part 9
***Metropolis
Lane made a point of walking well away from him. No brushed shoulders, no shared space. She entered the conference room and walked to the far side.
“Do me a favor,” she started. “Don’t apologize.”
“But I’m Clark Kent,” he protested with a weak smile. “That’s what I do.”
“Not to me and not for that,” Lane answered a bit heatedly, reminding him quite vividly of Lois.
“I kissed you,” he groaned, seating himself in the closest chair he could find.
“You’re good at it,” she said. “Anybody ever tell you that?”
“I…no…yes…maybe.” He leaned his elbows on his knees, buried his face in his hands. “I don’t know what it means, Lane,” he finally stated.
“Does it have to mean something?” She was standing in front of him now, obviously not as afraid of close proximity as he was. “Do you want to kiss me now?” she asked, almost as if she was reading his mind.
“I…don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I just know I don’t feel so…comfortable with you standing right there.”
“Does the sight of my shoes…turn you on?” she snapped.
He forced himself to look up, to look at her. “Lane…” he began.
“Kiss me again, Clark,” she demanded.
“No!” He was up and out of his chair in a blur.
“Why not?” she addressed him coolly. “You…liked it, right? It was just like having Lois back, wasn’t it?”
“Did I just confirm your worst fear for you?” he moaned. “That there is no real difference? That one Lois Lane is as good as another?”
“Whose worst fear is that, Clark?” She raised an eyebrow at him. “Yours or mine?”
He sat back down. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted.
“Then you have to kiss me again,” she said softly. “So you can decide.”
“I want to kiss you again.” The words left his mouth of their own volition. “I want to kiss you, Lane, and a whole lot more.”
“You’re good with your hands, too,” she told him. “You were doing some…interesting things before our friend Jimmy arrived.”
“I can’t.”
“Don’t you know, Clark, that there are some things that can’t be talked through? That sometimes you just have to…seize the day?”
The blinds in the conference room were wide open. The door, though closed, was unlocked. But that didn’t matter. She had given him an invitation he couldn’t turn down. He wouldn’t turn down. Because he didn’t want to.
Clark advanced on her, noting her sudden nervousness, her hammering heartbeat. She wasn’t nearly as calm as she appeared to be. His eyes roved over her full lips, then lingered appreciatively on her soft curves. He took in everything he hadn’t allowed himself to notice, acknowledging and enjoying the very sight of her, the sweet scent of her. He gathered her to him, slowly this time. This wouldn’t be rushed. He pulled her against him and lowered his head to hers, letting his eyes hold her wide-eyed gaze until the last possible moment.
“I know it’s you, Lane,” he growled, before he kissed her with everything he had.
Clark heard the door open and close quickly, and still he kept kissing her. He heard the soft chuckles from their colleagues and was aware that they were putting on quite a show. Still, he didn’t move to let her go, though he remembered to keep his hands in bounds this time. Threading them through her hair, along her jaw line, massaging her shoulders. Perry, at some point, stormed out and demanded to know what kind of garden party his staffers thought they were attending. He was directed to look their way. The chief’s quick explosive guffaw was followed by his orders that everyone get back to work and try to ignore ‘Elvis’ and ‘Priscilla.’
He heard it all and he never stopped kissing her. He heard it all. He heard every bit of it.
At last he lifted his head from her, though he didn’t let her go. Instead he rested his forehead on hers, a smile lighting his face. “How did you know?” he breathed.
“A leap of faith,” she whispered back triumphantly. “I…believed.”
He hugged her tightly, spinning her around in a joyous circle. “You don’t know how glad I am,” he laughed. “How glad, Lane, that…”
“The earth didn’t move?” she supplied gamely.
“It didn’t,” he confirmed. “And…for you?” He almost hated to ask.
“I don’t want to bruise your ego,” she began sweetly. “I mean, nice kissing. The technique is all there....”
“You don’t have to be gentle,” he teased, leaning up against the conference room table. “Go on.”
“Your lips are good. Your grip is nice, tight but not suffocating,” Lane ticked each item off on her fingers. “Tongue, yes.” She beamed at his furious blush. “Your ears are red,” she remarked somewhat off subject. “Smoldering sensuality, check.”
