Chapter Seventeen
Lois woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. The spot next to her in the bed had an indentation to it, which indicated that Clark had indeed slept there, but had kept his word and had been a gentleman all night. She remembered feeling safe and secure though, and she smiled thinking of the warmth she felt snuggling up to him.
LabRat came bounding up on the bed and licked her face, breaking her pleasant reverie. “I know, I know, I’m getting up, boy,” Lois said, kissing him on the top of his soft head. “Did your father send you in here to wake me up?” she said loudly, even though, as an afterthought, she realized that Clark could have heard her even if she whispered. <Hard man to keep secrets from isn’t he??>
Clark instantly appeared in the doorway of the bedroom, holding a steaming cup of coffee for her. “Cream, 2 sweet’n’lows, right?”
“A man who brings me coffee in bed! You are *just* the best, Clark Kent!” Lois shrieked in delight.
“And a gentleman, too,” Clark added.
“And a gentleman, too,” Lois agreed. “I had a great night’s sleep. Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For being probably the nicest guy in the whole world. For making me feel special and whole again. For searching for me even though you found out I didn’t exactly look like your dream woman… etc, etc.” Lois replied. “That took a lot of faith in itself.”
“What do you mean, Lois?” Clark asked, coming over to the bed and sitting down next to her as she sipped her coffee.
“You believed that there was something about me that would be different enough – in a good way - from the other Lois. That difference would be so important that my looks wouldn’t matter as much to you. That’s a leap of faith.”
“Lois, how can I make you believe that I wouldn’t love you any more if you had the same body as the other Lois?”
“Clark, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this stuff – almost my whole life. Do you know how many men have told me ‘you’re such a great person, Lois, you’ll find the right guy some day’? And who do those men pick for their girlfriends? They pick the Lanas, the ‘thin Loises’ to go out with. And some of those women aren’t good people. But these women get their hormones raging. That’s who these men want to be around, to be seen with. Look at my father – it’s the same thing with him. He’s smart enough to know that his ‘twife’ isn’t as good a match for him as my own mother was, but she makes him feel sexy and young again. It’s in the DNA I guess, Clark. Most men want to be seen with hot women. I may look a lot better than I did before I went to the Congo, but I’m always going to have to struggle with my weight. If we got married some day and we had kids – I may never be able to lose my pregnancy weight. Doesn’t that bother you? Even just a *little*? Please be honest with me,” Lois pleaded. “Before we go any further here.”
Clark put his arm around Lois’ shoulder and squeezed. “Honey, if you want honesty, here it is. When Herb first told me that he had found you and you were – larger – than the other Lois, I did my soul searching then. I didn’t like the fact that in high school, I went out with the prettiest girl in school – Lana. I realized that I had been shallow, that I had never looked twice at an overweight girl. I can’t go back in time and change that part of me. Teenage boys really do have only one thing on their minds. Yeah, blame it on raging hormones, I don’t know. But now I’m in my thirties and I know what’s important in life. I’ve been lonely a long time, and being with some hot skinny woman wouldn’t make me feel a bit better. I guess the thing is, Lois, that our culture - the media, fashion, you name it – places a big value on being thin and beautiful. That doesn’t mean that you’re not worthy of being loved, Lois. I’ll let you know a secret about men that you probably don’t know.”
“Really? What’s that?” Lois said, her eyes misting over.
“That once a man falls in love, really truly falls in love, looks completely fall to the wayside. The way he feels when he’s around that woman – well it overshadows everything else. Some men aren’t capable of real love, they’re too afraid of being hurt. But a man that is truly in love – well, his woman is always the most beautiful lady in any room. She has his heart and soul. And that’s what you have – my heart and my soul.”
Lois rubbed her eyes as tears were streaming down her face. “That’s so beautiful, Clark. But what if I get really big – I mean *really really* big - if we have kids some day? I don’t want the media to embarrass us with stories like ‘Mrs. Superman tops scales at 300 pounds’!”
“Lois, we can’t do anything about what the tabloids are going to write. If I’m ever lucky enough to have children with you, and you can’t lose the weight, I won’t even notice. I’ll be focused on raising our beautiful family with you, the woman of my dreams. And that’s no baloney, Lois. Look in my eyes and you’ll know that it’s the truth.”
