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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 9 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 1...Perry shut the door to his office. Clark sat in the chair uncomfortably as he watched his boss pace, before resting on the corner of his desk. Was he about to be fired? A message from above about his recent article on increased crime in Metropolis? Usually when Perry called him into his office, he called Lois as well.
“Is it the raid on Gotham Labs story?” Clark asked hopefully.
Perry waved off those concerns. “Son,” he started and then paused as if not knowing how to continue. He cleared his throat.
This almost reminded Clark of when Lois had been caught kissing Superman. He hoped it wasn’t anything like that. No. He glanced at his wife sitting at her desk with a smile. He could trust Lois.
“I’m worried about you.”
Worried about him? Clark was confused. Nobody, but Lois and his folks, worried about him. It was Lois they always worried about. “Sir?”
“I just don’t understand the need…” Perry shook his head.
“What need?”
“The need… to take performance enhancing drugs, Clark.”
Part 2Clark stared at him. “Excuse me?” This was about his drug test? He thought he had passed that with flying colors. Dr. Klein had almost promised him…
Perry lifted off his desk a sheet of golden paper. “Your testosterone levels are off the chart, Clark.”
“Oh.” Clark looked down. Closed his eyes and thought,
Lois, I need you. Help me, please!Clark heard his wife gasp, then a crash. Glancing out to her desk, he saw a pile of papers floating through the air and Lois sitting on the floor, staring at him. Had she heard him? They hadn’t tried using the telepathic connection since she first returned. Clark looked at her pleading with his eyes.
“What in Sam Hill?” Perry opened the door to his office. “Lois, honey, you all right?”
“I’m fine; I just slipped.”
“OK, then.” Perry shut the door with a shake of his head.
“Maybe I should go out and…” Clark stood up.
Perry pointed to the chair. Clark sat back down. He didn’t know the drug testing would check testosterone levels or he would have had an excuse ready. He wasn’t any good at thinking up excuses on the spot. That was Lois’s specialty.
“You’re a good looking kid. Your wife loves you. Why would you need steroids?”
Oh, that was what he thought.
“I’m not on steroids, Chief.”
“What other explanation do you have?” Perry looked at him, but he didn’t have an answer. “You don’t know the kind of trouble…”
The office door opened and Lois came in. “Here’s my copy on the extra husband story.”
“Lois, we’re in the middle…”
“The Chief thinks I’m using steroids, Lois.” Clark looked at her, beseeching.
A smile exploded onto her face as she giggled and looked away, while shutting the office door. So, she thought it was funny the idea that their boss thought
he was on steroids. Great. Thanks, Lois.
“Did you tell him?” she asked her husband.
“Tell me what?” Perry stammered.
Lois came and stood behind Clark, her hands on his shoulders. “They weren’t that kind of performance enhancing drugs, Perry.”
Clark was mortified. Did she just say what he thought she just said? To Perry? He looked down.
“What kind of performance enhancing…” Perry started and then noticed Clark’s expression, his discomfort.
Earth open up and swallow me whole. Right now, please!Perry cleared his throat. “Well… um…”
“You know Clark and I were trying to conceive before Lara showed up.”
Clark covered his face.
“Clark, Sweetie. This is nothing to be embarrassed about. We were trying to raise your…”
Clark jumped up. “Chief, if there’s nothing else…”
“No. No. That was it, Clark,” Perry replied just as quickly, wading up the golden paper and shuffling back to the other side of his desk, avoiding eye contact.
Clark left the office as fast as a human could, despite wanting to leave faster. He sat down at his desk and tried to refocus on his work. He hadn’t been that embarrassed since Dr. Klein had explained to Superman about the final fertility test and what was required of him.
Lois walked up and ran her fingertips lightly across his shoulders. “You’re welcome.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into his lap, kissing her. “What would I do without you?”
Lois smiled. “Learn to do your own lying.” She shook her head. “Scratch that. You’re horrible at it.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ve got to return this video,” she said, clearly trying to impersonate him.
He winced. He really was a horrible liar. “There could be worse traits in a husband.” He smiled at her with love.
“Yes, you could be like Janelle’s husband and rent out your marriage bed one night a week to a buddy without informing your wife, while you snuck off, playing in the casinos and hanging out with call girls.”
“So, she wasn’t crazy? There really had been another man in her house, impersonating her husband, when the police showed up to notify her of her husband’s death?”
Lois stood up and raised a brow. “I just can’t believe that she didn’t recognize it wasn’t her husband for over five months.”
“They obviously didn’t have a relationship like ours.” He smiled thinking about their passionate evening from the night before. “I’d know if a double of you showed up in our bed.”
