Missing Lois - TOC Author’s Note: I have altered the timeline of the show twice in this chapter. First, by extending the length of Lois’s murder trial (to months instead of days) and secondly, by moving Tempus’s John Doe Presidential election bid to its correct spot - after “Ghosts” and around the time of “Stop the Presses” (i.e. November 1996).
Story Notes: Just a reminder, Lois and Alt. Clark have told Alt. Sam Lane that she is really a Lois Lane from another dimension. She calls her Clark, Kal, to lessen the Clark-confusion. Everyone else in the alternate dimension (with the exception of Moonbeam/Star and now Mayson) thinks she is Lucy El (wife of Kal El), an old college friend of Alt. Clark's.
Where we left off in Chapter 3: Part 2...Clark kissed Mayson good-bye and shut the door after her. He jogged back down the steps. Something skittered across the floor. It was her hair-clip. He picked it up and ran out to the street. Mayson was just getting into her car.
“Mayson!” he called, waving her hair-clip. She didn’t hear him.
Tick! Tick! Tick!
“No!” Clark was at her car door in half a second. “Mayson!”
She stared at him with concern as he ripped off the door to her car. He was pulling her out when the bomb blasted them into the building across the street.
Chapter 3 - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back - Part 3
Lois set down her pen. What was that? Unknowingly, she mimicked the way Clark looked up and to the right as she listened.
“No! Mayson!” That was Clark’s voice. Something was wrong.
“Oh, no,” she gasped, running out to the living room. Then she heard the explosion. Her knees gave out and she grabbed the wall. Not again. Poor Clark.
“What’s the matter, Sweetie?” her father asked. He was reading the newspaper on the sofa.
“Something’s happened to Mayson,” she said, grabbing her purse. “I’ve got to go.”
“I didn’t hear the phone ring.”
Lois pulled on Lucy’s ugly loafers. “I’ll explain later.”
“I thought she didn’t like you. Maybe, you shouldn’t interfere.”
“No, Daddy, I heard an explosion. I’ve got to go to Clark. He’ll need me.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said, getting up.
“No, you wait, in case he comes here. Don’t let him leave.” She swallowed. “Clar… Kal disappeared into himself when Mayson died. And this Clark, he isn’t as strong, emotionally, and she means more to him.”
“Mayson died?” He hugged her.
“In my dimension. Hopefully, Clark wasn’t too late this time,” she said, stepping out of the hug and opening the door.
“Lois, take a cab.”
She chuckled, sarcastically. “No, I thought I’d fly.”
He looked stunned as if he believed her. “Cab!”
Lois waved her hand as she jogged down the hall with a shake of her head. In the elevator, she ran into James Olsen. She pressed the first floor button three times.
“In a rush somewhere?” he asked.
“Can you drive me to Clinton Street, James?”
“Sure. Running late for lunch with Clark?”
Lois placed a fake smile on her lips. “Something like that.”
When they arrived at the parking level, he turned to her with a grin. “Which car should we take?”
“The fastest one.”
“All right, then.” James pushed a security alarm button on his keychain and she heard a cherry red Ferrari beep in the corner of the room.
She glanced at him surprised. “I always pictured you as a Mustang kind of guy.”
“I was.” He grinned. “Before the millions.”
“Can I borrow your phone?” she asked, buckling herself in.
“Sure.” He passed it to her.
Lois dialed Clark’s number. She hoped that she was wrong about the bomb, but the machine picked up. “I’m on my way, Clark. Don’t do anything rash. If you get this message, please, wait for me.”
“Something wrong?” James asked.
“I hope not.” She dialed another number. “Come on, Mayson, pick up… Great, voice mail.” She hung up and dialed a third number. “Detective Henderson? Hi, this is Lucy El, Clark Kent’s assistant at the
Daily Planet. Have you heard from Detective Drake? I was trying to reach Clark and I know he was with Mayson this morning… Yes, I’ll hold.” She took a deep breath. “Please. Please, be there. I want to be wrong.”
