Missing Lois - TOC Author's Note: Just a reminder, Lois and Alt. Clark have now told Sam Lane that she is really a Lois Lane from another dimension. She calls her Clark, Kal, to lessen the Clark-confusion, except in her letters to her Clark, where she calls him Clark and Alt. Clark, Kal. Everyone else in the alternate dimension (with the exception of Moonbeam / Star) thinks she is Lucy El (wife of Kal El), an old college friend of Alt. Clark's. When Lois sleeps, she relives the memories of her other 'younger' self in her dimension, so she knows what's going on over there.
***
Where we left off in Chapter 2: Part 7...Mayson asked, “Who is Lois Lane?”
“Only the best investigative reporter that this city has ever seen,” retorted Lois.
Everyone turned to her, shocked.
She smiled, innocently, again. “Until Clark Kent.”
Chapter 2: The Twilight Zone - Part 8Mr. Olsen came and stood next to Mayson. “She disappeared while on assignment in the Congo three years ago. Gun running?”
“That’s right. And, yes, to your guess too, Lucy, Jericho Firestorm was roughly five years ago.” Perry leaned against Lois’s dining room table. “You see, Lois hunted down and cornered the son-of-a-bitch for an interview, but the sneaky devil would only talk to her off-the-record. To get the information on where he was going to start the next fire, he made her promise she would not tell the police. It was too big of a scoop, so Lois took the deal. Then, we invited Detective Henderson to my office and Lois Lane told me everything he said in the interview.”
“So, she broke her promise to Jericho?” Mayson asked, surprised.
“Of course not,” Lois snapped. “Lois Lane does not reveal sources.”
“She’s channeling her again, Clark.” Perry laughed. “Let me explain Jericho Firestorm, again, Mayson. We brought Detective Henderson in to listen, while she told
me what she was told. She didn’t break her word. She did not speak directly to Henderson the entire time. He was not allowed to question her directly about what she told me. It was as if he had overheard it at a restaurant. Henderson then caught Jericho as he was setting his final fire. And because everything she learned was off-the-record and frankly, heresay, it was not admissible in court. Eventually, he was released on a technicality. Henderson caught him a week later trying to set fire to a tied-up Lois in her old apartment. She moved here after that.”
Mayson thought about all that information for a minute. “This is crazy, but I’m game.” She shook her head and then sat down.
Clark sat down opposite Lois with his back to Mayson, Perry, and Mr. Olsen. “Jaxon told me that Junior is his older brother.”
Lois’s eyes went wide. “Oh, wow. This is news. Lex had another son? I know his first wife died in a car accident. I had always assumed that the child had not survived, either, but if he had... Lex can’t be that old, can he?”
“Who knows how old he is? He’s a master of deception and lies.”
“What else did he say?”
“He said that his father frightens him more that I do.”
“I can believe that. Lex doesn’t have a good bone in his body, while you’re not frightening in the least.” Lois smiled sweetly at him.
“Thanks, Lucy. Damage my ego why don’t you?” Clark removed his glasses and stared at her. “I’ve been told that Superman is quite intimidating, though.”
“You’re a cruel man, Clark Kent,” she whispered with a shiver to her voice.
Lois wasn’t teasing him like she had a moment ago. Something had changed in her expression. She no longer saw him, he realized. She saw Kal, sitting right in front of her, close enough to touch. He put the glasses back on and sat back. She blinked the tears from her eyes and looked away.
“Lex Junior hates Superman,” he continued. “But killing Superman is too difficult a task, so he thought he could get at me through my friends.”
“Why does he hate you? I mean, did Jaxon tell you that there was a reason besides the obvious?” she asked. Her voice was a little deeper, rougher, but she was back.
“Junior developed a device called a Neuroscanner, which latches on to an individual’s genetic fingerprint and allows a person to watch and listen in to what another person says and hears. He can also control that person with migraines, if they don’t do as he says.”
“Ouch. What a horrible invention. But what does that have to do with you?”
“Apparently, Lex Junior is obsessed with their stepmother and used the device on her. For some reason, when Superman showed up, the whole thing went haywire and stopped working properly. Jaxon said that the last image that Junior saw on the monitors before the circuits were overloaded was Superman’s face.”
Lois’s jaw dropped and her hand covered her mouth.
“You’re not going to be sick, are you?” Clark whispered, leaning closer.
She swallowed, reaching out for him. “I’m fine. Clark, did he say anything else about his stepmother?” She took his hand and squeezed it.
He shook his head and let go of her hand. “That was about it. Anyway, the failure of Lex Jr.’s device angered Lex Senior so much that Junior is no longer given contact with the stepmother.”
