Previously - Chapter 10 ***
Chapter 11***
January 21, 1996
Sunlight reached Lois’s face. As she rolled away from the brightness, her stomach gave a strange lurch and she immediately remembered the events of the night before. She groaned and continued rolling onto her stomach, propping her head up on her hands and looking around the room.
It was
their living room. She had memories of relaxing here on this very couch, watching tv with Lex. Was that real? How long had she lived like this? As Lex’s
wife?
Clark’s face entered her thoughts and instinct told her which of those memories were right. There were still plenty of missing pieces and she wasn’t sure if it would all come back or not. All she knew was that this was a peculiar situation and she would have to handle it carefully. She had no idea what Lex would do ... what he had done.
“Good morning, my love,” Lex said as he walked into the room carrying a tray of what smelled like breakfast. “How are you feeling now?” He set the tray down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch next to her placing his hand on the small of her back and making slow, small circles.
At first, his touch was pleasant, and she let out a small sigh. Suddenly, her stomach turned. “Oh God,” she said hoarsely, covering her mouth. She clambered off of the sofa, hopped over the coffee table and darted to the bathroom just across the hall.
Having not eaten anything yet, there was very little to come up and she leaned miserably on the edge of the toilet seat, her face wet with tears. How long would this last, and what was she going to tell Lex?
She heard the water come on at the sink and new Lex had come to take care of her, as strange as it was. She thought of several instances of his caring for her over the past couple of months and new then that if she could keep her
other memories to herself, keep them separated from the ones she had of him, that he would not hurt her in the least. He placed a cool cloth on the back of her neck and brushed her hair from her face with his fingers.
“Let me call Dr. Hightower,” he requested. “He could be here in a few minutes and you can-”
“No, please. I…” she started, not relinquishing her position. Immediately, a thought struck her as the perfect pretense. “I…” But she wasn’t sure she could say it. What ramifications would such a confession have? She didn’t have enough time to consider them and knew this would take care of some other issues she was sure to face in the next few days. “I think I might be … pregnant,” she said hoping she sounded sincere.
Lex was instantly at her side on his knees, one hand on her back, the other gently cupping her cheek turning her face toward his. She risked opening her eyes and saw such delight that she felt ... guilt? She knew she shouldn’t care about this man, who was evil after all, but her memories, true or not, prevented her from hating him.
“Lois…” he said, looking deep into her eyes. “That is the most wonderful thing you have ever said to me.” He leaned forward and kissed her on the top of her head.
She allowed a small, exhausted smile to show. Lex quickly got up and rushed from the room.
Maybe this wouldn’t be too hard. She pushed herself up and used the washcloth to wipe her face. She was still wearing her extravagant, and now wrinkled, dress from the night before and felt the need to take a long hot shower to cleanse herself. She would wait for that until after Lex had left the house, regardless of how long that took. She made her way slowly to the sink and looked at herself in the mirror, seeing this
new Lois for the first time.
Her red-rimmed eyes sat above dark circles, the exhaustion of the last twelve hours was clearly written all over her face. Red lines from the creases in the couch cushion ran down her cheek and what was left of her make-up was smudged. She reached up to her short hair that stuck out in various directions and she couldn’t believe she’d let anyone see her like this.
She sucked in a breath as Lex came back in carrying her bathrobe and the plate of food from earlier. He set them down on the counter. “No, Lois, you are breathtaking,” he said and reached carefully around her to put his hands on her abdomen, meeting her eyes in the mirror. It was such an affectionate gesture and Lois found herself covering his hands with hers. He nuzzled her ear with his nose and whispered, “I love you.”
Lois leaned her head forward away from his. This mix of affection and distrust, contentment and anxiety, was only adding to the sour feeling in her stomach. She let out a nervous laugh.
“I have a few errands to run this morning,” he explained as he moved his hands to her shoulders. “You take a nice hot shower and relax. I will be back in a couple of hours and we’ll celebrate.” He gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze and smiled at her reflection. Was that a twinkle in his eye?
She turned her head to the side. “Thank you, Lex,” she said, surprised at the sincerity she felt.
He kissed her temple. “No,” he whispered into her ear, “Thank
you.” He squeezed her shoulders once more before turning to leave.
She breathed a sigh of relief knowing she had some time to herself to sort things out. The mixture of contradictory emotions was going to get the best of her. She shook her head and swallowed hard, reaching to turn the hot water on.
***
It had been a few weeks since Clark had gone to work feeling this worthless. Not that he was surprised. He hadn’t been able to get back to sleep after Lana left and his morning run just didn’t help him center himself like it usually did. His mind was out of sorts, distracted, worried he wouldn’t be able to focus and do his job correctly. But he
had to attend a special meeting the city council was holding.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the current city sewer issue in the downtown area. It was built hundreds of years ago and the area was growing up not out, putting stress on all the systems, but most notably the sewer. The city council would address the problems and propose solutions.
Surely, he could manage sitting through a boring, slow-paced meeting and write it up well enough without messing it up. He wouldn’t need to ask questions if he didn’t feel like it, he could just observe and allow others present to do the questioning. He would listen and write about it. It had worked in the past on some of his gloomier days before coming to Columbia.
But no. In addition to being late to the meeting, he couldn’t focus at all. Here he was, sitting in the back of the room, unable to listen for more than a few seconds at a time, with as much of an idea of what was said about the sewer issue as a person two blocks away.
Two months. This time he’d made it longer than at any of the rest of his previous jobs. Deep down, he knew that he wasn’t cut out for this job. Lois had pointed that much out more than two years ago.
Maybe now Lana would believe it.
He ran his hand over his face and looked at his blank notepad.
John Zartaga, a reporter for the other paper in town, The Missourian, leaned over and snickered when he saw the blank notepad. Clark should have closed it. A long time ago. When he realized they were done talking about the sewer problems. When he realized he wasn’t going to write anything down.
When he realized he should have left.
“I think my baby sister was taking notes in the back of the room. She’s here with her middle school class.” Zartaga said, pretending to look over everyone in that direction. “You might be able to pay her to write your story for you.” Zartaga paused before leaning over to whisper, “She’d probably do a better job.”
Clark slammed his notebook closed and took a deep breath to calm himself. Zartaga was just pestering him. If Clark ignored him, he would go away. If only it were that easy.
“Don’t take yourself so seriously, Kent.” Zartaga sneered. “No one else does.”
Then again, maybe Zartaga was right. Clark stood up and quietly walked out of the meeting.
If his dad hadn’t pulled strings to get him here, he probably wouldn’t have even been offered this job. And he was terrible at it. Everyone knew it. He should just quit. Let a more qualified person take over the position.
Would his dad send him away again if he went home now?
***
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