Missing Lois (aka Season 6) -
TOC Chapter 8: The Twilight Zone – Revisited - 10 Parts
Disclaimer: Inspired by the characters created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster and portrayed on the
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series, developed for TV by Deborah Joy-LeVine. The last scene from
The Family Hour, season 4 finale, written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming, was borrowed almost word for word. The character of Batman / Bruce Wayne was created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Many thanks for the above-referenced writers for their inspiration. The plot of the story is entirely my own.
Author’s Note: From now on all action takes place in canon dimension. The Clark is canon Clark. The Lois… well, the first Lois we meet is actually the substitute Lois taken from the past to hold the place of his true Lois, who currently is still in alt-dimension.
For a plot summary, please click here:
Synopsis Chapters 1-7.
Part 1Clark held Lois. What a crazy day! Ellen’s and Sam’s brains wiped of every memory that he was Superman. Unfortunately his parents had been zapped too. He wondered what memories they lost.
Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!What was that? It sounded like… No. It couldn’t be. Clark pulled the covers off himself and stepped out of bed.
“What is it?” Lois asked him, sitting up.
“I’m not quite sure.”
They slipped on their robes and went down the stairs. The voice inside his head was gone, but he heard something else now. Was that a coo? He glanced at Lois and opened the sliding doors to the dining room. He hadn’t remembered shutting them.
There, lying in his bassinette was a little baby, covered by a navy blanket with an ‘S’ patch, just like his. His breath caught in his throat.
“Clark!” Lois gasped.
He picked up a note. “Lois and Clark, this baby belongs to you.”
They looked at each other. “Clark.” Lois positively glowed.
He smiled, wrapping his arm around her. “Ours.”
She hugged him and then went to pick up the baby.
Clark heard footsteps on the stairs. Ooops. They must have woken up the folks. He walked out of the dining room and saw Ellen, Sam and his folks all coming down the stairs.
“We saw the light…”
“Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad. There’s someone we’d like you to meet,” he said, stepping aside as Lois entered the living room with the baby in her arms.
Lois’s mother’s jaw wasn’t the only one to fall.
“Where did it come from?” his mother asked.
Clark couldn’t tell if she really didn’t know or if she was just acting for everyone else. He handed over the note, which got passed from grandparent to grandparent. “We found it in my old bassinette.”
“Someone broke in and left you a baby?” Sam asked, surprised. His parents also seemed to believe this to be unlikely.
Clark and Lois exchanged a glance. Maybe they should change the story to being found outside their front door. He shrugged.
“Are you going to keep it?” Ellen asked.
Lois and Clark looked at each other and smiled. “Clark can’t have children of his own. County Adoption Services think it’s too risky to allow me to adopt one of their children.” She looked down at the baby in her arms. “The note said it belonged to us. How could we turn down such an offer?”
Clark wrapped his arms around his wife and child and rested his head on the baby’s.
Daddy! Daddy!He gasped, looking down at the child, his breath completely gone. This baby knew he was its father.
Clark kissed its head and then pulled it out of Lois’s arms. He held the baby and it touched his face. He could feel, he was unsure how, just feel that this child loved him unconditionally. “I love you, too,” he whispered. “There are some people I want you to meet.” He walked them over to his parents. “These are my folks. You can call them Grandma and Grandpa.” His Mom and Dad caressed the baby’s cheek. He walked the baby back to Lois.
Lois took the baby and walked to her parents. “These are my parents.” She looked at her Mom. “What do you want the baby to call you?”
“Do you think this is wise, Lois? You don’t know where this baby comes from. What if its parents come looking for it?” Ellen asked.
Clark smiled with a glance to his Mom, who didn’t seem to understand his look. “I don’t think we have to worry about that, Ellen.”
“What makes you say that?” Lois’s mother responded hesitantly.
“Just a feeling,” he responded. Lois smiled. She had seen the blanket as well.
“Well…” Ellen didn’t know what to say to that.
“For Pete’s sake, Ellen, it’s our first grandchild. Be a little more supportive,” Sam said, stepping up to his daughter and her baby. “Hello, angel, you can call me Pops.” He touched its cheek.
