"I'm not going," Lois declared, stung by his censure.
That seemed to surprise him. "What could you possibly have to lose?"
"Two days of my life."
"Not at all, my dear," he said. "You will return to precisely this moment in time. Nothing will be lost."
"Will I remember the two days? When I'm back here?"
"Yes, you will."
"Can I write a story about the experience?"
"Go right ahead," he said with a chuckle. "But it's doubtful Perry will allow you to risk such harm to your reputation."
"What about Lois … me … in that time? Will I meet her?"
"Of course not. You'll be her."
"Where will she be?"
"She'll be you," he said, as if that explained everything. It didn't, but Lois had tired of mere words. If this strange man could take her to 1996 - and of course, he couldn't - it was time for him to prove it.
"OK, I'm ready," she announced, pushing her bag strap further up her shoulder. "Let's go."
Part 2
Lois hurried along the bustling Metropolis street towards the Daily Planet building. She fully expected it would be exactly as she had last seen it - the outside bearing the lick of smoke, the windows smashed from the heat and explosions, and the iconic globe reduced to a pitiful ruin.
A few moments spent on a rickety raft-like vehicle was not going to convince Lois Lane that two years had simply evaporated.
But, despite her conviction that the man posing as HG Wells was nothing more than a quaintly dressed fraud, she couldn't stop herself from actively examining the streetscape for differences.
That street coffee stall was new.
It had probably started this morning.
Or maybe yesterday. Sometime since the fire.
Certainly, the appearance of a solitary coffee stall was not going to convince her to believe in something as improbable as time travel.
She turned the corner, and the Daily Planet building came into view.
Darkened clouds adorned the bricks, billowing out from the windows, but the glass panes were all intact. Her gaze drifted down.
The globe was gone.
The steel brace jutted out from the wall, empty and without purpose - a lonesome memory of a former time.
A sense of loss enshrouded her.
Since the fire, she had known that the future of the Daily Planet was in doubt.
But the reality of the building without the globe cut deep through her soul.
Lois looked around, needing the security of something familiar. She found it in the newspaper stand that was still exactly where it had been during all the years she had worked at the Daily Planet.
She strode up to it, scanning the headlines as she approached. There was no mention of the fire. That surprised her. She would have thought the opposition papers would still be crowing over the demise of the Daily Planet.
She picked up a copy of the Metropolis Star and ran her eyes over the story of a murder case, frowning at her lack of recognition. When had this happened? How had she missed it?
She skimmed the story, squirming at the clumsiness of sentence structure and the haphazard presentation of facts.
Her eyes jumped from the body of words to the date tucked under the nameplate.
May 1st, 1996.
1996!
Her stomach clenched. This morning - just half an hour ago - it had been 1994.
Was this a joke? Some sort of elaborate hoax?
"That'll be seventy-five cents," the vendor said.
Lois took a dollar bill from her purse and paid him.
"Thank you," he said, handing her the change.
"You're welcome." She pointed to the date. "This … Is this correct? The date?"
He gazed at the spot. "Yes, Ma'am," he said. "Wednesday, the first of May, nineteen ninety-six."
"Nineteen ninety-six?" Lois echoed. "You're sure about that?"
His eyebrows drew together as he stared at her in bewilderment. "I'm sure," he said. "96 usually follows 95, and that's exactly what happened four months ago."
Lois nodded weakly and wandered away.
It couldn't be possible that she had actually travelled through time.
Could it?
Two years … gone.
She was two years older. Two years closer to thirty.
And ...
Lois checked her left hand.
There was no wedding ring on her finger. But that wasn't surprising. She hadn't changed. She was still Lois Lane, single career woman, regardless of who she was supposed to be in this time.
But here … now … Was she a married woman?
And if so, who was her husband?
How had Superman responded to her question at the meeting she had asked Clark to arrange? Could she possibly be Mrs Superman?
Or had she gone ahead and married Lex?
Lois quickly rifled through the pages of the Metropolis Star, looking for a Superman story. Looking specifically for a line that went something like ... Since his marriage to Lois Lane, Superman has seemed remarkably happy.
There was nothing.
And not just no line about Superman's marital status.
But nothing about Superman.
Nothing.
Not one mention of the superhero.
