PREVIOUSLY...
She looked back at the black box in her hand.
At that moment, she saw the door handle began to move. There was no time left. Without worrying about the possible repercussions, she rushed over to Clark. Grabbing onto him, she flipped on the power and pushed a button on the black box. A time window appeared. Unable to pull Clark through the window, she grabbed the window, pulling it down around them.
She let out a breath of relief when the room around them began to fade just as men with guns stormed into the room.
AND NOW...
* * * * * * * * *
Chapter Two
* * * * * * * * *
Slowly, Clark regained consciousness to the sound of Lois’ voice in his ear, telling him to wake up. “Lois,” he breathed. Without opening his eyes, he rolled towards his wife. He wasn’t ready to get up yet. Maybe he could convince her that it was too early. Maybe he could even convince her to come back to bed - perhaps find a more... interesting activity to engage in
“Clark!” Lois said, throwing her arms around him. “Oh, thank God. I’ve been trying to wake you for the last ten minutes.”
“Huh?” Clark asked, blinking slightly as full consciousness returned. Where were they? He glanced around at the room. Star Labs? What were they doing at Star Labs? Or... Wait! They’d been in Star Labs when... But why was it light out now? How long had he been unconscious? She’d mentioned something about ten minutes. But... surely that wasn’t enough time for it to be light outside. “Lois?” he asked, moving onto his knees. He pulled in a sharp breath. Oh, right. Kryptonite.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yeah. What happened?”
“Don’t you remember? We were just about to get caught when...” She held up the time travel device.
“You sent us somewhere?” He glanced around. “Or some when.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure where exactly we are - or when we are. But at least we seem to be alone.”
Clark nodded. “So then... what’s the plan now?”
“We get out of here and then... There seems to be a return button on here.”
“So if we get out of Star Labs, we can just press the button and we should return to our own time... or our own dimension, I suppose.”
“Right. And since we stayed in the same place when we leapt last time, we should be able to control where we end up this time - preferably somewhere a long way from Star Labs.”
Clark nodded, struggling to rise to his feet as Lois did the same.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Lois asked.
“Just winded.”
“What about your powers?”
Clark concentrated for a moment. His hearing. His x-ray vision. His ability to fly. Nope. Although all of them felt as if they were just on the verge of returning, as if were he to concentrate just a little bit harder, they would come back. “Not yet. But I don’t think it will be long. I wasn’t exposed for very long, after all.”
She leaned over, helping him to his feet. “Well, I don’t think that we can afford to wait around. So we’ll just have to do the sneaking out thing the old fashioned way.”
Clark nodded while reaching into his pocket to withdraw his glasses. Without his powers, he felt particularly exposed without them. “Okay, so let’s...”
His voice was cut off by the door being thrown open and a man in a lab coat entering the room. They stared at each other in stunned silence for a moment. Suddenly, the man moved, rushing for a buzzer by the door.
“No! Wait!” Lois yelled, but it was too late. An alarm sounded through the building.
* * * * * * * * *
“Just listen to us, please,” Clark said as he and Lois were escorted, rather forcefully, by two bulky security guards to a secure area to await the police. “Our names are Clark Kent and Lois Lane - from the Daily Planet. If you’d just call Dr. Klein, I’m sure he’ll vouch for us.”
One of the lab geeks standing nearby smirked. “Good try. But everyone knows that Bernard Klein works for Lex Labs.”
“But... but...” Clark’s voice trailed off as a door closed, shutting the two of them alone inside a small room.
Clark looked over at his wife who was already checking out their surroundings. There was a small table and four chairs. Cabinets which, judging by Lois’ attempts to open them, were locked. And a window looking out over the grounds of Star Labs.
“I guess that was stupid,” Clark said. “Without knowing where or when we are, I should have known that it wasn’t likely that Dr. Klein worked here. Or that he would even know us if he had.”
“It was worth a shot,” Lois responded, giving up her exploration of the room to look out the window. “Are your powers back yet?” She turned towards him.
He concentrated. “Sort of.” He shrugged. “They flicker a bit. And I can...” He floated up off the floor - slightly shaky, but still floating. “But making decent time with the flying... Probably not going to happen. Why? What did you have in mind?”
