Table of Contents **********
From Part 4: **********
“I definitely think now would be a good time to go visit your mom. Maybe she’s remembered something about that night. I’d like to go with you, if that’s okay.”
“Well, besides needing you to come along so you can take me up to New York for a quick trip to get some clothes and things,” she said, fingering the nightie she had finally wrangled away from Clark, “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” she told him, taking his hand in hers. Clark felt his heart swell in response, and he squeezed her hand. He never wanted to be apart from this woman again. Not for the rest of his life.
**********
PART FIVE: **********
“Mom?” Lois said, knocking lightly on the door leading into Ellen’s room. “Can we come in?”
“Lois?” Clark heard a voice that he recognized as Ellen Lane coming from inside. The door opened, and a woman he remembered from his past life stood there grinning at them.
“Oh, Lois, it is you!” she said, opening the door wider and throwing her arms around Lois. She hugged her sweetly and then stepped back, looking at Clark with an appraising eye. “And who is this?”
“Um, this is...” Lois paused. Clark knew why. What should she call him? He knew what she probably wanted to call him – her husband. But that probably wouldn’t sit well with her mom. And yet boyfriend sounded so cheesy, like they were back in high school or something. Clark intervened on her behalf.
“Clark Kent, Mrs. Lane. I’ve known your daughter for a long time. She’s told me a lot about you. I feel like part of the family already,” he said, throwing a teasing smile at Lois.
“I like him. He’s cute,” Ellen told her daughter. Then she turned to Clark, “I keep telling her that she needs to find someone. I don’t know why she turned Dr. Deter down. I know Max is my doctor, but that shouldn’t matter. But then again, if she had you, I can see why,” she said, giving him an appreciative look.
“Honey, you didn’t tell me *Max* had asked you out,” he told her with emphasis.
Lois blushed. “Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it that. I told you he asked me out for lunch a couple of times.”
“Lunch nothing,” her mother continued.
“Mom,” Lois tried to interrupt her.
Ellen didn’t take the hint. “He wanted to take her to Aspen for the weekend not too long ago. Woo, talk about a romantic getaway. Snow-capped mountains, roaring fireplace, I was at a loss to figure out why she turned him down.”
“Okay, Mom, I’m sure Clark doesn’t want to hear about that,” Lois told her with a warning tone in her voice.
Ellen seemed to pick up on it, finally. “So tell me, Clark, how did you meet my Lois?”
Clark’s mind was still back on the thought of Lois in the mountains with another man. He definitely didn’t like this guy, Deter. So, Ellen’s question caught him off guard. He thought fast. “We, uh, met through some mutual acquaintances at the Planet. I’m a reporter for the Daily Planet where Lois used to work.”
“Oh, how nice. I imagine the two of you have a lot in common then.”
“You have no idea,” he told her meaningfully.
“That’s good. A couple needs to share common interests; obviously that was the problem with Lois’ father and me. Though I doubt anyone could have much in common with that man. He’s...”
“Mom, how have you been?” Lois jumped back in and asked her.
“Oh, pretty good. Max seems pleased with the progress I’ve made. I can call him if you’d like to talk with him.”
Lois looked at Clark’s face and seemed to be making a private appraisal of that possible situation. “No, that’s okay. I’d rather just talk with you.” Clark couldn’t say that he was disappointed at not having to meet the good doctor.
“What progress have you made?” Lois asked her.
“Not anything helpful lately, most of what I seem to remember is just nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” Lois asked her.
“Yes, remember how I’ve told you that I seemed to remember talking to the man before he attacked me?”
“Yes, and I remember telling you that didn’t seem like it made much sense. Why talk to you, allow you to possibly ID him before striking you and then leaving you lying unconscious on your living room floor?”
“I know. But I’ve begun to remember some of the things I heard him say.”
“Really? What?” Lois asked intently.
“I remember him asking me how it felt to know I would be single-handedly saving the world from its own doom.”
“By getting hit over the head and left for dead? What a weirdo!” Lois exclaimed.
“Did you recognize him? Or did he happen to say his name?” Clark asked her, unable to sit quietly any longer; his reporter’s instincts coming into play. Maybe they would recognize the name.
“He stayed in the shadows so I never saw him. That’s the one thing I’ve been able to remember very clearly - he never told me his name. The only name I’ve been able to remember makes absolutely no sense at all.”
“What Mom? What name?”
“Herb.”
“Just Herb?” Clark asked her.
