Aurora Borealis – The Complete Story 3/10
By Ken Janney
This story is rated PG-13.
Comments are always welcomed at ken.janney@kjanney.com
Disclaimers: The characters in this story are property of DC, December 3rd productions and Warner Bros. No Copyright infringement is intended. I have just borrowed the characters for a short time.
This story originated with a single scene that I had written as a suggested plot device for another author. It was rejected in favor of another one. I still liked the idea so I wrote a story around it. This is only loosely related to my Matchmaker series.
I wish to thank Artemis and Morgana for the beta on this.
< > denotes thoughts
* * denotes emphasis
Previously
Bill queried, “What about Clark? How sure are you that he didn’t do this himself?”
Superman was incredulous as he replied, “Come on Inspector. You know Clark and Lois almost as well as I do. Do you really think Clark would do anything to Lois with all they went through to finally get married?”
Properly chastened, Bill replied, “Well, no I guess not. I bet he’s really broken up about this.”
“Inspector; that might just be the understatement of the century.”
With a sympathetic tone in his voice Bill said, “When you see Clark tell him we’ll do all that we can.”
“I’m sure he’ll appreciate it Inspector. Along that line, I stopped at the Daily Planet and Jimmy Olsen provided me with a printout of all of the locations that there are lead lined bomb shelters in the city. I can’t examine them because the lead blocks my x-ray vision. Could you have them examined?” He offered the printout.
Bill took the sheets of paper and said, “I’ll get some men on this right away. Don’t worry, if she’s in the city, we’ll find her.”
“Thanks Inspector. I’m going to continue my search and expand beyond the city. My fear is that she, in fact, is no longer in the city.”
Bill said, “You go ahead. We’ll do what we can here in the city. By the way, tell Clark, I’m sorry this happened and we’ll do everything we can. Also, I’ll be needing a statement from him and a missing person report.”
“I’ll pass that along to him Inspector. Thanks.” Superman turned and exited the building.
And now:
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Chapter 3
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The first stop Superman made was Smallville, Kansas. He landed in the front yard of the Kent farm and spun into jeans and a T-shirt. With dejected tread, he ascended the steps to the porch and crossed to the door. When he opened the door he saw his parents in the living room.
Martha greeted him, “Clark! We didn’t expect to see you so soon. Are you on the way to your honeymoon? Where’s Lois?” She noted the expression on his face and immediately her happy mood was dispelled. Her tone changed to one of worry as she asked, “Clark, what’s happened? Where’s Lois?”
Clark was almost weeping as he replied, “Lois has been kidnapped.”
You would almost think that Martha was the one with the super powers as she almost literally flew to her son and threw her arms around him and said, “Oh, Honey! How did it happen? Have you looked for her? Did you get a ransom note? Who could have done it?”
Clark related the complete story including his assumption that Tempus was the perpetrator and told them what he had been doing.
As he had been telling the story, Martha had started weeping both for her loss of her special daughter-in-law but also for her boy because she knew just how devastated he was at the loss of the love of his life. Getting up out of his chair, Jonathan moved over and joined Martha in comforting their son. He also was weeping silently as he put an arm across Clark’s shoulder giving him support by the contact.
Finally, after Clark finished he asked, “What am I going to do? How am I going to handle this?” Unashamed, he reached up and wiped the tears away with the back of his hand.
Pulling a hanky out of her apron pocket, Martha dried her eyes too and asked, “You’re going to keep looking for her, aren’t you?”
“Yes, Mom, I’m not giving up. I’ll search the globe. I mean, if I *can’t* find her. How am I going to *survive* without her? She’s *everything* to me. I mean, I love you guys, but that’s different. Lois and I just recently found out that we are soul mates. We are fated to be together. I don’t want to be, I can’t be with anyone else.” Realizing just how big a task he had set for himself he started pacing the living room floor. He flung his arms out, as if to encompass the entire globe and said, “I’ll search everywhere as long as that takes.”
