Last time:
Clark
We played another couple of games, but the mood was subdued.
The clock struck ten.
We both gave long hugs to everyone and with a long last look, we flew towards the house. I carried Lois and Bernie carried the boxes we were taking back with us.
Lois' tears flowed the whole way there.
A few minutes later, we were in the theater in the basement of the house.
I prepared the window and took the boxes from Bernie.
I held Lois' hand and looked at her.
"It's time."
*~*38*~*
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
"It's time." Clark squeezed my hand as he said it.
I nodded. "I know."
I was glad we'd left my family back at the cabin. I didn't think I'd be able to do this otherwise. I knew my sons were on the other side of the time window, but leaving my mom and Lucy and Dave...
I turned to Bernie. "Here," I said, handing him the packet of letters I'd written. "Would you give these to everyone for me?"
They'd said they were going to wait up for their Lois and Clark to get back. Bernie was going to wait at the house for them.
He nodded. "I'll take them up there now and then come back."
I gave him a hug. "Thanks, Bernie."
"Bye, Bernie. Thanks. Hopefully, they'll be here in an hour or so." Clark let go of my hand long enough to push the last button on the screen.
The window appeared in mid-air.
We took a deep breath and stepped through.
Clark set the boxes down and turned. He closed the window and Bernie disappeared, leaving the other Lois and Clark in his place.
"Hi," I said quietly.
"Hi," the other Lois said, her arms crossed in front of her. "What took you so long?"
"We're only fifteen minutes late," I pointed out.
"No, you're four and a half months late."
I sighed. "We got here as quick as we could. And it was only three and a half months. No one knew how to make the doohickey work and switch universes at the same time. All we knew was how to go backwards and forwards in time."
"Time travel?" she asked, arms still crossed, brow raised.
"Baby in a space ship?" I asked, mirroring her body language.
"What?" she asked, looking at Clark.
"You didn't tell her?" my husband asked.
"She knows," the other Clark said quietly.
"What?" she asked, then shook her head slightly. "Right. Clark. Baby in a space ship."
"How are my sons?" I asked her suddenly, tears filling my eyes. Clark wrapped an arm around me, helping me to a seat.
"They're good," the other Clark said quietly. "They've missed you both a lot, though. We didn't tell them you were coming back tonight, just in case..."
We both nodded. "So they knew you weren't us?" Clark asked them.
It was their turn to nod. "Almost immediately," she said. "Fortunately, the only people around were Lana, Martha, Jonathan and Daddy."
"That's good," I said.
This was awkward. How were we going to tell them what we'd done to their lives?
"What about Superman?" my Clark asked.
The other Clark rubbed the back of his neck. "He was, uh, gone for a few weeks," he told us. "But after that... Probably not around as much as you would have been but I've helped out at disasters and stuff like that. You?"
My Clark sighed. "A few weeks after we got there – after we realized we didn't know how to get back. We said in his first interview that we didn't know how long he'd be able to stay so if you don't want to do that anymore, you have an out."
The other Clark nodded. "What did Lana say?" He almost seemed afraid to ask more.
"She wasn’t happy about it." My Clark shifted nervously in his seat.
"You divorced her, didn't you?" Lois asked him. "And you didn't marry Joe, either, did you?" she asked me.
"Right on both counts," I said softly. "We told them the truth pretty quickly. We waited a week, hoping Daddy or Bernie could figure it out, but they couldn't. Then we called off the wedding. A week later, divorce proceedings started."
"How is she?" the other Clark asked.
"She's okay," my husband said. "She understood why. If you and she had ended up here with you married to Lois instead of her, you would have done the same thing."
Our counterparts shared a look. "That's about what we figured," Lois said.
"Is it final yet?" Clark asked.
"Yesterday," I told them. "And, um, we flew to Vegas yesterday, too."
The other Clark let out a deep breath. "So, legally, Lois and I are married?"
We both nodded.
Lois sighed. "Well, at least you already have a divorce lawyer..." she said to 'her' Clark. "How's Joe?" she asked us. "How'd he take all of this?"