James pushed on the gas and sped down the street.
“What do you mean, she hasn’t shown up, yet? Was she on the way there?... I see. Well, I was on the phone with Clark five minutes ago when I heard an explosion and the line died. Can you meet me at his apartment?... Oh. 344 Clinton Street. Thanks.”
“Lucy, where are your glasses?” James asked out of the blue as she handed back his phone.
Lois patted her face. Crap. She dug through her purse and pulled out her emergency pair. “Thanks. I was wondering why the world was so blurry.”
James turned onto Clinton Street and saw smoke. “What the….”
“Oh, no,” Lois gasped. “It did happen.” The police had just arrived. “Hurry, James, before they cordon off the street.”
James pulled the Ferrari off to the side of the road and she jumped out. He followed her as she ran down the street.
“Clark? Clark?” Lois stopped next to Mayson’s still burning car. That wasn’t like Superman to leave a car on fire. The driver’s side door had been pulled off and tossed in the road. She looked around and saw a dent in the brick entry in the apartment building across the street. “Clark?” she called again. James caught up with her as she turned and ran towards his apartment.
He surveyed the damage with a shake of his head. “I wish I had a camera.”
Clark’s front door was ajar. Not good. Clark never left his apartment unlocked. She went inside. “Clark? Mayson?” she called but heard no response. Even worse. She found Clark’s t-shirt on the floor next to the sofa. Strange. As she walked to his bedroom, she stepped on a piece of glass. It was part of his glasses. She glanced around and found his broken frames near the TV. She picked them up. In his bedroom, she found his blue suit and red cape lying on the bed and his boots next to the bed. That wasn’t like Clark, at all. He was always so careful with his suit.
Lois returned to the living room, wondering how well his confession went with Mayson. Had she left on good terms? Had they broken up? It didn’t matter, her brain told her. He would still blame himself, either way.
“There you are,” James said, entering the apartment. “One of the neighbors witnessed the entire thing. She had been watering the plants on her balcony at the time. A blonde lady walked to her car. A minute later a – and I’m quoting here – ‘shirtless David in jeans’ ran after her, calling her name. Then he ripped off her car door like a strongman and had pulled her out of the car when it exploded; they were knocked into the building across the street. She didn’t see what happened after that because the smoke was too thick. When it had cleared, they were gone.”
Lois fell onto the sofa and took a couple of deep breaths. “He got her out before the car exploded. That’s good.” She looked down at his broken glasses in her hand.
“Are those Clark’s?”
Lois nodded.
James looked around. “What happened here?”
Before she could answer, there was a knock on the door and Detective Henderson walked in. Lois slipped Clark’s glasses into her purse. “I’d like to know the same thing. Mr. Olsen.” He nodded at James. “Lucy El, I presume?”
Lois wiped her eyes and held out her hand. “Detective Henderson.”
He pulled out his notebook. “Tell me what you know.”
“Clark brought croissants to my place this morning for breakfast. Mayson showed up, looking for him. They agreed to meet at his apartment. She wanted to talk to him about something, I don’t know what.” She glanced at James and he looked away. They both knew what. “It was about nine-thirty when he left my place.”
“You were on the phone with him when you heard the explosion?” Henderson asked. “What time was that?”
“I don’t know.” Lois shook her head. “We had been talking, when suddenly he dropped the phone. I guess, he hadn’t hung up properly because then I heard the explosion. I tried calling back, but the circuit was busy.” She walked to Clark’s cordless phone, which was clearly hung up and pressed the off button for good measure.
“Why are you touching evidence?” snapped Detective Henderson.
“I’m not,” Lois countered, setting down the receiver. “This isn’t the crime scene.”
“Well, don’t touch anything else.”
James and Lois exchanged another glance. He had seen her pocket Clark’s glasses. He had also heard her leaving a message for Clark.
