Part Three
She continued going through the photo album and sighed with a little sadness. If the restoration process succeeded she would create a book detailing this new chapter in her life. The argument with Alva had drained more of her energy than she imagined possible. Yet it was very satisfying to send the annoying nurse away.
Unexpectedly, she heard a familiar whooshing sound and thought one of her grandchildren had stopped by for a visit. The familiar sound of flight once again opened up a floodgate of memories. The air around the garden felt peculiarly still, suddenly she heard - or perhaps sensed - a presence, one that had been absent from her life. There was a sense of vibrant movement in the garden. She was not frightened, more fascinated than anything.
Suddenly she heard a twig loudly snap. The sound cracked open the silence and she turned towards it as quickly as her ancient limbs would allow. A very handsome young man stepped out from behind the shed. He was tall, rakishly handsome and wearing a sleek black leather jumpsuit. The color was perfect against his swarthy complexion; she’d always thought he looked utterly delicious in black.
An aperture of memory unlocked in her mind. She remembered the adventure with Vera Doodson. It was shortly after they were married and Bernie had informed her that Superman/Clark body’s aging process would eventually slow and stabilize. Lois and the rest of the human race would continue to age and he would remain youthful for untold years. She remembered the vision she had of a young and vital Clark visiting her at a nursing home. All of a sudden she realized that memory had crystallized into an uncomfortably painful reality. The thought shocked her to the very marrow of her ancient bones.
“No, this is too much. My Clark is dead!” she shouted at the young man as he approached. The rasping, weak voice of an old woman rang in her ears and she detested the sound.
A rush of cool spring air washed over her like a lover’s kiss and suddenly she felt a warm, familiar flesh-and-blood hand caress her withered cheek. “Shh, it’s me, honey. I’m alive. I…I couldn’t stay away any longer, Lois. It was killing me. Dr. Klein said I shouldn’t see you, th … that the shock would be too much for your heart to handle.”
Hearing the sweet, rumbling voice she cherished so much and thought to never hear again, made her heart skip a beat with happiness. Still Lois wanted to fight him, wanted to be angry, but the sheer relief of being held by the man she loved was more precious and far stronger than anger. She was ready to accept his return, to feel the happiness and protection of Clark’s arms once more. Then her intuition and familiar old habits leaped like wildfire to the front of her brain and she began to tremble with fury and she pushed him away.
“Where have you *been* for six months? Of course Iggy would be worried about my reaction! I’m an old lady! You’re perfect! You look *exactly* the way you did when we first met! Clark, what happened? I knew it! That cockamamie explanation Iggy told CJ had something to do with this, right?” She demanded.
“Let me start from the beginning, that terrible night in the garden. I…I just…”
Clark’s voice cracked and the heartbreak of their situation struck each of them like a hail of bullets. All the stress, anxiety and grief of the past six months crashed down upon him. He knelt by her and began to weep. The anger Lois felt evaporated and she wrapped her arms around him. He held her close until the shaking and distress of their meeting eased away. Clark wiped his tears, stood up and pulled the other chair close to her.
Pleased to be together yes, yet kept apart by a chasm greater than the distance between Earth and New Krypton they clung to each other, sharing a quiet, bittersweet interlude between husband and wife, crying tears of relief and sadness in each other’s arms. Human imperfection and fragility formed a greater barrier than either of them would have imagined. Eventually Lois lifted her head from Clark’s shoulder. She noticed how long strands of her gray hair lay against the blackness of his clothing. Fresh tears prickled at her eyes. He was once again young. There was a fantastic anecdote to be told and she wanted to hear every word of it.
“Go ahead sweetheart;” she whispered shakily, “I’m ready to hear the whole story.”
“That ... that terrible cold winter night, I suddenly began feeling a little light headed and nauseous. I went outside for a breath of chilly night air, thinking it would help. However, the symptoms only increased and there was only scant seconds to write a few words in the snow…”
Hot tears skated down Lois cheeks and she nodded, whispering, “I read them. Thank you.”
“Up to the very last, my only thoughts were of you. But you need to understand that I didn’t die, my body went into hibernation.”
“Hibernation? Since when is that part of your powers?” she asked with not a little bit of incredulity.
Clark shook his head and smiled weakly, “Well apparently I aged, but my Kryptonian DNA decided it was time to rest up.”
“Rest up? What was *I* supposed to do while your Kryptonian body took a six month siesta? The entire family was in an uproar. Can you imagine how the great grandchildren took your sudden death? We cried. We *grieved*! CJ and I had to pick out a casket for crying out loud!”
Clark took Lois very gently by the shoulders. He’d been very much aware that she would be angry, even angrier than when Pepper, his long dead cat, had opened his secret closet and she found the suit. But it felt so good - oh so good - to hear her voice again. So good to know she was alive. However, he still needed to finish his story. So he calmed her down as gently as he could and then continued.
“When CJ brought my ‘corpse' to S.T.A.R. Labs, Dr. Klein suspected something was wrong; although my body was stiff from cold it did not go into rigor mortis like a human’s. His suspicions were confirmed when he detected a very faint pulse shortly after you and the rest of the family departed for home.
Lois’ eyes grew wide with amazement, she wanted to speak, but held her tongue.