Martha watched in sympathy as her son paced. Knowing him as well as she did, she knew just how affected he really was. This behavior told her more than his words ever could. “If you were anyone else, I’d say that after a period of time, she would be declared dead and you would move on, but you’re not like anyone else. You’re special, unique, who knows how that would work with you? With your Kryptonian heritage you might not be able to do that. All these years, we watched as you dated Lana, Rachel and a few others, but you were never serious about any of them. You traveled the world because you couldn’t find anywhere that you felt you belonged. Then, you moved to Metropolis, met Lois and everything changed. Suddenly all you could talk about was Lois. We could see the handwriting on the wall from the very first. We were happy because we knew that you were happy with her.”
After a few seconds, her words calmed him somewhat. He stopped in front of Martha and gently grasping her shoulders, he said, “You’re right Mom. When I met Lois everything changed for me. Suddenly, I felt like I had come home. Anywhere she was, I wanted to be. Now, finally, after all of our problems, finally we were married and we were going to be starting a life together. We were going to be so happy, together and … and now … now she’s ... she's gone. I … I … I need to go, I need to look for her some more.”
Silently, expressing his agreement lending his strength and encouragement to Clark, Jonathan patted his son’s shoulder.
Martha gave him a hug as she said, “I know you’ll do your best. Now, do whatever you can to see to it that you find her and bring her back.”
As Clark started to turn to go, Jonathan stopped him and said, “What are you going to tell the police? What about Sam, Ellen and Lucy? What about Perry White and everyone at the Planet?”
“I’ve been to the police and told them she was kidnapped.”
"I know, but that was as Superman. What is Clark going to tell them?"
Realizing that in his personal grief he had totally forgotten all of the others in Lois’ life he hung his head, “As much as I can without giving the secret away. You’re right about the Lanes too. I need to talk to Sam, Ellen and Lucy. They should know, before they find out from reading the paper. Can I use your phone?”
Martha answered, “Sure you can. But, wouldn’t it be better in person?”
“I don’t know if I can face them.”
Jonathan said, “Son, you really need to. Your mother is right. It would be better in person.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I guess I need to go and face them. Tell them that their daughter is missing. It’s going to be devastating.”
Encouragingly, Jonathan replied, “It will be better if you are there. It’s the right thing to do.”
Acknowledging the correctness of the decision, he nodded his head “Okay, I guess I’d better go do that now.”
After giving and receiving a final hug from both his Mom and Dad he exited and spinning into the Suit took off for Metropolis.
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Reaching his apartment he entered from the balcony and was just in time to spin back into his casual clothes before there was a knock on the door.
He moved through the bedroom and living room to answer the door. When he opened it Bill Henderson was on the other side. In a dispirited voice he said, “Hi Bill, come on in.”
True to his training as a detective, Bill looked around and saw their luggage piled up, obviously ready for them to go on their honeymoon. He filed this clue away for future reference. He said, “Superman stopped by and asked if we could help find Lois. We have teams out canvassing the city. I came by to see how you are holding up.”
As Bill had been entering Clark had retreated to his sofa and dropped onto it. He sat there with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. There was so much grief in his voice that Bill almost couldn’t make out what he was saying as Clark replied, “I guess I’m doing as well as can be expected, under the circumstances. I just told my parents. They encouraged me to keep searching. I just don’t know where to start.”
“From what Superman told me there isn’t much chance of you finding her by yourself. That’s why I came over. I want you to stay here. The kidnappers may try to contact you to give you their demands, ransom, some demand about Superman, a story in the paper, I don’t know, whatever they want. They may slide a note under your door or they may try to call you. If they do you are to let me know immediately, you got that? I don’t want you going off like a loose cannon on your own. You stay put.”
Clark lifted his head and looked at Bill. Seeing his expression he realized he was serious and said, “Okay Bill. I’ll stay here, but I would have thought that they would have left a note when they grabbed her.”
"Mind if I look around some?"
Clark flung his hand out indicating the apartment and said, "Help yourself."
