Summary:
At the end of Tempus Fugitive, right before they return to their time and their memories are wiped, Lois writes herself a note on the back of Perry’s birthday card so she won’t forget that Clark is Superman…
But what if Clark hadn’t spotted it?
And what if Lois had actually been the one to see it instead?
The Card, chapter 1
There was just so much to do, and Lois knew it was going to be one of the busiest days of her long and illustrious career. She had an intriguing lead on a scandal at city hall that she had been following for quite some time, as well as some kind of tip about a new budding crime syndicate that she received late the night before from Bobby Bigmouth, the most reliable of all her sources…
But as she exited the elevator the thought suddenly occurred to her— she had completely forgotten about Perry’s birthday. Somehow, with everything else she had been working on, his birthday had completely slipped her mind…
As she turned the corner around the banister, rushing down the ramp, Lois suddenly tripped over her own feet. She quickly caught herself, preventing an embarrassing spill right onto the floor.
“You’re cutting it close.”
It was Jimmy— and Lois sighed in relief. She was sure Jimmy would save her, just as he always did.
“I’ve still got eight minutes,” she said. “What did I get him?” She paused as Jimmy handed her a gift, carefully wrapped and with a neat bow tied around it— but then, somehow, she suddenly knew exactly what was hidden inside the box… “Don’t tell me— checked suspenders.”
Jimmy raised his eyebrows in confusion. “How’d you know?”
Lois sighed deeply. Ultimately it didn’t matter how she knew— what mattered was getting all of this out of the way so she could focus on what was really important…
“Morning, Lois.”
Lois cocked an eyebrow, glaring at Clark in response.“You’re late,” she said.
She really needed to narrow her focus, cut out the fat. She had been the best journalist in the world for years now, and that was exactly how she had gotten as far as she had— but cutting out every single piece of the fat, and finding the meaty stuff hidden underneath.
And Clark Kent was definitely considered part of that fat.
“Morning Clark,” Clark said jokingly.
Lois would have rolled her eyes in response— she really would have— but something felt off about all of this. It almost felt like they had this exact conversation in the past, but for the life of her she could not figure out when that possibly could have been…
“I’m having the weirdest feeling of deja vu,” she said.
Clark raised his eyebrows. “Don’t tell me, you got him checked suspenders again.”
Lois’s eyes widened in surprise. “How’d you know?”
Clark shrugged. “Well you got him that last year… didn’t you?”
“No, Clark, I’m serious.”
Clark stared at her for a moment, then scratching his chin in confusion. “Well now that you mention it, it does feel like we’ve done all this before…”
“Oh, no,” she said as a thought crept into her mind. She really hated all of this nonsense… “I forgot to get the card… Jimmy!” She started scrambling in her handbag desperately. “Oh, here it is. How’d that get there?”
“Shhh! Here he comes, you guys!”
“Come on!”
Lois rolled her eyes as the elevator dinged, and Perry waltzed right out, a wide grin plastered on his face.
“Hey everybody!” he exclaimed. “Well, I wonder what all this could be…”
Lois huffed loudly, collapsing into her desk chair as everyone around her rushed over to him.
Let them. She had better things to do…
“Aren’t you going to go over there?”
Her head shot up, meeting a familiar pair of dark, brown eyes that twinkled suggestively right at her…
And then, against her will, she felt her heart start racing in response, her heart thumping hard against her ribs.
Lois sighed. That man was a menace.
“Hmph, are you still here?” Lois asked.
Clark pursed his lips. “Well, I DO work here… where else would I go?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Smallville— how about that tiny town in Nowheresville that you came from in the first place?”
“Look, Lois,” Clark said, cocking an eyebrow. “I know you have very important things to take care of—“
“You better believe it,” Lois interrupted.
“But you might want to play the game. You know… it wouldn’t hurt. You have the present already, anyway…”
He smiled at her, a grin that was somehow halfway between a warm smile and a mocking grimace.
Lois glared at him.
“Fine,” she said, yanking the present off of her desk. She grabbed the card too, traipsing across the newsroom and over to Perry’s door. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Clark trailing behind her—
And then, without bothering to knock, she grabbed the doorknob, barging in. Perry’s head shot up from his desk, where he was surrounded by messy piles of presents.
“For god’s sake, Lois, wouldn’t hurt you to knock,” he said.
“No time, chief,” she replied, tossing the present at his desk. He picked it up, contemplating it for a moment.
“Oh, and here,” she added, dropping the card right beside it. “Happy birthday, or whatever…”
She saw Clark approaching from behind and she rolled her eyes, noticing Perry finally picking up the card as she started to turn away. He held it up, jamming his finger under the glued flap, and then he started to tear it open—
And that’s when she saw it.
Or she thought she did…
But it had to have been her imagination. It had to have said something else…
She pivoted back around violently, smacking her shoulder into Clark in the process, and then she narrowed her eyes as Perry finally finished opening the envelope.
“Well, isn’t this lovely,” he said as he pulled the card out. “An empty card! No signature or anything! Well thank you, Lois… I guess…”
“The present, chief, why don’t you open the present,” Clark said, trying to cover for her neglectful mishap.
But Lois could barely hear what was going on around her. It was completely insignificant— especially in light of what she had just seen—
Or thought she had seen.
