A/N: At last we come to the last part of this one-part vignette! I hope you agree with me that it's been a fun ride, and I hope this part is enjoyable. 
Clark took his wife's hand and gave her a reassuring smile. She smiled back at him, then reached up for a swift kiss as the colors swirling around them settled into the familiar shapes of their kitchen.
"Here we are," their companion announced in his soothing English accent. "Now, all we have to do is find..." he broke off, and the three listened to the commotion coming from their living room.
"...and frankly," they heard Lois's voice shouting, "if Lane doesn't know you two--"
"I don't know *any * of you people!" Lane hollered. "You guys look like my parents, but you're not! You're not, and *you* guys are *definitely* not!"
They stepped cautiously into the living room. Bruce and Selina were sitting on their couch, across from--well, across from themselves, really. Their son stood in the middle of the room, looking more upset than everyone else combined.
Bruce looked up as soon as they entered, his eyebrows raising slightly in surprise. No one else seemed to take notice.
"Nobody in this room has any right to tell me what to do!" Lane thundered. "Nobody!"
"Wrong," his wife said, quietly, causing every one to look up.
Lane looked from them to their doppelgangers, and back again. "Mom? Dad?" he asked, his tone heartbreakingly uncertain.
Lois smiled at him, tears already forming in her eyes. "Lane Elliott Kent," she said, her voice mockingly stern even as she threw her arms open, "you come right here this minute!"
He was in their arms faster than a speeding bullet. "You look so young!" he exclaimed when he finally pulled away.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent, I take it?" his wife's duplicate asked after a moment.
"Yes," they both answered, at once. Clark immediately extended a hand. "You must be the other world's Lois and Clark."
"That's us," his counterpart replied, shaking his hand. "Can I just say how weird it is seeing myself from the outside?"
Clark laughed. "Likewise!" He turned to Bruce, who by now had stood to greet them. "Bruce! Selina!" He smiled. "I knew you'd come, but it's still such a relief to see you both."
"So you *do* know these people?" Lane asked, still keeping close to him and Lois.
Clark sighed. "It's...a long story," he said. "One I still don't think you're old enough to hear."
"It might be time for him to hear it after all," Bruce said quietly, glancing meaningfully at Clark's duplicate.
Clark sighed. "Yeah, I know. I guess Lois was right, though honestly, I didn't really expect something like this to happen. I don't think even you have a contingency plan for being sucked into another universe with no warning!"
"He has three," Selina replied.
"Oh, by the way, your investigation is still making progress," Lois cheerfully told their other selves.
"What investigation? Bradford?" Her counterpart asked, frowning slightly.
"No," said Lois. "Well, yes, but I meant Luthor."
The room fell oddly silent.
"Since we didn't know who he was, it took us a while to figure out why you were pretending to date him," Clark added. "Of course, once he tried to kill Superman, everything started to fall into place."
"He tried to *what*?!" his wife's double echoed, looking pale.
"Don't worry," Lois said, "no harm was done. Your cover is still intact, although," she finished sheepishly, "Clark should probably keep his distance from now on."
His wife's double stared blankly at her.
"Anyway," Lois continued, "we couldn't find where you were keeping your notes, so we just put ours in Clark's apartment, in the place where he keeps his suits."
Clark put a hand on his counterpart's shoulder. "By the way," he said softly, "give Mom and Dad a hug from me."
From the doorway, Mr. Wells cleared his throat.
Clark straightened. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? Everyone, this is H.G. Wells."
"The writer?" Bruce asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Yes, quite," the little man replied.
"The *dead* writer?" his wife's counterpart chimed in.
The corners of Wells' mouth twitched. "Sometimes," he replied, mildly.
Lois frowned. "Didn't you meet before?" she asked, echoing Clark's own thoughts.