"He didn't take it well, but better than Lana," I told her. "And he's good. I talked to him a couple weeks ago to let him know that Clark and Lana's divorce would be final soon and that we were planning a destination wedding in about a month – that's two weeks from now. You're supposed to be having your wedding in Barbados. Last we heard, no one had gotten a hold of either one of them since we figured out how to get back here. Jimmy was calling Joe and Martha was trying to get a hold of Lana but..." I took a deep breath. "He has started dating again," I told her. "He didn't say how seriously or anything, just that he'd been out on a couple dates."
"With who?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Debbie," I whispered, sure she knew what the potential significance of that was.
She sighed and scrubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. "Part of me is really pissed at you two for screwing everything up, but I also know that if the situation had been reversed, I probably would have done the same thing. If Lana and Joe hadn't already been taken here, who knows what would have happened?" She sighed again. "We tried not to change too much here. We had no idea what had happened – we found a note telling us a little bit, but not much – and we decided to wait until after the boys' birthdays before doing anything drastic, but we also knew you guys might not wait long."
"We had another reason," Clark said quietly. "We found out not long after we got there that Lois is pregnant."
"We kept the information as closely guarded as possible," I assured them. "Not very many people know."
"I didn't cheat on Lana," my husband said quietly, putting his other hand over our joined ones. "We weren't together from the time we got there until we got married yesterday. Well, more or less. When we were time traveling trying to fix things, we were in a time and place where we were married and..."
They nodded their understanding.
"But Lois was already pregnant by the time we left here," he told them. "We're almost positive about that."
"When do we get to go home?" Lois asked.
"Is there anything we need to know?" my Clark asked.
"Like what?" she asked.
"Um, we left you guys lists of stuff – passwords that we changed, story notes, all of those things," I said. "Where to find the paperwork and stuff. All of that's at the cabin in our – my, your, whatever – room. We were there for the weekend with everyone. Everyone's waiting up for you."
"We made lists for you guys, too. It was harder trying to come up with what your passwords and stuff might be than it probably was for you," the other Clark said. "Day you were supposed to propose to Lana was probably easier to figure out than the day after Sam's heart attack or the day you almost died in a snowstorm. What's that about?"
I leaned my head against Clark. We were both a few shades of red, I was sure.
"The day we almost died..." His voice cracked.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
That day was still hard to think about.
I took a deep breath. "The day we almost died... That was the first time we made love. We didn't know that for a long time, but it was. That's where Christopher came from. The night after Sam's heart attack was the next time. And we got Nate out of that and the very beginning of the seeds of realization that I can't live without her."
"We figured it was something like that," the other me said. "Well, based on what your diary said about it, Lois." He nodded towards my wife.
"Diary?" I asked puzzled.
My Lois bit her lip. "I'll tell you about it later."
I nodded.
The other Lois looked at my wife. "I don't know how you've done everything you've done... Losing Mom and Lucy, never knowing Dave, everything with that crazy Navance..."
"Getting to spend a few months with them was like an answer to prayer," Lois said, her eyes filling with tears again. "I'm going to miss them so much..."
"I have missed them and your dad's great, but he's not my dad."
I nodded my understanding.
"Wait. Clark's invulnerable," she said. "How'd he almost die?"
We told them about the green rock and how Mom and Dad had cleaned a bunch out of Shuster's Field. Neither one of us had been there – it would have been really bad for me and for the baby if we had been – but they'd found quite a bit and we hoped, for the other Clark's sake, that they'd gotten all of it.
"Is there anything else you can think of that we need to know?" I asked. "Who knows about all this?"
"Sam, Jimmy, Bernie and Ashley, Lana and Chad. He knows we're the wrong Lois and Clark but I don't think he knows about Krypton, even though Lana does," the other Clark said. "The boys just know that we're not you – at least Christopher does; I don't know about Nate – how much he knows. He knows we're not you guys but..." He shrugged. "I can't think of anything else. We left notes upstairs, but other than that... What about you? Anything else you can think of?"
Lois and I looked at each other and then shook our heads. "I don't think so."
"Then can we go home?" the other Lois asked, tears in her eyes. "I want to see my mom and my sister and my brother and..."
I nodded. "Thank you for taking care of our sons," I said quietly as I opened the window.
"We just... walk through?" she asked skeptically.
We nodded. "Just... walk through."
They grasped hands lightly, just in case, I thought, and walked through. They turned and waved slightly and I saw Bernie walk in. We all waved again and then I shut the window.