She turned back towards the window, looking out. “There’s a drain pipe running down the side of the building, next to the window. If you have enough strength to break the glass and can float us out of here, they’ll assume we climbed down the drain pipe.” She looked expectantly at Clark.
“But they took the time travel device.”
Lois let out a breath. “So I guess, if we want to go home, we have to stay around long enough to get the device back.”
“If we want to go home...?”
“I want to go home,” Lois said. “I mean, it might be interesting to explore this time... or this dimension, but...”
“Vicky.”
Lois nodded. Was Vicky in this time? Was she born yet? Was she an old lady, wondering what had happened to her parents when she was just an infant? Did she even remember what her parents’ voices sounded like, or know how much they loved her?
Normally, Lois would love to explore another dimension, or another time. But until she could be certain that she could get back to her daughter after this was all over, she’d never be able to enjoy it. It was funny how motherhood did something to one’s priorities.
Clark came over, giving her a hug. Tears welled up in Lois’ eyes. “We’ll get back. I promise.” He pulled back to look in her eyes. “We’re Lane and Kent after all.”
She slowly smiled, pushing back her anxieties and her tears. “You’ve got a point there,” she said. In spite of the words, her voice trembled. “So... when or where do you think we are?” she asked, finally regaining control.
Clark released her, taking a seat at the table. She joined him there. “Well, that man said that Dr. Klein worked for Lex Labs.”
“So since Lex Labs closed shortly after Lex’s death, we are either in an alternate dimension, or we’re in the past.”
“Or we’re in the future... A future in which someone revived Lex Labs.”
“But who would do that? I mean, around Metropolis, his name has become synonymous with evil.”
“One of his children?”
“Lex only had two children. And I don’t think either of them are in a position to resurrect Lex Labs.”
“Maybe not. Given Luthor’s billionaire playboy status, I don’t think we can say for sure how many children he had.” When Lois flinched, Clark spoke again. “Sorry,” he said softly, knowing what a sensitive subject this was for her.
“It’s not your fault that I was an idiot.”
“Lois...”
“Okay, so we’re exactly no further ahead now than when we first arrived,” Lois said, wanting to get off the current topic. “Oh! What about Dr. Klein? In our dimension, did he ever work for Lex Labs?”
Clark thought about that for a moment before shrugging. “Whenever I think of Bernie, I think of him working for Star Labs. But...” His voice trailed off.
“So we could be in our past,” Lois said in frustration. “Or our future. Or an alternate dimension.”
“If we’re in the future, I don’t think we can be very far in the future.” When Lois looked at him, he continued. “It’s just... Well, while they were bringing us here, I was looking around. I didn’t see any unfamiliar technology. Wait...” He suddenly went silent, his head cocked to the side.
“What do you hear?”
“A radio. Maybe they will say the date.”
“Along with the year? Clark, how many people need to be told the year on a daily basis?”
“Well, maybe... They’re playing ‘Fools Rush In’ by Elvis Presley.”
“Well, at least we know that we’re not in Mediaeval times.”
Clark rolled his eyes.
“Oh!” Lois said suddenly. “Is your x-ray vision back?”
“I think... Yeah. Still a little fuzzy, but... why?”
“Look for a newspaper.”
Clark pushed his chair back so that he could get a clear view of the floor, searching the building for a paper.
“No, wait!” Lois said. “Even if you find a paper, we won’t be sure that it isn’t an old paper. Why don’t you...” She got up, walking over to the window. “If things are still the same here... Yes!”
“What?”
“Over there,” she said, pointing out the window to a Daily Planet newspaper dispenser situated across from the entrance to Star Labs.
“Trust you to know where every Daily Planet newspaper dispenser is in this city,” Clark said with a grin.
“Can I help it if I like to take a look when my name is on the by-line? But that’s hardly the point. Can you see that far?”
“I think so,” Clark said, staring intently at his target for a long moment. “May 18, 1992. And you’ll be pleased to know your name is on the byline.”
“Yes!” Lois exclaimed. “Not about that!” Lois continued at the amused look her husband gave her. “So now we know that we’re in the past. Now... the only question is... Is this our past or the past in a different dimension.”
“Well, if it’s any help, it seems to be a story about a family values politician caught in a compromising situation with a young boy in a public washroom. Ring any bells?”
