previously on AFR - LS...

All of a sudden the front doors crashed open and several of Metropolis' finest came rushing into the room. "All right, everybody freeze. Stay right where you are."

Despite the pain, Lois had a grin on her face. Reliving old incidents from your past did have its advantages. Especially when you could know ahead of time to tip off the police as to where they would find the regenerated gangsters. This time there was no homicide for them to try and solve, but an attempted murder rap should do nicely enough to put that gang of bygone bad guys away for a long time.

Clark looked at Lois, his face clearly showing his puzzlement, and just a bit of awe. "Lois, how did you know?"

Lois reached up with her uninjured arm and used her free hand to pat Clark on the cheek. "Simple, silly - I called them."

******************
And Now...
A Future Rewound (Lois' Story II) part 5
by Tank


Lois leaned back into the oversized, fluffed up pillows that provided the cushion between her and the heavy wooden headboard on the queen-sized bed she was lying in. It was a great bed. Probably the most comfortable bed she'd been in since... well, a long while.

It had been two weeks since her injury at Georgie Hairdo's, and the police raid which brought the Capone gang redux to justice. It had been a great front page headline story. Perry had been very pleased. He told her it was a sure Kerth winner, but she'd just smiled and told him that he hadn't seen anything yet. It was nice to see the Lane and Kent byline in a Daily Planet again.

After a short stay in the hospital, Cat, Perry, and Clark had all helped her move into Cat's apartment. It was a very nice, very large two bedroom affair near downtown. Not too far from the Planet. She could easily walk to work, but she was determined, one day, to get herself another Jeep.

She was still on mandatory bed rest, but that didn't stop her from going into work for at least part of the day, three or four times a week. After all, she still had Clark Kent, boy reporter, to hone into shape. She'd worry about Superman after she was sure that the man could function as a top notch reporter.

Their story had been a surprise to Lois. He actually did have good instincts about things. His input into the story was very helpful, and added a lot of color to the piece. They seemed to work well together. Lois grinned. Big surprise there. Her first impression, that Kent was a bit lazy about his work was mistaken. He was just insecure. He was beginning to blossom under Lois' careful tutelage.

He... and Jenny, had volunteered to go to the storage locker that Cat had rented for her all those years ago. It turned out it was just down the block from his apartment. Lois wasn't surprised to find out that he lived at 314 Clinton, but she was just a bit shocked to discover that Jenny, unofficially, lived there too.

Clark and Jenny had just left, leaving Lois alone with two large boxes that contained some of the past of the person she was trying to replace. Lois was grateful that Cat had gone out for the night. Cat had really become a great friend these last few weeks, but Lois wanted to be alone when she shifted through the memories of a ghost.

She carefully opened the first box. Inside it were a couple of other boxes. One held a bunch of awards and certificates that Lois had obviously won over the years. Many were from high school and college. Awards of recognition and merit for various academic activities. Several were student journalism awards. Lois couldn't help but smile as she fingered some of the ribbons and gazed at the yellowed certificates that she recognized from her own youth.

The other box held a diverse collection of jewelry. She took quite some time going through the pieces contained therein. There were pieces that clearly had belonged to a much younger Lois. Probably back in high school or early college. But there were also some very beautiful pieces that Lois really loved. Several sets of earrings and matching necklaces showed that the Lois of this world had a taste for such things that greatly matched her own.

Setting aside that box for a later time, she picked up the other box. It was quite heavy, and once she had it open she knew why. It was full of books. It was a varied collection. There were a few textbooks that Lois had obviously thought were important to keep, several dog-eared paperback romance novels, and two yearbooks. One from college, and one from her high school days.

Lois flipped through the two books and was shocked to find no signings from any of her classmates in the book. You always had your friends, at least, sign their pictures, if not write some silly comments about 'being such great friends', and 'always staying in touch'. Things that you may have believed back then, but never came to be. But Lois' yearbooks, both of them, were as clean and pristine as the day they came off the press. Curiosity forced her to check out the pictures of Lois in each book. She was mildly surprised at the sameness of the two photographs. The age difference was apparent, but little else changed from one picture to the next. She wore the same shoulder length page style in each. Apparently the woman had never gone through her Charlie's Angels phase back in high school. Also, both versions of the young woman wore the same bland, unsmiling expression. They looked positively bored, and irritated to have to have their pictures taken. Lois could only shake her head as she put the two yearbooks away.

