Thank you to the best betas ever – Mark, Carol, and Beth!
From Chapter 59
“Sally,” Perry called from his office door. “There's a hostage situation going on at the new mall on Summerside.”
Sally, one of the new members of the city beat grabbed her bag and ran to the elevator. Clark watched her go and then got up himself. Maybe he had to stop waiting to talk to Superman. Maybe he just had to start getting to rescues before Superman and taking over. This was the perfect opportunity since Lois was not covering this particular rescue.
“Where you going?” Lois asked.
“I just realized I left my coffee pot on this morning,” Clark called as he ran out.
***********************
Lois watched Clark run out with interest. She was nearly certain his coffee pot had one of those automatic off functions. What was he up to?
Then she realized. He thought there was something big at the hostage situation and wanted to make sure to get in on whatever Sally was doing. Well, two could play that game!
She grabbed her coat and followed Sally and Clark.
Chapter 60
He had allowed himself to become just what he had always feared. He had no life aside from the superhero. He had had no idea how full his old life in this universe had been. He had not valued the time he spent with Clark and the Kents nearly enough. Maybe not Lois, though. He had let his relationship with Lois get too comfortable, too easy to slip past a reasonable point.
His method of avoiding her now was only going to last so long. At some point, and knowing Lois it was probably sooner rather than later, she was going to need saving. What was he going to do then? She was going to ask him where he had been, why he had been avoiding her, and what was he going to say?
He was behaving no better than Claude. Clark was right – how could he do this to her?
The sounds from the police scanner in the patrol car below him brought him out of his thoughts. There was a hostage situation in that new mall. With a whoosh, he made his way over there.
Just before he landed, though, he saw it - or rather saw him. Clark was already there. This was not Clark's shift, what was he doing? But Superman knew what he was doing. He was making him obsolete so he would go home. Could he go home though? How was he supposed to go home? When he did, how could he explain his behavior to his wife?
He flew away before someone noticed the presence of a second Superman.
***********************
Where the heck was that partner of hers? She had arrived at the crowd outside of the mall quickly and had spotted Sally almost immediately, although she stayed out of sight, lest Sally think she was trying to steal her story. Clark, though, was no where to be found. Was it possible this is not where he went? Did he really have an antique coffee pot? Probably from Timbuktu, knowing Clark.
“Superman!” someone called and Lois looked up. There he was. Her boyfriend. She had seen him on a couple of rescues before, but he had always avoided her. Maybe this time she would get a chance to talk to him and figure out what was wrong.
“Hey Lois,” came the voice near her ear. She turned to face Sally.
“Oh, uh, hi,” Lois said, embarrassed at being caught.
“Could you help me?” Sally asked. “I want to get a Superman quote for the story, but he intimidates me. I know he shouldn't, everyone says he's really nice to the press and all, but… I don't know. He's an international hero. But you're really good at talking to him.”
“Sure, Sally,” Lois smiled at the younger woman. Sally was not angry she was here at all! Sometimes she forgot that not everyone was as competitive as she was. Grabbing Sally's hand, she pulled her towards the front of the crowd.
“Superman!” she called to get his attention. “How many people were held hostage? What was the mood in there?”
Superman turned towards her and for a moment looked frightened, but then his face cleared and he answered her question. “There were probably more than a hundred people in the mall, Ms. Lane, but the hostage situation was just in a small store on the top floor. Only about half a dozen people were in there, but of course they were all frightened.”
Lois looked at him quizzically. Something about Superman looked off, although she was not sure what it was. Was there another clone? Now that she thought about it, he did look a bit like the young clone she had seen before both clones died. Although she had not seen the young clone from quite so close before. This one had an eerily familiar look.
He turned his head to answer a question from the WMNR reporter and something about the way he turned his head struck her, too.
“Thanks so much, Lois,” Sally said. “I never would have been able to ask that question. I really appreciate the help.”
“No problem, Sally,” Lois smiled at her, thankful Sally had been there. Lois had not heard Superman's answer at all; she had been so distracted by what he looked like.
