Chapter 4
It was dark outside, Clark had cooked her something light to eat, something that wouldn't hurt her after her long fast. He sat down beside her and took a little bit of food on a spoon.
"Please, Lois ... " The woman turned her face in order to make it harder for him to force her to eat.
Clark's tone became more firm, "Lois, I'm not going to force you to eat! But you need to! No one will ask you for something in return ... " Then his face softened and he became teasing, "apart from doing the washing up ... " She turned her face to meet his gaze. Clark tried again with the spoon, and this time she accepted it. Clark looked at her in wonder. He was honestly surprised but he wasted no time in giving her more to eat. It wasn't a very big meal, just four or five spoonfuls, but it was a start.
Lois saw Clark's eyes and the smile shining on his face. How long had it been since someone had "glowed" like that for her?
Lois slipped again into Clark's T-shirt and shorts, getting ready for the night. Clark offered her his bed, assuring her he was going to sleep on the couch. At that same moment someone knocked on the door. Lois froze suddenly, the noise had scared her.
A middle-aged man, with a thrilled expression on his face, looked at Clark.
"Mr. Kent? I'm Sam Lane. I know my daughter ... it's true? Is Lois here? ... Where ... "
Clark shifted a bit and pointed toward the couch. The man hurried toward it.
"Lois ... Lois, honey ... you're alive ... you're back ... " Lois looked at him, but she didn't give any type of reaction.
Clark marveled, with Perry there was a very small reaction, but with this man she seemed to be almost indifferent. Clark concentrated on her heartbeat. It was accelerated, well, both of the heartbeats he listened to were, he wouldn't be able to distinguish them.
"Lois ... say something ... Princess ... let me hear your voice ... "
"Dr. Lane, Lois doesn't speak."
But the man seemed not to be listening to him. He held his daughter tightly and stayed this way for a couple of minutes. Lois found it hard to sit and keeping herself stiff in that embrace seemed to tire her very much, so it was that in that position she swayed. Dr. Lane moved aside and helped her to lean against the back of the couch where he looked her over carefully.
"Honey, you aren't well ... I know you're safe and sound ... well you are alive, but you aren't healthy - " The man felt her pulse, checked her eyes and did the few things he could do without his instruments. "What did they do to you? I'll help you recover, do you want that? I've always neglected both of you ... I know and you don't know how much I want to make that better, please, let me help you to feel better."
Clark's eyes met Lois'. She seemed not to have any reaction to the man's words. Clark wondered why. If he'd been able to embrace his parents again he would be so happy, his meeting in the other universe proved that. Lois it seemed had more reaction to Perry than to her real father.
Dr. Lane stayed by Lois' side for a while, continuing to hold her hand. Clark noticed that it failed to create any feeling in her, it was like she wasn't there. He wondered if he should ask the man to leave, but the happiness on that strange man's face was so great that he didn't feel it was the right thing to do.
Clark informed him of what the doctor from the hospital had said about Lois, that she wasn't psychologically able to withstand physical therapy to tone up her muscles, and to help her regain her normal life. Clark was sure that this was essential for her. He was sure that only in this way would she start to talk again.
Clark brought Lois to the bedroom. He kept her in his arms until he reached the bed. Lois seemed so tired. He closed the windows, there was cold air coming in, and he left the bedroom door open so that she might see the light from the next room. Then he went back to his guest.
"Doctor Lane?"
"Sam ... you can call me Sam.. Super ... Mr. Kent."
"Clark."
"I don't know how I can repay you for all you are doing for her." Clark seemed to want to interrupt him but the older man kept on. "No ... let me say this. I don't know exactly what Lois went through during all these years but it must have been terrible. Maybe it's a good thing that my baby doesn't speak, she'd say some horrible things about me and she's probably right. I was a very good doctor and an execrable father. I was with my patients more than my family, I always was. But when I thought I'd lost her forever ... it was worse than dying ... I don't know if you can understand it ... " Clark smiled, this man babbled as much as everyone who knew Lois said she had. "Let me help her ... it's the only thing I can do in order to get her to try and forgive me."
"I'm sure you'll help Lois to recover quickly."
"Thanks ... I'd hoped you would say that. I was never there for her. I was always out at my job ... and I'm not speaking about when she was a baby, it was a few months before she vanished. She was wiped out ... she had lost the love of her life ... He was a reporter ... oh my God, I don't even remember his name ... Claude, yeah that's it ... I believe they had been living together. I know they were close, very close ... I never met him ... "
"I don't know him ... I mean I never heard about him ... "
"He didn't work for the Planet, but they loved each other very much ... "
"And then?"
The man stayed silent for a long time, then he brought his hands up and covered his face.
"God I'm such a disgraceful father! The last time I met with her, talked with her, was before she vanished, it was at Claude's funeral. The rest of the time it was only messages on an answering machine, no more than that. I guess she accepted that story about the weapons trafficking as a way of helping her forget all the hurt she had within herself."
The two men stayed quiet a long time, then the older man spoke again. "It's late ... I guess you want to go to sleep ... you do sleep, don't you?"
Clark smiled. "Yes, I sleep, usually ... "
"This world, it's really strange, I mean ... my baby is sleeping right in the next room and I'm here talking with a man who can fly. I love this crazy world!" The man started to laugh and Clark joined him.
The doctor looked in on his daughter again before he left. Thanking Clark again, he told him that he would be coming back the next day.
--O--
Clark had been sleeping for a couple of hours when a strange noise woke him. He slowly walked toward the bedroom where Lois was sleeping. He called to her.
He saw her sitting near the open window: "Lois ... you'll get sick ... why don't you go back to bed ... " She shook her head firmly and he was immediately surprised. She looked at him, then she looked out the windows, then again at him, she did this three or four times. Clark came near the window and peered outside. It was a calm night, moonlight lighting all there was to see.
