Missing Lois - TOC Author’s Note: The “Lois” in Chapter 5 and 6 refers to alt-Lois. Canon Lois will be called “Lucy” to help lessen the confusion between the two characters.
Story Notes: This story is mostly set in alt-dimension, although visits to the canon dimension do happen from time-to-time.
- Clark = Alt-Clark unless otherwise noted (such as when we are in the canon dimension, then 'Clark' might also be canon Clark)
- Lucy El = pregnant canon Lois avoiding the curse by hiding out with alt-Clark, aka Lois's secret identity
- Kal = Lucy El's husband's name, or what Lois-Lucy and alt-Clark call canon Clark
- Lois = alt-Lois, wife of Lex Luthor
- Lola Luthor = ‘wife’ of Lex Luthor; alt-Lois, if not referring to Clois (Cloned Lois)
- Mr. Amazing = alt-Lois's nickname for Superman
- Sam Lane = alt-Lois's Dad, Lucy’s doctor & Clark’s roommate
- Ultra Woman = originally the costume Lucy/Lois wore to Perry's 'Come as Your Favorite Superhero' party; now, alt-Lois.
- Martha and Jonathan Kent = canon Clark's parents
- James Olsen = owner of the
Daily Planet, Lois-Lucy's friend
- Lex Luthor = no explanation necessary, same bad guy as always, this time bald
- Jaxon Xavier = Lex Luthor's son and spy at
The Planet, does website design and research for the paper
- Gareth McTinney = new EIC at the alt-DP.
- Barry Balson = Superman beat reporter for DP
- Mayson Drake = police detective, partner to Detective (in alt-world) Henderson, alt-Clark's ex-girlfriend
- Cat Grant = helped alt-Clark out with PR on his '50 dates' charity winners and former social columnist at the DP, now demoted from Acting Editor-in-Chief at the DP back to celebrity columnist.
- Tempus = extremely bad dude from the future, bent on destroying Superman (both of them) – same guy as canon
- The only people who know canon Lois's true identity are alt-Clark, Sam, Moonbeam (alt-Star), Dr. Klein and alt-Lois. Alt-Clark told Mayson Drake that Lucy El is his sister-in-law and that he has a twin brother, but not about the other dimension.
***
Where we left off in Chapter 6: Part 10...Monday, January 27, 1997
Dear Martha:
I’m so sorry about wreaking havoc between your Supermen. I hope they didn’t cause you too much trouble, when they returned there. I’m sorry, if it seemed like I dumped that in your lap.
My life has completely changed since our meeting. My divorce attorney has finally heard back from Lex’s lawyer. Apparently if I continue with my divorce petition, Lex plans on announcing to the world that we were a perfectly happy couple until Superman kidnapped his wife and that our marriage dissolved due to marriage infidelity on my part with Superman as the co-plaintiff. If I drop the divorce, Lex will let me have my freedom and won’t say anything against Superman, so long as I never see my hero again. So, it looks like I’m going to be married to Lex until one of us dies.
I have been spending a lot more time with Clark Kent, ever since the accident when he sat at my bedside all night. And then he held me when I broke down, realizing that I was all alone. He tells me funny stories and whenever he’s around, I find I can have such a good time, hours will have passed without me even thinking of Superman.
We’ve also been spending lots of time at work together. Lucy has gotten so huge, I’ve had to take over her job at The Planet.
Clark said that she didn’t really show until after her sixth month, then boom! Clark loves that baby so much, it breaks my heart when he looks at her. Does he wish Lucy and Kal’s child was his own or is he just paranoid that something will happen, complications that we can’t handle? Only Lucy shows no fear. She said that if I could beat the curse, so can she.
Nobody but Mr. Olsen has noticed the switch at work and he did only because she and he are such good friends. Even Clark didn’t notice it was me instead of her working by his side the first few days. Boy, was he mad when he found out I interviewed his ex-girlfriend, Mayson Drake.
The more time I spend with Clark, the more I realize why your Lois married her Clark. If only I had met him before Superman… my life wouldn’t be any different. I’d still be married to Lex and unable to be with the man I love.
Tell my Clark that I love him. I love him so much, it hurts not to be near him. He doesn’t listen when I try to tell him. If you are reading this letter, it means he has once again rejected me. I can take it no longer. Someone other than him needs to take control of our relationship, and I’m afraid it falls on me to make the hard decision, alone, because he will not admit to me how I know he feels. Life would be simpler for everybody, if I were dead. Then I could finally be free of Lex Luthor, able to love the man I want. This will make things better for everyone. Superman will finally be able to throw away that line he’s been hiding behind for so long. He’ll be free, same as me.
