This chapter jumps back to 1989, right after the reading with Star and Clark….
"Are you ok, Clark?" Lois asked as they walked back towards the farm after Clark's reading with Star.
"Well , not great. There must be some way of stopping my father from dying. It is not his time. I know his heart is not in a good condition but he is too young to die." Clark explained.
"I know. Maybe we can find a way to stop it happening. It may not have been his heart that killed him. Maybe something happened to him on that day so let's make sure nothing does happen to him when we jump back. Star said she would meet us at the precise time we end up back in 2006."
"Lo, that is 16 years in the future. What if something happens to prevent her from doing that?"
"We need to trust her. There is nothing else we can do." Lois tried to reassure him. He looked back at her with his loving eyes.
"How do you always know how to talk sense into me?" He bent down and gently pressed his lips to hers.
"Sorry to bother you too." Jonathan shouted as he pulled up in his truck. Clark saw him and felt a tug on his emotions.
"You're not bothering us." Lois smiled. "Are you offering us a lift?"
"Of course, jump in!"
Lois climbed in the middle. "We are so tired after that bus journey from Wichita to see the band. They were great!"
"So you had a good time!" his dad smiled.
"The best ever!" Lois was beaming as she put her arm around Clark who had climbed in next to her.
"I will catch up with my chores when I get back." Clark offered.
"No, it is ok. I have managed to get some help from some of Ben Hubbard's workers who are looking for some extra work. It will be fine until I work out what my plans for the future are."
"Are you still ok for Chinese tonight?" Clark asked.
"Yeah definitely! I wouldn't miss it for the world. I don't exactly have loads of company since Martha left, so it would be great." Jonathan noted sadly.
"It must be hard." Lois commented. "I would be lost without Tom."
After they got back to the farm, Clark and Lois decided to take two of the horses out on a ride.
Lois had not been in the saddle since she was 13 years old. "It is like riding a bike. You never forget!" Clark shouted as he galloped off into the distance.
There was no way she was going to let him get the upper hand so she pushed her mare on, until she had caught up with him.
He shouted for her to stop as soon as they reached a field of wild flowers, The colors and the smell were to die for.
"Why have we stopped here?" she asked curiously.
"I was wondering if you want to have a picnic here." He smiled.
"But we don't have anything to eat or drink."
"Find a spot. I will be ten minutes." He smiled.
He sped off, and soon turned up with a feast fit for a king.
They were soon lying on a rug which Clark had retrieved, to ease their full stomachs. "I am going to regret this." Lois laughed.
"Just think you have a Chinese to have later."
"Urgh…. Don't mention it. I have eaten way too much." She replied.
"I am sure you will find space. I have decided we should go with your idea about tailing my dad around the day we jump back to. Let's hope Star comes up trumps."
She turned over and looked at him. "Is that before or after you propose to Lana?" She meant it as a joke but Clark took it as a sign of insecurity in their relationship.
"I will never go back to her. Even if my memory is wiped, I know we will end up together. I truly think we are meant to be."
She touched his face. "how can you be so sure?"
"Because Lois Lane, I just know. One day we will get married and we will have children." She saw an idea forming in his head. "In fact, let's get the ball rolling.. He looked at her and then came out with his impromptu prosposal. "Marry me!"
She just looked at him as though he was mad. "What did you say?"
"Marry me!" He repeated but this time with much more conviction. "Lois, let's get engaged."
She started to bite her bottom lip nervously. "I am sorry Clark but no…"
His face showed his shock and disappointment in her refusal. "Why?"
"Clark, I love you more than anything else in the world but I am not ready to get engaged. You were going to propose to Lana…." But he did not let her finish.
"But I don't want Lana, I want you." He begged with her to listen.
She remained calm, smiled and put her finger to his lips. "If you will just let me finish. You were going to propose to Lana out of desperation to keep her, but with me, you will never lose me. I promise we will be together forever, but please understand I am only 19 years old and am not ready to get engaged. I don't need a ring on my finger to know how you feel. I know…" she kissed him.
All of a sudden a gunshot went off very close by. Clark panicked and shielded Lois. Another shot went off, but this time it was much closer…
Clark sat up, still shielding Lois with his body. He scanned around and picked up some people in a clump of trees in the distance. He zoomed in, and noticed it was Lionel with three others. They were dressed in hunting gear carrying semi-automatic rifles.
"Lionel is hunting with others in the woods over there." Clark explained.
Soon, Lois noticed that the party had started making its way over to them. "Why would they be coming thus way?" She asked curiously.
Lionel had one of those knowing grins on his face as he approached them.
Lois started. "We do not appreciate being shot at."
Lionel sneered. "and I do not appreciate you being on my land."
"Your land… This is public land if my memory serves me correct." She replied.
