One Lifetime

By Deadly Chakram (dwelf82@yahoo.com)

Rated: G

Submitted: February 2021

Summary: A lifetime of love is more than enough for Clark.

Story Size: 1,597 words (9Kb as text)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I make nothing. All characters, plot
points, and recognizable dialogue belong to DC comics, Warner
Bros., December 3rd Productions and anyone else with a stake in
the Superman franchise.

Author's Note: This is in response to the 2021 Kerth Challenge
#7, which asked authors to use a love declaration from a movie or
TV show and have Lois or Clark use it in an admission of how they
feel about each other.

***

"Clark?" Lois asked, as she shuffled into their bedroom,
carrying a tray with two steaming cups of oolong tea. "How are
you feeling?"

"Weak," he croaked, his voice hollow and ancient sounding. He
tried to hoist himself up into a sitting position, but his waning
strength failed him. He gave her an apologetic look.

"Hey, let me help with that," Lois lovingly admonished, setting
the tray on his night table.

She gently helped to pull him up, leaning his frail frame against
her sturdier, though aged, body. She stuck a few extra pillows
behind his back to help him stay upright, then carefully eased
him back. He coughed a little - a wet, phlegmy sound - and
fumbled with the oxygen cannulas in his nostrils, repositioning
them so they sat more comfortably and more effectively. For a
moment, Lois gazed at him, her heart breaking all over again.

*He's only ninety!* she thought bitterly. *He should still be
healthy and strong! He's Superman!*

But, Superman or not, reality didn't care.

Clark Kent was dying, and had been for weeks.

And Lois wished every single day that it was her instead of him.

"You're doing it again," he said, his lips quirking up into a
soft smile, and a trace of his old bantering tone was in his
voice.

"Doing what?" she asked, smoothing down a lock of the silver
hair that somehow looked even more dashing than the midnight
black it had been in his youth.

"Obsessing."

"I am *not* obsessing!" she said, lying and knowing that she
was doing a poor job of hiding the fact that she was lying.

"Honey, I heard you on the phone with the kids last night. You
still think that my dying is a result of that age sucking machine
we dealt with so long ago," he replied in a loving tone.

"Isn't it though?" Lois asked, fighting back her tears.

"I don't know," he replied honestly.

"It *has *to be! Dr. Klein *said* it took something from you.
Maybe this is it. Maybe it took years off your life. Maybe you
were supposed to live another hundred years. Or...or..." She
failed in her effort to keep her emotions in check and a single
silver tear slid down her cheek.

Clark reached out with a gnarled and wrinkled finger and wiped it
away. "Even if that was true, that the machine shortened my
life, I still don't regret it. Jimmy's alive with five kids and
eighteen grandkids and three great-grandkids because of what I
gave up."

"I know, but..." she started to protest, but stopped there. How
could she argue against his sacrifice to ensure that their best
friend got to live a long, full life? She couldn't. Not without
sounding like a raging witch.

"Besides, without you, a hundred years more would have been
torture." He coughed again.

"You still..."

He shook his head. "No. Lois, listen to me. I would rather spend
one lifetime with you, then face all the ages of this world
alone."

The argument Lois was trying to form died in her throat and she
laughed a little. "Did you..." She paused and shook her head in
disbelief. "Did you just quote The Lord of the Rings?" she
asked, and a few more tears fell as she lost all hope of
restraint.

Clark's smile grew. "Arwen was a *very* smart woman," he
replied, reaching out to cup her cheek, the way he'd always
done. "She knew a long life without love just wasn't all it was
cracked up to be."

"She died though. Alone. After a great many years without
Aragorn," Lois countered as she helped Clark to take his teacup
in hand.

He shrugged a little. "True, but she still had more years with
him than if she'd chosen the immortal life of her people and
left Middle Earth. *And* she got to have a family of her own."
With shaking hands, he brought the cup to his lips and drank.
When he was finished, he lowered it to his lap and sighed. "My
life isn't so different. I've had a *wonderful* life, Lois.
Being with you, raising our family together, every moment of pain
or triumph we've shared...it's been worth it. I wouldn't trade
a single second of it for anything. I've never wanted to live
forever or for a thousand years or whatever my life *might* have
looked like without that youth sucking machine."

