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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 8 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 6...“Because you felt guilty for cheating on me by falling in love with him?”
Lois closed her eyes and whispered, “Yes.”
Clark dropped his hands from her arms and spun into his clothes. He picked up his wallet and cell phone from the dresser and the thick book on the loveseat.
“Clark, I love you. I have never stopped loving you. I will always love you. Please, understand that just as I am destined to love you, I am destined to love him, too. All those good qualities that you have, that I love in you, he has too, because he
is you. I fought it, resisted it, the entire time I was there, except for that one night. I set him up with Mayson Drake, made him date fifty women for charity, went out of my way to find his Lois for him, so he wouldn’t be alone… because I knew he wasn’t my soul mate. You are.”
Clark picked up his travel bag and dropped his book inside. He retrieved his toiletries from the bathroom and put them in his small suitcase.
“Clark?”
He zipped around the room, picking up his clothes and other items he had brought with him, filling his suitcase.
“You
wanted the truth, Clark. You
asked me to tell you the truth.” Lois rolled her eyes. “Clark said to tell you that it was his fault. He said he deserved it if you came to his dimension to kick his butt for sleeping with your wife.”
Clark grabbed his suitcase and travel bag and headed for the door.
“Please! Clark. Don’t go.” She fell on her knees. “I’m begging you, Clark. Stay. Let’s work this out.”
He didn’t turn around when he opened the door. “Goodbye, Lois.” Then he shut the door behind him.
Clark could still hear her crying twelve blocks away.
***
Part 7Lois slow danced with Clark, her Clark. He held her in his arms, rocking her back and forth. Slowly, they started to float into the air. He lifted her chin, kissing her lips. “I love you, wife.”
“I love you, husband,” she whispered.
Suddenly, there was a crack of a gun and they fell to the ground. Clark lay there in a puddle of red. Lois looked up from where she sat on the ground and Jason Trask stood in the doorway with a grin on his face.
“Finally, I got you, alien scum,” he said, lifting up the gun and pointing it at her. “I know you’re still partially human, but these Kryptonite bullets will kill the Ultra Woman in you.”
Lois saw the flash of the muzzle, heard the bang and she…Woke up. Once again, Lois was drenched in sweat. She crawled out of the empty bed and walked over to the balcony door. It had swung open from a strong breeze. She had left it unlocked, just in case Clark decided to return. She sighed. He wasn’t returning. She shut the door and locked it, heading back to bed, where she lay in the dark, trying to get that image of her dead husband lying on the living room floor out of her mind.
***
The next morning, Lois returned alone to Metropolis on the bullet train. Clark had never returned to the hotel, not that she really expected him to after he took all his stuff and stormed off. She arrived back at the
Planet just after lunch, typed up the bullet train story – such that it was – and asked Jimmy to turn it in for her. She didn’t think she could face Perry. She could hardly face Jimmy. He asked her where CK was, but then backed off when she looked at him with her dead eyes. Or at least that was what it felt like. Her world felt grey and dark and cloudy, devoid of color without Clark.
Lois knew she had broken Clark’s heart into a thousand jagged pieces; a puzzle too difficult to put back together by even the most accomplished of archaeologists. This pain was what she had hoped to avoid by not telling him. His pain and hers. Instead, her lies had pushed them farther apart. If she had been honest with him at the beginning… told him the truth when she first came back… she closed her eyes. He would have started hating her all the sooner. Clark had said he wanted the truth and then he punished her for telling it to him. Just as she had punished him after she learned he was Superman. Some truths just took time to heal. She hoped this was one of those truths.
After turning in her story, Lois went home. She needed to see her daughter, hold her, remind herself that no matter the pain, it had all been worth it.
Lois was still sitting on the couch holding their daughter when Clark came home that evening. She had tried to talk to him, but he silenced her with one glance. He took Lara out of her arms and upstairs for a diaper change, then brought her back down for a bottle. After their daughter fell asleep in his arms and he put her down in her crib, Lois had hoped that they could finally talk. But he had come back down the stairs, spun into his Superman suit and left out the window without a word.
