TOC Part 4
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Alt-Metropolis – November 1979
“Control”
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“It’s okay, Clark. You can do it. Focus on one thing at a time.”
Lois willed her thoughts toward Clark, but she was starting to despair. All her life, his emotions had been so clear to her. She had always thought he could sense her, too, sometimes he even responded to her. It happened infrequently now. Recently, she had had some success at blocking the thoughts of others by concentrating on a favorite song. The practice had brought her so much relief and she thought it might help Clark, too.
Why couldn’t he hear her? Maybe she wasn’t doing it right. Her heart clenched again when she felt him whimper.
“Not again. Not again. Please, not again.”
For the past ten minutes, Clark had been curled tightly in a ball, his fists pressed into his eyes. She could feel his fear at this new development and wished again there was something she could do to help him. His surprise and dread when his eyes started to spontaneously see through objects was palpable.
After the initial spike of emotion, Lois had focused and mentally linked up with Clark. It was harder to do these days, since her own reception had started to dull as she grew older. Lois also suspected that it was harder to sense Clark since he had withdrawn emotionally when his parents had died. Now that she was nearly a teenager, Lois understood how wrong it was to invade another person’s privacy and tried hard to ignore or block the feelings of those around her. But when she felt Clark’s terror, she couldn’t help herself.
Clark had been doing his homework when his eyes had seen through the paper, the table, and the floor to a rat in the crawl space below the house. After yelling and falling over, he’d stumbled around the upturned chair as his vision shot past the wall to a tomcat sharpening his claws on one of the big oak tree roots outside. At that point, he’d clenched his eyes shut and lurched through the house to his bed, grateful that his foster family wasn’t at home.
It wasn’t the first new ability to appear. She remembered vividly when his heat vision had started last year. He still had some trouble with that one. It usually kicked in when he got angry, but he’d found that by keeping his eyes shut and taking deep breaths, he could cool off without burning anything. There must be a way to control this one, too, but how?
Her heart ached and her own tears started to fall when Clark started to cry, calling for his mama. Lois missed Clark’s parents almost as much as he did, since many of the lessons they had taught and the love they’d shown had been inadvertently shared with Lois.
Thinking of Clark’s parents sparked a memory in her mind. She saw again how his mom had wrapped ten-year-old Clark in a warm hug when he was first overwhelmed by his super-hearing. His father had covered Clark’s ears and made eye contact with him, repeating over and over to concentrate on just his voice. Eventually, Clark had been able to shut off everything but his dad’s voice and over time had mastered the technique that was now second nature to him.
Excited, Lois concentrated on the memory, focusing on Clark’s feelings when his mother wrapped him in a hug. She saw his father’s face in her mind and tried to feel again the peace and safety his image generated. Immediately, she felt Clark relax as his thoughts turned to his dad’s advice. Carefully he sat up, raised his hand to eye level, and took a deep breath before slowly opening his eyes. It took him a couple of tries, but he was able to refocus his gaze on his hand. He let out a breath of relief.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
Lois smiled and knew he’d be all right.
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Alt-Metropolis – July 3, 1997
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Clark slowed to a float above City Hall and his heart dropped as he watched Lois push her way to the front of the press corps. She stood directly in front of the erected podium and dug her notebook and a pencil from her bag. He watched as she surreptitiously looked around for someone and sighed, worry lines on her forehead. Clark shook his head and contemplated skipping the conference or just attending at the outskirts of the crowd, but he rejected the thoughts almost immediately. He would not run away from his responsibilities just because they had become more complicated.
Clark took a fortifying breath and descended, landing behind a pillar at the top of the steps of City Hall just as the Police and Fire Chiefs arrived at the podium. He spun into his regular clothes, steeled himself for what was to come, and jogged down the steps. Half a second later, he noticed Lois’s gaze and her clenched jaw as he came, still adjusting his tie.
Clark wondered what kind of reception he would receive from the other reporters. He saw Lois glance around at their fellow reporters as they instinctively pressed back, giving him a space in the front. Clark was pleasantly surprised when several colleagues greeted him warmly. Lois, on the other hand, looked flabbergasted when no one but Kurt Burns from the Whisperer called out a question about his long absence. He reached the edge of the temporary stage and hesitated to give Lois the option of moving over, but she either didn’t understand or refused. Clark slipped into the space next to her.
Clark glanced quickly around and grimaced when he noticed Lois staring at him. He wasn’t sure if she looked more angry or sad, but he decided to ignore her speculative looks and sighs as the press corps milled about waiting for the conference to start. Her gaze was almost a physical thing, though, and her attention was so disconcerting that he finally edged a little further away.
Her response was to clear her throat and tap him on the shoulder. "Excuse me, Superman?" she asked him politely.
Clark felt the sharpened attention of the reporters immediately around them. It was a well-known rule in the press corps that Clark should only be addressed as Superman when wearing the suit, but apparently they also knew Lois Lane’s indifference for rules and were electrified to see what would happen next. If this Lois was as good as everyone said, she should already know about Superman’s tacit agreement with the press. Clark decided that the best way to reinforce the rule was not to respond until she called him by his name.
Apparently, Lois either didn’t know or had decided to flagrantly disregard the rule. She tapped his shoulder again. “I wonder if I might have a word, Superman.”
Clark clenched his jaw as the whispers around him started to spread. He heard the Star’s Caroline Frost’s stage whisper that Lois should call him ‘Clark’ when he’s not wearing the suit, but Lois didn’t respond.
