Late this afernoon, I went to the Fanfic Message Boards with no trouble. A few
minutes later I visited Zoomway's boards and then tried to go back to the FFMBs
only to have the error message pop up, so it's not just you. Try emailing
Annette. She's probably aware of the problem but if not she can try to find out
what's wrong.

Nan

Pei-Jean <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote: I was trying to access the boards
this afternoon and I got directed to
a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at the
moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
this morning with no problems.




Yahoo! Groups Links






*********************************
Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.

---------------------------------
Got a little couch potato?
Check out fun summer activities for kids.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I'm able to get back on now.

--- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com, Nancy Smith <deimos92065@...> wrote:
>
> Late this afernoon, I went to the Fanfic Message Boards with no
trouble. A few minutes later I visited Zoomway's boards and then
tried to go back to the FFMBs only to have the error message pop up,
so it's not just you. Try emailing Annette. She's probably aware of
the problem but if not she can try to find out what's wrong.
>
> Nan
>
> Pei-Jean <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote: I was trying to access the
boards this afternoon and I got directed to
> a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at
the
> moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
> this morning with no problems.
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *********************************
> Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
>
> ---------------------------------
> Got a little couch potato?
> Check out fun summer activities for kids.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

I still can't get back on. I hoped it would be fixed this morning but
I'm still getting a Not found message.

Nan




Pei-Jean wrote:
>
> I'm able to get back on now.
>
> --- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com <mailto:LCFic%40yahoogroups.com>, Nancy
> Smith <deimos92065@...> wrote:
> >
> > Late this afernoon, I went to the Fanfic Message Boards with no
> trouble. A few minutes later I visited Zoomway's boards and then
> tried to go back to the FFMBs only to have the error message pop up,
> so it's not just you. Try emailing Annette. She's probably aware of
> the problem but if not she can try to find out what's wrong.
> >
> > Nan
> >
> > Pei-Jean <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote: I was trying to access the
> boards this afternoon and I got directed to
> > a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at
> the
> > moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
> > this morning with no problems.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *********************************
> > Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Got a little couch potato?
> > Check out fun summer activities for kids.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>

This is interesting. I still can't access the boards from my computer (I
have a dial up) but my husband, who has a cable connection, can. Weird.

Nan

Pei-Jean wrote:
>
> I'm able to get back on now.
>
> --- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com <mailto:LCFic%40yahoogroups.com>, Nancy
> Smith <deimos92065@...> wrote:
> >
> > Late this afernoon, I went to the Fanfic Message Boards with no
> trouble. A few minutes later I visited Zoomway's boards and then
> tried to go back to the FFMBs only to have the error message pop up,
> so it's not just you. Try emailing Annette. She's probably aware of
> the problem but if not she can try to find out what's wrong.
> >
> > Nan
> >
> > Pei-Jean <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote: I was trying to access the
> boards this afternoon and I got directed to
> > a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at
> the
> > moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
> > this morning with no problems.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *********************************
> > Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Got a little couch potato?
> > Check out fun summer activities for kids.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>

Is the web host doing maintenance? The error seems to come and go.

   _____

From: LCFic@yahoogroups.com [mailto:LCFic@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Nan
Smith
Sent: Sunday, August 19, 2007 11:16 AM
To: LCFic@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [LCFic] Re: Boards down?



I still can't get back on. I hoped it would be fixed this morning but
I'm still getting a Not found message.

Nan

Pei-Jean wrote:
>
> I'm able to get back on now.
>
> --- In LCFic@yahoogroups. <mailto:LCFic%40yahoogroups.com> com
<mailto:LCFic%40yahoogroups.com>, Nancy
> Smith <deimos92065@...> wrote:
> >
> > Late this afernoon, I went to the Fanfic Message Boards with no
> trouble. A few minutes later I visited Zoomway's boards and then
> tried to go back to the FFMBs only to have the error message pop up,
> so it's not just you. Try emailing Annette. She's probably aware of
> the problem but if not she can try to find out what's wrong.
> >
> > Nan
> >
> > Pei-Jean <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote: I was trying to access the
> boards this afternoon and I got directed to
> > a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at
> the
> > moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
> > this morning with no problems.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > *********************************
> > Earth is the insane asylum for the universe.
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Got a little couch potato?
> > Check out fun summer activities for kids.
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi FoLCs!

   Here is the update of new fic (gathered typically through Thursday evening). 
Links on the L&C Message Board Fanfic Index page at
http://www.geocities.com/mb_indices/lnc.html


   New stories:
   Mendacity by Dandello
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith



   New part(s) posted:
   I'll Be There by DaisyMay390
  Reminisces of New Krypton by Dandello


   Completed stories:
   Mendacity by Dandello
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith



   New TOCs for Current/Recent Stories:
   Angel Found by Dandello
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith


   New/Revised TOCs for Previously Posted Stories:
   None


   Added to the Archive:
   Wedding Rearrangement by Nan Smith


   Enjoy!
   Dawn & The Crew

---------------------------------
Shape Yahoo! in your own image.  Join our Network Research Panel today!

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi FoLCs!

   Here is the update of new fic (gathered typically through Thursday evening). 
Links at http://www.geocities.com/mb_indices/mbindex.html


   New stories:
   The Goblin Bee by Sue S.
  Hide and Seek by MrsMosley
  Interest Bearing by JDG
  [K]nightfall by LaraMoon
  Mendacity by Dandello
  Secret Revelations by Laura S.
  Sudden Paternity by bakasi
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith



   New parts posted:
   Drabble Challenge: #10 Best by Various
  Exposure by symbolicangel
  Foundations by Caroline K.
  I'll Be There by DaisyMay390
  The Longest Road: The Long Road Home by Raconteur
  Love Survives by rkn
  Men Of Steele 2 by Henry
  Reminisces of New Krypton by Dandello
  Separate Lives by bakasi
  Strong by Shayne Terry
  Teaching Indecency by Laura S.
  Ten Years in the Making by anonpip
  Untitled (posted under Still Haven't Figured Out a Title) by Mishmishat


   Completed stories:
   Drabble Challenge: #10 Best by Various
  Foundations by Caroline K.
  The Goblin Bee by Sue S.
  Hide and Seek by MrsMosley
  Interest Bearing by JDG
  Mendacity by Dandello
  Secret Revelations by Laura S.
  Strong by Shayne Terry
  Sudden Paternity by bakasi
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith


   New TOCs for Current Stories:
   The Goblin Bee by Sue S.
  Hide and Seek by MrsMosley
  Interest Bearing by JDG
  [K]nightfall by LaraMoon
  Mendacity by Dandello
  Secret Revelations by Laura S.
  Untitled (posted under Still Haven't Figured Out a Title) by Mishmishat
  Wedding Accomplished by Nan Smith



   New TOCs for Completed Stories including Comments folders:
   None


   Added to the Archive:
  It's Raining on Prom Night by Laura S.
  Owls Over Metropolis by Marcus L. Rowland
  Rebuilding Superman by Terry Leatherwood
  Saving Efforts by bakasi
  A Vulnerable Night in Metropolis by Laura S.
  Wedding Rearrangement by Nan Smith
  Whispers in the Key of Love by Lara Moon


   Enjoy!
   Dawn & the Index Crew

---------------------------------
Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally,  mobile search that gives answers, not web links.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

So I haven't been as active as I used to be, but I went to visit the
boards last night and had some problems and just now it won't come up
either.  Is it the boards or is it me?
Thanks.
Carol

Hi FoLCs!

   Here is the update of new fic (gathered typically through Thursday evening). 
Links on the L&C Message Board Fanfic Index page at
http://www.geocities.com/mb_indices/lnc.html


   New stories:
   World Turned Upside Down by Dandello



   New part(s) posted:
   None


   Completed stories:
   Love Survives by rkn (completed on Fanfic MBs)
  World Turned Upside Down by Dandello



   New TOCs for Current/Recent Stories:
   Mendacity by Dandello
  World Turned Upside Down by Dandello


   New/Revised TOCs for Previously Posted Stories:
   None


   Added to the Archive:
   Home: Family Party by Nan Smith


   Enjoy!
   Dawn & The Crew

---------------------------------
Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows.
Yahoo! Answers - Check it out.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi FoLCs!

   Here is the update of new fic (gathered typically through Thursday evening). 
Links at http://www.geocities.com/mb_indices/mbindex.html


   New stories:
   An Early Revelation: Top Copy by Beth S.
   Dejame que entre en tu corazon by estefi (written in Spanish)
  Dream a Little Dream by Irene Dutch
  Field of Dreams by Caroline
  One Blinding Moment by LaraMoon
  Spin by Sue S.
  TOGOM Drabble or How short can a TOGOM retelling get? by Dandello
  What a night! by bakasi
  World Turned Upside Down by Dandello



   New parts posted:
   Clearing the Record by Dandello
  Drabble Challenge: #7 Truth by Various
  Drabble Challenge: #8 Laughter by Various
  Exposure by symbolicangel
  [K]nightfall by LaraMoon
  Love Survives by rkn
  Nine Lives by Marcus Rowland
  Separate Lives by bakasi
  Teaching Indecency by Laura S.
  Ten Years in the Making by anonpip


   Completed stories:
   Drabble Challenge: #7 Truth by Various
  Drabble Challenge: #8 Laughter by Various
  Dream a Little Dream by Irene Dutch
  Field of Dreams by Caroline
  Love Survives by rkn
  Nine Lives by Marcus Rowland
  One Blinding Moment by LaraMoon
  Spin by Sue S.
  TOGOM Drabble or How short can a TOGOM retelling get? by Dandello
  What a night! by bakasi
  World Turned Upside Down by Dandello


   New TOCs for Current Stories:
   An Early Revelation: Top Copy by Beth S.
   Dejame que entre en tu corazon by estefi (written in Spanish)
  Dream a Little Dream by Irene Dutch
  Field of Dreams by Caroline
  Spin by Sue S.
  Sudden Paternity by bakasi
  TOGOM Drabble or How short can a TOGOM retelling get? by Dandello
  What a night! by bakasi
  World Turned Upside Down by Dandello



   New TOCs for Completed Stories including Comments folders:
   None


   Added to the Archive:
  Bats in the Belfry by LaraMoon
  Fan Mail by MetroRhodes
  Home: Family Party by Nan Smith
  Rebirth by Catherine Bruce
  Remember Me? by Jana L. Officer
  Slippery Snake! by Catherine Bruce
  Starless Night by Jana L. Officer


   Enjoy!
   Dawn & the Index Crew

---------------------------------
Building a website is a piece of cake.
Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

I just ran into the same thing... this happened a month ago, too?  I
missed that... dang it, we *paid* good money for that domain name, and
I'm sure we've kept up with it...

PJ
/me waves to everyone

--- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com, "Pei-Jean" <soc_ker_angel@...> wrote:
>
> I was trying to access the boards this afternoon and I got directed
to
> a site that apparently indicates that the domain is not in use at the
> moment is anyone else having the same problem? I was able to go on
> this morning with no problems.
>

I don't know what it is, but it's not just you.  And I was right in the
middle of catching up on Laura's Teaching Indecency, too...

--- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com, Carol <cmoncado@...> wrote:
>
> So I haven't been as active as I used to be, but I went to visit the
> boards last night and had some problems and just now it won't come up
> either.  Is it the boards or is it me?
> Thanks.
> Carol
>

There's a technical reason (which my bore you) as to why the  site seems to
be intermittent. It was an issue with how *I* set up what's  called
nameservers, which tells the internet where to go when someone hits the  URL.

I spoke to the web host today and I fixed the issue. The over all issue
should be cleared up in about 24-48 and hopefully this will not happen again.
*crosses fingers*

In the mean time, give this a try, because it gets me around the issue when
I encounter it:

I only have a fix for windows users (sorry).

1. open a command  prompt (START >> RUN >> Type CMD >> Click OK.

2. run  this command: ipconfig /flushdns

3. run this command: ipconfig  /registerdns

4. Try launching again.

Annette :)

<EZ76>A mac vs. pc  commercial you'll never see: "Whatcha doin, PC?" "I'm
playing this new game."  "Oh really, which one?" "Any." "Oh." (silence)
-  bash.org




************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks, Annette! That explains a lot. :-D

For Mac OS X users, open up Terminal (Hard drive - Applications -
Utilities), and type

lookupd -flushcache




Karen



On Sep 18, 2007, at 9:03 PM, AMCiotola@... wrote:

> There's a technical reason (which my bore you) as to why the site
> seems to
> be intermittent. It was an issue with how *I* set up what's called
> nameservers, which tells the internet where to go when someone hits
> the URL.
>
> I spoke to the web host today and I fixed the issue. The over all
> issue
> should be cleared up in about 24-48 and hopefully this will not
> happen again.
> *crosses fingers*
>
> In the mean time, give this a try, because it gets me around the
> issue when
> I encounter it:
>
> I only have a fix for windows users (sorry).
>
> 1. open a command prompt (START >> RUN >> Type CMD >> Click OK.
>
> 2. run this command: ipconfig /flushdns
>
> 3. run this command: ipconfig /registerdns
>
> 4. Try launching again.
>
> Annette :)
>
> <EZ76>A mac vs. pc commercial you'll never see: "Whatcha doin, PC?"
> "I'm
> playing this new game." "Oh really, which one?" "Any." "Oh." (silence)
> - bash.org
>
> ************************************** See what's new at http://
> www.aol.com
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

It was up a little bit ago but haven't checked it again... wisdom teeth
came out friday and four small kids have me occupied at the moment :).

Pam Jernigan wrote:
> I don't know what it is, but it's not just you.  And I was right in the
> middle of catching up on Laura's Teaching Indecency, too...
>
> --- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com, Carol <cmoncado@...> wrote:
>
>> So I haven't been as active as I used to be, but I went to visit the
>> boards last night and had some problems and just now it won't come up
>> either.  Is it the boards or is it me?
>> Thanks.
>> Carol
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Thanks, Annette -- I knew you'd know what the problem was!  And fix
it, too.  I got through to the boards last night, several hours after
first seeing the error, and then again today.  This is good.  I was
kinda freaking out <g>

--- In LCFic@yahoogroups.com, AMCiotola@... wrote:
>
> There's a technical reason (which my bore you) as to why the  site
seems to
> be intermittent. It was an issue with how *I* set up what's  called
> nameservers, which tells the internet where to go when someone hits
the  URL.
>
> I spoke to the web host today and I fixed the issue. The over all
issue
> should be cleared up in about 24-48 and hopefully this will not
happen again.
> *crosses fingers*
>
> In the mean time, give this a try, because it gets me around the
issue when
> I encounter it:
>
> I only have a fix for windows users (sorry).
>
> 1. open a command  prompt (START >> RUN >> Type CMD >> Click OK.
>
> 2. run  this command: ipconfig /flushdns
>
> 3. run this command: ipconfig  /registerdns
>
> 4. Try launching again.
>
> Annette :)
>
> <EZ76>A mac vs. pc  commercial you'll never see: "Whatcha doin,
PC?" "I'm
> playing this new game."  "Oh really, which one?" "Any." "Oh."
(silence)
> -  bash.org
>
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's new at
http://www.aol.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Hello everyone!!!!! I'm a new member and I am glad to be here. I'm a
big Superman fan more or less a huge fan of Lois & Clark: The New
Adventures of Superman.

Welcome!  We've been really slow lately, but maybe you
can bring new stuff to get us going again...

Anne  >^,,^<

--- korn_freak6662000 <korn_freak6662000@...>
wrote:

> Hello everyone!!!!! I'm a new member and I am glad
> to be here. I'm a
> big Superman fan more or less a huge fan of Lois &
> Clark: The New
> Adventures of Superman.
>
>



      
________________________________________________________________________________\
____
Luggage? GPS? Comic books?
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

Disclaimer: The familiar characters and settings in this story are not
mine. They are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd
Productions and whoever else can legally claim them. I am not making any
profit from this venture into the world of Lois and Clark. Any new
characters, scenes, dialogue and the story itself belong to me.



Second Choice

By Nan Smith


Clark Kent hurried out the door of his Algebra class.  It was the end of
sixth period and school was out. If he hurried, he'd get a chance to
talk to her before she caught her ride with that guy again.



He left the building through a side exit and took advantage of his speed
to make it around the building and to the front gate before she could
possibly get there. Then he spent the next ten minutes wondering where
she was. She had been waiting here for her ride every day for the past
month and now, the day he needed to talk to her, she wasn't here.



She'd been at school today. He'd seen her a couple of times, passing
between classes, but it seemed as if she'd been avoiding him, which had
bothered him. They'd been good friends since the early summer when her
mother had suddenly moved into an apartment in town, bringing her two
daughters with her. She'd been sixteen and the most beautiful girl he'd
ever seen in his life. They had met at Maisie's Diner, when he'd seen
her sitting in a corner by the old fashioned jukebox, sipping a
milkshake and watching the crowd of local kids chattering and laughing
at the big table in the center of the room. He'd watched her
surreptitiously for almost an hour until she'd gotten up to leave,
wishing he dared to go over and introduce himself. And then Pete Ross
had saved the day completely by accident. He'd been crossing the room
with a tray of hamburgers and fries and hadn't seen her coming. He'd
bumped into her and, in his effort to save the tray of food, managed to
knock the girl's purse to the floor.



Clark reached out, steadying the tray for the critical instant that it
took Pete to regain his balance and then turned and bent quickly to
rescue the small purse. He'd straightened up to face the slightly
flustered girl. "Sorry for my clumsy friend. Are you all right, Miss?"



She'd nodded and accepted the purse. "Thanks," was all she'd said, but
her voice seemed to vibrate along every nerve ending in his body.



"No problem," he said. "I haven't seen you before. Just passing through?"



She'd shaken her head. "We're new here," she said. "Mom and my sister
and me."



"Oh." He'd extended a hand. "Well, welcome to Smallville. I'm Clark Kent."



"Lois Lane," she'd told him.



"Nice to meet you, Lois," he'd said. "Since we're going to be neighbors,
would you like to join us?" He'd had no idea why he asked. His voice
seemed to have taken on a life of its own.



She smiled a little but shook her head. "I have to get home," she told
him. "Mother's probably going to ... wonder where I've been."



He'd been conscious of a sense of disappointment but it would have
looked strange if he'd tried to change her mind. Instead, he'd smiled at
her. "Okay. I guess I'll see you around town, then."



It had been a simple enough meeting but it had been the beginning of the
biggest change in his life since he had seen his parents killed at the
age of ten.



Of course Lana hadn't missed the short exchange and he'd braced himself
for the inevitable interrogation that followed. It came the instant the
door closed behind Lois Lane.



"Who was that girl, Clark?" Lana's sharp voice had cut across the sounds
of conversation around the table.



"Just a girl." For some reason, Clark had felt slightly defensive -- but
he often felt that way these days. Lana was the head cheerleader for the
Smallville Stingrays, Smallville High's football team, and one of the
social leaders on campus, and she had been his friend since they had
been about five or six. She always had a swarm of boys hanging around
her but she recently seemed to be trying to separate him from the herd
and mark him as her own special possession. At first it had been
flattering but this time the implied ownership was an irritant. Lana had
no real right to question him about people that he spoke to in passing.
It wasn't as if they were going steady or anything.



"Where did you meet her?" Lana persisted. Clark took a deep breath and
mastered his irritation. Pete, he'd noticed, had rejoined the crowd at
the table and was distributing the food but he was also studiously *not*
looking at Clark and Lana.



"I met her here, just now," Clark said, trying to soothe Lana's
bristles. "Pete knocked her purse out of her hand. It would have been
rude not to have helped her."



"I've told you over and over that you're too polite," Lana said. "It
wouldn't have hurt her to pick up her own purse."



"No," he answered as mildly as possible, "but that isn't the way my
parents taught me to behave."



They'd locked eyes and he saw Lana close her lips firmly together. He
was probably in for a lecture later, he thought, but maybe he could
disappear for a while and give her time to get over her annoyance --
although lately Lana hadn't seemed so willing to let things lie. Clark
didn't want to fight and he didn't want to lose her as a friend, which
meant he'd probably have to listen to a monologue from her later, saying
nothing to defend himself. Eventually, she would wind down and, if not
exactly give up on the subject, at least she wouldn't mention it more
than once or twice a day for a week or two. After all, things could be
much worse than they were -- at least that was what Lana told him. He
hadn't argued. Ever since Jonathan and Martha Kent had died in that car
accident, he'd been bouncing around in foster homes of one kind or
another. Some had been good ones, some hadn't. The current one was the
home of Wayne Irig and his wife, Nettie. They'd been friends of his
parents years ago and he'd felt more at home with them than he had with
most of the others. Wayne wasn't much of a talker but he and Clark had
spoken a little of Clark's plans after Smallville High. He had been
thinking hard about what he was going to do with his life as an adult,
and his plans didn't include sticking around Smallville, at least initially.



This fall would be his senior year and in February he would turn
eighteen, which meant that the local Social Services would have no more
say in his living arrangements or in his life. He'd been working as hard
as he could to qualify for scholarships at Midwest State University and
it looked as if his efforts might be paying off in the near future. He'd
held an "A" average for his first three years at Smallville High and he
had every intention of doing the same in his upcoming senior year. It
really wasn't that hard, and he often wondered why it seemed to be so
difficult for other students in his classes. And then, if things worked
out right, he was headed for Midwest State to study journalism. His
mother and father had told him often enough that a college education
might not be absolutely necessary for his life as an adult but it sure
smoothed the road. His mother had held a bachelor's degree in English,
he had discovered a couple of years ago while secretly going through
their things in the attic of the old farmhouse, and Jonathan Kent had
attended two years at Midwest Junior College. They'd always wanted the
best for him and if they said he should go to college, then he'd do his
best to follow their wishes.



And he was *not* going to put the old farmhouse and the land, as Lana's
father had urged him to do, up for sale. It was the home where he had
spent the first ten years of his life and the ten happiest years as
well. Some day he might change his mind but he wouldn't allow anyone to
pressure him into doing something that he might regret.



