Author's notes: Well here it finally is, the big finish to the
'Future Series'. I hope you folks who waited for it will find it
satisfying. I have to thank the gentle readers from Zoom's boards
who kept after me to write and eventually finish this monster.  I
never intended for it to become this mini novel that it has, but
sometimes the characters just take over and don't let you go where
you intended. It's out of my hands now and into yours.
All characters are trademarked and copyrighted to their respective
owners. All comments, good, bad, or indifferent, are encouraged and
welcome at TankW1@aol.com

__________


A Future Restored
by Tank Wilson  <TankW1@aol.com>
Rated PG
Submitted July 2000
___________


Lois Lane stepped off the elevator as it opened up to the 
newsroom floor. Last week had been a hard week, wrapping up her 
latest story, and she was looking forward to a little less 
stressful week.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let's give it up for the Daily Planet's 
number one reporter, Lois Lane." Perry was holding up a copy of 
that morning's edition with the banner headline: 'High School 
Baby Selling Ring Exposed!'.

"I'm proud of you, Lois, it was a terrific story." Perry put his 
arm around Lois, but couldn't help but frown as he noticed the 
applause she inspired was of the light, polite variety.

"Thanks, Chief," Lois smiled for Perry.

The lack of warmth in her reception was not lost on Lois. It had 
been over three months since the most locally newsworthy divorce 
since Chuck and Di. She knew everyone blamed her for the divorce, 
and that everyone, including her, missed Clark. It didn't matter 
to her. She had gotten used to the whispered innuendoes, the 
'behind your back' accusing stares. Even the wild, unfounded 
speculations that the local tabloids had fed off for so long 
didn't get to her.

She and Clark had agreed to say nothing to anyone as to the 
reasons behind the divorce. All they would say publicly was that 
they had grown apart, and that they no longer shared a common 
vision of their future together. That hadn't helped, and 
speculation about Lois' unfaithfulness ran the gamut from movie 
stars, to Superman, even to Jimmy. Lois had casually let slip 
some comments that might help explain the break up to those they 
knew, but it didn't seem to help. It was more fun for them to 
play their guessing games. She didn't care; none of them were 
really her friends anyway.

Perry stared down at his favorite reporter as she worked at 
booting up her computer for the day. His heart went out to her. 
He was terribly saddened by the break up of Clark and Lois. He 
would have thought that if anyone had a chance to make a marriage 
work these days, it would have been those two. They had seemed so 
perfect for each other. It was like they had been destined to be 
together. He sighed as he turned to go back into his office, 
nearly running into Jimmy as he did so.

"Whoa, Chief, we almost had a nasty collision there." Jimmy 
noticed the paper Perry was holding. "Hey, that was quite a 
story, eh, Chief. Imagine passing herself off as a substitute 
phys ed. teacher for three weeks to find the trail." Jimmy shook 
his head in amazement. "Wow, how does she do it?"

"She's smart, and she's dedicated." Perry gave Jimmy a stern 
look. "Unlike a certain young research assistant."

"Hey, I'm dedicated." Jimmy then lowered his voice, making sure 
no one would overhear. "I just can't get over her and CK 
splitting up. It just seems unnatural somehow."

"Well, Jimmy, if love was enough, there would be a lot fewer 
divorces in this world." Perry's eyes unfocused a bit as his own 
memories came into play. "I loved Alice very much, but that 
didn't stop us from getting a divorce."

"Yeah, but you just spent so much time at the Planet, she felt 
left out." Jimmy snuck a glance toward Lois, who was now busy 
checking her emails. "Lois and Clark worked at the same place, 
doing the same thing. They were partners."

"Yes - yes they were, and darn good ones too." Perry shook his 
head. "No, I think their problem was more domestic."

Jimmy seemed confused. "I don't understand."

"Little ones, bambinos," Perry looked skyward as it was clear 
that Jimmy still wasn't with him. "Children. I got the impression 
from comments that Lois has been letting slip that Clark wants 
them and she doesn't."

Jimmy looked over and just nodded his head. Suddenly, as if 
remembering something, he turned back to Perry. "Say, isn't CK 
due back from his assignment with the foreign bureau this week?"

Perry nodded. "Tomorrow, he is due back tomorrow."

"It will be good to see him again."

"Yes it will. I just hope that he will be glad to be back." Perry 
started for his office, Jimmy trailing behind. "It's one thing to 
have one of my best reporters take some needed personal time. 
Time away from it all so he can regain his perspective. It would 
be another thing entirely if I found myself having to fill that 
spot again." Perry opened his door. "I don't think the Planet 
would be that lucky again."

***

Lois opened her email and began scrolling through the entries. 
Most of them she deleted without opening after reading the 
header. One particular note caught her eye. It was from Clark. 
She quickly opened the message and began to read it:

 "Lois, I'll be getting back into Metropolis this evening. As 
promised, I'll have Superman pick Lucy up, out in California. I'm 
glad she has decided to come stay with you now that she's through 
with school and moving back to Metropolis. They should get to 
your place sometime in the later evening. I know he'll try not to 
make it too late.

     How are things at the Planet? I've seen some of your latest
     headlines, even over here. I'm impressed, though I really 
     shouldn't have expected any less from Lois Lane. How are 
     Perry and Jimmy? I hope they have been able to deal with the 
     divorce now that they've had some time to get used to it. Are 
     you still getting heat from the staff? Since I told Superman 
     that you now know how to cook, I'm certain that he and Lucy 
     will expect some sort of special dinner when they get there. 
     Looking forward to seeing everyone again. Take care, Clark.

Lois was amused by Clark's careful wording in his email, but then 
they both knew that their email wasn't secure. Management had the 
ability to check it whenever they wanted, but Lois had learned 
they seldom did. The justification, beyond typical abuse, was 
that if a reporter was missing it could provide clues to what 
they were working on and where they might be. Lois was just 
cynical enough to think that it occasionally provided some bored 
executive with his jollies for the day.

Lois was looking forward to seeing Lucy again. They had conversed 
a few times and seemed to connect, if not as sisters, then as 
possible friends. Lois was glad Lucy had agreed to come live with 
her now that she was moving back to Metropolis. Not only would it 
help Lucy expense-wise until she found a job, but it would give 
Lois that one person she could be herself around. Someone she 
could really talk to about stuff that was bothering her.

Jimmy had been trying to be a friend to her, but he was still a 
little skittish around her. He was always afraid of saying the 
wrong thing. Perry had been pretty great. He was so much like the 
Perry she had known and loved that she found it easy to slip into 
her old ways with him. This, though, had, on a couple of 
occasions, caused some minor problems when she found herself 
referring to incidents that didn't happen on this world. Again 
she had to be constantly on her guard with these people, lest she 
betray herself in some manner. That was another reason why she 
was glad that Lucy was coming back.

Lois had to admit to herself that she was also looking forward to 
seeing Clark again. Right after the divorce, Clark had taken a 
leave of absence and had gone home to Smallville. He felt the 
mindless physical labor would do him some good. She also knew 
that he and his folks would use the time to come to grips with 
the loss of their Lois. She'd never heard from him during that 
time, which had lasted nearly a month.

He'd come back to work looking a little less haunted but he still 
acted politely professional around her. Perry was not happy that 
he had lost his number one reporting team, but he knew that it 
wouldn't be fair to either one to continue to partner them. The 
three of them had had a long discussion in Perry's office. It was 
decided that Lane and Kent would now be Lane, and Kent, two top 
reporters who happened to work at the same paper. Perry was just 
thankful that neither one felt like they had to quit. Perry did 
elicit a promise from the two of them that if something really 
big came up that they would work together on it. It would be 
Perry's call, but he promised he wouldn't abuse it. Clark and 
Lois had agreed.

After about a week of separate stories, Perry had noticed that 
Clark still wasn't really comfortable at work, and decided to do 
something about it. Just the day before, Perry had received a fax 
from the foreign bureau. Due to a pregnancy and two major 
illnesses, they were woefully understaffed, and wondered if Perry 
could spare someone for a couple months. Lois had known about the 
fax because she had run into Jimmy, literally, while he was 
bringing it to Perry. The next day, Perry had called Clark into 
his office and asked him to take the assignment.

Lois watched Clark while he was in Perry's office. She could tell 
by his body language that he was hesitant to take the position. 
Lois assumed he was worried about his Superman responsibilities 
if he was overseas. What ever it was that Perry said to him must 
have finally convinced him because Clark was booked on a flight 
to Paris the next day.

It was the typical situation again. As long as they weren't 
physically together they seemed to get along quite well. Clark 
and Lois had exchanged several emails during the time he was 
abroad. He had managed to help her out on the several small 
problems that would arise while trying to contact some of Lois' 
sources. Clark had given Lois the low down on Bobby Bigmouth and 
his peculiar fee structure for information, as well as some of 
her other sources. Clark had helped her also with some insight, 
and places to check out on some of her stories. When she offered 
him shared byline for his input he declined. He said it would be 
better if the public got used to seeing their names as single 
bylines under stories.

Besides the emails, Clark and Lois had spoken a few times on the 
phone. Those conversations were less business and more friendly 
in nature. Clark mostly asking how it was going in her new place. 
Lois had rented an apartment in Clark's old building. It was 
similar to Clark's old place in layout, except hers had two 
bedrooms. She had purposely looked for a place with two bedrooms 
in hopes of convincing Lucy to come stay with her when she moved 
back, which she had.

There had been one, somewhat awkward, situation that had come up. 
Clark had flown back to Metropolis every night to do a patrol. He 
didn't want his absence to impact on the city any more than it 
had to. It just so happened that on one of those occasions a 
certain plucky reporter found herself in a somewhat precarious 
situation. During a surveillance of a contractor and some of his 
crew, who were suspected of taking bribes, Lois followed them to 
a high rise construction site.

The fact that they had chosen to have their meet on the 
unfinished 23rd floor didn't deter Lois from following them up 
there to try and get the hard evidence she needed for her story.

As fortune would have it, Lois had gotten an earful and was 
anxious to find out more, when her foot struck a bucket of rivets 
left sitting near the girder she was hiding behind. The noise of 
the bucket tipping over and the rivets spilling out quickly 
brought her to the attention of her surveillance subjects. 
Needless to say they didn't appreciate her presence there, and, 
in typical Lois Lane fashion, she found herself being tossed over 
the edge of the building.

Luckily her instinctive screams brought her to Superman's 
attention and he caught her before she became human graffiti on 
the sidewalk below. After making sure she was all right, Superman 
flew up and apprehended the men. With the attempted murder 
charge, and Lois' testimony of what she'd overheard, they were 
put away for a long time and Lois had another page one story.

Her meeting there with Superman had been a little less cordial. 
Lois could tell that Clark had been concerned for her as he stood 
and lectured her on taking such dangerous risks, but it didn't 
matter. She wasn't used to someone telling her what she should or 
shouldn't do, even if it was for her own good. She had responded 
with a diatribe of her own about who did he think he was, 
believing he had some right to make decisions for her.

Lois still remembered the hurt and anger in his eyes when she 
informed him that if his Lois was comfortable with him making 
decisions for her that was just fine, but she was not his wife, 
and she intended to make her own decisions, for herself. He had 
flown off without another word. Lois realized she had hurt him, 
and she had apologized in several emails, but she stood by her 
decree that he wasn't responsible for her actions. She very much 
appreciated the save, and always would, but if he wasn't there 
sometime, that was her problem, not his. The next time they spoke 
on the phone it was never mentioned.

Lois shut down her email and turned her attention to the stack of 
paper memos and phone messages that occupied the corner of her 
desk. She had only gotten about halfway through them when a 
shadow fell across her line of vision. Fearing the worst, Lois 
heaved a deep sigh before she turned to see who it was. 
Unfortunately, her silent prayers weren't answered. It was Ralph.

"What can I do for you, Ralph?" Even though it was morning, Lois' 
voice had an air of weariness to it.

Ralph smirked as he placed his hand on the back of her chair. "I 
was just thinking..."

"That would be a first." Lois hadn't been at this Planet long but 
she'd been there long enough to get a line on the staff irritant.

Ralph continued as if she hadn't spoken. "... it's been a few 
months since you and Kent untied the knot, so to speak, and I was 
wondering if you had considered partnering up with someone else?"

Lois rolled her eyes. "You?"

Ralph tried to affect an air of competence. "Yeah, why not me?"

Lois thought about what she should say, for all of two seconds. 
She stood,faced Ralph, and looked him in the eye. "Ralph, I would 
not partner with you if I were blind and without arms and legs. I 
would rather stick my head in a gas oven and strike a match than 
partner with you."

Ralph opened his mouth as if to speak but Lois continued on 
before he could say anything. "Why, you ask? Let me tell you why. 
It's because I find you the most obnoxious man I've ever met, and 
the most consistently annoying person on the planet!"

Ralph looked confused. "Don't you mean at the Planet?"

"No, not at the Planet, Ralph, I mean *on* the planet."

Ralph nodded to himself, mulling over Lois' words. "Does that 
mean you'll think about it and get back to me?"

"Aarrggh!" Lois stalked off to the sanctuary of the ladies room.

******************************

Lois took one last look at her preparations in the kitchen. She 
wasn't sure when Lucy and Clark would be arriving so she set up a 
quick stir fry. Something that would only take a few minutes once 
they got there. That, along with the garden salad and some fresh 
fruit slices, should be enough to satisfy everyone. Lois also had 
coffee brewing, the tea pot was on low, and a nice bottle of wine 
was chilling in the fridge.

Lois quickly stepped into the bathroom to check herself out one 
last time. She had to smile at her nervousness. She was acting 
like a teenager on her first big date. She was looking forward to 
seeing both Lucy and Clark again, but it wasn't like it was some 
big occasion. Well, then again, maybe it was.

She used her fingers to arrange her hair again. She had ditched 
the curls and was growing it out some, but it was still pretty 
short, and it was still very red. For some reason the color had 
grown on her, so she decided to keep it. Another check on the 
little bit of make up that she had used, and smoothing of the 
imaginary wrinkles from her blouse and slacks. With a satisfied 
nod she left the room and went back to pacing about the 
apartment.

