Clark and Lois - Despair to Hope – Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 4 – 06/22
By Ken Janney
This version is rated PG-13
* denotes emphasis *
< denotes thoughts >
[ playback of a recording ]/ telepathic communications /
(#) footnotes
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Reminder:
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 004 x Tau -120 - Canon Lois and Clark universe also called – Prime
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036 – Canon Alt Clark universe also called – Alt 1
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
Previously –
This activity continued through the night. On another pass he knocked out all of the sentries and removed their weapons. When they awoke each was holding a farming implement.
By this time the entire camp was aroused, but that didn’t matter since Clark had plenty of room to get up to speed he was traveling faster than the eye could follow as he moved in and around the rebels.
Officers were running around shouting orders. Some had their side arms out and in their hands when they were suddenly snatched from their grasp. In some cases when the pistol was snatched away the finger on the trigger and inside the trigger guard was broken. Those that still had their side arms holstered found that when they reached for them all that they came up with were hand rakes and pruning shears.
Before morning he saw that his job was completed in the camp and returned to the foothills. After dismantling the forge he did the same thing to all of the ammunition he had collected that he had with the cargo. He collected the powder and laid it out in his ‘S’ pattern, this time in a large flat area just outside the camp. When he ignited it, it flared up satisfactorily leaving a scorch mark that would last for some time.
After igniting the powder he returned the corpse of the rebel thug to his final resting place and flew back to Dongou.
When he walked into the marina he found the guard that he had hired to guard the Ubuntu and since it was still within the time frame that had been paid for, he didn’t owe him any additional fees. He dismissed him telling him to keep what he had been paid. He went aboard and released the spring lines, started up the engine and pulled out of the marina into the main stream. As soon as he was out of sight of the town he idled the engine and, planting his feet firmly on the deck, started flying. He speeded up until he was cruising at eighty five knots. He maintained this speed until he reached Impfondo where he slowed to fifteen knots. As soon as he was past Impfondo he speeded up again.
He managed to get the Ubuntu back to Brazzaville in record time and got her tied up in her slip in the marina before returning to the hospital. Before leaving the boat he packed their bags. He took them to the Bonne Nuit de Sommeil and rented suite 501 again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Returning to the hospital he looked for and found Dr. M’benga and asked with tears in his eyes and raw emotion in his voice, “Dr. M’benga, what are the procedures? There will not be an autopsy will there? I don’t think I could bear to have her cut up any more than she already has been.”
“No, my boy, there will be no need of an autopsy. We know the cause of death. We will be transferring her to a funeral parlor later in the morning. Is there any one in particular that you wish her remains sent to?”
“No, we aren’t from here and any one will do. I do want to make special arrangements though. She is to be buried here, but in the future I will be having her moved to the states for a proper burial for the rest of her family. If you could tell me which funeral home you would recommend I will go see them. I want to make special arrangements for the enclosure. It will not be a standard casket. It needs to be air tight.” He was thinking, <I’m going to purge the casket with nitrogen. That will preserve her body until I can reclaim it in 1997 and move it to its proper place.>
“I understand completely. Here, let me write the information down for you.”
Clark took the information and went to see the undertaker. He looked for a cemetery which overlooked the rapids in the Congo River because she had really loved that view when they had picnicked at the golf club grounds. He couldn’t find one so he purchased a small piece of land just off of the golf club grounds to use.
It was a very small service. The only attendees were Charlie, Derek Price and the twins. After a short graveside ceremony Derek and the twins had left but Charlie had remained. He just stood there head bowed in silent contemplation for hours on end.
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 4 - The Twins Step Up-
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 023 x Gamma 025 x Tau 036
Local designation – Alt 1
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
When he didn’t come in to the office for a week the staff began to wonder what was happening. He hadn’t kept a strict schedule before the incident, but with him in the area this was unusual.