"No it is not. The Luthor's have owned this land for almost 50 years. How would you know about this land anyway considering you only arrived in town last week?"
Clark looked at the other members of the hunting party and recognised one of them immediately – Genevieve Teague. He wondered what she would be doing in Smallville but at the moment his main concern was protecting Lois.
"It just looked like public land. I didn't notice any signs to say otherwise." Clark entered the row.
"And you must be Tom Mason. You are very lucky to have such a beautiful fiancée."
"I am, and I do not appreciate you talking to her the way you did at your home yesterday. How would your wife feel about you propositioning other women?" Clark threatened him.
Lionel went quiet the way he always did when he was annoyed. "So you are fine about having a fiancée with a sordid past."
"Your research is factually incorrect, Mr Luthor. I would consider hiring another private detective to do your dirty work."
"I don't think so. Anyway we are off to hunt some deer. I would leave now if you do not want to risk getting shot." Lionel was pissed.
"We are leaving. The last thing I would want to do is end up with a bullet in my head." Clark replied sarcastically.
Clark took Lois's hand, grabbed the remnants of their picnic and led her off the field.
She turned to him once they were out of ear shot. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?" she announced with a smile.
"I don't know what got into me. I am just protecting your honour. Besides I have just realised until the meteor showers arrives, I am actually invulnerable." He explained.
"Oh well, I think I will stick with you." She snuggled into his arm.
"Where are we going now?" she asked him but did not get a reply at first.
"I was going to suggest the farm but Imra has just contacted me to say they need to meet us." He picked her up and sped to the meeting place, way up in the hill country.
Rokk was pacing up and down. "Kal-el, thank you for coming. We have major problems. The 31st Century Earth Council have decided that time travelling is to be majorly restricted due to the Brainiac Incident. We got word at the Fortress requesting our return to the future. Your ability to time travel will be restricted too. The Legion Ring will only carry you between any time in 1989 until January 26, 2006, and we had hoped to give Lois a ring for her return to the future but we are now unable to, as all rings apart from yours has been deactivated.."
Clark panicked. "Does that mean that Lois cannot travel back with me?"
"No Clark." Imra could sense his rising stress levels. "as long as she is within 50 metres of you, she will travel back too. You will transfer back automatically once your parents are back together and the timeline reverts back to how it is supposed to be."
"What happens if someone sees us?" Lois asked.
"The ring will not activate until you are out of sight." Imra continued. "We will not see you until you return to your present, as there is a complete ban on time-travel back to prior to 2006. The council is not willing to risk something like this happening again."
"It is vital you stay together at all times." Garth added.
Rokk looked at his watch contraption. "We have to jump now. Good luck with your mission. I am sure you will succeed."
They left, leaving Lois clinging onto Clark. "I am staying by your side."
"I am sure I can cope with that." He said as he kissed her. "So let's get on with this match-making job and get back to 2006."
"You know I am going to miss 1989, as no one knows the real us and we can just get on with relationship. When we get back we have to face Lana, Chloe and your parents." Lois commented.
"Not to mention your dad." He looked nervous again.
She smiled and playfully punched his arm. "I thought Clarkie said he was invulnerable. Scared of my dad now, are we? He has always been protective of his girls."
"How protective?"
"Smallville, calm down. It doesn't matter what he thinks anyway. He is not dating you, I am." She loved watching him squirm.
"You love winding me up, don't you."
"You know what…there is a crystal clear lake up here. I spotted it when I was running one day and there is never another soul up here. I am so hot…" she emphasised the final word, leaving Clark in doubt what she meant.
"You are going to be the death of me." He smirked.
"Haven't you just said you are invulnerable. " She waited for the usual glint in his eye, knowing Clark wouldn't refuse.
He picked her up and they sped off.
After spending a few hours lying on one of the lake's secluded small beaches, Clark and Lois headed back to the farm.
"Hi…" His dad said as he saw them come in. "Did you have a nice afternoon?"
"Yeah, but it would have been better if Lionel had not used us as target practice." Lois remarked.
"What happened!" there was concern in Jonathan's voice.
Clark told him the story. His dad looked puzzled. "It is strange you mention this because apparently Lionel has some sort of meeting going on at the mansion. The gossip is all around town and allegedly one of his guests is some eminent astronomer who was man of the year in Time Magazine in the 70's.
Clark looked at Lois with concern. "Well you know the reputation of the Luthor's. I bet they have their fingers in loads of pies."
"You are probably right. I can't see what the attraction of Smallville for an astronomer." Jonathan replied.
"Jonathan, have you got a menu for a takeaway? I hear nice things about that one in Granville." Lois asked, her stomach starting to rumble at the thought of Chinese food.
"Yeah so have I. I think they deliver too." His dad smiled, as he grabbed the menu out of a drawer in the kitchen.
