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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 9 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Part 3Lois typed away on her story, wishing the strange looks from her co-workers would just stop. How many of them made a wide berth around her desk, now? OK, so she had had a loud meltdown at work again. But that was par for the course for her, wasn’t it? Sure, usually her diatribes were in defense of Superman – and that latest breakdown had been about Clark. A dream about Clark as far as anyone, but them, knew.
She put a hand to her head. What was wrong with her? When was she going to be herself again? She needed to focus her energies so her life from the other dimension didn’t ruin her life in this one.
Lois glanced over to Clark’s desk. He had run out of there, loosening his tie, about ten minutes before. She hoped he would be back soon.
It had worried her when she started spouting off about how the other Clark and Ultra Woman had treated her, but she couldn’t stop. Did her husband think she was being jealous of the other Clark’s attentions on his new girlfriend? There had been some of that, but if her Clark had caught a whiff of it, he had been kind enough to let it pass. She sighed, thinking again how she was the luckiest woman in the world.
Perry walked out of his office with another man. “Oh, Lois. Where’s Clark? I wanted the two of you to meet…”
Lois turned around. “Mr. McTinney!” She gasped, her head spinning.
No! Not the man who had become Editor-and-Chief of the Daily Planet in the other dimension.The man grinned, flattered at her knowing his name, and stretched out his hand. “You can call me, Gareth.”
“Lois is one of our best investigative reporters.”
“She needs no introductions, Mr. White.”
Lois smiled, politely, shaking his hand.
Hold your tongue, Lois, she told herself.
Don’t jump to conclusions.“Lois, can you give Gareth a tour of the newsroom? I’ve got to return a call upstairs,” Perry said, disappearing back into his office.
She stared after Perry. Was it just her or was that a bit abrupt? Shaking her head, Lois returned her focus to Gareth. “What brings you to Metropolis, Gareth?”
“A job.” He grinned.
Lois swallowed, glancing back at Perry in his office.
Please, don’t let it be the Editor’s job. She just couldn’t survive a shake-up at the office like that. Not now. Perry knew her like the back of his hand; he would forgive her odd behavior. She came back to herself with a jerk. Right, give Gareth a tour. She wandered around the bullpen pointing out the different departments and making introductions. They made it back to the coffee station. Still no Clark.
“No!” She heard Perry shouting on the phone. “That isn’t reporting. That’s slander and gossip and that’s not what the
Daily Planet is about.”
“Sounds like Mr. White is butting heads with the Multiworld execs,” commented Gareth. “He should be careful if he doesn’t want to lose his job.”
The fragile string holding Lois’s control in check started to unravel. “What do you mean? What have you heard?”
“Nothing,” he replied, maybe a little too casually.
“Oh, my God! It is true.” She turned on Gareth, her string completely broken. “You did come here to take Perry’s job. Did Multiworld hire you as Senior Managing Editor of the
Daily Planet? Are you just getting the lay of the land before unpacking your boxes? Moving the wife and kids over?”
Gareth held up his hand. “No! I didn’t, I swear, Lois. Perry hired me as Foreign Correspondent.”
“Yeah, right. Like you wouldn’t jump at the chance to give up the war zone and settle down in a nice cushy office job, be home while your kids are young.” She snapped back. “I, for one, know you wouldn’t leave your wife to go gallivanting around the world. You would do anything for her.”
He paled, taking a step away, staring at her like she was nuts. “Who
are you?” He murmured.
Damn! She had said too much. “Lois Lane?”
“Well, Lois Lane, my wife is dead.”
Oh, no! An uncontrolled tear dripped from her eye. “Oh, God! Gareth. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t. I wouldn’t have said… you must think I’m the worst person. The kids must be crushed. You must be…”
His glare hardened. “What kids?”
Lois gulped, stammering, “Missy Penny, Austin, and little baby Martin,” she mumbled.
“And they would be?”
“Your children.”
Gareth took another step back away from her. “My wife died a month after we were married in a car wreck. I don’t have any kids.”
Lois stood there frozen in shock. “But… But… they were your life. Your love and devotion to them was the one quality I admired most about you. It reminded me of Clark.” She reached out to pat his arm, but he took another step back. With a nod of understanding, she turned back towards her desk. “I’m sorry to hear about Teresa. I liked her.”
“Who?”
Lois stopped and glanced over her shoulder at him. “Teresa. Your wife.” She walked back to her desk.
Gareth followed her. “My wife’s name was Anne.”
Lois sat down in her chair. “I’m sorry about Anne, then.” She buried her face in her hands.
