Clark and Lois - Hope Realized - Matchmaker Chronicle Volume 5 17/25
By Ken Janney
Rating PG-13
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.
* * denotes emphasis
< > denotes thoughts
(#) footnotes
/ denotes telepathic communication/
[ playback of a recording or TV Commentary]For reference purposes the following will hold true throughout.
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
Alpha -120 x Gamma 255 x Tau -190 New universe called Alt 2
As always comments are welcome. (ken.janney@kjanney.com)
Clark and Lois – Hope Realized - The Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 5
Previously:
IT had been by and had left a note with her username and temporary password for her computer access so she logged in and changed the password and checked her e-mail, finding only the welcome message, which was all that she had expected.
Just then they both heard a news report on a nearby police scanner about a bank robbery in progress. They both got up and headed for the stairwell. Once inside they both spin changed into their uniforms and Clark stopped and placed a hand on her arm stopping her. He said, “Where do you think you’re going, dressed like that?”
She looked down at herself and realized that through force of habit she had changed into her uniform. Realizing her mistake she spin changed back again into her business suit. Lightly she said, “This is going to take some getting used to.”
Laughing with her he said, “There’s no telling how soon we will announce your presence, but, let’s keep you a secret for as long as we can, okay?”
Still chuckling she replied, “It’s gonna be just like old times with you carrying me! Okay, let’s go.” As they exited the roof door she hopped up in his arms and with a look of pure joy on her face enjoyed the ride to the scene of the crime.
Clark set her down just behind the police cordon before entering the bank. A minute later the doors opened and the bank employees walked out, followed by the robbers, followed by the bank guard who had his gun on the robbers. The police moved in and put the bracelets on the robbers and read them their rights. Lois projected a thought, /What about a getaway vehicle and driver?/
The policeman saw Superman start as if he had been hit by a bat and then saw him start to look around. He said to the nearest policeman, “Wait right here for a minute. There’s one more.”
He flew off in pursuit of a vehicle that had just taken off from the curb near the bank entrance. He stopped the vehicle and extracted the driver. He picked him up and flew him back to the policeman he had spoken to. “Here’s the getaway car driver.”
The officer pulled out his cuffs and as he was putting them on the driver read him his rights.
Clark projected a thought, /Thanks! I almost blew that one./
Lois returned the thought, /Anytime, husband mine./
He replied, /Just for that, I’m gonna let you write this up for the Planet. Your first byline./
/Thank you Clark. That’s sweet of you. Won’t Mr. Olsen be surprised? First day on the job and all./
And now:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 16 – Lucy
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Universal Locator Designation
Local designation – Alt 1
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The officer standing next to Superman was surprised when he suddenly, for no apparent reason, started chuckling, verging on laughter. With a wary eye he watched as Superman walked over to the police cordon and singled out a very attractive brunette. She was apparently a reporter, as evidenced by her notepad and pencil. Superman gave her a brief interview and then he flew off. The cop watched her as she made her way through the throng of reporters who started to mob her asking why Superman had given her an interview.
As the cop watched, he saw one of the ‘older’ hands within the reporter ranks apparently recognize her and heard him shout out, “You’re Lois Lane, aren’t you?”
He saw the petite woman stop and turn to the individual that had shouted her name as she replied, “Why yes, so nice of you to remember me!”
The reporter retorted, “I have good reason to remember you. You’ve beaten me out on more stories than I can count! I was happy when my competition disappeared. When did you get back and where were you?”
She replied archly, “I guess you’ll have to read about it in the Daily Planet.” She chuckled as she turned away and made her way out of the crowd. The cop lost sight of her and returned his attention to the bank robber he had in hand.
Lois checked to make sure she hadn’t been followed and ducked into an alley where she met Clark. He picked her up and flew them both back to the Planet.
As soon as she sat down at her desk she brought up her computer and started her word processor. She quickly typed up the article on the bank robbery and e-mailed it to Clark to look over. Then she acted on the idea she had been given by the other reporter. She typed up a report on her return to the Planet and sent that to him as well.
Superman Foils Bank Robbery
By: Lois Lane
The attempted robbery of the Second National Bank was foiled today by Superman. As many stood by and simply looked on, The Man of Steel swooped in and rounded up the crooks. As a mark of his respect for the law, once he disarmed the robbers he turned them over to the bank guard for the arrest and simply assisted as the guard in turn handed them over to the MPD (Story continues on 2A)
Lois Lane Returns
By: Lois Lane
The former star reporter of the Daily Planet who had been listed as missing and presumed dead for a number of years has now been found and has returned to the staff of the Planet. Being injured on an investigation in the Congo some years ago she was in a coma and suffered amnesia as a result. She was recently located by Superman who assisted in the recovery of her memories. (Story continues 3A)
Clark proofread both and forwarded them on to Mr. Olsen. A few minutes later Mr. Olsen came out of his office and walked over to Lois’ desk and said, “Wow, you sure start with a bang, don’t you. I like having an article about Clark written by someone else for a change. Good job. The article about your return to the Planet, now, that was something I hadn’t expected. What gave you the idea for that?”