Lois collapsed against me. "Is Daddy still up?"
I nodded. "He's pacing around the living room. Probably waiting for us."
I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me for a long minute. "We're home," I whispered.
She nodded, resting her head against my chest. "Let's go see Daddy."
I kept an arm around her as we headed upstairs.
Sam must have heard us because he was waiting when we got there.
Lois flew into his arms. "Daddy," she whispered.
"Princess."
They stood there for a long time, just holding each other. I made a motion indicating that I was going to go back downstairs. I did that and brought the boxes back up with me. I didn't want to go all the way upstairs and see the boys without her.
When I got back, they had moved to the couch and they were sitting on the couch, Sam's arm around her, her head on his shoulder.
"He figured it out pretty quick," she told me.
"What's that?" I asked, putting the boxes down near the stairs.
"The baby," she said with a smile.
"Congratulations," Sam said, a big smile on his face. "Am I getting a granddaughter this time?"
"We don't know," Lois said. "We didn't find out with the boys and as much as I like knowing everything, I have to admit that it was kind of nice not knowing, too."
"What about my parents?" I asked, sitting across from them. "Do they know we're back?"
Sam shook his head. "We couldn’t get a hold of them. They're visiting someone, but I don't remember who off the top of my head. I guess they're in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception. They're supposed to be back tomorrow so we left messages on their cell phones and at home."
I nodded. "Okay. I'll make sure to call them tomorrow."
"So what exactly happened?" he asked quietly. "The other two didn't know much except that they didn't belong here."
I sighed and pulled the little black box out of my pocket. "It's a time machine, believe it or not. And it goes between universes, too. And if an..." I closed my eyes and tried to remember right. "...Intermacric Trans-homulator is used near a window open between universes, then the people it's being used on will be switched with themselves on the other side – right down to jewelry and clothes. So they woke up wearing our wedding rings, for instance..." And no clothes, but I didn't think Sam needed to know that – he could probably guess if he really thought about it. "...and we woke up wearing theirs. Some kind of 'beam me up' thing was the best we could determine."
Lois chose that moment to yawn.
"Why don't you go get some sleep, Princess?" Sam squeezed her shoulders. "We'll talk tomorrow and you two both have a couple days off next week. The other Clark called Perry and said there was a family emergency of some kind or something."
"We should have thought of that," I said, chagrinned. "Hopefully they will. I'm sure they could use it, too. I have a feeling it's going to be harder for them to get back to their lives than it will be for us."
"Probably," Lois agreed quietly.
"Why?" Sam asked. "What happened?"
I sighed. "The divorce and the marriage. Clark and Lana's divorce was final yesterday and we flew off to Vegas and got married. Joe's dating Debbie – at least they've gone out a couple times. No idea what Lana's up to. Except," I added, snapping my fingers, "they have the next three weeks off anyway because of the wedding so they won't have to go to work tomorrow anyway."
Sam stood and held out a hand to Lois, helping her up. He gave her another long hug. "Why don't you go get some sleep and we'll spend the day together tomorrow, okay?"
Lois nodded against him. "Sounds good. I want to see the boys."
They kept arms around each other as we headed upstairs, me with boxes in my hands. Sam said good night at the door to his room. We headed towards our room – *our* room – where I set the boxes down. Christopher and Nate were in their beds. We walked quietly in.
I stood with my arms around her as we watched both of them sleeping. I could hear nearly silent tears streaming down Lois' face.
Christopher stirred and we both held our breath. As much as we wanted to see them, we knew that either of them waking up would probably not be the best plan.
He rolled over and looked at us. "Mommy? Daddy?" he murmured.
"Shhh," Lois whispered. "We'll be here in the morning."
He nodded sleepily and curled back under his Superman/Van-El blanket. That was new since we'd left.
Unwilling to risk it any longer, we headed back to our room where I took Lois in my arms.
"We're home," she whispered.
I nodded against her. "We are."
She yawned again. "Do you mind if we go right to sleep?"
"Not at all," I told her. "Hold still."
I zipped around the room and a minute later, she was curled up in my arms and we fell asleep.
The last thought that ran through my head sort of amused me. Not the sentiment but the phrasing.
There's no place like home.
*****
TBC