Suzanne decided that she needed to find him. So she went to Derek and said, “Derek, I’m worr-i- ed abou Charlot. ‘e ‘as no bean in zince zee fu-ner-al. I am worr-i-ed about heem. I would lak to go and find heem.”
Derek replied, “I agree with you Suzanne. I’m worried about him also. How is the paste-up of this Sunday’s page going?”
“Eet ees almo-st feenish-ed. Colette can feenish eet zery easily.”
“Okay, take the afternoon and go find him. Let us know what you find.”
“Sank you Derek.” She turned to her sister and said, “Colette, I weel call you when I find heem.” She turned toward the door and picked up her bag as she passed her desk.
She decided to check the grave site just on the off chance that she would find him there.
When she arrived she found him, kneeling on the ground beside the newly turned earth. She could hear that he was crying as she approached. She reached out and placed a hand gently on his shoulder. He didn’t move a muscle. It was as if he didn’t even know that she existed or that anyone was within a light year of him. Suzanne simply watched him as he silently cried the tears falling slowly onto the earth covering her casket.
Suzanne was moved by his very apparent grief. <He really loved her. His love for her is what enabled him to resist Colette and me. Theirs was a true love, a love so deep, a love like that I can only wish Colette and I can find. If I ever find someone that will love me that way, I will do whatever it takes to hold onto it forever.> At that moment Suzanne grew up a little bit. She knelt next to him and put an arm across his shoulder. She turned toward him and pulled him into an embrace. He didn’t resist but also he didn’t really participate. He was like a manikin that she could move and position as she willed. She started stroking his hair and murmuring in his ear, “Charlot, I can zee zat you loved her very much. It is correct for you to grieve but you mus steel tak care of yourzelf. Eef you cannot tak care of yourzelf zen zumeone must tak care of you. Come … come wiss moi Charlot. Come wiss Suzanne. Suzanne weel tak care of you. Come Charlot, let Suzanne tak care of you. Come … come wiss Suzanne.”
With her gentle urging he slowly rose from the ground like an automaton. He allowed her to lead him from the graveside and to her car. She took him to her apartment. He didn’t say a word during the entire trip and when she got him into her apartment she led him to a chair and he slumped into it.
Suzanne picked up her phone and dialed the office. "Colette, j'ai trouvé Charlot. Je l'ai amené chez moi. J'ai besoin de ton aide. Va faire quelques emplettes pour le dîner et viens m'aider. Charlot est en très grand deuil.” She looked over at him with compassion in her eyes as she continued, “Nous devons prendre soin de lui. Il a besoin de nous."
(tr: Colette, I found Charlie. I have him in my apartment. I need your help. Please pick up some groceries for dinner and come help. He is grieving very deeply. We must take care of him. He needs us.)
Colette responded: "Je serai là. Je suis d'accord avec toi. Il n'a personne d'autre qui peut l'aider. Nous sommes ses amies et nous devons êtres les meilleures amies possible pendant sa période de deuil. Il a besoin qu'on l'aide. Il était très amoureux d'elle; j'ai remarqué ça chaque fois qu'elle était avec lui. Ça a été un coup terrible. Je sympathise avec lui -- on doit faire tout ce qu'on peut pour lui.
(tr: “I'll be right there. I agree with you. He has no one else that he can rely upon. We are his friends and we must be the best friends that we can be for him in his time of grief. He needs us to help him. He was very much in love with her. I saw that whenever she was with him. This has been a terrible blow. We must help him through this period of mourning. My heart goes out to him in his hour of need. We must do whatever we can for him.”)
"Colette, je l'ai trouvé à sa tombe. Je ne crois pas qu'il a quitté sa sépulture une minute depuis l'enterrement. Je ne pense pas qu'il ait mangé ou dormi non plus. Je crains que, s'il continue de cette manière, qu'il ne survivra pas la mort de sa bien-aimée. Il va mourir d'un coeur brisé. On doit faire tout ce qu'on peut pour le ramener du précipice. On doit être ses amies et non pas ses séductrices. Pour ma part, je serai l'amie dont il a besoin. J'espère que tu feras de même."
