PREVIOUSLY IN THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE...
They came to a fork in the halls and Lois stopped, looking in both directions.
“Which way?” Molly asked.
Lois hesitated a moment before choosing to go right. “This way,” she said, taking off at a jog once again.
“I really hope you’re right about this.”
“Of course I’m right. What could possibly go wrong?”AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
The voices were coming from up ahead, getting stronger with every step Lois and Molly took towards the locker room. Still, indistinguishable as to their content. But the voices were loud, angry. An argument of some kind?
A small shaft of light poured into the darkened hallway from the partially open door as Lois and Molly continued creeping forward. Lois was amazed that Molly was still with her, silent as the grave as they slid along next to the wall, desperate to hear what was going on. Lois took a deep breath, trying to calm the pounding of her heart in her ears.
A large bang caused both Lois and Molly to jump. It sounded like a body being slammed up against a locker.
“Hey, take it easy! I thought that’s what you wanted!”
The voice was closer now, louder, and vaguely familiar. Where had she heard that voice recently? Frank! She was pretty sure that was Frank LaDuke’s voice.
“What I wanted? Are you nuts? Why would I want that?”
“Look! Lane ruined our lives, Donny. She has to pay! That King chick, too. I think they were both working on this together. They have to learn that no one messes with us and gets away with it.”
“No!”
Donny? Did he mean Donny Landover? No. Why would Landover be defending her or Linda? Lois came to a stop next to the partially opened door.
“But at the party you told Lane...”
“I might not mind scaring her... making her life miserable. King, either, for that matter. But I don’t want any of you goons touching them!”
“But, Donny...”
“Listen! All of you! No one touches Lane or King, got it?”
Lois took a deep breath before quickly moving to get a peak inside the room. Once she did, she retreated almost immediately back into the shadows. She was right. Frank was there. She’d seen him clearly enough - him and the large white bandages covering his arms. Must have been from injuries he’d sustained while doing a nosedive into the concrete earlier today. She couldn’t say she minded that those bandages seemed to be covering ‘a world of hurt.’
A number of others were present, too. She needed time to work out who else was there.
“But, Donny...”
“Who do you think they’re going to blame if something happens to them? Me, that’s who. And I will not have any of you ruining my career. College football is great. But nothin’ is keeping me out of the pros.”
She quickly moved in for another look, but Frank was still blocking her view. She darted back into the shadows. She’d give him a moment to move and then try again.
“They can’t just get away with this.”
One more try and Lois could now see that Landover was indeed there. Breathing hard, she pressed herself back against the wall of the hallway.
“They already have,” Landover said. “Look... do you think the pros are going to care if we wrote our own exams in college? Hell, no. They only care about the football. If something happens to Lane or King, however... Think for once, Frankie! Think, all of you!”
“But the Sugar Bowl...” one of the guys whined. The other guys all chimed in, griping about how Lane and King had ruined their chances of going to the Sugar Bowl.
For a time, it appeared that Landover had lost the argument until...
“Shut up! All of you. Okay, let me make this simple. Any of you touch Lane or King, you’ll answer to me. Got it.”
The others must have got it because the room fell silent.
Lois looked back at Molly and by silent consent they slowly began their retreat. They had only gone a few yards when the door to the locker room suddenly opened as the football players prepared to leave. Lois and Molly froze.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark took one more look through the walls of the Alpha Nu Rho house. After setting the controls on the time machine, he’d realized that he had to see Lois - just one final time before jumping into the future. After thinking about it for a moment, he’d decided that no harm could come from such a decision. After all, he wouldn’t talk to her again. No. He’d just take a look. One final look for the road, as it were. But when he’d arrived at the sorority house, Lois wasn’t there. Neither was Molly for that matter.
He supposed they might have decided to go out somewhere, possibly to help Molly forget what had happened earlier in the day.
Suddenly, Clark’s head snapped up. It took him a moment to recognize what he was hearing. A heartbeat. But not nearby. And not running at a normal rate either. This heart was pounding fast - too fast.
His eyes widened. “Lois,” he whispered before he was suddenly airborne.
* * * * * * * * *
The ground suddenly trembled. Lois reached out, bracing herself against the wall behind her. Molly, it seemed, was doing the same.
