Well, it has taken a few years, but the story is finally done. This is the sequel to
When the Sky Falls but my goal in writing this was that it should be accessible to people who have not read the previous work.
The posting schedule is going to be approximately twice per week. We'll see how that goes.
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After Nightfall: The Return of Superman
by bobbart - Bob Bartholomew <bobbart_99@yahoo.com>
Rated: PG
Written: Spring 2013
Disclaimer: This is a fanfic based on the television show, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. I have no claim on the pre-existing characters whatsoever, nor am I profiting by their use. The new story elements are mine. No infringement is intended by this work.
This is a continuation of When the Sky Falls. Reading that work first will prove helpful, but much of Chapter 1 in this work is intended serve as an overview/refresher of that earlier story, so it should be possible to enjoy this story even without prior knowledge of WtSF.
Chapter 1: Reunion
Lois loved the smell of Clark's cooking. When she'd first seen him in Perry’s office all those months ago, she'd made a series of judgments based on nothing more than his appearance. In some ways those judgments had been perfectly correct, but in others they had been amazingly wrong. She'd been correct in that he was fundamentally a “country boy.” He'd been raised in a small town and had the manners to prove it. However, that first day she would have never guessed that he was an experienced world traveler and skilled chef.
“Honey, would you get the fennel seed?” Clark asked from across the kitchen.
“Sure,” she replied. This was her primary duty in the kitchen. Clark cooked and she helped. In many ways it mirrored their relationship at work. There, she generally took the lead and Clark assisted her. Although she had to admit that Clark was far more capable in the office than she was in the kitchen. She delivered the spice and collected a kiss from her husband in return. “Thank you,” he said before he turned back to the skillet.
As she sat back down on the barstool near the edge of the kitchen counter, she thought about how quickly things had changed these months. Although the widespread devastation wrought by the shattered Nightfall asteroid had been the most striking change for most of the world, she'd had her own set of more personal changes. Those all started with the appearance of Clark – and his alter ego Superman – in her life. It seemed almost funny now to look back at her initial negative and dismissive reaction to the man – the real version of the man – who had become so critical to her happiness and well-being.
A knock on the door interrupted her muse. "I'll get it," she said as she stood and headed for the front door. When she opened the door, she was glad that she had a good grip on the doorknob. Standing just outside the door were Clark's parents. His supposedly dead parents.
"Lois, it’s so good to see you. May we come in?" she heard in a slightly surprised, but friendly voice.
Lois stood in the doorway to her and Clark's apartment in stunned silence. Martha and Jonathan really were standing in front of her. They were alive!
"Martha, Jonathan, what are you doing alive?"
After a second or so, the shock wore off and she realized that they had no way to respond to her odd – and probably rude – question. She stepped forward and hugged Martha. “I’m so happy that you’re OK,” she said joyfully as she squeezed Martha to her.
After a few seconds, Lois sensed a certain level of discomfort – or possibly confusion – from her mother-in-law. She released the older woman, stepped back and glanced at Jonathan. “I’m glad to see you too, Jonathan.” Then Lois took a second to gather herself. “When the Nightfall fragment destroyed Smallville, and then we didn’t hear anything from you, we thought you were... well, dead.”
They were both clearly confused and Lois realized that they were probably surprised at both her presence and the nature of her greeting. Martha seemed about to say something when she suddenly glanced over Lois’ shoulder. “Clark?” Then Martha rushed past Lois and threw her arms around her son.
For a second or two Clark just stood there stiffly. Then he slowly lifted his arms and somewhat hesitantly returned Martha’s embrace. Lois could see that Clark was very uncomfortable.
Martha finally seemed to realize that her son was acting oddly. She pulled back and looked up at Clark. “Clark, what’s wrong?”
He just stared back at her blankly for a moment before turning to Lois for help.
She moved quickly to his side and took his hand in hers before turning to Martha. “Martha, I know this is going to be hard for you, but Clark doesn’t remember you.”
As Martha’s gaze jerked back to her son, Clark spoke to his mother for the first time. “That’s not exactly correct,” he explained. “I remember your face and I’ve looked at your pictures.” Then his expression turned solemn. “I just don’t remember anything about you.”
Lois turned back to Jonathan who was still standing outside the door. “Please come in and we’ll try to fill you in on the details,” she said.
