From Part 39 ...
The door shut and Kal turned to Lois and took her into his arms. For long moments, he held her, drawing strength from the familiarity he found in her. Everything else had shifted, but Lois ... Lois still felt the same in his arms.
When she backed away, she was smiling. “Wanna have a shower with me?” she said.
“You said this is your planet? Your country?”
“It is,” Lois said. “I’m not exactly sure which state, but we are in the Midwest of the United States of America.”
“So Metropolis is somewhere close?”
She grinned and her hand floated across his cheek, past his chin and down his throat. “Relatively speaking,” she said.
“Do you want to go there now? We should find your family.”
“We will,” she said. “But tonight is for you and your parents.”
“My *parents*,” Kal said in amazement.
“They seem like very special people,” Lois said. She looked around the room. “They kept hoping you would return. For twelve years, they didn’t give up.”
“I hurt them,” Kal said, with deep regret.
“You had no choice,” Lois said. “Your father, Jor-El, said you were to be left here unless it was critical that you return and lead New Krypton. I trust Kip – trust that he would have only taken you if there were no other options.”
“I’m glad,” Kal said. “I’m glad for them that I had to leave New Krypton.” He slid his fingers lovingly through Lois’s hair. “If you hadn’t come to me, they would have spent the rest of their lives wondering ... grieving.”
Her hand had drifted lower ... inside his shirt ... exploring his chest, and everything except being with his wife faded to insignificance. Kal leant forward and took her mouth with burning intent.
She broke away, and laughed at his breathlessness. “Shower first,” she told him.
“Together?”
She grinned. “Absolutely.”
Part 40
An hour later, Martha looked up from her food preparations as Clark and Lois walked into her kitchen. They were clean and dressed – Clark in the larger pieces of his former clothing – although they were stretched to maximum, Lois in the smaller pieces – although they did threaten to swamp her completely.
Martha smiled, hoping it looked like welcome and not a reaction to their concocted outfits. “I see you found everything you needed,” she said.
“Yes, thank you,” Lois replied.
Martha’s gaze rested on her son – she was constantly drawn back to him. “Jonathan is in the barn doing the chores,” she said.
“I’ll go and help him,” Clark said.
Martha hid her smile, remembering the little boy who every morning had stopped in her kitchen only long enough to collect two handfuls of food before tearing outside to help his father. “Once you’re done, it will be dark enough to take the truck,” she said.
Clark nodded his understanding. He dipped to kiss Lois – fully on her mouth and with an unhurried composure that trumpeted his feelings for her. Then, he stepped towards the door.
“Do you want me to point you in the right direction?” Martha asked.
Her son shook his head. “No, thanks,” he said, with a smile that came achingly close to the carefree ones she’d been treated to for fifteen years. “Let’s see if I can remember.”
He shut the door and Martha turned to Lois. “We’ll have a meal ready for them when they get back,” she said.
“I’m not good in the kitchen,” Lois warned.
“That’s OK,” Martha said. “It is a joy to be cooking for more than just myself and Jonathan. You can sit and we’ll talk.”
“I could probably do something,” Lois offered warily. “Something simple that I can’t ruin.”
Martha smiled. “No, you sit. I’m sure we have plenty to talk about.”
Lois sat at the table. “Yes.”
Martha dropped low to open the oven door and check the progress of the roast chicken. “I’m not sure how to say this without sounding rude.” She straightened and closed the oven door. “But I’ve worked out who you are. I didn’t realise at first, but then the penny dropped. You’re Lois Lane, the Metropolis reporter who was on the Mission to Mars.”
Lois nodded. “I am,” she said.
“The news reports said something went terribly wrong and they lost contact with the Mission. After two very anxious days of waiting and hoping, EPRAD formally announced that realistically there was no hope and they believed all on board had perished.”
Lois took a tottery breath and her eyes glistened with tears. “My family think I'm dead.”
Martha nodded. “It was big news.”
“Did you see my parents?” Lois asked. “Were they on the news? Did they look like they were coping?”
