From Chapter 13:
Waiting in the public Lobby was Bill Henderson. He moved up to Lois and Clark as they came in toward the security desk. Bill extended his hand to Clark and shook it.
For his part, Clark made sure not to put too much pressure on the detective’s hand.
“Hi Clark, Lois. Clark, follow me. Lois, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait here in the lobby. I can’t take you up with us.”
Lois didn’t really like that, but she understood and simply nodded. “O.K.” To Clark she said, “I’ll be here waiting for you. You’ll be fine.” She smiled at him and patted his back.
For his part, Clark looked reluctant to let her go, but turned in resignation to follow Bill through the security.
Lois sat in a guest chair near a fake ficus tree and watched Bill produce his I.D., empty his pockets and walk through security. She could see him talk to the guard, who made a phone call and then watched as Clark put the keys and wallet he had retrieved from his apartment on the tray and then walk though the security sensor. As they stood in front of the elevator, he turned and gave Lois one last look over his shoulder, then entered the elevator with Bill.
Lois was just settling in with, believe it or not, a current magazine when she heard a sound of familiar boot steps through the front door. Immediately she recognized her father striding purposefully toward the security desk. He quickly showed the guard his security badge and put his keys and wallet in the tray as if he did this every day. The guard simply nodded him through the scanner.
Amazed and confused, Lois was wondering what her father was doing at the FBI office at this hour?
From Chapter 13.5
Lois was happy Clark was happy after their kiss at her apartment, but inside she was shattered. It was nice kissing him and she had been enthusiastic recreating their first kiss. But it was somewhat like kissing a wax dummy in a museum display. The essence that was her Clark still was not there. She needed all parts of him back before she could resume their intimate relationship.
The love they had felt together that night at the Farm was not there. So she had sat with him on the couch trying to be chipper and helpful and hide her pain. The takeout food had arrived and they had eaten it companionably at his kitchen table, but it wasn’t the same for her.
Clark’s inner self had been left out in space somewhere and Lois didn’t know how to retrieve it. And it was not just her that needed Clark. The whole world needed him again because of the stupidity of whoever had shot that missile at the asteroid.
Lois had pondered who had shot that missile and finally concluded it must be the same group that had organized the alien hunters of Group “3” and “9”. Lois didn’t know much about Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles, or ICBMs, but she was pretty sure that Superman was faster than a missile and therefore they had to shoot at or before the time he launched to intercept Nightfall. She also knew that it took more than one man to authorize and to launch a missile. Therefore, it was a preplanned plot. How it could hit the asteroid accurately, since it wasn’t really designed for that mission, she didn’t understand at all.
Now she sat in the empty lobby of the FBI building in Metropolis waiting for Clark to come down from upstairs. The magazine had lost interest for her after she had seen her father walk through the lobby and into the secure area of the building. What in the world was he doing here? All she had to comfort her while she waited after a long and arduous day were her memories of Sunday night on the Farm. Was it only four days ago that had all happened?
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Lois finally came out of her reverie and returned to the world around her. Then she felt her face and found it wet with tears. Her reverie had caused an enormous sense of loss, which wouldn’t help Clark right now. She brushed away the tears determinedly.
Just then the phone in her purse rang. “Hello?”
“Hi Lois, it’s Bill. We’ll be out in about fifteen minutes.”
“Does he remember anything?”
“Sorry, I don’t really know. They let me cool my heels in another inside lobby area. His supervisor at the FBI just let me know they were about done.”
“Well, I’m still here. See you in fifteen.”
Spotting the discrete sign for “Restrooms”, she headed to the Womens room to freshen her face and repair her makeup. She didn’t want Clark to see her like this.
*+*+*+*+*+*
Chapter 14. Daylight; I must wait for the sunrise
Lois stared over at Clark as she began to drive them back to his place. She figured there had been enough new things for Clark and had scratched her place off the list.
Clark was beyond taciturn. Even Henderson had been surprised at the frown on Clark’s face as he had led him back out to the Lobby. Clark’s expression didn’t change even at seeing Lois there, still waiting for him. Apparently, something bad had happened in the FBI offices. Now he stared morosely out of the passenger window as she drove.
