Sorry to have taken so long to get this part up. Sitting at the computer typing isn't easy right now and my creativity seems to have gone temporarily on vacation. I suspect that it will return gradually as I feel better, but in the meantime, here is the set-up for what I intend to do to solve Lois's problem (as well as Clark's). As you can see, the story has expanded yet again. Sorry that this part is shorter than most of us (including I) would like.
Nan
Lessons: 3/4 or 5
by Nan Smith
Previously, for those who need a reminder:
They finished within a few minutes, and as they did so, a blond woman stepped into the room. She looked questioningly at Lois and Clark.
"I'm Dr. Friskin. Which of you is the patient?"
"He is," Lois said. "He's lost his memory."
Dr. Friskin's eyebrows went up. "Why don't you come back to my office, Mr. --?"
"Kent," Lois said. She gave Clark a light push and a reassuring smile. "I'll be right here, waiting for you."
**********
Part 3:
After Clark had followed Dr. Friskin into the other room, Lois approached the receptionist's station. The woman had resumed filing her nails, and was perusing a copy of the Daily Planet that lay open on her desk, but she looked up as Lois leaned on the counter. "Yes?"
"I was just wondering...." Lois hesitated. "Is something wrong? I haven't had any chance to listen to the news since last night, with my friend in this shape. Has Superman shown up yet -- and what happened to Nightfall?"
"You didn't hear?" The receptionist closed the paper and turned it to face her. The headlines leaped out at her: "Nightfall Asteroid On Course."
Lois stared at the headline, and a hot-ice surge of fright washed through her. But EPRAD had reported that Nightfall had been shattered! How could they possibly have made a mistake like that?
"What happened?" she asked.
"It looks like Superman broke up the asteroid," the woman said, "but there's a piece about three miles wide still coming at us. It's going to hit us in about a day and a half if they can't blast it with a missile. There was a news conference about it, this morning."
"Or if Superman doesn't show up," Lois murmured.
"Pretty much." The receptionist laid down her nail file. "I'm scared."
"Yeah," Lois said. "So am I."
So Clark's terrible risk had been for nothing. Or not for nothing, perhaps, but the danger to Earth was still real and coming closer every second. What was the whole world worth? If she didn't tell him what she knew, and the world died, it would be her fault. She had to tell him.
But she had already told him that he was Clark Kent and it hadn't changed anything. Would telling him that he was Superman be any different?
That was a good question, and she didn't know the answer.
**********
Clark emerged from Dr. Friskin's office almost an hour later, and Dr. Friskin followed him out. She smiled at Clark. "Why don't you wait, and I'll speak with Ms. Lane."
Clark nodded and went to sit on the sofa. Lois got to her feet.
Dr. Friskin held the door for her. "Why don't you step into my office, Ms. Lane. Mr. Kent has given me permission to share his information with you."
Lois crossed the room quickly and turned as the doctor closed the door behind them. "Can you help him?"
"Please sit down, Ms. Lane," Dr. Friskin said. She went to sit in the room's only armchair. Lois glanced around and reluctantly took a seat on what was obviously the patient's couch.
Dr. Friskin smiled reassuringly. "Mr. Kent had an interesting story to tell me about how you found him, Ms. Lane."
"I'm not surprised," Lois said. "It was kind of tense for a bit."
"You found him in Suicide Slum, in a large hole in the street."
Lois nodded. "Yes, I did."
"With no clothing on."
"That's right. He told you that?"
"Yes, he did. Mr. Kent is anxious to regain his memory. He was very cooperative."
"That's Clark all over," Lois said. "Do you think you can help him?"
Dr. Friskin shrugged. "The human mind is a complicated thing, Ms. Lane. It's capable of amazing reasoning and an equally amazing capacity for deceiving itself."
Lois scowled at her. "That isn't much of an answer."
"Mr. Kent," Dr. Friskin said, "has a form of memory loss that we refer to as 'hysterical amnesia'. It frequently occurs when the subject wants or needs to forget some traumatic event in his life. Whether he regains his memory immediately depends on whether he can resolve the conflict that has produced the need to forget." The psychotherapist folded her hands in her lap. "It's my guess that anxiety about this asteroid may be a factor. In any case, he should be surrounded by familiar things and familiar people. It will require patience. He isn't doing this purposefully."
"I know that," Lois said. "In other words, he has to decide which is more important -- his memories, or his reason for forgetting."
"That's one way of putting it," the doctor said. "Once the crisis is past, he'll probably remember on his own, however."
"That," Lois said, "might be too late." She stood up, unwilling to explain to the obviously puzzled psychotherapist. "Thank you, Doctor. You've given me something to think about."
**********
And so she had part of her answer, Lois thought as she joined Clark in the waiting room.
He had forgotten who and what he was, and there had to be a reason for it. She probably didn't need to look very far for the reason.
She glanced once more at the front page of the Daily Planet, with the screaming headlines. She was no psychologist, but plunging head first into a piece of rock the size of Nightfall, moving at the speed of thirty thousand miles per hour, had to be pretty scary, even for Superman. He had gone on his mission, in spite of his fear, and had broken the asteroid into pieces, but it was apparent to her that his action had not been without cost. He had made it back to Earth, but it had to have been a close thing. He had come in so fast that his uniform had been burned away. And how about his oxygen? Those tanks didn't have an infinite capacity, and he'd been out there for quite a while. He'd had a six hour supply, but what if the tanks had been damaged by the collision, and his oxygen had been running out as well? What if he'd almost died? That might be a pretty good reason to be scared.
