{Stopping It. Chapter 3}
Title: Stopping It
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lois, others later.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: through 8x05 Committed.
Word Count: 1,832.
Disclaimer: Smallville and Superman are owned by Warner Brothers, the CW and DC Comics, not me.
Summary: Clark and Lois have to say the world, but to do it they'll need to confront their future together.
Note: Okay, so cleary I fail epicly. I am so sorry this hasn't been updated in, like, a month. I have no real excuse other than the disaster that my 12days_of_clois fic turned into and being in college. But really, it's mostly because I'm just lazy. So, yeah, I'm sorry. Once again, I need to thank svgurl for betaing this and making sure I know when to use commas and not semicolans.
Chapter Three
Lois had been to the Kawatche caves a few times in her life, but she’d never seen the room she and Clark were standing in at that moment. It had a rather large table that reminded Lois of an altar. If she hadn’t had such a strange day already, she would have wondered how she’d missed it, but now just added it to the list of things she’d never noticed about Clark. It some ways, she was upset with herself for not seeing that there was more to him, but in other ways she was glad she’d been able to get to know him as he really was without all this other stuff to color her vision of him. But now that it was all in the open, did she still feel the same way as she had before about him? She wasn’t sure. It was going to take some time to adjust to the idea of Clark is from another planet. Not to mention the we just traveled in time and met our future selves, who are apparently madly in love part.
“You okay?” Clark looked over at Lois, concerned. How was she handling this? A whole lot had been dumped on her in the last half hour, and she wasn’t quite as used to the weird as he was.
“I had no idea this room was here.”
“You’ve actually, uh, been here before.” Lois looked puzzled.
“I let you know when we get home okay?” Lois nodded her assent. “So…what happens here? Am I just supposed to just stand here and look ridiculous in this parka?”
“You give me the key, I put in that table and then we’re off.”
“The key?”
“Yeah. That disc you’re holding.”
She held it up. “This. This is a key?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.” She had given up on things making sense today. She handed it to Clark who inserted it into the appropriate slot and then there was a bright light.
Lois wasn’t sure exactly what she’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. She’d read about portals in a hypothetical sense that one time when she decided she was going to tackle the mysteries of the universe (this was back in high school; it had been one of her many short lived obsessions from back then), but nothing could have prepared her for the reality of it. There was light all around and Lois could really feel herself moving but also standing still all at once. She was afraid yet calm; nervous but excited.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the portal ended. Lois and Clark were now in a castle made of crystal. Lois had never seen anything like it in her life and never would see anything that could compare in majesty. It was beautiful. Alien but somehow comforting. And huge.
“My son. You came.” It was the same voice that had spoken to them after their visit to the end of the word.
“Well, what else was I supposed to do? You transported us a year and a half into the future.” Lois noticed an edge to Clark’s voice that wasn’t usually there. Obviously he wasn’t very comfortable with his father.
“The two of you need to stop it.”
“Yeah, you told us that already. But how are we supposed to do that? It’s not gonna happen for almost thirty years!”
“Follow your instincts. I will work out the details. It is nice to finally meet you, Lois Lane.”
The world around them faded again and when it reappeared, they were standing in the hall of what appeared to be an apartment building.
Lois rolled her eyes. “You have got to be kidding me!” It was not an apartment building either of them had ever seen before and they couldn’t be sure exactly what city they were in. It could have been Metropolis, but for all they knew it could just have easily have been Hong Kong. There was the loud bass of a sound system coming from the apartment on the other side of one of the doors.
“Well,” Clark sighed, “that certainly wasn’t enlightening at all. Why is he holding back? He doesn’t usually hold back like this.”
“So what’s he usually like?” Lois was curious. If Clark was going to finally open up about the aspects of his life he wouldn’t or couldn’t speak with her about before, she was excited to hear all the strange and fascinating things he had to say.
But it was clear from Clark’s body language that this was not something Clark was ready to open up about. “He usually just tells me exactly what I have to do. In the vaguest terms possible.”
“I take it you guys don’t get along.”
Clark rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what he even wants from me, really. Just that whatever it is, it’s not quite what I want.”
“So what do you want?”
He looked at her for one long moment. Then he shook his head, as if trying to dismiss a thought. “I’m not sure about that either.” He paused, then seemed to remember that they were in a strange hallway in an as of yet unknown year. “So, what do you suggest we do about this?” He gestured to encompass the hall.