Bill also noted his response, the response of someone with nothing to hide. As he moved into the bedroom he noticed the rumpled character of the bed clothes and thought, <That was to be expected. After all the time they waited. They are newlyweds after all.>
He moved into the attached bathroom. When he did he spotted the bag on the floor. Noting that it was a cloth covered bag, including the handles, Bill knew that there would be no recoverable fingerprints, so he stooped and opened the bag. When he did he pinched the edges of the zipper tab rather than the flats. As he did he noted the contents; cosmetics, toiletries and one sexy black teddy. With a knowing look Bill thought, <The bed wasn’t rumpled from what I thought. She wasn’t coming in here to change into travel clothes; she was coming in here to change so that they could get an early start on the honeymoon. Poor guy. I really feel sorry for him.> Bill zipped the bag closed and left it lying where he had found it. There would be a forensics team going through the entire apartment and the least he disturbed any possible evidence the better it would be for Clark. He looked around the bathroom and noted that there was nothing out of order and no evidence of a struggle; also there was no ransom note. That all fit with what Superman had said. It had happened so quick that Clark couldn’t have seen anything or been able to do anything.
The perp had to have had Superman’s powers or some other means of subduing Lane so quickly that struggle was impossible. Was Superman’s story about a clone Superman true? Didn’t he have a thing for Lois too? Could he be the perpetrator after all and just be pretending to help locate her? <I suppose anything is possible. There is that old saying, ‘All’s fair in love and war.’ Did he love her that much that he’d turn on his friend and break the law to have her? He’ll have to be treated as a suspect.>
Bill moved back out to the living area of the apartment and stood there looking around, taking it all in. Moving into the kitchenette he looked toward the bedroom and decided that if Clark had been in the kitchenette and Lois had gone into the bathroom, which was off the bedroom as evidenced by the presence of the bag, it would be possible for her to be snatched without Clark seeing anything or being able to do anything to prevent it.
Bill addressed Clark with a question, “Do you think it could have been Superman himself?”
Clark’s reply was immediate, “No,!! That would be impossible!” As soon as it was out of his mouth he realized that he had perhaps been too vehement in his denial.
If Bill noticed, he didn’t let on; after all, it could simply be loyalty to a long time friend. Someone that you really want to think the best of. Still, the question needed to be asked, “But, didn’t he have a thing for Lois?”
“No Bill, he didn’t.” He knew he had to think of a logical reason to keep Superman from being a real suspect. He answered, “It would be impossible. You see, he is highly ethical and it would be outside of his character, now that Lois and I are married, for him to pursue a relationship with her. Besides, I trust him, implicitly.”
Bill started rolling Clark’s statements around in his mind testing their validity when suddenly Bill’s analysis was interrupted by Clark, “Bill, I have to go out, just for a short time.”
“I said you were to stay here.”
“I have to see Lois’ parents. I have to tell them. They need to hear it from me, not the police, not the papers. I owe them that much.”
Bill relented, “Oh, okay, but get back here as quickly as you can. Do you need a lift? My car’s just outside.”
“Thanks, Bill. Yes, that would help.”
They exited Clark’s building and moved to Henderson’s car. Clark was brooding and uncommunicative as Henderson drove.
When Henderson pulled up in front of the building that Sam had an apartment in, Bill asked, “Do you want me to come up with you or wait?”
“No, Bill. Thanks anyhow. I need to do this by myself and the walk back will do me good.”
“Okay, but, get back to your apartment as quickly as you can. We don’t want to miss any communications from the kidnappers.”
“I will Bill. Thanks for the lift.” He reached over and shook Bill’s hand before he opened the door to exit.
Bill was surprised to find a tear rolling down his cheek while he watched as his friend trudged up the steps to the doors of the apartment building. He hastily wiped it away with the back of his hand. Observing Clark’s demeanor he thought, <How could I have ever considered him a suspect? If I ever saw a beaten man, that’s him. His whole life has been wrapped up in her. It’s almost like with her disappearance he’s lost the will to live. You can see the worry and despair written all over his face. We need to find her. Even if we can’t we have to do everything we can. Much as I hate to admit it, I have started to like Lane. Ever since she hooked up with Kent she’s mellowed, well, at least a little.> He started the car and pulled away from the curb.
comments go here TBC in Chapter 4
