Disclaimer: All characters are properties of Time-Warner.
A/N: I apologize for the time it took me to submit this chapter. I will try to get the next chapter up sooner than this one. Hope you enjoy. R&R
August 2018 AD, Smallville, Kansas
Laughter could be heard from the street leading up to the Kent farm. It was Sunday and like every other Sunday Lois and Clark had come out to spend the day with Martha. This was the first Sunday of the summer that Jason had been able to come visit with his grandmother. Martha milled about her kitchen making sure that she had everything going as planned for dinner. Lois had years ago stopped asking Martha if she could help, but in exchange she no longer fussed about going to church much to Jason's dismay she had even gotten them up early so they go make it to the Kent farm before heading out. Over the years she had come to appreciate the small town church more and more. Nearly a decade earlier she had gotten a taste of Kryptonian religious beliefs and she had to admit that if there was any indication of biblical truth it laid in the history of Krypton. Krypton had been sent a savior and like on earth half the planet didn't believe in him and the other half used his name to commit blood shed. The only upside Lois could find towards earths future was that they had been given a survivor to show them the folly of not heading their saviors warning. At first years ago Lois had thought that Krypton showed them all what a vengeful deity god was but she had spent a long time in thought and come to realize that Krypton had been given nearly fifty millennia to get things right and in the end the only true believers and died out replaced by a people obsessed with science. Yet though earth had been given hope only the Kents had the fortune to spend every day with Superman.
Lois and Clark sat in Martha's living room watching Jason put together a three dimensional puzzle. He was struggling even with super speed he had not yet developed Clark's ability to process data at the same rate. Martha walked into the room and smiled.
"Chloe just called she said she was going to try and make it here for dinner." She said setting down on the couch next to Jason.
"Really, Gotham is pretty far from here." Lois asked wondering what her cousin was up too. "You haven't heard anything from Bruce have you Clark?"
"No not in the last few days but I would imagine that Chloe just wanted to get away from the horrid city." Clark said helping Jason adjust the piece he was holding.
Lois giggled silently which she knew Clark could still hear. She also knew that as soon as Jason an opened the puzzle Martha had bought, Clark had mentally put it together in his head and knew where every piece was supposed to fit. He sat back holding his tongue to keep from reveling where the next piece Jason picked up went. It continued like this for several hours as Jason built and Lois and Martha shared embarrassing stories about Clark. They had just gotten up to sit at the table when the door bell rang. As soon as Martha had opened the door Chloe rushed in and hugged Lois.
"Hey cuz it's been awhile." She said squeezing her cousin again. And before Lois could say anything more Chloe shoved her left hand in Lois's face.
Lois was taken but for a second but then when she saw the size of the rock on her cousins finger all she could think to do was whistle. "Jeez cuz, Batman really knows how to pick out a diamond."
"Batman? How did you?" Chloe couldn't think straight enough to from a proper sentence.
"Oh the whole secret identity thing, Clark spilled the beans." Lois said still holding her Chloe's hand.
"Clark, but how would he know who Batman really is?" Chloe wondered
'Oh well that's right we never told you did we?" Lois said trying to think about what to say next. "Well you see cuz, Clark never lost his powers."
"What? Why would that have anything to do with..." Chloe stopped lost in thought and all she could muster to say was "Krypton."
"Yeah sorry about that cuz.." Lois started to say but Chloe had ripped her hand from Lois's and sat down hard next to Jason.
"How could you go ten years without telling me?" Chloe said looking at Lois as her eyes began watering.
"Hey don't blame me not even I found out until a few years ago." Lois said her attention jerked toward her husband after he had coughed very loud.
"That's not really true Lois you found out I was Superman about eight years ago. You know right before Jason was born. I fought Zod and Ursula after I had given up my powers so we could be together." Clark said meekly.
"Oh how did I forget about that?" Lois said the incident know clearly pictured in her head.
"Um I was afraid that someone else like Zod could put you in harms way so I gave you an electromagnetic shock to suppress your memories of that past week." Clark said not looking in Lois's direction.
"The kiss, you kissed me so that I wouldn't remember who you were." Lois said touching her lips she smiled and threw her arms around her husband. "God I love you Clark." She said much to Clarks surprise. "Just don't ever do that again." She said shaking a finger at him.
"He screwed with your mind and you practically thank him for it." Chloe said her mouth a gap.
"Of course, he gave up what he thought was his only chance to be with me to keep me safe." Lois said patting Clark's knee.
