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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 8 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 4...She laughed. Between cars, he took her in his arms and kissed her. She willingly, gladly accepted them.
“I love you, Clark Kent. And only you,” she whispered.
Clark looked up and around. “It’s that Superman fellow I’m worried about. Do you think he followed us? I hear he’s been having an illicit affair with my wife.” He let go of Lois and continued on to the next car.
Perry. Perry had told him what she had told her boss in confidence. That she had kissed Superman under the influence of ‘
Revenge.’ Lois closed her eyes and winced. It hurt that her husband knew. It was loud between cars and Lois could hardly hear Clark, enhanced hearing and all. So, she decided to take a chance and whispered, “It was only the one time, Clark.”
It felt so good to say those words, to finally get them off her chest. Lois felt like a huge boulder was taken off her back.
Clark turned around and looked at her with shock from inside the next car. He had heard her. The hurt in his eyes felt like a knife puncturing her lungs. He looked away and continued through the next car, leaving her standing there alone.
***
Part 5They arrived at the Hotel Teddy Bear at ten o’clock that night. Clark had hardly spoken another word to her for the rest of the journey. He couldn’t think of anything to say. She had cheated on him. She admitted it. Not in so many words and not to his face. He loved her so much that this betrayal burned through him like Kryptonite. He felt numb again. They walked up to the counter, tired and exhausted and ready to sleep.
“Mr. and Mrs. Kent,” he said, handing over his driver’s license.
“Ah, our honeymooners,” the man behind the front desk beamed at them.
“Honeymooners?” Clark asked. Oh, God. Did Perry reserve them the honeymoon suite?
“Just sign here.”
Clark signed.
“Here are your keys. Top floor.” Actual keys with teddy bear key chains. Quaint. “Do you need help with your bags?”
Lois shook her head adamantly. She remembered the bellhop from their stay at the Lexor hotel.
“No. We can manage,” he replied.
The front desk clerk pointed the way to the elevators. Clark nodded and picked up his small bag, leaving Lois and her two bags behind.
“A little help here, please, Clark.”
Clark glanced back at his wife, but then continued on. He didn’t really feel like helping her. She could manage. He heard her grab her bags and drag them to the elevator.
“Clark, please.”
He rolled his eyes with a sigh and pushed the door open button, allowing her into the elevator with him.
“Thank you,” Lois said, dragging her suitcases inside.
When the elevator arrived on the top floor he picked up her bags with his, more out of habit than any other reason, and trudged down the hall to their room.
“Thank you, Clark.”
Clark opened the door to their room and threw their bags inside. Then he turned around to face her. “Do you need a lift, Mrs. Kent?”
Lois smiled expectantly.
“Tough,” he replied, entering the room and leaving her out in the hall.
***
Lois closed the door behind her and came to stand next to him. The room was a federal disaster. It made the honeymoon suite at the Lexor seem high class. There was a red heart shaped tub. A pink sleigh bed, with rose petals in the shape of a heart on the silk cover, was wedged into a little alcove. A lavender love seat faced a guitar-shaped coffee table. A huge portrait of The King loomed over a fireplace. A dining table for two overlooked the balcony. It was all in one room, not really a “suite” kind of honeymoon suite. The shower was glass-enclosed, no privacy. At least there was a separate room for the toilet.
“It must have changed since Perry and Alice stayed here,” Lois said, breaking the silence that filled this room. Well, it wasn’t completely silent. The soft sounds of Elvis music permeated the whole room. This was why they had come here. To listen to Elvis and to make love, erase the other Clark from her mind. She would at least still get to listen to Elvis. Great.
“I believe it’s my turn for the bed, since you got it both nights at the Lexor,” said Clark. “You can sleep on the sofa this time.”
“There isn’t a sofa, Clark. We’ll have to share the bed.”
He looked at her with a raised brow. “We can fill up the bathtub with pillows.”
“Fine. I’m going to take a shower,” she said, starting to take off her clothes. “It’s been a long day and it looks like it’s going to be an even longer night.”
Lois took a long hot shower, hoping he would eventually break down and join her. But she had caused him too much pain. He wasn’t going to forgive her any time soon. She stepped out of the shower and rubbed her hair and body dry. Then she pulled on the skimpy nightie she had brought, thinking that this was to be a romantic weekend.