“Ah, good idea, Kent,” Perry said. “Now, Lois, I can’t wait to see what you bought this year. Your gifts are always so… thoughtful.”
She had misread it. Clearly she had misread it.
The envelope was now flat on the desk, those pesky, mysterious words hidden from view.
The words she had imagined, clearly. It was wishful thinking…
“What in Elvis’s name is this?”
“Um, chief, I think they’re checked suspenders,” Clark said, shifting uncomfortably, as if he couldn’t even begin to figure out how to make this less awkward. “You know what they say, you can never have too many checked suspenders!”
Lois’s head snapped towards Clark, her mouth gaping slightly.
Wishful thinking? This guy? Who the hell did she think she was fooling?
“Really,” Perry replied. “Who says that, exactly? And Lois, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you get me this last year? I’m pretty sure I have a pair somewhere in my dresser and I thought they were from you…”
“Well, chief, it definitely doesn’t hurt to have a spare…” Clark nudged Lois subtly on her shoulder. “Lois— didn’t you have something you needed to work on?”
But Lois barely heard him at all, she was so entranced by the envelope, which was now under Perry’s hand.
She needed to see it.
She needed to know.
So she did what she did best—
And she went for it.
“What in Sam’s hill do you think you’re doing??” Perry exclaimed as Lois suddenly reached for his desk. She violently pushed his hand out of the way, grabbing the envelope by the corner.
“I forgot— I need this—“
She quickly stuffed the envelope into the waistband of her skirt, obscuring it from view—
And then she let out a deep sigh. She would know soon enough.
“You need the envelope??” Perry asked, clearly immensely confused. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Sorry, chief, I gotta go…”
“Lois!! Get back here!” she heard Perry exclaim as she darted away.
But she was too determined. She was too focused. He just didn’t matter in the slightest. Not now, not when she felt the envelope burning into her skin under the tight elastic of her skirt…
She flew back through the door of Perry’s office, still hearing him calling for her repeatedly in the background…
“Lois— what’s going on?”
She blinked, jumping to discover that Clark was suddenly standing in front of her.
Clark. The subject of the words she thought saw on the envelope.
She shivered from the prospect, and the overwhelming, desperate need to get to the bottom of this…
“Nothing, Clark,” she replied, waving him off. “Nothings going on.”
Clark tilted his head, once again cocking an eyebrow. “Really. Do you really think you can fool me like that? If you don’t know this by now, I can read you like a book, Lois.”
Lois narrowed her eyes. “Go away, Smallville. You’re just embarrassing yourself. There’s nothing going on— it’s all in your puny little mind.”
There it was again— that wry, knowing grin. It was as if he knew she was lying, and as if he could see straight through her skull and into her mind…
But even Superman didn’t have that ability.
“Whatever you say, Lois,” Clark replied as he moseyed towards his desk. “I’m sure you’ll let me in on it when you need my help. Just give me a holler, you know where to find me…”
He grinned slyly at her, his eyes twinkling right into hers yet again…
And once again, her heart sped up in response.
She groaned. Damn it to hell with that man.
She let out another annoyed huff, then waltzing right back up the ramp and towards the elevator. The elevator doors opened the second she pressed the button and she jumped in, and then, finally, the doors closed in front of her, closing her off from the chaotic messy world of the newsroom.
And taking her away from Clark. Far, far away…
She continued to feel the envelope pressing against her hip as the elevator descended. The elevator seemed to be going impossibly slow, as if there were something in the shaft preventing its progress. She wondered briefly if Superman was inside there, trying to stop her from finding out the truth—
The truth— which couldn’t possibly be the truth.
Because there was just no way. Absolutely no way. She must have misread it, clearly it said something else entirely.
She knew Clark. She REALLY knew him. She knew him better than she knew anyone, aside from herself, of course.
(Or maybe not… because didn’t he somehow seem to know her better than she could begin to comprehend? Didn’t he seem to know her better than she did?)
The elevator finally came to a stop, letting out a brusque chirp as the doors slid open before her. She barreled out, pushing through the crowds of people in the lobby. She had never been more eager to get out of there in her life…
And then, finally, she coursed through the rotating doors—
And she was free.
The chilly morning air blew through her hair, tossing it over her eyes, and she wiped it away absentmindedly, pushing it behind her ear.
And then her hand drifted to the envelope, which was still nestled in her waistband.
She had originally planned to go home to examine it, but she realized at that moment that she just couldn’t possibly wait.
She needed to see it— NOW.
She darted past the bustling crowds, turning the corner into an abandoned alley beside the Planet building…
And then she finally let out a heavy sigh.
She was alone (aside from the rat that scurried across the outer edge of the building). She was free. And now—
She would know.
Her hands were shaking in anticipation as she reached into her waistband. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever may come—
And then she pulled it out.
Her eyes widened into large, round discs and she gasped loudly, almost dropping the envelope from her suddenly weakened fingers.
She had expected to be wrong about what she saw. She really had.
But no, the words were there, clearly written with a black pen, and even in her own handwriting, no less.
She blinked, expecting the words to change somehow, expecting them to morph into someone else’s longhand…
But no, they just stayed the same. The same words, the same handwriting, that belonged to no one else but herself.
There was no denying it.
And even though she didn’t remember writing it—
She had.
And at some point she had truly believed these words:
“Clark is Superman.”