“You said that you spoke to Mayson,” she asked casually. “When was that?”
Henderson smiled at some inside joke. “About eleven. She was not at all happy about it, either.”
“You called her into the office on a Sunday, why?”
“Sean McCar… Never you mind, Ms. El.”
Sean McCarthy. Just like she thought. “Just wanted to know what could tempt her away from her meeting with Clark.”
Henderson chuckled, picking up Clark’s shirt from the floor. “Meeting? So, her and Kent, huh? And she said that was just tabloid fodder.”
Lois walked up to Henderson, lowered her glasses, and stared him directly in the eyes. “Let’s not go spreading rumors that might get someone killed, shall we, Detective Henderson? We might already be too late.”
He swallowed, nodded, and dropped the shirt. “Has anyone ever told you that your eyes are exactly like Lois Lane’s?”
She rolled her eyes. “All the time.” Pushing her glasses up on her nose, she turned to James. “They must be at the University Hospital. Let’s go.”
“I’ll meet you there,” Detective Henderson said.
Lois stumbled down the stairs outside Clark’s apartment. James grabbed her arm. “Are you okay, Lucy?”
She nodded and lowered her voice. “He left his Superman suit at home. That isn’t like him.”
“Oh, right, the shirtless David.”
“Michelangelo’s David wasn’t wearing a shirt, either. He was naked.”
They snuck past the police who were cordoning off the street. Barry Balson, the Daily Planet’s Superman reporter, grabbed her arm as they reached James’s car. “Lucy! What happened? I heard about it on my police scanner.”
Lois turned to James and then back to Barry. “Mr. Olsen has this one, Barry.”
Barry looked at Mr. Olsen and stepped away from Lucy. “Sorry, Mr. Olsen. I didn’t know you wanted to be a reporter.” He smiled politely at his boss.
James looked at Lucy with shock. She nodded her head towards Barry.
“Stay here,” James added to Barry. “See if you can find out anything about the bomb in Mayson’s car.”
“On it, sir.”
They got into the car and drove away before Barry could ask any more questions.
“I’m not a reporter, Lucy,” he said over the roar of the wind.
“I think you’d make a good one, James, if you gave it a shot.” She smiled at him. “Look how you got that neighbor to tell you what happened. Plus, you found out Detective Henderson’s side of the story as well. Not bad for a beginner. Plus, you couldn’t be worse than Ralph.”
“I’m more of a behind the scenes guy.”
“Then we should get you a camera.”
At the hospital, James dropped Lois off at the emergency entrance as he went to park the car. She went directly to the desk, “Is Mayson Drake here?”
“We cannot give out information on patients, Miss. Are you family?” the woman behind the desk droned.
“She was the woman in the explosion?”
The woman shook her head.
“She would have been carried in by a tall, handsome, brown haired man without a shirt. I’m actually looking for him. Is he still here?”
The woman brightened up to almost human. “Oh, the GQ model.” She glanced around with a grin. “I don’t know. I don’t see him.”
Lois stepped away from the counter. Poor Clark. He goes without a shirt for one day and it will live in infamy. It was a busy day at the hospital. Screaming babies with drippy noses. Fathers with the last of the season’s BBQ burns. A couple of possible gang members standing guard in the corner. She wished she had x-ray vision.
Maybe, if she concentrated enough she could hear him. She closed her eyes. Suddenly, all the voices were amplified. Slowly, she listened to each one, tuning out the rejects.
“Did you see that new Paulie Shore movie?” Rejected.
“Mommy, is Daddy going to be ok?” Rejected.
“Clamp, we’ve got bleeding here.” Hold to reevaluate.
“Donde esta el baño?” Reject.
“And then I said to him. If you think you’re Superman why don’t you take a flying leap…” Rejected.
“Who let Tarzan in?” Hold.
Tarzan?
