PREVIOUSLY IN OOPS: THE DESTRUCTION OF UTOPIA...
“So what do we know?” William asked.
“Well, it seems that the problem is originating here. In this time. I’ve got... Well, we’ve even got a theory.”
“Well, for god’s sake, man. Don’t just stand there. Tell us.”
Instead of speaking, Andrus handed out a printout to each of the council members as the ground beneath them began to shake as the time quake from the latest leap began.
“Get that man in here,” William hissed, sending Andrus scrambling to do as commanded.
* * * * * * * * *
When Clark realized he was lying on a bed kissing Lois, he put his full concentration into the task. After all, if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right. Deepening the kiss, he released the grip he had on her hands, allowing him to explore her body. He didn’t particularly care where or when he was just as long as he was allowed to keep kissing Lois.
“More towels. Yeah? Oops. Sorry.”
The woman’s unfamiliar voice intruded on the moment, followed by the closing of a door as the woman left the room.
What was it about that comment that sounded familiar? And did it really matter when he was kissing Lois?
AND NOW... PART TEN
Part Ten
* * * * * * * * *
He felt her hands wind their way through his hair as they continued kissing. He slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her body even harder against him.
Oh, yeah. Now this was heaven. He heard her moan her agreement.
Suddenly, he realized where he’d heard that comment before. The honeymoon suite - but it was most definitely not their honeymoon. He and Lois hadn’t even known each other all that long when they’d been assigned this stakeout in the honeymoon suite of the Lexor Hotel. And he’d kissed Lois as a cover.
Oh, god. He was supposed to have broken the kiss when the maid left the room. What would Lois think? But... wait a minute! She was still kissing him, too. And her kisses were just as enthusiastic as his were. Maybe even more so. Could she...
He pulled back, looking into Lois’ dazed eyes.
“What are you stopping for?” Lois objected, pulling him back to her.
He seemed unable to resist as she found his mouth again, this time invading it with her tongue as one of her legs hooked itself around his as if to hold him in position. Is this what would have happened if he hadn’t pulled back when the maid had left all those years ago? Or...
He broke the kiss again. “Lois?” he asked.
She blinked and then seemed to look around in growing horror. “Oh, uhh...” She seemed to be searching for something to say. “Uhh.. right... uhh... doesn’t anybody knock around here - or something like that?”
Clark smiled. She was trying to remember what she had said when he’d pulled back all those years ago. And she wasn’t doing a very good job at it. Not that he could blame her. He felt more than a little... flustered himself.
“Lois, is that... you?” He stressed the final word to emphasize it. If it was past Lois, if he was reading the signs wrong, then she would dismiss the comment - probably with some sort of sarcastic remark. But if she was his Lois...
“Clark?” she asked cautiously.
He let out a breath of relief.
“Oh god, Clark,” she breathed, pulling him back to her and kissing him again.
He smiled against her mouth. He’d always wanted to know what it would have been like to have his turn at sharing the bed. It seemed he was about to find out.
“Wait, Clark. I should let you know something before this goes any further.”
“What?”
“I sort of made love to future you.”
“Oh, you did, did you?” Clark asked, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“You’re not mad? Because I didn’t even stop to think that maybe you would consider it... I don’t know... as a betrayal or something.”
“Why would I consider it a betrayal for you to make love to me?”
“Because you can’t remember it?”
His smile widened. “But I will. Besides, I shared some pretty intense kisses with past you that you can’t remember during your dance of the seven veils. Do you consider that a betrayal?”
“No, of course not.”
“Besides,” Clark continued, “if you made love to future me, I’m pretty much guaranteed to get lucky at least once in the future.”
“You’re pretty much guaranteed to get lucky right now,” she growled before pulling him back into the kiss.
* * * * * * * * *
“They want to see you now.”
Herbert George Wells let out a breath of relief. Finally!
Tempus. It had to be. And who besides him was the expert on stopping Tempus? They never should have left him sitting out there by himself when he could have been helping.
Still, it didn’t matter now. He was ready and eager to find out what they might know and get to work.
* * * * * * * * *
“Wait, wait, wait,” Lois panted, breaking the kiss again.
“What?” Clark panted.
“Well, we don’t know how much time we have here. I just think before things get too... hot...” She fanned herself to emphasize her point. “...we should catch each other up. Talk. We didn’t talk during the last leap when we ended up together. Have you had any luck at finding out what is going on?”