It had turned out, much to Clark's surprise, that the house had been
paid off some years ago and Jonathan and Martha had made arrangements to
have the property taxes automatically paid through some kind of fund in
Clark's name, in case something happened to them before he had reached
the age of eighteen. They had left the power of attorney in the hands of
Wayne Irig, and Wayne had told him of it when he'd mentioned Lewis
Lang's advice.



"I've managed it all these years for you," Wayne had told him. "If you
want to sell it I'll do it but do you think Martha and Jonathan would
want you to?"



"I don't know," Clark had answered, "but I don't want to. At least not yet."



"Well, you can't sell it without my signature until you're twenty-one,"
Wayne had said shortly. "If he keeps after you, send him to me. Did you
know that he's invested in real estate? Made a lot of his money buyin'
and sellin' houses -- flippin' 'em, it's called. He wouldn't cheat you
-- Lewis is honest, but you have to watch him. I'd get advice from
somebody who doesn't have an interest in it 'f I were you."



"I will," Clark had said. The thought that Lana's father might have an
interest in his parents' home just for the money involved made his
stomach feel a little funny, but the next time Lewis Lang had mentioned
it, Clark had followed Irig's advice. Somehow, the subject hadn't come
up since.



The Langs had been friends of his since he could remember but it was
things like that that made him glad that he hadn't told them about the
strange things that were happening to him. His mother and dad would have
known what to do but he didn't. He always felt at a disadvantage with
Lana's incredibly suave and polished father. And now Lana was acting as
if he were somehow her property. It was just as well, he thought, that
he hadn't mentioned his plans to anyone but Wayne Irig, and Wayne wasn't
one to gossip.



Only -- He glanced in the direction that Lois Lane had gone. He found
himself wishing that Lana had not been here to see the little chance
meeting.



**********



Clark fidgeted as students emerged from the school in chattering clumps,
some heading for the bus stop where Smallville's one school bus waited
patiently for them. Others drifted away, starting out on their walk home
or stopping to talk with their friends. Lois still hadn't shown up and
he was getting worried. He supposed he could drop by her mother's
apartment and look to see if she was there. He doubted that she'd left
early, though. Lois was a hard worker, and her grades were as good as
his. He'd seen her name on the "A" honor roll three times this year and
fully expected to see it there again next week after finals.



He'd run into her again a couple of days after their first meeting at
Maisie's and fortunately the next time Lana hadn't been anywhere around.
Clark had been leaving football practice -- the Stingrays practiced
twice a week even during the summer, in order to be in shape when the
school year started again, and Clark never missed a session. He'd been
headed home when he'd encountered Lois Lane and a younger girl who
resembled her a good deal as they emerged from the Smallville Market
each with a bag of groceries.



"Hi," he said.



"Oh ... hi." Lois smiled faintly at him. "...Clark, right?"



"Clark Kent," he said.



"I remember. This is my sister, Lucy."



"Pleased to meet you," he said, automatically.



Lois's sister must be in the neighborhood of three or four years younger
than Lois. She smiled at him and batted her brown eyes. "Hi."



"Hi," Clark said. "Shopping for dinner?"



Lois nodded without answering. Clark eyed the bag that she was clutching
against her and decided that she was carrying the lion's share of the
groceries.



"Let me help you," he said, quickly. "Do you have a car around here?"



Lois had shaken her head. "We're only going about a block. We live in
the Sun Crest Apartments."



"Oh," Clark said. He intercepted the can that tried to fall out of
Lucy's bag. "At least let me carry the milk for you." He reached for the
carton that was tipping perilously from the top of Lois's bag and caught
it as it overbalanced. The bag itself looked as if it were in danger of
ripping wide open at any second.



"That's all right," Lois said hastily. "We'll be fine."



Clark smiled at her. "You're going to ruin my reputation," he told her.
"I'm supposed to be the town good guy. Let me help." He'd taken the bag
out of her arms as he spoke and handed her the milk. "It won't hurt if I
help you carry these home."



"Well -- okay." Lois seemed to him to be a little reluctant but at the
moment didn't want to make an issue of it.



"Lead the way," Clark said. Lois glanced at him and then -- still
reluctantly, it seemed -- obeyed.



The Sun Crest Apartments were a little more than a block from the
Smallville Market and he'd followed Lois up the steps to Apartment 2C.
At the door she paused, inserted her key into the lock, turned it and
reached out to reclaim the bag he carried. "Thanks for the help," she
told him.



He relinquished the bag to her. "You're welcome," he said. He could hear
her heart beating twice as fast as normal. "If you -- if you ever need
any help, you can always ask me, you know."



She had smiled at him a little oddly. "I'll remember that." She pushed
open the door and gestured her younger sister ahead of her. She'd given
him another smile and followed Lucy. The door closed.



Clark stood for a moment, frowning, and then did what he'd told himself
he shouldn't do. He called it x-ray vision since it allowed him to see
through just about anything, and this time he trained it on the door of
the apartment and strained his enhanced hearing to hear the voices inside.



At once he heard Lois's voice. "You'd better check on Mother," she told
her sister. "I'll put the stuff away."



Lucy set down her small bag of groceries and left the kitchen. Curious,
Clark followed her with his hearing and special vision.



A blond woman was sprawled on the sofa in the living room, a bottle that
had contained vodka, he thought, lying on its side on the floor. And
with that, Lois's reticence and reluctance to let him help her became
clear. Clark grimaced slightly. Lois's mother had been drinking. It
seemed likely that if the girls were going to eat dinner tonight, it
would be Lois who cooked.



He paused for another moment, watching Lois as she began to empty the
bags. It seemed that dinner tonight was going to be ham sandwiches.



Quietly, he turned and descended the short flight of stairs to the street.



**********



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

What's with the lcficmbs site now? I just get ?????????????? in red
and blue.

I had that same problem on Tuesday, but they worked fine for me last night.


?~Alexis~

*House of Fanfic - Keeping the timeless stories of superheroes alive!*
Branch of Fanforurm For Superheroes - http://fanforum4superheroes.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cat-napping?" (Lois)
[Pilot, LNCTNAOS]


-----Original Message-----
From: dsw19882003 <dsw19882003@...>
To: LCFic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 9:47 pm
Subject: [LCFic] Boards down?






What's with the lcficmbs site now? I just get ?????????????? in red
and blue.





________________________________________________________________________
Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- Unlimited storage and industry-leading
spam and email virus protection.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This is the message that was posted on the boards by the admins. Hope that
clears some things up.

*****
As far as we know, this is an intermittent DNS error. Our webhost has been
looking into this, but most of the time by the time he gets to check out the
problem it's been resolved... so there's not a lot he can do about it by then.
We assure everyone that this is NOT a virus, or a Denial of Service attack, or a
hijack of our IP, or anything like that.We have a request in to get our IP
address changed, which should eliminate these issues. In the meantime, please
copy these instructions and if you have this problem again, or if anyone emails
you who is having the problem, do this:
quote:

1. open a command prompt (START >> RUN >> Type CMD >> Click OK.2. run this
command: ipconfig /flushdns3. run this command: ipconfig /registerdns4. Try
launching again.


Hope this helps!
*****
Saskia :)
__________________________ Saskia I tawt I taw a Puddy cat!


To: LCFic@...: LoisLane9397@...: Thu, 11 Oct 2007
03:16:04 -0400Subject: Re: [LCFic] Boards down?




I had that same problem on Tuesday, but they worked fine for me last
night.?~Alexis~*House of Fanfic - Keeping the timeless stories of superheroes
alive!*Branch of Fanforurm For Superheroes -
http://fanforum4superheroes.org~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Ca\
t-napping?" (Lois)[Pilot, LNCTNAOS]-----Original Message-----From: dsw19882003
<dsw19882003@...>To: LCFic@...: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 9:47
pmSubject: [LCFic] Boards down?What's with the lcficmbs site now? I just get
?????????????? in redand
blue.__________________________________________________________Check Out the new
free AIM(R) Mail -- Unlimited storage and industry-leading spam and email virus
protection.[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]






_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

There's a Domain Name Service issue that seems to intermittently direct people
to some Chinese webhost. So sometimes you get Chinese characters or a row of
???s instead of the boards.

Admins and the boards webhost are working on the problem. Wendy made a post on
the boards earlier today. I'll copy here for those who can't access the boards
to see it. The included solution doesn't always work, but it does seem to help
some.

Paul


As far as we know, this is an intermittent DNS error. Our webhost has
been looking into this, but most of the time by the time he gets to
check out the problem it's been resolved... so there's not a lot he can
do about it by then.

We assure everyone that this is NOT a virus, or a Denial of Service attack, or a
hijack of our IP, or anything like that.

We
have a request in to get our IP address changed, which should eliminate
these issues. In the meantime, please copy these instructions and if
you have this problem again, or if anyone emails you who is having the
problem, do this:


quote:


1. open a command prompt (START >> RUN >> Type CMD >> Click OK.

2. run this command: ipconfig /flushdns

3. run this command: ipconfig /registerdns

4. Try launching again.



Hope this helps!




-----Original Message-----
From: Alexis "Lois Lane" Waters <LoisLane9397@...>
To: LCFic@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 3:16 am
Subject: Re: [LCFic] Boards down?

























I had that same problem on Tuesday, but they worked fine for me last night.



?~Alexis~



*House of Fanfic - Keeping the timeless stories of superheroes alive!*

Branch of Fanforurm For Superheroes - http://fanforum4superheroes.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Cat-napping?" (Lois)

[Pilot, LNCTNAOS]



-----Original Message-----

From: dsw19882003 <dsw19882003@...>

To: LCFic@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 9:47 pm

Subject: [LCFic] Boards down?



What's with the lcficmbs site now? I just get ?????????????? in red

and blue.



__________________________________________________________

Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- Unlimited storage and industry-leading
spam and email virus protection.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





















________________________________________________________________________
Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- Unlimited storage and industry-leading
spam and email virus protection.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Second Choice: 2/?
by Nan Smith


Clark bit his lip, looking around. Most of the other students had left
the school grounds and the school bus was pulling away from the curb as
he watched, to take the students who lived in the outlying areas, such
as the scattered farms that surrounded Smallville, back to their homes.
There was still no sign of Lois. It didn't look as if she was coming and
yet he'd seen her in the hallway during the break between fifth and
sixth period. She hadn't skipped class; he was sure of that. She never
skipped class. He'd even seen her come to school once with the flu and
had attempted to talk her into going home, without success. To be sure,
he hadn't tried too hard. Lois could be hard headed when she chose.
Scratch that, he thought with a wry smile. Lois could be as obstinate as
one of Wayne Irig's pigs but he secretly admired her for it. He'd give
her another ten minutes, he thought, and then he would start hunting for
her. Something had been bothering her for the last couple of days but he
hadn't asked, figuring that it was her business. She'd spent most of the
time avoiding him, and that *did* bother him. They'd become pretty good
friends over the last year. Clark had never met another girl like her.
If something was worrying her, she had to know that she could tell him
anything and that he would do his best to help her if he could.