“Lane,” he choked. “I said you don’t have to be gentle, but I’ve changed my mind.”
“You’re not…him,” she finished. It was said very quietly, but the conviction and the revelation in her voice were no less present.
“And you’re not…her,” he answered in the same tone.
“Seems this little experiment paid off,” Lane sighed, moving into his open arms. “Do me a favor?”
“Anything,” he breathed into her hair.
“Go find Tempus. Let’s get me home.”
***Metropolis2
“Feeling any better?” Superman hovered anxiously over her.
“Do you mean…am I ready to leave the bathroom?” she asked from where she had fallen asleep at some point in the early morning hours.
“I’d settle for a ‘yes’ to that, Lois,” he confessed.
“I think so.” She concentrated for a minute, running a mental inventory and deciding, at last, that moving from the floor of the bathroom was probably a worthwhile and fairly risk-free undertaking.
“Ok,” she sighed, not opening her eyes again until he had settled her in the bed.
“You know it’s a good sign, right?” he said soothingly as he tucked the blankets around her. “You’re still really sick, so you’re still really pregnant. Universe hoping hasn’t adversely affected this little guy…girl…person.”
“And they say pregnant women shouldn’t ride roller coasters.” She smiled weakly.
“They never met Lois Lane, did they?” he countered. “You are better. Thank God, Loes. You know it starts the same time every day and lasts for hours?”
“Believe it or not, yes, I had noticed that.”
“And you’re getting sarcastic!” he exclaimed in a delighted voice. “That means you’ll be hungry soon.”
She opened her mouth to deny it before realizing, to her utter chagrin, that it was true.
“Just pasta,” she said with dignity. “No sauce.”
“You’re taking years off my life,” he complained gently. “Having to see you like this. Are you really better?”
“For today.” Lois yawned. “Maybe a nap before the pasta.”
“I’d feel better if you’d eat something first. Get something on your stomach, then rest.”
“Ok, Dad,” she grumbled.
“Did you hear from Sorenson while I was out?” he called from the kitchen.
“Not yet,” she answered. “He’s probably working up his nerve to call.”
“Anxious, no doubt, to know if his two best reporters are ever coming back to work.” He returned, presenting the bowl of pasta with a flourish.
“What are you telling him?” she asked, as he disappeared into the bathroom. The shower was on and off before she’d eaten the first noodle.
“The truth. You’re sick and I’m taking care of you,” Clark answered. All signs of Superman gone, jeans and a Daily Planet staffer sweatshirt completing the transformation.
“How much longer, do you think?” she dared to ask, knowing it hadn’t been that long since the last time.
“I haven’t been to see Bernie in a couple of days,” he sighed, coming to join her on the bed. “I think I’m making him nervous. Hovering.”
“That makes two of us, then,” she muttered, fully aware that he would hear her.
“I know.” He grinned. “I can’t help it, Lois. You are so calm. And I’m the nervous wreck. What’s wrong with this picture?”
“I’m so queasy I don’t have the energy for anything but calm.”
“If he can’t fix it-”
”Don’t!” she cut him off quickly, appalled to hear the simmering panic that lay underneath that one word.
“You’ve been holding out on me,” he said softly, moving a warm hand to her knee. “You aren’t as ok as you say you are. Why are you lying to me?”
He leaned in closely, fixing her with Superman’s stare.
“I just don’t want to think about it not working,” she said flatly. “I just don’t. I wrestled it from Tempus’ hands. That means something. It’s here for a reason. We are not all stuck like this. I refuse to believe we could be. It’s just…taking some time. This can’t be rushed. But it’s going to work. It has to work, Clark.”
“If it doesn’t,” he rejoined quietly, “no, hear me out, sweetheart. If it doesn’t, we’ll wait for Wells to turn up. We won’t give up. And you realize that without the time device, Tempus is as trapped as we are. Probably in your Metropolis. Lane and your Clark could have him now. She could be drop-kicking any pertinent information out of him. There are…other avenues...if this one doesn’t pan out.”
“What has Bernie told you?” she asked in a deadly serious voice. “What are you holding back from me?”