“Yes, that name is in the one other thing I remember my attacker saying. He said ‘Herb, I almost wish I could let you live long enough to see this through. But your time traveling days are over.’ I heard that right before I felt the blow to my head. Max and I have talked extensively about this part of my memory, trying to decipher what I seem to remember happening. So far we haven’t had much success. Anyway, Max thinks...”
“What am I being accused of?” came a man’s voice from the doorway.
“Max!” Ellen shouted excitedly.
“Good morning, Ellen. Hello again, Lois. Back to torment me some more?” Dr. Maxwell Deter walked up to Lois giving her a light hug and then gave Ellen a pat on the shoulder. His eyes slowly made their way around the room until they met up with Clark’s. Clark narrowed his eyes slowly in estimation of the man.
“Hmm. I don’t believe we’ve met,” Deter said, extending his hand. Clark took the hand, squeezing it just a little too harshly. Deter withdrew it, shaking it. “Wow, that’s some grip you’ve got there.”
Lois cleared her throat, probably as a warning. “This is Clark Kent, award winning journalist for the Daily Planet.”
“Lois is seeing Clark, Max, so you don’t have to spend the rest of our time today trying to woo her,” Ellen said and Lois blushed fiercely. It was Deter’s turn to narrow his eyes at Clark in estimation of his competition.
“Really? I had no idea you were seeing someone, Lois. This must be a recent development, but that would explain why you haven’t returned my phone calls the past few days.”
Phone calls? There was definitely something more here than Lois was letting on.
“Yeah, sorry Max,” Lois apologized. “I know I told you I’d give you an answer, but I’ve been busy lately; and I wasn’t sure how to break the news to you.”
“Lois, here, turned me down flat when I offered to take her to Aspen with me,” Deter said, directing his commentary to Clark. “Told me she wasn’t ready for something like that; but she said the next time I took a trip to try her again. I’m planning a trip to San Francisco next month. I thought the excitement there might be more her style, but obviously she’s had a better offer in the meantime.”
Everyone stared at each other in awkward silence for a few moments and Deter began talking again to break it. “So, how are you feeling today, Ellen? You look spectacular. Hey, if I can’t flirt with your daughter, I’ll content myself to flirting with you instead,” he said, flashing both women a handsome smile. Clark felt himself frown. He *really* didn’t like this guy.
**********
They didn’t stay any longer than they had to at the Center. Clark had endured enough of Deter to last him the rest of his life, and Ellen hadn’t been able to give them any more useful information. They were just getting ready to leave the Center when a vision hit Clark. He had been standing there watching Lois as she gave Deter a light hug and said goodbye. That’s when it hit him.
There were flashes; Lois hitting her head, being in a wheelchair at a clinic, and then looking at him confused. She didn’t seem to know who he was. She waved goodbye telling him she’d see him. The vision shifted and Lois was standing in front of him telling him that she was in love, but she hadn’t told *him* yet. Him who? He wondered. Her mouthed formed the name ‘Maxwell Deter’. Then there were images of Deter telling Clark that he mustn’t tell Lois about how he felt about her; that it could destroy the progress that had been made with Lois’ mind. Then Lois was in front of him yelling at him - What was wrong? It couldn’t be worse than what she was imagining, was she dying? She was yelling at him to tell her, and he blurted out, I love you!
Clark came out of the vision, feeling the anger rising in him. This man had tried to take Lois away from him and would have done it again if he’d been given the chance. Clark strode purposefully towards them as Lois was trying to break free from Deter’s attentions. He turned his hearing on them as he got closer.
“Well, if things don’t work out between you and Mr. Kent, please look me up. We’ll go to dinner again sometime,” Deter was saying to her.
“Oh, uh, that’s nice of you to offer but...”
“You don’t need to worry about things working out between me and Lois. They already have worked themselves out. We’ll be leaving now, Mr. Deter,” Clark said, deliberately leaving out the respectful title of ‘doctor’. He took Lois by the arm, leading her away from Deter and out the front door of the Center.
“What was that all about?” Lois asked him. “I realize that you might be feeling a little jealous but nothing’s ever happened between Max and me, I swear. You practically bit his head off back there,” she said, a look of astonishment on her face.
Clark knew why she had that look. He was normally calm, mild-mannered even, but that man brought all kinds of unpleasant thoughts into his mind, mostly of what he’d like to do to him. “He tried to take you from me once...before...”
“Really? Did you have another vision?”