It was nearly nine o' clock before Lois was startled by a knock 
at her door. She had resorted to channel surfing the television 
and had ended up on a silly nighttime game show where an unctuous 
host asked silly questions for ridiculous sums of money. Lois 
figured if she had been on the show, she would have been able to 
retire and live well the rest of her life.

She answered the door by the second knock. Lois was surprised by 
what she saw. Lucy, stood there grinning, while a loaded down 
Clark brought up the rear, but it wasn't a Lucy she immediately 
recognized.

"Lucy, what have you done to your hair!"

Lucy's smile got bigger as Lois took in the new look Lucy 
sported. Her normal shoulder length style had been trimmed up a 
bit, to a chin length bob. Not too different from the way Lois 
herself used to wear her own hair. That wasn't the surprising 
part. The surprising part was the color. Lucy's own, once dark 
brown tresses, were now the same brilliant shade of red that Lois 
herself sported.

"I thought, if we were going to play at being sisters, I might as 
well look the part."

Lois couldn't help but giggle as she enfolded her 'sister' in a 
hug and then made room for Clark to come in. Lois was still 
grinning as she pointed in the direction of the room that would 
be Lucy's so he could take her things in there. When he returned 
Lois favored Clark with a raised brow.

"Did you know about this?"

Clark just smiled and shook his head. "Not until I arrived to 
pick her up." He nodded toward Lucy. "You have to admit, it's 
quite a striking change."

Lois again looked toward Lucy. "Yes, yes it is, but then we Lane 
gals have always been unpredictable." Lois grinned and with a 
wave of her arm directed Lucy and Clark to the living room. 
"Relax for a bit, I'll have dinner ready in just a few minutes."

True to her word, within a few minutes everyone was seated around 
the table passing plates and bowls of food back and forth to each 
other. Lois received compliments on her repast, accepting the 
praise with a blush and a smile. After the obligatory small talk 
about the food and how nice the apartment looked was out of the 
way, the trio settled in for a comfortable dinner and some 
conversation.

"Sorry we were a bit late." Lucy said between mouthfuls of salad. 
"We stopped in Smallville and Clark showed me the memorial he 
erected to Lois' memory."

Lois froze momentarily, then swallowed to allow her the time to 
speak. "Really - is it nice?"

"It's really quite beautiful." Lucy waved her fork around as she 
spoke. "It's in a place called Rocky Cove. There's a spot where a 
natural spring bubbles up between the rocks and forms a small 
waterfall into a pond. There are waterlilies of several different 
colors there too. Right next to the waterfall is a simple stone 
monument with Lois' name on it and the phrase: 'she was loved'. I 
thought it was beautiful."

Lucy wiped at the corner of her eye with the back of her hand 
before any tear could form.

Lois looked over at Clark, who at the moment was studying his 
food very intently. "Sounds nice, I'd like to see it sometime."

Clark looked up. "Ah, okay, I'll take you out there sometime."

Lois frowned. "Aren't you worried that someone will come across 
it and wonder about it?"

Clark shook his head. "No, Rocky Cove is right at the edge of my 
folks property and ever since the fish were frozen out of the 
pond several years ago no one goes up there anymore." Clark 
seemed to hesitate before continuing. "I know my folks would like 
to meet you."

Lois didn't know how to respond to that statement. She knew that 
Clark was very close to his adoptive parents, and, just from 
things said by him and others, that they loved him very much. She 
also knew that they had loved Lois very much also, so she felt a 
little uncomfortable that they would want to meet her. She wasn't 
sure what to make of that. Did they want to 'check out' this 
person who dared to impersonate their daughter-in-law, find her 
wanting in some way?

Lois shook that thought off. Everything she had heard about the 
Kents went counter to that kind of an attitude. Perhaps they just 
wanted to meet her, since they also had to be in on the deception 
for the rest of the world.

Lois decided to change the subject. "So, Clark, how was Paris?"

The rest of the meal passed in pleasant chit-chat as the three of 
them took turns filling in the others on the day to day 
activities that had occupied each of them over the last couple of 
months. The discussions were polite and civilized, with 
occasional bursts of animated points of emphasis, or congenial 
laughter. All in all, quite a familial-like domestic scene. This 
lasted through the meal, right up to the time Clark began to get 
ready to leave.

"Well, I guess it's time that I get going." Clark slowly edged 
toward the door. "I'm sure you two still have stuff to do before 
Lucy is settled." Clark took Lois' hand in his and gave it a 
gentle squeeze. "Thank you for the meal, it was terrific."

Lois smiled. "Thanks, but you've already said that." Her grin got 
larger. "And thank you for bringing my *sister* here. It sure 
made things a lot easier for her... and me."

Clark hesitated at the door. It was clear he had more to say but 
was unsure how to begin. "Ah, Lois, I want you to have this." He 
reached into his pocket and pulled out a check. Lois was 
confused. "It's half the money from the sale of the brownstone."

Lois took a step back, shaking her head. "No, I don't want that. 
It was your home, not mine. I'm getting along just fine."

Clark took a step forward. "Half the money would go to Lois. It's 
the way it works in New Troy."

Lois shook her head. "No, half the money would have gone to your 
ex-wife." Lois began to pace. "Clark, I was never your wife. I'm 
not entitled to any of that money. The divorce and all that was 
just a charade for public consumption. You can't allow yourself 
to get caught up in masquerade. We have to occasionally pretend 
in public, but can't you at least acknowledge that I'm a 
different person from your Lois in private?"

"Lois, I do know you are a different person, really I do. But I 
want you to have this."

"Clark, I don't need your charity."

Clark's face darkened. "It's not charity. Can't you just accept 
this as a gift from a friend?"

Lois felt her face heat up. "A friend!" She snatched the check 
from his hand, glanced at it, and threw it back at him. "I don't 
have too many friends that would want to gift me with that kind 
of money. Actually, I have darn few friends who will give me the 
time of day, let alone a large sum of cash."

Clark angrily picked the check up off the floor. "Look, Lois, I 
just... "

Their argument was suddenly interrupted by a loud piercing 
whistle. Startled, they both looked over toward the source of the 
disruption. Lucy stood, fists planted on her hips, glaring at the 
two of them. She raised one arm and with a stern gesture pointed 
to the table.

"Sit!"

Chagrined, they both meekly complied. Lucy joined them. Clark and 
Lois had managed to sit at opposite ends of the table so Lucy 
plunked herself down in the middle. She glared at each of them in 
turn, then folded her hands in front of her.

"Okay, let's discuss this rationally." The look on Lucy's face 
was so serious that it was almost comical. "First, Clark, why did 
you sell the place on Hyperion? I thought you and Lois thought it 
was perfect."

Clark fiddled with the check in his hands for a few moments; he 
seemed to be deciding if he was going to answer. "It's too big 
for one person, and I... it just had... " He stared helplessly at 
the two of them.

Lois felt a stab of sympathetic pain watching Clark fumble with 
his feelings. She could guess that the brownstone held a lot of 
memories that were too painful for him to continue to confront 
alone. It made sense, logically, to break ties with those ghosts 
if he was ever going to forge a new life for himself. Lois had to 
admit that from a purely selfish angle she hoped that he would be 
able to finally bury the past and move on, because she would very 
much like to be a part of his future. She really wanted him as 
her friend. She couldn't explain the little flip-flops her heart 
did every time she saw him, or the way his smile would cause a 
warm glow to spread throughout her body. She knew she would never 
be able to replace his beloved wife in his heart, but until he 
was able to put the past in the past, he would have trouble even 
calling her a friend. Lois was jerked out of her reverie by the 
sound of Lucy's voice.

"So, Lois, you are, for all intents and purposes to the outside 
world, my sister Lois Lane, and ex-wife of Clark Kent. As such 
you are entitled to half the joint assets, why do you fight 
this?"

Lois looked at Lucy and frowned. "While it's true that most 
people think I'm this world's Lois Lane, I'm really not. I know 
it will take a while to do so, but I do want to take this life 
I've had to assume and mold it over time until it really is mine. 
To be able to do that I need those people who do know who I am to 
help me by not reinforcing the role I'm forced to play, but let 
me be who I am when we're alone." Lois leaned back and sighed. 
"Also, I'm not a charity case. I make good money; I don't want 
Clark, or anyone else, thinking they should give me something 
because of who I remind them of, or because they think they are 
doing me a favor. Believe me, if I need some help, I'll ask for 
it."

Clark ran his hands through his hair. "Lois, it's not charity."

"Then what is it? It's definitely not something that is due me."

"Call it a gift, or call it support, call it what ever you want. 
I just want to help."

Lois had shredded the paper napkin that had sat in front of her. 
"Why? It's not because we are good friends." Clark wouldn't look 
at her. "Maybe it's because you feel responsible for me in some 
way?"

Clark's head snapped up. His mouth drew down in a tight line. 
"Well, you are here because of me."

Lois slapped her hand down on the table. "I knew it!" She quickly 
softened her tone. "Look, you most likely saved my life by 
bringing me here, and for that I thank you. You have also been 
very generous in allowing me to be who I am, which is Lois Lane, 
even though that causes you great difficulty and pain. For that I 
can't begin to express my gratitude. But for all the wonderful, 
and generous, actions, and all the thanks that I owe you, none of 
that gives you the right to run my life in any way." Lois had to 
fight back the threatened tears.

"Lois, I'm not trying to run your life."

"Aren't you?"

"Time out!"

Clark and Lois stopped and looked to Lucy in surprise. Lucy 
grinned, she wished she had a whistle. It was late, and it was 
time to move this forward.

"I've reached a decision." Lucy had to laugh as she saw Clark's 
bemused expression and Lois' raised eyebrow. "This discussion 
will have to be addressed some other time. Tonight, we will 
settle the dispersal of the townhouse sale money."

Lucy got up and stood behind Lois. "Now Lois here, even though 
she signed legal papers giving her the right to half that sale 
money, wants to be her own person and not be forced to accept 
what she sees as a hand out." Lucy held up her hand to forestall 
any comment from Clark as she strolled over to his chair. "Clark 
here, is a chronic do-gooder. Even if he didn't feel you had a 
right to this money he'd want to give it to you. That's just the 
way he is put together." Lucy made it a point to give Clark a 
long look up and down, and then winked.

"Lucy!" Lois said, scandalized.

Lucy strolled back over to her chair in the middle. "The way I 
see it, Clark needs to respect Lois' feelings in this matter. In 
her need to feel that she is in control of her own life, but," 
Lucy kept both Clark and Lois from interrupting by forging ahead 
quickly. "Lois must also realize, that in the necessary 
impersonation of my sister, others will expect her to have split 
this money with Clark." Lucy sat in her chair with a smug smile. 
"I propose a compromise."

Lucy calmly poured herself another glass of wine. Lois was 
getting more impatient by the second. After Lucy took a slow 
drink and watched the colorful liquid as she swirled it in her 
glass, Lois lost it.

"Lucy! I'm going to smack you one."

Clark laughed as Lucy put down her glass. "Okay, here it is. 
Lois, you don't take all the money, just enough to make some 
splashy purchase to show the world that you came into some money. 
Something to let all your 'friends' think you got your share. The 
rest can be donated to a charity in your name. That way all the 
legal paperwork will stand up to scrutiny, and you both can keep 
your personal ethics in the matter."

Lois frowned. "Okay, I see the logic of a showy bauble for our 
*friends*, as you called them, to see." Lois' hands began to 
flutter about. "So I get some nice extra perk out of this, but 
what does Clark get, if the rest of the money is donated to 
charity?"

Lucy shrugged. "Well, how about letting the charity be, The 
Superman Foundation?"

Clark smiled. "It works for me. Lois?"

Lois smiled back. "It's perfect. Lucy, you are brilliant." Lois 
shook her head. "You continue to amaze me."

Lucy flashed both of them a toothy grin. "It's like I told you. I 
plan to be a politician."

Lois began to pace about the room again. "I know just what I'm 
going to get." She saw both Lucy and Clark look her way 
expectantly. "A new car. I really hate that jeep."

If jaws literally could drop to the floor, Clark and Lucy's would 
have bounced twice before snapping shut. Lois hated the jeep! If 
nothing else spoke to the fact that the woman in front of them 
was not the Lois they had known and loved, this would do it. 
Clark started to laugh while Lucy just stared.

Lois was muttering as much to herself now as to her guests. "I've 
had my eye on a cute little red Porsche over at Morrie's Auto."

Clark stood and gathered Lois in his arms for a brotherly hug. He 
was still chuckling. "It sounds great, Lois. We'll get this 
squared away this week. I'll see you at the Planet tomorrow." He 
released Lois and went over and gave Lucy a peck on the cheek. 
"Thanks, Lucy, you've become quite the woman, haven't you?"

Lucy answered him with a big smile. "Good night, Clark."

"Good night, Lucy... Lois." Clark was still shaking his head as 
he closed the door behind him.

The Lane women just stared at each other, smiles gradually 
getting wider until they both broke out laughing. They embraced 
in a fierce hug.

Their smiles quickly disappeared as they turned and saw the mess 
that was the apartment's small kitchen. They exchanged sighs, and 
shrugs, as they turned to the task at hand.

*****************************

Clark got off the elevator and stepped into the Daily Planet 
newsroom for the first time in nearly two months. It felt good to 
be back. He was immediately surrounded by colleagues and co-
workers welcoming him back, and asking questions about his time 
across the pond. Jimmy bounced around like a lost puppy who had 
just found his master. Perry even came out of his office to shake 
his hand and welcome him home. Amidst all the furor and clamor of 
the crowd, one person was conspicuously absent. Clark craned his 
neck to see over the tops of people toward Lois' desk. She was 
not in yet. Finally breaking away from the handshakes and back 
slaps, Clark made his way to his own desk.

He had no sooner booted up his computer and was beginning to 
tackle the daunting task of clearing out his email and other 
messages when the ding of the elevator interrupted his 
concentration. Lois stepped out. Clark couldn't help but feel a 
little tug at the heart as he saw her check her bag. She looked 
stunning. Clark had to admit that, even though he still wasn't 
too fond of her hair color, she sure knew how to dress to set if 
off to its best advantage.

