Here you go with a new part. I need to thank LaraMoon for being my wonderful beta-reader. I hope you've got fun in Boston, girl!
And I need to thank Art Garfunkel, who was kind enough to write and sing the beautiful song "Dreamland" that I was bold enough to use in my story.
From Part 7:
“I thought that it was because I had done something bad,” Becca explained. “Daddy woke up and he showed me that I was mistaken. Santa hadn’t left me out.” She smiled mischievously.
“And what kind of bad thing could you possibly have done to deserve such a thing?” Lois was incredibly curious. She wondered what kind of little sins Clark’s daughter would commit.
“I asked Santa to get rid of you,” Becca replied frankly.
Serendipitous Infinity
Part 8
Lois gasped in surprise. “Get rid of me? My behavior must have been worse than I ever thought.” She chuckled. “Do you still want to get rid of me, Becca?”
The girl shook her head. “Not anymore. I think Daddy likes you, so you must be nice.” She shrugged. “That doesn’t mean we’re even.” She grinned. “It was *my* Sunday, that day.”
“I’ll remember that, Becca.” Lois chuckled. “Don’t you think you should get ready for bed? Your Daddy will probably skin me alive if I let you stay awake all night. Or maybe that’s just the right payback, huh?”
“I’ll think of something else,” Becca promised and went down the staircase to go to the bathroom. “You can stay up here and wait for me, Lois.” She offered generously. “I’ll be back soon. Oh, and don’t get me wrong. I’ll be ready for bed but I won’t go to sleep yet.”
“I thought so,” Lois stated dryly and took a seat on Becca’s bed. She saw the girl go downstairs and turned her glance towards the bookshelf. Becca had some books, but not very many. The shelf looked somewhat empty, which Lois found strange. She had had a look at Clark’s library and had assumed that he had bought Becca a lot of books. But then, the girl was just seven. Surely she could read, but maybe not enough yet for her own books.
Lois wondered what she was supposed to do once Becca got into bed. What would Clark do? She was fairly sure that he read her stories, but Lois didn’t consider herself as a good story teller. She could write decent articles and she hoped that she wasn’t too bad at setting up a good plot for a romance novel, for example. But she didn’t have the skills of a really good narrator. Or maybe she just didn’t want to compete with Clark, knowing that she was likely to lose the contest. Becca wouldn’t vote for her.
It took some time until Becca returned. There was no sign of Clark yet and Lois was a bit worried. His appointment was taking awfully long. Who was he seeing? He surely wouldn’t have forgotten about a girlfriend, would he? On the other hand, who knew how many girls Clark was dating? He would certainly not be the only man who lost count. But when Lois heard footsteps in the staircase, she was forced to stop musing about Clark’s whereabouts. Becca had changed into her pajamas. It was cute, with a huge, weary teddy bear on it. She smiled at Lois as she approached her and climbed into her bed, but remained in a sitting position.
“What would your daddy do now?” Lois asked.
“He’d kiss me goodnight and then ask me which story I want to hear,” Becca replied. She looked really cute as she sat on her bed, but there was something in her smile that made Lois suspicious. The girl was up to something and somehow Lois had the feeling that Becca had figured much more about her than she had about the little girl. She was a strange and obviously very clever little seven year-old.
“And which story would you like to hear tonight?” Lois replied.
“It’s up to you,” Becca returned and smiled expectantly.
“Uhh, I don’t know which stories you’ve got here.” Lois shifted uncomfortably.
“We don’t have that one, anyway; Daddy knows the story by heart,” Becca said with a shrug. Inwardly she chuckled. She knew that Lois wouldn’t understand, because this was something she shared with her daddy.
“That story? You mean it’s a certain one? I thought it was up to me to decide.” Lois was confused and her surprised expression made Becca laugh.
“That means that I want to hear Mother Holle,” she explained, graciously. It was a joke between her and her daddy from the day she had first heard that story. They had been in Germany at that time. When she had first said that it was up to him to decide, he had found the story in a German book and had translated it for her. She loved that story.
