If The Earth Opened Up...

If the Earth Opened Up....

By Margaret Brignell 

Summary: A few missing scenes from the episode "And the Answer
Is" in which Lois speculates that Clark and Superman are one and
the same but tries to prove herself wrong. 

***

Superman looked like he was about to cry!

Lois was stunned. She had just finished explaining how they could
help Clark's parents, that freezing her would solve Clark's
problem. Superman had expressed his reluctance to do what she
asked and put some devastating facts before her about the danger
of what she proposed to do. But then, when she'd explained that
they *had* to help Clark and that Superman didn't *know* what
Clark was going through, tears had appeared in his eyes. Superman
didn't cry! He was the strongest man on earth.

Lois was scared now. Her determination to help Clark had pushed
her to this point, but the tears in Superman's eyes had
completely shaken her confidence. Superman was afraid! Maybe what
she'd asked was *really* as life-threatening as he'd said.

But they had no choice. If they didn't do this her way, Clark's
parents would die. At least doing *this* there was a chance. She
said as much to Superman and when he asked her to close her eyes
she followed his directive.

With her eyes closed, her other senses seemed to become more
acute. She could hear both of their breathing and could smell the
subtle scent of Superman's skin. For some reason this reminded
her of someone else. She didn't know quite who. She heard
Superman move slightly and felt his hand caress her cheek. Her
eyes shot open and she exhaled sharply. His touch! It felt like
Clark was actually here! Superman was standing right in front of
her looking exactly the way he had just a few seconds ago. She
must be out of her mind! Clark was still back at the Planet,
probably going crazy with worry. Lois took a deep breath.

Superman repeated the instruction to close her eyes. This time
after her eyes were closed, she felt a gentle breeze of freezing
cold air. It was as if everything was going very far away and the
internal Lois, the *real* Lois was finding a hiding place deep
inside of her body. Hiding away from everything that could harm
her . . . and Clark's parents.

Clark! Where was Clark? She was walking down the aisle of a
church, walking towards Lex Luthor and thinking of Clark. She saw
Clark's face floating in front of her. Only he looked different.
Lois was scared. Superman! She tried to call out but she couldn't
make any sound. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. When was
she going to wake up from this nightmare? It had to be a
nightmare. This was just like all the nightmares she'd ever had
where she couldn't talk, or see, or get anyone's attention.
Superman was trying to help Clark. *She* was trying to help
Clark. This would be over soon. It *had* to be. Superman was
catching her in midair. She'd fallen out of a plane but she
couldn't remember why. Superman was right there, holding her, but
he was wearing glasses. How odd!

She could hear Clark calling for her to come back. Back from
where? Now he was demanding that she come back. Well, she would
if she only knew how! She tried to answer him but she still
couldn't talk, couldn't breathe, couldn't see. Although, now that
she thought about it, the dark wasn't quite as dark as it had
been a little while ago. Every time Clark called her the light
got brighter. She made a big effort to call to him, and choked.
The voice was getting closer and louder. The dark was almost
gone. She felt Clark's arms tighten around her and she let him
know that she'd heard him calling. When she opened her eyes, she
saw . . . Superman!

Superman? Where was Clark? She wanted Clark! Clark must be here,
she'd heard him calling her. Clark's mother wrapped her in a
blanket but Clark wasn't anywhere to be seen. Lois closed her
eyes. She was exhausted and could feel tears running down her
cheeks. She wanted Clark and when she closed her eyes she could
feel him holding her, comforting her just like the time the fake
Mr. Trazuski had strangled her. But it wasn't Clark holding her,
it was Superman. She *must* be going crazy.

Superman flew her to the hospital. There the doctors told her
she'd be fine but she had to *rest*. Phooey on that! She wanted
to figure out why she was confusing Clark with Superman. Clark
was her best friend, the man she wanted to have a deep, loving
relationship with. Clark was real! Superman was a god, above the
petty mundane things of life, an unrelenting saviour of mankind.
They had *nothing* in common. Lois quelled a sob. This almost
dying thing must have affected her brain.

It was only a short while before Clark came to the hospital to
take her home. The whole time he was driving the car back to her
place Lois stared at his profile trying to see if there was *any*
resemblance to Superman. She couldn't see any. He just looked
like Clark. Nice, safe, worried Clark.

