And now for the twist...
__________________________________________
As they neared the city streets of Metropolis, Lois was reluctant to rejoin the world. The flight with Superman had been the most amazing experience of her life. <<And it's one thing I can't write about. Well, can't publish anyway.>>
They landed near the Planet. It was very early in the morning, and mainly only street cleaners were out. They descended in front of the globe, each lost in the other's eyes.
"Clark," she started, desperately wanting to articulate the emotions welling up inside her.
"Yeah?" he asked softly, his hands gently caressing her face.
"Thank you." It was the most profound thank you of her life, and she thought he understood. It was a thank you for the flight and rescue, sure, but it was also a thank you for revealing who he was to her, for rescuing her heart, and for the possibilities that lay ahead of them.
He gazed at her another moment, and then like two magnets unable to resist each other, they leaned in for a slow, thorough kiss. She reached her arms around his neck, wanting to feel as close as possible to him, but thinking it just wasn't close enough. She felt tears well up; tears of joy and the tears of longing finally finding release.
When they finally pulled away from each other, pure bliss on each of their faces, the sun had come up. Metropolis was once more a vibrant city, thrumming with activity.
"I--I need to get up to the newsroom. I want to give my story to Perry personally," said Lois. She wanted to hold onto the dream, but she was also still a professional and anxious to get the Congo story in print.
Clark nodded, "Ok, and I need to---Herb!"
"Huh?"
"HG Wells! I forgot, he's at a hotel. I have to talk to him, to let him know I found you!"
"Right," Lois looked around, suddenly wary. "HG Wells, the writer from another dimension in time and space... Does that mean we---we'll travel forward into time?"
"Five years time. Remember? I told you HG Wells took me *back* in time to rescue you."
"Oh, right," she said in a small voice, feeling a little dizzy. "Why do we have to time travel at all? Why can't we just stay here and pick up our lives from here?" she asked.
"Well, maybe we could... But Tempus is still here... even if slowed down by his injury. I doubt he'll stop hunting us---"
"And he will stop when we go to the future? That doesn't make sense, Clark."
"No, I suppose not... I don't know. All I know is I love you and I will do anything to be with you. But I want to talk to Herb first. Maybe he knows something we don't about what to do."
~~~~
He found Herb at the Exclesior Hotel, enjoying cable television and room service.
"Television is such a marvel, you know. Though it is dangerous. One can hardly get any writing done when distracted by constant chattering in the background," Herb said, not looking up as Superman entered.
Then, he sat up, realizing who had come in the room.
"You, you didn't find her, then?" he asked, disappointment in his voice as he noticed Superman was alone.
"No, I found her all right. But, I have some questions. I mean, what happens now? Do we go forward to when you found me? Or should Lois and I just stay here? And what about Tempus? I mean, when we get back to the Metropolis of the future, won't he try to break this up?"
"One question at a time, my boy!"
"We ran into him in the Congo... I feel like a hunted dog! I mean, is there no way to shake this guy, besides killing him?" Clark asked, clearly frustrated.
"Well, Tempus coming after you in any time is a distinct possibility... But you know, I had been thinking of something while you were gone, an idea I have... Since we are essentially undoing what Tempus did by rescuing Lois, why don't we go one step further, and potentially stop him completely."
Clark was intrigued with this idea. "Go on."
"Now, it's all theoretical, mind, but it might be worth a try. What I am thinking is sending you two forward to when you were originally supposed to meet. Exactly when you were supposed to meet. So, two years into the future. We'll base it on the other Lois and Clark's timeline. Since Tempus was unable to disrupt their lives permanently, if we can send you two to the precise moment you were supposed to meet, maybe it will create a paradigm shift in time, righting everything!"
Herb beamed, clearly pleased with his conjectures.
"It sounds too good to be true, but I think it's worth a shot. Lois is turning in her Congo story at the Planet. Do you think you'll be ready to go in a half hour?"
"Whenever you are, my boy!"
