Well, I promised I would post this today - so even though the boards were down [and will be going down again in like 6 hours
], here it is.
Thanks, as always, to Alisha. The answers to last sections bonus questions are at the end
.
Carol
*****
Chapter 9
*****
He nodded. "Yeah. I don't know if I want to right now though."
"Why not?"
He shrugged. "I'm scared about what it might say."
"What could it say that would be so bad?"
"That I'm capable of taking over people's bodies and putting an X on the back of their necks," he deadpanned.
She stared at him until he finally broke into a grin. "You are horrible, Clark Kent."
"Well, I wouldn't want to be one of the horrible things that you learn about a family member."
"You're not," she said softly, taking one of his hands in hers. "You're the best thing that ever happened to me."
"See, that's why I don't want to read it. Who knows what it's going to say?"
"Do you think your mom would have warned you if it was anything bad? Didn't you say she'd told you to look in the bassinet they found you in? I would guess she meant the ship."
He nodded again. "I thought she meant the blanket and the shield thing and maybe the globe so I never really looked harder." He turned the envelope over and slipped a finger under the sealed flap.
"Do you want me to take a walk around the field?"
"No. I think I want you here with me, if that's okay. Whatever it says, you should know too."
"Okay."
A white glow erupted as Clark opened the flap. They looked at each other. The letter would have to wait.
They heard Jor-El's voice narrating. "There is no longer any doubt. The chain reaction has begun. As panic spreads, the population awakens, too late, to its fate. Our future is inevitable."
Lois and Clark were still seated on the blanket as they literally felt the ground shake beneath them. A loud tone began to sound as it subsided.
Jor-El and Lara had fallen to the ground with the last tremor and he covered her body with his own. He struggled to his feet, pulling Lara up once he was stable. He went to the console to turn off the alarm while Lara went to check on baby Kal-El. Data began to scroll by in mid-air and Jor-El scanned it rapidly.
"At last the computers have located a suitable destination: a planet physically and biologically compatible with Krypton whose inhabitants resemble ours, and whose society in based on ethical standards which we, too, embrace in concept, if not always in deed."
Jor-El, Lara and baby Kal-El disappeared and Lois and Clark felt as though they were floating in space. Hanging in front of them was their blue and green planet, the Western Hemisphere clearly visible.
"The inhabitants call it, simply, Earth." The voice stopped and the vision faded away.
The tremors had felt so real that Clark had wrapped an arm around Lois and pulled her to him, clinging tightly to the letter in the process.
"Wow. That thing surprises me every time." Lois felt Clark's arm around her begin to relax. "I wonder what 'biologically compatible' means," she mused, then looked up, wide eyed. "I mean... I'm guessing from what you've said before about... you know, that you're like other guys but is that what it means or is that you're genetically compatible?"
Clark sighed and removed his arm completely. "As far as I can tell, my... plumbing works just like that of humans so that shouldn't be a problem, but genetics..." He shrugged. "I don't know if it meant that I could father children someday or not."
They both sighed again, at the same time. Lois wrapped her arms around her legs, feeling guilty for the hundredth time that the way things were going, they wouldn't find out for sure about either one for a very long time.
They sat there for a long time until finally Clark glanced at his watch. "We better be getting back."
Lois nodded and watched as he put all but the two letters back into his craft and then he disappeared, burying it safely again.
He put the other two letters in the picnic basket that Lois had been packing up. "I figured we could read those later."
"Are you sure you want them at the apartment?"
Clark nodded. "I found a secret compartment, of all things, the other day. We can put them in there."
Lois picked up the basket and Clark picked up her. She preferred flying next to him rather than in his arms, but for now this was going to have to work. Usually when they were a safe distance from anywhere, they'd stop standing up and she'd carefully turn around and fly with her body parallel to his so she could see everything. Flying in his arms was nice too, but the other way was definitely preferable.
*****
"Lucy, it's not going to happen!"
"You're not my mother, Lois."
"But I am your guardian. And you are not going."
"Why not?"
"Because. We don't have the money for you to go to some amusement park for a week. It's not going to happen."
"What about all the money from the insurance and the sale of the house?"
Lois sighed. "We've been over this. It's not all that much and it's for you to go to college."
"What if I don't go to college?"
"You're going to college." Lois grabbed her purse and keys. "We're going to be late. Let's go."
"I want to go."