Clark's Mom was at her apartment and helped her to get ready for
bed. She asked Lois to take the sedative the doctor had
prescribed, but Lois refused. Martha brought her a cup of herbal
tea instead. Lois drank it gratefully. She craved the soothing
warmth of the tea.

As she sat sipping her tea, Clark came into the bedroom
hesitantly. He seemed so scared, as if he were afraid she'd break
apart. Lois tried to reassure him that she was fine, but she was
so sleepy she was having difficulty getting the words out. In a
few moments she was fast asleep.

Next morning, she woke as the birds began singing outside of her
window. Lois suspected that the sedative she'd refused had been
put in the tea, but decided not to make an issue of it. She did
feel so much better after a good night's sleep.

Martha came in to check to see if she was okay, almost
immediately followed by Clark. He said a quiet hello and asked if
she needed anything before he went into the office. Lois sneezed
and said no she'd be fine. She'd try to rest as the doctors had
ordered and she'd see him after work.

Clark looked relieved, as if he'd been expecting her to insist on
going into the office. Well maybe she would have on another
occasion, but today she wanted to figure out exactly what had
happened yesterday, just before Superman had frozen her. She
looked Clark in the eyes. She must be crazy thinking he might be
Superman, he looked like . . . Clark!

After Clark had left, Martha fussed around Lois for a few minutes
and then at Lois' insistence went back to Clark's apartment. Lois
wanted to be alone.

Alone, she'd always been alone. Even with other people around.
She'd always felt alone . . . until Clark. She could hear the
traffic sounds outside her window, muted but they were still
there. Maybe she should turn on the radio, give the place some
pleasant background noise. But she didn't feel up to it. She'd
told Martha she was fine, and *really* she was, but she felt way
too tired to get up and turn on the radio. Grabbing another
Kleenex to stop a sudden sneeze she snuggled down under the
comforter and tried to think through the problem.

Why was she confusing Clark with Superman? Was it like she'd said
after that pheromone incident, that every girl in love thinks her
man looks like Superman? Was it because they were both always
there for her? Was she in love with both of them, and as a result
kept getting them mixed up in her mind? Lois wiped her nose
again. Think Lane, think! There has to be a reason for this. You
are *not* going crazy.

Lois fell asleep on this thought. The experience of almost dying
had drained her reserves and the subsequent cold had taken its
toll on her exhausted body.

When she woke up several hours later, she was looking straight at
the bear Clark had won for her at the Smallville Corn Fest. She
smiled at the memory. If she had any doubts that *proved* Clark
was just a regular guy. He'd barely been able to get the bell to
ring. Now she remembered that Clark had a paper cut just prior to
winning her the prize. Not to mention that he'd almost died in
that fight with Trask. Superman would have had no trouble hitting
the bell, couldn't get a paper cut and would have had no trouble
beating up on Trask. Lois sighed with relief. Confusing Clark and
Superman must have been a mental aberration caused by a fear of
dying.

Lois got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. After showering,
she dressed in a comfortable pair of slacks and a sleeveless top.
She made herself coffee and heated up a frozen croissant to cut
back on the hunger pangs. She was sitting on the sofa reading the
latest issue of Journalist Weekly, when the phone rang. It was
Clark.

A rush of warmth flooded Lois at the sound of his voice. She'd
know his voice anywhere. How could she have confused his with
Superman's? How silly!

Clark had phoned to say he'd bring in Chinese food for dinner. He
tried to persuade her to go back to bed, but when that didn't
work asked her to do her best not to lift a finger and to just
rest. He sounded so worried that Lois decided not to argue with
him and agreed to rest, but *not* to go back to bed. She was
fine, really!

After hanging up the phone, she rinsed out the dishes she'd used
and straightened up the small mess she'd made. After just this
brief activity, she thought that maybe Clark was right, resting
was a *really* good idea. She was so weak, it must be how
Superman felt after being in contact with Kryptonite.

Kryptonite! In Smallville, there'd been Kryptonite! And, Clark
had been sick, *really* sick. He and his parents had claimed it
was allergies, but what if it was more than that? What if it'd
been Kryptonite? If Superman had been in contact with Kryptonite,
he wouldn't be able to hit the bell, he could have gotten a paper
cut (and Clark *had* seemed to be at a loss as to what to do with
a paper cut!), and Trask could have beaten him up easily.

