Thanks as always to Beth, Carol, and Mark. Particularly to Beth and Carol for all the conversations about the best way to deal with this episode.
From Chapter 31
Lois walked back to the Daily Planet feeling listless. She felt… lonely, although she was not sure why. She had talked to Lucy last night. She even had a passably good conversation with her father. She would see Clark, Perry, and Jimmy when she got back to the newsroom. Still, she felt lonely.
The melancholy feeling was not just her, though. The streets of Metropolis were hushed. She had never seen them this quiet, particularly in the middle of the day.
She shook her head, trying to get herself out of her mood. She had once asked Lucy how she managed to be cheerful all of the time and Lucy had told her that when she was sad, she thought of something good, some happy memory. Pretended she was in that moment again. Lois was skeptical that that would work, particularly when it seemed like the world may be about to end, but she was game for trying.
Chapter 32
Clark found an alleyway and making sure no one saw him, shot up into the sky. He hovered there right above the cloud line for a few moments watching the ground until he saw Superman shoot up into the sky. He moved closer to where it seemed Superman was headed and a moment later they met up.
“Are you sure I can't convince you to let me do this on my own?” Clark whispered so that the microphone Superman was wearing would not pick it up.
Superman shook his head. He had told Clark that he was not comfortable with the idea of his going alone – not when Superman himself had knowledge of the best way to destroy the asteroid. They had finally compromised on going together – even Superman had to admit it would likely be easier to destroy Nightfall with two of them.
Unfortunately, with the communications link Superman was wearing and its very sensitive microphone, communication between them would be limited. They had discussed staying far enough away to be sure that only Superman could pickup anything Clark said, but not the mic, but decided they did not want to be that far from one another. Clark could clearly speak quietly enough for the mic not to pick up his sound, but neither were sure how the sound would travel once they left the earth's atmosphere. So instead, they discussed a game plan ahead of time, and both felt fairly confident that it would be okay.
Pointing up with his left hand, Superman shot off, Clark trailing just slightly behind him. Within a few moments, they were further up than Clark had ever been before and he started to feel panicky. He reminded himself that Superman had done this once before and had lived to tell about it, but he still felt nervous. Any second now they would be exiting Earth's atmosphere. While he knew he would not be burned moving through it if Superman had not been, his heart still kept up a tempo nearly twice its normal rate.
***********************
Lois followed Lex down a long hallway. When he had come to find her at the Daily Planet she was surprised, even more so when he asked her to come back to LexTower with him. She had told him no, that she needed to watch the news, watch for news of whether or not Superman was going to be successful.
Lex had persisted, though, and Perry encouraged her to go. There were no more stories to write, or none that anyone could be bothered with anyway. No one wanted to read about Senator Billaby's infidelity when the world may be about to end. Lois had written up her notes on Superman's take-off, and Clark's man on the street piece, which he had called in, ran as the sidebar. Lois wondered where he was. She had tried him at home but he had not answered. She expected him to be at the Planet and now she was at a loss of where he may have gone.
“You are standing precisely five hundred meters below Metropolis' street level,” Lex said, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Surrounded by sixteen inch steel reinforced concrete walls, originally designed to survive a nuclear attack.”
“A bunker,” Lois said in recognition.
“There's room for about three dozen people down here. The floors above us can hold a couple hundred more, but we are less sure of their safety in the event of us being hit by Nightfall. We have food and supplies for three years and materials for when we re-emerge.”
Lois turned to look at Luthor in confusion. “So, even if the world dies, you live?”
Lex took her hand in his. “So do you, I hope.”
“What?”
“I'm offering you a chance… No, I'm asking you… to accept a place here.” Lex reached out to place a finger over her mouth before she could respond. “But don't answer yet. Let me show you the pièce de résistance.” He paused outside a door, pushing on it and then stepping aside for Lois to enter before him.
She felt his hand brush her arm as he reached around her to turn the lights on. She gasped. “It's… it's…” she could not get the words out.
“I hope you like it,” Lex said in her ear.
“What's not to like?” Lois finally managed to say. “I decorated it. It's my apartment!”
Lex moved away from her to open the window shade. Outside it was … well, the view outside Lois' apartment on a warm, sunny day. “It's not real, of course,” Lex offered, “but I hoped it would make you feel more comfortable.”
Lois looked around the room in confusion. How had he gotten every detail of her apartment so accurate? “Why me, Lex?” she asked.
“You must know how I feel about you, Lois,” he said.
Lois said nothing. She had known he was attracted to her. She had said as much to Clark a few weeks ago during the pheromone incident. Still, attraction was one thing. Offering her space in a bunker that only had space for three dozen people was quite another.
“And…” Lex continued when Lois did not say anything, “I admit, three years is a long time. I would like the… companionship.”
The way Lex said the word “companionship” made Lois uneasy. Was he asking her to be a prostitute? Her life in exchange for… providing him company? How could he ask her that?
