By Emily Jerome (LACAGCFAN@aol.com)
Summary: Looking back from the perspective of many years of marriage, Clark reflects on Lois' life.
Authors Note — Well, this is my first serious attempt at fanfic. Somehow the idea came to me while watching 'The American President'. (BTW — It's a great film. You should rent it sometime.) Anyway, I am not sure how good it is. It is one in the morning right now, so I don't know what came out. I did do spell check for everyone's benefit. <g> This has no A-plot, but no B-plot either. I'd say it was more of a Q-plot. :) This is not the type of fanfic I enjoy reading, but maybe someone will enjoy it. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE send comments, good and bad, to me at LACAGCFAN@aol.com — or EmMathHist@aol.com. I'm not sure how many times you'll read it. I may be sending it off to as many as four places. <g> (Maybe SOMEONE will actually use it!) I'd like to thank Lunacyy@aol.com, GoggleBee@aol.com (Biz), and 72047.2544@compuserve.com (Morgan) for reading this for me and helping me make changes. Also, I appear in here, so do my best friends, and some other friends of mine. ENJOY!!
***
Clark stared into her eyes. The same eyes that he had stared into — and been memorized by — for over 35 years. They said so much about her. Some say that you can see into one's soul through their eyes, and Lois Lane was no exception.
Knowledge was something that Lois had never been lacking. There are different types of knowledge. Mathematical knowledge, knowledge with words, puzzle solving knowledge. Lois' mind held all these kinds of knowledge, some more than others. Another type of knowledge comes from memories. This was where Lois got most of what she knew. She had more memories than most — more life-altering experiences. It seemed that she never lost sight of these memories — the good and the bad — and always drew on them for her knowledge. Maybe this was what had made her such a wonderful reporter. Maybe it was just natural talent. Either way, she was the best reporter that The Daily Planet had ever seen, and ever would see.
As Clark looked into these eyes he thought about the life of the person whom those eyes belonged. What had those eyes seen? What had that brain thought, experienced? It was a long story, but one that he knew so well, even the parts that he was not with her to experience. He loved to recall it, her life, the parts that he remembered and the parts that she had told him. It was a wonderful life, full of heartaches and hard times, but a wonderful life all the same.
***
She had a rough childhood. Her parents split up when she was twelve, but even before that family life was worse than most. Her father had had multiple 'friends' who happened to be female during his marriage to her mother, her mother was an alcoholic, and her younger sister locked herself up in her room. It would have been so much easier on Lois and her sister if they had been closer during this time, but they weren't. As much as Lois wanted to deny it she had wanted to be more of a big sister to Lucy then. Lucy probably wanted to have more of an older sister then too. Too bad that neither of them knew how.
Lois had left the house as soon as she could. Actually, earlier than she legally could. Then again, since when had the government been able to stop Lois Lane? (I mean, she punched the president in the mouth once! Okay, so he was a clone, but still!) She moved out on her own when she was 16. She went to high school and tried to support herself for the two years she still had of that. Well, it's fair to say that she 'forgot' to eat a lot during those two years. She was saving up for college so she had to go without a lot. Food, electricity, water, heat, etc. She lived. It may have made her a better person. If you were to ask her, she would tell you that it DID help her.
Yes, she had saved up for college. She didn't have near enough, only half of what she would need to live on, let alone actually paying for the schooling. Yes, her father could have probably afforded it. Too bad she had not even heard from him since her 14th birthday. Lucky for her, she got a journalism scholarship from a small local college. No, it was not Harvard, but it was good enough. She had always wanted to be a reporter. Somehow she just figured that that was what she was meant to do. She was right.
College was not an easy time either for Lois. She worked late into the night to keep up on her work. She got herself in too deep, and being Lois Lane, liked it there and refused to get out. Not only was her life at school hard, her personal life was not any better. She was cheated on more than once. She figured it came with the territory and let it pass. Nothing would affect Lois, at least not where people could see it.
When she got out of college she started the interviewing process. Possibly for the first time in her life something came easily with no struggle. As soon as she was interviewed by Perry White at the Daily Planet she had a job. It didn't take long for her to make her way up on the Daily Planet food chain — on the press food chain. Soon she was one of the most well known reporters in Metropolis — hell, in the country!
During these times, when from the outside her life seemed perfect, a lot was happening inside. Her 'personal relations' got worse. No one knew this; she would not dare share this information with anyone. Ever. Then she gave up on men. All men. She could no longer trust them. However, from this almost-perfect life she felt she was missing something. She didn't know what it was. Well, maybe she did, but she did not want to admit it. Not now. Yes, she was missing love. But she had gotten by without it, or with at least tiny bits of love, cheating love, and other types of love that could not even be classified as love, all her life. Why should now be any different? She was not that type, she decided.
Then Clark Kent entered the newsroom.
She saw him and it was obvious that he was attracted to her immediately. Okay, so she was attracted to him. No she wasn't!! She couldn't be!! She wasn't that type. And even if she had been mistaken before, this could not be the exception! Not this farm boy from Kansas. Well, maybe… No, no, no! There was no way. She did the only thing that she knew how to — she was the no-nonsense reporter that everyone thought she was. Even if she did have feelings for him, she had to push them aside.
