In a hurry...
Last time:
Lois
"Ah, the way to a Lois' heart is through chocolate," Mom said with a grin.
"It sure doesn't hurt," I grinned back. "And then he proposed. He gave a beautiful – heartfelt – speech about something Nana and Pop Pop always said. Love isn't who you can live with it's who..."
"...you can't live without. Gram used to say that all the time, too," she told me.
"He told me he'd manage to survive if anything happened to the boys, but he didn't think he knew how to breathe without me anymore." A thought occurred to me. "One of the timelines we were in had a Lois and Clark who had a Christopher but no Nate. Apparently, they'd separated after Navance died, but he said that he wanted to try again – for real this time. He said the first six months without Lana had been hard, but they were nothing compared to what the last six months had been without her." I shrugged. "I have no idea what their lives were like the two years before that because they didn't have Nate, but... Anyway, he said he loved me and then he asked me to marry him all over again. Daddy had given him your rings the night before, because he knew I loved them, and he proposed using your engagement ring."
"So did he get to see you naked?" she whispered conspiratorially.
I blushed and stared at the ground.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said with laughter in her voice.
"The wedding was Christmas Eve. We flew to the cabin, but I was a nervous wreck, afraid something was going to happen to the boys so we came home. We woke up here the next morning. Yesterday." Tears filled my eyes. "And we have no way to know if we can ever get home."
*~*31*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Sam and I were no closer to any answers than we had been after I got the hot chocolate for Lois and Ellen.
Light was coming in the windows as morning came.
With morning came Lana and Joe.
And telling them what was going on.
Did we tell Lucy and Jimmy and Dave at the same time, too?
I sighed.
"I'm sorry, Clark." Sam leaned against a table.
"It's not your fault," I told him honestly. "I just want to get back to my boys, to my life with Lois. I'm really glad she has a chance to see Ellen and Lucy again and to meet Dave but..." I ran a hand through my hair. "There's this empty spot where my sons are supposed to be, where Lois my *wife* is supposed to be. I know she's your daughter and all, and this is weird for you, but imagine if you woke up one day and were somewhere where you were married to someone else and she was engaged to Dave's dad or something."
He glared at me.
"Okay, maybe that's not a good example because he was a pig. But she was engaged to... Perry and you're married to Alice."
He looked shocked at that one.
I shrugged. "Something Ellen said earlier made it seem like you're friends with the Whites."
"We are."
"So go with me on this. If you woke up married to Alice. Lucy and Lois are gone. How do you feel?"
"Empty," he said with a sigh. "I'd want to run off with Ellen and..." He stopped, but I could imagine what it was.
"But it's your daughter we're talking about and you don't think about stuff like that, right?"
He shrugged slightly. "Exactly. I know she's supposed to marry Joe next week and all, and I want them to be happy but..."
I smiled slightly. "As much as I'd like a little girl someday..."
We sighed in unison.
My head snapped up suddenly. "Lana's awake and looking for me." I heard her calling my name and she didn't sound happy. If we were trying to get pregnant and I apparently hadn't been in our room all night to... help with that, I'd bet that 'not happy' was an understatement.
I listened for Lois' heartbeat and discovered that she was asleep. I glanced towards Sam and Ellen's room and found her asleep on the couch in their sitting room, her head on Ellen's lap and Ellen gently stroking her hair. Her eyes, even in sleep, were red and swollen and her cheeks showed the streaks of her tears.
"How is she?" Sam asked quietly.
"Asleep with Ellen. Cried out, I'd imagine. She's going to have a massive headache when she wakes up, just like yesterday. Maybe she'll take something for it today."
"I can't imagine what the last twelve years or so have been like for her without Ellen. Ellen and our Lois are very close. Lucy, too."
"I was a jerk most of the first three and a half years we were together," I told him honestly. "And she didn't have anyone she could go to. Kristi – her OB – knew most of it, but they weren't really *friends*. She stayed home a lot the first six months or so before we moved in with Sam. She got involved in a couple online communities, writing mainly, but no one she could really talk to about all of this." I'd told him our story while he'd messed with the doodad. "I regret so much about those years. I didn't miss much of the boys' lives – the first couple months of Christopher's I wasn't really much of a dad but after that... But Lois and I..."