“Yeah, back there in the clinic. I had brought you here for him to treat you. I guess you were suffering from some sort of amnesia. You didn’t remember me, and you ended up falling in love with him.”
Lois was standing there staring at him, a look of concentration on her face; it almost looked like she was staring through him. “Clark, I remember. Oh, honey, I’m sorry. No wonder he had your dander up.”
“I wouldn’t say he had my dander up, exactly,” Clark said defensively.
Lois laughed softly and then kissed him lightly on the lips, letting it linger for a few seconds. “Come on take me home. I think I know just the thing to make you feel better. Maxwell Deter isn’t going to steal me away again, I promise.”
Clark looked at her questioningly, his eyebrows lifted. Did she mean what he thought she meant? She smiled shyly at him. He left her side briefly to make a quick trip through some nearby trees, re-emerging dressed as Superman. He scooped her up and took to the air.
“Honey, what about the car? It’s a rental!” Lois asked him incredulously.
“Forget the car, flying’s faster. I’ll come back for it later,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck and kissing it. She giggled softly.
**********
They flew back to his apartment in record time. Clark set them down on the balcony of his apartment building, his hands already working with the buttons on Lois’ blouse. Her hands were busy groping for the zipper on the back of his suit. They made their way inside the apartment to the privacy it held, leaving a trail of clothes in their wake.
They fell together on the bed, their bodies a tangled mass of arms and legs, reaching, groping, feeling.
“Clark?” Lois said his name breathily.
“Yes?”
“Did you recognize...” Lois was interrupted by the kiss Clark was applying firmly to her mouth. “Ungh,” she groaned when their lips parted. “That name?”
“What name?” he replied absent-mindedly, nibbling on her ear. He moved his hands down her body, sensuously caressing her.
“Ohhh! Clark! Umm, Herb.”
“Herb?” the name sounded familiar, but all higher brain functions were failing him at the present moment. “Lois?”
“Yes?”
“Can we please talk about this later?” he begged her, applying a little incentive to a certain part of her body.
“Oh god, yes, Clark. Later. Much later,” came her urgent reply.
***********
“It’s like having a second honeymoon. Except that we never really got to have the first one,” Lois whispered in his ear.
Clark adjusted her body lying next to him in bed so that he could look into her face. He wished he could stay wrapped in this moment for a little longer, but Lois’ stomach was vying for attention from him. “No, but I seem to remember that we had to stop to eat that time, too. I don’t need to eat, but I tend to forget that you do.”
Lois giggled. “Sorry. I was hoping you didn’t hear that. I guess I can’t live on love alone,” she paused and then squeezed him a little tighter. Do you remember those two weeks we spent on our honeymoon?”
“More clearly than any memory I’ve ever lived.”
“I don’t want you to think that I don’t love *this*. I do, but...”
“You wish there was someway to get things back the way they were.”
“Yeah. I miss everything. Not just you. I miss working at the Planet; I miss our house, our life.” Her eyes looked a little glassy.
“I know. We still don’t have all of our memories back yet. Maybe there are still more clues to be found. You were saying something before about that name, Herb.”
“Yes. Doesn’t it sound familiar to you? Mom said she remembered her attacker saying that name.”
“She also mentioned something about time travel, though. As much as I hate to admit it, your mom really may need the help she’s getting. Time travel? That’s a little out there.”
“Yeah, I know, and yet something about it feels so familiar.”
Clark started to say something else when he heard a soft rumble coming from Lois’ mid-section, again. “I think I’d better take care of another need you’re having before we do anything else,” he said, getting out of bed and spinning into his suit.
Lois giggled. “How about some Chinese? I seem to remember that you know a great little place that has fortune cookies with fortunes written in Chinese.”
“Your wish is my command, my lady,” he said, making a little bow before her. She giggled again.
**********
It hadn’t taken Clark more than a handful of minutes to grab Lois some authentic Chinese food and make it back to his apartment, but he arrived to find her sound asleep. Apparently her need to recoup some energy was more than just needing to eat something.
He floated himself down onto the bed next to her, trying not to disturb her. He lay awake for a while just watching her sleep, watching her chest heave as she breathed in and out, watching the movement of her eyes as they fluttered behind her eyelids. She was dreaming; and the last thought he had before he joined her was of a man named Herb and time travel.
