Preface to “Rebuilding Superman”
My first attempt at a long Lois and Clark piece resulted in a story entitled “The Maysonry Of Life,” which (should you wish to peruse it) is located at
http://www.lcfanfic.com/stories/2004/maysonry.txt. It was an attempt to explore what might have happened to Lois and Clark and their relationship if Lois’s reaction to Clark’s disavowal of his love for her at the end of season one was not stunned silence but expressively vituperative and monumentally insulting.
With the twin luxuries of time and hindsight, I can see its several flaws, but I’m still a little proud of it, like one would be of one’s show dog which wins a ribbon despite having wet on the judge’s leg. If you haven’t read it, this is your opportunity to hop over there and take it in, warts and all, because this piece is a direct sequel to it. If you’d prefer to stay with this story, however, there is a brief summary at the end of this post.
My original intent with “Maysonry” was to present a stand-alone story in which Clark and Lois followed a different path to arrive at their destiny together, and when I wrote the final scene, I thought that was all there was to it.
Things are not always as they seem. Several readers took the time to write to me and let me know how much they enjoyed the story, but they also wanted to know the rest of it. More than one reader was particularly adamant that more must be told. Both the number and the intensity of the responses surprised me, because I thought I had written all there was to tell.
One of my muses (their names are Psychotropoia, the muse of weird imaginings, and Polyskitzodia, the muse of multiple and confusing timelines) gently nudged me last year and muttered something about writing the second half of the story. I responded, in a rather off-hand manner, that I wasn’t interested because there wasn’t any more to tell. The other muse became most indignant and insisted that yes, there was more to the story, here’s the basic outline, now go do something intelligent with it, you big doofus.
(There ought to be some kind of union rule preventing muses from behaving like that. And my muses aren’t on the list of the nine classic Greek muses. I think they’re a little bit outside the box – or maybe outside this dimension altogether – but don’t tell them I said that. They’ll just get mad and give me a really difficult story to work on. Oops. Too late!)
Anyway, that “something” the muse inspired within me (which I hope is intelligent) is the piece you’re starting now. “Maysonry” was submitted directly to the archive, because at the time I didn’t know about this site, so I’m sure many of you haven’t read it before. So I’m presenting “Rebuilding Superman” to resolve some of the conflicts and open situations from the first story, and to allow you, the gentle readers, to make constructive suggestions and comments. I hope it makes sense to you, both from a dramatic perspective and from the Lois/Clark relationship perspective. To give a timeline perspective, the events described in “Maysonry” would overlay everything following Luthor’s last flight from his penthouse balcony, and “Rebuilding Superman” would take place in the beginning of Season Six (had there been one).
You will find no WHAMs in the following story, no sex, and little violence. But it is a serious piece which explores the legal ramifications of what might happen if Superman were to lose both his temper and his self-control to the point of causing someone’s death (in this case, Intergang’s evil leader, Bill Church). How would the legal system respond to such an occurrence? How would Clark’s friends and loved ones respond to Superman? How would Clark deal with it? Most importantly, I think, how would the public respond, and how might Clark feel about being Superman? And since it’s a Lois and Clark story, it also deals with the intense effect this struggle has on our favorite couple’s relationship. Suffice to say there is a significant impact.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my Beta readers Chris (who had to drop out due to real life pressures but made some excellent suggestions) and Trica (who persevered through many of her own personal stresses). If you like this, credit them, and if not, blame me. After all, it was my muses’ idea.
I’m sure you’ll let me know what you think. The FOLCs on this site aren’t known for being bashful (unless that also means “full of bashing”). If such is my fate, well, it won’t be the first time.
Enjoy. Please.
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For those who might wish to dive directly into “Rebuilding Superman,” I will briefly recap “The Maysonry of Life.” It should go without saying that much of the emotional impact of the story is missing in this summary.
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Following the interrupted Lex/Lois wedding at the end of Season 1, Clark recants his declaration of love for Lois. Feeling completely betrayed and totally blindsided, Lois loses every vestige of her temper and furiously insults Clark in the worst ways possible. She flees to the Planet, but because the paper isn’t officially open yet, no one is there except Cat Grant, who is cleaning out her desk because her contract was not renewed.
Lois, feeling very alone, invites Cat to lunch, where they mend their relationship and begin a friendship. They share dinner at Lois’s place, talk about men in general and Clark specifically. Catharine (her new name celebrates the new stage in her life) goes to Cincinnati to start her new job as a news reporter at a rock-and-roll radio station. Clark refuses to hear Lois’s apology, breaks up the team of Lane and Kent, and has Perry move their desks as far apart on the newsfloor as possible.
