I really apologize for taking so long between parts. Real Life has been jammed with things that I had to do, lately, and it's not done yet. Hopefully, however, the worst will be over in another week or maybe less. Anyhow, I put aside a dozen things that I needed to do this morning so I could finish this part first.
Nan
Wedding Rearrangement: 5/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"Did you check your purse?"
"Yes," she told him. "And I left my purse in the trunk before we went swimming. I know you said there aren't many thieves around here, but I didn't want to take chances.'
"It was probably a good idea," Clark said, peaceably. "Well, if we need to call home, we can walk down to the restrooms. There's a pay phone next to them. If you call, you can ask Mom to look around and see if you left the phone there."
"I guess so," Lois said. "I was sure I brought it, but maybe not."
"It would be easy to forget," Clark said. "If you intended to put it in your purse and got distracted, you might have thought you did."
"Yeah," Lois said. "Oh well, it's not a big deal. I'll call after dinner."
"And in the meantime," Clark said, with his best French accent, "if you'd take a seat on this fine fallen log that I just happened to drag over here, I'll serve you your dinner."
**********
And now, Part 5:
Martha Kent raised her head at the sound of the knocker. A glance out the kitchen window informed her that a sheriff's car was parked in the area of packed dirt between the house and the barn and she went into the living room to answer the knock, just as it sounded again.
Rachel Harris, looking deceptively harmless even in the official uniform she wore as the Sheriff, stood on the front porch. Martha remembered Rachel from the time she had been barely more than a baby, bouncing up and down in the stroller that her mother pushed ahead of her as she walked down Smallville's Main Street. The bright, active toddler had turned into a no-less-enthusiastic schoolgirl, and then a high school cheerleader with a starry-eyed crush on Clark when he had been Captain of Smallville High's football team. She had turned that zest for living into her passion as Smallville's new Sheriff after her father's retirement and some months ago had proven her competence in that office to Martha when she had saved Clark's life from a rogue government agent, who had tried to shoot him in the back.
"Hi, Rachel," she said. "Come in."
Rachel stepped into the living room of the farmhouse and Martha closed the door. "What are you doing out here?" she asked. "Is something wrong?"
"I had some information that Clark should know about," Rachel said. "Is he here?"
"I'm afraid not," Martha said. "A reporter showed up sometime around noon when Jonathan and I were out, looking for him and Lois, so we persuaded them to disappear for a couple of days. He's got my cell phone, though, if we need to get hold of him. What's the matter?"
"I got a call from Metropolis," Rachel explained. "From an Inspector Henderson. He seemed to know that Clark and Lois were here."
Martha nodded. "Clark's mentioned him," she said. "He was the one that arrested Lex Luthor at his wedding reception."
"Yeah, well --" Rachel hesitated for an instant. "I guess you know what's happened since."
"Yes," Martha said. "Someone has an eye on Lois's share of Luthor's estate."
"That's for sure," Rachel said. "Anyway, Henderson got a tip that an enforcer for Luthor's criminal organization is headed out here, to try to find out from you where Clark is."
Martha glanced out the window at the sight of her husband crossing the cow pasture toward the house. "Jonathan will be here in a minute. Can I get you some coffee?"
Rachel smiled a little. "Sure."
Martha went back to the kitchen for the promised coffee. When she returned, Jonathan was just closing the living room door.
Rachel was still standing in the middle of the room. Martha nodded to a chair. "Why don't you sit down and you can explain." She handed her the cup and saucer. "Sugar?"
Slowly, Rachel sank into an armchair and set her cup and saucer on the coffee table. Martha set down the coffee tray, took a seat on the sofa and poured a cup for Jonathan while Rachel put a teaspoon of sugar into her coffee and stirred.
"Now," Martha said, "what's this about an 'enforcer', did you say?"
Jonathan was stirring cream and sugar into his coffee but at Martha's words, he glanced sharply at her. "Enforcer?"
"Yes," Rachel said. "Inspector William Henderson, from Metropolis, called my office this morning. He received a tip from one of his informants that an enforcer for 'The Mrs.', who appears to have taken over the organization, is on his way out here to try to get Clark's location from you."
Jonathan looked at Martha. "Clark said anything might happen," he said. "I guess he was right."
"And we're not going to tell him," Martha said in her most no-nonsense voice. "If we do, he's going to come rushing back here to try to protect us, which isn't a good idea right now."
"Definitely not," Rachel said. "No offense, but Clark is a reporter. I know he writes about big city crime all the time, but he's not trained to deal with people like this. I still shudder when I think how close he came to getting killed by those crazy government types a few months ago. I don't want him anywhere near the place."
