Ricochet TOC <><><>
Previously:
"He's dead?" Lois asked in disbelief. Not wanting to touch the blood on his neck, she leaned down and shakily pressed her ear to Lex's chest. Nothing - the only sound she could hear were the wails from Gretchen.
She lifted her head and whispered, "He's dead." Clark nodded.
Lois closed her eyes as a wave of dizziness overcame her. For half a second she hoped that it was Wells, coming to take her back. Just as quickly she realized that might never happen.
The future was going to be different now.
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Ricochet 5/10
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1995
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Lois made another circuit of her former living room and cracked her knuckles. It had been over twenty-four hours since she had been pulled into the past and there was still no sign from Wells - or Tempus - about why she was here. With every passing minute, her apprehension grew.
Would she ever get her life back or was she stuck in the past? Her mind turned in worried circles, wondering how drastically she had changed her own future. She could still remember clearly what was supposed to have happened, but her life now felt just like her apartment - both familiar and strange.
For at least the sixth or seventh time in as many minutes she picked up the phone to call Clark and then, just as quickly, hung it up again. She desperately wanted his advice. She wished she could tell him what had
really happened today. She wished he could reassure her that she hadn't thoroughly botched their future. The feeling was made even worse by the niggling worry that she had, indeed, ruined their future.
Even worse, it had all been for nothing. Around the same time that the coroner's van had taken away Lex's body, a jogger on Glenmorgan Beach had found a body washed up on the shore. Perry had been nearly apoplectic when the body was identified as Sheldon Bender. Lois comforted herself that, at least, Rollie Vale was still locked up along with the Kryptonite powering his left arm.
Lois sat down heavily on the bed and stared at the phone on her night stand. There had been a flurry of sirens earlier, so it was possible that Clark wasn't even home right now. She could feel the emptiness of the bed behind her - the place where Clark wouldn't be sleeping tonight - and a wave of homesickness engulfed her. Of all nights, this was one where she wished she could have the steady resonance of his heartbeat beneath her cheek as she slept.
Unable to bear the solitude of her old bedroom, Lois went into the kitchen and searched under the sink for some cleanser. She had far too much nervous energy; she might as well do something useful. She started cleaning the grout on her countertop, but the repetitive circular motion wasn't as soothing as she had hoped it would be. She was able to while away almost ten minutes before she gave in and picked up the phone to call him.
He didn't pick up right away and she was about to hang up when she heard Clark's voice. "Hello?"
"Hi, it's me," she chirped. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come over?"
"Right now? It's almost midnight."
"Oh, right, I guess it's too late, really." Lois sagged back against the counter and wished she had never called him. Would she have called him this late at night three years ago if things had gone like they had today?
"I'll come over if you really want me to," he offered.
"No," she said quickly. "You're right. It's late. I didn't realize what time it was. Good night, Clark." Lois hung up the phone and picked up the brush to resume scrubbing. There was a tapping noise at the window behind her and her heart seemed to skip a beat. She rushed to the window to open it.
"I saw your light on," Superman told her, and there was something endearing in his shyness. "Is this a bad time?"
"No! Please come in. I was just, uh…" Lois grinned as he came inside, delighted that Clark hadn't taken her "no" as an answer. "I was just getting a jump start on my spring cleaning." She waved her scrub brush as proof.
The movement drew Clark's attention and his hand touched hers, turning her palm up so he could see the abrasions left on her wrist by the rope. "That looks like it hurts," he said softly.
"It doesn't," she reassured him. "It looks much worse than it feels."
Clark nodded slightly and let go off her hand. There was something different about Lois, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. Was she mourning Lex Luthor? Was it possible that she still had feelings for the man? Or was she upset that Bender had been killed in spite of her attempt to save him? She was different - that much seemed obvious.
At a time when he expected her to be out beating the pavement for answers about Luthor's resurrection and Bender's death, Lois was uncharacteristically quiet. Practically in the blink of an eye she had become more… subdued. And thinner? Was it his imagination or had she lost weight and he hadn't noticed? That seemed unlikely - if there was one thing he noticed on a daily basis, it was Lois' curves. She was wearing a loose-fitting t-shirt paired with an oversized flannel shirt, so it was hard to tell at the moment.