Clark had filled the bathtub with all the throw pillows around the room. It was practically overflowing. He was lying in the bed, eyes closed, pretending to be asleep. Lois knelt down beside the bed and took hold of his hand.
“I know you will never forgive me, Clark. I could use the thousand and one excuses out there to convince you otherwise, but I won’t. I’m not proud of what I did and I have regretted it every day since. Dreading what would happen if you ever found out.” Lois swallowed. “I came to Memphis to try to erase him from my life once and for all. But you are bound and determined that I never forget.” She stood up, letting go of his hand. “If it means anything, I never stopped loving you and I never will, even if you do throw me out with yesterday’s trash.”
Lois walked over to the heart shaped bathtub and stepped down into the pillows and tried to sleep. She didn’t know how long she lay there, before he walked over and pulled her out and carried her over to the bed. She watched him slide into the bed next to her.
“I want to forgive you,” he said. “Tell me one of the excuses.”
Lois shook her head. “No, I promised myself never to try to get out of what I did. I deserve any punishment you dole out.”
“You did the crime, so now you must serve the time?”
“Something like that.”
“Can you just answer me why?” her husband whispered.
“No, Clark. Any of the why’s I came up with just sound like excuses. Hurting you was inexcusable and I refuse to try.”
“Oh.” He wiped a lock of her hair from her forehead. “Good night, Lois.”
“Good night, Clark.”
***
The sun was already up in the sky when Clark woke up. Lois was still asleep in his arms. He still loved her. He tried to hate her, but it just didn’t work. But he didn’t want to forgive her. He wanted her to suffer, but then he remembered what Star had told him.
She was in a black hole, don’t let her suck you in. Lois had been punishing herself since Lara was born and she still punished herself when she returned here. He missed his wife. And he feared the only way to get her back was to forgive her. He sighed.
That flimsy nightie she was wearing was extremely sexy. He ran his fingers down her arm and back up again. There on her right shoulder was a small round scar, almost the size of a cigarette burn. It was the same scar he vaguely remembered seeing on her shoulder when the dream Lois visited him. This was her, his missing Lois. He had officially reached one hundred percent. No doubts left. How come he didn’t feel like celebrating?
Clark kissed her shoulder. “Oh, Lois, what happened to you? Why won’t you talk to me?” He realized he couldn’t stop with that one kiss. He kissed her shoulder again, then up her neck and then her lips. She moaned, but not with desire… well, except the desire to sleep some more… and rolled onto her side facing the wall. He continued to kiss her shoulder and noticed a similar scar on the back side of her shoulder. He returned her to her back.
“Lois?” Clark asked. “Who shot you?”
“Junior,” she murmured and rolled back on her side.
“Who?” he gasped.
“Lex’s son.”
Clark sat up and put his feet over the side of the bed. Lois had been shot? He buried his face in his hands. What else happened to her? First, he had thought she had had a pleasant vacation of a year’s duration in the other Clark’s dimension. Her stomach growing round with Lara. Relaxing. Okay, maybe not resting; Lois didn’t know how to relax. She had been working as Clark’s research assistant, Lucy. But she had been shot. What other hardships had she endured? Besides cheating on him?
Most of the time Lois had been gone, he hadn’t even known she was missing. He had his substitute Lois here. All she had was the other Clark. She said she only slept with him once. Only once in the whole year? How many times had he slept with the substitute Lois in that time? True, the substitute Lois was technically still her from earlier in the time. The other Clark wasn’t him. Well, it was him, only it wasn’t. It was as if she had made love with his twin brother. Oh, he couldn’t think about this. It made his head throb.
Lois must still be lying; it must have been more than once. How could it have been only the one time? She mentioned before, how she missed sleeping with his red cape covering her. So, they had been together in bed more than that one night. Clark had known then, but he hadn’t wanted to think about it. He had pushed that thought to the back of his mind, hoping beyond hope that he had been wrong. How was he ever going to trust her again? He sighed, standing up. He found one of the hotel’s robes in the closet and pulled it on.
Digging through his travel bag, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed.
“
Hello?”
“Hi, Mom,” replied Clark, stepping out onto the balcony. He needed to feel the sun on his face.
“
Clark! How’s Memphis? Are you and Lois having a good time?”
