Treasured Memories

By Vikster <JAG77@glass77.fsnet.co.uk>

Rated: PG

Submitted: July 2002

Summary: In this deathfic, Lois Lane Kent reflects on the past as her life draws to a close.

All comments are welcome.

***

Lois Lane Kent sat by the fire in her farmhouse, staring at a picture of her late husband. She felt tears form in her eyes but refused to let them fall. It was exactly five years today that her husband and the world's Superman had passed away. It had come as a shock to everyone when at the age of eighty-seven the normally healthy Clark Kent had become severely ill and passed on a few weeks later.

At first Lois had felt completely devastated and hadn't had the strength to carry on. She never dreamed that he would be the first to die; in their youth there was always the possibility of some criminal finding some kryptonite, but all the pieces that had come to earth had long since been found and destroyed. The idea that he could have died of old age had at one time been unthinkable.

But as the reality had sunk in, Lois swore to herself that she would not give in. She knew Clark would have never forgiven her if she had committed suicide and so she forced herself to eat and live without her soul mate, taking comfort in the fact that her time would come soon enough.

After a while she accepted the fact that her husband was gone, and with him went her energy and thirst for life. Four years ago she had left Metropolis, her home for eighty-six years and moved into the Kent's farmhouse that had been left to her and Clark when his parents had passed away.

She had a few acquaintances, but no one she could call a friend. She felt totally alone in the world. After Clark's death she realised she was the last person to hold the Kent family secret and therefore she had no one to confide in about her feelings surrounding his death.

Now, five years later, she still treasured his memory and thought about all the good times they had had together. They had had an almost perfect marriage marred only by the fact that they were unable to have children; something she knew Clark had always felt responsible for.

She looked down at their smiling faces as they celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary and longed to go back and escape the loneliness she felt in her heart.

A week ago she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and the doctors had given her six months. She wasn't sad by the fact that she was dying. She could think of nicer ways to go, but she knew that the sooner she was reunited with her husband, the sooner she would be happy. Lois had never believed in an afterlife but after Clark's death and with her own approaching she just knew that he was waiting for her. Maybe it was just wishful thinking but after all the crazy and seemingly impossible things that had happened to them, she didn't think that an afterlife was such a big leap. After all she had once seen a man who had been brought back from the dead. Was the thought of a heaven such a big difference?

She put the photo back on the mantle and thought some more about the person her husband had been and the sacrifice he had made to the world; a world that had done very little to appreciate what he had given them. Of course they didn't know that to help them he was jeopardising his safety and that of his family, not to mention all the times he had to leave his life as Clark Kent to help as Superman. She also realised that in a few months the secret would be gone and the world would never know what a gift they had been given that first day when the colonist's shuttle was launched; the day a mysterious flying man came into their lives and into the hearts of the good citizens of the world.

She knew she couldn't let that happen. It wouldn't be fair on Clark if the memory of his deeds died along with her. She may have given up her job many years ago but she still could write better than most people could.

***

The next day Lois started on her book entitled, 'The Life of My Super Man.' During the next six months Lois wrote about Krypton, Clark's childhood and the man he grew up to be: her husband and soul-mate. She wrote about his fears and his dreams, his loves and his hates. But most of all she told the world what kind of man their hero really was; that underneath the powers and flashy suit lay a heart, a very human heart, maybe the most human heart she had ever seen.

"Clark Kent was not a god. Take off the suit and before you stood a man; a man with dreams and desires like everyone else. But my husband was not like everyone else. He cared. He cared about the world and the people in it. He gave part of himself to help his fellow man. He overcame the hatred and bigotry that was thrown his way and became a symbol of hope to all mankind, a symbol that should never be allowed to be forgotten, and I was proud and honoured to be called his wife and his partner."

Lois smiled as she re-read the final paragraph of her book. It had been hard, harder than she could have imagined, writing with the pain of cancer, but even harder to find the words to express her feelings and those of her husband's. She had left the only manuscript in a safe deposit box and left instructions in her will for the book to be published after her death and the proceeds to go to charity, along with everything else she owned. She had also asked that the last remaining suit and the globe be put in a museum for the world to see.

Later that night Lois Lane Kent died in her sleep, happy in the knowledge that her husband would not be forgotten and that she would be at last be able to be with him.

THE END