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 ***
Part 8Clark sat down with his mother-in-law, who was reading a magazine. Lois was in the bathroom, giving Lara a bath. He wasn’t quite sure how to broach the subject, but he had to say what he had to say while Lois was out of earshot.
“Lois needs to go back to work, Ellen,” he started, looking at his hands clasped together over his knees. “Staying home isn’t working out for Lois. She’s not herself.”
“Yes. Motherhood isn’t for everyone,” agreed Ellen.
“Lois is a wonderful mother,” Clark rebutted.
“She loves Lara. No doubt about that, but I loved my children, too, Clark. Some of us weren’t hardwired for women’s work: cooking, cleaning, Mommy-and-me classes, for the isolation of motherhood. She takes after me in that way.”
This conversation was not heading in the direction he hoped. He would never compare Lois to her mother in or out of her hearing. Clark cleared his throat. “She needs something to wrap her brain around.”
Ellen looked him directly in the eyes. “And you want me to stay here and watch Lara while you’re both at work?”
Lois’s mother must have expected they would come to her.
Clark swallowed. “Lara isn’t like other children…”
“Sure, she is.”
His jaw dropped. Wasn’t she the one who was always insisting that Lara was Superman’s and Ultra Woman’s child? He stared at her.
“Other than her fast heartbeat, she acts just like any other baby her age. She doesn’t fly, she doesn’t shoot laser beams from her eyes, and she hasn’t once squeezed my finger so tightly that I thought it would break. She’s normal.”
Ellen had a point there. “But we don’t know when any of those traits might develop. Anything could happen.”
“All you have to do is ask Superman when he developed his strength and other abilities,” she said, flipping the pages of her magazine.
Ellen had a point there, too. Most of his skills developed when he was a teenager, except his strength which grew exponentially in toddlerhood and his speed in his pre-teen years.
“Even so, Clark and I have gathered many enemies over our years at
The Planet and we’d feel safer if Lara was at home with someone we trust,” Lois said coming down the stairs carrying Lara wrapped in a towel. She must have been listening. How did she do that?
Ellen smiled at her daughter. “I’m glad to hear you trust me, Lois, but no. I’ve raised my children, you need to raise yours.”
Lois stopped mid-way down the stairs and Clark could see her eyes cloud over. He didn’t want her to fall over the cliff of despair. He went over and took Lara from her. “We’ll figure something out, Lois,” he whispered. “Don’t worry.”
“I’ll give you a month,” her mother said. “I’ve signed up to go on a two week cruise through the Panama Canal in a month. You have until then to find someone else.”
Lois rushed down the stairs and hugged her Mom, an action that seemed to shock both of them. “Thank you, Mom. Thank you.”
Lois grinned at Clark, took Lara from him, and returned upstairs to get her daughter dressed.
“Thank you, Ellen. I need my wife back.”
Ellen looked up over his shoulder towards where Lois disappeared and lowered her voice. “She’s like her Daddy. Type A. Can’t stop working or they die. I love her; I love them both, Clark. But I can’t do it, again. I just can’t.” Her eyes focused on him and for the first time, he saw Lois reflected in her mother’s eyes. “You understand, don’t you?”
Clark nodded, understanding her better than he ever had before.
***
Lois stopped under the big
Daily Planet globe, looking up at it. Her skin began to tingle. She took a deep breath and smiled. Finally, she was coming home. She loved Clark. She loved Lara. They were her life. But this,
this was her home.
“Are you okay?” Clark asked. He had been walking on eggshells around her lately. If he kept asking her that, she would soon explode.
But today, today Lois smiled at him. “I love the smell of newsprint in the morning.”
He laughed and relaxed.
“Do you think we should have brought Lara in? Introduced her around to Jimmy and Barry and the others?”
Clark chuckled. “Barry? Barry Balson? I didn’t know you knew him.”
“He could be a pretty decent reporter, if Perry gave him half a chance.”
“Really? Huh.” Clark shrugged as they stepped into the elevator. “I’m okay with keeping our personal life personal and away from work.”
Lois took his hand. “Remember that elevator ride up after our honeymoon?” she whispered.
