TO WAKE FROM DREAMS
PART 15
“I want my partner back, too,” she said.
Perry and Jimmy exchanged worried glances, clearly thinking that Lois had lost touch with all sense of reality.
“Uh, Lois, honey… Clark’s – “
“ – right here.”
Three heads turned to see what they had all once believed to be a vision they had never thought they’d see again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
He was back!
He’d never thought it could happen. But there he was. Standing in the newsroom at the Daily Planet… as *Clark Kent*.
He still had to get through his explanation of how, which he still thought was incredibly thin and strewn with holes and potential complications.
But all the same. He was there.
Back in Metropolis. Back with his three closest friends – two of which were clutching at him, holding him tightly.
He could tell they were disbelieving that it was possible and had no idea what was going on. But they didn’t seem to care at the moment.
He didn’t care either.
Hugging his friends – who he had missed so much more than he’d thought, he realized now, being with them again – he didn’t care about much. He was just too happy.
“Clark, what – “ Perry started, pulling back eventually.
“CK! How is this possible?” Jimmy asked, finally pulling back from the hug as well.
Clark opened his mouth to say something, but then looked around and noticed that the other members of the Planet were also staring at him, their mouths hanging open, hushed wonders rolling off their tongues.
He looked back at Lois, Perry and Jimmy.
“It’s a long story,” he warned.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lois stared at Clark as the four of them headed into Perry’s office – telling the other Planet staffers that all would be explained to them shortly – her eyebrows raised. He was supposed to enter the Planet as Superman and explain everything! Or at least get the ball rolling before entering as himself so no one had heart failure at seeing him alive! This… this was not in the plan.
He met her gaze and shrugged, looking more like an overgrown boy scout than ever. A handsome boy scout…
She shook her head as she closed the door behind her, reminding herself that this was not the time to reflect on his good looks.
“Okay, Clark,” Perry started, his voice shaking as he said his name. “How in Elvis’s name are you… here?” Perry finally asked, sitting down, trying to look and sound calm, but showing more emotion than she had ever seen from her boss and friend.
Jimmy was just staring, unblinkingly, at Clark, his mouth agape.
Clark stood there, his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath. She could see it all over him; he hated this. Hated lying.
He had lied to her for so long by not telling her about himself and when he had, he’d beaten himself up over it. Quite rightly, she added, under the circumstances and all. But she could see – now that he was preparing to tell Jimmy and Perry the story that they had worked out – what his life was like. There was a lot of necessary lying involved. And he was a decent and good man. Lying was not in his nature. She knew that he was aware he had to do it. He had to protect himself and everyone close to him. But that didn’t change the fact that he hated it.
“Superman found my body after Capone and the others dumped me. He said I was barely alive. That I would have died in a few seconds more. He said at a hospital, I wouldn’t have made it,” he started. He looked at Lois, finding the motivation in her gaze to continue the story – their joint fabrication. “He and I are good friends. We’ve talked about all sorts of things before. Including alternative medicines and medical practices. He knew how I felt about it. That I was open to it. So he did something very alternative with me. He froze me with his superbreath right before I would have died and followed some procedures in Dr. Hamilton’s manuscript. The same manuscript that outlined his procedure that brought those gangsters to life,” he explained.
“Are you a clone or something?” Jimmy asked, incredulously.
“No… no, Jimmy, I’m not a clone. I’m me. But Dr. Hamilton’s notes were helpful because he also wrote in there of a theory about freezing the tissue, preventing permanent damage. And, well, it wasn’t that simple, but Superman removed the bullets and repaired everything as best he could and then unfroze me. After that, it was just a matter of time, to see if it would work and I would live. And you have to understand; it was a one in a million chance that I survived this. It had to do with the exact places the bullets hit and the fact that I had managed to stay alive that long – I had been unconscious; I mean, even Lois thought I was dead, there at the club. But in fact, I was alive when he found me. But *just* barely. This has to be understood… neither Superman nor I want people running around thinking they can get shot and Superman can bring them back. I, first of all, was not dead. Almost – but not completely at that point. And second of all, he tells me it was mostly luck. It was luck that he found me. And that he knew how I felt about the procedure. And he knew there was a high chance it wouldn’t do a thing to save me. The luck was also in where I had been hit. It just… it worked out. But if a retraction of my death is printed in the Planet, Chief, I do want it to be clear – “
“ – of course,” Perry said, still looking like he was wrapping his mind around it. “We won’t have a careless city on our hands. People thinking they can die and it won’t matter because Superman can perform miracles now. We all take him for granted already, as it is. I mean, look at Lois,” he said.
