Lois woke up feeling like she had been sucked up into a tornado then hit by a train. The first thought to enter her head was that her hand was dry, and not laying on the damp forest floor. She opened her eyes to see a ceiling fan, and then she rest of the strange bedroom. She sat up quickly and immediately regretted it. Pain shot through her and she touched her raw and bleeding chest lightly before remembering those horrible green eyes.
"Lois? What is it?"
She froze. She hadn't yet noticed the other inhabitant of the bed, but she recognized his voice. She gasped and reached for the closet thing to her, which happened to be a metal picture frame. She held it over her head as a weapon.
"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled. "What's going on?"
She barely blinked and he was suddenly on the other side of her, touching her face. She jerked away from him and tried to get out of the bed. Suddenly the lights were on, momentarily blinding her. Standing there, in nothing but blue boxers, was Clark Kent, who was staring at her in a way she didn't like one bit.
"Where am I and why are you always naked around me?" She shouted. She gave him a look that said she was not in the mood to be messed with.
"Maybe you should sit down, Lois." Clark could instantly tell that something was very, very wrong. Lois looked younger, her hair was lighter, she was wearing muddy clothes and boots, and she was acting like she had never seen their apartment before.
"Don't tell me what to do, Smallville. And answer my damn questions!"
"Shhh. You'll wake the baby." He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently steered her over to the bed. This was not good. Not good at all.
"Baby? What baby?" She said, menacingly. Lois didn't want to admit it, but she was beginning to panic a little.
"Lois, what's the last thing you remember?" On any other night he would've grabbed her hand and talked through the problem with her, but he thought he better not press his luck. Instead, he stood above her with his hands across his bare chest.
"We were walking around Crater Lake looking for clues as to what happened to Jay. Then this thing attacked me and I passed out." He was looking at her like he had no idea what she was talking about. "Chloe! We have to go find her!"
"I'm sure Chloe is fine. Is there anything else you can think of?" He was beginning to worry. What Lois was describing had nothing to do with the previous evening.
"No, but I really would like to get back to the Talon. Where are we anyway?" She looked around. Everything was in different shades of primary colors. Very Smallville.
"The Talon? Lois, what year do you think it is?" He ran his fingers through his hair. Lois hadn't lived in that apartment for over a decade.
Lois looked at him then. Really looked at him. And while she glanced over his perfectly sculpted body, she couldn't help but stare at his face. He looked older, more sophisticated. The way he looked at her had changed to. She had only ever seen that look directed at one other person before…
"It's 2005." She said while giving him a look that said he was completely nuts. She was starting to think she was the one going insane though.
"Oh boy." Clark sat down next to her, and barely even cared as she inched away from him. How had this happened? He was still in possession of the legion ring, but he had no idea why Lois would touch it, or how her younger self would end up in their bed. And what did some mysterious green eyed man have to do with bending the laws of space and time? "Lois, I think you've been sent to the future."
She busted out laughing, but when Clark didn't even smile, she got concerned. She didn't want to believe it. She wouldn't. "It's not a joke! Seriously, where's my cousin?"
"Probably with her husband."
"What did you just say? Are you insane?" She started freaking out. She was waiting for the cameras to come out and tell her she was being punked.
"We'll figure it out, don't worry. We just have to-"
He was interrupted by is son's voice, calling out for Lois.
"What was that?" She asked, suspiciously. It was time for quick decisions. He decided that there was no way around Lois finding out about their marital status, but it would be best not to let her in on the Superman secret. The less she knew, and the faster they figured out what was going on, the better. He walked out of the room, at human pace, to get his son.
Lois stared after him as he left. She thought she might actually be dreaming for a second, but she was in too much pain for this not to be real. She could hear him talking to someone in the other room. She was about to put the picture frame back on the dresser where she got it from, when she noticed what it was. She practically screamed.
This was a nightmare. Most definitely a nightmare. It was a wedding photo.. A wedding photo which consisted of her as, well, a smokin' hot bride, and Clark standing next to her. It was so strange. They looked older, she had stopped highlighting her hair, and they actually looked happy to be standing next to each other. She felt his presence as he entered the room, but she didn't turn around.
"We're married?" She asked very calmly, but leaving no question as to how she felt about it.
"Yes." He answered, wearily.
"Why?" She almost shrieked, turning to face him, but found herself starting open-mouthed at a small boy in Clark's arms.
"Mama," The boy said, reaching for her. Clark held him steady though, not letting him wiggle his way down to Lois.
"No way. No fu-…freaking way!" She looked back and forth between the two of them, who were practically identical. Clark nodded in confirmation. This was too much. She stood up and glared furiously at him. "You knocked me up? How dare you! Was I blacked-out drunk when I agreed to this?"
He gave her the look he always gives her when she's causing trouble. It was so patronizing. The little boy jumped at the sound of her yelling at his father. Apparently she didn't do that often. He looked very hurt that his mother hadn't jumped at the opportunity to hold him when she got the chance. He looked up at his father, as if looking for answers.