“Earthquake!” one of the men yelled and instantly all of them were moving on unsteady feet out the door and down the hall away from Lois and Molly as they desperately ran towards the nearest exit.
When the ground finally quit shaking, Lois and Molly were alone in the hallway.
“Wow,” Molly breathed.
Lois nodded her agreement. “An earthquake in Metropolis. Has that ever happened before?”
“Not that I know of.”
They both took a moment to catch their breaths.
“So... what now?” Molly finally asked.
“Well, since they were gracious enough to leave the locker room door open when they left...”
“You mean when they bolted out of here like a bunch of frightened bunny rabbits?”
“Yeah, that’s what I meant,” Lois said with a grin. “Anyway, I say we take a look around the locker room while we’ve got the chance.”
* * * * * * * * *
“You’re right,” Molly said when she and Lois stepped out of the stadium some time later. “I do feel better.”
“I told you,” Lois said. “There is nothing like a little breaking and entering to make you forget about some jerk.”
“I wonder if the same thing applies if you end up spending the night in jail,” Clark said.
Both Lois and Molly spun towards him, eyes wide, hearts suddenly pounding.
“Or the hospital or morgue if you’d been caught by the football players,” Clark added. On the flight over here, he’d realized that if he’d changed the past by giving Lois the information that had lead her to pursue this investigation, there was no longer any guarantee that she would survive to 1993. The thought chilled him to the bone.
“Charlie!” Lois gasped. “What the hell are you doing - scaring us like that?” She put her hand over her heart to illustrate her point.
“Scaring you?” Clark gasped in disbelief, even as his eyes couldn’t help but follow her hand to where it was resting. He quickly pulled his eyes back up to her now amused ones. “I’m not the one Frank chased all over the stadium earlier today!” he said, forcing them back to the subject at hand. “If you were planning to come back here, the least you could have done was to come and get me.”
“Oh, don’t be a worry-wart. We weren’t in any danger. Were we Molly?”
“Not at all. Don’t worry, Charlie. We just arranged for a little earthquake to happen at just the right moment and everything was fine.”
Lois giggled.
Clark glared.
Molly giggled.
A moment later, both women were laughing uncontrollably.
Clark looked on in disbelief. If he’d found her a moment later or been unable to distract the football players by shaking the building... He shuttered to think what the consequences might have been.
“Oh, lighten up, Charlie,” Lois said. “We’re fine. Now... do you want to know what we found out or don’t you?”
Clark closed his eyes for a moment. This woman was going to be the death of him.
“Well?” Lois asked, stepping up and taking his arm to drag him towards Molly’s car
“Fine,” he said, finally relenting. “What did you find out?”
* * * * * * * * *
“So that’s when we snuck into the locker room to take a look around,” Lois concluded.
She, Molly and Charlie had all returned to the Alpha Nu Rho house before getting into a discussion about this evening’s activities. Once they were all safely ensconced in the house’s study, Lois had related the first part of their adventure to Charlie.
“Did you find anything in the locker room?” Charlie asked.
“Well, first we started by searching the lockers of anyone named in my story - figured they’d be the most likely suspects.”
“After what Frank said, in particular,” Molly added.
“Right,” Lois responded. “But when we didn’t find any GHB... or any of the other things you told me about earlier today,” she continued, looking at Charlie. “You know... furniture stripper, drain cleaner, PH strips... Well, that’s when we expanded our search.”
“So...?” Charlie asked.
“Nothing. Nada. If one of them has GHB, he doesn’t leave it in his locker,” Lois said. “On the other hand, if he is slipping it into women’s drinks on a regular basis, he might want to keep it where it’s more easily accessible.”
“So what’s your opinion of what we overheard,” Molly asked. “From the conversation, it doesn’t seem like Landover is involved.”
“I agree,” Lois said. “On the other hand, maybe Frank was. Maybe that’s what Landover was so mad about.”
“Couldn’t he just have been upset with Frank for coming after you earlier today?” Charlie asked.
Lois sighed. “And so we’re back to square one.”
“Well, not exactly,” Charlie said.
Lois glanced over at Molly. “Here it comes. The whole ‘look for the silver lining’ portion of the evening,” she said teasingly.