~~~~~
"According to Herb, we might be really close to beating Tempus. I mean, he didn't kill Superman. And you escaped the Congo! So there may be hope that taking this last step---"
"--- going forward in time to when the other Lois and Clark met, we can stop him." Lois' head was reeling for all that she was expected to believe. She wouldn't have taken any of it seriously if it wasn't for the very real evidence of Superman and the Kryptonite. His reaction to that had been just a little too real for her tastes.
"Well, we're not absolutely certain it will work, but it's worth a go," said HG Wells behind her.
\
"And if not? If the world is still overrun by Tempus?" asked Lois.
Clark sighed. "I don't know. I guess we can either fight him from there, or we go back to where I started..."
"This is all so confusing," said Lois.
She looked up at Clark. He gave her a sympathetic pat. "I know. I told you, it doesn't make sense... but if there is any chance we can stop Tempus from messing with our lives further---"
"Then we have to take it. Ok, Mr. Wells, take us back to the future!"
************
~CLARK~
The Daily Planet, Fall of 1993
He had a story in his hand, and Perry was reaching out to shake his other one.
"You know, Kent, there's one attribute I value as much as experience and that's initiative. Welcome to the Daily Planet."
Clark had a strange sense of deja vu. He looked around the office, as if seeing it for the first time. By the door stood the most incredible woman he had ever seen. Lois Lane.
A feeling hit him in the gut at the sight of her. *He knew her,* though how he knew her, he couldn't say. It was as if there was an instant connection, but more than that. He thought she *knew* him too, that he had revealed his largest secret to her. A feeling of panic rose in him, but in an instant it was gone. How could she know him? She barely looked at him. Lois stood against the doorjamb like she couldn't wait to be out of there, that she merely put up with indulging Perry in his new pet hire.
<<Lois?>> his eyes asked her from across the room, seeking recognition. But all she did was roll her eyes, recross her arms and sigh.
Wait, Perry was talking...
"Lois, why don't you take Clark with you on that space station story?"
~LOIS~
She couldn't believe she was paired with this hack from Nowheresville! <<*Smallville*? Please! You couldn't make that name up!>>
Lois looked at her new "partner," insulted Perry had called him that. But, she hadn't really let herself *look* at him. <<He's just a pretty face... nice body, too...No! Stop it! You've worked too damn hard to get where you are to let some hack distract you!>>
But even Lois was stopped in her tracks for just an instant. When she looked at him, really looked at him in his eyes, she saw something there that nearly knocked the wind out of her. <<What the hell is that?>> she asked herself. <<Better to ignore it. I don't have time for farmboys...>>
~CLARK~
"Clark? Are you coming home for supper?" asked Martha over the phone.
Clark was still a moment. He had this strange sense of sadness come over him. <<Weren't my parents---*dead*?>> he asked himself, yet feeling guilty about the question as the proof of their existence was anxiously waiting an answer on the other end of the phone line.
He couldn't explain the lump in his throat, the feeling that he had been given back a gift that he had been robbed of too early.
"Yeah, mom, I'll be there," he finished quietly.
~~~~
"I've been working on some ideas for this costume of yours, Clark. Are you ready to try them on?" Martha asked, a twinkle in her eye.
"Are you sure this will work, mom?" said Clark, after trying on dozens of ridiculous spandex costumes. Finally, he had settled on a red and blue one. It seemed---right, comfortable, as if he was already in the habit of wearing it.
"Honey, no one will be looking at your
face," said Martha with a laugh. "Besides, people will only see what they want to see... But, it's missing something..."
She went over to the bed and pulled out a box from underneath it. "This was with the blanket we found you in."
She held up an 'S' symbol, outlined in yellow. Clark felt his skin prickle as she laid it across his chest... as if all the pieces of destiny were coming together...
~LOIS~
A bomb!
How could she get anyone's attention before they were launched?
Suddenly, a man in a blue suit and red cape came striding in. All she could do was stare as he took the bomb and---ate it!
Who was this remarkable man?
Lois felt dizzy. <<This remarkable man... this man who can eat bombs.... Have I... *have I met him before?*>>
~CLARK~
Lois, in his arms. This felt so right!