He also noticed the indifferent reception she got from the rest 
of the staff. There were still several people milling near the 
elevator, not having left from when he had arrived. As soon as 
Lois stepped onto the floor they all began to drift off, without 
so much as a good morning or a hello. Pangs of guilt hit Clark as 
he watched her studiously ignore them in turn. This was his 
fault. He knew everyone blamed Lois for the break up, but he 
couldn't figure out why. He had gotten a lot of compassionate 
commiseration from their friends and colleagues while Lois had 
just gotten a cold shoulder, and it seemed that things hadn't 
changed much.

Clark knew he could have helped by visibly being a better friend 
to Lois, and trying to show everyone that there was no enmity 
between them. But he hadn't, he had been too caught up in his own 
grief to think of anyone but himself. If there was one thing that 
Clark had learned from this terrible ordeal, it was that he could 
be quite selfish when he wanted to be. Well that was going to 
stop right now. He stood and headed for the break area.

"Good morning."

Lois looked up from her just recently seated spot at her desk to 
see the smiling face of Clark. He was holding out a cup of coffee 
for her. Lois returned the smile as she accepted the cup.

"Good morning to you, and thanks, I really need this." She took a 
quick gulp and closed her eyes as she savored the hot liquid 
coursing down her throat.

Perry White stared out his office window at the little scene 
being played out at Lois' desk. It did his heart good to see them 
conversing again in what was obviously a friendly manner. Perry 
had never really understood why they had divorced. Oh, he knew 
the reasons that Lois had let out, but he was half convinced that 
was just for public consumption, it had to go deeper than that. 
He couldn't think of two people meant to be together more than 
Lois and Clark were, but who was he to understand the twisted 
ways of love? His own experiences hardly made him a candidate for 
a lovelorn column. No, he didn't understand it, but he was glad 
to see them talking and smiling together again. If he was honest 
with himself, there was a little self-interest involved here 
also. It would be nice to be able to have his top reporting team 
back together again. Taking nothing away from each of them as 
individual reporters, it just seemed that the two of them 
together were stronger than either one of them separately.

"So, Lois, got any hot stories on the burner?" Clark sat on the 
corner of her desk.

Lois shook her head. "No, nothing to speak of. I have to be at 
city hall in a couple of hours for the mayor's speech." Lois 
affected a yawn. "I'm sure that will be exciting." Lois took 
another gulp of her coffee. "Actually, after last week, I could 
use something a little less hectic."

Clark gave her a look of mock confusion. "Could this be Mad Dog 
Lane, tireless crusading reporter? The woman who never met a 
potential award winning story she didn't want?"

Lois shook her head as she gave him a crooked smile. "Well, this 
tireless crusader of a reporter is tired." Her grin got wider. 
"Besides, I've have some car shopping to do this week."

Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of the elevator 
arriving on their floor. Everyone's attention turned to the doors 
as they slid open to reveal a single female passenger. She 
stepped out onto the newsroom floor and began to look about her 
as if seeking someone in particular. She was a striking woman of 
slightly above average height. Her hair was a dark blonde with 
reddish highlights. She wore it in a simple side-parted style 
that flowed over her shoulders to about shoulder blade length. 
She was dressed simply in a casual slacks and blouse outfit, 
which showed off her trim, athletic figure quite well. Her deep 
cerulean blue eyes seemed to sparkle when they came to rest on 
the object of her search.

"Clark!"

"Lana!"

Clark's eyes lit up as he hastened to meet his former high school 
sweetheart while she hurried down the ramp toward him. They met 
halfway and he enfolded her in a warm embrace. She countered with 
a quick kiss to his cheek. With his arm around her shoulder, 
Clark lead his childhood friend down to where Lois was now 
standing. She had watched the overtly friendly exchange with a 
raised brow.

"Lois, I'd like you to meet an old friend from Smallville, Lana 
Lang." Clark said grinning. "Lana, this is my, er... this is Lois 
Lane." Clark's smile had disappeared.

Lana pumped Lois' hand in what seemed to be genuine friendliness. 
"Oh, Lois, I'm so glad to finally meet you. Martha has told me so 
much about you." Lana gave Clark a playful elbow in the ribs. 
"I've been out of touch for so long. When this opportunity arose 
I couldn't wait to meet the woman who was finally able to trap 
the artful dodger here."

Lois bit her lip and gave Clark a sideways look. Clark coughed 
and wrung his hands a bit. Lana, looking confused, kept shifting 
her attention back and forth between Clark and Lois and back 
again. Obviously something was wrong, and she was waiting for 
someone to tell her what it was.

Clark licked his lips before speaking. "Well, Lana, you see... 
ah, Lois and I aren't married anymore." Clark kept his head 
moving, so as not to look either Lana, or Lois, directly in the 
eyes.

Lana's hand flew to her mouth in an expression of surprise. "Oh, 
I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Lois gave Lana what she hoped would pass for an understanding 
smile. "It's all right, these things happen, right?" Lois quickly 
changed the subject. "So, you're an old high school friend of 
Clark's?"

Lana, grateful for the change, seized Lois' lead. "Yes, well 
actually, we grew up together. My mother ran the local grocery 
when I was young. My father was a professor of archeology at 
Kansas State and was often away on digs. The Kents were my 
mother's closest friends, so I saw quite a lot of Clark while 
growing up." Lana made a dismissing motion with her hand. "We 
grew up good friends and then dated quite a lot in high school, 
but then I'm sure you've heard all about this many times before."

Lois paused for a moment, not knowing how to answer. She had no 
idea how much of Clark's childhood he had shared with Lois. "Oh 
well, you know how it is. I have trouble keeping track of all 
Clark's past girl friends."

Lana gave Lois a questioning look. "Really? Except for taking 
Rachel Harris to the Senior Prom while I was off with my father 
in Egypt, I don't remember Clark ever dating anyone else."

Clark coughed to draw the attention back to him. "Ah, so, Lana, 
what brings you to Metropolis?"

Lana suddenly got very animated. She grabbed Clark's arm. "Oh, 
Clark, it's so exciting. You know that after graduation I joined 
my father in the field of archeology. Mother had passed and there 
was nothing back in Smallville for me anyway." She touched Clark 
on the chest. "Especially since you had gone off to wander the 
world."

"You said that you have been out of touch for a while?" Lois 
interjected.

Lana nodded. "Yes, for the last five years father and I have been 
in a remote section of Siberia at a dig site. My only connection 
with the real world has been the occasional letter from Martha." 
She turned to Clark. "That's how I knew you'd settled in 
Metropolis, and about your marriage. I hadn't heard about the 
divorce." Lana didn't let either Clark or Lois offer some 
uncomfortable response. "Anyway, this dig could very well prove 
to be one of the most important discoveries in the history of 
ancient civilizations. I'm here with a traveling exhibit of many 
of the incredible artifacts that we've unearthed."

Lana became more animated as she continued. "Clark, you won't 
believe what daddy and I have uncovered. We are going to set the 
scientific community on it's ear." Lana leaned in, forcing both 
Clark and Lois to lean in to hear her fierce whisper. "We think 
that it's likely that some of the things we've uncovered are 
extra terrestrial in origin."

"What makes you think that?" Lois asked while she wondered why it 
seemed to bother her that this 'old friend' was so hands on with 
Clark.

"Oh, you'll have to see it to understand what I'm saying." Lana's 
smile got brighter. "That's why I stopped by this morning." Lana 
grabbed Clark's hand. "We are just about finished setting up the 
exhibit over at the Metropolis Museum, and I wanted to invite the 
two of you over for an advanced, personal, tour."

Clark nodded his head in consideration. "Sounds interesting. What 
do you say, Lois?"

"Well, as attractive as that offer is, Lana, I have work to do. I 
have a thrilling mayoral speech to cover in a little while." Lois 
gave Lana a small smile to show that she was disappointed, and 
surprisingly, she was. "I see no reason why you shouldn't go 
though, Clark. You've got nothing pending, and it will give you a 
chance to catch up on old times." Lois gave Clark a wink. 
"Besides maybe there is a story in this exhibit for you. I'm sure 
Perry would appreciate that."

Clark only hesitated for a moment, then he gave Lois a smile. 
"Yeah, I think I will, that's a great idea, Lois."

"Well okay then, let's go Clarkie." Lana grabbed hold of Clark's 
arm and began dragging him up the ramp.

"Clarkie?" Lois watched mystified, as the beautiful woman from 
Clark's past dragged him, unresisting, toward the elevator.

Lois didn't turn away from the sight of Lana and Clark entering 
the elevator as she heard Perry come up behind her. Out of the 
corner of her eye she saw Perry's arm and hand pointing at the 
elevator and the fast disappearing pair.

"Lois, who, and what, was that all about?"

Not turning toward Perry, Lois just shook her head slowly. "I'm 
not really sure, Chief. I'm not really sure."

************************

Clark and Lana strolled through the cavernous halls of the 
Metropolis Museum of Fine Arts and Antiquities. There were very 
few visitors at this time of the morning, so their walk was 
leisurely and undisturbed. Lana had slipped her arm through 
Clark's at some point and from an observer's viewpoint they 
seemed like a perfect couple just taking in the sights and 
enjoying each other's company.

Lana made a point of looking around to make sure they were 
virtually alone. "I heard about the appearance of Superman." She 
laughed at Clark's sheepish look. "I may have been out of touch, 
but I'd have had to have been on another planet to not have seen 
or heard about some of the things you've done over the last few 
years." Lana sidled a little closer to Clark. "I thought you were 
going to keep those powers a secret?"

Clark didn't look at Lana at first. "Yeah, well, I wanted to be 
able to help people, and I wanted to stay in Metropolis. I was 
tired of moving around all the time. Leaving anytime I thought 
someone was getting too close, or might suspect something." He 
sighed. "I thought that this would be the best way to be able to 
openly help people and still keep my personal life private."

Lana nodded. "I've seen pictures of you, and you do look 
different, but of course I recognized you. I'm surprised that 
others who have come to know you haven't been able to penetrate 
the disguise."

Clark turned toward Lana. "Lois finally figured it out before we 
got married, but you have to realize, you had the added advantage 
of knowing about my powers before Superman came onto the scene. 
So when a man who could fly was introduced to the world, you knew 
of an obvious candidate for who it might be." Clark let his hand 
clasp hers. "It seems to be more about expectation. I've created 
this stiff, formal persona to present to the world at large, and 
I try not to get too close to people. The world has created its 
own image of who Superman is supposed to be, they don't expect to 
see a mild mannered reporter when they look at the Man of Steel."

"I suppose Lois got close to both Clark and Superman, and was 
able to penetrate the minor cosmetic differences?"

"It took her a while, but yes, she did. I was never able to hide 
how I felt about her, whether I was Clark or in my Superman 
disguise." Clark let go a sardonic chuckle. "It was pretty 
confusing for a while. Lois was crazy about Superman right from 
the start, but a farm boy from Kansas didn't exactly light her 
candles."

Lana frowned. "So, why didn't you tell her you were Superman?"

Clark stopped their stroll. "You know that the powers aren't who 
I am. I wanted her to want Clark, not the flashy suit and the 
incredible powers." A smile reached Clark's lips. "It was a 
roller coaster ride for a time there, but eventually we became 
best friends and somewhere along the way Lois realized that Clark 
wasn't such a bad catch after all."

They began to stroll toward the back of the museum. "I'm sorry, 
Clark."

"For what?"

"For not being the one to be there for you. For not being mature 
enough to understand what it was you needed when you confided 
your secret to me." Lana shook her head. "I admit I freaked a 
bit. What you were, and what you could do, scared me. I forgot 
for a time the wonderful guy I grew up with, my own best friend." 
Lana leaned her head on Clark's shoulder. "I don't regret the 
life path I've chosen, but I often wonder what might have been if 
I had had the guts to stay and not run off to a different 
college. I've missed you, Clark."

Lana looked expectantly at Clark as he hesitated with his 
response. "I missed you terribly also, at first, but I guess I 
understood your reaction. It made me that much more careful. I 
didn't feel that I could show the real me to anyone, and that I 
was destined to be alone."

"Do you still love her?"

Clark shook his head in sad amusement. Leave it to Lana to get 
right to the heart of the matter. What could he tell her? He 
still loved Lois so much it hurt, but that the woman she met was 
not his Lois, but really a duplicate Lois from another dimension? 
No, that probably wouldn't be a good idea. He trusted Lana enough 
to not reveal his identity to anyone. In fact, when he became 
Superman he never gave it a second thought that she knew about 
his powers and would probably know that this new phenomenon 
flitting about the skies of Metropolis would be him. No, he had 
no problem with her knowing that secret, but this other, that was 
another matter. Besides it was Lois' secret also, and he had no 
right to compromise her in that manner.

He thought carefully before he answered. "We're still good 
friends."

Lana was unsatisfied by Clark's answer. She sensed that there was 
more behind it, but also realized that that was all she was going 
to get, at least for now. They were quickly approaching the area 
designated for her exhibit. The area was presently roped off 
since it wasn't quite ready for the public. The museum employee 
stationed there recognized Lana, and didn't challenge her right 
to enter as she and Clark breezed past him.

Lana grew more animated as she began to show Clark the incredible 
collection of artifacts that had been brought from the Lang dig 
site for display. Clark was not very knowledgeable in this field 
but for the most part the artifacts that Lana was so worked up 
about looked to be typical examples of the simple stone and bone 
tools common to most examples of early man. But Lana's enthusiasm 
was infectious and Clark soon found himself grinning at her child 
like exuberance.

"As you can see by the examples I've been showing you, we have 
found many artifacts that would be typical of a pocket of early 
man from around 5000 to 6000 B.C." She steered him along to the 
next grouping of artifacts. "But this bunch, while they were 
found at the same level, and mixed in amongst some of the others, 
exhibit a totally different level of sophistication."

Clark was astonished by the marked difference between the simple, 
crude tools displayed at the spot they were previously, and the 
ones displayed where they were presently standing. These tools 
showed much more refined shapes and looked not that much 
different from their modern day counterparts. Several showed a 
definite usage specialization that was unheard of for a 
civilization that old. He looked at Lana, his surprise quite 
evident on his face.