“Just a minute,” Jonathan said. He looked past Lois to Clark. “Son, can we stay with you? From what we saw of the city, I think we’ll have a hard time finding a hotel room.”
Clark didn’t hesitate at all this time. “Of course you can stay here. Things are better in Metropolis than they were right after Nightfall, but it’s still nearly impossible to find a place to stay.”
“Okay,” Jonathan replied. “I need to get our luggage and tell Charlie that he can go.”
“Charlie?” Clark asked.
“Charlie Irig. He’s one of Wayne’s nephews. That’s where we’ve been all this time.” Jonathan paused for a moment. “It’s a long story. I’d like to let Charlie be on his way. He has about another hour’s drive back to where he’s going to stay the night. I have a feeling that the four of us are going to be spending a lot of time exchanging stories.”
“You’re probably right,” Lois replied. “Do you think Charlie would like to come in for a few minutes?”
“I’ll ask,” Jonathan answered as he turned away from the door. “But he seemed pretty anxious to get back on the road. Son, can you give me a hand?” he asked Clark.
Clark hurried after his father. As the door closed, Lois remembered the partially prepared meal in the kitchen. “Excuse me for a second,” she said to Martha as she headed for the kitchen. “Clark was making us dinner when you arrived. Let me make sure that he turned everything off.”
Lois had expected Martha to follow her into the kitchen, but when she looked back she saw that Martha had remained standing in the doorway. A few seconds later, Martha opened the door as wide as it would go and held it as the men came in. Clark was loaded down with two large suitcases and Jonathan had two smaller ones.
“Charlie wouldn’t stay?” Martha asked Jonathan.
“No. He was glad that Clark was okay but… well, you know how fidgety he is. He was on his way practically as soon as the truck door was closed.”
As they set the luggage aside, Lois returned from the kitchen. “That should keep for a while now,” she said, looking at Clark. Then she turned toward the older couple. “Have you two eaten yet?”
“No. Not since lunch,” Jonathan replied quickly. “We were anxious to get here.”
“We had only started enough dinner for Clark and me,” Lois said, waving her left hand in the general direction of the small kitchen. “But I’m sure Clark can come up with enough for all of us.”
Lois turned back to find Martha staring at her outstretched arm. Martha’s hand was covering her mouth. “Is something wrong?” Lois asked.
“You’re wearing a wedding ring,” Martha replied breathlessly.
Clark moved quickly to her side and put his arm around Lois’s shoulders. “Lois and I have been married for a nearly a month.”
“I’m sorry that we surprised you this way,” Lois added.
Lois looked back and forth between Clark’s parents. It was clear that this information stunned them. She wished she could tell if their reaction was positive or negative. After another second of silence, Lois decided to defend her position. “A lot has happened in the last few months,” she said, squaring her shoulders. “I was really hoping we’d have your blessing.”
Now it was Martha's turn to sweep forward and pull Lois into a hug. “Of course you do,” she said elatedly. Martha held her for several long seconds before stepping back. There were tears running down the older woman’s cheeks. And based on the crooked smile on Martha’s lips, it was easy to see that they were tears of joy. “I’m so happy. I.. I was just so surprised. Clark has been… Well, from the first day he came to Metropolis, you were practically all he could talk about. I just didn’t expect anything like this to happen so quickly.”
Lois moved toward her and pulled the suddenly frail-feeling woman into another hug. This time there wasn’t any discomfort at all. “I’m the lucky one,” Lois said, feeling her own tears of joy starting to flow. “Clark is… He’s better than I deserve. I love him so much.”
They stood like that for several long seconds. Lois had never felt so much a part of a family as she did that moment. Martha’s approval had meant a lot to her. But now she knew that even better than approval was welcoming acceptance into Clark’s wonderful family.
When they finally separated, Lois found the men just standing quietly nearby. “Let’s all sit down,” she said as she reached out for Clark’s hand to lead him into the living room. “We’ll talk for a few minutes and then we can worry about some food. Will that be okay?” she asked, looking at Clark’s parents.
Martha and Jonathan both nodded in reply.
“Clark, can you please bring us some water?” Lois requested.
“Speaking of water,” Jonathan cut in, suddenly looking fidgety, “I need to use your bathroom.”