(tr: “Colette, I found him at her grave. I don't think he has left her gravesite for a minute since the burial. I don't think he has eaten or slept a minute since that day. I am afraid that if he continues in this fashion that he will not survive her death. He will die of a broken heart. We need to do whatever we can to bring him back from the brink. We must be his friends. We need to stop playing around with his emotions. He needs us as his friends not his seducers. I, for one, am going to be the friend that he needs. I hope that you will too.”)
"Chère soeur, sais que tu peux compter sur moi et, plus important encore, que Charlot peut compter sur moi. Comme toi, je veux être l'amie dont il a besoin aujourd'hui."
(tr: Dear sister, you know that you can count on me, but more important, Charlie can count on me. Like you, I want to be the friend that he needs right now.”)
"Merci Colette. À bientôt. Explique à Derek ce qui se passe. Je suis certaine qu'il s'inquiète aussi.
(tr: Thank you Colette. I'll see you in a little while. Please tell Derek what we are doing. I'm sure he is worried about Charlie as much as we are.”)
Suzanne hung up the phone. She walked over to Charlie and laid a hand on his shoulder. She could hear him muttering and brought her ear close so that she could hear what he was saying.
What she heard was heart rending. “Lois, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry Lois. Why did you have to leave me Lois? I just wasn’t fast enough. Why did you try the windmill? I couldn’t get to you fast enough. Not fast enough. Too slow to save you, my love, my love. Just like before. The car. Not fast enough. Forgive me. Forgive me Mom and Dad. Please forgive me, Lois. I’ll never see you again. How can I go on? I don’t want to go on, not without you. Lois, come back and take me with you. I don’t want to go on without you. Please Lois.”
Suzanne was aware that they had been undercover so when she heard the name Lois she decided that it must be his wife’s real name. What Suzanne could not possibly know was that Lois’ death had piled up on the death of his parents.
Clark had been ten years old and just coming into his powers. He was stronger than any other kid his age and he was also faster. His parents had gone into town for dinner and had left the ten year old Clark with a sitter. The sitter had been on the phone and hadn’t been paying nearly enough attention to her charge. He had been out on the front porch and had seen the lights of his Dad’s truck approaching from town. He had started to run down to the gate where they would be turning off the road into the farm. He liked to do that because Dad always let him hop up and ride in the bed of the truck.
He then saw the approach of the other car following an erratic path weaving back and forth across the road as it approached his parent’s truck. Dad had tried to avoid it but at the last second as Jonathan swerved to the right since the other car had started moving to their left it suddenly changed direction and hit them head on. He had been running and sped up as he saw what was happening but he wasn’t fast enough to get there before the collision.
Although he was strong enough to get the crumpled door open and he got both of his parents out of the truck before it burst into flames it was already too late to save their lives. They had both been killed in the impact. He hadn’t been fast enough then and he hadn’t been fast enough this time. If he was fast enough to save so many strangers from fires and earthquakes why wasn’t he fast enough to save the ones he loved?
Suzanne had been hearing all of his ramblings and wasn’t sure what to make of some of it but chalked it all up to extreme grief.
A little while later Colette arrived with the groceries. Colette took over as comforter while Suzanne prepared a meal.
Colette also heard the muttered self-recriminations uttered by Charlie. She realized that there was a lot more going on than just the death of his wife here. There was a deep seated bitterness from an incident in the past. She went out to the kitchen to talk to Suzanne.
"Suzanne, Charlot a plus que la mort de sa femme sur sa conscience. Il pleure un incident lointain. Un incident dont il n'a jamais vraiment fait le deuil et qui se manifeste maintenant. Il est possible que nous ne soyons pas capables de le sortir de sa torpeur. La plaie est peut-être trop profonde ...'