“Well, if you don’t want to know...” Charlie said.
“No! Come on. Spill. So what is the silver lining in all this?”
“It seems both you and Linda King out of danger from the football players now,” Charlie responded. “And as far as silver linings go... I’d say that’s a pretty good silver lining.”
“Assuming that the others listen to Landover,” Molly said.
“I think they will,” Charlie responded. When the two women just looked at him, as if waiting for more, Charlie continued. “In order to be a good quarterback, a person needs more than an ability to throw and call plays, he needs the ability to control his team. The quarterback is the leader, but they all have to work as a team to get the job done. From what you’ve said, the New Troy University Devils are having a very good year. That means Landover is doing a good job controlling his team. I’d be surprised if the guys go against him.”
“Well, if that’s true, that is good news,” Lois said.
“One thing I don’t understand,” Molly said. “It seems as if you and Linda were both targets. But I haven’t heard about anything happening to Linda. Why do you think that is?”
“Simple,” Lois said. “Access. Linda left the party with Paul before the football players arrived. Then, she spent the night in jail.”
“And she didn’t show up at the football stadium this afternoon,” Charlie added. “So Frank wasn’t able to chase after her.”
“And now she’s out of danger... After Landover’s talk with the football players,” Molly said.
“Not that she ever even knew she was in danger,” Lois said. “Is it just me, or does anyone else wish she could have at least been scared witless?”
Clark bit back a smile while Molly nodded her agreement.
“Have you thought any more about when to tell everyone that there is a new danger out there and that they should watch their drinks?” Molly asked after a moment.
Lois let out a slow breath. “Not really. Problem is that once I go public with that aspect of it, I’m tipping off the culprit that I’m on to him, giving him a chance to cover his tracks. But...” She thought for a minute. “Okay, well, the next edition of the Ink and Quill comes out next Friday. If I don’t have everything before then, I’ll write a piece for Friday’s papers about a potential hazzard that might be out there. Since most partying takes place on the weekend... How does that sound?”
She glanced around to see both Molly and Charlie nodding their approval. “Good. Then I guess...” Before she could complete her thought, she interrupted herself by yawning.
“Well, it’s getting late,” Molly said.
“I should be heading back to the dorm,” Lois responded. “I’ll pick up on this again tomorrow after my classes.” She rose to her feet, prompting Charlie and Molly to do the same.
“Do you think...” Molly began, sounding a little hesitant. “Well, would you consider staying here tonight, Lois?”
Lois’ eyebrows crinkled together as she tried to discern the motive behind Molly’s words.
“It’s just... Well, I’m feeling a lot better about what happened with Rye earlier, but...”
“Of course I’ll stay,” Lois immediately responded, realizing that what her friend wanted was just someone around to keep her mind off Ryan in case she started obsessing. She glanced over at Charlie. “Why don’t I walk you out?” she suggested.
A moment later, Lois was standing with Charlie just inside the front door while Molly got her room ready for company.
“So...” Lois said.
“So...” Charlie responded.
“Thanks for today,” Lois said. “It was... fun.”
“It was,” Charlie responded.
Then they both fell silent as the tension between them seemed to rise. Lois saw Charlie’s eyes flick down to her lips and her mouth parted slightly, her heart rate picking up in anticipation. Was this it? Was he finally going to kiss her?
“Well, anyway... Well, I should...” Charlie said, backing towards the door.
“Right,” Lois said, trying to quash her disappointment.
“So what time does your class get out tomorrow?” Charlie asked. “Maybe I could meet you and we could go to the coroner’s office from there?”
Lois nodded before filling him in on the details.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark stared at the time machine for a long time. The longer he stayed in 1987, the harder the thought of leaving became. He had fallen in love with a bright and beautiful twenty year old woman and the thought of leaving her now, even if it was to jump forward in time in order to ensure that he didn’t lose her in the future, left him feeling melancholy.
Should he say goodbye? After all, he had told her he’d meet her after class tomorrow. No. No, what if he said goodbye and this didn’t work? How could he ever explain why he was still here? And as long as he was here, he knew without a doubt that he would be unable to resist seeing her again.