Clark grinned. “I distinctly recall you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”
Lois pulled him towards her, wrapping her arms around him. “Liar.”
Clark kissed her like she knew he would. The elevator stopped and she picked up her briefcase again.
“I love you, Clark Kent,” she murmured under her breath, knowing he would hear her.
“Right back at you, Lois Lane,” he mumbled back. She turned and grinned at him.
Stepping out of the elevator a few paces, Lois stopped. Essentially, it was the same newsroom she remembered. Modern, updated a bit from the one in the other dimension, since this building had been bombed and rebuilt. Home. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes to let all the sounds and smells permeate her senses.
Jimmy walked up. “Welcome home, Mommy.”
Her eyes opened and she saw him. “James!” Lois ran up and hugged him. “How have you been? Still dating Penny? We’ve got to have you two over for dinner soon to meet Lara.” Okay. She was officially rambling. She caught herself.
“You all right there, Lois? You’re acting like you haven’t been here in a year, instead of a couple of weeks.” Jimmy laughed.
Clark raised a brow, staring at her. “James?”
Crap. “Jimmy. I knew that.”
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Perry said, coming out of his office. “I knew you couldn’t stay away for six weeks. If I remember correctly, you sent us all into shock when you went on vacation to the Bermuda Triangle a few years ago.”
Lois glanced at Clark. Ah, the Kryptonite bullet. She walked up to her editor. “Perry, forgive me for being an emotional train wreck and for this.” She hugged him.
“Well, thanks, little lady,” Perry stammered, stepping away. “Are you back for good or are you still on leave?”
“Trial separation, Perry,” Clark explained.
Perry raised a brow. “Trial separation?”
“Let’s see how she does away from Lara today and we’ll let you know.”
“I’ve hardly been away from her since…” Lois swallowed. She almost said since birth. “Since we met.” Except for those couple days, when Lara had returned to Clark early. She placed a smile on her face.
Suddenly, she heard Elvis music drifting out of Perry’s office and a chill crept down her spine. An image of a mustached Superman grinning at her in a dark ballroom flashed before her eyes. She backed up, away from Perry, and practically ran to her desk.
“All righty, then,” said Perry, turning to Clark. “You still working on the Alexander Luthor story? Any leads?”
Clark nodded. “I’ll fill you in on what we’ve found out in a minute, Chief.”
Lois sat down at her desk. Her head in her hands.
I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. She repeated to herself.
“Lois?”
She glanced up at her husband. Her Clark. No fake mustache. No obvious Superman suit. Just Clark. The man she loved. The man she cheated on. She would never forget the other Clark, would she? “I just need a minute. Okay, Clark?”
“Sure.”
Lois closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly released it. Perry rarely brought the music out of his office. If she avoided his office, she wouldn’t be reminded of the other Clark holding her, comforting her, kissing her. She sighed. She opened her eyes. Crap! She had been thinking about him, again. She needed to get him out of her head.
Looking around the newsroom, Lois found her husband talking to Jimmy by the coffee machine. He was holding two cups of coffee. She sighed. He was always thinking of her. She turned and looked at her desk. Shrugging out of her jacket, she hung it up and set her briefcase down in the drawer. She took a deep breath, smelling the beautiful bouquet of flowers Clark had bought her. She also found a framed photo of her and Clark and Lara with a big red bow on it. She picked up the photo, pulling off the ribbon and bow. She set it back down with another sigh. That wasn’t her. Well, it
was her. The old her, the stand-in her. It wasn’t
her, her.
“Coffee, milady,” said Clark. “Decaf, non-fat, with no sugar.”
Lois sneered, but then smiled at him. Had she really drank that? She had gotten so used to heavy cream recently. She pulled down the card that came with the flowers. She glanced at the note and then at her husband.
Husband. She set down her coffee and walked to his desk. “I need you,” she said to Clark.
“Sure, honey. What for?”
“Supply closet,” she mumbled, walking in that direction.
His brow came together. “Is there something you can’t reach?” he asked as she opened the door.
“No.” Lois shut the door behind them. “I need
you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and slammed him against the door, kissing him.
