Okay! Here we go everyone! The resolution to the "cliffie of doom" - hee hee.
Let's see, do we need a recap?
Part 7 ended with alt-Clark bringing Wells back to his apartment, introducing him to both Loises. We still don't know what's happening with Tempus and our Lois. And then in part 8 we got more insight into the three Clarks and the situation with Jason.
Table of Contents From Part 9:
“Clark, thank you. Thank you for sharing this with me. You have no idea what it means to me.”
“What?” Clark felt confused. What it meant to him? “That I have a son? Why?”
“Because Lois and I weren’t sure that it would be possible for us to have a child.” Clark could hear the sadness, the pain in his other self’s voice. “We wanted one but we weren’t sure that we would be compatible. I had thought about mentioning adoption to her, but it just isn’t the same thing as creating a baby of your own, someone who is a combination of both of you, who belongs to both of you.” His shoulders slumped and a pitiful sigh escaped his lips. “I may not get that chance with her now, and it hurts so much to know that. Yet, somehow it gives me a feeling of completeness, too. To know that I could have given her a child, to know that hadn’t been denied to her when she married me.”
“I’m glad I could do that for you but I wish it could have been under different circumstances.” Clark sighed, feeling the weight of the day closing in on him, suffocating him. “I have to find a way to get back; I can’t stay here. Once again I left my world, thinking I had a good reason to leave, and now my son has lost his mother and his father. I shouldn’t have left him alone. I know that he has Richard, but he can’t grow up without his mother, hopefully not without me either. We have to find a way to fix this.”
(Hee hee - how long could I delay the resolution of the "cliffie of doom"?
**********
PART NINE:
**********
Lois’ body jerked in reaction to the gunshot. She was in shock. He really had fired the gun. She closed her eyes waiting for the pain to hit her, but when it didn’t she opened them again, feeling confused. What? What had just happened?
They had arrived wherever they were going; the light from the machine was dying down. Tempus was fiddling with some of the controls and Lois looked around dazedly trying to discern where she was. There was one light bulb on in the middle of the room, illuminating it, but there wasn’t much to look at. She appeared to be inside some old warehouse or storage building. The place was dirty and pretty much empty.
She turned to Tempus still reeling from shock, her body feeling numb. “Why...? Why did you do that?” she asked, irritated at the tremble she could hear in her voice. She was amazed that she could even hear her own voice after that gunshot. He must have had a silencer on it.
“Do what?” he asked innocently.
“Fire that gun at me and miss like that on purpose!” she spat at him.
“Why, whatever do you mean?” he asked, playing dumb.
She was sick of his games. “You know what I mean!” she screamed at him. “The gun was inches from my head. You can’t miss at that range. Why didn’t you kill me? Why pretend?”
“Why kill you?” he retorted, sounding amused. “By pretending to kill you I got what I wanted; I got to leave your husband behind, grief-stricken at your death...”
She leapt up out of her chair raising her fist to strike him and he grabbed hold of her wrist roughly, spinning her around. She could have kicked herself for leaving herself open to that attack.
“No, no, no, bad Lois. You asked, I’m telling,” he quipped at her as he brought her arm around behind her back. He pulled against her arm and pain shot through her shoulder. If he pulled much harder something was going to break. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep a whimper from trying to escape. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“There was no reason to actually kill you,” he continued, his mouth close to her ear. “By pretending, I hopefully still got the same result.”
“What result?” she bit out through clenched teeth.
“Why, tormenting Superman and keeping him from creating Utopia, of course. Somehow I doubt very much that Clark will be able to pull himself out of the depths of despair that your death has undoubtedly caused him... at least not enough to feel capable of leading our world towards a Utopian society.” He let out a contented sigh and then pulled harder against her arm. A whisper-soft groan escaped from her lips as she felt a tendon pop in her shoulder. That was going to hurt tomorrow.
Tempus laughed quietly in her ear and let go of her arm, pushing her away from him and back down into the chair. She rubbed her wrist where he’d been squeezing it. It was tender; there would probably be a bruise later.
