From Part 2:
Where were they? Lex couldn't have killed them, could he? Not knowing what to do, she sat down heavily on an unbroken wine barrel and started chewing on a fingernail. <Where are you, Clark? Where are you, Superman? What if Lex killed them because of me? I know he was jealous of both of them. Oh, Clark. Just when I find out how much you mean to me, I can’t find you. If you died without ever knowing...> she thought. The sinking feeling in her stomach got worse with each passing moment. She began to cry with great tearing sobs.
"What have I done to you, Clark?" she moaned quietly. "I didn't listen to you. I refused to listen to anything you said. You were right about everything. And you and Superman paid the price for my stubbornness."
*************************
Now Part 3:
A week had gone by since the terrible day of her almost-wedding to Lex Luthor. She had heard nothing from either Clark or Superman in all that time. The newspapers were beginning to wonder what had happened to the Man of Steel. He had never disappeared for such a length of time. Some conjectured that he had simply left Earth. Others thought that he had somehow been killed. Henderson had kept all the details under wraps so no one had any direct evidence of what could have happened to Superman. Not that they really knew what had happened. Lois still didn’t know if Superman was alive or dead or hiding someplace, recovering from kryptonite poisoning.
Lois' thoughts, though, were mainly with Clark. She had thought continuously about him since her realization that she was in love with him. She missed Superman and worried for him, but it was still Clark who was at the center of her thoughts and feelings.
The day after the almost wedding, Perry had called her about an already played message he had found on Clark’s answering machine from Lex’s assistant, Mrs. Cox. The message had said that Lex had wanted to see both Clark and Superman about an issue concerning Lois. Because of that message, Clark had officially been categorized by the police as a missing person and the tape confiscated as evidence. Lois would call several times a day to ask if the police had heard anything about him. Henderson promised that she would be the first to know if he found out anything. That didn't stop Lois from making the phone calls.
It was raining outside her window, the weather matching her mood. She sat at the window sill, staring out at the rain. Next to her on the sill sat a picture of Clark and herself taken at a recent Daily Planet picnic. The picture showed the two of them looking at each other with happiness written on their faces. They were happy then.
Lois sighed. She didn't remember a time when she had been this miserable. It was all her fault if anything happened to either Clark or Superman. From the message, it was clear Lex had used Lois to draw the two men into a trap. If she had only listened to Clark way back in the beginning, none of this would have happened. Clark had been warning her about Lex from the time they had first met him at the White Orchid Ball nearly a year ago.
Back during the Messenger investigation, Clark had asked her out, but she had to refuse because she had an interview dinner with Lex. Clark had exploded in a fit of jealousy, nearly accusing her of sleeping with Lex to get the interview. Lois had to admit to herself that that incident had always colored her judgment about Clark’s warnings. She knew he was attracted to her from the very beginning, so she had always felt that Clark hated Lex because he saw Lex as a rival for her affections.
It never occurred to her even once that Clark knew something about Lex that she didn’t know. Lois was so convinced she was right that she never even asked him why he was so suspicious of the city’s wealthiest benefactor. Why hadn’t she listened to him, she asked herself for the hundredth time that day? She sighed. Lois Lane never listened to anyone.
Lois thought about what had happened over the last week. The day after the near-wedding, Perry and Jimmy had filled her in on what had been happening in their investigations. What they told her appalled her. The only thing they didn’t mention was Lex’s motive for crippling and then destroying the Planet, probably to spare her feelings. But to Lois, Lex’s motive was very clear after the fact. She realized that all of this was because of her. She knew that it was unlikely that she would have accepted Lex’s proposal if the Planet had still been around.
Lex had ripped apart the lives of countless people and separated her from everything and everyone she cared about just to get her under his control. He'd known that the loss of the Planet and her friends would throw Lois off balance to the point where she would turn to anyone who offered her stability. He was every bit the monster Clark had accused him of being and more. She shuddered to think what would have happened if she had married Lex, or if Clark and the others had not uncovered the evidence against Lex.
