Author’s Note: From now on all action takes place in canon dimension. The Clark is canon Clark. The Lois is canon Lois back from her year abroad in alt-dimension.
For a plot summary, please click here:
Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 7 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Chapter 8, Part 4...“Okay,” Jimmy said, hesitating. “CK, I’ve got those photos you asked for.” He glanced at Perry, holding out the envelope. “You want to explain them?”
Clark eyes darted to his editor as he reached for the envelope. “Not particularly. They’re pretty self explanatory.”
“Those on the Luthor story?” Perry asked.
“No. That other thing I was working on before lunch,” Clark murmured, not being able to wait to glance in the envelope.
Perry crossed his arms. “Uh-huh.”
Clark pocketed the photos. “It can wait.”
“Do I get to see the photos?”
He glanced at Jimmy, who swallowed. “Nothing interesting, Chief. Although, I’m dying to know the story that goes along with them.”
Clark jumped up and tugged Jimmy out of the office. “We’ve got a story to research, Jimmy. No need to bother Perry any longer with this.”
Perry raised a brow. “Uh-huh.”
“Conference room, now,” Jimmy said after they left their editor’s office.
“Jimmy, I think Perry wanted us to work on the Luthor story,” Clark said, heading for his desk.
His friend held up the negatives. “I’ve still got these. And you aren’t getting them until I get an explanation for those photos.” Jimmy went into the conference room.
Part 5Clark followed, shutting the door and closing the blinds. Jimmy stood next to the table, arms crossed.
“Where did you and Lois get a baby?”
Clark pulled the photos out of his pocket and sat down at the table with them. There was no way he was ever telling anyone where Lara really came from. “She’s adorable, isn’t she?” He flipped through the photos. “Awe. This one with Lois and I that’s the one for my desk.”
“CK!” Jimmy slammed his hand on the table. It wasn’t like him to stand up to Clark that way. “I went out on the line for you, I deserve an explanation.”
Clark sighed. “Someone left her by our front door.”
“You aren’t planning on keeping her, are you?”
“Why not?” he asked.
“She belongs to someone else.”
“No, the note clearly read ‘Lois and Clark, this baby belongs to you.’ Finders, keepers.” He grinned.
Jimmy shook his head. “CK.”
“What do you want me to do, Jimmy? Put her up in an orphanage? That’s never going to happen.”
“Find her parents.”
“We are her parents.” About this one point Clark would never waver.
“What’s with all the secrecy, then? Why not tell the Chief?”
“Perry will make us contact the police and the paper will run a big story about someone leaving a baby on our doorstep. The loonies will come out of the woodwork to claim that the baby is theirs. The government folks will send in their bureaucrats. The tabloids will follow us everywhere, claiming we stole Lara, trying to get a photo. Lois wants us to be prepared for all eventualities.”
“Lara?” Jimmy sat down next to him, looking at the photos.
“Lara Lucia Kent.” Clark smiled, picking up a photo of him and her. “My daughter.”
“Wow, CK! This is news.”
“Exactly.” He gathered up the photos and slid them back into the envelope. “That’s what we’re trying to avoid.”
“You’ve got to tell Perry.”
“We will. It just happened late Friday night. It’s still new. If you have time, maybe you could help me research any missing babies. Make sure that she wasn’t kidnapped and then dropped off on our doorstep.” She wasn’t, but they had to have proof that wasn’t true.
“Inspector Henderson would be able to research that easier than me,” Jimmy told him.
“Just give us a few days, Jimmy, please. Remember the craziness surrounding our weddings. Imagine what would happen if we announced we found a baby and we’re keeping her.”
“You’ve got guts, CK.” Jimmy shook his head. “Fatherhood. Wow. That means you’re a grown-up.”
Clark smiled, pulling out that photo of Lara again. “She’s worth it.”
“No more parties. No more fancy restaurants. No more spur of the moment weekend getaways. No more all night stake-outs. No more taking chances with bad guys. No more fun.”
The new father chuckled. “Different kind of fun, Jimmy.”
Jimmy held up his hands. “Glad it wasn’t my doorstep.”
Clark put the photos in his pocket, standing up. “We’d better get to work on that Alexander Luthor story.”
“Right.” Jimmy opened the conference room door and found Perry standing outside. “I know, Chief. Back to work.” He slid past him and jogged to his desk.