That really was H.G. Wells, Lois was saying. And that really was a man from the future. I think he’s gone back in time to try and kill you as a baby. Do you think you can build this? She asked him, handing him an old, complicated looking blueprint. Clark took the paper looking at it, taking in all the designs. It may take a few hours, he told her. Then came the flashes. Scenes of him and Lois traveling through time, saving him as a baby; and H.G. Wells taking Tempus away.
Clark woke up grabbing for the notepad that he still had by his bed. He sketched out the drawing of the time machine he’d seen in his dream. He could fix this. He could go back to when things had changed and fix it. His excited movements managed to wake Lois from her slumber. She sat up and leaned against him, looking over his shoulder at his drawing.
“We seem to keep dreaming the same things, don’t we? So Herb is H.G. Wells. Does that make Tempus the man who attacked my mom?” she asked him.
“It would seem so.”
“But why would he do that? And why hasn’t Mr. Wells come here to help us? I seem to remember him always showing up at the most inopportune moments.” Clark nodded his head at her remembering their honeymoon night. “Why hasn’t he shown up now, when we really need him?”
“Think about it, Lois. Remember what your mom told us. Her attacker said ‘I almost wish I could let you live Herb, but your time traveling days are over.’ I think we have to assume,” Clark paused, emotion threatening to overwhelm him. It was true that Mr. Wells had always shown up just when they didn’t want him to, but it was always to help them; always with their best interests at heart. It was always to save Utopia. “That he’s dead. I don’t think he’ll be coming to help us. Tempus hated Utopia, and I think this was another attempt to destroy it. If he could get rid of H.G. Wells and keep us from ever meeting, Utopia might not ever happen.”
“But he failed. We found each other. I think we would always find each other, no matter what,” she said, wrapping her arms around him.
“Lois, honey, I need to know something.”
“What?”
“I need to know how badly you want to get back to our life before.” Clark wished this could be easier.
“I would give anything to go back to the way it was before.”
“Even if it meant someone had to die?”
Lois scooted around the bed and pulled on him until he was facing her. “Clark, what’s wrong? What are you talking about? Have you figured out a way to fix this?”
Clark took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He opened them to find Lois’ worried eyes staring back at him, patiently waiting for his answer. “Yes. I’ve found a way to fix this.”
Her eyes went wide with hope. “How?”
“In my vision, I saw the blueprints for the time machine. I built it. I remember building it, what parts I need and what I have to do. I think maybe I could build it, again.”
Lois grabbed a hold of him excitedly and hugged him tightly. “That’s wonderful! So let’s get started.”
Clark winced visibly and reminded her, “Remember I said, even if it meant someone had to die?”
She pulled away from him, looking at him with concern. She searched his face with her eyes, and finally a knowing expression came across her face. “Mayson,” she said simply.
He nodded his head at her. “I can build this machine, and we can go back, stop Tempus from attacking your mom. We can change everything back. But, if we do, then Mayson dies, again.” Clark looked away from her, trying to hide the emotion in his eyes.
“It’s not fair,” came Lois’ soft reply.
“I know.”
“I can’t let you do it, Clark. If you do this, you’ll never forgive yourself, and we can still have a life together, now.”
“But how can I forgive myself for robbing you of the life you had, when it’s in my power to go back and give it to you? Plus, there are other things to consider. Tempus has killed H.G. Wells, or at least we assume that’s what happened. Is it fair to trade his life for hers? What about other people who may have died because of Tempus changing history? People I may have saved, if things had been different? I don’t know what to do. This is so frustrating,” he said, running a hand through his hair.
As he stood contemplating the disturbing thoughts running though his mind, a buzzing sound caught his attention. He glanced around the room; it was coming from Lois’ purse. “Do you have a cell phone or a pager?” he asked.
“Yeah, a cell phone, why?” she answered.
“I think it’s going off. Your purse is vibrating.”
“Oh!” Lois exclaimed, running to her purse and rummaging through it looking for the item. By the time she found it, it had stopped vibrating. “It was Jonah.”
“Who?”
“Oh, I forgot, you don’t know him. Mr. Jameson. J. Jonah Jameson, the editor for the Daily Bugle and my boss.” Lois listened to the voice mail he’d left for her, cringing and squinting her eyes at the loud booming voice; Clark could hear it even without super-hearing.
“It seems that my honeymoon has come to an abrupt end,” she told him, sounding disappointed. “There are two other reporters out sick, and he’s practically begging me to come back to work.”
“Begging? Sounded more like demanding to me,” Clark noted, feeling slightly irritated. He knew she would have to go back to work sooner or later, but he’d hoped it would be a little later than sooner.
