And the boards are back!! WOOHOO!!!
To celebrate [at least for me
] I'm going to post a couple of Martha's letters here in a few minutes too. Should anyone deem them worthy of commenting on, could we stick those in the FDK thread for this part - to keep the boards a bit less cluttered?
Thanks - as always to Alisha for her awesome BR work.
The ice storm referenced here is similar to the one we had in SW MO last January. Our current home only lost power for 3 days, but our old house was out for 10 and one of our old neighbors for 14. I'm guessing Clinton wouldn't be on the top of the priority list [older building/area of town takes a lot longer to get service back to customers than an area of town where everything is underground and fixing one thing will bring back a several block radius, or even a whole neighborhood so they get focused on first - at least they did here]. Some of the trivia questions are real, some are from the L/C Universe [like Perry and Alice's] and one is from the SoulMates universe found in my story 'Sister Switch' where Lois and Clark have to go back to Revolutionary America to set things straight.
We also see some familiar faces
.
Here goes nothing
Chapter 10
*****
November 1985
*****
"A number two combo, hold the cheese." Lois handed the bag out the window. "Thanks and come again."
She had a brief reprieve before the next car pulled up. She looked over the next page of her English notes. She wasn't really supposed to be studying while working drive through but her shift manager was understanding and grateful that Lois was there at all. He'd look the other way as long as her work got done.
Studying in between customers wasn't the best way to get A's, but it would have to do. She didn't have a choice. Clark was right. The radiator needed replacing and fast. Public transportation was fine for Clark when he wasn't delivering pizzas – though she knew he didn't really need it, but it wasn't like he could actually fly to work regularly. Sometimes, he'd fly home when it was dark, but not the rest of the time.
But public transportation wouldn't get Lucy to and from school. The court order was the only reason she was still at Lincoln High. The school wasn't happy about it, but they didn't have much choice in the matter. However, there was no bus for her to ride so the older model Honda was pretty much their only choice. Since they were down to one car for the moment, she had to drive Lucy to school before heading back to UNT Met and that was in the Datsun until the Civic was fixed – something none of them were comfortable with its reliability was still in question. Sometimes Clark would pick Lucy up after school and sometimes Lois did it herself. And sometimes Lucy drove herself. – it just depended on the day and their schedules. Clark had told her he hoped the radiator would make it through the winter but it seemed that was not to be. At least Clark was handy. He could fix a lot of things as it was and if it wasn't something he already knew how to do, he could speed read through the instructions.
At least she had Clark to keep her warm at home, because even with the coat, working the window was cold.
*****
"Lucy, it's the fifth time you have gone out with this guy. I think it is high time we got to meet him. What's his name again?"
"Jimmy." Lucy Lane sat on the couch. "Jimmy Olsen. He's in my photography class and he is just dreamy." Her eyes took on a far off quality. "And yes, you'll get to meet him and soon. I invited him over for dinner on Saturday night. I know you and Clark don't have to work this weekend, so there."
Lois nodded. "Good. I want to meet him. Have to make sure he's good enough for my little sister."
"Relax, Lois. It's not like we're planning on getting married or anything. I am *way* too young to even consider that. I don't want to get married until I am at least 25." Her eyes widened. "Not that there is anything wrong with marrying younger. I mean, even seventeen is okay in certain circumstances." She sighed. "Oh, you know what I mean!"
Lois laughed. "I know. Marrying at seventeen isn't the right thing for most people and if it hadn't been for the accident, I wouldn't have married Clark at seventeen either, but I didn't want to go into foster care and I didn't want you to go into foster care either. Short of running away or going to live at that stuffy old senior center in Texas, this was our only way to avoid the system. And technically, you are still in the system, just with me and Clark as your permanent guardians." She sipped her tea. "Saturday night it is. I'll make sure Clark knows."
Lucy stared at the window. "You know, Lo, I've never thanked you two."
Lois looked up from the textbook she'd gone back to studying. "For what?"
"For keeping me out of foster care and in Metropolis." She purposely didn't look at her big sister.
Lois smiled softly. "Thanks, Lu. You have no idea what it means to hear you say that."
Lucy shrugged. "It's true. I didn't want to go to Texas and the thought of living with someone else scared me, but I never thought that you'd marry Clark just to keep me out of the system."