(tr: Suzanne, this is more than just the death of his wife. He is grieving over an incident far in the past. An incident he never really grieved properly over and it is all manifesting now. We may not be able to bring him out of this grief. It may be too deep for us.“)
Suzanne replied: "Nous devons faire notre possible. C'est notre ami. On voudrait qu'il fasse pareil pour nous si on était dans le même état."
(tr: “We must do what we can. He is our friend. We would want him to do something for us if we were in the same emotional state.”)
"Je suis d'accord, mais ça peut être au-delà de nos moyens."
(tr: “I agree, but this may be beyond us.”)
“On doit faire de notre mieux. Charlot en vaut la peine."
(tr: “We must do the best that we can. Charlie is worth our effort.”)
When Suzanne had completed the meal preparations they managed to move Charlie to the table but he had no motivation to eat. He simply sat there looking at the plate of food.
Suzanne moved over beside him and, taking a forkful of food, presented it to him. “’ere Charlot tak ziss for Suzanne. Come on Charlot open zee mouss and eat pour Suzanne. Come on Charlot, do eet pour Suzanne.” He took it and chewed mechanically and finally swallowed. “Zatz eet Charlot, zatz eet. Eat zum more pour Suzanne. Bon, now zum more.” Taking this as a hopeful sign Suzanne continued feeding him until his plate was empty.
After the plates were cleared, Suzanne said to Colette: "Je suis heureuse que j'aille pu le faire manger. Maintenant, je pense qu'on doit le mettre au lit. Je doute qu'il ait dormi depuis les funérailles. Mettons le dans mon lit; je dormirai sur le divan."
(tr: “I am glad that I was able to get him to eat. Now I think that we need to put him in bed. I do not believe that he has slept since the funeral. We will put him in my bed. I will sleep on the couch.”)
They each took a hand and encouraged Charlie to get up and move into the bedroom. When they got him in there they had him sit on the side of the bed. They cooperated in removing all but his briefs and then coaxed him under the covers. He fell asleep almost immediately but it was a disturbed slumber.
Suzanne took a pillow and blankets out and prepared her couch for the night. Seeing that Suzanne was preparing the couch for sleeping as she was leaving, Colette said: "Appelle-moi si tu as besoin d'aide cette nuit. Autrement, je passerai ici demain matin pour voir comment il est."
(tr: “If you need any help during the night call me. Otherwise, I will come here in the morning to see how he is.”)
Looking up from what she was doing, Suzanne replied: " J'appellerai si j'ai besoin de quoi que ce soit. Je sais que je peux compter sur toi."
(tr: I will call if I need anything. I know that I can count on you. He seems somewhat restless.”)
Colette asked: " Devrais-je dire à Derek que tu ne seras pas là demain? Tu as accumulé du temps de vacance et je peux prendre la relève s'il t'en manque.”
(tr: “Should I tell Derek that you will not be in tomorrow? You have the vacation time accrued and if you run out then I can begin taking care of him.”)
Suzanne replied: "Oui, informe Derek que je vais prendre congé jusqu'à ce que Charlie aille mieux. Si ça prend trop de temps, tu pourras me remplacer.”
(tr: Yes, please tell Derek that I will take vacation until Charlie is better. If it takes too long you can take over for me.”)
Suzanne saw Colette to the door and thanked her sister again by giving her an embrace and a kiss on each cheek as she left. Closing the door she went and stood in the doorway of the bedroom and with a concerned expression she watched Charlie. He was very restless. She watched for some time and decided that she would try to soothe him so that he could sleep peacefully.
She moved over and sat on the edge of the bed. She reached out and started stroking his hair and face. Cooing to him as she did so, “I am wiss vous Charlot. Suzanne ees wiss vous. Slep Charlot slep for Suzanne. Zatz eet Charlot slep for Suzanne.” She continued stroking his hair and occasionally saying soothing things. As soon as she would stop and start to leave he would become restless again.