Besides, if the machine worked, he could always return and say goodbye then - couldn’t he? After all, he had a time machine.
Satisfied with his reasoning, he again sat down in the machine, dropping some more of his gold into the fuel input valve and pushed the power button.
Sparks were flying almost immediately. Jumping from the machine, he blew cold air over the panel. The sounds of life coming from the machine died almost instantly. He sank down onto the side of the bed, stared at the frozen panel on the now dead machine and felt... almost relieved.
* * * * * * * * *
The next few days developed into something of a pattern. Clark used the mornings while Lois was in class to continue his research into time travel.
He’d tried reading Einstein’s theoretical writings on the subject. But without a science background, the information had been hard going. And in the end, he had to say that he still didn’t really understand what he’d read.
So then he’d taken a flight out to Hill Valley, California, to talk to a Dr. Emmett Brown. He had discovered Brown was working on time travel when, in the future, Superman had saved Brown from what was apparently the latest attack by Libyan terrorists. From what Clark had been able to determine, the terrorist group had given Brown plutonium with instructions to build a bomb. He had double crossed them, giving them a bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts, and used the plutonium for some sort of time travel experiment. Ever since, they had been trying to kill him.
Clark didn’t think that Brown had actually been successful in his efforts to travel through time, but had hoped he might be able to interpret Well’s blueprints.
At first, Clark had been optimistic. Brown had studied the plans as if he understood them. He’d even muttered something about it being a flux capacitor rather than a flux facilitator. However, when Clark had asked for clarification, Brown simply waved him off.
So when Brown looked up and said he had no idea what the plans were all about, Clark had been surprised. Then Brown had launched into a lecture about how time travel was nothing but trouble and advising Clark to give up trying to invent it.
“Dr. Brown, please. If someone were stuck in the past, how would you advise them to get home?” Clark had asked.
Brown had simply muttered something incomprehensible about lightning, DeLorean sports cars and clock towers.
So Clark was pretty much back to square one in getting back to his own time.
Still, when Lois’ classes finished for the day, Clark always found himself waiting outside her last class. The smile she gave him when she first spotted him would send his heart into overdrive. And when she’d take his arm and start immediately rambling on about some incomprehensible professor or stupid theory, his mouth would quirk into a smile and he’d find himself thinking that he’d never known such contentment.
They would eat lunch together at the university cafeteria where they would discuss their plans for the day regarding the investigation. However, on that front they hadn’t made much more progress than Clark had regarding the time travel problem. But as Clark said, every angle that didn’t work out was simply one more to cross of their list.
Their first stop on Monday had been to see the coroner, Dr. James Seymour. Lois had been forced to reveal more than she had originally wanted, namely that GHB had been slipped into her drink at a campus party, to convince the doctor to test Angelina Wesley’s blood. But he had promised to do so and let them know what he found. So far, they had not heard back from him.
From there, they had tried talking to Angelina’s friends in an effort to retrace her steps on the night she’d died. They had discovered that she had a date that night, but no one seemed to know who she had been going out with. When she hadn’t come home, her roommate had just assumed the date had gone better than expected. It wasn’t until she’d received a visit from the police the next afternoon that she had even considered that something might be wrong.
The phrase the roommate had used, ‘better than expected,’ had originally intrigued Lois and Clark so they had probed further. It seemed that this was the first date Angelina had had during her two years at NTU. Apparently, although she was quite pretty, she was completely engrossed in her studies, turning away all potential suitors. She was pre-med, taking a science degree in hopes of being accepted into medical school the following year. She did nothing but work, even taking summer courses rather than having her summers off for relaxation and enjoyment. So her roommate had found it slightly odd that Angelina had not been more excited considering that she must have liked this guy an awful lot to break her ‘no dating’ rule.
On the other hand, Angelina had never been the overly demonstrative type and was always a private person so when she hadn’t come home that night, her roommate had just figured she was reading Angelina wrong.
Seeing no further avenues to explore there, Lois and Clark had inquired as to whether Angelina had any friends or enemies among the New Troy University Devils, but so far had found no connection. Apparently, she was too engrossed in her studies to give football a second thought.
Lois and Clark had even asked the roommate to look at their list of potential suspects to see if any of the names seemed familiar, but none had.