"I'm sorry about Bender," he told her. "But we both did everything we could to try and help him. You shouldn't blame yourself for that."
To his surprise, she smiled slightly. "I don't blame myself for Bender's death."
"Luthor's death wasn't your fault either," he said.
Her half-smile disappeared in an instant and she furrowed her forehead in obvious consternation. "Do you believe in fate?"
"Fate?" he asked, surprised by the question.
"Yes, fate. Do you believe that if two people are meant to be together, that they will, somehow, end up together?"
Clark stared at her. Was she talking about Luthor? What exactly had happened when that monster confronted Lois yesterday? What had he said - or done - to her? Whatever it was, Clark was pretty sure that her encounter with Luthor was the catalyst for the change in her demeanor. Ever since his sudden reappearance Lois had been more reserved.
Before he could answer, Lois looked away, apparently embarrassed, and waved the scrub brush dismissively. "Never mind," she told him. "Forget I asked."
Clark wanted to ask her if she had someone specifically in mind when she asked about fate, but he didn't want to upset her further. As always, he felt torn between spending more time with her and the worry that he was leading her on by using Superman to do it. He should have simply come over when she asked him he chided himself. But he had been distracted, worried about the Kryptonite that Vale was refusing to turn over, and he had blurted out an answer without thinking.
"Well, I guess I should go," he said.
"Sure. Thanks for checking on me."
The wistful expression on her face made him wonder if her fate question had been about Superman instead of Luthor. He was halfway home before it occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, she had meant him - Clark - when she asked.
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Lois went for a walk on Sunday morning, ambling slowly along the streets of Metropolis as she mentally cataloged the subtle changes that three years had wrought on the city. Without quite meaning it, her walk to her to the Daily Planet building. She stood outside, looking up at the fourth floor windows and wondered if Clark was in the news room. A flutter of excitement shot through her at the thought that maybe all she had to do was go inside and she would see him.
She considered for half a second and then decided to go inside. There had to be a reason that she was here and her gut feeling was that the answer lay in the news room. If Clark was here, right now, then it had to be a sign and she would….what? Tell him the truth? Ask him out? Pretend that nothing was wrong?
The elevator seemed to crawl in its climb to the news room; the doors seemed to take an eternity to open. Let him be there, she prayed. Please let him be there. Lois stepped out, looking towards Clark's desk and… There he was. He looked up, catching sight of her at almost the same moment that she found him. Lois smiled and waved at him as she worked her way across the newsroom.
"Good morning," Clark said as she neared his desk.
"Hi," she said, feeling oddly shy.
"How're your wrists?" he asked.
"My wrists?" Lois looked down at them in confusion, then swiftly comprehended that he was still worried about the abrasions from the rope. "Oh, they're fine. Great. Thanks for asking."
Their eyes met and she beamed happily at him. She was still here and Clark had to be the reason. "So, Clark, what are you doing here?"
"I'm just working on our story about, uh--." Clark hesitated, not wanting to upset her by saying 'Luthor's death'. "About Luthor," he finished awkwardly.
"Our story?"
To his great relief, she didn't look grief-stricken. If anything, the gleam in her eye was flirtatious.
"Of course, our story." Clark pulled the chair at the side of his desk around to sit behind it, moving his own chair over to the right a few inches to give her room to join him. "You were there. Give it a read and see what you think." He adjusted his monitor to give her a better view as she sat down next to him.
God, she smelled great. Clark closed his eyes for a moment, savoring the faintly coconut scent of her hair as she leaned closer to his monitor to read. Her knee bumped into his leg and he swallowed hard at the thought that she was doing it on purpose.
"There's nothing about Bender in this story." Her eyes darted back and forth, still reading.
"Right now we can't really tie Bender's death to Luthor's reappearance. It's just conjecture."
Her mouth opened as if she was going to refute that. Then she shrugged and appeared to change her mind. Her attention shifted from the monitor to him as she asked, "Clark, what are you doing tonight?"
"Tonight? Do you want to try and track down Nigel?"
"Nigel?" She gave him a wry smile. "No. You still owe me a date."
Clark gaped at her, caught off-guard by the abrupt change of subject. "Date? You want to go out with me tonight?"