“Senator Parker. Yeah, I remember that story. But that doesn’t really answer the question. After all, that story could have happened in hundreds of different dimensions.”
“I bet that thought would make Mrs. Parker happy.”
Lois rolled her eyes.
Clark pushed his glasses up his nose. “Anyway, to tell you the truth, I really don’t care if we’re in our past or the past in another dimension. I just want to get out of here and get home.”
Lois rubbed his arm lightly. “I’m with you on that one, farmboy. I’m sure this is a nice place to visit...”
“...but I wouldn’t want to live here.”
“May nineteen ninety-two, huh? I remember that time. If I recall correctly there was a breach in Star Labs security about that time.”
“What happened?”
She shrugged. “Not exactly sure. I always suspected an inside job, but... I could never break down the roadblocks they set in my path. You know, now that I think about it, Clark, I don’t think we’re in an alternate universe.”
“Why’s that?”
Lois shrugged. “I just pushed one button on the time travel device. So when we leapt... would we have gone both to an alternate universe and into that universe’s past at the same time?”
“I don’t know, Lois. Maybe universes move at varying rates of speed. But maybe...” His voice trailed off and he cocked his head to the side when something else beyond the walls to their ‘prison’ caught his attention.
“What?” Lois asked.
Clark pulled down his glasses and peered at the door. “Dr. Hamilton.”
“He’s here?”
Clark nodded. “It seems he’s found our time travel device and is trying to convince the guard to let him come in here to talk to us.”
“Great!” Lois exclaimed sarcastically. “That’s just what we need - to have Star Labs begin researching time travel even earlier!”
“Well, he doesn’t seem to know what it is - just that it’s technology he isn’t familiar with. That’s why he wants to talk to us. The chief of security is arguing that they should wait for the police.”
“So...?” Lois demanded when Clark quit talking. “What’s happening now?”
“It seems we have a guest,” Clark replied, rising to his feet as the door swung open.
“Maybe I should put on the coffee,” Lois muttered under her breath as Dr. Hamilton entered the room.
“Dr. Hamilton,” Clark said.
“You know my name?”
“Uhh...” Clark glanced helplessly at Lois.
“Of course we know who you are!” Lois exclaimed. “Who wouldn’t?”
The comment caused Dr. Hamilton to beam. “Oh. Well. I... Well, I guess...” He cleared his throat embarrassedly. “I guess I didn’t realize that I was that well known - other than in scientific circles.”
“Oh, but you are. Who wouldn’t know such a brilliant scientist?” Lois said, trying to inject as much awe into her voice as she thought she could get away with. She knew she’d overdone it by the look Clark shot her direction.
“So what can we do for you, Dr. Hamilton?”
“Oh. Right. Well...” He gestured Lois and Clark back to the table. When they were seated, he placed the time travel device between them. “Can you tell me what this is?”
“I’m afraid...” Clark began only to be interrupted by his wife.
“It’s a hologram generator.”
Both Hamilton and Clark’s eyebrows rose. Fortunately, the doctor’s eyes were focused on Lois and so he missed the bafflement on Clark’s face.
“Really?” Hamilton asked.
Lois nodded firmly. “It’s really quite remarkable, too. In fact, unless you touch the hologram, you can’t tell the difference between it and the real thing. It will even recreate a person’s voice so that it sounds as if the hologram is talking.”
“Really?” Hamilton said, leaning forward in his chair. “Could you show me how it works?” He pushed the time travel device across the table towards her.
“Certainly. In fact... Oh, I’ve got it! Why don’t I make it generate a hologram of you?”
“You can do that?”
“Of course.” She picked up the device, turning it on before suddenly pausing.
“What?” asked Dr. Hamilton.
“I’m not going to be able to do it.”
“Why not?”
“I need a calculator... to calculate the proper commends to enter into the holographic imaging chamber.”
“Oh, that’s no problem! I can get you a calculator,” Hamilton said, jumping to his feet and practically running to the door in his enthusiasm. He pounded on it twice and it opened, allowing Hamilton to leave the room. The security guard closed the door immediately.
“Lois, what...”
“Break the window. Get us out of here, Clark,” Lois said, springing to her feet and darting to the window, the time travel device grasped firmly in her hand.