They studied each other for several minutes, each trying to read the other one’s mind. Like a flock of birds that suddenly gather and fly off in formation, they simultaneously found each other’s lips, causing time to stop again.
Lois broke the spell. “Clark, it’s really getting hard for me to stop at the kiss level,” she admitted. “But I’m too scared to think about more right now. I need to get over my embarrassment at your seeing me – naked. And I don’t know how long that’s going to take. I’m just being honest with you. I have a lot of paranoid hang-ups.”
Clark sighed. “So that great little speech I just gave you didn’t help, did it?”
“Of course it did. But being self-conscious about my body is something I’ve been living with since I was a teenager. As I’m more comfortable with you, I’m sure it’ll start to fade away,” Lois responded. “If it helps, I really *want* it to fade away!”
“I’m a patient man, Lois. I told you, I have my reservations about going further also. We’re quite the screwed-up pair, aren’t we?”
“I guess that’s why we’re true soul-mates, Clark.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He responded by gently stroking her face and neck.
Clark stood up. “Well, how about you get dressed and we’ll take our furry friend over to the Smallville Vet Clinic and have his tag checked out?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lois replied, swinging her legs from the bed down to the floor. The dog was wagging his tail at her, urging her to get moving too.
“LabRat, we’re keeping you somehow - as long as some poor little girl isn’t crying her eyes out for you. That’s the only way I’m giving you up!”
“Lois, be prepared … I’m sure if the owners thought enough of him to put an electronic ID in his neck, they’re going to want him back. We can always pick another dog out from the pound; they’re all going to be destroyed if they don’t get good homes.”
“I’ll deal with that when the time comes, Smallville,” Lois called out from the bathroom, where she was getting dressed. “Right now, I’m thinking that we’re keeping him.”
<Stubborn like a bull,> Clark thought. <That’s why I love her!>
The Smallville Vet Center was just outside of town. Dr. Haynes used part of his farmhouse for his offices, and his kennels were right on the grounds also. Someone was always there, so it was also a great place to board cats and dogs if you were going on vacation. On the way there, Clark and Lois passed the Luthor Corp fertilizer plant. Lois jotted down the phone number on the sign so she could call later to try to get an interview.
When Clark, Lois, and LabRat entered, the office was packed with dogs of all sizes as well as cats in their carriers. Lois turned to Clark and said, “I’ll put our name in and tell them that we’re outside. There’s no place to sit in here, anyway.”
As she approached the receptionist, a curly-haired young man greeted her. “Hello, ma’am. Are you just dropping off your pet?”
Lois smiled. “Oh, no. Actually, we found this dog – a golden retriever - wandering around in our yard, and he has an electronic tag imbedded in his neck. Do you have a scanner that can read it?”
“Yes we do. You said it’s a golden retriever?”
"That's right", Lois replied.
The receptionist started looking through some papers. “Oh yes, here it is. Someone did report a lost golden retriever. Why don’t you bring the dog right in, and we’ll see if we have a match.”
Lois nodded, crestfallen, and headed outside to tell Clark. Unexpectedly, he and LabRat were back in the pickup truck, and Clark was waving her to come over.
“Let’s go, Lois. Hurry!”
Lois hopped in the truck without asking questions first.
When they were about a mile away, Lois turned to Clark. “Ok, spill it Smallville! I’m assuming you heard or saw something. This kind of behavior is totally unlike you. What gives?”
“I overheard what the guy at the desk said, so I looked at the papers he was shuffling around. Luthor Corp does own the dog, and they’re offering a reward for his return.”
“Ok… what happened to ‘if they spent this much money on him to put a tag on him, they’ll want him back’? You go from being Mr. Goody Two-Shoes to harboring a fugitive dog. Quite a segue,” Lois remarked. “Tell me the whole story.”
“The reason that they want him back is because apparently when Luthor Corp was digging up the soil in the area, they came across a vein of green meteor rock. They somehow made up a ‘super fertilizer’ with it and they fed LabRat here some food that was grown using the fertilizer in the soil. It apparently gave the dog some … unusual abilities.”