“Besides freak out?” There was just a hint of hysteria in Lois’ voice, which served to remind Clark that she wasn’t quite as used to this kind of absurdity as he was.
“Listen to me, Lois,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and looking square into her eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?”
She looked up to meet his gaze. “I know.”
“Okay. So how about we knock on this door here,” he pointed to the one that the music was blasting from. “And see if we can figure out where we are and when we are and we’ll take it from there.”
Lois nodded, visibly steeling herself. “Okay.”
Clark took her by the wrist and led her to the door. He raised his fist and knocked.
There was a long pause. He knocked again. Inside someone shouted that they thought they heard someone knocking on the door. Finally, after a third knock and much muffled shuffling inside, the door finally opened.
To reveal Chloe Sullivan.
She was wearing a cocktail dress, held a martini in her hand and wore a completely baffled expression on her face.
“Hey…guys,” she said “…aren’t you already here? You’re the happy couple! You must already be here! And I could swear I’ve had conversations with both of you tonight. Or maybe I’ve just had one too many martinis…I thought this was just my second…third…?” She shook her head, as if trying to clear some of the cobwebs she suspected were forming in there. Then she seemed to notice what her two guests were wearing and gave him a disappointed look. “Clark, seriously, I thought I’d made it clear and you’d agreed that that lame red jacket-blue shirt combo was way too obvious. And whatever happened to formal wear anyway?”
Clark opened his mouth to speak and quickly shut it again. Out of all the people in the world, a slightly drunk Chloe was the one he had least expected to open that door.
Lois, to her credit, seemed to be handling this better than her almost freak out of a minute before would have suggested. And a lot better than Clark, who prided himself on being ready for any weird situation, was handling it. Clark figured it must have been the army upbringing; Lois always got the job done.
“Hey, Chloe,” she said, without even missing a beat. “You say we’re here tonight? Do you know where we are? Because we probably should talk to them. Also, where could I get one of those?” she gestured to the martini, “’Cause I’m probably gonna need one.” She brushed passed her and entered the apartment looking for either a drink or her future self.
If it were possible, Chloe looked even more confused than she had before.
Clark gave her one of his sympathetic smiles he was so famous for. “Just go with it, he said.
“It’s you and Lois from the past again, isn’t it?” Chloe asked and she seemed more sober already. Like her cousin, Chloe also always got right down to business when the situation called for it. Clark nodded hesitantly. She didn’t seem too surprised by this revelation but it would have been more surprising if meeting himself and Lois from the past wasn’t something Clark would definitely called her about immediately.
They heard Lois cry “CLARK! THERE YOU ARE!” inside and they both immediately rushed in to her side.
By the time they got there, Lois had managed to corner an exasperated looking twenty-five year old Clark Kent by the bar while pouring herself a drink. A twenty six year old Lois Lane was approaching from behind the older Clark.
“So what are we partying?” the younger Lois asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“It’s our engagement party,” her counterpart supplied.
The younger Lois and Clark glanced at each other in surprise, and then looked away quickly.
“So…” Lois desperately tried to change the subject, “do you have any idea what the hell is going on here?”
“Besides the party we’re gonna remember for the rest of our lives being crashed by ourselves?” There was just a hint of annoyance in the older Lois’ voice. “I was really hoping there wouldn’t be any interruptions tonight.” she glanced semi-discretely at her fiancé, who answered her with a look which seemed to say Come on, why are you looking at me? It’s not my fault this time!
The younger Clark cleared his throat. ”Is there somewhere we can go to talk? Figure this out, maybe?”
The other Clark looked around the room, sighed and shook his head in resignation. “We’re gonna need some help with this.” He walked a few feet to the stereo and shut off the music. The guests turned and looked at him. “Emergency meeting.” he told them. “Now.”
Clark looked around at the guests for the first time and noticed that Chloe wasn’t the only familiar face. Victor and AC were teasing Bart in a corner, while Bart just scowled and stuffed his face. Pete and Lana were there, talking more intimately than Clark was used to. John Jones was in the middle of the room talking seriously with a statuesque brunette whom Clark had never seen before. And at the far side of the room, Oliver was making Dinah laugh while a dark, brooding guy Clark swore looked just like that billionaire from Gotham he saw on magazine covers from time to time looked on.
Clark saw them all, and they all saw Clark. And Lois. Both pairs.
“Dude, there are two of you!” Bart pointed out, completely unnecessarily.
“Why do you think it’s an emergency?”
First Chapter. Previous Chapter.
