It was recommended I tone down a scene:
Part 30
The rest of the day was a blur. Lois was relieved to know that Perry and Henderson were working on taking down Luthor. She was relieved to know that Clark was okay. It was something she would hold close to her as she went through the motions of getting ready to be married. Now all she had to do was keep up the charade that she didn’t know about Clark being cleared or how close they were to exposing what kind of monster Luthor really was.
She had dinner with Luthor at a small table set up in his private box at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center. Othello was performance on the stage. It was a new production with a new art director and the reviewers were saying nice things.
But Lois wasn’t especially interested in the play – she preferred ‘Romeo and Juliet’ to ‘Othello’ any day – and the closing curtain couldn’t come down soon enough.
It was raining by the time Luthor guided Lois to the waiting limo. He gave the driver instructions to take them to Lois’s apartment. She had steadfastly refused to give up her place until they were actually married. One more small attempt at keeping her independence as long as possible.
“I don't know when I've had better garlic chicken. Chef Andre deserves a raise,” Luthor was saying. Lois was only half paying attention to him as she watched the city go past the windows. The rain suited her mood.
“And what a magnificent production of Othello. I especially liked the black and white set. Very inventive,” he continued. “You know, Shakespeare didn't write Othello. It was actually written by Dr. Seuss.”
She still didn’t react. Oh, she knew he’d said something clever to get her attention but she really didn’t care at the moment.
“Lois, am I boring you?” he asked.
She shook herself to return to the here and now. It was stupid of her to get lost in her own thoughts that way. She turned and put a hand on his arm.
“No, of course not,” she said. “I'm sorry. All I can think about is that enormous stack of RSVP's on my desk… Minus a few.”
“Your dad and sister absolutely can't make it back?” he asked. As always, he sounded sincere.
She shook her head. “My dad's medical relief mission is in Africa, and Lucy can’t possibly get time away from her new job. At least my mom's coming. But it's not just my family,” she added. “Not one of the people I thought I was closest to is coming to the wedding.” Her statement was strictly true – but she knew why they wouldn’t be there.
“Propinquity,” Luthor stated.
“What?”
“Propinquity. A relationship based on convenience. You work in a particular place, shop in certain stores, become attached to the people that surround you. But, when you move on, the relationships end,” he explained. “That's what you have to do, Lois. Move on. It's not fair to you... or to me.”
She sighed. “You're right,” she told him. “I just wanted our wedding day to be something I could share with Clark and Perry and the others.”
“After the honeymoon, I promise you we'll heal all old wounds.”
“You still won't tell me where we're going?” she asked him. He had been very secretive about his honeymoon plans – more secretive than he usually was.
“No,” he teased.
“Not even a hint?” she cajoled.
“Clothing is optional.”
She laughed, hoping he wouldn’t hear how hollow it was. She laid her head on his shoulder. He wouldn’t be able to see her face.
“Lex... when the Planet was destroyed, you lost quite a bit of money, didn't you?” she asked.
“Yes, but I have wide shoulders and deep pockets,” he assured her.
“But, I mean it wasn't a total loss. There was insurance.”
“Several policies,” he told her. “Unfortunately, not enough to justify reconstruction... Why the sudden concern?” There was a touch of suspicion in his voice.
“Because I can't help but feel that your buying the Planet in the first place had something to do with me,” she told him. She hoped he’d buy her excuse for bringing it up.
“It did,” he admitted. “I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I bought the Planet in a desperate, lovesick attempt to bring us closer together, to bring my life in tune with yours. Ironically, it wasn't necessary: here we are together. Our love was too strong. We were meant to be together.”
She suppressed a shudder as he ran a finger along her jaw.
“Lois, it won’t be long until we…” his voice trailed off suggestively. It was all she could do to keep from retching.
-o-o-o-
Loisette had sat through the banquet in stoic resignation as Tempos and his men drank themselves into stupors. At least drunk, Tempos was unlikely to demand she do the things he’d intimated was his husbandly right – the things the village girls did for him when he demanded his lordly pleasure from them.