Lois sighed. "There was a lot more to it than keeping you out of the system, Lu."
"I know. You guys are in love and have been since you were twelve." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Sorry. Clark was fourteen. But still... I appreciate it."
"My pleasure, Luce." Lois waited to see if her sister would say anything else. When she didn't, Lois turned back to her books.
*****
"You must be Jimmy. I've heard a lot about you." Clark opened the door to let the teenager in. "Come on in and make yourself at home." Clark gestured to the couch. "I'm Clark, Lucy's brother-in-law."
"She talks about you all the time." Jimmy shrugged out of his coat and hung it on the coat rack. "She thinks you're pretty cool, but don't tell her I told you that."
Clark smiled at him. "No problem. So Lucy says you're in her photography class?"
Jimmy nodded. "Someday I want to be a photojournalist for the Daily Planet."
"Really? Lois and I both want to be investigative journalists and that's where we'd like to work eventually. Right now, we're low men on the totem pole at the Star."
"Oh, man. I'm sorry. The Daily Planet is a great place to work. I got a job there last summer as an unglorified gopher. The Chief – Perry White, he's the editor in chief – took me under his wing and found something a little more permanent for me. Now I do research part time. I can introduce you sometime if you'd like."
"Introduce us to who?" Lois and Lucy chose that moment to come in from the kitchen.
"Jimmy knows Perry White."
Lois' eyebrows shot up. "You know Perry White?"
Jimmy shrugged. "Yeah. He kind of adopted me. They don't have any kids, Perry and Alice, and my dad's not around and Mom's out of town for work a lot so we're kind of family now. But don't tell anyone." He winked at them. "It would ruin his reputation." He gave Lucy a peck on the cheek and took her hand. "Lucy's met him a couple times now."
Lois shot daggers at her sister. "You've met Perry White and you didn't tell me? Or Clark?"
Lucy shrugged. "I didn't think it would be a big deal. It's not like I could get either one of you jobs or an internship or anything, but he's a very nice man."
"Not when he's yelling at me," Jimmy grumbled.
*****
January 1986
*****
"Well, it's official. The radio said power is out to most of Metropolis and it won't come back on anytime soon." Lois blew into her hands. "You could warm me up real quick, you know."
Clark stared at her for a minute and she felt a warm glow spread throughout her body.
"Thanks. You do come in handy from time to time," she grinned.
"I'm glad to know I'm good for something." Clark said. "But how are we going to keep you and Lucy warm for the next few days until the power is back?"
Just then the phone rang. Clark listened in with his special hearing as Lois spoke with her sister. It seemed that Lucy had been invited to Perry and Alice White's house to ride out the power outage and her sister and husband were invited along. Jimmy would be there as well as his mom was out of town again.
In just a few seconds, Clark had packed three suitcases – all more threadbare than any of them would have liked – and he and Lois headed out the door for suburbia.
*****
"Mr. White, it's a pleasure to meet you. Lois and I are both huge fans of the Daily Planet." Clark gripped Perry's hand more tightly than he meant and hurriedly let go when he realized he was causing the older gentleman some pain. It seemed he'd already had enough of that – one leg was in a cast and he was on crutches.
"The pleasure's all mine, son. Jimmy's told me quite a bit about the two of you. I'm impressed with anyone who would travel across the country to marry a girl he hadn't seen in many years just so she wouldn't have to go in to foster care. And then to take on her sister as a foster child..." Perry shook his head. "Son, you need to write a book someday." He headed into the house. "Follow me. I'm sorry I can't offer you something a little warmer, but this will have to do. At least you and Lois will be able to keep each other warm."
As soon as Perry's back was turned, Clark swept his special heat vision around the room, careful to only take a bit of the edge off of the bitter cold. A quick glance at the thermostat indicated that, even with a fire blazing, the temperature was dropping into the 40s. He'd have to make sure that the fire stayed going all night and that there was plenty of wood. He turned his attention back to his host who was still talking.
"Alice and I were thinking that we'd all sleep in the living room. That's where the fire is so it makes the most sense. The couch has a fold out bed – although the couch itself is more comfortable than the bed is – and we could either get sleeping bags or air mattresses or..." He thought for a moment. "We could even bring the mattresses out of the bedrooms – that would probably be the most comfortable way."