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Lois, others later.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: through 8x05 Committed.
Word Count: 1,832.
Disclaimer: Smallville and Superman are owned by Warner Brothers, the CW and DC Comics, not me.
Summary: Clark and Lois have to say the world, but to do it they'll need to confront their future together.
Note: Okay, so cleary I fail epicly. I am so sorry this hasn't been updated in, like, a month. I have no real excuse other than the disaster that my 12days_of_clois fic turned into and being in college. But really, it's mostly because I'm just lazy. So, yeah, I'm sorry. Once again, I need to thank svgurl for betaing this and making sure I know when to use commas and not semicolans.
Chapter Three
Lois had been to the Kawatche caves a few times in her life, but she’d never seen the room she and Clark were standing in at that moment. It had a rather large table that reminded Lois of an altar. If she hadn’t had such a strange day already, she would have wondered how she’d missed it, but now just added it to the list of things she’d never noticed about Clark. It some ways, she was upset with herself for not seeing that there was more to him, but in other ways she was glad she’d been able to get to know him as he really was without all this other stuff to color her vision of him. But now that it was all in the open, did she still feel the same way as she had before about him? She wasn’t sure. It was going to take some time to adjust to the idea of Clark is from another planet. Not to mention the we just traveled in time and met our future selves, who are apparently madly in love part.
“You okay?” Clark looked over at Lois, concerned. How was she handling this? A whole lot had been dumped on her in the last half hour, and she wasn’t quite as used to the weird as he was.
“I had no idea this room was here.”
“You’ve actually, uh, been here before.” Lois looked puzzled.
“I let you know when we get home okay?” Lois nodded her assent. “So…what happens here? Am I just supposed to just stand here and look ridiculous in this parka?”
“You give me the key, I put in that table and then we’re off.”
“The key?”
“Yeah. That disc you’re holding.”
She held it up. “This. This is a key?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Whatever you say.” She had given up on things making sense today. She handed it to Clark who inserted it into the appropriate slot and then there was a bright light.
Lois wasn’t sure exactly what she’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this. She’d read about portals in a hypothetical sense that one time when she decided she was going to tackle the mysteries of the universe (this was back in high school; it had been one of her many short lived obsessions from back then), but nothing could have prepared her for the reality of it. There was light all around and Lois could really feel herself moving but also standing still all at once. She was afraid yet calm; nervous but excited.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the portal ended. Lois and Clark were now in a castle made of crystal. Lois had never seen anything like it in her life and never would see anything that could compare in majesty. It was beautiful. Alien but somehow comforting. And huge.
“My son. You came.” It was the same voice that had spoken to them after their visit to the end of the word.
“Well, what else was I supposed to do? You transported us a year and a half into the future.” Lois noticed an edge to Clark’s voice that wasn’t usually there. Obviously he wasn’t very comfortable with his father.
“The two of you need to stop it.”
“Yeah, you told us that already. But how are we supposed to do that? It’s not gonna happen for almost thirty years!”
“Follow your instincts. I will work out the details. It is nice to finally meet you, Lois Lane.”
The world around them faded again and when it reappeared, they were standing in the hall of what appeared to be an apartment building.
Lois rolled her eyes. “You have got to be kidding me!” It was not an apartment building either of them had ever seen before and they couldn’t be sure exactly what city they were in. It could have been Metropolis, but for all they knew it could just have easily have been Hong Kong. There was the loud bass of a sound system coming from the apartment on the other side of one of the doors.
“Well,” Clark sighed, “that certainly wasn’t enlightening at all. Why is he holding back? He doesn’t usually hold back like this.”
“So what’s he usually like?” Lois was curious. If Clark was going to finally open up about the aspects of his life he wouldn’t or couldn’t speak with her about before, she was excited to hear all the strange and fascinating things he had to say.
But it was clear from Clark’s body language that this was not something Clark was ready to open up about. “He usually just tells me exactly what I have to do. In the vaguest terms possible.”
“I take it you guys don’t get along.”
Clark rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what he even wants from me, really. Just that whatever it is, it’s not quite what I want.”
“So what do you want?”
He looked at her for one long moment. Then he shook his head, as if trying to dismiss a thought. “I’m not sure about that either.” He paused, then seemed to remember that they were in a strange hallway in an as of yet unknown year. “So, what do you suggest we do about this?” He gestured to encompass the hall.