“Sounds like he used it without Daddy’s permission.”
“Could be.” Clark nodded. “So, he decided to take his revenge out on me – or, more accurately, my friends.”
“So, Lex Luthor had nothing to do with the shooting this afternoon?” Lois asked, relieved. “That makes sense, it’s not his usual M.O.”
“Apparently it was all Junior’s idea. Jaxon wants his brother locked up in an insane asylum, because he’s worried he might come after you, again. I think he has a little crush on you.”
Lois rolled her eyes and shook her head. “What does a woman have to do to be left alone in this town? Did he give you anything on how to capture Junior?”
“Jaxon hasn’t seen him since he was a little boy. Doesn’t even know what he looks like now. But Junior had some kind of birth defect on his face – a skull malformation – so he likes to stay hidden away from people.”
“That would explain why Lex told everyone he was dead. Lex likes to be surrounded by perfect and pretty things. A son with a birth defect would embarrass him and he wouldn’t want to be reminded of him.”
“Jaxon said his brother likes to call and keep tabs on him. He had been taunting Jaxon, which is how he knew that Junior was trying to shoot you this afternoon.”
“So, did he tell us anything about Junior that would be helpful, besides that he’s insane? We deal with psychos on a weekly basis. That’s nothing new.”
“Jaxon said his brother was raised in Australia. He thinks he has moved to Hong Kong or Singapore, recently. He doesn’t think Lex Junior is local to Metropolis.”
“Great. Long distance rifles have just gotten a new meaning.” Lois shook her head, paused for a moment, and then shook her head again. “We should talk to Dr. Klein and see whether we got a sample of the genetic fingerprint for the stepmother, if it could be backtracked to the Neuroscanner and thus to Junior.”
“That’s a pretty big ‘if,’ Lucy.” He looked skeptical. “Anyway, the Neuroscanner is broken.”
“Just ask.” Lois took a deep breath. “He might be trying to fix it.” She took another deep breath. “Clark,” she whispered. “Take me back to my room, please. I’m not feeling well.” She blinked her eyes and when she opened them, she was lying on her bed with Clark sitting next to her.
“Did I disappear, again?” she whispered. She could feel him holding her hand.
“Not yet. But you’re looking a tad pale.”
“Can you get everyone out of here?” she asked. “And ask my father to come home.”
“He said he had a date.”
Lois smiled. “Moonbeam’s a little young for him. Apartment 3, ground floor.”
“I want to stay with you.”
“You should take Mayson home. She needs you.”
He looked torn.
“Clark, take your girlfriend home.” She spoke softly, with a wince. “To those people I am nothing but an old college friend.”
Clark took off her glasses and set them on the side table. “Lois, you know you are more than that.” He brushed a lock of her hair off her face.
She reached up to his face, to his glasses.
He placed his hand over hers, stopping her from removing them. “You’ll see him tonight in your dreams.”
She dropped her hand and turned away.
“Clark?” Mayson inquired from the doorway.
Clark turned towards her, again, torn. Mayson needed his protecting, but it was Lois that he wanted to protect. Unfortunately, he knew staying with her wouldn’t save her, and it was someone else she wanted. “Coming.”
“Is she all right?” Mayson asked as he left the room, shutting the door.
“She suddenly felt tired,” he murmured. “She’s had quite a day.”
“We all have.” Mayson took hold of his hand. “Maybe she shouldn’t be left alone. Do you want to stay?”
He kissed her. “I want to be with you. I’ll check on her in the morning.”
Mayson smiled and leaned against his chest. Right answer.
“I can stay with her,” Mr. Olsen volunteered.
“It’s okay. I’ve got a doctor friend who has already agreed to stay with her.”
“That’s probably for the best,” said Perry.
“Excuse me,” said Clark. “I’ll just check to see if he has a key.” He went out the front door.
“Were Clark and Lois close?” Mayson asked Perry, her eyes following him out the door.
“Heavens, no, Mayson. He’s never met her. Clark joined the paper a couple of weeks after she went to the Congo. One of the first assignments I gave him was to go and find her.”
Mr. Olsen chuckled, “Actually, Lucy is a dead ringer for Lois. Even fooled Perry.”
Perry shook his head at Mr. Olsen.
Mayson looked at the sofa where Lucy and Clark had just been sitting and then over her shoulder towards Lucy’s bedroom. She sat back down with a deep breath. “Could you explain that? Why would she…?”