Not having found anything approaching it from Angelina’s perspective, Lois and Clark had turned their attention to their list of suspects, attempting to track their movements on the night of Angelina’s death - looking to discover how many had alibis so that they could cross them off the list. But that had only eliminated one football player who had been in the hospital as a result of an injury he’d received during football practice earlier in the day.
Lois had even put in a call to Cat Grant, in hopes that she might have heard something. But that had been a bust as well. Since the football story had come out and even though her name had not been used in the article, Ms. Grant was concerned about being seen as having any connection to the story.
Still, regardless of how frustrating an afternoon was, Clark would eat supper with Lois where they discussed everything and anything not having a bearing on the story. Then they would head back to her sorority house where the discussions would continue. They got into spirited debates, theoretical discussions and even talked about dreams or hopes for the future. Avoiding telling her too much personal information was difficult at times, but she seemed to accept his skirting certain subjects, never pressing too hard. On one occasion, they’d even watched a video with Molly and a few other women in the house. Clark had felt as if he was in heaven when, half way through the video, Lois had curled up against him. As the evening ended, Clark would walk Lois to her dorm, say goodnight and go back to his room to dream about the most amazing woman he’d ever known.
But on Thursday, when Lois met him following her class, she had a new sparkle in her eyes.
“What?” Cark asked.
“I just got a message from Molly.”
Clark raised his eyebrows.
“The coroner called. He wants to see us.”
* * * * * * * * *
Lois glanced over at Charlie as the two of them walked up the steps to the coroner’s office. So far the investigation wasn’t going nearly as well as she’d hoped. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure that she didn’t sort of relish the time it was taking. After all, once it was over, would Charlie leave? Was that why he’d stayed so long in 1987 - because he wanted to help her with this investigation. Her heart ached at the thought of losing him. How was it that she’d managed to become so attached to him in just a week?
She sighed slightly causing Charlie to glance over at her.
“Problem?” he asked.
“No. Just thinking about how slowly this investigation seems to be going.”
“Sometimes investigations are like that. Don’t worry. Something is bound to break soon. Maybe even right now.” On the last words, he opened the door to the building, allowing Lois to step through before him.
She fought the urge to sigh again. That was exactly what had her so depressed.
Spending time with Charlie this past week had been wonderful. She loved working next to him, bouncing ideas off him, having serious and frivolous debates with him and just generally being around him. And the thought that she was going to lose him was slicing into her heart.
She suspected he shared some of her feelings. But so far, he’d been very careful not act on them. Since Sunday, when he’d almost kissed her on three different occasions, he hadn’t come close again. When he walked her back to her dorm at night, she could almost feel him shutting down, closing himself off to her and that moment where a goodnight kiss might be natural, as if he feared what he might do, how he might complicate things if ever they kissed. But sometimes... it was a look she would catch in his eye or the gentleness of his touch... It told her that he thought of her as more than just a friend.
Still, she longed for his kiss, sat in boring lectures and fantasized about his kiss, imagining the taste, the texture, the sounds, the feelings. Would his kiss be soft and tender or demanding and urgent? Or would it vacillate between the two? Would he pull her hard against him or would he hold her as gently as if she were spun glass? Would he just kiss her or would he want to be certain that she was...
“Lois?”
“Huh?” Lois asked, pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of Charlie’s voice.
“I just asked if you were ready for this.”
Ready? Ready for what? She glanced around, realizing suddenly that he was about to knock on the door to the Dr. James Seymour’s private office. “Ready,” she assured him, even as a blush rose in her cheeks.
The coroner wasn’t what Lois had expected. He was young and far too chipper to work with dead bodies every day.
“So... let me get right to the point,” Dr. Seymour began the instant she and Charlie were seated. “You were right. The reason it took me so long to get back to you was because we had to exhume the body. But once I tested her blood and found exaggerated levels of GHB, I wanted to reexamine the body to see if the GHB was what actually killed her.”
“I thought GHB worked its way out of the system fairly quickly,” Charlie said.
“Oh, it does. But that is assuming the individual is alive. No, it was tricky, but I did get enough evidence to be satisfied that she died of an overdose of GHB.”