He didn’t want to tell his folks about Lois’s infidelity. It would bring up too many issues he really didn’t want to discuss.
“
Clark? Is everything all right?”
“No, Mom. I found out that Lois lied to me and… and… I can’t forgive her.”
“
Oh, I’m sorry, Clark. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. That’s not why I called.” It felt good to talk to his mom. She always understood him better than anyone. “Lara got a paper cut.”
“
Oh, sweetie. Is she okay?”
“Penny said it healed right up, but, Mom, she bled.”
“
It happens, Clark.”
“Did it happen to me?”
“
Well, no, Clark, but remember you’re special.”
“Lara’s special, too, Mom.” He couldn’t believe that the trait he had most wanted for his daughter to inherit as part-Kryptonian, his invulnerability, was the one trait he could not pass on to his child.
“
Of course she is, Clark. She’s special in a completely different way. Maybe it will take her longer to develop a thick skin like yours.”
“Maybe she’ll never develop one,” he whispered, looking out at the view. Their hotel was next to a park and this balcony overlooked trees instead of streets. It was pleasant.
“
Maybe not. The hardest part, I hear, of parenting is learning that your child is fragile, breakable. I, luckily, never had to learn that lesson until we found out about Kryptonite. We had different problems to overcome with you.”
“You mean me bench pressing the truck.”
She chuckled. “
Yes, there was that one.”
“Thanks, Mom. You always know what to say to make me feel better.”
“
Talk to Lois. There has to be a reason she lied to you. I know she loves you.”
He sighed. Lack of love wasn’t the problem. “I’ll see if she’ll open up to me, Mom. It’s complicated.”
“
Are you coming out next weekend? I miss my grandbaby.”
“I miss you, Mom.” He took a deep breath. “We’ll see. Let’s survive this weekend first, okay.”
“
OK. Bye, Clark.”
Clark closed his phone, slipping it into the pocket of the robe. He didn’t want to go inside. The sunshine felt so good. He wished it healed emotional trauma as well.
He heard her moving around inside the room, but he couldn’t face her yet. He wasn’t ready to hear more of her lies.
Lois came to the door and leaned against it. “I ordered us some breakfast. I thought we could talk. You deserve the truth.”
She was still wearing that skimpy nightie. His mind flashed on an image of her standing in the doorway to his bedroom at the Clinton apartment in that negligee the night they got married. The real night they got married. God, she was always so sexy. He swallowed. “You need a robe.”
“What? You don’t like this old thing?” Lois smiled, her hands on her hips.
Clark zipped inside, took the pink robe from the closet, put it on her and was back on the balcony seven seconds later.
“Thanks.”
“Did you think you could seduce me into trusting you again?” he asked, his brow raised. Inside his chest, he still felt numb.
His wife shrugged, sitting down at the table. “I hate that you’re mad at me. The one constant in my life over the last year was that I knew that you loved me and that you’d always love me.”
“Is that why you did it? Because you thought I’d forgive you anything?”
Lois winced as if he had struck her. He hated causing her pain, but this burning in his chest hurt too much for one person to endure alone.
She stood up and started pacing in front of the balcony doors. “Okay, yes. I had sex with the other Clark. Is that what you want to hear?”
No, actually, that wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He wanted it all to go away.
“You felt the pull toward his Lois that day you brought her back from here. You lasted what, two hours?” Lois scoffed. “Try living with that pull for days, weeks, months. Resisting someone who looked and sounded and smelled like the person you loved, but wasn’t. I had a moment of weakness. Yes.”
Clark stepped inside and held onto her arms, stopping her pacing. “It wasn’t just a moment, though, was it?”
She looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“You let him into your bed more than just that one time, didn’t you?” Clark let go of her and went across the room. He couldn’t look at her.
“No, Clark. We only had sex that one time. We both knew it was wrong and it never happened again.”
He shook his head. “Still sticking with that story, are you?”
“It’s the truth!”
“You lived with the guy for almost a year, Lois. And you expect me to believe it only happened just the one time.” Clark looked at her incredulously.
“I didn’t live with him for more than that first week,” Lois murmured, sitting back down at the table. “He wanted me to, but I couldn’t. I knew it was a recipe for disaster.”
Clark sat down across from her. “Where did you live?”
“In the other Lois’s apartment. Perry had kept on paying the rent, hoping she would return someday.”