“I don’t even know that one,” Lois gasped. She definitely didn’t stand a chance to compete with Clark. He was just too perfect a daddy. It really shouldn’t be a problem to make Child Services see that. Lois had thought about a solution to Clark’s problem for quite some time now, but she hadn’t found anything yet. She knew that his confession was a sign of deep trust. She didn’t want to betray this trust by doing something inconsiderate. She still didn’t know enough about Clark’s life to be sure that she did everything right.
“Do you think, you can do with something else, Becca?” Lois asked.
The girl seemed to be musing about that issue, her brows furrowing. A twinkle in her eyes told Lois that she was just making fun, enjoying the opportunity to give Lois a hard time. Lois decided to play along and tried to pull a face that conveyed worry. She failed terribly, because watching Becca made her laugh. The girl had to have seen the strange expression on Lois face. She chuckled and the laughed as well.
“So you are no good at telling stories, huh? If you don’t even know Mother Holle,” Becca stated, teasingly.
“You could tell *me* the story, instead,” Lois replied.
“I thought storytelling was your job tonight? Is there anything you’re good at?” Becca asked, grinning.
“I’m good at a lot of things!” Lois answered back. “I’m a prize winning investigative reporter! I’m good at tae-kwon-doe!”
Lois could tell that Becca wasn’t the least bit impressed. She just raised an eyebrow and continued to look at her. Lois almost imagined Becca shrugging, telling her that anything her daddy could do was much more fascinating. But Becca didn’t, she just kept staring at Lois. Nothing on her face really gave a hint as to what the girl was thinking. Lois was surprised. Why did she care what Becca thought about her anyway? But somehow the girl managed to make Lois feel like she still was a child. Lois suddenly saw her with different eyes, not with those of an adult. She noticed that Becca was one of the girls everyone wanted to be friends with. The seven year old Lois Lane would ahve adored Becca. But that didn’t mean Becca was shallow. Lois could imagine that Becca chose her friends well.
“Tae-kwon-doe? Really?” Becca asked, excitedly. Lois had obviously had the wrong impression of Becca. “You can fight?”
Lois nodded. “And fairly well! It helps to deal with the bad guys,” she explained.
“That’s cool. I wish I knew how to fight properly. It would have been useful that time, against Gillian.” Becca sighed.
“You’ve been in a fight?” Lois asked, surprised. She couldn’t believe it. Becca wasn’t entirely the perfect girl that she seemed to be. She was determined to hear all of it and made Becca tell her the story.
The two of them had the first real conversation ever. Surprisingly it was a heart-to-heart one, candid and frank. Lois considered this an important step. She was glad that obviously she wasn’t at a complete loss in dealing with children. Becca told her about her life with her father, their moving around and she explained everything about the fight. The girl was incredibly honest; she easily admitted her own mistakes. Lois hadn’t been able to talk so freely when she had been seven. It was still quite difficult for her to confess that she had done something wrong.
From the first time she had met Becca, Lois had been a bit afraid of her. And that feeling hadn’t worn off completely. Becca was strangely wise for her age. She had a charming smile that provided her with powers which went beyond the usual cuteness of children her age. Lois knew that children already had a great influence on their parents. Becca seemed to be even stronger and Lois hadn’t been sure how to deal with a father who had completely lost his free will to a pair of huge brown eyes. Fortunately Clark wasn’t one of those people who knew absolutely no other topic than their precious little children. That was hard to deal with for childless single adults like Lois. But despite the fact that Clark was surely very fond of his daughter, he was a quite interesting partner for conversations. And so was Becca. Lois had always thought that talking to a 7 year old could only be boring. Strange as it was, Lois was enjoying herself immensely as she listened to Becca’s little adventure, when they lived in Plymouth. That girl was more of a hero than most people around.
Time passed quickly. Lois didn’t notice until Becca started yawning. She had been trying to stifle her yawns for quite some time, but her efforts had become useless against the force of weariness. Lois had a look at her watch and was surprised that Clark still hadn’t returned. That had to be some appointment! But she would find out about this.