She thought back to happier times. If the Planet had still existed, she would have happily stayed in her routines working next to Clark.
Clark.
She now knew how much Clark had really loved her. In the back of her mind, she had never believed anyone could ever love her. But yet Clark did. Jack had told her of Clark’s despair, which had grown daily the closer her wedding day approached. Near the end he had been desperate to prove Luthor’s villainy. She found out that Clark had been the driving force behind the investigations, pulling everyone together. While Perry had organized the search for evidence, it was Clark who had been the heart and soul of the investigation. He had done it all for her even after the terrible way she had treated him.
Since she was an investigative reporter, she had tried her hardest to find Clark. She knew finding Superman was hopeless since he could literally be anywhere in the world or maybe even out of it, assuming he was still alive. But even locating Clark wasn’t easy. She ran into one blind alley after another. She’d scoured the hospitals and the morgue. None of her usual sources knew anything. Even the promise of Peking duck didn’t get any answers out of Bobby Bigmouth. She didn't have the resources of the Planet to expand her search. Jimmy had tried to help, but in the end couldn't find anything either.
Without a single clue, not even knowing whether he was alive or dead, Lois was left wondering what to do next. She even tried interviewing Mrs. Cox with Henderson's permission. What she discovered dismayed her. Mrs. Cox told her that Luthor had planned to kill Clark, but didn't know whether he had succeeded. Mrs. Cox also didn't know of Superman's whereabouts, unaware of whether Lex's trap succeeded in its deadly purpose, though she confirmed that Superman had been in the cage for at least a day and a half. One very encouraging piece of information Mrs. Cox told her was that Clark had not been with Superman when the kryptonite trap was sprung, much to Luthor’s displeasure.
So where was he?
What was most distressing was what Perry had told her. Clark's last words to Perry were that they would meet at his apartment to compare notes. That made it unlikely that Clark would have left town without telling Perry at least. Unfortunately if he didn't leave town of his own accord, that left foul play. She didn't even want to think about that. "Clark, please come home to me," she whispered to the falling rain. <Home...>
Lois thought back to the day after her non-wedding and the conversation she had had with Martha Kent. Lois had called them hoping they could give her a clue as to Clark’s whereabouts. If anyone knew where Clark could be, Martha and Jonathan would know where he was. She remembered the depressing conversation as if it had just happened.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Martha Kent."
"Martha, it's Lois. Have you heard from Clark recently?" she asked anxiously.
There was a significant pause at the other end. "We haven't heard from him in a while, so I don't know where he is. We were hoping you could tell us if you'd talked to him in the last day or so."
Lois' heart plunged. The Kents didn't know where he was either. Haltingly, she replied, "No. I haven't heard from him. I've been terribly worried. No one here has seen or heard from him in three days."
"Have you heard anything about Superman?" asked Martha.
Lois thought that was an odd question for her to ask about him. "No, Superman hasn't been heard from either." She quickly sketched out what she had seen in the bowels of the LexCorp building. When she got to the part about the uniform on the floor of the kryptonite cage, Lois heard a sharp intake of air coming from the phone.
Martha tried to cover up by saying, "If you see Superman, give him our best. If you hear from Clark, though, tell him to call home. And thank you, Lois, for calling us."
"Thank you, Martha. If you hear anything from Clark, please give me a call, day or night. I'm very worried about him."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The memory of that conversation tied her stomach up in knots. She realized at that moment that she was starting to give up hope that Clark was alive. <No, I'm not going to give up. I have to assume he's OK.> Inspiration struck her. <I've been thinking this whole time that someone might have done something to him. Maybe I've been going about this all wrong. Maybe he wanted to disappear.>
It made sense somewhat. Clark had told Perry and the others that he was coming back to his apartment to meet with them and to compare notes. This was just before Lois had run into him on the street in Lex’s convertible. The encounter led to a terrible fight. At the end of it, Clark had run away never to be seen again. Maybe Clark had been so upset by their argument that he had disappeared on his own?