Lois sat down suddenly on the nearest chair. What was she
thinking? She was imagining that Clark and Superman were the same
person. It was impossible! There were hundreds of times when both
she and Clark had been there when Superman had saved someone, or
stopped the criminals, or Superman had caught her in midair.

When Superman had caught her in midair the first time, Clark had
been up in the plane with Trask. Or had he? When the red
Kryptonite had made Superman apathetic, Clark had been affected
too! Clark hadn't been in the courtroom to help his friend
Superman when he'd been sued. Why? The only logical explanation
was that Clark and Superman were the *same* person.

Lois got up unsteadily and retrieved her laptop from her
briefcase. She had to check. This was insane. There was no
possible way that she could be right. Verify, Lane, verify! Lois
drew up all her files on Superman.

The first time she'd seen Superman was in the space shuttle when
he'd swallowed the bomb. The little girl had commented on
Superman's costume and he'd said his mother had made it for him.
Martha? If she thought Clark and Superman were the same person,
then what about Martha and Jon? They were just ordinary people
from Kansas. If Superman was talking about Martha, did that mean
that she and Jon were from Krypton too? Lois shook her head and
put the totally normal Martha and Jon in the "can't be the same"
column she'd mentally created.

The second time she'd seen Superman was when she'd stolen Clark's
story. Lois blushed. She still felt bad about that, but he'd
gotten back at her later. Superman wouldn't have done a thing
like that! Then again, it was after she'd told Clark why Superman
was really needed that Superman had returned to Metropolis to
stay. Clark had gotten the exclusive on that. Or had he? If she
was right, he'd interviewed himself! The fink! Lois shook
herself, Superman wouldn't have cheated like that. Nor would he
have thrown her in the dumpster at the Metro Club. She put the
tricks that Clark had pulled over the years as more evidence for
the "can't be the same" column.

On the other hand, the time Trask barged into the newsroom
demanding information from the two of them about Superman, Clark
had seemed really nervous about being interviewed. As if he knew
something about Superman and might give it away. Could it be that
he himself was Superman? Lois put this in the "maybe" column in
her head.

She tried to find some time, *any* time that Superman and Clark
had been in the same location at the same time, where she could
see them together. Strangely enough she couldn't, except for the
Diana Stride incident when Clark had given his press conference,
to refute Diana's assertion that he was Superman, and Superman
had appeared overhead. She couldn't decide if this was evidence
for the "can't be the same" column or the "maybe" column. She
finally put it, tentatively, in the "can't be the same" column
and kept looking.

It seemed so strange that except for that one incident she
couldn't remember one single time when both Clark and Superman
had been in the same place at exactly the same time. Within
seconds, yes, but *not* at the same time. Why had she never
noticed that before? Because Clark didn't want her to? She put
this in the "strong maybe" column.

Then there'd been the time Clark had amnesia. They *couldn't* be
the same person, after all Superman wouldn't get amnesia from
being knocked down by a car and hitting his head. The whole time
Clark had amnesia Superman had been out in space, dealing with
the Nightfall Asteroid, intent on preventing it from colliding
with the Earth. Superman had put it all on the line, twice, to
save the planet. Clark had fallen into a bunch of garbage cans in
the dark!

On the other hand, Superman had been incommunicado between those
two tries at preventing the collision. Jimmy had found a piece of
Superman's costume in a crater in Suicide Slum. Clark had been
found with no memory in the Fifth Street Mission, in the same
part of town. Was it possible that the force of the first hit
with the asteroid had wiped out Superman's memory? Now she
thought about it, Dr. Terri McCorkle, the police psychologist,
had described Clark as having a "Superman Complex," of being a
chronic do-gooder who thinks he can handle anything. Lois put
this incident in the "strong maybe" column.

Then a little voice in her head asked "What about the time Clark
was killed by the gangsters?" Clark *had* been dead. She'd been
right there when he died. Superman couldn't be killed by bullets.
Clark was killed by a bullet. The only reason he was alive now
was because of the cloning techniques of Professor Hamilton. Or
was it? If he really was Superman, he'd never been dead! The
dirty, rotten . . . it was *just* like Clark to trick her like
that! But if she was right that meant that it was just like
Superman too. . . . Lois shook her head. This was getting *way*
too complicated.

