FOURTEEN

Lois turned off the light in her room and stood in the darkness outside of the open doorway. The manor was a remarkable structure. It was large enough to house over twenty different people, all comfortably settled in their own suites. The only downfall it had, in Lois's mind, was that once the lights went out, it was just like the cavern it was built in.

It was dark, quiet, and foreboding, but for some reason, she welcomed it. It matched her mood.

They had stayed up late, hearing tales about the future and trying to cram a lifetime into a bevy of stories; but now everyone had retired to their different rooms. Their journey home would begin in a few short hours, and a little sleep was better than none.

Both Supermen had taken off to complete their patrols, explaining that while the world believed in the illusion of one super hero coming to their rescue, their teamwork allowed them to work faster, more efficiently, and to cover more ground.

Lois extended a hand in front of her, noting that she couldn't see it in the thick darkness. She smiled when another hand enclosed around her own. She had known he was there.

"Hi," she whispered.

"Hi, back," Clark replied softly, stepping closer to her. "Is it strange to say that I missed you?"

"Seeing as your room is next door and we just said good night 20 minutes ago… yes," Lois answered. "But I feel it too."

Clark sighed. "I remembered something."

Lois turned toward the sound of his voice even though she couldn't see him. "What was it?"

"After you died, I, um… started living at the Fortress. I remember wanting to be cold, but not being able to feel it."

Lois laced her fingers through his. She was willing to be patient.

He squeezed her hand gratefully. "Lex found it… the Fortress. I don't know how. Maybe I got careless, or he finally unlocked the cave… but he found me there. We fought. He had a ring. Kryptonite… He kept blaming me for your death… and for my death as Clark, and I was weakening. I remember feeling guilty because he was right. He blamed me for Chloe's betrayal of him… He was so angry and out of control."

Lois released a slow breath as she began to experience Clark's emotions as he relived his dream. Her first instinct was to break contact with him to escape, but she steeled her resolve and held on tighter.

"He was saying things about Naman and Seegith…"

Lois had no idea what he was talking about, but judged it part of Lex's madness anyway.

Blood covered his hands where he had grasped his chest following the shot. Now, with them laced around his attacker's neck, the slick substance made it hard to get a good grip… that or he was weakening.

He was having trouble breathing, but that was because a pair of hands were locked around his throat as well.

Pain.

It was almost a welcome feeling. This was a type of pain he could see. It was a pain that didn't weigh on him daily, it didn't throb and surge with every memory. This was a pain that would end… and when it did, it had the potential to take away all the hurt… for good.

Superman grit his teeth, struggling against the iron grip that held him down. He had made a promise. He couldn't give in, even though it would be so easy to do. All he had to do was let go. Ten fingers. Five fingers on each hand. It would be so simple to stop fighting.

But she wouldn't have wanted that. She had wanted him to live.

His suit had become darker over the years, and now the cape hid the dark stain that continued to spread quite well. He thought about the dark burgundy color as his mind slowed in response to the lack of oxygen. He should have washed it more.

The poisonous green death continued to crawl through his veins, paralyzing him with pain as it went. Someone was screaming, and his instinct pricked, urging him to help the person in need. Then he realized that he was the one who was screaming.

The ground began to shake as blocks of ice and rock fell from the sky.

Looking up into the menacing green eyes that bore down on him, he knew a secret that Lex didn't. This wouldn't be the end. "You can't kill Superman."

Lois shuddered, and Clark released her hand to reach for her shoulders. "Are you cold?"

"No. Not really," she answered. He hadn't finished telling her about his memory, but she had felt enough through his feelings to have an idea about what happened.

Clark let his hands slide off of her shoulders and they remained quiet for a moment. Lois realized that the silence didn't feel as awkward as it usually did.

"Do you think we did the right thing?" Lois asked softly.

Clark immediately knew what she meant; his thoughts had been on the same topic all night.