Neither did Martha. Without his invulnerability, Clark was bound to get himself hurt or killed trying to protect them. "What do you think we should do?" she asked.
Rachel had obviously been thinking about that, for she replied almost at once. "We could put you in hiding, but that's sort of inconvenient, especially since you have the farm to take care of, and you'd have to hide until the month is up," she said. "I was wondering if you would mind if Greg Ross were to come stay here for a little while -- kind of as a bodyguard."
Jonathan and Martha looked at each other for a long moment and then Martha nodded. "That's a good idea. If there's a witness around, he can't do anything violent. They want to kill Lois, but it has to look like an accident."
"My thought exactly." Rachel finished her coffee. "I'll tell him as soon as I get back to town. Expect him here this evening."
Martha finished her cup of coffee and set it down. "I'll make up Clark's room for him," she said. "If Lois or Clark calls you, you're not to tell them about this."
"I won't," Rachel said. She glanced at her watch and stood up. "I need to get back. Thanks for the coffee," she added. "I wish you were making coffee for the boys and me. The stuff at the station is barely fit to drink."
"It's just coffee," Martha said. "Maybe it's your coffee maker."
"Maybe." Rachel didn't sound convinced. "You two look out for yourselves. I'll have Greg over here as soon as he can make it, but when he shows up, be sure it's him."
"I know Greg," Martha said. "Clark and Pete were best friends, remember. Greg used to tag after them a lot of the time when they were kids."
"All right," Rachel said.
When she had gone, Jonathan stood looking after the cloud of dust that the Sheriff's squad car had left hanging in the air. "An enforcer," he said slowly. "Whoever wants that money isn't giving up, is she?"
"Not for that kind of money," Martha said. "Let's just hope she doesn't figure out where Clark and Lois are."
"In the meantime," Jonathan said, "I guess we've got a few preparations to make. We'd better get busy."
**********
The setting sun was hidden behind the trees and the sky overhead had turned a deep purple when Lois and Clark walked slowly down a narrow trail toward the campground's convenience station -- restrooms, showers, telephones and other sundry items that Lois had always regarded as necessities of life before the last few days in the mountains. Clark carried a flashlight with which he illuminated the path ahead of them, since the sunlight was dimming rapidly.
"Watch your step," Clark said, as they descended five wooden steps, apparently installed on a short, steep section of the trail for the convenience of the campers. "Looks like one of the boards is coming loose."
Lois carefully negotiated the loose board. After their trek through the mountains, such minor inconveniences were nothing. She and Clark had encountered far worse on that trip, and yet now, she had begun to look on it as the happiest part of her recent life. How could she ever have believed that she could be happy with Lex? Even if he had been the pillar of the community that he had pretended to be, she wouldn't have been happy with him. Looking back, with the twenty/twenty vision of hindsight, it was so completely obvious that her future happiness lay with the man who walked beside her now, one hand clasping hers, that she couldn't believe how blind she had been. Clark had come to be her best friend over the last year, and had gradually and unobtrusively worked his way into her heart, accomplishing it so quietly that looking back she couldn't pinpoint the time that she had begun to love him. She had fallen in love with Superman during their first, short meeting, but with Clark it had taken time -- time for her to notice him, and much more time for her to realize that somewhere along the way, friendship had turned into something far deeper.
That time when Miranda had sprayed the newsroom with her pheromone should have told her how dangerous Clark was, she thought, but typically, she had rationalized the whole thing away so she wouldn't have to deal with her growing feelings for him. How much easier it would have been if she'd just gone with the flow, as Lucy phrased it. Or maybe not. Her sister went with the flow all the time and her success with close relationships was as bad as Lois's had been before Clark. Lucy, like Lois, had learned that men couldn't be trusted and as a result she chose men who were losers in one way or another. Lois hoped that one day Lucy would find someone who could show her that not all men were like their father -- that there were some who didn't walk away when the going got rough -- although she would never wish anything like what had happened to her on her sister. Surely there were easier ways to learn a lesson, but of course she was Mad Dog Lane. She never did things the easy way.
"Are you all right?" Clark asked.
"Huh? Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You looked a little sad," Clark said. "Is anything wrong?"
"No," Lois said. Impulsively, she raised their clasped hands and kissed the back of his. "I was just hoping that Lucy is as lucky someday as I've been."
"Lucy? You mean your sister?"
Lois nodded. "I was just thinking about her. She has this tendency to pick losers -- just like I did. She just chooses them from a different social stratum. I agreed to marry Lex and she takes up with illiterate goons. Same result."