Two days after he'd discovered Mrs. Lane's secret, he'd met Lois
escorting her sister to the public library. It was the last week of June
and the weather was typical -- hot and humid, with no trace of rain in
sight. Clark trotted up beside them. "Hi."

"Hi," Lois said.

He glanced briefly at the sign on the building, announcing the
Smallville Public Library. "Looking for something to read?"

Lucy nodded, smiling admiringly at him. "Hi," she said. She fluttered
her eyelashes at him. Clark wondered for a moment how old Lois's sister
was, but if Lucy was the flirtatious sister, Lois seemed to be the more
serious one.

"We don't know many people in town and there's nothing much to do," Lois
said, "so we figured we'd get some books."

Clark grinned. "Well, actually there's a lot to do, but you probably
haven't been here long enough to get into the town grapevine," he said.
"Anyhow, we've got a pretty good library. If you want a particular book
and it isn't there, just ask for it. Mabel can order it for you and
it'll be here in a couple of days."

"Mabel?" Lois asked.

"Our librarian, Mabel Denning," Clark fell in beside the girls as they
strolled toward the library. "She used to be the senior librarian in
charge of a big library in Queens -- in New York -- but when she retired
she came out here to be near her family."

"Family?" Lois asked.

"Uh huh," Clark said. "Her brother owns the biggest dairy operation in
the county. Anyway, after a while she got bored with goofing off and
offered to take over the library because our last librarian eloped with
Principal Talbot's son -- and then he joined the Navy and they wound up
in Guam, so we didn't have a librarian. Mabel's been running
Smallville's library for two years."

"It's probably almost a vacation for her after working in New York,"
Lois said. "But how come you know all about it?"

"That's the way Smallville is," Clark said. "Everybody pretty much knows
everything about everybody else. Plus, when she took over I interviewed
her for the high school paper."

"You're on the school paper?" Lois asked quickly. Her expression had
gone from one of mild interest to that of suppressed excitement.

"Yeah," Clark said. "I've been the editor since my junior year. Why?"

"I was on *my* school's paper," Lois said. "The 'Metropolis Falcon'. I
want to get on the paper at Smallville High, too. I'll be a junior this
year."

"Great," Clark said. "It probably won't be like the paper for a big city
high school but we're pretty proud of it." He opened the library door
for Lois and her sister. "In the meantime, there's a bunch of us that
are going to have a swimming party down at the lake tomorrow. If you and
Lucy would like to come, I'm sure my friends would like to meet you."

Lois shook her head. "I don't know anybody but you," she said. "Besides,
if I came with you, what would your girlfriend say?"

"I don't have a girlfriend," Clark said. "At least, not a steady one."

"The blond girl you were talking to the other day -- after I left."

How had she seen that? he wondered. It sounded to him like Lois Lane
noticed a lot of things that most people didn't. "That was Lana Lang.
She's an old friend of mine but she's not my girlfriend," he said.

"She didn't look very old to me," Lois said.

"I just meant I've known her since kindergarten," Clark amended. "I've
dated her a few times but she's not really my girlfriend. So, how about
the lake, tomorrow?"

Lois shrugged. "I don't think so. Maybe another time."

"Okay," Clark had agreed, recalling what he had seen of Lois's mother
that day at their apartment. She probably didn't want to leave her
mother home alone for very long if she had a drinking problem, he
thought. He glanced at his watch. "I have to head home. Wayne expects me
to help him fix his tractor this afternoon. I guess I'll see you around
town."

Lois smiled and nodded at him, and then went on into the library after
her sister.

**********

He'd met Lois with and without her younger sister several times during
the next couple of weeks and always made an effort to draw her out a
little. In the back of his mind he wondered a bit at his own
determination to get to know her. It wasn't only that she was, quite
simply, the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, nor did it occur to him
to wonder if he was the only one who thought that. Looking at Lois Lane
objectively, she was very attractive, true, but certainly no more so
than Lana Lang or Rachel Harris, the sheriff's daughter. He'd tried to
pin down in his mind why she was so much prettier than Lana and couldn't
really express it in cold, dry words, but the fact remained that every
time he saw her, her sheer beauty almost took his breath away.

On the Fourth of July, he had come into town a little early. He'd run,
careful as usual not to let anyone see him demonstrating one of the
strange powers that had come to him one by one, since he had turned ten,
and reported to the Independence Day Committee, whose job it was to
manage the entertainment and fireworks show this afternoon and evening
at the Smallville Fairgrounds. He'd volunteered a couple of weeks ago to
help them set things up for the evening's entertainment. As he strolled
into the school auditorium, where the morning meeting was taking place,
he saw Lois Lane speaking to one of the committee members and taking
quick notes on a pad of paper. He knew he shouldn't eavesdrop but the
temptation was too much and he trained his hearing on the two. A minute
later, he had to hide a smile. Lois was interviewing the man.

Since the Smallville High Breeze was out of business for the summer, he
had to think that maybe she was hoping to get her article submitted to
the town's weekly paper, the Smallville Press. Lois was nothing if not
ambitious.

As she ended her interview, she glanced over and saw him. After a
moment's hesitation, she approached him with a little smile. "Hi, Clark.
What are you doing here?"

He grinned. "I'm a volunteer to do the tote and carry work while they
set up things for this evening. I get paid by having a seat in the best
area to see the fireworks. My -- the people I live with are coming and
they get seats, too."

Lois tilted her head and looked at him oddly. "That's right. Somebody
told me you were an orphan. I'm sorry."

He shrugged a little uncomfortably. "It was a long time ago."

She didn't say anything for a moment and then she spoke abruptly. "My
mother and dad just got divorced. That's why Mom moved out here with
Lucy and me."

"Why Smallville?" he couldn't help asking. "We're one of those towns
that isn't even on most maps."

Lois looked down for a moment and then squared her shoulders. "It was a
pretty ugly court fight," she said. "Mother brought in a bunch of
witnesses to prove he was cheating on her and he brought in a bunch of
his own to try to prove she wasn't a fit parent. Anyway, Mother didn't
want to be around any of the people who knew her, after that. She just
closed her eyes and picked the place to move by putting a finger on a
map of the country."

"That's an interesting way to find a place to live." Clark said,
slightly nonplused. "What about your dad, though? Isn't he supposed to
have visitation rights or something?"

Lois shrugged a shoulder. "He's too busy with his work. Once I told him
I didn't want to be a doctor, and that nothing he said could make me
change my mind, he wasn't interested anymore. He's a surgeon -- he
treats sports injuries and he's always trying to find new experimental
techniques to help injured athletes. If you're only his daughter he
doesn't have time for you."

"Oh," Clark said. "That really stinks."

She shrugged again. "It's all right," she said. Clark didn't comment but
her scent and the speed at which her heart was beating told him that it
was *not* all right. She switched the subject abruptly, raising her
chin. "Anyhow, I'm going into journalism, and nothing Daddy says or does
-- or doesn't do -- is going to stop me."

Clark found himself smiling at her sheer defiance. Her father might have
rejected her because she refused to adopt the career he had planned for
her, her mother might be an alcoholic, but Lois Lane would not allow
those facts to get in her way. She was awe-inspiring. "I believe it."

"Do you have any plans after you graduate?" she asked.

"Yeah. I'm planning on going to Midwest State. They have a pretty good
journalism program. Mom and Dad left me a little money in trust, and I
do odd jobs around town and at the local farms to earn as much as I can.
I'm going to try out for some of the scholarships available, too. I
graduate next year and I want to be ready."

"I thought maybe you'd take over your parents' farm," Lois said.
"Somebody told me your parents left it to you."

"They did," Clark said. "Maybe I'll rent out the land to somebody. Wayne
would probably like to use the grazing land for his milk cows -- but I
want to be a journalist, not a farmer." He smiled at her. "Are you
interviewing me?"

He could see the flush climbing up her collarbone. "No -- I guess it
sounded like it, didn't it? No, it's just -- you're really the only
person around here that I know. You always stop to talk to me, and --"

"Hey, Clark!" Madeline Peterson called. "Can you put that pile of boxes
in the van, for starters?"

"Sure," Clark said. He turned back to Lois. "If you're going to report
on the Committee's work, you can follow us around for a while and see
what we do."

"How did you know that's what I was doing?" she asked.

"I saw you interviewing Bill Ross," Clark said, nodding at the pad and
pencil in her hands. "I figured there was only one reason you'd be doing
that."

"Yeah," Lois said. "Good guess. I talked to the Assistant Editor of the
Smallville Press and told him I'd been on my high school paper. He said
if I wanted to do an article about the Fourth of July show, they'd
consider publishing it if it was good enough."

"Sounds good," Clark said, hefting the first box. "I've sold a couple of
articles to them, myself. They do sometimes accept freelance stuff. If
they take yours, I guess you can put it in a resume folder to show your
early work. Where are you planning to go to college?"

"I'm not sure," Lois admitted, trailing him out the door toward Mrs.
Peterson's van. "I'd wanted to go to New Troy State but since I'm going
to have to figure out how to pay for it, I might not be able to go there."

"New Troy State has a good journalism school," Clark agreed, "but it
isn't the only one. Besides, there are all kinds of scholarships you can
try for. I'll let you have my catalogue on the ones available if you like."

Lois opened the rear door of the van for him and he slid the crate
inside. Together, they started back for another one. "I guess I can find
one at the library," Lois said. "You'll need yours."

"I've already read it," Clark said, without thinking. "I won't need it
any longer. I'll bring it by this evening if you like."

"Did you make a list or something?" Lois asked, looking at him oddly.

"No," he said. "I uh --" He hesitated, wondering if he should admit it.
"I have an eidetic memory."

"Really? I'd like to have something like that."

"It's an advantage," Clark admitted, "but it has its drawbacks, too --
especially when there's something you'd rather forget. Anyhow, don't
tell anybody about it; okay? I have enough trouble fitting in anyway."
He hefted a second box and started for the van.

"I think I know what you mean," Lois said. "If you're too smart, people
think you're weird."

"Something like that," Clark said. "But I *can't* let my grades slide if
I'm going to get into MU, so I just try to act like everybody else."

"Why'd you tell me, then?" Lois asked. "You can't be sure I'm not going
to blab it all over town."

He shrugged. "I don't know. I sort of don't think you will."

"You know, Kent, you're much too trusting," she said. "You're lucky that
this time you guessed right."

"Who says I was guessing?" Clark said. "Can I help it if I'm a good
judge of character?"

"Don't push your luck," Lois said. "One of these days you might be wrong."

"I'm very selective," Clark told her loftily. "You have to meet very
high standards."

She elbowed him in the ribs. "Jerk."

And that had been the real beginning of their friendship.

**********

tbc


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

While I'm waiting for the sequel to The Hottest Team in Town to jell, I
started to work on this story that has been cooking in my mind for a
while. I hope you like it. Comments and constructive criticism welcome.

