Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Ten Years in the Making (1/3ish)

The idea for this fic just came to me one night. As you’ll be able to tell shortly after you start reading, it’s premise comes from “That Old Gang of Mine”, but in all the fanfics based on that episode, I’ve never seen one that goes off in this direction. Any copying of someone else’s idea was unintentional.


“Tonight on NewsWire… Where are they now? Ten years ago this month, Metropolis was set to live in the past. For most of us in states from California to Illinois to New York, the names Bonnie and Clyde are right out of the history books we studied as children. But in 1994, the residents of Metropolis met Bonnie and Clyde in the flesh, as well as other old timers like John H. Dillinger. Thanks to the work of Professor Emil Hamilton these former gangsters had a brief stint at enjoying life yet again,” Norah Jackson, the lead anchor of NewsWire, smiled into the camera.

Martha Kent glanced over at her son as the tape rolled in the background. The episode of NewsWire had aired last night but Clark had been in Malaysia helping the victims of an earthquake. He had asked her to tape this for him if he was not back in time, but she was not sure why. Reminding himself of the past was not helpful and if she had any doubt of that before now, watching the emotions play across her son’s face washed them all away.

Jonathan caught her eye from across the room and smiled at her reassuringly. Martha smiled back, but the move was somewhat painful. It reminded her of the emotional support Jonathan provided. She wanted that for Clark, too, but she knew he was unlikely to ever find a relationship like this.

The sound of the television brought her attention back to the news program.

“Lois Lane of the Daily Planet finally uncovered the issue with none other than James Olsen (who was an all around office gopher at the time). Although Lane and Hamilton did have a harrowing night as Clyde tried to submerge them in cement, with the aid of Olsen and Metropolis’ resident superhero at the time, Superman, they fared rather well and Lane was able to call the police before anyone was injured during a memorial service at the Daily Planet.

“Olsen and others at the party assured that none of the revived gangsters escaped, and all are now living out life sentences in jail. However, not all the details in this story were wrapped up so neatly. When we return, a look at what happened to this man and what it meant to the members of the newspaper he worked for.”

The screen went black on an image of Clark before a jingle for a new flavor of soda filled the room. Jonathan aimed the remote control at the VCR, fast forwarding the tape, glancing over at Clark while he did so. Jonathan and Martha shared another look. Clark had yet to say anything and his face was a mask – no emotion showing whatsoever and all his muscles taut. Jonathan had never seen Clark look so much like Superman in his own home before.

Letting up on the remote control, the program started again. “During the Great Depression, Bonnie and Clyde are believed to have killed over a dozen people. In 1994, there was only one fatality – Clark Kent, a reporter at the Daily Planet.” Again, the television screen showed an image of Clark. It was the standard image the Daily Planet had used on occasion next to Clark’s byline. “Kent had been at the Daily Planet for about a year and a half at the time and nothing showcases how well he was liked by his peers than the implications his death had on the people around him.

“Take Perry White for example. White had been editor of the Planet for years, having started there right after high school as a researcher and worked his way up.”

The screen shot moved off the still image of Perry and onto a taped interview. Under the image of Perry, hair whiter than it had been ten years ago, but the lines of his face softer, the words “Perry White – Former Editor of the Daily Planet” were written.

“The Planet was a home to me,” Perry said, looking into the camera. “More so than my own home. And the reporters were my family. Clark hadn’t been there as long as some of the others, but there was something about him. He was good – always able to bring in strong, front page stories. But there was a softness to him as well – he cared about the world around him and that was clear. Losing him was like losing a son. And for months afterwards I would look out at the bullpen from my office and see Kent’s empty desk and think of what it shame it was for such a young man to lose his life so senselessly. We wrote about stories like that everyday and Clark was not the first reporter that I’d lost. But it was rare for someone on the city beat to be lost like that. It meant I knew him better than the other reporters I’d mourned and so it hit me harder. But I don’t think he died in vain. Clark wanted the people around him to live life to the fullest and his death helped me do that.