“He brought in the victim. He growled when I asked him to wait outside. He won’t leave her. You want to get him to move, be my guest. He’s made of cement.” Bingo!
Lois opened her eyes. Where did that voice come from? Surgery? She lowered her glasses like she had seen Clark do a thousand times and concentrated on the double doors leading out the emergency waiting room. Suddenly, she could see past the doors, but only because someone pushed a gurney though them. There he was, standing at an operating room door, down the hall. She stepped back and bumped into James.
“I found Clark.” She nodded toward the double doors. “Mayson is being prepped for surgery.”
“How bad is it?”
Lois shrugged with a shake of her head. “I’m going in to get Clark. Cover me.”
“What?” he stammered.
Lois pushed through the double doors. When a nurse called out to her, James stepped between them.
“Excuse me, Miss. My name is James Olsen. I’m owner of the
Daily Planet. I was wondering who would I speak with about donating money to the University Hospital?”
This made the nurse pause. “You want to give us money?”
“Yes, you see I have a friend inside…” he continued as he watched Lois give him the thumbs up sign.
Lois shut the double doors and walked over to Clark. She put a hand on his arm. “Clark?”
He growled at her and then noticed who was speaking with him. “Lois! Mayson…” His eyes closed; he could not finish his sentence.
“I know, Clark.” She hugged him and took hold of his hand.
“They’re prepping her for surgery.”
“How bad is she?”
Clark swallowed. “She got the brunt of the explosion. I had gotten her out of the car, but she was still between me and the bomb when it went off. If I had just had a fraction of a second more.” He buried his face in his hands. “If I had just walked her to her car. Or told her not to leave. Or just smashed her phone when it rang. Anything…”
“It’s not your fault, Clark. She’s alive; that’s more of a chance than the other Mayson got.”
“Alive? She has a collapsed lung, a fractured femur, three broken ribs, glass and brick fragments embedded in her face and chest. Plus countless burns.” His voice started to shake. “And there was blood, so much blood.”
Lois looked at him. His chiseled chest was red from blood. It had dripped down and turned the top of his jeans fuchsia pink. He had streaks of blood across his face and into his hair. She tugged on his arm, trying to move him to a row of seats opposite the operating room. At first, he held his ground, but then he relented.
“Clark, we need to get you home and washed up and into clean clothes. Then you can come back and wait for Mayson to come out of surgery. If Henderson finds you like this, he’s going to bag and tag you as evidence.”
Clark looked at Lois, but his eyes didn’t see her. He looked down at his chest and jeans and then back at her. “I can’t leave her. They wouldn’t even let me into the operating room. What if I need to…”
“I’ll stay, Clark,” Lois volunteered. “She’ll be in surgery for a while. Go home, clean up and then come back.”
He looked at Lois and this time he saw her. “Thank you, Lois. If you get a chance, not that she would speak to you, tell her that I’m sorry.”
Lois held on to his hand. “Clark, you didn’t do anything wrong. This is the bomber’s fault, not yours. You are not to blame.”
“It doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I failed again. Like everyone I care about is taken from me. I am the angel of death. First my parents, then Lois and now, sweet, sweet Mayson.”
“Really? Sweet? I would have gone with pig-headed.”
Clark raised a brow.
“Ok. You’re right, it isn’t important.”
“I was thinking more of the pot calling the kettle black,” he responded.
“I deserved that.” Lois smiled. She hoped for a smile in return, but his eyes and face looked dead. Defeated.
Clark stared at the door of the operating room for a while. Lois could not tell if he was watching the doctors at work or if he was just thinking. Suddenly, the look in his eyes changed. But not for the better. She saw anger and determination.
He stood up. “I’m going to clean up and change. There’s something I need to do.”
Lois held on to his hand. “No, Clark. Get washed up and come back here. Come back here.”
“There’s someone I need to talk to.” He started walking towards the doors. “Someone needs to answer for what has been done.”