Disclaimer: The familiar characters and settings in this story are not
mine. They are the property of DC Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd
Productions and whoever else can legally claim them. I am not making any
profit from this venture into the world of Lois and Clark. Any new
characters, scenes, dialogue and the story itself belong to me.

**********

Second Choice: 1/?
By Nan Smith

Clark Kent hurried out the door of his Algebra class. It was the end of
sixth period and school was out. If he hurried, he'd get a chance to
talk to her before she caught a ride with Ronnie Davis again.

He left the building through a side exit and took advantage of his speed
to make it around the building and to the front gate before she could
possibly get there. Then he spent the next ten minutes wondering where
she was. She had been waiting here for her ride every day for the past
three days and now, the day he needed to talk to her, she wasn't here.

She'd been at school today. He'd seen her a couple of times, passing
between classes, but it seemed as if she'd been avoiding him, which had
bothered him. They'd been good friends since the early summer when her
mother had suddenly moved into an apartment in town, bringing her two
daughters with her. She'd been sixteen and the most beautiful girl he'd
ever seen in his life. They had met at Maisie's Diner, when he'd seen
her sitting in a corner by the old fashioned jukebox, sipping a
milkshake and watching the crowd of local kids chattering and laughing
at the big table in the center of the room. He'd watched her
surreptitiously for almost an hour until she'd gotten up to leave,
wishing he dared to go over and introduce himself. And then Pete Ross
had saved the day completely by accident. He'd been crossing the room
with a tray of hamburgers and fries and hadn't seen her coming. He'd
bumped into her and, in his effort to save the tray of food, managed to
knock the girl's purse to the floor.

Clark reached out, steadying the tray for the critical instant that it
took Pete to regain his balance and then turned and bent quickly to
rescue the small purse. He'd straightened up to face the slightly
flustered girl. "Sorry for my clumsy friend. Are you all right, Miss?"

She'd nodded and accepted the purse. "Thanks," was all she'd said, but
her voice seemed to vibrate along every nerve ending in his body.

"No problem," he said. "I haven't seen you before. Just passing through?"

She'd shaken her head. "We're new here," she said. "Mom and my sister
and me."

"Oh." He'd extended a hand. "Well, welcome to Smallville. I'm Clark Kent."

"Lois Lane," she'd told him.

"Nice to meet you, Lois," he'd said. "Since we're going to be neighbors,
would you like to join us?" He'd had no idea why he asked. His voice
seemed to have taken on a life of its own.

She smiled a little but shook her head. "I have to get home," she told
him. "Mother's probably going to ... wonder where I've been."

He'd been conscious of a sense of disappointment but it would have
looked strange if he'd tried to change her mind. Instead, he'd smiled at
her. "Okay. I guess I'll see you around town, then."

It had been a simple enough meeting but it had been the beginning of the
biggest change in his life since he had seen his parents killed at the
age of ten.

Of course Lana hadn't missed the short exchange and he'd braced himself
for the inevitable interrogation that followed. It came the instant the
door closed behind Lois Lane.

"Who was that girl, Clark?" Lana's sharp voice had cut across the sounds
of conversation around the table.

"Just a girl." For some reason, Clark had felt slightly defensive -- but
he often felt that way these days. Lana was the head cheerleader for the
Smallville Stingrays, Smallville High's football team, and one of the
social leaders on campus, and she had been his friend since they had
been about five or six. She always had a swarm of boys hanging around
her but she recently seemed to be trying to separate him from the herd
and mark him as her own special possession. At first it had been
flattering but this time the implied ownership was an irritant. Lana had
no real right to question him about people that he spoke to in passing.
It wasn't as if they were going steady or anything.

"Where did you meet her?" Lana persisted. Clark took a deep breath and
mastered his irritation. Pete, he'd noticed, had rejoined the crowd at
the table and was distributing the food but he was also studiously *not*
looking at Clark and Lana.

"I met her here, just now," Clark said, trying to soothe Lana's
bristles. "Pete knocked her purse out of her hand. It would have been
rude not to have helped her."

"I've told you over and over that you're too polite," Lana said. "It
wouldn't have hurt her to pick up her own purse."

"No," he answered as mildly as possible, "but that isn't the way my
parents taught me to behave."

They'd locked eyes and he saw Lana close her lips firmly together. He
was probably in for a lecture later, he thought, but maybe he could
disappear for a while and give her time to get over her annoyance --
although lately Lana hadn't seemed so willing to let things lie. Clark
didn't want to fight and he didn't want to lose her as a friend, which
meant he'd probably have to listen to a monologue from her later, saying
nothing to defend himself. Eventually, she would wind down and, if not
exactly give up on the subject, at least she wouldn't mention it more
than once or twice a day for a week or two. After all, things could be
much worse than they were -- at least that was what Lana told him. He
hadn't argued. Ever since Jonathan and Martha Kent had died in that car
accident, he'd been bouncing around in foster homes of one kind or
another. Some had been good ones, some hadn't. The current one was the
home of Wayne Irig and his wife, Nettie. They'd been friends of his
parents years ago and he'd felt more at home with them than he had with
most of the others. Wayne wasn't much of a talker but he and Clark had
spoken a little of Clark's plans after Smallville High. He had been
thinking hard about what he was going to do with his life as an adult,
and his plans didn't include sticking around Smallville, at least initially.

This fall would be his senior year and in February he would turn
eighteen, which meant that the local Social Services would have no more
say in his living arrangements or in his life. He'd been working as hard
as he could to qualify for scholarships at Midwest State University and
it looked as if his efforts might be paying off in the near future. He'd
held an "A" average for his first three years at Smallville High and he
had every intention of doing the same in his upcoming senior year. It
really wasn't that hard, and he often wondered why it seemed to be so
difficult for other students in his classes. And then, if things worked
out right, he was headed for Midwest State to study journalism. His
mother and father had told him often enough that a college education
might not be absolutely necessary for his life as an adult but it sure
smoothed the road. His mother had held a bachelor's degree in English,
he had discovered a couple of years ago while secretly going through
their things in the attic of the old farmhouse, and Jonathan Kent had
attended two years at Midwest Junior College. They'd always wanted the
best for him and if they said he should go to college, then he'd do his
best to follow their wishes.

And he was *not* going to put the old farmhouse and the land, as Lana's
father had urged him to do, up for sale. It was the home where he had
spent the first ten years of his life and the ten happiest years as
well. Some day he might change his mind but he wouldn't allow anyone to
pressure him into doing something that he might regret.

It had turned out, much to Clark's surprise, that the house had been
paid off some years ago and Jonathan and Martha had made arrangements to
have the property taxes automatically paid through some kind of fund in
Clark's name, in case something happened to them before he had reached
the age of eighteen. They had left the power of attorney in the hands of
Wayne Irig, and Wayne had told him of it when he'd mentioned Lewis
Lang's advice.

"I've managed it all these years for you," Wayne had told him. "If you
want to sell it I'll do it but do you think Martha and Jonathan would
want you to?"

"I don't know," Clark had answered, "but I don't want to. At least not yet."

"Well, you can't sell it without my signature until you're twenty-one,"
Wayne had said shortly. "If he keeps after you, send him to me. Did you
know that he's invested in real estate? Made a lot of his money buyin'
and sellin' houses -- flippin' 'em, it's called. He wouldn't cheat you
-- Lewis is honest, but you have to watch him. I'd get advice from
somebody who doesn't have an interest in it 'f I were you."

"I will," Clark had said. The thought that Lana's father might have an
interest in his parents’ home just for the money involved made his
stomach feel a little funny, but the next time Lewis Lang had mentioned
it, Clark had followed Irig's advice. Somehow, the subject hadn't come
up since.

The Langs had been friends of his since he could remember but it was
things like that that made him glad that he hadn't told them about the
strange things that were happening to him. His mother and dad would have
known what to do but he didn't. He always felt at a disadvantage with
Lana's incredibly suave and polished father. And now Lana was acting as
if he were somehow her property. It was just as well, he thought, that
he hadn't mentioned his plans to anyone but Wayne Irig, and Wayne wasn't
one to gossip.

Only -- He glanced in the direction that Lois Lane had gone. He found
himself wishing that Lana had not been here to see the little chance
meeting.

**********

Clark fidgeted as students emerged from the school in chattering clumps,
some heading for the bus stop where Smallville's one school bus waited
patiently for them. Others drifted away, starting out on their walk home
or stopping to talk with their friends. Lois still hadn't shown up and
he was getting worried. He supposed he could drop by her mother's
apartment and look to see if she was there. He doubted that she'd left
early, though. Lois was a hard worker, and her grades were as good as
his. He'd seen her name on the "A" honor roll three times this year and
fully expected to see it there again next week after finals.

He'd run into her again a couple of days after their first meeting at
Maisie's and fortunately the next time Lana hadn't been anywhere around.
Clark had been leaving football practice -- the Stingrays practiced
twice a week even during the summer, in order to be in shape when the
school year started again, and Clark never missed a session. He'd been
headed home when he'd encountered Lois Lane and a younger girl who
resembled her a good deal as they emerged from the Smallville Market
each with a bag of groceries.

"Hi," he said.

"Oh ... hi." Lois smiled faintly at him. "...Clark, right?"

"Clark Kent," he said.

"I remember. This is my sister, Lucy."

"Pleased to meet you," he said, automatically.

Lois's sister must be in the neighborhood of three or four years younger
than Lois. She smiled at him and batted her brown eyes. "Hi."

"Hi," Clark said. "Shopping for dinner?"

Lois nodded without answering. Clark eyed the bag that she was clutching
against her and decided that she was carrying the lion's share of the
groceries.

"Let me help you," he said, quickly. "Do you have a car around here?"

Lois had shaken her head. "We're only going about a block. We live in
the Sun Crest Apartments."

"Oh," Clark said. He intercepted the can that tried to fall out of
Lucy's bag. "At least let me carry the milk for you." He reached for the
milk carton that was tipping perilously from the top of Lois's bag and
caught it as it overbalanced. The bag itself looked as if it were in
danger of ripping wide open at any second.

"That's all right," Lois said hastily. "We'll be fine."

Clark smiled at her. "You're going to ruin my reputation," he told her.
"I'm supposed to be the town good guy. Let me help." He'd taken the bag
out of her arms as he spoke and handed her the milk. "It won't hurt if I
help you carry these home."

"Well -- okay." Lois seemed to him to be a little reluctant but at the
moment didn't want to make an issue of it.

"Lead the way," Clark said. Lois glanced at him and then -- still
reluctantly, it seemed -- obeyed.

The Sun Crest Apartments were a little more than a block from the
Smallville Market and he'd followed Lois up the steps to Apartment 2C.
At the door she paused, inserted her key into the lock, turned it and
reached out to reclaim the bag he carried. "Thanks for the help," she
told him.

He relinquished the bag to her. "You're welcome," he said. He could hear
her heart beating twice as fast as normal. "If you -- if you ever need
any help, you can always ask me, you know."

She had smiled at him a little oddly. "I'll remember that." She pushed
open the door and gestured her younger sister ahead of her. She'd given
him another smile and followed Lucy. The door closed.

