How I Spent My Christmas Vacation -- One Year Later
by Nan Smith
Previously:
"And you're afraid of risks? Am I speaking to the woman that helped bring down Lex Luthor, himself?"
"Yeah." Lois's voice had dropped to a whisper. "My mother risked it all like that once. She fell in love with a superior man -- and look what happened to her."
Alice was silent for several seconds. Finally she said, "Living is never safe and secure -- and in the end it doesn't matter how safe you play it, does it? In the meantime, if you take chances you can be hurt terribly -- no one's denying that. But if you don't take them, you can miss out on life itself. I guess it's up to you to decide if the potential reward is worth risking everything -- and no one can decide that but you."
"I know that," Lois said. "And I will."
"Just don't take too long," Alice said. "Clark might be willing to wait forever -- but not even Superman lives that long."
**********
And now, Part 5:
A year ago, Clark thought as Charlie King drove Lois's Jeep toward Ralph's Pagoda, he and Lois hadn't even been in this time. They had skipped two days in the current time because Tempus had marooned Lois over a thousand years in the past. They -- or more accurately, Lois -- had managed to overpower Tempus when he had shown up to finish the job, and turned the tables on him, but when they returned to the present, they had arrived in the late evening of December twenty-third, so technically, at this time, a year ago, neither Lois nor Clark Kent had existed. But in the end everything had worked out all right. When he and Lois worked together, they accomplished miracles, and there was no reason that this time should be any different. Superman might be temporarily out of action, but Lois Lane was substituting for him. If the past year was any example, the bad guys of the world had better watch out, he thought with a certain wry humor. Super-Lois would probably be tougher on them than Superman had ever been.
Speaking of which, if the time came when she was forced to appear in public, they had better have some kind of name for her. There was always Superwoman, of course, but Clark suspected that Lois might not like such an obvious spin-off of his name. If Lois was anything, she was fiercely independent. It was probably that independence that was getting in the way, now, of her accepting his proposal, but given time he hoped he could get past that. Lois was gun-shy of making the kind of commitment that he wanted. Given the train-wreck that her parents' marriage had been, he could understand but it was still frustrating. Still, the Lois he had first met had married her Clark. He was just going to have to be persistent.
He pulled the Jeep into a parking space by the curb. Snow was beginning to drift through the air again. It had been snowing on and off since yesterday, which made for a great Christmas atmosphere, but it was a pain in the -- well, it was definitely a nuisance when it came to getting anywhere when you didn't have super powers. He had never fully appreciated the advantages those abilities gave him -- not, of course, the grand super feats, but the simple, ordinary things in life, like avoiding a traffic jam caused by bad weather, or not feeling the cold. Brr!
He adjusted his pink Calvin Klein sunglasses, wrapped the heavy coat around him, pulled the knit cap down over his ears, making sure the pink earring remained visible, and got out, slamming the door behind him. He shoved his hands deep into the pockets of the coat and stepped onto the sidewalk. As he did, the advertisement on the back of a bench, provided for the convenience of waiting bus passengers, caught his eye. Ultra-Vitamins, the sign proclaimed. He stopped, eyeing the words thoughtfully. Ultra-Woman? Well, it was certainly a possibility. He'd run it by Lois and see what she thought.
Bobby Bigmouth was waiting in the alley, just as he had promised, leaning casually against the chipped, blackened brick of the building. Their snitch looked him over critically. "That hat don't match your coat, Charlie," he informed him bluntly. "You need to get one in fake fur if you're gonna keep your image."
Clark made a note of that. Bobby had been invaluable in the finer points of his Charlie disguise over the year. Clark often wondered if he had seen through the whole thing, but if he had he never said a word. "Thanks. I'll do that as soon as I can get to a department store," he said. "Now, I need to know if anyone has a clue about who stopped that car during the police chase this morning."
Bobby nodded. "You got my lunch?"
Clark produced a gift certificate. "I figured you'd rather have something hot, and nothing's going to stay hot for very long in this weather."
Bobby examined the certificate. "Bronco Bob's All-You-Can-Eat Western Smorgy," he said with something approaching enthusiasm. "Y'know, Charlie, you got good taste." He folded the certificate carefully and tucked it into a heavy leather wallet, and then with equal care, slid the wallet into an inner pocket of his battered coat. "Okay, the chase this morning. The word's startin' to circulate that it was a woman."
Clark raised his eyebrows. "A woman?"
"Yeah. One of the guys the cops caught told one of the guys in the cell next to his -- acquaintance of mine named Norm Campbell. Norm's wife bailed him out this morning and he mentioned it to me when I happened to look him up a while ago."
"Do they know who she was?" Clark asked.
Bobby shook his head. "Nope. Just a woman, he said. I guess it was too dark to see much."
