The Matchmaker Files - An Unusual Proposal

Rated PG-13

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<thoughts>

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/ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ */ * scene change – universe change


Previously

Just as they were about to leave, there was a knock at the door. Lois wondered out loud, "I wonder who that could be?"

Sliding his glasses down his nose, Clark used his x-ray vision and muttered, just loud enough for Lois to hear, "Oh, no! Not him!"

"Him who?" Lois asked

"Herb!"

"Oh, no. Not him!" she echoed.

Resigned, Clark said, "I guess we'd better let him in."

"Can't we sneak out the back?"

In a resigned tone, he pointed out, "What good would that do? He knows everything about us and what we do. To him it's history. He knows we're here or he wouldn't have stopped by. You don't really want him showing up on the island do you?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I just hope it isn't something that will foul up our plans for the vacation."

He pointed out, "How could it? If he needs us to go somewhere he can bring us back to the minute after we left and we'd still have our vacation ahead of us."

"Hey, that's right! Well, don't just stand there, let him in."

Opening the door, Clark greeted the visitor, "Hi, Herb! What brings you around?"

Herb was so happy that he was almost bouncing in place. He was anxious to tell his story to an audience that would appreciate all of the nuances unlike his computer assistant who had no appreciation for the finer things in life, like a good story. As he stepped in he saw Lois behind Clark and addressed both of them, "Greetings and felicitations. I really didn't mean to interrupt your vacation plans, but I just needed to talk to *some*one. I have a story to tell and I knew that you would appreciate this tale."

Lois's curiosity was piqued and she asked, "Is this about the other Clark? Did he find his Lois?"

As Clark took his derby, Herb replied, "In a manner of speaking, yes, but realistically, no. This is an alt Clark and an alt Lois, but not the one you met, another couple."

Lois asked, "Shall I make some refreshments?"

"Oh, no, no, nothing for me. I don't want to delay you any more than is necessary."

Clark said, "Okay then, why don't we go into the living room and make ourselves comfortable?"

As they entered the living room, Herb spotted the wingback chair that he had enjoyed on several previous visits and as Lois and Clark settled onto the sofa and snuggled together, Herb sat in the chair and marshaled his thoughts before speaking, "How to begin? I must say that this was an exciting discovery. One of our survey teams stumbled on a new universe, Alpha 223 x Gamma 104 x Tau 155 and brought the report of their findings to me. Naturally I was anxious to observe this new couple immediately. Once in their universe, of course I had to go back in their timeline so that I could determine how they had gotten to where we found them. It was truly amazing … so different from any other universe we have discovered to this point. I wonder just how many have followed this new pattern."

In an anxious tone, Lois said, "Well, don't keep us in suspense, Herb. Tell us all about it. What made it so different?"

Herb smiled at this response, Lois was anxious to hear his story, unlike his computer assistant. He began, "Well, for one thing this Lois was not born and raised in Metropolis! She was a Canadian."

Stunned, Lois blurted out, "Canadian? How did that happen?"

"Okay, well you see it was this way …"


And now

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 02
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Universal Locator Designation
Alpha 223 x Gamma 104 x Tau 155
Local designation - Alternate Universe Canadian 1
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Sam Lane had always been a progressive thinker, willing to try new avenues of treatment in his medical practice. Early on, shortly after beginning his practice, he had first had an affair with and then married his nurse, Ellen. This circumstance was not unheard of and did not result in any negative commentary within the medical community and things went well for a time.

Then came the fateful day that Sam ran afoul of the medical establishment. He had a string of patients, all exhibiting similar symptomatology. Eventually they were all diagnosed with a variant of Lyme disease. The accepted treatment was a course of high dose, I.V. antibiotics, however in searching the literature he found that this was only successful if the disease were caught within the first few weeks of infection. That being the case he tried a therapy that was outside of the allopathic medical playbook. The therapy he tried was actually very simple, ozone dissolved in normal saline solution administered by I.V. and a high potency vitamin regimen to boost the body's immune system. When the treatment worked he began to write papers documenting his results. The medical community claimed that his results were anecdotal and since he had not performed any double blind studies his results were called into question. The problem came in with the fact that Big Pharma insisted that there were antibiotics out there for the condition and his was a non-pharmaceutical based treatment. Big Pharma carries a lot of weight and through their willing accomplices within the medical community pressure was applied to Doctor Sam Lane.