She didn’t know what Tempos was likely to do when he discovered that she and Charles had … It didn’t do to dwell on such things. Charles was gone and so was Friar Harry and Marta and Jon and all the others who had followed him in hopes he could bring order to this beleaguered land. At least they were alive, even if she never saw them again.
Too soon, Tempos staggered to his feet and grabbed her arm. For a moment she was afraid he intended to take her in front of his ‘guests’. Luckily he headed up the stairs to his bedchamber, dragging her along like a recalcitrant child.
He watched hungrily as she disrobed. She steeled herself to the touch of his rough hands on her body as he took her to his bed. Instead, he forced her to lean over the desk as he took her like a dog.
“Am I as good as Charles?” he murmured in her ear. She bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain and anger as he had his way. He staggered off to his bed, leaving her naked and hurting. The one consolation she had was that she would not have his child – she still had the herbs Marta had given her. Loisette would never bear Tempos’s children if she could help it.
Lois woke up in a cold sweat. She checked the time on her alarm clock – early, too early to be getting up but she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep. The dream about Loisette had been too real. She could almost smell Tempos’s sour sweat, the feel of his hands as he forced himself on her. No, as he forced himself on Loisette.
She got up and puttered around her apartment. She had promised Luthor she would pack up her things when they got back from the honeymoon. Six hours… six hours until she was faced with walking down the aisle toward a man she didn’t love.
She turned on the news. Today might be her wedding day, but she was still a journalist working for a news organization. Keeping track of what was going on in the world was part of her job. The top story was the insurgent uprising in Qurac. CNN was preparing to move their people out of the capital.
She looked over at her phone, wondering why it hadn’t rung. She picked up the phone and dialed her office at LNN.
“LNN. Lois Lane's office,” a woman’s voice announced after only two rings.
“Any calls, Lorna?” Lois asked.
“No, Ms. Lane.”
Lois didn’t believe it. “Nothing? What about the uprising in Qurac? Are we pulling our correspondents out? I have to decide...”
“Oh, I thought you knew,” Lorna said. “Mr. Ahern already arranged their departure. I guess he didn't want to bother you.”
“What?” Lois nearly yelled. The correspondents in Qurac were her responsibility.
“We just assumed... with your wedding and all...” Lorna sputtered.
“Now I am bothered,” Lois told her. “I'm bothered because no one bothered to bother me. You expect me to work at LNN day after day, week after week, completely... unbothered?”
“Ms. Lane?” Lorna asked, obviously confused.
“Never mind,” Lois ordered, hanging up the phone. It infuriated her that they made the assumption that she would ignore her job just because her wedding was coming up. Everyone who knew her knew her dedication to her work. Her wedding to Luthor was not going to change that. Of course, she had no doubt that he had other ideas. The country estate was proof of that. How could she work if she was trapped in a manor house, away from Metropolis, away from everyone, everything, she knew and loved?
-o-o-o-
One of Luthor’s drivers was scheduled to pick Lois up at ten so she could get ready for the wedding – make-up, hair, final fitting and last minute alterations to the wedding dress. Her mother was being driven in from the ‘hospital’ by another of Luthor’s people and would meet her at the penthouse.
The stage was set for the play he was putting on for the public. The curtain would rise at noon unless someone called it down before the show started. Somehow she doubted it would happen. Luthor was too powerful, too evil, to be taken out simply or easily.
She drove herself to the tower an hour early and pulled the jeep into her usual parking spot. She waved at the attendant.
“Don’t bother to call up,” she told the young man cheerily. “I want to surprise him.”
The elevator opened on the now very familiar hallway. This month’s art display was watercolors by various modern artists.
She heard Luthor’s voice shouting. As she moved down the hallway to his office, she began to make out words.
“You told me you could do it!” Luthor was yelling. “You told me you could break the link… That you had the abbot’s ring and you could destroy him for all time!”
Another voice replied – Asabi. “His will is stronger that I had anticipated. It will…”
“Then kill him and be done with it,” Luthor ordered.
“His death with not resolve anything unless…”
“Unless?” Luthor’s voice was at a near screech. “Unless?”
“Unless he dies by her hand,” Asabi said. “That is the only way to break the link between them. For her to knowingly and willingly end his life.”