She replied, “While I was at the scene of the bank robbery one of the other reporters recognized me and started asking a lot of questions. I thought that it might be a good idea to answer them for everyone all at once.”
Mr. Olsen had a smile on his face as he replied, “*Initiative*, I like it. I like the way you think. It may not be page one, at least not above the fold, but we will get it in there somewhere.” He walked away with a satisfied smile.
Watching this scene Clark couldn’t help but also have a smile on his face at Mr. Olsen’s reaction. He couldn’t wait until Lois revealed just what she could do. Smiling to himself he projected a thought to Lois, /What say we get out of here and grab a bite to eat?/
She nodded, locked her computer, grabbed her bag and stood up just as he reached her. She turned toward the elevator and he placed his hand at the small of her back as he escorted her up the ramp. He pushed the button and they waited patiently for the car to arrive. When it did they stepped inside and pushed the button for the lobby. When the doors closed, she dropped her bag and threw herself in his arms and started kissing him. She pulled back and said, breathlessly, “I’ve been waiting to do that for hours. How are we going to do this? To be so near each other all the time and not able to really *be* together? It’s like slow torture!”
Clark pressed his lips to the side of her neck in a kiss before he said, “We’ll just have to think about it as foreplay.”
Lois said, “Okay, but if we do that, fair warning, as soon as I get you home I’m going to rip your clothes off of you and ravish you as soon as we walk in the door.”
Clark ran his finger from her throat to her cleavage and said, “We’ll have to take turns on the ravishing thing.”
She blushed prettily at his comment. She asked, “Where do you want to go for lunch?”
“There’s this little Italian place I know, Travaglini’s. They have the best … what am I saying?” He started to shake his head as he continued, “You know all about Travaglini’s. We bought the lasagna for Bobby from there in the other universe.” He started to laugh, “I can see where this is going to be more than a little bit confusing.”
Lois said, “Yeah, I know. We’re going to have to work on each of us getting ‘up to speed’ on both universes. I’m sure there will be a lot of similarities, but there will probably be differences too.”
Clark said, “Yeah, I can think of one major one right off. Here there are no Kent seniors. I’m missing them already and it’s been less than a week.”
“Well, we’ll be seeing them in a few days and it should be only a few minutes after we left so they won’t have missed us at all.”
He was very serious as he said, “Do you think that this is really going to work, I mean this hop scotching back and forth between the universes?”
Lois, also dropping the bantering tone that had been prevalent in the bulk of the conversation said, “Well, so far we are handling it. It can only get better as we get used to it. What concerns me is here we are spending a week here before we go back and when we get there virtually no time will have passed, but we are a week older. Our aging process will appear to accelerate.”
Just then the elevator reached the lobby, so they continued the conversation without speaking. Clark projected his thoughts, /In one of the universes I’ve been in the local Clark had worked with a Dr. Bernard Klein at STAR Labs. Dr. Klein determined that a Kryptonians aging process is not that of a normal human. According to him our aging process stabilizes and slows. He isn’t exactly sure just how long we will live, but it should be several human lifetimes./
She replied in the same fashion, /We have a Dr. Klein in the other universe too. The other Clark and I went to him when the transfer occurred. To the best of my knowledge no studies like that were ever conducted on Clark. I know that none were done on me. Wow, I wonder just how long we’ll be together. Is there a Dr. Klein in this universe?/
/I don’t know, I’ve never looked for him. Why don’t we do just that this afternoon?/
/Let’s eat first, I’m not exactly starved, but I am looking forward to some good pasta and the company of a certain handsome gentleman./
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That afternoon they went to STAR Labs and enquired about a Dr. Bernard Klein. Clark was recognized and because of this the receptionist called Dr Klein down immediately.
When he arrived in the lobby, he came over to Clark and said, “My, my, Superman, what can I do for you?”
Clark spoke up and asked, “Dr. Klein, you come highly recommended to us by a friend. Could we have a conversation in your office?”
Dr. Klein got a very pleased expression at this and said, “Of course! This way.” He turned and led the way through a labyrinth of corridors finally reaching his lab/office. Once inside he closed the door and moved around behind his desk. He asked, “What can I do for Superman and ??”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Dr. Klein, please allow me to introduce you to Lois Lane.”