Clark stood for a moment, frowning, and then did what he'd told himself
he shouldn't do. He called it x-ray vision since it allowed him to see
through just about anything, and this time he trained it on the door of
the apartment and strained his enhanced hearing to hear the voices inside.

At once he heard Lois's voice. "You'd better check on Mother," she told
her sister. "I'll put the stuff away."

Lucy set down her small bag of groceries and left the kitchen. Curious,
Clark followed her with his hearing and special vision.

A blond woman was sprawled on the sofa in the living room, a bottle that
had contained vodka, he thought, lying on its side on the floor. And
with that, Lois's reticence and reluctance to let him help her became
clear. Clark grimaced slightly. Lois's mother had been drinking. It
seemed likely that if the girls were going to eat dinner tonight, it
would be Lois who cooked.

He paused for another moment, watching Lois as she began to empty the
bags. It seemed that dinner tonight was going to be ham sandwiches.

Quietly, he turned and descended the short flight of stairs to the street.

**********
tbc

Second Choice: 3/?
by Nan Smith

The minutes ticked by and Clark still saw no sign of Lois. The
ten-minute mark passed and he unobtrusively lowered his glasses,
scanning the school grounds with his special vision.

As the area cleared of the boisterous students, he was able to focus his
enhanced hearing as well, listening for her heartbeat.

It had surprised him not long after they had begun to be friends when he
had discovered the fact that he could recognize her heartbeat. He'd
never really thought of it before as a way of locating someone but five
days after the Independence Day celebration, he'd been working at his
part time job at Maisie's Diner. It had been about the dinner hour and
several customers had come in to eat at the diner. A number of them were
high school students but there were three slightly older couples in
their late twenties with small children, and Mr. and Mrs. Straub, who
were in their sixties, sat at a booth close to the door. He'd been
mopping up a soda spill near the back and he'd known it when Lois Lane
had walked in.

His back had been to the door, the jukebox had been crooning some Andy
Williams tune, and he'd known just like that when Lois Lane entered the
room. He'd looked around and it had been Lois, her sister and her mother.

Lois's mother had been spruced up somewhat -- well, a lot, in comparison
to the day he had seen her. There was a frown on her face but her hair
was tidy and her makeup applied. Her clothing was neat and she seemed to
be mostly sober, although Clark could definitely smell the whiskey that
she'd apparently imbibed not too long ago. He guessed that Lois had
probably wanted to get her mom away from the apartment and the booze
this evening.

Quickly, he finished up his mopping job and went into the back to wash
his hands off. A moment later, he re-emerged with a tray bearing menus,
silverware, napkins and three glasses of water.

The three Lanes had seated themselves in a corner booth and he stopped
by the table, setting out the contents of the tray. "Can I bring you
anything to drink while you decide?" he inquired.

Lois's eyebrows rose. "Just how many jobs do you have?" she asked curiously.

"Three," Clark said. "I work here Monday, Wednesday and Friday
afternoon. Hi, Lucy," he added as the younger girl smiled flirtatiously
at him. At eleven, she was definitely out of his age range, even if he'd
been looking for a girlfriend -- which he kind of was, but it wasn't
Lucy. It wasn't even Lana, now.

Lana had been annoyed with him ever since he'd convinced Lois and her
sister to stay and watch the fireworks show with him and the Irigs. He
figured she'd get over it after a while, though. She'd been dating Pete
Ross ever since and making sure he knew it, which he found a little
amusing. Lana throwing a tantrum wasn't new and, for some reason, this
time her attempt to make him jealous didn't bother him a bit -- which
kind of surprised him. All of a sudden, it just seemed as if all that
stuff was a bit juvenile.

Like every other red-blooded guy in Smallville, he'd competed for dates
with Lana Lang ever since she had reached the age where her mother had
allowed her to date. Lana was the prettiest girl in town, and knew it.
They had gone to school together since kindergarten and most of the time
she and Clark had been in the same class. She had become a cheerleader
almost at once when she entered ninth grade and had been voted the most
popular girl at Smallville High three years in a row. She'd had
boyfriends since she was six, when Clark had been the favored one, and
there had always been a group of boys who vied with each other for her
attention.

Since they'd been in high school Lana always made a point of dating the
big man on campus, whoever he was at the time, but she wasn't above
dating a good-looking guy on the side now and then. It had only been
since about halfway through their junior year that she had suddenly
seemed to start favoring Clark. At first he'd enjoyed the envy that it
had sparked in the other guys but after a while it had begun to dawn on
his hormone-soaked brain that Lana wasn't as interested in him as she
was in his status on campus.

He'd told Lois that it was difficult for him to fit in, and that he
tried to act like everyone else -- which he did, and with a good deal of
success. He'd noticed for some time that Lana dated the football players
a lot. Anyway, he'd yielded to temptation on a couple of occasions and
made spectacular touchdowns, even though he knew he probably shouldn't.
It had been right after that, he recalled now, that Lana had started to
indicate that dating him wouldn't be completely unacceptable to her. At
first that had been enough but lately it seemed that she was developing
a highly possessive attitude. That hadn't been so bad either, until
she'd seen him talking to Rachel Harris. Rachel had been a friend of his
for years, and the conversation was perfectly innocent but Lana hadn't
liked it a bit. He'd known practically since he had met her that she
could sulk very successfully when she didn't get her way. He'd thought
it was rather cute -- but this had been the first time she'd done it to
him and now somehow it wasn't so cute anymore. She'd dated Ned Wexler
for a week to punish him and he'd naturally been jealous. It had
happened a couple of times since, too, and he'd begun to realize that he
really didn't like the feeling that Lana was trying to push him around.
He hadn't bargained for her determination to keep him away from all
other possible rivals. Just because he happened to be dating her didn't
mean that he wasn't allowed to talk to anyone except the people on
Lana's approved list. That was how things had stood until the afternoon
that he'd met Lois Lane.

Since then, for some reason, Lana's opinion hadn't mattered as much. It
was almost as if he had slipped a chain that he hadn't known he'd been
wearing. If Pete wanted her, he wished his friend luck and he would
certainly never criticize Lana to Pete or anyone else. Still, somewhere
down deep there was almost the feeling that he'd had a narrow escape. He
couldn't quite understand it, and hadn't really thought about it much.
In any case, it gave him more time to work at his three part time jobs
and the occasional odd job as well. And it gave him time to talk with Lois.

Lois wasn't exactly a girlfriend, though, except that she was a friend
and female, but that was all right too. Maybe with time she would see it
differently, he thought hopefully. In the meantime, she was very nice to
be around.

"This is my mom, Ellen Lane," Lois was saying. "Mother, this is Clark
Kent. He's the editor of the high school paper."

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Lane," Clark said politely. Lois's mother looked
at him narrowly and Clark smiled pleasantly at her. "What can I get you
to drink?"

Lois and her mother had ordered iced tea and Lucy had asked for pink
lemonade which hadn't surprised Clark. The normal Kansas summer weather
was hot and muggy and people went through a good deal of soda pop,
lemonade, iced tea and ice cream on a normal day at Maisie's. When he
was with a group, Clark always ordered the same thing the others did.
The temperature and humidity didn't bother him, of course. He'd never
known why, except that it must be part of the strange powers that had
begun to make their appearance not long before his parents had died in
that car crash. If they had survived, maybe they could have explained
what was happening. He often wondered if they'd known anything about him
other than what they had told him but he would never know, now. In any
case, not long after the time he had accidentally set fire to the Town
Hall, when he was thirteen, he had made up his mind never to tell anyone
about his differences. Fortunately, no one had connected him to the fire
and he had gone to considerable effort to volunteer in the fund-raising
that had eventually resulted in a new building, which had assuaged his
feelings of guilt somewhat. True, it had been an accident. He certainly
hadn't intended to set the fire but he'd still been responsible and it
had been terrifying until he'd managed to bring the ability under
control. He'd spent the next three days hiding out in an abandoned farm
building some miles from his current foster home before he'd dared to
come back. It had caused a minor ruckus with the Greer family and
resulted in his being placed in another home, but he had known it would
have been much worse if he'd accidentally set their house on fire. That
had been the most frightening of his strange powers to appear and he
certainly hoped that there was nothing else like that in store for him.

No new powers had appeared for nearly a year now, and he had begun to
hope that no more would. He'd managed, with time and a good deal of
effort, to learn to control his strange gifts. He no longer
inadvertently looked through people's clothing, or into places that
frequently caused him embarrassment, just as he no longer accidentally
eavesdropped on people's conversations or set things on fire and so far,
at least, no one suspected that there was anything different about him.
If he had his way, no one ever would.

Unfortunately -- or maybe fortunately, as it had turned out -- that
particular resolution was going to be harder to keep than he'd imagined
at the time.

**********

Lois definitely wasn't on the school grounds. He couldn't detect her
heartbeat anywhere around the area. Well, the next place to check might
be her family's apartment.

Clark started off at a fast trot. A couple of students walking home from
the school glanced at him curiously and one of them -- Joe Turner, whose
father ran the Metropolis General Store -- called out to him. "Hey,
Clark, where's the fire?"

He stopped. "Oh -- hi, Joe.  Look, have you seen Lois? I -- uh -- need
to talk to her about an article she's supposed to write up for the
Breeze. She's in your sixth period class, isn't she?"

"Yeah," Joe said. "She took off right after the bell rang. I don't know
where she went."

"I was supposed to meet her after school but she didn't show up," Clark
said. "Maybe she forgot. I'm heading over to her place. See you tomorrow."

"Sure." Joe grinned. "If I see her, I'll tell her you're looking for her."

"Thanks." Clark turned away and began to jog, again, toward the Lane
apartment. He couldn't help worrying a little. As he had discovered,
over the months he had known her, Lois Lane tended to get into scrapes a
good deal more often than other girls of his acquaintance, and the fact
that she hadn't told him about whatever was bothering her this time
tended to make him worry. The problem might be personal -- she had
enough going on in her family that it was extremely possible that her
feuding parents were making life miserable for her again -- or it might
be about something that she thought might make a hot story for the
Breeze, or even the Smallville Press. Or it could be something else.

Her article about the Independence Day celebration had actually made it
into the paper, in the Community Events section. And that had led to
several more small articles over the following months. None of them had
been earth shattering. This was, after all, Smallville. And then Clark
got his first taste of the real Lois Lane in action.

It had been in late November. A light snow coated the ground and the
last thing Clark would have expected to hear as he was checking Wayne
Irig's livestock before closing everything up for the night was the
distant sound of a girl's voice, yelling for help. And not just any
girl's voice. It was the voice of Lois Lane.

They had worked together that day on the project of putting together the
next issue of the 'Breeze' and Clark had walked companionably with her
to her apartment, before departing alone for his solitary run back to
the Irig farm. Clark enjoyed her company; in fact, he had come to the
conclusion over the last few months that Lois was the best friend that
he had ever had, and she seemed to regard him in the same light.
Unfortunately, that was all. She treated him like a brother, although he
would have been more than willing to opt for something a good deal closer.