"That's too bad," Clark said. "I saw Lucy once not long after I came to the Planet. She's a beautiful, intelligent girl - just like her sister. She deserves better."
"I think both of us got the feeling that we weren't worth much in our parents' estimation," Lois said slowly. "Daddy wanted boys, not girls, and he didn't try very hard to hide it. Nothing I did was ever quite good enough." She slapped absently at a mosquito. "Mother spent most of the time after Daddy left drunk out of her mind. The court ordered her into rehab when I was fifteen and Lucy and I had to move in with Daddy, but nothing much changed. Daddy didn't spend his day getting drunk but he was too busy to pay much attention to us. I basically raised Lucy. Somebody had to do it, and Mother and Daddy were pretty much awol. That kind of thing doesn't make you feel very good about yourself -- that your parents didn't think enough of you to bother with you. And then, when I was a senior in high school, Daddy and I had a tremendous fight and I moved out."
"What was it about?" Clark asked. He reached out absently to push a hanging creeper out of her way. Lois hadn't even noticed it in the gathering gloom but Clark seemed to have little difficulty seeing.
"He wanted me to go into medical school and I wanted to be a journalist. He threatened not to help me pay for college if I didn't go into medicine." She shrugged. "I was eighteen, so I moved back in with Mother while I applied for scholarships and funding of one sort or another, and then I moved into the dorm at New Troy State. Somewhere around my junior year, Daddy must have realized that I was going to be a journalist no matter what kind of pressure he brought, and he helped me pay for the rest of my education, but it wasn't the best part of my life."
"I can't understand why parents would try to force their child into a career she doesn't want," Clark said. "Dad wanted me to study agriculture and animal husbandry at Midwestern U so I could take over the farm someday, but when I told him I wanted to go into journalism he didn't try to change my mind. He wanted what was best for me."
"That's about it," Lois said. "Daddy wanted me to do what he thought was best -- and naturally, what *I* wanted wasn't relevant. Anyway, you can probably understand now why Daddy and I were so uncomfortable with each other when you met him. I know you didn't at the time."
"Yeah," Clark said. He squeezed her hand. "It must have been rough."
"Sort of." She shook her head. "Anyway, I guess that's why I have trust issues with men. Or at least part of the reason. When I was a little girl, I kept dreaming about a Prince Charming who would come along, see something in me that no one else saw and sweep me off my feet but after I grew up the couple of times I thought I'd found him it turned into a disaster. I told you about Paul, in college, and then Claude --" She stopped, wondering if it was a good idea to remind Clark of her history. "Anyway, I think that was probably why I wouldn't let myself think of you as a romantic interest. I think I chose Superman because deep down I knew he was out of reach. He was safe to love because nothing could ever come of it. Then I figured marrying Lex would be safe, because I didn't love him. It was only after it was done that it finally hit me what an awful mistake I'd made." She sighed. "I should have known better. You offered me everything I'd ever wanted and I was too scared to see it. I jumped in without checking the water level again -- and if it hadn't been for you and Perry, and the others, I'd have been trapped."
Clark put an arm around her waist, guiding her through an overgrown section of the path. "I'm no Prince Charming either, you know," he said with a trace of apology in his voice. "I wish I were. Superman is as fallible as anyone else."
"You don't have to be perfect," Lois said. "You're my best friend. You've seen me at my worst and it didn't scare you away. I don't have to be on my best behavior for you, and you don't have to be for me. Best friends don't have to worry about those things." She hesitated. "We're still best friends, aren't we? Even though we're engaged?"
"You'll always be my best friend," Clark said. "My mom and dad are. Best friends, that is. When Dad is upset or worried, the first person he talks to is Mom, and Mom is the same. It really surprised me when I realized it wasn't that way with all married couples."
"I wish I'd had your parents," Lois said, a little wistfully. "From everything you've said about them -- and from what I've seen -- they made their marriage look like fun, and raised you to be the kind of person who could be Superman. My parents raised me to be a neurotic compulsive overachiever who doesn't have the courage to admit it when I'm wrong. It gets me in trouble, sometimes."
"Yeah, I'd noticed," Clark said dryly. "Still, I'd rather it was me rushing to the rescue than some guy on a white charger. I stand a better chance of succeeding. Or I did."
"I think you will again," Lois said. "Not that I'm looking forward to needing to be rescued, but you know what I mean."