As the men headed in opposite directions, Lois and Martha went to the living room. Lois sat on the couch and Martha sat in a chair right across from her. “I really am happy about you and Clark,” she confided. “I had a feeling the first time we met in Smallville that you two had something special. I was afraid that because of Clark’s—” Martha stopped suddenly.
To Lois, Martha suddenly looked afraid. It was as if she’d accidentally revealed some great secret. Then it hit her. Martha had to have been worried that Clark’s secret would stand in the way. She decided to get that out of the way right away. “You were worried that Clark’s secret – the fact that he was Superman – would be a problem?”
Martha’s expression relaxed into a smile. “I’m so relieved that you know. I was half afraid that he might decide to do something crazy like proposing – maybe even getting married – without telling you.”
“There’s more truth in that than you know,” Lois said with a cryptic smile.
“There’s more truth in what?” Clark asked as he returned from the kitchen with four glasses of water.
“Your mom was worried that you might have proposed without telling me about Superman.”
Clark smiled at the memory. “Well, my memory problems made that a little complicated.”
At this point Jonathan returned. “What was complicated?” he asked.
“Dad, why don’t you sit down and we can get down to the business of telling our stories,” Clark said.
As Jonathan took the chair nearest Martha, Clark began. “How much do you know about what has happened since Nightfall?”
Martha glanced briefly at Jonathan before starting. “Not really very much. We’ve been isolated for all this time. There was a radio, but the only news we’ve heard was very general. We know that Lex Luthor was involved in trying to kill Superman.”
“But you know about Superman?” Clark asked.
“You mean that Superman is supposed to be dead because of Luthor's Kryptonite gas trap?” Martha asked.
Clark only nodded in reply.
“Of course,” Martha replied solemnly. “At first we were scared to death that you really were dead. But then we heard the story of how Lois Lane and Clark Kent had found the evidence that exposed Luthor. By the way, did anyone ever catch Luthor?”
Lois shook her head. “No. Lex disappeared the night we discovered the evidence against him, and there's been no sign of him since.”
Jonathan started to say something but checked himself. After a second Martha continued. “Anyway, we knew that Clark was alive but for some reason Superman remained dead.”
“Well, I made it back from Nightfall, but Luthor’s gas nearly did its job. It didn’t kill me, but it took away my powers and destroyed most of my memories.”
“That extra air supply didn’t help?” Jonathan asked.
That got Lois's attention. “What extra air supply?”
Jonathan turned to Lois. “A few hours before he left on the Nightfall mission, Clark stopped at our place to tell us what he was going to do.” Then he turned to Clark. “Son, you were nervous about the air and you wanted to have your own backup plan. You got this –” He concentrated for a second. “–rebreather device from a scientist you knew. You were going to carry that along in case something went wrong with your air supply.”
Clark and Lois looked at each other for a minute. “That must be how you made it back,” Lois offered.
“What do you mean?” Martha asked.
Lois turned to her mother-in-law. “When we first found him after the Nightfall mission, Clark didn’t have his powers and couldn’t remember being Superman,” Lois explained. “He really didn’t remember much about being Clark either. But he did retain enough of his general memory and reporting skills to help in the investigation into Superman’s fate. Working together, we discovered that Luthor had booby-trapped the air supply in Superman’s mission pack. When we started investigating Superman's disappearance, we found the official mission survival pack in the building where Clark turned up injured.”
Lois stopped to take a sip of water, so Clark picked up the story. “At first we thought that I – meaning Clark – had been injured by leftover gas when Superman’s support pack hit an abandoned building where I had been waiting to meet him. The scientists who analyzed the gas said that there was no way Superman could have survived the gas long enough for the flight back from Nightfall. All the evidence fit. Superman was dead and whatever knowledge I had about him was lost along with the rest of my memories.”
“But if both your powers and memories are gone, how did you find out that you're Superman?”
“It’s a long story,” Clark replied. “The short version is that for a long time I – we – didn't know. I guess that it's clear that major memory loss is a side effect of the gas that Luthor used. I simply had no recollection of anything to do with Superman. In many ways, the Clark Kent that existed before Nightfall really did die in Luthor’s attack.”
“That’s not true!” Lois interjected strongly, as she reached to Clark and took his hand in hers. “You’re still the same person you were before. The Clark that I was starting to fall in love with is the same person who is sitting beside me now.” After another second, she turned to Martha and Jonathan. “Clark’s memories are mostly gone, but somehow he’s still the same person. All those qualities that made Clark the special person you raised are still there.”