“Oh, and there’s this little bonus.” His eyes gleamed wickedly. “Since I didn’t kill you I still have you to use as leverage against our favorite *other* Clark.”
No! She couldn’t let him use her like that against that Clark again. She wouldn’t. But how was she going to get out of this? She sighed feeling discouraged and her thoughts turned back to her Clark.
Clark.
She’d had to abandon him in order to save him. Was he okay? She hoped that the other Supermen she had left behind were okay as well, but especially Clark. She could only imagine what he was going through. He would think she was dead. He would think it was his fault; he would blame himself.
She felt her nose trying to run and the tears in her eyes. No! No, she wasn’t going to cry. That would mean she’d given up hope, and she hadn’t. She wouldn’t. She’d find a way to get back to him. She had to. She couldn’t think about this now, she had to concentrate on figuring out how to get out of this.
“I must say, Ms. Lane, that you surprised me,” Tempus admitted to her. “That was very brave of you to leave the security of your world to go traipsing off through the galaxy with me, foolish, but brave,” he had a fake smile of respect plastered on his face. She’d like nothing more than to slap it off, but she steadied her hand. She needed to play along. She needed to find out exactly where and when she was so she could formulate some kind of plan.
She needed a miracle.
“Yeah, well it’s not like you gave me much of a choice,” she sneered.
“There is that. But at least you can go to sleep tonight knowing that your dope of a husband is back home safe and sound - grieving no doubt, crying his eyes out – but safe at least... For now.” His smile turned to a smirk.
“What do you mean ‘for now’?” She felt her stomach beginning to tighten.
“Well I never promised I wouldn’t go back later and try to finish the job. I simply promised to leave and take the Kryptonite with me in exchange for your cooperation.” The innocence he was trying to exude made her physically nauseous. “Now I admit it will be a little harder for me to catch them off guard the second time around, but give me enough time,” he snickered, “and I’ll figure it out.”
“They’ll stop you, *he’ll* stop you,” she bit out.
“Oh, I have no doubt he’ll try. His grief will spur him on even more I’m sure, but I welcome the challenge. The hunt is part of the game. After all, what would be the fun in the triumph if there were no tribulation?”
“You’re insane!” she spat angrily at him.
“Am I? You know you’re the second person today to tell me that. The other person was... well why don’t the two of you just get together and have a little party. Herb? You have a visitor!” Tempus turned away from her and stepped down out of the time machine onto the floor.
“You’ve got Mr. Wells here?” Her face fell. If Tempus had him here, then Wells wasn’t coming to stop this, to fix this...
But then her hopes rose. If Wells was here he could help her; they could work together. They’d done it before.
Together they’d find a way to get back.
“Yes, Herb’s here. Now where do you suppose he got off to? His hands and feet were bound so he couldn’t have gotten far. Herb? Come out, come out, wherever you are!” Tempus walked a few feet away from the time machine, his back to Lois.
Wells or no Wells, this could be her chance. Keeping her body planted firmly in her chair she stretched out her arm, quietly reaching for the controls on the time machine. A few quick movements and she had the location programmed.
She caught Tempus moving out of the corner of her eye and she jerked her hand back, letting it rest innocently in her lap. The sudden movement sent a sharp pain through her injured shoulder and she had to bite her lip to repress a yelp.
“You know, Ms. Lane, once I find Herb and get the two of you tied up nice and cozy, I think I’ll go pay a visit to our favorite Superhero.” He smiled smugly at her.
Which one? “Are we still in our universe then?” It didn’t matter since she was getting the heck out of here, but she needed to keep him talking, keep him distracted, so she could continue programming the machine.
“Oh no. Not *your* Superman. No, our poor alternate Clark. You remember that he lost his Lois? Well, I’ve got him playing babysitter to a couple of versions of you. If they’re half as spunky as you, Ms. Lane, I imagine he’s ready for a shift change.” He chuckled and bent down looking between a couple of large boxes piled up in one corner of the room. “Come on, Herb, I give up, let’s play a new game – how many objects can my gun fire through?”