Understanding suddenly lit up Clark’s face.
A moment later, the security guard was struggling to unlock the door following the loud sound of broken glass coming from within the room. When he finally succeeded, the room was empty except for shards of glass and a cold breeze coming in through the broken window. He sounded the alarm, but it was already too late. The intruders were gone.
* * * * * * * * *
“Okay, so why tell him it was a holograph generator?” Clark asked as he set Lois down in an alley at the edge of Centennial Park.
Lois shrugged as they exited the alley. “I had to tell him it was something. And since in a couple of years, Dr. Jefferson Cole, who also works for Star Labs, will invent exactly what I describe, I figured that telling him that it was a holograph generator wouldn’t cause any big disruptions in time - in the event that we are in our past.”
“Good thinking,” Clark said, automatically reaching for Lois’ hand as they began to stroll through the park.
“So why did you bring us here?”
“Well, I thought we could use one of the patches of trees in the park, to cover both our disappearance from this time or dimension as well as our arrival home. Unless... do you want to do a little exploring first? Try to figure out where we are?”
Lois shook her head. “I mean, as much fun as it might be... I just want to go home. Dealing with Dr. Hamilton, I realized how careful we have to be here - especially if this is our past.”
“And you don’t want to risk changing anything.”
“Do you?”
Clark shook his head. “I’ve got the woman I love as my wife. And I’ve got the cutest daughter in the world. Trust me on this, Lois. There is not a thing about my past I want to change.”
“Not even my accepting Lex’s proposal?”
Clark stopped, turning Lois towards him. “I’d love to spare you that pain - to spare both of us that pain. But no, not even that. Who knows what other changes might result if that was changed? Would I have worked as hard at bringing Luthor down if you hadn’t been engaged to him? I don’t know. Maybe he’d still be running Metropolis even now.” He gave her a quick kiss. “So... let’s go home.”
She smiled, dragging him towards a nearby clump of trees. “Let’s go home,” she echoed. “After all, I’m sure I can think up some far more interesting form of ‘entertainment’ to keep us busy the rest of the night - especially since Vicky is spending the night at your parents.” Lois wiggled her eyebrows at him for emphasis.
“Oooo, you’re making me weak. And after that exposure to kryptonite, I’m not sure how much I can take.”
Lois smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.” She reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Feeling the hard casing of the time travel device in one of her hands, he glanced at it. “You sure you know what you’re doing.”
She smiled. “There’s a button marked ‘return.’ I can’t think what else it would be for so...” She kissed him at the same moment as she hit the button and, when the time window appeared, without releasing him from the kiss, pushed him back towards the window so that, together, they tumbled through to the other side.
Neither of them noticed anything around them - although in less than a minute, still kissing, Clark was flying them through the air to the open window in the master bedroom of their brownstone.
“Eeeekkkk!”
A woman’s scream caused Lois and Clark to scramble apart only a moment after tumbling onto their bed, arms and legs entangled, frantically pulling at each other’s clothing. Only... it wasn’t their bed! It wasn’t their bedroom furniture. It wasn’t their room.
Clark was the one who noticed it first. Without waiting for an explanation - he must have accidently flown them through the wrong window - he had Lois in his arms and out of there just as the room’s other occupant fainted.
Both were breathing heavily when he set them down in a nearby alley.
“Do you think she got a look at your face?” Lois asked. “Or realized you were moving at speeds reserved solely for Superman?”
“I... I don’t know. But how...” He lowered his glasses and looked around, taking in their surroundings fully for the first time. It was dark. Probably about the same time that they had disappeared from here - or was it here - only a few hours ago. Well after midnight then.
“What happened, Clark?” Lois asked, her voice a little shaky.
“I don’t know. I mean, at first I just assumed that I’d flown us through the wrong window, but now... I’m not so sure.”
They cautiously snuck up to the entrance of the alley. “That’s the Parker’s minivan,” Lois said, pointing at a driveway down the street.
“And there’s Jenny Richard’s bike. She left it behind her father’s car again,” Clark said.
“I recognize those curtains as belonging to Bertha Avery. But...” Her gaze traveled to their own window.
“...those aren’t our curtains,” Clark finished for her.