While acknowledging that the circumstances looked bad and knowing that Lex had wanted Clark dead, maybe her ex-partner had just taken advantage of the situation. He had been very depressed lately, recognizing that it was mostly her fault. Thinking back over the past few weeks, she thought of all the things she had said to him and how badly she had treated him, especially after he had told her he loved her. Putting herself in his place, she could literally feel the pain he had been going through all this time. She felt ashamed and angry at herself.
<I can’t blame him for blowing up at me the last time we talked. I can just see him running away. It's not like he hasn't tried that before, and I can’t say that I blame him after what I did to him.> Now with a new approach to work with, she thought about all the ways she could try to locate someone who didn't want to be found. Knowing it was still a long-shot, she just had to try. She loved him too much to give up now.
******************************************
The lone figure trotted down off the bus. It was cold and raining, and the cold matched the feeling in his heart. He shivered and pulled his coat tighter around himself. It had only been a week since he’d left home, but he still didn't feel up to his normal self. The exposure to the life-draining rock still made him feel weak, and none of his powers had yet returned. He didn’t know after such a long exposure if his powers would ever come back. That forced him to travel the hard way.
The view of this city he’d never seen before gave him a feeling of déjà vu, though the time of day and circumstance of his arrival here were quite different from his arrival a year ago in Metropolis. Back then, he had been feeling optimistic and ready to take on the world, while now he felt as dreary as the weather. Mentally keeping an account of how much money he had left, he headed off to find an inexpensive place to stay.
An hour later, he unlocked the door to his hotel room and threw his single bag onto one of the double beds. He threw himself onto the other bed to rest. He had been on the move for quite a while, going in random directions and not knowing where he wanted to end up. He really needed to call his parents to let them know he was okay. He had talked to them only once since leaving Metropolis, just to say he had left the city and didn’t want anyone to know where he was. But for some reason, he just couldn't bring himself to pick up the phone. Staring at the phone for a moment, he thought back to the conversation he had had with his parents shortly after he’d left Metropolis.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Kent residence."
"Dad?"
"Clark! Where have you been? Wait a moment. I’m going to get your mother on the line, too. MARTHA! CLARK’S ON THE PHONE!"
"Clark? It’s your mother. We’ve been trying to get a hold of you. We called your place and got Perry White, who told us he had no idea where you were and that the police were looking for you as a missing person. We’ve been worried sick."
"I’m sorry Mom, Dad. I’ve just been feeling so bad that I haven’t had the heart to call. Just to let you know, I’ve left Metropolis, this time for good. I’m in Austin, Texas(*) right now, but I’m not staying."
"Why, Clark?" asked Martha. "We know about the wedding. It never took place. And that horrible man, Lex Luthor, is gone forever. Lois is worried about you, too. She called us yesterday asking about you. We had no idea what to tell her except that we hadn’t heard from you either. And then she told us about that awful cage that Luthor put you in. Are you okay? How are you feeling?"
"Lois called? Why would she...? How did she know about the kryptonite cage? Never mind, it’s Lois. Of course she knows about it. I’m feeling pretty normal, I guess, for a human. I don’t have any powers right now, and I’m feeling like I won’t be getting them back anytime soon. I was in that cage for an awfully long time; I’m not even sure how long. I know I should be ashamed to say it, but I’m glad Luthor’s dead. The world’s not going to miss him."
"Son, your mom told me about Lois’ phone call, and from what I can tell, she’s pretty broken up about not being able to find you. She sounded afraid for your life. Why did you leave in the first place?"
"Lois is the reason why I couldn’t stay, Dad. You know how I feel about her, and you know what she did to me, both of me. She’ll never love me, Dad. All she cares about is Superman, and then when she couldn’t have Superman, she went to Luthor. I just couldn’t take it any more. I had to leave."
