PREVIOUSLY IN OOPS: THE DESTRUCTION OF UTOPIA...
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 he 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.
* * * * * * * * *
AND NOW... PART 11...
“Lois?” Clark asked cautiously when his dizziness receded.
“Clark?” Lois asked with equal caution.
“Is that really...”
“...you?”
They both let out identical breaths of relief. They were in Clark’s apartment. In Clark’s bed. And they were together.
“Oh, thank god,” Lois said. “I had this horrible leap where I thought I’d lost you.”
“I had a pretty confusing leap myself. I was living... somewhere else,” Clark said. “It was nowhere that I recognized. But...”
“...where are we now? Other than the obvious, of course.”
She pulled herself out of bed and Clark watched appreciatively as she walked over to the television and flicked it on before picking up the remote on top and flipping through channels, finally stopping on the weather channel.
“Lois?” Clark asked before it sank in what she was looking at. The date.
“Clark, this is the last morning before our honeymoon ends. It’s the day...”
“...we started leaping.”
“So what do you think this means? Are we back, or...”
“...is this just another leap?”
An unexpected knock on the door startled both of them. That hadn’t happened last time.
Clark quickly lowered his glasses before the anxious look on his face was replaced with a grimace of annoyance.
“If it’s Dan, tell him I’m not here.”
“What?” Clark asked.
“Nothing. It’s just... nothing. Who is it?”
“You better get a robe, Lois. It looks as if we’re about to have company.”
* * * * * * * * *
A sheepish looking Wells stepped silently into Lois and Clark’s apartment.
“I suppose you’re here to tell us what the hell is going on,” Lois said, folding her arms across her chest.
“Uhh... yes... quite,” Wells said, moving a little further away from Lois and closer to Clark. “Well, I see you’re back in your right time now. So I suppose the only thing left to do is to stop the two of you from leaping in the first place.”
“Did Tempus do this?” Clark asked.
“Well, no. Not exactly,” Wells said, making his way over to the couch. “Do you suppose I could have a spot of tea? This is going to take a while and I’m quite parched.”
Lois rolled her eyes, even as Clark headed into the kitchen.
“So I’m given to understand you two have been on quite an adventure,” Wells said as he took a seat.
“You could call it that,” Lois said, sitting in a chair across from the still very nervous looking man on the couch.
“Yes, quite. Well, all’s well that ends well, I always say.”
“Are you saying it’s over?” Clark asked from the kitchen even as he made the tea.
“Yes, yes. It’s over. We just have to prevent it from ever happening. But that shouldn’t be too difficult, I imagine. Just a matter of getting you out of the elevator and into the newsroom without leaping.”
“Okay, so it’s over. But I’m reasonably certain we’re no closer to knowing what happened now than we were before. And since you say it wasn’t Tempus...”
“...was it Myxzpltk?” Clark made his way over to Wells, handing him the tea before taking a seat on the arm of his wife’s chair.
“Who? Oh, no. So you’ve met the little imp, have you? Terrible creature. Just terrible.”
“Mr. Wells!” Lois interrupted. “Tell us what happened. This leaping has been sheer hell. And I assure you, someone is going to pay.”
Wells choked slightly on his tea. “Well, honestly...” he began, setting his cup down on the coffee table. “I guess that would be me.”
“You!” Lois and Clark gasped in unison.
“Yes, quite. It was... an accident, you see.”
“An accident?” Lois asked. Clark’s hand on her shoulder told her just how much fury her words had conveyed.
“Yes, yes. Sort of an... oops.”
“An oops?” Clark asked. Lois’ hand on his knee told him that he, too, was reaching the boiling point.
“Well, maybe I should start at the beginning.”
“Maybe you should,” Lois responded, through clenched teeth.
“When I was here before your honeymoon, you may recall that I brought with me a soul tracking device I picked up in the future.” He held it up so that they could see it. “I locked your souls in this device so that I could take you back in time - to Sir Charles and Lady Loisette.”
“So...”
“When I left you here in your own time, I forgot to... unlock your souls. And then I was playing with the device and...” He shrugged sheepishly.
“You forgot to unlock our souls?” Lois asked in disbelief. “You mean, I went through hell and back because you ‘forgot to unlock our souls’?”
“Oops,” Wells said again, looking slightly sheepish, and more than a little nervous as his eyes darted to Lois.
“Lois,” Clark said, trying desperately to calm her down so that he could get his next question answered before Lois tore Wells apart with her bare hands. “But that last leap... Where was I? Was that the future or...”
He felt Lois still as if she, too, was anxious to know the answer.
“Neither. It was... an alternate version of how things would have gone if we had left all the changes you made in the past unattended. Changes which ultimately resulted in the destruction of Utopia itself. It didn’t affect me because I’m from the past. But... Utopia was destroyed.”