Clark nodded. "We had the power go out more than once while I was growing up in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. That's what we usually did – brought down the mattresses and slept on them – close to the fire but not too close."
Perry nodded. "Why don't we do that? Put your bags in the bedroom at the top of the stairs. I'll round up Jimmy and you two can bring down the mattresses." He gestured at his leg. "I'm not good for much of anything these days. Dang doc told me I had to stay home for a month and I'm not quite half way through that. Alice and I are about to kill each other with this much 'togetherness'." He rolled his eyes.
"Oh, no bother, Mr. White. I grew up on farms. I can handle a couple of mattresses, no sweat." Clark didn't see the point in Jimmy exerting himself to do something he could do very easily himself.
Perry eyed him skeptically. "If you're sure... And that's enough of this Mr. White nonsense, please, call me Perry."
"Yes, sir. Er, Perry. I'll take our bags up and start bringing mattresses down. Do you have any idea what we're going to do as far as meals go?" Clark was hoping he could distract the editor of the Planet long enough to get the mattresses downstairs.
"I'm not sure. I'll go check on Alice, Lois and Lucy in the kitchen. Fortunately, the stove is gas. We'll have to use a match since the electric lighters won't work, obviously, but at least we'll have a way to cook."
Clark nodded and as soon as Perry turned, he swept the whole room with his heat vision.
*****
"Okay, Dave. Sounds good. Get that paper out." Perry put the phone back on the hook. "At least he's competent. The last four night editors they foisted on me were hacks. If I have to be home, at least he's got things under control. And the paper's got power back." It was the second night that the power had been out in most of the city, but Franklin Stern had hired his own electric company crew from out of the area to come in and fix what needed fixing to get the Daily Planet up and running.
Alice shook her head. "Enough shop talk, Perry. There's nothing you can do. Your doctor would be mad enough if he knew you were hobbling around on those crutches already. Back to trivia."
"Yes, ma'am." Perry pulled his blanket a little tighter around his shoulders. "Who's turn is it?"
"Guy's." Lois held up a picture of the Eiffel Tower. "Okay, guys. Science and Nature. What is the main metal found in the Eiffel Tower – aluminum, iron or steel?"
The males in the room whispered among themselves, until Clark turned to answer. "Iron."
"That's correct."
Having decided it was too cold to actually play Trivial Pursuit, they had taken the cards out and were simply playing for points, rolling only to determine category.
Lois picked up the die, shook it and rolled. They had assigned each category a number and she had rolled the one for the pink category. "Arts and Entertainment. Great. My favorite."
Jimmy pulled a card off the deck. "What union's presidents have included Ed Asner, Patty Duke, Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan?"
Alice spoke thoughtfully to her teammates. "Well, Heston and Reagan were both actors before they were president of the United States and Asner and Duke were never president of the U. S.... Maybe the Screen Actors' Guild? I know Reagan was..."
Lois shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
"That is right." Jimmy put another tally mark under the girls' side of the sheet of paper and then rolled the die. "History."
Lucy held up another card with a picture on it. "I'm not sure who this is supposed to be." She read the questions on the other side of the card quickly. "Paul Revere maybe?"
Perry shook his head. "No. That's Cal Kent. A revolutionary war hero and one of the first reporters for the Daily Planet." He squinted at the picture. "He looks a bit like you, Clark. Any chance you're related?"
Clark shrugged. "It's possible he's related to my family. I know my Dad's family, at least, has been around since before the Revolutionary War, but I'm adopted so I really doubt there's a blood relation." He shared a look with Lois – the 'I'm an alien but can't tell anyone' look.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Okay – history question. Caleb Kent was well known as an early reporter for 'The English Review' and later one of the founders of the Daily Planet. What was the name of the subversive paper he also published during the Revolution?"
Perry laughed. "That's easy. 'The Colonial Times'.
Lucy nodded. "That doesn't seem fair." She rolled. "Science and nature."
Perry picked up the next card. "What small Kansas town had their town hall destroyed in a 1966 meteor shower?"
Lois laughed. "This one's not fair. Smallville. It's where Clark's from."
Clark nodded. "That's right. I don't remember it, of course, but we did learn about it in school." He shared that look with Lois again. That was the meteor shower that had brought his space ship with it. He supposed he should count his blessings that it hadn't been found and put on a Trivial Pursuit card.
