PREVIOUSLY IN OOPS: THE DESTRUCTION OF UTOPIA...
“You’ve changed your aftershave,” Lois breathed into Clark’s neck, still pressed up against his back.
“Lois...” Clark whispered, finally turning towards her and gathering her against his chest. “And you’ve changed your shampoo.”
The feel of his body was different. His height was a little different, although he was still taller than she. His smell had changed. But the moment his lips found hers, everything was the same. His kiss was the same and it still had the power to make her weak in the knees.
She tangled her hands in his hair as she took her time, slowly exploring his mouth while he did the same to her. His taste. The feel of his lips. The rumble deep in his chest that told her he approved of what she was doing. The way he kissed. She’d know it anywhere. She’d know him anywhere - no matter how he looked or dressed. She could feel his spirit, bonded to hers, drawing her, as always, closer to him.
“Clark?”
A high pitched female voice caused Lois and Clark to draw apart. Lois knew that voice. The voice was followed by the appearance of a teenage Lana Lang.
AND NOW... PART FIVE...
“Who’s this?” Lana asked.
Clark gave Lois an apologetic look before releasing her to turn towards Lana. “This is a friend of mine from Metropolis.”
“Really?” Lana said, her eyes quickly sizing Lois up. “How good a friend?”
“A very good friend,” Lois couldn’t help but respond, even as she reached over, slipping her hand in the back pocket of Clark’s jeans in a blatant show of ownership.
Clark shot her a warning look, but Lois didn’t care. All she wanted right now was some time alone with her husband, time to figure out what was going on and maybe even... something a little more. After all, who knew how long it would be before they would leap again - always assuming, of course, that Clark hadn’t been in this particular time all along. The last thing she needed was to deal with Lana’s possessiveness. It had been hard enough to tolerate in the alternate universe, but here, with Lois’ own Clark, only two weeks after their wedding, it was unendurable.
“Clark?” Lana asked, her tone of voice definitely conveying her displeasure with the current situation.
Clark quickly turned towards Lois, removing her hand from his pocket as he did so, but still keeping her hand clasped firmly in his. “Just give me a minute to talk to Lana,” he said, his eyes pleading with her.
She narrowed his eyes, silently telling him that anything longer than sixty seconds would not be tolerated - and that he’d better have a good explanation ready when he did return as to why he wasn’t just telling Lana to get lost.
He gave her a nod, indicating he’d understood the message before releasing her hand and making his way over to where Lana was standing.
“Clark, what are you doing with that... that... girl?” Lois heard Lana hiss. “How do you even know her?”
“First, I already told you, she’s someone I met from Metropolis. And second... aren’t you the one who told me a couple of weeks ago when Bobby ‘Oh, He’s So Delicious’ asked you to go to the ball game that we aren’t exclusive?”
Lois tried, quite unsuccessfully, to fight back a snort of laughter. She knew she’d failed when Lana shot her a look that could easily kill.
“But you’re here with me,” Lana whined, lowering her voice and turning both her and Clark slightly away from Lois.
“Look, I didn’t plan to run into her,” Clark said, not following Lana’s lead of keeping his voice down. “But now that I have, I’m going to spend some time talking to her. Go back to the campfire, Lana. I’ll see you later.”
Then, leaving a speechless Lana behind him, he turned back to Lois. “Ready?” he asked, holding a hand out to her.
Lois smiled and nodded, slipping her hand into Clark’s. Holding hands, they left a still speechless Lana behind them as they headed down the path.
“Do you really think you should have done that, Clark?” Lois asked when they were far enough away that she knew Lana couldn’t overhear her.
He shot Lois a curious look.
“Don’t get me wrong, I adore you for it, but... well, couldn’t it affect your past?”
Clark shook his head. “I doubt it. After all, Lana will dump me permanently next week when the college kids come back and Stan makes a play for her. Besides, I always wished I had broken up with Lana before she broke up with me.”
“Well, glad I could be of assistance, farmboy,” she said, giving him a shy smile.
Clark pulled them to a stop the moment they were out of sight of Lana. “Besides, I needed to be alone with you.”
She let out a jagged breath. “I need to be alone with you, too.” She quickly found herself being pulled into his arms. “Oh, Clark. I’ve missed you so much,” she said against his chest.
He buried his face in her hair, sighing deeply. “I missed you, too.”
She pulled back far enough to look into his eyes. “You know, it’s funny. I’ve been with you... well, almost constantly since... I last saw you, but...”