Thank you. And I’m sorry to put you in this position.
Sincerely, LL
PS: Tell Kal El to keep his x-ray vision out of a woman’s body. He’s not a doctor. He was wrong to tell me what he did. I wonder each day, if he had been right instead of wrong, would it have made a difference? Would it have made him fight for me instead of abandon me? Would he have had the courage to tell the world that he loved me or would he have hidden me away in shame? Daddy says I’m lucky Superman can’t have children. Strange, I don’t feel lucky.Part 11Martha set down the letter, reached over and hugged him. “Oh, Clark. I’m sorry. So very sorry.”
Clark looked down at the folded letter and then back at Martha, confused. “Why? What did she say?”
Martha’s mouth hung open a moment in surprise. Lois had never told him about the baby. She swallowed. “Tell me about the accident.”
“She told you about that?” He seemed dismayed.
“No. She told me about Clark being there for her, when Superman wasn’t. You still haven’t told her?”
Clark gazed down in shame. “No, I haven’t. Lois and I – Clark, I – have been getting along so well as friends…”
“No, you haven’t. Tell me what happened, Clark.”
“What did she write?” he asked, but Martha pulled the letter away. She raised her eyebrows.
Clark sat down in the chair next to her and buried his face in his hands. “She drove off in to a snowstorm while Kal – your Clark – and I were fighting. Her car slid off the road and was knocked into a ditch by a snowplow.”
“Oh, Clark.” Martha took hold of his hand.
“Her head was bleeding and her neck and spine seemed wrong,” he whispered, a tear running down his cheek. “Her heartbeat was weak when I pulled her out. I was rushing her to the hospital when we got struck out of the sky by lightning. We landed in the woods, there, by the house. She looked at me, said my name, and passed out.” His voice shook. “I was sure she was dead.”
Martha said nothing, just stared at him, her jaw hanging open. “Lightning?”
“Yeah. It was one of those freak electrical snowstorms.”
Martha nodded. “Go on.”
“I took her to the house and then flew to Metropolis to get her father. Sam’s a doctor.”
“I know.”
“Oh. Right.” Clark swallowed. “I owe him so much, agreeing to be Lucy’s doctor and all, that I couldn’t let her die without allowing him to say good-bye.”
Martha smiled at him and squeezed his hand.
“But it turns out I was wrong. She didn’t die. She was perfectly fine. Not a scratch or broken bone.” He smiled through his tears. “I thought I had killed her, Mar… Mom. No, not me. Superman.”
“You are Superman, Clark,” she reminded him.
“No, I’m not. I can’t be her Superman anymore. All he does is hurt her. And I can’t be someone who causes her pain.”
Martha stared at him in shock. “You’ve given up being Superman, Clark?”
“No. Just around her.”
“Oh.” Martha released her breath. She thought about that for a moment. “So, Superman has abandoned only her.”
“What? No!” Clark gasped. “I haven’t abandoned her, Mom. I am with her all the time. Well, Clark me. She and Lucy have switched places at work, so Lois and I work together most days and we hang out together after work and…”
“Clark has taken Superman’s place then?”
“As friends, Mom. Just friends. I can’t be responsible for her getting hurt again.”
“Nor were you responsible for her getting hurt the last time. Car accidents happen all the time.”
“I know,” he whispered, bowing his head.
Martha winced, realizing her mistake a moment too late. “Your parents died in a car accident, didn’t they?” She wrapped her arms around him as he nodded. “That wasn’t your fault either, I bet.”
“No.” He swallowed. “But Lois wouldn’t have driven off into the storm if I hadn’t lost my temper.”
“Maybe she was going to get ice-cream. The Lois I know does love her ice-cream.”
Clark looked at her incredulously. “Mom. She wasn’t going out for ice-cream.”
“How do you know? Did you talk to her about it? No. So, all she knows is that Superman saw her kissing Clark…” Martha shook her head. “The other Superman. She runs off. Crashes her car. You… Superman rescues her. You both get struck by lightning and then she never sees him again.”
Clark opened and closed his mouth a few times. “Superman makes her miserable, Mom. Do you know she cried for an hour, uncontrollably, the morning after the accident? It was as if a part of her had died. Superman did that.”