Lois had a terrible suspicion that she knew what Luthor was ranting about. ‘We’re soul mates,’ Luthor kept telling her and he no doubt wanted to believe it. But she knew in the deepest part of her own soul that it wasn’t the truth. She didn’t love him, not in this lifetime nor in any other that she was aware of. Luthor and Clark were trapped in a seemingly eternal struggle of dark and light even though the terms were meaningless except in contrast with one another. Two sides of the same coin and she was but a pawn in the war. But that wasn’t right either. She was the third party in an eternal triad.
“Miss Lane?” Mrs. Cox’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “You’re early.”
“I… I wanted see if there were any last minute things I needed to take care of,” Lois managed to get out.
Mrs. Cox arched one perfectly formed eyebrow at her. “Everything’s been handled. The driver picked up your mother ten minutes ago. Everything is on schedule for noon.”
Lois looked at the office door and Mrs. Cox frowned at her.
“I thought I heard Lex talking to someone. I didn’t want to interrupt,” Lois explained.
To answer, Cox knocked lightly on the office door.
“Yes?” Luthor said from inside. He sounded angry but Mrs. Cox didn’t appear phased by it. She opened the door.
“Miss Lane is here a little early,” Cox announced. She opened the door further to let Lois pass.
Luthor was all smiles when he approached Lois, giving her a kiss on the cheek in greeting. Asabi was nowhere to be seen.
“Anxious to get started?” he asked.
“I just wanted to double check a few things,” Lois told him.
“Mrs. Cox assures me everything is handled,” Luthor said. “There’s nothing to worry about. I have a very efficient staff.”
“I thought I heard you yelling at someone,” Lois told him.
“It was nothing,” Luthor assured her. “One of my managers having a problem, that’s all.”
“Is it something I could help with?”
“Possibly,” Luthor told her. He studied her for a long moment, like a horse breeder evaluating a potential addition to his herd. “Would you do anything for me?”
“It depends on what it is, I guess,” Lois told him.
“Something that would make this day perfect,” he said. “Something that would make you mine for all eternity.” As he spoke he went to one of the bookshelves and touched something. The bookshelf slid open like a door, revealing an elevator door. He pulled a simple key ring from his pocket and stuck one key into a key-slot beside the door. He turned the key and then returned it to his pocket.
“Only my closest and most trusted employees know about this,” he told her. “It’s a special escape elevator in the event of an emergency. It’s not even on the plans the city has of this building.”
“Where does it go?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
“Why don’t I show you?”
He ushered her into the elevator. There was only one button and he pressed it. Lois felt the floor drop from beneath her as the elevator started down at high speed.
The elevator slowed and stopped. The doors opened onto a white tiled corridor that looked oddly familiar – Luthor’s underground bunker. She didn’t remember if she’d told Perry about the bunker. She also wondered if the city knew about it, or how many other modifications had been made to the building above that the city hadn’t been informed of.
“It’s mostly empty, as you can see,” Luthor told her as he led the way through the maze to one door. He unlocked it and swung the door open. For a moment Lois was afraid he’d brought her to the emulation of her apartment. Instead, a flight of steps led to a dimly lit room filled with heavy wine racks and kegs.
“However, since it’s completely climate controlled, I’ve found it makes a marvelous wine cellar,” Luthor went on. “It’s also sound proof.” He led her to another door and unlocked it.
This room was lit only by candles which flickered fitfully, throwing monstrous shadows on the walls. She made out two robed figures but what was on the floor nearly made her heart stop. A pentagram was incised in the concrete and spread-eagled on the pentagram was another robed man – Clark. His eyes were closed and in the flickering light she couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead.
“No…” Lois murmured.
His head moved and his eyes opened to look right at her. She thought she saw a smile flicker across his face, but she could have been mistaken. At least he was alive.
Luthor reached over and caressed her face. This time she didn’t bother to suppress her flinch at his touch.
“The one thing that would make this day truly perfect… his death,” Luthor told her. He was breathing hard, as though he was getting aroused. She felt sick.
“You brought me down here on my wedding day to watch you commit murder?” she managed to ask.