What had she done? Maybe Dr. Friskin was right. Maybe she did need to be institutionalized, where she could not hurt anyone anymore.
“Tell me about Teresa.”
Lois glanced up. Gareth was sitting in the chair next to her desk. She tried to brush him off. “I was mistaken. I’m sorry, Gareth. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
His look was almost pleading. “Please.”
Lois glanced around. The crowd from her outburst had dissipated. She lowered her voice. “You cannot tell anyone I told you this.”
Gareth nodded eagerly.
She closed her eyes for a moment and searched her memory. Lois knew she shouldn’t do this, but she felt she owed him something after treating him so cruelly.
Opening her eyes, she gazed at him with a sigh. “Mind you, I only met her the one time. She came into the office to drag you off to lunch. You were on the phone and we got to talking. She had baby Martin with her. She had left the older kids at home with the au pair you had brought with you from London. She was still nursing, so Martin went everywhere with her.”
Gareth’s eyes widened as she started talking, but he did not interrupt.
“He must have been about two, three months old at the time. He had your eyes and his Mama’s red hair.”
He swallowed. “Red hair?”
Lois nodded and continued. “She let me hold him, while she searched her purse for something.” She sighed. “He was the first baby I could remember holding. I know I should have been practicing, what with Lara coming and all, but…” She shrugged.
“Lara?”
Lois picked up the photo from her desk of her, Clark and Lara. “My daughter.”
“Oh.” Gareth suddenly looked older and sadder. “Then it wasn’t the future you saw?”
She shook her head, setting down the photo. “I’m sorry, Gareth.”
The Englishman looked dejected, like she killed his hope. “Then what? How?”
Lois patted his hand. “Another life, perhaps. I can’t explain…” She shouldn’t have told him that much.
“Tell me more about her.”
“She designed jewelry. Earrings, necklaces, bracelets. Simple, folksy, Earth mother stuff. She used to sell it at Saturday markets and such. She tried to get me to buy some.” Lois laughed softly with a shake of her head. “It wasn’t my style.”
“And this woman Teresa was my life?” Gareth asked, engrossed in Lois’s tale.
Lois nodded. “You acted differently around her. Normally, you were gruff and bossy, a no-nonsense guy, serious about the news, but when I saw you look at her…” She smiled wistfully. “You turned to mush. You loved her, absolutely, completely.” The smile fell off her face. “Oh, my God. Why didn’t I see it before? That’s how you knew! You saw me with Martin. Idiot! Idiot!” She berated herself.
“Excuse me?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.” That was how the alternate him knew she was pregnant.
“How did we meet? Teresa and I?”
Lois thought about this. “You never told me, but I think you went out with Clark and James for drinks or something one night.”
“James?” he inquired.
“The owner of the paper.” She waved off that information as unimportant. “I think you told them that you and Teresa met at a James Bond movie marathon. You had talked all night with her.”
“Wait. Red hair? Earth mother type? James Bond fanatic? About your height?” He jumped up, pulling her into a hug. “Are you sure her name was Teresa?”
Lois nodded, unsure what happened.
He picked her up and spun her around. “You’re amazing, Lois Lane!”
“I’m Clark Kent. Lois’s husband,” Clark said, suddenly by their side. “Have we met?”
Gareth shook his hand. “Not in this lifetime, Clark. I’m Gareth McTinney.” He turned back to Lois. “And I love your wife! I met her, Lois, two weeks ago. We talked all night and I never got her name. Have you ever met someone and known, just known from that first moment they were the one for you?”
Lois smiled sheepishly at Clark.
Clark draped his arm over her shoulders, protectively. “Yes, I do.”
“Oh, God!” Gareth grabbed his head. “This is too much. I’m supposed to be in Berkistan in two days. Tell Perry I had to go back to London.” He turned to Clark. “I don’t know if she’s psychic or what, but hold on to her. I see why she’s the best damn reporter around. Amazing! Simply amazing.” Gareth ran out of the bullpen.
Lois bubbled with laughter and went to sit back down, but Clark was still holding onto her.
“Lois. What did I miss?” he asked hesitantly, seriously.
She was sure her husband wouldn’t want to know, but she was trying this new tactic with Clark, compete honesty. “I had another meltdown,” Lois replied, casually, kissing his cheek. “I almost had to cry for Super help, I had stuck my foot so far in my mouth… but…” She shrugged. “I didn’t. Who knew Gareth McTinney was just another lost soul looking for its mate?”
“Lo-is.”