“Lex, I don't…”
“Lois, just think about it,” Lex said, his tone kind and hopeful at the same time. “I hope you'll agree to join me.”
Lois nodded as she watched him leave the room. She stood back just a moment. She had to see…
It was there. The secret compartment where she kept her Kerths was there. How had he known about that? He had only been inside her apartment that one time and only for a few moments. Lois suddenly felt violated.
“I can't, Lex,” she told him a moment later when she caught up with him in the hallway. “I have a family at the Planet and my sister. And… Lex, I'm a reporter. If this asteroid destroys the earth, I need to see it. If it doesn't, I need to know the instant we know so I can write the story.”
Lex looked like he was about to argue, but then taking in the look on her face, said nothing.
***********************
The two men flew for a long time. Clark was not sure how long, but he remembered Superman telling him it took three or four hours to reach Nightfall last time he had done this. It felt like it had only been half that long now.
He was tired – not physically – he had always flown with ease, but mentally. Trying to gear up for this was not as easy as he had hoped. He would have thought knowing that Superman had done this before on his own, there would be no reason to worry since now there were two of them. It was not the case, though. He felt anxious and nervous in a way he had not in years.
Clark looked around. He had arrived in Belize two months ago and had grown accustomed to the daily pattern of life here. He had made some friends and gotten a job at a local newspaper and all in all, his first foray out of Kansas had gone well.
Today, though, right now, that was about to change. He knew what was about to happen, but could do nothing to stop it. The plane was falling at an alarming rate and the boy on the ground, maybe about six or seven, seemed blissfully unaware of it. With a burst of speed, Clark took off, grabbing the boy around the waist and depositing him a half mile away. Then, knowing full well the boy was still watching, he flew to where the small plane was about to hit the ground and caught it by the nose, setting it gently down on the ground.
Then, breathing a sigh of relief that he had been able to save the pilot and the boy, he shot into the sky, hoping that the pilot did not see him.
He had moved, obviously, immediately after that. While he had not recognized either the boy or the pilot, he did not want to chance that they would recognize him. He had wanted to go home, but was afraid to – afraid that somehow he would still be recognized, somehow… So, he had moved to Moscow, hoping that a big city would help him blend in better. He had spent the first month he was in Moscow holed up in the room he was renting, certain that if he left the room someone would recognize him, certain that his parents could still be in danger from his stunt in Belize.
He finally woke up one morning and vowed never to think about that cot in Kansas, the awkward angle of his father's leg, or the burned bodies on the stairs ever again. He left his room the following day and had not thought about those memories again until recently.
It relieved him somewhat to associate this nervousness with the terrorizing fear that he had felt that day and the weeks following. That had worked out okay. Aside from having to leave Belize, it was all okay. No one had gotten hurt. Maybe, the same would be true today.
Superman placed a hand on his arm, although that was not what yanked Clark out of his thoughts or what had made him stop flying. It was massive. Any calm he had felt a moment ago was gone now. He was suddenly glad that he had kept his gaze down during most of the flight, just glancing up every so often to make sure Superman was in front of him. He was not sure he would have been able to fly towards this if he had been watching it.
“I can see it now,” Superman said into the microphone. Clark realized he had been speaking since they stopped moving, he had just not been able to concentrate on the words while he watched the rock fly towards them. “In fact, it's hard to see anything else. It's immense,” Superman added.
A moment of silence followed while Clark knew Superman was being given last minute instructions from the ground. Superman then nodded to him, and they started moving again. The goal was to push from nearby places, Superman on the stress point he had been informed of and Clark just to the right of it. Superman seemed convinced that given his last experience, that would work best.
“I look like an ant next to this,” Superman said into the microphone and Clark looked at him. Superman looked frightened, more so than Clark had ever seen him before. He was surprised to notice the fear in Superman's eyes. While he was feeling the same fear himself, he had imagined that Superman was feeling more confident than he was. Somehow it was not reassuring to see that they were both frightened.
“Here goes, my friends,” Superman said into the microphone and with a last nod at Clark, they charged at Nightfall simultaneously.
***********************
“Hey, man. Whatcha doin' here? You gotta be freezing.” He looked up, trying to locate the source of the sound through the pounding in his head. It was a homeless man, now rifling through his cart. “Put these on,” the man said as he thrust a pair of pants and a shirt at him.
He looked down and realized that he was naked. How had he gotten here? And naked?
“They're clean,” the man insisted, misinterpreting his hesitation. “I only worn them a couple of times.”
He nodded. “Thank you. That's very kind of you.”
“Are you in some kind a trouble?” the homeless man asked.
“No,” he replied, but then reconsidered. “I don't know.”
The homeless man blinked at him and then laughed. “I've had a few nights like that myself. It's okay. Things here were crazy last night after Superman destroyed that asteroid.”