The look in her eyes... he'd seen it before, but it had never been for *him,* had it? She surely hadn't looked at Clark that way in the few weeks he'd known her...had she? And this was his first appearance as the hero. Why then did that look in her eyes terrify him and warm him all at once?
~LOIS~
"What's the 'S' stand for?" asked Perry from behind her.
All she could do was stare, unable to shake a sense of deja vu, of knowing. But she was certain about how the answer to the question. It was like his name had been her part of her knowledge all along.
"Superman."
**************
~CLARK~
The pheromone drug made him remember. Not directly, just incidentally... that look of adoration in her eyes-- It was as if all the pieces had suddenly fallen into place. He had been tempted to tell her, to let her seduce him and then he'd reveal all; reveal his heart, his secret, and their hidden past. But a cooler head had prevailed. Lois had returned to her usual self, and then, he just couldn't get the words out.
But he remembered everything. Tempus, and telling her he was Superman---or rather telling her he was Clark-- and taking Wells' idea to heart and going forward to the exact moment they were destined to meet.
Except, none of them had counted on memory loss.
And the jump in time to a moment of destiny had worked---so far. No hint of Tempus anywhere.
But all the ground they had gained in that deep forest, all that he had revealed of his deepest secrets, was all for naught. She didn't remember him. She fawned over him as Superman, sure, but Clark? She could care less.
But he knew that would change, right? If he was to go by the other Lois and Clark's story. If he could just wait until the truth came to its inevitable revealing, they might come out of this unscathed and stronger for it.
Besides, what really scared him was the possibility of losing his parents again. He worried if he tried to tell Lois what had happened, she'd either tell him he was crazy and *really* write him off, or worse---what if it was all an enchantment, and saying the words made it all go *poof* again? Could he risk that his parents could disappear back to the forever that they had so magically returned from?
He simply couldn't. He couldn't tell her. If--*if* she figured it out on her own, then fine, they'd face the consequences together. But the possibility that he could lose both his parents and Lois at the same time, he simply couldn't---wouldn't risk it.
So he'd go on playing the fool. He'd bide his time until the inevitability of fate would eventually, hopefully bring them together. And until then, he'd drop the subtlest hints to Lois about him being Superman, watch and see if she'd fall in love with him and accept the truth carefully laid out before her.
He'd already fallen in love with her all over again. That had been easy.
So he would keep those memories in the clouds over the Atlantic with her as his talisman to hold onto during the many nights he'd spend alone---until.
Until Lois figured it out.
Or until she fell in love with him again and he'd know for certain that she'd never let him go.
~LOIS~
Lois would dream.
She could never tell anyone about these dreams, especially not Clark or Superman. She would be deep in a jungle, searching for something. Or facing a pistol in a dirty shed in the middle of nowhere only to be rescued by Superman. And then, there was the kind African man, sitting in a pool of blood, and she couldn't help but feel it was all her fault. And a man's hand bled in front of her, a man's hand that she swore she had shot!
And here was where the dream really confused her... she would imagine that Clark and Superman were the same person! She'd awaken, shaken by a kiss she had shared somehow from both of them, as one man, and this confused her most of all. <<It couldn't be true, simply couldn't!>>
These dreams would haunt her. But when daylight came, she'd tuck them away, determined not to deal with the confusion they stirred in her, or the horror. She refused to look at her feelings for Clark or why they were so entangled with her feelings for Superman. She was simply determined to not dwell on the implications of those dreams.
Concrete evidence of the truth was just under her nose though, if only she'd look at it, in the shape of a folder, buried deep in her closet. A leather-bound folder held all the answers, that if found would make a thousand shards of glass come together in a clear reflection of the truth. If Lois Lane cared to take notice of what was in her closet, she'd find the leather-bound folder that read : "Pulitzer Prize for 'Congo Cartel: The taking down of Papa Ludu' by Lois Lane."
But Lois sometimes avoided looking too carefully at things that were closest to her. She was cuttingly incisive when looking at others, but could be terribly wide of the mark when looking at herself. So she was entirely capable of not seeing the truth, even if it was out there in plain sight lying in a closet or even, staring at her every day behind a pair of glasses.