"Yeah," Clark said. He stopped and turned to face her. His expression was hard to see in the gloom, but she didn't need to see it. His voice told her everything she needed to know. "I can't promise never to hurt you or disappoint you. I wish I could. I'm bound to make mistakes, but I'll never do it on purpose, I swear." He raised a hand to cup her cheek. "I love you."
Unexpectedly she felt her eyes stinging with tears. "I know," she said. "I just hope you know what you're getting into. I'm not the easiest person to live with."
"I can take it," he said, and there was a smile in his voice. "I figure it'll be worth it -- especially since I decided months ago that it was you or no one."
There didn't seem to be any answer to that, which was fortunate. His lips descended on hers, and she found herself the recipient of another of those breathtaking kisses.
When he finally let her go, she followed him with unaccustomed docility along the remainder of the path. The woods opened up suddenly into an illuminated clearing. A wood-frame building dominated the center of it, and along one side was a row of pay phones. Arrows directed newcomers to the showers and restrooms and a rustic sign tacked to the side of the building welcomed visitors to the campground's Convenience Center.
The sun had completely set but the clearing was lit by several floodlights placed high on rough, wooden poles. Several people in shorts and T-shirts suitable for the warm, Kansas summer night were wandering around the area or loitering here and there, obviously waiting for other members of their party.
Lois made a beeline for the ladies shower and restroom. There were several women and girls there, and she had to wait for the opportunity to use one of the four showers. While she waited, she observed the other campers standing in the short line. Most were women with children, ranging in age from barely more than toddlers to girls in their teens. One girl of about seven or eight seemed to be by herself, several places ahead of Lois. At least, she didn't appear to belong to the woman in front of her who was escorting twin girls of about three, or the group behind her which consisted of a woman who looked as if she were in her early to mid-forties and three girls that were probably her daughters, ranging from one of about six or seven to one obviously in her mid-teens. Lois might have thought that the girl belonged with them but for the fact that mother and daughters were alike blond and blue-eyed and the lone child was very definitely a brunette with brown eyes and a flock of freckles. She looked nothing like them, and was dressed in a pair of tattered blue shorts and a stained T-shirt, while the other girls wore swimming suits.
Normally, Lois would have paid no attention to the child, but the fact that she was so obviously alone in the crowd seemed odd. Still, it was probably nothing, she thought. The girl most likely had parents waiting outside, and she was probably old enough to be trusted in here by herself, considering how many other people were around.
Lois couldn't quite dismiss the girl from her thoughts, however. Something that she couldn't even identify nagged at her. After about a five minute wait, the child disappeared through the door to the dressing rooms, and a moment later the blond mother sent her oldest daughter in with the admonition to "make it quick".
A few minutes later the unaccompanied girl emerged silently from her dressing cubicle as Lois was waiting to enter the room. She didn't glance at Lois as she squeezed past.
Lois had intended to take a long, leisurely shower, but she found herself hurrying. In what was certainly record time for her, she shed her clothing, showered quickly and returned to dress, all in the space of seven minutes by actual count. Emerging into the main body of the ladies room, she saw that the girl had vanished and made her way hurriedly to the door, unable to explain her sense of urgency even to herself.
Clark was leaning casually against the wall just outside the door when she emerged. He straightened up, smiling at her. "That was fast." His smile faded as she looked quickly around. "What's the matter?"
"Did you see a little girl come out alone a few minutes ago -- maybe eight years old, brown curly hair, brown eyes -- wearing shorts and a t-shirt?"
Clark frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe. Were the shorts blue?"
Lois nodded. "Did you see if anyone was waiting for her?"
"I wasn't paying much attention," Clark said. He continued to frown, obviously prodding his memory. "Yeah, there was."
"Oh." Lois drew a relieved breath. "I guess it's okay, then. Who was it?"
"A guy -- I guess it was probably her grandfather."
"Her grandfather?"
"Uh huh. He looked like he was maybe about fifty. Tall guy, some grey in his hair, thinning a little at the temples. Why?"
That photographic memory again, Lois thought. Clark's incredible memory definitely gave him an advantage over the average newsman. "I don't know, really. She was in the ladies room alone. She looked kind of -- oh, I don't know -- a little scared, maybe. I wondered if anything was wrong."
"Well, she went with the guy. I thought maybe she was just tired, but now that you mention it --" He paused.
"What?"
"Well -- she kind of hung back, but she didn't do anything to attract attention."
Lois bit her lip. "It's probably okay," she ventured.
"Yeah, probably." They looked at each other. "But now that you've brought it up, neither of us is going to get a wink of sleep until we know for sure. Right?"
"You took the words right out of my mouth, partner," Lois said. "Let's go see if we can find out."
**********
tbc