Surprisingly there were no collections of photos of family or friends. Cat had told her that Lois was gay, yet there were no pictures or mementos of anyone who might have been a lover, or just a really close friend. She knew there was a picture of Lois and Cat on the mantle sitting next to Lois' Kerth award. It had obviously been taken the day of the ceremony because Lois had the statue in her hand. But that was the only picture of them in the entire apartment. In the box she was only able to find one old partial photo. It was of Lucy, but it had obviously been tore off a larger picture. Lois could guess who the other people in the missing part of the photo had been.

There was a scrap book that held newspaper clippings of Lois' stories. From her high school days all the way to her front page headlines in the Daily Planet. Lois couldn't help it, but she found herself reading the stories of her alternate self. Many of them were ones that she'd come across in her earlier research, but some were new to her. She had to admit that the woman could write. She wrote a lot like Lois did in her earlier days. Full of passion and fire, but not terribly interested in the touchy -feely aspects of the story. She was after the facts and exposing the bad guys. Righting wrongs and fighting injustice were the hallmark of Lois Lane. It wasn't until she'd been paired with Clark, for a time, that she realized there were always stories behind the stories. He showed her that there were human costs that weren't always obvious. It had made her a better writer, just like knowing Clark had made her a better person.

As she was about to put the scrap book back, she noticed a small object tucked under some textbooks. She pulled it out. A slight shiver of anticipation ran through her once she recognized what she held. It was a child's diary.

Opening the pages, she immediately recognized the neat, precise handwriting that had been her own as a young child. Her heart went out to the young girl behind the words as she read the child's versions of the fights between her parents that she'd had to witness. It brought back familiar images from her own memory.

Wanting to find out more about this world's Lois Lane, she began to quickly skim the pages looking for something that might lead her to understand how this Lois had become the bitter, calculating woman that had been described to her. Most of the early entries were not unlike the ones Lois had written in her own diary as a child. When she was about half way through the little book Lois' hand froze over an entry. From the date, Lois would have been about ten years old. A chill came over her as she began to read.

"Dear Diary, today Daddy and I played this new game. I didn't like it very much. Mommy had fallen asleep on the sofa, and Lucy was asleep in our room so Daddy took me into his and momma's room. He said it would be like playing with my dolls, only I would be his little doll. He undressed me then told me to jump up on the bed with him. He began to touch me and hold me in strange ways. I didn't understand. I never played with my dolls that way. It wasn't any fun. I hope we don't play it anymore."

Lois closed the little book, tears streaming down her face. She'd been horrified once she'd recognized what the poor child was experiencing. Steeling her resolution, Lois opened the book back up and once again began to skim over later entries. She was sickened by what she saw there. It was clear that Sam Lane had periodically engaged in the sexual abuse of his own daughter. The indications were that the violations continued for a few years, then the entries just stopped.

The last entry had been on Lois' fourteenth birthday. It had described a 'special' birthday present that her father had given her. Lois felt her stomach lurching as she read the confused and terrified words of a young girl being abused and betrayed in the worst way imaginable. How could a father even consider doing something like that to his own flesh and blood. It was unthinkable. And what must that have done to the psyche of the poor child.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she clutched the diary in a white knuckle grip. Lois' own dysfunctional upbringing looked positively serene when compared to what the Lois of this world had had to endure. It was no wonder that the woman had turned out to be a man-hating, manipulative shrew. How was Lois ever supposed to step into the shoes of someone with that much baggage?

She clutched the little diary as she shook her head back and forth. "I don't know if I can do this!"

"Don't know if you can do what, Lois?" Cat poked her head into Lois' room, Seeing the tears, she rushed over to her bedside. "What is it? What's wrong?"

Lois looked up at the concern etched on her new roommates face. "I don't know if I can be her." Lois spread her hands in a gesture of helplessness.

A frown furrowed Cat's brow. "Can be who? Lois, what are you talking about?"

Lois pushed the little diary over to Cat. The woman picked it up, a confused look on her face, and opened it. She quickly skimmed through the first half of the book, her questions obviously not being answered by what she read there. Suddenly she came upon the same entries that had grabbed Lois and caused her to feel such pain for the long dead reporter.

As had Lois, Cat took several minutes going through those turbulent entries that described the years of abuse that Lois Lane had suffered at the hands of her father. Her own eyes filled with tears as she finally closed the little diary and laid it back on Lois' lap.

"Oh, honey, I never knew. You never shared this with me before." Cat clasped Lois' hand in hers and rubbed in with her thumb. "It must have been horrible for you."

Lois, by this time, had managed to regain her composure and nodded back at Cat. "I'm sure it was horrible. Too horrible to even imagine. But that wasn't me." She pointed at the diary. "I was never that little girl."

