Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Unforgettable - 1/35

***

Unforgettable

***

By: Julie

Rating: PG-13

When Lois danced at her anniversary party, she never expected it to be the eye-opening experience it became. Now, Lois finds herself tasked with putting the pieces back together. Will Lois and Clark be able to unravel the truth, move past everything that has happened and reconstruct their lives?

Author’s Notes: While the story starts later, it interrupts the flow at the beginning of Ultrawoman BEFORE the red kryptonite laser which, along with the rest of the following episodes, never happened. You might also find it helpful to note that our villain is responsible for any other time inconsistencies, not me.

Disclaimer: I do not own most of these characters and I borrowed them and some of their stories from the wonderful people who made the show. I also borrowed some song lyrics from the wonderful Nat King Cole (though some of the songs were originally written by others too). And I thank them all for allowing me to go on this crazy adventure. Any characters not from the show came out of my head and any resemblance to actual people is coincidental. I also edited some real places to fit my story better, in case you intend to be offended by that.

Special thanks to my family for putting up with me while I tried to write this in one month (plus all the extra time past that because it just wasn’t done yet), my friends for having to constantly hearing about it, and complete strangers that are now friends who had bits of advice when I asked questions (which was very often ). A special thanks to Val for being indispensable. I have learned so much from you working through this story that I'm not sure I would have otherwise. Thank you so much for reading through it and telling me what worked and didn't. And a huge thank you to Ina for your kindness, understanding, and encouragement when things got tough.

A heads up regarding some content: More specific content includes: View the Unforgettable Cover that I made (and had Dean Cain sign )

***

Part 1: “Oh what a tangled web we weave…” - Marmion (Walter Scott)

***

Chapter 1

***

January 20, 1996

Lois Lane walked into the center of the ballroom of the Lexor Hotel, surrounded by charming decorations, with a raised glass in her hand. He was recreating the night he proposed with paper lantern moons and smaller stars hung below the high ceiling, keeping it darkened like the night sky while casting a warm glow about the room. Potted trees and small sections of vines strung with lights were positioned liberally around the edges of the room and smaller plants featuring little bouquets of twinkling lights to look like lightning bugs were placed on tables. The scent of laurel permeating the large room brought every detail of that unbelievable night to life in her mind.

Family and friends who had gathered with them to celebrate began to quiet as all eyes turned to her. She was filled with a sense of solemn gratefulness that everyone was there to share in their happiness. She smoothed her free hand down the side of her immaculate dress. The burgundy evening gown she chose was simply elegant and flowed gracefully as she walked, enhancing the ethereal feel of the whole occasion.

“Attention!” She held her glass up high and turned slowly to address the crowd. “Attention, everyone! I’d like to say a few words.” She looked to the man she loved and smiled. “I want all of you to know that we are both so happy that you could join us on this wonderful occasion.” She lowered her glass and continued, “These days, marriages come and go so quickly. People aren’t always lucky enough to find their soul mates, the person they are meant to spend the rest of their life with, their perfect match.” She paused for dramatic effect. “I, however, am not one of those people.” Her smile widened and a tear pooled in the corner of her eye as she fought to keep her voice calm despite the passion overflowing from her heart.

She thought about the ups and downs, their difficult fights and his romantic gestures. He knew just what to do to keep her focused and grounded, what to say to make her feel like she was the only one that mattered. He was always there to rescue her from the dangerous situations she always seems to find herself in. He’d surprise her with extravagant gifts from faraway places and expected nothing in return. He really was amazing.

And here he was standing with her celebrating this occasion in style. He had insisted on a grand soiree with fancy dresses and fantastic decorations. Lois hadn’t argued. She loved him and if this was what he wanted, then she would play along and enjoy herself.

As she crossed the room to her perfect match, she took a deep breath. He caught her outstretched hand and swung her around as if to dance. An “aw” went around the room. He gathered her close and kissed her temple. She placed a hand on his chest which he promptly covered with his free hand, lending his strength to her.