“No, Clark. I won’t let you go. Don’t!” She held on to his hand. He was dragging her with him. “This isn’t justice. This is vengeance. Mayson wouldn’t like this.”
James passed through the double doors and saw them. Clark covered in blood and marching toward him like a bull and Lois holding tightly to his arm, trying to pull him back.
“Stop him!” she yelled.
“Are you nuts?” James answered, throwing a hand up at him. “He’s Superman!”
Clark picked Lois up with one hand and set her down in front of James. “Keep an eye on her for me, Mr. Olsen. She promised to stay here for me. There’s a worm I need to squish.” He sneered, his eyes focused and hard.
“A worm?” James gulped.
“Clark, no!” Lois yelled. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this. This doesn’t have to do with Junior!” But he was gone like the wind, not having heard a word. She collapsed on the floor, in tears. “No, Clark. Don’t go after Jaxon.”
***
An hour passed. The nurses came by and took Lois and James to the official OR Waiting Room. The chairs were slightly more comfortable and there were a couple of coffee tables with travel, skiing, and boating magazines. There were also pay telephones and vending machines.
Lois called Sam Lane and told him what was happening. He hadn’t heard from Clark, either. Henderson and several other detectives arrived and stood off in the other corner of the room. They kept looking at Lois and James with suspicion.
She could hear them whispering to each other wondering who they were. Were they personal friends of Mayson’s or were they there because of another patient? She was impressed that Henderson kept his tongue from participating in this idle gossip. He would glance at her from time to time. He came up to her after the second hour.
“Lucy, where’s Clark?” he whispered.
“I sent him home to get cleaned up.” She was wondering where Clark had gone off to as well. She hoped it was just a run-of-the-mill emergency. But she doubted it.
“He was covered in Mayson’s blood,” James added. Lucy elbowed him to shut up.
Henderson winced as that image passed through his mind. “That was evidence.”
“I made a judgment call. Nobody, especially them…” She nodded to the other detectives in the room and lowered her voice. “…wanted to see Superman covered in Mayson’s blood.”
Henderson’s jaw dropped as she linked Superman’s name to Clark’s. Then he nodded. “OK.”
“Plus, Superman would never have let you touch him, let alone swab him,” she murmured. “Especially today.”
Henderson sat down next to her. “How long have they been dating?”
“What in blue blazes does that information have to do with this investigation?”
“Perry!” Lucy jumped up and hugged him. He reacted awkwardly to this outpouring of emotion, until he realized she did it to whisper in his ear. “He’s gone after Jaxon.”
Perry pulled her back to look her in the eye. “What in the King’s name would he do that for?”
She hugged him again. “He wouldn’t listen to reason. He thinks that the bomb had to do with Junior going after his friends.”
“Does it?”
“No.” She pulled out of the hug and sat down. “Sean McCarthy planted the bomb under Mayson’s car.”
“How do you know that?” Henderson demanded. Lucy had forgotten he was still there.
She pointed at herself. “World’s best investigative…” She paused. Ooops. “… Researcher. Why do you think Clark Kent wanted me to work for him?”
Perry chuckled. “I miss the newsroom. Too many stuffed shirts at City Hall. Too PC.” He turned to James, who was staring at a blank notepad. “Don’t quote me on that.”
“Lucy wants me to write the article about the explosion.”
Lois pointed at the pad. “Just write what you know, what you saw. We’ll clean it up later.”
Perry looked at her with curiosity.
She shrugged. “He needs a hobby besides spending money. Anyway, he can’t be worse than Ralph.”
Perry threw up his hands. “I am not commenting.” But he flashed her a smile.
By the third hour, Mayson was finally out of surgery and in recovery. It was likely that she would survive. Her vital signs looked good.
Lois pulled Perry over to the coffee vending machine. “I’m getting worried about Clark. He should be back by now.”
