Chapter Three

Metropolis, 2019

Lois perused her closet – or rather, the future Lois's closet – with intense determination. After days of wearing a hospital gown, she was more than ready to change into something new. As she looked through the rows of clothes, she came to one conclusion. In the future, the 40s had made a comeback – with a vengeance. She tried to look for a pair of jeans and couldn't find one to save her life. She did, however, manage to find dozens of slacks and long skirts. There were no t-shirts in the closet. All she could find was an array of blouses in varying styles and fabric.

Finally, she settled on a pair of gray woolen slacks with a white silk blouse. She studied herself in the mirror for a minute and decided she didn't look half bad. The high waist would take some getting used to, but it definitely made her long legs look even longer. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and emphasized the changes that the years had brought to her features. While she didn't look bad for her age, it was still really odd looking the mirror. After all, aging eleven years in the span of a few days wasn't exactly a great thing for her self esteem.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the bedroom door. Two seconds later, Richard popped his head in.

"Are you ready to go?" Richard asked, his eyes still holding the wary look she'd come to associate with him.

Over the past few days, she'd talked to Richard quite a bit and had figured out that they'd been having problems. He hadn't given her many details (no doubt afraid that it would affect her healing) but she sensed their rift was caused by something very big. While she felt bad that her future self was having issues in the romance department, she couldn't help but be somewhat relieved to hear that she wasn't expected to be all cuddly and loving with a man she didn't even know.

In an effort to give her space and time to regain her memory, Richard was sleeping on the couch in the study downstairs. He'd been the epitome of the sweet and understanding fiancé. Lois wasn't exactly sure who was to blame in the failure of their relationship, but she was pretty sure her future self didn't deserve this guy. He seemed pretty perfect, and even though Lois didn't know what had wrong, she felt really bad that she was hurting him. Or rather, her future self was hurting him.

"Yeah," Lois finally said, giving her makeup one last check. "Let me just find some shoes, okay?"

Richard nodded and closed the door behind him while Lois threw the closet doors open again. She saw a rack of shoes in the corner and conducted a futile search for a comfortable pair.

"Damn it – what is her problem? Does she have something against comfort?" Lois finally asked out loud, with a sigh. She reached out and grabbed a pair of black boots with two-inch heels. With a last glance at the mirror, she ventured downstairs and out into the future world.

Metropolis, 2008

Lois waited silently next to Chloe and Clark as Chloe let herself into Lois's apartment. Or rather, what she'd been told was her apartment. She tugged at the jeans she was wearing a bit self-consciously, not accustomed to wearing pants that looked like they were going to fall off any second. The belt was as tight as it could get around her hips, but she still felt exposed. Lois had completely forgotten how weird fashion had been back when she was in college.

Chloe finally managed to get the door open and Lois followed her and Clark into the unfamiliar unit. All three stopped in the middle of the tiny living room. Clark and Chloe turned to look at Lois with identical looks of expectation and hope.

Lois shook her head slowly. "Nope, sorry. It's not ringing a bell."

Clark and Chloe both let out twin sighs of disappointment.

"Well," Chloe said with a shrug. "Lori isn't here – she's in class. Maybe when she gets back, you'll remember something."

In an effort to hide her theory that she'd stumbled into the past, Lois had been telling everyone she'd lost pieces of her memory. It was a relief that they'd seemed to have no difficulty accepting her explanation for her odd behavior. Lois wasn't stupid – she knew that telling people she was really from the year 2019 was a sure fire way to get admitted into the nearest insane asylum. And then she'd never get out of here.

But, as she surveyed the completely unfamiliar surroundings, Lois couldn't help but feel incredibly uneasy. It was fairly obvious that she was in the past – but that wasn't scaring her as much as the other things she was starting to realize. There seemed to be a vast difference in the events of this past and what she remembered of her own. For starters, she had never attended Metropolis University. Lois had been accepted to Met. U., but she'd actually attended Cornell. And she didn't know Clark Kent in college. They hadn't met until he started working at the DP.

And then there was Chloe – after she'd given it some thought she had remembered that she did have a cousin named Chloe, but the last time they'd met was when Lois was nine. They had definitely not gone to college together and been best friends. And it was fairly obvious that this Chloe Sullivan was very close to the Lois Lane that usually occupied this timeline. The pain and worry in Chloe's eyes was indicative of that. She felt bad that the she couldn't help the younger woman feel better, but what could she do? In Lois's own version of the past, Lois didn't even know her.

As she wandered into what she assumed was the other Lois's room, Lois started to panic as she allowed herself to finally come to the conclusion she'd been avoiding. This wasn't just the past – it was an alternate version of the past.

"Lois? Are you okay?" Clark had followed her into the room, with her bag. He set it down on the floor and placed his hand on her arm, gently turning her to face him. Clark looked down at her with a reassuring smile, with both of his hands resting on her shoulders. "It'll be fine. I know you can handle this – and just remember that we're here to help. We'll figure it out."

Lois stared up at him, all of her senses heightened by the fear she was feeling. His warm touch felt so familiar – but it didn't feel like Clark. Not that she could ever remember Clark holding her shoulders and looking down at her like this. No – it reminded her of someone else. Someone completely different – and much closer to her.

Lois took a deep breath as she searched his blue-green eyes.