He didn’t meet her eyes, and made as if to stand, but she covered the hand that was on her leg and held it there. Not that he couldn’t have gotten away. Not that she was any physical match for him. But that he wouldn’t. If she made her wishes known, he would honor them. Even if he didn’t want to.
“Loes,” he began. The bleakness in his voice hit her like a punch between the eyes.
“It doesn’t work,” she gasped, not trying to hide the tears. “It’s broken beyond repair. He doesn’t understand the technology. It had a self-destruct button so that when touched by the wrong hands…”
“Lois!” he shouted, gripping her shoulders tightly. “It’s dangerous. That’s what I was going to say. Dangerous.”
“Is that all?” All of her energy drained, she returned her attention to the pasta she’d abandoned.
“Is that all?” he repeated angrily. “We can’t know where we might land. When we might land. If we might land. We won’t know. You and I will be the ultimate test subjects. Like the chimps that were launched into space in the first rockets…”
“You babble as well as I do,” she commented.
He halted. Smiled wryly at her. “Another reason why this thing between us could never work out.” He held up their joined hands.
“So, it’s too dangerous?” she asked softly. “So…we’re not going? You’re going to leave Lane…where she is?”
“The baby,” he began lamely.
“Is safely tucked inside of me,” she answered, holding his gaze with her own.
“Ok,” he whispered. “We make a deal. We go together like we planned. And if…something goes wrong…no one blames anyone. We just…pick up and move on from wherever it is we’ve moved on to.”
“You and me together,” she vowed softly. “The chimps launched in rockets.”
He lay down beside her, not letting go of her hand, and closed his eyes.
“I’m more likely to survive it, if something goes wrong, Lois. Of the two of us, I would…bounce better. I don’t know if I could live with myself if…”
“This is my choice,” she returned quietly. “I’m going with or without you. That’s what you need to remember. What you need to tell yourself…even if the worst happens.”
“It’s such a gamble,” Clark sighed. “You’re sure…?”
“Yes,” Lois answered firmly.
“I think it’s the waiting,” Clark said after a time. It’s making me a little crazy. Do you know how many lost kittens Superman has found homes for in the last few weeks?”
“I’ve got a job for you, something to keep you busy, if you’d like.”
“Please.” He opened his eyes and looked at her, one pillow over. “Whatever it is, you ask and I’ll do it.”
“It’s time for you to throw out my things,” she said. “Get rid of them. Donate what’s good and toss the rest. But do it, Clark. Make room for Lane.”
“I have made room for Lane!” He sat up quickly, eager to defend himself. “In my heart…”
“Not in your heart, Romeo.” She rolled her eyes at him impatiently. “In your closet. In your house. She can’t feel at home here with all of my stuff around! I don’t live here anymore, Clark. She does. Make it look that way.”
“And it’s that easy?” he asked in disbelief. “I just…clear your boxes out…and Lane’s in and everything is…good?”
“Trust me.” She grinned. “It’s the nicest thing you could do for her. And for yourself. She just might…love you for it.”
“Ok.” He held his hands up surrender. “First thing tomorrow, I’ll…”
“No time like the present,” she ordered.
“But, you might still need some stuff, Loes. I mean, I know we are one hundred percent convinced that Bernie is going to come through for us, but we still don’t know how much longer. You’ll need…clothes and…”
She smiled at his struggle. Wondering if Superman would find the strength to mention her unmentionables.
The phone rang, saving him from further reply. His face lit up.
“Sorenson saves the day,” he crowed, springing from the bed and trotting to the phone with light steps.
“He just put off the inevitable,” she called after him.
It was some minutes before he walked back in. A changed man. She looked at his face, and she knew.
“That was Doctor Klein,” she told him.
He nodded.
“He wants you to get in touch with Superman.”
He nodded again, and cleared his throat roughly.
“The window’s working,” they said in unison.
***Metropolis
Clark and Lane had come to dread their days off.
It wasn’t as if they could tell Perry why they were refusing to take them. They didn’t have any stories in the works. In fact they hadn’t really written anything since Lane had come. They were hiding their lack of productivity under the guise of seeking an invaluable source, without whom all their efforts would come to naught.
All their efforts in this area had come to naught, though.