Lois narrowed her eyes at him and turned the same look on Clark, realizing he was laughing slightly at that.
“Oh, Lois, you wouldn’t put yourself in nearly as much danger if you didn’t think Superman was there in case you needed him,” Perry said.
“I don’t do that,” she said, pouting.
“Well you are right about one thing, Clark,” Perry continued, ignoring Lois. “You are a lucky man! It sounds like if the situation were any different, the repercussions of that night would still be as awful as we’d thought them. You are also lucky that… well, that Superman is a friend of yours. I’m sure he worked twice as hard to make sure he did everything he could – “
Lois noticed Clark’s face fall, at that. And she knew. He had worried from the moment they had started creating their little story about people thinking that Superman would try harder to save a friend than a stranger. That the only reason that Clark Kent *didn’t* die was because of Superman’s friendship with him.
“ – No, Chief. Superman doesn’t think of any life as more worthy than another one – “ he started, but Perry waved a hand and cut him off.
“I think the world would like to think that, Clark. But Superman is a man. And he has feelings. I’m sure he was torn up knowing that you had gotten shot and he hadn’t been there to stop it,” Perry started. “I always figured that *you* were his best friend. He depends on you for a lot, it seems. He seems to confide in you a lot, as well. Lois too, to an extent. It’s natural that he would feel this deeply and try to save you with everything he’s got. Superman doesn’t have any family on this planet, Clark, so you’re probably family to him. And I’m… well, I am beyond grateful to him right now,” Perry finished, sounding incredibly emotional just then.
“Me too,” Jimmy said. “Wow,” he said after a moment. “That’s an incredible story, CK! But… where have you been all month? And why didn’t Superman tell us what he was up to?”
“Well, Superman will definitely get an earful next time *I* see him,” Lois said.
Clark looked at her and she winked at him.
“He could have told us he was trying to save you,” she finished. “It would have saved us all a lot of grief.”
“I guess he didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up, since there was a good chance it would not have worked,” he explained, a little pathetically. “He didn’t know that any of this was truly successful until… well, until yesterday.”
“So for the whole month, have you been breathing? Have you been in a coma? Or have you been in a state of suspension, so to say? Did you only start to breathe before you woke up yesterday?” Perry asked.
Lois looked at Clark, seeing his eyebrows raised as Perry threw question after question at him. She knew he had no answers to those questions. He had brought them up himself the day before and in the end they had hoped no one would ask. But Clark had said then that Perry was too quick and would ask them. But she could see now that he was overwhelmed. He hadn’t prepared answers to those questions. To the hard questions. The ones that would reveal that it was all a big lie. A cover-up to a remarkable truth that just couldn’t be known. Ever.
“You know, Chief, I’m not sure,” he eventually said. “I could ask Superman the next time I see him. He would know more than me. I, uh… I don’t remember much,” he finished in a low voice, shrugging.
Perry nodded. “Well of course you don’t. Oh, I don’t care! I cannot believe you’re back! So you woke up yesterday? This is amazing!”
Watching him work his way through this lie, Lois felt bad, but she also had to try not to laugh. She didn’t know how she hadn’t known all along – all throughout their relationship – that he was lying all the time. He had a completely lost look on his face when telling a lie. And he looked incredibly guilty as it poured out of him. He just fumbled around for answers he didn’t have and even though he looked like he didn’t believe what he was saying, everyone around him embraced it as the truth. She had done that countless times in the past. Thinking about it now, she knew it was because of his nature.
If you put aside that one *tiny* detail about him – that he was Superman – he really was not a liar. He was the most honest man she had ever met, she mused. He was honest and decent. Someone who genuinely cared about everyone. But he had to protect himself. He had been doing it all his life.
And now, she would protect him too. With everything she had.
“… and then he dropped me off at Lois’s apartment.”
Lois looked up, realizing Clark was talking again.
“ – and that explains why Lois finally looks alive again, herself,” Perry said. “Listen, Kent, next time you are in a situation with Lois and the bad guys have guns, don’t provoke them,” he said.
“I know now. And in a situation like that in the future, I won’t be so…” he trailed off looking for the right word.
“Pig headed? Macho? Bull-brained?” Lois offered.
Clark cut her off with a playful look, but then smiled. “Well, yeah, basically.” He turned back to Perry, continuing. “I will react much better,” Clark said, seriously. And Lois knew that he meant those words. In every way. That was not a lie.