"Probably," Clark agreed. "Anything else on that other thing?"
"Yeah," Bobby said. "There's a rumor that there's some group trying to move into Luthor's old territory, and they're looking for a way to neutralize Superman."
"Do you know who?"
Bobby shook his head. "It's a big, underground criminal organization is all I know, but it might be behind the attack on him yesterday. Lucky for Clark whatever that red beam was, it didn't work."
"That's for sure," Clark said. "If you find out anything more about it, give me a call. There's a Peking duck dinner in it for you if you can get me some names involved -- or any information on the organization itself. If somebody's going after Superman, we need to know who it is."
"You got it," Bobby said. "Just remember, I gotta look out for my skin, too."
"If you tell me something in confidence, I promise I'll be very careful what I write," Clark said. "I'll clear it with you, first. Deal?"
"Deal," Bobby said. He straightened up from his slouch. "Anyhow, that's all I know. I think I'll drop by Bronco Bob's now and get out of the snow for a couple of hours."
Clark nodded. Watching Bobby walk away, he hoped he hadn't done Bronco Bob's a disservice in pointing Bobby Bigmouth in their direction. Still, once probably wouldn't be too bad. After all, how much could one man eat?
Trying not to contemplate the answer to that, he headed back toward the Jeep. A glance at his watch told him that he had time to drop by Broadhurst's Department Store and find a fake fur hat before he met Lois for lunch. Charlie King was always a work in progress, he reflected as he maneuvered out of the parking space, but he was a good place to hide while Superman was out of action. The last thing he and Lois needed was someone from this mysterious organization that Bobby had mentioned going after him again while he was powerless, and with any luck whoever was behind this would discount Charlie King as a lightweight. It gave him a certain amount of cover. It had become very plain to him why the Clark of the other universe needed his secret identity. It was just too bad that going back and undoing Tempus's work was impractical, but he had learned first hand what tampering with the timeline could do. With an example like HG Wells and Tempus in front of him, the very idea gave him chills. No, he and Lois would simply have to deal with things as they were.
**********
"I like your hat," Lois told him as she climbed into the Jeep in front of the Daily Planet. "Did Bobby suggest it?"
"Yeah," Clark said. He glanced over his shoulder and pulled carefully out onto the snowy street. The snow was gradually becoming thicker and with it the potential for an accident.
"I thought so," Lois said. "Sometimes I wonder about him. You don't suppose he's guessed, do you? I know he's never said anything, but with Bobby, you can never be sure."
"If he has, Clark said, "it doesn't look like he wants us to know."
"I guess not," Lois said. "I guess that's one investigation that we won't do."
Clark nodded. "I've noticed that, for all that he's a snitch, Bobby can be pretty closemouthed about some things." He applied the brakes as a big, black mongrel decided to dash into the street, followed by a child about the same size as the dog. The Jeep slid slightly, but came to a stop. Brakes screeched and a horn sounded behind them. He glanced back at the red Volkswagen that had barely avoided a collision with the Jeep's rear bumper. The driver gave him a one-finger salute. Lois returned the favor.
"Idiot! What does he want you to do, hit them? I guess he doesn't care, as long as you don't slow him down!" she said, turning around to face the front again. The child had seized the animal by its collar and was attempting to drag the creature back to the sidewalk. The horn sounded behind them again. Clark ignored it. Lois stuck her head out the window. "Cool off, moron! He can't run over a kid!"
The horn sounded a third time, followed by several more from farther back down the line. Lois muttered darkly under her breath about idiots with driver's licenses. Clark grinned.
The dog and its apparent owner finally made it back to the sidewalk. Clark started the Jeep forward again, moving slowly on the snowy road. The Volkswagen continued to hug their bumper. Lois gave the driver another salute and faced the front, resolutely ignoring the offending vehicle.
"Anyway," she said, "On the subject of your powers, Jonetta found some interesting information for us. Since you weren't around, she gave it to me to give to you."
"That was fast," Clark said. "Did she find out anything useful?"
"She said she'd keep looking for anything else, but that Major Domo pretty much disappeared from the political scene, after that scandal with President Winfrey broke last year. Nobody could tie it to him, but there's a lot of speculation that he was behind it," Lois said. "Anyway, he was hired a few months ago by the board of Cost Mart to handle their public relations campaign for them. Apparently there's been some resistance to the idea of their taking LexSave's place in the city."
"So he probably didn't have anything to do with yesterday?" Clark said, aware of a deep sense of disappointment.
"Don't know," Lois said. "Remember, you said that a lot of people were trying to find out about Kryptonite after Tempus used it on you at the debate. It makes sense that someone might have thought to ask him, since he was Tempus's right hand man."