She collected her thoughts and continued, “Here we are at our second anniversary! I don’t know why this lunkhead feels the need to throw such a big party for such a small milestone.” The crowd collectively laughed as she rolled her eyes and shook her head, remembering the last month of endless planning and preparing as if it were their 25th anniversary. He had insisted, though, and his excitement was contagious. “While it feels like we’ve been married forever, it also feels like it was just yesterday.”

“I am in complete agreement!” he said as he looked deeply into her eyes. “While I knew she could never say no to me,” he paused as the crowd laughed again, “I never realized how happy marrying Lois would make me. You all have no idea what we’ve been through to get to this point.”

She lowered her gaze to where her hand rested on his chest. Memories of their relationship passed through her mind. How she was surprised he wanted to date her. How difficult it was to get to know him. How she refused his proposal. How she finally accepted.

He gave her hand a tender squeeze. “She’s right, you know. We are very glad you all made it here to recreate a wonderful event with us. It is because of all of you that we’re even here today!”

“A kiss! A kiss!” one of the party guests cheered. Other guests joined in and it was clear they would not give up until they had what they wanted.

His admiration and adoration were there for everyone to see in his eyes. She met them head on and couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face even if she wanted to, which she definitely didn’t. As she leaned closer to him, he glanced at her lips and filled her with warm desire before he pressed his lips gently to hers.

“I love you, Lois,” he murmured against her lips.

She kissed him again.

“I love you, too, Lex.”

***

Clark Kent sat up in his bed with a jolt, the covers slipping from his chest, and shoved his fingers through his mussed hair. He couldn’t remember the last time he slept well. The darkened image of a face continued to haunt his dreams. Always the same unfamiliar face, sometimes mocking him, sometimes angry.

Rubbing his face with his hands, he took a deep breath and tried to distract himself from the lingering image of the mysterious face. He needed to think of something else. Anything that might help him get back to sleep.

Looking to his left, he was surprised to find the other half of his bed empty.

A quick glance at the clock told him that he had only been asleep about an hour. Clark threw off the covers and made his way to the kitchen.

Lana Lang was seated at the dining table, elbows propped up on the edge, forehead resting in her hands. Something was wrong. Her shoulders drooped forward and she rubbed her hands down her face, leaving them on her chin. She always did that when something was bothering her. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, though she must have heard him. He grabbed the buttermilk from the fridge and a few glasses from the cabinet before taking a seat next to her, ready to take on whatever her troubles were.

“Who’s Lois?” she asked without raising her head.

“Lois?” he asked, frowning. That was definitely not what he was expecting. Had Clark even told Lana about Lois Lane? “I worked with a Lois back when I was in Metropolis. I don’t know anyone else by that name, so I assume that’s who you are talking about. Why do you ask?”

“When was the last time you saw her?” She still didn’t look up.

He leaned forward to see her face, but she turned her head away from his and brought her hand up to block his view. She was avoiding him. He had no choice but to follow along until she was ready to explain it.

“Probably two years ago. I worked with her at the Planet on a story or two.” Clark didn’t see the need to expand on the guilt that always came over him when he remembered his time in Metropolis. He poured a bit of buttermilk into each glass.

“Clark, I…” She swallowed. When she turned her eyes to him, they were filled with sadness and jealousy. Clark was shocked to see these emotions on her face. “Did you know you talk in your sleep?”

No, he definitely did not know that. Clark raised his eyebrows and waited for her to elaborate as he pushed one of the glasses to her. Taking a sip of his own, he wondered if maybe he’d been talking about that face. But then why would she be asking about Lois?

“It’s been happening for a couple of weeks now,” she began to explain. She got up and started pacing back and forth as much as a person could in the tiny kitchen. “You’ve been talking about her in your sleep. Like you know her… very well. Like you miss her.” She stopped and turned to him as he took a sip of his buttermilk. “Like you are in love with her.”

