Aieee!
Story TOC <><><>
Previously
"So when you agreed to date me, you were already in love with me?"
She furrowed her forehead, trying to remember just how she had felt. "I was thrilled, and a little scared, when you asked me out. But, in the end, I was willing to risk taking a chance on you. And then we started dating and you drove me crazy with your constant disappearing act. But I couldn't walk away from you, Clark, even when I really wished I could."
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I really did want to tell you."
She touched his cheek. "I know that. Hindsight really is everything."
That had to be right, Clark thought. Foresight was maddening. It seemed insane to have to wait to marry her. Clark's heart began to race in his chest as he realized why she was here. The answer seemed so simple, so suddenly certain to him. He moved to kneel in front of her and took hold of her hand.
"Lois? Will you marry me?"
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Ricochet 9/10
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1995
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Lois stared at him. Clark's eyes were as hopeful as the first time he had asked her this question, his expression just as nervous.
Before she could answer him, he went spoke again. "You said it yourself, that you might not go back. Would you marry me again?"
She reached out and touched his cheek. "Of course I would marry you. I
am married to you. But--.." Lois paused, trying to sort through the mix of emotions his proposal had created. If they were married, she wouldn't feel obliged to sleep on his sofa anymore. The whispers and speculation around the news room about their relationship would cease -- or maybe the rapidity of the wedding would increase them. It wouldn't matter. This time around, at least, it would be a different sort of wedding. There would be no crazed psychotics to interrupt the ceremony. Maybe it was true that the third time really was the charm.
How different would her life be if she had been married to Clark all along? Her mind swam with the possibilities that would offer.
"But?" he prompted, quietly anxious.
"Yes."
For a second or two, he didn't react. And then his heart felt like it would burst with happiness. "Yes? Really?"
"Yes," she confirmed again. "Yes, definitely."
"When?" he asked breathlessly. "You're the one who's done this before. How long do you think we need to plan it?"
Lois sighed. "Personally, I'm all for running down to city hall tomorrow morning and tying the knot. But my mother might disown me if we did it that way. We'll give her two weeks notice."
Clark grinned. "And you think she's not going to kill you for that?"
"Nah. Let her try." Lois kissed him lightly. "I have you to protect me if she gets too feisty, don't I?"
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1998
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Clark circled the equator twice - at a slow pace - before returning home. When he got there, it was just past three o'clock in the morning. A light was still on downstairs, but the rest of the house was dark. He stood in the living room and listened for a moment before easily finding Lois upstairs. The slow, steady cadence of her breathing indicated that she was most likely asleep.
Coward, he told himself repeatedly as he spun back into his normal clothes and hung the suit up in its secret compartment. Only a coward would have left like he did earlier that night. And only a coward would do what he was doing now, floating up the stairs so that he didn't make any noise.
When he reached the top of the stairs he could see that the door to the guest room was open. And there, illuminated by a strand of moonlight was Lois, one hand tucked beneath her cheek and the other resting on the pillow next to her. She was so beautiful, so precious to him that his chest tightened. Last night she had slept in his arms. If he hadn't fled earlier, would she be sleeping in them right now?
A soft knocking noise distracted him from his thoughts. Clark went downstairs to investigate. He heard the knock again and realized that someone was at their back door. He turned the light on in the kitchen and looked through the door to see HG Wells there.
Clark should have been glad to see him, but a sense of foreboding was the best he could come up with as he opened the door.
"Good evening, Mr. Kent." Wells took off his hat and clutched it in front of him. "May I come in?"
Clark stepped back and wordlessly gestured for Wells to come inside. Once the smaller man was a few steps past the door, Clark shut it and asked, "Where's Lois?"
Wells blinked and then frowned. "Isn't she here?" He pulled a small electronic device from his vest pocket and peered at it closely. Then he looked up at Clark in mild confusion. "According to this, she's here."
"I meant my wife," Clark prompted.
"Ah, yes, well." Wells cleared his throat. "That will take some explaining. Could we possibly sit down?"
Explaining? What was there to explain? All the man had to do was say, 'She's outside.' or ' She'll be here in a moment.' That he wouldn't - or couldn't - was frightening.
They both sat down at the table. Clark watched Wells with growing unease as he sensed the man was stalling.
"Lois is all right, isn't she?" Clark asked.
"Oh, yes, quite. You might be interested to know, Mr. Kent, left to her own devices in 1995, your wife has changed events just as I hoped she might. She wasn't directly responsible, of course, but it is now true that Lex Luthor died in 1995. Ms. Lane also saved Mayson Drake from being murdered."
Clark narrowed his eyes. "How is that possible? If Lois has changed the past, why do I still remember the original events?"
"So long as Ms. Lane - and her memories of what would have happened - remain in 1995, she acts as a stopgap against the time ripple those altered events create. Eventually, of course, that ripple can no longer be contained and must go forward."
"So when Lois comes back, the ripple comes along and I'll no longer remember that Mayson died?"
"Ah, well, that's one way of looking at it, yes."
"One way? What's another way?"
