Yes, I know I have at least four other stories waiting for me to work on them. I haven't forgotten. I swear (in several languages.)
A/N: What you need to know. This follows After the Storm by two months.
Two months prior, 6'4" blue-eyed Clark and his Lois (AKA Charlie and Wanda) were transported into a universe where brown-eyed, 6'1" Clark and his Lois were having another baby. In the ensuing confusion, Zara and Ching show up with a newborn girl from New Krypton - a girl who cannot be allowed to live as she will completely destabilize New Krypton's government. The baby is given to Charlie and Wanda when they return to their own universe.
Later (one day according to Charlie and Wanda, four days according to Lois and Clark (AKA Joanne and Jerome)) Wells shows up and transports Joanne and Jerome to Charlie and Wanda's universe to foil another dastardly plan by Lex Luthor to do away with Superman.
During this confusion, Charlie (blue-eyed Clark) ends up acknowledged as the father of Lois's son Jason AND the baby girl (now named Esperanza Ester Kent); Richard, Lois's fiance, breaks off their engagement and moves out; and Clark ends up without his powers and living in Lois's spare bedroom.
Now for our feature:
Wedding Day Jitters
February 27, 2008
Clark Joseph Kent read the note in his hand. ‘Coffee, 3pm, the Bakery – see you there.’ The note was signed Kal-El and gave directions to the business in question. The note had been delivered to his desk at the Daily Planet by courier rather than email or text message. He had been a little surprised to find there was still courier service even available in Metropolis with all the electronic communications that had sprouted during his absence from Earth.
Jimmy Olsen read the note over his shoulder. “Kal-El? That’s Superman, isn’t it? He wants to meet you for coffee?”
“I guess so,” Clark had said.
“So, what do you think it’s about? Do you think he’s planning on coming back?”
“I won’t know until I get there, will I?” Clark responded. He had to admit, his curiosity was piqued by the note. He knew there were other dimensions, other Clark Kents, Lois Lanes, Supermen, even if he had only met one of his alternates. The Superman in this time line had been out of commission for more than two months following another attack by Lex Luthor. This had been after a near six year absence, the discovery that Lois Lane had a son by Superman and Luthor’s latest attempt to destroy civilization so he could install himself as lord and master.
“Do you think it’s about tomorrow?” Jimmy Olsen asked, breaking into Clark’s musings.
“I really don’t know,” Clark admitted.
“I mean, That’s the big day…” Jimmy added. “Maybe the big guy wants to wish you well.”
“For that he can come to the wedding,” Clark said. “Although I’m sure he has better things to do than to show up at church tomorrow to see Lois getting hitched. That is, assuming he’s recovered from Luthor’s last attack on him.”
“You don’t think that’s likely?” Jimmy asked.
Clark shook his head. Jimmy didn’t know Clark Kent and Superman were the same person, although Perry White did. Clark was no where near ready for Superman to return to the skies of Metropolis.
“So, are you excited about tomorrow?”
“Try petrified,” Clark Kent told the photographer.
“CK, you’ve been living with Lois ever since Richard moved to Paris with his assistant,” Jimmy stated. “We all understand why, I mean with you being Jason’s real father and then coming back from your trip with a baby and all…”
“Who won the pool?” Clark asked mostly to interrupt the younger man. He knew Jimmy was one of those who managed the Daily Planet newsroom betting pools. Before Clark had returned to work after a nearly six year absence, there had been a pool on when/if Lois Lane was going to actually marry Richard White, her long time fiancé. Within a week of Clark’s return, Richard was gone, Clark had a newborn infant daughter and Lois had invited him to move in with her. The betting pool moved on to how long before Clark walked out on Lois.
Instead, they were getting married to the utter amazement of everyone in the newsroom. The one possible exception was the paper’s editor, Perry White. Perry had known from the beginning that Lois would likely never marry Richard White. Perry had not seemed surprised at all when Clark moved into Lois’s spare bedroom the day Richard moved out.
But that was two months in the past. This note from Kal-El was the present and it definitely had this curiosity piqued.
-o-o-o-
Clark looked around the coffee shop and spotted a familiar face. Clark Jerome Kent, his alternate from a neighboring time-plane. The brown-eyed man smiled warmly when he caught sight of Clark.