She batted her eyelashes innocently. “Yes, Clark?”
“Who was that guy and why does he think you’re psychic?”
Lois pressed her lips together with a sigh, then gave her husband a quick rundown on what had happened.
“Lois. You can’t tell people about where you were,” Clark warned her.
She looked down, chagrined. “I know. I just felt bad for accusing him of abandoning his non-existent wife and kids. I always wondered how he – out of everyone at the
Daily Planet – he had figured out I was…” She made an arch over her belly. “I mean, hello! I was out to here and no one else saw it, but him.” Then she tilted her head. “And James. No. I told James about the baby, but he figured out I was Clark’s date at the costume party.”
“What?” Clark pulled her into an embrace. “Lois, this isn’t the place to discuss this.”
She sighed. “I know. I’m just so sick of hiding. I hid for almost a year there and I’m still hiding, now. I just wanted something positive to come from my year abroad.”
“Something did. Her name is Lara.” Clark kissed her nose. “Now you know how I feel, each and every day of my life. About how hard it was not to tell you. This thing with Gareth could have ended completely differently.”
“I know, Clark. I’ll be more careful. I promise,” Lois whispered, resting her head on Clark’s chest, still enthralled that this wonderful man loved her above everyone else.
***
Perry came out of his office in a fury. Now Mindy Church wanted him to have Barry rewrite the Superman hostage story to focus more on the damage Superman had caused to area businesses rather than his rescue of the illegal Berkistan refugees.
That woman was still hopping mad that Clark had come up with a viable excuse for his testosterone levels. She had wanted to blackmail the poor lad into doing her bidding. Clark was made of sterner stuff than that. Much sterner stuff, Perry was beginning to suspect. Should he warn Lois and Clark what Mindy Church was up to?
Perry shook his head. The last thing their rocky marriage needed was Mindy Church. Every time they seemed to be back on the road to Graceland, Lois would have another one of her meltdowns. During the last one, according to office gossip, she accused Gareth McTinney of trying to take his Senior Editor position. Though the man claimed there was no truth to the allegation, he sure had skedaddled back to England fast enough.
Clark and Lois were working through things. Perry just wished they didn’t always do it right outside his office door.
Perry turned the corner; Jimmy’s desk was covered with soda cans, candy wrappers and empty snack bags. “Jimmy Olsen!” he shouted. He opened the drawer and then another. It was a train wreck. Papers shoved inside, a filing nightmare. “Jimmy!”
“Yes, Chief?” said Jimmy appearing next to him. Then he saw what Perry was yelling about. “I can explain…”
“I don’t want an explanation, son. I want you to clean out your desk. A disorganized workspace leads to a disorganized mind.” He picked up a piece of trash and dumped into the trashcan. “See, not that difficult.”
“Yes, Chief.”
“If I have to tell you to clean out your desk, again. It will be the final time! Am I making myself clear?”
Jimmy nodded, his face pale. “I’ll get right on it, Sir.”
Perry stomped off, feeling bad for yelling at the kid. But that desk had been a disgrace.
***
Jimmy sighed, picking up his trashcan and dumping the contents of his desktop into it. “Jimmy, if Lois and Clark don’t need you, can you help me out logging the nutritional content of these popular food items?” He rolled his eyes. That was the last time he would help out the food editor.
After he had cleared off the top of his desk, he started on the drawer Perry had pulled open. OK, true, that was his mess. That was where he dumped stuff he wasn’t quite sure where he should file. If it stayed there for six months, Jimmy knew the circular file was the place to go. He hadn’t gotten to it in the last few months. Time to check the contents. Save. Trash. Trash. Save. Trash.
Lois walked by. “What’s Perry’s knickers in a twist about?” she asked, quietly.
“Don’t know. He’s been arguing with the men upstairs for days now. I even heard a rumor from my source in janitorial that Mindy Church stopped by the other day.”
She knelt down. “Really? Mindy Church was in the newsroom? She hasn’t made an official announcement that she’s the reason why Multiworld Commutations owned the
Daily Planet now. My guess is that she wants to keep her Luthor heritage a secret. Hmmm.”
Jimmy pulled out another pile of papers from his drawer.
Lois grabbed the top one. “What’s this?”
It was a computer drawing of a baby’s face. “Jimmy? Why are you drawing Lara’s face on your computer?”
The junior reporter’s jaw dropped. That wasn’t Lara, that was… He gulped, seeing the initials written on the back. He guessed all babies looked the same, right? “Surprise.” He placed a smile on his face and hoped she believed it was a genuine one. He grabbed the paper back. “Actually, I was testing a new photo sketch program. For doing witness sketches. Just doodling, really.”