Lois reached over for the controls again, finishing the programming. She kept glancing up to make sure Tempus wasn’t watching her, but he seemed too intent on finding Wells.
It was done. Now all she needed was to throw the lever and she would be back in her own time. She reached out, pulling the lever back, and... nothing happened.
What was wrong?
Then it came to her. The gold! She had forgotten that it took twenty-four karat gold to power the time machine. Where was she going to find that?
Well, Tempus had to have gold in order to power up the machine. She looked around the floor of the time machine frantically, trying to find a box or a pouch or something that he might have it in, but she didn’t see anything.
She quietly bent over and felt around with her hands on the floor of the machine and under her seat, any place her questing fingers could reach. She felt all manner of disgusting items, dirt, fuzz, rocks, hay – hay? Where had he gone that there would be hay? Then there was something sticky, gum? Yuck! And another substance that felt slightly slimy, she didn’t even want to speculate what it was. But nothing that felt like gold, or something that he might have had the gold in.
She sat back up and leaned back in her seat, putting her head down in one hand in frustration. All that separated her from her freedom and the chance to be back in Clark’s arms was a little gold. She was sure that Tempus had the gold here somewhere, he had to, but where? There was no way she could leave the time machine to find it, without getting caught. She brought her face up from her hand and something shiny caught her attention. It was the gold bracelet on her left wrist.
The twenty-four karat gold bracelet.
Clark had bought her a matching set of gold jewelry, a bracelet and a necklace, for a journalism awards banquet that they went to a few months ago. She had received an honorary award for a piece she’d done and he’d bought the jewelry for her as a gift. The pieces weren’t delicate – they were made from a thin but wide band of gold, about a centimeter wide - but they certainly weren’t gaudy either.
Would they be enough?
She quickly and quietly unfastened both her necklace and her bracelet and hefted them in her hand. It wasn’t a lot. She reached up and pulled the gold hoop earrings from her ears and as she deposited them into her left hand, the gold band on her right hand caught her eye.
Yes, it would need to go too.
She took it off and added it to her growing collection. She again lifted her hand, weighing the contents.
It still seemed lacking. If she only had a little more...
“Blast it, Herb, you didn’t!” Tempus sighed exasperatedly. Lois looked up to see him inspecting a broken window on one wall.
Wells had gotten away!
If she was going to do this, it had to be now. It was now or never. She looked back down sadly at her left hand, particularly at her ring finger.
She was only going to get one chance at this.
She felt a deep pang of sorrow in her heart as she slipped the ring from her finger. Could she really bear to part with her wedding ring?
If it got her back to Clark she could.
She deposited her collection of gold jewelry into the receptacle and cringed as it made a few noisy jingling sounds. She glanced up and realized that Tempus was looking at her.
“Ms. Lane, what do you think you’re doing?” he asked her smugly. That smug was about to be wiped from his face. “Don’t tell me you’re trying to plot an escape, too?” He began walking back towards the time machine.
There was no time left to plan, to contemplate, to *think* about anything. If he reached the time machine, it was over.
“I already have Tempus!” With that she pushed the last bit of gold into the chute and fairly willed the machine to life. To her delight and relief, it gurgled and groaned becoming animated. She threw the handle and watched with satisfaction as a look of sheer horror came over Tempus’ face and he launched himself towards her.
But it was too late.
The last thing she heard was the disgust in his voice as he bellowed her name and then the light overtook her.
She just wished that she didn’t have this niggling feeling in the back of her mind that she had forgotten something...
*****SUPERMAN*****
“I agree,” Clark finally jumped in. He had remained silent during most of the conversation. It was remarkable to him the similarities and differences between his experiences and the experiences of the Clark that looked so much like him. He was still in disbelief about some of what he’d heard.