“Changes? But we were very careful not to make any changes,” Clark said.
“We did stop Mayson Drake from dying,” Lois corrected. “I saw her on a later leap. Was that what...?”
“Oh, goodness no. It would take a lot more than that to destroy your relationship. In fact, none of the changes you made right up until the end were capable of destroying your relationship. Your relationship is too strong to be thrown off by the little things. Everyone knows that.” Herb let out a breath. “Okay, let me go back for a moment. I was in Utopia while you were leaping through time. The council was discussing whether or not I should be allowed to continue my time explorations. Anyway, while I was there, a series of time quakes went through. I imagine Mayson Drake not dying caused of one of them, but it wasn’t what destroyed Utopia.”
“Time quakes?”
“It’s the ripple effect that happens when a change is made to the past. A quake goes through as things in the future have to correct themselves to adjust to a new set of past realities.”
“And Mayson living caused one of these quakes?”
“Quite. But since she went on to marry Dan Scardino and they didn’t have any children, the majority of the changes they made to the past dissipated over time - leaving only minor changes to the future.”
“But if one of these time quakes went through, wouldn’t it affect the memories of everyone in the future?” Clark asked seeming fascinated by the logistics of how this all worked.
“Well, the counsel has quake dampeners on the building. So... although they can’t stop the effects of the quake, they continue to retain their memories for a period of time. Of course, were someone to step outside of the building, their memories would be completely altered. But at least it gives them time to... correct the problem.”
“So... what destroyed Utopia?” Lois asked in an attempt to get them back on track.
“What destroyed Utopia was you and Clark...” He cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed as he continued. “...making love in the honeymoon suite of the Lexor Hotel.”
“What?” Lois exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “Were you watching us in the honeymoon suite?”
“No. I assure you, I did no such thing!” Wells objected, looking aghast that they could even think such a thing.
“Okay,” said Clark, slipping into the chair Lois had vacated and pulling her down to sit on his knee where he could hold onto her if Wells said something worse. “Then tell us how our making love in the honeymoon suite destroyed Utopia. Because we know that Lois and I can’t have children, so once we leapt...”
“But that’s where you’re wrong. Dr. Klein’s test results were incorrect. The problem was that Dr. Klein didn’t realize that just like Earth women have a cycle, times of the month where they can... conceive, Kryptonian males also have a cycle.”
“So there are only certain times of the month when Clark can get me pregnant?”
“Quite so. But when Clark went for testing, Dr. Klein didn’t know that. And Clark wasn’t there at the appropriate... time of the month. So...”
“He got the results wrong,” Lois concluded.
“So Lois and I can...”
“Yes. Quite definitely. But then, I told you that when we first met. I told you Utopia was founded by Superman’s descendants.”
“So then, we destroyed Utopia by...” Lois glanced over at Clark. “...getting pregnant? How is that possible since you said that our descendants will found Utopia?”
“By you becoming with child when you did,” Wells corrected. “Tell me, when you leapt that time, where were you?”
“We...” Clark’s face finally registered understanding. “We were asleep...”
“...in bed together,” Lois completed for him. “So our former selves woke up and discovered that we were in bed together...”
“...and panicked. And then you find out that you’re pregnant... But that doesn’t explain how that destroyed Utopia. After all, I’m sure that if I found out I was going to be a father, I’d have asked Lois to marry me and...”
“What makes you think I’d have said yes at that point?” Lois asked. “Think about it. I find us together in bed with little or no memory of how I got there... Given what I thought of the male of the species at the time, what would my logical conclusion have been?”
“That I drugged you and... what? Raped you? I would never...”
“I know that,” Lois said, leaning in to give him a brief kiss.
“And you tried to believe that at the time, too, Ms. Lane,” Wells said. “You accepted his word that he had been drugged, too. And that he had no memory of what had happened. And thus, that nothing had, until...”
“...she discovered she was pregnant.”
“And when paternity testing proved that Clark was the father...”
“I became convinced that he’d lied to me about drugging and raping me. After all, how could he be the father if he was too drugged to know what was happening?”
“Precisely - especially when you had some pretty erotic, albeit hazy, and you believed drug-induced images from that night. Everything you knew, everything you remembered pointed to the idea that Clark had raped you. However, you didn’t bring charges because you still had doubts - especially with Clark protesting his innocence in the loudest terms possible. But it did destroy your faith in him.
“Although you never told anyone what had happened,” Wells continued, “you made it clear to Perry White that if he assigned you and Clark on a story together again, you would quit. You were simply too scared of Clark to work with him. When Mr. White realized you were serious, he quit assigning you and Clark the same stories.”