Lois expression resembled someone sucking on a lemon. “Is that so? What you’re saying is that you didn’t try to make love to the clone on your first wedding night?” she asked, arms crossed.
Clark turned around quickly and focused on the files on his desk again, avoiding eye contact, picking up the phone, pretending it had rung.
“Just as I thought.” She shook her head. “Would recognize your own wife, would you?” She spun Clark’s chair around so he was facing her again. She pulled the neckline of her shirt away from her shoulder. “Just in case Lucy El comes to visit someday, big boy. I’m the one with the bullet wound.”
Clark’s jaw dropped. “You don’t think, she’d try…” He gulped. “…with me?” Lois hadn’t told her much about the other Clark’s Lois, but he couldn’t believe she would…
“Don’t you?” His wife shook her head with a slight chuckle. “She kissed you after knowing you for less than two hours, Clark. She isn’t called Hurricane Lane for nothing.”
He swallowed. “Hurricane Lane?” He glanced at Lois and grinned wickedly, lowering his voice. “And she has super powers now, too, huh?”
“Clark.”
He swiveled his chair back to his desk. “I’m just saying… how interesting that must be… for her boyfriend.”
“Clark.” Lois snarled.
“You brought it up, Lois.” Clark leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers together and pretending he was considering that option. “Hmm.” Then he sat back up. “Nah. Who would want Ultra Woman, when he’s married to Lois Lane.” He smiled reassuringly at her.
“Nice save,” Lois said, but she still glared at him. She must really have thought he was considering it. On the other hand, if Lois had
her Ultra Woman powers back for one night… he wondered.
“What’s this about Ultra Woman?” Jimmy said, stopping by Clark’s desk. “Has someone seen her?”
“Well, Lois? Has anyone spotted her around our neck of the woods?” He tried to stop the sneaky smile creeping onto to lips, failing miserably.
“Shut up.” She sneered at him with a scowl.
Jimmy glanced at Clark, then at Lois and then back at Clark. “What’s up, CK?”
“Lois had a dream where Ultra Woman was my girlfriend.” He laughed quietly. “And she wondered…”
“That’s not funny, CK,” Jimmy warned him with a glance at Lois.
Clark looked again at his wife. Oh, great. She was getting her about to explode expression on her face. “I was only teasing, Lois. That will never happen.”
“Chill, Lois, it was just a dream,” said Jimmy, siding with Clark.
“Just a dream? Huh, Jimmy. A nightmare is more like it.” Lois slammed down a book, catching the attention of the newsroom. “For three months, I was stuck in the apartment, taking care of a newborn, while he’s off flitting around with Ultra Woman. Paris for croissants, why not? Catch some bad guys in Buenos Aires. Sure. Let’s type it up for the morning edition. Sunsets in the Bahamas. Sounds like fun.”
“It does sound like fun.” Jimmy agreed with a big smile.
Lois shook her head, shifting her focus to Clark. “It was not fun. It was torture. After Lara was born, Ultra was there… always there. She couldn’t get enough of Lara. Except when she was off making the Earth tremble with Clark.”
“Earthquakes?” stammered Jimmy. “Really? Wow, CK!”
“Lois,” Clark warned her, stepping closer.
“It was only a dream, Clark,” his wife snapped at him. “You wanted to hear all about my…
dream… well, here it is. They left me alone. They didn’t talk to me, except to ask about the baby. Did I nurse her, yet? Did I change her diaper? When did she take her nap? Did they ask me for my help on any stories? No. It was as if having a baby had turned my brain into cottage cheese as far as they were concerned. They didn’t want to talk to me. Ask my advice. They didn’t want to be reminded of me, of what I represented to them, of who I was in their relationship – the ex. They were too wrapped up with each other. They were still on their honeymoon with our daughter being the whipped cream on their blissful sundae. The child they wanted, but could not have.”
Clark took another step forward, resting a hand on her arm. She closed her eyes with a wince, turning away. “I couldn’t even look at him. Everything about him reminded me of you. His silly smile. His gentle caress. The way I could feel him looking at me from across a crowded room. He had been my best friend and then he wasn’t there for me anymore. He wasn’t mine, he was hers. I didn’t want to see him with Ultra. Happy. Laughing. It’s not like I didn’t hear the giggling. The plans being made. Them making love in the next room.”
“Burn,” chuckled Jimmy.
Clark glanced at Jimmy and shook his head. His friend pressed his lips together and mouthed a ‘sorry.’ Clark’s hand still rested on Lois’s arm and she covered it up with her hand.