Wells sighed deeply. "Yes, actually," he said, triggering a look of shock from their counterparts. "Several times, in fact; however, I was always careful to ensure that they remembered nothing of either myself, or anything they learned from our adventures in the time stream." He adjusted his hat. "Unfortunately, Tempus knew that involving another universe would throw a proverbial spanner into my efforts to repair either timeline. He has, I'm afraid, quite won the battle in this regard, but let us see to it that he does not win the war, shall we? We must restore you all to your proper selves at once!"
Nearly everyone in the room sighed with relief. Still, Lois gave a wistful smile. "I'm going to miss being young...er."
"I know what you mean," Clark replied, grinning. "I'll miss having twenty-twenty vision again."
Lois's counterpart froze. "Twenty...twenty...vision?"
Clark's counterpart paled. Behind them, Bruce's face schooled itself into that blank, stony expression that Selina insisted meant he wasn't laughing at something.
"YOU'RE SUPERMAN?!" The other Lois shouted.
Lois and Clark glanced regretfully at each other, then both looked at their son. Unsettlingly, he seemed to be unsurprised by this revelation.
"N-now Lois..." Clark's counterpart stammered uneasily. Guilt stabbed through Clark's heart, and he tried to figure out what he could say to fix things.
"All this time--!" she thundered. "You--! He--!"
"Lois..." his counterpart said again.
"So, what, does this mean Lane was Superboy?!" she snapped.
The feelings of remorse evaporated.
"Lane was *what*?!" Lois shouted.
"Super *who*?!" Clark shouted also. The three of them, Lois's counterpart included, glared daggers at the other Clark.
"Guys," Lane began, "it's not such a big deal, really..."
Clark seized his counterpart by the lapels, lifting him off the ground. He felt his eyes begin to burn. "Do you have any idea what could have happened to him out there?! What you risked him being exposed to?!"
Lois put a hand on his shoulder. "Honey, please," she said, "you're only hurting yourself!"
Her counterpart snorted. "If you like," she said, "we can discuss his extradition after he's served his punishment back home."
The other Clark looked decidedly unwell.
"Oh dear," Mr. Wells muttered.
"Guys!" said Lane. "It's okay! I'm fine! What's the big deal?"
Clark looked from his son to his counterpart, then back again. He sighed and set the other man down on his feet. "It's...a very long story," he said softly. "One I guess its time you heard. It's about back when I was your age, and I warn you, it's not very pretty."
"It has a happy ending, though," Lois assured them, taking his hand.
Clark smiled at her. "That's true," he said, "it does."
"I sincerely wish it to remain so," Wells said, tipping his bowler. "And hopefully," he continued, turning to their doubles, "your story will still end happily as well. Shall we sort this out, now?"
***********
"You didn't have to ground him until 'the end of all time'," Lois chided her husband, that night.
Clark grimaced. "I guess I was a little harsh," he admitted, leaning back against the pillows.
She reached forward and patted his knee. "At least now, he understands," she said.
Clark snorted. "Not that it'll stop him."
"It didn't stop you," she pointed out.
"Touché," he replied. A far-away look crossed his face.
"What are you thinking?" she asked him.
He shook his head. "I just can't believe he didn't tell his girlfriend that he was Superman! I mean, what lunkhead tries to pull that off? And with Lois Lane, of all people?!"
Lois laughed. "Well, Honey, it's not our place to judge his choices."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"It's the other Lois's place," she clarified.
"Ah," he said with a chuckle.
"Now then..." Lois shifted closer to him and took his face in her hands. "Want to know what I'm thinking?"
"What?" he asked, his eyes dancing.
"I'm thinking," she said, "that we're alive, we're home, and our son's sound asleep. We don't have to worry about Jimmy interrupting us, or Cat needing something out of the storage closet, or Luthor trying to bug the room. As long as no one else needs Superman, we're free to do whatever we want."
The corner of his mouth twitched. "Where are you going with this?" he asked, innocently.
She laced her hands behind his neck. "Kiss me, quick!"
