Now And Then - Part 1

1.

May, 2008

Clark knew this day would come. It was inevitable, really. At some point people would notice that they were growing older while he wasn’t. He still looked twenty-one when he should look forty-seven. Because Superman hadn’t aged a day either, and he was known as one of Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s best friends, people were also speculating that the two men were really the same person.

Now Clark stood on the steps of the Metropolis Courthouse beside his lovely, middle-aged wife, Lois Lane. A bank of microphones pointed at them like eager gossips hungry for new dirt to dig through in the Daily Planet’s most notorious reporting team. He’d decided to go public with his identity. He didn’t think he’d need a life once…. Well, he didn’t think he’d need his privacy soon, but Lois had disagreed, very vocally, as usual.

“We plan to keep this short and to the point,” Clark said. Many of their own colleagues stared up at them from the crowd. All of Metropolis, and much of the world, was watching with baited breath. “My wife and I have two announcements to make. Speculation has run rampant for the past year that I am Superman. I want to come before you today to give you a definitive answer to that question.”

Clark took a deep breath. This was it. He was going to shed light on his most precious secret. It meant the end of any kind of personal life. He’d never be able to walk down the street in either a suit, or fly through the air in his cape without everyone knowing that he and Clark Kent were the same man. He’d probably get rid of the suit and just go back to jeans and flannel. Lois had groaned and literally face-palmed. They’d both been glad, for the very first time, that they’d never had children to subject to media scrutiny.

“I’m—”

“Clark Kent is not Superman,” Lois said, speaking over him. She did it easily—she’d had a lot of practice over the years. “He is, however, a Meteor Infected Person who doesn’t age and can run at super speeds. He doesn’t fly though.”

“Kent’s a MIP?” he heard someone say from the crowd. It was Norm Palmer III, and he had his grandfather’s loud mouth and lack of tact.

Clark could see that the crowd looked deeply disappointed. Meteor Freaks had been around for so long that they were no longer newsworthy. Hardly anyone batted an eyelash at a MIP unless they went rogue or psycho.

Clark looked at Lois, who looked back at him. She’d given him an out, and an excuse to move in superspeed in the open now. It explained a lot for a lot of people, about how he could be there one second and gone the next.

Thank you, he mouthed. She nodded.

“If you’re not Superman,” Norm pressed annoyingly, “then how come he ain’t here now?”

Clark was struggling for an answer when Superman conveniently landed next to him. He recognized his good friend J’onn at once by the flash of red in his eyes.

“Sorry I’m late,” ‘Superman’ said. “Mudslide in New Zealand. Clark and I are old friends, but we’re two completely different people. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m needed elsewhere.”

He flew off, leaving the crowd to stare up at MIP Kent and his wife.

“Now for the second announcement,” Lois said, taking a deep breath. She looked like she dreaded having to share something so personal. God knew that Clark did, but Lois had been taking a lot of sick time, and rumors were buzzing at her frequent visits to the hospital. She was, after all, a celebrity in her own right. “I have inoperable pancreatic cancer.”

A rumble moved through the crowd like a wave through the ocean, highlighted by several gasps.

“How…how long?” Norm said, looking pale and shaken. Clark remembered that Norm’s father had passed away from cancer, so Norm could sympathize with what he and Lois were facing.

“Six months. Eight if I’m lucky.”

Some luck, Clark thought bitterly, as the crowd erupted with questions. Here he was, the strongest man alive, a brilliant scientist in his own right, but he couldn’t cure cancer. He couldn’t fight this foe to rescue Lois. He couldn’t fly her off into the sunset to leave this threat behind.

Lois fielded their questions with practiced ease. She only took a few, said her goodbyes. “Speed me out of here?”

Now that he could move in public, Clark scooped her up. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving the crowd behind.

Seconds later they were on the roof of their apartment building. Directly across from them was the Daily Planet building. Clark watched as Lois looked up to the spinning globe, which caught the afternoon sunlight and sparkled beautifully.

“Sometimes I feel so healthy I can’t believe I’m sick,” she said. “Other times, like now, I’m aware that I’m dying.”

Fear had become a small monster that clawed with razor sharp claws at his gut. Each day it grew larger and ate away at him. If—when—Lois died, Clark feared it would leave him an empty husk, a parody of the man he was now.

She reached up and touched his face. “Don’t be afraid. I’m not.”

“You’re braver than I am. You always have were.”

He was the strongest man on earth, but he didn’t have the strength to stop the tears from spilling from his eyes.

“You’re only 47 years old. You’re too young to die, especially like this. Wasting away…”

She pulled him close. His arms closed around her, and she held him while he wept. It was the first time he’d cried since they’d found out she was dying. It was the first time he’d wept in 25 years.

“We knew this time would come, Clark. I’m mortal. I’ll die.”

“That doesn’t make it easier.”

“I know.”

“I won’t go through this again after you. There won’t be anyone else.”

Lois pulled back and wiped the tears from Clark’s face before lacing her fingers together behind his neck. “That thought scares me. Years of living alone, fighting the worst people this world has to offer with no one to love, or to love you, could turn you into the same kind of monsters you fight. Promise me you’ll move on. Promise me you’ll let yourself love again, Clark.”

Clark would have promised Lois anything, and killed himself trying to deliver, if it would make her happy.

“I promise,” he said, though he couldn’t imagine loving anyone else.

“Take me home. Make love to me, before I’m too weak to be with you.”

Clark picked Lois up. When she said take me home she mean the farm in Smallville. She always called their place in Metropolis ‘the apartment.’ They cherished every time they made love, because they never knew when it would be their last.

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