On the negative side was the normalcy of Clark's parents, the
human things that Clark did and said, and just the . . .
ordinariness of Clark.

On the positive side was the strange things that Clark did
sometimes, like hesitate to be interviewed about Superman,
disappearing for absolutely inane reasons, the dual effect of red
Kryptonite on both Superman and Clark and . . . she had to admit
it, her own instinct.

But, if she was right, why hadn't he *told* her?

Lois stood up and stretched. She'd been poring over the files for
over an hour and she still wasn't any further ahead. The head
draining part of her cold seemed to be going away, thank
goodness. But she still felt weak and her head felt all clogged
up making it difficult to think clearly.

She made herself some peppermint tea. As she sat sipping the hot
tea, letting the steam help clear her head, she remembered all
those times she'd seen Superman right here in this room. If Clark
was Superman, why had he felt the need to visit her as Superman?
Clark saw her every day at the office.

Now she thought about it, Superman had sometimes been here to
romance her and at other times he'd tried to distance her.
There'd been the time they'd danced, a few feet off the ground,
right in this very room. Then again, there was that time Superman
had pushed her away and told her that what she and Clark had was
special. Why had he been so ambivalent towards her? Come to think
of it that had been the last time Superman visited her here in
that special way. She and Clark had started to develop their
relationship after that.

With trembling fingers, Lois put the cup on the table. She'd
called Clark a "Hack from Nowheresville" and "Mr. Greenjeans" all
the while pursuing Superman. If she were right about them being
the same person, he must have been devastated. Was that why he
hadn't trusted her enough to confess his secret to her?

Lane, get a grip girl. You're manufacturing evidence to suit your
theory. Lois got up and emptied the dregs from her cup into the
sink. How could she find out for sure?

There was a knock on her door. It was Clark. She hadn't realized
how much time had passed and here he was with dinner in hand.
Smiling, but with a concerned look in his eyes, he kissed her
gently on the cheek.

They ate the Chinese food and chatted about the Mazek story Clark
had finished. When she asked Clark why Mazek had kidnapped his
parents, Clark looked wary and said he thought Mazek had wanted
someone to steal for him. To Lois' heightened senses, this didn't
quite ring true.

Clark was fussing over her after they'd eaten. He told her she
looked very pale and tired and she really should be getting some
rest. Lois insisted she was fine, just feeling cooped up and
could they go for a walk so she could get some fresh air.

With Clark's arm around her, they walked to the local park. Clark
worried about her, and disputed her assurance that she wasn't
cold. As they walked towards the fountain in the centre of the
park, Clark said he'd been thinking. She wondered what about and
insisted that he go first.

They were standing facing each other and she was trying to see
Clark in the light of her new suspicions. He still looked like .
. . well . . . Clark, but as she brushed back a lock of his hair
with her hand she saw that with his hair flat and back off his
face, there was *some* resemblance to Superman. If she could get
him to take off his glasses, she'd know for sure.

Clark was apologizing for keeping her out of his anxiety over his
parent's kidnapping. He said he was ashamed. When she pressed him
about that he explained that he kept pushing her away, even when
he'd promised he wouldn't. He was so obviously dejected by his
behaviour, so *Clark* about it, that Lois wondered if her
imagination had gotten the better of her.

Then Clark insisted that she sit at the edge of the fountain. He
explained that he wanted to say something. Lois, once again,
considered that maybe she was right. Maybe Clark was going to
tell her his secret. Except Superman wouldn't be this nervous.
When lightening cracked overhead, and Clark asked the powers that
be to give him a break, she asked if he'd rather go back to her
place. Maybe he'd feel more comfortable telling her in the
privacy of her apartment. His response was to say that he
wouldn't stop, he'd say what he had to say even if the earth
opened up at his feet.

Then, to her amazement, Clark got down on his knees and
*proposed*. There was a diamond ring in a box and a look of hope
on Clark's face. She hadn't expected this at all! She'd expected
a confession, *not* a proposal.

As the rain poured down, it obscured the lenses of Clark's
glasses and soaked his hair flat. Now there was no doubt! The
hair was the same, the rain made the glasses seem invisible. It
wasn't just her own feelings, now he even *looked* like
Superman!

In triumph, at being right, Lois plucked the glasses from Clark's
face and asked "Who's asking? Clark? ...or Superman?"

THE END