***********************
Clark walked into the Planet newsroom feeling nervous. Lois had been there. He was not sure why, but she had come. She had seen him as Superman. Did she know? He had trouble imagining that she would have been able to keep the revelation to herself and not yell out, “That man's an imposter!” right during the impromptu press conference, but maybe she had. Maybe she was waiting to get him alone to accuse him of putting on Superman's suit and… What would she think? He had no idea.
He walked by her desk slowly, sure she was going to start screaming at him at any minute, but all she said as he passed her desk was, “Hi, Clark.” She seemed engrossed in whatever she was looking at on her desk.
He sat in his own chair intending to get back to the piece he had been writing before the call for help. He was distracted, though. He wondered if Superman had come and seen him. If so, what did Superman think he was doing? Or was he not planning to come to this rescue anyway.
It did not matter. He was going to answer as many calls for help as he could manage from now on. He was going to take over until there was no need for another Superman.
He was past being quite so angry at Superman. He still was angry at him to some degree – how could he have kissed Lois? How could he have kissed Lois more than once? How could he have kissed Lois more than once and then have ignored her like that? How could he have told her he loved her?
On the other hand, Superman's time avoiding Lois as well as him gave him the impression that Superman felt badly for his behavior, even if he was following it up with more bad behavior. He did know that Superman was lonely and missed his wife. Plus, he was not foolish. Superman had been here long enough that he had built a relationship, a real relationship, with Lois. He could see the problem: he could see how Superman could make this disastrous mistake.
That, though, did not change the fact that he was ready for Superman to go home.
***********************
Lois looked at picture after picture and could not piece together what was going on. If she looked at the early pictures of Superman's arrival, it was clear. He always looked exactly the same.
There were rescues, though, even early on, with a picture that did not look right – it looked more like the young clone or whatever she had seen today. For example, there was a picture of Superman saving children at an elementary school during a fire where he looked too young. She had covered that story. She remembered it was right around the time Clark covered the story about the teenaged boy who had been shot. He had been heart broken and so angry at Superman for not saving him. It was also around the time those people – what were their names? Monique and Jules? Something like that anyway. It was around the time they had jumped off two different buildings within seconds of each other.
Still, those instances were rare. If she looked at recent pictures though, the young clone was around a lot. Now that she had dug up a picture of Superman at that elevator rescue that Linda had scooped them on, she could see that not only was Superman scared, but he was young as well. And that was not the only one. More and more of the pictures of Superman seemed to be of the clone.
Even stranger were the pictures of the real Superman. While she had never seen him look any different, if she looked at these pictures from rescues she could see that he was looking younger and younger. He still looked older than the young clone, but the differences were getting smaller.
How was he doing that? Particularly because she was sure he was not doing it when he saw her. Actually, if she looked at the picture from when he had caught Lex, he looked like his old self, not younger.
Was he wearing make-up to make himself look younger and forgot to put it on that day? Why would he be doing that? It did not make any sense.
Unless… was he leaving? Was the young clone going to take over? Was it all a lie and the clones had not died? These pictures showed that the young clone had been around for a long time even if the other clone had not.
Lois brought a picture of the young clone closer to her. Aside from looking younger, there was something else about him – something that had struck her at the rescue this morning. She was not sure what it was, but something was nagging at her.
She took her pencil and doodled a mustache on him, although she was not sure why. No, that just looked silly. She moved another picture towards her and this time drew in a beard. Equally ridiculous. She moved her mouse on her computer to print out more pictures of the young clone.
She got up to pick them up from the color printer across the room. On the way back to her desk, she stopped. Clark. No, that did not make any sense. She stared at him for a second in fascination before she got concerned that he would notice. What would she say she was doing? "Oh, I was just wondering if you moonlight in tights. Are you filling in for Superman? I'm just trying to figure out if you can freeze things with your breath.'
It was clearly ridiculous. Clark was the biggest klutz she knew. He clearly did not have super powers. Besides, why would he be filling in for his roommate?
Why was he Superman's roommate anyway? The whole thing had struck her as strange in the beginning and the more she thought about it, the more she remembered – she had been suspicious about Clark when he started. She had resolved to figure out quite a few things, but had dropped them as she got to know Clark better.
