“Mating habits of the knob tailed Gecko?” Perry shook his head. “Son, you can’t some into the greatest newspaper on the planet with this kind of story and expect to be taken seriously.”
Clark Kent was a tall man, and there was something about his confidence that Perry liked. It took a lot of guts to show up with a Gecko story and still look confident. Still, he didn’t really have a job opening.
“I’m just going to have to,,,”
The door suddenly swung open and a woman in khaki shorts and a khaki shirt walked in. She was tanned, and her skin was practically glowing.
“He didn’t start with the Gecko story, did he?” The woman asked.
“What in the Sam Hill is going…”
He froze as the woman introduced herself. “Lois Lane-Kent.” She offered her hand and he took it.
“You folks are Lane-Kent and Kent?”
Lois nodded, a hint of a smirk on her face.
The Kents were world renowned. They’d written about every major conflict over the past ten years or so, traveling into war zones to get stories that other journalists either couldn’t or wouldn’t. They’d won their first Pulitzer last year with that story on the Congo. Rumor had it that they were in the running for another one.
They had a reputation for having an uncanny sense of where the big story was, and for being there almost as it happened.
What they were most famous for, however was getting the exclusive on Superman after he’d appeared last year. The military had attempted to push Nightfall out of its orbit and had ended up sending it spiraling toward the planet instead.
“I’m flattered that such a distinguished pair of reporters would come looking for a job at the Planet, but I don’t know how I could possibly afford you.”
Lois Lane waved his objection away. “We don’t do this for the money. Between the travel guides we’ve written and some really good investments, we don’t actually have to work at all.”
She grabbed a sheet of paper from Perry’s desk and wrote a number down. Perry was astonished, both because the amount was almost exactly the most he could afford for them and because she’d asked for her salary to be ten percent more than her husband’s.
Clark had a long suffering look.
Perry slowly sat down. “Well, let’s talk turkey.”
“Elvis always said it was better to talk fried bananas.” Lois said. “But we’ll talk turkey if you’d like.”
Perry leaned forward. He was really going to like this woman.
“Did you know I originally tried to get an internship here?” Lois said sweetly. “I missed a deadline by a day or two.”
Like might be too strong a word.
*****************
The view was spectacular. It was ironic that they were staying in the Lexor hotel. It wasn’t the honeymoon sweet that Lois remembered from so long ago. It was a pricier room with a spectacular view of the city.
Metropolis glowed like a shining jewel before them.
Traveling the world had been an experience Lois would never forget, but her heart would always belong to Metropolis.
It was god to be home.
“We got the job, Grandma!” Lois said, holding the telephone to her ear as she tried to open the bottle of wine. Clark was in Shanghai getting food from that little place they both loved so much.
The cork finally released, and Lois poured into the twin wine glasses.
She lit a pair of candles, and a moment later she felt the wind of her husband’s approach.
“Clark is here, I’ve got to go.”
Her grandmother had become frailer with each passing year, but Lois had treasured the nine additional years they’d had together.
By the time she turned, the meal was already out on the plates, the boxes and bags hidden away where possible.
Lois opened the fortune and grinned. “Apparently a horse in the barn is worth two in the field.”
Clark answered in Mandarin. “And a wife of my heart is worth all the horses in the world.”
“Well, I certainly eat a lot less,” Lois said in the same language. She wasn’t fluent, not like Clark, but she could make her way around Shanghai without getting lost.
Clark turned and looked out over the view. “It really is beautiful. Do you regret staying away for so long?”
“There’s not a single thing that I regret in my life with you,” Lois said. “I’ve gotten an extra nine years with you, time that I never should have gotten. Whatever happens, I’ve been blessed.”
“So you don’t mind holding on to the Luthorcorp stock?”
“It’s a stupid idea, Clark. Do you know how much money we’d lose…?”
“We don’t need any more money,” Clark said, kissing her on the neck. “And I couldn’t live with selling it off to unsuspecting investors.”
Lois grumbled a little, and then acquiesced. She hated it that Clark was always able to get her to do what she wanted with a few kisses to the nape of her neck.
Of course, she had her own strategies, and she had to admit that she’d always been the more successful at getting what she wanted.
“Well, we’ll take Lex down,” Lois said.
And this time he wouldn’t have any kryptonite to make a cage or anything else. Lois, Martha and Jonathan had snuck out of the farmhouse one night, used a truck and a winch to pull up a tree, and before Wayne Irig knew it, his field was clean.
Lois slowly pulled away, and said, “We’d better eat.”
They sat down to their meal, warmed all over again by Clark with a single glance.
“So we only have one more year, and then the future is finally a mystery again.”
“I’m looking forward to getting on with our lives,” Lois admitted. “It’ll be good to be really surprised again.”
Clark smiled at her, and then said, “Speaking of surprises…”
The gift inside the box he handed her was inconsequential. His greatest gift was their lives together.
Life was good, Lois thought contentedly. Life was good.
“Happy anniversary, Lois.”
**********************
The knocking at the door came as an unpleasant surprise. Things had been progressing along promising paths, and Lois’s mouth was feeling swollen. She was already disheveled.
“Who is it?” she asked Clark sharply.
He stared at the door, and then said, “I don’t know, but he’d dressed strangely.
Lois stiffened. She quickly pulled her clothes back on while Clark headed for the door.
“I say, old fellow. Are you Clark Kent?”
Clark murmured a response. The man replied, saying “My name is Herbert George Wells, and I’ve come here in my time machine.”
Lois stared at the intruder, her heart in her throat. What if he intended to change it all, erase their time together?
“How can we help you, Mr. Wells?” she said finally.
“Well, my machine runs on gold. I’ve traveled forwards in time and saw some marvelous things. I even brought someone back with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t calculate how much the extra weight would add to the fuel problem.”
“What do you need?” Lois asked.
“Well, I need gold. I know it’s hard to believe, but…”
“Where is your companion now?”
“Mr. Tempus is watching the time machine. He seems like a nice young fellow.”
H.G. Wells was left along in the room a moment later, wondering where the couple had gone.
Time travel and superheroes, he mused. You never knew what to expect.