She grinned back. "I know, it's amazing. If I hadn't been there 
myself I would never have believed it. So far all the initial 
test dating places everything you see here within a couple 
hundred years of each other." She tugged him along pointing out 
other remarkable finds. "Our only conclusion is for a more 
advanced outside influence to have arrived and impacted this 
particular society."

Clark shook his head in wonderment. "But were there any societies 
or civilizations back that far that were that advanced?"

Lana shook her head in the negative. "Not that anyone has 
discovered so far." Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial 
whisper. "That's why it's my opinion that the outside influence 
could very well have been of an extra-terrestrial nature."

Clark stopped their stroll and faced Lana. "I agree that what 
we've seen is remarkable, but isn't that a pretty big stretch of 
an assumption based on a few refined tools and such?"

A sly smile spread across Lana's face as she crooked her finger 
and indicated Clark should follow her to the one isolated glass 
case at the end of the exhibit. "This is why I think we have E.T. 
influences here. So far it has resisted our attempts to date it, 
but it was found nested in with the other artifacts that we've 
uncovered."

Lana stepped aside so Clark could get a good look at the artifact 
in the case. He sucked his breath in as he got a good look at 
whatever it was. There was no telling its function just from 
looking at it. It was basically rectangular in shape but without 
any sharp edges. It was obviously made of some sort of metal, but 
didn't reflect the light the way one would expect from a metal 
object. For that reason it was hard to get a handle on the 
coloring. It seemed to shift and change color in a fluid sort of 
way from a gun metal gray to an almost pitch black and back 
again. The only other features on the artifact were a series of 
three indentations on the top at one end, and, below them, 
markings that could only be writing of some sort.

Clark walked around the display, lowering his glasses as he did 
so. His special vision powers availed him nothing here. He was 
pretty certain the thing wasn't composed of any lead, yet it 
still blocked any inspection of its interior workings or 
structure. The markings made him uncomfortable. It nagged at him, 
like a deja vu feeling, like he had seen something like them 
before. Suddenly it hit him. He grabbed Lana's hand and led her 
over to a bench near the far wall.

"Lana, how much have you read, or heard, about my origins?"

Lana was taken aback, and confused by his question. She took a 
few moments to focus. "I'm sure I read somewhere that you 
actually are from some other planet, someplace called, Krypon?"

"Krypton, yes that's correct. I didn't know it myself until a few 
years ago, when Lois and I uncovered the space ship that had sent 
me to earth."

Lana frowned as she dug into her memory. "Wasn't there some 
trouble with a group of your people a little while back?"

"Yes, thankfully that's all behind me now, and this is not the 
time to get into the story." Clark took a breath. "While I was 
with them I was exposed to their written language. I can't really 
read it but I do recognize the basic forms of the symbols." Clark 
grabbed Lana's hands. "I can't be positive, but I'm pretty sure 
that those symbols on that artifact are Kryptonian."

"Whoa!" Lana had to take a breath and calm herself. "If that's 
true, it will prove my theory of extra-terrestrial influences." 
It was evident that Lana was thinking hard. "Wait, there's no 
doubt in my mind that these artifacts, including our Kryptonian 
doodad, all date from the same time period. I know from the 
things I've heard and read that the Kryptonians that were here 
were quite advanced. Still, is it possible that they had space 
flight capability seven to ten thousand years ago?"

Clark leaned back till his back was against the wall. "I think 
it's possible." Clark took a moment to gather himself. "When I 
was brought to the Kryptonian palace ship to receive instructions 
to be a proper ruler as Lord Kal El, I..."

"Lord Kal El?" Lana's tone betrayed her confusion.

"Yes, you see I'm some last in his line noble meant to rule over 
the Kryptonians, and if I couldn't unite them under my rule civil 
war would break out because Lord Nor had designs on the..." Clark 
stopped himself. "Never mind that now. What I want to say is, 
during my instruction, I was given a crash course in Kryptonian 
history. It seems that the level of civilization that Krypton 
enjoyed before it was destroyed was actually their second rise to 
preeminence on the planet. Over ten thousand years ago, as we 
mark time, a fierce and passionate race evolved from the earliest 
forms of their ancestors. They reached an amazing height of 
technological advancement, but their wisdom hadn't kept pace. 
They were a people ruled by their emotions and their passions." 
Clark shook his head sadly. "They quarreled and bickered amongst 
themselves and with the incredible technology came equally 
incredible advances in weapons and the ability to make war."

Lana placed her hand on Clark's arm. "They destroyed themselves." 
It wasn't a question.

Clark nodded his head. "Yes, they bombed themselves nearly back 
to a stone age existence. Luckily histories survived and they 
were able to learn something from their mistakes. They became a 
people who valued logic and pragmatism over emotions."

Lana giggled. "You make them sound like Mr. Spock."

Clark smiled. "Not quite that bad." Clark paused, looking like 
someone who had just discovered something that had always eluded 
him. "You know, I think the isolation of the New Kryptonians led 
to a schism of sorts. Between those who tried to hold to the 
formal, structured society they had left, and those who wanted to 
embrace the passionate side of their ancestors." Clark chuckled 
weakly. "Luckily, with the help of the U.S. Army, the logical 
faction won out - I think."

"So what you have been trying to say in such a round about way 
is..."

"That it's quite possible that Krypton had space flight 
capability way back then."

Lana gave Clark a crooked half smile. "Well, Clarkie, it looks 
like you weren't the first Kryptonian on good ol' mother earth 
after all."

*******************************

Lois tossed her bag and her jacket on the chair next to the door 
as she entered the apartment. She threw herself into the 
comforting arms of the double recliner and let out an exasperated 
sigh. She had wanted a less stressful week, but she was beginning 
to think that it was more stressful when she didn't have a story 
than when she was following some difficult lead. She dragged her 
hand through her hair as she tried to calm down after the 
frustration of a nothing week. The mayor's speech had garnered 
Lois exactly three and a half column inches. The rest of the week 
had been spent tracing one dead end lead after another. There was 
just nothing of interest happening in this town at the moment, 
and it was driving Lois crazy.

The only saving grace for the week so far, had been the car. The 
corners of Lois' mouth turned up in spite of themselves at the 
thought of her new little red sports car. She and Clark had come 
to an agreement over the money received from the sale of the 
brownstone on Hyperion. Following Lucy's advice, Lois had taken 
some of the money and bought the car as a splashy statement for 
public consumption. It didn't hurt that Lois had always wanted a 
Porsche of her own.

Having grown up in a situation where her mother had to manage her 
money to the penny, Lois had always seen such material 
extravagances as a sign of having made it. Lois had never been 
one to need, or even want, overly expensive clothes and jewels 
and such, but a nice sports car, that was another matter 
entirely. Lois had focused on that as her material gauge of 
success. She had actually put down a deposit on a hot little 
number before she had gone to the Congo on the gun running story. 
She shook her head as she wondered idly how long they held it for 
her before they sold it to someone else.

"Hey, sis, who's this Lana Lang babe?"

"What?" Lois turned her head to see Lucy entering the room from 
her bedroom.

Lucy tossed the folded over copy of the Daily Planet she had been 
carrying onto the coffee table in front of Lois. "Her," Lucy 
indicated by pointing to the article that was most prominent on 
the page the paper was folded to.

Lois glanced at the story title. 'Lang Exhibit Uncovers 
Controversy; Superman confirms artifact could be Kryptonian' it 
read. Clark had fallen into a nice little story when his high 
school girlfriend had come calling. It wasn't exactly banner 
headline material, but in a slow news week it gave the Planet an 
exclusive on the only decent story to reach print this week.

Lois looked back up at Lucy. "Some former high school sweetheart 
of Clark's from Smallville. She's an archeologist now. Apparently 
she and her father have an exhibit of their recent discoveries 
being displayed at the Met Museum."

A sly smile crept onto Lucy's face as she studied the feigned 
indifference Lois tried to project. "You don't like her do you?"

Lois frowned at Lucy. "I hardly know her. I only met her once, 
and saw her a couple of other times when she came into the Planet 
to haul Clark off somewhere." Lois shrugged her shoulders. "She's 
all right, I guess... if you like that type."

Lucy was biting her lip to keep from laughing. "And what type 
would that be?"

"You know, tall, good looking, long blonde hair and a great 
figure."

"Oh, that type."

Giggling, Lucy came over and sat in the other half of the 
oversized chair. She leaned her head back and stared at the 
ceiling as she regained her composure.

Without turning to look at Lois, she spoke. "So, what are you 
going to do about it?"

Lois, a confused look on her face, turned to stare at Lucy. "Do 
about what?"

"The competition. It looks like you have a fight on your hands."

Lois rolled her eyes. "I'm sure I don't know what you are talking 
about, nor do I think I want to know."

"You mean you're not going to fight for what you want? That 
doesn't sound like Lois Lane to me." Lucy covered her mouth to 
stifle another giggle.

"Lucy, don't you have some want ads to check or something?" Lois 
began to feign interest in other parts of the paper.

Lucy let her demeanor get more serious. "Listen, you may be 
fooling everyone else, including Clark. You may even be fooling 
yourself, but you *ain't* fooling me." Lucy shifted her position 
on the chair so she could better face Lois. "I've seen the way 
you look at Clark, when you think no one else can see you." Lucy 
shook her head in amusement. "Lois, you've got it bad for the 
guy."

Lois snorted in a rather unladylike way. "Listen, *little 
sister*, I know as well as anyone what a terrific guy Clark is. 
I'm not galactically stupid. I'd welcome a chance to get to know 
him better, but I think even you can see that that will never 
be." Lois paused for a sigh. "He is never going to be able to get 
past that ghost image he overlays every time he sees me. He is 
never going to be able to just accept me for me."

Now it was Lucy's turn to snort. "Not if you don't make an effort 
he won't." Lucy stood up and stood over Lois. "I loved my sister 
dearly, and I miss her a lot, but there comes a time when you 
have to accept what's past is past, and move on with your life, 
even Clark."

Lois looked up and captured Lucy's gaze with her own. "I really 
hope he can, but if he ever is able to move on with his life, 
it's much more likely that he'll be able to do it with someone 
like Lana, rather than a person who constantly reminds him of 
what he has lost."

Lucy shook her head in denial. "You know, Lois, the more I get to 
know you the more I am aware that you are a different person. As 
much as I enjoy playing your sister, I know that you aren't. 
Sure, you look like my Lois, and have several of the same 
mannerisms, but for every aspect that I find that is similar, I 
come across two that aren't." Lucy's hands were starting to join 
in the conversation. "Look, I know you aren't my sister, but I do 
consider myself a friend, and as your friend I'm telling you, you 
have to make Clark see those differences too. If you can make 
Clark see you for who you are, he can't help but like you. I like 
you, and even if I haven't had too good a track record picking 
men, I've always picked excellent gal pals."

Lois allowed herself a sad chuckle. "I appreciate your vote of 
confidence, and I do consider you my best friend here. But I'm 
afraid that Clark and I are just not meant to be." Lois stood, 
stretched, and headed toward the kitchen. "Besides, there are 
plenty of other fish in the sea. Who knows, my Prince Charming 
could come through that door at any moment."

Both women were startled by a firm knock on the door. Lois stared 
at the door, holding her breath, almost afraid to move.

Lucy gave Lois a befuddled look. "How did you do that?"

Lois snapped out of her trance and gave Lucy a dismissive gesture 
as she walked over to the door. She peeked through the peephole, 
turned and shrugged at Lucy, and reached for the doorknob.

She opened the door to reveal a tall, good looking fellow. His 
unruly mop of dark hair framed a face that seemed quick to smile. 
Upon seeing Lois in front of him, the fellow broke out in a 
dazzling display of teeth.

"Hello, Lois, it's good to see you again."

******************************

Salvador Dark leaned back in his plush leather chair as he 
contemplated his recent piece of good fortune. A copy of the 
Daily Planet lay on his polished teak desk top. A slow smile 
spread across his face as he muttered to himself.

"That which was lost, has now finally been found." His smile got 
bigger as he pressed a special button on his office intercom.

The president and CEO of Dark Enterprises, a moderately 
successful import-export business, was a handsome man. His 
features had a definite Mediterranean cast to them and he wore 
his coal black hair slicked back. His fit body was always 
impeccably dressed, and his hygienic habits bordered on the 
obsessive.

A door, not easily apparent to a casual guest in the office, 
opened behind the well-stocked bar at the far end of the room. A 
silent, dour looking man entered and glided noiselessly across 
the heavy carpet to stand in front of the massive antique desk.

Dark reached out and swiveled the newspaper around so it was 
facing his guest. His finger pointed to a picture prominently 
centered in the middle of the story.

"I need that."

The silent man nodded once, reached down, scooped up the paper 
and left the way he had come.

Once his guest had left, Salvador Dark once again leaned back in 
his expensive chair. He steepled his hands in front of his face 
as a calculating smile spread across his lips.

"Soon now, Kal El, very soon."

***************************************

Clark Kent tossed the copy of the Daily Planet onto the bed in 
his hotel room. He knew he was going to have to find a new 
apartment soon, but things had been pretty hectic this week and 
he just hadn't had a chance to look. There would be time for that 
soon enough.

Seeing Lana again had been pleasant, and it had nabbed him a 
pretty good story. They had seen each other every day this week, 
reminiscing over old times and visiting the museum exhibit. Lana 
had wanted to go out to dinner tonight also, but Clark had begged 
off. He needed a little time alone to unwind, and he had been 
neglecting his Superman responsibilities lately, so he planned a 
lengthy patrol a little later.

The distraction Lana had provided had been good for him. He 
enjoyed being with her. He found that when they were together he 
was able to just appreciate her company and not obsess about the 
terrible turn his life had taken. She somehow made him feel like 
they were teenagers again back in Smallville. Back when they were 
dating and things were a whole lot simpler, and happier.

The last three months had been difficult. He'd gone home, and 
with the support of his folks, just let it all go. At first he 
had been stoic, and internalized everything as he quietly threw 
himself into various, mindless farm chores. The house, the barn, 
and all of the outbuildings now sported new gleaming coats of 
paint. Most of the farm machinery had been stripped down, 
thoroughly cleaned, and reassembled. It was at the point where 
Clark was about to hand weed the entire back forty that Martha 
had stopped him.