That Clark had been able to make love to the Lois from that world without giving up his powers. That Clark had taken the risk he himself had been afraid to take.
Both of these other versions of him had taken risks that he’d been afraid to take. The Clark of this world had not only made love to the Lois of this world but had even gone as far as to marry her.
Amazing.
He knew now what he was ready to do; what he wanted so badly to do. “We have to find a way to fix this,” he told them desperately. “I have to find a way to help my Lois. I have to have the chance to tell her how wrong I was. I’ve made so many mistakes... There has to be a way,” he said in frustration. “I’ve literally moved heaven and earth before to save her life, to bring her back to me... I can’t be stuck here in this alternate universe with no way to get to her. No way to save her.” His voice sounded almost frantic.
“Trust me, we understand, Clark. We all want that... the chance to save our own Lois,” the Clark from this world told him, his voice pained and heavy.
Clark sighed guiltily. “Yes, I know. Of course you do. I know... But I have to see her again. After listening to the two of you talk there’s so many things that I didn’t know were possible, so many things that I want to tell her.” He blew out a deep breath and shook his head at the stupidity he’d been capable of. “I should have realized that it would take some time for her to accept the idea that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person. I should have believed in her enough, respected her enough, to give her time to adjust. I thought I was doing her a favor by taking those memories from her, but now I can see that I only did it because I was afraid. I shouldn’t have taken that knowledge away from her, especially not the second time.” His stomach cramped up as he thought about that second time. How could he have been so foolish?
“Second time?” the Clark who resembled him asked, his eyebrows going up.
Clark felt his face flush in shame at what he’d done. “Yes. A few nights ago, I’d been wrestling with a very difficult decision. I didn’t really have anyone I could talk to, anyone I could turn to for help. So I’d flown with Lois. I had given her memories back to her,” he said wistfully. “We’d flown over the city and talked, and she’d made me feel so much better. What’s wrong with me? I could tell how happy she was - oh why did I do it?”
“Do what?” they both asked him.
He sighed in disgust, realizing the folly of what he’d done. Would she ever forgive him? “I don’t really understand why I did it except to say that I was afraid. Afraid of what it would mean for her to know the truth and that she still wouldn’t be able to accept it; afraid to face her anger at having it taken from her to begin with. So in my fear I took the memories away from her again. I just really didn’t think there was any way we could be together.” He realized how weak his excuses sounded when they were actually verbalized. He had no excuse. But if he got the chance to tell her, bare his soul to her, he would. And he would accept the consequences.
“Oh, Clark, she’s going to kill you when you tell her,” the Clark of this world lamented, a grimace shadowing his face.
“I know, she’s going to be furious and she has every right to be,” Clark admitted, feeling miserable. “But I would give anything now for the chance to tell her, to see her again. You’re right; all of our Loises are strong women. I was wrong not to trust in my Lois, believe in her. I can see that now, with you and your Lois. If I get another chance...” He trailed off in mid-thought when a shimmering light off to the side caught his attention.
“It’s the time machine... It’s returning,” the Clark of this world said forebodingly, his dark eyes flashing. “Prepare yourselves. If this is Tempus again we have a battle ahead of us, but we’ll be ready for him this time,” he growled. “Back up, put some distance between yourselves and the machine.”
They each backed up and watched with trepidation as the time machine solidified.
Then several gasps could be heard as they realized who the sole occupant was sitting in the machine.
“Lois!”
**********
“I say, how extraordinary!” Wells said, watching them as they stood up from the couch. He walked over to them and extended his hand, shaking each of their hands in turn. Lois let go of the curl of hair she’d been fingering and grasped his hand, shaking it lightly. She couldn’t believe it. This was really H.G. Wells the famous author and he really had accomplished time travel.
“So can you help us, Mr. Wells?” Lane said, jolting Lois out of her thoughts. Lois smiled to herself, the other her certainly didn’t waste any time; she liked that. “What’s our plan for getting out of here? Not that I haven’t enjoyed my visit with you, Clark.”