“And the baby?” Clark asked.
“Lois lost the baby as a result of all the stress around the whole situation. And never again did she allow herself to be in any situation where she was alone with you. Eventually, you came to the conclusion that your continued presence at the Daily Planet was just causing her pain and you left. After a long time, she got on with her life, but, Clark, you never really did. Superman still continued to patrol the skies, but you never married, were never able to get past Lois - and what you knew in your heart was meant to be.”
“Does anyone else have a headache?” Lois asked.
“But now that we’re back...” Clark said.
“All we have to do is to have you get out of the elevator and into the newsroom at precisely nine twelve and... assuming you’re still together, everything will correct itself. Leaping you to this point, took some tricky maneuvering on my part. I had to go into the past and make... some not so pleasant changes myself.”
“Like what?”
“Believe me, it’s better that you don’t know,” Wells said, not entirely sure how they would react to knowing that Wells had secretly slipped the morning after pill into Lois’ coffee the day after she and Clark’s night in the honeymoon suite. “All that matters is that you’re here now and that none of the changes any of us made to the past will have ever occurred when you get into the newsroom the way you should have in the first place.”
“Okay, my headache is getting worse,” Lois said. “So... all we need to know is that we go up in the elevator, exiting at nine twelve and everything will correct itself?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“I still have a couple more questions,” Clark said. “When I leapt into the future, Lois’ future self didn’t exactly... remember all of this. So...”
“Well, going back through the point of the first leap will likely... How did they say it in that charming television series in the early nineties? Quantum Leap? Yes, I believe that was the name of the show. I especially liked the episode where Sam meets a young woman who, once he changes the past, becomes his wife. I thought she was an amazing actress.”
“Mr. Wells!” Lois said, not caring much about amazing actresses.
“Oh, right. Sorry. Just as in Quantum Leap, your brain will be... sort of Swiss cheesed. You might remember bits and pieces of your leaps, but nothing more than that - as if you’d been dreaming.”
Lois sighed. “I hate that part.”
“But if we changed the past... our past during our leaping, why didn’t it change our memories of events?” Clark asked.
“Your minds were not affected, even though you could see the changes you made - Lois seeing Ms. Drake, for example - because you were outside time. If you were left in those time periods with the changed pasts long enough, your memory of the way things really were would have faded leaving the altered memories in their place. Fortunately, you were never in one place long enough.”
“So where did you go on your last leap when I was in some dingy apartment far away from Metropolis?” Clark asked, looking at Lois.
Lois shifted uncomfortably. “I guess I was sort of with Dan.”
“Dan?” Clark asked incredibly. “Scardino? You were with Scardino? How could you possibly get involved with Scardino?”
“Hey, don’t take this out on me! You’re the one who left me.”
“Well, I didn’t think I had a choice. You were scared of me.”
Wells clearing his throat brought them both back to reality. They looked at each other sheepishly. Arguing about something that they hadn’t done - at least in this time line - was more than a little bit crazy. On the other hand, after the past few days, they both already felt a little bit crazy.
“Sorry,” Lois said. “I didn’t like it any better than you do. Trust me, leaping back to you was a relief.”
“But I don’t understand,” Clark said after a moment. “I thought Scardino married Mayson.”
Both Lois and Clark turned to look at Wells, awaiting an explanation.
“Uhh... yes. Well, that’s one of the fascinating things about leaping through time changing the past.”
“I can think of different words to describe it,” Lois mumbled under her breath.
“Lois, when you leapt back and told Clark how to prevent Mayson’s death, she survived - and went on to marry Dan Scardino. But then the two of you leapt back to an earlier time and changed things again. As a result, Clark left Metropolis. So he wasn’t around when Mayson was killed so he could hardly save her.”
Lois and Clark stared at him for a long moment.
“I definitely need some aspirin,” Lois said, rising to his feet and heading towards the bedroom. “Well, if we’re going to do this, I guess I need to have my shower and get dressed. Not all of us can get ready in five seconds.” She was just about to step through the door before she spun back around.
“Mr. Wells, before I have my brain Swiss cheesed, there’s something I have to know. During one of the leaps, I jumped into a future time where... Clark was trapped in a time window and I watched it explode. Did Clark...” Her voice trailed off as she found herself unable to put her fears into words.
“Oh no, my dear. Clark survived.”
She let out a breath as tears accumulated in her eyes. “Thank you,” she breathed as she headed off to the shower.
* * * * * * * * *
“Are you ready?” Clark asked, taking her hand.
“I don’t know why I’m so nervous. All we have to do is take the elevator to the newsroom.”
Clark gave her a smile which told her that he was nervous, too. After all, the task might be simple, but so much was riding on it.