"He was needed here," he replied, thinking about how bleak the world would be if its hope had not been restored. "We can't judge ourselves for a decision we've already made."

Lois sighed and they slipped into silence again.

"I had a memory too," she said in a low, almost hesitant voice. "Earlier, on the ship."

Clark turned to her expectantly. "Was it better than mine?" he teased.

Lois chuckled softly. "I think so…"

"Just hold him for a minute," Lois requested.

"Uh-uh."

"Clark!" she cried exasperated. "It's just a poopy diaper!"

Clark shook his head and made the sign of the cross with his two pointer fingers. "It's not my turn."

Lois rolled her eyes and said, "I just want you to hold him."

"You got me like that last time," Clark responded, dodging away from her as she came near him with the giggling baby. "You said, 'hold him' and then you left me."

Lois began laughing and set the baby down on the changing table. She deftly removed the soiled pamper, wiped his bottom, lotioned, powerdered, and changed the baby with one hand; all while stabilizing the squirming child with the other.

She shot Clark a pointed look as she picked Connor up from the table. Holding the child close, she pressed a kiss onto his neck, nudging underneath his chubby chin to get to a ticklish spot. "That's okay, Baby Boy," she said sweetly. "Mommy will always be the best diaper-changer in the world."

Clark swept the old pamper off the table into the bin and turned around with his arms crossed. "Was that a challenge?"

"We're going home tomorrow," she stated unnecessarily after a long pause.

"Yeah."

"It's a relief… but I'm afraid."

Clark studied her face. With his vision, he was able to see her clearly. She was nibbling on her lip and frowning slightly. "Of what?"

Lois shrugged. "Of not remembering anything about Connor… Of not remembering you. Not remembering how I feel right now."

Clark looked away. "We found each other once, we'll do it again," he said, trying to comfort them both.

"You're right," Lois agreed. "But what if you're not? What if things don't go back the way they are supposed to… and we go back to hating each other."

"I never hated you."

"That's not the point!" Lois sighed. "What would you do if the world as you knew it was going to change the next day, and everything that you knew about yourself was going to be erased in the blink of an eye? What are you supposed to do?"

Clark didn't reply. He began thinking about the way his feelings had become intimately intertwined with the woman beside him over the past few days. He remembered how helpless he felt when he had the memory of her death, and he realized that it was the same feeling he had every day back in their time… when they weren't together.

He had always been missing her… he just hadn't realized it.

Lois turned around and took a step into her room. "Good night, Clark."

Clark snapped to attention at her retreat. "Lois, wait!"

She stopped and turned to face him. He stepped through the doorway. "I know what I would do," he whispered, placing a hand on the side of her face.

"If tomorrow, everything changed and I wouldn't feel the way I feel right now… I know what I would do."

"What?" she asked shakily.

"Love you."

Lois gasped as he leaned into her, capturing her lips with his own in a sudden move. She tried to keep her response soft and controlled but found herself pressing into him as passion ignited her. It felt like it had been 100 years.

Her giggle against his lips caused Clark to pull away. "What's so funny?"

Lois licked her lips. "An inappropriate thought," she replied with a smile.

"Want to share?"

"No," she responded, squirming as his hands slid to her sides.

"Does this have anything to do with that Superass comment, because I can show you…"

"No!" she laughed, grabbing his hands before he could start tickling her. "I was just thinking…" Her mood sobered. All of this… the teasing, the intimacy… it felt so right, so familiar.

"Are we really going to do this?"

Clark hesitated. "Do you want to?"

Lois emitted a low groan of frustration. Desire wasn't the issue.

The problem was, tomorrow was going to be like pressing a big Reset button. He would go back to brooding over the girl next door (who no longer lived next door), and she would go back to… muffins and coffee.

Clark seemed to read her mind. He lifted her hands and placed them on his chest. "I want you to know that in my heart, you're my wife."

Tears sprang to Lois's eyes. She didn't want to admit that she was such a sap. But… "And in mine, you're my husband."