After Tempus had checked out of the Lexor, Superman had hit the skies and Lane and Kent had hit the street. Dozens of reported sightings had proven fruitless. For days they had heard from one witness after another, all certain they had seen him and knew exactly where he could be found. And each night they had returned home exhausted from the chase. Hopes dashed for another day.
Now they weren’t even getting false reports. The trail has grown cold, and it was almost as if Tempus had just…disappeared.
Clark wasn’t even going out as Superman anymore, to x-ray the city after dark. An undertaking that had threatened to crush him with the sad weight of its familiarity. Just like he had looked for Lois, night after night. Flying over the same places over and over again, looking and looking, seeing countless things, people, activities, even crimes. But never what he wanted to see, what he needed to see. After a few weeks of nightly searching, the lack of sleep had caught up with him. He was leaving as Superman only when called now.
But worse than the non-productive lead following, and the useless fly-overs, was doing nothing. Their days off had turned into an exercise in keeping each other’s spirits up. Some days they were better at it than others.
“What will we do if we don’t ever find him? Do you ever think about that, Clark?” Lane set aside the book she’d been dozing over, and as always, asked the question that needed asking.
“All the time,” he admitted sadly. “I just didn’t want you to know I did.” He sat up from where he’d been nearly asleep on the sofa.
“Me too,” she smiled. “Since day one, but I didn’t want you to worry.” She moved to sit next to him, giving his knee a friendly squeeze.
“What’s your best guess?” he asked, taking for granted she’d know just what he meant. He put his arm around her and squeezed back.
“I don’t know. He had the time device all along? He just…didn’t use it in the house? It can only be activated at certain times? Or in certain places? He had to wait while it recharged?”
“All good, and totally unknowable. Great science-fiction, though.”
“If none of this works out, we’ll just pool our resources and write a novel, ok?” She leaned against him, tucking her feet underneath her. “What would we call it?”
“I’m too tired to play right now,” he said wearily, resting his head on the top of hers. “That mudslide was a killer.”
“A very creative excuse, Superman,” she acknowledged. “What’s your best guess, then?” she asked after a while.
“He…lost it, like we said originally. So he was trapped here for a time, but he was taken by Wells’ peacekeepers.”
“Yours is worse than mine,” she gasped. “You think Wells or someone else was here? They took Tempus, locked him up somewhere, and didn’t come and check on us? To see if any damage was done?”
“It would explain how he’s vanished so completely. And it isn’t like he’d tell them what he’d done. He’d just enjoy it all the more, the idea that even though he was being punished, so were we.”
“Would these time-space peacekeepers, travelers, whatever be so stupid, Clark? I can’t buy that.”
“They let their technology fall into Tempus’ hands, didn’t they? Didn’t HG himself tell you he voluntarily told Tempus all about who he was and what he could do? They aren’t stupid, Lane, as much as naïve, I think.”
“You hide some dark thoughts behind that pretty face of yours,” Lane sighed, closing her eyes. “Let’s just watch television.”
“You asked,” he replied apologetically.
“I know, but I wasn’t really *asking* asking. I wanted the patented Clark Kent ‘let’s just buck up and keep trying and the sun will come out tomorrow.’”
“Is that how you see me?” He grinned, nudging her off the remote control.
“No football,” she admonished. “And that’s how everybody sees you, Clark, not just me.”
“What’s the first thing you would do, if you found yourself home right now?” he asked softly after a pause.
“Not this again,” she groaned quietly. “Don’t you get tired of this?”
“Come on, Lane,” he prodded. “There’s nothing good on.”
“Well…I guess I would tell Clark, my Clark, hello and that I’m back and that…I…sort of missed him. That I got a little perspective on things and…”
“Boring!” he interrupted her.
“Well, why do you keep asking me, then?” she rounded on him. “Why, if you’re just going to make fun of me?”
“I’m just waiting to hear the red hot part where you confess, you know, that you like him a ‘small amount,’” he growled.
“We can’t all have the ultimate reunion sex fantasy like you do, Clark. The first thing you’ll do is grab her and throw her down and reintroduce her to wonders of loving from Superman.”