“What??” Lois yelled. “You mean Luthor Corp accidentally came upon –“
“Yes. Kryptonite. Here in Smallville. It must have been attached to my rocket ship when I landed here as a baby. I’ve only been exposed to it once, by Tempus. The stuff can kill me.”
Lois looked at LabRat in the bed of the truck. “So what did it say he could do? What *kind* of special abilities did it give him?”
“Apparently, he’s got a super-sensitive nose and enhanced jumping abilities. The government could use dogs like that for special operations. But he has to have the food once at least every forty-eight hours or he reverts back to an ordinary dog. It was all in the report on the receptionist’s desk.”
“Wow! Our first scoop, Clark! Except we can’t use the information that you gleaned from the receptionist’s desk because technically, you’re not supposed to be able to read classified materials. At least, not when you’re in the role of Clark Kent, investigative reporter. Right?”
Clark nodded. “Right. We’re going to have to go about this another way. And I can’t get anywhere near that field where the Kryptonite is. That presents a big problem.”
“You can’t go near there. But LabRat and I can,” Lois said, smiling slyly.
“First things, first, Lois. We have to get LabRat out of Smallville before they find him. I’m sure the Vet’s office called Luthor Corp right away when you didn’t come back in with the dog you described. And technically, they own him; we have no rights to him at all.”
“Hmmm. I’ve got it, Clark! Didn’t Lucy say they had a huge place? Yes, when she invited me to live with her and James. I wonder how she’d feel about having a dog?”
“All they can do is say no, Lois. Once I tell James there might be a big story behind him, I’m sure he’ll cave in. He has a beautiful home right on the river, with a decent size yard. It’ll be perfect, and then we can see him every day!”
“Is there some way to have that electronic tag removed?” Lois wanted to know.
“I’m not sure, but there is a scientist at STAR LABS that’s always helped me out with weird stuff… his name is Bernie Klein. Ironically, he rides a motorcycle with the license plate of LabRat,” Clark said. “If anyone could help us and keep a low profile, it would be him.”
“Ok. Well before we do any of this, you owe me a tour of Smallville, remember?” Lois reminded him. “I want to see if I get a sense of deja-vu anywhere. Let’s leave LabRat at the farmhouse for a few minutes!”
“OK. Clark looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was following them. “You know, I have a way to make this old truck into a turbo!”
In a flash, Clark got underneath the vehicle and raised it off the ground about three feet. Using old dirt roads, he flew the truck and its two precious occupants back to the farm in a matter of minutes.
“Wow, that was cool!” Lois exclaimed as her and the golden retriever hopped out of the truck. “Think of the money people would save if we could put a Clark Kent in everyone’s gas tank!” Talking to the dog, she continued, “So how did you like your first flying experience, LabRat?”
The dog barked his enthusiasm back to her, wagging his tail.
“Lois, we need to find a better name for the dog than ‘LabRat’. Why don’t we call him ‘Shelby’, after the dog I lost when I was kid?”
Lois looked disappointed. “I love the name ‘LabRat’, though, Smallville. It fits him somehow. Name your *next* dog ‘Shelby’,” Lois told him rather matter-of-factly.
“You really *are* as stubborn as an old mule!” Clark exclaimed. “Let’s feed him and give him water, and we’ll be gone about an hour. I’ll keep an eye on the house from the air, to make sure that no one comes near the farm.”
“Okay. C’mon boy,” Lois said, as she headed into the kitchen, her canine companion following her dutifully.
~~~~~
Smallville was very large in area, but the population of the town was about 30,000, and that was largely due to farmers that had gone belly up, selling their land to real estate developers who in turn built condominium projects.
Hovering above the clouds, holding Lois tightly, Clark flew around the perimeters of the town’s border. Spotting his former high school, he descended and landed them on the fifty yard line of the deserted football field.
“Ah, some great memories here,” Clark said, smiling. “I was the captain of the football team and Lana was one of the cheerleaders. Life seemed so simple back then.”
“You were a typical jock,” Lois stated. “The football hero that goes for the hot blond in the short cheerleader mini-skirt. Wow. I think I would have hated you in high school.”