Martha couldn’t help but smile at the intensity of the feelings that Lois had showed for Clark in his moment of doubt. It was clear that a lot had happened in the short time since Nightfall. “If we keep interrupting, this will take forever. Why don’t you give us the condensed version of what happened and we’ll try to hold questions to the end,” Martha suggested.
“That’s probably for the best,” Lois replied. “I’m sure we’ll be filling you in on the details for a long time. So let me give you the super-brief version of what happened.” She thought for a minute and then started. “Okay, we told you that after the Nightfall mission, Clark had almost total amnesia. He didn’t even remember his own name, but somehow he did remember mine. The odd part of this amnesia is that even though his memories are gone, his feelings – especially strong ones – are intact. It quickly became clear to me that Clark had been falling for me even faster than I was falling for him.”
She paused as Martha seemed about to say something, but ended up just nodding quietly.
“We tried to reach you before Nightfall hit, but we couldn’t get through,” Lois continued. “Clark didn’t want to stay home alone in his apartment, so he helped me at work. I certainly needed the help and figured that it would help stimulate his memory. Then my apartment was destroyed the night Nightfall hit. With so much of Metropolis devastated, everyone was looking for a place to stay.”
Lois paused to compose herself for this next part. “Well, Clark invited me to stay with him,” she said. “It was all very proper,” she added quickly. “Clark even built a wall that isolated the sleeping space into a separate room for me, so that this place was like a small two-bedroom apartment.” Lois had been watching for some sign of rebuke from either of Clark’s parents, but they seemed to take these living arrangements in stride. “We lived like that for a few weeks. We were investigating Superman’s fate and getting to know each other even better than we had before. Then one night Clark asked me to marry him. At first I was in shock, but it didn’t take me long to realize that he was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I also admitted to myself that I was as in love with him as he was with me. We got married the next day, and I’ve never been happier.”
Clark’s parents were now holding hands. It seemed clear that they had been touched by the story of their romance. After another few seconds Martha asked, “So if Clark lost all his powers, how and when did you find out about his… other job?”
“That’s why it was funny that you thought Clark might ask me to marry him without telling me about that part of his life. In truth that is exactly what happened. We got married still thinking that Superman had died trying to make it back from Nightfall. We’d been married nearly a week when Clark’s special abilities started coming back. Our guess was that whatever gives him his powers had to heal from the exposure to Luthor’s Kryptonite gas.”
“That must have been something of a shock.” Jonathan said in a wry tone. “I mean discovering that you were married to Superman.”
Lois paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “From the first moment Superman saved me in the space transport and then flew me back to the Daily Planet, I knew that there was something between us. Now I know why. Of course, I’m not married to Superman, I’m married to Clark.” Lois leaned over and kissed her husband.
Then she turned back to them. “The one piece that didn’t fit was how Clark had been able to make it back from Nightfall. We knew that the gas had been triggered just as he reached the asteroid. As I said, several good scientists have analyzed the gas and there was simply no way that Superman could have made it back without either suffocating or breathing enough of that gas to kill him. He clearly did make it back, but until now we couldn’t understand how.”
“Clark, you must have switched to your backup air supply as soon as you realized you were being poisoned,” Martha said.
“I guess that must be right,” he said doubtfully. “I just don’t remember. I know that I – as Superman – went on the Nightfall mission, but I have no recollection of it at all.”
“At least that clears up one thing we didn’t understand,” Lois continued. “And I think that covers the most basic elements of how Clark and I ended up where we are. He lost his memory but not his feelings or personality in the Nightfall mission. The disruption after Nightfall threw us together more than ever before and we came to realize how great we were for each other. It was only after we got married, when his powers started to return, that we discovered that Clark had been Superman.”
“So, do we get to hear your Nightfall survival story?” Clark asked.
Martha and Jonathan glanced at each other. Very quickly, Jonathan nodded at Martha in a way that clearly meant, “You go first.”
Martha turned to the younger couple. “We started getting ready to head this way right after Clark left our house the day of the Nightfall mission. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, but we wanted to be here in case he needed us. It took a few hours to get the farm ready to leave, and by the time we were done we had already seen the official announcement about the Nightfall mission. We had planned to stop by Wayne's place and ask him to keep an eye on our farm while we were gone.” Then Martha turned to her husband. “Why don’t you pick it up from here?”