“Oh.” A little dust particle of weight lifted off his chest. “But you still slept with the guy on numerous occasions.”
Lois threw up her hands, standing up, pacing again. “No! Clark.”
“I know you’re lying.”
“I’m not,” she pleaded with him with both her eyes and voice. “Please, believe me.”
“Why should I? Lois, you told me that you missed sleeping under my cape. You said it always comforted you, always helped you sleep. I have never slept with you as Superman. Not once.”
His wife froze, her eyes squeezed shut in pain. She swallowed. “Clark comforted me a few times, when I was distraught. I may have cried myself to sleep, wrapped in his cape. But that was just sleep. Not sex.”
Clark’s brows came together. “Distraught about what?” There was so much that she hadn’t told him.
Lois bit her lip and took a deep breath. “When you were disintegrated by the New Kryptonians for one.”
“Distraught about me? I was in another dimension from you. What happened here happened in your past.”
She sat back down. “I have all of my stand-in’s memories. I knew everything that was going on in this dimension, because I lived it every night in my dreams. It didn’t feel like the past to me; it felt like I was living two lives.”
Taking her hand in his, Clark realized how difficult her year had been. It explained why she felt like she had been married two years; she lived two years during the course of one. He had thought she had been all alone, except the other Clark, in his dimension. But she had had him, her Clark, in her dreams. He hadn’t left her completely alone.
Lois was staring at their linked hands, a tear dripping down her cheek. He reached over and wiped it away. She grabbed his hand, holding it against her face. She gazed at into his eyes. “Clark, I…”
A knock at the door interrupted her. Clark went to stand up, but she didn’t let go of his hands. He sat back down, staring at her. “I love you, Clark.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I know.” Then he went to answer the door.
The waiter rolled the cart of food into the room, giving the tub full of pillows an extra glance. “Hard night?” he whispered to Clark.
Clark glanced over at the tub. “Safety hazard. The Mrs. sleepwalks.”
“Oh.” The waiter nodded, accepting the tip and leaving.
Lois looked at him. “Clark Kent, you lied to that waiter.”
He grinned, sheepishly. “It was none of his business.”
***
Clark lifted the lid on the first serving dish. “Pastrami on rye, yours.”
They had been talking since breakfast and it was now lunch. Well, she had been talking. Her voice felt hoarse. She didn’t want to talk any more. But Clark hadn’t forgiven her yet. She wondered when he would. She knew that come Christmas, they would still be together and that gave her hope. How she was ever going to get him to trust her again, she didn’t know. Everything would be normal again, someday. Well, normal for them.
He opened his platter. Fish and chips. “So, what was the best thing about living in the other dimension?”
Clark was a sponge, his thirst for knowledge insatiable. He wanted to know everything.
Lois took a sip of her lemonade. She thought about that. There was so much sadness in the other dimension, it was difficult to pick a good thing. Finally she chose something. “That Lex Luthor wasn’t the benefactor of Metropolis. I went months without being reminded of him. LexComm is MetComm. Luthor News Network is Metro News Network.”
Clark bit into a French fry. “We take it for granted, I’m almost blind to it now. That must have been strange.”
She nodded. “In a good way. It was nice to forget about Lex for a while.”
“But he’s still alive there, right?”
Lois shrugged. “Last I heard.” He had been arrested as an accomplice in the kidnapping of James Olsen.
“You didn’t…” Clark pressed his lips together.
“Didn’t what?” She raised a brow at him. He better not be implying what it sounded like he was implying.
“Interact with Luthor, did you?” he finally finished.
Lois released a breath of relief, but her hand paused as she raised a chip to her mouth. “Once or twice.” Or four or five times.
Clark shook his head. “Lois.”
She sighed. Complete honesty, right. She put the chip into her mouth. “When we realized that Lex was holding the other Lois hostage, I tracked him down in Singapore and called him to set up an interview with the other Clark.”
“So, you just talked to him on the phone that one time?” He seemed almost relieved.
“Then he kidnapped me before Christmas…” Lois thought for a moment. “Christmas Eve, I guess it was.”
Clark froze. “Lex kidnapped you?”
She shrugged. “He thought I was his wife… The other Lois.”
“When he realized you weren’t, he let you go?” her husband guessed, hopefully.
Lois took a bite of her sandwich and shook her head. “I escaped.”