"We all want lots of things, Luce. I'm sorry, but it's not going to happen."
Lucy grabbed her backpack and stormed out. "I hate you, Lois. You're ruining my life." She slammed her car door shut.
Lois sighed. Raising a teenager was hard work. Maybe that was why her parents hadn't wanted to be around her. Maybe that was why they were headed out of town that night.
Thank goodness for Clark. He seemed to have a way with Lucy that she didn't. Lucy absolutely adored him. She'd have to have Clark talk to her about this whole road trip thing. She'd listen to him.
Hopefully.
Life just wasn't fair. She was only seventeen. She shouldn't be dealing with these kinds of things yet. She shouldn't be dealing with unruly teenagers for at least another 20 years.
She took a deep breath, resolved to do the best she could and went on with her day.
*****
Lois woke up in the middle of the night and realized Clark wasn't in bed with her. She could see a light in the kitchen and heard muttered curses.
"Hey," she said quietly. "What's wrong?"
Clark sat back in his chair and looked at the gold pool in front of him. "I broke my ring tonight while I was fixing Mrs. Lindbergh's shelves. I hit it with a hammer."
"How on earth did you manage that?"
He shrugged. "I have no idea, but it broke. I was hoping I could fix it tonight and then tell you, but..." He gestured at the table. "I guess fixing gold isn't one of my powers."
Lois sat in the seat beside him. "It's okay, Clark. You didn't do it on purpose. And to be honest, somehow it doesn't surprise me. I never told you how much I spent on it, but it wasn't much. I can get you a new one. It won't be much nicer but at least it won't be a puddle of gold goo."
Clark leaned back and sighed. "You don't need to do that. There's more important things right now." He covered her hand with his. "We know we're married and that's the important thing. We'll get another one after graduation, when we have real jobs and can afford a decent one."
"Are you sure?"
He smiled at her. "Yeah." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I know where I belong. Right here with you."
She blushed and then yawned. "Well, then, that's settled. I promise, I'll get you a nice new ring as soon as I can after graduation, but right now... I'm going back to bed." She stood. "You coming?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Give me just a minute to clean this up. Lucy doesn't need to see it."
Lois turned and headed back to their bedroom. She heard a 'whoosh' and wasn't surprised to see Clark waiting for her in their bed. She chuckled. "Nice, Kent." She laid down and snuggled back in next to him.
"See? Right where I belong," he whispered.
"And don't you forget it."
Clark laughed. "Don't worry. I have an eidetic memory."
*****
Two weeks later, Lois sat on the couch with her political science book on her lap. Lucy was already asleep having stomped up to her loft hours earlier after complaining again that she never got to do anything fun. Summer classes were in session and Lois was determined to do well. Her notebook sat beside her and she jotted things down as she read.
She looked up when the door opened and Clark came in. The smell of pizza came with him.
"Hey. How was work?"
He shrugged. "Not bad. We were pretty busy and tips were a little higher than usual. I think the Met Nets winning the NBA championship earlier put everyone in a good tipping mood."
"Good." She watched as he went down the steps and flopped into the chair, closing his eyes and propping one foot up on the coffee table as he did so. He was tired. She could see that. Well, he didn't have to work until 4 the next day and he didn't have any classes so maybe he could sleep in – if Lucy would cooperate. She finished the section she was reading – only another paragraph or so – then set aside her book. She picked an envelope up off the table and held it his direction. "Here. This is for you."
He opened his eyes and leaned forward enough to take it from her. "What's this?"
"Open it and see."
He pulled the sheet of paper out of the envelope. "You did it?"
She nodded. "It was time."
"Lois Lane–Kent. I like it." He grinned at her and she could tell it had picked his spirits up a bit. "What made you decide to do it now?"
"Well, graduation is over. I'm still going to use Lois Lane professionally, but after the message on graduation night, I decided I was ready to change it. Technically, it won't be legal for a few more weeks, because there's some kind of waiting period until a judge officially signs off on it, but it should be a formality. I did it in the district with the same judge who's presiding over Lucy's case and talked to Lucy's case worker. She said she'd talk to the judge for me and see if it can be expedited. The actual waiting period is only a week, which I've already passed, but the courts are backed up. Apparently, if I'd just signed our marriage license that way, it would have been automatic, but I didn't even think about it."