Cat shook her head, clearly perplexed by what Lois was saying. "What do you mean? Are you saying that your amnesia has wiped that part of your past away, so you don't carry those feelings of shame and betrayal anymore?"

Lois bit her lip and shook her head. "No, I'm saying I was never that Lois Lane." Lois took a deep breath. She questioned what she was about to do, but hoped it would work out. She needed an ally in this world. Someone she could be herself with. Someone who knew the truth. The Lois of this world was one terribly screwed-up woman, and taking her place was going to be a lot harder than she'd ever realized. She needed someone she could talk to, confide in. She needed one person she could be totally honest with.

At first, Lois thought that, eventually, she'd be able to confide in Clark. But now she wasn't so sure. It wasn't even a given that she and Clark could ever be close friends. She'd always had a good relationship with Perry. It had been kind of father/daughter, or mentor/student in practice. But this situation was more complex. There were too many unresolved issues between this Perry and his Lois for her to be able to confide in him. Since there was no Jimmy Olsen, merely a feminine version who spent her time monopolizing Clark's free time, that wasn't even an option. Besides, Lois wasn't even sure she was going to be able to like Jenny. There was just something about the young woman that rubbed her the wrong way. Lois hoped that it just wasn't a transferred jealousy over Clark. She really had no claim on this Clark Kent, nor was she sure she'd ever want one. That left Cat.

The Cat Grant sitting at her bedside had proved to be an unexpected friend. The difference between this Cat and her own was like night and day. There was no rivalry, no petty jealousies, just open friendship. Lois had never really had a 'girlfriend' like that. She and Lucy had been close for a time, but even that faded as they got older and their lives drifted apart. No, the only person she'd ever had that 'special' friendship with had been Clark. Could Cat become Lois' best friend in this universe? Could she be the one person who Lois could be completely honest with; no secrets, no lies? Lois hoped so. She really didn't have any other options.

"Cat," Lois began, somewhat hesitantly. "I'm not the person you think I am. The Lois Lane who worked at this Daily Planet, who was your good friend... I'm sorry, but that woman died nearly ten years ago." She took another deep breath. "The reason I don't have any memory of all those things that happened in the past is because they didn't happen to me."

Cat reached out a trembling hand to touch Lois' cheek. "If you're not Lois, then who are you? Are you some actress playing the part? Why? For what reason? You really look just like her."

"Cat, I am Lois Lane, just not your Lois Lane. I am *a* Lois Lane, but I'm not from this world originally."

Cat's brow rose up into her hairline. "I think you're going to have to explain that one to me. Are you some sort of little green ma-. er woman from Mars or something?"

Lois sighed. "Not exactly. I don't know what your views are on the probabilities of things normally reserved for science fiction becoming science fact. But there is a theory that suggests an infinite number of multiple realities all existing at the same time, but separated by some sort of dimensional barriers."

Cat nodded slowly. "I've heard of such things, and have probably seen a movie or book that used the premise. Your taking about alternate dimensions where everything is the same, but not quite. The Cat Grant of one dimension may be a stunning auburn-haired beauty, whereas in a different dimension she could be a ravishing red head."

Lois couldn't help but grin. "Something like that."

"So." Cat's brow raised itself even higher. "Are you trying to tell me that you're from some other dimension? That you dropped in here and decided to take up our poor Lois' life because she didn't need it anymore?"

"It's a little more complicated than that, and I know I'm asking a lot for you to even listen to my story, let alone believe it, but I need someone to know the truth. I need someone that I can talk to."

Cat shrugged. "Okay, I don't know what the game is here, and I can't promise you anything, but I will listen. Whether you're my old friend, suffering a breakdown, or some actress trying to weasel her way into Lois' old life for some reason, or even if you are some other dimensional doppleganger... I'll listen."

Lois smiled shyly at the woman who now had her arms crossed over her chest and an expectant look on her face. "Thanks," she said, then launched into her story.

It took Lois over an hour to tell her story. Cat, for the most part, just sat there silently, only interrupting on a couple of occasions. Lois gave her a capsule version of her entire life. Starting with a quick review of her own childhood, just so she could contrast it with what they'd both read in the young Lois' diary, through her school years, into her life at the Daily Planet and up to the present time. The only thing she left out was the fact that Clark Kent was Superman. She didn't feel that was her secret to give away. Lois knew that Cat was, at best, highly skeptical, and more likely wondering when she would need to call in the men with the nets for this raving lunatic who had so recently moved into her apartment.