"That’s utter nonsense, Clark," Martha chided him. "First of all, you ARE Superman. No matter how much you try to deny it and tell yourself that Superman’s nothing more than a cardboard cut-out, he’s you. Nobody else in the world sees Superman as a two-dimensional person, including us, and we know you better than anyone. When we see Superman, we see you, and I don’t mean just Clark. I mean the real you. So does Lois.
"Second, Lois cares about Clark, too. I saw the way she looked at you when the two of you were here last summer. A mother just knows these things. Now you stop all this foolishness and go back to Metropolis and fix things with her."
"You just don’t understand, Mom. You weren’t there. There’s no chance Lois loves me as Clark. She thinks of me only as a friend or as a brother, and I'm not even sure we have that anymore. It's just better for both of us if I'm gone."
Clark could hear sighs on the other end of the phone. Finally, his father asked him, "Where are you going, son? If not Metropolis, are you coming home?"
After a lengthy pause, Clark answered, "I don’t know, Dad. Right now I’m just wandering around. I don’t think I’m coming back to Smallville. But I don’t know where I’ll end up. I’ll give you a call when I get settled in. If Lois calls again, or anyone else, don’t tell them I called you. Maybe it’d be best if you said you thought I was dead."
"No, Clark," said Jonathan sternly. "You know better than that. We didn’t teach you to lie, and you know we’d never do that either. If you want to hide from your mistakes, that’s fine. It’s your decision, but we’re not going to lie for you. If anyone calls, we’ll just say we don’t know where you are. That’s the best we can promise you. But that doesn’t mean we approve of what you’re doing.
"Now, wherever you’re going, do you need any money? You haven’t had a job in a while, so I have to believe you’re running short."
"No thanks, Dad. I’ve got enough for now. I can still find work as a reporter wherever I decide to settle down. Oh, I’ve got to get going now. My bus to Portland, Oregon(*) is boarding. I love you, Mom, Dad. I’ll give you a call when I get to wherever I’m going. Bye!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
That had to be the toughest call he had ever had with his parents. It was clear they didn’t approve of his actions. But they were wrong about Lois. She may have been concerned about him, but no more than she’d be with Perry or Jimmy. If he believed that there was still a chance Lois could love him, he’d go back to Metropolis in an instant. But that was just a fool’s hope. For a moment, Clark felt his heart warm slightly thinking that Lois cared enough to call about him. The pain came back, though, and his heart iced over again.
Maybe he'd call his parents in the morning, just to hear their voices again. He just wasn’t in the mood for another lecture right now, plus he still wasn't sure whether he wanted to tell them where he was. He just wasn't ready for anyone to know.
Clark didn't even know if he wanted to be Clark anymore. He gave serious thoughts to changing his identity, taking on another name. He could use his middle name and a similar last name, like Jerome Clark or Jerome Kane(*), maybe. That idea had occurred to him sometime during this last bus trip, but the thought of losing Clark cast a pall over him. He had already lost Superman to Luthor's trap. He didn't think he could bear to lose Clark as well.
The sole benefit was that nobody would be able to find him. And just maybe, it would help him to forget. <Oh, who am I kidding? I'm never going to be able to forget,> he told himself. The serious downside was that he would have to start all over again. He wouldn't be able to build on the name he had made for himself as the second partner of Lane and Kent. He'd have to start over as a junior reporter with no credentials to his name. He wouldn't even be able to use any of the stories he had written under his byline including, with a wry grin, his story on the knob-tailed gecko. Not that that story had actually helped him get his previous job.
No, it wasn't really practical. Staying Clark Kent would make him easier to find, but he figured nobody would care enough to look for him besides his parents, but he would call them tomorrow to let them know he was safe. Briefly, he fantasized that Lois cared enough to come looking for him. She would show up one day in his apartment and declare her love for him. They would then live happily ever after. Sigh. The chances of that happening were as likely as Ralph winning the Pulitzer Prize. But a guy could always dream.