She watched as Clark stared at the piece of paper and knew in her heart that this had been the right thing to do. She could tell it meant a lot to him and she was glad that she could finally do something for him after all he'd done for her and Lucy.
"Clark, did you ever read that letter from your mom?" He'd put them in the new hiding spot when they'd returned from Colorado and they hadn't talked about them since.
He nodded. He laid his head back and closed his eyes, trying to relax a bit even as he spoke. "I couldn't sleep the other night and I got it out and read it, but we haven't really had a chance to sit down and talk since then. It wasn't anything too earth shattering really but I wish I'd known about it years ago. Apparently, the message that came with me was on the globe and Jor-El had said it was only supposed to play once. Basically, it said that they were entrusting me to Earth and they hoped that the person who found me would love me as much as they did and raise me to be a good man. He also said that the yellow sun could cause me to have all the powers I do and that I *should* - emphasis on should – be able to have children with a female from Earth and that the Kryptonian genes that give me powers should be dominant and my children should have powers too. So all the stuff that's happened to me is *normal* for a Kryptonian under a yellow sun. Mom said that there would be 5 more messages for me later and that Jor-El indicated that there were even more that I'd get 'when the time is right', whatever that means."
Lois chewed on her bottom lip. "Maybe they're kind of like your mom's letters, but more high tech. Like when you get married, but because you hadn't seen the first five yet, those have to come first."
Clark thought about that for a minute. "That sounds as reasonable as anything I came up with."
"Did you look at the other letter?" she asked quietly.
He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Yours?"
"Yeah."
"No, why would I?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Somehow, I get the feeling that your mom pictured a more conventional marriage than ours and I thought you might want to see what it said."
Clark shook his head. "She wrote that letter to you. If you want to tell me what it says or let me read it at some point, I would like to, but that's your decision, not mine."
"Okay." She thought for another minute. "Do you think Kryptonians are telepathic?"
He started a bit. Could she have read his letter? "They are. That's something else in the letter. Apparently, they are telepathic, but only with each other and only on purpose so it's not like I can read someone's thoughts or anything, but I may be able to sense strong emotions from people I'm close to."
"Ah. Why didn't you mention that?"
Clark shrugged. He didn't want to tell her that in practically the same sentence his mom had told him that Kryptonians had a sort of sixth sense about their life partners and often knew instantly when meeting the person they would spend their lives with. "I just didn't want to freak you out thinking I was reading your mind or something. What made you ask?"
"I was just thinking about Jor-El and Lara. They never seem to speak to each other but they do communicate and it seems to be more than just non-verbal stuff like pointing so I thought maybe they were telepathic."
"Ah. Now that you mention it, I guess that makes sense." He rested his eyes for another minute. "Have you read your letter?"
"No," she answered quietly.
"Are you going to?"
She shrugged. "Probably sometime soon. Your mom obviously wanted your wife to have it, but I guess – even though I've changed my name legally and everything – part of me is still worried that this won't work long-term and that you should give it to the woman you're actually going to spend the rest of your life with and have kids with. I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate me reading it first."
Clark listened to her but didn't respond. Finally, he pushed himself up from his chair. "I'm going to go take a shower and try to get this pizza smell off me."
"Okay." Lois watched as he disappeared into their bedroom and heard him get some clothes out of his dresser. She heard the bathroom door shut and the water start and wondered if what she said really bothered him that much. She knew she said things like that too often, but it was hard to stop herself. Very few marriages that she knew of lasted more than a few years. She could count on one hand the number of kids she knew from school who lived with both parents. If adults couldn't make marriages work, how could a couple of teenagers expect to?
*****
Clark let the hot water stream over him in the shower stall. Getting the pizza smell off was nice but really only an excuse to leave the room. Usually, if Lucy wasn't home or already asleep, he'd take a fast shower, figuring that every little bit of hot water saved would save a few cents on their utility bills, but tonight he was going to stay here until the hot water ran out and maybe even after that.
According to his mom, Jor-El had said that Kryptonians often knew instantly when they met their life partners, their soul mates as it were, and Clark knew exactly what he'd been talking about. He'd known the second Lois ran into him that she would be a permanent part of his life eventually.
He squeezed some shampoo into his hand and slowly washed his hair, reveling in the rare feeling of hot water cascading over him for an extended period of time. He washed his body and then rested his head against the wall.