Finally the pressure from the pharmaceutical manufacturers and the other members of the medical establishment became too much. When his clientele started to fall off as a result he decided that a change of venue was indicated. Having made up his mind, he immigrated to Canada, taking up residence in Montreal. He even went so far as to renounce his U. S. citizenship. To keep peace in the family, his wife Ellen followed him, not only to Montreal, but also going so far as to renounce her U.S. citizenship.

Shortly after they moved, Ellen Lane discovered that she was pregnant with their first child. The child, Lois Olive Lane was born September 23, 1967 in Montreal. Sam was rather disappointed that the child had been a girl, but consoled himself that this was just the first and maybe the next would be a boy. However, four years later when little Lucy was born his disappointment was palpable. He started spending more and more time in the office. Having been born in Montreal the children were Canadian citizens.

Since her parents were not fluent in French, although, Sam made an effort because of his clientele to master the language, they spoke English in the home, but in school and with their friends, Lois and Lucy spoke French almost exclusively and were therefore bi-lingual. Because of school and friends the time they spent speaking French exceeded the time speaking English and consequently when they did the English they spoke was heavily accented by the French.

Like most Canadian children, Lois was involved in winter sports growing up. She enjoyed cross country and Alpine skiing, ice skating, both figure and speed, and snowshoeing. She was also an avid hockey fan and being from Montreal naturally her favorite team was the Canadians. During the long cold winters, Lois took every opportunity to ski. There was ample opportunity for Alpine skiing and she did that most weekends, but she really loved cross-country and since they lived in the suburbs she would strap on her skis, throw her schoolbooks into a backpack and ski to school on a daily basis rather than take the bus. She even tried out for the Canadian Olympic Cross Country Ski Team. She was one of the youngest competitors and was really crushed when she failed to qualify. She was seventh in a field of over forty-five where only the top five qualified after seven heats. She also tried out for the biathlon, but although she could handle the cross-country portion, her marksmanship was inadequate to the task. In school, Lois was an outstanding student and was a class leader all through school. A lot of this was an attempt on Lois's part to win approbation from her more and more absentee father.

After the birth of Lucy, Ellen stayed at home, becoming a housewife and mother. This was when Sam started working on prosthetic devices and actual replacement structures that went beyond knee and shoulder replacements giving the recipient increased endurance and strength.

When Ellen had decided to stay at home and raise the children, Sam had hired a young woman, fresh out of nursing school to replace her.

When Sam started staying late in the office doing his ‘research', Ellen suspected that he was having an affair with his new assistant. Based upon how they had started their relationship it wasn't difficult to believe, true or not. Ellen Lane started drinking as a result of her perceived abandonment and Lois found herself having increased responsibility for her sister, Lucy. It would have been easy for Lois to have resented Lucy for the time required to care for her when their mom was unable to due to her drinking. That was when Sam actually did separate from them by divorcing Ellen.

The times that Lois had to care for her sister became more and more frequent as time went on and finally, Sam tried to step in and take Lois and Lucy away from their mother because of Ellen's incapacity.

He and Lois had a big fight, but by that time, Lois was old enough to petition the courts to be emancipated. Being emancipated meant that she didn't have to go to a foster home nor did she have to go with her father and his new girlfriend and could continue to live with her mother, but it was by her choice, heavily influenced by her concern for Lucy. The deal was that since she continued to live with her mother and provide the principle care for Lucy she didn't have to pay rent. She had a part time job working at the local paper, Le Journal de Montreal a French speaking paper, while she completed school.

By the time she was ready to graduate from secondary school Lucy was fourteen and able to take care of herself, more or less, and Lucy opted to remain with their mother when Lois left for college. Part of the deal was that Sam would pay for her college education. Naturally, he wanted Lois to go to medical school and join him in his practice, but she had a mind of her own and her love of writing won out. In her sophomore year she declared as a journalism major and joined the school newspaper.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lois continued her part time work with the local paper all the way through her college years. In the course of time, when Lois graduated, she worked her way into a fulltime position with Le Journal de Montreal and then moved to the Montreal Gazette because they were an English speaking paper and became a reporter. She worked on improving her English and tried to suppress her French accent.

After a short time, Lois felt a need to move to a larger newspaper, so she applied for a visa and traveled to Metropolis where she interviewed with Perry White, Editor-in-chief of the Daily Planet.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Perry was behind his desk flipping through a portfolio of newspaper clippings, each of which bore the Lois Lane byline. He recognized that even the articles in the French language La Journal de Montreal which were in the portfolio. He wished he could have read them because he was sure they would have been interesting reading. As he went through her stories from the Montreal Gazette there were various, ‘Hmmmms' and ‘Ahhhhhs,' as he flipped through. On one he placed his forefinger on a sentence, looked up and asked, "What is an MP? Down here that would be Military Police."