“Do you think you could find him?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I think he went to Jaxon’s, but if he went somewhere after there…” She shrugged. “I’m worried what he might do. He wasn’t in his right state of mind.”
“What do you mean, honey?” Perry asked linking arms with her and handing her a bottle of water. “You need to keep hydrated.”
Lois smiled. “Thank you.” She thought about how she should answer his question as she took a sip of water. “His apartment wasn’t clean. He left clothing flung about and this…” She opened her purse and showed him Clark’s glasses.
He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you think you might be jumping to conclusions, Lucy? You don’t have any proof.”
“Good thing that this is completely off-the-record, then,” she answered.
“Oh, right. Force of habit. Perhaps, I should go to Jaxon’s and…”
“Mayor White, that is an impossible solution and you know it.”
“But you’re… and I’m…” he stumbled badly over his excuse.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “You never saw Jurassic Park, did you?”
“What’s that?” he looked at her curiously.
“A movie. About dinosaurs that came to life. Very big. Blockbuster film.” Lois tried to explain and he just kept shaking his head. And then she remembered she was in another dimension where Arnold Schwarzenegger sang. “Wow! It doesn’t exist. Good to know. My mistake.”
Perry glanced at her with a raised brow.
Luckily, at that moment James brought over his notepad of scribbles. “We can’t publish this in the
Daily Planet. This is horrible.”
Perry took it out of his hand and looked it over. He glanced at Lois and nodded. She smiled. “We’ll clean it up. Between you, me and Perry, we can make it work. It’s just a rough draft.”
“One of us should go to Clark’s apartment and see if he’s there,” Perry suggested. “I just can’t imagine where that boy could be.”
“He was pretty messed up,” Lois whispered. “I don’t think he’d be there, if he could be here. I’m worried about him. I know everyone likes to think he’s this super human man, but to me…” She sighed. “… he’s just a fragile boy whose girl just got hurt.”
“You love him, don’t you?” Perry asked out of the blue.
“Of course. Clark is like family to me.”
“Then, why, honey, did you…” he started.
James coughed and shook his head. “Not now, White.”
“Oh, right. Another time then.”
Lois glanced at Perry in confusion. “Perry, what condition would you be in if you got covered in your wife’s blood?”
Perry blanched and swallowed uncomfortably. Then he raised an eyebrow at this comparison. “Mayson is his Alice?”
“Maybe not, but for now she’s the closest he’s got.”
“But…” Perry started, but then stopped when he saw James shake his head. “Well, I’d be in shock, mostly.”
“Ok, you’re in shock and you can fly anywhere super fast and have super strength and you feel guilty for not being one fraction of a second faster. Would you be sitting and waiting at the hospital?”
Perry’s eyes grew wider. “Oh, no! I’d be out looking for the devil that did this. You don’t think that Kent would…” He shook his head. “Oh, God, no, Lucy.”
Lois nodded. “He might and that’s what worries me.” She took another sip of water. “I need to go find him. See if I can stop him.”
“Sweetheart, do you think you can?”
Lois closed her eyes and pictured flying above Metropolis on the day Superman had rescued her from Lex Luthor. And then the look in Clark’s eyes, the night her Clark had been disintegrated. She felt the baby kick for the first time in hours. She placed a gentle hand on her tummy and smiled. “There might be a way.”
As she went to pick up her things, a nurse came into the waiting room. “Clark? Clark? Mayson is asking to speak with Clark.”
Lois winced. She had hoped he would be back before this point. She didn’t want to give Mayson his message. And, she knew, that Mayson did not want to see her. She stepped forward anyway. “Clark asked me to give Mayson a message from him, if he did not return in time.”
“I’ll come with you,” Henderson said.
“No, Detective. I’m sorry, this is a private message for Mayson.”
James squeezed her hand and she took a deep breath. Nodding, Lois followed the nurse to the mostly dark recovery room. She noticed that they were alone. No other patients shared this space, only a nurse at a desk across the room.