Finally, they reached his apartment and Lois even unlocked the door for them and led Clark into his apartment and sat him at the kitchen table while she took both his coats off and then hers. She started a new pot of coffee. Maybe the coffee would help him.
Finally, she sat beside him and put her hand gently on top of his large hands clenched together on top of the table. “What happened in there, Clark,” she asked softly.
Clark just shook his head and continued to scowl.
Lois sat thinking a moment. Time was getting limited and the world needed Clark back and functioning fully. “Tell you what, Clark. You tell me something that made you unhappy in there and I’ll tell you something about our relationship that you don’t remember.”
At that, Clark unfroze and looked at her hand covering his, then up into her concerned eyes. Sighing and leaning back into the chair, Clark said, “It was an interrogation. I may not remember a lot, but I knew that the minute I stepped into this office they said was mine. They had me sit behind the desk to see if it felt familiar. It didn’t, any more than the Planet office did. A guy named Bob introduced himself and then said he was my boss there.”
Clark pulled out his lower hand, leaving his upper hand still underneath Lois’ and reached up and pulled off his glasses and set them on the table. “How can I have two offices and two jobs?” He looked over at Lois pleadingly.
“It’s because you do, honey.”
Clark perked up instantly. “Honey?” His lips twitched in the beginning of a smile. “So I was right and we are more than partners?”
Lois let her face relax into a smile. “Yes, we are.” She lifted his hand still on the table and cradled it in the two of hers and began massaging his palm with her thumb. “O.K., I gave you more information, now it’s your turn.”
“Do I get more hands on attention, too then?”
Ah, bantering. Bantering was good. He was coming out of his funk and back to his usual good nature. “Maybe. We’ll see.”
Clark continued his tale. “Bob was O.K. Then his tall guy with boots and the glare of a hawk in his eyes came in and really began the interrogation for real. He seemed convinced I was pulling a charade and lying. Bad cop, good cop you know.”
Lois stifled a gasp. That sure sounded like her father since she had seen him after hours at the FBI office. Apparently he was interrogating Clark? But why?
Clark scooted closer to Lois with his chair. “So why do I have two jobs, exactly. Am I that poor I have to work two jobs?” Looking around his plain but functional apartment, rich in books and artifacts from his travels, he returned his gaze to hers. “It doesn’t look that way.”
“The FBI job is your real job and the one that pays you. You are undercover at the Planet to investigate some criminal doings with me.”
“Criminal doings? Who and what?”
Shaking her head, Lois explained, “Not now. When you get your memory back you’ll know all about it. It’s very dangerous and delicate.”
Really smiling for the first time, Clark said, “Dangerous and delicate. That sounds like you.”
Smiling back, Lois bantered, “Now you’re starting to remember for real.” His eyes were beginning to show more of his personality through, but he still didn’t realize he was Superman. How did she tell him? Pulling her hands away, Lois got up. “I’m going to pour that coffee. It’s Kona coffee, your favorite.”
“My favorite, hunh?” Clark watched as she moved in the kitchen. There was definitely something there between them. But there was still a very large hole in his memory. Like a very large black hole that had sucked everything in. Hmm. A black hole. Suddenly images of textbook pages started flipping through his brain. “Hey, I’m remembering something!”
“What?” Lois turned to him excitedly.
“Physics. I remember I took physics.”
Smiling wryly, Lois answered. “Well, maybe not what I was hoping for, but that’s something anyway.”
“Why, what were you hoping for,” he asked coyly as she brought the coffee over.
Lois blushed.
Staring at her face, Clark dared to hope his burgeoning feelings about her had been right. Maybe there was hope in the galaxy yet. “Are we? Did we?”
Lois set his coffee down, then hers and sat. Cupping her hands loosely around her hot cup and looking up at him from under her lashes, she said, “Drink your coffee.”
On reflex, still staring at her, Clark picked up his coffee and drank it down.
Lois delicately picked up her cup and blew on it. “What do you know about Superman, Clark?” She examined his face to see every expression that would come across it.
Clark was dumbfounded by the apparent change in topic. But she wanted it, so he would answer her. “He’s this super powered dude in garish colors that tried to deflect Nightfall and failed. Why?”