Looking at the page upside-down to see to what he was referring, she replied, "MP? Oh, that would be Minister of Parliament. Like one of your senators."

Nodding, he said, "Oh, very interesting."

Flipping another page he stopped and asked, "RCMP?"

Lois smiled and said, "I think you commonly use MPD for the Metropolis Police Department, well, RCMP would be the abbreviation of the name for the national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They don't ride horses or use dog sleds anymore, except for show, occasionally."

Closing the book, Perry looked her up and down noting the conservative dress that she was wearing. The hem of her skirt was several inches below the knee, the blouse she was wearing had a high neckline with a single strand gold necklace and she was wearing spike heels. Perry thought that she was wearing the heels to partially disguise her petite stature. After sizing her up thus, he asked, "Why do you want to work here? It looks like you were doing just fine in Montreal."

With a very sincere tone, Lois replied, "I've always wanted to work for the premiere newspaper in the world and that most definitely is the Daily Planet."

Perry folded his hands and rested them on the closed binder and gave her a piercing gaze as he asked the next question, "What make you think you're good enough to work for the Planet?"

Lois put on an air of confidence as she replied, "I'm a hard worker and I stick with a story until I have an answer."

Perry challenged, "What if you are going up against a powerful politician?"

Lois was confident in this answer, "If they have something to hide, the public needs to know about it. If there is corruption, it needs to be brought into the open. I think you saw in the article which exposed that Minister that I’m not intimidated by politicians."

"Well, I don't usually go out on a limb like this, but I like your style. I like what I saw in your portfolio." Sitting forward, Perry held out his hand and said, "Welcome to the Daily Planet."

Lois was excited, but put on a composed front as she took his hand and shook it. "Thank you, Mr. White. You won't regret your decision."

In fact, Perry White never regretted his decision to hire Lois Lane. She quickly became one of the premiere reporters in the city, if not the world.

There was one incident.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Perry had received a request from the Paris bureau that he allow the transfer of Claude Rocheret to the Metropolis office. Reluctantly he had allowed the transfer since he came highly recommended by the head of the Paris bureau. He reluctantly agreed, because through the grapevine he had heard that there might be problems with Claude, but since the warnings weren't emphatic, he allowed the transfer. It didn't take long for Perry to figure out that the Paris bureau had taken advantage of Perry's good nature and foisted a problem onto him.

It didn't take very long to see that Claude was a ladies' man, which he actually didn't find too surprising considering that he was French. He went through the female staffers like a hot knife through soft butter. He wasn’t too particular. Any single female in the area sooner or later became the object of his attention. He had confined himself mostly to the research and ancillary staff, avoiding the other reporters, then came the fateful day.

One day as Lois was coming out of the supply closet she saw Claude and Ralph at the coffee machine. Not desiring to have to talk to either of them she didn't step out, but out of curiosity listened to what was being said because the topic intrigued her. Claude had apparently been bragging about the women he had been able to bed.

They continued their conversation. Ralph asked, "Claude, how do you do it?"

"Ah, for me it is easy.

"Tell me, how can I get the girls the way you do?"

"Ah, well, you see, these American girls are fascinated by my French accent. I simply make it stronger when I want to seduce one of them."

"Can you teach me?"

Claude looked him up and down before saying, "I don't think so. You are too … American."

Ralph reposted, "I bet there's one you can't get into your bed."

Claude sensing a challenge, asked, "Want to wager?"

Ralph smiled and said, "Sure. What stakes?" Ralph was sensing a sure thing.

"Let's make it interesting. How about fifty of your dollars?"

Ralph smiled. It was like taking candy from a baby, "Sure. You're on. How long will it take?"

Claude thought for only a second before replying, “Only three days.”

Ralph smiled and planned what he would do with the fifty dollars that he would have before the weekend, “Are you sure that’s long enough?”

Claude spoke confidently, "It is for me. Who shall it be?"

Ralph smiled and said, "Lane."

Claude, confident in his wiles smiled and said, "Ah, she and the fifty dollars will be mine before the week is out."

Claude and Ralph separated and returned to their desks.

Lois was angry. She didn't want Ralph to win, but losing would require that she do something that she was loath to do. Ralph would just have to win.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next day, Lois arrived in the bull pen dressed in a low cut top showing just a hint of cleavage with a short skirt, at least what for her was short, the hem was just below her knees.