“I was a *virgin* for thirty years, Lane!” he defended himself. “Thirty years! It’s not possible to go that long before…before…well…you know…and not think about it sometimes…what? Stop it! I’m not kidding, Lane. Get up! There will be no falling down laughing at Superman’s expense.” He lunged for her, picking her up high overhead. “I’m kicking you out, woman. I don’t need this.” He marched across the room and threw the back door open with one hand, making as if to toss her into the garden.
“I’ll tell your mom,” she finally gasped out, tears pouring down her face. “And your dad. And…and Lois! That’s the first thing I’m going to do. I’m going to tell her how you treated me!”
He put her down reluctantly. “That was completely uncalled for,” he muttered darkly.
“Nice work,” she smiled at him gently. “We’ve staved off depression for another afternoon?”
“Yeah,” he agreed.
“So we don’t torture ourselves with questions we can’t answer anymore, ok?” She held her hand out to him. He shook it firmly.
“No wallowing,” he vowed. “But Lane, I have a suggestion for that reunion with your Clark?”
“Ok,” she moaned. “Just tell me because I know it’s killing you not to. What?”
“Seize the day.” He caught her eyes and held them. “Don’t waste any more time. You know me, and you know him. Clark Kent,” he finished softly, “is a good risk.”
“My heart-” she began and faltered.
“I know.” He pulled her close. “Your heart doesn’t open up for just anyone. But it did for me. And for him, too, even if you don’t want to admit it. Just let yourself…trust that, ok? Because when I’m having my ultimate reunion sex fantasy with Lois,” he chided, “I want to know that you’re happy.”
“Do you think,” she sighed heavily, “that he could…ever…love me…the way you do her?”
“How could he not?” he answered, quiet conviction in his words.
“Just for that, you can go watch football,” she smiled.
***Metropolis2
“I can’t guarantee where you’ll land. Are you sure…I can’t…come along?” It was impossible to miss the note of wistfulness in Dr. Klein’s inquiry.
“I need you here, Bernie. I put a letter on your desk this morning. If I don’t come back, if something goes…wrong, I want you to keep it. Someone may contact you, and I want them to have the story.”
“Someone?” Dr Klein asked.
“HG Wells,” Superman replied.
“Oh…well…oh,” Dr Klein stammered. “Who else, really? Fairly obvious when you think about it….HG Wells…not just a writer…or a dead one at that…hmmmm.”
“Bernie,” Superman said somewhat forcefully. “I don’t want you in the room when we activate this, ok?” He knew this was going to be the hardest part. And it was unfair after all of the scientist’s hard work that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy the show. Who would enjoy it more? But he didn’t want to blink into a parallel universe as Superman. He didn’t want them to arrive any more conspicuously than they already would. Who knew where they would land? Or when? And if…they didn’t make it one piece, he didn’t want someone somewhere sometime finding a…dead…superhero. Tempus, if he ever got wind of it, would like that all too much.
Besides, Superman wasn’t going to get Lane. He was.
“I don’t know if it’s dangerous,” he asserted. “Or how close or far you’d need to be, not to be pulled in yourself. And I need to know that you are here and ok. That someone on this side has the real story and is waiting for me. And hopefully I’ll be back really soon.”
He hadn’t meant that to sound maudlin, but Bernie got a little choked up.
“I wish I could tell you that it will work just how it was meant to. That you’ll pass through to the hour and place you need to be….I tried as best I could.”
“I can’t thank you enough for that. When I get back, we’ll do the oxygen deprivation experiment, ok?”
“You’re just…saying that,” Bernie sniffed loudly. “To cheer me up.”
“Please,” Lois spoke for the first time. “Can we just do this now?”
He recognized that it wasn’t so much impatience as it was fear that made her ask . Lois wanted to get it over with. To know, as soon as possible one way or another, what their fate was to be. At least they were going together. Whatever else happened, they would have each other. There was a lot of comfort in that thought.
“Bernie?” Superman asked softly.
“Yes, ok, just this button and that one. Same way when you return. I’ve programmed that in. I’ll go…be in the next room. I’ll wait, how long? Ten minutes? Then I’ll come back and just check that…well, I’ll come back.”
“Thank you.” This was from Lois who pulled the startled doctor into a warm hug. Clark watched his change of hue with amusement.