Pushing all the Superman pictures aside, she moved her cursor over her computer. She had hidden the file so that Clark would not find it on his own if he borrowed her computer. What had she hidden it under? There it was – she had saved it as HFN.doc – for Hack from Nowheresville.
She opened the file and saw the list she had compiled about strange things about Clark early in their relationship:
- Eats like an eight year old, but has the body of a body builder
- Is friends with Superman
- Even weirder, doesn't seem to remember when he met Superman
- Can hardly open a jar of peanut butter even though, as previously mentioned, is pretty buff
The last entry had been made when they came back from their trip to Smallville.
- Acted like he's never been cut before
Was it possible? Did it really make any sense? Lois pulled a picture of the young clone towards her. Using her pencil, she drew in hair that fell over his forehead slightly, rather than the slicked back look Superman favored. She caught her breath, but did not let it out until she drew two circles on his face – one over each eye.
Even without finishing the glasses, it was clear. If Clark was not the young clone, they certainly looked a lot alike.
She thought back to her argument with Clark during the Trask investigation:
“They are, although why they involved you, I have no idea. You've never even met Superman,” she said with contempt.
Clark sighed. “I'm not sure how they know this, but I do know Superman. We're friends.”
“You're friends with Superman?” Even she could hear that her voice was full of wonder, but she hardly cared. Clark knew Superman? They were friends?
Clark nodded.
“How did you meet?” Lois asked.
“It was just coincidence,” Clark said. “I bumped into him randomly and we discovered that we've traveled to many of the same places. We just sort of hit it off.”
“You just bumped into each other?” Lois asked incredulously. “How do you bump into Superman? Do you use the same dry cleaner? Shop at the same supermarket?”
Clark sighed again. “I don't remember,” he finally said.
Lois gave him a look that she hoped made it perfectly clear she did not believe him. “You've been in Metropolis all of a week, Clark. Superman has been around for what, two days, and even then no one has really seen much of him since the space station. So, presumably you met him recently. How could you not remember how you met?”
Clark flushed. He shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Sorry!” Lois fumed. “Sorry for what? That you have a memory like a sieve? What kind of reporter can you be if you can't even remember something like meeting a man who can fly just a day or two after it happens?”
Clark shrugged again and this time Lois, livid, let it drop.
Why had she let that drop?
She moved all the pictures into a folder and picked them up. Trying to keep calm while there were witnesses, she moved over to Clark's desk. “Let's go,” she said to him.
“What?” Clark asked, looking up at her in surprise.
“We're going to your place and you're making me dinner,” Lois said.
Clark laughed at her. “You might try asking some time, Lois.”
“Maybe, but not this time, Smallville. Let's go!” Without looking to see if he was following, Lois walked out of the newsroom.
***********************
“Okay, what do you want for dinner?” Clark asked after a very tense ride to his place. Lois had not said anything the whole way there and he could not figure out what was going on with her.
“Is it safe to assume that the walls are pretty thick here?” she asked, and now Clark could hear genuine anger beneath her calm words, although he was no closer to having any idea what was going on.
“What?” he asked as she fixed him with a look that made him take a step backwards.
“I would think Superman would want a pretty quiet place so no one can hear him take off and land,” Lois reasoned.
“Yeah,” Clark agreed. “We pretty much never hear our neighbors and if they hear us, they've never mentioned it.”
Lois nodded her head in understanding, although a second later Clark was sorry she did. When she spoke again, it was with a yell that made her anger perfectly clear.
“What the hell are you two doing?” Lois asked him.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, trying to calm his beating heart. While he was still not sure what was going on, he had the definite impression that he was in trouble.
This time, Lois' voice was quiet, but it had an edge to it that made Clark wish she was still yelling, “What is your relationship to Superman?” she asked.
Clark paled. She had recognized him. Right? Maybe he was over-reacting. “We're roommates,” he answered weakly.
“Don't lie to me, Clark!” she said brandishing the picture she had drawn glasses on earlier. “How could you do this to me?” she asked loudly. “How could you lie to me like this? How could you do this to him?”
