ARGH! Stinking weather is probably keeping me from getting my laptop back today
. Don't think neighbor went to work [he's the boss after all]. It was supposed to be delivered today... We'll see I guess... Here's hoping there's no school tomorrow too. Doubt the kids will be in the rest of the week but I would imagine that I'll have school tomorrow /sigh/.
I have managed to edit about 55 chapters of OTOH
. However, the harder edits are still coming...
Thanks as always to Alisha, Nancy and Beth!
Last time:
Clark
And if we did end up having to stay here for some reason, then what?
Sure she'd have her mom and sister and half-brother and niece or nephew on the way, but I'd be with Lana – unless and until I managed to leave her without completely destroying her – and she'd be with Joe, but I thought she'd have an easier time leaving him than I would Lana.
Not because I wouldn't leave Lana, but because I'd seen Lana's heart break before and I'd have to find a way to do it as easily as possible and it would be harder to let her down as gently as I could than it would be for her to let go of Joe.
Maybe we could work this all out.
I glanced at my watch and woke her up.
"It's time to go, Lois."
She opened her eyes and looked at me. "It wasn't a nightmare, was it?"
I nodded. "It's a nightmare, all right, but it's real. And it's time to get back."
She nodded. "Let's go. Let's get our lives back."
I wrapped my arms around her and took off for Metropolis.
*~*23*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
We landed in the darkness near the back of the house.
"What's going on?" I whispered to Clark.
"Mom and Dad are headed this way. Lana's sleeping, I think and no one else is around."
I breathed a sigh of relief.
We carefully snuck inside and made it backstage easily. A minute later, Martha and Jonathan came in.
"How bad was it?" Clark asked, wincing slightly.
Martha shrugged. "Lana's not happy, but once this is all straightened out, her Clark or us will explain or something."
"What about Joe?" I asked.
"He seems to be a lot more used to you running off," Martha said with a smirk.
Clark laughed lightly. "That sounds like you."
"Doesn't it, though?" I sighed. "What time is it?"
The frame appeared in mid-air again – between us and Clark's parents – and a black square flew out of it.
"Have fun," came the evil voice.
"Wait!" I yelled. "How does it work?"
He stuck his head through the window. "Award winning legendary investigative reporter Lois Lane has to ask how something works? You'll figure it out. And if not..." He laughed. "...well, Lana and Joe aren't bad consolation prizes, now are they?"
He disappeared and the window shrunk, then popped out of existence.
"I don't think I like him," Jonathan said.
"I know I don't," I muttered.
Clark picked up the doohickey and looked it over. "I'm not sure I just want to start pushing buttons." He turned it over in his hands and sighed. "I don't get it." He looked at it more closely. "Wait. This one has 'pgrm' on it – program?"
I shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
He looked at all of us. "Ready?"
Jonathan and Martha wrapped an arm around each other and nodded. I grabbed a hold of Clark's arm at the elbow. I didn't want to be separated from him if he suddenly popped into another universe or something.
He took a deep breath and pushed the button.
A small, transparent box popped up – a screen of sorts, hanging in mid-air.
"Set date," Clark read and reached up with his other hand. "When did you apply for college?" he asked me. "When did you fill out your Met U paperwork?"
I closed my eyes and thought. "February 14, my senior year. Joe went out with Denise because I told him we weren't having sex just because it was a holiday."
"I can't say I'm sorry." He poked a finger at the display hanging in mid-air. Despite its seeming transparent, holographic appearance, Clark was able to press a '0' then a '2' for February. He finished punching in the date. "Hold on. I'm hoping it'll ask for a time or destination but... Mom, Dad, you guys might want to move back a bit."
They did and he pressed the 'enter' button.
We waited with bated breath, but another screen popped up.
"Location," Clark read. "Do we want to end up here? Or somewhere else?" he asked me.
"Here is fine. There shouldn't be anyone down here," I told him.
He pressed the 'don't change locations' button. "Time?"
"Seven-thirty?" I suggested.
He typed that in and looked over at his parents before pressing the enter button again. "Thanks for everything. Thanks for understanding. If we can, we'll let you know what happens."
"Thanks. Take care of those boys," Martha said.
"We will." Clark looked down at me. "Ready?"
I nodded.
We both took a deep breath and I clung a little more tightly to him.
He pressed the enter button and rather than being instantly transported somewhere a big frame appeared in midair. Looking through the frame showed a darkened backstage area, but looking around it showed Martha and Jonathan waiting with bated breath.
"I guess we walk through?" I said tentatively.
"I guess so."
"Good luck," Martha told us.
"Be careful," Jonathan echoed.
We peered around the window at them. "We will," Clark promised. "And we'll try not to destroy the space-time continuum or anything."