Lois let out a breath. So she wasn’t the first victim. Did that mean the culprit had put GHB in her drink with the intent of killing her? She shivered.
As if sensing her thoughts, Charlie reached over and gently squeezed her shoulder.
“So can I get a quote from you about the cause of death?” Lois asked, pulling out her tape recorder.
“Certainly,” the doctor said. He waited until Lois pressed the record button before continuing. “After running the necessary tests, I am confident that...” He sorted around on his desk for a moment, as if looking for something. “...Angelina Wesley...” Obviously, he’d forgotten the name of the victim. “...died of a GHB overdose. And, although I am unable to say how the GHB was introduced into Miss Wesley’s system, given that this is not the only known case of GHB poisoning... And I’m referring to you here, Miss Lane,” he added, looking at Lois. “...at New Troy University, I strongly advise all young women attending New Troy University to watch their drinks when out in public until such time as the source of this problem can be determined.”
Seemingly satisfied with his statement, he sat back and gave a slight nod.
* * * * * * * * *
Clark sat on the corner of Lois’ desk, looking around the cluttered room that served as the bull pit of the Ink and Quill while Lois typed furiously at her computer.
He had to admit, he was proud of her. Publishing a story informing the campus that Angelina Wesley had died of GHB poisoning and warning women not to leave their drinks unattended might make their job of getting to the culprit more difficult. Still, it was the right thing to do. The ease with which Lois had come to that decision only made him love her more.
“So what do you think?” she asked, finally pulling her story out of the typewriter and handing it to him.
‘New Danger to Women at University
‘A new and as yet unidentified, drug has left two women, at New Troy University, helpless and in a position to be victimized.
‘According to the Metropolis coroner, James Seymour, one of the students, Angelina Wesley, died as the result of having the drug in her system.
‘The second woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said that she believed that the drug had been placed in her drink when she left her drink unattended at a college party on the New Troy University campus.
‘She acted as if she were drunk, but then remembered nothing the next morning.
‘Metropolis coroner, James Seymour, said that Ms. Wesley died as a direct consequence of ingesting this unidentified drug and strongly advised young women attending New Troy University to watch their drinks when out in public.Clark opened his mouth to make a few suggestions before closing it again. Lois didn’t know he was a reporter. And besides, this was her story. And truth be told, it was pretty good. And he was confident her editor would be able to give her some direction to fill in the gaps. Still..
“I’m just curious as to why you refer to it as an unidentified drug. We know we’re talking about GHB here.”
“I’m not really wanting to let the bad guys know we have that information yet. And I figure, it isn’t really important to identify the drug to warn women to watch their drinks.”
“Then why not just say that? Tell the reader that they should watch their drinks because there is reason to suspect that drinks are being spiked.”
“Because I want people to take it seriously. And letting them know that there is more than one person who was given this drug and that one of the people actually died might accomplish that.”
Clark nodded slowly. “Still... you do realize that when the culprit...”
“Or culprits.”
“Or culprits read this, with your by-line on it, they are going to know that you’re on to them.”
“So you are worried that I’ll be putting myself back in danger?”
Clark nodded.
“Well, that’s what I keep you around for,” she said playfully, rising to her feet. “Now, just give me a moment to let Paul read through it and then we can get out of here. I was thinking I’d like to take a trip down to the club where Angelina’s body was found, snoop around a bit, maybe ask some questions.”
* * * * * * * * *
“What do you mean, no?” Lois asked in disbelief.
“Exactly what you think I mean,” Paul responded. “This isn’t news. It’s gossip.”
“Gossip?” Lois gasped.
“What facts are in this article? A woman died with an unidentified drug in her system. Other than that, this whole thing is nothing but speculation. Go out and get me a real story. Or better yet... I need someone to cover the exhibit the art students are putting on this weekend.”
“Paul, this is important. Women need to know that they are in danger of having their drinks spiked.”
“They are? That’s more than this article tells me. Some woman ‘believes’ something may have been slipped into her drink. The other woman can’t tell us anything because she’s dead. Sorry, Lane. This is my call. And I say no. I’m not going to start a panic on campus without solid proof.”
TO BE CONTINUED...
ML