“He placed me in an isolation chamber and monitored my body functions for a number of hours. My heartbeat had slowed down to one beat every ten minutes, which was why CJ didn’t hear it. He created a synthetic body to look like me and told the doctors at Metro Gen he had performed the autopsy. No one was going to question his authority, especially since our families have been friends for decades. My ‘remains’ were then turned over to the funeral home with strict instructions not to use any embalming fluids.”
“So that’s why Iggy insisted on a closed casket? How did he get the funeral home to avoid embalming your… uh the synthetic remains?”
“He wouldn’t say how he managed to keep the people at the funeral home quiet. What he did to you and the family was cruel and I was extremely angry with him when he told me. His reasoning was painfully simple. What if I was in a coma and could never be revived? He knew how much we loved each other. The pain of watching me in that isolation chamber hanging between life and death would have been dreadful for you.”
“He has a lot of nerve! *I* am your wife, and as such I have the authority to make medical decisions for you. That officious snake! I’ll come down on him so hard he’ll think its raining hammers!” Lois took in a sharp breath to start another babble string, but stopped shook her head when she realized it didn’t matter, Clark was here beside her.
“I was in hibernation mode for five months. Each day my body was repairing itself, getting younger. Dr. Klein made sure I had exposure to sunshine at least three hours every day. It probably would have gone faster if I was outside much longer. But he could not take the risk of a staff member discovering me. The de-aging process slowed and eventually stopped, and shortly afterwards I regained consciousness.”
“Waking up in that stark, white chamber was one of the most frightening experiences of my life. All my old nightmares as a child came screaming to the front of my mind. Dad’s voice popped into my brain, about me being ‘dissected like a laboratory rat’. After Dr. Klein explained what happened I wanted to come home and be with you. But with Clark Kent declared legally dead, how would I live?
“What did you do? Create another secret identity?”
He rubbed her hands reassuringly and then spoke. “No. I had to stay in the isolation chamber for several more weeks. My muscles had atrophied due to disuse. It took time, but once I regained my mobility I desperately had to see you. Dr. Klein thought it was a bad idea, but I insisted and came as soon as I could. I waited outside while you were talking to that woman. Who was she? Your nurse?”
“Yeah, but she thought she was my keeper. I guess you heard our conversation. It was CJ’s idea to hire her.” His wife sighed gently, “At the time it was necessary.”
Clark rubbed his chin and smiled. “I’m going to have a very serious conversation with that young man when I see him.”
His wife couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of a thirty-year-old Clark scolding his fifty-something son. It promised to be a curious and even humorous tête-à-tête.
“Did you hear the entire exchange? Olivia Amundsen came by this afternoon, to offer me the chance to undergo the rejuvenation process. She provided a non-technical, explanation, so I would be aware of what my body would be experiencing. After a week of testing to make sure I can tolerate the stresses, the treatments can begin. It will be conducted over a three week period, each stage would restore about twenty years of vitality. After the final stage I should look and feel like a thirty-year-old.”
Clark gazed down at the tiny white-haired elderly woman sitting in front of him. He wanted to spend more time with her, but despite this hope of crashing the age barrier which separated them, he was deeply concerned. What if something went wrong? How ironic would it be for him to come back to her from the dead and now she would die?
He determined to push the nagging doubts aside. If this is what his wife wanted to do, he could not stand in her way. All the treatments for the process were to be conducted at S.T.A.R. Labs under Dr. Amundsen’s careful supervision. They both had to trust that the process would succeed.
Lois sensed her husband’s apprehension; she smiled and said, “Olivia believes it’s safe for people my age. Oh Clark, I’m going to take the process. No way can you be married to a wrinkled old lady!”
He looked at her with deep brown eyes full of love and warmth. “Lois, honey, are you sure?”
“Of course, you lunkhead! A hot young guy like you needs a proper looking woman to partner with, and with Olivia’s help I intend to fit the bill! The big problem now is explaining your return. The whole planet knows Clark Kent is dead.”
Running his slender fingers through once again jet-black hair, he gave his wife a crooked smile. “We’ll think of something. Now that we’re back together, nothing’s going to stop us!”
Lois smiled in turn, the first truly genuine smile she had experienced in quite a long time. “You’re darn right! Let’s go in the house and have a cup of hot oolong tea. And you know the first…ah, the second thing I’m going to do once my body has completely healed from the rejuvenation process?” she said with a wicked little grin and an arched gray eyebrow.
“Oh, what’s that?” Clark asked, clearly puzzled.
“*We* have a story to investigate, the kind that can only be cracked with the combined talents and skills of Lane and Kent. So, while your muscles were rebuilding themselves, did that egghead Iggy keep you up-to-date about current events?”
“Yes, he did tell me what the kids were doing, especially the crack in the Mars Base Alpha dome. I was very proud of Jason’s skillfulness in handling that particular crisis.”
Lois’ mouth curved in a mother’s prideful smile. “It *was* a very intricate situation for him alone, but he did extremely well. Still, the entire circumstances of the dome’s structural integrity failing was very suspicious. Jason explained in detail about it during the house and garden renovation and some of the things we discussed just don’t quite add up. Now after I’m back to my youthful self, maybe we could fly to Mars and do a little investigating, who knows what we might find.”
Clark listened to Lois talk as he helped her up out of the chair and down the gazebo stairs. Slowly, they walked arm in arm over the flagstone path towards the stone steps leading to the French doors. He was happy to be with his best friend once more and soon, very soon, the Hottest Team in Town would be on the prowl again.
The End …. for now