Martha looked down at the letter in her hand. She took a deep breath and released it. That’s when she must have realized she lost the baby. And she couldn’t tell Clark, because he wasn’t the father, Superman was. She flipped through the pages of the letter once again. “Did you tell her about the curse?”
“What curse?”
Martha’s eyes opened wide as she stared at him in disbelief. "‘
What curse?’"
“Oh, that curse.” He chuckled. “No, that curse deals with Lucy and Kal – your Clark and Lois – it doesn’t have anything to do with me and my…” Clark covered his mouth. He turned pale.
“How soon after the accident was Lois better? You said she had that break-down the next morning.”
“The next morning. She was up and about, climbing up to my old Fortress of Solitude. Perfectly fine. Well, she…” He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“She was almost killed in a car accident, then struck by lightning and then was climbing trees the next day and you don’t find that odd, Clark?”
“Lucy’s seen this before,” he explained with a shrug.
Martha couldn’t believe that not knowing wasn’t eating him alive. The reason behind Lois’s super quick recovery would drive her Clark nuts, the not knowing. If Martha’s Lois, his Lucy, told him his Lois was in good health, he would just believe her, no questions asked? This Clark must have a lot of faith in her dimension’s Lois, know that she wouldn’t intentionally cause him pain. Why did he trust her so implicitly? Or was he just used to her keeping things from him? “Really? When?” Was his Lucy thinking about the same incident as she was? Resplendent Man.
“I don’t know. She and Lois won’t tell me until Superman reveals his secret identity to Lois.”
Martha laughed. “Blackmail. Oh, Lois. She always hated that Clark left her in the dark for so long. But I think I know which incident she’s referring to. Hold on, let me double check.”
Clark grinned and released a breath. He seemed almost relived that someone was going to finally tell him the truth. Martha nodded. It was eating him up inside, just as she thought.
Martha patted his shoulder and then went to the phone and dialed. “Hi, sweetie, it’s Mom. A quick question.” She looked over at the Clark sitting in her kitchen. “A couple of years, ago. Waldecker, Wallace, what’s his name? Was that lightning?”
“
Mom. Why do you want to know?”
“Oh, your brother’s here and he had a similar situation happen with him.”
“
Who? Oh. Him. Yes, Mom, that was lightning.”
“Thanks, Clark. That’s what I thought.” She turned her back on the Clark in her kitchen and lowered her voice. “Oh, by the way, I got a note from the other Lois, his Lois, and she asked me to tell you that you were wrong.”
Clark’s brow furrowed.
“
Wrong? About what, Mom?” Her son seemed confused.
Martha lowered her voice to less than a whisper, hating to do this to her new Clark, but knowing it was what he needed to hear, “About her being pregnant.”
“What? No!” Clark gasped, falling off his chair and onto the kitchen floor. “I can’t have children,” he stammered. “Dr. Klein said I can’t.”
“Oh, sorry, Clark. I didn’t mean for you to hear that,” she said apologetically to the Clark in her kitchen. Back into the phone, she said, “See, straight out of the horse’s mouth. You must have been wrong.”
Clark picked up the letter from the table and read it quickly through. “Oh, my God! Lois, no!” He threw down the pages and flew out of the house. She smiled. “Thanks, Clark. Clark? Clark?” She shrugged and hung up the phone. As she turned around, she saw her son, still in the blue suit, walking in the kitchen door.
“Where is Clark?”
“He went back to his dimension.” Martha picked up the letter from Lois to place it back into the envelope. But there was something else in there.
She set down the letter and pulled out a child’s Superman Valentine. It read,
Don’t tell Clark, but I know. It was signed,
The all new and improved Ultra Woman.Martha laughed. “I like her, his Lois. She has spunk. Just what he needs. And you think you have your hands full with your Lois.” She shook her head.
Superman spun into his Clark clothes. “Mom. Did you just tell the other Clark that I told his Lois that she was pregnant by telling me that she’s not? How could you do that to him?”
Martha opened the letter and read the final paragraph of Lois’s letter to him:
Tell Kal El to keep his x-ray vision out of a woman’s body. He’s not a doctor. He was wrong to tell me what he did. I wonder each day, if he had been right instead of wrong, would it have made a difference? Would it have made him fight for me instead of abandon me? Would he have had the courage to tell the world that he loved me or would he have hidden me away in shame? Daddy says I’m lucky Superman can’t have children. Strange, I don’t feel lucky.Then Martha crossed her arms and looked at him. “Sometimes a mother tells her son what he needs to hear, whether or not he wants to hear it.”