When he said “failed” he almost spit out the word. Lois realized he was feeling guilty about the apparent – to him – failure. That would be blocking his memory too. So she shook her head in the negative and said softly, “No, he didn’t fail. On the contrary, he succeeded in diverting Nightfall away from Earth. The piece of Nightfall coming at us now is because somebody else sent up a rocket – actually an ICBM – with a nuclear warhead and blew it to pieces after he diverted it.”
Jerking out of his chair and running his hand through his hair, Clark exclaimed, “That’s crazy.”
He started rapidly pacing around the room.
Calmly sipping her slowly cooling coffee, Lois said quietly. “No, not crazy. It’s true. Your brother Pete was tracking you and the asteroid…” Lois snapped her mouth shut when she realized what she had said.
Spinning around, Clark stared at her incredulously. “Me? What do you mean, me!”
That hadn’t been her plan, but she was in it now. Rising to walk to him, she calmed his flailing arms and looked him in the eyes. “You, Clark Jonathan Kent, are Superman. You came to Earth as an infant in a spaceship – a spaceinnette I called it when I saw it in your barn on the Farm – on June 10, 1978 in Smallville, Kansas. Jonathan and Martha Kent adopted you. Tragically, they died in an automobile accident in 1988. Sarah and Roger Ross – Dr. Ross – took you in as a foster child. You have an older brother Peter and a sister Rita the same age as you.”
“No, no, noooooooooo! That can’t be true!” He almost wailed.
Lois was unstoppable now, a force for nature and for saving the world. “It is true. You just drank a scalding hot cup of coffee in one continuous drink. Anyone else would be burned. I’m still blowing on mine, trying to cool it. And you know you have a brother Pete. You talked to him on the phone. He was in Kansas and talked to you about your childhood. By the way, that particular cell phone is yours, not mine. You gave it to me when you left to take care of Nightfall.”
Clark was physically calmer now, but he had the mutinous expression of a small child who doesn’t want to believe what he was told. Only this mutinous child was a tall muscular man of super human strength. She needed to divert him. “There are Superman suits right here in your apartment, somewhere.”
The small child in Clark leapt on that and said derisively, “You don’t know where, miss-know-it all?”
Mustering her calm as with a child, Lois replied, “No, I don’t. I’ve seen you in the Suit and I’ve seen you out of the Suit…”
Clark stopped dead still when she said that. “You’ve seen me out of the suit? Really?”
Lois ignored him and continued, “but I’ve never seen you change into the Suit, so I don’t know where you keep them.” Pulling him into the bedroom, where he now went more willingly, and flicking on the light, she let go of his arm and marched to his closet. She slid open Clark's closet and began to tap on the back wall, then pushed on an empty hook until it moved in response. An interior door slid aside, revealing three separate Superman costumes hanging neatly on hangers.
Stepping out from behind his day suits, she pointed to the Superman Suits. “Rita sewed them for you.”
“My sister?”
Lois nodded.
Still in denial, Clark asked stubbornly, “Why would I want Superman costumes?”
“Because you're Superman,” Lois said simply. “One of these even has the special fire retardant cape for reentry.”
“Reentry,” Clark asked incredulously. “That's crazy! I may not remember much but everything I've read about this guy so far, he's unreal. They say he's not even from this planet.”
“Like I said, they found you in a spaceship,” Lois replied inexorably. “Why do you think those costumes are there?”
“I don't know, maybe this is all some game I don't know the rules to, but they don't prove I'm Superman.” Clark waived his arms around in dismay and marched back out to the table and Lois followed, leaving the closet open.
Looking at Lois with pleading in his eyes, Clark asked in a softer tone. “They found me in a spaceship? Am I really an alien? Do I look human?”
Lois looked back at him with glowing eyes, “Oh, yes you are an alien. But you look and act very human. As you told me in the interview about you, you have all the parts of a human.” Pausing a moment, she took his hand again and looked back up at him. “And one night, I saw for myself.”
Clark gulped and was mesmerized by her eyes. His body knew her, even if his mind didn’t. He asked tentatively, as if to confirm what he thought. “We made love?”
