Hey guys, here's chapter 14 :) Thank you for reviewing and reading, and as always, let me know what you think :)
Lex was sitting in his office in Metropolis, dealing with a company emergency. One of the warehouses where he kept research on the last meteor shower was located underneath a Luthor Corp plant in Louisiana, and unfortunately suffered from fire damage brought on by someone ripping the secret door off the hinges, stealing his computers, and setting the place on fire. Lex wished he could find some kind of evidence that linked the incident to Fine, because he was convinced, that the professor was the one behind it.
"Mr. Luthor," Elizabeth, one of his assistants, knocked tentatively. Lex looked up, annoyed. "A Mr. James is here to see you."
"Let him in." Lex said coldly. Barrett had been missing for nearly a month and Lex couldn't bring himself to be happy that he survived.
"Lex," Barrett nodded in greeting, then took a seat without being asked to sit.
"Where have you been all this time?" Lex asked, casually, as if he hadn't been waiting for him to return.
"In the hospital. For my back and this," He lifted his leg to show a boot on his foot. "And I was damn sure not going back to Smallville. Had to wait until you showed up in Metropolis."
"What happened to you?" Lex was suspicious. He had seen this man pull out someone's eye with his finger. Why would he be afraid of a little town in Kansas?
"I went to that chick's apartment to search it, then she came home for some reason. We fought a bit, and damn that girl is tough, then her boyfriend showed up and tossed me into the wall. A disk in my back slipped out of place. I barely made it out, hobbling to my car," He gave a short laugh.
"Her boyfriend?" Lex was intrigued. He had never seen a man interested in Lois before.
"Yeah. Tall guy, dark hair, shows up unexpectedly."
"Clark." Lex said, automatically. Of course it was Clark that showed up and ruined his plans. "How did you break your foot then? When he threw you?"
"Nah. I did that when I kicked her in the stomach." Barrett gave him a greasy smile. Lex stared, unmoving, the gears in his head turning in overdrive.
"Elizabeth," He said into his intercom. She walked in seconds later. "Find me Lois Lane's medical records and email them to me."
She nodded and walked back out the door.
"So I found the guy you were looking for," Barrett said. "Name's Griff. Works out near Suicide Slums. I told him you were coming tonight to meet with him. Here's the number."
"Thanks," Lex said, taking it from him. He was starting to have second thoughts about meeting this man to ruin Jonathan Kent's reputation. What would Lana think if she ever found out?
"No problem, Lex. I'll see you around." He stood without waiting for Lex to reply and walked out of the door. Thirty minutes later his inbox pinged with a new message. He read through Lois's medical file, which was pretty long considering how many times she had been hurt, and stopped when he got to the late entry. She was brought in my a Mr. Kent, that Lex assumed was Clark, for a concussion and some bruising. And she was pregnant. Five to six weeks at the time she was brought in. Could Clark be the father? He didn't think it was probable, but he might be able to convince Lana that nine weeks ago Lois and Clark shared a magical moment.
Lex smiled and gathered his coat, confident about meeting with Griff now. He was carrying some very useful information, that he needed to hold on to until the time was right.
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Lois backed up and took a long look at the fruit of her labor. The Kent Christmas tree was near perfect, the only thing that was missing was the tree topper. Lois was trying her best to enjoy the holiday season, but she couldn't convince herself that she was happy.
She imagined what it would be like, back home with Clark and Jase. Jase would totter to the tree at five in the morning, ecstatic about what Santa had brought him. Clark would clear the plate of cookies and milk they had shared while laying those presents out perfectly. He would pretend not to know about the baby yet so she could tell him in a cute way, like giving him a teeny tiny stocking. Was it Christmas in her time? She didn't think so. It had been April when she left. But she didn't have a lot of solid knowledge about time travel, so what did she know?
"Lois," Martha came up behind her and placed a loving hand on her shoulder. She lowered her voice and said, "Are you sure you're going to be alright? With Lana coming and everything?"
"Don't fuss over me," She said, jokingly. She put her arm around her mother-in-law and squeezed. "It's Christmas Eve and we have a bunch of people coming over. We should be getting ready."
Martha laughed. "I suppose so. Could you run upstairs and ask Clark to hurry along?"
"Sure thing." Lois smiled.
When she got to Clark's room she walked in on him buttoning up a flannel shirt. "Really, Farmer John? It's Christmas. Couldn't you hang up the flannel for one day?"
"This is a nice shirt." Clark said, defensively. Lois felt a stab of nostalgia hit her. That was the same thing he had said to her on his first say at the Daily Planet.