“I think you should go to sleep now, Becca,” Lois said softly.
“I’m… I’m not…. tired, yet,” Becca replied between yawns. Her brows furrowed as she got angry at herself for betraying her own words. But she sank back into her pillows. “So if there is no story tonight, I want something else!” she demanded, hopeful. Lois wagered that Becca counted on her inability to come up with an appropriate solution.
“Oh, I think I’ve got an idea,” Lois answered, remembering what Clark had told about Becca’s mother. Lily used to sing Becca to sleep. Well, that was something she could do as well.
“The sun goes down and says goodnight
Pull your covers up real tight
By your bed we'll leave a light
To guide you off to dreamland
Your pillow's soft, your bed is warm
Your eyes are tired when day is done
One more kiss and you'll be gone
On your way to dreamland
Every sleepy boy and girl
In every bed around the world
Can hear the stars up in the sky
Whispering a lullaby
Who knows where you'll fly away
Winging past the light of day
The Man-in-the-Moon and the
Milky Way
Welcome you to dreamland “
“Goodnight, Becca,” Lois whispered, looking at the girl who was already fast asleep. Becca didn’t answer; she had really flown away to dreamland. Lois smiled at the sight and got up cautiously in order not to wake her up again. She tiptoed towards the staircase and went down, wondering where Clark was.
* * *
Clark was busy as Superman. The sirens had sounded rather urgent and that was why he had left Lois and Becca in the first place. Superman couldn’t have been more grateful for Lois’ sudden appearance. Without her, this would have been worse. It was already bad. A train had derailed and a pile of wagons was lying all across the railway in an unimaginable heap. Superman heard the screams and shouts of both the survivors and the emergency services. It was too much to handle and too much to see. Just the sight of the wreckage was horrible. Knowing that victims were stuck in-between tons of destroyed rail cars lacked words to describe.
He helped wherever he could. This wasn’t anything that threatened to go beyond his physical powers, but it drained him nonetheless. He had to go on, because every pause he took to give in to the grief that was threatening to pull him down could cost the lives of more innocent people. And they wouldn’t understand his weakness. He wasn’t human and moreover the most powerful being on this planet. What could possibly give him the right to be weak? Nothing, he mused, and he continued his work. He saved people from the terrible wreckage and brought them to the paramedics. He lifted up parts of the train that were too heavy for the equipment that the fire-fighters had brought. Without him, they would have had to wait for more assistance to come. They would have been bound to watch people dying while they stood next to them, unable to help.
Without Lois, Superman would have been merely Clark. He would have kissed Becca goodnight, knowing that there were people needing his help. Every step would have been full of restrained power, like a watchdog leaning into the hard chains that were tying him to his house. It would have been worse, because he would have forced himself to watch the horrible pictures on TV. He would have felt even more useless than he already felt as he was flying high up in the sky, carrying the bodies of those that had been lucky enough to escape death.
He needed Lois and not only because she had come right in time to spare him the nightmare in his own apartment. He also looked forward to the opportunity to talk to her about all this. He wouldn’t give her all the nasty little details. Clark could write them instead even though this could cause another disagreement between him and Lois. She wouldn’t understand why Clark received all the news about the terrible accident. But he couldn’t explain this to the fragile, amazing woman that he was going to meet after this disaster.
Superman was devastated when he returned form his rescue. Lots of people had died and it wasn’t really soothing him that it would have been a lot worse without him. He didn’t know whether to fly quickly or slowly. Quickly in order to escape the horrible place, slowly because he didn’t know how to face Lois right now. He couldn’t tell if he would be able to pull the heroic face that a Superman was supposed to wear. His disguise had never been weaker than today. Superman probably had never seemed to be more human and at the same time had never felt so alien. He was returning home alone, there wasn’t even the possibility of discussing this with his colleagues. Fire fighters weren’t really his co-workers and those who were could never know about this.
to be continued...