“Well, it’s a good likeness. The eyes are a little off though. And her hair is a lighter shade, too.” She patted his shoulder and moved on back towards the coffee area.
Jimmy turned over the paper she had been looking at. In Ralph’s chicken scratch he saw the initials: SM & LL. And he swallowed, again. He quickly flipped through the other pictures in the pile. There were at least seven other baby pictures. None of them looked alike. None of them looked anything close to Lara, except that one in his hand. No, it had to be a coincidence that this mock-up of what Superman’s and Lois Lane’s child would look like… would come anywhere close to Lois’s real baby, right?
He had gotten the program at the beginning of the year. One day, a bunch of them had been playing around and had discovered that there was a way to merge two photos and come up with a reasonable facsimile of what those two people’s children would look like. It was around the time Lois’s and Superman’s images were being splashed all over the tabloids.
Jimmy had run to the photo lab with Lois and when he returned to his desk, Ralph had done a mock-up of Superman and Lois Lane. That was when Jimmy had kicked him and the others off his computer and made that program password protected. He had taken all the baby mock-up pictures and dumped them in that drawer, because he had to process that information for Lois and CK.
Picking up the baby mock-up picture, Jimmy wandered over to Lois’s desk, taking another glance at her photo of the three of them: CK, Lois, and Lara. He swallowed. He glanced between the photo and his mock-up and again at the photo. Yep. It looked like Lara, all right.
“What’s up, Jimmy?” CK asked, suddenly behind him.
The younger man jumped into the air, almost dropping the computer mock-up picture.
“Aww, Jimmy. Lara.” CK continued, pulling the picture out of his hands before Jimmy could stop him. “Her nose is a little wider, about here.” Lois’s husband pointed to the picture. “Like mine.” He nodded. “But otherwise, a good sketch. Her hair is lighter, too.” He handed back the paper.
Jimmy swallowed. “Thanks.” Like
his nose? Jimmy stared at CK. Really stared at him. “CK, do you think I could…?” He shook his head. “Never mind.”
Running back to his desk, he opened another drawer filled with photos. He flipped through the pile until he found two. One of CK and one of Lois. He flipped them over to his scanner and ran them through his program. If the mock-up of CK and Lois looked like Lara, too, then he could stop being so paranoid that kiss between Superman and Lois Lane had been leading to more than a kiss.
A half hour later, Jimmy was standing at the printer holding up the mock-up picture he had just printed out. It couldn’t be right. It didn’t make sense. How could it be identical? If that was right, then… His eyes opened wide as he jaw fell open. Slowly, he walked back to his computer. He pulled up the scanned photo of CK and put it next to a stock photo of Superman. He shook his head. He must be mistaken. It isn’t possible. Not CK.
The photographer stared at the pictures longer. Hesitantly, his hand found his mouse and he moved the glasses from CK’s photo over to the photo of Superman. He swallowed and cleared his screen, closing out the program. He picked up both the mock-up picture that Ralph had done and the one he had done and walked them over to the shredder, sending them through.
***
Lois blinked her eyes. The light from the window told her it was morning. Had Clark let her sleep in? She could feel his warmth next to her. He was still there. She felt the mattress descend slightly and then return. She heard Lara giggle with delight.
“Bounce… Bounce... Bounce,” Clark repeated softly.
Lois smiled. They were playing. She wanted to watch, but she didn’t want him to stop because she was awake, so she continued to feign sleep.
Clark set Lara on his knees. “So, little one. Thursday is Mommy’s birthday. What should we do to celebrate?” They were silent for a minute.
“A birthday? Oh. Every year, we celebrate the day when a person is born, usually with cake, ice-cream, presents, and a party. Your birthday is Valentine’s Day, February 14th. Mommy’s birthday is this week. What should we do?”
Lois smiled. She enjoyed eavesdropping on their conversation. She only wished she could know what Lara responses were.
“Maybe we should just ask Mommy.”
Suddenly, a little body was crawling on top of her and Lois laughed. “Caught me?”
“You can’t fool me,” Clark said, cuddling up behind her as Lara started playing with her nose.
“Good morning, Lara,” Lois said, trying to kiss her daughter’s hand, but Lara always kept pulling it away with a giggle. “Such her father’s daughter.”