“Back at the beginning of the year, Clark and Lucy had this plan, where she impersonated Lois to see if it would bring out her killers or captors or whatever. It was a shot-in-the-dark theory, really. Anyway, it all came to a head during the mayoral debate, when Superman emerged and was revealed by Tempus to be Clark Kent.”
“Oh, yes, I remember,” Mayson said, covering her mouth with her hand. “That’s right, Lois Lane flew into the debate in Superman’s arms. MNN showed the footage for weeks afterwards. That was her? Lucy, I mean.”
“Then Lois Lane disappeared again after the election. Nobody knew where or why,” Perry said. “Back to the Congo!” He threw up his arms. “Like she would go back there. Well, we know why now. Those of us in the room do, anyways.”
“And what does this have to do with Jaxon and Lex Luthor?”
“Lucy and Clark knew this Lex guy before Clark came to work at
The Planet. Some rich SOB, who they exposed in some articles, who then escaped. Jaxon’s his son. They think he’s spying on Superman, trying to find his weaknesses. Plus, he might know where Lois is.”
“She even told us Lex Luthor ruined her wedding,” Mr. Olsen explained. “As payback.”
“Lucy’s married?” Mayson’s face was a maze of confusion.
Perry and Mr. Olsen jaws dropped as they looked at one another. One shrugged and the other shook his head.
“Well, you should know I met Lex Luthor, three or four years ago, back when I worked for Bill Church of Cost Mart.”
“What?” Clark had returned. “You know Lex Luthor?”
“I met him. Once. A very charismatic man. Well dressed, well schooled, well financed, he owned some property in Atlanta that Bill was interested in developing. He wasn’t married, back then.”
“Was he was based in Atlanta?”
She shook her head. “He had some holdings there, but we met him in...” She thought for a moment. “I want to say Berkistan, but I can’t be sure. This would have been before the war, of course.”
“Bill Church met Lex Luthor in Berkistan to discuss property for a Cost Mart store in Atlanta?” Clark asked, skeptically.
“Bill traveled around the world, because there are Cost Marts around the world. It wasn’t strange to meet business associates in faraway places.”
“OK.” He looked at Perry, who raised his eyebrows. “That’s good to know, Mayson. A lead. Thank you.” He smiled at her. “The doctor has a key and will be here in a few minutes. Why don’t we go? Let Lucy rest.”
Mr. Olsen and Perry nodded. Clark picked up the dishes and leftover food and put them in the kitchen. Mr. Olsen grabbed his jacket and Perry picked up the tabloid and handed it to Clark. Clark tucked it under his arm and shut the door behind them. Mr. Olsen went up to his Penthouse apartment and Perry walked down to the street with them. There was a town car waiting for him.
“Keep in touch, Clark,” he said, shaking his hand. “My door is always open, if you need to talk.”
Clark smiled. “Thanks, Chief. I appreciate that.” He grinned. “Does that include exclusive interviews with the Mayor?”
Perry laughed. “Set those up with my secretary.”
Clark waved as Perry’s car drove off.
Mayson placed a hand on his arm as he went to open the car door. “Tell me again how you know Lucy.”
“Lucy and I worked together on the newspaper at Kansas State.” Clark stood back and x-rayed her car, again. Still no bomb. He opened the door and got in.
“Not an old girlfriend, then?” Mayson asked, getting behind the wheel.
“No.” He laughed. “I was dating Lana at the time. She kept a pretty close eye on me.”
“So, Lucy isn’t the girl who got away?”
“No.” He smiled at Mayson. “She’s just an old friend. That’s all.”
“The way she looked at you…”
“Lucy has never been interested in me, Mayson,” Clark stated, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “There has always been someone else.”
Mayson stared at him for a minute and then started the car.
***
My dearest Clark, my love, my husband. I know today was a long day for you, what with the Wedding Destroyer and our wedding on the hill and time travel and all. I did a little traveling myself today, when you and the younger me wanted to start your honeymoon, I disappeared for awhile. Apparently, if anything happens to the younger me, it erases me from existence. Actually, I disappeared at least three times today. Once with the electrocution, once before Mr. Wells arrived, and once when Lady Loisette married Baron Tempos. It certainly gave my father a fright.
Well, he discovered my secret. He knows I’m not his daughter Lucy. Somehow, Kal convinced him that we needed him and trusted him with our secret. I’m exhausted from all this disappearing and reappearing. Once when I disappeared, I didn’t just fade into nothingness. I believe I traveled back in time, back further than the Fox and Lady Loisette, into a time of fairy tales. I have written down the fairy tale to share it with you. I wonder if it was the first time our souls met and were pledged together forever.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there lived a king and a queen who wanted a child more than anything in the world. Finally, after many years, they were blessed with a daughter. To celebrate this event, they invited everyone in the kingdom to rejoice in the newest member of their family. They also invited the eight good fairies. Each of the good fairies was allowed to give the young princess one gift.