Her son sat down in the chair that the other Clark had just vacated. “I can’t have children.”
Martha hugged him. “I’m sure you and Lois can. Just because he can’t have children, doesn’t mean you can’t either, Clark.”
He went to pick up the letter, but Martha grabbed it first. “It’s private,” she said. She couldn’t let him read what Lois wrote about Lucy’s baby.
Clark raised a brow at this.
“Who was Clark touching when he was struck by lightning, Mom?”
She smiled, but did not respond.
“Mom?”
Martha stood up and putting her letter back into its envelope, she hastened to the door to the living room. Clark was faster. He grabbed the letter out of her hand.
Quickly, he scanned it and gasped, “It doesn’t say.”
“No, it doesn’t.” She scowled.
“Mom, this isn’t a letter. This is a suicide note.”
Martha nodded.
“That’s why you told him, isn’t it?”
She nodded again holding out her hand.
As he handed the note back, the Superman valentine floated down from the envelope.
Clark grabbed it out of the mid-air. “What the…?” His eyes flashed to hers. “Lois?”
Martha grabbed it out of his hand. “Clark, I told you. Private.”
Clark shook his head. “Poor Clark.”
“Poor Clark?” Martha put her hand on her son’s arm. “Your brother isn’t as strong as you are emotionally, Clark. This will be good for him. He needs her in a different way than you need your Lois.”
“Will you stop calling him that! He’s not my brother, Mom.”
“You’ve always wanted a brother, Clark. Lois thinks…” She stopped herself, pressing her lips together, holding tighter onto the letter. “For a long time, that Clark had no one. No folks, no Lois, and no Superman. So, he looked to you as his role model as the original Superman. He’s tried to be you and he realized he couldn’t. He’s you, but he’s not you at the same time. He’s still learning to be himself and the best Superman he can be. So, if he needs me to smack his head and point him in the right direction from time to time, just like you do, I’ll be there for him. Someday, you might realize just how helpful he has been to you and your family.”
Her son sat still for a moment. Then he sighed. “I’m sorry, Mom. You’re right. I’m being petty and slightly jealous. He was a lot of help during the whole Tempus episode.”
Martha smiled at him and put Lois’s letter on a high shelf between big jars of ornamental pasta. “So, do you and Lois have anything planned for Valentine’s Day?”
He sighed. “After our romantic weekend at Chateau Roberge a couple of weeks ago blew up in our faces, we’ve decided to stay at home for the time being.” He leaned against the counter. Then a huge grin spread across his lips. “So, I’m flying her out to a deserted island I know of with a long sandy white beach, where we can have a romantic picnic, just the two of us. No press. No photographers. Just us, a couple of palm trees and the turquoise blue waters.”
Martha sighed. A couple more weeks. Lois was due to give birth on the fifteenth. She was ready for her real daughter-in-law and her grandchild to come home. “That sounds nice, Clark. Just in case, you might want to fly her out in a blonde wig.”
Clark chuckled. “I’ll make the suggestion.”
Martha glanced up at Lois’s letter, released her breath and patted her son on his arm. Sometimes you need a pair of glasses to hide the truth, sometimes people are naturally blind.
***
Back in the other dimension... Earlier that morning…Lois rubbed her wet hair with a towel. She stopped at the edge of the bathroom. Something was wrong. Different. She dropped the towel on the floor, wrapped her robe tighter around herself and floated into the air. Someone had been in her room. Something was out of a place. As she scanned the room, she noticed a black mat that hadn’t been there before. The black mat lay just inside her bedroom from the bathroom. And a few feet away sat a new black box.
“Lucy?” she called to her roommate. No answer.
Lois set herself down in the bedroom and ran down the hall to Lucy’s room. The bed was empty. She sighed and floated up to where her friend dozed on the ceiling, pulling her back down to the bed.
“Lucy, wake up!” Lois shook her.
Lucy rolled over ignoring her.
“Earth to Mrs. Kent! Wake up.”
Lucy stretched and sat up. “I had the best dream. Kal and I finally had an evening together at home…” She smiled. “And we celebrated.”
“Snap out of it, Lucy. We’ve got an emergency situation here.”