"So let me get this straight." Cat was trying to distill what she'd just heard into something she could get her mind around. "In a nutshell, you are an award winning reporter for the Daily Planet in your own world. You are married to Clark Kent, who is your own age, and there exists a Superman there who can fly and has all sorts of amazing powers." Lois nodded as Cat took a breath. "You and this Superman went to a different dimension, not this one, to help out that world's Superman against some sort of invasion of other super-powered beings."

"Other Kryptonians, yes," Lois added.

Cat waved her comments off. "Don't interrupt. So in this other dimension you were *killed* yet you were brought back to life... and imprisoned for nearly five years." Cat took another breath. "After the bad super people were defeated you were released and later found by the same fellow who brought you over there in the first place. And he told you that our Lois had died in the Congo of a jungle fever but no one ever knew what happened to her. Then he brought you here." Cat shook her head in obvious confusion. "Why would I have any trouble believing that?" Cat grinned to show that she wasn't being mean. "I do have a couple of questions, though. Why not take you back to your own world? Where was your husband during all this?"

Lois dropped her head for a moment as she could feel tears beginning to burn at the corner of her eyes. She ignored them as she let her gaze fall back on Cat's face. "Clark thought I'd been killed. He had moved on with his life... with another woman. So as not to disrupt the happiness he'd been able to find - without me, I agreed to come here and step in for the Lois who'd been lost so many years ago."

"Did you love him - Clark?"

Lois nodded as the tears began to fall. "Yes, very much. More than I ever thought I could love anyone."

Cat shook her head again. "So why give him up? Why not fight for your man? Why step aside for this other woman? Don't you think Clark would have wanted to see you again?"

Lois swiped at the tears with the back of her hand. "It's a bit more complicated than that. The woman he wound up with... was the Lois Lane from the other world. She had lost her world, and her Clark. My Clark had lost his wife. I know it sounds weird, but the two of them were essentially lost souls who were able to find themselves again, and be healed because of each other. I just couldn't destroy what they'd managed to build, just to soothe my own pain of loss."

Cat frowned. "I don't know what to make of this story of yours. To say it's fantastic is completely inadequate. I'm not going to say I believe everything you're telling me, and I get the impression that you are holding something back, but I'm not going to dismiss it out of hand either. The sheer unbelievability of it actually works in your favor. No one in her right mind would concoct such a tale if they wished to be believed." Cat brushed her hair out of her face. "If there is anything that compels me to believe in what you say, it's that last part. About you loving Clark enough to leave him. The Lois I knew would never have done that. Not in a million years."

Lois bit at her lip. "So, you believe me?"

Cat threw up her hands. "I don't know what to believe." She pointed at Lois. "There, stuff like that. Your biting your lip like that. That is so Lois it's easy to believe she's back. Then I think on all that you've said and done over these past few weeks and I have to scratch my head, because so much of it is so unlike the Lois I knew that I can easily believe you are another person."

"So, where does that leave us?" Lois knew that this would be difficult for Cat to take in, but prayed that she hadn't made a mistake.

Cat stared at Lois for several moments. Not saying anything, just studying the face of the woman on the bed, as if trying to read her mind through her anxious expression.

"I guess this leaves us right where we are." Cat smiled at Lois. "Even if you are some raving looney from who knows where, you seem to be a very nice raving looney, and I've grown rather fond of you these past couple of weeks." Lois was about to say something when Cat put up a hand to stop her. "I'm not saying I completely buy into this alternate dimension stuff you're selling me, and the part about a flying man, well, perhaps you do need shock treatment or something. All I know is that you seem like a Lois Lane I'd like to be friends with. You're obviously a good reporter, and we need more of them at the Planet. You've done wonders with Clark in the short time you've been mentoring him." Cat suddenly put her hand to her mouth. "Omigod, you said you were married to Clark Kent in your world." Her look suddenly turned coy. "Should I be feeling sorry for Jenny?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "It's not the same, believe me."

"Uh huh," Cat grinned. "Anyway, to finish my thought. Whoever you are, I think I would be great if we could continue to build on the friendship we've started. And if those men with the nets, from where ever it was you escaped from, come sniffing around here, I'll just tell them you left last week... for the Congo."

Lois reached out and grabbed Cat's hands. She gave them a squeeze and held on. "Thanks, I know I'm going to need a good friend if I'm going to survive here."

The two women sat silently, for several moments. Neither seemed to know what to say next. Finally a little smirk turned up the corners of Cat's mouth. She leaned a little closer to Lois and in a conspiratorial whisper asked.

"So, tell me, how *good* was your Clark."

Lois had to stifle a giggle. She tried to match Cat's tone with her answer. "The truth? He was... super."

fin