The first fairy granted the princess beauty. The second the gift of song. The third intelligence. The fourth independence. The fifth the gift of storytelling. The sixth loyalty. The seventh fairy gave her the gift of adoration.
Before the eighth fairy could give her gift, the party was interrupted by a ninth fairy, who’s invitation had been forgotten. She placed a curse on the young princess. Upon reaching her sixteenth birthday, the young princess would fall into a deep sleep from which she could never awaken. Then that ninth fairy disappeared, never to be seen in the kingdom again.
The eighth fairy stepped forward. She could not undue the horrible curse which had been placed on the child. Instead with all of her wisdom, she changed the curse. Instead of sleeping forever, she granted the gift to love so deeply and so passionately that just one kiss from her true love would awaken the princess from her endless slumber.
True to the fairies’ words, this princess did indeed grow up with intelligence, beauty, song and story, a fierce independence streak, the best friend anyone could wish for, and was loved by every man who met her. But unfortunately for the young princess, she had never found that one true love that the eighth fairy had promised. Upon reaching her sixteenth birthday, the young princess was bitten by a strange bug and passed into her endless sleep. All of her admirers came and kiss her, but none of the suitors were deemed worthy, for the princess still slept.
Years passed and the princess kept sleeping. Every morning, the queen had her daughter carried into the garden and laid on a bed in hopes that someone would kiss her and wake her up from this spell. Soon, the princess’s presence in the garden was taken for granted, like a fine statue.
After nine years, a knight returning from battle caught sight of the beautiful princess asleep in the garden and he sat down next to her. Every afternoon from that day onward, the knight ate his lunch with the sleeping princess and told her a story from his travels or an amusing anecdote from the town.
The queen kept watch over the garden and saw how the knight thought of her daughter, when others had not. When a sudden sprinkling of rain arrived, he removed his cloak to keep her dry. When the winds blew dry and harsh, he carried the sleeping princess to a sheltered corner where she would not be disturbed. When another man tried to take liberties with her, the knight drew his sword and protected her honor. He was such a noble knight, deserving of her daughter’s love, the queen hoped in vain that he would kiss her and wake her from the horrible curse.
One day, war broke out with a faraway kingdom and the whole castle was in such disarray that the sleeping princess lay forgotten in the garden. In the darkness of the evening, the knight stole through the garden on his way to his quarters. He was deeply saddened that he had not been able to visit the fair princess earlier that day due to readying himself for battle the next morning.
When he found her abandoned in the garden, he knelt beside her and declared his love to her. No longer able to resist the beautiful princess, the knight granted himself one gentle farewell kiss. Her arms encircled his neck and deepened the kiss. Overjoyed that she was awake, the knight carried her directly to the chapel, so that they could be married before he had to leave for battle the next morning. Unfortunately, the chapel was deserted and no cleric could be found to officiate their wedding. Kneeling at the altar, the knight and the princess pledged their love to one another.
The next morning the knight left his bride for battle. No one but the princess knew whose kiss awoke her. The kingdom was overjoyed at the princess’s awakening and once again the suitors returned to claim her hand. She refused all offers, hoping without hope as the days passed that her knight would return to her.
As her belly grew swollen with child, the offers faded away and the princess was hidden away from the eyes of the kingdom. The king and queen begged and pleaded with their daughter to tell them the name of the man who had awakened their daughter’s heart. All she would say on the matter was that they would know him when he returned to officially claim her hand as his face would be the face of their child. Then the daughter gave birth to a daughter as beautiful and gifted as her mother. This time neither a grand banquet nor the good fairies of the kingdom were called.
A year after the birth of the young princess, the knight returned battle-weary and broken, unrecognizable to anyone in the kingdom, but the one woman who had known him just that one night. She saw in his eyes, the eyes of her daughter. In his voice, she heard the voice from a dream who spoke to her daily for a year. The caress of his hand on her face felt like that of only one man, her true love. On his lips, she could taste love’s first kiss. She knew her true love, her husband, even though no one else did.
The king, the queen, the other knights, the nobility, the squires and ladies-in-waiting all begged her to reconsider. This dirty, scarred man with a limp and a wrecked back and a defeated spirit could not possibly be the man who earned her love enough to have broken the curse with his kiss. They flung doubts and shame in her face, but nothing made her change her mind. She knew her love and she would not consider any other. Slowly, she nursed the knight back to health.