Clark nodded, closing his eyes as he fought to get himself back under control.
“By the way,” Lois said while he regained his composure, “I sort of like this.”
“What? Leaping through time?”
“No, lunkhead. I sort of like discussing an investigation this way. Do you think Perry could arrange to have a bed set up in the conference room?”
Clark laughed before leaning over to kiss the tip of her nose. “Something tells me we wouldn’t get a lot of work done.”
“Oh pooh.”
Clark chuckled again. “Although, I would sort of like to see Perry’s face when you raise the idea.”
She swatted his arm, her smile matching his.
“So...” she said as she ran the heel of her foot up and down the back of his calf.
“So,” he responded, taking that as his signal to get them back on track. “I think I might have found something.”
“What?”
“During one leap, I jumped into my future self. You and I were in the middle of some sort of time loop created by an imp known as Mxyzptlk.”
Lois’ eyebrows rose. “An imp?”
“Apparently.”
“That’s crazy.”
Clark shrugged. “Well, that’s what your future self told me. Unless... Lois, do you think maybe your future self is crazy?”
She swatted his arm again. “Watch it there, poolboy, or I may just have to go back to future you.”
Clark smiled.
“So... you think that it might be this Measles person?”
“It makes sense. If he can put time in a loop, why couldn’t he jump us around in it? Oh, and future you told me that to get rid of him, we have to get him to say his name backwards.”
“That necessitates that we actually meet him. Did you tell my future self what was going on?”
Clark nodded. “I figured that couldn’t change our past.”
“Good point. So what did she... I say?”
“You said that you had a vague recollection of leaping around in time.”
“Vague recollection? I can’t imagine forgetting searching the Metropolis Sewage Reclamation Facility twice in one lifetime.”
Clark smiled. “No. I suppose one wouldn’t forget that. Did you still find the Godzilla doll?”
“Yes. And you and I are going to have a serious talk later about how you are going to make that up to me. In the meantime, what else did my future self say?”
“Oh, right. You commented that it seemed like a dream to you.”
“Well, that makes sense. Do you remember the first time we went back in time? I thought afterwards that I had dreamed it.”
“Me, too. But didn’t Wells do something to us that time - to make us forget?”
“Maybe he does something similar again.”
“I hate that.”
“I’m not so sure, Clark. Maybe it’s best that we don’t remember - especially our future.”
“Lois?”
She squirmed uncomfortably beneath him. He rolled over onto his side, allowing her to escape.
“I think...” She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she sat against the headboard. “I think I might have seen your death.”
“Lois?”
“I’m serious, Clark. And... I didn’t like it.”
“Can’t say the idea particularly appeals to me either. But... are you sure, Lois?”
“No, I’m not. But there was this time window and... Look, I really don’t want to talk about this.”
“Time window?” Clark asked, sitting up. “Lois, do you think that is connected with this? Was Mxyzptlk there?”
“No. But Tempus was.”
“Tempus? Did you have a chance to talk to him?”
She let out a breath. “I was sort of distracted by you being trapped in the time window, Clark. And I wasn’t there very long.” She turned thoughtful then. “When you were talking to my future self, did you ask me if this turned out all right in my dream?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Damn.”
“But if you were still there and I was still there...”
“We must figure it out somehow.”
“But in the meantime...” Clark reached out, pulling Lois back into his arms. “I have some serious catching up to do with my wife.”
Lois giggled. “Oh, you do, do you?”
“Yeah. I’m a newlywed, you know,” he said as he began planting kisses down the side of her throat. “Besides... I seem to recall a guarantee that I was going to get lucky tonight.”
* * * * * * * * *
Wells looked around at the council members as he was escorted to the front of the room, noting that some of the members had changed since he’d addressed the council earlier in the day. Consequences of one of the time quakes, no doubt. At least there was still a council.
“I take it you’re about to ask for my help in stopping Tempus before he can do any further damage,” Wells said when he was finally standing in front of the leaders of Utopia.
“Not exactly,” William said, fixing Wells with a firm stare as he handed him a single sheet of paper.
“Oh my,” Wells responded as he read the words.
* * * * * * * * *
“Lois?” Clark asked when he suddenly realized that Lois had gone still. “What’s wrong?”