Jimmy eyed them suspiciously. "Hey, you two. No looks. This game is men against women, fair and square."
Clark shook his head. "It's not that, Jimmy. That was the night my parents found me abandoned near Smallville. Lois knows that."
Jimmy let out a low whistle. "Wow. I guess you're lucky your birth parents didn't leave you on the steps of the town hall. Where'd they find you anyway?"
Clark cleared his throat nervously. "In a field. The owner was supposed to work it the next day and we supposed that was why I'd been left there so that it would only be overnight or so before I was found. It's a good thing my parents found me though. Old man Schuster had fallen off a ladder and broken his leg that day and wouldn't have been in the field for at least a week."
Jimmy let out another whistle. "Wow again. That's lucky. And extra lucky one of those meteorites didn't hit you."
Clark nodded, growing more and more uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. He picked up a die and rolled it as Jimmy marked down Lois' point. "Arts and Entertainment."
Alice picked up a card. "What tabloid newspaper is run by Randy Goode?"
Perry snorted. "The king of sleaze? He runs the Dirt Digger and doesn't deserve that."
Alice marked the point down. "Clark, what was it like growing up in a small town?"
He shrugged. "I didn't know any different. It was harder after my parents died. There were lots of people in Smallville who cared about my parents, but few who wanted to take in a ten year old." He played with the die in his hand. He couldn't explain how he knew, but he knew he could trust the four other people here with his secret. He didn't plan on actually telling them, but he was less uncomfortable sharing parts of his story that could incriminate him later. "I accidentally started a fire once or twice. I got a reputation as a pyromaniac - not that I was; they really were accidents, but it made people leery of taking me in."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son." Perry clapped him on the shoulder. "I know we haven't known you long, but Alice and I were discussing it last night. You and Lois and Lucy seem like family already."
Clark rolled the die, ready to move on. "Science and Nature again."
Lois picked up a card, amazed at what Clark had shared with their new friends. He had never talked too much about his time in foster care – just enough to know that she never wanted to experience it. "What did Armand Fizeau measure the speed of, in 1849?"
The three males conferred quietly. Perry finally came out of the huddle with an answer. "Sound?"
Lois shook her head. "Nope. Light."
Jimmy groaned and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. "Told you guys."
Clark rolled his eyes. "Like you actually knew the answer. You were guessing just as much as we were."
Lois rolled the die. "People and Places."
Clark groaned. "This is an easy one. What institution can you contact by dialing 1-800-493-ROLL?"
The three women just looked at each other.
"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame seems almost too obvious," Alice observed. "But that would be my guess."
Lois nodded. "I think so too. Luce?"
Lucy shrugged. "I could run to the bathroom and dial it real quick."
Jimmy glared at her. "No cheating, missy."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "Fine. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
Clark reached for the pen. "Yep."
An hour later, the score was tied. "Okay, folks, here's what we're going to do. We're going to pair off. Me and Alice, Clark and Lois, Jimmy and Lucy. Someone will ask a question and whoever gets their hand on the bell first gets to answer. The team with the most answers wins." He set the nickel plated call bell on the coffee table. "We'll roll the number die to see who picks the category." He rolled the number die. "Great shades of Elvis!" he exclaimed as a 2 showed up.
Alice laughed and rolled the die herself. "5. Guess that means I get to pick the category." She looked thoughtfully at Perry. "How about People and Places?"
Lois nodded and picked up a card. "Ready?" Both of the participants nodded. "Kasparov is president of what Eastern European country?"
Perry and Alice's hands both shot out. Perry's hand was on the bottom.
"Perry?"
"Latislan."
"That's correct."
Clark moved to Lois' side. "Ready? Our turn." He rolled the die. "A six. Beat that!"
Lois rolled her eyes and then rolled the die. "Dang it. A three. Okay, Clark, what category?" She eyed him. "Fair and square."
Clark grinned. No using his extra speed. Not that he would cheat of course. She still hadn't forgiven him for winning Speed on their honeymoon. "I would never cheat, Lois. Especially not when I'm playing against you."
"When you're on my team, you're free to cheat as much as you want, but not when you're my opposition. Category?"
