"I don't know who you are, old man, but if you don't get out of my face, I'm going to kick it in!"

"Lois, you may be one of my best reporters, but even you can't talk to me like that!" Perry replied.

Lois of 2006, who was now in 1938, looked around the room. A boy with freckles and a camera was in there, along with Clark.

"Clark, where are we and where did you get those ugly, antiquated glasses?"

"Uh, well, Lois, we're in Mr. White's office and these glasses happen to be brand-new."

She rolled her eyes. "Normally, I like geeks in glasses, but I think you might be an exception. Where are we again?"

Perry looked over at Clark with a look that said, "I knew she was going to have a nervous breakdown."

"Lois, as I was saying, it's dangerous and unhealthy for a young woman to put her life on the line like you do."

"I must be dreaming. Professor Blackard's lecture could do that to a person. As long as I'm having a lucid dream, I might as well enjoy it. Point me in the direction of a Starbucks."

"And what exactly is a Starbucks?" Perry said with furrowed eyebrows.

"Mr. White, if that is your name, this is no time to play around. You know what? Never mind. I'll just get a cappuccino from the machine downstairs."

"Is it just me or is she speaking Greek?" Perry asked the other men in the room.

"Coffee! Do you have coffee!"

"Jimmy, go get Lois a cup of coffee. Move it, boy!"

Jimmy rushed off.

Lois paced the floor in distress (and this wasn't easy, since she was in the strange skirt and heels). If ever she had come close to going to jail for coming unhinged and beating up the people around her, now was it. Clark and Perry sensed this and were a little nervous.

She saw a typewriter on the desk.

"Where did you get that? I got one for my cousin on her birthday and it was nowhere near in this good a condition. Of course, the one I got was still more valuable because it belonged to a famous reporter."

"You can get them almost anywhere. I find it a necessary tool at the Daily Planet," Perry replied sarcastically.

"That's stupid. It'd have to be 1938 or something."

"Lois?" Clark said gently.

"What!"

He held up a calendar.

"I need my coffee now!" she cried.

"Here," said Jimmy nervously as he rushed into the room.

She quickly drained the cup.

"I think I need to take a walk and get some fresh air," she said. "Maybe that will wake me up."

"I'll go with you," Clark said.

"Smallville, you're scaring me."

"Why?"

"You're looking at me like you look at Lana."

"Lana who?"

"Stay here. I need that air and maybe some liquor. There is alcohol in 1938, isn't there?" She left without waiting for an answer.

"Hallelujah! They do have elevators. It's just too bad they're not automatic," she muttered to herself as she got on. "Elevator person, first floor, please," she said more loudly.

The elevator stopped in between floors and the "elevator person" turned around.

"You do not know me, but I am H.G. Wells."

He began to tell her all the things he had told the others.

"Well, I guess that means I'm not loony after all," she said with obvious relief.

"No, you are not. Come with me and we will fix this whole situation."

"Fix it?"

"Yes, Miss Lane. You certainly do not want to be in an era without the many kinds of coffee and technology, do you?"

"Who says I don't?'

"There are not any advantages to staying here," he told her.

"The heck there isn't! I'd be the greatest reporter in history. I'll know war dates, fads, future famous people and all kinds of stuff. I would always have the story first and it would always be right."

"Since when did you want to be a reporter?"

"Since I found out how great I could be in 1938."

"You could and will be great in any time period."

"This isn't some never-ending TV show or comic book. It's real life and a chance like this only comes around once."

"So I am wasting my breath, as they say."

"You better believe it," she replied.

He let Lois off on the first floor.

It didn't matter what time Lois was from, she was the same stubborn mule. Although that would mean Clark was the same too. Yes, maybe the Clarks would help him with his plan to show the Loises the evils of the two times. He would ask them now, but perhaps he'd better untie the elevator boy and give him back his uniform, first.