"Mama!" He said again, more forcefully. She gave Clark a look that clearly said she wasn't ready to interact with their son.
"Come on, bud. Time to get back to bed." He started walking into the other room with his son protesting the whole time. For some reason it broke Lois's heart. It reminded her of the early days after her mother died when Lucy would cry out and Lois would have to be the one to comfort her.
"Wait!" She ran out of the bedroom into the hallway. Clark turned around, surprised. "Can I hold him?"
"Really?" He asked, stunned. She nodded and he hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Give me the kid." She reached out to him and Clark handed the boy over. He was surprisingly heavy and solid. He smiled up at her like she was his favorite person in the world, then laid his head on her shoulder. Her heart felt heavy and light at once. How in the hell would Lois Lane ever be a good mother?
"That did the trick." Clark said, smiling at her, an identical look to the one his son just gave her. Lost in her own thoughts, she had almost forgotten he was there.
"What?" She asked, startled.
"He's asleep again. Come on, let's put him back to bed." He put a hand on her back, steering her to the adjacent bedroom. She would've snapped at him for touching her, but she didn't want to wake the boy up.
"What do we feed him? Damn he's heavy." She gently place him back into his bed, which was shaped like a rocket. "Aren't they supposed to be in cribs?"
"He's three, Lois. He out grew the crib." He whispered, motioning her to exit the room before he woke up again. Lois found her way into the living room. She could tell that she had been the one to pick out the big leather couch. It was the only thing in the place that looked like her. She sat and winced.
"Let me see." He said, concerned.
"Clark 'the pervert' Kent strikes again." She said with a grin. He gave her an exasperated look and she pulled her shirt down slightly, to find that her wound had started to heal. It was barely pink anymore. "What the hell?"
Clark wished that he could answer that. "Do you want some ice?" She nodded and he went to get her an icepack. It was purple and had her name on it.
"Do I get hurt enough to need my own icepack?" She said, grumpily. He started feeling guilty. How could he ever explain their lives to her? They were silent only for a moment. They both knew how much Lois hated uncomfortable silences. "What's his name?"
"Jase."
"Why Jason?" She said with a raised eyebrow. She didn't even like that name. Would she really let Smallville have control over something that important?
Clark started to laugh, which was highly unusual for her to see. "His name is Jonathan Samuel. You came up with the nickname Jase from his initials."
"Oh." That made more sense. "I bet the General and your dad were pretty happy about that." A look flashed across Clark's face, but he didn't say anything.
"I just don't understand how something like this even happens." She frowned. "Maybe this is like a worst-nightmare scenario."
"Being with me is your worst nightmare?" Clark said, a little hurt. Sure, he knew he shouldn't take it to heart, he could still remember the days when they couldn't stand each other, but it had been a long time since Lois hadn't been in love with him.
Lois felt a fid bit guilty, but she wasn't going to let him in on it. "I just don't understand how this happened. What about Lana, you know, love of your life?"
"Lana was my first love, but she's not the love of my life, you are." He said, sincerely.
"Slow down there Romeo, I'm not even in on the story yet." She glared at him, but it did flatter her to think that someone, even if it was Clark, considered her to be the love of their life.
"I know it's strange to you, even a 'nightmare,' but we're happy together. We make a good team."
That she couldn't argue with, she had seen it before. "But how did we end up like…together? I can't stand to be in the same room with you for more than five minutes at a time."
"It was all your doing." He said, in a far off sort of voice. She raised an eyebrow. She was not type type to chase a man down. "You've always been able to see right through me, even the first day we met. You might not realize it, I didn't at the time, but you've always been the one to push me into becoming a better man."
"And how did that make me agree to date you?" She was trying to rationalize it all. It didn't make sense to her.
"It's more like we grew into each other. One I started to grow up and focus on more important things, I think you actually stopped seeing me as a dorky farm boy, and more as a man who could keep up with you. And for me, I fell in love with different sides of you. You started to let me see some of your vulnerability and your passion to make the world a better place. From the moment I met you I saw that you were type of woman who fought tooth and nail for what you cared about. You were too stubborn to ever accept defeat or wait around for someone to save you." He paused, trying to gage her reaction. "But back then I was too blind to see that you were the one I always needed."
She was quiet for a while, trying to take it all in. He did look different to her. She wondered if she had ever really looked at him before now and she could somehow see why she would be with him. How was she going to return to her time and ignore the potential in him that she saw now?
"How did I even end up here?" She said suddenly. "Time travel isn't even possible!"
Clark laughed very hard at this.
"What?" She snapped.
"You were more concerned about the thought of us being together than how you got to the future. It's funny."
She glared daggers at him. "Yeah, well, time travel is more believable than that. And why are you so calm about this? Most people would be freaking out right now, they wouldn't just have all the answers."
He didn't want to point out that Lois herself was still freaking out. Instead he just said, "It's a long story. I think the best thing to do is to call the Planet and take a sick day. You never have, so that shouldn't be a problem. Then we'll figure out how to get you back."
"Planet? You mean the Daily Planet?" She said, confused. "Why?"
He pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be a very long night.