One day as he played in the garden with his two year old daughter, he laughed and the queen recognized the knight who had sat telling stories to the sleeping princess all those years ago. The princess truly had found a love so strong and passionate it broke any barrier to impede it. The queen, overcome with joy and love, knelt down in front of the knight and begged his forgiveness. She thanked him for returning to them her beautiful, intelligent, head-strong, willful, loyal to a fault, songstress storyteller of a daughter, who was beloved by all who knew her. For when one finds true love, one can never be lost again.
Good night, my true love. I go to dance with you in my dreams. LL***
Lois walked into the
Daily Planet sucking on her morning smoothie. She was oblivious to the stares she received. She hummed in the elevator as she rode up to the newsroom. Floating past Ralph, she beamed him a “Good morning, boss.”
Ralph dropped his coffee cup as she passed by.
She went to her desk and stopped. It was empty. Cleared of everything, including her computer. That was strange. James was sitting at Jaxon’s computer, so she sat down and rolled over to him. “Good morning, James.”
“Lucy! What are you doing here?”
She swiveled her chair around, so she could look at his screen. “I had the peculiar feeling that I worked here.” She took a long look at her empty desk. “Perhaps I was wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have taken Monday off.”
“No. Of course, you still work here, Lucy. Just not here here. There.” James pointed across the bullpen to Lois Lane’s desk. “Clark wanted you further away from the windows.”
Lois sighed. “What a sweetie. Always thinking of me.” She lowered her voice. “I thought I was supposed to be where I could keep an eye on Jaxon.”
He lowered his voice to match hers. “Jaxon is out on sick leave. Fractured shoulder.”
“Oh, right.” She took a long sip from her straw. “Watcha doing?”
“Looking at you, Lucy. You just amaze me.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Lucy, you were shot on Friday – four days ago – and you came in to work this morning floating on air.”
She smiled a smile so large it couldn’t get any larger. “I had a good weekend.” She sighed.
“Clark said you wouldn’t talk to him… to anyone. That you spent the whole weekend in bed.”
Her huge smile got larger as she sipped her drink, again. “And?”
James cupped his chin looking at her and smiling. “I’ve never seen anyone so happy. You’re glowing.”
“Thanks. What does Clark think about me taking Lois Lane’s desk? Couldn’t have been his idea.”
“How did you… Yes, Ralph said if he wanted you to move that was the only one he’d give you.”
“Poor Clark.” She shook her head. “Ralph gives him such a hard time. It’s because he’s jealous. Clark is much better looking, a much better person, and a much, much, much better reporter.”
“Lucy, are you all right?”
“I’m super.” She smiled.
“’Cause you acting like you’re drunk,” James said with raised brows.
“I am drunk.” She grinned, lowering her voice and leaning closer to him. “On love.”
“Really?” James asked, surprised and, perhaps, a little disappointed. “I thought you didn’t date.”
“I don’t.” Lois sighed and then pulled her chair closer to James. She held a finger to her lips. “Our little secret. You and me. Don’t tell Clark I told you; he thinks it’s best if we keep it quiet.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I’m married.”
James had been leaning so far over to hear her that he toppled right out of his chair.
“Jimmy!”
James jumped up and dusted off his suit. “I thought we agreed on James.”
“Sorry.” She wet her lips. “James.”
“You’re married?” he whispered, swallowing. “Really?”
Lois raised her brows and nodded, taking another sip of her drink.
“I just can’t wrap my head around that, Lucy.” He rubbed his forehead. “To whom?”
“A really super man.” Lois sighed, again.
“SUPERMAN!” James gasped. Then lowered his voice when Clark looked up and glanced around. They ducked. “You mean Clark?”
Lois giggled. “Ah, no. I said
a super man. I didn’t mean
that Superman.”
“Oh.” James chuckled. “After last Friday night, I guess that’s a crazy assumption.”
“If I were married to that Superman, I’d...” She thought about how to finish that sentence for a moment. “How about we just don’t go there?”
“Agreed.”
“How’s he doing?”
“He’s acting like he’s lost his girlfriend, his best friend, and his freedom in one fell swoop.”
Lois grimaced. “Poor Clark. Friday was a pretty bad day for him.”
“If it hadn’t been for the hurricane that hit Haiti, I doubt anyone would have seen even Superman this weekend.”
“Well, it’s good that he got out of his apartment; if he hadn’t been seen all weekend, it would have added fuel to the tabloid fire.”
James nodded in agreement.
“So, you didn’t tell me what you’re doing on Jaxon’s computer.”
He turned back to the monitor. “I’m still trying to piece together what he was up to.”
