Terry said it first, but I have been thinking about it all day:
I just thought of something. If this world's Lucy Lane has been dead for five years (maybe due to a terrorist act), and apparently the Lois from Clark's world is dead (because he's not Superman), Lois and Lucy are in for a very interesting encounter. Can't wait to read that one.
Indeed!!! Lucy is dead in Lois's universe, and Lois is dead in Lucy's universe, and now the bereaved sisters are about to meet each other again! (At least I fervently hope they will!)
This is an even more amazing thought:
“They aren't conscious yet,” one man was saying into the satellite phone. “We can't even be sure that this Evans guy really is military. His paperwork was just as phony as every other passenger on the plane.”
The man stopped outside Lois's door and she tensed.
“The fingerprints do match, but we've already contacted our Lieutenant Evans in Georgetown, and he'll be meeting with us this evening. Yes…like the others.”
Lieutenant Evans may get the chance to meet
himself!!!! He and his counterpart from the other universe are identical! Not only are they physically the same because they have the same fingerprints, but they have lived the same lives, so that they have the same ID, the same hometown and the same careers!
Is everyone on that plane a "twin" of someone in the other universe, apart from those whose twin is already dead?
Anyway, this idea that you may have a
perfect twin out there somewhere has actually got some degree of scientific support. Suppose everything that exists is built of a relatively small number of building blocks, and there are only so many ways that these building blocks can be put together in different ways. Eventually the universe will have built all the different things that can possibly be built, and thereafter the universe will be forced to repeat itself! According to this theory, if the universe is sufficiently big and contains a sufficient number of these building blocks, it will eventually be forced to repeat -
us!!! Not only people more or less like us, but
us!!! I read about this in Scientific American some years ago, so I do think that the idea is scientifically sound.
Anyway, let's return to your story, Shayne. They are going to
exhume Lucy!!!! No, please, don't. Don't put the surviving Lucy in a position where she may have to confront her own rotting five-year-old corpse!!!
I agree with Tank that it's a joy to see your Lois. She is so calm, so cool, so brave, so
wow. Lois walked with her head held high toward the nurses' station. She pushed the doors leading into the cardiac unit open, and she didn't slow down as she noticed the armed guards standing outside two rooms down the hall.
In these situations it was important to look as though you knew where you were going.
Lois walked past the soldiers, trying to look at them with the appropriate amount of curiosity that any passer by would have. Not looking at them at all would have triggered them to being more alert.
Something was going on. Lois realized that her best chance was to get back to Private Chalmer's room; she had permission to be there. Of course, if she'd somehow triggered an alert she'd just have to make up an excuse.
Her mind raced. Her best bet was that she'd gotten lost and had needed to use the bathroom. She'd stick with the story without elaborating much, and there wasn't a whole lot they'd be able to do about it.
“If anyone asks, I'm congratulating you on your nomination for a Decoration for Distinguished Civilian Service.”
“What?”
“Pulling Private Chalmers out of the line of fire, people noticed that. There's been talk about it for a while now for everything you've done for the men.”
The Army liked that Lois had tended to side with the soldiers. It was hard not to when you lived with them for months at a time.
Let me end by quoting Terry again:
I was wondering how you were going to get Lois and Clark together, Shayne, but this is hilarious. Clark decides to hide in Lois's trunk because it's empty, and she's driving like a maniac to stop Lucy's exhumation. If this were an actual retelling of a true tale, we'd say it was the kind of thing you couldn't make up.
Indeed! I was reminded of a scene from an old Goldie Hawn movie, where she and the guy she's with have car-napped a taxi and drive it at breakneck speed while trying to get away from some criminals, and the Japanese tourists who are in the taxi have never had so much fun in their lives!
Come back soon with more of this excellent fic, Shayne!
Ann