A middle-aged waitress – the name tag on her blue uniform identified her as ‘Joy’ – was pouring coffee for the other Clark, known in this plane as ‘Jerome’. He beckoned him to join him at the table.
“I got your note,” Clark began. Joy set another cup on the table and filled it. “So, what’s going on? Why are you here?”
“The Peacekeepers picked up something and they called me in,” Jerome told him.
“But I thought Wells said my time-line was on track?” Clark said. Two months before, Lois Lane and Clark Kent had found themselves thrown into an alternate universe – one where Superman had brown-eyes, Clark Jerome Kent was married to Lois Lane and was the editor in chief of the Daily Planet. Then, that Lois and Clark came to his universe to save the day. The first trip across the time planes had accidently brought back a New Kryptonian disease that had threatened the lives of Superman, Jason White, and the newborn that Clark Joseph Kent had brought with him from the alternate time-line. The reverse trip had been necessary to put things back the way they were ‘supposed’ to be even though Clark had lost his powers and Superman was still missing.
“It was on track,” Jerome agreed. “But there are people who would like to derail it. And the Peacekeepers are still studying the ramifications of how both of our time-lines were affected by the tempocane and what long-term damage my own activities here may have done.”
“Lois and I are getting married tomorrow,” Clark told him.
“I know,” Jerome said. “That’s one of the changes they’re watching. In the time-line next to this one, Lois is marrying Richard White tomorrow.”
“But…” Clark began to protest.
Jerome held up his hand. “The tempocane threw you and Lois together and gave you both a chance to work through your issues. It’s just one of those random events that makes interesting differences between the time-lines. Like the Butterfly Effect. A seemingly minor change ends up warping everything.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” Clark noted.
“I am,” Jerome admitted. He sat back in his chair, staring at his coffee. “As I think I told you before, a month or so after I came back from New Krypton, Lois and I ended up plane shifting. No one ever claimed responsibility for doing it to us, but it was kind of like the movie Ground Hog Day, only instead of reliving the same day over and over in one place, we were living the same day over and over, each time in a different time-line. I lost track of how many we visited. Finally we ran across Herb, and the Bakery here. He got us back home. Turned out we hadn’t been gone at all, really.”
“How…?”
“How did we manage?” Jerome completed his question. “After a few shifts we established a procedure. First find Metropolis. If there’s a Metropolis, there’s usually a Superman, Clark Kent, and Lois Lane.”
“And where there isn’t?”
“Then Superman is a fictional superhero everyone knows about,” Jerome said softly. “It’s a little weird to see your life as episodes in a TV show or as a movie. It’s even weirder to be mistaken for the actor who played Superman.”
“Do you think you visited my world, before, I mean?” Clark asked.
“I think so. I’m pretty sure your Perry remembered meeting us, but you and Lois weren’t at the Planet yet. We ran across a number of time-lines where Superman hadn’t shown up in Metropolis yet, but Clark Kent was alive traveling, or a child, or a teenager. There were a number of them where Superman was growing old, or he had already outlived his Lois. Where he’d been in the city since the thirties or the fifties. For us the ones closest to our version were the scariest. There but for the grace of God... We developed a strategy, first identify the city. If it wasn’t Metropolis, just sit back and enjoy the scenery. If it was, head for the Daily Planet and see when Superman arrived. Nearly every version of the Planet had some sort of display on when Superman arrived on the scene. If Superman hadn’t shown up yet, we checked the archives and Internet for Clark Kent and Lois Lane. In a couple, one or both died in infancy. In one Superman had never been invented, but Clark Kent was revered hero. He gave his life saving the planet from an alien invasion, even though he was an alien himself.”
Clark didn’t comment. He had a sense that Jerome simply needed to talk. There hadn’t been time last time they were together.