Clark smiled. “You’re right, Lois, I admit it. I was caught up in all of that stuff. I had felt like an oddball for so long, though, as my powers were developing, that when I made it to high school and finally fit in, I got a bit carried away by it all.”
Lois became more serious. “I understand, Clark. Believe me, if I had been able to be a cheerleader in high school, I probably would have blown off the journalism club. There were quite a few geeks in there, and to have had a chance to hang out with the popular cliquey girls – I would have jumped at it. I guess I’m just jealous of someone like Lana, and mad at her at the same time. She had you – and she blew it. I still can’t believe she just walked out on you when you needed her the most.”
“I felt a lot worse about having to be Superman without a Lois Lane to guide me, than losing Lana, Lois. Anyway, let’s fly over the Luthor Corp plant and see if we can spot anything from the air.”
“Okay,” Lois agreed.
Shortly, a huge grey building that seemed to stretch for miles came into view. Dead center in the middle of it was a large green area the size of a football field. Clark slowly descended and using his telescopic vision, he realized that it was the testing area for the fertilizer being developed by the plant.
When he was within 100 feet of the roof, he suddenly felt a strange constricted feeling in his throat and arms. Staying aloft became challenging. He held Lois tighter and quickly propelled himself in the opposite direction.
Lois stared at him, frightened. “Clark! What was that all about? And you’re … actually sweating. Are you gonna be okay?”
“Kryptonite… in that field of grass… only felt like that once before… the day Tempus exposed my secret identity,” Clark gasped, feeling slightly better as he put distance between him and the Luthor Corp plant. “But something in the composition of that fertilizer must be intensifying the effects of the Kryptonite radiation. If that hits the marketplace, and word gets out that it can harm me, every crook in Metropolis will be buying a bag of it.”
“Yikes,” Lois exclaimed. “Let’s get back to the farmhouse; we’re going to have to get a game plan going.”
As they headed towards the Kent property, they passed over a large cornfield. The remains of a barn could be seen from the air.
“Clark! Land! Right there!” Lois instructed. “That’s it! I can feel it.”
“That’s what?” Clark asked naively. “Oh… the deja-vu thing.”
They landed near the decaying structure. As they walked around, Clark spotted a foundation where a house had stood. “Must have been a tornado that came through here,” he surmised. “The property was abandoned. Maybe the owners didn’t have homeowners insurance and couldn’t fix it.”
“That’s where they raped me,” Lois said, pointing to the middle of the area where the farmhouse had been. “Omigod, it’s all coming back to me,” she shuddered. “Like replaying a movie – watching a horror film. I think now I realize that I’ve always been afraid of being too attractive. Staying fat ensured that I would never have to go through that ever again.”
Clark sped over to where Lois was standing, her eyes blank, filled with the dreaded recollection of being a victim of sexual violence.
“Honey, it’s okay. I” - Suddenly memories started to flood through Clark as well. He saw Lois as she had been then – light brown long hair, thin, very feminine and definitely considered attractive to the opposite sex. He remembered their family, their life together – it had been perfect. Except for the day that he had left Lois alone to assist another county’s Sheriff – there was a fugitive loose and all of central Kansas’ sheriffs were working together to bring him in. Clark returned home and his wife was already dead, her clothes ripped off, with blood stains everywhere. His life as he knew it ended that day. He remembered being close to suicide for a long time. The only thing that kept him going was the desire for revenge and his three children who lived out west.
“Lois – the men that killed you. I hunted them down. I killed them with my own bare hands. I was the Sheriff, but I took the law into my own hands. I couldn’t live knowing your killers were walking around free, and I couldn’t live with myself after I killed them. So –“
“So you killed yourself afterwards,” Lois said, completing the sentence. “You committed suicide. Oh, God, Clark. No wonder we’re both so messed up in this life.”
“Let’s get out of here, Lois, and never come back,” Clark said. “This place gives the expression ‘bad vibes’ new meaning.”
Lois hopped into his arms and within seconds they were aloft, heading towards their new farmhouse home, complete with one golden retriever anxiously awaiting their return.
TBC....Sunday-ish