Clark nodded slowly. "You're right. I guess we need to find Mr. Domo and have a little talk with him."
"Did Bobby have anything useful for us?" Lois asked.
"Some. There's a rumor that the mysterious person that stopped the car chase this morning was a woman."
"How did that get out so fast?" Lois asked.
Clark told her. Lois shook her head. "It figures that Bobby would be one of the first to hear it," she said. "Did he have anything to say about the attack on you, yesterday?"
"A little. Just a rumor, really. Bobby says that there may be a big criminal organization trying to move into Luthor's old territory and they might be looking for a way to neutralize Superman."
Lois stared at him for a moment. "Bobby said that?"
"Yes, but he said it was just a rumor."
"Clark, don't you know Bobby by now? His credibility is his stock in trade. He wouldn't have told you that unless he was at least 75% sure it was true! We *have* to find this Major Domo guy. Don't you see? Someone got hold of him and found out about Kryptonite. They must have gone to Smallville and looked around, but instead of finding green Kryptonite -- because you and I cleared out all that we could find -- they found the red stuff! We weren't looking for that, because we didn't know about it."
Slowly, Clark nodded, remembering what Dr. Klein had said about his volatile partner's reasoning processes. He had been joking but it had been a joke with genuine respect at its core. However Lois reasoned, she was right or nearly right much more often than she was wrong.
"So what do we do about it?" he asked.
"Well, I'd say the next thing for us to do is to head for Smallville," Lois said decisively. "Maybe someone saw them hunting for the Kryptonite and we can get a description -- and even if we don't, there's something else we have to do that's almost as important."
"What's that?"
"We have to find any of the Red Kryptonite still in the area. We don't know how much they have, but the last thing we need is for them to get hold of any more!"
"Do you think you can fly us to Smallville?" Clark asked.
She hesitated. "I think so. You'll have to hold on tight."
"Oh, I think I can manage that without any problem," Clark said. "When do you think we should make this little foray?"
"There's no time like the present," Lois said, a note of determination in her voice. "Park the Jeep in the garage at the apartment and we'll go -- assuming we ever get home in this stuff." She gestured at the clouds of flakes obscuring the view ahead of them. "The sooner we get any remaining Red K under control, the better off we'll be."
The snow was getting thicker by the minute, Clark thought, maneuvering the Jeep cautiously through the streets. The wheels had a disconcerting tendency to slide unless he applied the brakes with extreme care. "'Red K'?" he asked.
"Well, Kryptonite is such a mouthful," Lois said. "Besides, if someone overhears us, I don't want him to know what we're talking about."
He grinned faintly. "Okay. Didn't I say you're the boss?"
Lois stuck her tongue out at him. "And didn't I say way back when we met that I didn't want to be in charge? If this Utopia thing flops, I don't want all the blame."
"That was then," Clark retorted. "This is now. Can I help it if I like being bossed around by you?"
She sobered. "Do you -- really? I've heard a little more about Lana, now -- from other people who knew her. She bossed you around, and I don't think you liked it."
Clark's hand closed gently over hers. "That was a completely different situation. Lana and I weren't suited for each other. I've realized that pretty clearly since we broke up -- and even more since last year. If we'd married, it would have been a disaster. Your counterpart saved me from that, at least. And then I met you."
"I'm pretty bossy, sometimes," Lois said.
Clark chuckled. "'Sometimes'?"
She scowled at him. "I'm not bossy *all* the time!"
"No," he agreed amiably. "Just when you're awake. The difference is, I *like* it when you're bossy."
"Hmmmmph!"
They were approaching the intersection of Sycamore and Broadway. The traffic light, only partially visible through the cloud of flakes, flashed yellow and Clark applied the brakes well in advance, in order to avoid the Jeep's tendency to slide. The driver of the Volkswagen behind them had apparently had enough. He squeezed out from behind the Cherokee crossed the double line and accelerated past them in the opposing lane, blowing his horn as he did so. The driver of the oncoming car, apparently blinded by the snow, saw the approaching vehicle barreling toward him too late to avoid it. He slammed on his brakes and jerked the wheel sideways in a vain attempt to miss the other car. The Volkswagen plowed into his rear door, just behind the driver's seat. The cars skidded and spun, locked together, and came to a sudden stop against the curb. The drivers of other nearby cars slammed on their brakes, attempting to avoid the accident, skidding and sliding in all directions. By the time all of them had come to a halt, the street and intersection were completely blocked by several minor collisions, one rollover accident and a pickup truck with its nose buried in the shattered display window of Piltman's Bakery. The driver of the Volkswagen was slumped in his seat, while the driver whose car he had rammed was climbing unsteadily out the driver's door. From under the car, Clark could see a thin trickle of liquid beginning to pool in the muddy snow.
**********
tbc