I sighed. "Mom gave me some good advice when we went home the first time, but I didn't listen. She didn't *understand*, but she was right. It won't be just me and Lois again for a long time and I wish we would have taken advantage of that – visiting exotic locales and sleeping in late together and all those things we won't be able to do for a few years. Except now it looks like we might have that chance," I ended quietly, tears filling my eyes. "Right now, it's just the two of us, except that we're not together officially here and now. And now I'm going to have to go break Lana's heart all over again. I have to admit that I don't think it'll be as hard for *me* this time because I'm not in love with her now, but it's probably going to be harder on her. And Lois' heart is breaking. She doesn't want to hurt Joe, but we don't really get to be together either."
I stared at the wall for a long minute. "There's no way for you to know how far I've come since we got married. For the longest time, I didn't care what Lois was feeling. I mean, I cared, but I didn't *care*. I wallowed. This time... Now... My heart's breaking, too. I miss my wife, my sons, but more than any of that, my heart breaks that I'm breaking her heart and, with everything I can do, there's nothing I can do about it."
"She's right here," Sam reminded me.
"It's not the same and you know that," I told him with a sigh. "We can't be together in *any* sort of married couple sense while the Clark Kent of this universe is married to Lana. Even though *I* know she's my wife and *she* knows she's my wife... here..."
I stifled a scream. "Part of me says – most of me says – who cares about the Clark Kent from here? I'm *not* him. *I* married Lois. *I* took wedding vows with *Lois*, not Lana. The Clark Kent who promised all those things to Lana *isn't* here. *I* didn't promise Lana any of that. I want to just take Lois and fly off and set up lives somewhere else if we can't get home."
"I understand the sentiment," he said slowly, "but I also understand the idea that, for now at least, you have to step into the roles of the Lois Lane and Clark Kent of this world."
I sighed. "I feel like it would be different if I didn't know that our world was still out there somewhere. If I thought this was it, there was no other life to get back to, then I'd feel more... obligated to Lana because Clark and Lana are married, but that's not the way it is. I *know* our world is out there somewhere. Somewhere, your Lois and Clark are at *our* house, with *our* kids, wondering what the hell happened with Lana and Joe and why are they married with kids and leftover security."
I wanted to scream.
In fact, I thought about flying off to the Arctic and screaming my lungs out.
Instead, I was going to have to go upstairs and deal with Lana. We'd planned on telling her and Joe together, but...
Maybe I could just avoid her for a while.
At least until Lois was up and we could get the two of them alone together.
The last time we'd ended things with them, we'd done it separately, but this time I thought together was a better plan. Together probably would have been a better plan then, too, but it was too late for that now.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the killer headache.
The second was that I was still on my mom's lap and she was still gently stroking the hair at my temple.
I struggled to sit up, my eyes closed tightly. "It hurts," I whispered.
"Clark brought in some ibuprofen earlier," Mom said softly. "Here." She picked them up off the coffee table and put them in my hand. "And here's some water."
I took the water bottle and swallowed the pills. "Thanks. Now if I could just curl up somewhere dark until they kick in..."
"Clark said Lana's on the warpath but he's been avoiding her. He's hoping you two can talk to the two of them together when you wake up."
I sighed. That was probably the best plan. "I guess I should go find them."
"I'm right here," came a quiet voice in the doorway. "How're you feeling?"
"Head hurts. Thanks for the medicine." I wanted him to make it better; give me one of his back and foot rubs, maybe a scalp massage, but I knew that wasn't going to happen.
"Are you ready to get this over with?" Clark asked me, sitting across from me. I could see the pain in his eyes.
"No," I said with a sigh. "But I don't think I ever will be."
"Mom and Dad have been helping me avoid being alone with Lana, but I don't think that's going to last too much longer. And Joe's been looking for you. Where do you want to do this at?"
I thought for a minute. "I don't know. The Conservatory?"
He shrugged. "That's as good a place as any. Are we going to tell Jimmy, Lucy and Dave?"
"I think we'll have to," I told him. "We'll have to explain to them why we don't really know them. I mean, we know Jimmy, but we don't. We don't know the Jimmy who fell in love with my sister and is having a baby with her."
His head tilted and he looked grim. "We better go."
I turned to my mom. "Thank you," I whispered, giving her a big hug.
"That's why I'm here, sweetheart," she said as she hugged me back.
Clark and I looked at each other and I wanted nothing more than to hurl myself into his arms and stay there. He looked like he wanted me to.