"Well I have since learned that she puts herself in treacherous situations enough that her knowing who I am isn't going to increase her chances of getting hurt by much." Clark said receiving a slap on the shoulder that Lois immediately regretted.
Lois rubbed her sore hand and winced at the pain. "One day I'm going to learn to think before I attempt things like that." Lois said still rubbing her hand. "And your wrong on that front remember what happened with Manchester Black." Lois said looking at Clark.
"Yes I do." Clark said, he could still fell the way his fists had sank into Black. "But you did go into a terrorist country and get your self shot."
"Yeah" Lois said feeling the bullet wound in her back.
"You guys are freaking me out." Chloe said absently stroking her engagement ring.
"Yeah well don't worry Bruce guards his secret very closely. You don't have anything to worry about." Clark said as a smile returned to his face.
"How about we change the subject." Martha said sitting her roast on the table.
"I talked to Pete this week" Clark said dishing out peas on his plate. "He and Lana just finalized there divorce."
"That's not surprising she spent her whole marriage fawning over you." Lois said taking a bite of Martha's roast. "This is wonderful Martha."
"Thank you Lois." Martha said taking the mashed potatoes from Chloe. "I'm surprised she married Peter Ross in the first place."
"Well we all fell a little head over heals the night of his party." Chloe said remembering her first date with Bruce. She had fallen in love with Bruce that night. Now that she looked back at that night so many things make perfect sense.
2007 AD, Smallville, Kansas.
Chloe had spent hours fussing over her hair and her outrageously expensive dress. She now sat in the back of Alfred's Bentley wondering if she had made the right choice. Bruce had been tied up with business in Gotham leaving Alfred to escort Chloe to the party. Nothing drive her crazy more than being stood up. But at least she had the dress, that had to count for something right? Alfred pulled up to Wayne chemicals and drove past all of the press and cameras. He got out and opened the door helping Chloe put of the back seat. Chloe had realized that this was a red carpet kind of event. After all it was just a small-town kid form Kansas's campaign party for a state that only farmers lived in. Chloe smiled and walked briskly up the carpet avoiding all of the reporters she met. No wonder her boss was so happy she was going, this would make a killer story "My Night With Bruce Wayne." She could almost see the rise in newspaper sales.
Once she had managed to make her way inside she ran over to the refreshment bar where Lois and Clark were standing.
"Hey I didn't know you guys were going to be here." She said hugging Clark. "Nice tux Mister Kent."
Thanks Chloe." Clark replied stuffing a piece of kalamari in his mouth.
"You do know that's squid don't you Clark." She said pointing to the piece of sea food he was shoving into his mouth.
"Of course, what you think cause I never spend time out side of Smallville that I don't know what kalamari is." He said puffing out his chest.
"Of course not Clark." She said turning to her cousin. "And look at you. Did you mortgage your house for that dress."
"No but I could say the same about you." Lois said pointing at Chloe's dress. "That looks like it cost a fortune."
"Yes well not my fortune thankfully." Chloe said smoothing out the dress. "This just happened to have been purchased with Bruce Wayne's credit card."
"Bruce Wayne! Your came here with Wayne." Lois said astonished.
"I was supposed to but his assistant came to pick me up instead." Chloe said scanning the crowed. "He just doesn't make much sense. You know I think he staged his car stalling to get me to pull over."
"From what I read I wouldn't be surprised." Clark said rubbing the edge of his sleeve.
"Will you give it up Clark it all came out." Lois said checking his sleeve.
"What happened?" Chloe asked.
"Oh Shelby licked his hand and got drool on his cuff." Lois explained smoothing out Clarks shoulders.
Chloe was about to ask what Lois ad used to get it out when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around she came face to face with Bruce Wayne. He had a large grin on his face and a two glasses of Champaign in his hands.
"Hello Miss Sullivan, I apologize for my tardiness. I had other business to take care of. The appeals court in Gotham set the date for Chill's hearing and I needed to make sure they knew I would be there." Bruce said forcing his smile to grow.
"That's the man that killed your parents right?" Chloe asked already knowing the answer.
Bruce simply nodded and handed her one of the glasses. "Now this must be Clark Kent." Bruce said offering Clark his hand. "Mister Ross has told me quite a bit about you."
"Has he now." Clark said accepting his hand. "I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage then Wayne. Because I don't know anything about you."