She pointed out that it wasn't healthy to keep his feelings 
bottled up. There was no reason to hide what he was going through 
from anybody there. If he couldn't allow his grief to have its 
reign, he would never be able to finally put it in its proper 
place and move on with his life. Martha didn't play fair with 
Clark as she would continually bring up that Lois wouldn't want 
him to obsess over her death, but rather move on with his life 
and remember their love and the good times they'd had. Clark 
finally realized she was right and knew that he had to find a way 
to release all that bottled up emotion before it tore him apart 
from the inside out.

He'd flown off to a spot in the arctic he'd been to once before. 
The time he'd thought he'd lost Lois to Lex he'd gone there to 
express his hurt and frustration. Once there, he'd let all of his 
grief and guilt, his anger and feelings of impotency wash over 
him. In the quiet, cold stillness it all came rushing out. For 
two days he raged against the gods as he cursed, and abused the 
silent landscape; till finally, exhausted, he fell to his knees 
sobbing as his heart slowly tore itself apart.

The emotional purge had been cathartic, but it was a soul weary 
Clark Kent who finally came home to begin the healing process in 
familiar surrounds and the embrace of his loving parents.

He knew that maybe he'd gone back to work at the Planet a little 
too early, but he felt that he had to get on with it. It was time 
to recapture what was left of his life. There were other people 
who counted on Clark Kent, and a world still needed its Superman. 
Perry had been great, giving Clark the space and time he needed. 
He was also smart enough to know that Clark wasn't quite ready 
yet.

Clark had felt uncomfortable those first days back. It seemed 
that people were always staring, yet avoided any actual contact 
with him. Jimmy had tried, but he always seemed to say something 
that embarrassed him and would quickly excuse himself and be gone 
before Clark could assure him it was all right. Most of their 
other friends would just mumble some semi-coherent condolences 
and slip away.

Of course, the fact that Lois had finally begun to establish 
herself there and was always around just complicated things. It 
tore at him to see the way that their so-called friends and co-
workers treated her, and he constantly berated himself for his 
continued inability to deal with his problems, and be a friend to 
her. He was not a stupid man, he knew very well that she was not 
his lost wife, she was her own person. But his heart seemed to 
refuse the logic, and insisted on reacting to her in ways that he 
considered inappropriate. So it went for a few days until Perry, 
acknowledging that Clark still wasn't ready, called him into his 
office and offered to send him overseas to the Paris office.

Clark, thinking of his too-often neglected Superman duties, had 
tried to refuse the offer. Perry being ignorant of the Superman 
problem, but wiser when it came to the needs of one of his best 
reporters, and friend, had informed Clark that it wasn't a 
request. Clark had been on a plane to Paris the next morning.

It really hadn't caused him all that much difficulty when it came 
to Superman's activities. He could be in Metropolis within 
minutes for his patrols, and he had the same basic news sources 
to keep him informed of any global problems which might require 
his services. No, it had worked out just fine.

Paris was a beautiful city and he frequently found himself taking 
long, late night walks around the city of lights. His duties at 
the Paris bureau were hardly taxing and in reality it was more 
like an overseas vacation than a job. Though by the time his 
stint there was up Clark was anxious to get back. He had missed 
everyone a great deal. It had been good to see all the familiar 
faces once again.

He'd kept in touch with Lois, and Jimmy electronically. In that 
way he'd been able to keep up with the happenings at the Planet. 
Lois wouldn't say much about it, but Jimmy informed Clark about 
the attitude toward Lois by the staffers at the Planet. Clark 
felt bad about that, and thought that he should have been there 
to help her out, but he also admitted that he hadn't been much 
good to her in that regard so far.

There wasn't much he could do from Paris, other than try to keep 
in touch, and keep tabs on how Lois was doing. He had to admit, 
as a reporter she managed to get back into a groove rather 
quickly, and had broken several page one stories. He'd been able 
to provide her with much needed information about Lois' network 
of contacts, most specifically Bobby Bigmouth. She had been 
generous in her offers to share bylines on those stories where 
his being able to provide her with leads and methods of getting 
information panned out for her. He, of course, had declined for a 
couple of reasons. He was just trying to give her back those 
resources that had belonged to Lois Lane, and with a tinge of 
remorse he figured it would be better if the news reading public 
got used to seeing bylines by them individually, instead of 
together.

While the email exchanges had been nice, the phone calls had been 
more pleasant. He enjoyed hearing her voice, and even though she 
sounded just like his own Lois, without the physical 
reinforcement he was able to more easily accept her as her own 
person. Their conversations had been light, and fluffy. They 
focused mostly on day to day activities as each, in turn, told 
the other how their day was going. She would tell him about the 
trials of moving in to her new apartment and the acquisition of 
some basic furniture, her talks with Lucy, and her excitement 
over the prospect of Lucy moving in with her. Clark would counter 
with filling her in on his duties at the Paris bureau and 
descriptions of the sights he would go out and see.

Things had gone along fine until that day, the day he'd been 
forced to save her after she'd been thrown off a building under 
construction. He had been very frightened by the incident. He 
still hated the fact that he couldn't be everywhere and save 
everyone, but he'd gotten so he could deal with it. This, though, 
had scared him very much. The thought of Lois running around, 
putting herself in danger to get the big story when he had to 
split his time between Paris and Metropolis, that he might not be 
there to bail her out, really pushed one of his buttons.

He knew it was a mistake the moment he started, but his fears 
over-rode his common sense and he launched into one of his 
lectures on how she should be more careful, and not put herself 
in that kind of danger when she knew he might not be there to 
help. He could tell that she wasn't taking his words well by the 
expression on her face, so he wasn't surprised when the Lane 
temper flared and she gave him a piece of her own mind on the 
subject.

He should have realized that she was used to doing all of her 
investigating alone, and that she wouldn't appreciate his 
'suggestions' as to how she should be conducting her inquiries. 
He knew it was the heat of the moment and that she hadn't meant 
to hurt him with the things that she said, but it *had* hurt. It 
had been another knifelike reminder that his Lois was gone. That 
no matter how he felt about the small angry redhead shouting at 
him, or the fact that he didn't understand why he felt the way he 
did, the past could not be changed, and he had lost something 
that couldn't be replaced. He'd flown quickly away.

From several of her next emails, he could tell that she had 
realized that she had hurt him, and was trying to apologize for 
it. It was funny almost, because even though she greatly 
regretted saying those things that had wounded him, she wouldn't 
back down from her stance of independence. It took him some time 
thinking over her reaction before he realized just how scared she 
was too. She was placing a great deal of importance on this issue 
of independence because she was afraid of losing herself. All the 
trappings that made up the life of the Lois Lane of this world 
threatened to drown her, to submerge who she was and remold her 
into the person whose identity she'd had to assume. She needed to 
assert her own personality into that life so that she could 
become comfortable with who she had become, and so that others 
would, at some level, realize this was a new Lois and come to 
accept that.

Even though Clark had understood her reasoning, and sympathized 
with her situation, he was still hurt by what amounted to her 
rejection of him and so he never acknowledged her apologies nor 
discussed what had happened. Luckily, Lois must have sensed his 
reluctance to discuss the subject and allowed it to drop. Neither 
ever brought it up again.

Shortly, things had resumed their normal course, and they 
continued to exchange emails and occasional phone conversations. 
As the time got closer to the end of his assignment in Paris, he 
got more and more anxious to come home to Metropolis. He really 
did miss all of his friends, and, he had to admit, he missed Lois 
too. Not the memories she seemed to invoke in him, but the person 
he was allowing himself to realize that she was. A person he was 
beginning to come to know, and like.

Suddenly, the ringing of the phone snapped him back to the 
present. He crossed the room in three strides and picked up the 
receiver.

"Oh, hi, Lana, what's up?" Clark asked. "What, the play? Tomorrow 
night?" Clark frowned as he ran through a mental checklist on 
what he had planned. "It looks like I've got nothing planned, 
unless Perry manages to find something for me. Sounds like fun."

Clark found himself grinning as he heard the enthusiasm in Lana's 
voice. He planted himself down on the edge of the bed. His patrol 
was going to have to wait for a while yet. They spent the next 
half an hour on idle conversation and more pleasant reminisces.

After finally being able to beg off, claiming a need for sleep 
because of an early start in the morning, Clark was finally able 
to loosen his tie in preparation for the spin change into the 
work suit for his other job. He was stopped just before the spin 
by the ringing of the phone, again. He briefly considered not 
answering it, but then dismissed that notion. With a sigh and a 
wry smile he reached again for the bedside distraction.

*********************************

Lois stood dumbstruck, holding the door open as she stared at the 
pleasant looking fellow smiling back at her from her front stoop. 
A hundred thoughts flashed through her mind all at once, and not 
one of them was any help to her in this situation.

"Uh... hi," she finally managed to stammer. "Just a second." She 
closed the door in his face.

Lois quickly ran to Lucy and grabbed her arm. "Who is that?"

Lucy, equally in the dark, shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't 
been around much in the last few years you know." Noting the look 
of escalating panic on Lois' face, Lucy steered Lois toward her 
bedroom. "I have an idea, go in the bedroom and listen for a few 
moments. I'll see if I can get you some information."

Lois allowed herself to be led towards her room. She was 
confused, but she didn't know what else to do, so she went along 
with it. Lucy made a shushing motion with her finger and lips 
then turned back to the door. She paused just long enough to take 
a deep breath before she flung the door open again to reveal a 
very confused looking fellow.

"Hi, sorry about that, Lois had to take care of some *personal* 
business, if you know what I mean." Lucy gave the guy a wink. 
"Come in." She stepped aside so he could enter. "I'm Lois' 
sister, Lucy." She cocked a brow at him. "And you are?"

He stepped inside as Lucy closed the door behind him. He smiled 
as he replied. "Hi, Lucy, I'm Daniel Scardino, an old friend of 
Lois'."

"Really, how old; I don't remember Lois ever mentioning you?"

Scardino's face fell somewhat as he followed Lucy over to the 
living room and sat on the couch. "Well, maybe not that old. We 
dated for a while, before she and Kent were married." The smile 
he gave Lucy was a little unsure as she just nodded her head in 
response.

Lois had been listening at the door of her bedroom. She had a 
name, Daniel Scardino, and the fact that Lois and he had dated 
some before the marriage. But when had they dated? Did Clark know 
him? She raced over to the phone on her nightstand. She silently 
prayed that Clark knew who he was, and that he was still in. She 
knew he generally went out on a Superman patrol every night that 
he was able to. So, he could be out flying around the city, or he 
could be out with Lana again. A frown crossed her face at that 
thought.

As she heard the second ring she began to get worried, but 
thankfully he picked up on the third. "Hello, Clark, this is 
Lois, I'm in a little bind here and I need some information." 
Lois didn't pause for a breath but just forged ahead. "A man just 
dropped by, says his name is Daniel Scardino... Clark? Clark, are 
you still there?"

Lois' brows knitted in confusion as she hung up the phone. She 
was totally confused by what had happened. Were they cut off? Her 
thoughts were interrupted by a firm knock at the door. Lois 
hustled out of the room.

"You two stay seated, I'll get it." Lois said as she breezed 
through the living room to the front door.

She pulled it open and was surprised to see Clark standing there. 
He was dressed in his suit pants and white shirt, but without the 
tie. He had a somewhat grim look on his face.

"Clark, er, it's good to see you, come on in." Lois shot her eyes 
heavenward in a silent thank you as she stepped back and allowed 
him to enter.

"Hi, Lois, I was just in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd drop 
in and see how you and Lucy were doing." Clark made a show of 
seeming to just realize that they had company. "Agent Scardino, 
what brings the DEA to Metropolis this time?"

"DEA?" Lois muttered to herself as she scurried over to find a 
spot next to Lucy on the love seat.

Scardino watched Clark with poorly veiled annoyance as Clark 
strolled over and sat on the other end of the couch from him. 
"Kent," Scardino pursed his lips as if biting back some other 
reply. "I thought you and Lois didn't play house anymore?"

Clark gave Dan a cold smile. "We're not married, if that's what 
you mean." Clark paused for a bit of dramatic effect. "But we are 
still very good friends." Clark leaned back. "So, what is the 
government's hotshot agent doing in Metropolis now?"

Dan Scardino took his time before answering. This was not the 
scenario he had intended. He glanced at Clark, then over to Lois, 
who gave him a weak smile. Something was not right with this 
situation. Kent was the same irritating grump he remembered, but 
Lois seemed too passive. Almost as if she didn't know what she 
was supposed to do. Scardino had wanted to talk to Lois alone 
but, Lucy aside, it was a sure bet now that Kent would never 
leave as long as he was there.

"Okay, presently I'm on loan to ATF. It seems that some big time 
weapons sale is going down soon, and all the intel they have says 
it's going to go down in Metropolis. We're not talking Saturday 
night specials here either. We are talking some serious 
ordinance. The kind used to start revolutions."

Lois' attention perked up but she let Clark take the lead. "So 
why are you involved? Last I heard you were DEA, or FDA, or some 
such thing."

Scardino scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Apparently the guy 
they think is behind it is an old friend of mine. A particularly 
nasty character named Salvador Dark."

"Of Dark Enterprises?" Lois chimed in.

Clark looked over at Lois questioningly as Dan answered her. 
"Yes, do you know of him?"

Lois looked uncomfortable. "Ah, well, I think I read about him 
somewhere. Don't the authorities think he's involved in all sorts 
of illegal activities?"

Dan snorted. "That's an understatement. It's been rumored that if 
there is money to be made in some illegal trade, Dark has had a 
hand in it at sometime or other. But he's real good, they've 
never been able to pin anything definite on him. The man's made 
of Teflon." Dan sighed. "I think I got the closest to nailing 
him. I busted up a Colombian drug ring a couple of years ago that 
he was alleged to be behind. At the last minute he was able to 
get away." Dan looked directly at Lois. "ATF thinks that my 
previous experience with him, and my knowledge of Metropolis, 
will help."