“If he had realized you were carrying Superman’s child…”
“Save your breath, the other Clark already read me the riot act. I wasn’t allowed to leave the apartment without police escort for a month.”
“Police escort?” Clark was impressed.
“Yeah, well, Mayor White set it up. Poor Lois was practically under house arrest for her protection. She was going nuts. That’s why she cut her hair and impersonated me… to escape.”
“How can you be so casual about this?” he asked.
“Well, for one, I lived through it already. And secondly, living there was completely surreal. It was like living in Jaxon’s virtual world for a year.” Lois took a sip of her drink.
“That sounds like hell.”
She smiled, reaching across the table to him. “It was. You weren’t there.”
Clark moved his hand away. “But
he was there. Do you know how much it kills me, hearing you? Clark this. Clark that. And know you aren’t talking about me.”
Lois dragged her hand back with a sigh, her smile gone. She pushed her plate away, no longer hungry. “I need some fresh air. I’m going to get dressed and go for a walk.”
He grabbed her wrist. “Is that all?”
Lois looked down at his hand and then back to his eyes. “No. That’s not all.” When he didn’t let go, she pulled her hand away. “I need a break.”
She had taken a shower the night before, so she pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top. She threw her wallet, cell phone, and teddy bear keys into a smaller purse. He hadn’t moved. Obviously Clark could use a break, too… from her.
“Do me a favor and don’t get mugged. Superman won’t come to your rescue.”
Lois winced and took another deep breath with a nod as she headed for the door.
As she put her hand on the knob, her husband continued. “It’s nothing personal, Lois. Perry told Superman last night that if he showed up in Memphis this weekend, he would publish the story about your affair.”
Lois leaned her head against the door for a moment, then turned back around to him. “What did Perry tell you… him?”
“He said he knew about the affair.”
“I never said ‘affair’,” she interrupted.
Clark rolled his eyes. “Fair enough. Perry said the initial incident was you spilling ‘
Revenge’ perfume on yourself right before I stopped by. That you had been listening to Elvis music at the time, so every time you hear his music now, you thought me… him.”
Lois nodded. “That’s what I told him.”
“You still haven’t told me what happened.”
Her hand on the knob, she looked back at him. “Stop torturing yourself, Clark. You and I both know you don’t want to hear the details.” She opened the door and left the room.
“Not knowing is worse, though,” he murmured.
***
Lois walked around the park next to the hotel. She looked in the shops up and down the street. She stopped and got herself an ice cream cone. Nothing helped. This hole in her heart ached constantly. She didn’t want to hurt Clark. She loved him. She hadn’t told him, because she knew it would hurt him… and her, him knowing. But keeping the knowledge to herself wasn’t any better. She wished he would forgive her already.
If she could go back in time and change things, never make love to the other Clark… Lois sighed. No. She would do it all over again. That was the problem. It wasn’t just the sex. It was the intimacy that she felt for the other Clark. That was why her husband wouldn’t forgive her. There in Clark’s subconscious, he knew there was more than just the sex. She sighed. This wasn’t going to go away overnight.
Two hours later, Lois returned to an empty room. Clark had gone out. Was he looking for her? She hoped so, but she doubted it. He would have found her. She called Penny and checked on Lara and found out that Clark had called recently, too. Jimmy knew something was up. Why weren’t they together? She didn’t know if Clark had said something to him. She hoped Clark hadn’t told Jimmy the truth, that she had done more than kiss Superman. Their friends didn’t need to know. Lois wished she had a best friend she could turn to, but Clark was her best friend. She had no one else. The sad thing was, the next runner-up to her husband, was the other Clark.
The room had been cleaned while she was walking. Maybe that’s why Clark went out. All the throw pillows were put back in their proper places. She shrugged. Why, not? What else was she going to do this weekend? Obviously making love to Elvis music was off the agenda.
Lois found a bottle of bubble bath in the bathroom and poured the entire little bottle into the tub as the water filled it up. When the bubbles reached the top of the tub, Lois slipped in. Oooh, that felt good. All it was missing was a glass of champagne and a box of chocolates and her husband. She closed her eyes and listened to the constantly playing Elvis music wafting through the room. Lois heard a key in the lock and she sunk lower under the bubbles.
*** End of Part 5 *** Comments