“Lois! We’re at work.” He resisted for about half a second and then shrugged, kissing her back.
A few minutes later, she let go of him. She had no idea what had come over her. “Sorry.”
Clark grinned, straightening his tie. “No, you’re not.”
Lois touched the flash of blue under his shirt and it sent electric shockwaves through her. Her eyes darted to her husband’s. “Clark,” she moaned, grabbing his tie and pulling him towards her again.
There was a knock on the door and Jimmy cleared his throat. “Guys? Perry wants to know if you’re coming to the morning meeting.”
“Be right there,” called Clark, lowering their feet back to the floor. “You ready, Lois?”
She smiled at him. “The last time I was here…” They weren’t married. She shook her head. “Whenever you are, husband.”
“Are you sure you’re ready to be back here?” Clark asked, once again, straightening his tie and hair. “You’re starting to act like you did when we came back from our honeymoon.”
“Oh, yeah.” Lois grinned, the memories filling her mind. “We need another one of those.”
“Another what?” he asked, opening the closet door.
“Honeymoon. Perhaps we could actually make it to Hawaii this time.”
“Morning meeting, Lois,” Clark’s voice cracked as he reminded her, like a splash of cold water.
“Right. Thanks.” She stopped by her desk and picked up a pile of messages she had missed after her first perusal. At the door of the conference room, she touched his arm. “Clark, Bobby Bigmouth wants a meeting. He says he has information for us.”
Clark grinned sheepishly. “I might have bumped into him on the street and mentioned you make a mean lasagna.”
“Well, look who decided to give us a few minutes of their time,” Perry said as they entered.
Lois and Clark sat down at the conference table to listen and share.
***
A few minutes earlier, Jimmy had cornered Clark at the coffee machine. “What’s up with Lois?”
“What do you mean?” asked Clark, knowing exactly what he meant. She was acting unusually unusual.
“She lose her memory again?”
Of all the things he expected Jimmy to say, that wasn’t it. “Why would you think that?”
“Because she’s acting like she did when she came back from that amnesiac clinic. You know the one, the one with Dr. I’ll-Steal-Your-Girlfriend.”
Clark got a bad taste in his mouth. “I know the one.” He swallowed. “No, she hasn’t lost her memory.”
“Man, it was weird, her calling me James, though. It reminded me of that time you called me Mr. Olsen.”
Clark paused while pouring Lois’s coffee. “I did what?”
“Don’t you remember, CK? You said you thought I owned the
Daily Planet.” Jimmy laughed, shaking his head.
Clark looked at him blankly.
“Man, did John Doe do a number on you too, CK?”
“That happened, me calling you Mr. Olsen, after John Doe got elected president?” Clark asked.
“Yeah, right before you asked me to find you all the old bomb shelters in town. John Doe had kidnapped President Garner and had stolen the launch codes for the nuclear missiles. Lois had stumbled onto the plot and then disappeared. You and Superman were searching for her. Don’t you remember any of that?”
“Sure. Of course.” Clark patted Jimmy on the back. That wasn’t him. That was the other Clark. He had been lost in time at the time. He placed a smile on his face, hoping it would placate Jimmy. “Lois is fine. Motherhood has just thrown her through a loop. Just be patient with her.”
Clark looked over to Lois, sitting at her desk. She picked up the photo of their new family he had placed there. She took off the red bow and looked at the photo, then she set it down.
Jimmy was right, she was acting strange. His friend was on the right track, but it wasn’t like she had lost her memory. The memories were there. She knew right from wrong, day from night. But Lois couldn’t remember Jimmy wasn’t James, that Henderson hadn’t worked Mayson’s death, where the ice-cream parlor where she bought double fudge ripple was, and that Superman had never cuddled with her in bed… well, except that one time. Her brain was a pea soup of information, but she didn’t know which memories were the right ones. Also, she learned to cook along the way. She wore less make-up than she had a couple of weeks ago, despite sleeping less. She wasn’t as fashion conscious. Still quick to anger, but working harder to manage it than he had ever seen her do before. And she was more prone to melancholia.