They laughed. "We'd appreciate that," Martha said.
"Ready?" he asked, looking at me.
I nodded and together we stepped through the window into the darkened room. We turned to see Martha and Jonathan coming around to the other side of the window.
"Good luck," they called in unison.
"Thanks," we both called back as Clark pressed the 'close window' button on the screen.
The window disappeared.
"Okay," I whispered. "We're here. Now what?"
He tilted his head slightly. "You're up in your room and I think we're the only ones here."
I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. Let's do this."
"I'll wait here," he said.
"No, you don't, mister," I informed him. "You're coming with me."
We hurried up to my room.
"Here goes nothing," I whispered and opened the door, walking in like I owned the place.
"Mom?" came the voice I recognized as my own.
"No," I said as authoritatively as I knew how.
I saw the younger version of me turn in her desk chair.
She froze when she saw me.
The universe didn't implode and I took that as a good sign.
"Who are you?" she asked, warily.
"I'm you," I told her. "From the future. I know that's hard to believe," I hurried on, "but it's true."
She didn't believe me.
"I know you're home tonight working on college applications because Joe wanted to have sex with whoever he went out with tonight and you wouldn't. I know that you have a half-brother named Dave that Mom gave birth to in high school. I know that his brother Jimmy and Lucy are great together."
"Ha!" she said. "They hate each other."
I smiled. "Well, that won't last." What else could convince her? "I know how you got the scar on your collar bone. I know the main character of the novel you've been wanting to write is Lola Dane."
That one got her attention. "I never told anyone that," she said cautiously. "Okay, say, for a minute, that I believe you're me from the future. Why are you here?"
"Where are you planning on going to college?" I asked her.
"Shouldn't you know that?"
I nodded. "Your first choice is UNT Met, but the competition is fierce and with your parents' connections, Met U is more likely because you want to get a scholarship and get your own way through school so they don't have to pay for it, even though they can afford it easily. You want to do it on your own."
"Okay." She leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed. "Tell me what's going to happen."
I shook my head. "I can't do that. Not completely, but I need you to do something. Otherwise..." My eyes filled with tears. "I know it's going to be hard to believe, but I am you. I promise, but my life... I woke up this morning and it was different. I was married with two wonderful boys and this morning I woke up to find out I was engaged to..." I shouldn’t tell her everything, should I? "...someone else. My husband and his family are apparently close enough to all of us that they were staying here at the house, but he was married to his ex-girlfriend. And I want my life back. Very badly. But..."
"How did everything change?" she asked. "That just doesn't seem possible."
"That's what we've been saying all day. Then this guy appeared while we were talking and he said that he'd changed one thing in my past and because of that one thing, everything in my life had changed. He said we could go back in time and change that one thing back and get our lives back or we could stay where we were."
"And talking to me will change that back?" she asked, with one brow raised.
"No," I whispered. "I can't change back what he changed. It's too hard a choice so we're trying to fix it without changing that."
"What is it that he changed that you can't just change back?" she demanded.
I sat on the bed, a tear streaking down my cheek. "Do you remember going to the cabin when you were ten? You and Daddy were involved in a Monopoly game and Mom and Lucy came back early?"
She thought for a minute. "Maybe. Why?"
"In my world, Mom and Lucy were killed in an accident on the way home. Daddy sunk into deep despair and we nearly lost everything. We managed to hang on to the house and the cabin but that's about it. Mom had never told him about Dave but left him a letter when she died. Daddy didn't look for him until years later, after it was too late. I'll go back and make sure the accident happens, but only if it's my only choice. I'd rather try to keep all of them alive and get my life with my husband and my sons back at the same time." The tears flowed freely down my cheeks.
She nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense." She sighed. "So what is it I need to do to change things? And do I really want to? Is the life that you have better than the life you woke up to? Obviously, you're in love with someone if you're going to marry him," she pointed out.
I nodded. "He's a great guy, really he is, and I probably could love him, but what I feel for my husband... And my sons..." The tears continued to flow down my cheeks. "Please," I whispered. "Don't make me put Daddy and all of us through losing Mom and Lucy if I can fix it another way."
"Okay, but how will you know?"
"We'll go ahead in time and see what changed and go from there," I told her.
"And if things aren't right?"
I sighed. "Then we'll try again at another point in the future."
"So what is it I need to do?"
"It's easy at this point," I told her. "Live on campus at Met U."
"That's it?" she asked with a raised brow.
I nodded. "That's it."
She thought it over for a minute. "I'd thought about living on campus anyway. I can do that. Maybe Daddy can get me on the academic floor at Lane Hall." She glanced at me. "I suppose that's acceptable?"