His mother had told him that Lois had called asking about him a day after her failed wedding and had sounded worried for his safety. It was nice to know she still cared about him to some degree, but Lois was the last person he wanted to know where he was. It was, of course, his intent to have the people he left behind believe he was dead. Maybe she would think he was dead, too.
Lois was a contradiction. On the one hand, Lois seemed to care about his welfare, but on the other hand didn’t care enough about him to avoid trampling all over his feelings. If she had really cared, she wouldn’t have chosen Luthor over him. Instead, he took a distant third place in her affections after Luthor and his own creation.
Superman.
Luthor's cage actually solved one of his problems. Ironically, it gave him the perfect excuse to retire Superman. And just a week ago, he had been contemplating becoming Superman full time. Without his powers, though, that decision was taken out of his hands, leaving only Clark. Even if his powers returned, he didn’t know if he had the heart to resume being the superhero.
Lois had been the one who sustained Superman, even if she didn’t know it. Without her, Clark would have lost the will to be Superman long ago. Now bereft of Lois’ unknowing support, Clark no longer had the desire to be Superman. Leaving the famous uniform behind in the cage would cast doubt on whether the Man of Steel was still alive. He counted himself fortunate that he was able to retrieve the key, using the cummerbund Luthor had left behind to taunt him as a fish hook. After unlocking the cage and escaping, he changed back into his street clothes and dumped his Superman suit back into the cage. He hopefully confused things further by closing the cage door and returning the key to the barrel from where he had miraculously retrieved it.
Clark was more than happy if people forgot about Superman. While the superhero guise allowed him to save people he would otherwise not be able to save openly, it had caused him more problems than it solved. Lois’ hero-worship had given Clark so much false hope over the last year. Clark always felt that since Lois loved his alter-ego, she would eventually come to love him, since they were the same person with the same characteristics. Since Lois couldn't possibly love Superman, how could she love mere Clark? He wanted her love, still wanted it more than he wanted anything in his entire life. Of course, he knew it could never be. That was the whole point of his leaving Metropolis.
Shortly after he’d left Metropolis, he had heard some press reports on what happened after he successfully escaped Luthor's trap. The wedding was stopped by Perry and Inspector Henderson, and Luthor had committed suicide rather than face the law. There was very little on Lois, except for a few press conjectures on whether Lois shared Luthor's life of crime. Willing partner or dupe was how the press played it. Either description made Clark wince.
He had felt a little guilty that he had run, leaving Lois at Luthor’s mercy, but he just didn’t see what he could have done to stop her from marrying him. When he had escaped from the cage, he was sick in spirit as well as in body so his first instinct had been to run. When he reached the street, he had seen Perry and the police arrive, so he took the opportunity to escape. Ashamed of his own behavior, he was grateful for Perry’s successful intervention. At least Lois had been spared the horrible existence of being Mrs. Lex Luthor.
He pulled out one of the press clippings he had saved which had a picture of Lois, taken during one of Luthor's dinner parties. Fortunately, the picture did not have the now deceased billionaire in it. He gazed at the picture, lightly rubbing her face with his thumb. Why was he torturing himself? He had purposely left behind his personal belongings including all his pictures of Lois. He just couldn't help it when he saw the picture of her in a lovely ball gown. He wished it was a color picture. The black and white simply didn't do her justice.
He missed her so much. About every five minutes, he got an almost irresistible urge to go back. He would tell himself that friendship was enough. But he couldn't go back. Besides, Lois knew how he felt. It would simply be too awkward for both of them. It would be too hard to stay good friends. Oh, they would make the attempt, but eventually they would drift apart as spending time together would just be too uncomfortable. Better to make a clean break now, rather than have their friendship suffer a slow death.
Or if they did somehow stay friends, eventually Lois would find someone else to love, and he would have to suffer through losing her again to another man. And this time it would probably be to someone who wasn’t a criminal, so he would have to support her decision no matter how he felt about her. He didn’t think he could survive losing her a second time. Maybe if he tried again...