She occasionally dated some of the boys from school but it was obvious
that she wasn't interested in anything serious at this point. This was
high school, after all, and although some of the denizens of Smallville
High would probably marry right out of school, Lois wasn't likely to be
one of them and neither was he. Lois had told him one time that she had
no intentions of getting involved with anyone until after she'd managed
to get her career on track -- which meant after college, assuming that
she figured out how to get into a good school. Her grades were almost as
good as his own, without the advantage of a photographic memory, and
Clark couldn't see any college or university turning her down on those
grounds but financing was another matter. She wasn't as confident as he
was that she would manage to get the scholarships she needed to pay for
her education.

Still, as her best friend, he got to spend more time with her than any
of her dates did -- and who could say what might happen in the future?
But even hinting to her that he was thinking such a thing was bound to
seriously spook her. It seemed best to keep those kinds of thoughts to
himself, at least for now.

He was crossing the yard from the barn toward the house when he heard
the first yell and stopped in his tracks, listening. The voice was a
good distance away and without his enhanced hearing he certainly
wouldn't have heard it. He turned his head, listening intently and
almost at once he heard it again. Lois's voice, shouting for help.

Her voice was coming from the northeast, well away from town. The only
things out in that direction were a few small farms and, still farther
away, Harris Lake and the small patch of woods around it. What the
dickens was she doing out there?

The third shout was more like a scream and was beginning to sound more
that a little scared. Clark made a quick decision. He hurried to the
kitchen door, opened it and stuck his head inside. Nettie Irig was just
setting the coffeepot timer and turned at the sound of the opening door.

"Nettie, could you tell Wayne I'm going out to check on Molly? I didn't
see her out there and I want to be sure she hasn't broken through the
fence again."

"All right," Nettie told him. "Do you need a flashlight?"

"I've got one," Clark told her. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

He closed the door and began to trot out toward the field but as soon as
he was out of Nettie's sight he began to run in earnest.

Another scream from Lois and this one sounded desperate, but it gave him
a more accurate sense of where she was. She had to be near the lake. How
could she have possibly gotten out there? And why?

He increased his speed, listening with every shred of his enhanced
hearing to pick up any more clues of Lois's location. The farmland
passed in a blur of speed as he ran faster than he had ever run toward
the next cry for help, this one sounding exhausted and almost hopeless.
She was not only in the area of the lake. She was *in* the lake!

He plunged at full speed into the little growth of trees that bordered
the lake and burst through onto the narrow beach. Spread out before him,
Lake Harris gleamed like silver in the starlight. The sound of splashing
met his ears and instantly he zeroed in on the source with his enhanced
vision. Lois Lane floundered weakly near the center of the lake. The
temperature had to be barely above freezing, and Clark knew all too well
what the effect of the frigid water would be on a human body. Lois had
to be hypothermic already and the chances were that if he had been only
a few minutes later, she would have been unconscious and sinking toward
the bottom of the lake.

Somewhere beyond her, Clark could see the dark silhouette of a wooden
rowboat moving quietly away across the surface. Only he would have been
likely to hear the faint creak of oarlocks or the very faintest of
splashes as the oars dipped into the icy lake water. The male figure at
the oars was apparently unaware of the girl, floundering desperately
only a short distance away. The situation was puzzling but Clark didn't
hesitate. Shoving all questions aside, he ran into the water in a charge
that became a surface dive. It would be far better if the man in the
boat did not become aware of what he was doing, or even of his presence.
By the time he got to her, Lois would almost certainly be in no
condition to wonder how he had come there or to ask any awkward
questions. Inevitably, he would have to deal with those later, after
he'd had time to think, but whatever the consequences might be for him,
he couldn't let her die!

Under the lake's surface, he moved with all the speed and stealth at his
disposal. His vision wasn't quite as good in the water, but now he
brought into play his x-ray vision and enhanced hearing, locating Lois
instantly. He moved almost silently through the water with the speed of
any water dweller and reached her within seconds.

Lois had begun to sink. Her desperate struggles had subsided to
ineffectual flutters of her hands in the water and he could see that she
was barely conscious. Hypothermia was taking its deadly toll. Without
ceremony he thrust her upward, getting her mouth and nose in the air and
grasped her instinctively in a lifeguard's hold. Gripping her with one
arm across her body, he swept her from head to toe with his heat vision,
warming her quickly. Efficiently, he rolled onto his back and began a
rapid underwater kick that sent them both through the water with the
swiftness of a speedboat.

Across the lake, the shadowy rowboat and its occupant continued its
slow, steady progress. The man at the oars was apparently unaware of the
drama that was taking place a short distance away, which was exactly as
Clark had intended. If he had to explain to Lois what had happened, he
certainly didn't want witnesses around.

His feet touched bottom and he stood up, carrying Lois Lane. Swiftly, he
ran his heat vision over her again as he sloshed out of the lake and
onto solid ground and then warmed the ground itself before stretching
her out on it. As gently as he could, he divested her of her sodden coat
and hung the garment over a convenient tree limb. Then he stood back and
swept her again with diffused heat vision, drying her clothing as he did
so and warming her body.

Steam rose from her in a cloud, white as ghosts in the freezing air. He
had knelt beside her and was holding her in a sitting position while he
dried her back when she seemed to come suddenly to consciousness. She
twisted like an eel and struck at him with the edge of one hand.

Clark caught the hand in time to prevent its connecting with the side of
his neck. "Hey! Take it easy! It's me!"

Her struggles stopped as she froze in place. Their eyes met.

"Clark?" she whispered.

**********
tbc

Second Choice: 4/?
by Nan Smith


During the workweek, between three-thirty and four o'clock in the
afternoon on Smallville's Main Street was probably the noisiest time and
place in the town, Clark reflected as he approached the Lane apartment.
High school had let out and teenaged kids had been set free for the rest
of the day. One couldn't say that rush hour in Smallville was very
intense but there were still a respectable number of vehicles trying to
make their way home from town. Adding to the noise, most of them had
their radios going, playing music or broadcasting the rush hour news and
that made it even more difficult for him to tune his hearing to listen
for Lois Lane's heartbeat.

He couldn't hear it and he hesitated, wondering what he should do. Most
likely she wasn't in the building but he couldn't be certain. At last,
he reluctantly lowered his glasses and peeked through the walls to scan
the apartment.

Lucy Lane was watching television, lying on her stomach on the floor and
munching on the contents of a bag of potato chips. Fragments of the
chips were scattered all about her on the carpet and a Social Studies
book lay on its face next to her, obviously abandoned in favor of the
afternoon cartoons.

Behind her on the sofa, and totally ignored by Lois's sister, Ellen Lane
lay either asleep or passed out. The bottle of vodka sitting open on the
end table and the half-full glass beside it would lend probability to
either scenario.

Well, that settled that. If she were present, Lois would never allow
Lucy to ignore her schoolwork in order to watch cartoons. He glanced
into the kitchen.

As might be expected, the stove was bare of any signs of preparation for
dinner. The bowls that had contained this morning's breakfast cereal
were still sitting in the sink and there was no trace of any of the
items that Lois might use to prepare dinner for her sister and herself
sitting out. There were a few cans of soup in the cupboard and the
freezer held a number of frozen dinners -- probably Lois's attempt to
make sure that her sister consumed the occasional balanced meal, he
thought with amusement. Lois had never made a secret of the fact that
cooking was not one of her skills. Smallville High had a requirement
that students must take four semesters of a selection of elective
classes during their four-year sojourn within its walls and Lois's
previous school had only required two, which necessitated that she take
two more. She had opted for Small Engine Repair and Metal Shop, and,
since the school had an unreasonable objection to a female in both of
those classes, she had been forced to substitute Home Economics in place
of Metal Shop in her second semester.

Two weeks later, after three fire alarms and three enthusiastic
evacuations of students from the Home Ec classroom -- and that wing of
the school -- in order for the noxious fumes from one of Lois's
creations to be cleared, Lois was transferred summarily to Metal Shop at
the urgent request of the Home Ec teacher.

It hadn't been through any intentional scheme that Lois might have
hatched, although he knew that she was completely capable of executing
such a plan. It was simply that Lois knew her limitations, and the
school administration hadn't believed her. Lois Lane and kitchens mixed
with all the alacrity of oil and water. Over the last months, Clark, who
had successfully taken Home Ec in his Sophomore year, had cooked a
number of meals in the Lane kitchen for the girls and their parent.

He glanced once more at Ellen Lane and shook his head. He knew that Lois
wanted to try to get her mother into some kind of alcohol rehabilitation
facility, but she had no way of forcing Ellen to cooperate and her
father had washed his hands of the problem. That didn't, however,
prevent him from calling up periodically to argue with his ex-wife over
some detail or other -- which inevitably meant more trouble for Lois and
Lucy for the next few days.

Well, Lois obviously hadn't come home after school. So now where should
he look? Clark shoved his hands into his pockets and began to walk along
the street, his glasses halfway down his nose and unobtrusively scanning
the stores that he passed on both sides of the street. He was beginning
to be seriously concerned. Lois was either very upset about something,
in deep trouble, or off with Ronnie Davis.

He doubted the last. Ronnie wasn't really her boyfriend. He'd been
around for a little over three months and had dated a number of the
local girls, Lois included. The town grapevine said he was the son of
Harvey Davis, who was the new owner of Jackson's Mercantile and Dry
Goods. The business had changed hands a few months ago when the original
owner had abruptly retired and left town. Rumor said that he had moved
in with his widowed daughter in Kansas City. Davis, the new owner, had
taken over at once and the town was slowly getting to know him. He
seemed like a nice enough guy -- a widower with two sons, one of which
was a senior at Kansas Technological Institute. So far, Clark had heard
that Ronnie, the younger boy, had graduated from high school in Wichita
and was taking a year off before entering Business School. He evidently
found small town life boring and had taken to entertaining himself by
seeking the company of the best-looking girls in town, much to the
disgust of the local boys. Lana had dated him a few times, Clark had
learned from a somewhat disgruntled Pete Ross. He drove a Mustang
convertible and it predictably drew the attention of the girls. Rachel
had gone with him once or twice and so had Ruby Everett and several
others. Lois, who was, in Clark's opinion at least, the prettiest girl
in the school and unquestionably popular with the boys, had also dated
him. Clark knew better than to argue with her -- her dating life was her
business but not for the first time he wished Lois's father had been
around to put his foot down. Her mother certainly wouldn't. Ellen Lane
lived much of her life in a drunken haze, and if the school officials
had known of it, Clark had no doubt that the state's social workers
would have been called in.

Still, the Ronnie option seemed unlikely today. He had picked her up
after school for the last three days, but he'd done that for Lana and
Rachel, and several others at different times as well. Besides, he
hadn't been there today and Clark figured he was out doing whatever he
usually did at this time of day when he wasn't chasing girls. What
worried him more was the possibility that Lois was off investigating
some story in her own inimitable way, which usually meant she was doing
something dangerous.

As she had been doing the first night he had saved her life at Harris Lake.

When she had come suddenly to consciousness and struck at him, only his
super-human reflexes had saved Lois from a probable broken or badly
bruised hand. She'd stared at him unbelievingly and then her rigid body
relaxed suddenly against him. He released her hand and it dropped to her
side. "What are you doing here? Where are we?"