Lois tore her eyes from Wells and looked over at Clark. “Yes, our visit has been quite insightful,” she agreed and shared a look with Lane. She’d learned more about herself and Superman in the past few hours than she’d been able to figure out in the past few years. “But I’m ready to get back to my son. Please tell me you’ve got a plan, Mr. Wells.”
Wells looked at Clark with a face that said he didn’t. And Clark didn’t look too hopeful either.
“Mr. Wells, can you at least tell us what Tempus’ plan was? Did he tell you why he kidnapped us?” Lane asked, her voice barely hiding her irritation.
“Why as bait for your Supermen, of course. He used your disappearances as a lure to get each of your Supermen to go with him into our universe.”
“He what? Why? Are they okay?” Lane asked in rapid-fire succession.
“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Wells said, shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head slightly. “He had just left for that other universe, our universe, before Clark showed up and rescued me... and he has Kryptonite.”
“Kryptonite!” Lane exclaimed, the color draining from her face. “Well we have to do something! We have to find Tempus, and that time machine. I’m assuming if we can recover your time machine that we could save our Supermen with it, am I right?” Lane asked, her exasperation leaking through in her voice. Lois felt her pain. If this Tempus person had gone after their Supermen and he possessed Kryptonite... her heart lurched in her chest – oh please let him be okay. Please.
“Of course. If I can get my time machine back, we can set all of this right,” Wells said, eyeing her cautiously.
Lois turned to Clark. “Okay, let’s start with where you found Mr. Wells,” she suggested to him, trying to focus her emotion on something more constructive than despair.
“He was in an old abandoned building down by Hobbs Bay,” Clark explained warily.
“Well, then let’s go there and wait for Tempus to come back,” she offered, walking past them and heading up the stairs for the front door.
“We can’t do that, Ms. Lane. Remember that Tempus has Kryptonite. We can’t risk exposing Clark to it.” Wells sighed deeply. “Whatever we come up with, we can’t allow Tempus to get the upper hand.”
“Then Lois and I will go,” Lane said, turning to look at Lois. She began to head towards Lois. “We can’t be hurt by Kryptonite.”
“Yes, but he has a gun and chloroform; and he’s not going to be intimidated by the two of you. No, I think that’s a bad idea.” Wells said sternly, shaking his head. Lois watched as Lane hesitated in her approach.
“I agree. I’m not letting the two of you out of my sight with Tempus running loose,” Clark chimed in, taking on a very Supermanly stance.
Lois rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling just a little bit. It was uncanny sometimes how much this Superman seemed to be like hers. As much as that endeared him to her, it still wasn’t going to make her listen to him. It was all well and good that he and Wells wanted to protect her and the other Lois, but if her Superman was in danger, she wasn’t going to wait around timorously and do nothing. And if she knew herself like she thought she did, then neither would the other Lois.
“Fine,” she said annoyed. “We’ll get the police to go down there with us and apprehend him. We’re wasting time here.” She reached out and took the doorknob in her hand, turning it.
At that moment the door flew open, knocking her backwards. As her feet came to the edge of the first stair, she lost her balance and went backward. She would have fallen but Clark was there in an instant at the bottom of the stairs, catching her in his arms and steadying her.
They both looked up to the person standing in the doorway.
“Tempus!” Wells shouted.
**********
“Clark!” Lois cried, climbing out of the time machine. Clark looked at her, his eyes betraying both shock and pleading hope in them. He stumbled towards her and she ran to him, embracing him fiercely. Her shoulder twinged but she pushed the pain from her mind, squeezing him tighter. Much to her chagrin he moaned a little, still weak from his Kryptonite exposure. “Oh, I’m sorry. Oh, Clark, are you okay?”
He captured her lips in a tender kiss. “I am now.” And before she could say anything he was kissing her again fervently, urgently. He lifted one hand to her face cupping it as he slid his other arm around her waist, drawing her in closer to him. He moaned into her mouth but she could tell this time that it wasn’t from pain. She whimpered happily against his lips as she kissed him back. He pulled away from her mouth and flashed her the smile that always managed to make her feel a little weak. She grinned inwardly; she had her own form of Kryptonite to deal with.