"Yes well what's there to tell." Bruce said in a haphazard manner. "I apologize I'm not really one for enter acting like this socially." Bruce said draining his champagne.
"Yes well I'm sure no one here really minds. The people that normally come to these thing are more concerned about drinking other peoples booze and eating their food." Clark said indicating the people around them.
"I'll have to remember that." Bruce said as his demeanor seemed to change and became mellow. "Well it was wonderful meeting you Kent. Make that you make your way toward the stage during Pete's speech and I'll guide you through the plant personally." He said and then excused himself.
"Well I got to have my date for five whole minutes, yippee." Chloe said with a frown.
"Hey don't beet yourself up if it's any consolation I could tell he didn't want to be here at all." Clark said patting her shoulder. "Come on we'll make our way to the stage so we can catch Pete's attention."
They made their way to the stage just as a small band played a short piece to indicate Pete was coming down. The crowed parted as Pete Ross and Lana Lang made their way to the stage. Pete looked like he hadn't changed at all and Lana looked gorgeous in her black evening gown. They made their way up the stage and were greeted bye Bruce before Pete took the stage. Pete's speech was full of all the political dribble every other politician said. He even claimed that he might run for president. After Pete gave his speech Bruce thanked everyone for coming and introduced one of his executives that would be giving the main tour. Once Bruce and Pete were off stage they walked over to Clark and Lois.
"Hey man how are you." Pete asked Clark offering him his hand and then drawing Clark into a hug. "It's been a long time man."
"That it has." Clark said taking a sip of champagne. "I see the political thing is going pretty well."
Pete nodded his head. "Yeah everything seems to be going good."
"Hey how a bout we head on into the Plant so we can beat those vultures behind us." Bruce said indicating the people behind him.
Bruce lead them through the main doors and explained the purpose of the plant. He explained that American's wasted millions of gallons of chemicals everyday. He had come up with the idea that if we recycled all of the waist into its base compounds that we could eliminate water pollution. He had singed a contract with the government that would allow Wayne Chem. cleaning boats to patrol the rivers in all the major cities in the country as well as Wayne Chem. technicians at every public water treatment plant to collect chemicals that were being flushed out of peoples homes.. There would also be delivery trucks that would go around neighbor hoods all over the country and pay people to recycle their unused chemicals. As Wayne said, 'Eventually were going to get all of it weather you get paid for it or not'. He then led them into a large room that contained three gigantic tanks of green chemicals. They were standing over the vats on a steel catwalk. Clark caught a whiff of the fumes and nearly doubled over.
"Are you all right Clark?" Bruce asked helping Clark up. "The veins in your hand are turning green."
"Green!" Lois said startled. She grabbed Clark's arm and pulled up his sleeve. "Is there meteor rock in these vats?"
"You mean Kryptonite? Of course that's what makes the whole process work. Without its unique radioactive properties we couldn't safely separate the chemicals." Bruce said a confused look on his face.
"Clark is deathly allergic to Kryptonite." Lois said trying to hold him up. "One of the many down sides to living in Smallville."
"Yes of course lets get you out of here." Bruce propped Clark up and started to carry him out of the room. Clark grabbed hold of the railing as Bruce went to shout out to one of his engineer's to open the doors to the control room. Clark had just put all of his weight on the railing when it gave way. He tumbled over and fell head first into one of the vats.
His eyes were on fire and all he could feel was pain. Lois screamed, Bruce heard her and turned around just in time to see Clark sink into the vat. Bruce scrambled for the door and ordered his men to drain the vat into one of the reserves. When he had made it back the vat was at half its original volume but it was still nearly twelve foot deep. Bruce slid down one of the ladders and climbed up the side of the vat by the time he made it down into the vat it was completely empty. He turned Clark over onto his back and checked his pulse.
"He's breathing" he called up. He snapped his fingers beside both of Clark's ears and didn't get any response. "I'd say he's catatonic except I see rapid eye movent. He must have gone into shock." Bruce grabbed hold of Clark and hauled him up the ladder. "Man this guy must lift cows or something he weighs a tone." Once Bruce had made it to the top several of his technicians helped Clark down. "I'll have him taken to the infirmary in my mansion."
Chloe called after him . "No we'll take him to a hospital our selves."
"I'm afraid that's out of the question Miss Sullivan." Bruce said buttoning up his tux. "Have a nice evening folks." He said and left the room following his technicians
"Damn, damn, damn, damn." Chloe said through clenched teeth.
"What's wrong Chloe?" Lana wondered.