“I remember your father gave an interview. He was shocked and distraught, but he spoke with calm dignity about his pride in his daughter. I think your mother was in the background, but she didn’t speak.”
“They were together?”
“Yes. And your sister was there too.” Martha hesitated. “Do you want to call them? You can, the telephone is through the hallway.”
“No,” Lois said. “I’ve thought about it and I want to go to Metropolis and see them in person.”
Martha checked the saucepans on the stove. “Are you sure?” she asked gently.
Lois nodded. “Yes. I don’t think Mom would cope with a phone call. She would probably imagine the worst and think it was a prank and that would send her into a spin. It is better that I go tomorrow and then I can be there to help her through the shock.” She looked at Martha. “Clark doesn’t have to come.”
“I can’t imagine Clark allowing you to go alone.”
“It will be hard for you to let him go again so soon after getting him back.”
“It won’t be hard at all,” Martha said, as her joy bubbled again. “Knowing he will come back is enough.”
Lois smiled. “And I need to see Perry White too – that also needs to be done in person.”
“You’ll fly?” Martha tossed the question over her shoulder, but hesitated long enough to catch Lois’s reaction.
“Yes,” Lois said. “It would take too long to drive – and, if the plight of the Mission to Mars was big news, I imagine my face was plastered over every news outlet around the nation.”
There was nothing in Lois’s reply to give Martha any clues to answer the question within the question. “Yes, it was.”
“I really don’t want someone to recognise me before I see my parents. And Perry.”
“He is from your paper, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
Martha dried her hands on a tea towel. “He was also on the news reports. He looked like a broken man.”
“Perry pretends that very little penetrates that gruff exterior of his – but under it all, he has the softest of hearts. Every time I think about swinging into his office ...” Lois stopped, her eyes with a faraway look and her mouth curved to a dreamy smile. Then she refocussed on Martha and said, “I think this needs to be handled very carefully. I think we need to decide on the exact details of our story and then go to someone we trust – Perry – and have him help us through this.”
“I agree.”
“It’s not just about giving the Planet the exclusive, but we need to realise we are sitting on the biggest story of the century and if the wrong people got hold of it, Kal ... Clark is the one who stands to lose the most.”
Martha felt the deepening of their bond. “We believed it was imperative that we protect his secret,” she said. “The possible consequences of it becoming public knowledge were too awful to risk.”
Lois nodded. “And you did protect him. There was never even the whisper of someone from another planet living on Earth.” She looked up to Martha, her brown eyes solemn. “I don’t think he has any concept of how total will be the invasion of his privacy if the real facts are known.”
Martha sat at the table, the meal forgotten for a moment. “Before we decide what we are going to tell the world ... can I know what *did* happen?”
“My life pod landed on a planet called New Krypton. The leader of this troubled and volatile planet was a tall, dark and very handsome man who captivated my heart with his honesty, his integrity and his humility.”
Martha smiled. Having seen them together, it was easy to imagine. “Clark was the *leader*?”
“That’s why he had to go back. They needed the stability only he could bring.”
“And now?”
“Now he can never go back.”
Martha let that settle in her mind. Her son could not be taken away again.
“We need a story,” Lois said. “I’ve been thinking it.”
“I thought as much,” Martha said and they shared a conspiratorial smile.
“I think we should say that my life pod landed somewhere on Earth. Somewhere very, very remote.”
“Africa?”
“Perhaps ... The Congo?”
“Sounds good,” Martha said. “How did Clark happen to be there?”
“What did you say when he disappeared?”
“The truth. That he was there one night and gone the next morning. That we knew nothing, had heard nothing, saw nothing.”
Lois sighed. “Oh, Martha,” she said. “That would have been so heartbreaking.”
“It was,” Martha acknowledged. “They were long and hard years. But one look at Clark today and all that pain melted to insignificance.”