Ellen pressed her lips together. “I was trying to be a realist.” She rolled her eyes and looked at the baby. Then she smiled, holding out her arms. “Come to Grammy, little one.”
Clark chuckled and watched as Lois handed the baby to her Mom.
“Oh, aren’t you a cutie?” Ellen rocked her back and forth. She raised it to her shoulder and patted its back, bouncing up and down. “I’d say about ten to thirteen pounds. Probably not more than three months old.”
Lois’s jaw dropped. “Mom?”
“Forget your old Mother was a nurse for over twenty years?” Ellen said, raising her brows.
Three months ago was February. Clark smiled. He looked at his Mom, but she didn’t seem to make the connection. Did that Bummer-B-Gone erase their memories of Lois in the other dimension? Of their grandchild? How could that be?
His father held out his arms. “My turn.” Reluctantly Ellen passed him the baby.
“Jonathan,” his mother whispered. “It’s the spitting image of Clark as a baby.”
Clark’s heart swelled. Did it look just like him? He thought he had had dark hair.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Martha. All babies look alike.”
They both looked at Clark, but all he could do was shrug. He had no definite idea on who the birth parents were. It could be his missing Lois. His heart stopped beating. His missing Lois! She hadn’t come with the baby. He swallowed, looking at Lois. She had been with him every moment of the last four hours. He hadn’t flown off as Superman since Fat Head was arrested. He wrapped an arm around his wife and kissed her cheek.
“We should start thinking of names,” Sam suggested. “Charles?”
“Jonathan has always been a good name,” said Grandpa Jonathan.
“No. No. Samuel has a much better ring to it,” said Sam.
Clark walked over to his Dad. He had to touch the baby again. His baby. He could hardly believe it. He glanced back at Lois, Ellen, and his Mom standing over by the doors to the dining room looking at the men and shaking their heads.
“Jordan?” Clark smiled with a wink at Lois. Dream Lois had already vetoed that one. She rolled her eyes. Still vetoed.
“Junior?” Sam suggested.
“No!” Both Lois and Clark said at the same time and then a little less vehemently. “No.”
“Can you believe these guys?” murmured Ellen to his Mom, not loud enough to interrupt his father and Sam arguing over names. “You’d think that the baby could only possibly be a boy.”
“Steven?” his Dad mentioned.
“Do you think we should start suggesting some girls names?” asked his Mom.
“No,” said Lois with a smile. “I already know what I’d name her.”
Ellen elbowed Lois. “If she turns out to be a girl, be on the look-out for Clark’s ‘a-ha moment’.”
“David?” Sam recommended.
“ ‘A-ha moment’?” his Mom wanted to know. So did he. What was Lois’s Mom talking about?
“Peter?” said his Dad.
“The moment he realizes that someday, his little baby girl will grow up and be a woman and men will want to date her. Clark knows what men want from women, will want from his daughter someday. Suddenly he will look at men differently. Not as friends or colleagues or decent human beings, he will see them for the slimeballs they can be. He will become an adamant protector of all things feminine. The ‘a-ha moment’. It usually happens, when the father notices his daughter no longer looks like a little girl, when she becomes a teenager, but it can happen earlier. For your father, it happened when what’s-his-name kissed you in kindergarten.”
“Stan Dunkel.” Lois recalled with a nod. “I wonder what ever happened to him? Daddy just flipped. He came to kindergarten class and had a sit down with Stan, man-to-man.” She laughed. “I had forgotten about that. Another boy didn’t try to kiss me until high school. Daddy can be quite intimidating when he wants to be.”
“With some men, it happens even earlier, at the birth of their daughters. As soon as they know that they are the father of a daughter, all men become the scum of the universe in their eyes. He needs to protect his little girl from every man out there.”
“Ellen.” Martha chuckled. “That’s a ridiculous theory.”
Lois’s Mom shrugged. “Okay. What could I know? I only have two daughters.”
Martha shook her head. “Clark would never…” She stopped and looked over at her son.