Lois had a dreamy expression on her face as she remembered. “That we did, in your Farmhouse in front of a fire on a mattress you brought down from upstairs.” She looked over and saw that Clark was transfixed. Maybe this would bring his memory back. “We did, and more than once.”
Clark cleared his throat. “That I really wished I remembered.”
But after a moment, he said, “That still doesn’t prove I’m Superman.”
Patting his shoulder, Lois rose and said, “Stay here. I want to get something.”
Clark remained at the table, staring unseeing at his empty coffee cup. Had he really not realized how hot it was? Was there a possibility Lois was right? How could he forget something as fundamental as being Superman? On the other hand, he had forgotten he’d made love to this wonderful beautiful woman who was trying to help him.
Suddenly, he felt Lois trying to massage his back with some sort of implement. “Oh, that feels great, Lois! I didn’t know I was so tense.” He was a little puzzled and bewildered when he heard sounds of heavy breathing, effort and small gasps coming from Lois. What was she doing that took so much effort?
Lois stopped suddenly with a final cry of “ouch.” From behind him, Lois said. “I’ll say you are tense! Want to see what I was ‘massaging’ you with?” She came around to his front gripping a Bowie Knife with both hands. She dropped it on the table in front of him with a clatter. The blade was bent raggedly at the tip.
Breathless from her physical effort, Lois panted, “I saw that on the shelf in your closet when we went to look at the Suits. I’ve been literally stabbing you in the back repeatedly. It was like trying to knife concrete. Stand up and take your shirt off.”
The first thing Clark did was exclaim, “Lois you’ve hurt yourself!” Reaching out, he took her wrist and held it gently. “Well, at least it doesn’t seem broken. But why did you do that?”
“To show you that you are invulnerable and convince you that you are Superman, of course,” she said matter-of-fact, though still out of breath. “Now stand up already.”
Clark raised his eyebrow in an expression familiar to her, but obediently stood up and removed his shirt. If they had made wild passionate love as Lois stated, she had seen him without his shirt before.
His expression with the lift of the eyebrow gave Lois hope that memory was returning. She accepted his shirt with her good hand and then showed him the knife slits in the back. She said softly, “What’s the price of one shirt if it convinces you that you can save us from Nightfall.”
Clark picked up the knife and held it in his hands and stared at it. He tried to prick his finger, but nothing happened. He pushed harder and the blade moved, not his finger. Then he let it fall to the table in resignation and turned to look at Lois. “All right. I’m getting convinced. But I still don’t know how to be Superman!” Seeing that Lois was transfixed by the sight of his bare chest, he said, “Umm, I’ll go put on another shirt.”
He turned to go and Lois put a hand on his arm to stop him. “You don’t remember your apartment, so look for your shirt in your dresser with your x-ray vision. Just don’t think ‘heat’ and start any fires.”
*+*+*+*+*+*+
Clark had been gone quite a while, but Lois left him to it. It was nearing midnight and the day of reckoning was fast approaching. She turned on the TV to get the news. All the Metropolis channels were covering the attempt to break up the Nightfall Remnant.
The EPRAD clock read 12:23:37 and was counting down. Frank Madison was announcing again. “According to EPRAD Mission Control, the Asgard rocket with the nuclear payload should detonate against the Nightfall asteroid any second now. Let's go to EPRAD.”
EPRAD had a graphic illustration of the Asgard track and a voice over was counting down. “Seconds to calculated impact, ten, niner, eight, seven, five..” The count stopped and there was a silent pause. Clark came back in with an old well worn KU T-shirt on and sat by Lois to watch.
EPRAD Control solemnly intoned, “The Asgard rocket has missed its target. Repeat, the Asgard rocket has missed its target.” Lois didn’t wait for the talking heads to analyze futilely and turned off the TV, then turned and looked at Clark. “The world needs you now. More than it ever has, I expect.” She put her hand on his knee again. “What choice is there but to try
again?”
There was more than a hint of resignation in his voice when he stated, “Flying into space to stop an asteroid doesn't exactly come naturally. Does it?
“But, you're the only one who can do it, honey.”
“Can I? Even if what you're telling me about being Superman is true, I still don't remember how to be him.”