Lois nodded. "I know," she admitted softly.

Clark's tender smile bloomed on his face again. "When I first
realized that nothing could hurt me...before I knew of Kryptonite
or all the close calls I would have with it over the course of my
life..." His voice trailed off as the past seemed to waltz
before his failing eyes. "Once I thought about all the
implications, it was kind of terrifying. The thought of living,
possibly forever, while I watched everyone I loved grow old and
die..." He shook his head gently. "It was almost a relief to
know that there was at least one green stone out there that could
ensure I wouldn't have to endure that fate. That I wasn't as
immortal as I'd once feared."

He took another drink, and this one seemed to cost him twice the
effort, although Lois knew he would never admit it. "I'm so
proud to have spent all these long years as your husband, Lois. I
still thank my lucky stars that you found me worthy enough to
love."

"Worthy enough?" Lois paused in reaching for her own tea. "How
can you say that? *Of course* I love you, Clark! You're the best
man I've ever known, with the gentlest soul, and the biggest
heart. If anything, I've always been surprised and grateful that
you love me."

"I've always wished you could see yourself the way I see you,"
Clark lamented, wheezing a little before a cough overcame him.
When it subsided, he took several gasping breaths before
continuing. "I've seen every corner of this planet and enough
of space to know that you are the brightest thing in this whole
amazing universe, Lois. More than anything else, your love has
made me human."

"Oh, Clark," she breathed, brushing another lock of hair off
his forehead, and noticing that his brow was clammy with sweat.
"I love you."

"And I love you. Always and forever. And...whatever lies ahead,
beyond this mortal world, I'll be waiting for you."

Lois couldn't answer, lest she burst into uncontrolled sobs.
Sitting up and talking had seemed to sap Clark of his strength,
so she took his tea from his bony hands and helped him settle
back down so he could lay comfortably. It didn't take long for
him to fall into a peaceful sleep. For a long time, Lois simply
sat watching him -- the way his features smoothed out in his
dreams, making him look younger, the reassuring rise and fall of
his chest, the way that even the ravaging effects of time and
illness hadn't dimmed his handsome looks or hid the fact that
he'd once been the world's greatest hero, the way that the hero
couldn't outshine the perfect, human man he was. But as the day
exploded into a brilliant orange-red sunset, a change came over
him.

"One lifetime," he murmured, his eyes still closed, before his
body went slack and he slipped into a coma.

The coma was short lived. As the stars twinkled overhead that
evening, just as most people kissed their spouse goodnight as
they snuggled into their beds, Clark Kent quietly slipped away to
where Lois could not yet follow. Her heart shattered permanently
and her life seemed to go dark and her grief threatened to
suffocate her.

But hours later, as she sat alone and emotionally exhausted from
the process of having her husband's body taken away by the
coroner, knowing that she would have to contact the funeral home
in the morning, and putting off returning downstairs to her
children and grandchildren, their last conversation came floating
back to her.

"The Lord of the Rings, of all things," she mused, and a smile
tugged, unbidden, at the corner of her mouth because it was just
so completely geeky, like Clark.

And suddenly, another scene from the movie occurred to her -- a
moment between Pippin and Gandalf as they faced overwhelming odds
in battle.

"I didn't think it would end like this," the forlorn and
terrified hobbit had said.

"End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another
path. One that we all must take. The gray rain-curtain of this
world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass. Then, you see
it," the wizard had kindly replied.

"What? Gandalf? See what?"

"White shores and beyond. A far green country, under a swift
sunrise."

"Well, that isn't so bad," Lois said aloud, echoing the young
hobbit.

And somewhere, in the back of her mind, Clark answered with
Gandalf's voice. "No. No it isn't."

THE END