Lois fell asleep on the couch waiting for him to return, only to discover him fast asleep in their guest bedroom in the middle of the night. When she awoke in the morning, he had already left.
The Chief called them both into his office first thing that next morning. There was only one visitor chair in Perry’s office and Lois took it, her knees weak. Clark stood next to her, his arms crossed.
“What’s going on between you two? I send you out on a romantic weekend to put this whole Superman incident behind you and I don’t get one story on the bullet train, but two. Plus an extra story about a new high school for five thousand students built inside an old mall. Interesting article, Kent, but that’s not why you were sent to Memphis.”
Clark turned around and looked at Perry’s boom box over his shoulder. The box started to smoke.
“Dang nab it! That’s the second stereo in two days,” Perry said, unplugging it with a shake of his head.
Lois could breathe easier without the Elvis music playing as well. Perry’s idea about reprogramming her brain had worked. Only now some of Elvis’s songs reminded her of making love to Clark, her Clark, and all the others reminded her of causing his pain and disappointment in her, of breaking his heart. All Elvis’s songs must remind her husband of her betrayal.
“I had some time on my hands,” Clark replied.
“Time?” Perry gazed at Lois, but she could only look down, ashamed. He glanced between them. “What happened?”
Clark looked uncomfortable, but never gazed her way. “It’s personal, Chief. Between man and wife. You understand, Sir.”
“Of course. Of course. Just don’t let it affect your work.”
“It won’t.” Clark turned towards the door. “If there’s nothing else, sir. I need to work with Barry about covering Superman.”
“Right. Go on, Clark,” Perry said with a nod.
After Clark left the room, her boss sat down on the corner of his desk near Lois. “Lois, Honey. Everything all right?”
Lois swallowed. “No. Apparently, something happened Thursday night and Clark realized that it wasn’t just the one incident in the newsroom.”
“And he changed his mind about forgiving you?”
She nodded. “I thought the romantic ambiance of the hotel had softened his resolve. But on Sunday morning, he insisted on hearing the details of that first incident and after I told him the truth, he left and never returned.”
“Give him time, Lois. He’ll forgive you. I’ve never seen a man more in love.”
Lois shook her head. “I’m afraid my pedestal is broken, Perry.”
“I should send him out to take another swing at Bruce Wayne.” Perry chuckled. “That seemed to do him a world of good.”
“What?” she stammered. He fought Bruce Wayne? Clark didn’t get into tussles with other men. She thought he had stopped himself from going to confront the billionaire.
“Yeah, after you went home, he came back to the office with a nasty shiner and a gash under his eye. Guess it healed over the weekend.”
Lois was on her feet and out the door.
Clark Kent doesn’t get black eyes. He doesn’t get gashes.She looked around the newsroom and found Clark next to Barry’s desk. “I need to talk to you.”
“Not now, Lois. I’m busy.” He brushed her off.
“Yes, now. Clark. This cannot wait.” Lois grabbed his tie and pulled him into the hall by the stairwell. When they were alone, she looked up at his perfect face. “You fought Bruce Wayne?”
He exhaled. “Oh, that. Yeah.”
“Perry said that he gave you a black eye with a gash under it. You didn’t think that was important enough to share with me?”
Clark shrugged. “We both have our secrets.”
“This isn’t about that and you know it. This is something completely different. How did you get a black eye? The gash?”
Clark pressed his lips together and looked away, not wanting to answer her.
Lois grabbed his jaw and turned it towards her. “I am still your wife. I still love you and care about what happens to you. Tell me.”
“It’s not important, Lois. It was stupid of me to go down to his office. It won’t happen again.” He raised a brow as if to imply that he would never feel like defending her honor again. “I’m fine.”
“How am I supposed to help you figure out what he’s up to, if you won’t talk to me, Clark?”