“You’re keeping something from me, Clark. I don’t like that.”
Clark felt bad. “I know, Perry. I promised Lois I wouldn’t tell anyone. You understand, don’t you?”
“Of course. Couples need to have their secrets.” He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “You told Jimmy, though.”
“Lois will probably kill me for that, too.” Clark grimaced. “But he’s my best friend.”
Perry chuckled and put his arm around his shoulder. “I understand, Clark. Secrets in a marriage or a relationship are important. Just as long it doesn’t disrupt your working relationship.” He lowered his voice. “She got morning sickness?”
“Chief!” Clark gasped. He couldn’t believe how close Perry’s guess was.
His editor continued to chuckle. “There are only so many secrets a young couple would want to keep from their boss.”
“No, Perry. The flu.”
“Still going with the flu.” Perry nodded. “Okay. Tell her I hope she’s better soon.”
“I will,” said Clark, returning to his desk.
“Do you think you could get me an article on something before the evening edition comes out?”
“Oh, Lois said she would be e-mailing you a story.” He had almost forgotten about that.
“You can give a reporter a few days off, but half-dead Lois wouldn’t miss a deadline.”
Clark grinned. “Not my Lois.” His Lois. He sighed. His Lois. Home, again.
***
Lois entered the guest bedroom where Martha was folding up her clothes to put back into her suitcase. Clark’s wife shut the door and sat on the bed.
“Martha, do you really not remember?”
“Remember what, dear?” Martha asked, glancing up.
Lois sighed. Her one confidante. Memory wiped clean. “Do you remember coming to visit me last summer?”
Martha shook her head. “As I told Clark, vaguely.”
“Clark?” Lois swallowed. Why would Clark ask his Mom about a visit she made to Metropolis the previous summer?
“Yes, he asked me about that trip the other day. Is that the one you wanted to know about, dear? Sorry. It’s there at the tip of my tongue and then…” She shook her head. “Gone. I’m trying.”
“What do you remember about this past year? Starting from last summer.”
Martha sat down and thought. “Clark came back from New Krypton. Zara and Ching realized they were in love and wanted to be together. They overthrew what’s-his-name and brought Clark home.”
That’s some revisionist history, thought Lois, but all right.
“Then you two got married up on that hill at sunset. That was nice, wasn’t it?”
Lois smiled at her.
“Then you and Clark moved into this new house. We came out and met the other Clark, while he was visiting. Then you came to our house for Thanksgiving.” She thought some more. “You had gotten a promotion at work before that. Temporary editor, but then you decided you’d rather work with Clark.” Martha smiled. “You came out to visit in December and so did Clark and then we came to visit you at Christmas.” Her brow furrowed. “No, that’s not right. That couldn’t have been you.”
Lois leaned forward with anticipation. “Why not?”
“Because you looked heavier. It must have been that huge sweater you were wearing.” Martha nodded. “Have you lost weight?”
So close. Lois sighed again. She remembered her visiting, but not why. “Yes,” was all she could say.
“I don’t remember much from this year, except that you and Clark decided to start trying to have children. That’s why I sent for the bassinette when Jonathan and I came out for our anniversary.”
Lois placed a reassuring hand on her arm. “Clark – the other Clark – will be happy to know you haven’t forgotten him. He loves you so much.” Clark. She had her husband back, but there was still a part of her that missed that other Clark. She sighed.
“Oh, right. Because we remind him of his missing parents.” Martha nodded. “We had a good conversation while he was here in Metropolis…” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t recall why he was here.”
“Tempus,” Lois whispered.
Martha shrugged. That name meant nothing to her. She elbowed Lois. “He had a girlfriend he was mad about.”
Lois swallowed. “No. We didn’t find his Lois until December. He visited here in November.”
“That’s right. Shortly before you and Clark visited us for Thanksgiving.”
The only woman the other Clark was involved with at that time was her. Lois gulped. Martha didn’t remember she was pregnant with her grandchild, but she remembered that the other Clark had told her that he had fallen in love with her daughter-in-law. How could Clark tell Martha about them? She was itching to slug him. She could just kill her father for developing the Bummer-B-Gone.
“She was pregnant or something…”
“Yes!” Lois grabbed Martha’s shoulders. She did remember.