Lois swallowed and turned her gaze to him as well. Clark returned a smile. They didn’t need to worry about him. He had a cool head on his shoulders. He had been forewarned. He was already the protector of all little girls.
“Lois, why don’t you take your parents and the baby upstairs and do a preliminary physical? You know weight and height,” suggested Clark. “Diaper.”
“Marshall?” said Sam.
“Diaper?” gasped Ellen. “We don’t have any baby supplies here? Formula? Diapers? Clothing?” She turned to her daughter. “Do we?”
Lois shook her head.
“Somebody’s going to have to make a run to the store tonight,” said Clark, looking around. He didn’t want to go. No one else volunteered either. He wanted to stay with his child.
“Clark’s right. Let’s do the preliminary height and weight first,” said Ellen. “We need to know its weight to buy diapers and clothing anyway.” She turned and walked into the dining room before Clark or Lois could stop her. “Did the parents leave anything besides a note?”
Lois grabbed her Mom’s arm, dragging her back into the living room. “Nope. Nothing. Just baby and note. That’s all.” Lois shot an intense look at Martha, who picked up something from her cue.
“Come on, Ellen. Why don’t you…”
“What’s this?” Clark winced as Ellen brought out the navy blanket in which the baby had been wrapped.
“Clark?” His mother instantly recognized it. He gave her a brief nod.
“Just leave it, Mom,” said Lois, grabbing the blanket from her Mom and tossing it back into the bassinette. “Let’s go weigh the baby.”
“Okay,” said Ellen slowly with a perplexed look on her face.
Clark hoped she hadn’t seen the big Superman ‘S’ on the blanket. Ellen then shook her head and took her ex-husband’s arm.
“Blake?” Sam was saying, taking the baby from Jonathan.
“Oh, shut up, Sam. Do you have your medical bag with you?”
“No?” Sam said, just realizing another topic had also been discussed.
“It’s okay, Mom. We’re just doing height and weight. We can do the other stuff later,” said Lois, ushering them up the stairs with a long glance at Clark. She expelled a breath with a shake of her head, following behind them.
“Is this what I think it is?” his Mom asked him, holding up the blanket.
Clark nodded. “Do you think…?” He hated to mention the missing Lois with his current place-holder wife having just left the room.
“Zara and Ching?” his Dad suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.
“Perhaps some other Kryptonians that remained after the invasion,” said his Mom. “But knew they had to go back and couldn’t take the baby. But how would they know you…” She shook her head.
Clark glanced between his folks. They didn’t remember about his wife being pregnant and heading to the other dimension because of the curse that might kill them. The Bummer-B-Gone had definitely wiped away those memories. True, they had stressed his Mom out, but he still couldn’t fathom that all the memories of his pregnant Lois were bad enough to be wiped clean. The names of the New Kryptonians, strangely enough, were still there. Perhaps Clark had gotten them away from the Bummer-B-Gone before those memories had been reached. He felt more lost than ever without being able to confide in his Mom and Dad.
“What about the other Clark?” his Mom said. “Maybe he finally found his Lois.”
So, she remembered the other Clark, but not that he had found his Lois or that she had met her.
Clark nodded. “He did find her, Mom.”
“Oh, good.” She smiled, but that smile faded. “But if you can’t have children…”
“Who knows, Mom, the baby could be…” started Clark.
“It’s a girl!” screamed Ellen, running down the stairs. “A girl! I knew it. I just knew it!” She ran back up.
“A daughter,” said Clark, a smile lighting up his face. His skin began to tingle. “I have a daughter.”
“Congratulations, son,” said his father, holding out his hand.
Clark beamed and shook his Dad’s hand. Then he picked them both up and turned them around with a gigantic hug. “I’m a Dad. A Dad.”
As he set them back down, his mother said, “She could be human.”
Clark closed his eyes.
It’s Daddy telling you I love you. He felt a response of giggling and joy from the baby. He didn’t hear it, he felt it, sensed it in his mind. His eyes flashed opened. “No, Mom, she can’t be. She’s telepathic.”
His Mom and Dad stared at him, before his Dad finally spoke up, “Excuse me, son?”