He'd told her repeatedly that he loved her and that he would never leave her for another woman; that he believed there was no other woman in the world for him, but she never believed him and he was tired of trying to convince her. When she was emotionally distraught, like the night after the prom, was one thing, but she often made comments similar to the one a few minutes ago in everyday conversation.
Tonight, he just didn't have the energy to go through it with her again. Instead, he resolved not to mention the letter again. He needed a good night's sleep and probably a long flight in the sun – which his mom's letter said would reenergize and recharge him since it was the source of his powers.
He didn't think there was anything that he could say that would actually convince her that he wasn't going anywhere. The only thing he could really do was just stay. If he stayed long enough, maybe she'd finally start to believe it.
He stood in the shower long after the water had turned cold, but he finally turned the water off and, at normal speed, dried off and dressed for bed. He figured Lois would already be there by the time he was done, but she wasn't. The light was still on in the living room and a glance through the wall showed her chewing on the end of a pencil with her geography text in hand.
He sighed and climbed into bed. For the first time since their wedding, he went to bed alone when his wife was nearby and was asleep long before she joined him.
*****
October 1985
*****
Months passed and neither mentioned the conversations from that night or the letters from Martha Kent. They hadn't been back to Colorado. Clark occasionally contemplated returning by himself, but something always stopped him. He wanted to experience whatever his Kryptonian parents had to say to him, but only with Lois. Without her, it felt wrong. He often wondered if this counted as the 'first fight with his wife' his mom had talked about, but didn't want to risk getting a message from the globe if he went to retrieve the letter alone.
Their routine changed from their comfortable one before graduation. They were busier than ever rarely seeing each other except for late at night when they were both home, but often nearly consumed with their studies. They went to bed at nearly the same time almost every night, and Clark still wrapped his arm around her as they drifted off, but the conversations they'd had in the past while lying thus dwindled until they were few and far between. This was, in part, because neither one was awake long enough to carry on a conversation late at night and in part because things seemed to have changed in a way both acknowledged privately but neither wanted to admit out loud. They still woke up in each other's arms from time to time but less often than before. They had been almost like a couple on the cusp of a relationship who happened to live together, but had settled into something more than friends but not nearly as defined or, especially for Lois, as secure.
That fall found money tightening even further as their meager savings was used to buy another car. Lucy was in more extracurricular activities and needed her own transportation more often. They bought an early 1970s Datsun that Clark brought to working order and it was mostly used for delivering pizzas. Lucy had turned 16 in August and she and Lucy shared the Honda Clark had brought back with him from Kansas, but Lois often found herself driving the Datsun to and from work in inclement weather or when she was going straight from school and Clark wasn't delivering pizzas or papers. She missed the easy companionship from before, but she'd decided that it was probably better this way – her heart wouldn't break as badly when they finally said good-bye at some point.
And so life went on until one day the Honda started to steam and repairs were necessary but the bank account nearly dry.
"Clark, what are we going to do?" Lois rested her elbows on the kitchen table and covered her face with her hands before sitting back to look at her husband.
Clark raked his hands through his hair. "I don't know." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "There's just not enough money here."
Lois exhaled slowly. "There has to be."
"There isn't. Fixing the car, even if I do most of the work myself, is going to cost more than we have in savings. Just the radiator itself is about $200. We've got less than half that." Clark sighed again.
Lois picked up the stack of bills and shuffled through them. "I'll pick up an extra couple of shifts this week. One of the other girls wants to take the weekend off for a wedding or something. I can pick up her hours."
"You have midterms next week." Clark looked at his wife. "You need to study this weekend."
"I'll be fine, Clark. I only have two – the rest are just formalities."
Clark looked at her skeptically.
Lois rolled her eyes at him. "Fine, I have four midterms, but I'm ready for them." She leaned over and patted his hand for a second. "I promise. I'm ready. You're sweet to worry, but the midterms aren't the problem. The radiator on the Civic is. I can pick up an extra shift every day this weekend. That's an extra 24 hours, 10 of that'll be overtime. That's almost $200 before taxes. Combine that with what we've got and we can get the radiator fixed."
"I hate that you have to do that."
"I know. I do, too, but it's what works. You can't pick up any extra hours with your internship and class schedule, so this is what has to be done."
"But Lois..."
"Don't go all macho on me, mister. All that 'It's my job to provide' junk. We're in this together." She couldn't help but think to herself that 'together' was temporary.