“You misunderstand,” one of the robed men said. With the hood up she hadn’t recognized him but she recognized his voice – Asabi. “To break the evil that has bound Loisette and Charles together in their unholy union, it is you that must destroy his current incarnation.”
Lois’s breath caught in her throat. Then: “You are all out of your freaking minds!”
Luthor’s expression had been childishly hopeful. “You won’t do this for me?”
She was trembling in anger and fear. She clenched her fists to keep them shaking. “I will not commit murder. Not for you, not for anyone. Not ever!”
“Pity,” the other man said, speaking to Luthor. Lois didn’t recognize his voice but she did recognize his face when he lowered his hood – the Sorcerer.
Luthor looked down at Lois. He seemed worried. “You won’t do this? You won’t break the spell that binds you? That keeps you from me?”
“I’m not under a spell, Lex,” she told him. “But I do know about Loisette and Charles. I know the bargain she made.”
“I don’t understand…” Luthor said.
“Don’t listen to her, Luthor,” the Sorcerer ordered.
Luthor ignored him. “Lois, what bargain?”
She stared at Asabi and the Sorcerer. “Spare his life, let him go free, and I will walk down the aisle with a smile on my face. I will go to your bed without a word. I will never speak of this insanity to anyone.”
“Lois, no…” Clark murmured.
“But harm one hair on his head, harm anyone I care about and I swear to God I will see you burn in Hell,” she continued, turning to watch Luthor’s expression. He seemed confused. Had he honestly expected her to blithely commit murder for him?
“Luthor, don’t listen to her,” the Sorcerer ordered. “You know what sort of lying…”
“Shut up,” Luthor ordered.
“Lois no…” Clark tried again.
“I won’t let him kill you,” Lois told Clark. “I’ll be okay. Lex wouldn’t hurt me. Would you, Lex?”
“Of course not, my darling. I love you,” Luthor assured her.
“Then swear to me by everything you hold sacred that you will let him go unharmed,” she pressed.
Luthor nodded. “As soon as the ceremony is finished, he will be released,” Luthor promised. “And then we can begin our life together.”
“Swear it,” Lois insisted.
“I swear it,” Luthor said. “In fact, to prove it, I’ll have him come to the reception.”
“Luthor, it’s a trick!” the Sorcerer shouted. “She has no intention of…”
“I told you to shut up!” Luthor shouted back. Suddenly he had a pistol in his hand. The Sorcerer’s eyes widened in horror as he realized what was happening. A single shot rang out in the small space and the Sorcerer looked down at his chest. He touched the red blotch that was staining his robe and stared at the blood on his hand. Then he dropped to the floor.
Luthor grabbed Lois’s arm and started for the door. He looked back at a dumbstruck Asabi. “Do what needs to be done,” Luthor ordered.
He dragged her back to the elevator, keeping hold of her arm until they reached the penthouse.
Mrs. Cox was waiting in the office. If she was surprised to see them coming out of the private elevator she didn’t show it. Luthor shoved Lois at her.
“Do not let her out of your sight until the ceremony,” Luthor ordered.
The order seemed to break through Cox’s iron reserve. She actually looked surprised. “Of course, Lex,” she said. “I just wanted to let you know that Mrs. Lane is waiting for Miss Lane in the guest quarters.”
“Excellent,” Luthor said. He nodded to Lois. “Now go make yourself beautiful for me,” he ordered. “I want nothing else to mar this day.”
-o-o-o-
Lois looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror. The cosmetologist had done an excellent job on her make-up, elegant and understated. Her hair was too short to do much with but the stylist had given her a trim. The dress was magnificent, befitting a princess.
And like an old-time princess, she was a player in a game that knew few rules and took no prisoners. What her heart wanted was irrelevant at the moment. She knew what needed to be done and that there was no one else who could do it. She practiced smiling, stifling her desire to break into tears.
Mrs. Cox had positioned herself by the hallway door. Her expression made it clear she would rather have been anywhere else. Baby sitting Luthor’s bride-to-be was not high on her list of things she wanted to be doing. Lois could hardly blame her. Standing in front of a mirror in a wedding dress wasn’t high on Lois’s list of things she’d rather be doing.