Lois reached across the table and laid her hand on Martha’s arm for a moment. “We need to ensure it’s possible for him to go on being Clark Kent, all-American farm boy.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s say he was kidnapped twelve years ago ... by ... a criminal element ... illegal importers ... drug runners ... working out of The Congo.”
“And they wanted Clark because ...?”
“Mistaken identity ... they got the wrong guy, took him to The Congo ... discovered he was not who they wanted and abandoned him deep in the jungle.”
“So, unable to get home, he ...”
“Met a local tribe and lived with them,” Lois said. “We’ll say the drug runners roughed him up a little; that he had a head wound and suffered from amnesia.”
“Is that a little implausible?” Martha asked doubtfully.
“Yes,” Lois said, grinning. “But it’s more plausible than saying he was abducted by aliens who took him back to their planet to rule over them because he was the lost son of their two most important houses.”
“When you put it like that ...”
“Who can disprove it?” Lois said. “Clark *does* have gaps in his memory. He *was* missing for twelve years. He *is* back now.”
“So because of the amnesia, he was unable to come home ... or contact us.”
“That’s good,” Lois said. “Then Clark found my pod – and it’s logical that when the Mission hit problems, they would try to get it back to Earth. He took me to the tribe and looked after me. Being with me jogged his memory and he began to remember English and we pieced together what had happened and some of his memory returned ... and so we came home,” she finished triumphantly.
“How are we going to explain getting back into the United States?”
Lois thought for a moment. “We’ll be vague about detail and we’ll say we both wanted to be reunited with our families privately before our story became public. I doubt the media will grab hold of that issue too thoroughly because, believe me, there will be plenty else for them to write about.”
“You think they’ll buy that?”
“If we hint that the authorities knew and helped us get to our families, they’re not going to disagree because to do so would admit they had let ...” Lois grinned. “... unauthorised aliens through the border.”
“You’ll say you and Clark fell in love?”
“Yes. We are both determined that whatever else the future brings, we are going to be together. We are married and that has to be a part of the story.”
Martha smiled and absently folded the tea towel. “You know, I thought many times about the girl who would capture the heart of my son. I knew she would have to be someone very special – someone who could look past his differences and see his wonderful heart.”
“When I met him, he wasn’t the one with differences,” Lois said. “I was.”
“It was Clark who had to look past the differences?”
“He treated me with such consideration – more than consideration – he did everything in his power to protect me and see that I wasn’t harmed in any way.” Lois thought for a moment. “You are partly right, though. I did need to look past some differences, some things I found strange – but once I did, I saw the biggest, most loving heart I have ever known.”
Martha felt her tears rise. “That’s Clark,” she said.
“Some people on his planet were cruel to him,” Lois said. “Not physically, but emotionally. They wiped his memory and told him he’d been asleep since babyhood. They tried to mould him into what they wanted him to be.”
“Did they succeed?”
“Perhaps on the surface – but no – they couldn’t change who he was ... who he is.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” Martha stood and turned down the heat under the vegetables. “I know you must be very eager to see your family – to tell them you are safe – but I’m wondering if you would like to go on a shopping trip with me tomorrow morning.”
“I don’t have access to any money,” Lois said. “My credit cards –.”
Martha leant across the table put her hand over Lois’s. “The farm had a good year,” she said.
“But –“
“Lois,” Martha said earnestly. “You married my son – he has a bank account that is quite impressive for a fifteen year old with a part time job, but it’s not going to go far now he’s a married man.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Lois said. “Everything I have is Clark’s too.”
“Exactly,” Martha said. “And everything we have ... if it can help our son and his wife ... I can’t think of a better use for it.”
Lois still hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“You’re family now.”
“Thank you.”
Martha smiled as she sat down. “We need to buy you clothes – something that doesn’t look like it belonged to a teenage boy over a decade ago. And we can buy clothes for Clark.”
“I will enjoy that,” Lois said.
“I will too,” Martha said. “I’ve never had a daughter – we could buy some make-up and maybe some perfume and -.”
“Chocolate!”
Martha grinned. “Definitely chocolate.”