“More than a few times, Lois and I scared the daylights out of Perry White when we walked into the bullpen,” Jerome continued. “Those were generally worlds where their Lois or Clark or both were already dead, murdered by Luthor, or Tempus. We ran across a couple of them that still give me nightmares. In one, Lois had accidentally been killed by Superman. A year later Clark died by his own hand. When we arrived, Perry had just gotten news that New Krypton had self-destructed as well. In another one, there was no Superman any more. He’d gotten brain-damaged dealing with the Nightfall asteroid. He had severe memory issues and he was working at the Daily Planet as a line-editor and they had to keep an intern with him otherwise he’d wander off. They’d managed to transfer his powers to Lois so she was doing the superhero thing. It was working for them, more or less. But she told us it broke her heart to have to tell him each morning that Superman was dead and only Clark Kent was left.”
“Did they have any kids?” Clark asked.
“Yeah,” Jerome said. “Wells tells me that despite what happened to their Clark, their version of the future was still intact. Lois and the kids will make it happen.”
Joy refilled their cups once again.
“What is this place?” Clark asked. The shop was tucked between a New Age bookstore and a flower shop in one of those neighborhoods that was just starting to regain the glory it probably had in the thirties – New Age shops, funky clothes stores sitting cheek to jowl with new high-rise condominiums. ‘The Bakery – coffee and sweets’ was the name painted on the door in ornate script. Beneath it was also a UPC style code done in silver. Strangely futuristic considering the age of the building and the neighbors. But then, the shop appeared much larger on the inside than the space between its neighbors should allow.
“The Bakery,” Joy replied as if it were obvious. “It’s a nexus, a crossing point if you will, for the various multi-verses where Superman does or has existed. It was designed by the Peacekeepers as a safe haven for time-plane travelers.”
“Generally, if you haven’t already crossed a time or planar barrier, you can’t find this place,” Jerome added. “But, if you have, then this is the place to come to get back to where you belong – or to stop and have a cup of coffee and a pastry in peace.”
“So, why are you here?”
“According to the Peacekeepers, think of them as time cops, there’s a good chance that Luthor is going to disrupt the wedding. He may even know who Superman is.”
“Superman’s been missing for two months,” Clark reminded his alternate. “And there isn’t any sign he’s coming back anytime soon.”
“That may be part of the problem,” Jerome said.
-o-o-o-
Clark Jerome Kent studied his alternate as he sipped his coffee. The other man was almost twelve years younger biologically, several inches taller - although he weighed about the same - with almost unnaturally blue eyes behind his large eyeglasses.
Jerome debated how much information Clark was going to need, even though his own briefing had been short on hard information on what the Peacekeepers thought was likely to happen.
‘Good morning Mister Kent,’ Jerome mused fancifully. ‘In an alternate time-line, Lex Luthor, the megalomaniacal super villain, is planning to commit mayhem. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to stop Luthor and save the Utopian future of that time-line. Remember, should any of your IM Force be caught or killed, even God will disavow any knowledge of your actions…’
“Andrus, he’s one of the senior Peacekeepers, didn’t give me any details,” Jerome said aloud. “But he was concerned about Luthor and what he may have figured out during my last visit.”
“Luthor and his gang are still awaiting trial for rape, murder and kidnapping,” Clark said. “They’ve all been denied bail. I haven’t heard anything about Luthor trying to make a deal or telling anybody that he knows Superman’s identity. I know he’s still telling people that Jason is Superman’s son and he thinks I’m an idiot for marrying Superman’s mistress. The Whisper tried to confirm it, but I have a positive paternity test for Jason as well as Esperanza. I’m trying not to let Luthor, or the Whisper, bother me. You don’t want to know what Lois thinks.”
Jerome chuckled. “Yours is a general’s daughter, isn’t she?”
Clark nodded. “Swears like a Marine. What about yours?”
“My Lois is a doctor’s daughter,” Jerome said. “But her uncle’s a retired Marine. She knows a lot of words not suitable for polite company.”
“So, is your Lois going to be joining us?”
“Oh, she’s not about to miss your wedding,” Jerome told him. “She’ll be here tomorrow. In the meantime, I should see if I can find out what Luthor’s up to.”
“Luthor isn’t going to buy you as Zod again,” Clark warned him.
“He might buy me as a reporter for the Planet, or the Whisper,” Jerome said. “I haven’t covered the crime beat for about five years, but I should be able to handle it.”
“And what do you want me to do?”
“I would tell you to stay out of trouble,” Jerome said. “But I already know from experience that I’d be wasting my breath.”