She gave her head a shake as if trying to tell him it was nothing, but the slight sheen of moisture in her eyes told a different story.
“Lois...?” he asked again.
“It’s just... I guess I’m sort of feeling guilty.”
“Guilty? For what? I already told you I’m not upset about you having sex with me in the future,” he said with a smile. “In fact, I’d rather encourage it. I’m actually hoping you’re planning to have lots of sex with me in the future.”
“No, not for that. For...”
“What?”
“It’s just that I’ve done a lot of things over the years that have hurt you,” Lois said softly. “Reliving so many of my mistakes... I guess I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry.”
Clark rolled off her, propping himself up on an arm so that he could look at her. “Lois...?”
“No, Clark, let me finish. That day in the park when you told me you loved me. Stealing your story. Going out with Dan. Accepting Lex’s...”
His finger on her lips cut her off.
“And I suppose it didn’t cause you any pain when I broke up with you for your own good or let you leave with Luthor when you had amnesia or...” He hesitated before confessing what he saw as his greatest offence. “...or letting you believe I was dead after Dillinger shot me rather than trusting you with the truth about Superman.”
At some point during his confession, Lois had reached over and started stroking his cheek. “How did we ever end up together after all that?” she asked gently.
“Well,” Clark began thoughtfully, “it might have something to do with the fact that I’m head-over-heals, crazy in love with you.”
A slow smile spread across Lois’ face. “I suppose that might have something to do with it,” Lois responded before leaning over to give him a kiss. “And I suppose, somewhere, buried incredibly deep inside me, might be some eensy weensy, microcosmic although highly unlikely possibility that I could feel some sort of unmotivated and completely unrealistic attraction to you, to... Eek!” she yelped when Clark flipped her over and began tickling her.
“Uncle! Uncle!” she gasped between laughter as she struggled to fight off his hands.
“Say it, Lois,” he said, still continuing to tickle her.
“All right. All right. Maybe I sort of like you, too.” Her laughter increased when the movement of his hands sped up as the ticking continued. “All right. All right. I love you, too.”
He stopped tickling her.
The smile slowly faded from her face. “I love you, too,” she repeated, this time whispering the words. “I love you so much that I think it would kill me to ever stop.”
His eyes softened and he leaned in to kiss her once again, this time much more slowly, putting all the love he felt for her into a single kiss. Suddenly, Clark ended the kiss and unexpectedly rose from the bed.
“Where are you going?” Lois asked.
“I just want to be sure there are no more interruptions,” Clark said, heading out of the bedroom.
Lois smiled. Trust Clark. No one had interrupted them for the remainder of the evening when they had been in the honeymoon suite the last time. Still, he had undoubtedly gone to turn the deadbolt on the door, ensuring no one could enter.
She sighed as she lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling as her mind drifted back to time spent in the honeymoon suite years before. Suddenly, she sat up as one particular memory struck her. The jacuzzi.
Jumping up, she headed into the bathroom and turned on the water, adjusting the temperature until it was just right. She was still bent over the tub when Clark joined her.
“Have a fantasy or two you’re wanting to fulfill?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind and kissing her neck.
“In your dreams, farmboy! Or, did we decide you’re the poolboy now?”
He laughed, releasing her. “Well, if we’re playing out your fantasy, maybe we could play out one or two of mine as well.”
She turned and looked at him as he retreated from the bathroom.
Turning back to her task, she smiled when she heard soft, romantic music coming from the next room. She added bubble bath and closed the blinds just before the lights went down. A gust of wind later, and candles had been set up around the room.
She turned to watch as Clark began lighting each one in turn with his laser vision. Taking advantage of the moment, she quickly slipped out of her clothes and into the warm water and then watched as Clark stripped to join her.
She leaned her head against the back of the tub and idly surveyed the play of the muscles of his powerful body as he took his time undressing. Although he wasn’t looking at her, she suspected he realized she was enjoying the show and was taking his time as a result.
Finally, he looked at her, slowly walking towards the swirling water. Oh, yeah. This was definitely what had been missing during their last trip to this room. The view was certainly better.
She smiled as he finally slipped into the water on the far side of the oversized tub.
“What are you doing all the way over there?” she asked, her voice husky.