“I don’t need your help, Lois,” he said, shrugging off her hand. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” He walked off, dragging her heart along behind him.
The next few days felt like one never-ending day that just repeated itself over and over. She would try to talk to Clark at work and he would just walk away. At home, he never spoke a word. He was beyond angry. She had crushed his spirit.
Perry was going crazy as well. Every time he put on his Elvis CD, something happened and the new boom box would short out and die. She heard Jimmy suggesting to their editor that it was Elvis’ ghost himself punishing him for causing more pain than pleasure at the office. They had then looked out the windows of Perry’s office at Lois and Clark.
It was clearly true. Every time Lois heard the music she started to cry, and Clark would zap the boom box with his heat vision or just leave the building entirely. She didn’t know how they were ever going to recover from this.
On Friday afternoon, Clark walked up to her desk. She set down her phone and glanced up at him. He wanted to talk. Her heart wanted to sing.
“I’m taking Lara to Kansas this weekend,” he told her.
She smiled. “That sounds great. That’s just what we need to clear the air.”
“I’m not taking you, Lois.”
“Clark, please. Don’t shut me out. We need to move past this,” she said.
He swallowed. “I don’t see how we can, Lois, when you clearly aren’t over him.” Then Clark walked back to his desk.
Lois buried her face in her hands and gave herself forty-five seconds to delve into the pool of self-pity. Then she started flipping through her rolodex. If he wouldn’t talk to her about this, she would have to find someone who would.
***
“Go on,” said Dr. Friskin, putting her fingertips together.
“Then I came home to Clark and it was like we were never apart. Fireworks.” Lois sighed. “But at this time we also found Lara, who we’re trying now to adopt.”
“I would suggest that this isn’t the best time to bring children into your marriage,” said Dr. Friskin.
“As I said, it’s complicated. Lara was left on our doorstep shortly after I returned. Clark and I instantly fell in love with her. We knew she was meant for us even without the note from her parents telling us that she was now our child. Since Clark can’t have children of his own and with our jobs being what they are, we’re considered too dangerous a risk to adopt normally.”
“I bet this has put an extra strain on your marriage.”
“Not really. The strain on our marriage was because of my trip to visit Kal. I never told Clark that I was there, but he had figured out where I was anyhow. He was waiting for me to tell him the truth and I was just trying to forget it. It all came to a head last Friday, when he discovered that Kal and I had been intimate together.”
“How did that make him feel?”
“How do you think? I cheated on him. He felt betrayed and abandoned, like I had stabbed him with … a knife… when he had done nothing but loved me, unconditionally.”
“Go on.”
“We went away together, just the two of us. It was really the only time alone we’d had since we got Lara. I realized that he knew about my visit to Kal and he would never forgive me, until I told him everything about my trip.”
“And did you?”
Lois looked down. “I started to but after I told him about that night with Kal, he left and didn’t come back.”
“I thought he already knew about it.”
“He did know about it. He accused Kal of taking advantage of me since I was drunk. I leapt to Kal’s defense, and that’s when Clark realized that it had been more than sex between Kal and me.”
“Ah.” Dr. Friskin nodded, making a note on her notepad. “So, where do things stand now?”
“Clark won’t talk to me unless forced to at work. At home he doesn’t acknowledge my existence. He has moved into the guest room. Today he told me that he’s taking Lara to his parents for the weekend and he doesn’t want me to come.”
“And how does that make you feel?”
Lois threw up her hands. “Horrible! I just want Clark and me to move on with our lives. I made a mistake by sleeping with Kal and a part of me regrets it. I have never stopped loving Clark and I know he loves me, but he says we can’t move forward, because I’m still in love with Kal.”
Dr. Friskin raised a brow. “And are you?”