Suzanne got up and pulled a nightie from her bureau. She stripped and put on the nightie. As soon as she had it on she dragged a chair over close to the bed and got comfortable. She frequently had to reach over and stroke his hair and speak to him to get him to settle down. After a while she went out and got the blanket off the couch and wrapped up in it as she sat in the chair. Throughout the night her slumber was disturbed by having to comfort Charlot. When the morning sun started coming in through the window she came to the realization that she had only managed about an hour of uninterrupted sleep at any stretch throughout the night. She felt like she had been run over by a truck, but looking over at Charlot and seeing him sleep peacefully was enough of a reward to compensate her for her discomfort. She looked at him with an expression that was full of pity as he lay there. Suddenly he started muttering incoherently. Suddenly he shouted, “No Linda!” It took her by surprise with its suddenness. She realized that that was probably the key; it was the incident which had caused her injury, the one he hadn’t been fast enough to prevent. They wouldn’t be able to ask him about it until he came out of his delirium.
A little later Colette arrived. Letting herself in with her key she expected to find Suzanne asleep on the couch. However she wasn’t there and even the blanket was gone. She tip toed over to the bedroom door and peeked in. What she saw was her sister curled up in a chair beside the bed, sound asleep.
Colette closed the door again and went into the kitchen and put some coffee on to brew. When it was finished she prepared it the way her sister liked it and went to call her.
Suzanne was bleary eyed with lack of sleep as she moved to the kitchen with Colette. She heaved a heavy sigh as she sat down at the table and picked up her coffee. After taking a sip she put the cup down and said, “Je ne sais pas combien de temps je serai capable de continuer ça, mais comment pourrais-je arrêter? Il a besoin de nous. J'ai mal au dos à force de dormir dans cette chaise.“
(tr: “I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to do this, but, how can I stop? He needs us. My back aches from sleeping in that chair.”)
Colette asked, “Pourquoi ne pas dormir dans le lit avec lui ?“
(tr: “Why not sleep in the bed with him?”)
“Ce ne serait pas correct. Il a besoin d'amis, pas d'amants!“
(tr: “That would not be right. Right now he needs friends, not lovers.”)
“Tu as raison, Suzanne. Pourquoi ne pas prendre des tours? Dors sur le canapé ce soir. Je prendrai la chaise.“
(tr:“You’re right Suzanne. Why don’t we take turns? You sleep on the couch tonight and I’ll take the chair.”)
“Tu me sauve la vie, Colette! On devrait se relayer au travail. Si tu reste près de lui ce soir et je dors, je peux aller travailler demain.“
(tr: “Colette, you are a life saver. Why don’t we alternate at work? If you sit with him tonight and I sleep, I can go in to work tomorrow.”)
“Oh oui! Bonne idée! De cette façon, ni l'une ni l'autre n'aura à se taper tout le boulot. Je vais avertir Derek aujourd’hui.“
(tr: “Yes, let’s do that. That way neither one of us has to do all the work. I’ll tell Derek today.”)
Colette, usually the more flighty of the sisters for a change was the practical one when she asked, “Pense-tu qu'on devrait peut-être appeler un médecin?“
(tr: “Do you think that perhaps we should call a doctor?”)
Suzanne replied, “J'y ai pensé. Physiquement, il semble être en bonne santé; c'est son esprit qui est touché. Je pense qu'on l'aide autant qu'un docteur pourrait le faire.“
(tr: “I’ve thought of that. Physically he seems to be healthy; it is his mind that is affected. I think that we are doing as well as any doctor would do.”)
“Si tu le dis... Je dois aller travailler. Vas-tu être correcte ici toute seule avec lui?“
(tr: “If you say so. I need to leave for work. Will you be okay here alone with him?”)
“Ça devrait aller. Fait part à Derek de nos intentions. Je vais te voir ce soir.“
(tr:“I can handle it. Let Derek know what we will be doing and I’ll see you this evening.”)
Colette gave her sister a hug before walking out the door to go in to the office.
Suzanne returned to her post in the chair.
comments go here To be continued in Chapter 5 – Luthor