“To whom?” Clark asked, although his voice was so faint compared to hers, it was a wonder she could hear him.
“Him who? Superman! That's who!” Lois said. “Why are you trying to make him obsolete? I've seen the pictures, Clark. I've seen how he's getting younger and younger looking. He's looking like you. Why would you want him to go away! I thought you were friends!”
“We are,” Clark protested weakly.
“Friends don't do this to each other!” Lois insisted. “I don't understand. You want to be Superman? If you have the abilities, which it looks like you do, why wouldn't you do this before? When he first came? Why let him make his home here and then drive him away!”
“I'm not driving him away,” Clark said, but he knew that was not true. He was and he no longer even knew if that was something that Superman wanted.
He needed to explain the whole thing to her, but it was hard. How did he explain? Where did he start?
“Superman is not who you think he is,” Clark finally said.
“What? How do you know who I think he is?” Lois said and Clark could tell she was too angry for them to have this conversation in a rational manner. “You know who he is, Clark? Do you? Do you really? Because you'd be lucky to be half the man he is! He'd never lie to me like this! I can't… I can't stand to even look at you right now!” she finished before spinning on her heels and leaving the apartment.
***********************
He could not do this anymore. He needed to do something – put an end to this mess somehow. He really needed to see Lois, but he was still not sure he would be able to do that.
He felt his feet touch down and looked around in surprise. He had not expected to come here. He should not be here – their days of hearing him out and supporting him were certainly long gone.
“Superman, we've been worried about you,” Martha said from the porch as she walked towards him. He could not move. She did not hate him? How could she not hate him?
Martha reached him and wrapped her arms tightly around him. “You poor thing,” she whispered and before Superman knew what was happening, he was crying on her shoulder in a manner he had not cried since he was a child.
“It's going to be okay,” Martha whispered soothingly to him, running her hands through his hair. “Come on inside,” she whispered, taking his hand. Superman followed her like a small child.
“Martha, is my lunch… Superman!” Jonathan said coming in from the back door. Superman braced himself. Even if Martha did not hate him, Jonathan was fiercely protective of his son.
“Oh, this must be so hard on you, son,” Jonathan said. “Come sit down.”
Superman felt more tears fall down his cheeks at their kindness. “I don't… I don't deserve this,” he whispered.
“Deserve what?” Martha asked, placing a glass of buttermilk in front of him.
“You shouldn't be this nice to me. Don't you know what I did?” he asked them. “I kissed Lois. And not just once, but three times. This Lois. I cheated on my wife with the woman your son is in love with,” he finished in an anguished voice full of self-recrimination.
“Sometimes,” Jonathan said, his voice soft, “life is hard to deal with. While I've never done it, I can't imagine anything harder than being away from Martha for months on end with no contact with her and no way to know when I would see her again.”
“And having someone just like me nearby who was falling all over him would probably only make things worse, not better,” Martha added.
“I'd like to think I would be good about keeping my distance, but I think that is a lot easier said than done. I'm not sure many men would have remained impassive as long as you did, Clark,” Jonathan said.
“You made a mistake,” Martha said. “That doesn't make you a bad person.”
“Clark hates me,” Superman said quietly, not ready to believe their words.
“Oh, nonsense!” Martha said. “I've known that boy since he was in diapers and he barely has the ability to hate anybody. Except maybe Lex Luthor. But not you, Clark. Not you.”
“He's hurt,” Jonathan said. “And it's not surprising, is it? I think he thought you were going to sweep in and take Lois from him when you first got here. He's been waiting for this. And then when you didn't do it, he started to think you wouldn't. So this surprised him.”
“And he's a little upset that you're ignoring Lois,” Martha added gently. “But he doesn't hate you. You're his friend, Clark. Really. He's closer to you than we've ever seen him with anyone besides Lois. He's just…waiting for you to do the right thing.”
“Talk to Lois,” Superman said and the Kents both nodded in agreement. “But I can't,” he said. “I've tried. Twice now. Both times I haven't gotten anywhere. She kisses me and I forget who I am.”
“Well, then, drink up,” Martha said, pushing the glass of buttermilk closer to him. “It sounds like you need all the help you can get.”
