Yes, it did."

"How?"

"I wasn’t my normal self. I was vulnerable."

"Yes, I noticed. Nice hair cut," said Lois.

"Thanks. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to have my hair cut and styled professionally."

"Why not?" Lois asked.

"Can’t see what I’m doing at the back."

"You can’t? That shouldn’t be a problem. I use a mirror to reflect my x-ray vision and use it to cut my hair, and to shave," Clark said.

"A mirror? Never thought of that."

"See, that’s why you two need to talk. It would be like having a brother you could bounce ideas off. You wouldn’t feel so alone," Lois said.

Anna laughed in response. "What I don’t need, Lois, is another brother. I have four of them already. And alone is something you don’t feel in my family."

Lois looked puzzled. Clark knew that the idea of not being alone in a family setting was something Lois was just learning. Clark always had his parents, but he missed having anyone his age to share the changes he was undergoing as a teenager.

"We’re like threads in a sewing kit," Anna continued. "We start off separate, but as you reach deeper, we’re tangled and knotted, and it’s next to impossible to separate us."

"Not much privacy."

"No. But it’s also soft and cozy." Anna took a sip of her coffee. "Now that we’ve found each other, Clark, what are you looking for?"

" I thought my parents and Lois were enough, but then, around eight months ago, when I was helping out at a disaster in China, I found a small space ship similar to the one I was found in. We took the remains to Star Labs where Dr. Klein, a friend of ours, found it was a Kryptonian baby girl."

Anna gasped. "Another one?"

"Yes. Before that I had accepted I was the only one; afterwards, I hoped there were more of us. I liked the idea of having a sister. Lois and I tried finding if anyone else was like me, but I had no luck. Not enough information. And then David came to us and said that you were ill, and..."

"We put two and two together," Lois said. "You had to be Kryptonian so we did a search, and we found out you had a similar background to Clark’s."

"When did you figure out I was Superman?" Clark asked.

"A few months after Superman appeared. His talents were too similar to mine for us not to be the same. So I did some detective work, and it made sense that you were Superman."

"Why didn’t you contact me?"

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tbc