By Artiste Sixty-Two (75032.2765@compuserve.com)
Summary: Clark reflects on his marriage to Lois at the 50-year mark.
Author's Note:
I wrote this one morning while I was hanging around the house doing nothing. I was looking at a picture of my grandparents and remembering their fiftieth anniversary party last month. Their life together made me write this story. As always comments good and bad are greatly appreciated. E-mail me at 75032.2765@compuserve.com
L&C, Perry, Martha, Jonathan, Lucy and Jimmy are property of Warner Bros. and DC comics. All other characters are mine. The story is mine. Blah,blah, blah. <g>
Words in ** denote emphasis, words in _ _ denote thoughts.
***
"Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, the last of life, for which the first was made, our times are in His hand …"
-Robert Browning
Clark Kent looked over at his wife of fifty years. She was still beautiful to him, though she had grey hair and wrinkles. He, of course, looked the same as he had on their wedding day. Clark remembered how Lois had felt when she found out he wouldn't age at the same rate as she did. She had thought that after she died he'd go and marry someone else. She didn't understand then that she was the only one. Now, after fifty years, she understood, they both did, so much. About their love, their life, and their loss.
As he looked down at his sleeping wife, Clark thought about their life together and all of the pain and sorrow they had gone through. It seemed like every week some thing or villain would get in the way of their happiness. But now the powers that be were leaving them alone. _I guess they must've figured we've been through enough._ Well that's sure true.
Lois stirred and Clark caressed her cheek. She smiled, knowing her husband's touch even in slumber. Clark smiled too, bittersweet about everything racing through his mind. Every trial and tribulation they had faced. The first big one would have to be when Lois discovered he was Superman. That one was mainly his fault though, taking her response to his proposal ("I need time to think") as a no. Then there was the time when he had broken up with her because of some stupid fear for her safety. That had *definitely* been his fault. Oh, and then there was that whole clone arc. That was Luthor's fault, replacing Lois with a clone on their wedding day. Then Lois got amnesia and fell in love with Luthor. Well, not really, but she *thought* she was in love with him. When Clark had finally saved her from that she had fallen for that stupid Scardeter guy. Clark always chuckled at this nickname. He had dubbed Dr. Deter Scardeter because he reminded Clark so much of that DEA agent, Scardino, that had tried to steal Lois away from him. Oh, then there was that whole New Krypton fiasco. Whoa, that had been bad. Not as bad as some of the things they faced, though. There had been the trial when Lois had been convicted of murder. That had been really hard. Newlyweds and suddenly one of them's in jail. But that wasn't the worst. The hardest thing for them had been the loss of their children.
Lois hadn't had any trouble getting pregnant, but she could never carry the babies to term. She had lots of miscarriages. Clark and Lois had wondered if Lois would be able to have children. That is, until Leo came. Lois had carried him to term and delivered naturally with no problems. Except that the baby had been born dead. Lois wept. She had built herself up for so much and she just couldn't handle the loss of their fourth child. Clark didn't want to put his Lois through any more pain so he suggested adopting. But Lois said no. She would try again in a year. And, sure enough, eighteen months later, Lois had a baby girl. Three months premature, but healthy. Strong, too. They named her Callie, which means most beautiful. Also, Callie was similar to Kal-El and Lois had wanted to name her after her father. Callie was such a blessing. She inherited her father's powers and her mother's spirit. And, from Clark's birth mother Lara, blond hair.
Clark and Lois loved Callie with all their might. She was their only child. The doctors had all confirmed that Lois shouldn't attempt another child. As Callie grew so did Lois and Clark's love. Each time they looked at their baby girl, now a young woman, their sense of the strength of their love was renewed.
Now Callie was a grown woman with babies of her own. All her children had inherited at least some of their grandfather's powers, and they all helped him with his 'other job'. She had two boys and a girl who would go on to have children that would carry on the Kryptonian heritage on Earth.
But Lois might not live to see them. She was healthy, yes, but getting older. How could Clark live on without her? Lois, who had been his strength, his everything? He could never find someone else. Not that he'd want anyone else. Lois was his one and only. If only there was some way … but of course, there wasn't. Lois would die and Clark would continue being Superman, and a super man in his prime. But their love will not die. It will live on in their descendants. Such a perfect love death cannot destroy.
Lois awoke and looked up at her husband. "Clark, have you been thinking about the future again?"
"Honey, I just cannot be here without you!"
"Clark, you will be fine. You always have Callie and Lara, and Lucy, Thomas, Perry, all of our children. They'll be here a long time too."
"It's not the same."
"I know it's not, sweetheart, but you will be okay. And I'll always be with you." She kissed his cheek and settled against his chest to go back to sleep.
Little did Clark know that this would be the last night he would hold Lois in his arms. Little did she know that this would be her last night to dream of the past. She pictured various anniversaries where she and Clark went out to dinner together. The most special night was their first date. The night of too much perfection. And then there was their wedding. _And pictured flowers and me dressed in white and you and I and candlelight_. Then she saw Callie and her husband wishing they were Lois and Clark and knowing that, in a way, they were.
The next morning when Clark woke up, Lois was still in his arms just like another morning. Except this time her heartbeat was not there.
The funeral was three days later. All of the children came. The only relatives left besides children was Lucy. She cried on her husband, James Olsen's, shoulder. Lois was buried in Smallville next to Martha and Jonathan. All the children cried about lost love and how nothing was perfect. Callie comforted them with this: "Perfect love exists, I've seen it for myself. It's not kisses and moonlight serenades. It's two people holding on to happiness before it fades. Time is a vision unclear blessed with adventure and full of fear and looking at mom and dad made it seem so easy. But all of you have a part of them inside of you. You'll see that perfect love. You'll find life's wonderful surprise. But now we've gotta help daddy. He's going to miss mommy an awful lot but the world won't be as kind as to give him a day off, so we're going to have to help him. Even Superman doesn't live forever." Callie kissed her father's cheek and held him as he paid his last respects.
***
Fifty years later the most monumental thing since he first appeared happened. Superman died. He was buried next to his wife, Lois Kent. The world that he left was just what his old friend H.G. Wells promised. Utopia. Founded by Superman's descendants. A world that practically worships the greatest love of all, the love of Lois and Clark Kent. They are both highly revered, as are their friends and family. Just like Tempus said. Except this time there is no Tempus to disrupt their grandchildren's lives. The leader of Utopia, the second Lois Lane (the original's great granddaughter) banished him to a place better suited for him; New Krypton.
Utopia, the perfect world, the perfect life. It does exist. Based on the principles and values Superman lived by. The world that he and Lois worked side by side to create. Lois and Clark, the original, looked down on the world, on their children, on their dream of peace. Their dream that came true.
-Finis
THE END
(candle.txt)