Then his smile slipped away and she finally noticed the tear-stained paths on his cheeks. He let out a quivering breath and a shadow passed across his dark eyes. “Oh, Lois...” he whispered, closing his eyes.
She was sure he meant to say more, but that’s all he got out before he was kissing her again. The kiss held a passion in it that she’d never known before, not even when they’d kissed after she’d found him in that time window he’d been trapped in. It was wracked with grief and powerfully intense. His pulls against her lips were so forceful that they threatened to overwhelm her. She felt his body tremble against hers and realized just how afraid he’d been. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly. When he finally relinquished possession of her lips she leaned in close to his ear. “It’s okay. I’m here,” she whispered, kissing his neck.
He pulled back from her, looking at her as if seeing her clearly for the first time. A tear slipped out from one of his eyes, tracing the path the others had blazed before it. “How could you do that?” he asked, the pain in his voice tearing at her heart. He leaned his head down against her chest and she ran her hands through his hair. “God, I thought I’d lost you,” he murmured against her.
“I had to. He was going to kill you. I couldn’t...” She broke off unable to fight her desire to kiss him again. She claimed ownership of his mouth joining with his lips again and again, flitting her tongue inside his mouth to taste him and nipping ever so softly at his bottom lip. Her hands sought out his body as she kissed him, feeling him, frantically touching and grasping him everywhere they could find a hold... the back of his head, his shoulders, behind his back, his hips... the bulging muscles of his upper arms. Oh, he’d never felt so good. She’d made it back and he was okay. Everything was going to be okay.
“Ahem,” one of the Clarks cleared his throat.
She pulled away from Clark, blushing a little, and turned to face the other Supermen. “Are you both okay?”
“I think we’ll live,” the one in the suit confirmed. “How did you escape?”
“Tempus has Mr. Wells, but Wells had managed to escape somehow. While Tempus was trying to figure out what had happened to him, I reprogrammed the time machine to bring me back here.”
“I don’t care how you’re here, I’m just glad you’re here... and you’re safe,” Clark told her, enfolding her into his arms and holding her tightly. After a moment he pulled away and looked into her face with slight concern in his eyes. “What happened to the Kryptonite?”
The Kryptonite!
Lois broke away from his embrace and went running back to the time machine. What had happened to the Kryptonite? It had been in her lap, she realized dimly, when Tempus had thrown the lever and pulled the trigger on the gun. But what had happened to it after that?
When she reached the time machine, she got down on her hands and knees, looking and feeling around for the chunk of rock. But she knew she wouldn’t find it even as she began looking for it; she hadn’t come across it before, when she was looking and feeling for the gold. But hoping she might be wrong, just this once, she felt around anyway; again appalled at the items her groping fingers came in contact with.
She felt the prick of something sharp and pulled her hand back to look at it. She was surprised to see a dot of blood on one of her fingers. What had done that? She bent lower trying to see what her hand had come in contact with under the seat. She could see the edge of something sharp. She reached under the seat cautiously feeling for it and pulled it out ever so carefully when her groping fingers found it.
A seashell?
It was a broken piece of a large seashell. There were still bits of sand and water inside it. Where in the world had Tempus been in this thing? Somehow she couldn’t picture him vacationing on a beach somewhere.
She chucked the shell aside and tried again. But after a few more passes she resigned to the fact that the Kryptonite just wasn’t there.
It was gone. What had happened?
Her mind flashed back to her conversation with Tempus.
<“By pretending to kill you I got what I wanted; I got to leave your husband behind, grief-stricken at your death...”>
Just after he’d said those words to her, she had lost her temper. She had wanted to hit him. She had... jumped up out of her seat!
Oh no!
