In a hurry so... Thanks Alisha Beth and Nancy!
Last time:
Lois
In a second he was in front of me, kissing me. Deciding that finesse wasn't want I wanted or needed at the moment, I began frantically tugging at his tie and fumbling with his buttons.
He pulled away from me after a minute. "What is it? I thought we were going to take this slow the first time."
I shook my head. "I changed my mind." I reached behind me and tugged on the ribbon laced up the back of my wedding dress. "I need you, Clark. Now."
"Are you sure?"
I didn't answer but kissed him instead. Following my frantic lead, Clark turned on the speed and seconds later we were on the bed together.
I couldn’t stop the tears as we frantically made love.
They continued to fall as I rested in Clark's arms afterwards.
"Oh, sweetie. I wish I knew what it was that was bothering you," he whispered into my hair. "I wish we could figure it out and make it go away."
"Me, too," I whispered.
He pulled me closer to him, and I fell asleep with my head on his chest, blankets pulled up over us, his fingers gently stroking the hair at my temple.
"I love you, Lois," I heard him whisper as I drifted off. "More than life itself."
*~*17*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Something felt off.
I didn't bother to open my eyes, but pulled Lois a little closer to me. She shifted in my arms and her arm tightened across my torso. Still without looking, I kissed her hair.
"Morning, beautiful," I whispered. "Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas," she murmured back.
My eyes flew open.
She didn't sound right.
I looked down at her, expecting to see a mess of dark hair strewn across my chest. She hadn't taken it down out of the fancy 'do before we fell asleep the night before. After her unexplained near panic attack and our frantic love making, she'd not let go of me and hadn't wanted to move, even enough to take her hair down.
Instead what I saw shocked me.
A mass of blonde hair met my gaze.
Lois' hair wasn’t blonde.
Something inside told me not to freak out. That this was a time to gather information and find out what was going on before making any sudden movements or rash decisions.
I closed my eyes again and turned my ears into the room next door.
Instead of the comforting heartbeats of our sons, two other heartbeats greeted me.
My parents? They were staying at the house instead of a hotel with the rest of the family, but in their usual apartment. Had someone already gotten the boys up and they were getting them some clothes or something?
I listened more closely. No, they were still asleep.
I opened an eye as the woman in my arms shifted again.
The room was the one Lois and I had lived in for three and a half years, but the door to the nursery was gone and the décor was what I remembered from before we moved in.
I wanted to tune in to whoever it was that was with me but I was afraid I knew the answer.
There was only one person I could think of, but it didn't make any sense.
Was I in Bizzaro world or something?
Lois.
This *was* her house – unless the world had turned completely on its ear and I was suddenly a Lane or something.
I reached out carefully with my hearing and found her heartbeat, reassuring me that she was nearby and asleep.
I tuned into other heartbeats.
There was Sam's with an unknown heartbeat next to him.
Granny was on the other side of Mom and Dad.
There was Jimmy and someone else. They weren't asleep but I didn't listen any further than that.
That was odd. Jimmy didn't have a girlfriend, not last I'd heard. He dated casually but had never met anyone he wanted to date seriously – not anyone he'd bring to spend Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with.
There was another two heartbeats I didn't recognize upstairs somewhere.
Vicki and Ollie were supposed to be leaving early this morning to go spend Christmas with her family, but a glance at the clock had shown it was way too early for that. I reached my hearing towards their house, but there was no one there.
I sighed.
The hair moved and the one heartbeat I'd been consciously avoiding filled my ears.
Lana.
She looked up at me, sleep filling her eyes. "What's wrong, honey?" She brushed her hair back with her left hand.
The engagement ring I'd picked out before the trip to Europe glittered on her finger. Next to it was a gold wedding band.
Surreptitiously, I felt my left hand.
Wedding band.
I sighed again. "Just can't sleep, that's all," I told her with a forced smile. "It's still early; don't let me keep you up."
She smiled a smile I recognized which made me very nervous. "I'll stay up with you. We can keep each other entertained."
I smiled again. "You look so tired. Listen, I'm going to go get a drink. Get some more sleep."
As though to emphasize my point, she yawned. She nodded. "Okay, but wake me up in a bit, okay?"
She leaned up and kissed me softly.
It felt so wrong – something that used to feel so right – but I made myself kiss her back lightly.
She rolled over and I breathed a silent sigh of relief as I realized she was clothed.
I slipped on a pair of pajama pants and the John Deere T-shirt Lois had stolen from me years earlier. They'd been lying over one of the chairs near the bed and I was glad I didn't have to search for them.