The sip of buttermilk he’d been drawing into his mouth suddenly went the wrong direction and Clark gasped for air as he tried to cough it up. The stinging in his windpipe persisted in spite of his attempts to dislodge it as his mind focused on that one word.

Love? Had he heard Lana right? Love? She thought he loved Lois? He was stunned by her observation. He didn’t even think about Lois when he was awake! Every time it came up that he worked in Metropolis for a while, he felt such intense guilt that he had to find something to take his mind off of it. He didn’t quite know how to handle that. Nothing else had ever made him feel so guilty. Maybe Lana was misconstruing his guilt as love.

“Lana, I don’t love her,” he said matter-of-factly. “In fact, whenever I think about her, or my short time in Metropolis, all I can see is how I let her and the Planet down.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve never felt this much guilt over anything. You must have picked up on-”

“You said ‘I love you, Lois’,” she interrupted, cutting his attempt to explain short with a wave of her arms. With an exasperated sigh, she went back to pacing the tiny kitchen.

Clark’s eyebrows shot up. She couldn’t be serious.

“Clark,” she continued, her arms becoming involved in her bitter reproof of him, “I have known you my whole life. I thought you’d never lie to me – “

“And I haven’t,” he defended as he stood up from his seat.

“-but you have haven’t even told me you love me as much as you’ve said it to her in your sleep.” Her voice cracked, and he could see the path a tear had taken down her cheek, even as she continued to pace, her voice gradually rising higher and the frown on her face deepening as she rambled on. “You have to be lying. Night after night, you’ve talked to her like she’s there. Sometimes I worry you see her when you are looking at me when you are awake.”

Clark was speechless. How could this be? He felt nothing but guilt when he thought about Lois. And that was not very often. They weren’t even partners for very long – three, four days at most. She told him what she thought about his mistake. He left knowing he’d never make it there. How could he be talking about her, to her, in his sleep?

“Don’t act surprised,” she spat, her words stinging. “Though as much as you seem to be in love with Lois, I can see why you wouldn’t have noticed how upset it’s making me…” she trailed off, bringing her hands up to wipe the tears from her face.

He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. “Lana,” he said with determination, “I have no explanation for what you’re saying. And I have noticed you haven’t quite been yourself for a while. In fact, I’m glad you’ve finally told me. But know this – I have never lied in my whole life. I don’t love Lois. I love you.”

She hung her head, clearly unconvinced. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t listen to you talk about her, to her every night.” She shrugged from his grasp and stepped back from him. “I’m going to stay at my place. When you are ready to be honest with me, let me know.” With this, she turned and walked to pick up the duffle bag by the back door.

When had she packed a bag?

“Lana, wait!” he called after her, reaching his hand toward her. She paused in the doorway without turning around, and he begged, “Please, can we talk about this? I don’t even remember saying anything. What else did I say?”

She looked over her shoulder, sadness in her eyes. “I’m sure it’ll come to you.” And with that, she left.

***

Perry White, Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet, sat at his large mahogany desk reviewing storyboards for the next edition. With pen in hand, he took a slow deep breath, pausing his work to rub his tired eyes. He’d been doing this job for more years than he was willing to admit and though it was occasionally the hardest job in the world, he wouldn’t trade a minute of it for some easy button-pusher job.

There was one thing he would change, but he didn’t often think about it. It was floating around in his mind tonight, though, after he was reminded of it. He’d received an invitation to Lois’s anniversary celebration, but he couldn’t bring himself to show up. He was glad she was happy with Lex Luthor, but something just didn’t sit right with him.

She must have held him at least partially responsible for the fiasco that had ended her career at the Planet. It had been his fault on many counts, the least of which was his faulty character assessment abilities. He shouldn’t have been fooled by that Midwest sincerity. He should have known he couldn’t trust a hack from Nowheresville. But his heart had made him believe in the kid and give him a chance. And it hadn’t taken long for him to realize his mistake and to lose his prized reporter.

