Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Yet one more TOGOM variation

I am incredibly nervous about posting this challenge because I am a fan, not a writer, but it just came to me and I don't think I've read any stories with this plot before. (If anyone has used it or something similar already, please forgive me!) I would like to see what someone could do with it:

We move past season four with everything according to the TV show, except that TOGOM did not happen. Lois and Clark are happily married, and of course Lois knows Clark is Superman. Clark is covering the president's visit to an aircraft carrier in the bay just outside Metropolis. Superman has not been invited to the ceremony because he recently refused to help the President with what he correctly interpreted as a political coverup, and there are hard feelings between him and the current administration. Suddenly, there is an assassination attempt. With no chance to change to Superman and in spite of his dislike of the man, Clark steps into the path of a bullet meant for the President and is shot in the chest at point-blank range. He knows it is all being shown live on LNN, so to conceal the fact that there is no blood and to protect his secret identity he falls into the water and disappears. So he is officially missing, although no one believes there is any chance he could have survived.

Clark is unable to come up with any plausible way he could have survived, so he remains missing for several months while he and Lois desperately try to figure something out. They can't ask the government for help because the president would be only too happy to expose Clark's identity. They can't even move to another city, because Clark is a national hero and someone would be sure to recognize him. Superman is seen visiting Lois from time to time, but everyone understands that he is searching for his friend's body and keeping her posted on the progress of the search. Privately, all Lois's friends think that she is just unable to accept the reality that Clark is dead.

After six months Lois reads about a new surgical procedure for gunshot wounds, and she and Clark come up with a story they think will be believed about how Clark had amnesia but was rescued and treated and how he has recovered. Superman "finds" Clark very publicly and the entire story is reported in the Daily Planet and receives coverage around the world. Clark receives several awards but gradually things settle down and almost return to normal. It is about that time that Lois notices something she has missed. Bernie Klein was wrong and she CAN get pregnant, in fact she is about 3 months along and it is going to be obvious to everyone that this happened while Clark was missing and she was receiving regular visits from Superman . . . .

If no one else has any ideas, I can put it in the queue of several stories I have sitting partly done on my hard drive. Actually I can think of a way out of this but I'd like to see if someone else comes up with another solution. After all -- this background could potentially generate several different stories.

Nan

P.S.: It's too bad Wendy Richards has mostly quit writing L&C. This one would be perfect for her.

Delightful. Proof that Lois was cheating on Clark with Superman!

I think they'd relocate out of the USA and write novels.

The fly in that ointment would be that people would be likely to recognize Clark. Lois and Clark would either have to let the world think Lois and Superman were adulterers, and we saw in Sex, Lies and Videotape how he would cope with that, since Superman couldn't be effective under such circumstances, or they would have to have some other way of satisfactorily dealing with it. I think it could be done, but I'm not going to say how, in case I end up writing the story.

Nan

Uhhhmmm, let's see. . . Ah, fearing that Clark could possibly be killed in the line of duty, or perhaps as research for a story, Clark visits a fertility clinic and has his little swimmers frozen. Thinking her husband lost forever, Lois decides to take advantage of Clark's frozen little guys- hey it does happen! Sperm is sometimes extracted from corpses so the the wife can still have her husbands children. That explanation should fly (pun intended), right?

Well, there are many fics where a Kryptonian or half-Kryptonian pregnancy lasts only about seven months. If I do the maths correctly, things might seem like Lois had been pregnant before Clark had been shot. But that's just one take on it.

I had thought of the artificial insemination angle, but then I decided that a tabloid might not believe it, and might try to get a sample of both the baby's and Clark's DNA to have a test done. That would raise more complications, wouldn't it?

And Nan, I'd love to see you go forward with this one! I always love your stories!

All sound very interesting!

The artificial insemination explanation is a very good one. Surely you have heard of Lance Armstrong, the great American cyclist? Here in Europe we were awestruck at his performance in Tour de France, a gruelling two-week race all around France where the cyclists race each other up and down steep mountains. Lance Armstrong won this race seven years in a row. Anyway, before he had won Tour de France even once, he was diagnosed with testicle cancer. The treatment he had to undergo rendered him sterile. But he saved some of his sperm, and now he is the father of three children. Certainly Clark Kent wouldn't have had the same reason as Lance Armstrong to extract and deep-freeze some of his sperm, but he might have done it, all the same.

Anyway, I would love to read this story!

Ann

This will only make sense if you've watched daytime television in the U.S.:

Lois has been asked to appear on the "Manny Novitch" show to discuss successfully balancing motherhood and a career, and to bring Clark along too.

Once the show starts, the host says: "Lois, we know there have been tabloid rumors about you and Superman, and we thought we'd put those to rest for once and for all. So we've secretly obtained DNA samples from your son, your husband, and Superman, and had them tested to determine who is actually the father of your baby. We've asked Superman to join us but apparently he couldn't make it, but we hope he can hear us wherever he is. (Hands Clark an envelope and holds a second one in his hand. Opens his envelope.) Superman, this says that you are the father! (Grabs Clarks' envelope and opens it.) But this says that Clark, you are the father! How could this happen?"

(Lois wakes from her nap, screaming.)

Funny idea!

That's one of those ideas I wish I'd thought of first (not the Manny Novich one, although that's pretty good too) and I wish I had time to take a crack at it. But I'd bet whenever someone does write it and posts it, it'll be great. I'll read it!

Oh, that's a good one! I'd read it.

LMAO at the "Manny Novitch" idea!