“One night, after he’d been there for about a year, Clark was working late. He was the only one left while I got ready to leave. When I stopped by his desk to suggest he go home, he looked at me with sadness in his eyes and said he had work to do and he didn’t have anyone to go home to anyway. There was no judgment in his voice as he said, ‘If I had someone at home that loved me as much as Alice loves you, I would have been gone hours ago.’ I brushed the comment off that night – for years I had always taken for granted the fact that my wife would be waiting for me when I got home. But after Clark died, that night came back to me and I realized he was right. He died before he had a chance for that, but I hadn’t and I was letting it slip away. I started going home earlier each night. I remembered how much I loved my wife in a way I hadn’t in years. I retired less than a year after Clark’s death and it was the best thing for me. Alice and I have never been happier.”

Martha caught a faint smile cross Clark’s face and she reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. He turned to her briefly still smiling, but tears shown in his eyes.

“And White is not the only one who credits Kent’s death with driving him to move forward in life. James Olsen was just a gopher at the Planet when Kent died, but he credits his current success to Kent.” The screen flashed on an old shot of Jimmy – a party hat on and his head thrown back in laughter before landing on a more recent image as an interview with Jimmy came on screen. Jimmy was wearing a suit and while he looked a few years older, time had been good to him.

“CK was different than the other reporters,” Jimmy started, “Right from the start, he looked lost and like he wanted to make friends. The Planet wasn’t just a job to him. There was something refreshing about that. For Perry, Lois, and me, the Planet was our lives and we cared about each other, but that caring came from late nights working near each other. We didn’t spend much time fostering the relationship – it just happened over many late hours and early mornings. But CK quickly became important to all of us. Not just because he was there for those late hours and early mornings but because he got to know us, to figure out who we were, aside from work-a-holics. And of course, it was hard not to respect him as well as like him. Not only was he a great writer, but he could put up with Lois.

“CK often seemed soft and clumsy and when Perry paired him up with Lois we all thought he wouldn’t last a month. But there was more to CK than we thought and from the first time Lois started ranting at him, Clark ranted right back. While they continued to argue constantly the entire time they were partners, it only took weeks for Lois to learn to respect CK. And that was all it took. Earning Lois’ respect meant Clark earned everyone’s.

“It was this perseverance I tried to learn from CK - his ability to clearly care about others and yet stand up for himself when he felt he was right.

“After Perry left, the Planet was a different place. The mood of the newsroom had never recovered from the somber tone CK’s death brought to the place. When Lois left shortly after Clark died, it was just another blow. I wasn’t surprised when Perry told me he was going to retire a few months later. I started thinking about what I was going to do. The Planet no longer felt like home to me and I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay.

“CK had tried to convince me to go back to college at night several times. He kept telling me that I had all these opportunities and since I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, I should cultivate all of them so that I had my choice when I decided. I had always felt too busy before and besides Perry was finally letting me write a little which was one of the things I wanted to do. But when he left, I decided to give college a try. I took photography classes at first, but then added computer classes. I was already quite good at using computers, but remembered Clark telling me that having a degree would make it easier to get a job.

“I meant Pam and Chris my final semester. I was playing around with the idea of starting my own company creating software for newspapers – different applications that worked together – a word processor, a layout editor, and a database search. These applications all existed, but didn’t work together at all yet and so at the Planet we were constantly moving between computer systems. The best search software ran on a UNIX system. Microsoft clearly had the lock on the word processing market and so all the reporters had a PC on their desk and the layout people were using Macs. Moving between the systems caused multiple issues and was one of the most common complaints around the newsroom.

“When I mentioned this idea to Chris during a class, he was interested in helping me. We set up CompuNews right after graduation and released the first version of NewsRoom six months later. With my contacts at the Planet, we gained traction fast and it didn’t take long for CompuNews to be a billion dollar company. Pam and I got married right after we released NewsRoom 2.0 and we had our first son a year later. We named him CK as I have no doubt Clark is the reason I am where I am now. Without those talks ten years ago, I’d probably still be working my way up at the Planet and I never would have met Pam.”

Jimmy disappeared from screen as Norah reappeared. “But what about the person Kent worked most closely with at the Daily Planet? When we return, we try to trace the path of Lois Lane since the day she lost her partner.” The screen shot showed an old Daily Planet poster from a series Perry had shot of Lois and Clark with the words “The Hottest Team in Town” on each. Lois and Clark were facing each other, fists raised. On this version, the headline read “The Toughest Team in Town”.