"Bruce knows about Lex's research into Kryptonite which means he knows about Lex's crash six years ago. He also knows that I was working For Lionel to uncover Clark's secret." Chloe said slamming her fist into the railing. "Come on we need to get to that mansion before he manages to do anything to Clark."
They all rushed from the building and pilled into Lois's car. Within minutes they pulled up to the old Luthor mansion. Lois opened her door without even turning off the engine. She ran up o the front door of the house and knocked hard on the door. In seconds Alfred Pennyworth had opened the door.
"Ah I was wondering when you would get here follow me." Alfred turned around and walked briskly down a long corridor.
Lois ran after him with Chloe, Pete and Lana hot on her heals. "So your just going to show us where Wayne is keeping our friend?"
"Trust me Mister Wayne means no ill will toward master Kent." Alfred said stepping up to a bare spot of wall. He pressed a hidden panel revealing a make shift infirmary. There inside was Clark laying on a hard steel table. Bruce stood off to one side check print outs form the wires attached to Clark.
Lois ran up to Clark and buried her face in is chest. When she lifted her head Bruce was standing next to her checking one of the attached wires. Rearing back she slapped him across the face tears streaming down her face.
"I probably deserved that but it couldn't be helped." Bruce put down the clip board in his hand . "If you had taken Clark to a hospital then they would have found out about who or rather what he really is."
"You could have said something." Pete demanded wrapping one arm around Lois's shoulders.
"No I couldn't. Not without revealing Clark's secret to my whole staff." Bruce said picking the clip board back up. "I'm afraid I have some bad news though. I ran him through an EKG machine when he first got here. And I'm afraid he doesn't have any powers anymore. His skin is still just as dense as it was. Krypton must have been a high grav planet. So he should still have a lot of the strength and speed he had before but none of the powers he required solar and electromagnetic energy for."
"How do you know so much about his powers?" Lana asked lifting her face from Pete's shoulder.
"I have spent a long time trying to piece all of this together. Clark is the reason I bought this place. I had an informant inside Lex Chem that was spying for me. He got me copies of the documents Lex had on Kryptonite. When I had my people look at it I started reading up on all of the strange occurrences in Smallville. Oddly enough our friend here was always involved. So I knew there had to be a connection so I started having Lex followed. Sure enough he was always trying to prove the same connection that I had seen. So when he killed his father and moved back to Metropolis I bought his mansion and his plant." Bruce stated turning of all of the machines. "But don't worry your secret is safe with me. I know how dangerous Kryptonite is now but that doesn't mean I'll stop using it. Eventually I'm going to see this country maybe even the hemisphere completely wiped clean of water pollution."
"So you really believe in that plant." Chloe said dumbfounded. "This wasn't just a ploy to trap Clark?"
"My plant was the reason I bought all of this. I saw Kryptonite as the perfect solution. And no I never wanted to trap Clark to do anything. I was however going to reveal to all of you that I knew about Clark. I was then going to offer him the job of running the plant for me. Surely I thought that he would have a much greater grasp of the meteor than I do."
Chloe's heart sank he had set up the last few days to meat his own goals but no of them had been malevolent or cruel. He was completely sincere and only wanted them to see his vision. Chloe's heart raced with anticipation perhaps life in Smallville would finally get better.
Lois sobbed audibly, she held onto Clark tight and refused to let go. "I love you." She said in a dull whisper.
"I love you too." Clark said struggling to sit up. His eyes were on the brink of tears.
"How about we let these two love birds have a minute alone." Bruce said leading them out of the room.
The Next Day...
Clark and Lois stood on the porch of the Kent farm. It was nearly dusk and they were waiting for Chloe to say good bye to Martha. When she came out side she eyed the two of them together.
"I like the glasses Clark" she said pointing to the black frames that rested on his noise.
"Yeah well a little thank you from the Kryptonite." He said stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah, Bruce told me you turned down his offer." Chloe said sitting down on the trunk of her Volkswagen that sat in front of the porch.
"I don't want to even think about Kryptonite for the rest of my life." Clark said rubbing Lois's back. "I told Emil Hamilton about Bruce's Plant so I'm not worried about it."
Chloe smiled and opened the door to her car. "Well I hope you guys do well I'll call when I get there, see ya." She said as she climbed into her car and backed out of the driveway.
Lois and Clark stood on the porch and gazed out at the first stars of the night. Lois stood there and wondered if her life could get any better than this.