She felt a cramp in her stomach as she finally realized what had happened. When she had jumped up, the Kryptonite had fallen from her lap. And if it wasn’t in the machine, then there was only one place it could be...
The cramp in her stomach intensified into a deep ache. She had been in the other Clark’s universe and she had just left Tempus there with the chunk of Kryptonite.
She had to go back.
She had put that other Clark’s life in danger to get back to her Clark. She owed him so much for the times he’d saved her, helped her, and for bringing Clark back to her; and this wasn’t how she was going to repay him. She had to help him.
She felt Clark’s hands on her shoulders. “Honey? What are you doing? Did you... lose something?” he asked, his voice sounding dry and strained.
“Um, yes, about that...” she began, hesitantly. She felt his hands tighten against her shoulders as if to keep her from saying what she was about to say.
She turned to look back at him. “I have to go back,” she said, biting her lip.
“What?” He released her shoulders and took a step back, looking at her as if she’d told him *she* could fly. “Are you crazy? Where?”
“Back there.”
“But Tempus is trapped where you left him,” he argued. “He can’t cause any trouble with that Kryptonite... can he?”
She nodded her head at him slowly, regretfully. Unfortunately he could. She wished she had been thinking more clearly when she’d devised her escape plan... not that she’d actually had a lot of time. “Tempus told me that he and I were in the other Clark’s universe. So, no, he can’t cause any trouble for you with that Kryptonite, but he could for that other Clark.”
Clark sighed quietly and his head dropped a little, his eyes not meeting hers at first; when he looked up at her, she could see the fear and the determination they held in them. “Lois, you’re not going back there. I’ll go, but I want you to stay here.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“No way,” she told him firmly. “You’re going to need help and I’m the only one of the four of us who isn’t affected by Kryptonite.” She pointed at the other Supermen. “They’re going to want to come too. That universe is where Tempus dropped their Lois Lanes. He dropped them there with that Clark.”
“He did? Really? Have you seen them?” the Superman in the suit asked her, his face hopeful.
“Are they okay?” the other Clark in clothing asked her.
“No, I haven’t seen them. And, no, I don’t know if they’re okay. I mean, I assume they are. All Tempus told me was that he had dropped them with our alternate Clark. If they’re with him you have nothing to worry about... except that Tempus is there and he has Kryptonite.” She winced.
“Lois, I have to agree with your Clark. It’s too dangerous for you to go,” the Superman in the suit told her.
“Yes, you should stay here and let us handle this,” the other Clark in clothing told her.
She couldn’t believe this! Now she was going to have to fight three Supermen hovering over her, smothering her, trying to keep her from getting into trouble. No way! Unh-uh. If they thought she was staying behind, they had another thing coming. She wasn’t going to sit here like the dutiful little housewife waiting for one of them to come back and tell her that something had gone wrong, that her Clark was gone and she’d never see him again...
“No way!” she exclaimed adamantly. “Now you three listen to me. I’m not staying here to sit and wonder what’s happening. To wonder if you’re in trouble and me helpless to do anything about it. You’re all welcome to accompany me back there if you’d like, but I’m going, with or without you.” She folded her arms in imitation of her Clark. “Besides, I’m the one who knows where and when we need to travel to. I saw the date on the time machine before I reprogrammed it.” She turned away from them and started to walk off. “Now come on, we’re wasting time.”
With that she headed back towards the time machine, not looking back to see if they were following her. She knew they were. As she took hold of the machine to climb in, the vacant space on the finger of her left hand caught her eye. An ache pulsed through her as she thought about everything she had gone through to finally get that ring on her finger, only to lose it today. But it had worked, and she had Clark, and he was what mattered to her more than any piece of jewelry.
She turned to look back at the three Supermen who were now following closely on her heels. “Oh, and uh, there’s one more thing,” she said, smiling at her audacity to bring this up now after her little speech about going with or without them, “we’re going to need some fuel...”
**********
To Be Continued... (Well did you really not expect me to leave you with another cliffhanger? Since I had resolved the first one?)