“Okay, so how about we leave Superman out of this altogether?” Perry finally said.
Clark met Lois’s gaze and they both looked at Perry, confused.
“How would we do that?” Clark asked.
“You never really died. The only person who saw you close up was Lois. She could say she had thought you were dead, but didn’t realize you were only unconscious. That is the truth, isn’t it? Then those men took your identification, and you were found somewhere outside of town and brought to a hospital. And you just woke up the other day,” Perry said.
“But Chief,” Lois started. “Clark has been missing for over a month. And Henderson and the rest of the force were looking for him and most likely looking into all John Does who’d been shot and turned up at a nearby hospital.”
“So we’ll make it a little further away than nearby,” Perry said. “And Henderson has been keeping his ears open and eyes peeled for a corpse. Well, either way… Lois do you have any idea how many people wind up in the hospital with gunshot wounds and no identification?”
“A lot,” Clark said so quietly, she wasn’t sure anyone except her heard him.
She looked at him, seeing that he *knew* that fact for a reason. He knew it because he took many of them there. He had witnessed things in his life that she probably couldn’t even imagine. She squeezed his hand and he looked at her, a kind smile on his face.
“Chief, Superman is okay with the Planet printing the official story,” Clark said, after a moment.
“I’m sure he is,” Perry said. “But you’re right. No matter how we spin it and what we write, there will be some reaction to him saving you and the looming possibility of others expecting the same thing to happen if they or their loved ones get shot. No… we’ll go with the other story,” he said, resolutely.
“Chief… thank you,” Clark said after staring at Perry for a long, quiet moment. “I’m sure Superman would be incredibly touched that you’re protecting him like that,” he finished.
“Well, he protects us all,” Perry said.
Lois watched as Perry stood up and walked over to Clark. He put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him intently.
“It sure hasn’t been the same around here without you,” he said. “Both of you,” he added, looking at Lois, too. “And it’s good to have you back,” he said.
“I second that,” Jimmy said.
“Well, Clark, we’re all in agreement. The votes are in. It’s unanimous. Don’t you ever go anywhere again,” Lois said, lacing her arm through his.
He smiled at her and then at all of them.
“I won’t. I promise.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The party turned out to be the happy celebration it was originally intended as.
Perry looked around, seeing all the Planet-staffers rejoicing that Clark had not been killed. That the team of Lane and Kent were back for good. The paper had its heart and soul back. He had his friends back. His award-winning team. He finally felt that feeling that he believed had died with Clark, of being at the paper and being home. His family surrounded him and it all felt so… right. And what had been missing – what he had yearned for – was finally back.
Everyone was cheering and champagne was being consumed by the bottle. Everyone was having a festive, good time. He noticed that Lois was not drinking any champagne and eventually ran into the bathroom, just as she had two days ago when they’d been out to lunch.
Clark followed her to the door and ended up entering after a moment. The ladies room! After a minute, they exited together, talking quietly.
“Now what in Sam Hill are those two up to?” he asked himself, wondering exactly where their relationship had gotten to before Clark had been shot. Wondering exactly how much he had been unaware of. And how it was even possible that he had been unaware of it. With those two, he had always watched and waited, read between the lines, known exactly what was going on, known the state of both of their hearts and minds, probably before they themselves knew. If something major had happened between them, how could he have possibly missed it?
Despite his confusion, he smiled as his Chief-intuition told him that there were some very interesting days ahead.
“Hi!”
He turned to see Alice, clad in a pretty dark gray dress, her red hair – which was now laced with some strands of silver – tied up loosely, standing beside him.
“You said this party was going to be horrible and that I should come to save you!” she said, laughing.
He kissed her on the cheek.
“I guess it turned out a lot better than I thought it would be,” he said. “And I’m glad you came.”
“Well, I’m so used to seeing you every night now; I kind of missed you.”
“Alice, you know what they say. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”
“Well then I am *very* fond of you! I have years of fondness built up! I’m quite fond enough!” she laughed.
“How about some champagne?” he asked her, holding out a hand to his wife of thirty plus years, feeling finally like the two of them were again newlyweds. Just come back from their honeymoon. Like they were just getting to know one another. And in a way, they were. This past month they had been reintroduced, recognizing that as time had passed, they had changed so much from who they were when they’d gotten married, and because of time apart, neither one knew too well who the other person had become. Until now.
She put her hand in his. “What’s the occasion?”
He closed his hand warmly over hers and smiled. “Life.”
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