“Clark doesn’t remember chocolate – I want to give him some.”
“We’ll buy some of his other favourite foods too - and bring them home to surprise him.” Martha felt a well of anticipation erupt inside her. “This is going to be fun.”
Lois grinned widely. “Where will we go?”
“We’ll go to Wichita. No one knows me there.”
“So we’re in Kansas?” Lois said.
“Yes. The local town is called Smallville.”
“How long since the Mission to Mars? How long have I been missing?”
“Nearly three months.”
“*Three* months?”
“You seemed surprised.”
“I am. But Tek warned us that the time could be different.”
“Tek?”
“Tek’s father, Kip, is the one who took your son,” Lois said. “But he is also the one who ensured Clark had a way to come back to you. Without him, Clark would never have come to Earth the first time and would have died as a baby.”
“Why did he have to go back?”
“It’s his story to tell you,” Lois said. “But I can say that you should be very, very proud of him. And you should realise that the foundations you taught him – foundations that valued justice and peace and equality – those foundations meant an entire planet had a chance at life.”
“We didn’t need to teach him much,” Martha said. “All we did was build on what was already there. From the time he was very young, he hated injustice; his heart was always to protect, to help, to serve.”
Lois smiled. “That’s Clark. Did he get hurt much? Did he get into fights at school? Trying to protect others?”
The door opened while Martha was still trying to determine the best way to tell Lois that Clark being physically hurt was not something she’d worried about. He walked in, followed by Jonathan. Clark’s eyes immediately sought Lois and lingered there, smiling his joy at seeing her again.
“All done?” Martha asked the men.
Jonathan nodded. “It’s bigger than the first one, but we got it on the truck without too many problems.” He crossed the kitchen. “We’ll wash up for supper.”
Clark looked to his mother. “Can you manage without Lois for a few moments?” he asked.
“Sure.”
Lois stood and they walked out, hand in hand, leaving Martha smiling as tears of pure happiness rolled slowly down her cheeks.
+-+-+-+
Once they were in Kal’s bedroom, he closed the door behind them and turned. He looked at Lois, eyebrows lifted slightly, his mouth shaped to a bemused smile.
“Yes?” she said.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her, his expression drifting between humour and incredulity.
“What?” she said.
He raised his hands and then let them flop against his sides. “I have no idea how to tell you this,” he said.
“What?” Lois asked, her curiosity about at boiling point. “You remember something? You remember everything? You saw your first spaceship and everything came back?”
Kal shook his head. “Not exactly.”
“*Not exactly*. What does that mean?”
He grinned, though it didn’t dissolve his look of befuddlement. “How many times have you looked through my clothes?”
“What?!”
His grin broadened. “Just answer the question, Beautiful. How many times have you peeked?”
“Once ... before we were married.”
“And after?”
“More than once,” she admitted, biting on her lower lip to contain her smile.
Kal grinned. “Good.”
Lois approached him and firmly grasped his shoulders. She shot directly into his eyes. “I have no idea what you are trying to tell me, but you’d better spit it out boy, or I’m going to use some of my superior strength on you.”
“Really?” he said.
“Really.”
He stretched his arms wide, opening himself to her. “Go right ahead,” he invited with a dashing grin. “Take your best shot.”
Lois faltered. “Kal,” she said. “You’re worrying me.”
“There’s nothing to worry about – just ... well ... life on Earth isn’t going to be quite like either of us expected.”
A heavy dread settled through her. “Oh, no,” she groaned. “You *are* married to someone else.”
He laughed. “No, no, honey, I’m not married – not to anyone other than my wonderful wife.”
“Then what?”
“Well, it seems before I was taken to New Krypton ... I had developed some ... unusual abilities.”
Lois felt her mouth gape. “You can see through clothes?” she gulped.
“I haven’t actually tried clothes,” he said. “But I can definitely see through the barn wall.”
Lois stared at him as her mind scrambled to make sense of what he had said. “Can you heat things?” she asked weakly.