Ever practical, Lois said, “It must be like riding a bicycle, Clark. How did the x-ray thing work for finding your clothes?”
Clark shook his head dispiritedly. “Nothing worked. I did it the old fashioned way by searching drawers.”
Ouch. That was a blow, but Lois was determined to remain upbeat. “You probably don't forget
how to fly, once you've done it. Give it a try.”
Clark rose from the sofa, stood a moment, then flexed his knees and jumped, but it was just a human jump.
“You can just float at will, standing still on the floor. You floated us both from lying down.”
Well, if that mental image wasn’t incentive, Clark didn’t know what was. So he stood still, scrunched his eyes together, but nothing happened. Finally he shook his head and sat down next to Lois again.
“Clark, it's just instinct, I think. You just will it to happen. Maybe this is too confined. Let’s go out onto your balcony and see what happens. I’ll put on my coat because it’s dark and after midnight in the winter, but you go just like that. See if you are cold. If you are not, you are super.”
They emerged out Clark’s back door and onto his balcony, which was really the roof of the unit below. The garish sign of Clancy’s Bar and Grill was still lit and illuminated the surface and low wall around it. Lois was right; Clark was standing there in a T-shirt and his breath was making visible fog, but he didn’t feel it. Turning to Lois, he held his hands out in an ‘I’m O.K. gesture’ and shrugged.
Meanwhile, Lois huddled in her coat and watched her foggy breath escape. “Just walk up to the edge, Clark, and do it. Fall until you fly.”
“Boy, that’s a recruiting poster. Fall until you fly.” Clark walked right up to edge, raised his clenched fists in an unconscious but awkward parody of his flying stance. Then he stared straight down. “Wow, that’s a long way down to that trashy alley.”
Lois walked over and looked down. “Well, at least you are seeing something. It’s pitch black to me. I can’t see more than two stories down because of the lack of light.”
Clark turned to Lois, “I don't know about this.”
Lois patted his arm in comfort, “Honey, it'll all come back to you once you get going.”
Clark was unconvinced, but he muttered, “O.K.”
“You want me to help you?”
“Why don't you just give me a count?” He stepped up onto the small wall.
“On three. One, two...” Lois pushed him off the ledge. And then she heard a loud crash in the alley and two mad cats yowling as they ran away. Lois sighed and went in to the front door to wait to let him in when he walked up the stairs.
When he arrived he knocked softly on the door and she let him in. He smiled ruefully. “It didn’t work.”
“Yes, I heard that.” But she smiled warmly at him and that warmed his heart and stiffened his ambition.
At least sounding a little more in control because he realized the fall didn’t injure him, he helped Lois out of her coat and said, “Let’s sit down and you tell me about Superman and what he means to you.” At that, Lois gave Clark a blatantly smoldering come hither look.
“No, not that. I mean what did I do as Superman. How did people react? Maybe that will help.”
Lois sat on the couch and began with, “Superman is the kind of man who makes things happen. Sure, he's great looking and he's good, but what you notice most about him is how you can count on him. I remember the first time ...” Lois continued to recount her meetings with the Man of Steel.
At the conclusion, Clark said simply, “Thanks.”
“For what?” Lois began stroking his thigh again, comfortingly, she thought.
“For whatever it is you've done for me that makes me feel as good about you as I do.”
“Clark, whether or not this memory of yours comes back, I just want you to know, I think you're
terrific.”
“Likewise.” Clark stopped her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. The motion was rapidly driving him to want to carry her to his bedroom and spend the rest of their potentially very brief life making love. But he apparently had the rest of the world to save first.
“I mean, I love you.”
“Thank you, Lois. That part's starting to come back to me. But I need to remember who I am before I can honestly say the same.”
“That’s all right.” Lois raised their hands and kissed his knuckles. “Let’s both get some rest and try again in the daylight.”
“Can we both share the bed and just snuggle, no funny business.” Clark turned his puppy dog eyes on her. “I think it would help me remember.”
“Well, that expression of yours tells me that your memory is starting to come back. Yes, I would like that. At least we will see another sunrise together.”
*+*+*+*+*+*+
tbc