"You missed a spot." She said after studying him. He looked down at himself, confused. She calmly walked over and handed him a mirror. He had missed a spot "shaving" He used the mirror to reflect his heat vision to his face, burning the hair off.
"How did you know that I needed a mirror?"
"You've walked into work plenty of times not looking presentable." She jokingly punched him in the arm. Clark smiled brightly at her.
"You miss them don't you?" He said, suddenly.
"Who?"
"Your family. I can see it in your eyes, that you're thinking about them."
"Of course I do." She sat down on his bed and he joined her. "Sometimes I hate that you know me like that."
"I know the feeling," He said, giving her a nudge with his arm. "Why won't you let me help you get back to them Lois? I know at first I didn't want to go to the fortress, but that was a mistake and it was wrong for me to be so selfish about it."
"I appreciate it Smallville, but there are things about the future that you can't know about yet. Not necessarily bad," She said quickly, before he could ask. "But things that might come out if you're with me and you need to make the right choices on your own, not just because I tell you about them."
"Lois…Your happiness means a lot to me. I want to help you get back to your husband and Jase. Besides, I'm sure my future self is missing you too."
She laughed. "You really are amazing, Smallville."
"Clark?" Lana called from down stairs. Clark jumped off the bed.
"How do I look?" He asked.
"Handsome as ever." Lois replied, sadly.
"Thanks, Lois." Then he was gone. Lois ran a hand through her hair, trying to find the courage to witness what she know was going to be a puppy love fest.
She walked down the stairs to hear, "She's perfect," followed by "Yes, she is." And kissing. She ducked into the kitchen where Jonathan and Martha were sharing a romantic moment. She reached for one of Martha's homemade Christmas cookies and popped one into her mouth.
"Watch out Lois! They're really hot!" Jonathan shouted quickly. Lois turned her head in surprise, chewing a mouthful of cookie. She didn't understand what he meant. The cookie was warm, and it tasted fine, but the way Jonathan was looking at her made her think they were made of lava or something. She looked over and realized Martha had just pulled them out of the oven and they were still 400 degrees. Oops.
"Hey mom, dad, I have to go help Chloe with something. I'll be right back." Clark said, as he was walking out the door. Lana walked into the kitchen, watching him go with a sad look on her face. Lois followed her out of the kitchen and sat on the couch. Lana sat beside her and Lois wished that she had slowed down a little bit before and had left herself something to do to distract her before the party.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to Clark being gone all the time." Lana said with a sigh.
"Well you know Clark. Always has to be a hero." Lois replied back awkwardly.
"I wish I could find a way to keep him grounded. I'd just like to have him to myself for a little while."
"Why? He wouldn't be Clark if he wasn't doing his best to help people." Lois said, defensively. Did this girl really even know him at all.
"Lois, it's not his job to go off and save the world. He has other responsibilities too." Lana said, crossing her arms over her chest. She couldn't understand why Lois wasn't agreeing with her on this. She usually did.
"Like bale hay and mend fences? He is so much better than that and you have to know that he's meant for greater things."
"What's wrong with being a framer and staying home?" Lana hadn't imagined Clark doing anything else and the thought that he might run off scared her.
"Nothing." Lois said, shortly. No wonder Clark took so long to become Superman with Lana convincing him that he didn't need to better himself. Lois wondered if Lana really understood him at all.
"You said yourself Lois, that it would be crazy for Clark to go off into the big city and do something like reporting." Lana persisted.
"You never know. Once he grows up and becomes a man, he could see things a lot differently."
"Lois," Lana laughed. "Clark is a man."
"You'll never believe what just happened!" Chloe burst through the door. "I just got a tip at the Planet that Lex Luthor has been shot!"
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As Lois sped to the hospital, she had never wanted a story so badly. If only she had been in her time, this would've been a great article to write. Clark would be by her side, amused and slightly disappointed in her excitement that Lex had been wounded. Lois had thought up an excuse on the spot to leave the house, which no one had thought to be suspicious. She knew for a fact that he was going to survive, so she didn't feel the least bit bad about snooping on him while he was down.
It was going to be tricky this time,to sneak past security without a uniform to search Lex's personal items, but it had to be done. Trauma victims are usually stripped of their belongings on the way to the ER and it's all put in a bag to be dealt with later. Lois had gotten more details about Lex's attack from Chloe before she left and knew that from where he was shot, they would be too busy saving his life to worry about his pants.
Lois was scanning the hallway, looking out for staff she would have to get past, when she noticed something odd. Creepily standing near the doors to the ER, was a very skinny, scruffy young boy who was in the middle of an intense discussion with Lionel Luthor. She thought she could almost recall his face, but brushed it off. She had met thousands of people in her line of work. He could just have one of those faces. She waited until a couple of doctors snatched Lionel away, probably to talk about Lex's condition, to go up to the boy.