“I’m yours, if you want me.” She smiled and then realized how that sounded as his jaw dropped. “To help. Sift through the data.”
“Right. Of course. I knew that.” He swallowed. “Maybe you should check in with Clark first.”
Lois was staring at Clark. He was talking to a tall auburn haired woman, whom she could have sworn was “Cat” Grant, if it hadn’t been for the way she was dressed. More stylishly than trashy, but not conservatively either. “Planning on it,” Lois said, standing up. “Before he does something he’ll regret.”
She focused her ears on their conversation. “So, then, it’s a date.”
“Oh, Clark. What have I done?” Lois groaned.
Cat beamed at him with a seductive tease. “So, now I know what it takes to have Clark Kent agree to go out with me.” She laughed. “I’ll be back later to iron out the details.”
Lois slid into the chair next to his desk. “Are you out of your mind? We’re trying to polish your image. Not tarnish it.”
“ ‘Good morning, Clark,’ ” he said, impersonating her. “Good morning, Lucy. ‘I had a great weekend.’ I can see that. ‘What did you do?’ I spent the whole weekend waiting for my best friend to return my calls. ‘I’m sorry, Clark.’ ” He looked her straight in the eyes. “You look like you enjoyed your weekend, Lucy. You’re glowing.”
“I…”
He held up his hand. “Spare me the details. I really don’t want to hear them.”
“OK.” She bit her bottom lip, then she lowered her voice. “If it’s any consolation, we’re great together.”
Clark closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “That’s a detail.”
“I’m sorry, Clark.” She placed a hand on his arm. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I know.” He placed a hand over hers. “Try harder.”
“Yes, sir.” She laughed. “So, what’s this about you asking Cat Grant out?”
“Oh, that’s right. You missed yesterday. Mr. Olsen and Ralph decided to help me on my quest to date as many of Metropolis’s finest single ladies as possible by holding a charity raffle.”
“They’re auctioning you off?”
“Oh, it’s worse than that. The twenty-five largest donations automatically earn a date with Clark Kent and the other twenty-five slots will be drawn at random.”
Lois winced. “I’m sorry. What’s the charity?”
“The Orphans of Metropolis.”
“I thought it might be.” She smiled.
“Fifty dates to fifty events I probably wouldn’t have wanted to go to anyway.” He lowered his voice. “I don’t mind doing events as Superman. Accepting a ribbon here, throwing out a first pitch there, giving a speech here, hammering in the first peg there. I fly in, I do my thing, then I fly out. No one expects Superman to hang out. I still get to have a life. But these things are social parties, society balls, charity events I’m going to these gatherings as Clark Kent, so I’ve got to go for several hours. Shake hands. Schmooze. Do small talk. Listen to all the speeches. Shake more hands. And all with a complete stranger as my date.” He sighed. “At least, it is for a needy cause.”
“Two great causes, if it means the tabloids will leave you alone, eventually… Won’t it be worth it?”
He lowered his voice to lower than a whisper. “That better be the outcome or I’m coming to your dimension and outing Kal.”
Lois grimaced. “You wouldn’t dare.”
He grinned. “Try me.”
“I knew you would hate this idea. I just didn’t know it was the only solution that would come up during our brainstorming meeting. How’s Mayson taking it all?”
“She was stuck at home for the whole weekend, because the tabloid scum parked on her block.”
“What? Frightened of some little reporters?” Lois grinned.
He grimaced. “No. I asked her stay out of sight in case Junior had planned another attempt.”
“Oh. Sorry.” She really was. She wanted this Clark to be happy. Everyone should be as happy as her. “Is she okay?”
“Well, after the ribbing I’m betting she’s getting at work this morning...”
Lois waved off his concern. “She can handle those boys.”
“I had to leap from rooftop to rooftop Saturday morning just to get home.”
Lois raised a brow. “You spent the night? And you gave me a hard time about my weekend.”
“She went to get some wine and find some papers she had on Lex Luthor and by the time she got back I had fallen asleep on her couch.”
“Whoa, back up there, papers she had on Lex Luthor?”
“She’s met him. She used to work for Bill Church of Cost Mart and…”
“Intergang.”
“What?!” Clark’s jaw dropped.
“Bill Church is the head of Intergang. But Mayson’s clean. We vetted her in my dimension.”
“Lex Luthor met Bill Church just over three years ago in Berkistan to discuss selling property in Atlanta for a Cost Mart store.”
“You’re kidding, right? And this didn’t raise any flags for Mayson?”
“She trusts him.”
“Amazing. I’d say she was a bad judge of character, but she likes you.”
“Thank you.”