“Oh, my God!” Martha gasped, placing a hand over her mouth. “Lara is the other Clark’s child. And Clark is so sure that Lara is his.” Martha shook her head. “Although, I don’t know how that could be possible.”
So close, again. Lois sighed. “The pregnant woman wasn’t the other Clark’s girlfriend; they were just friends.” Most of the time.
“He loved her, but you’re right.” Martha pointed at Lois. “I distinctly remember telling him that she wasn’t his wife. So, she was married to someone else?”
Lois put a hand to her head. “Let’s just keep this between us, Martha. That Clark is in love with his Lois, now.”
“Oh, good. He found her. I know he was looking for her.” She smiled. “You hated that he was always alone.”
“He’s much happier now.” Lois agreed. She and the other Clark had been in love, but never happy.
“You even told me once that you couldn’t stay in Kansas because you needed to go back and help the other Clark.” Her brow furrowed and Lois looked at her. “No, that can’t be right.”
“Yes.”
“You went to the other dimension?” Martha asked.
“Yes!” ‘She remembered!’ Lois thought
“Why did you go to the other dimension? Why didn’t you want me to tell Clark?”
Lois sighed. “I went to help the other Clark find his Lois, Martha.” She patted her mother-in-law’s arm. Clark’s mother really had no recollection of her being pregnant. “It took Lois Lane to find Lois Lane.”
“How nice of you,” Martha said. “To do that for the other Clark.”
Lois hugged her. So much for spending a year away and having one person know she was gone. She could have just disappeared completely and nobody would have been the wiser. Why had Clark asked about his mother visiting the previous summer? She shook her head. She would have to ask him why. Someday.
***
When Clark arrived home that night, he took Lois into his arms and kissed her as if he hadn’t seen her in a year.
“Miss me much?” Lois laughed. Without a word, Clark picked his wife up and carried her upstairs. “Clark!”
He set her down in their bedroom and kissed her again. “I read your editorial piece on a year without Superman.”
Lois looked down. “Oh.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that’s what you were referring to, when you asked what the date was?”
“I liked your answer better. It was a happier memory.”
Clark pressed his lips together. “I don’t know. I consider our first time a pretty good memory.”
Lois sighed. Did she? Making love with him, yes. Most definitely, yes! But the reason they made love wasn’t a happy one. The resulting year wasn’t too terrific either. Lara fussed in her bassinette. Lois went to pick her up. The end result was worth it; definitely a happy memory. Clark wrapped his arms around the two of them.
“I missed my girls. I have something for each of you.” Clark grinned, pulling a rattle shaped like a gavel out of his pocket. “I found it in the gift shop near the courthouse.”
“What were you doing at the courthouse?”
“Bumping into Constance Hunter,” he admitted.
“Who?”
“Our lawyer.”
“We have a lawyer?” Lois asked.
Clark laughed. “Well, we do now. Superman recommended her.”
“Oh, right. Her. I liked her.” Lois wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him, but her hands were full. “Here, take this,” she said handing him her daughter. Then she kissed him.
“Does she have a full diaper?” Clark asked.
Lois batted her eyelashes and sashayed out the door with a smile.
Clark changed Lara’s diaper, changed out of his business suit and joined her and the folks downstairs. He handed Lois the envelope of photos.
“What’s this?” she asked, then glanced inside. “Clark Kent! You weren’t supposed to tell anyone.”
Her husband grinned. “I wanted a photo of my girls.”
“Clark! You told Jimmy.” Lois shook her head, swatting him with the envelope. “He’s on a direct line to Perry’s ear.”
Clark opened the envelope and handed a photo of his folks with Lara to his Mom. “For you.”
“Oh, Clark. Thank you. I only wish we could stay longer. But we’ve been here forever and you know spring is the busy season down at the farm.”
“It’s okay, Mom. I understand.”
Martha knew they would fly out whenever they could.
Clark handed a photo of Lara with her Grammy to Lois’s mother and Lara with her Pops to Lois’s father. He pulled out another one of him and Lois and Lara and handed it to her. “That one is for my desk.”
“I can’t believe you went behind my back and told Jimmy about Lara.”
“He’s my best friend. I’ve spoken with him and he’s not going to tell Perry.”
The doorbell rang. Lois raised a brow. “Who is it? Five bucks says it’s you know who.”