"Hey," She said, in her nicest voice. The boy looked up at her, wide eyed and tried to run away from her. She placed at hand on his shoulder, then said, "Wait!"
That was the last thing she could fully remember.
She woke up, freezing, and laying in the middle of the fortress. What had happened? She got up slowly and shook the snow off of her. "Hello? Clark? Jor-el?"
There was nothing but silence. She couldn't believe that Jor-el would say nothing about a human invading the last piece of their home planet, but she was much too cold to process it. She walked to the cave entrance and successfully used it to transport back to the Kawatche caves. It was almost pitch black and looked as if not one had walked through it in a very long time.
"Lois." A voice stopped her in her tracks. It wasn't possible. Lois couldn't have actually heard it. She turned very slowly.
"Mom?"
"It's me baby." He mother said warmly, and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Am I dead?" She asked, hopelessly.
"Yes and no." She gave Lois a sympathetic look. "Physically, you're very much alive, but you've been dead to this world a long time."
"What does that even mean?" Lois groaned.
"You've made some wrong choices, sweetheart. I'm here to guide you, so that you can make the right ones."
"Great, so I'm in some kind of Christmas-Carol Life Time special?" Lois threw her hands in the air. Why did it always have to be her?
Her mother laughed and Lois stared at her, astonished. It had been a very, very long time since she had heard her mother's laugh. "Go home to the Kent Farm. There are some people who will be very happy to see you."
Her mother disappeared and Lois stood there, hope rising in her chest. She prayed that when she got to the Kent Farm that Clark and Jase would be waiting for her, but knew that it was probably a fantasy. How could she make the wrong choices and still have her family?
She hitched a ride to the farm from a nice old man, who felt bad that she was walking around alone on Christmas Eve. She could see from the driveway that nothing had really changed. The house was decorated the same and the cars were all in the driveway. She knocked hesitantly on the door.
Clark, her Clark, opened the door, wonder all over his face. He crushed her with a hug. "Lois!"
"Oh, thank God!" She said, relaxing in his arms.
"I thought I would never see you again!" He pulled away from her, looking her up and down.
"I know, I felt the same way." She was leaning up to kiss him when she noticed someone walking to the door. It was Lana, hugely pregnant and glowing with happiness. A shocked expression filled her features.
"Lois! Oh my god! How…? We thought you were dead!" Lana pulled her in for a hug, which was awkward considering Lois had to dodge her stomach.
"Me? Dead? I've only been gone two hours!" Lois backed away from them. She felt as though she were caught in a nightmare.
"Lois," Clark said in a concerned tone. He grabbed her arm and steered her to the couch. "I think you should sit down for this."
A little girl sprinted into the room. Her dark curls bounced in the light when she ran into Clark's lap.
"Hello, angel." Clark said, with affection. The girl peaked over to look curiously at Lois. She had her mother's green eyes and her nose, but Clark's facial structure. She was beautiful.
"Laura, this is my friend, Lois. Can you say hello?" Clark said to her. She waved slightly then buried her head into his shoulder. Tears threatened to leak out of Lois's eyes. The little girl wiggled until Clark let her go.
"I better go put her to bed." Lana said rubbing her belly. She leaned down a kissed Clark gently on the lips before exiting the room.
"Lana's your wife?" Lois asked, miserably.
"She is. My daughter is almost five and we're expecting a boy soon. We're going to name him Jonathan, after my father." Clark said with a huge smile. It faded as he turned back to her. "What happened to you Lois? I searched for you for weeks, but it was like you disappeared off the face of the Earth."
"I have no idea! I just woke up in the fortress and came straight here."
Clark hung his head in shame. "I should've never let you go on your own."
"What do you mean? Go where?"
"You told us you found a way to go home and begged me not to follow you. You left for the caves and then never came back. I should have made sure you were safe." He looked at her with haunted eyes.
"How long ago?" Lois trailed off.
"Six years. We all thought you were dead or were trapped in another time. It was hard, Lois, not ever knowing what happened to you. Especially for Chloe." Clark's voice dropped lower when he said her name.
"Where is she? What happened to her?" Lois asked, panicking.
"With you missing, Chloe just kind of lost herself in her work. She became one excellent reporter though."
"Why the hell are you using past tense when referring to my cousin?"
"Chloe got in way over her head. I tried to stop her, I promise you, but there was a hostile situation and Chloe got caught in the middle of it…" The way he said it made it clear that Chloe didn't survive.