“Ok,” squeaked a pink-cheeked Dr. Klein. With some shuffling of feet and a few lovelorn, mournful looks at the time device, he left the room.
Superman spun quietly.
“Ready, Loes?”
“Yes,” she stated. “Ready for…whatever.” He noticed she was trembling a little, but then so was he.
He picked up the time device.
“Let me,” she insisted in a firm voice. “Just for once, I want to do the driving.”
The window appeared.
“I hate that thing,” Lois finally said in a small voice.
“After today you’ll think of it completely differently. Today it takes you home. Today, you make it take you home.”
He lifted her gently inside. “I’m going to hold you like this, ok? We don’t know how we’ll land, and I want you wrapped around me.”
“Clark, I love you,” she said.
“I love you, always,” he answered warmly, kissing her once, hard on the lips. “Let’s get you home.”
With hands that only shook slightly, Lois pushed the final button.
The window swallowed them up.
And for all of Dr. Klein’s worry, when it opened again, it landed them right on the mark.
***Metropolis
“What’s the score?” Lane asked somewhat sleepily.
“Um…I don’t know,” confessed Clark from where he was floating in front of the TV.
“You know…it’s just annoying when you do that,” she remarked. “Why can’t you just sit, like everybody else?”
“Somebody’s jealous,” he sang off-key. “Somebody has a flying fixation, anti-gravity envy…”
“You shut up or I’m coming over there,” she threatened from where she lay sprawled on the sofa.
“Sure you will,” he smiled, “but only to beg me to take you flying, again.”
The air around them started to change. Clark’s head came up like a dog hearing a whistle. It was the slightest fizzle, or a friction, something invisible brushing up against something invisible. There was a current. A buzz.
“What?” Lane was sitting up now, alerted by his body language more than anything else.
“Something’s coming,” he whispered, mostly to himself. “Something’s different…” He landed on the floor just as the light display began. Dazzling and brilliant and in the middle of the living room….two blurry forms right in the middle of it.
Lane recognized it before he did. After all, she’d seen it before, he never had.
“The window!” she cried, just as two people fell into the room.
It took Clark just an extra moment to realize what he was seeing. Who he was seeing.
“Lois!” he shouted, diving to catch her. He came up with her in his arms, but she wasn’t alone. She was being cradled in the firm, protective grasp of…Him.
Without thinking he demanded, “Take your hands off of her.” Not exactly how he’d planned on saying hello. And certainly not a greeting that did him, or the understanding he had reached with Lane during the previous weeks, credit.
His counterpart was eyeing him coolly, making no real move to obey his command.
“You ok, sweetheart?” he asked softly, throwing Clark a somewhat challenging stare. Clark went stiff at the endearment, at the familiarity of it, and all that went with it.
“Clark?” Lois asked. “Are you here? Did we make it?”
Only then did his counterpart let her go, so that Clark could pull her freely into his arms. Clark knew exactly which Clark she meant. Who she was asking for. He knew it instinctively, and his heart sang with the knowledge.
“Right here, honey,” he barely managed, wrapping her into his embrace. “You made it. You’re home.”
She’d had a real choice this time. With the time device on their side of the window, they could have stayed where they were easily. But she had come. He had come. They were setting things right.
“Lane!” he heard his own voice call, though it didn’t belong to him.
Clark was dimly aware that his counterpart had moved towards Lane with a look on his face that had to be identical to own. Relief. Love. Knowing. For just an instant his and Lane’s shocked eyes met over the shoulders of their loved ones. “Seize the day,” he mouthed to her silently, gratified to see her teary-eyed nod of agreement before he turned to give them their privacy, to better look at the woman in his own arms.
His one glimpse of them had been enough. Enough to see the strange mirror-like reflection of the man holding the woman, so much like them. And yet, so different. For one perfect moment it all made sense. The universes, the grand schemes, the divine plan. For one crystal clear moment, Clark felt he was granted a vision far sharper than even his own eyes could see. Of his future with Lois. Of Lane’s future with…Him. The way things were meant to be.
The moment was erased by Tempus.
Clark could never explain it later, and neither could his counterpart, though they would try. How he had snuck up on them both so completely.
tbc...just one part to go!