Growling, he made his way towards her, pushing through the water, his eyes never leaving hers. She felt her pulse rate rise as the blood began pumping quickly through her veins. God, she’d been with him so many times during this adventure - not to mention the two weeks before. So how was it she could still want him so desperately? Given the way this was all playing out, she couldn’t imagine how they could ever have managed to get through their first day back at the paper after their honeymoon without one of them dragging the other into the storage room for a little hanky-panky.
His hands came to rest on the edge of the tub on either side of her body, trapping her between his strong arms. She raised her hands, slowly tracing the muscles of his arms.
* * * * * * * * *
She was so beautiful, and smart, and sexy, and... his. Clark felt his love for this woman swell inside him as he looked into her eyes. Beautiful eyes. He could stare into those eyes all day and never tire of seeing them. How was it that she could hold such sway over the responses of his body without doing more than touching his arms?
Her fingers slowly traced the muscles of his arms, before they found their way down his chest, as if seeking to learn every contour of his body. Still, in spite of the movement of her hands, her eyes stayed on his - as if seeking to see into his soul the way he was seeing into hers.
“I got the surveillance equipment set up,” he said and watched a smile spread across her face. “So... we have hours before we have to do anything to keep the past the same.”
“Always the boy scout,” she responded. “Always...” Her hands slipped below the surface of the water. “...prepared.”
He closed his eyes momentarily. “Lois, what you do to me...” He leaned in, finally giving in to the desire to kiss her.
The kiss was slow... and incredibly sexy, as if both were holding back, holding themselves in check, wanting this moment, this interlude to last forever.
“Why can I never seem to get enough of you?” she whispered, finally breaking the kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing her body flush against his.
He groaned. If there was a heaven, surely it couldn’t be better than this moment, with this woman. His hands ran up and down her back, pulling her ever closer. If he could have, he would have found a way to crawl inside her skin, to become part of her in every way possible.
He pulled back just far enough to capture her mouth with his, plunging his tongue in and pulling it out several times before planting kisses over her face - her lips, her eyelids, her cheeks, her nose - before leaving her face to find her ear.
As he swirled his tongue around the ridge of her ear, the feeling that they could simply stay like this forever seemed to end for Clark. He wanted her. He wanted to be one with her. And he wanted it now.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark was completely satiated as he swept Lois up in his arms and carried her out of the jacuzzi. She seemed hardly able to keep her eyes open. But then... he was having the same problem.
Carrying her sleepy body towards the bed, he used his heat vision to dry both of them - or at least, mostly dry them. He was simply too exhausted to stop long enough to do a proper job. With one hand, he pulled back the covers, before slipping her inside and tucking the soft bedclothes gently around her.
“Stay here. Stay with me for just a little bit longer,” Lois said, her sleepy eyes pleading with him. “I just want...”
He didn’t make her finish. Flipping back the covers of the bed, he crawled in next to her. She snuggled up in his arms and a few minutes later, both of them were sound asleep.
* * * * * * * * *
Wells stood, staring in horror at the violent, hellish dystopia around him. Gone were the clean streets. Gone was the council. Gone was... everything. And in its place was a Metropolis, devastated by the ravages of war.
Well, this wouldn’t do at all. Now that he knew what the problem was, he had to stop it. He had to stop it now before anything else could go wrong. Always assuming, of course, that was even possible.
He quickly ducked down when bullets began firing in his direction. Of course, in order to save the future, first he had to make it out of here alive.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois woke up to the feel of a warm body next to her. “Mmm...” she moaned, running her hand over the hairy chest.
Her eyes snapped open and she looked in horror at the sight of a naked Dan in bed next to her. She quickly grabbed the sheet, pulling it around her body. When the hell was she? And what the hell was she doing in bed with Dan?
Before she could completely panic, she felt this world begin to fade around her.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark stared in confusion at the unfamiliar surroundings. He was in an apartment. And judging from the pictures and other trinkets around him, it was his apartment, but... He’d never seen this place before. And considering the moist, wet heat in the air and the different sounds of the city outside, he knew was no longer even in Metropolis. So where or when was he?
Before he could make that determination, the world began to fade around him.
* * * * * * * * *
to be continued...
OR MAYBE... HEY, WHAT DO YOU THINK? WOULD THIS BE A GOOD PLACE TO END IT?