Clark brought her her coffee. “Coffee, milady. Decaf, non-fat with no sugar.” Was that a sneer before she smiled at him? Had she changed the way she drank her coffee, too? She had eaten dessert after dinner last night, as well. And the night before. And the night before. When had she stopped being so worried about her weight? She hadn’t gained a pound as far as he could tell. Huh?
Clark sat down at his desk and started flipping through his messages. Lois approached.
“I need you,” she said. She was looking at him, intensely.
“Sure, honey. What for?”
“Supply closet,” Lois mumbled, walking in that direction.
His brow came together. “Is there something you can’t reach?”
“No.” Lois shut the door behind them. “I need you.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and slammed him against the door, kissing him.
“Lois!” Clark gasped. “We’re at work.” But then he shrugged. She was kissing him like they were newlyweds. He didn’t mind that her passion for him had returned. Then she started tugging at his tie, loosening it. Perhaps her passion was a little more pronounced than before.
Lois stepped away a few minutes later. “Sorry.”
He grinned, straightening his tie. “No, you’re not.”
Lois reached for him again, this time slipping her fingers between the buttons of his shirt. Her eyes went to his. “Clark,” she moaned, grabbing his tie and pulling him towards her again. For a moment he thought that she might tear open his shirt to get to his blue suit. But then he wasn’t thinking, he was kissing, just making out with the most beautiful woman on earth.
There was a knock on the door and Jimmy cleared his throat. “Guys? Perry wants to know if you’re coming to the morning meeting.”
“Be right there,” Clark called, lowering their feet back to the floor. Oh, God! She was sweeping him off his feet. “You ready, Lois?”
“The last time I was here…” Lois shook her head. “Whenever you are, husband.”
The last time she was here they wrote about Fat Head. It wasn’t romantic. Their parents had lost their memories. Clark didn’t even think she kissed him at work that day. What was she thinking of? Was she talking about before she went to the other dimension? Back before they were married? That would explain the ardor of her kisses.
“Are you sure you’re ready to be back here?” Clark asked, once again, straightening his tie and hair. “You’re starting to act like you did when we came back from our honeymoon.”
“Oh, yeah. We need another one of those,” Lois said.
“Another what?” Clark opened the closet door.
“Honeymoon. Perhaps we could actually make it to Hawaii this time.”
Lois wanted a second honeymoon? Or did she want a first, since she missed the original one? Clark swallowed. He thought about making love to Lois for two weeks without stopping on their honeymoon. Had it been her? Or had he made love to that younger her from the past? Who was still technically her, but not. Should he feel guilty about making love to the woman he married, who wasn’t the exact woman he had left behind when he left for New Krypton? Either way, her flirtation this morning was driving him wild. “Morning meeting, Lois,” his voice cracked as he reminded her. He was having trouble thinking straight with her acting like this around him.
“Right. Thanks.”
She was making him dizzy with all those kisses. He needed to concentrate; Perry was going to ask him what they had learned about Alexander Luthor. Where was his notebook with all his notes? At the door of the conference room, Lois touched his arm. The electric current between them was still as hot as ever. How was he ever going to make it through this meeting?
“Clark, Bobby Bigmouth wants a meeting. He says he has information for us.”
Was that all Lois wanted? Thank God. “I might have bumped into him on the street and mentioned you make a mean lasagna.”
She laughed.
“Well, look who decided to give us a few minutes of their time,” Perry said as they entered. “Want to tell us what you’ve learned about our possible new publisher Alexander Luthor?”
There were groans shared around the conference table.
“I know. I know. I dislike the thought of another Luthor owning the paper, too. But unless Lex, Jr. left the
Daily Planet to someone else specifically in his will – the lawyers are having a dickens of a time finding A Last Will and Testament for one Lex Luthor, Jr. or a Leslie Luckaby – all his assets go to his next surviving heir. In this case, a sibling. What have you got, Clark?”
“We found Lex, Jr.’s birth certificate in Hong Kong, stating in fact he was born as a multiple, that he has a fraternal twin. There are no references to any Luckaby or Luthor in Australia, except Lex, Jr. or Leslie Luckaby. So, this twin wasn’t raised with him or even near him. In Singapore…” Clark glanced at Lois. She had been spot on with the Singapore guess. “We found multiple references to an A. Luthor and one specific reference to an Alex Luthor.”