Lois stood up and started pacing again. “I don’t know if you believe in soul mates, Doctor. But Clark is my soul mate. We are destined to be together. I love him with every fiber of my being. As Clark’s twin, Kal and I are also fated to be together, but just not in this lifetime. Yes, I still love Kal, but I know it is not meant to be. He has Lucy now and I have Clark. Kal and I love each other, but aren’t as totally in love as I am with Clark or he is with Lucy. It’s like Kal’s my soul mate from another lifetime, one where I’m not in love with Clark and he’s not with Lucy. We weren’t supposed to meet in this lifetime, but since we did we naturally fell in love, even though we aren’t destined to be together.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“You have no idea.”
“So, what do you think you should do about it?” Dr. Friskin asked.
Lois sighed, dropping back on the couch. “I have no idea. I was hoping you could help me with that.”
Dr. Friskin opened her agenda and flipped a page. “How about you spend the weekend brainstorming ideas and we’ll meet again Monday morning at eleven?”
Lois nodded. “OK. It’s not like there’s anything else for me to do this weekend.” She buried her face in her hands.
***
Clark landed by the steps of his parents’ front porch. Lara was strapped to his chest in a snuggly, a blanket covering her. She had slept most of the trip, a natural flier. He opened the front door and called to his mom.
“Upstairs, Clark,” she replied.
He carried Lara and her suitcase upstairs. “Mom, have you figured out where we should put her? I could get the old crib from the basement.”
His parents were standing at the top of the stairs. They looked like they had seen a ghost.
“Is something wrong?” Clark asked.
“This…” his mom said, turning the knob of his old bedroom and letting the door open.
His old bedroom had been magically transformed. It was now a bright yellow with a blue ceiling. His old dresser had been painted a light green. An airplane mobile hung from the ceiling over a crib. There was a changing table and a soft, fluffy rug in the middle of the floor. Farm animals were painted all along the edge of the baseboards. The old rocking chair had been moved up from the basement as well. There was a bookcase of his old children’s books and his old toy box was there, too.
“Wow, Mom, Dad. This looks terrific.” He grinned at them.
“Clark. You didn’t do this, then?” his mom asked.
“No. This is all you,” he said, setting down Lara’s suitcase on the toy chest. He unbuckled his daughter from his chest and lay her down in the crib. Then he shut the door and hugged his folks. “You’re the best.”
“Clark, are you sure we did this?” his dad asked.
“Well, I certainly didn’t. It’s a surprise to me.”
“It’s a surprise to us, too. After you called, we went to clean up the room and we found it like that.”
Clark jogged down the stairs. “You must have done it before you had your memories wiped,” he called.
His parents followed him down the stairs. “Clark. I thought the Bummer-B-Gone only got rid of our bad memories?” his mother asked.
“Let’s have a cup of tea,” suggested Clark.
His father looked around. “Where’s Lois, son?”
Clark sighed. “She’s not coming.”
“What? Not coming for the Fourth of July?” asked his mom. “Why not?”
He sat down at the table as his mother set the kettle on the stove. How was he going to explain what was going on with Lois to his folks without making them hate her? He still loved Lois, but he just couldn’t be around her. Being around her reminded Clark that she had been intimate, more than intimate with the other Clark. Just thinking about what she told him upset his stomach.
“Does it have to do with that lie she told you?”
Clark nodded.
“She has never been as honest as you, Clark. Nobody is.”
True. “It’s more complicated than that, Mom.”
“What baby did we forget, Clark?” his dad asked.
“Lois and I had been discussing our options recently and I guess you went crazy, before Dr. Klein told us I couldn’t have children of my own.” He didn’t really feel like talking about Lois’s trip to the other dimension.
“You not being able to have children, I could see forgetting that.” His dad nodded.
“Clark, you told me that Lara was biologically your baby. That she talked to you telepathically. This was before you learned about the other Kryptonian babies. Did we know she was coming?”
Clark sighed. “Yes, Mom. You knew. You told me.”
“I did?” The kettle whistled and slowly she stood up to retrieve it. “How did I know before you did? Does this have something to do with last summer? When I came to visit Lois?”