What had the Metropolis Star reporters been doing? Could they really be so inept that they couldn't find one single Superman story?
She returned to the front of the paper and systematically checked each page. There were no Lois Lane bylines. She wasn't sure if that information brought relief or uneasiness.
Relief, she told herself.
Lois Lane wouldn't stoop to writing for a rag like the Metropolis Star.
By now, she was probably the best television journalist LNN had ever had.
Or writing best-selling romance novels based on her fairy-tale marriage to Superman.
Her gaze stopped abruptly, glued to a very familiar name.
By Clark Kent.
Clark was writing for the Metropolis Star?
Lois figured she shouldn't be too surprised. After all, it had only been an hour ago that he had stubbornly declared he would never work for Lex.
But the Metropolis Star?
Clark's story was on page eight. It was small. It was insignificant. And to someone who knew Clark's work intimately, it appeared quickly and carelessly thrown together.
What had happened?
To Clark?
To Metropolis?
And to Superman?
Lois flicked back a few pages to find the registered address and gasped.
The Metropolis Star had moved into the old Daily Planet offices.
That knowledge felt like a stab to her stomach. The globe had vanished. The Daily Planet no longer existed. The offices had been taken over by the Star.
There had been no last-minute rescue. No unlikely reprieve.
The Daily Planet had been a Metropolis institution.
And now, it was gone.
Lois hurried across the road towards the entrance of the building. She needed answers.
And for that, she needed Clark.
~^~^~
The ground floor of the building was remarkably unchanged. Lex believed that Jack's bomb had targeted the Daily Planet, and looking around as she awaited the elevator, Lois figured he must have been right.
The elevator rumbled to a stop. Lois watched the doors slide open, half expecting Clark to emerge. He didn't. Two people she didn't recognise brushed past her, and Lois stepped into the empty car. She pressed the button for the Daily Planet floor, experiencing a weird sense of having moved back in time. Until the fire, this had been her life.
Coming to this building.
Riding this elevator to her office.
She'd done it almost every day for years.
The only thing - the only person - missing was Clark.
But he was working for the Metropolis Star now, Lois reminded herself. She would find him - either at his desk or -
The doors cranked open, and Lois walked out, peering over the bullpen. Everything had changed - the décor, the desks, the faces.
Except … it still felt the same - the atmosphere was still heavy with the unforgettable cocktail of newspaper ink and the palpable presence of the approaching deadline.
A couple of small tables had been pushed together in the place where Clark's desk had been positioned. Lois skimmed the room, searching for the tall, broad-shouldered figure of her friend.
Suddenly, two strong arms surrounded her from behind, sweeping her off her feet and dragging her into the storeroom. Her assailant's hand covered her mouth, stifling her shout of indignation. She writhed, hitting out at him, but he was too strong for her.
The storeroom door closed with a thud, and he released her. Lois spun around. "What -" She saw his face, and her resentment flared. "What exactly do you think you're doing, Clark?"
"What am I doing?" he fired back. "What are you doing here?"
She shot him her best look of derision. "I didn't see an 'Employees Only' sign on the door."
He sighed, long and aggrieved. "You know you can't be here."
What had she done? Threatened a Star reporter after a particularly appalling story? Demanded they retract something they'd said about Superman? Exposed some dastardly secrets of their editor in a hard-hitting story? Scooped them, over and over and over again?
"Well, I'm here," she said in a tone that said, Deal with it.
Clark stared at her for a long moment, his face impassive, but his eyes taking in every detail of her face. "Has he … has anyone hurt you, Lois?"
He? Was she chasing a story, and Clark, as usual, was being over-protective? Why weren't they working together? And why was he so opposed to her investigation that he objected to her presence at his paper?
Unless …
Could they be working undercover?
That would explain his irritation at her presence, but not why he was continuing the charade behind closed doors. She glanced behind him, looking for signs of surveillance equipment.
"Lois?" Clark said, shuffling half a step closer. "Are you all right?"
The soft thread of concern in his voice doused her annoyance. "Yes," she said. "I'm fine."
He examined her face again, as if unconvinced of the truthfulness of her reply. Lois smiled to reassure him.
He didn't return her smile.