"It's my job, you know."
"Sure."
Clark leaned forward. "Okay, what about the rest of these bills?"
"What about them? We pay what we can and can the rest, I guess. And try to catch up next month."
Clark groaned. "It's not quite that simple. We have bills to pay and we have to pay them. But you're right – I don't know if we can't pay everyone right now."
"Okay then. How do we decide what we are going to pay and what we will not then, oh great knower of all that is budgeted?"
He laughed. "Well, first we have to have a budget. We don't. We have a bunch of bills and we know how much we generally make, but we don't have a budget." He looked at her. "We sit down a couple times a month and balance the checkbook. We use cash for most spending and we're not negative every month but barely. What we need is a plan. I heard this guy on the radio that seemed to make a lot of sense. I don't normally listen to talk radio, but one of the guys in the finance section at the Star had him on."
Lois looked at him questioningly. "Why do I care about a radio finance guy?"
"Well, apparently, this guy made millions, lost it all and now helps others get out of debt and stuff. He owed millions at one point."
"Okay..." Lois still wasn't convinced that she should be interested.
"It's kind of like having Albert Chow on your three person panel. This guy has been there, done that so maybe he's someone we should listen to."
Lois nodded at that, conceding the point.
"He was telling how he and his family did it. They wrote down a list of all the things they had to pay in order of importance. When they figured out how much money they had in a particular month, they added up all the bills then drew a line. Everyone above the line got paid. Everyone below didn't."
"Makes sense, but how do we decide what's most important?" She picked up a credit card statement. "These guys are going to raise our rate to almost 30% if we don't pay them on time, so they go on top right?"
Clark grinned. "Nope. We do what he calls the four walls. Shelter and utilities, food, transportation, and clothes. If we don't have those, it won't matter if we can't pay our credit card bill."
Lois picked up the pencil and yellow note pad. "Fine. Rent and electric. We pay those first."
"Second. First, we eat." Clark grinned at her again. "Food money for you and Lucy."
"What about you?"
"I don't have to eat, Lois. I have the lunch plan at school and I can grab a bite in the cafeteria at work or the leftover donuts. "
"You may not *have* to eat, Clark, but you have to eat!"
"I've gone a week without eating before, Lois. I could have gone longer, but it was lasagna day at Midwest's cafeteria and it smelled really good. I'll be okay. We buy enough for you and Lucy and if we have money left, we'll get some for me too."
Lois rolled her eyes. "Fine. Lucy gets breakfast and lunch free at school for the rest of the school year. We both get lunches included with our scholarships. I eat free while I'm working at the restaurant. I can brown bag my dinner while I'm at the paper. So we don't need much for food." She wrote down a number. "So food, then rent and electric."
"Okay. Then transportation. Gas and oil and such for the cars. Metrolink passes for all three of us. Take it as much as possible so we spend less on gas."
Lois wrote down another number. "Clothes? Do we need clothes?"
"Well, not every month, but it's something we need to think about when we sit down to do this every month."
"We have to do this every month?"
"If we want to eat every month, we do. Once we get it figured out, we can just sort of tweak it every month and it shouldn't take too long to do. As for clothes... This month? No new clothes, but when you start your internship, you'll probably need some. Maybe we can spread that out over a few months so that we don't have one big purchase. "
Lois nodded. "Makes sense. I can hit that thrift store and see what I can find there." Lois pulled her hair back into a ponytail, wrapping a rubber band around it. "I'd rather do that and try to find some nice stuff cheap than get something new that's not as nice, you know?"
While they talked, Clark picked his glasses up off the table and used the small screwdriver to try to tweak them so they would fit better. He'd knocked them off the nightstand that morning while he was reaching for the alarm clock and they'd skittered across the floor until they hit the wall.
They continued to talk finances for another ten minutes until they had listed all the month's expenses.
"I think that does it." Lois laid the pencil down. "If nothing else goes wrong, we can make it through the month."
Clark looked at her gently. "Lois, we could always use the insurance money."
She sighed. "We've been over this. We are not using the insurance money. It's for Lucy's college tuition."
"I'm not talking about a new video game. I'm talking a new radiator for the car," he replied softly.