“Great shades of Elvis, Lois. Your hunch was right.”
Lois smiled modestly and shrugged.
“The last reference was a graduation announcement of one Alex Luckaby Luthor from high school in 1980. After that, nothing in Singapore.”
“How about a photo? A year book? Anything?” Perry asked.
“Picture withheld from the yearbook. Sorry.”
“So, what has Alexander Luthor being doing for the last eighteen years?” Perry pointed at Jimmy. “What do you have?”
“Wedding photo of one Lex Luthor senior to one Linda Luckaby.” Jimmy slid the grainy photocopy across the table to Perry.
Lois interceded and picked it up. “Clark. He hasn’t aged. He looks exactly the same, today. Except the baldness.” She looked at him and handed him the photo.
“You mean at his death?” Clark asked, raising his brow. He glanced at the photocopy and handed it to Perry.
“No…” She winced. “Yes, of course. Lex is dead, isn’t he?” She looked at Clark as if verifying.
“Let’s hope so. They did have a body to bury this last time.” He shrugged, taking hold of her hand.
But one never knows with Luthor.“I thought Lex had hair,” said Jimmy, confused.
“Of course, he had hair. But then he lost it. I guess he grew it out again, didn’t he? Or was he wearing a toupee?” Lois looked to Clark again. She was completely lost. He didn’t know about Lex’s hair. Personally, he didn’t care.
“While all this is interesting and fun to gossip about, none of it is a story. I need facts, hard facts, people. Where is Alex Luthor now? What does he look like? Did he follow in Daddy’s footprints? Did he diverge? What has he been up to for the last twenty years? Did he know about Lex, Jr. and, if yes, did he know about his plans to rebuild LexCorp? And most importantly, what is he going to do with the
Daily Planet? Run it or sell it?” Perry clapped his hands together. “Jimmy, see if you can get an original photo that photocopy was taken from. If so, can you scan it or take a photo of the photo. Good find, son. Why don’t you write up a short piece on that photo? But without the photo, no story.”
“Right, chief. Find that photo. Wait. Me write the story?” Jimmy gulped.
“There’s not much to write about, except the photo,” Perry explained.
“Right.”
“Lois and Clark, continue hunting Alexander Luthor. Lois, any word from Inspector Henderson on that foundling child case?”
She smiled with a nod. “No news is good news, Perry.”
“No it’s not, Lois! No news means no newspaper. All right, everyone go out and find me some headlines!”
Perry stepped up to Lois. “You feeling all right, darling?”
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Lois growled.
“We’re just worried about you,” Perry replied, putting an arm around her shoulders. “Because you forgot that Lex Luthor was dead.”
Ooops. Perry picked up on that too.
“I had a dream about Lex Luthor the other night, Perry. In the dream, he was not only alive, he was bald. It felt so real. I’m still trying to catch up on my sleep. I’m fine, Perry, really.”
“Glad to hear it, Lois.”
Clark followed her out to her desk. “Dreaming about Lex?”
Lois shrugged. “Got me. It was a nightmare.” Then she smiled, lowering her voice. “Except the part where you rescued me.”
He sat down on the edge of her desk. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not, now, little boy blue. Don’t you have some cows in the field?”
“Cows in the corn,” Clark corrected, standing up. “Speaking of which, we should pick up a nursery rhyme book for Lara. The earlier we start reading to her the more she’ll love to read.”
Lois turned on her computer. “I’ve already read her
Wizard of Oz. You pick the next book.”
Clark stared at her. When had Lois read
Wizard of Oz to Lara? Did they even own a copy of that book? He kissed her cheek. “I’m always available to listen, whenever you have anything to say.”
Lois patted his cheek with her hand, but otherwise didn’t respond. How was he ever going to get her to admit that she had spent a year in the other dimension, if she didn’t want to tell him? Why didn’t she want to tell him? What was she hiding?
*** End of Part 8 *** The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum.
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