Clark would go back, she knew, unless he was literally unable to do so. If he couldn't remember that he was Superman, he wouldn't have to go back. What if his sense of self-preservation, whatever that might be, had forced him to forget? That very probably was the explanation for his amnesia -- and simply telling him that he had the power to do the job wasn't very likely to help.
But if he didn't remember, they were in plenty of trouble. A strike by a meteor even three miles across was likely to have worldwide effects, beyond the actual direct physical damage of the impact. Didn't some scientists say that it might have been a huge meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? That sounded pretty drastic to her.
So what was she going to do? What was likely to get through to Clark if simply telling him the truth wouldn't do it?
She summoned up a smile for her partner, who was waiting patiently for her. Clearly, simply telling him that he was Superman and that, to save Earth, he had to go back after a chunk of Nightfall one more time wasn't likely to make much headway. If anything, Clark's defenses were likely to clamp down even harder on his errant memory. Somehow, she had to convince Clark that failing to regain his memory was worse for him than facing down Nightfall. Only how was she going to do that?
**********
She was still mulling over the question when she pulled Jimmy's car into the parking lot of the Daily Planet, some fifteen minutes later.
The streets hadn't been exactly empty of traffic but the usual crush produced by afternoon rush hour was decidedly absent. The parking lot was also sparsely populated, and Lois found a parking spot with no trouble at all. They rode the elevator up to the third floor and disembarked at the newsroom, only to step out into an area that seemed almost alien to Lois. The news floor was usually bustling with activity, with phones ringing and people hurrying here and there as they attended to their job of reporting the news.
The floor was quiet. Only a few of the staff were anywhere evident, and those that were seemed to be rooted to their spots as they watched the televisions, set here and there about the office. On each one, Lois could see graphic illustrations of the chunk of Nightfall and its position in relation to Earth. On each one commentators could be heard, speaking in voices that could not entirely conceal their shock and fear, and on each one she could see a superimposed countdown to the time of impact. The door to Perry's office was closed and, through the glass of the windows, she could see Jimmy speaking vehemently with their boss.
"Come on," she told Clark. "We might as well face the music."
Clark nodded and followed her down the steps that gave them a short cut to the main newsroom floor. Lois cut directly through the room, making only the barest needed detours to avoid desks, chairs, carts and so forth that appeared to have been abruptly abandoned by their users at some time, and not reclaimed. With only the briefest of knocks on the door, she thrust it open and gestured Clark through. Perry, visibly irritated, turned from whatever conversation that he was having with Jimmy to face her. "Geez Louise, Lois! This was a private conversation!"
"Sorry," Lois said briskly. "This is important."
"So was what we were talkin' about," Perry said. "Where've you been? The office tried to get hold of you this morning, but the lines were jammed."
"I had an emergency last night," Lois said. "Jimmy, your car is in the parking lot, and here are the keys." She extended them to him.
"Thanks." Jimmy took the proffered item. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Sort of, but not exactly," she said. "I saw that fireball hit and went looking for it."
"In Suicide Slum?" Perry got to his feet. "Lois, are you crazy?"
"No," Lois said. "I thought it might have been Superman coming in fast. I found where it hit, but whatever caused it was gone. The only person there was Clark. The only thing I can figure out is that he went looking for it, too -- and got mugged. He'd been robbed and must have been hit on the head, because he can't remember anything before I arrived. I got him out of there."
"Great shades of Elvis!" Perry turned immediately to Clark. "Are you all right, son?"
"I think so," Clark said. "I don't seem to be hurt. I just can't remember anything."
"Nothing?" Jimmy asked, incredulously.
Clark shook his head.
"I took him to see a psychotherapist this morning," Lois continued determinedly. "She says Clark should be exposed to familiar people and places, so I figured the best thing I could do would be to bring him to work." She turned to her partner. "This is Perry White, our editor, and this is Jimmy Olsen, our resident computer expert and general gofer."
"Pleased to meet you," Clark said.
"Yeah," Jimmy said. "I just usually call you CK--CK."
Clark nodded. Jimmy turned back to Lois. "Where was the place you found him? What did you find?"
"There was a big hole in the street," Lois said, "I didn't really try to look very hard. It was dark and people were starting to get interested in Clark and me, I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could."
"Like I was saying, Chief," Jimmy said quickly, looking at his editor, "I don't see how it could possibly have been part of Nightfall. It wouldn't be able to get here ahead of the other pieces, but what if Superman made it back? We've got to go look!"
Perry appeared to be thinking, and then he got slowly to his feet. "It can't hurt," he said. "I'll get my coat. Where was this place, Lois?"
"It was over near the western border of Suicide Slum," Lois told him. "I'm not sure of the exact street but there's a billboard there that advertises the Metro Liner. Whatever came down there crashed right through the sign." She hesitated. "If you find -- well, anything, let me know right away, would you? If Superman came back there's still a chance." She resolutely did not look at Clark.
"You'll be the first to know," Perry said. Lois thought he looked grim. "I just hope it really was him."
"Me too," Jimmy said. "I don't want to rely on a rocket."
"I don't think anyone does," Perry said. "Including EPRAD." He pushed open the door. "Let's go, Jimmy."
**********
tbc