<No!> he told himself again and again. Besides, he was still angry at her for her lack of trust in him. For the millionth time, he still couldn’t believe Lois trusted a shark like Luthor more than she trusted the man she called her "best friend." It was obvious to him that he didn’t mean as much to Lois as he had originally believed before this whole Luthor fiasco took place.
He wondered how Lois was doing? Was she okay? Did she regret getting engaged to Luthor? Or did she regret not being able to marry him? Was Perry taking care of her? Did she miss him? Without conscious thought, his hand started to wander towards the telephone. He caught it just before it picked up the handset. No, that way led to trouble.
Tomorrow, he would start looking for a new job. He had to work for a living now that he had no powers. Before, he could go without food or water indefinitely. Now he felt like he was constantly hungry and thirsty. He was certain that with his credentials as Clark Kent, he wouldn't have too much trouble getting hired. That brought back memories of his first job interview with Perry White and how they had been interrupted by a whirlwind of a woman who barged into the interview and into his heart. He groaned. Did everything have to remind him of Lois?
At least things would work out for Perry. He read that Franklin Stern had agreed to buy and reopen the Daily Planet. That made him happy. The old gang would stay together: Perry, Jimmy, Cat...and Lois. Everyone but him. But it was time to close that chapter in his life and move on. He'd been moving around constantly all his adult life. Why should his life be any different now?
*******************************************************
Lois had spent the following week looking into every mode of transportation available, trying to figure out how Clark had left town. She was getting stonewalled at every point, so she finally went to Henderson and explained why she needed the information. Henderson had agreed to look into it since the investigation into Clark's disappearance was still considered an open case. Lois suspected that Henderson liked Clark and was willing to bend a few rules to find him.
Without a job, there was nothing to do but wait after contacting her sources in the travel industry and credit card companies. Once Lex had died she couldn’t bear to continue at LNN, so she didn’t even have a job she hated to keep her mind off her troubles. At least she had proven to her own satisfaction that Clark was still alive, which gave her more joy than she could have believed possible.
She had gone to Clark’s landlord, Mr. Floyd, and in her usual Lane fashion browbeat him into admitting that he had received cash for a month’s rent and a note informing him that someone would pick up Clark’s personal items within that period of time. The note had also asked him to keep it a secret, so that meant Clark was trying to cover his tracks. Clark’s landlord had never dealt with Lois Lane, though. Getting Mr. Floyd to talk was ridiculously easy. <Not good enough buddy, to keep me from finding you,> she swore. After passing on that piece of information to a grateful Henderson, who had not yet followed up on his first interview with Mr. Floyd before he had received the note, the dour Inspector used his sources to discover that someone, presumably Clark himself, had closed out his accounts he held at the First Bank of Metropolis.
It warmed Lois’ heart to see the smile momentarily appear on Henderson’s face when she gave him the evidence that Clark was still alive. Clark had so many friends. How could he not when he was so warm and friendly to everyone? She was starting to realize that maybe she had some, too. She discovered, to her shame, that her friends had not abandoned her like she had thought, but had worked tirelessly for weeks to try to save her from herself, especially Clark. Now it was time for her to repay the favor. She would now save him. Now all she had to do was to figure out where he was. It was a big world, but she vowed to turn over every stone until he was back in her arms.
*******************************
Clark leaned over the railing, staring at the marvelous miracle of nature. It had been a long day at work, and he simply wanted to relax. While not the Daily Planet, the Juneau Empire was a nice little newspaper. With his credentials, he had quickly found work in the city’s only newspaper and was given responsibility over the paper’s fledgling online service as the editor. It was different work than he was accustomed to, but he felt it was quite rewarding. At first his managing editor, Judith Teasdale, had wondered what a big city reporter like him was doing all the way in a small isolated city like Juneau, Alaska, but quickly learned not to question her good fortune to have such a well known reporter in her employ. In less than a week, he had successfully reorganized the team members under him into an efficient machine and had turned out the first edition on time and under budget.