Dr. Klein said, “I’m very pleased to meet you. Now, what can I do for you Superman?”
Clark replied, “Well, first thing is, please call me Clark. You see Clark is who I am, Superman is what I can do.”
Dr. Klein said, “I would be more than happy to. Please proceed, Clark.”
Smiling, Clark continued, “Dr. Klein, we are going to be telling you some things which will need to be held in strictest confidence. Can you do that for us?”
He replied, “Of course you can. Trust me, my lips are sealed.”
Clark released a relieved sigh as he proceeded, “Dr. Klein, are you aware of the existence of parallel dimensions or universes?”
He replied, “There has been speculation about the existence of alternate dimensions for years. It is a favorite topic of some Science Fiction writers, so, yes; I’m familiar with some of the concepts.”
Clark continued, “Dr. Klein, we have the means of crossing that barrier. In fact, Lois is from a parallel universe. You see, the Lois Lane of this universe died some years ago in the Congo on an investigation. This Lois happens to be Kryptonian. What we were wondering was … do you have any tests you can think of which will tell us just how long we might live?”
This revelation was startling. To look at her he never would have thought she was anything other than Earth human, but then looking at Clark he thought, the same could be said of him. Mulling this over, Dr. Klein developed a very thoughtful expression. He leaned back in his chair and steepling his fingers he looked ceiling ward, obviously in deep thought. Finally coming out of his reverie he leaned forward and looked at the couple across the desk from him. Finally he said, “It would take a number of genetic samples collected over a rather long period of time. We would have to measure the telomeres and determine just how rapidly they are shortening. The longer the period of time between the samples the more accurate the determination will be.”
Clark asked, “Then we wouldn’t know for at least several years how long we could expect to live.”
Bernie replied, “That is correct, but it is the only definitive way. We could go by apparent aging. Do you look 20 or 30 and in ten years repeat that process. I would suggest that you simply live your life and take things as they come.”
Clark said, “I guess that’s what we’ll have to do then. In the future, if we are in need of technical assistance, can we call on you for help?”
Bernie replied, “You can call on me whenever you want and I will do whatever I can to help out. It’ll be a pleasure.”
Thanking him they left and returned to the Planet.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The next day they were at their desks when Lois’ phone rang. Lifting the receiver she said, “Daily Planet, Lois Lane, how can I help you?”
Out of the earpiece came a squeal, not an electronic squeal, a human voice squeal followed by, “Lois?????”
Recognizing the voice Lois said, “Lucy! How are you Sis?”
The reply she received caught her off guard for a few seconds, “How am I??? How are you? I’m not the one that’s been missing for five years! I’m not the one that’s had amnesia! When can I see you?”
Suddenly it dawned on Lois, this was the other universe! This Lucy wasn’t the same one that was Maid of Honor in her wedding party! She sent a thought to Clark, /Clark, this is Lucy on the phone. How do I handle this?/
He thought back, /She has been reclusive ever since you disappeared. She hasn’t even dated. She really went into a tailspin. You will need to build a relationship with her. Ask her to come east. Last time I saw her she was in California. Tell her that I found you and brought you back and that I’ll come get her to bring her east./
All of this mental communication took place at the speed of thought so there was no discernible lapse in the conversation as Lois replied, “Lucy, it has been a long time. I really don’t remember much of it. It was Superman that found me and brought me back. I’d like us to get together. Superman could come pick you up, if you’d like him to. I’m partnered with him now here at the Planet.”
“That would be wonderful. I haven’t seen him for a couple of years, since he started looking for you. Tell him that I haven’t moved and that I’ll expect him anytime after five Pacific.”
“Tell you what Sis; I’ll have him bring me there instead. We have a lot of things to discuss.”
“Wow, okay Sis, I’ll look for both of you around five then.”
“Okay, Luce, we’ll see you then.” She hung up the phone.
Lois got up from her desk and walked over to Clark’s and perched on the corner. She leaned in and said, “Thanks. I almost blew it. I forgot about the different universe thing. She just sounded so much like my kid sister.”
Clark said, “Lois, she is your kid sister, in this universe. I think that this is where the amnesia can help us. I’m thinking that now that we are going to be associated, we may want to get her close to us so that we can protect her. What do you think about trying to get her to relocate to Metropolis or at least Smallville?”
Lois said, “I’m not sure which would be best. We are going to be living at the farm but we’ll be here most days. Let’s talk it over with her tonight.”
comments go here To be continued in Chapter 17 – Lois and Mayson go Undercover