I grabbed my glasses and the laptop bag sitting next to the nightstand. Maybe I could get online and figure out what was going on.
I quietly made my way to the kitchen. Once there, I poured a glass of milk and wished, for once, that alcohol affected me. I popped open the laptop on the breakfast bar and waited for it to boot up.
My password wasn't the one I remember. Of course not. It appeared I was married to Lana. Why would a Lois related password be on my computer?
I thought for a long minute and typed in the date I was supposed to have proposed to her.
I was in.
Not sure where to start, I finally opened the picture file.
It was as organized as I would have expected on my computer. Lois' pictures were a mess. Mine were categorized and dated. Hers were in whatever file they ended up in when she downloaded them from the camera.
I opened the most recent folder. There were nearly a hundred pictures in it. All were of me and Lana or Lana. We were at a number of places around the world – the pyramids, the Great Wall, somewhere that was either the Mediterranean or the Caribbean and she was wearing one of those skimpy swim suits Lois refused to wear because of her stretch marks.
I backed out of the folder and looked through the rest of the folder names.
"Kerths," I said softly. I opened that folder and found two more folders. I opened the oldest one to find pictures of Billy and Serena with Lois and Jimmy at the ceremony where they'd won the award for their open adoption story. There were more – from this year? – where it appeared Lois and I had won an award. I zoomed in on the program lying on the table in one of the pictures.
"Lois Lane and Clark Kent," I muttered under my breath, "of the Daily Planet. Series of articles on Van-El. Photos by James Olsen."
I breathed a sigh of relief. My brother was here.
There was a couple pictures of me and Lois accepting our award and a few more of me and Lana and Lois and Joe and one or two of all of us together.
There was one of Jimmy with a smiling brunette that looked familiar but I couldn't quite place. They were with us in a few of the pictures and there was one of the brunette and Lois.
There was a striking resemblance between the two.
I noted the wedding ring on her finger. She looked a little younger than Lois but that didn't mean anything.
I scrolled down further until I found a picture of Joe.
With Lois.
Proposing to her.
Joe had proposed to Lois at the Kerths?
Jimmy was in the background and had his arm around the chair of the brunette who was next to Lois.
I moved on to the next picture before going back.
There was a wedding ring on Jimmy's hand.
Jimmy and the brunette were married?
I opened Firefox and went to the Daily Planet's home page. I looked for the 'contributors' link and found the list of major contributors to the Daily Planet's news. It was a list of the regular columnists and reporters and photographers with links to short biographies.
I clicked on mine.
"Clark Kent is a graduate of Metropolis University's Journalism Program," I read aloud. "He grew up in Smallville, Kansas and married his high school sweetheart the summer after their freshman year of college. They have no children but would like a large family one day. His wife, Lana Lang Kent, works for the Daily Planet preschool. Partnered with Lois Lane on a regular basis, Clark has received one joint Kerth Award for their series of articles on superhero Van-El."
Well, that made some sort of sense at least. If I really was in Bizarro World.
I backed up and looked for Lois. I clicked on her name.
"Raised in the exclusive Pittsdale community, Lois Lane is a graduate of Pittsdale's Lincoln High and Metropolis University's Journalism Program. Recently engaged to her high school sweetheart, she and Joe are planning a wedding shortly after New Year's. Partnered with Clark Kent on a regular basis, Lois has received one joint Kerth Award for their series of articles on superhero Van-El."
Okay. About what I expected. I wasn't sure why, but I did. In whatever Bizzaro world we were in, that seemed right, too.
Jimmy Olsen's bio was next.
"Jimmy Olsen is a graduate of UNT Metropolis' Journalism Photography program. Married to his high school sweetheart since just after graduation, they are expecting their first child next summer. Lucy Lane Olsen is a junior photographer at the Planet but plans to open her own studio and work from home after the birth of their child."
I started to back out of the page when what I'd read hit me.
Lucy Lane Olsen.
Lucy Lane.
*Lucy* Lane.
Lucy?
It kept repeating over and over in my head.
It must have been her heartbeat I'd heard – not sleeping – near Jimmy's earlier.
I went to Google and typed in 'Adoption Option'. Currently, Sam's favorite of his organizations, they were committed to helping women who wanted to put a child they knew would have special needs – mental, physical or medical – up for adoption and matching them with families willing to adopt those special kids. They also maintained a list of both birth parents and adopted children who were willing to be contacted in case medical issues arose that required the help of the child's birth family.