“I didn’t want to see him at all. Every time I saw him, all I could think was that he’s not mine. He’s not the man that I love. I’ll never see my husband again. Because he wasn’t the man whom I loved with my entire body and soul. He wasn’t the man who got my jokes and knew my every thought and desire, sometimes before I did. He wasn’t the father of my child. He was a stranger. My husband was gone, but this look-a-like was there to remind me of what I had lost, what I once had, what I still had to lose.”
Clark took another step forward, wrapping her in his arms.
“I had to stop nursing Lara, because she was sucking the life out of me. I was down to a hundred pounds before they even noticed me again. Then I became their pet project. Time to get up, Lois; you need to get out of bed. Had Lois taken a shower today? Did Lois finish her meal? They stuffed me with food and I still couldn’t gain weight. And until I gained weight I couldn’t come home. Couldn’t get out of their lives. I couldn’t come back to
The Planet, weighing a hundred pounds, any more than I could have come back when I was eight months pregnant. And always in the background was Lex Luthor. I couldn’t leave the apartment for fear that he might kidnap me again.”
“Wow, Lois. You have one active imagination.” Jimmy shook his head.
Ignoring Jimmy, Lois looked at Clark and sighed. “I had lost the will to live, Clark. What did I have to live for? A child who cried every time I picked her up? Who preferred Ultra to me? A husband who didn’t miss me? All I had were my dreams. I clung to sleep, like an addict to drugs. My life meant nothing. Nothing.” Her voice caught in her throat. When she continued speaking, it was in a whisper. “They didn’t want me there. I was an inconvenience. The houseguest who couldn’t leave. I was stuck in that hell dimension with no way to go home. And all I wanted was to come home.”
Clark kissed her cheek, whispering, “It’s over now, Lois, you’re home. I’m here and I love you. Lara is our child; no one is going to take her away from us.”
Lois looked at him, blinked once, and burst into tears on his shoulder. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the conference room.
“Whoa, CK. Lois needs some serious therapy. She has some nasty nightmares,” said Jimmy before wandering back to his desk.
“You have no idea,” Clark murmured, before shutting the conference room door behind them.
He set Lois down on the settee inside the door and closed the blinds to shut out the lookie loos. Then he held her in his arms while she cried. That was why she didn’t want to talk about what happened after Lara’s birth. They ignored her. Left her alone to live their own lives. Lois was too social a creature to spend over a month in solitary confinement, locked up in an apartment.
Clark felt guilty. Part of him had wanted to stop her embarrassing rant; the other more dominant half had wanted to hear what she had to say. She had put too much on her shoulders and she didn’t know how to tell him, to let it go. If she kept it there, Clark knew, someday it would all come crashing down on top of her like it had today. He wished she didn’t feel the need to keep it from him.
Clark ran his fingers over her hair. “I’m so sorry, Lois.”
“It’s not your fault, Clark,” she replied, wiping her cheeks. “You didn’t know.”
“I knew, but I couldn’t get to you. You were living through hell and here I was living my life with that other you. Laughing. Living. Making plans. Doing all the same things you saw him doing with Ultra. You must have felt like we all had abandoned you.”
She nodded. “Don’t feel bad, Clark. The memories of you from that time are some of the best I have. I missed you so much, some days I didn’t get out of bed. All I wanted to do was sleep and dream of you… us.” Lois leaned her head against his. “When Sam pointed out to them what had happened to me, they put me on a schedule, just like a baby. I did what was asked of me, but my heart wasn’t in it. I couldn’t see the point.”
“Lara…” Clark whispered.
“I didn’t think she liked me. For Ultra she was the sweetest child. For me, she cried constantly. I had no idea what I was doing. Every little setback frustrated me. I wanted to be the perfect mom, instead I was everything but. And I wouldn’t let Ultra win. I didn’t give up on Lara. I did all I could for her. Sometimes, it felt like an unwinnable battle.”
“Star told me that you were depressed. ‘In a black hole’ she called it.” He ran his fingers over her hair. “I even tried to have her send you a message. Telling you…”
“You loved me, you missed me, and you wanted me to come home.” Lois nodded. “I got it.”
Clark’s jaw dropped. “You got my message?” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “You actually got my message! That’s insane.”
“Actually, Lara got your message. Through the other dimension’s Star, Moonbeam. I told you the first time I heard her telepathically she showed you telling me you loved me. That was the first time. It was the first time Lara and I truly bonded.”
“Oh, Lois.”
“I knew that you still loved me. I knew that Lara loved me. After that, things got easier, but it was still an uphill climb.” She swallowed. “I did something I’m not proud of.” She pulled back out of his arms and looked him in the face. “I went a little crazy and almost killed Lex Luthor.”