“How should he know who it is, Lois? He doesn’t have x-ray vision,” Ellen replied, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, Lois,” Clark reminded her, opening the door.
“Clark!” It was too late. He had opened the door, while holding his daughter.
Standing on the other side of the door were Perry and Alice. Alice held a paper bag.
“Awe, Clark. What a cutie! Perry never said that you had a baby. What’s his name?” asked Alice.
“Alice?” Lois said, coming to Clark’s shoulder. “Perry?”
“I was just taking Alice to dinner and she suggested we bring you some chicken soup, being so sick and all,” Perry said, handing over the bag with soup. “So, this is your little secret, Kent.”
“Jimmy won’t tell Perry, huh?” Lois rolled her eyes. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag, I guess, come in.” Lois introduced Alice to her parents and Clark’s folks.
“Don’t get mad at Jimmy, Lois,” Perry warned her. “He didn’t say a thing. Clark was acting too strange for a man with both houseguests and a sick wife.”
“I knew you should have been the one staying home sick. You just can’t lie well enough,” Lois accused Clark.
“Everyone has a flaw.” Clark shrugged. “I’ll stay home with the flu tomorrow. Can I catch it from you?” He kissed her cheek, but she only glared. “Well, you’ve met everyone, except Lara. Perry, Alice, this is our daughter, Lara Lucia Kent.”
“Daughter?” Perry raised a brow at them. “Where did you get a daughter, Kent?”
Clark looked at Lois and smiled. “The old fashioned way.”
“Excuse me?” Perry stammered, glancing at Lois.
“The stork brought her.” Clark grinned. “Left her on our front doorstep.”
Lois went to the desk and retrieved the note that had come with Lara and handed it to Perry.
“You weren’t kidding,” Perry said, passing the note to Alice. She smiled and handed it back to Lois.
“I think the bigger story here is…” Lois said, placing the note back on the desk. “What you two are doing going out for dinner.”
“You are changing the topic,” said Perry.
“Darn tooting, I am.”
Alice took Perry’s arm. “I answered his Lonely Hearts Ad and realized how foolish I was to let such a catch go.”
Perry blushed, but pushed on through it by changing the topic back to Lara. “Did you contact the police? This should have been your hot lead.”
“She’s not a hot lead. She’s our daughter,” Clark said, moving into the living room.
“You’re too close to this story.”
“This isn’t a story, Perry,” Lois said, stepping between Clark and their boss. “This is our daughter.”
“Who would leave their child on the front doorstep?”
“Someone who knew that we wanted a child and would take good care of her,” Lois replied.
“Exactly. And who knew that information? Who knew that you couldn’t have children and that County Adoption said Lois was too high a risk?”
“Lois too big a risk for what?” Lois’s mother asked, standing up.
“Adoption, Mom.”
“You did, obviously.” Clark’s brow came together. “Do you have the conference room bugged, Perry?”
Lois gasped and looked at Clark, moving to his side. They had had many a private, Super private, conversation in that conference room.
“Of course not. You two might report on the world outside that office, but nothing happens in that newsroom that I don’t know about.”
Clark looked down at Lois.
“Nothing?” asked Martha. Clark’s mother also knew of their private conversations.
“Why are you too big a risk?” her mother asked.
Lois rolled her eyes. “I’m a thrill addict. Adrenaline junkie.” She threw up her hands in disgust. “Not suitable enough to be a mother.”
“This is what you weren’t telling me the other day. This was the big secret?”
Lois looked at her mother. Completely wiped were the memories of Dad cheating, but she remembered them sneaking around her back the other day. “Yes, Mother, that was the big secret.”
Her father lifted up a finger. “I thought…” But his eyes went blank and then he shook his head. “Never mind.”
Jonathan released a breath of relief.
“Congratulations, Lois. She’s beautiful. You are Clark are going to make wonderful parents, if half the things Perry keeps saying about you are true,” said Alice.
Lois hugged her. She didn’t know why, she hardly knew the woman, but it was nice to hear that someone believed in her. “Thank you.”
“Now, hold on a darn minute. They can’t be parents. They are my top investigative team. They need to get to the bottom of this. Find out who left this child here and get her back where she belongs.”
Clark wrapped an arm around Lois. “She is back where she belongs, Chief.”