“Ok. Got it. Just let me use the facilities first.” Lucy pulled her legs over the side of her bed and wiggled her toes.
“You might want to use Mr. Olsen’s. Our bathroom is a bit out of order. Forever.”
Lucy looked at her, concerned, “Show me.”
They walked back into the master bedroom.
“This looks familiar.” Lucy thought a moment. “Joe-the-Blow. Pressure sensitive mat. If you step on the mat, it activates the bomb. Then you have to keep to the rhythm or boom.”
“Intergang?” Lois asked.
Lucy nodded. “Yep. I got stuck on one of these right after Kal proposed and I turned him down.”
“You turned him down?” Lois shook her head.
“It was a lot to take in at once. First, that he wanted to marry me and secondly, that he was Superman. Remember, I thought he was two people for two years, not just a month, before I found out the truth.”
“Right.”
Lucy swallowed. “So, should we call Superman or the bomb squad or do you want to take care of it?” She looked at the bomb, rubbing her belly. Taking a deep breath.
“Oh, go use the other door, already.” Lois rolled her eyes.
Lucy darted out into the hall.
“Lucy, I think it’s time,” Lois called to her.
“Time for what?” Lucy answered from the bathroom.
“Time to implement the Ultra Woman plan,” Lois said, starting to pace.
Silence, then a flush. Lucy washed her hands and walked towards Lois.
“Stop!” Lois reminded her.
Lucy stopped one step away from the mat. “Thanks. Ugh. I didn’t need to go through that again. Especially as a beluga whale.”
Lois picked her up and moved her back to the bedroom.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Lucy asked.
“Will made. Letter to Martha written. Ultra Woman exclusive article almost finished. I’ve even got the purple suit, clean and ready to wear.”
“That’s not what I meant. Are you ready? Are you sure you want to do this? Once you make this leap, it’s hard to come back. But this is a big step. You are giving up everything. Well, not everything. I mean, Clark loves you, completely and totally.”
“He better or I’m going through a whole hell of a lot for nothing,” Lois snapped.
“If you’re not sure, we can wait until after the baby’s born. Make sure you’re sure.” Lucy reassured her. “I’m bigger than a house. I don’t know if anyone’s going to be fooled into thinking we’re the same person anymore.”
“No. We won’t get another opportunity like this. And we can’t just hold onto this one or Joe-the-Blow will come back to fix the problem. And I really don’t like that they came in here, while you were asleep and I was in the shower. Please. Are there no boundaries anymore?”
“Lois.”
“Got it. Not important. Right. Go get dressed as Lucy El. You’re going to work. Do you think you can get Mr. Olsen to take you?”
“I’ve been postponing breakfast with him all week. I’ll go call him and unpostpone it.”
”I’ll catch Clark and get him to take the note to Martha.”
“Are you sure the note will work, Lois? Will it delay him long enough? Will he read between the lines?”
“From what you’ve told me about Martha, she will understand the note. It’s vague enough to get her to ask Clark the right questions. She’ll make him understand its meaning and get Clark to regret how Superman has treated me. And, yes, I know I have to be faster than I’ve ever been before.”
“Lois, this could backfire in your face. Clark isn’t going to like being played.”
Lois sneered. “He played me first, Lucy.”
“He doesn’t deserve this, Lois. How can you justify putting him through that kind of pain again?”
“It has to be believable. If he’s seen to be broken up, stressed out, then Lex and Jaxon will believe it. They need to believe that he’s in pain.”
“I know. I just hate hurting him.” Lucy swallowed.
Lois looked at her. “He’s mine,” she growled. “You have Kal.”
Lucy put up her hands. “Lois, he’s still my friend, but that’s all.”
“Better be all. Let’s go over the plan. If I’m going to die, it’s got to be believable or Lex isn’t going to buy it and I’ll have died for nothing.”
Lucy sat down on Lois’s bed.
“First, you get dressed as Lucy El and have Mr. Olsen take…”
“James. Lucy El calls him James. You need to remember that.”
“Right. Get James to take you to work. I’ll have Clark take the letter to Martha. Then I’ll call my Dad and tell him the plan is go for today. Then I’ll call work and tell Cat about Ultra Woman.”
“What about the body?” Lucy asked. “Lex is going to want a body to bury.”
“Crap. Okay.” Lois thought for a moment. “Don’t worry, there will be a body.”
“Clark’s not going to like this, Lois. He’s going to feel like it’s a huge lie… a huge series of lies. And you know how Clark feels about lying.”