He gazed at her thoughtfully. "History."
Lois groaned. "Thanks."
Perry pulled a card from the holder. "What did a 1907 law require all Fort Dodge, Iowa residents between 25 and 45 to do?" He flipped the card over as Lois and Clark stared at each other, dumbfounded. "Wow. Never would have guessed that. You two?"
Lois shook her head slowly. "Not a clue. Clark?"
He shook his head as well. "No idea."
Perry grinned. "Get married." He pulled another card. "Still sticking with history, Clark?"
Clark nodded.
Perry turned the next card over in his hand. "I would have thought this was another category but... Who wrote 'The Time Machine'?"
Two hands shot out. Lois grinned gleefully as she realized hers was on the bottom. "H.G. Wells!"
"Very good, darlin'."
Clark groaned and settled back against the couch by Lois. He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her close. "Good job." He kissed the side of her hair and pulled the blanket a bit closer around them. "Lucy and Jimmy, you're up. Winner takes all."
Lucy rolled a four and Jimmy a five.
"Category, Jim?" Clark pulled a card.
"Wild Card."
Clark held up a picture of a CostMart store. "Name the founder of CostMart."
Two hands shot towards the call bell, sending it skittering across the table and on to the floor.
"Bill Church!" They both said at the same time.
Lois groaned. "I guess it's a tie. We'll have to rematch tomorrow, unless the power is back on at home."
*****
The fire had died down over the night hours. Clark woke before anyone else noticed the chill that had filled the air. He hated to leave his warm spot by Lois, knowing that by leaving it would chill her. He felt a bit sorry for Lucy and Jimmy who had moved their sleeping bags next to each other on a double mattress but they weren't actually sleeping together with that extra body heat to keep warm. Looking around furtively he made sure no one else was awake and he shot a bit of heat vision at the two younger people.
He moved away from Lois and directed another beam of heat vision to the covers near her to help keep the area warm while he was gone. He guessed that the temperature was in the upper 30s since the fire had died down. He had managed to keep it up in the mid- to upper 40s most of the last two days before without getting caught.
He moved towards the fireplace and easily picked up 4 more logs to use to restart the fire. Without using the fire tongs, he rearranged the little that was still in the fireplace and put in the next log. A blast of heat vision and it was quickly roaring. He put in the next log and the one after that. He set the last log on the hearth for later.
When he turned, he was startled to see Perry sitting there, staring at him in disbelief.
Perry jerked his head toward the kitchen, and hobbled off. Clark, wide eyed, followed him.
When they were in the kitchen, with the door swung shut behind them, Perry turned to the younger man. "Son, I been around for a lot of years now, and I have never seen anything like what I think I just saw. Would you care to explain?"
Clark sighed and sank heavily into one of the solid wooden chairs. "Perry, you're a news man and have been most of your life. But what I am about to tell you, you cannot ever print."
"I don't like making those kinds of promises without knowing what I'm promising not to print."
"I can appreciate your predicament, but this is my life we are talking about. My life and Lois' and Lucy's and now that you and Alice and Jimmy are associated with me, your lives as well."
Perry raised an eyebrow. "That sounds fairly melodramatic."
Clark nodded. "It may be a bit melodramatic, but it's the truth, I swear it."
Perry thought for a minute then nodded. "Okay, son. You have my word. None of this will ever see print unless and until you give me the go ahead someday."
Clark sighed and then stood and paced around the kitchen. "Remember what I said about the meteor shower and how that was the night my parents found me?" At Perry's nod, he continued. "I didn't tell the whole truth about that. I was found in Old Man Schuster's field, but I wasn't left there by some passer-by who thought that Schuster would be out there the next day and find me." He took a deep breath. "This is hard, Perry. Lois is the only other one who knows most of this and in all honesty, I had a very hard time telling her and she found out kind of like you did – by accident.
"I wasn't left in that field. I crash landed."
He paused, waiting for it to sink in.
Perry's eyes grew wide. "You crash landed?"
Clark nodded. "I was about three months old when my space craft landed in a field in the middle of Kansas." He turned to pace the other direction and stopped mid-step when he realized the door was open and Alice, Jimmy and Lucy stood there. Lois stood behind them, her eyes as big as the proverbial saucer. What had he just done?
*****
TBC