“Something.” Lois still hadn’t filled him in on all the details. Mr. Wells had arrived, told her about the curse and suggested she go to the other dimension until they could resolve the curse problem. There was still so much about her year over there he didn’t know.
His mom filled up the mugs of tea and passed them out, before sitting back down. She shook her head. “I really don’t remember. I’ve been trying. Clark, when did Lois go visit the other Clark to help him find his Lois?”
He practically spit out his tea. “What? You remember that?”
“No. Lois told me about it. Was it after the two of you visited last December?”
“They visited last December?” Jonathan asked with a glance at Martha.
“You remember that, Mom?” he asked, surprised.
“Vaguely. I have an image in my head of her in this huge sweater and a smile on her face. She seemed happy about something.”
“Yeah. That was her.” He smiled. She was so sexy pregnant. “Lois told you about going to help Clark find his Lois?” Why would she tell his mom about that?
“Yes, she wanted to help him, because the poor man had fallen in love with another man’s wife. A pregnant one. She felt bad for him, being alone and all.”
Clark covered his face his hand.
She felt bad for him. He scoffed with a shake of his head. He stood up. “I’m going to chop some firewood.”
“Clark, it’s almost July, son. We won’t be needing firewood for quite a while.”
“I know, Dad. I just feel like doing something.” Hitting something was more like it. When was this feeling ever going to go away?
***
Monday morning, Lois came into the office early and set a new boom box and an Ella Fitzgerald CD on Perry’s desk. She hoped he took the hint. She couldn’t go another day with Elvis playing in the background. If she never heard his music again, it would be too soon. She was at her desk with a coffee and donut when Jimmy came in.
“Good morning, Lois. What are you doing here so bright and early this morning?”
She sighed. How could she tell him that she couldn’t stand being alone in that empty house another minute? Clark promised to bring Lara back right before Penny arrived this morning and the thought of breakfast alone again upset her stomach. “Early bird catches the worm, Jimmy.”
“OK. Hey, did you see that folder of photos of those names from the Alexandra Luthor file I came up with?”
She looked around her desk. “No. Where is it?” Something to distract her from Clark. Anything.
“Oh, I must have set it on CK’s desk,” he called, heading for his desk.
Lois slowly got up and moved over to Clark’s desk. She hadn’t been over to his desk in over a week. It felt like no-Lois-land to her. She saw his framed photo of her and Lara and she picked it up. She had missed her daughter so much this weekend. But she couldn’t deny him the opportunity to spend a weekend alone with their daughter after all she had put him through. She was kind of surprised that it remained his photo of choice on his desk. Perhaps a part of him still loved her. She sighed, starting to search his desk. She found the folder and returned to her desk, flipping it open. Slowly, she went through the photos to see if any of the faces seemed familiar.
Lois glanced up to see Clark enter. She sighed. She missed him bringing her coffee in the morning. She missed seeing him smile. His wacky ties. His sense of humor. Everything. She missed everything about her husband. As he passed by, she caught his eye. “How was your weekend?”
“Good.” He nodded. “Relaxing.”
“I’m glad.” Lois went back to the folder, stopping at one of the photos. She walked up to Clark’s desk, more out of habit than anything else. “Clark.”
“What is it, Lois?” Clark snapped.
She raised a brow. So much for his relaxing weekend.
“I just wanted to ask if this photo reminded you of someone we know?” She held up a photo of Mindy Huckaby.
He glanced at it. “That’s Mindy Church, the dizzy blonde that Bill Church married. What about her?”
“According to this, that is a photo of one Mindy Huckaby, nursing student.”
“Huckaby, you mean like Luckaby… like Alexandra Luthor?”
Lois nodded. “She’s also blonde and gorgeous, if I recall. I never liked her. ‘Pookey.’ Ugh. I always thought she took over Intergang after framing Bill Church and son for trying to blow up the museum and then again after Church, Jr. kidnapped Perry and before you got sick...”