Lois rolled her eyes. “So, it’s all right to lie to me and make me look like a fool, but not vice-versa? Luckily, my Clark does not feel as strongly about lying as Kal. Did he really snipe at you for making reservations at Chateau Roberge?” She shook her head. “It’s the only way Clark and I can be together, Lucy.”
“I know.” Lucy sighed. “I’ll go get dressed.”
As soon as Lucy left the room, Lois spun into her Ultra Woman suit. She had borrowed Clark’s mother’s old sewing machine and made it more stream-lined and form fitting. Skin tight. No pregnancy babe here. She winced at that thought and pushed it to the back of her mind again. No distractions. After another glance in the mirror, she spun into her Lucy El costume. She sat down on her bed, took a deep breath and picked up the phone.
“
Hello?”
“Clark?” Lois sounded breathless. Stay calm. Stay cool, she reminded herself.
“
Lois? Is everything okay?”
“Can you come over early? I have a favor to ask you?”
“Tell him I want a smoothie,” Lucy called from the other room.
“And can you bring Lucy a smoothie?”
He laughed. “
Got it. A favor and a smoothie. Anything else?”
Lois grinned and then replied with a little sass, “We’ll see when you get here, Clark.”
She heard him swallow and then hang up. Good, he understood her hint. She waited five minutes and then called her father at the same number.
“Dad, today’s the day.”
“
What? Already? Lois, I’m not sure about this. It’s like testing if you’re bulletproof with real bullets.”
“I know, it’s exciting,” she enthused. “Everything else we have tested has rung true. I can do this, Dad.”
“
I love you, Princess. Are you sure that this is what you want? All the work you put into becoming the best reporter in the world, you’ll be throwing that away.”
“I know, Daddy. But think what I’ll be able to accomplish instead. All the people I can help. And I’ll still be working at the paper. I won’t be giving that up.”
“
I don’t want you to die, Lois,” he said, his voice rough.
“I love you, too, Daddy. Just be ready when they call you to identify me. It has to be you, not Clark.”
Her father sniffed. “
No parent is ever ready for that phone call, honey.”
“Oh, I have to go, Daddy. He’ll be here any minute.”
“
Bye, Lois. I’m proud of you. Take care.”
“Thanks, Daddy. I will.” She hung up the phone and walked out to the living room.
Lucy came out two minutes later carrying a suitcase. “My valuables,” she explained. “Stuff we don’t want the police finding in the debris. Can you leave this in Smallville for me?”
“Oh, my God! I almost forgot about that. That would have caused too many questions.” Lois stuck a finger in her mouth and started to nibble. “What else have we let fall through the cracks?”
The women were silent for a minute, thinking, before a knock interrupted them.
“Ready?” Lucy asked.
Lois took a deep breath and then nodded. Lucy grabbed her suitcase and stuck it into the hall closet.
Lois opened the door and Clark stood on the other side, an innocent smile on his face. She wanted to smile at him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and give him the kiss of a lifetime. She wanted…
“Is everything all right, Lois?” he asked.
She realized she was just staring at him. “Oh, sorry.” She stepped aside, so he could enter.
Lucy passed by grabbing the smoothie. “Thanks, Clark.”
“How are you feeling today, Lucy?” he asked, but his eyes stayed on Lois as if he noticed something amiss.
“Like a beached killer whale in a parka.”
“Huh?” He blinked, pulling his eyes away from Lois, turning to Lucy.
Lucy smiled at him. “Very happy that I know my exact due date. And counting down the minutes. Less than three weeks to go.”
Clark pressed his lips together. “Just because you were due on the fifteenth before doesn’t mean you still will be. We’ve changed history, hopefully.”
“Changed history?” Lois asked innocently.
“We have,” Lucy reassured him, ignoring Lois.
“Then anything is possible, Lucy, even an earlier delivery date, so I don’t want you doing anything that might cause Baby Kent to arrive early.” He gasped at his mistake and glanced at Lois. She pretended she hadn’t noticed his gaffe. He sighed and gently stroked Lucy’s tummy over her clothes.
Lois’s eyes closed to slits and Lucy quickly took a step away, glancing at her. Clark seemed confused at this movement and turned to Lois. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a pointed look.
“Thanks for the smoothie, Clark,” Lucy said again, heading out the door. “James promised to take me to breakfast.”
