They were on their way to the airport. Lois snorted and nudged Clark as she pointed toward the farmhouse. His clothes made a colorful display scattered across the lawn. "Not quite as okay with everything as she led you to believe, is she?"
"I guess not. Though maybe that was when she first talked to Kate?"
"You give people too much credit sometimes. But if I were in her shoes and found out I lost you to another woman, I wouldn't just throw your clothes out, I'd set them on fire."
He grinned. "I believe it. Good thing neither one of us has to worry about that."
"Are they always like this?" Oliver mumbled to Chloe who rode beside him in the front.
"Always."
The tension on the plane was easier even though Lois sat by Clark again. Mostly because it was night, and they all fell asleep fairly quickly.
"Please, make sure you are buckled as we begin our descent," the pilot said over the intercom, waking them up.
"Why are we making an unscheduled stop?" Lois asked, knowing there was no way they could be in Russia after just a few hours.
"Because I asked him to," he said, avoiding the question.
She watched as they went below the clouds to an oddly shaped metal building.
"We're at the league headquarters," she said, recognizing the fancy building that was a combination of alien technologies. It was only missing the Kryptonian influences for obvious reasons in this reality. "Why?"
"If we're not married, how do you recognize it?" Oliver challenged. "Only superheroes and their spouses are allowed to lay eyes on it."
"I'm the most resourceful reporter on the Planet. I have my ways."
He didn't buy it. She didn't know why she didn't just tell him. It's not like he didn't already know past the created masquerade, and though he didn't have as pristine a reputation for respecting life as Clark did, she didn't think he would run out and find some green kryptonite the minute he knew. She supposed it just seemed like unnecessary complications when he would know again the minute things went back to normal.
"You still haven't answered my question," she said to him. "Why are we here?"
"I told you I'd get a superhero who could help us. I know the perfect one. You all can wait here." He left before anyone had much of a chance to object.
"He can be so infuriating sometimes. No offense, Chloe." In the midst of her annoyance, there was elation as she felt moving for the first time. "Clark, feel! The baby's moving."
He put a hand on her stomach, feeling the gentle kicks. The sense of wonder expressed on his face made her happy. With his false set of memories, she had wondered if he would feel like "been there, done that", but he acted as if feeling a baby kick was a first for him.
They were still oohing and ahhing over it when Oliver returned.
"Sorry to interrupt your moment, but I have a friend here, Martian Manhunter." He watched them closely as if he expected them to be nervous by that announcement.
"Or just J'onn," Martian Manhunter put in.
He looked like a normal man. If Chloe and Clark were surprised that he didn't look more like what they thought aliens from Mars must look like, they didn't show it. Of course, in his true form, he was green.
"Oliver has assessed me on your situation. With you permission, I would like to search your minds to verify the truth of it."
Lois agreed immediately. Chloe agreed hesitantly. Clark was less onboard and didn't answer at all. "He already knows. His memories have been tampered with too, but he can be trusted with your secret."
Because Clark trusted Lois, he agreed.
It didn't take him long to report his findings. "It is as they say, the paths to your and their memory have been altered and changed, but not Lois'. I suspected someone had been messing with my mind, but I see now it wasn't just me. I'm interested in finding the being who can so globally tamper with the mind and the physical world."
"We all are," Clark said. "We'd be happy to have you join us."
The plane took off again, and Lois couldn't help notice how glum Oliver appeared and how silent he was on the whole matter. She met him at the bar in the back of the plane when he went for a glass.
"Come to rub in how wrong I was?" he asked.
"I wouldn't do that. I might rub it in when I beat you at beer pong but not over something so serious."
"Thanks," he said, taking a long drink.
"Believe me, we gave the whole romance thing a try. Twice. We just weren't suited for each other. We make much better friends. And you would know that if you remembered."
"But you and that guy are suited?"
"Like peanut butter and jelly. Different but complementary. And you and Chloe are the same way. If you gave her just a few minutes, you'd see it. You'd feel it."
He saw the sense in her words and went over to talk to Chloe, and Lois bit her lip in worry. She hadn't told either one of their son, Jonathan, so they wouldn't worry. She was doing enough worrying about his whereabouts for the both of them.