“The baby called to Lois and me, telepathically. That’s how I knew it… she was here,” he whispered. “I just didn’t know what I was hearing until I saw her with my own eyes. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Maybe she’s from the future,” suggested his Mom, hugging him. “Perhaps, Dr. Klein was wrong and she really is yours.”
Clark smiled, weakly, not knowing what to believe. “I hope so, Mom. I hope so.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, though. She’s mine, now. I have a daughter.” He grinned.
Ellen, Sam, Lois, and the baby returned from upstairs.
“Rosanna?” suggested Sam. “Mabel? Joan? Catherine?”
“No, Pops. Not Catherine.”
Clark smiled. No, definitely not Catherine.
“Names that start with the letter ‘L’ are nice. I’ve always preferred those,” said Ellen.
“Lara,” said Lois, looking at Clark. “L-A-R-A, after Clark’s birth mother.” That was the same name that dream Lois had wanted, too. They had to be the same person.
“Lara Lucia,” Clark corrected. Lucy. After her possible birth mother’s secret identity.
“Lucy, like my sister,” Lois said, smiling. “A little bit of you, a little bit of me.”
“Lara Lucia Kent?” contemplated Ellen with a nod. “I like it.”
Clark took the baby from Sam. “Hello, there, Lara.” The baby smiled, actually smiled at him. That was the right name. “Yes, she’s definitely a Lara.” He hugged her and felt her heartbeats. They were fast, faster than Lois, faster than a normal human infant’s, that was for sure. She could be part Kryptonian. She could be his natural daughter. Or even the other Clark’s and Ultra Woman’s, sent back from the future. He wished he knew for sure. But as he told his folks, it really didn’t matter. He didn’t care who her birth parents were, he knew she belonged to him. She was without a doubt his daughter, whether natural or adopted. He loved her and she loved him. Sighing, Clark shifted his gaze to Lois. He loved them both.
***
Clark shook her shoulder. “They’re back.”
Lois blinked and then rubbed her eyes. “Finally.” There was a weight on her chest. Glancing down, she saw the baby lying cuddled asleep in the crook of her arm. “Hello, there.” She smiled. A baby. Wow! She was still in shock. Things happened fast when one was married to Superman. Gazing up at Clark, she smiled.
Lois always knew Clark would be a great father, but only after she had seen him take to Lara like a fish to water did she realize how much he really wanted to have a family of his own. He loved Lara with all his heart and soul from the first instant he saw her. Bonding didn’t come so easily for her; it never had. Once they got her to sleep through the night… Lois yawned. Or maybe just a few more naps like this one and she was sure she would be right there with Clark.
After her folks and Jonathan had left for the store, the night before, she, Martha, and Clark had discussed the possibilities of who the child’s parents could be… Well, Lois and Martha had. Clark was mainly silent on the topic, preferring to cuddle with Lara. Martha thought it might be holdovers from the visitors from New Krypton or possibly Zara and Ching, as the timing was accurate. Although Lois couldn’t fathom why they, as leaders of New Krypton, would want to have their child raised on Earth, unless additional problems had arisen on New Krypton. Or how they could have had a child at the
beginning of their official relationship.
Lois hoped it might be a future version of the alternate Clark and his Lois – having solved the whole two-species problem. She wished him happiness, knowing he had so little in his dimension. But then why would the other Clark send said child to them? Unless some crazy thing happened like her daydream of the… what? eight children at once. Clark would only agree that both scenarios were possible.
It was obvious to Lois that Clark didn’t care who Lara’s original parents were. They were her parents now and that was all that mattered to him. He had been given a great gift and he was going to love Lara with all of his heart. Clark was being so… Clark. It made her love him even more. Lois knew the puzzle was going to keep her up at night. She yawned again… well, when she wasn’t already awake because of Lara.
When Jonathan and her parents had returned from the all night grocery store, they had come in with a bag with formula and baby bottles, a box of diapers, a bag with onesies and baby blankets, a baby bathtub, a bag of baby toiletries, a ‘caring for a baby’ book, and a full bag of baby toys. She had shaken her head, betting there hadn’t been a single item left in that store.