“By the way,” Lois continued, “why did you insist on buying that coffee and donut?”
“We had coffee and a donut when we went up the last time.” To her raised eyebrows, he continued. “I just thought that it would be best to keep things as close as possible to the way they were.”
Lois nodded. “Didn’t I have anything?”
“Oh, right. I think you had the coffee,” he said, handing her the cup.
They were about to step into one of the elevators when Lois noticed a man approaching.
“Wait! Clark, isn’t that the man we rode up in the elevator with last time?”
“Yeah, it is,” Clark said, waiting so that they could be sure to get into the same elevator with their former traveling companion. They punched in the number and waited.
Ding.
The man with them stepped off the elevator.
Lois turned to Clark as the elevator doors closed, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close to kiss him. “For luck,” she said as she broke the kiss.
“I need more luck than that,” Clark responded, pulling her back in and kissing her properly.
The ding of the elevator finally propelled them apart and they stepped, somewhat dazed and confused, into the newsroom.
“Well, that was...”
“Yeah...”
Lois shook her head, trying to figure out why she was so happy to be back at work this morning. After all, that honeymoon had been... wow!
She glanced down at the coffee in her hand. This wasn’t right. She’d had a donut. Giving her head a slight shake, she quickly exchanged her coffee for Clark’s donut. How on Earth had that happened? That kiss in the elevator must have been more intense than she’d realized. Although...
“Well, look who’s back! The happy couple,” Perry said.
“Lois! C.K.! How was Hawaii?” Jimmy asked.
“Well...”
“Are you kidding?” Perry said before Lois had to explain that they’d never actually made it to Hawaii. “These two got the very same look Alice and I had after our honeymoon at Graceland. Of course, we all know how that turned out...”
Lois and Clark shared a look: relief, happiness... confusion? Before shaking the thought off and heading into the newsroom, happy to be starting their first day of work as husband and wife.
A man in a bowler hat, checking his pocket watch, looked on in satisfaction before disappearing into the stairway.
* * * * * * * * *
EPILOGUE
June 16, 1997
* * * * * * * * *
“You can have all the money in the world but when your time’s up, it’s up,” Jimmy said, coming over to Lois’ desk.
“Chinese fortune cookie?” Lois asked.
Jimmy held up a file. “Carter Clavens. Rich, powerful, healthy, dead. Fell thirty stories. Plop.”
“Suicide?”
“Exercycle. Bike went right out a window. With him on it.”
“How?”
“By itself.”
“By itself,” Lois repeated, suddenly lost in thought.
“Cops said it’s like the bike had a mind of its own or something.”
Lois watched as Clark approached. “That’s what the guard said to Superman about the prison gate, isn’t it?” she asked Clark. “Jimmy, see if there’s any other link between the two deaths.” She watched Jimmy walk away before turning to Clark. “Curious, don’t you think?”
“Um... sort of?”
“Or not.”
“Could we talk?” Clark asked. “Privately?”
“Sure,” Lois said before following him into the conference room, leaning against the table as she watched him close the door and pull the blinds.
“I just came from Star Labs,” Clark said when he was finished.
“Really? You coulda just called me. What did Dr. Klein say? Wait! You couldn’t call, could you? The news... The news isn’t good.”
“Honey, Dr. Klein ran every test he could. The poor guy could hardly face me.” He came over to stand in front of her. “He said Superman’s biology and an Earth woman’s are... incompatible for reproduction.”
Lois blinked. There was something just so... deja vu about this moment. As if she’d been here before, heard all this before.
“Clark, he’s wrong.”
“Honey...”
“Clark, think about this... what if... what if Superman’s biology is on some sort of... I don’t know, cycle maybe. Maybe there are only times of the month when he’s fertile. I mean, we know so little about Superman’s biology.”
“You really think that might be it?”
“I don’t know but... doesn’t something sound... right about that?”
Clark cocked his head to the side as he thought about her words. “Yeah, it somehow does.”
“So...”
“So...?”
“We don’t give up - no matter what Dr. Klein might tell us.” She cupped his face in her hands. “I want you to listen to me, Clark. I mean, really listen. You and I are going to have babies together. I promise.”
He smiled, leaning in to kiss her. “Whatever you say, Lois. Whatever you say.”
Lois laughed. “At least you’ve got that right, poolboy.”
Clark pulled back, looking at her curiously. “What did you just call me?” he asked as a minor time quake rippled through Utopia.
* * * * * * * * *
THE END
* * * * * * * * *
THIS TIME IT IS THE END. I PROMISE
Credits: I got the idea for time quakes from a movie I saw a long time ago staring Chris Kristofferson and Cheryl Ladd called Millennium.
ML