Lois took a deep breath and walked up to Mayson’s bed. She was precisely how Clark described her. She had a cast on her left leg. Her hands were bandaged, probably from burns. She had a tube coming out of her chest from the punctured lung. She also had numerous smaller bandages from the glass and brick debris. She was still hooked up to those machines that beeped and told everyone that she was still alive. Medicines and fluids were dripping into her arms via an IV. She looked horrible, even for Mayson, but at least she was alive. Her eyes were shut, resting. Lois took a seat in the chair next to the bed.
Mayson heard a noise and opened her eyes. They were not happy to see Lois instead of Clark. “Why you here?” Her voice was hoarse from the air tube.
“I’m sorry, Mayson. I know I’m the last person you want to see right now…”
“True. Clark? He OK?”
She had heard of denial before, but Mayson took the cake.
“Here?” Mayson added, moving her hand slightly toward her chest.
OK. Maybe, she was all there. “Not really. He left as they were prepping you for surgery. I tried to stop him, but he kind-of plowed right through me. He said that he had to find a worm that needed squishing. I told him that you wouldn’t like that, but he didn’t seem to care.”
Mayson closed her eyes for a moment. “He blames himself.”
“Yes.” Lois was surprised at Mayson’s depth of knowledge of Clark’s history. “He called himself the angel of death.”
A tear dripped down Mayson’s face. “He’s in pain. He’s lost so much.”
Lois nodded. “If I know anything about how he’s feeling, don’t be surprised if he tries to break up with you for your own good. To protect you. Don’t let him, of course. Kal tried to do this to me, several times. He called himself a jinx. But I fought for him and he couldn’t keep away. That’s what you need to do. He needs you.”
“You like him.”
“Of course. He’s a good man; just like his brother, just more fragile.”
“He told you, he told me?”
Lois shook her head. “He was planning on it, when he left this morning to meet you.”
“Liar.”
“Excuse me?” Lois didn’t understand.
“Leave Clark alone,” Mayson groaned.
“I can’t do that, Mayson. I need him.”
“Your Daddy?”
“Oh, that man from this morning.” Lois chuckled. “He’s not really my dad. He’s an old friend of Clark’s. He likes it when I call him Daddy, it reminds him of his two lost girls.”
“Lost girls?”
“Lois, of course. The most famous lost person in Metropolis. And Lucy, his other daughter, who ran away from home ten years ago.”
“You Lucy?”
“His Lucy? No. No. No.” She shook her head. “Just the same name. That’s all.”
“Why? Me and Clark?”
Lois thought about this question. “Why did I set up you and Clark? I was being selfish, I guess. I could see that it was hurting Clark, me talking about Kal all the time. Him stuck in the Superman suit for life – no private life. I thought it might do him some good, give him some hope, to see that someone liked him for himself without the suit. And, lo and behold, you walked through the door. Oh, and how he likes you; more than I ever imagined. He talks about you all the time. ‘Today’s the day I’m meeting Mayson for lunch. Have an excuse ready to tell Ralph, so he doesn’t interrupt.’” Lois laughed. “You give him hope. Someone with whom he can share his troubles. A Superman without hope could be a very dangerous person, indeed. He needs to care for someone and have someone care for him.”
“You set me up for Superman?” Mayson asked, dismayed.
“Did I set you up with Superman? No, Mayson. I thought you understood, Clark Kent is the man, Superman is just the job description.” She thought about how she phrased that. “Or something like that.” Her Clark had explained it better.
“Ah. I see.” Mayson closed her eyes.
Lois thought that Mayson had fallen back asleep and she moved to get up.
“Where’s Clark?” Mayson whispered, opening her eyes.
“I don’t know and that frightens me. I’m going to go look for him. He needs to see that you’re okay. That you survived.” Lois smiled. “He’ll be so happy. I know he cares for you a great deal.”
“Did Clark give message?” Mayson whispered.