“Oh, that’s just Jonah. He’s all bluster and no bite, trust me. Clark, how many days did you ask off for?”
“I didn’t know how long it was going to take me to figure this out, so I took the whole week off.”
“Has Perry called you yet, to try and get you to come back in?” she asked hopeful.
“No, actually he hasn’t. I’m sure Jimmy’s trying really hard to make an impression on him while I’m gone. Are you suggesting I come with you?”
She smiled shyly at him. “Well, I was hoping...”
“Then I will. Let me pack a few things, and we can be on our way.”
“Actually, what I was thinking is that you could run me up there so I could get Jonah off my back; and while I’m doing that, you could come back here,” she paused meaningfully.
Clark tried to read into her pause. What did she want him to do? And then it hit him, he knew. “I could come back here and pack; and have that talk with Mayson.”
She nodded her head at him. He felt a knot beginning in the pit of his stomach. He knew she was right. He needed to talk to Mayson. It wasn’t fair to just ignore her like this, leave her out of the loop. But he definitely wasn’t looking forward to it. “Okay, grab your stuff and let’s get you back to work before Mr. Jameson calls looking for you again.”
**********
Clark started to follow Lois up the pathway leading to her front door. She stopped and turned to face him. “Honey, I’m just going to take a quick shower, throw on some appropriate clothes and head over to the Bugle as fast as I can. I know you’re dreading what you have to do; but the sooner you do it, the sooner you can put it behind you.”
“Yeah, I know. I just hate leaving you.”
She smiled affectionately at him. “I hate that you have to leave me, too. But I did live all by myself for years without you.”
He smiled sheepishly at her and bent over to apply a soft kiss to her cheek. “Okay, well don’t forget to talk to Jonah about whether or not he might want another reporter on board. Since he seems so desperate right now, this might be a good time to bring it up.” Clark wanted to be as close to Lois as possible until they decided for sure what they were going to do. And if they decided to live the life they had been dealt, then all the better if he was already in place working for the Bugle.
“Yeah, I will. Now go, and hurry back.”
Clark reluctantly turned away from her and took to the sky. He looked back and watched her as she continued her walk up to her front door. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. She turned back and waved to him. Then, she lifted her key and inserted it into her front door, and Clark heard it - a tweeting noise as if something was being armed. No!
“Lois, stop!” he screamed at her. He knew her mind had heard him, but her body wasn’t reacting fast enough to his warning. He watched as she began to turn the key. He was already on his way down to her to push her out of the way, but it felt like he was trying to swim through wet cement. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion; and, as fast as he was, he wasn’t fast enough.
The explosion blew Clark backwards and threw him into the trunk of a nearby tree. He braced his feet against the tree and pushed off, propelling himself towards the wreckage in front of him.
He couldn’t see her body in the tangled mass of boards and rubble. He scanned the area with his x-ray vision and located her beneath the remains of the front door. He ran to the pile to jerk the debris off of her, but he froze. He was terrified of what he would find.
A soft moan snapped him out of his trance. A spark of hope ignited in him and then died just as quickly as he began lifting pieces away. The site that met his eyes caused his legs to give way beneath him. He dropped down on his knees next to Lois. There were cuts and abrasions on her exposed skin and a trail of blood was leaving her mouth. He was afraid to x-ray her body, afraid of what he would see. She was still alive; he could still sense her heartbeat, but the beats were coming slow and soft. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she looked at him, the pain obvious in her eyes. He reached out for her and hesitated, afraid that if he touched her she might break – that this moment might break.
“Oh, Clark,” came a soft whisper from her barely parted lips.
“Shhh. It’s okay, honey, you’re going to be all right,” he said, fighting back tears. “I’m going to lift you up and fly you to the hospital. You’ve got to hang on for me, okay?”
“I love you,” she breathed out. No! No, please! She was trying to say goodbye.
“No, Lois, please don’t do this. You’ve got to fight. Stay with me,” he said, openly crying now as he lifted her off the ground and out of the rubble as gently as he possibly could.
“Clark...I...” She tried once more, and then she was gone.
Clark hugged her body to him gently, rocking back and forth. “No! No, don’t leave me. Please,” he begged her. He lay her down in a patch of soft grass and began administering mouth to mouth. Over and over he tried to breathe life, push life, back into her lungs, but there was no response; she was gone.
Clark felt nauseous; the world seemed to be spinning, and he passed out.
**********
To Be Continued...