Okay, so ignoring Lois wasn’t going to work. Maybe he should just educate her on the protocol. “Ms. Lane, when I’m dressed like this, it means I’m here as Clark Kent – a reporter for the Daily Planet. I would appreciate it if you would please address me appropriately.”
“Alright, *Mr. Kent*. I wanted a quote from the guy in the red and blue suit. How can I get in contact with the personality known as Superman?”
Clark’s mouth twisted at her peevish question as a couple of reporters behind them snickered. “I’ll let him know you were looking for him.”
Lois crossed her arms and tilted her head, clearly waiting. She was obviously not going to let this go.
He sighed and lowered his voice. “Did you want something, Ms. Lane?”
“As a matter of fact, I would love a statement. I would have expected Superman to be up there with the Police and Fire Chiefs, but since you’re here, will you go on record regarding the purpose of today’s conference? Speaking as one of the city’s rescue services, that is?”
Clark sighed at her blatant lack of respect and disregard for his privacy and turned forward again. “No comment,” he murmured.
“The spike in both petty and violent crime has been handled brilliantly by the city’s emergency services, but I expect Mayor White, and Chiefs Sorenson and Phipps are coming to explain the revised emergency action plan, as well as the financial impact the plan will have on the citizens on Metropolis. Would you like to express your opinion?”
Clark’s frown deepened as he cast an annoyed glance toward Lois. “No comment,” he said again.
Lois hummed thoughtfully and scribbled something in her notebook. “The Police Chief was frustrated during your absence by a series of bank robberies a couple of months ago, and Henderson was griping just the other day about the rise in the homicide rate last month. Sounded like he thought they would have caught the perps quicker if you’d been around. Oh and then I heard…”
Clark turned and glared at Lois, his arms crossing defensively. “Is there a point to this, Ms. Lane?”
“Well, it just seems that the law-abiding citizens of Metropolis had a lot more trouble when every lowlife in the city realized you were away indeterminately.” She eyed him thoughtfully. “You probably didn’t know the reason for the press conference today.”
“I did just get back.”
“You missed a lot while you were gone. Do you think that the professional emergency workers might resent your vacation?”
Vacation? Is that how everyone saw his time away? He’d thought that they understood, that he needed time out of the suit every once in a while. Of course, maybe it was just Lois that saw him that way. “Let me get this straight – I’m considered to be one of the city’s rescue services, but I’m not allowed to take time off like any normal guy?”
“Well, of course you are. But four months?”
“I hadn’t intended to be gone that long, but someone else needed my help.”
“Right,” Lois replied flatly. “You were helping the other … world. So, what is important enough to draw you away from this world? Natural disaster? Civil unrest? Kittens stuck in trees?”
Clark pinched his lips together as the listening reporters focused to hear his answer to her glib question. “It was personal,” he responded. “…and none of your business.”
“But, surely someone with your speed and strength could have accomplished whatever it was a little more quickly…”
Clark huffed in anger. Who was this woman to question his dedication? “That’s quite a double standard you’ve got going there, Ms. Lane. Weren’t you gone for a lot longer than four months?”
Her eyes widened slightly before she pursed her lips and waved his question off as if shooing a bothersome fly. “Unavoidable. Don’t try to evade the issue, Mr. Kent. You’ve said that Metropolis is your home, but how often will you leave? And for how long next time?”
Her pushiness and accusatory tone pushed him into anger. How dare she question his commitment? He gave more of himself to the city in a day than most people did in a month. “You may want to verify your sources, Ms. Lane. I attend rescues as a volunteer, a *fact* that an investigative reporter for the Daily Planet should already know.”
“You’re questioning *my* ability as a reporter? That’s quite bold for someone that hasn’t even been in the city since March.”
He couldn’t believe her criticism. “And I think that’s a little hypocritical from someone that played dead for over four years. Where were you? Sun tanning on a beach in Tahiti?”
“Well, if you’d taken the time to actually read a newspaper, you’d know I was injured on a story. Some of us actually put our lives on the line in the pursuit of truth and justice.”
“And some of us conduct ourselves professionally. Whatever happened to journalistic integrity and objectivity, Ms. Lane?”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got my facts straight. The people whom you claim to serve have a right to know what you’ve been doing.”
“People also have a right to private lives. Who’s next on your list of targets, Red Cross volunteers? Candy stripers? Who are you to judge what I do in my private time?”
Lois scoffed. “Now I know you’re in the wrong business. It’s our *job* to rip away the veil of secrecy and reveal the naked truth.”
Clark shook his head. “You sound like a tabloid hound, wanting to know what brand of toothpaste I use. Fine. Stick to gossip and let me do my job writing the news, then.”
“Ha! You think you can get the story first? Think again, Superman. You’re going to need every one of those super powers to even attempt to keep up with me.”
Their argument was disrupted by the sound of a bullhorn, magnified a hundredfold by the temporary microphone and speaker system set up on the platform. Clark and Lois both placed their hands over their ears and looked up to see Perry White glaring down at them. Perry handed the bullhorn back to the Chief of Police and asked softly, “Are you two finished?”
Clark glanced around and was horrified to realize that they were the focus of every journalist and city official present. There was even a camera rolling. Even worse was how carried away they’d gotten, the attacks on each other ever more vicious. She had started it, but he’d given back to her and her expression practically shouted that she was as mortified as he was that they had argued in public.
“That’s better,” Perry said, satisfied. “Now that the mud wrestling is over, we’d like to get this shindig started. You two,” he said, leaning around his microphone to point at Lois and Clark, “I want to see you in my office right after you call in your stories. Comprende?”
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TBC