And then Superman entered her life.
Okay, now she was definitely wrong. Superman was the man of her dreams. This was the exception. This was what she had been waiting for all her life. He was no farm boy. Was he? Of course not! She — Lois Lane, the hard-core news reporter that had no emotions — was in love with the man in blue tights.
Slowly her feelings for both of the men in her life changed. Clark became her best friend and then she found herself wanting more, although she was still reluctant to admit it. And Superman was great and all, but she no longer loved him. Well, not that way at least. She loved him as a friend, as a brother, but not romantically. That was saved for Clark now. Then again, she still had Clark in the friend department too.
Eventually, after what seemed like forever to those surrounding the now famous reporting team, Clark and Lois got together. They went out on a few dates, and it didn't take long for either of them to see that there was something more than friendship. And then something big was discovered. Something that could ruin their worlds. Or, how Lois saw it, a great front page story. But this time, she didn't think that it was news material. Well, at least not first thing. She saw how it would affect her, and him. Clark was Superman!! She couldn't believe it! Of course, to make things harder than they already were, Clark asked her to marry him. Yes, of course she wanted to marry him! But did she want to marry Superman? And did she want to marry someone who had lied to her for three years? Slowly her life, which had finally started to figure itself out, was becoming confused again. Now what was she supposed to do? Think. Thinking always seemed to help.
Well, this thinking had taken longer than usual, but eventually she decided that she wanted Clark and whoever else he was. After some very interesting things, Lois proposed to Clark, and you probably know the answer to that question.
Now, the problem was the wedding. It took so much planing, but finally they put it all together. And then strange things started to happen.
***
This is where it got really hard for Clark to remember. Well, not remember exactly, but to think of. Whenever he went over Lois' or his life, he skipped this part. The cloning, the amnesia, the 'not so good' doctor, it was all just to hard for him to bear. [Authors note — okay, it's too much for ME to bear. I really don't want to repeat what we all know all too well.]
***
And then, after the whole 'non-wedding-clone- amnesia-arc, ugh, ur, set of situations <g>-from-hell' thing was out of the way Zara showed up. Clark's 'Kryptonian wife.' So he ended up going up into the stars to New Krypton for some big hoax. For some reason, these people — Zara and Ching — were from Krypton, but Zara was not married to Kal-El. They just wanted him to go off to New Krypton for a news story. Zara and Ching were the head reporters for the Daily Rock- Floating-Off-In-Space. They wanted the inside scoop on Earth. Then they let him go back to Lois. That was interesting.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, Lois and Clark had a real wedding. A wonderful wedding. And an even better honeymoon. They went back to the Planet and stayed their same selves for another 35 years. They were still the Planet's head reporting team. And they prospered. Four Pulitzers between them. And five kids! The first was born about 6 months after the wedding and they named her Morgan Anne. The second and third were twins — Hannah Elizabeth (Biz for short — it's a long story) and Sarah Joy. The fourth was the only boy in the group — Jonathan Ching. The last was Stacy Jo. Strangely enough, the only ones who had inherited their dad's super powers were Morgan and Stacy. It was probably better than them all inheriting them. That would have gotten to be too much. It was so amazing though, both Lois and Clark made wonderful parents and their reporting got better with each kid. And their kids married to have kids of their own. Their lives seemed to have gone by so fast. Too fast. It seemed that they had just given birth to Morgan when she had her own kids — Emily and Shawna.
Clark and Lois spent every Friday night together. It was the secret to their relationship. No calls for help being answered, no stories being answered. Just them, together. One night Lois said some things that surprised Clark. They had lived long lives together. "Clark, I feel that I am running out of time to say what I have wanted to say for a long time. I'm not sure why I am saying this now, I just feel that any later may be too late."
"Yes?" Somehow Clark knew that that part about later being too late was true. It was strange though, he could not imagine his life alone. Or Lois on her own again either. He felt that no matter what they would be together someday.
"Clark, I love you. I know that I have told you that a lot. Daily, at least. I just wanted to make sure you knew how much I meant it. I could not have lived without you. Before you came thoughts of death filled my mind. I have never told anyone that, not even you. But when you came to Metropolis, my life had meaning. Not when you were Superman, when you were Clark. I love you. I love you. I love you. I would continue saying that until I took my last breath, but it would not express how I feel. I just wanted you to know that."
"Lois, I love you too. I love you more than anything. I was always afraid that people would like me, let alone love me, for just my powers. You taught me otherwise. Thank you. I really don't know what to say either, but I have a feeling that the feeling is mutual. In that I feel that no words are needed."
That Friday night Lois fell asleep in Clark's arms. And never woke up.
***
Now Clark was staring into Lois's eyes from his view outside of the casket. It was Sunday morning, he wanted to do this as soon as possible, in fear that any later would be too late. Staring at Lois brought tears to his eyes. He couldn't imagine living without her there. He had a feeling that he wouldn't have to. He was right. That night HE fell asleep and never woke up.
Afterward
Lois and Clark saw each other face to face again, in what had seemed to be forever — two days, and both of them were wearing white and surrounded in light.
THE END
(eyes.txt)