More than a month removed from his departure from Metropolis, he found his memories continuing to haunt him. It had been a rough time for him adjusting to his new environment. After wandering for days he had eventually settled on this small city, cut off from the rest of civilization except by sea or air. In the back of his mind, he realized why he had chosen to come here. He wanted to feel isolated from the world. Plus he wanted to escape to a place as far away from Metropolis as he could and still stay in the United States.
Once in Juneau, he had quickly discovered the Mendenhall Glacier, a beautiful sight to see, but also a relaxing one where he could become lost in nature. Sitting around in his new apartment was not something he relished doing, since he would find himself reliving his past and lamenting the loss of his recent life in Metropolis. Here, he could simply enjoy the view and not think about all he had lost. Fortunately it was nearing summer, so daylight lasted until nearly eleven, giving him plenty of time to enjoy this distraction. He’d stay long after the visitors’ center had closed.
To keep himself from thinking too much, he found he came here every day since arriving in this city, staying until the arrival of night forced him to go back to his lonely apartment. Today was no different. He stared out at the glacier, seeing a sight that had not changed much in centuries. If only he could have frozen his life at a time when he was happy, in love with Lois Lane, and hoping she would love him in return. At least then he had had hope to sustain him. Now he found himself merely existing day to day, praying for the day to end but dreading the dreams that would come to him at night.
He still had nightmares that chilled his blood. He would wake up in a cold sweat after experiencing the kryptonite cage again in its exquisite agony. He would dream about Lois married to the evil villain, Luthor, and how he would watch the light go out of her eyes under the mental tortures Luthor would inflict upon her, all the while standing by helpless to save her. He would see Luthor taking Lois to bed and taking his own selfish pleasures with her beautiful body while Lois called for Clark to save her. Fortunately when reality asserted itself upon waking, he realized Lois was safe from Luthor forever, and Clark would take solace in that fact.
Eventually, night would fall and Clark would have to return to his apartment. He didn’t even have his abilities as Superman anymore to keep him busy at night. Even so long after his incarceration in the deadly cage, his powers hadn’t shown signs of returning. His choices would be to suffer nightmares or to stay awake with his own depressing memories. He hoped that the nightmares would end soon and that he could at least escape into his dreams to get away from his cold reality.
On this particular night exactly six weeks to the day he had escaped from Luthor’s wine cellar, Clark returned to his apartment hoping to finally get some peaceful sleep without nightmares to disturb him. He opened the door and walked inside. As he was about to close the door, he suddenly felt that something was different. Turning around and looking up he saw something he thought he’d never see again.
"It’s about time you showed up. Where the heck have you been? It’s past midnight."
"What..." he stammered out as his mental processes came to a complete halt at the sight before him. Lois Lane was sitting on his couch with her legs curled up under herself. Dressed in a simple white blouse and jeans with only sparse makeup on, she had never looked more beautiful to him. Making no move to stand up, she merely watched him with a questioning look on her face.
She shook him out of his reverie by saying, "Clark, pick your jaw up off the floor and close the door. It’s getting drafty in here."
Unconsciously, the hand holding the door pushed it shut. But cognitive thought returned slowly for Clark. With great difficulty, he managed to say, "What are you doing here, Lois?"
Lois stood and slowly approached him. "What do you think I’m doing here? I’m here to save you from all your foolishness in leaving Metropolis. I came here to get you to come home." She seemed to hesitate at that moment as if uncertain of her next words. With seeming reluctance, she continued, "And I wanted to come here and apologize to you."
****************************
tbc...
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Footnotes: (*)
* Clark visits the cities of Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon while wandering aimlessly to commemorate some FoLCs who live in those places. You know who you are.
* Jerome Kane, used when Clark is deciding whether to change his name, is in homage to Kaethel's "Near Wild Heaven: Half a World Away." It is used with her permission and her gratitude. I eagerly await its sequel.
