It's so great that Lois and Clark are together now. That doesn't mean that they love each other just like that and tell each other everything and do whatever they can to prepare for their future in Clark's world.
So being hugged by Lois Lane felt strange and awkward and wonderful. Clark found himself awkwardly reaching up her back to pat it slightly. It felt good being touched, even for just a moment.
The whole thing is... tentative.
“And there's no Superman?”
“I'd never even heard of him until I arrived here.” Clark felt a small twinge at the truth that was also a lie.
From the sound of it, she was coming to believe that he really was from somewhere else. He didn't have to reveal himself to her to get he help he needed.
Part of him was relieved. It was difficult to change a lifetime of habits in the space of a few days and he'd been trained from the time he was small to hide what he was. Telling someone went against everything he'd ever believed.
If Lana hadn't found out on her own, he wouldn't have told her either. That it had given her control over him was something that had made him even more cautious.
Yet another part of him was disappointed. Being in another universe had given him a new sense of freedom in using his abilities. He'd helped people in large ways and gotten away with it, and it had felt good.
And Clark is still sort of lying to Lois. She doesn't believe in Superman, and he isn't prepared to tell her that he is him, except for the name, uniform and public persona.
Still, the fact that Lois accepts that Clark is from another universe is great progress, indeed.
“Is it a bomb?” he asked.
She shook her head. “It's a GPS tracker.”
At his look of incomprehension she said, “It uses information from satellites to triangulate the car's position and send it to whoever is tracking me.”
She reached under the bumper and quickly began to dismantle it.
“It's illegal for the police to use these without a search warrant, but the fourth amendment doesn't apply to private citizens. I've used these a couple of times.”
Glancing around, she smiled. Standing up she headed for a car across the street.
“What are you doing?” Clark asked as she began to attach the tracker to the underside of the bumper of a sleek and stylish looking Mercedes.
“This is my boss's car,” Lois said.
“Won't he be irritated when the government comes after him?”
“I hope so,” Lois said, grinning as she finished. She stood up.
Hah!! Take that, Pilar!
“There isn't anything we can do about the traffic cameras,” she said, “Except for you to keep your head down. With any luck though, they'll get sloppy and will depend on the GPS. They won't check the cameras until they realize the GPS isn't where it's supposed to be.”
Cameras, cameras everywhere.
Grimacing as she pushed the door open with her hip, Lois scowled at the man behind her. “So you are telling me that you gave most of your money to a homeless guy.”
Of course he had. He wouldn't be Clark Kent if he'd thought to keep a little for himself.
So perfect. Clark's complete generosity, and Lois's resigned frustration at it.
Lois had been kicking herself ever since the impromptu hug. It had been wrong on many levels.
And she regrets the hug. I'm really sorry about that.
The hug would be on camera, and as soon as the people following her realized she wasn't hiding out at Pilar's house, they'd be checking.
They'd make the connection between herself and Clark, a known fugitive, and that would give them the ammunition they needed, not only to use against her, but to use against her sister and the others.
That's true. The hug was dangerous.
“Where did you sleep last night?” she asked Clark, as he closed the door behind him.
“On a roof,” he said.
It certainly explained how he'd been able to get around the agents, but it wasn't acceptable now.
“I can do it again,” he said, noticing her look. “If this makes you uncomfortable.”
A lot of men would have made the offer knowing that there was no way she would accept. Looking at Clark however, Lois had a feeling deep in her gut that he meant it.
She still doesn't believe in his superpowers.
She was tempted. It hadn't been that long ago that she'd been spraying him in the face with pepper spray and attempting to run away from him.
This was someone Lois didn't know well, and although she was used to sleeping in close quarters with soldiers in Iraq, this was different.
This was a room with two beds. For an unmarried man and woman to be staying in the same motel room alone had certain unseemly expectations.
If there was any other way, she'd never have shared a room with him. But the other options weren't good. If he slept in the car, the chances of them being discovered were a lot higher. The roofs here weren't very high, but if someone saw him climbing up one, they'd be sure to call the police.
She hadn't had the cash on her for a deposit for two rooms. As it was, this was straining the cash she had in her purse to its limit.
The truth was, she was going to have to decide to either trust Clark or not.
And she doesn't fully trust
him. He smiled slightly, as though to some sort of private joke. He then turned to close the heavy curtains.
Lois felt herself tensing slightly. They were alone now, and a lifetime of experience was making her skittish.
“Why don't you take a shower first?” Lois said. “I had one this morning.”
It would give her a chance to get settled in and prepared. While she didn't think he would do anything, she couldn't help but be cautious.
In fact, she is still scared of him.
He'd had a strange fishy smell in the car, which was another reason for Lois to let him shower first.
Think, Lois. What did the miraculous rescue you just watched on TV involve? A fishing boat? Fishermen?
“Is it hard, being away from family and friends?” Her voice was quiet and subdued.
“My parents died when I was ten,” he said. “I don't really have any other family. I don't have many friends either…work keeps me pretty busy.”