She had left the Daily Planet to work as a reporter for LNN immediately following the whole debacle, and he had gradually lost touch with her. His shock at receiving an invitation to her wedding had fizzled slowly over time as happenings in the town took precedence over his personal life. Even now, he couldn’t recall the reason he hadn’t been able to make it.

Surprised that she sent him an invitation to her anniversary party, he considered going before guilt made him feel like he just wouldn’t really be welcome there. The last time he’d seen Lois in person had been several months ago and purely coincidental.

The door opened and Jimmy Olsen walked in shaking his head while looking at the pad of paper he was carrying and tapping a pencil in the middle of his writing.

“Chief,” he began, “I think there’s more to this medical malpractice case… But you won’t believe what I think is going on.”

Jimmy’s a good kid, Perry thought in contrast to Clark Kent. Jimmy had been in the right place when Clark had left the Planet. It all happened so fast. The story wasn’t written yet and Jimmy stepped up and proved his worth by filling in and doing an excellent job of it, too. Much better than Clark was even capable of. Since then, Jimmy had only been improving, demonstrating he was the right kid for the job.

This fraud case was a weird one, though, and Perry wasn’t sure it was worth the time. A couple of months ago, a small set of patients filed medical malpractice lawsuits against one health care facility. They were all the same, healthcare fraud. Seven claims came in over a couple of days indicating that a doctor there, whom they weren’t at liberty to identify, performed unnecessary procedures on the patients.

All the claims were roughly the same: Filed by a family member, not the patient; Patient denies having been to the doctor for any kind of treatment; No records were found that the patients in question had even been admitted to the treatment facility. No physical evidence on the patient to suggest any kind of procedure had been done; None of the hospital staff even remembered the patients in question being in the hospital. The only evidence was anecdotal from family members with corroborating testimonies from employers about reasons for taking the day off and colleagues that the family members had spoken to about the patient going to the doctor’s treatment facility.

The cases never even made it to trial due to the fact that the only evidence could have been easily fabricated. Jimmy had spoken with the family members and they all had similar stories to tell. None of the patients had gone to the facility for the same ailment. The procedures the patients were calling into question were supposed to fix the ailments the patients claimed never to have had in the first place. Because the patient was reported to not have the ailment, the facility’s defense was that the procedure had apparently happened since the patient no longer suffered from it. All of the patients in question reported memory problems after visiting the facility. It was a continuous cycle of shifting the blame from one party to another as each new piece of evidence told another side of the story.

What Perry thought was the most intriguing thing about this story was the fact that since the first seven cases came up, and were subsequently shot down, eleven more claims had been filed over the past month fitting the same story as the previous ones. The sheer number of claims at this point was beginning to raise suspicion. But still there remained a lack of evidence.

“What won’t I believe?” Perry didn’t look up. He was a master at multitasking and it was easier to set a reporter straight when they had bad ideas if he wasn’t looking into their faces. He always kept his head down just in case.

“The guys at the lab were able to clear up that image of our informant and the unknown person of interest…” Jimmy’s friend, Jack, had been following one of the doctors from the facility in question on occasion, doing some light surveillance, and snapped a picture of what appeared to be a suspicious exchange of something.

Perry realized that Jimmy had stopped and was waiting for Perry to look up at him.

“Lex Luthor,” Jimmy said, his voice filled with intrigue.

Surprise pulled Perry’s eyebrows up. Would he be wrong about someone else? Lex Luthor was a kind, caring, generous humanitarian that worked tirelessly to make Metropolis a better place. Knowing that Lois was married to the guy gave Perry some peace of mind. He trusted Luthor to protect her and provide for her. This simply couldn’t be.

“You’re right, I don’t believe it,” he said as he shifted his attention back to the story boards.

There was no way that Lois would put up with this if she knew about it. And there was no way that Lois, the best damn investigative reporter the Daily Planet had ever seen, would be married to a man involved in criminal activity and remain unaware of it.

***

Comments go here.

Continue reading - Chapter 2