"Why didn't you save her?" Lois screamed at him, horrified.
Clark looked from side to side, as if to make sure no one was listening. "Lois you have to be quiet about that. I never told Lana who I am, and I'm not trying to have her find out now."
"Never told? How? You have a kid with her!" Lois said, not bothering to keep her voice down.
"Lois…I gave up my powers to be with her, so that she and I could have a normal, happy life together."
"How could you do that, Clark? How could you abandon the world that needed you for some girl?" Lois cried. Tears were actually running down her face.
"That's my wife you're talking about, Lois." He reminded her, sternly. "She convinced me that I didn't need to sacrifice my own happiness to embrace some destiny that was planned for me by a man I have never even met."
"So you decided to sacrifice the world instead? Being some hick farmer with debt up to your eyeballs and having no purpose in life other than keeping your wife and kids happy, is enough for you? Really? And I bet you even joined the bowling league! You are not the man I thought you were."
"It's out of my hands, Lois." He said, feeling rather small from the way she was talking to him. She stood up and rushed outside, slamming the door behind her. As she stormed away from the house, her mother appeared and walked along-side her.
"I don't believe this." She told Ella.
"Why, Lois? Doctor Fate told you a very long time ago that you would be the one Clark needed. His genes and his parents gave him the tools to become a superhero, but you're the one that has to push him. You left and put yourself in unnecessary danger. Not to protect him, but because you feared his rejection."
"That's not why! People can't know their own futures!" Lois protested angrily. Her mother raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"When you left, he had no one to stand beside him and see through his lies or force him to face his self-loathing nature. He was easily persuaded by the love he had for a woman that could give him a normal, easily life without all the hardships that come with being a leader. But you and I both know that's not who he's supposed to be. You need to be there for him Lois, to show him the way and make him step up. You have to challenge him and make him see that he's your equal. One that must be treated with care and respect. Trust him, love him, and don't try to do this alone, it's the only way this scenario doesn't become reality. Save Clark, Lois. Save Clark and you save the world."
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Lois woke up being shaken awake but none other than Lionel Luthor. He looked stressed and overly jumpy. She sat up from her hospital gurney.
"How did I get here?" All that was running through her mind was her dream. It had really left an impact on her.
"You ran into a young man and seemed to have fainted. I had the nurses bring you in here to rest." He sat up and started walking through the door.
"Did he do that to me?" Lois said, putting some pieces together. Her brain always worked faster when she was scared. That's how she managed to say alive.
"Do what?" Lionel said, trying not to give anything away.
She narrowed her eyes at him. Something was not matching up right. A dream that specific and intense couldn't have just hit her while she "fainted." It had meaning and a purpose.
Suddenly she understood why she thought she recognized the boy. He was meteor infected and had the power to delve into someone's mind and force them to solve the most urgent problems weighting on them. He was going to work as a drug counselor in ten years, being so successful that he would be interviewed by Clark.
"What did you want him to see, Lionel? Couldn't you have just talked to your son if you were worried?"
"I have no idea what you mean." He said.
"It shows one outcome, Lionel. One. He still has the free will to choose another way." She wanted to make him see how dangerous it was to play God with someone's life, but she could see it going no where.
"How…?" Lionel studied her. He straightened up and walked to the door. "If you will excuse me, my son is going through a dangerous surgery right now. Merry Christmas, Miss Lane."
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When Lois returned to the farm it had started snowing. She took her place, leaning against the wall of the house on the porch. She painfully watched Clark and Lana cling to each other. She couldn't allow them to happen. She had to fight for him.
"Not easy to watch is it?" Chloe asked. She had come up beside Lois without her noticing.
"No, it really isn't." Lois wrapped an arm around her. "I never realized how strong you are, Chloe. You had to stand back and watch their ups and downs for years. One night of it and I'm barely containing my vomit."
"It's worse for you." Chloe said, surprising Lois. "I never actually had him. To watch him in someone else's arms after getting married and having a child? I can't imagine what you must be going through."
"He needs me Chloe. He can't see it yet, but he does."
"I can see it." Chloe said, solemnly. "You never fell for his charms the way the rest of us did. You've always been able to look beyond the face and abs to see the truth."
"I need his help too. Something made me realize I would be making a horrible mistake if I tried to do this all on my own. I just need Clark to be ready to accept the truth if it comes out before I can tell him anything."
"So you need to keep a secret until you can trust him? That's ironic." Chloe smiled.
"I know how he struggled to let his guard down and tell me. I waited years for him to be completely honest with me. The only way I'll be able to get back to my real life is if I return the favor. I have to get over my fears and be as strong as the Man of Steel."