Like a bee to a flower, Claude was circling her desk almost as soon as she arrived. In a very thick French accent, he said "My, vous are zo zery beautiful zis morning."

Lois smiled at the compliment and said, "Thank you." She looked him up and down before she said, "Your suit is rather rumpled and your shoes could use a shine."

Stung by her criticism, Claude tried to recover and emphasized his accent all the more, "Ah, zat ees because I have been zo terribly deestracteed by vous."

"Oh, you have been terribly distracted by all the other women here in the newsroom. Why am I suddenly the target of your distraction?"

"Because vous are zo zerry beautiful zis morning."

Lois looked at him and said, "Can it buster. What you never bothered to find out is that I am French Canadian. Your French accent doesn't intrigue me; I grew up with a French accent myself, although I've worked to overcome it." To prove her point she finished, in French, "Maintenant, retourne donc à ton bureau, avec ton costume pas repassé et tes chaussures usées. Laisse-moi tranquille. Je ne suis pas intéressée." [Translation - "Now, take your rumpled suit and scuffed shoes and return to your desk. Leave me alone. I'm not interested."]

As she was speaking, his face fell and chagrinned, he realized that he had been set up by Ralph. Looking in Ralph's direction, Claude could see him laughing and rubbing his hands together in glee. He muttered, "Ice queen," turned and returned to his desk, defeated. She had just cost him fifty dollars. He would have to think of a way to get it back, if not in cash, then in some other way.

That started a long running uneasy working relationship between Lois and Claude.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lois was careful about her story ideas and materials especially after she heard a rumor going around about stories being stolen. No one was able to prove anything, but everyone seemed convinced that the culprit was Claude. There was a short spurt of thefts and then it went away.

Occasionally, Claude would try his wiles on Lois, but she rebuffed him every time.

Eventually it came to her ears that behind her back, as a result of her rejection, to cover his own failings, he had started a rumor that Lois was frigid and had christened her ‘The Ice Queen' so that it would look like it was her problem and not his failure.

After hearing this, Lois became more determined to be the outstanding journalist that she was and her tenacity earned her the nickname, ‘Mad Dog Lane' because when she got her teeth into a story it was as difficult to get her off of it as it would be to take a bone away from a mad dog. Slowly, this nickname overcame Ice Queen when people gathered around the coffee station and behind her back.

She had heard snickers and had even heard ‘Mad Dog Lane' whispered and actually smiled. She'd rather that than ‘Ice Queen' any day.

Finally, it happened to her! She had been called by a source demanding an immediate meeting and she had left her notes for a story on the shared printer.

A couple of days later ‘her' story appeared in the paper with Claude's byline. She was angry, but there was no way to prove that it had been her story. She still took her notes and went to Perry White about it. "Perry, I think I had a story stolen."

"What makes you think so, Darlin'?"

"That story of Claude's that you just printed. That was my story. I was working on that."

"Well, I don't know what to say. Sometimes two reporters could find that they are working on the same story and not even know it."

"But Perry …"

"But nothing. There's nothing I can do about it. There have been other complaints, but there's nothing I can do about it because there is no way to prove anything. I wish there was, but there is just no way short of finding notes in your handwriting in his possession that I can do. If you're convinced that he stole your story what you need to do in the future is see to it that you don't leave your story notes lying around. Use this as a learning experience. Now, go on, get out of here and bring me in a story worthy of the front page. Oh, wait, before I forget about it. I had a call from Personnel. Your visa has almost expired. If you plan to stay with us you need to apply for permanent residency."

"Thanks for the reminder. I'll get right on it."

Returning to her desk, Lois called her immigration attorney and asked that he prepare the application. He assured her that the forms would be completed and ready for her signature in a week.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The following week, Lois went to her lawyer's office and signed the appropriate forms.

A few days later she had a call. "Daily Planet, Lois Lane. How can I help you?"

"Ms. Lane, this is Mrs. Delaney at the Immigration and Naturalization Service office."

"Ah, Mrs. Delaney. I wasn't expecting the granting of permanent residency quite so quickly."

"Well, Ms. Lane, this call is about that, but I'm afraid that it isn't to inform you that it has been granted. There is a problem with your application and I am calling to inform you of it. It will take some time to iron out the problem and it is causing us to impose certain conditions on you application."

"Problem? What kind of problem?"

"Actually, that is confidential information. I will say that we received a phone call from an anonymous source that caused us to flag your file."

"Anonymous call? Conditions? What kind of conditions?"