“Okay, okay,” Lois said, starting to pace. “So what we’re saying is that everything is normal except for some reason...”
“...we don’t live here anymore.”
“But how is that possible? We didn’t do anything. We weren’t even in a time, assuming of course that we were in our own past, where we knew each other! It was 1992, for crying out loud! We didn’t meet until 1993. How could anything we did when we were there have changed things? Wait! Maybe for some reason Veda Doodsen never sold the brownstone. After all, we were talking to Dr. Hamilton and... I don’t know. Maybe Veda started working on a holograph generator instead of her youth machine and never went to jail for experimenting on people and...”
“It wasn’t Veda Doodsen,” Clark said. “In that house... I didn’t get a good look at the woman we scared half to death, but it wasn’t Veda Doodsen.”
“So... what’s happened, Clark? And how do we make it right when we don’t even know what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Clark said. “But something tells me that we should do our thinking somewhere else.”
“Why do...” Lois never got a chance to voice her question before it was answered for her in the form of a police car pulling to a stop in front of their brownstone. The current occupant had obviously called the police following their encounter.
Clark spun into Superman.
“Wait!” Lois said.
“What?”
“We need to be sure.”
They waited until an unknown woman answered the door to their brownstone and a moment later, only a rush of air and a sonic boom was left in their wake.
“Where are we going?” Lois asked as they soared through the air.
“My folks place. If anyone can tell us what’s going on, it’s them.”
Lois nodded slowly.
“You know, Lois. This doesn’t have to be bad,” Clark said. “I mean, maybe our house now is even nicer.”
The look her got in return told him just how much Lois believed that idea. On the other hand, she wasn’t the only one with a sinking feeling in her gut.
* * * * * * * * *
Lois and Clark landed behind the old farmhouse and, without Clark changing out of the suit, they jogged towards the house.
“I really hate waking them up,” Lois said, even though she knew that was exactly what she intended to do. During the majority of the flight, she’d been lost in thought - thoughts that she was pretty sure Clark shared. Right now, more than anything, she needed to see her daughter. She refused to think about the reason - scared that if she as much as admitted her silent fears, they would turn out to be true.
They burst through the front door, Lois slightly ahead of Clark as they jogged up the stairs to Clark’s old bedroom. Without pausing, they rushed through the door before coming to a complete stop, staring at the bed in utter silence. The empty bed.
After a moment, Lois turned. “Vicky?” she yelled, darting back out of the bedroom. Maybe she was wrong. She had to be wrong. Vicky was just sleeping on the couch or had gone out to the hayloft or... No, there was no ‘or’! There couldn’t be. “Vicky!” she yelled again when she got down to the living room. “Vicky!”
“What’s going on?” Martha asked, rushing out of the bedroom, Jonathan following closely behind her.
Of course! She’d probably had a nightmare and gone to sleep with her grandparents. Without even acknowledging the older couple, she rushed back up the stairs and into their bedroom. “Vicky?” she yelled, coming to a complete stop when there was no one in the bed.
She hesitated only a second before turning around, running back down the stairs to where Martha and Jonathan were looking slightly stunned.
“Where is she?” Lois demanded.
“Where’s who?” Martha asked in return.
“Vicky! Where is she?” Lois demanded a second time.
“I don’t...” Martha’s voice trailed off as she looked to her baffled husband.
“She’s not here, Lois,” Clark said softly, coming up behind Lois, his hands on her shoulders.
“But...” Lois looked around at the people in the room. Suddenly, she was struck with a new thought. “Did she go to spend the night with Cathy? I know she likes to visit Cathy when she comes here. So... is that where she is?” Then she stared expectantly at Martha, her heart in her throat. That had to be the answer. It just... had to be.
“Uhh...” Martha glanced at her husband before looking back at Lois. Then her gaze shifted to her son. “Clark, maybe you should tell us what’s going on here. What are you wearing? And... who’s she?” She pointed at Lois on the last question.
All the air seemed to leave Lois’ lungs on the final question. “Clark?” she whimpered. In response, Clark wrapped his arms around her from behind. She instantly turned, burying her face in his strong shoulder, praying that in a moment, she’d wake and this whole nightmare would be behind her.
TO BE CONTINUED...