"I know, but, no. I'll pick up the extra shifts this weekend. I don't want to touch that money unless it's life or death. And I don't want to use a credit card either. One of my friends my sophomore year..." She shook her head. "Her dad ran up a ton in credit card debt and then left them. Her mom was responsible for paying over half of that back even though she didn't do it. I think she ended up filing for bankruptcy. I know you wouldn't do that, but I promised myself, no credit cards. I know we had to use that one to get you back and forth to Kansas and help get stuff set up here, but we haven't used it since. I'd rather try to pay it off and be done with it."
"Fine. We won't touch the money and I agree with you about the credit card. I think the next thing we need to do, then, is get money in savings just for emergencies. That way if something comes up, we won't even have to consider it – and then you won't have to work overtime. We should start getting rent from the farm in January. I talked to Wayne the other day and he said the family that's there has done a good job with it and told him they want to renew the lease in January. "
"That's good. The extra income would be nice, especially since I'll have to cut my hours at work, but shouldn't it go into your account in Smallville until you're 25?"
He shook his head. "It did until I graduated. All withdrawals from that account have to go through Wayne until I'm 25, but any new income from the farm is mine to do with as I please."
"Are you sure you don't want to save it as part of your inheritance?"
"It's already part of my inheritance. I know we never did paperwork or anything, but what's mine is yours and, in this case, that means rental income from the farm."
Lois nodded. "Okay." Yet one more thing she could feel guilty about.
Clark's glasses snapped in two as he tried to bend them just a little further so they'd fit properly. He tossed them on the table. He sighed. "So much for those. At least I don't really need them."
Lois frowned. "I guess I never thought about that. You've worn glasses as long as I've known you."
"Well, my parents wore glasses and I started wearing them after they died. I managed to make some out of leaded glass so that I couldn't accidentally look through anything. I'd broken them on the way home from camp and didn't have new ones yet when I started those fires. I got new ones quick after that. But these..." He gestured at the glasses sitting on the table. "... are just plain glass. Even once I could control my vision completely, they served as a reminder not to use my vision powers lightly. Replacing them isn't a big deal. It'll be easier to not worry about them anyway."
Lois' chair scraped the floor as she pushed back from the table. "If I'm going to pick up extra hours this weekend, I need to go to bed. I'll get up early and study some in the morning." She ruffled his hair as she passed by his chair. "Don't be up too late."
"I don't need nearly as much sleep as you do."
"Still. You need sleep. So don't be long."
Lois was quiet as she walked through arch that led to the bedroom she shared with Clark. She could hear Lucy rolling over in the little loft upstairs. Even though they weren't truly a couple in every sense of the word, and things were often more strained than they had been, she couldn't imagine sleeping without him next to her in their shared bed. It was just as well she and Clark weren't doing those kinds of things. There was no wall or door or anything but open air between the area where Lucy slept and their own bed. They'd hoped to build one, but there just hadn't been the money.
She slowly changed into a pair of Clark's shorts that she had confiscated long ago, in better times, and one of his Smallville High T-shirts. One of the nice things she had discovered about marriage was the ability to abscond with your husband's extra comfy clothes. She pulled back the layers of blankets and hoped that Clark wouldn't be too long. She had come to depend on him to help keep her warm. He was much more efficient than a heater and much cheaper too.
She laid her head on her pillow and curled up under the covers. Though he never admitted it, she was sure that Clark had used his special hearing to wait for her to lay down before he came into their room. In seconds, he had changed into a pair of sleep shorts and slid in next to her.
"Come here," he whispered. "I'll keep you warm."
Lois nodded as he wrapped on arm around her and pulled her back into his chest. "Thanks."
"That's what I'm here for." He kissed her hair lightly. "Sleep tight."
*****
TBC
Answer to what one of the most critical lines of part 8 was [at least what I thought
]:
And maybe, just maybe, if she was really lucky, the rest of her inner demons would disappear into the dark night.
We see some of those demons emerging here.
I'm not entirely certain I want to post the plot bunny but here it is
:
well, the thought of asking Clark if he wanted a purely platonic roommate had crossed her mind.
However, this isn't the one that's in process of being written, but rather the one inspired by this one [and, I think, an episode of Dawson's Creek].
The 'radio finance guy' referred to by Clark is this universe's version of
Dave Ramsey . In our universe he was just beginning to make his first fortune when Lois and Clark were struggling in this segment, later losing everything in the late 80s, but I played with the timeline a bit
.