Jonathan fast forwarded through commercials once more. He could feel the tension rolling off Clark from halfway across the room and it only increased when the program restarted with an except from Perry’s interview. “I teamed Lois and Clark up as soon as he joined the Planet. Clark’s writing had a softness Lois’ lacked and I thought together they’d be golden.”

The screen moved back to Norah who continued from there, “Lois Lane was already a three-time Kerth winner by the time Kent joined the Planet. Kent won his only Kerth just months before his death, but the pair never won the award together the way White expected.”

Perry’s face reappeared on the screen, “I was a little worried at first for Clark – Lois was difficult to work with and I had lost good reporters once or twice before who couldn’t deal with her and felt so burned they wouldn’t stick around when I agreed to split them up.” Perry laughed a little at the memory. “But not Clark. The look he gave Lois the first time he met her wasn’t lost on me, but I counted on the fact that Lois’ hard-bitten personality would quickly kill Clark’s crush. No one was more surprised then me when it didn’t work – Clark never stopped looking enamored with her…” The screen showed an image at an office party. Clark was facing Lois and the look of care on his face was clear. Martha felt the hand in hers stiffen further.

“But more surprising, he put up with her,” Perry’s face again appeared on screen. “And Lois slowly started to accept Clark as her partner. I didn’t realize how close they had become, how much Clark had come to mean to Lois as well until the Luthor debacle. Standing outside LexCorp in her wedding gown one of the first things Lois said to me was ‘Where is Clark?’ and when he appeared beside her, she nearly threw herself into his arms. I’d never seen Lois so… soft before. Never seen her let her guard down.” Perry’s voice trailed off and as he looked up again there was grief in his eyes, “At the time I was glad she was allowing herself to relax enough to be herself with someone and I hoped that as she got over the blow of Luthor, perhaps she would let her relationship with Clark develop into something more. Now I think I may have made a mistake.”

The screen moved back to Norah Jackson. “Two months after Kent’s death, Lane’s byline had not appeared on the front page of the Planet since the article about Bonnie and Clyde. When she quit suddenly, her colleagues were not surprised, but they expected that in a few months she would recover and come back. However, it was two years before anyone saw her byline again, and that was on page 7 of an issue of the Boston Globe. Only her old colleagues at the Planet and those at the Globe even noticed how far she had fallen.

“Lane lasted at the Globe for no more than a year, never bringing in a big story, and when her byline was seen again six months later for Long Island Newsday it was only for small pieces – things like local dog shows. She stayed at Newsday for five years, but a year ago she quit the paper and no one has seen her byline since then. White and Olsen have lost touch with her. According to them, she stopped returning calls and emails. She sent a present to Olsen for his wedding, but did not attend.”

“Clark’s death was hard on her,” Perry said as his interview again took center stage. “There was no question by that point that the two were close friends.” The screen moved to showing a montage of pictures of Lois and Clark – most looked like candid shots taken by Jimmy in the newsroom. There was an image of Clark leaning over Lois’ shoulder at her computer screen, followed by one of them facing each other, clearly fighting. A candid from the shoot for the poster shown earlier was next with Lois and Clark’s fists raised, but they were both laughing, followed by an image of an office birthday party with Lois perched on Clark’s lap, before the screen moved back to Perry. “She just wasn’t herself after. She blamed herself for Clark’s death as he had been protecting her at the time. I knew even then that Clark would have done anything for Lois, but no one could have known it would lead to his death. Jimmy and I tried making plans with her, getting her out of the newsroom and tried to get her to see that Clark’s death wasn’t her fault, but she clammed up. She had really blossomed during the time she’d worked with Clark and opened up, but after his death she got even quieter than she had been before she met him. Rather than standoffish and biting as she had been before, now she was shy and guarded. Clark wouldn’t have wanted that, he loved her feisty side – you could see it in the way his eyes would light up when Lois would get all riled up, even if she was yelling at him at the time. It felt like two of my closest friends died that day rather than one.”

The screen shot closed this time on an image from the night Clark died. It was taken inside the club – Lois in her red dress and Clark in his jacket and tie. The two were sitting next to each other, facing forward with their bodies leaning in towards each other. Clark’s arm was draped casually over Lois’ shoulders and the happiness on both their faces was unmistakable.

Jonathan picked up the remote to fast forward again, but before the program restarted he heard the familiar whoosh and he looked towards the door his son had just flown through.