"Well, this is somewhat embarrassing, but we have to look into it. Until the investigation is complete we must request that you limit your travel to the United States. The period of this restriction should not exceed a period of one year. However, any travel outside of the United States could jeopardize your application."

Lois was shocked. Her thoughts were in a whirl. An anonymous tip! What could that be about? Could it be about her father? This would keep her from visiting her mother and sister. Oh, well. She hadn't seen them in almost two years and hadn't really been planning a visit anyhow. "No problem. I wasn't planning any extensive travel anyhow. Is that all there is to it?"

"Yes, that is the only condition. We will contact you if there are any other complications. If you don't hear anything more, your application will be processed."

"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Delaney." Lois placed the phone back in its cradle and sat bak thinking for a time, puzzling over these revelations.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Five months had passed without incident and then Lois received a call. "Daily Planet, Lois Lane."

"Ah, just the person I wanted to talk to. How is tall, dark and stoic?"

"I beg your pardon."

"Uh, sorry. Too soon. Listen, I've got a hot tip for you. There is a shipment of illegal arms on its way to Brazzaville. It departed the Metropolis harbor with the tide at midnight last night."

Lois gasped, "That's in the Congo. You mean that someone here in Metropolis is supplying arms to the rebels."

"Well, I think that you'll have to go there and see for yourself, now won't you."

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Her questions had been piling up and finally, Lois interrupted Herb and asked, "They received a phone call that caused them to flag her file? What's that all about?"

Nodding, Herb replied, "I didn't know it at the time, I had rather assumed that the call had been made by Claude, but it had not been. Actually, I looked into the source later and found that it had been made by Tempus."

Lois blurted out, "Tempus again! Why can't he leave us, uh, them, no I do mean us, they are us, in a manner of speaking. Why can't he leave us alone?"

Herb shrugged and replied, "It has almost become a psychosis. He is driven to distraction attempting to disrupt your union and thereby destroy utopia."

Lois continued, "Herb, that other call, the one about the guns, sounds like the call that I got. I went to the Congo on that investigation. I almost died there."

Clark pulled her closer and said, "I, for one, am very glad that you didn't."

Suddenly becoming very serious, Herb looked at Lois and said, "That call was also placed by Tempus."

Shocked, Lois and Clark both gasped and blurted out, "What? Tempus! Again?"

"Yes, Tempus. I can now tell you something that I had not been able to relate previously. Tempus was actively attempting to interfere in your lives much earlier than you knew. Earlier he tried to work from the shadows, much as you did, Clark, before you created the Superman persona. It wasn't until you met him when he was accompanying me shortly after our first meeting that he came out of the shadows into the open, as you did when you became Superman. That call came at a time when you could not be made aware of what was happening and your special destiny. I too had to work in the shadows as it were. I became aware of what Tempus had done and without your knowledge, I made the arrangements to get you out of your predicament and back to Metropolis."

"Yeah, I might have died if Derek Price, the office manager of the Brazzaville office, hadn't sent the national police after me. I wondered how he even knew I was in the country. I always wondered how they knew I was in trouble and just where I was. The police showed up in the nick of time. I was thankful that, Suzanne and Collette, the twins from the office, came with them. It was nice to have a couple of girls there. They helped a lot. I guess I owe you another thank you."

"It was my pleasure. Actually, it was your friend, Clark, the one from the first alternate universe; you know the one that helped with Tempus, who told me about the Brazzaville office. In his universe, when I took him back to find his Lois, he made friends with the staff. Those two girls helped him through a very difficult time, I must say. They were friends, in the truest sense. (See Clark and Lois - The Lost Years Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 3 and Clark and Lois - Despair to Hope Matchmaker Chronicles Volume 4]) That is all in the past now. But to return to this instance, I suppose I could have intervened, but it turned out that this Lois's life was not put in danger by his call so I chose not to. It never occurred to me that Tempus’s purpose could actually have been as sinister and subtle as it truly was."

"Oh, yes, there is another thing that you should know. It was Tempus that created the controversy within the medical community that caused Sam Lane to immigrate to Canada. It was all part of Tempus's evil plan. This was one of his most far reaching and more subtle ploys."

Anxious to hear more, Lois said, "Well, don't stop there. This story is just getting interesting."

Herb smiled at her comment and replied, "Yes, it is, isn't it? All right, so … Lois received a call about illegal arms …"

comments go here

TBC


Last edited by KenJ; 08/28/15 11:39 AM.

Herb replied, “My boy, I never say … impossible.” "Lois and Clarks"

My stories can be found here

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