Martha calls Lois to see if she can help to mend the relationship between Lois and Clark. Lois confesses her perfidy (and the circumstances) and Martha accepts her apology. They make plans to see each other the next time the Kents come to Metropolis.
Despite her repeated attempts to reconcile them, Clark continues to refuse to listen to Lois’s apology. He won’t let his parents intercede, either. Lois notes that Superman also seems out of sorts. Lois meets a police officer named Clay Mooney and begins a friendship with him, but she still loves Clark and is frustrated because he won’t let her fix the breach in their relationship.
Independent of each other, Catharine (in Ohio) and Lois begin investigating Intergang. They combine their information and learn that other investigations are also in progress. Clark and Lois both writes up a press conference where Superman declines a commission in the Metropolis police force and is deliberately rude to one of the Mayor’s aides when the aid quietly threatens him with less official cooperation. Clark and Lois get into another argument about the coverage of this event, since Lois’s piece was negative and Clark’s was positive.
Several weeks later, Lois finds out that Clark is dating ADA Mayson Drake. Mayson meets Lois and they immediately rub each other the wrong way. Clark comes to Lois’s desk to defend Mayson to Lois. They argue again and Clark loses his temper. He grabs Lois’s desk and flips it over. Perry makes Lois take a walk and talks to Clark. Before Lois leaves, she finds four finger impressions in the underside of the edge of her metal desk which could only have come from Superman’s fingers. The realization that Clark is Superman floors her.
She comes back from her walk and tells Perry that she and Clark can’t work together. Perry tells her that Clark has volunteered to work in the Planet’s overseas bureau, but Lois silently decides that Metropolis needs Superman more than she needs the Planet. So she submits her two weeks’ notice and tells him she plans to accept an offer to be the editor of the Metropolis bureau of the Washington Standard.
After she leaves Perry’s office, she visits Clark and confirms her deductions. Instead of thanking her for keeping the secret, Clark gets snotty and she tells him she hopes he and Mayson are happy together. Then she leaves.
Mayson pushes Lois for more data on Intergang, but Lois holds back because she suspects Mayson is leaking info to Intergang. She steals Mayson’s pager, then returns it, along with an apology. Mayson uses the incident as leverage to get Catharine’s name out of Lois, and she also asks about Clark’s constant disappearances. Given Mayson’s lack of enthusiasm for Superman, Lois is tempted to tell her the secret to break them up, but she refrains. Lois and Mayson still don’t like each other, but they are learning to respect each other.
Lois and Clay are seeing each other, as friends, and Lois tells Clay that she’s leaving the Planet and explains her reasons. He understands and offers to be her close friend, which overture Lois gladly accepts.
On Lois’s last day, the staff gives her a going-away party. She checks out the cards she was given and doesn’t find Clark’s name. She cautiously asks him about it and he apologizes for not writing anything, but no one asked him to, apparently because their co-workers assumed that he still hated Lois. She tells him that it wasn’t her doing and apologizes for the oversight. They smile at each other (for the first time in almost a year) and wish each other good luck. A fragile truce is finally established between them.
Lois meets her staff of reporters at the Standard and learns that her predecessor was a political animal who didn’t care a fig for the people in his employ. In her first week, she defends a young Vietnamese woman named Laura Nyguen (prounounced “win” for us lauguage-challenged Americans) from an over-bearing actuary, then pairs her with veteran reporter Ron Dombrowski for a feature on Metropolis’s Little Saigon population. They work well together and the story is excellent. Another of her reporters tells her that there’s an Intergang spy in the newsroom, but he doesn’t know who it is.
Lois and Catharine continue to share both personal information and the Intergang investigation, mostly through e-mails. One evening, not long after Lois begins her new job, Mayson and Clark, without realizing it, get a secluded booth in a restaurant next to Lois, who’s eating solo, and Lois overhears Mayson tell Clark that she loves him. She also overhears Clark tell Mayson that he needs to tell her something very important, but it has to be private. Mayson tells Clark that she’ll be in Ohio for the next week, working on the culmination of the multi-state Intergang investigation. He tells her they’ll speak when she returns, and maybe she’d like to meet his parents? She’s all in favor of both of those ideas. Clark and Mayson leave without knowing Lois has heard almost everything.
Lois is devastated. She e-mails Catharine to commiserate. Catharine sends back appropriate comfort words and asks about Clay. Lois tells her that they’re just friends and she’s in love with Clark.