Lana hadn't approved of the friends he'd tried to keep and most of them had just drifted away after a while.
I'm glad she asked. She is not like Lana.
“You don't have anyone you'd miss?”
“Well, Perry, my editor.” Clark said. “And I have this sort of thing with a girl back home, Lana.”
“Perry White, Lana Lang?” he could hear Lois sitting up in the bed. “I suppose you have a Jimmy Olsen too.”
“James,” Clark said. “He owns the Planet. He's a computer magnate.”
“Does your world have a Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern?”
“Batman is an urban legend,” Clark said. “Nobody believes he really exists. As for the others, I've never heard of them.”
“But you have a Metropolis, a Gotham City…a Smallville.”
“They aren't even on the map here,” Clark sad. “I miss Metropolis as much as I miss anyone.”
I like that she is asking about his world.
“More than you miss Lana?”
“Things weren't exactly great between us before I ended up here,” Clark admitted. In truth he'd stayed with her as much from inertia as anything. He'd been pulling away from her emotionally for years.
“Let me guess,” Lois said, her voice suddenly biting and sarcastic. “She doesn't understand you.”
“”I'm not sure she ever did,” Clark said.
“You know, I actually feel a little reassured by that,” Lois said. “I was starting to think you were too perfect to be true.”
“What?” Clark asked.
“You come in calling yourself Clark Kent and that carries a certain something…expectations I guess. It means you stand for truth and justice and other good things.”
Frowning, Clark said, “What are you talking about?”
“It's a cliché Clark.” Lois said. He could see her silhouette sink back onto the bed. “It's the oldest line in the book. "My wife doesn't understand me.”
“I wasn't…” Clark protested, but by this time he heard the springs again as she rolled over to face away from him.
And suddenly she has found something about him to dislike, something to brand him as a "typical male"... he wasn't a good husband. Maybe not, but you don't know the circumstances, Lois. Of course you can't know about Lana's disapproval of Clark's powers, since he won't tell you about them.
He sighed slightly, then lay staring up at the ceiling.
Making a pass at her was the last thing he wanted to do. Even if he was willing to ignore the last remaining bonds he had with Lana, the truth was, he had nothing to offer her.
In this world he was literally no one. Even Cyrus as a homeless man had a driver's license which allowed him to get benefits. He had no job, no prospects and he was a fugitive.
Furthermore, he was planning to go home if he could, even though he had no idea how that might be arranged. Long distance relationships were hard enough without being separated by the veil between dimensions.
For a relationship to even be possible, one of them would have to sacrifice everything for the other, and Clark was responsible for the lives of everyone on that airplane, including Lois's sister.
A long distance relationship between different dimensions isn't going to be possible. So Lois will have to come with Clark to his world, there is nothing for it.
She was silent for a long period. He almost thought she'd gone to sleep when she spoke again.
“Does your world still have passenger pigeons?”
Too tired to even wonder why she was asking, Clark said, “No.”
Wowzers!!! That's a shock!
I believe it was Marcus who pointed out that there may be a major crack in the larger cosmic structure, which has opened up a connection between more worlds that Lois and Clark's. This appears to be the case, if the passenger pigeons have made their way here from yet another universe. If so, this crack could spread like a fracture in a glass roof, until the whole thing comes crashing down, killing everyone.
Many years agao, I read the most irritating science fiction book I have ever come across, with the exception of part two of Larry Niven's Ringworld. (I could go on a bit about Niven's book, but I won't.) Anyway, this other book, whose title I don't remember, described a situation where the cosmos was literally fracturing, threatening everything and everyone inside it with complete destruction. The hero of the book... now he was the absolutely maddening thing. He started out as a perfectly ordinary guy, but then he discovered that he had an awesome mental talent. He could just project his thoughts on inanimate objects and... make them obey his wishes. If he concentrated on a chair and ordered it to fall over, it would. You could say that he could make his wishes come true.
So this guy started ordering the universe to heal itself... and it did. Just like that. It wasn't even suspenseful. It wasn't as if the hero almost buckled under because of the enormous mental power he had to generate. Nope. He just did it, just
thought the universe whole. Sometimes he took a break and enjoyed himself with his two wives.
Well, I don't foresee Clark having two wives, in spite of the fact that he is married to Lana, and in spite of the fact that we probably all want him to be married to Lois. And I sure don't foresee him "thinking" the cosmos whole again. For all of that, he may have to try to come up with some sort of solution to the cracking (or leaking) universe problem. Wowzers!! That is not exactly a minor deal!
At least we know that Clark probably didn't cause the crack or leak between dimensions himself. (At least I
think we know that.) And it is also likely that the crack is still there, that it might be growing... and it might be possible for Clark to locate the opening and bring the passengers from his world back to his universe. (Take Lois with you, please!) And then he'll have to come up with a way of closing the opening.)
Now I sincerely hope that Clark will float in his sleep and that Lois will wake up and see him doing it!
Fantastic story-telling, Shayne!
Ann
EDIT: I just found the book I referred to in this post. It was called Time Storm... how appropriate.