“She doesn’t like Superman, though. And she doesn’t like me, either, so I guess maybe she is a bad judge of character.” Lois grinned.
“Ha-Ha, Lucy. For a second there I thought you’d actually paid me a compliment.”
“Back up a minute. Berkistan in ’93 was peaceful; then they got a whole slew of illegal weapons and the civil war broke out.”
“Yeah, so?”
“At the same time in the Congo the UN was trading food for weapons, which were then supposed to be destroyed, but only some of those guns got destroyed. Most disappeared. I… Lois Lane almost climbed into a crate of illegal guns being shipped out of the Congo.”
“What stopped y... her?”
“Security. They caught her and deported her back to Metropolis. I doubt they’d let me back in. I… she never found out where they ended up. It could have been Berkistan.”
“So, you think that the guns that disappeared in the Congo are the ones that fueled the civil war?”
She nodded.
“Wait a minute? What year was Lois lost in the Congo?” His eyes had grown huge.
Lois knew he knew the answer to that question, but she rubbed it in just the same. “The same year that Lois Lane went to the Congo. 1993. Right before you, Clark Kent, started here.” Duh.
“Berkistan! Why in the world would I look in Berkistan, when she got lost in the Congo? This is it. This is the missing link.”
“And what were Lex Luthor and Bill Church really doing in Berkistan in ‘93?” Lois asked.
“You don’t think that…?”
“Think what?” She looked at him, curiously.
“That Lex really had anything to do with Lois’s disappearance?”
Lois frowned. “I hope not.”
Hope shown in Clark’s eyes. “Maybe she’s still alive.”
“It could also have been Bill Church.”
“Has he ever shown any interest in you-know-who?”
“Me? No. Church did try to have one of his flunkies extort Sup… Kal. Threaten to kill me or Jimmy or Perry, should he interfere with Intergang’s expansion plans.” She smiled. “It’s a funny story, really. Since Superman couldn’t show his colors in the Westside, he went undercover as a policeman.” She released a deep breath. “I do love a man in uniform.” She looked him up and down.
“What?” he asked hesitantly.
“Maybe you should try it, see if it helps with Mayson’s Superman problem.”
“She doesn’t have a problem. She just prefers me.” He grinned.
Lois leaned closer, lowering her voice. “What you’re forgetting here is, that he’s a part of you. You are…”
WIN A DATE WITH SUPERMAN’S CLARK KENT! Ralph walked up with the blazing headline. “What do you think, Clark?”
“That sounds awful,” he groaned.
“Great! We’ll run with it.” Ralph actually turned and acknowledged Lois. “Good show of work ethic. Don’t let them get you down, researcher.” He walked off.
“Can I throw my smoothie at him?” She growled. “Researcher, ha!”
“Lucy, your cup is empty. And no. What does my friend Lucy tell me when life hits me over the head with bad news? Oh, yeah, life lesson on the house.”
“I did not. I said, suck it up. I told Kal that life lesson thing.” She pouted.
“Really? That’s horrible. What did you do?”
“Me?” Lois batted her eyelashes innocently. “Who said I did anything?”
He raised his brows.
“OK. I stole a Superman story from him. In my defense, Clark Kent is Superman. I just didn’t know it at the time. So, it really was a life lesson for him.”
“You keep telling yourself that,” he said, turning back to his monitor.
“You still haven’t told me why you asked Cat Grant out.”
“You’re jealous!”
“Am not. I just don’t trust her.” She lowered her voice. “His whole first year at the paper, she tried and tried and
tried to get Kal to date her and he said he never did. It made him more attractive that she wasn’t the kind of girl he liked.”
“I didn’t date her my first year here, either, in case you’re wondering. Of course, it helped that I had a steady girlfriend to fall back on. But that didn’t stop her from trying. But I’m not her type anymore.”
“Type? She doesn’t have a type, besides male.”
“She’s changed.”
“Yeah, I noticed the tastefulness. I almost didn’t recognize her.”
Someone walked by with a box of donuts. Lucy jumped up and grabbed a couple. She sat down and Clark looked at her. She sighed and handed one to him.
“Thank you. I didn’t mean her style. After that asteroid almost hit earth, she gave up on men, sex, and the whole dating scene for about a year.”
“What?” Lois coughed.
He took a bite of his donut. She impatiently waited for him to finish chewing.
“She went celibate for about a year, then decided to give up on men altogether.”
“What?” Lois was confused.
Clark held up the invitation. “This is the event we’re going to together.”
“GLAAD’s Annual Ball. What does this… Oh. All together, all together.”
He nodded.