Her smile widened. "There's no time like the present. I'll tell you what, it doesn't even have to be a date. Why don't you come over to my place tonight and I'll make you dinner?"
"You're going to cook?" His eyes went even wider with astonishment.
"Or we can order a pizza. It doesn't matter. I'd just like to spend one uninterrupted, non-work-related evening with you. Or are you afraid to be alone with me?" Lois asked tartly, finding something almost perversely satisfying in messing with him like this.
"Alone-- what? No, of course not."
"So tonight is okay?"
He nodded, clearly flustered.
"Great. You bring the wine and I'll take care of the food." Lois pushed back from his desk and stood up. "The story's great, but it's all yours. You shouldn't give me a byline on it. I'll see you at seven."
Clark watched her cross the news room, his thoughts vacillating between exhilaration that he had a date with Lois that night and confusion that Lois didn't want a byline.
She turned to wave as she got into the elevator and exhilaration won out. He had a date with Lois tonight. Her words to Superman the night before last echoed in his mind:
"Clark owes me a date…"She might have been reluctant to accept that first date, but she was certainly pursuing it now. Maybe it was best not to question why and simply be grateful that she really did want to go out with him.
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Clark raised his glass in a salute. "This was really, really good," he told Lois. "I take back all the times I mocked your cooking."
"Maybe I called your mom and asked for the recipe." Lois smiled as she thought about how it had taken five successive Sundays and a couple of frantic phone calls before she had mastered Martha's recipe for roast chicken.
His eyes widened. "Did you?"
Lois laughed and winked at him. "I never cook and tell." She stood up and began to clear the table.
Clark quickly rose and reached to take the plates from her. "Here, let me clean up. It's the least I can do--." His head tilted; someone was in trouble.
"How about you take the garbage out and I'll get started on the dishes?" Lois suggested quickly.
"Garbage?" Clark repeated, still distracted by whatever he was hearing.
Lois went to the kitchen sink and pulled her garbage can out from beneath it. "Would you mind? Please? Something smells really off in there."
Clark nodded, removed the bag and practically jogged to the door. Lois shook her head in amusement and wondered how long it would take before he could come back and what excuse he would invent. For at least the tenth time that night she was tempted to tell him the truth.
He returned a few minutes later, not long enough to need an excuse. He joined her at the sink to help and her memory flashed to the early days of their marriage when standing hip-to-hip by the sink was the prelude to an evening of lovemaking. More than once she had to stop herself from touching him in a less-than-accidental way.
As Lois set the last plate in the rinse water, the glint of gold on her ring finger caught Clark's eye. Instead of the plate, he lifted her hand from the water.
"Is this new?" he asked, smoothing his thumb over the ring to wipe away the suds covering it.
"Uh, yeah, it is." She pulled her hand from his and plunged it into the sink to unstop the drain.
Clark continued to dry and put away the dishes, but he couldn't shake the feeling that Lois was nervous about his noticing her ring. She had taken the dish cloth and was wiping down a countertop so Clark looked at the ring again, tipping his head so he could focus in on it above the rim of his glasses. The ring wasn't new - it had microscopic scratches and nicks from long-term wear.
Lois stopped wiping the counter and threw the cloth into the sink. Her left hand moved swiftly to twist the ring anxiously, almost as if she knew that it had caught his attention.
As Clark was puzzling over that thought, he realized that there was a faint tan line on the ring finger of her left hand. That was even more confusing. He was certain he had only seen her wear a ring there once. That had been over a year ago when they were undercover at the Lexor Hotel.
Lois quickly shoved both hands into her pockets. Their eyes met and alarm bells went off in Clark's head when he saw how tense she'd become.
In an effort to lighten the mood, he teased, "Lois, did you get married and forget to tell me?"
"Married?" she squeaked. "If I got married, you'd be the first person to know it."
The increased beat of her heart and the guilty expression on her face were screaming clues to Clark that she was hiding something. But why?
Because she married Luthor - the thought sprang unwanted into Clark's mind.
"Is that why you asked me over to dinner tonight? So you could tell me?"