“I haven’t tried ... but Dad says I set a few things on fire before I learnt how to control it.”
“Could you move - very, very quickly?”
“Yep.”
“And you were impervious to bullets and stronger than rock?”
“Yep.”
“With breath that froze?”
“Yep.”
“And hearing far beyond normal?”
“Yep.”
Lois sank onto the bed. “Oh, my goodness.”
Kal sat next to her. “Dad and I arrived at the spaceship ... just him and me ... and he said ‘OK, Son, put her on the truck.’ I looked at the spaceship and looked at the truck and thought he’d lost his grip on reality. Then he said, ‘Go on, you can do it.’ I asked him if he was joking and he said I could have done it when I was thirteen.”
“So ... you ... walked up to the spaceship and simply lifted it into the truck?”
“Yep. As easy as looking at it.”
Lois chuckled. “So how many times *have* you looked through my clothes?” she asked.
He didn’t answer – not verbally. He simply leant back and did a slow scan down her body, his mouth stretching to an appreciative smile. When he reached her knees, he looked up and said, “Once – but that won’t be the last time.”
Lois stared at his chest, right where she knew there was a particularly chiselled pectoral muscle. She visually peeled back his shirt. The colour faded and she could see his chest – though it seemed as if she were looking through misty fog.
“What are you looking at?” Kal teased.
“The sexiest chest I have ever seen,” she replied.
“Can you see just like you could on New Krypton?”
Lois shook her head. “No. It’s not as clear.”
“My thinking is that there’s something on New Krypton that caused powers in your Earth body and something on Earth that causes powers in my Kryptonian body,” Kal said.
“You think I’ll lose them now I’m back?”
“You said you weren’t like this before you left Earth.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
His eyes found hers and his fingers gently lifted her chin. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“I’m not sure I am,” Lois said. “They made me uncomfortable at times.”
“Dad said I felt like that when they first started appearing. I was worried I would hurt someone and my vision was not exactly the easiest thing to deal with.” He stood from the bed. “So much so, my parents got me these.” He opened the drawer, took out a pair of glasses and put them on.
“Wow,” Lois said. “They suit you ... they really suit you.”
“Would you mind if I wore them?”
“No. Can you see through things with them?”
“No,” Kal said. “That was the point of getting them.” He slid them down his nose and looked over the frame. “But if I ever do this, you’ll know I’m taking shameless advantage of being a Kryptonian man who is in love with an Earth woman.” He pushed the glasses back into place and sat next to her. “There’s something else, Lois.”
“What?”
“Dad says I could fly.”
“Fly?”
He nodded.
“You mean across a field?”
“Well, yes,” Kal said. “But more than that. Just before I left, I ... ah ... flew around the planet ... in just a few seconds.”
Lois gasped. Then she laughed. “I wonder if that is what Martha meant when she asked if we would fly to Metropolis.”
“Could be.”
“Is it possible?” Lois asked. “Is it possible you could fly me to Metropolis? Without a plane?”
“Dad says I took both him and Mom flying before I left.”
“Oh.”
“We kept it a secret,” Kal said. “From everyone.”
“Well, of course. If anyone found out about this ... on top of being an alien ... your life would spiral completely out of control.”
“Dad said they were worried that if people knew about my powers, some would fear me; others would want to study me.”
Lois swept back a few strands of his dark hair from the side of his glasses. “None of this changes how I feel about you,” she said.
He rested his head against hers. “I already knew that,” he said.
“The first time I saw through the wall – you were remarkably calm and accepting of it,” Lois said. “Do you think it’s possible that you weren’t completely freaked out because you’d already experienced having powers?”
“I don’t know,” Kal said. “But it’s just one more thing that binds you and me together.”
Lois smiled. “I’ve already said that you’re stuck with me.” She stood. “Come on, we should go and eat.”
“OK.”
She paused. “There are probably a few things I should tell you before we go.”
“Like?”
“Your mom will give us a plate each and her expectation will be that you eat yours and I eat mine.”