Clark was about to interject but Lois beat him to it. "So, why 
come see me?"

Now it was Dan's turn to look embarrassed. "Well, we've been able 
to trace Dark to Metropolis, but the trail has gone cold. I know 
you have some excellent sources in this town and I was wondering 
if I couldn't persuade you to use some of those sources to help 
me out. It could be a hell of a story for you if we nab this 
guy."

Lois could tell that there was something that Dan wasn't saying. 
"And...?"

He stared at his shoe for a moment before answering. "And, I 
wanted to see you again."

Clark's frown grew more stern. "Oh, and I don't suppose that 
Lois' friendship with Superman would have any bearing on your 
request for help?"

Dan shook his head. "Actually, Big Blue would probably muck 
things up. He's great for stopping asteroids, or the flashy 
rescue of a sinking ocean liner, but this investigation will need 
stealth and finesse." Dan clucked his tongue. "No offense, I know 
he's a friend of yours, but Superman's about as subtle as a dump 
truck."

Lois had to put her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out 
loud. Clark stood, ready to lash out with a rejoinder of his own, 
when suddenly he stopped and cocked his head to one side. Both 
Lois and Lucy now knew what that look meant. Clark had heard 
something that required his attention as Superman. Dan didn't 
know this, and sat there waiting for Clark's remark.

Clark's attention snapped back to the room. He looked at Lois and 
Lucy, then Scardino. "Ah, I just remembered, I have to... pick up 
my lottery ticket before tonight's drawing. Don't want to be 
late, it's up to 30 million tonight." Clark moved toward the 
door. "I'll see you tomorrow at the Planet, Lois." Clark gave Dan 
one last disapproving look. "Scardino," was all he said, then he 
was out the door.

Scardino just stared after him in astonishment. "My god, he's 
still doing it, isn't he."

Lois looked puzzled. "Doing what?"

"Still running off whenever the conversation gets a little 
uncomfortable." Dan shook his head in wonderment. "How do, or 
should I say did, you ever manage to put up with it?"

Lois frowned at Dan. "Well, Daniel, I don't think that that is 
really..." She was stopped by the too familiar sound of a pager 
going off.

Dan pulled the offending little device out of his pocket and 
checked the readout. "This is important, can I use your phone?"

Lois nodded as she pointed to the wall phone hanging in the 
kitchen. Dan hurried over to it as she watched. She turned to 
Lucy but Lucy just shrugged. Lois tried to hear, but whatever Dan 
said, it was said softly, and quickly. He hung up and came back 
over to stand in front of the two women.

"I've got to go. It was nice meeting you, Lucy." He gave her a 
nice smile. "It was really nice seeing you again, Lois, and by 
the way, I like the hair." The smile increased in wattage. "If 
it's okay with you, I'd like to drop by the Planet tomorrow and 
really discuss this thing with you." He ran his hand through his 
unruly locks. "I really could use your help on this, and it 
*would* make a hell of a story."

Lois stood and walked him to the door. "Sure, that would be fine. 
Let's talk about it tomorrow."

Lois slowly closed the door behind Dan then came back over and 
dropped back down into the couch. Her mind was spinning.

Lucy could see that something was on Lois' mind. "Okay, give, 
what's got you all bunched up over this?"

Lois shook her head. "It's nothing, really. It's just weird."

Lucy shook her head. "Oh, I don't know, I thought he was kind of 
cute."

Lois' head snapped up. "What? Oh, not Dan. It's just weird that 
he is looking for Salvador Dark, and he wants my help." Lois saw 
Lucy give her that look that said 'and'. "On my world I was 
investigating a gun running ring when I was captured and put in 
that African prison to rot."

"That must have been awful." Lucy scratched her chin. "It is a 
little coincidental, but weird?"

Lois looked Lucy in the eyes. "The man I was sure was behind it 
was Salvador Dark."

***************************

It was late and the lights were muted. Salvador Dark slid out 
from beneath the covers and padded barefoot over to the bar at 
the far end of the room. His nakedness could barely be seen in 
the low level light. Deep shadows hid the corners of the room, as 
the blaze of the lights of Metropolis at night tried to peak 
around the heavy drapes curtaining the large glass doors which 
lead to the patio of this particular penthouse hotel room.

"Would you like a drink, my dear?" His voice was all charm with 
just a hint of amusement in it, as if he was the only one who 
knew the joke.

His equally naked partner was sitting up in the bed, a cigarette 
dangling from the corner of her mouth. She stared at Dark, 
oblivious to the ash falling onto her ample breasts. "Sure Mr. D, 
that would be great, scotch rocks."

A slow smile spread across his lips as he bent to the task of 
preparing her drink. He didn't know her name, it was better that 
way. The exercise she had provided had been invigorating, if 
somewhat pedestrian. After so many centuries nearly all things 
became a bore. Still one must keep in practice. Perhaps someday 
he would find someone who could excite him, someone he could show 
things to that were only dreamed of in the realm of fantasy and 
nightmare. He glided over and handed her her glass.

"Thanks Mr. D."

Dark ambled back to the bar and reached behind it. He pulled out 
a small bag, walked over to the dining table, and set it down in 
front of him as he sat. He made sure that her angle was partially 
blocked by his body as he made a great show of taking the device 
out of the bag.

The device that Dark set on the table was box-like. Like a long 
thin rectangular bar. About two by six inches, and about three 
inches high. Dark snapped his fingers once and the lighting level 
rose by 25 per cent. The box didn't seem to reflect the light and 
to look at it caused the eye to unfocus. You weren't actually 
able to nail down a color for the box, as the surface seemed to 
almost swirl, causing colors to merge and mix. One moment it 
looked a smoky gray, the next you'd swear it was black. There 
were a few strange symbols etched into the top of the box-like 
device, something like an input jack on each end, and a single 
depression under the symbols.

She had risen to come over and satisfy her curiosity, as he'd 
known she would. Her dark hair hung loosely down over her 
shoulders. She brushed an errant strand out of her face. She 
still held her drink in one hand.

"What you got there, Mr. D.?" Her voice was still husky from the 
evening's workout.

"A little something that my R & D boys worked up." He gave her a 
sly smile as he pulled something else out of the bag. "It 
stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain directly."

Dark very deliberately took the smooth silver disc and pressed it 
to his forehead. The trailing wire ended in a plug of some sort 
which he inserted into one end of the device. He then closed his 
eyes and, rocking back in forth to some imagined rhythm, began to 
hum softly to himself.

She had seen enough. "Hey, hey, Mr. D." She shyly touched his 
arm. "Can I give that a try?"

Dark's smile showed teeth. "Of course my dear, how rude of me." 
He directed her to the adjacent seat. "We'll do it together."

He took another disc and plug wire set up from the bag. He 
reached over and pressed the silver disc onto her forehead. She 
was amazed that it just stayed in place, with no tape or adhesive 
or nothing. He then plugged the other end into the input jack on 
the other end of the device.

She closed her eyes, but soon found herself frowning. "I don't 
feel nothing yet."

"Just keep your eyes closed, you will any second now."

Dark reached over and pressed his finger down hard on the 
indentation in the top of the box. Suddenly both bodies went 
rigid. Dark's face took on the expression of a man becoming 
intoxicated on some heavenly nirvana. The woman, on the other 
hand, her face was frozen in a rictus of horror as she seemed to 
physically shrink before one's eyes. Within a few minutes it was 
over.

Dark expelled a deep breath that he'd been holding. He carefully 
pulled the electrode from his forehead, unplugged it from the end 
of the device, and put it back into the small, black, leather 
bag. He reached over and did the same to the husk that was once a 
woman, and carefully put that electrode in the bag also. Next the 
device was placed in the bag and then the bag was sealed in some 
manner that was not apparent to the naked eye. Dark rose and, 
walking back over to the bar, placed the bag in its special 
niche. He picked up his cell phone, which lay nearby on the 
smooth-polished top of the bar. Without looking at it, he punched 
in a series of numbers then set the phone back down.

Dark wandered over to the bed and sat on its edge. A moment later 
his silent, dour assistant entered the room. Dark merely leaned 
back against the headboard of the king-sized bed. He turned his 
attention to the silent man.

"Did you get it?" The single nod was all the answer he needed. 
Dark pointed at the remains of the former professional woman. 
"Get rid of that."

The dour faced man walked over and carefully folded over the 
desiccated husk and tucked it under his arm. Dark watched with an 
amused smile on his face.

"First thing in the morning," Dark said to the man as he stopped 
at the doorway. "Call our man at the Daily Planet. Tell him to 
keep a special eye on Kent and Lane. The time will soon be at 
hand." Dark turned away in an obvious gesture of dismissal. He 
heard the soft close of the door.

She had been a tasty little morsel and he did feel invigorated by 
his theft of her life force, but it also was worrisome. The life 
forces of the average earth denizen didn't seem to last as long 
as they once did. Where, centuries ago, one charge from one of 
the inhabitants could last nearly a normal lifespan, now it 
seemed that he had to recharge every few years. It was becoming 
more dangerous to easily find and dispose of a healthy specimen 
that wouldn't be missed, or wouldn't raise any problems with the 
local authorities.

But soon things were going to be different. He now had the means 
to bring to his special table the life force he so badly needed. 
The one he deserved as a just payback for the existence he'd been 
exiled to. Very soon he would dine on this so called 'Superman', 
drink deep of his extraordinary energies and reclaim the 
Kryptonian birthright that had been denied him by his long exile 
on this filthy mud ball.

**************************************

Lois was just deleting the last of her junk email when a steaming 
cup of coffee and a chocolate iced donut was set down in front of 
her. She looked up and saw Clark, with that 'little boy done 
good' smile of his. She answered his smile in kind.

She took a grateful gulp of the hot brew. "Thanks for this," she 
hoisted the cup in a salute, "and thanks for coming by last 
night." She took a bite of the donut. "So, who is this Agent 
Daniel Scardino?"

Clark looked a bit guilty. "Well, I'm not the right guy to ask 
about him."

Lois chuckled. "Clark, you are the only guy I can ask about him."

Clark shrugged and gave Lois the brief history of Agent, 'please 
call me Daniel' Scardino and how his life entangled with Lois' 
and Clark's for a short time. It was obvious to Lois that Clark 
did not like Scardino. It was also obvious that it was because he 
was jealous of the attention Lois had given him at a time when 
they were trying to start their relationship, but were having it 
complicated by his dual identity.

Clark frowned as he saw Lois trying to refrain from giggling. 
"What?" he said grumpily.

"Oh, Clark, Lois' actions were so transparent. She was using this 
guy to try and force you to make a commitment." Lois chuckled. 
"Unfortunately she didn't know why you weren't able to stay and 
finish those conversations." Lois' look changed to a questioning 
one. "So, why didn't you tell her the truth then? It might have 
saved you a lot of pain, and grief."

Clark stared at his shoes before he answered. "Well... it was 
complicated."

Lois just shook her head. "I'm sure it was."

Clark stared at Lois suspiciously. He wasn't sure that the tone 
of her voice matched her words. He was just about to ask her 
exactly what she meant by her remark when he was interrupted by 
the ding of the elevator signaling its arrival on the floor.

"Speak of the devil." Clark sighed.

Agent Daniel Scardino stepped off the elevator and quickly 
scampered down the ramp to the newsroom floor. His megawatt smile 
was aimed at Lois as he approached Clark and Lois.

"Hi, Lois, you look terrific." Dan turned to Clark like someone 
fulfilling a distasteful duty. "Hello, Kent, so did you win mega 
bucks last night?"

"What?" Clark responded, confused by the question.

"Your lottery ticket? The one you just had to run out and get?"

It took Clark a moment to remember. "Oh - ah, no I didn't get a 
winner." He glared at Dan. "And it seems like my luck hasn't 
gotten any better this morning, either. If you two will excuse 
me." Clark turned and went over to his own desk.

Scardino shook his head then looked at Lois. "I still don't see 
what it was you ever saw in that guy, Lois."

"Shut up Dan, and let's get down to business." Lois turned to her 
desk and grabbed a scrap of paper that had some notes scribbled 
on it. "Okay, I talked to Bobby Bigmouth." Lois ignored Dan's 
bemused look. "And he's willing to tell us what he knows, but 
it's going to cost you."

Dan looked resigned. "How much?"

"Dinner, at Chez Franco."

Dan brightened. "For you and me?"

Lois stared heavenward and shook her head. "No, stupid, for 
Bobby, that's his fee." Lois got up from her chair and grabbed 
his jacket sleeve. "Come on, we need to hurry, there is one more 
thing I want to check on before we meet Bobby."

Clark was puzzled as his gaze followed Scardino and Lois up the 
ramp and into the elevator. Why did it bother him so much that 
Scardino was back, and that he was working with Lois? It wasn't 
like it was before. This was not his Lois that Scardino was 
drooling over now. She was a big girl, she could take care of 
herself. He'd told her what he knew about the arrogant jerk. She 
could make up her own mind. She was probably just using him to 
get another big story. Sure, that was it.

"Hey, Kent, old buddy, I see someone is making time with the ex, 
eh."

Clark looked up and barely suppressed the groan that wanted to 
escape at the sight of Ralph hovering over him. Clark was not 
someone prone to anger, but this morning was not going very well 
for him at all. If there was anyone who bugged him more than 
Scardino, it was probably Ralph.

Clark sighed. "What is it you want, Ralph?"

"Well, I was wondering, since Lois hasn't made up her mind about 
teaming up with me, that maybe I should give you a shot. I mean, 
you snooze, you lose - right? Whaddaya say, buddy?"

Clark seriously considered punching Ralph but thought better of 
it, though he wasn't sure why. "Ralph, I have no desire to 
partner with anyone right now, or anytime in the future. So it 
would be best if... "

"Clark!"

Clark's head whipped around as he focused on the voice that had 
called him. Coming out of the stairwell was Lana. She was in an 
obvious hurry and was a bit out of breath. She rushed down the 
ramp and grabbed Clark by the arm. She was breathing hard and was 
having a time catching her breath.

"Whoa, Lana, slow down. What's the matter? Why didn't you take 
the elevator?"