For possibly the first time ever, he didn't match her smile for smile.
"Lois," he said. "You need to get out of here."
"Why?"
His eyes lifted upwards in frustration, and his hands dove deep into his pockets. "Whatever game you're playing, you must know that it's a stupid, dangerous game and you can't win. Get out of here. Before anyone else sees you."
"Clark, why are you so worried about me?"
He stared into nothingness for a long moment. When his eyes refocussed, his expression was so clogged with desperation that a few darts of fear quivered through her heart. "I'm glad you're OK," he said, not looking remotely glad about anything.
Lois adjusted her bag and tried to look casual. "Superman's been quiet lately," she noted. "Have you seen him?"
Clark's stare darkened. "What has he done to you?" he rasped, low and full of intensity.
Superman? Clark thought Superman had hurt her? "Nothing," she said, wondering how so much could have changed in just a couple of years. "I -"
"You can't come here, Lois."
"I thought you'd be pleased to see me."
Clark glared at her, so full of anger and resentment that it felt like a physical assault - from a man who had never shown the slightest inclination towards violence. But in the glare, she could see pain, too - pain he wasn't able to hide. Did he still love her? Secretly? Even though she was - possibly - married to someone else?
Why was he working at the Star?
Why had he stayed in Metropolis?
His expression closed, swallowing up every last trace of emotion. "Please, Lois," he said, and there was pleading in his voice now. "Please leave. Please leave before he … before anything bad happens."
"OK," Lois conceded. Clark wasn't going to answer her questions - and anyway, her reputation would never recover if she had to enquire as to the exact details of her marital status. "I'll go."
But she would be back. She had two days. That would be more than enough time to find out how Clark had managed to mess up his life so comprehensively … and probably enough time to fix it, too.
Without another word, Clark opened the door, blocking it with his body as he stuck his head out and looked around. "OK," he whispered, redrawing from the opening. "Go now. Get out of here." He stood back. As she passed him, she expected to feel his hand on her back - some contact, however slight and fleeting - but it didn't come.
Lois crossed to the elevator without giving in to the temptation to pause long enough to survey the bullpen. She entered the car and pressed the button for the ground floor. As the doors slowly closed, she looked out.
Clark was leaning against the wall next to the storeroom door, his hands buried deep in his pockets, his head low, his shoulders rounded.
He looked smaller. Shorter. Weaker.
He looked as if something had sucked the life from him, leaving behind nothing but a brittle shell.
What had happened to him in the past two years? Was it her marriage? Had it affected him that much?
Why hadn't he gotten over it?
And why was he so adamant that she couldn't be at the Metropolis Star offices?
~^~^~
Lois crossed the street and slipped into the café opposite the former Daily Planet building. She absently ordered coffee, not bothering with her long list of usual preferences. If Clark was unwilling to give her the answers she needed, she would find them for herself. When her coffee was ready, she paid from the bills in her purse and sat at the table near the window, continuing to watch the entrance of the Daily Planet building as she checked every page of the morning edition of the Star.
There was no mention of Superman in the paper.
Not one mention.
Not one reference.
Nothing.
It was as if he had never existed.
Never come to Metropolis.
Never changed the city forever.
Never changed her life forever.
Where was he?
Had he taken a vacation?
Had he moved to another city? Another country? Another planet?
Or … Lois's heart contracted. Had he been killed? Captured? Had someone used Kryptonite to weaken him and then inflicted the unimaginable?
Or had he married her and because of that, had decided that Superman could be no more? Had someone threatened her and he had chosen her safety over the rest of the citizens of Metropolis?
If that were the case, she had work to do. She had to convince him that Metropolis needed Superman. But, more pressingly, she had to find him.
A thought occurred to her. How was she going to recognise him without the Suit? She chuckled at her own silliness. Of course, she would always recognise Superman, regardless of what he was wearing.
Continuing to monitor the entrance, Lois turned to the eighth page and read Clark's story again. It didn't improve any on the second take. He wrote as if he didn't care. Clark - the one in their partnership who had always engendered such warmth in his work - had written a story that reeked of apathy.
That was more telling than the date on the front page and provided the proof needed to convince her that she had, indeed, moved through time.