No matter how much Lois loved having a new daughter, she had hated using her hand towels for diapers. Clark had scooped Lara out of Lois’s arms and rushed her upstairs to change her diaper. While he had done that – best Daddy in the world, thought Lois, and she wondered how long volunteering to change diapers would last – she, Martha, and her mother had tried to figure out how to make formula.
“Dad, she’s three months old. Not really crawling yet.” Clark had chuckled, coming back down the stairs.
“Safety first,” his father had replied.
Lois had glanced out the kitchen door at this exchange. Jonathan had been carrying inside a baby safety gate for the top of the stairs.
That was the night before. They had then fed Lara and tried to get her back to sleep. Lois had walked her, Clark had even flown her a little, after Lois’s parents had gone to bed. But the little cutie did not want to sleep, until after three – or was it, four? – in the morning.
This morning Lois’s dark circles were down to her chin. Clark could handle sleeplessness a little better than she. He had sent the grandparents out to do some shopping, even giving them use of her Cherokee. Then he fed and changed Lara again. By the time Lois had woken up at ten, she had found them lying on a blanket in the middle of the carpet of their living room.
“Tummy time,” he had explained, holding up the parenting book. “It strengthens her neck muscles and prepares her for crawling.”
Lois smiled, going over to her desk. “Where’s my camera?” she asked. Three drawers later, she pulled it out. No film. A quick call to her Mom’s cell phone fixed that problem. She lay down on the blanket with Lara and Clark and tried to raise her head off the floor, too. Clark brought her a cup of coffee and a square of coffee cake. Thank God for Martha Kent.
All morning she and Clark had spent quality family time with Lara. They hadn’t discussed politics, the
Daily Planet, corporate greed, or anything going on in the world. They just spent time with their daughter. It had been wonderful. Sometime after lunch, Lois had fed Lara another bottle and then lain down on the sofa. She wondered who had fallen asleep first.
Lois rubbed her eyes again, turning into a sitting position as Clark helped carry stuff from the car. And stuff there was. A rocking chair, a changing table, a stroller, a crib, crib sheets, a car seat, a high chair, a baby monitor (as if they needed one of those with Clark around), a diaper pail, a snuggly, a swing, baby proofing supplies, bags and bags of clothes, more toys, more books, more diapers and more safety gates.
“Did you leave us anything to buy?” Lois asked her parents as Clark brought in the last load.
“This will get you started, dear,” said her mother, plopping down on the sofa next to her.
Started? Lois’s eyes bugged. Who knew that babies required so much gear? She glanced at Clark, but he merely shrugged with a smile. Clark, of course, knew.
Jonathan came in last with a bag from their favorite Chinese restaurant. “I brought dinner.”
Dinner? Had she slept all afternoon? She glanced over at the clock: four-thirty. Okay. Not so late. Lara was still asleep, so she walked her upstairs to the bassinette, which they had put next to their bed. She kissed her daughter’s forehead and set her in the bassinette.
***
As Martha cleared up the left over take out cartons, Lara woke up and Clark ran upstairs to retrieve her. They moved out to the living room, where Clark fed Lara her bottle and Lois served the fortune cookies with coffee.
“ ‘You will go on a grand adventure’.” Lois laughed. “That’s for sure. Clark?”
“I have my fortune, right here,” Clark said, holding up Lara.
‘That man loved their daughter so much,’ she thought with a smile. “Okay,” Lois said aloud, cracking open his cookie. “‘Happiness is your forte.’ They know you well, Clark.” She fed him his cookie. “But it’s still not a fortune. I hate that.”
“I’ll take it.” Her husband smiled at her. “I am happy.”
Lois kissed his cheek and laid her head against his arm.
There was silence for a few minutes as the exhaustion of the day hung over them. Jonathan slapped his hands on his knee. “Come on, Sam, let’s get the stroller together.”
Clark passed Lara to Lois to finish feeding her.
“Is anyone going to mention the four hundred pound alien in the room?” Ellen asked out of the blue.
*** End of Part 1 *** CommentsChapter 8: Part 2