She took one, last, deep breath and launched into her spiel. 
"Couldn't wait, I had to get here. It's terrible, you won't 
believe what's happened!"

"Lana, calm down. Tell me what happened." Clark was holding her 
by her shoulders.

"Oh, Clark, the museum was broken into last night. The exhibit 
was vandalized."

"That's terrible. Was anyone hurt? Was anything ruined, or 
destroyed?"

Lana shook her head. "No, no, the night watchman was found 
unconscious but he's going to be all right, and everything was 
left pretty much alone, except... "

"Except?"

"The artifact, Clark, they took the Kryptonian artifact. It's 
been stolen!"

Clark grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair and he and 
Lana started up the ramp toward the elevator. He hadn't gotten 
more than a few steps when he was stopped by that irritating, 
nasally voice.

"So, Kent, you going to call in your good buddy, Big Blue? 
Impress the new squeeze with your impressive connections?" Ralph 
came a couple of steps closer but stopped when he saw the look on 
Clark's face. "Hey, how 'bout you let me come along? Let me see 
how an award winning journalist handles a story." Ralph's tone 
took on a definite pout. "Might be nice if some of the rest of us 
had some idea how to get hold of Supes if we should ever need to, 
you know."

Clark just shook his head, ignored Ralph, turned back to Lana, 
and they continued on their way. Ralph frowned at the couple as 
they entered the elevator and he watched the door close. But he 
didn't speak until he was sure that they had gone.

"Someday, Kent, I'm going to find out how you always get the 
scoops, and how it is you can produce Superman whenever you need 
to - someday."

"Shaddap, Ralph," an anonymous voice advised from somewhere deep 
in the bullpen. Ralph just glared in the general direction and 
stomped back to his desk.

**********************************

Clark and Lana arrived at the museum quickly as they took a 
direct air route. Lana spent a moment trying to comb the tangles 
out of her hair with her fingers as Clark spun back into his 
street clothes. Having never flown with Clark before, Lana was a 
bit out of breath, but it wasn't from the exertion. A shy smile 
crept onto her face as she followed Clark through the museum's 
front doors.

Inspector Henderson was still there directing his forensic team 
as to the best places to look for prints. He looked up when he 
saw Clark and Lana approach.

"Geez, Kent, are you or Lois always the first ones at the scene 
of a crime?"

Clark smiled at the police inspector, who over the years had 
become a good friend to Lois and Clark. "You know me, Inspector. 
I have a reputation to protect." Clark chuckled. "Besides, I've 
already written a story about this exhibit. Ms. Lang and I are 
old friends."

"Of course you are." Henderson just shook his head. "Well not 
much I can tell you. Someone, and we're pretty sure it was one 
guy, came in last night, knocked out the guard, disabled the 
security cameras, and took the Kryptonian thingie. He did little 
peripheral damage, and was gone by the time the police responded 
to the silent alarms." Henderson turned away and began to point 
out some other places for his men to dust for prints.

Clark lowered his glasses to the end of his nose and did a 
thorough visual sweep of the exhibit area. He saw nothing 
unusual. He then tried to use his enhanced olfactory senses to 
see if there were any odors that shouldn't be there. Time, and 
the number of policemen on the scene pretty much eliminated any 
chances of detecting anything, even if it had been there.

"I'm sorry, Lana, I can't detect anything that the police have 
missed. Their guess will be as good as mine." He saw the 
crestfallen look on Lana's face. "Tell you what, let's go back to 
the Planet and I'll boot up my computer and see what we can find 
out about any possible shady dealers in ancient artifacts."

Lana put her hand on his chest and stared up at his face. "Do you 
think that because this was believed to be something Kryptonian, 
that it might have something to do with Superman?"

Clark paused, thinking it over. "I guess we shouldn't rule that 
out. Let's go back... " Clark suddenly stopped and cocked his 
head to one side.

Lana looked at him with confusion. "What's wrong?"

Clark lowered his head close to hers and spoke in an urgent 
whisper. "I've got to go. There's a four alarm blaze down at the 
docks."

"How do you know that?" Lana asked, obviously not really 
accustomed to Clark's abilities and how they allowed him to 
operate.

"I heard the fire alarms, and now I've tuned into the Fire 
Department's dispatcher." He gave her hand a squeeze. "I've got 
to go. I'll give you a call later, at your hotel."

Lana watched in wonderment as Clark began to tug at his tie as he 
turned and quickly left the premises. She was a bit overwhelmed 
by the little scene that had just played out, but then she 
grinned. So that's what it must have been like for Lois. She 
wondered how many times Clark had had to run off to save 
something at a most inopportune time. Lana found herself laughing 
silently. No wonder it took them so long to get together. She 
composed herself and turned her attention back to the police as 
they finished up their tasks.

****************************

Superman flew quickly toward the docks, scanning ahead as he 
approached the scene of the blaze. Several warehouses were 
engulfed in flames as the Metropolis Fire Department's gallant 
men scurried about trying to do their best to contain, and then 
put out the fire. From his overhead vantage point, Superman was 
able to spot three distinct fires, or hot spots. He was also able 
to see why the firemen were having so much trouble containing the 
fires.

The central, and largest, warehouse contained several barrels of 
fuel oil which continued to ignite and send a new ball of flame 
shooting off in a different direction. Pouring water on them just 
spread any of the loose fuel around before it could put it out. 
Superman was also afraid to just blow on the flames, in case that 
would also cause the stuff to spread before it froze.

Superman landed quickly and approached the fire chief in charge. 
He filled him in on what he had discovered and they discussed 
their time options.

The first order of business was to contain the blaze, so that the 
whole waterfront didn't go up. Toward that end, the firemen were 
drenching the neighboring buildings.

Superman, going faster than the eye could see, swept down between 
the buildings that were burning and those that were whole and 
cleared away anything that might catch and burn, or carry flame 
from one place to the other. A narrow firebreak having now been 
cleared, Superman then turned his attention to the wet buildings 
not yet burning. With several exhalations of his super breath he 
caused the water being hosed onto those buildings to freeze into 
a protective sheathing over the walls facing the flames. No one 
thought that this would last for any length of time, but they 
hoped it would buy them enough of a break to come up with a 
solution to their problem.

Since it was no longer a matter of trying to save the buildings 
currently burning, their thoughts turned to putting out the fires 
any way they could. After another quick conversation with the 
fire chief, a plan was agreed on.

Flying swiftly to a nearby construction site, Superman landed 
next to a large front-end loader. After detaching the huge bucket 
used to move earth, he took to the air again. Finding a deserted 
stretch of beach was relatively easy and Superman, with his 
makeshift shovel, scooped up a large load of beach sand.

Flying rapidly back to the scene of the fire, he deposited his 
load of sand on the conflagration. Repeating his actions with the 
giant shovel, scooping up beach sand and depositing it on the 
blaze, several times while working his way from the edges into 
the middle of the fire, Superman was able to finally put the 
blaze to rest.

Once the fire was out, Superman then used his special shovel to 
remove as much sand as he could from the ruins of the buildings 
and return it to the beach he had borrowed it from. Obviously he 
wouldn't be able to return all the sand to the beach, nor would 
he be able to clear the area totally of the sand used to put out 
the fire, but he wanted to clean up his mess as best he could.

All the time that Superman had been performing his heroics with 
the fire and his makeshift shovel, he was being watched. A figure 
hidden in the shadows of another building had been keeping close 
watch on his progress. In his hands he held a strangely familiar 
looking box. It was metallic in composition, but it reflected the 
light oddly, and it would defy a beholder the ability to say, for 
certain, what color it was.

As Superman was hovering over the fire scene holding his last 
shovel full of sand to go back to the beach, the concealed 
personage placed his thumbs into two of the three depressions on 
the top of the box and pointed it toward Superman.

As Superman began to move away from the scene, a strange 
sensation came over him. Suddenly it was like his mind detached 
from his body. He could still think, and he could still feel 
everything, but he no longer had any conscious control over his 
anatomy. His hands, acting seemingly on their own accord, 
released their hold on the huge bucket, and let it fall toward 
the milling crowd of firemen below.

Superman watched in a horror-induced slow motion as the giant 
sand filled bucket, weighing thousands of pounds, made its 
descent. His mind screamed to do something, to say something, but 
no words came from his mouth, nor would his muscles react to his 
efforts.

Finally, as if released from some kind of invisible 
straightjacket, Superman felt himself again. Without taking time 
to think, he launched himself after the falling scoop and caught 
it just a couple of feet above the scattering crowd. Superman 
found an empty spot to set the bucket down. It was a shaken 
Superman who went over to the chief to make sure everyone was all 
right.

When asked what had happened, Superman, not wanting to alarm 
anyone, merely told the chief that he'd lost his grip and the 
bucket slipped. He apologized to everyone, then, quickly, before 
he could be seized by that strange feeling again, he grabbed the 
bucket and shot off toward the beach.

The hidden man emerged from the shadows just enough for one to be 
able to see his satisfied nod, and a smile spread slowly across 
his handsome face. He then turned back into the shadows and was 
quickly gone.

**************************

With a downshifted roar of the engine, and the squealing of 
tires, Lois pulled her little sports car into a too small parking 
place on a busy downtown Metropolis street. She turned the key 
and the high-powered engine ceased its growl.

Dan Scardino shook his head in wonderment. "I can't get over the 
changes in you since you dumped Kent, Lois. It's almost like you 
are a different person." Dan ignored Lois' warning frown. "How in 
the world did you ever afford this car?"

Lois glared at Dan. "I robbed a bank. Now shut up and concentrate 
on the matter at hand. Why did you have me bring us here?"

"Okay, I give. I'll be good." Dan tried unsuccessfully to wipe 
the smile off his face. "Bobby couldn't give us anything 
concrete, but from his comments it does seem likely that Dark is 
in town, and definitely behind something big." Dan indicated, 
with a wave of his hand, a building half a block up the street. 
"Dark has his business front located in the 510 building there. I 
thought we might want to stroll over and see if the old man is 
in."

"Let me get this straight. You want to walk into the lair of your 
enemy just to see if he's in. And if he is in, you will 
undoubtedly tip him off that you are in town for reasons which 
I'm sure he'll be able to guess." Lois sighed in disgust. "How 
come you're not dead?"

Dan chuckled. "That's why you are here, my dear. You can go in 
there under the pretense of interviewing him for some reason, and 
you can find out not only if he's here, but why he claims to be 
here."

Lois frowned at her insane temporary partner. "And just why would 
I be wanting to interview this man? Has he been in the news 
lately? Has he done anything high profile that might warrant my 
interest?" She watched Dan beginning to frown. "Or should I just 
walk in and say, 'Excuse me, Mr. Dark, rumor has it that you are 
an ex-drug smuggler who has lately turned to gun running. Would 
you care to comment on that?' Really."

"Well, I can't think of everything."

"Let me know when you think of anything." Lois snorted. "Really, 
Dan, it's one thing to be aware of the rumors and have heard the 
speculations by the police and other agencies, but I have to have 
some reason, some incident, to be starting an investigation of 
him." Lois shook her head. "Believe it or not, Dan, my editor 
won't really appreciate my stirring up a lot of potential legal 
hassles on just your say so."

Dan looked deflated. "Well you told me yourself that you knew he 
was into all kinds of nasty stuff."

"Yes, Dan," Lois hesitated for a moment. "I've had reasons in the 
past to doubt the legitimacy of our Mr. Dark, but it's nothing I 
can really act on. I have to be sure that... Lucy!"

"What?" A confused Dan turned to look in the direction that Lois 
was staring.

Sure enough, coming out of the 510 building was a smartly dressed 
Lucy Lane. She did a quick check of the traffic as she scooted 
across the street, apparently heading for the bus stop about two 
hundred feet from where Lois and Dan were parked. Lois gave her 
horn a quick toot.

Lucy looked in their direction and smiled. "Lois," she said as 
she hastened to the side of the car.

Lois had gotten out of the car. "Lucy, what in heaven's name are 
you doing here?"

Lucy glanced at Lois, then at Dan who by now had also gotten out 
of the vehicle. "You are looking at the new receptionist for Dark 
Enterprises, Inc." Lucy had a big smile on her face. "I realize 
it's not exactly city hall yet, but I do need to find some work 
while I plan my attack on city government."

Lois grabbed Lucy's arm. "Are you crazy?" Lois asked in a fierce 
whisper. "You were there last night. You know this is the guy 
that we suspect is behind some big arms deal."

"I know; that's why this is so perfect." Lucy seemed to visibly 
puff up. "Not only will I have a paying job, which pays pretty 
well by the way, but I'll be able to keep my eyes and ears open 
for anything that might help you two on this investigation."

Dan stepped in closer to the two women, shaking his head. "No, 
it's way too dangerous. You don't know this guy like I do." Dan, 
suddenly remembering why they were there, continued, "Any chance; 
did you notice if Dark himself was there?"

Lucy was about to answer Scardino when Lois interrupted. "As much 
as I hate to agree with James Bond Jr. here, it is too 
dangerous." Lois leaned in closer. "Remember what I told you last 
night."

"What did you tell her last night?" Dan was immediately silenced 
by the looks on the faces of the sisters.

"Believe me, Lois, I know it could be dangerous. I'm not stupid, 
I don't plan to throw myself in front of the raging bull while 
wearing red just to see if he'll charge - unlike some people I 
know. I just want to help," she looked to Dan, "and no, Mr. Dark 
wasn't there."

"Lucy."

"Lois."

Lois grabbed Lucy's arm and directed her around the back of the 
car and into the passenger seat. She then hurried back to her 
side of the Porsche.

"We'll discuss this at home." She fired up the powerful engine.

"Hey, what about me?" Dan said plaintively.

Lois stuck her head out the window. "What about you?"

Dan was completely intimidated by look on Lois' face. "Um, right, 
I'll catch up with you later and we can form our plan of attack."

"Yeah, later," Lois pulled her head back inside the car. In two 
quick maneuvers she was out of the parking spot and speeding down 
the street.

Dan found himself shouting after the retreating taillights. 
"That's fine, don't worry about me. I'll find my own ride. No 
problem at all."