"This was supposed to be a date, Clark. What kind of a date would that be?" Lois was trying to act nonchalant but her legs were starting to shake. She hated lying to him, especially when she was becoming convinced that telling him the truth was the reason why she was still stuck in the past.
Clark tilted his head and gave her a considering look. There was definitely something going on with her. "But this wasn't a real date," he said as an idea came to him.
"It wasn't?"
He shook his head. "No." Clark reached out and took hold of her wrist, gently pulling her hand from her pocket so that he could hold it between his. "A real date is when I take you somewhere we both have to get dressed up to be allowed in. Tonight was too casual to be a real date."
Clark had half-expected her to pull away, but instead she tipped her head coquettishly and asked, "And when do you foresee this real date happening?"
"Friday."
Lois pretended to think about it for a few seconds. "I'll have to ask my husband, but I guess Friday would work out okay."
"You could always bring him along," Clark suggested.
Lois laughed. "Maybe I will. I'm sure he'd tell you stop stalling."
"Stalling?"
"Definitely. My husband would have kissed me by now. You're putting it off until Friday."
His gaze dropped to her mouth and Lois caught her breath, giddy at the thought that he was about to kiss her. It had been nearly three days since she had last kissed him and she wasn't sure she could wait even a second or two longer. His face began to tilt toward hers and Lois closed her eyes, dizzy with anticipation.
She felt the heat of his breath and then the light brush of his lips. For a second or two that was enough, and then it wasn't nearly enough. Lois wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She sensed his hesitation, but only for a moment, before his arms closed around her and he deepened the kiss.
Lois moaned into his mouth, thrilled by the discovery that Clark had always kissed her like this - it wasn't something that they had perfected over countless hours of making out. This kiss had been worth the entire trip back in time. She pushed against him, backing him up against the counter as her fingers tangled in his hair so she could kiss him even more thoroughly.
When the kiss broke, they were both breathless. Clark looked stunned and Lois gave him an affectionate smile as her finger traced over the full line of his bottom lip.
"I bet you're worried you won't know what to do with me after a real date," she teased.
Clark dipped his head to leave a kiss in front of her ear as he whispered, "I have a few ideas. Although I'm not sure your husband would approve."
Lois giggled against his cheek. "Sure he would. He'd tell you to go for it."
"Would he?"
"Yes," she whispered. Her tipped back so that she could look him in the eye. "Do you think I should go for it, Clark?"
"Tonight? Or on Friday?" he teased.
"Tonight. I don't think I want to wait until Friday. I want to go home."
"Lois, you are home."
She tipped her head forward, letting it rest against his chest for a moment. Then she looked up at him, her eyes dark and serious. "Do you remember last Friday, when I suddenly had a hair cut and forgot my coat and knew all sorts of things about Lex's plans?"
Clark nodded and gave her an encouraging smile, steeling himself not to get upset if she told him that she really had married Luthor.
"The reason why I knew what Lex was up to was because I'm from three years in the future."
He couldn't have heard that right. "You're-- what?"
"I've already lived this, well, a version of this. The first time around Lex didn't die."
Clark stared at her, unnerved by how calmly earnest she was. "You're serious?"
She nodded. "Lex isn't the only one I know things about either. I know about you, Clark"
He went absolutely still. "Me?"
Lois pulled away his glasses. "You."
Clark couldn't seem to catch his breath. In all his daydreams, never once had he imagined this scenario. He had expected anything from a slap on the face to the silent treatment if Lois ever found out his secret. To be met with calm acceptance was bewildering. "You know?" his voice croaked out.
"Technically I've known for three years."
"Three years--. You--." Clark pulled away from her, his mind struggling to process the information overload. Lois knew his secret. Lois had known all those things about Luthor because she was from three years in the future. In a blinding flash of clarity, Lois' behavior over the past few days suddenly made sense.
"So what are you doing here?" he finally managed.
"That's the part I don't know. I've leapt time before, but I've always known ahead of time when I was going to and what I was supposed to do there. This time I just-- showed up."
Lois had waved her hand in a gesture of confusion. Clark looked again at the tan line on her finger.
"You get married?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," she answered just as softly.
A searing twist of jealousy tightened low in his chest. Clark reluctantly met her gaze. He had to ask, but he was afraid of the answer. "Who do you marry?"