Superman? Asteroid? What was he talking about?
“You from around here?” the homeless man asked.
“I don't know,” he answered, his voice quiet. How could he not know where he was from?
The homeless man shook his head in amazement. “What's your name?”
He said nothing for a moment. Certainly, even if he had no idea how he got here, even if he could not remember where he lived, or even where here was, he knew his name. Right?
“I don't know,” he finally concluded.
***********************
Lois sat on Clark and Superman's doorstep feeling the tears drip down her cheeks, but not caring. He had done it. Nightfall was smashed into millions of pieces and the earth was safe once more. Superman had saved them. But at what cost? No one had seen him since it had happened. What if he had died in the process?
Lois had come here hoping to find Clark. He was the only person she knew who would be as upset about this as she was.
Clark was not here, though. Where was he? She had not seen him since the news conference yesterday. Would he have gone to Smallville to spend the last few hours with his parents? He would have told her if he was going to do that – at least she thought he would.
Besides, it had been impossible to buy a last minute flight in the past few days.
The tears continued to fall. Lois tried to use Lucy's trick again, even though it had not worked all that well last time. Try to think about something happy. But this time, it did not work at all.
“Lois?” the voice brought her out of her thoughts. She looked up into a pair of concerned eyes.
“Martha,” Lois said, falling into the older woman's arms.
“It's going to be okay,” Martha said as she cried.
“They can't contact him. They can't see him. They think he didn't survive,” Lois sobbed.
“I know,” Martha said, holding her tightly.
She felt a third hand on her back and Jonathan's voice, warm near her ear. “Superman's tough, Lois. I'm sure he's fine.”
Lois pulled away from Martha, swiping at her cheeks. “Thank you,” she whispered. It was kind of them to try to console her, particularly when the tones in both their voices made it clear that they were just as concerned that Superman had not made it as she was.
“I don't know where Clark is,” Lois said. “I had hoped he would be here.”
Martha and Jonathan exchanged a glance. “Well, then, we'll just wait inside,” Martha said as she reached down for the spare key Clark insisted on keeping under the flowerpot.
***********************
“What do you want, Henderson?” Lois asked, feeling annoyed. There was still no news of Superman and no sign of Clark. The call which had come on Lois' cell phone had interrupted the lunch Martha had prepared, and for some reason Lois felt guilty leaving Clark's parents alone in his apartment.
Bill Henderson smiled at her tone and motioned for her to follow him into a room.
“What if I told you that your name is Clark Kent and you're a reporter for the Daily Planet?” someone was saying in an adjoining room. There was a mirror between the two rooms and Lois looked through it in disbelief. The man speaking had his back to her, but the person he was speaking to was unmistakably exactly who he had just been told he was – her partner. He looked awful, though.
“Clark Kent?” Clark asked. “Do you know that for a fact?”
Lois groaned. “What happened to him?”
“No idea,” Henderson told her. “We found him in Suicide Slum. He had no idea who I was when they brought him in, so I decided to call you.”
She started to wave to Clark, but then realized it was one-way glass – he could not see her.
“I don't think it would matter,” Henderson told her when she dropped her hand. “He doesn't remember his own name or yours. So I doubt he'll recognize you.”
The thought made Lois want to cry, but she was not sure why.
“Doctor Jerri McCorkle. Lois Lane, Clark's partner at the Planet,” Henderson introduced Lois to the doctor when he joined them. Clark was still in the other room, looking around in confusion.
“What caused this?” Lois asked.
Dr. McCorkle shrugged. “Anxiety caused by the asteroid, maybe. Although usually amnesia is triggered by something physical even if its real cause is emotional.”
“He got hit by a car the other day. Hit his head. Could that have caused it?” Lois asked.
The doctor nodded. “Possibly. It's as good a theory as any.”
“Is he okay?” Lois asked.
“Physically he's fine,” Dr. McCorkle answered. “But I have no idea if he'll ever regain his memory.”
“What can I do?” Lois asked without thought.
“Surround him by the familiar. Be patient with him.”
Henderson laughed. “Lois doesn't do patient.”
“I can be patient!” Lois insisted. She knew Henderson was right, she was impatient. But if Clark needed her to be patient, she could be patient.
***********************
He looked up from where he lay on the ground. The building next to him was tall, very tall. Where was he?
“You need help?” someone asked him. He looked up at the person speaking. They had been speaking… French? No, that was not right… German. His thoughts, though, were in English. So, he was far from home? On the other hand, he had understood the question. He spoke German. Maybe he was an American who was living in Germany? Or a Canadian, he supposed. Maybe even British or Australian, but he immediately rejected those. He seemed to think people in England and Australia spoke with an accent, and he did not think he would think that if he lived there.
“No,” he finally said to the man hovering above him. He was not at all sure who he was or what he was doing in Germany, but he would figure it out.