“Thank you. Thank you, very much.” Clark reached out and over her to catch Lara as she leaned a little too far back. He lifted her up with the one hand and set her back on his chest, where she proceeded to hit his Pecs like bongo drums. “So, what do you want to do for your birthday?”
Lois snuggled up with him. “This is nice.”
Clark kissed her forehead. “What did we do last year? For the life of me I can’t remember.”
“You broke me out of jail and we stayed the night in that god-awful motel with the leaky roof,” she replied, sneaking her fingers up and tickling Lara’s tummy.
“No!
That was your birthday? Oh, Lois. I’m sorry.” He looked crushed and ashamed.
“I’m not. I got to spend the night with you. What more could I ask for?” She kissed his cheek.
“Gees, Lois. I didn’t even get you a gift.” He shook his head. “This year, I’ll make up for it. I promise! Anything, anything you want. Just name it. We’ll go anywhere you want, eat anything you want, do whatever you want.”
“It’s okay, really, Clark. I had a good time on my birthday. Clark gave me a gift from you, so don’t beat yourself up.” As soon as she said the words she wished she could retract them.
Her husband sat up, catching Lara as she fell off his chest. “
He gave you a gift from me?”
Lois swallowed. “Yeah.” She didn’t want to elaborate, but knew Clark was going to want her to.
“Can I ask you what it was?” His voice almost sounded terse. She didn’t know if he was angry at himself that he had forgotten her birthday or that he was shown up by the other Clark or both.
“A ring,” she whispered, taking Lara out of his lap and setting her daughter on hers.
“
He gave you a ring?”
“A wedding ring.” She closed her eyes and waited for the explosion.
“
He gave you a wedding ring?” He was out of bed, pulling on his robe. “Please, don’t tell me it was in Las Vegas.”
“Clark.” She looked at him, pleading. “Sit down.”
Clark paced quickly back and forth across the room. “I can’t.” He growled.
She patted the bed, but he ignored her. “I was upset about the guilty verdict. I refused to get out of bed. Refused to eat. Angry that you had to break me out of jail, that they were calling me ‘Mad Dog Lane’ on the radio, that I might be the cause of ruin of Superman’s image, that if they imposed a death penalty on me, I was going to disappear and die and you would never know that you were to be a father. He dragged my butt out of bed, made me get dressed and took me out to dinner. He said that since my secret identity was that of Kal-El’s wife, I should have a wedding ring to wear, to represent your love for me. He told me over and over that I was to think of the ring as coming from you, not him.”
Clark sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand into his. “Where is the ring now?”
“I gave it back to him.”
He raised a brow.
“Because it was his mother’s wedding ring and it wasn’t mine to keep,” she whispered.
Clark stared at her. “His mother’s wedding ring?”
She nodded.
“You wore
his mother’s wedding ring?”
“Yes.”
Her husband stood up and started pacing again. “You were wearing this ring when you came to visit my dreams?”
Lois nodded.
“You were wearing this ring when you came to see my parents last Christmas?”
She nodded again.
“When did you give it back to him?” Clark asked, his eyes squeezed shut as if he didn’t want to know the answer.
“The night Ultra Woman and Mr. Wells brought Lara here.”
He stared at her. “Did you kiss him?”
“Yes.”
Clark’s shoulders fell. His voice was weak when he murmured, “Did you two…” He cleared his throat.
“No! Absolutely not, Clark. I told you, it was only the one time.”
Clark shrugged. “It could have happened. I mean, Ultra Woman was over here. She and I would never have found out.”
Lois hugged Lara to her chest, glaring at him.
“Did he want to?” Clark rolled his eyes. “Of course
he wanted to. Did you?”
She continued to glare at him, but did not reply.
Her husband threw up his hands and left the room.
“No,” she whispered, a tear dripping down her cheek. “I only wanted to make love to you.”
Clark was next to her again, holding her in his arms. “Really?”
“It’s true that I love him, Clark, but I’m
in love with you.”
Grinning, he took Lara from her, tossed her into the air, kissed his wife and then caught their daughter again.
“You’re insane, Clark Kent.” She shook her head.
Lara giggled, raising her arms as if she wanted Daddy to toss her into the air again.
Clark snuggled up against his wife, bouncing Lara on his knee again. “So, what do you want to do for your birthday this year?”
Lois sighed. “If it’s okay with your folks, can we spend the weekend in Smallville?”
She didn’t think it was possible for his smile to get any larger. “I love you, wife.”
“And I love you, husband.” She ran her fingers over his jaw and gently placed a kiss on his lips. “Only you. My one and only husband.”
*** End of Part 3 *** Comments
