Oh, the turmoil poor Clark is going through. Confronting the Lanes, and having Ellen blame him for Lois's disappearance. You just know that in part of his heart he agrees with her; if it hadn't been for Tempus's hatred of him, Lois would never have been kidnapped.
What's going to happen with Perry, now that his favorite reporter has gone missing? He seemed to collapse at Clark's news, but we never heard anything else. I'm sure it's hitting him as hard as Clark and the Lanes.
What Clark didn’t know was what Tempus was doing. He had programmed the time window device to act something like a strobe. It would flash into existence for an instant, long enough for Lois’ presence in the universe to register before it flashed out of existence again only to reappear at a later time. Her continued presence prevented Herb from discovering the problem.
I like this explanation (Evil Tempus!) of why Clark keeps hearing her voice, but it kind of comes out of nowhere here in the middle of Clark's POV.
This explanation might be better served later (by Lois) to explain why Clark kept hearing her heartbeat or voice. It would also help build the suspense (is Clark losing it? Or is he merely hearing her voice because he misses her so much? Or is there another reason?) for the Reader if this revelation is saved for later in the story after Lois returns. And instead of have it explained by "the narrator", have it told to Clark by Lois in her own words to describe what Tempus did with the strobe. "Tempus kept opening the time window and I'd call out to you, but then he'd close it again"... That sort of thing. Then Clark could postulate that Tempus must have done that either to drive him insane to keep Herb Wells from noticing that Lois wasn't in her right time.
Remembering when Superman had been booked and fingerprinted, as soon as the Grand Jury handed down its verdict Clark applied for expungement to have his fingerprints removed from the record. It wouldn’t do to have Clark Kent’s fingerprints match up with Superman’s.
Actually, they never got Superman's fingerprints, because when he pressed down on the blotter, he broke the machine, but I could see Clark wanting to have them expunged just to be on the safe side.
“No, that’s just it Bernie. If she were to suddenly show up I need a way to verify that it *is* her and *not* a clone.”
How sad that Clark has to think of this possibility of his enemies. It's true that's the type of thing, I could see Tempus doing. Dropping Lois off 90 years in the future and then going back and dropping off a clone 5 years after Lois originally disappears.
“Why don’t I talk to him? Maybe it would be a good thing. He should come in and give you a sample so that it can be mapped. You never can tell what might happen or when something like that would come in handy. Thanks Doc. I’ll be in touch.”
He must really trust Dr. Klein, because isn't that how Vatman came about? By Lex stealing Superman's DNA and making a clone from it? It's almost as if he's giving up hope, giving up wanting to live, not caring what happens to himself now... although we all know, that there really isn't any way for him to hurt himself except Kryptonite.
It's so sad that Ellen went back to drinking at the first hint of the disappearance of her daughter. It almost makes you wonder if Clark did the right thing in telling her. I'm sure she was just using it as an excuse to drink, since they really weren't that close... but still. It must have been hard on Lucy and Sam to first lose Lois and then have to deal with Ellen spiraling out of control, while trying to deal with their own sense of loss.