"I'll go find Joe," I said after a minute. "Do you know where he is?"
"They're both in the kitchen finishing up breakfast."
"Let's go."
We headed out of Mom and Dad's room towards the kitchen.
"How are you feeling?" he asked quietly.
"Starving," I admitted. "But I don't know if it's because it's been who knows how long since I ate or... the other." I didn't even want to say it just yet.
"Right. Do you want to eat first?"
"No," I said, shaking my head. "Let's get this over with."
We got to the kitchen where Joe was rinsing out his cereal bowl at the sink and Lana was glaring at both of us from her spot at the counter.
"Joe," she started. "Would you mind to put this up for me? I need to have a little conversation with my husband." She handed him her bowl. "Thanks."
Clark glanced at me.
"Ah, actually, Joe, I need to talk to you," I said.
"Okay," he shrugged. "What's up?"
I shook my head. "Not here." I practically ran past him and grabbed his hand as I did. "Come on."
"Let's go, Lana," I heard Clark say behind me. "Lois and I need to talk to both of you."
"I don't want to talk to Lois and Joe. You and I are going to discuss yesterday and last night and why you're avoiding me." I winced on his behalf, amazed that he seemed to be steering her after us anyway.
"It's all related. We have some things we need to explain to both of you, but no matter what's running through your head, that's not it."
A minute later, we were each seated in our own chair. Lana was glaring at everyone and Joe just looked concerned.
"Are you okay, Lois?" he asked. "You don't look so good."
I shook my head and pulled my legs into the chair, wrapping my arms around them. "No, I'm not. We need to talk to you two and you're going to have a really hard time believing our story, but I swear to you, it's all true."
Clark was staring at his hands, Lana was still glaring and Joe hadn't taken his eyes off of me. "Okay," he said. "We'll keep an open mind, right, Lana?"
She shrugged. "Whatever."
"Do you want to tell it or me?" Clark asked me quietly.
I sighed. "I will. It started yesterday morning when we woke up..." I started and told them how we didn't know where we were, how things were different than they had been when we went to sleep, how the guy had laughed at us, how Martha and Jonathan had helped us and we'd traveled through time trying to get our lives back without changing that 'one thing', but we'd failed.
Joe sat back in his seat and ran his hands through his hair. "That's a pretty fantastic story," he finally said.
"I know," I said quietly. "All of our parents can vouch for it though. They've all seen the time doohickey work. Daddy's trying to figure out how to get us back where we belong."
"So this 'other universe' of yours," Lana said, with as much sarcasm as she could muster, "what *exactly* was it like?"
I glanced at Clark. "This is the part where we hurt both of you," I said quietly. "Something neither of us wants to do but..." I took a deep breath. "In our world, Clark and I... We're married. We have been for four years. We have two boys together and it's possible that I'm pregnant again." I finished in a rush, the words stringing together.
Joe blinked slowly. "Would you mind repeating that?"
Clark took over. "Lois and I have been married four years next week. We have a three-year-old son named Christopher and a seventeen-month-old son named Nate. He's had health problems but is doing *great* now. In that world, Lois was chased by a madman when she was pregnant with Christopher. I was with her when it all got really bad and the only way to protect them was for us to get married. My Lana and I were serious together when it happened and I broke her heart, too, but I had to. The whole story is a lot longer and a lot more convoluted, but I had to."
"My Joe and I weren't quite as serious," I told them. "We'd dated off and on. We'd decided to try dating seriously again, but then everything went to hell in a hand basket and that was the end of it. He offered to marry me when he found out I was pregnant, but I was already married to Clark at that point. Life wasn't easy, but we made it through a *lot* together and we're happy with our lives and we want them back, but we can't find a way to get there." I wiped the tears. "I miss my boys, so much, but the one thing we could change, I can't do. No matter what, I can't do it."
"What's that?" Joe asked.
"My mom and Lucy were killed in an accident when I was ten. We didn't know about Dave until it was too late. I can't be responsible for killing them. If I was *sure* it would get us back home, I don’t think I could, but I don't know for sure that it would and I really can't do that then."
"So where's the Lois and Clark that went to sleep here the other night then?" Joe asked. "Where's *my* Lois?"
"And *my* Clark?" Lana wanted to know, still glaring at everyone she could find.
"They're in our world," Clark told her. "Living our lives."
*****
TBC