“Besides freak out?” There was just a hint of hysteria in Lois’ voice, which served to remind Clark that she wasn’t quite as used to this kind of absurdity as he was.
“Listen to me, Lois,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and looking square into her eyes. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, okay?”
She looked up to meet his gaze. “I know.”
“Okay. So how about we knock on this door here,” he pointed to the one that the music was blasting from. “And see if we can figure out where we are and when we are and we’ll take it from there.”
Lois nodded, visibly steeling herself. “Okay.”
Clark took her by the wrist and led her to the door. He raised his fist and knocked.
There was a long pause. He knocked again. Inside someone shouted that they thought they heard someone knocking on the door. Finally, after a third knock and much muffled shuffling inside, the door finally opened.
To reveal Chloe Sullivan.
She was wearing a cocktail dress, held a martini in her hand and wore a completely baffled expression on her face.
“Hey…guys,” she said “…aren’t you already here? You’re the happy couple! You must already be here! And I could swear I’ve had conversations with both of you tonight. Or maybe I’ve just had one too many martinis…I thought this was just my second…third…?” She shook her head, as if trying to clear some of the cobwebs she suspected were forming in there. Then she seemed to notice what her two guests were wearing and gave him a disappointed look. “Clark, seriously, I thought I’d made it clear and you’d agreed that that lame red jacket-blue shirt combo was way too obvious. And whatever happened to formal wear anyway?”
Clark opened his mouth to speak and quickly shut it again. Out of all the people in the world, a slightly drunk Chloe was the one he had least expected to open that door.
Lois, to her credit, seemed to be handling this better than her almost freak out of a minute before would have suggested. And a lot better than Clark, who prided himself on being ready for any weird situation, was handling it. Clark figured it must have been the army upbringing; Lois always got the job done.
“Hey, Chloe,” she said, without even missing a beat. “You say we’re here tonight? Do you know where we are? Because we probably should talk to them. Also, where could I get one of those?” she gestured to the martini, “’Cause I’m probably gonna need one.” She brushed passed her and entered the apartment looking for either a drink or her future self.
If it were possible, Chloe looked even more confused than she had before.
Clark gave her one of his sympathetic smiles he was so famous for. “Just go with it, he said.
“It’s you and Lois from the past again, isn’t it?” Chloe asked and she seemed more sober already. Like her cousin, Chloe also always got right down to business when the situation called for it. Clark nodded hesitantly. She didn’t seem too surprised by this revelation but it would have been more surprising if meeting himself and Lois from the past wasn’t something Clark would definitely called her about immediately.
They heard Lois cry “CLARK! THERE YOU ARE!” inside and they both immediately rushed in to her side.
By the time they got there, Lois had managed to corner an exasperated looking twenty-five year old Clark Kent by the bar while pouring herself a drink. A twenty six year old Lois Lane was approaching from behind the older Clark.
“So what are we partying?” the younger Lois asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“It’s our engagement party,” her counterpart supplied.
The younger Lois and Clark glanced at each other in surprise, and then looked away quickly.
“So…” Lois desperately tried to change the subject, “do you have any idea what the hell is going on here?”
“Besides the party we’re gonna remember for the rest of our lives being crashed by ourselves?” There was just a hint of annoyance in the older Lois’ voice. “I was really hoping there wouldn’t be any interruptions tonight.” she glanced semi-discretely at her fiancé, who answered her with a look which seemed to say Come on, why are you looking at me? It’s not my fault this time!
The younger Clark cleared his throat. ”Is there somewhere we can go to talk? Figure this out, maybe?”
The other Clark looked around the room, sighed and shook his head in resignation. “We’re gonna need some help with this.” He walked a few feet to the stereo and shut off the music. The guests turned and looked at him. “Emergency meeting.” he told them. “Now.”
Clark looked around at the guests for the first time and noticed that Chloe wasn’t the only familiar face. Victor and AC were teasing Bart in a corner, while Bart just scowled and stuffed his face. Pete and Lana were there, talking more intimately than Clark was used to. John Jones was in the middle of the room talking seriously with a statuesque brunette whom Clark had never seen before. And at the far side of the room, Oliver was making Dinah laugh while a dark, brooding guy Clark swore looked just like that billionaire from Gotham he saw on magazine covers from time to time looked on.
Clark saw them all, and they all saw Clark. And Lois. Both pairs.
“Dude, there are two of you!” Bart pointed out, completely unnecessarily.
“Why do you think it’s an emergency?”
First Chapter. Previous Chapter.