“It doesn’t matter to us where she came from. She’s ours,” replied Lois, smiling up at Clark.
“But she could be sick, injured…”
“Family doctor, right here,” piped up her father. “I’ve already done a full medical on her. She’s perfectly healthy.”
Perry wandered over to the sofa and sat down. “You’re both going to want time off, aren’t you? Time to be with your new daughter? Get everything resolved.”
“That would be great, Perry. Thank you,” replied Clark.
“I knew it was wrong for the two of you to get together.”
“You were rooting for us the whole time,” Lois reminded him.
“Wrong for the paper,” their editor amended. “What am I going to do without my crack investigative team for a couple of weeks?”
“Six weeks, I believe is the term for maternity leave,” Lois corrected him.
“Six weeks! I’ve already had to have the two of you gone for two weeks on a honeymoon a few months ago and now you want six weeks? Right when I need you the most. When we don’t know who owns the paper. Lois. Clark. You’re killing me.”
Lois had already taken almost a year off. She was gnawing at the bit to be back at work. “Tell you what, Perry, how about we work two, three days a week until we get everything settled here?”
Clark looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged.
“I should have known you wouldn’t take time off,” her husband murmured.
“How about this, Clark? I’ll work and you stay home with Lara full time.” He was more of a homebody than she was anyway.
“Ah, no, Lois, I don’t think that’s a great idea,” said Jonathan.
“Why not?” asked Ellen.
Jonathan looked at Martha and then at Clark.
“Don’t start with his job is more important than Lois’s,” defended her mother. “There’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to stay home and care for Lara for six weeks any more than Lois.”
Martha wanted to speak up, but she made more wincing expressions, not being able to say what she wanted. Lois understood what his folks were trying to say, but couldn’t. Superman couldn’t take six weeks off. Lois sighed with a gaze at Clark. Guess she would be staying home after all. Yippy.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Clark suggested.
“Good idea,” agreed Lois.
“Now, just hold on a minute. You two are still assuming that everything is hunky dory. That there isn’t anyone looking for this little angel. Until you do what’s right, I can’t approve any time off.”
“That’s what I was researching this morning, Chief. Nobody has reported a missing infant in Metropolis.”
“Well, that’s good news for you two. Still you should double check with the authorities before you start changing your life. I’d hate for you to make plans for the future and then have her wrenched out of your hands.”
Lois stepped forward and growled. “Nobody is taking our child away from us. Nobody.”
“Lois,” Clark whispered, resting his hand on her arm. “That’s not what he’s saying.”
“He’s saying not for us to get attached. Well, tough, Perry. Lara is our daughter. We’re already attached.”
Perry put up his hands. “OK. OK. I see that you have everything under control.” He glanced at Clark and stood up. “We’ve got dinner reservations. We’ll talk more after you’ve talked to the authorities, Lois. Why don’t you and Clark take the rest of the week off to figure out what’s going on?”
“That would be great, Perry. Thank you.” Clark smiled. Under his breath, he murmured, “Lois, you’re acting like a rabid bulldog.”
Lois didn’t want to attack Perry, but she was mad. She had been left home, with nobody but an infant to talk with for three months already. She loved her daughter, but she needed to use her brain or she was going to go insane. She was chomping at the bit to go back to work and they were telling her that she had to stay at home longer, because Superman’s job was more important than spending time with his child? Actually to say she was mad was an understatement. She couldn’t be there, she couldn’t do this anymore. “Excuse me,” she murmured and ran up the stairs to their bedroom.
“Lois?” Clark called after her. She heard him apologize to Perry and Alice again. Then she heard him coming up the stairs and entering the bedroom. “I’m sorry.”
“This is hard for me, Clark,” Lois whispered. “I feel like I’m supposed to be someone else. Act a certain way.” She reached out to him and saw that her hands were shaking. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
Clark took her hands in his. “You are Lois Lane. My wife. The woman I love more than anyone else. Mother to our wonderful daughter, Lara. Everything else will just fall in place.”
“Will it?” She looked up at him. “I feel so out of place, uncomfortable in my own skin, all alone.”
Clark wrapped his arms around her. “As long as I love you, you will never be alone, Lois.”
And how long will that be, Clark? Lois wondered, staring at him.
How long exactly will that be?*** End of Part 5 *** Comments