The words seemed to make the decision a simple one. Clark reached behind him and closed the door.

"Glad you made it back on time," Fitz greeted as Xavir stepped out of the shuttle's open hatch. He glanced up at the view-screen on the wall. The display showed that the countdown had reached 21 hours.

"I can't wait to turn that thing off," Fitz announced. "I hate deadlines… especially when they're life-and-death ones."

Xavir patted his friend's shoulder as his three passengers stepped out of the ship. "Thanks for your help."

Fitz grinned. "Oh, you can thank me now, but you owe me big." He turned toward Lois, Clark and Chloe. "Not to be inhospitable or anything, but we're going to need to get you out of here in a hurry. Fitz is the name, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Lois smirked and shook his extended hand. "I'm Lois."

"I know," Fitz replied. "I had this wall pennant when I was a kid…"

"I'm Clark," Clark interrupted, extending his own hand.

Chloe arched an eyebrow at the exchange and gave the red-haired scientist a small wave. "Hey Fitz." She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling at Clark's protectiveness. She hadn't pressed for an explanation when she ran into him leaving Lois's room that morning.

Xavir glanced at the countdown again. "Have you got everything set up?"

"Yes… we'll just need to calibrate the new padd you brought, but that shouldn't take long. I figured we'd use the private medical bay on Deck 3… no one should bother us there."

Xavir nodded. "That's fine. Let's go."

"Why naked?" Clark asked, fixing Fitz with a wary look.

Fitz shrugged. "There's really no other option. We have Chloe's original clothing because we found them in her quarters, but the clothes you cam in were never recovered from the hotel room."

"He's right," Xavir confirmed. "We have to be certain that nothing from the future is sent back with you. That means no artifacts, no clothing items… not anything."

Clark glanced over to where Chloe and Lois were sitting on small medical exam tables in the adjoining room. Chloe was comfortably dressed in her own clothes, while he and Lois were wearing long white lab coats… and nothing else.

Clark had drawn them a map of his house so they could program the coordinates correctly for their return, and Fitz was now entering them into the padd.

"You don't have to worry," Xavir said quietly as they walked over to the two women, leaving Fitz with the portable workstation. They were preparing to administer the Rethrick Procedure to erase their memory. "I'll make sure that nothing is copied. Once your immediate memories have been erased, we'll stop the probe."

"No offense, but I hope I don't see you again," Lois declared in a teasing manner.

Xavir grinned in return. He had really grown to like her. "No offense taken." He turned to Chloe, wondering if the look in he saw in her eyes was pride. "Once you have each gone through the windows and we confirm that you've made it, the project will not be launched again."

"Thank you," Chloe responded.

Xavir nodded, and after a beat, gestured for Clark to take the his position on the last table. He pulled some circular patches from his pocket and began placing them on their temples. When he was finished he blew out an anxious breath. "Are you ready?"

Xavir's manner was purely scientific as he lifted the lab coats from the sleeping bodies of Lois and Clark. The memory scan required that they be unconscious, and instead of waking them, he and Fitz had decided it best to return them in this comatose state. That way, Xavir and Fitz wouldn't have to explain their identities and strange surroundings.

"Tislor activated. Number one is set," Fitz announced.

Xavir stepped behind the glass partition and tapped instructions into the medical panel on the table in front of him. "Go on one."

Fitz nodded and entered the combination of commands to open the first vortex. The floor near Chloe's table began to dissolve. Xavir slid his fingers along the medical panel and directed Chloe's table to incline. As the angle increased, Chloe slid off of it and disappeared into the window.

Xavir relaxed as the tension in his shoulders dissipated. Everything was going as planned. Things were going to go back to normal, after all. Everything was being put back in its rightful place. "Bring up number two," he requested.

They were going home.

A/N: And so, all the toys are put back in their places, and we have come Full Circle.
Epilogue to come.