"Yes," I said with a sigh of relief. "But there's one thing – I can't know for sure where you'll end up on campus, but *no* *matter* *what*, you *have* to live on campus."
She smirked at me. "Even if they end up sticking me with a guy for a roommate?"
I snorted. "Even if."
"Okay then. I can do that."
"And go to Europe," I added hurriedly. "There's a school trip after Christmas. You have to go. With Joe."
She made a face. "I'm not real crazy about Joe right now."
"I know, but believe me on this one."
She nodded. "Okay. I can take a trip to Europe with Joe. Though," she went on, "I'm a bit worried that you said its 'easy at this point'."
I smiled. "I should have known you'd catch that. I can't promise it's all going to be easy, but it's so worth it in the end. I promise."
"Okay."
There was a slight knock on the door.
She stood up. "I wonder who that is."
"My – our – husband. You can't see him. You can't know who he is at this point." Clark and I had talked about that on the flight back to Metropolis. "But trust me," I told her with a grin. "He's *hot*."
"Well, of course," she said with a nonchalant shrug.
My grin widened. "He said he'd knock if we had to go, so I guess it's time." My eyes filled with tears again. "Thanks."
She nodded. "I'd say anytime but..." She shrugged. "I'll see you when I'm you."
"Thank you." There was another knock. "He thanks you, too. It might take a while for you guys to work things out, but it's so worth it. I promise."
She raised that eyebrow again. "We have a rocky relationship before he finally proposes?"
"Something like that."
She nodded.
The knocking was more insistent.
"Go," she said, shooing me off.
The second I was out the door, Clark whooshed me away.
"What?" I whispered.
"Your parents just got home."
"Oh."
We were backstage again.
"Is she muttering to herself?" I asked him.
He nodded. "Yeah, she's wondering if you were a hallucination, but she pulled out the dorm paperwork."
I leaned against him. "Thank God."
"So what next?"
"We trade forms," I told him.
"How do we get another copy of it?"
He looked over the top of his glasses towards my room. "She has two. We'll snag the other one and you can fill it out as 'Louis Lane' and request me for a roommate. Then we'll trade them back a couple months in the future."
I nodded. "Okay. Wait till she's asleep?"
He grinned. "Why wait? We have a time machine."
He carefully programmed it and we stepped through the window again. He went upstairs carefully and floated into her – my – room to get the form. He kept an ear out as I filled it out and we put everything back in a sealed envelope and he returned it just as he'd found it.
We went back to the basement and set the date for the day after our wedding – Christmas Day.
"Here goes nothing," Clark whispered as we stepped through again.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the window shut behind us. "Do your see and hear thing. What's going on?"
I held my breath as he scanned the house.
"Your mom and dad are both here. So are Jimmy and Lucy. My parents and Granny."
"I don't feel so well, Clark," I said suddenly.
He looked alarmed. "I know why."
"Why?" His look scared me.
"We have to get out of here," he said grimly. He punched the buttons on the box and the control panel as quickly as he could. A second later, he pulled me through the window after him.
I tried to look around but couldn't move because he was holding me so tightly.
"Clark, you're hurting me," I managed to squeak out.
His grip loosened and I looked around.
"Where are we? Or when rather?" I amended as I realized we were at the cabin. It was snowing outside.
"We're on our way back from Bremerton," he said grimly. "Well, not us but the younger us."
"Okay," I said slowly. "But that turned out okay, didn't it?"
He shook his head. "No, it didn't. Your room was dusty so I looked at Lucy's room and saw an article in her desk. You couldn't get us inside the cabin and collapsed on the porch. According to the article, I barely survived."
"And me?" I whispered.
He pulled me back into the tight hug. "You didn't make it, sweetheart. That's why you weren't feeling well, I'd bet money on it. You weren't supposed to be there."
I closed my eyes and rested on his chest when his head popped up. "Are we close?"
He nodded. "You stay here and get some blankets and stuff out. I'm going to go make sure we get here."
He disappeared and I did as he suggested, pulling blankets out and leaving them folded neatly on the couch.
That's why they were there.
It suddenly clicked.
I'd never thought about it too much but random blankets on the couch when we'd made it to the cabin didn't make much sense to me at the time. Of course, that was the least of my concerns when I'd woken up naked with Clark.
The door.
Clark said we hadn't made it inside.
I unlocked the door so even when I dropped my keys it would be okay.
I heard thumping on the porch and I hurriedly hid in my room, watching through a crack in the door as my younger self practically dragged Clark's younger self to the fire, where he collapsed.
Clark appeared behind me and I rested my head on his shoulder.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"I had to," he whispered back.
"Now we just have to make sure that we make Christopher," I told him.
His eyes widened. "What?"
*****
TBC