"The Moon?" She nodded. "Your bed?" She nodded again. Clark went to the bed and grabbed a blanket. He walked over to Lois and wrapped the blanket carefully around her. "Can I stay with you?" She stared at him for a couple of seconds then seemed to smile. Clark sat near her. Suddenly she leaned against his shoulder. Clark hesitantly slipped his arms around her, embracing her, he seemed to sense her smile.
The next morning Lois found herself in her bed. She sat up and looked around. It couldn't be a dream, it had to be true. She wasn't dreaming, Clark really existed,he really had brought her back to Metropolis. She had really come back to Metropolis. She started to really believe it. She got up and walked toward the kitchen. Her heart raced crazily and that alerted Clark to her presence.
"Good morning ... " Clark looked at her and was astonished. Lois' eyes shone in a way he had never seen before. He was beside her in a moment.
"Lois?" She stretched her hand to his face, then slipped it down to his shoulder and then on to his arm. It slipped back to his shoulder and started to touch him with more strength, over and over, until it hit him, she has testing to make sure he was real.
A smile shone on her disbelieving face. She was safe, finally she was safe. Lois started to laugh, keeping her hand lightly on his shoulder. She laughed so much that she became breathless. Clark held her in his embrace and she lost herself in those arms. The laughter became a cry and then she started to sob, for the relief she felt at finally being found, that the hell she had suffered had really ended, for the happiness she felt to feel herself free again and to find that she was mentally sane. There really was a man who could fly, who had made her fly, he wasn't just a joke perpetrated on her by her insane mind. He was there and he was holding her tightly to him.
Clark asked for some time off from the Daily Planet and Mr. Olsen granted his request. He thought it quite strange, but he accepted that Clark would want to spend his vacation taking care of a woman he barely knew. Clark took her to do the errands she needed and to help her try to find her other family.
They talked quite a lot during the next three days, well, Clark talked a lot and Lois listened. He was starting to understand what the other Clark must have felt like the first time he met his Lois. For Clark what he felt for this woman was different from that which he felt for the first Lois, it was deeper, more caring. He was able to understand what she was thinking just by looking at her. She still held a deep sadness, but at least she felt herself alive again.
Suddenly he was needed to help with a disastrous avalanche in Europe that was having some devastating side effects. Clark explained the situation to her and flew off. Lois stayed and wandered about the house. She watched television, listened to some of Clark's CDs and let herself wonder about her new friend's tastes, she read books, tried writing something, went up in the attic and looked at Clark's stuff there. She found several souvenirs, photos and a mountain of paper: mail, books in several languages, old photos; a lot of them were from when he was a child with his parents, there were articles about him, but most of the other articles were by him.
She read quite a bit, especially Clark's work, it was strange, he had a completely different writing style from hers. It wasn't bad, it was from a different perspective, a different point of view.
After all this Clark was still not back, the whole day had passed. She heard some news on the TV, his help was really a miracle to the people in need. Lois decided to go to sleep, but the house scared her a bit. She had been living alone since she was sixteen years old, it had been hard but she did it. But the last three years had marked her deeply. She slept the whole night through in Clark's bed, without feeling the need to hide herself in some corner of the home.
Lois was dipping a spoon in a big tub of chocolate ice cream when she heard whistling in the next room so she leaned around the corner to check on what was making the noise. She heard the steps a few moments before she saw him materialize. She got up from the couch quickly and ran toward him. She stopped a few feet from him, smiling. Stretching out her hand she stroked his cheek, wiping the dirt from his face. He looked so tired, after all he had been gone a day and a half and had been going nonstop the whole time.
"Hi ... It took longer than I expected ... I'm sorry ... " She shook her head, and kept smiling. "Were you bored?" She shook her head again slowly and pointed to the attic. "I need a shower ... " he added before he left the room.
She ran to the kitchen and put water on to boil so that she could make a cup of tea for Clark, she opened the refrigerator looking for something to cook, but the refrigerator was quite empty. With what he had available there was nothing she could cook for him.
She went back to the sofa and picked up her ice cream and started to eat, waiting for her friend Clark to get out of the shower, refreshed. But by the look on his face Lois could see that he was still quite tired. Lois went and poured the tea and offered it to him. Clark smiled and she grinned back.
"Thanks!" She extended the ice cream toward him. "No thanks ... I'll drink this." He pointed to the cup. "And then I'm going to sleep ... did you eat all that ice cream?" Lois smiled, covering her mouth with her hand in embarrassment and rolled her eyes.
"Lois?" Clark's voice took on a more serious tone, but still very sweet. They looked at each other for a long time. "I'm glad that you're here ... I'm glad that you're back!" Lois caressed his cheek again.
Clark said goodnight to her and approached the couch. Just before he sat down Lois caught his hand pulling him toward her. "What are you doing?" She pointed to the couch and firmly shook her head, then she pointed to herself and then to the couch; she pointed at Clark and then toward the bedroom
"You want me to sleep in the bedroom?" She nodded. "But you're still weak ... " She pointed to herself again and then towards the couch. "No, Lois ... " She made a move as if she were losing her patience, then without hesitation she pointed to the couch and beat her breast, then she forced him toward the bedroom and pushed him in that direction. "OK ... OK, thanks, I understand ... " Lois smiled and stopped pushing him. Clark turned and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Night ... sleep well ... "
She nodded again with a smile. A couple of moments later, when Clark was under the blankets, Lois knocked on the open door. "Come in ... tell me ... I mean ... what?" Lois approached the side of his bed, she bent toward Clark and gave him a light kiss on the cheek, then she nodded and went back to the living room, closing his door so he would not be disturbed by the light.
To be continued