“Oh, right. The message he gave me to give to you. He’s sorry.”
“Sorry?” Mayson mumbled, closing her eyes and turning her head away. “Ow.”
“Oh, right, the whiplash. I’ll let you rest. Henderson wanted to come in and say hi, too.” Lois waved and walked out of the room.
Lois thought that the conversation went pretty well, especially since Mayson still hated her. Oh, Clark. She shook her head. Mayson was disappointed with the lack of a more romantic message. She would have to tell Clark to convince Mayson that she messed up the message. It wouldn’t matter much in the big picture as she was already in Mayson’s doghouse. She went back into the waiting room to tell Henderson that Mayson was ready to see him. Although, technically, she wasn’t sure this was true.
Perry and James were conferring over his notepad. The Chief was back. “You cannot include the reference to David, Olsen.”
“But it’s great imagery, White.”
“Hi, boys,” Lois said. “I’m off to find Clark.”
James stood up. “I’ll drive you.”
“Can you stay here in case Clark shows up?”
He looked disappointed with this task, but nodded. She’d have more freedom to get the job done alone. Lois set her hand on his shoulder. “Thanks.”
Lois took a cab to the Clinton Street apartment first. She still had her key. The street was still cordoned off but she was able to sneak around the central crime scene. Henderson had officially taped off Clark’s apartment. He better not try to implicate Clark in Mayson’s accident, Lois thought. She pulled out her key, which she had never returned to Clark when she had moved out. Bumping aside the tape, she easily entered. She tried not to touch anything. Clark had obviously been there. She saw a bloody footprint leading from the patio towards the bedroom. She hoped Henderson didn’t notice it as well. The blue suit was missing from the bed. She sighed. Would he ever take it off again, after this?
Next she checked the bathroom. She was sure he took a shower; how could he not? Lois wasn’t sure exactly what she was seeking, but she had found it in the shower. A fist sized hole in the shower wall. She rubbed her face with her hands. How could she have let him come home alone? She should have stayed with him.
Skipping back up the steps, Lois locked his apartment door and returned to the main street a block away. If Jaxon got hurt, she would blame herself. Not that Jaxon was an innocent bystander, but he didn’t deserve Superman’s wrath. She felt a chill down her spine. This Clark, she had known since her earlier visit, wasn’t as grounded and secure as her Clark. He didn’t have the self-confidence, the coolness of head, and the hope that her Clark had learned from his parents. He had learned that life was uncertain, that people who you love leave you quickly and that he needed to take care of himself. He was more of a loner than her Clark. He couldn’t control his anger or his emotions as well as her Clark, either.
Lois flagged down a cab and gave them Jaxon’s address. As the cab pulled up down the street from his brownstone, she saw Jaxon jog out the front door and jump into a waiting car. She wondered how he could look so happy. If Superman hadn’t pummeled him, there had to be a good reason. She told the cabbie to follow his convertible. She had a feeling he wasn’t heading out to lunch or a movie.
***End of Part 3*** Comments Chapter 3: Part 4Jurassic Park
– book by Michael Crichton (1990) -
Novel - movie by Steven Spielberg (1993) –
Trailer - Scene – I could not find a link for the ‘sexism in survival situations’ scene between Hammond and Ellie – one of my favorite pieces of dialogue in the movie, which fits Lois to a T. and why she brings up the movie Jurassic Park when Perry insinuates that he should be the one to search for Clark, because he's a man and she's pregnant.
In the movie scene Hammond (the creator of Jurassic Park) tries to convince paleontologist / botanist Ellie Sadler that he should cross yard with dinosaurs to turn back on the power, because 'he's a... and she's a..." To which an annoyed Ellie responds, "We'll discuss sexism in survival situations when I return."
Please take my use of this line from the movie and/or book as it is meant, not as stealing, but as an homage to Michael Crichton's terrific book and Steven Spielberg's awe-inspiring movie.