Jonathan went to phone for the takeaway leaving a curious Lois to grill Clark. "What is worrying you?"
"That astronomer will be a Virgil Swann. I met him a few years ago before he died. He encouraged me to face up to my Kryptonian destiny and to forge a relationship with Jor-el."
"Why would Lionel know him?"
"I never found out but I always suspected there was a connection between the Teagues, Luthors and Virgil Swann. Anyway it is not important; let's concentrate on putting this proposition to my father." Clark suggested.
After dinner, Clark decided to broach the subject. "Jonathan, I have been talking with Lucy and we had an idea which might help you reunite with Martha."
Lois got involved. "I know you might think we are interfering but we can see a future for you both, and it would be a shame to throw it all away over one misunderstanding."
"That would be great in theory, guys but she is never going to buy the fact I did not say those things." His dad sounded despondent.
Lois looked at him. "Well maybe the only answer is to admit you did, even though you didn't. Blame it on the alcohol."
"See you don't believe me either."
"We do actually but it is kind of a hard one to explain. Is it worth a lie to save your marriage?" Clark commented.
"Even if I agreed to do it, I don't know what I was supposed to have said to Martha."
"Martha told me what I said." She went on to tell Jonathan the uncensored version of what Martha had to listen to.
Every sentence made Jonathan more upset. "There is no way she would ever take me back after hearing those things."
"You need to at least try!" Clark tried to persuade him. "Talking to people around town, you two were meant to be."
He thought about it for a while. "Ok, if that what needs to be done. Well there is nothing like the present. I will go now." He got out of his seat and grabbed his keys.
His dad seemed to have a new determination. Clark just hoped that they were doing the right thing. After all, the plan could totally backfire and just make things worse.
"Well I did not think it would be that easy." Lois admitted, rubbing Clark's arm to let him know that they had done what they need to. "There was no other answer."
He smiled at her. "I know that but it does not make it any easier. I feel like I am interfering."
"As I said before, it is payback for all the advice your parents have given you over the years." She tried to convince him.
"Yeah but Lo, all that advice turned out to be right."
Martha was sitting in the back of the café doing the books when she heard a tap on the door. She went to see who it was.
She could see her husband's figure through the glass. His expression was one of nervousness, which made her curious as to the reason for visit. She unlocked the door, and pushed it slightly open.
"Martha, I am so sorry to bother you this late, but I need to say some things to you before I accept our marriage is over."
"I have heard all you have to say." She put her barriers up again.
"You haven't heard this. I need to talk to you about what I said that night." He replied. As soon as he had said that he noticed conflict on her face. It was a look of anger but relief at the same time.
"So you finally admit it was you." She questioned him. "Why did you deny it before?"
"Because I was frightened I would lose you when I thought back to what I said that night. I swear I did not mean any of it."
She opened the door to let him enter the café. "You've got five minutes!" she ordered.
She sat down at one of the booths, inviting him to sit opposite. "Ok, I am all ears."
"Martha, I am not making excuses, but I need you to understand why I acted the way I did. I drank that night, more than I had ever drunk before. I needed to forget about your father. I have always felt angry towards him and his interference but at the same time, I feel guilty about keeping you from a career to spend your life as a farmer's wife when you could have been some highflying lawyer." Despite his lies about the events of that night, his feelings about his anger and guilt were completely sincere.
"Jonathan, that was my decision to make. I want to be with you. I chose this life when I chose to spend it with you." Martha explained. "But that still does not excuse what you said. You blamed me for everything including our inability to have a child. How do you think that made me feel?"
Tears started to pour down her face. "You know I want a child more than anything else in this world, but I always felt if it wasn't meant to be that I would be able to face up to it because I had you by my side. You are everything to me and you almost destroyed that in one night with your venomous words."
Jonathan was becoming emotional too. "Martha, it was the drink talking. I love you more than anything but I know I must accept I might lose you because of my actions."
Martha remained silent for what seemed like hours until her expression changed. "Ok…I am willing to give it a try but there are some conditions…"
"What are they?" he asked.
"Let's leave that discussion until later." She said, as she stood up, and pulled Jonathan across the table by his lapels, kissing him hard.
Meanwhile back at the farm, Lois had finally convinced Clark that they would be alone for a few hours. She ran upstairs telling him that she needed a shower, making it clear that she did not want to have one alone. He looked at her, as she ran up the stairs.
He was just about to follow when he heard a scream in the distance. He sped outside to see a car heading fast along the road out of control. It looked like it had had a blow-out, leaving the woman driver fighting for control. He sped over and pulled the car from behind to a stop. Suddenly and without warning, his Legion ring glowed, and with that he disappeared into thin air.
Brainiac got out of the car, walked a few paces from the car and morphed into his usual disguise, before activating his legion ring and disappearing as well.