“I hope you are being careful, you two. If you ladies are both portraying Lucy El, we can’t have anyone seeing you together. You both can’t be out and about in Metropolis at the same time.”
Lucy smiled at him. “I’ll be careful.” She threw a glance at Lois and shut the door.
Clark turned to Lois and she gazed at him, taking a breath.
“We’re alone, now,” she whispered, causing a pained expression to flash across his face. Was he scared about being alone with her?
“You wanted something?” he asked.
Lois stepped up to him. “Why haven’t you tried to kiss me, Clark?”
Clark took a step backwards. “Are you feeling all right, Lois?”
“Is it because of him?” she asked, gazing at Clark. “Did he say something about me? Did he tell you to stay away from me?”
“We don’t talk about you, Lois,” he stated, truthfully.
“Oh.” She looked down and away. “He wouldn’t do that, would he?” She turned away from him. “I sometimes feel as if I have lost or given away everything precious in my life. Yet, what do I have to show for it? How has my life changed since he rescued me? I still live under someone else’s name. I am not free to go where I want, be who I want, or love who I want. My life is no longer my own. I still cannot be me. Who am I anymore?” Tears rolled down her cheek as she sat down on the sofa.
Clark knelt down beside her. “You are still Lois Lane.”
“And who is she? Wife and prisoner to a madman. Ridiculed reporter. I want to be more. I want to help people. Be free to love the man that I choose, whomever that might be…” She looked into his eyes. “Whether that be him or someone else.”
Clark swallowed. “Have hope, Lois.”
“In what?” Lois whispered. “Hope that Lex will die of food poisoning and that my hero will have waited for me? Are you telling me I might have to wait years to get my life back? You say you know me better than anyone else, Clark. Am I someone who can just stand on the sidelines and wait?”
He smiled, weakly. “No.”
“Yet, that is what you are asking me to do. What if, after all this waiting and hoping, he’s not there? What about Ultra Woman? What if she came back? Cat said, he himself described her as his ‘destiny’. How can I compete with destiny?”
Clark glanced away, almost embarrassed. “I told you before, Lois, you are in charge of your own destiny. Don’t let it rule you. Take charge.”
“Agreed. After today, I, Lois Lane, will never ask you for anything in my life again.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You won’t?”
“Clark, I haven’t asked you yet.” She chuckled nervously. She crossed over to her desk and picked up a letter, handing it to him. “Can you take this letter to Martha for me? It’s a note of apology for my actions in regards to Kal El and…” She swallowed, still not able to speak his title. “Him.”
“You don’t have anything to apologize for, Lois.”
“I shouldn’t have kissed Kal, Clark. I shouldn’t have done that. I just couldn’t resist him, like something stronger than me was pulling me towards him. Do you know what that’s like?”
Clark glanced away with a nod.
“Then they started fighting and I just know they took the time machine back to Martha’s farm. I have no idea what sort of damage they did there.”
“All right. I‘ll take it as soon as I can …”
Lois shook her head, placing her hands in his. “No. Can you ask him to give you a lift to Smallville? I need you to take it now or I might change my mind.”
“Change your mind about what?” he asked, raising a brow and squeezing her hands.
“Taking charge of my destiny.”
“Lois.” He looked warily at her. “What are you planning on doing?”
“This,” she whispered, leaning forward to kiss him. At the last second, he turned away.
“I can’t, Lois. You’re married.”
Lois gasped, leaning back and nodding with closed eyes. “I understand, Clark. I didn’t really think you would. I was just hopeful.” She swallowed back her tears and whispered, “This is your last chance, Clark. I won’t offer again.”
He just looked at her, but didn’t say anything. Then he turned away, wincing as if in pain. “It’s better this way.”
“You don’t have the courage to love me, fight against the odds and be mine, I understand. Can you leave now? I have to get ready.” She pointed at the door.
Clark stood and stared at her. And she continued to point at the door without looking at him. He stepped into the hall and said, “Look, Lois… I’m sorry.”
She crossed the room in an instant to shut the door. “Me, too,” she murmured, leaning up against it. Then she heard him speaking to her under his breath and she smiled.
“I love you so much it hurts, Lois. There is you and only you and if it takes one-hundred years, I’d wait for you, because there is no one else in the world for me.”
Lois grinned. Was that so hard? To tell her just what she wanted to hear?
Right. Time to take charge.
*** End of Part 11 *** CommentsChapter 6: Part 12