It had started after Jimmy and Lois had realized that his adopted brother, Dave, was Lois' half-brother. Ellen had given birth to a baby while she and Sam were separated during their senior year in high school. She'd moved to another city and they'd broken up. She'd gotten pregnant by a guy she'd dated once or twice and put the baby up for adoption after Sam wrote to her wanting to get back together. She had never told Sam until he found a letter after her death. It was several years before Sam searched for Dave and by then he'd died waiting for a bone marrow transplant. Both Ellen and Lois would have been matches.
But...
If Lucy was alive, what about Ellen? Was she the heartbeat next to Sam?
And Dave?
I clicked on the Adoption Option website and clicked history.
"Adoption Option was created as a part of the Sam and Ellen Lane Foundation. Ellen Lane gave up a baby for adoption her senior year of high school but didn't tell her husband until many years later when the family of her child came searching for them. In need of a bone marrow transplant, Dave Olsen's life was saved when Ellen Lane immediately decided to be his donor."
I read on. "Afterwards, they created the Adoption Option in an effort..." I skimmed the rest. It was basically the same as what I remembered, but with Ellen and Dave alive.
There was a picture of all four Lanes with Jimmy and Dave on the page. I studied his face so I'd recognize him if I ever saw him.
I sighed and went back to the pictures folder.
Christmas last year.
There was me and Lana sitting in the great room off to one side of me now. We'd spent Christmas here? That seemed odd to me – as odd as us spending it here this year did. Four years ago, I wouldn't have imagined spending Christmas with Lois and her family after Lana and I got married. Jimmy and Lucy were there. Sam and the woman who must be Ellen – she looked like an elegantly aging version of the pictures of Lois' mom that I'd seen over the years. And there were my parents.
I backed out of that folder and opened the weddings folder. I decided that I didn't want to see the pictures of my wedding to Lana and clicked on the Jimmy/Lucy folder. Apparently, Jimmy and I were good friends in this Bizzaro World, too. It looked like Dave was his best man and I was the groomsman. Lois had been maid of honor, but I didn't recognize the bridesmaid I'd been paired with. There were reception pictures that included me and Lana dancing close. Lois and Joe danced the same way. Lois and I had danced apparently, but there was daylight between us. We looked friendly but that was it.
Something else occurred to me. I went back to Google and typed in the search word 'Superman'.
Nothing.
There was no Superman in Bizzaro world.
What did that mean?
I searched for Van-El and found my brother, sans cape, was doing his superhero thing.
My head jerked up when I heard a sleepy voice whisper my name upstairs.
"Clark?" came Lois' voice again, a little bit louder.
I winced. If she started yelling, it was going to be a bad scene. I was just glad Joe wasn't spending the night. It occurred to me that he could be one of the other two unidentified heartbeats but at least he wasn't with Lois.
I zipped up to her room and knocked quietly. "Lois?" I whispered, cracking the door open so she could hear me.
"Clark? Where am I?"
I glanced around to make sure that no one was near and went in, shutting the door silently behind me.
"Hey," I whispered. "Are you okay?"
"What's going on?"
I looked around and realized that the room wasn't decorated the same way that it had been when we'd lived in it for a few days when we first moved in.
"I don’t know," I answered quietly.
"This isn't the ring you gave me. And where's my wedding ring?"
I sighed. That was the least of our worries.
"Come on," I whispered. "We have to get out of here and go somewhere we can really talk."
She was wearing warm pajamas and she grabbed a coat. "Fly us somewhere?"
I hesitated. That was probably best, but how would we explain our absence?
"No. Let's go down to the basement. We can say we were unhiding presents or something."
"What?"
"Come on." I used my eyes and ears to make sure no one else was awake nearby. Jimmy and Lucy had apparently gone back to sleep. I grabbed my laptop as we went through the kitchen on our way to the most secluded spot in the basement – backstage of the theater.
Yes, the theater. It had a big screen but also had a little stage. Lois had told me that she and Lucy had loved putting on plays and we were sure the boys would eventually, too.
We shut the door behind us.
"Clark, you're scaring me," Lois said a bit louder. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," I told her honestly. "We're not home. I don't know where we are."
"What do you mean?" she asked, fear written all over her face. "Where's the boys?"
"I don't know," I whispered, agonized. "No, I think I do know. They're not here."
"What?!" Her voice raised to a shout. I shushed her, even though the closest person wasn't anywhere near us. "What?!" she said more quietly. "Did Mindy get them? Or Navance's nephew? What?"
I sighed. "Navance's nephew is dead, remember? I don't think they're here because..."
I couldn't say it. It was going to break Lois' heart. And I didn't know how to fix it.
"Because why?" she demanded.
I took a deep breath.
"Because I'm married to Lana."
*****
TBC