“I could kiss you!” Clark said, before he could stop himself. “I mean…”
“Actually, the photos came from Jimmy’s research. He’s first in line for your kiss.” Lois turned around and walked back to her desk. A smile crept to her lips for a moment before she removed it. Her husband still loved her. There was hope.
Clark had followed her back to her desk. “Lois, I…”
“Lois Lane!” Perry called.
“Excuse me, Clark.” Lois darted off before he had a chance to say he would never kiss her. She didn’t need to hear that. Not now.
“Yes, Perry?” she asked, sticking her head in her editor’s office.
“What’s this?” he asked, pointing at the boom box.
Lois smiled. “I felt I needed to replace the one I broke, Perry.”
“What’s with the Ella Fitzgerald, Lois? Don’t you like Elvis anymore?” He raised a brow towards her.
“I just thought we could broaden your musical horizons. Anyway, you’ll like this. It’s not rock ‘n roll, but give it a try.” She came back out and almost literally bumped into Clark. Had he followed her to Perry’s office?
“That was nice of you,” Clark said.
“Why does it surprise people that I’m a nice person?” she replied. He was standing too close. God, he smelled good. She scooted around him and tried to get back to her desk.
“I was thinking we could have lunch today and talk.” Clark was in front of her again.
Lois wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him. She was sick of talking. Lunch with Clark would be… Oh, crap, she had that appointment with Dr. Friskin. “I’m sorry, Clark. I’ve got a dentist appointment today. We can talk at dinner, though.”
His brows came together. “Dentist? Didn’t you just go two months ago?”
“Technically, no. It’s been over a year.” She should really see if she could move up her next appointment.
“Oh, right.”
“They really need it. I couldn’t brush my teeth for months. Just the thought of toothpaste made me sick those first few months. Excuse me.” She dodged around him and went back to her desk.
He stared after her, then followed, sitting down next to her desk. “What else?”
She raised a brow. “We should see what else we can find out about Mindy Huckaby, aka Mindy Church. Do you want to do the early stuff or the ‘what’s she been up to lately’?”
“Lois. I feel like I don’t know you anymore.”
“I’m still me, Clark. A few more bumps and bruises and scars, but still me. Still the woman you fell in love with all those years ago.”
“No, you’re not. Something inside of you is gone. Your zest. Your zeal. Your zip.”
“Deary me. Where could I have placed my three z’s?” She looked under a couple of folders on her desk. “Oh, yeah. My husband doesn’t trust me anymore. I have a daughter I can’t claim as my own. A year of experiences I cannot share with anyone. Memories swimming around in my head like pea soup. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Clark, I have work to do.” It was just like him. Wanting only to talk on
his terms. Where had
he been all weekend when she was more than willing to talk? Oh, yeah, Kansas. He was cranking up her anger knob.
“Why are you pushing me away, Lois?”
“
I’m pushing you away?” Her anger flared. “That’s rich, Clark. I told you I’m sorry. I told you that I love you. That I want to move forward past this. I told you the truth even when I knew you couldn’t handle it. I even got on my knees and begged you to stay. What more do you want from me, Clark?” She knew she was melting down in the newsroom again, but she couldn’t control herself when she was this livid. At this point, she didn’t care what anyone other than Clark thought of her.
He stared at her, clearly without an answer.
Lois scoffed with a shake of her head. “When you figure that out, let me know.” She shooed him away.
“What are you so angry at me for?” he asked, soft as a hiss, standing up. “You’re the one who betrayed me, remember?”
Lois closed her eyes. She had no idea why she was angry. Then something flashed into her head and she spoke it without thinking, “You haven’t asked me one question about our daughter. Not one.” She covered her mouth after she said it. She hadn’t meant it. The look of pain that shot across his face told her that her barb had hit its mark. He backed away from her and returned to his desk without another word.
Needless to say, Lois wasn’t surprised when Clark didn’t come home for dinner. She didn’t know if the mudslides in Southern California really needed his help or if he was once again avoiding her.
*** End of Part 7 *** Comments