“When I got to Wayne’s place,” Jonathan continued, “I found that he was also getting ready to leave. Clark, do you remember Wayne at all?”
“No,” Clark replied. “I know who he is because of the article that Lois wrote when Bureau 39 took over his farm. I read everything that I could to try to recover my memories. I don’t remember him, but I know what Lois wrote.”
“Well, Wayne’s family comes from West Virginia. Much of his family is very clannish, and in times of crisis they tend to all come together. One of the elders of the family had a premonition that Nightfall was going to go badly and put out a call for the family to come home.”
“Home?” Lois asked.
“They have these family rules,” Martha answered. “When one of the senior elders calls the family together, they all gather at the traditional family lands. They own a whole valley in eastern West Virginia. It’s very isolated and the people that live in the area all have roots going back several generations. It’s always been the place that their family pulls back to in times of crisis. Anyway, since Wayne was heading east, we decided to drive most of the way together. We figured that we might run into a situation where help would come in handy.”
Jonathan picked up the story again. “It was a good thing that we did, because just east of Columbus, Ohio, we got hit by a car. It was after dark and we were just minding our own business when this car came flying up behind us. We were on a divided highway and I kept expecting the car to change lanes. Well, the driver must have been even drowsier than us, because they didn’t even try to change lanes until the last possible second. By then it was too late and they clipped the rear of the truck. The impact knocked us into a spin and we ended up on the side of the road. It was a good thing that Wayne was with us. The other car kept going, but Wayne stayed with us until a tow truck came by. We ended up at a garage and, well, our truck wasn’t totaled, but it was close. It was clear that the damage would take days to fix. With Nightfall on its way, we didn’t feel that we could wait. We were trying to figure out what to do when Wayne offered us a ride to his family’s place. The idea was to get there and then get a ride with one of the family to Metropolis.”
“We didn't know what else to do,” Martha interjected. “We really wanted to get here, but there just wasn’t any other way. By that time, your Nightfall mission had failed and no one would rent or sell us a car. We thought about looking into something public, like an airplane or bus, but we were a long way from any of those places and all the news reports made it look like we wouldn’t have any luck. We decided that, as much as we wanted to get to Metropolis, it would be a mistake to become separated from Wayne. He had a truck that worked and room for us. With things the way they were, we were afraid that we’d be stuck in Ohio. We reached the Irig place in West Virginia the next afternoon. There was no way we could get out that day, so we hoped that we’d be able to get a ride to Metropolis the next morning. Obviously, it didn’t turn out that way. The family elders had already decided that no one should leave until after Nightfall hit. We were free to go, but no family member, not even Wayne, could give us a ride. It was very frustrating, but at that point, we figured what it would only be another day or so.”
Martha paused to take a sip of water, so Jonathan took over again. “What we didn’t count on was how bad the Nightfall pounding would be. The deep narrow valley did its job and shielded us from the worst of the hits. The hilltops around us took a beating, but very few of the fragments made it down into the valley. No one was injured, but we didn’t come away unscathed. The two-way radio was taken out by one of the impacts. Another hit destroyed the bridge that was the only way to drive in and out of the valley. We were safe, but there was no way to communicate with the outside world and no way to leave. The family started repairing the bridge the day after the Nightfall impact, but it was only opened a couple of days ago. We had enough regular radios that we had a pretty good idea of the state of the world, but we were missing all the details.”
“So what did you know about Metropolis?” Lois asked.
“We knew it hadn’t been hit too hard,” Martha explained. “We heard that some buildings had been destroyed, but like some other cities, it came through better than expected. Since we knew that you were alive, once the bridge was open and some of the younger family members had been out enough to make sure that what we’d heard on the radio was correct, we started asking about getting a ride. It turned out to be easier than we thought. To be honest, I think they were happy to have us non-family out of their valley. In any case there was no problem getting a ride.”
There were a few seconds of silence when Clark spoke up . “Well, I’m sorry that my memory is probably going to make our reunion more challenging. But I – we – are really happy that you’re okay and especially that you’re alive. We still have a lot to do this evening but first we need to do something about dinner. Then we can get you settled in. Lois and I don’t have the dividers that we used to convert this to a 2-bedroom apartment, but it shouldn’t be too hard to set all that up again tomorrow. So…, what would you like for dinner?”
TBC