“We don’t share?”
“Not usually.”
A slight blush crossed his cheeks. “Oh, the pudding.”
Lois smiled her reassurance. “If nothing else, your parents are used to dealing with a few surprises from their son. I doubt they’re going to be thrown by you eating a scone with a fork.”
He didn’t look convinced.
“I know how overwhelming this is for you," Lois said. "But I’m here to help – just as you helped me adjust to life on New Krypton. And even though all this seems so strange – it will help you remember. You’ll start feeling at home before you know it.”
“I hope so,” he said. “Because it’s all just a blur.”
Lois kissed him, hoping to dispel his discouragement. “Guess what food we have,” she said brightly.
“I don’t know. Even if I saw it, I probably wouldn’t be able to name it.”
“Chicken,” Lois said.
Kal gave her a small smile. “I do remember the last time I ate chicken – I was in a cave in the company of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
"Tonight you won't have to imagine."
Kal opened the door. “Lois?”
“Yes.”
“How do you feel about calling me Clark?’
“If that’s what you want, I’m fine with it.”
“I think it’s the least I can do for them ... for Mom and Dad.”
“Does that make me Lois Kent?” she asked.
He thought for a moment. “If that’s what you want,” he said.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “But whether I’m Lois Lane or Lois Kent, it won’t change that I’m your wife.”
He smiled. “Nothing will change that. Nothing.”
Together, they went down the stairs and to the kitchen.
+-+-+-+
Clark ate chicken. And roast potatoes. And later, a thing called apple pie that his mom told him he’d eaten by the truckload when he was a kid.
Tasting it now, that didn’t surprise him. With the white fluffy stuff called cream, it was incredible.
As they ate, Kal spoke about life on New Krypton. About the threat of Civil War, about the two sides, about Jor-El and La and how they had given him a chance for life. About how he was born to lead a unified people. About how a stray alien woman had landed on his planet and turned his world right way up.
He answered his parents’ questions about food and farming and friends. They were interested, but never insistent.
So he was able to bypass his marriage to Za and the means Nor had used to depose him.
“Lois said you can never return to your planet,” Martha said.
Clark hesitated. Lois didn’t. “Someone threatened me,” she said. “Clark made a decision to protect me, but that involved giving up all of his rights – including his right to live.”
“They wanted to *kill* their leader?” Martha asked, clearly horrified.
Clark pushed away his empty bowl and took Lois’s hand in his. “Imagine this,” he said with a smile. “Someone has a gun trained on Lois. I’m there. He fires the gun. What happens next?”
“You either move her out of the path of the bullet or get between her and it,” Martha said mildly.
“She wouldn't be harmed?”
“Not if you were there.”
Clark felt his grin widen. “Interchange Lois with me and you’ll know what happened.”
His mom’s hand shot to her mouth. “Lois had powers?”
“On New Krypton, yes,” he said.
“Do you still have them?” Jonathan asked Lois.
“They’re fading fast.”
Martha looked at Lois. “You saved our boy?” she said.
“He wouldn’t have needed saving if he hadn’t offered his life to protect me.”
Martha’s eyes swung from Clark to Lois and back again. “Seems to me you’re a good team,” she said with great affection.
Clark kissed his wife’s hand. “The best,” he said.
+-+-+-+
It was late when Jonathan and Martha retired to their bedroom. Clark and Lois hugged both of them before they left the kitchen.
“I *will* be here in the morning,” Clark promised gravely as they moved away.
Their answering smiles held such utter contentment, it warmed him inside.
When they’d gone, Clark turned to Lois.
She smiled. “You have plans?” she guessed when she saw his face.
He nodded.
“Let’s see,” she said, as her fingers curled through his hair. “Do they involve being with your wife?”
“Of course.”
“Alone?”
“Definitely.”
“Perhaps a little physical exercise after those long hours cooped up in the spaceship?”
“Precisely.”
“And you’d like to go to your bedroom?”
He grinned. “You got it.”