The reporter who told Lois of the Intergang spy disappears, but the other reporters tell her that he often goes underground for several days and reappears with a great story. But he doesn’t show over the weekend. Catharine sends Lois information on the impending move of law enforcement on Intergang, along with information on the gang’s leaders and a map of their underground complex in Metropolis.
Lois gets a call on Tuesday from Laura asking to meet that evening. Lois gets suspicious and types up all she knows about the Intergang connection to the Standard and leaves it with Ron for safekeeping. When she arrives at the meeting site, Clark is also there, waiting for Mayson to come out. He’s going to tell her The Secret. Despite her desire to reconnect with Clark, Lois assures him that Mayson will understand. She also gives him the map of Intergang’s underground headquarters which Catharine sent her, so he can “give it to Superman.” He confirms that the Planet has pretty much the same information on Intergang that the Standard does.
Then Laura steps out of the shadows and points a semi-automatic pistol at Clark and Lois. She tells them she’s the Intergang spy, that she killed the reporter who was getting too close, and that she’s glad both of them are there to see the show.
Clark and Lois realize at the same moment what she’s talking about. Clark turns to warn Mayson about the bomb. Laura shoots him in the back, he spins into Superman, and Lois takes advantage of Laura’s surprise to attack her. As they struggle for the gun, it goes off and kills Laura. The recoiling pistol slide cuts Lois on the chin and breaks two of her fingers.
While Lois and Laura struggle, the bomb goes off and kills Mayson instantly. Lois comes over to check on Mayson, and Clark stands up and screams in fury and frustration, then leaves. Lois later finds out that Superman burst into Intergang’s bunker, tore Bill Church’s heart out of his chest and killed him, then tracked down all the other leaders on the video conference at the time and took them to various law enforcement agencies. A surveillance video record of the entire incident ends up in the hands of the police. Superman’s actions break Intergang as a crime syndicate and as a business.
An EMT tapes Lois’s broken fingers and treats her chin. The fingers heal fine, but she’ll have a small scar on her chin for the rest of her life.
Over fifty people in various locations were targeted for death by Intergang on that same night, including Catharine Grant. Catharine is seriously injured but eventually recovers.
Clark quits the Planet and moves back to Kansas. Lois refuses to do a hatchet job on Superman to push the Standard’s circulation above the Planet’s, and she is relieved of her duties. Perry hires her back as his assistant at the Planet, because Franklin Stern and others want him to run for the US Senate at the next election, and he can’t envision anyone else sitting in his chair in his place.
Lois goes back to the Planet as Perry’s protégé. Three years pass while Perry runs for and is elected to the Senate, Lois succeeds him as editor, Catharine moves back to Metropolis and the Planet and marries Clay, Clark hides in Smallville or travels as a civilian, occasionally submitting travel or light human-interest stories to the Planet and other publications. He also begins writing romance novels for income and becomes a best-selling author as the reclusive K.C. Jerome.
Superman is not charged with any crime and, officially, is wanted only for questioning in Bill Church’s death. Superman has, by now, mostly disappeared, and only comes out to help at serious natural disasters, and almost never in the continental US. Lois has maintained a close relationship with the Kents (but not with Clark) and comes out to the farm for a vacation, and for the first time in a year she meets Clark face to face. It’s also the first time in three years they talk about something other than work.
They pad around each other like porcupines with skin rashes for a few days. He and Lois finally talk, and she tells him he needs to resolve his legal situation in order to move on in his life. Clark listens but doesn’t make any plans. He tries to get close to Lois but she pushes him away, saying that he can’t just take up where he left off before. He reluctantly agrees
A few days later, Clark leaves the dinner table to check on an airliner that was having trouble maintaining altitude. It’s the first time he’s made a Superman appearance in the US in three years. He escorts the plane to its destination and returns to the farmhouse. Jonathan and Martha are in the barn, ostensibly discussing farming machinery. Lois and Clark confess to each other that there’s still a definite romantic spark there, but there are things that must be addressed before they pursue a relationship. Lois convinces Clark that he needs to turn himself in. Clark asks her if that’s a condition to their continuing relationship. She says there aren’t any conditions, that it’s two separate issues, that she loves him and wants to have a life with him. Separate from that, he needs to face justice and clear his name.
After a tearful conversation, they agree that Clark will turn himself in to the authorities in Metropolis and accept whatever fate is in store for him, and that Clark and Lois will begin a new chapter in their lives together.
And that’s where “The Maysonry Of Life” ends.
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