"Can't you guess?" Her eyes were sparkling with affection.
Clark hesitated, wanting to believe that it was true - that all of his hopes and dreams were only a few years away from being realized. "Really?"
Her hand cupped his cheek as her face moved closer to his. "Really," she whispered, just before her lips touched his.
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1998
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Lois was furious and the constant ring from her cell phone wasn't improving her mood. She didn't bother to look at the phone's display; she was certain that it was Clark calling - again.
"What makes you think I'm going to answer that?" she muttered in disgust.
"I don't actually need you to answer it."
Lois whirled around, speechless at the sight of Superman so unexpectedly behind her.
"That's cheating!" she said in astonishment.
"Cheating? This from the woman who snuck out of the newsroom as soon as my back was turned?"
"I would have told you I was leaving, but you weren't there."
He gave her a baleful look, clearly not believing a word of it. Then he held up one finger in warning before ducking into the alleyway behind him to change.
"Parking tickets!" she fumed when he had reappeared in street clothes. "Really? Parking tickets?"
"You might, at least, have given me the courtesy of sticking around to hear the end of that pitch to Perry. You promised you'd let me do the talking, Lois. Do you see now why I made that the only condition?"
Lois stalked away, but he easily caught up to her and continued speaking. "You gave vague responses to Perry's questions before storming out of his office in a snit, which sent whispers around the news room that we're having marital problems, by the way. Then you asked what happened to Linda, who left the paper over six months ago. At this point the only reason Perry's not pulling you aside for a heart-to-heart chat is because everyone thinks you're out of your mind on cold medicine."
"You told them that?"
"Jimmy suggested it and I didn't disagree." Clark's tone softened. "I understand that it's a lot to take in, being thrust three years into the future like this. And I know I'm not your favorite person right now, but I wish you would trust me, just a little."
Lois shrugged, feeling utterly miserable. She hated to admit that Clark was right. Trying to fake her way through her future life had only created a mess.
Sensing that she was willing to listen, Clark pressed on. "Writing a story about parking tickets was actually a way to bring you up to speed on the Michaels story."
"How in the world does a story about cops parking illegally relate to Dudley Michaels?"
"Do you know why no one working at police headquarters gets a ticket for parking illegally there?"
Lois rolled her eyes. "Because they're cops. That's like ticketing a priest for double-parking in front of the church."
"No, it's because the Parking Enforcement division has a specific mandate not to ticket anyone on that block."
"So anyone can park in a handicap space and get away with it?"
"Not a chance. People still get tickets there, just not cops. Parking Enforcement doesn't do the ticketing because there's an office at police headquarters whose only function is to enforce parking on that block. And do you know who heads up that office?"
In spite of her annoyance with him, Lois was intrigued. "Dudley Michaels?" she guessed.
"Close," Clark said with a grin. "His brother-in-law, Wes Angelo. According to last year's city budget, that office brought in nearly a million dollars last year."
"In parking tickets?" she asked in disbelief.
"That seems a little excessive for an office that issued less than fifty citations last year, doesn't it?"
Lois looked up at him with grudging admiration. "Why didn't you put it that way when you suggested it to Perry?"
"I was about to, but you left before I could finish."
"And then you left!"
"That was kind of an emergency."
Lois sighed, hating to concede, but impatient to start working the story. "Well, assuming you don't have another emergency, are we working on this story together or not?"
"Definitely," Clark said with a smile. "We're definitely working this story together."
"That's a great angle, by the way," she told him as they started walking again. "How did you find out about Wes Angelo?"
"From you," he told her. "You told me about all of this yesterday afternoon before you, uh--."
"Oh." Lois felt awkward, uncertain what to say. Should she pat his arm in comfort? Take credit for an idea that wasn't exactly hers? Say something pithy to change the subject? Lois half-stumbled, feeling out-of-place in every possible sense. The feeling dissipated as Clark's hand briefly touched her back to steady her.
"Thanks," she mumbled.
"Anytime," he answered.
It had been an automatic reply, just like the gesture that had preceded it. Clark had touched her like that countless times before and he had always been there for her - in one guise or another. Lois tried, but couldn't squelch the warm glow inside of her at the realization that he really did mean it.
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End 5/10