He ran his fingers down her face. “You didn’t?”
His wife shook her head. “I wanted to. I really wanted to. Sam bought me a gun for protection. Guns are all over the place in that dimension, it’s unreal. He was afraid that Lex would kidnap me again.”
“Did he?” Clark swallowed.
“Vixen kidnapped James… James Olsen, owner of the
Daily Planet, right in front of me. I had just learned that H.G. Wells had returned and I knew Lara would be safe. But I couldn’t leave, knowing what Lex and Junior did to those other executives that got in their way. I had to save him.”
“Vixen?”
Lois nodded and then told him the whole story. About lying to Vixen, about Lex drugging her and her pulling the gun on him, forcing him to have Junior bring James up to the penthouse. About communicating with Lara telepathically.
“But you didn’t shoot him,” Clark repeated.
“I wanted to, Clark. Every time I turn around, there he is – or someone related to him somehow – and I just wanted it to end. Enough, already. We’re still dealing with him… with Mindy.” She shook her head. Taking a big breath, she continued. “Trask was there.”
“What?” Clark stammered. “Trask and Lex?”
“He was working as a henchman for Junior, undercover for Bureau 39, I think. Although he denied it.” She looked him in the eye. “I almost shot them, Clark. The gun was cocked. My aim steady. My rage red hot.”
“What stopped you, Lois?”
She looked down. “Clark wouldn’t let me. He said you wouldn’t like it.”
“That’s the nicest thing I’ve heard you say about him in a long time. I was beginning to wonder if the other Clark had any redeeming qualities whatsoever.”
Lois set a hand on his shirt. “Don’t, Clark. Please.”
“I mean he seems like a bit of a jerk. How could you ever have fallen for him?”
She sighed. He could tell she didn’t want to answer this question.
Clark raised her chin with his fingers. “I’m just curious. I’ll still love you.”
Looking him straight in the eye, she said, “Imperfect that he is, he is still a better man than everyone else in the whole spectrum of dimensions, save you.” She stood up and walked to the door of the conference room. Then she gave him a evil little grin. “Plus, he’s got that Clark Kent sexy hot thing going for him.” She raised her eyebrows up and down and disappeared out the door.
Teach him for asking a question he really didn’t want answered.
***
Superman landed on the second story balcony of Wayne Manor and waited. The sun had just dipped down over the horizon, giving a rosy glow to the gardens below.
He heard the security alarm switch off and the balcony door locks turn a moment before the French doors opened. An elderly gentleman in formal attire stood at the threshold.
“Good evening, Sir. My name is Alfred. I am Mr. Wayne’s butler. He is expecting you in the library. Right this way.”
Superman followed, but was having second thoughts. If Lois knew he had come here…. It was too late for second thoughts.
He needed to know if Penny’s hunch was true and if so… What did they want with Gotham Labs? It was eating at him. He had so quickly dismissed her theory, but it was still there, festering in the back of his mind. Lois had had another Trask dream the night before and it brought Penny’s concerns back to the forefront of his mind.
Alfred opened a door to a huge room lined with books. Superman shook his head. Did people really live like this? It reminded him of a movie set.
Across the room, Bruce was sitting at a desk with several computer monitors. As soon as they entered, he pushed a button and the monitors disappeared into the desk. High tech. The man was known for his toys. Well, his alter ego was.
“Thank you, Alfred. That will be all,” Bruce said respectfully.
Alfred nodded and disappeared out the door, again.
“Clark!” Bruce held out his hand for a handshake, but Superman folded his arms across his chest. “Good of you to come.”
“Don’t call me that,” Superman corrected him.
Bruce nodded. “Of course. Sorry. I would want the same respect afforded me.”
Superman didn’t say anything, sizing him up. He wished he could say the man was nervous but his heart rate was not elevated one beat.
Bruce sat back down. He offered Superman a chair, but Clark preferred to stand. “To what do I owe this pleasure?” Gone were his usual smiles and charm. Gone the façade he put on for the ladies. Clark liked this no-nonsense man better.
“Tell me what happened at Gotham Laboratories.”
“Ah. Penny told you.” He put the tips of his fingers together.
Superman nodded, curtly.
Bruce pushed a few buttons on his desk and one of the monitors returned. “The security tapes.”
Superman moved closer for a better view.
“These men came in first thing in the morning. They interviewed my staff, had search warrants for my back-up server and the mainframe that exploded.”
“Pause it.”
Bruce pushed a button.
Superman studied the frame. One of the men, blond, reminded him of that man who shot him on the plane – right after Lois had kissed him for the first time.