"Superman?" Lois whispered.

Metropolis, 2019

"Where are you going, Lois?" Richard asked in a confused voice as he grabbed her arm.

Lois looked at the doors leading down to the basement with confusion. "Ah, the Daily Planet?"

Richard looked vaguely amused. "Well, that is the Daily Planet – if you're a gopher and an intern. That's the basement. Your desk is on the fifteenth floor."

"Ah, right… of course," Lois said, nodding as she understood. Of course, when she visited Chloe at the Daily Planet she always went downstairs. The thought had never occurred to her to visit the other floors. But since Lois was a big shot reporter now – or so she'd been told – it made sense she didn't work down there.

Thoughts of her cousin led her to think about all the changes that had apparently occurred over the years. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Clark (for some reason, he was avoiding her) but Jason and Richard had been very forthcoming about her current life. And neither of them knew who Chloe was. So, either she and Chloe were no longer friends or she hadn't bothered to introduce Jason and Richard to the person closest to her in the world.

Lois couldn't wait until she got a hold of Clark alone to ask him what the hell had happened. She couldn't imagine anything getting in the way of her relationship with Chloe – certainly not enough that Chloe wouldn't even know her own nephew.

Lost in her unhappy thoughts, Lois didn't even notice that Richard had led her to a cluttered desk.

"Here you go, sweetheart. This is where you work," Richard said as he gestured towards the desk.

Lois cast a thoughtful look over the desk, making note of the family picture in the corner. She had a couple small binders full of contacts' information. Lois looked across the desk and saw that Clark was sitting there, studiously typing away on his computer.

"Smallville!" Lois said with a wide grin. "You work here, too. That's awesome."

Startled by her words, Clark looked her way and shot up, hitting the pencil holder on his desk in the process. Richard reached out and caught it before it could hit the floor.

"Uh…what did you say, Lois?" Clark replied, pushing his glasses up his nose nervously. He glanced at Richard and then back at Lois, finally settling his gaze on a point near Lois's computer.

Lois followed his gaze, with a puzzled frown. What's his problem? Do we not get along in the future or something? Then why do we work together?

"She doesn't know you work here, Clark. Remember, we talked about her memory loss? She doesn't remember the past eleven years," Richard reminded him, as he rolled his eyes at the blank look on Clark's face. Then Richard turned to Lois with a curious frown. "But why'd you call him Smallville?"

Damn it – another thing that's changed.

"Um…well…" Lois thought for a second and then decided to go with the truth. "It's what I used to call him in college."

This time, both Clark and Richard stared at her blankly. Clark even managed to actually look at her for a full minute. After a beat, he said slowly, "Lois, we didn't go to college together."

"Uh… yeah we did. We went to Met U together – right?"

Clark shook his head. "No, Lois – you went to Cornell. We didn't meet until I started working here."

Lois sat down abruptly, staring at Clark in disbelief. She couldn't believe he would actually say that to her.

"We didn't meet here, Sma – I mean, Clark," Lois said, somewhat desperately. "We met in Smallville – remember, in the corn field?"

"Lois, I don't think you've ever even been to Smallville," Clark answered, with an odd look in his eyes. "We definitely didn't meet there – in a corn field or anywhere else."

Lois stared up at him, trying not to panic. She leaned forward, placed her head in her hands and focused on breathing deeply. Okay, Lane… apparently, you haven't just lost the past eleven years. You've also screwed up all the years before that.

"Honey, are you okay?" Richard asked softly, as he knelt down beside her, stroking her hair a bit.

Almost as a reflex, Lois flinched and moved away from his touch. At the hurt look in Richard's eyes, she felt even worse.

"You know what?" Lois stood up quickly. "I'm going to get some air. I'm just going to go outside and clear my head for a bit."

Richard stood up, as well and gave her a sad half smile. "Well, you at least remember some things. You're going to the roof, aren't you?"

"Um… well… I wasn't planning on it, but sure, I guess I could go there. But why would I?" Confused, Lois stared at him for a second and then looked at Clark. Clark was studiously avoiding her eyes again and, for some odd reason, appeared to be very uncomfortable. "Is there something special I like about the roof?"

"You go there to – ."

"To smoke," Clark interrupted, with a glance at Richard. "You go there to smoke when you think no one's looking."

Lois paused and responded faintly, "Oh, that's odd."

In her version of the past, she'd quit smoking. Mainly because of Clark's efforts. She didn't say this to this version of Clark, though. He'd probably freak out. He hadn't handled the whole Smallville thing very well. How would he have handled it if she'd told him how they'd met? She couldn't help be smile a bit at the thought of telling this Clark she'd seen him naked. Then, again, who knew? Maybe this Lois had also seen this Clark naked.

What was going on? Lois touched her fingertips to her brow, trying to hold back the only conclusion that made sense. Just thinking about the magnitude of what she was piecing together was giving her biggest headache she'd ever had. If she was right, then she hadn't just stumbled into the future or just lost her memory. She'd actually managed to end up in an alternate version of the future – one where everything she knew about her own version of life didn't exist.

Trying not to faint, Lois took a deep breath. She started walking towards the elevator, calling back to them over the shoulder, "Okay…. Since I love it so much, I'm going to the roof. Who knows - maybe it'll clear my head."