“It’s not the same,” Clark finished for her, lowering his mouth back to hers.
The sound of drunken chatter coming from down the path soon forced them apart.
“So... where can a couple go to get some privacy around here?” Lois asked breathlessly. “We need to... talk.”
A sudden flash of fire appeared in his eyes for a moment at her stumbled last word, before disappearing once again. After all, they did need to talk - desperately. “I know just the place,” he said, taking her hand and leading her quickly in the appropriate direction. Finally coming to a rock cut along the shore, he placed his hands on Lois’ waist, lifting her up to so that she could sit on the top before releasing her to hop up beside her. When he helped her to her feet, Lois looked at him quizzically.
“I’m only seventeen,” he said. “I didn’t fly until I was eighteen.”
She smiled. “Well, at least you sure can leap.”
“Yep. I suspect I could leap tall buildings in a single bound - although in Kansas...”
“There aren’t a lot of buildings to practice on?”
“Something like that. Still, there are silos and water towers.”
“Oh, well that’s good to know. Who needs hundred-story buildings when you have silos and water towers?”
“Come on,” Clark said, smiling as he took her hand.
He led her along the rock-cut for a while before directing her down to a small alcove along the shore. Once inside, Lois found herself standing on soft sand, surrounded on three sides by uncut ridges of rock and on the fourth by the lake, gentle waves washing up onto the sandy shore. In this position, they were protected not only from the wind and the noise from the campground, but also from prying eyes.
“You wouldn’t be trying to get me alone to take advantage of me, would you, farmboy?” Lois asked even as she wrapped her arms around his neck, the light words belaying the seriousness of the situation. Still, at the moment, before they got down to business, what Lois needed most was the reassurance of his presence, the feel of his touch, the safety of his arms.
“Mmm... always,” he responded, pulling her closer, seeming to understand her unspoken plea - perhaps because he shared it.
“Clark, what’s going on here?” Lois asked after a long moment, still not releasing him.
“I don’t know. Have... have you been here this whole time?”
“I was wondering the same thing about you. How long have you been here? In fact, why are you here?”
“Here as in... in this time? Or here as in... in this place?”
“The latter.”
“A bunch of us came up to New Troy State Park for a weekend at the end of my junior year of high school. That’s actually when I came across this particular place.”
“With Lana?”
He pulled back to look into her eyes. “When I was out exploring when I was here at seventeen. As far as how long I’ve been here... I just arrived... maybe fifteen minutes before I saw you.”
“That’s about how long I’ve been here. So then... how many other times have you been to?”
“Two - well, other than this one.”
“Me too. So...”
“We are probably jumping at the same time. But that still doesn’t tell us what’s going on.”
“It’s got to be Tempus. After all, who else do we know who’s into time travel?”
“Not to mention trying to ruin our lives. But... have you seen him at all since you started leaping?”
She shook her head.
“Me neither.”
“So... any idea how we stop this?”
He let out his breath, finally releasing her and leading her over closer to the beach. He sat down on the still sun-warmed sand. She joined him there.
“I have no idea,” Clark said, watching as she removed her shoes and socks to bury her feet in the soft sand. “God, you’re so sexy,” he breathed, causing her to look up at him. “A little younger maybe. But still...” He drew in a breath through his teeth.
“Even with my Charlie’s Angels’ hair?”
He smiled. “I think it sort of works - especially when it’s surrounding that beautiful face and with that...” He ran his eyes over her body. “...drop dead gorgeous body. At least... it’s certainly working for me at the moment.”
The husky texture his voice had taken on throughout his comments caused tears to come to her eyes. She’d missed him so much. There may still be a lot to talk about, but just being here with him, things suddenly seemed a lot more manageable. They were together. And what she needed most at the moment was him.
She moved closer, sitting next to him on the sand facing him before reaching up and stroking his cheek. “You look so young,” she said softly, her eyes focused firmly on his. Then a smile lit up her sad face. “It almost feels as if I’m cheating with the pool boy.”
“A fantasy of yours perhaps?” he asked in an obvious attempt to lighten the tense atmosphere.
“Only if you’re the pool boy,” she whispered.
Unable to resist, he leaned in to kiss her.
She giggled, pulling back suddenly. He looked at her in confusion.
“I got a tip for you, poolboy.”
He smiled. “And what’s that?”
“Laser vision shaving.”
He laughed, his hand going up to his face. “I’d already learned that trick by this point. Or are you saying I need a shave?”