"Well, as you must surely realize, even though the Lois who has been with you for the past few weeks is not yet your wife, she is most definitely still Lois Lane, is she not? When Ms. Lane returns to her own time, she will, of course, have to deal with the changes that her future self made. Her future is, most definitely, not the same now. And, by that token, neither is yours."
A trickle of apprehension filtered through Clark. "So the person I am now, that changes?"
"Only if you believe that the person you were then is so completely different from who you are now. Are you not very much the same man?"
Clark frowned. Of course he was still very much the same person. But there were still things that had changed. Until Lois he had never quite felt as though he belonged on Earth. That had all changed as their relationship deepened. "Yes and no."
"Those change that have been made, what would you say they are due to?" Wells prompted.
Clark didn't even have to think about his answer. "Lois."
"Lois," Wells confirmed. "Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, you can see that it was having Lois in your life that has shaped you for the past few years, correct?"
"For the past few years, yes."
"And Ms. Lane, the one asleep upstairs, is she not very much the same woman as your wife? After all, she
is the same woman, just a few years younger."
Clark gave a grudging nod. Lois, especially now that she was comfortable with his secret and their - to her future - marriage, was very much like her future self would be. Was Wells trying to find a way to tell him that his wife was never coming back?
"Hindsight--." HG Wells looked down at the hat in his hands, turning it slightly as he struggled for words. "It really is nearly perfect."
The silence that followed this remark felt awkward, so Wells bowed his head in deference and tried again to explain. "It seemed so simple. Alter one little detail, speed up the process, just a bit, and you can effect a change for the better. So that's what I did."
"You did more than that," Clark answered, his tone of voice flat. "You changed more than a 'detail'." The last word was spoken with something approaching scorn. "You changed
everything."
"It was for the better," Wells persisted. "Once I realized what one little detail changed, how the wheels were set into a new motion, I saw that countless people could be spared terrible pain. I only meant to change one thing. I hadn't counted on the domino effect being quite so-- far-reaching."
"So what was the one change?"
Wells cleared his throat nervously. "Yes, well, you see, each time I looked at the larger picture, the problem always started with Lex Luthor."
"So what changes now that Luthor is dead? And are you sure he's dead? We've thought that before."
Wells nodded. "He's most definitely dead, Mr. Kent. And cremated."
"So what changes?"
"Yes, well, forgive me, Mr. Kent, for I find it necessary to speak about something rather delicate at this point."
"Which is?"
"There can be no Utopia without your children, that is, the natural children of you and Ms. Lane."
Clark flushed and looked away. "Then there isn't going to be a Utopia. We can't have children."
"Not in this future, no. But in the past, with Mr. Luthor dead, there is no one to stand in the way of you and Ms. Lane marrying. And, if you are married prior to the New Kryptonians arriving on this planet, well, they will not compel you to join them. In fact, they will abandon this planet and you as lost causes and move on. When your people placed you in that molecular disruptor, Mr. Kent, you were temporarily, uh, disrupted. Yes, the process was reversed, but not everything was entirely restored. Were you never to be disrupted, you and Ms. Lane would have been able to have children."
Clark stared at Wells in disbelief. "Are you sure?"
"I am quite certain. I've spent over a year analyzing why and how Utopia changed and I've traced it back to that moment. Even if you were to be condemned again by the Council, given the head start this little swap created, it's quite possible that you two could already be parents before the New Kryptonians arrive here."
"Head start?"
"I have calculated what the major stumbling blocks in your path to matrimony were. First, that Lois was not aware of your secret and then, naturally, that she would need time to become accustomed to all facets of the man you truly are. Second, that you yourself had doubts and worries about what would happen to those you care about deeply."
"So you brought Lois here so that she could learn about Superman?"
"And be comfortable with you. Which, I do believe, she now is. And, quite fortuitously, the you of three years ago has likewise been given a glimpse of who Lois truly is and how wonderfully well the two of you get on together."
"I always loved Lois - and I always wanted to be with her."
"True, but you were willing and able to walk away from her when you first started dating. That choice set your relationship back by months and was also a factor in the troubles that followed."
Clark grimaced, hating that all this history was being brought up. They were so far past that now, it felt awkward to be reminded of it again.
"So I swapped them," Wells continued. "Like-for-like, in the blink of an eye. On the time continuum, there was no blip. Nothing to alert Tempus that events were going to be altered. That was key. He couldn't know what was happening."
"But neither did anyone else."
"I'll admit it was rash, not telling anyone. I monitored events from a distance the whole time, just to be certain that what needed to be accomplished was done before the ripple grew too large to be contained."
"So what happens now? Lois goes back and--" Clark waved his hand in frustration. "That's it? What happens to me? And my Lois?"
"Mr. Kent, she has always been your Lois." Mr. Wells cleared his throat nervously. "It's true, we could leave things just as they are now, but eventually - and most likely quite soon - a ripple will be created that could destroy everything."
"And if Lois goes back?"
"Then this future ceases to exist."
A chill went through Clark. Ceases to exist? Just like that? But that wasn't entirely true, was it? It was only this
version of the future that ceased to exist - not him or Lois.
"Please consider what will be gained," Wells said gently. "Is that not worth what might be lost? Are you willing to give up this future for the chance of a different future?"
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End 9/10