Her mother was sitting on the sofa watching. She was wearing a cotton-candy-pink suit and looked like the picture perfect mother-of-the-bride. She was even sober. Lois was hard put to remember the last time she’d seen her mother sober.
There was a knock on the door and a voice announced: “Five minutes, Miss... Mrs. Luthor.”
Lois took a deep breath. “Mom, what am I going to do?” she asked softly.
“Honey, if you're not sure...” her mother said.
“It's too late,” Lois said, fighting the tears that threatened to overwhelm her.
“No, it's not. Do what your heart tells you to do,” Ellen Lane advised her.
“I wish it was that simple,” Lois told her.
“It’s time,” Mrs. Cox announced, opening the door.
Lois nodded. She dropped the lace veil over her face and picked up her bouquet, white and pink rosebuds and baby’s breath. She took a deep breath and stepped into the corridor beyond. He mother followed her. Mrs. Cox shut the door behind them and followed them down the corridor to the ballroom.
An usher, one of LexCorp’s managers, offered his arm to Ellen Lane and led her to her seat. Lois was alone with Mrs. Cox, waiting for her cue.
“Why are you going through with this charade?” Mrs. Cox asked. Her voice was so low that Lois almost missed the question. Lois gave the woman a curious look, wondering what prompted the question but the woman seemed genuinely worried.
“I made a deal with the devil,” Lois told her. “If I don’t go through with it, Lex will hurt, probably kill, the people I care about.”
“And you think he won’t do it anyway?” Cox asked. “Kent, White, your parents… a series of tragic ‘accidents’ while you’re away on your honeymoon. You’ll have sold your soul for nothing.”
“I know,” Lois admitted. “But maybe I bought them some time.”
Lois peeked around the door to look at the audience. She could only see the backs of their heads but she did spot her mother sitting near the front.
“Everyone who’s anyone is here,” Mrs. Cox commented. “The social event of the year.”
The organist at the front of the room began to play ‘the Wedding March.’ Conversation in the converted ballroom died down as Luthor walked in and took his place by the temporary altar. A man in ornate white and gold vestments came from behind the altar to stand in front of the assembly. Lois considered it more than a bit pretentious, making the clergyman Luthor had selected dress as a prince of the Church.
“Show time,” Lois murmured as she moved to the center of the double doors. Mrs. Cox nodded and ushers opened the doors. All eyes turned to look as Lois began her slow march down the aisle. There were no attendants, no bridesmaids or groomsmen. Luthor hadn’t wanted anyone to outshine his bride.
The march ended as Lois stepped up even with Luthor. He was smiling at her as though he was the happiest man in the room. She stared at the clergyman Luthor had managed to recruit. The man wasn’t simply dressed as the archbishop.
“The Archbishop?” Lois whispered to Luthor.
“The Pope had a prior engagement.”
A soprano from the Metropolis Opera Company led the congregation in Love Divine: Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down; Fix in us thy humble dwelling; All thy faithful mercies crown!
The Penitential Rite, the Opening Prayer. One of the archbishop’s assistants read the Old Testament reading, the responsorial Psalm, the New Testament reading, the Gospel Reading, all familiar parts of Mass. Cardinal McNeeley gave the homily. It was mercifully brief.
“Lois and Alexander, have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?” the archbisop asked. “Will you honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives...? Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?”
Luthor nodded.
“Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and his Church.”
Luthor grabbed her hand.
“Do you, Alexander, take this woman for your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part.”
“I do,” Luthor answered.
“And do you, Lois, take this man to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
Lois paused, looking around as the assembly waited for her answer. She prayed that she’d see Perry and Henderson coming through the door to put an end to this travesty.
“Lois,” Luthor said gently.
Lois closed her eyes a moment. There would be no cavalry riding over the hill to save the day.
“I do,” she murmured.
“You have declared your consent before the Church,” McNeely stated. “May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. What God has joined, men must not divide.”
“Amen,” Luthor intoned with the rest of the assembly.
It was done. She was now Mrs. Lex Luthor. She prayed she had made the right decision. That she really hadn’t sold her soul to the devil for nothing.