She ran her hand gently over his cheek. “I’ll take you anyway I can get you.” She sighed. “I’m just glad you’re here.”
He pulled her back to him, kissing her again, this time much more passionately, purposefully. She felt heat spark into flame in her belly as she pushed him back into the sand so that she could lean over him, never breaking contact with his lips. With one hand, she held herself above him even as the other worked frantically on the buttons of his flannel shirt.
She slipped her hand inside the instant the shirt was open, running her hand over his pectoral muscles, learning the newness of him even as the heat inside informed her that she’d spent the past two weeks exploring every inch of his body. It had changed somewhat, but even at seventeen it still was pretty magnificent. Yes, she had known every inch of him - before Tempus had forced them apart.
The thought of Tempus doused the heat. Pulling back, she looked into Clark’s dark, passion-filled eyes.
“What?” he asked.
“We don’t know how long we have here. We’ve got to talk about Tempus.”
He closed his eyes, fighting the same battle she was - the need to talk conflicting with the need to reaffirm their love in a ritual as old as time. Was it possible that their teenage hormones were actually intensifying their need for each other? It was almost inconceivable to think that their passion could be any stronger than it had been during their honeymoon. But right now, it seemed even more intense. More unmanageable.
“What about him?” Clark finally asked without opening his eyes.
She snuggled down against him, her fingers still lightly tracing the muscles of his chest. His hand came up to cover hers, stilling her motion.
“Well, okay, I’m not entirely sure where to start here. Maybe I should tell you when I’ve been and what’s been happening. And you could do the same.”
Clark let out a breath. “Well, I’ve been trying not to change too much about our past mostly. I’m afraid that if we aren’t careful, we could damage our current relationship - no matter how good our intentions are.”
“I had the same idea. However...”
“However?”
She fidgeted nervously. “First, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Well, when you say you always loved me...”
“Lois, what did you do?”
“Just... Clark, I need to know, if Mayson had lived, would you still have chosen me over her?”
“Every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Lois, what’s this abo... You saved Mayson’s life?”
“Not exactly.”
“How... not exactly?”
Not sure if he was upset with her or not, she continued anxiously. “I sort of told past you how to save Mayson’s life. But it was your idea.”
“My idea?”
“I asked you if I should tell you something that might... prevent something bad from happening even if it would change my past and you told me to do what was right and let the future take care of itself.”
“Well, I’m an idiot,” Clark said, only half joking. “Besides, when did you ever listen to me before?”
“You were right, Clark. I couldn’t not say anything and just let her die. I’d always wonder if I did it just because I was jealous of her.”
Clark raised himself on his arms so that she was forced to turn and look into his eyes. “You were jealous of her?”
“Are you kidding?” Lois responded. “I was absolutely, insanely jealous of her. When she interrupted our dance at the Church party, I wanted to rip her eyes out.”
A slow smile spread across Clark’s face.
“I should have known you’d like that,” she muttered, snuggling back down against his chest even as he pulled her closer. “So... you’re not upset with me for telling past you about Mayson?”
“How could I be mad, Lois? You’re right. It was the right thing to do. We’ll deal with any consequences of your actions. I promise. After all, even before Mayson died, I realized that no matter how much she seemed to love the Clark part of me, I was completely in love with you. And at least you had a good reason for changing the past.”
Lois looked up into his eyes again. “What did you do?” she asked cautiously.
“Well, I didn’t. At least, not in the end, but... It’s what I almost did.”
“Only you, Clark Kent, would be worried about what you almost did. So... what did you almost do?”
“Do you remember the dance of the seven veils?”
She groaned, burying her face in his chest. “How could I possibly forget?”
“Well, during one of my jumps, I was back there.”
“And?”
“Why was it so much easier to resist you the first time around?”
“Because neither of us knew what we were missing,” Lois said.
“You mean, I didn’t.”
“Neither of us,” she repeated, holding his gaze. “Clark, if I had known what it was like to make love to you, trust me on this... We never would have made it to our wedding night. But... Oh, Clark, you didn’t?”
“No, no. I... well, okay, there were a couple of passionate kisses that I didn’t indulge in last time. But when you... undid the strap holding up the top part of your dress... You have no idea how close I came, Lois. And if I had broken your trust like that... that early in our relationship...”
“I’d have had a really hard time getting past it,” Lois confirmed.
“I know.”
“So what finally stopped you?”
“The realization that I wanted what we have - a life long commitment, not some instant gratification.”