Dan savagely stuck his hands in his pocket and slowly walked over 
to the nearby bus stop.

**************************

Clark found Lana waiting in the lobby of his hotel, when he 
finally came back. He had been shaken by his experience at the 
fire, but he didn't want Lana to know. He summoned up a smile as 
he approached her spot on the couch. She returned the smile once 
she spied Clark and got up to meet him. She gave Clark a hug, 
then turned to walk alongside him, leaving her one arm firmly 
encircling his waist.

"So, how was it?" Lana leaned her head against his shoulder.

"What?" Clark was caught off guard by her question. His mind was 
still focused on what had happened.

"The fire, that's what you said it was, wasn't it?" They entered 
the elevator together.

"It was pretty bad. Luckily no one was hurt, but three buildings 
were total losses. It was a serious piece of arson." Clark 
sighed. "It was all I could do to keep the whole block from going 
up in flames."

They exited the elevator and headed toward Clark's room. Lana 
looked at his face. "Do you think that it was some kind of 
insurance fraud, or maybe revenge against someone?"

"Hard to say, it didn't look like it. The buildings were owned by 
three different firms with nothing in common." Clark ran his hand 
through his hair. "It looks like arson for arson's sake, at least 
that's the way I wrote up the story for the paper." He paused at 
his door. "Why would people do something like that?"

Lana chuckled softly. "Still holding on to your concept that 
people are basically good?"

Clark opened the door, allowing Lana to precede him into the 
room. "Believe me, as Superman I've seen more than my share of 
the evil that folks can do, but if I didn't believe in the 
inherent goodness of people what would be the point of what I 
do?" Clark tossed his jacket over the back of a chair. "Look, I 
need a shower. It will only take me a couple minutes, literally. 
Do you want to go get something to eat?"

Lana sat at the edge of the large queen-sized bed. "That would be 
nice."

True to his word, Clark was out of the shower in two minutes, and 
dressed in another thirty seconds. He'd chosen a casual slacks 
and shirt combination, which complimented the simple skirt and 
blouse that Lana wore. Together they left the room in search of 
food.

After discussing possibilities on the elevator ride down to the 
lobby, they agreed on the small Italian bistro that served as the 
main restaurant for the hotel. The food was appetizing, and 
plentiful; and they were able to find a quiet booth in the far 
corner for undisturbed conversation.

They spent the next two hours enjoying their pasta, some wine, 
small talk, and each other's company. Clark asked Lana how the 
police investigation was going. She had to reply that they really 
had no leads to go on, so things didn't look too good. The best 
they could do at this point was to alert the various authorities 
and agencies to be on the lookout for the artifact. It was a 
fairly unique item, so Henderson had had its picture circulated 
and had put a watch on any known, local fences who might be 
inclined to handle something that hot.

Clark could tell that Lana was greatly disappointed with the loss 
of the artifact, but she surprised him with her pragmatic 
attitude toward the whole affair. At least its existence had been 
well documented, so the importance of its discovery wasn't lost. 
Also, Superman himself had publicly stated that it was possibly 
of Kryptonian origin which, along with the differences between 
her other artifacts, lent credence to her extra-terrestrial 
influence theory.

After discussing possible plans of action regarding the theft, 
and subsequently disregarding them as futile without a lead of 
some sort to go on, the topic of conversation was changed to 
Clark. Lana got him to tell her about the fire, and what it was 
like for him to deal with such a terrible thing. Clark gave her a 
fairly comprehensive run down of his battle with the blaze, 
leaving out just the part where he suffered that inexplicable 
loss of control of himself.

He would probably have retreated into a distracted state of 
obsessing about the incident had not Lana pushed him for more 
Superman stories. She'd been out of touch with the mainstream 
world for so long that she had missed out on nearly all but the 
most globally significant feats he'd performed. She was like a 
schoolgirl being exposed to some wondrous new world for the first 
time. Holding his hand as he spoke, she giggled in all the right 
spots and gasped at all the danger and horror this gentle man had 
encountered.

Finally the actions of the wait and bus staff told them that the 
restaurant was getting ready to close. It was suggested that if 
they wished to stay they could move over to the bar, but Lana and 
Clark opted to leave. Quickly settling the bill, the two of them 
wandered back into the lobby and to the elevator.

Once back in the room, Clark strode over to the window and 
checked the darkness outside. Satisfied, he turned back to Lana. 
"Would you like me to fly you back to your hotel?"

The thought of flying again in Clark's arms was very tempting but 
Lana had other plans for the night. "If it's all right with you, 
I'd rather stay."

Clark, assuming that Lana didn't want the conversation started at 
dinner to end yet, led her to the room's one overstuffed chair. 
He sat on the edge of the bed. "Okay, it's still fairly early 
yet, what would you like to talk about? I've still got plenty of 
Superman stories. Did I mention that Luthor once cloned me?"

Lana got out of the chair and came over and sat next to Clark on 
the bed. "No, I meant I want to stay the night...with you."

**********************************

It was two very tightlipped Lane women who stormed into their 
shared apartment. Once both women had dropped their bags and 
jackets, Lois rounded on Lucy.

"Okay, first thing Monday morning you are going to go into that 
office and tell them that you quit." Lois began to pace.

"I'll do no such thing."

Lois stopped and glared at the younger woman. "Oh yes you will, 
you are not going to be putting yourself in that kind of danger 
for me, I forbid it!"

Lois stopped dead in her tracks. She knew she'd just stepped over 
the line. She could see Lucy's expression darken and her eyes 
flashed in anger. Lois knew she shouldn't have said what she had, 
but it was out and it was too late to take it back. Besides the 
sentiment was still valid. She didn't want Lucy putting herself 
in jeopardy just to help her out in an investigation. It was 
stupid enough when she did it herself.

Lucy controlled her voice with great difficulty. "You forbid it?" 
Lucy had to swallow some rage and take a deep breath before being 
able to continue. "Time for some ground rules in this 
relationship." Lucy began to pace. "First, I am an adult. I make 
my own decisions. I accept, or reject other people's advice as I 
see fit."

She began to use her hands to count off her points. "Next, while 
I won't throw the fact that you really aren't my sister in your 
face, you need to know that I never allowed Lois to dictate terms 
to me either. She often disapproved of things I'd do or people I 
saw, but that didn't stop me from seeing them." If Lucy was 
honest with herself, the opposite was probably true. "And last, 
in the short time I've known you I've become very fond of you. 
You are potentially my best friend, and I actually think of you 
in terms of a surrogate, or adoptive sister." Lucy was calmer 
now. "It's almost like you and Lois were twins, so while you 
aren't my Lois, you are my *other* sister, similar, yet different 
too." Lucy paused for another breath. "So, if I have a chance to 
help out my *sister*, I have to take that chance. Can't you see 
that?"

Lois slowly allowed herself to sit on the couch. She had remained 
silent throughout Lucy's tirade. What had she done to deserve 
this friend, this *sister*. It took a considerable effort on 
Lois' part to hold back the threatening tears. She was very 
touched by Lucy's gesture, but Lucy had no idea what she was 
getting herself into.

Lois grabbed Lucy's hands and pulled her down next to her. 
"You're right, you are a grown woman and I had no right to assume 
I could tell you what to do." A small smile stole its way onto 
Lois' face. "You might have noticed that that is something I 
myself am pretty vehement about." Lois sighed as she saw Lucy's 
answering smile. "It's just that, if this world's version of 
Salvador Dark is anything like my world's was, he is an 
incredibly evil and dangerous man. I barely got close to him, and 
I found myself tossed in a foreign prison to rot for the rest of 
my life. If it were not for the Clark of my world, I'm sure I 
would have died there."

Lucy patted Lois' hand. "I'm not naive, I realize the kind of man 
you and Scardino are messing with here."

"Yes, but I don't think you know how special *you* are to me. You 
are about the only real friend I have on this world and I cherish 
the bond we are building. If anything should happen to you 
because of me, I don't know if I could take it." A single tear 
finally did escape from the corner of Lois' eye. "I've only just 
gained a sister, I don't want to risk losing her."

Lucy took several moments to study the redheaded woman who had so 
quickly managed to become so important to her. "Tell you what. I 
promise I won't do anything but keep my ears open while going 
about my assigned duties. At least not without telling you 
first."

Lois was a bit mistrustful. "Well...if you promise to just be the 
receptionist, and not do anything that would draw any unwanted 
attention, I guess it would be all right." Lois bit her lip. "And 
it would be nice to know if and when Dark was actually in the 
office."

Lucy clapped her hands together once. "Good, now that that's 
settled, tell me about Dan."

"What?"

"Come on, what's he like? Are you going to sleep with him? He is 
kind of cute, don't you think?"

Lois rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Dan's an irritant. If 
it wasn't for the possibility of a big story I'd ask him to fade 
away."

"Really?" Lucy had a big smile on her face.

"Yes, really. He's cocky and much too full of himself. I'm sure 
he finds himself much more amusing than I do." Lois shook her 
head. "Frankly, I don't know what Lois ever saw in him."

Lucy giggled. "I think you had to be there." Lucy grinned. "So, 
you're saying you are definitely not interested?"

"Definitely not."

"Can I have him?"

"Lucy!"

"Never mind, I don't care much for his taste in shirts anyway." 
Lucy's playful mood quickly sobered. "It's still Clark isn't it? 
No matter what you say. No matter what you think Clark's feelings 
are on the subject. Your heart's telling you that Clark is the 
one, isn't it?"

Lois was all set to deny Lucy's accusations, but suddenly she 
couldn't. "Yes," her voice was soft and Lucy could barely hear 
her, "it's Clark. It doesn't make any difference that I know 
nothing can ever come of it, I can't seem to help myself. I can't 
explain it rationally but whenever I'm around him I feel like 
that's the place I was meant to be." Lois sighed as her voice 
gained strength now that she was no longer denying her feelings. 
"Oh, I'm well aware of how handsome Clark is, and that body, well 
that's one rock hard formation I'd like the chance to climb all 
over. But really, it goes much deeper than that. There is just a 
certain rightness about Clark that is downright scary."

Lucy's response was firm but respectful. "What about the so 
called ghost feelings thingy Clark keeps harping on? That any 
feelings you have toward him are actually meant for your intended 
soul mate, the Clark Kent of the other world?

"Yeah, I know all about that theory, your sister explained some 
of it to me. How she had feelings for the Clark of my world, and 
he for her, but in reality they were just substitutes for the 
ones that they were meant to be with." Lois stared at the floor 
for a moment before turning back to Lucy. "The thing is, I never 
really knew the Clark Kent of my world. After he rescued me from 
that horrible prison we were thrust into that war with the New 
Kryptonians. He was killed before we had any chance to get to 
know each other."

Lois stood and paced about the small living room. "On the other 
hand, even though he was hurting terribly from the loss of his 
own, beloved Lois, your Clark saved my life by bringing me over 
to this world. He knew that it would make his own existence a 
living hell, but he did it anyway. He put my needs above his own. 
And even though he may deny it, he has been a friend to me in 
what I know have been untenable circumstances for him." Lois 
flopped back down onto the couch. "I'm not afraid to admit it to 
myself, or you, Lucy; but I've fallen in love with Clark." Lois 
stared at her hands as she wrung them. "I just hope that Lana can 
bring him some of the happiness that he's lost, because I know 
that I never can."

******************************************

Salvador Dark set the phone back into its cradle and stared 
thoughtfully at the far wall. This was an unexpected 
complication. The timing was unfortunate, but that couldn't be 
helped. His plans would have to be postponed while he took care 
of this latest problem. He pressed the special button on his 
intercom.

Within seconds, his stoic personal assistant entered noiselessly. 
Without a word he stood in front of Dark's desk waiting to be 
acknowledged. Dark finally let his gaze shift to his aide.

"Have my jet made ready. I have to leave for Singapore within the 
hour." Dark looked disgusted but never lost his temper. "There 
are some problems with distribution that I have to deal with 
personally." Dark began to shuffle some papers into his calfskin 
briefcase. "When are the arms due in?"

"They should be safely warehoused by Thursday."

Dark nodded. "That's good. I'm afraid we are going to have to 
postpone my little meet with Superman, but that will give us time 
to work out a couple of back up plans." Dark snapped his 
briefcase shut. "Contact our man at the Daily Planet and tell him 
to wait, but be ready. If he comes across anything more that we 
can use give him a way to contact you." Dark rose from his chair 
and noticed the look on the face of his assistant. "I know that 
look, what is it?"

"Maybe nothing sir, but a new receptionist was just hired for the 
office at the 510 building."

Dark raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"Her name is Lucy Lane, sir."

"Lane, as in Lois Lane?"

"Yes, sir, it is apparently her younger sister."

"Hmmm, the sister of Lois Lane, who just happens to be a very 
good friend of Superman's. The same Lois Lane who manages to get 
herself rescued by our boy scout of steel on a fairly regular 
basis." Dark chuckled. It was an evil sound. "It seems we might 
just have gained a little extra leverage." Dark licked his lips. 
"And if she should prove to be of little use, there are always 
other uses for healthy young women, eh, my friend?"

"Yes, sir."

Dark headed for the door with his assistant close behind.

*************************

Jimmy Olsen scurried about the newsroom floor, checking all of 
the reporters' desks for any last minute requests for research or 
photo developing, and dropping off anything he might have for 
them. It was Saturday and he wanted to make sure everything Perry 
could blame him for was handled before he left. He had a hot date 
with the new gal, Angie, down in personals. If fact, he'd met her 
when he'd gone down there to, maybe, put one of his own ads in 
the Sunday edition. They'd talked for a bit, and in a surprise 
move, he'd had the courage to ask her out. She was really cute so 
he was thrilled when she said yes.

Jimmy stopped at Clark's desk to drop off the data he'd 
researched for him. It wasn't much, he hadn't been able to find 
anything current as to robberies of ancient artifacts, museum 
pieces, or valuable collectibles. The latest such event was a 
burglary of a Faberge egg from a private collection, and that had 
been nine months ago. Superman had captured the bad guy and 
returned the egg to its owner in that instance. He was 
disappointed that he couldn't find more for CK, but he knew Clark 
would understand