Don’t think about that, Clark, he told himself. He didn’t remember seeing him in Smallville all those months later, though. “Go on.”
Bruce pressed play, again.
“Why did the mainframe explode?”
“Clogged…”
Superman interrupted. “The real reason.”
Bruce thought about that for a moment. “It got overloaded. Too much data all at once.”
“Freeze it.” He recognized a second man.
Bruce stopped the video again. “I have the warrants. I’m running them for fingerprints and DNA.”
Superman nodded for him to continue. “You won’t find any matches.”
“Was she right?” Bruce asked with surprise.
“Yes. Those men are Bureau 39. Only a stupid man would let a woman’s beauty distract him from her intelligence, Wayne,” Superman reminded not only Bruce, but himself as well. “Penny tracked me down. Don’t be surprised if she already knows who you really are.”
“She knows I’m Bruce Wayne.”
“I meant the other you, not this public image.”
“You don’t think she’d be interested in me if I was only just me?” Bruce raised a brow, chuckling. He must have found that thought amusing.
“I don’t give dating advice,” replied Superman. Nor would he encourage his nanny in that regard. “What was the mainframe processing when it overloaded?”
Bruce thought longer and harder about this question. He seemed not to want to answer. Finally, he made a decision. “This.”
The multi-billionaire pressed a few more buttons on his desk and Superman expected one of the portraits to move aside to reveal a wall safe, but it didn’t. Bruce then walked to a bookcase, selected a title and seemed to be flipping through it. The computer had been overloaded by a book? As Superman focused his attention on the book, he realized it wasn’t a book, but a small computer laptop with a holographic pages. Then Bruce returned the book to the shelf.
Superman laughed softly to himself. The title was an H.G. Wells book,
The Shape of Things to Come. If Wayne only knew…
To Superman’s surprise, one of the bookcases then moved forward revealing a safe door. He scanned the safe, but it was lined with lead. He took a step backwards toward the exit.
Bruce must have noticed. “I have to keep some things private, even from you, Superman.” A retinal scan ID done at the same time as his palm print scan finally allowed a hidden keyboard to be revealed. He typed in his access code and the door unlocked. He glanced over his shoulder. “I only have thirty seconds to get what I want out of the safe before it relocks, so pardon me if I allow you only a brief glance.”
Superman was by his side before Bruce could touch the handle. The billionaire pulled open the door and stepped inside. Typing another code into yet another smaller safe, he removed a small used facial tissue with blood on it and handed it to Superman.
Superman focused on it to a microscopic level. Definitely blood, not human, but not Kryptonian either. “Whose blood is that?”
Did Bruce know about the babies of Smallville? Did Bureau 39? He would need to call… no, visit Pete the instant he left here.
Bruce held out his hand and Superman returned the tissue to him, hesitantly. Once it was securely locked in both safes and the bookcase was back against the wall, Bruce answered. “It was sent to the labs anonymously.”
“Anon…” Superman picked up Bruce by his collar. “Don’t lie to me about this.” Still Bruce did not say a word, staring him directly in the eyes. Superman dropped him and walked to the other side of the room. “Penny.”
“If she had known that Lara was your natural daughter, she never would have sent the sample to her brother. She would have destroyed it,” Bruce explained, returning to the desk and switching off the monitor.
That certainly explained Penny’s change of behavior as of late. “It still should be destroyed.” Superman growled.
“As you can see, it is quite safe,” replied Bruce, raising his hands to his library.
Superman’s brow rose skeptically. “Destroyed would be safer.”
“Well, yes. But you never know when it might come in handy.”
Superman growled again, his eyes closing into slits. Was Wayne speaking of his daughter’s blood sample or the Kryptonite?
“I have a question, though. Who is her mother? She must be human because Lara isn’t invulnerable…”
Superman glared at him so intensely that Bruce’s heart rate actually increased for the first time and he swallowed. “Who. Do. You. Think. Wayne?”
This startled Bruce. “How?” he stammered. “Surrogacy?”
Superman shook his head and a hint of a smile touched his lips. “Wayne, if you want to play in my league, you are going to have to think outside the box of jesters and mutant animal people.”
“The Joker and Penguin are not minor pests,” Batman’s alter ego retorted.
Superman shrugged, lifting himself into the air. “Should they return, let me know.”
“I don’t need your help protecting Gotham City.”
Superman sighed and then clarified, “Bureau 39. And I’d like photographs of those two and any other faces you can get off the surveillance tape sent to me.”
Leaving the way he had come in at half super speed still caused three separate alarms to go off. Wayne Manor was a fortress, but he still didn’t like that his baby’s blood was locked inside there.
*** End of Part 2 *** Comments