Clark - the Clark she knew, the man she'd been speaking with in the park earlier - could never have written such dispirited and irrelevant hokum.
What could have happened in two years?
Her mind flooded with an avalanche of hastily forming explanations.
What if Clark was secretly working with Superman? They had always been close. There had been multiple times when Clark had seemed privy to information that only Superman could have known. It was incomprehensible that Superman could have disappeared without Clark's knowledge.
What if Clark's apparent demise was a cover so no one would suspect he was working on a big story?
But if Clark and Superman were working together … and if she were married to Superman … she would know. She would be working with them.
Which could explain why Clark had been so dismayed at her presence.
If her marriage to Superman had compelled him to go underground, it might be important that Lois Lane not be seen in public with Clark Kent.
Perhaps they worked as a secret trio to bring down the bad guys.
That would be … Lois sighed happily. That would be just about perfect.
Another possibility crashed through her contentment. If Superman had been killed … that would also explain Clark's sadness, his desolation.
But it didn't explain his dismay at seeing her. Or his fears that someone had hurt her.
No, the 'married to Superman and them both working with Clark' theory fitted much better.
Lois rubbed her finger over the place where a wedding ring would go.
Mrs Superman.
What if, when she'd confronted Superman with her feelings, he had poured out his heart to her, admitting his love? What if his silence had been out of respect for Clark's feelings? What if they were now happily married?
If that were the case, Lois had two days and that was definitely going to be long enough to discover what was under the suit!
Mrs Superman.
She needed to find her husband and -
Across the street, Clark emerged from the Daily Planet building and began walking along the pavement. Lois sprang from her seat, abandoning her coffee to follow him. She hustled forward, keeping significant portions of the Metropolis throng between her and Clark, always ready to duck against the buildings should he show any sign of turning around.
He didn't. In fact, he showed no signs of anything.
His stride was different. Slower. More dejected. Listless.
He meandered along, looking anything but a man combing the city for a career-saving story.
Lois smiled to herself, sure now that this was a ruse and Clark would lead her to her husband.
Clark turned at the next intersection. Lois hurried to the corner. She found him again quickly. He was only twenty yards ahead, standing still and staring to his left, away from her. She pressed against the wall, in case he turned her way.
He didn't move for almost a minute.
What was he doing?
Waiting for someone? Meeting someone? He didn't seem to be perusing the crowds for a familiar face.
Lois did, though - scanning each male in search of the tall and muscular figure she knew so well.
Finding no one feasible, she returned her attention to Clark.
He hadn't moved. He seemed lost … lost in aimlessness.
Was it an act? Or had his life really deteriorated to writing meaningless page-eight stories and hovering around the streets devoid of the curiosity that was fundamental to the success of any reporter?
Lois leaned forward, looking this time for anyone who might be watching Clark.
She noticed three men across the street. They were grouped together, their heads periodically turning towards Clark as if he were the focus of their discussion.
Something about them - their manner, their rough appearance - stirred disquiet through her stomach.
Clark seemed oblivious to their scrutiny. Should she warn him?
A foot away, a mother stopped and leaned into the pusher to tend her crying baby. Using them as a screen, Lois took a long look at the three men, imagining two years stripped from their faces.
She didn't recognise them. She was sure she hadn't known them.
They crossed the road, coming closer.
Clark turned slowly and began strolling along the sidewalk.
The group of three gained ground on him.
Lois edged further around the corner, torn between her eagerness to witness their meeting and her concern for Clark's safety.
Clark slipped into an alley and out of her sight.
The trio of men followed.
Lois broke into a run, sidestepping to dodge between the crowds.
She reached the alley and entered it. Her breath expired with a gasp.
Clark was on the ground. The three men towered over him. As she watched, one of them swung back with his leg and landed a brutal blow to Clark's ribs.
"Clark!"
She started towards them, but was stopped by a steel-like grip clamped around her wrist.
She swung around. The man restraining her was tall and broad, dressed in a black suit with his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. "Let go of me!" she screamed, yanking her arm away.
He didn't let go. He stared at her with chilling blankness and then nodded behind her with the slightest tilt of his head.
A sleek black car inched forward to draw level with them.
The rear door opened.
"Get in, Lois," Lex said from inside the car. "It's time for you to come home now."