She smiled. “Well, you’ve got that, poolboy. Although, was my poor baby left frustrated?”
He captured her smile in a brief kiss. “So we’re agreed?”
“On what?”
“That until we work this out, we have to avoid, at least to the extent we are able, making any major changes to our pasts?”
Her eyebrows crinkled for a moment. “Except...”
“Except?”
“Well, I don’t think it will change the past, because I never actually married Lex, but...”
“Lo-is?”
“Well, when you came to see me as Superman, after I’d rejected you in the park, I sort of... I couldn’t exactly hurt you the way I did last time. So instead I spent my time telling you, without letting you know I was from the future, exactly how much I cared about Clark and... I sort of gave you some hints about how you might have been able to stop me from accepting Lex’s proposal.”
“Lois, that’s exactly the type of thing we need to avoid doing! Even if we hurt each other... we can’t change our past!”
“Okay, okay. I get that. It’s just a lot easier to do in theory than it is in practice. But... Well, other than the dance of the seven veils, when were you.”
“Oh right. I jumped back into our investigation of the Messenger explosion. At first I didn’t realize I was in the past and... well, by the time I jumped, I’m pretty sure that past you thought I was nuts.”
“Well, that shouldn’t cause much of a problem. I already thought you were nuts,” she said, leaning over to give him a kiss to let him know she was kidding. “Of course, I also thought you were incredibly cute - which also translated as extremely dangerous.”
He chuckled. “Still... we’re agreed then? No more changing the past? The past is what it is. No matter what.”
She nodded. “So how do we stop this - get back to our own time?”
He let out a breath. “I have no idea - at least not unless we come across Tempus or Herb. You?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I guess you could build a time machine. After all, you did it before.”
“And how would that help? After all, we don’t need to travel in time. We need our souls to travel in time.”
“So we need Herb’s soul tracker.”
“And that is something I have no idea how to make.”
They fell silent for a moment, both lost in thought. Suddenly, Lois turned, shifting her leg between the two of his so that she could lay against his chest as she leaned in for a kiss. “Make love to me, Clark,” she whispered against his lips.
“But, Lois, Tempus, H.G. Wells...”
“I don’t have any idea how to get back right now, Clark. And I need... I need... Make love to me,” she whispered again.
* * * * * * * * *
“Okay,” William said. “I think we’ve seen enough.”
“Wait,” Remi said. “We need to find out if they... After all, if Lois gets pregnant as a teenager...”
“History would be drastically altered,” Laddy finished for her.
“Now, we don’t know that history would have been altered,” William said.
“No?” Laddy said. “Well, I can think of a hundred different ways things might change. What if Ellen Lane insisted that Lois give up the child? What if that child - which we all know would have had superpowers - was raised by someone without Lois and Clark’s ethics? Or what if having a child had changed Lois’ priorities? What if she had placed a greater priority on getting married when she was younger - before she ever met Clark? Or what if she did keep the child, but as a result, she hadn’t been able to fast track through university and there hadn’t been any openings at the Daily Planet when she graduated. Or...”
“Okay,” William interrupted. “I think we all get the idea. But there is hardly any point in outlining all the worst possible scenarios. I think we have to focus on what is... not what might be.”
“Well, I hate to bring this up, but... what about the curse?” asked Remi. “You know, the curse where Lois will die if they consummate,” she continued when everyone looked at her blankly.
“Oh, I think we’re okay with that part,” William said. “We did a study on it the first time that Tempus started messing with history - especially given how... amorous... Lois and Clark were in the early years of their marriage...”
“Early years?” Laddy said dryly. “Try always.”
“...and we discovered that if the a future Lois and Clark, the ones who have already broken the curse, go back in time and make love, it won’t effect them.”
“So how exactly does that work?”
“I don’t understand the science, but that is one thing we don’t have to worry about, fortunately.”
“One of the few things,” Laddy muttered.
“Anyway,” William said, shooting a dark look at Laddy, “right now we need to concern ourselves with trying to figure out how much of what is happening between Lois and Clark we need to watch.”
“Maybe we could just... you know, instruct the computer to tag those items that change the past - show them to us? That way we could skip... things that we don’t need to see,” Remi suggested.
There was general agreement among the council, many of whom were certainly not relishing the idea of seeing the founders of their society in... a compromising position. It would be hard enough knowing those things they needed to know to minimize any damage done to the past.
Although, what exactly they could do, none of them had any idea.
* * * * * * * * *
to be continued...
ML