“Wow! I didn’t see that one coming.”
He smiled. “It’s nice to see you speechless every once in a while.”
She batted that comment away with the back of her hand. “Back to that asteroid thing.” She lowered her voice again. “I know I’m supposed to be doing my homework on the history of this dimension and everything, but it’s too recent for the history books. How did you get rid of the asteroid without Superman?”
“You didn’t read my article?” Clark asked, taking another bite of his donut.
“You just wrote it shattered on its own, spreading its debris outward, not towards earth.” She kept her voice low. “Is that true?”
“Man, you do have to know everything, don’t you?” He gazed at her with admiration.
She waited patiently.
“Off the record, Ms. Lane? No.” He grinned.
A smile spread across her face. “Put that on our to-do list. I want to hear the whole story. Off-the-record, of course.”
“Of course.” He picked up another card off his desk. “I’ll tell you the whole story, if you agree to be one of the 1001 dates of Clark Kent. Perry sent over a list of events at City Hall this fall. I’ve got the perfect one, it’s on Halloween…”
“Halloween?” She looked at him and then lowered her gaze, the smile gone from her face. “That’s more than three months away, Clark.”
Clark grabbed her elbow and brought her into the conference room. After the door was shut, he turned to her. “What are you telling me, Lois?”
“The curse is broken. I’m free to go. H. G. Wells could be here any day now to take me home. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, but I don’t have a reason to stay away any longer,” Lois said, looking him in the eyes.
“Oh.” The hope that she had seen in his eyes earlier when they had discussed the possibility of his Lois still being alive flickered, dimmed, and then went out completely. “I understand. You want to go home to Kal. If you were my Lois, I’d want you back, too.”
She winced. “Please, Clark, don’t. I still want to help you find Lois, I do. But Kal needs me.”
“He has the younger… Lois, have you any idea how you are going to convince the younger you to give up being married to Kal and go back to the worst day of her life?”
Lois’s jaw dropped as the fire in her eyes increased. “That’s my life, my time, my husband. We can just take her and drop her back in her old timeslot. No harm, no foul.”
Clark frowned, crossing his arms. “No, you can’t. Because you’re going to need my help to get her back there at that precise moment and I refuse to take her back to that horrific situation unless you can convince her to go willingly. I refuse to do that to you; I’m surprised you would do that to yourself.”
“I don’t need you.” Lois focused her attention directly into his eyes. “I’ll just have my husband take her back.”
But as soon as she said it, she knew her Clark was just as unlikely to send her double back into the past without her consent, either. Did Lois really want her Clark involved in this whole dimensional switch thing, anyway? It was bad enough that they were going to have to explain to him about making the switch, about lying to him. If she could convince this Clark to make the switch, then she could just slip into her dimension like nothing had happened. It was still early in her pregnancy. Her Clark would never need to know everything that had happened when she had made her alternate dimension detour. Never needed to know how she had kissed this Clark when she thought the New Kryptonians had disintegrated him, how she had begged him to make love to her. She needed this Clark to make the switch.
“You don’t need me? Fine.” He turned to leave, but then stopped and his shoulders dropped along with his voice. “Go back to your perfect life with your perfect man with his perfect family. Go ahead, leave me with yet another Lois Lane mess to clean up.”
“Clark.” She reached for him, but he pulled away. “I don’t belong here. Your Lois is out there, somewhere, waiting for you to rescue her.”
He shook his head in defeat. “It doesn’t really matter, anyway. Mayson likes me.”
“But she hates Superman. Lois is your soul mate.”
“And you’re not?” He gazed at her with wide eyes.
“I’m Kal’s soul mate,” she whispered, her voice catching in her throat. “His.”
“Really? Just his?” Clark raised a brow. “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t feel this thing between us.” He gazed at her with a hint of a smile and her heart went flip-flop. Damn his Clark Kent charm.
She was just going to deny it. Lois’s mouth opened and then closed.
Come on, Lane, you can lie to this man, she told herself. Her mouth opened again as she pointed to him, but then closed again as she withdrew her finger.
Lie to him? Why would it be a lie? She asked herself.
Oooh, that man! She glared at him with a mixture of fire and ice in her eyes. She stepped forward and slapped him across the face.
Clark nodded. “Just as I thought.” He turned and left the room.
Lois watched him leave, feeling as if all the joy from her weekend had just been sucked out of her bones. She wrapped her arms around her tummy and dropped into one of the conference room chairs. She stared into space as the tears rolled down her cheeks.
*** The End of Chapter 2 ***
Continued in Chapter 3 – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back***
Comments Chapter 3: Part 1