"What happened?" he asked, in the vain hope that he might distract her
from the questions. The rowboat had vanished and from somewhere in the
distance he heard the sound of a car's engine starting up. "How did you
get in the lake?"

Lois was peering down at herself in the darkness and he saw her hands
fingering the cloth of her blouse and slacks. "What are you doing here?"
she asked. "And what happened to my clothes?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. He was stalling, trying to delay the
inevitable. "I heard you screaming for help and --"

Her hands flashed from her clothing to his. "Clark, you're soaking wet!
We've got to get you out of those wet clothes before you freeze. Where's
Wayne's car?"

"Uh --"

Lois turned her head, looking around in the dimness. Beside them, the
smooth surface of the lake gave a faint illumination to the scene. She
couldn't see as well as he could, but she probably could see enough.
"Where are we?"

"By the lake," he said, a sense of fatalism possessing him. There was
really no rational explanation that he could give her -- at least not
one that she would believe. "Why were you in the lake?" he asked again.

"Where's my coat?" she asked, totally ignoring his question. "At least
you can put that on until we can get you into something dry."

"Uh --" he fumbled. Lois got to her knees and made an effort to get to
her feet. He grabbed her as she swayed unsteadily. "Take it easy. You
nearly drowned -- or froze to death. I'm not sure which would have
happened first. I pulled you out. What happened? How did you get here?"

Lois sank back to the sand, but she was beginning to shiver in the icy
air. "Clark, what happened? How did you find me, and why are my clothes
dry -- and where's my coat?"

Clark wished he could think faster, which was odd because usually he
could think faster than he moved. Surreptitiously, he fanned her with
diffused heat vision again, warming her slightly. In the darkness the
swath of heat vision produced the faintest of pale red shimmerings in
the air. Lois, however, was looking around for her missing coat. "It's
hanging on the limb behind you," he said. "Just a minute." He got to his
feet to retrieve the sodden garment.

Lois managed to get to her knees again and reached for it. "My coat's
still wet. Clark, what happened? How did you hear me, and how did you
save me without freezing to death?"

He sighed and gave in. "Look, I'll explain it all later, if you'll tell
me what happened to you. Deal?"

She hesitated and he saw her nod a little reluctantly. "Somebody tried
to kill me."

"*What?*" It was only by a supreme effort of will that he kept his voice
low. "*Who?*"

She shrugged. "I don't know his name."

"Well then, why?"

"He caught me checking out his greenhouse."

"He tried to kill you for trespassing?" A few things were starting to
add up, however. A few months ago, Sheriff Harris, Rachel's dad, had
found a field of marijuana plants, growing quite innocently between the
completely legitimate corn stalks in a field, near a tumbledown shack
well on the outskirts of Smallville. He'd been trying for some time to
find the source of the pot that seemed to have invaded the town in
recent months, Clark knew, but it had been Wayne Irig who had provided
the clue. He'd seen the cultivated field by accident while tracking down
his bovine escape artist, Molly, on property that shouldn't have been
cultivated in over a year and was up for sale to boot, and mentioned it
to the Sheriff.

"Well -- not exactly," Lois admitted. "There's been a lot of pot showing
up in town again. I started looking around and I found out that Eddie
Driscoll was selling it. So I followed him this afternoon."

"*Eddie Driscoll* tried to kill you?"

Lois shook her head. "No, not Eddie. There's a farm just east of the
Driscoll property. The little one that sells eggs."

Clark knew at once the property of which she spoke. "It's not really a
farm. It's just a house. They grow some vegetables and have a bunch of
chickens and sell the eggs. A guy retired there a few years ago."

"Yeah, well, he's got a big greenhouse in his back yard. I followed
Eddie in Mom's car, and he went over there and talked to the owner, and
then he bought a bag full of something and drove away again. So I waited
until dark and started snooping around. He's growing pot in the
greenhouse. Rows and rows of it. It looks like a pretty big operation.
And he's got this fancy set-up for drying plants, and big bags of the
dried stuff stored in the back --"

"And you got caught," Clark said.

"Well -- yeah. Pretty much. The guy had a rifle. He tied me up and put
me in his car and drove out here. He made me get in a rowboat and rowed
out into the middle of the lake. Then he took off the ropes and made me
jump in the lake. I figured I could stay afloat until he left and then
swim to shore. I'm a good swimmer, and the lake isn't that big, but it
was so cold I --"

"Yeah," Clark said. "I get it."

"Anyway, I saw enough. We need to tell Sheriff Harris, and then I can
write it up for the Smallville Press. Don't you see, Clark, I can get my
name on a big story -- enough that they might hire me part time. If I
can do that, I'll be able to earn more money for school."

He nodded. "I understand," he said. "I just wish you'd told me. I
wouldn't have tried to steal your story -- and you probably wouldn't
have almost gotten killed."

She shrugged, looking down at her hands, clasped in her lap. "I know. I
should have. I just didn't think about it." She looked up. "I sometimes
do things without thinking and get into trouble. Daddy used to get mad
at me for being reckless. But we have the story. I *saw* the plants
growing in the greenhouse and the guy doesn't know I'm alive -- does he?"

Clark shook his head. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I saw him. He
was rowing away when I got here and realized you were in the lake. But
the problem is, it's your word against his. Sheriff Harris has to have
more to go on than that if he's going to get a search warrant."

She stopped and it seemed to him as if some of the life went out of her
voice. "Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess I need some kind of
evidence, huh?"

"Yeah," Clark said. His eyes met hers. "We need to go back. Together."

She looked quickly up at him. "Would you? You'd help me?"

He couldn't resist putting an arm around her. "You know I will."

"Great!" She started to get to her feet and this time he gave her a
hand. She hugged her arms around herself. "Brr! It's freezing, and my
coat's still wet -- and so are your clothes. How did you get me dry,
anyway? You promised you'd tell me what happened. And where's Wayne's car?"

Well, the hope that she'd forget about his part of the story was
obviously futile. He sighed. "I didn't bring it."

"Then how did you get here? And how did you hear me screaming, anyway?"

Clark sighed again. "This is going to take some explaining. Look; let me
fix your coat first so you don't freeze to death. Keep a watch out. We
don't want the guy in the rowboat to come back again." He took the
article of clothing and hung it back on the tree limb, spreading the
lower part of the garment one-handed.

"Yeah." She looked oddly at him for an instant, one hand again
tentatively feeling the dry fabric of her jeans, and then back toward
the lake. "I don't see anybody."

"Keep watching anyway. If he shows up with his rifle we could both be in
trouble."

Lois wrapped her arms around her torso and stood looking toward the
lake, obviously taking her assignment seriously. Clark trained a burst
of muted heat vision on the coat.

With a faint hiss, steam billowed from the soaked cloth, curling upward
into the icy air and diffusing outward into streamers of mist that faded
away into nothing. "Okay," he said, "it's dry. Let's get out of here.
It's about five miles back to the Driscoll farm, so we can talk on the way."

Lois had turned when he spoke and now she took the coat, giving him an
odd look when she felt the warmth of the cloth. Without a word, she put
it on and followed him back through the opening in the trees and brush
that he had broken in his headlong charge to save her life.

"Have you got a pocket hair dryer or something?" she finally asked.

"No. That might be easier to explain," he said. "Nobody ever knew this
but my mom and dad. They told me about it when -- well, when they
explained I'm adopted." He took her hand to guide her through the
darkness of the trees. "Be careful. There's lots of branches that can
poke you in the eyes or something."

"How can you see?" she whispered.

"Good night vision," he said. "It's all part of the story." He was
silent, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I'm probably not from
Smallville," he started out. "Mom and Dad didn't know where I came from.
They found me -- late one evening in Shuster's Field."

"Somebody abandoned you?" She sounded horrified.

"Mom and Dad never knew. Did you ever hear the old legends about
changelings? Babies the fairies left for a human couple to raise? I'm
almost tempted to believe them." He pushed up a stiff branch and held it
for her to pass. "It's a pretty weird story. I'm not sure anybody would
believe it without the evidence."

"What evidence?" she asked.

"Me," he said.

"Well, go ahead," she said a little impatiently.

He took a deep breath. "Right. Okay, Mom and Dad found me and pretended
I was their baby. They told everybody that Mom hadn't known she was
pregnant until she started having labor pains and had me at home. She
was a little plump back then, and I guess people believed her. Dad's
cousin was a doctor and he got them all the paperwork for a birth
certificate and everything, and nobody ever knew. They figured that was
the end of it."

"What does this have to do with how you found me?" Lois asked.

"I'm coming to that. They pretty much figured how they'd found me was
past and nobody ever needed to know -- not even me. Until I was ten."
Clark hesitated. "Then they had to tell me."

"Why?"

"I started to be able to hear things a long way off. I could hear what
people were whispering in the next room. It's no fun to hear somebody
making nasty remarks about you when they think you can't hear. It got so
I could hear things miles away -- people talking in normal voices. I
thought I was going crazy for a while until I learned to filter all that
stuff out."

"And that was how you heard me?" Lois sounded a little skeptical.

"Yeah. But that wasn't all. There were some other things -- I could run
faster than Dad's horses. We had a couple back then. Some other things
happened, too, and that was when they had to tell me about how they
found me. They figured I was some kind of scientific experiment or
something. But then they were killed in that car wreck and they never
knew the other things that happened. Anyhow, tonight I was at home when
I heard you scream and ran as fast as I could to get here in time to
pull you out of the lake before you drowned."

"Do you really expect me to believe this?" Lois said. "I wish you'd tell
me the truth. I'm really not in the mood for fairy tales right now."

"I'm telling you the truth," Clark said, almost offended that he had
told her part of his secret and she didn't believe him. "How do you
think I managed to dry your coat so fast -- and why doesn't the cold
weather bother me, even though my clothes are wet? It's because the cold
doesn't affect me and --" He stopped and turned, drawing her to a stop.
"Feel this?" He fanned his heat vision lightly over her again. "That's
how I dried your clothes."

Lois was silent for a long moment. "What was that?" she asked at last,
and this time her voice sounded more curious than skeptical. "It looked
like your eyes put out this faint red light."

"That was one of the things that happened after Mom and Dad were
killed," Clark said. "I think it's infra-red light. I call it heat vision."

"Do it again," Lois commanded. She extended a hand.

Obediently, he let the attenuated heat vision caress her hand and heard
her draw in a breath. "Well," he asked. "Do you believe me now?"

"I guess I have to," Lois said. "How do you do that?"

He shrugged, forgetting that she might not be able to see him in the
dark. "I don't know. I just want it to happen and it does." He took her
hand and began to lead her through the trees once more. "Are you okay
with this?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" Her voice sounded, he thought, a little surprised.

"Well -- Dad warned me, back when they told me about how they found me
that, if anyone ever found out, the government would come and take me
away -- they'd put me in a lab and dissect me like a frog."

There was a long silence. Finally Lois said, "I think your Dad was
right. Didn't I tell you you're too trusting?"

Somewhere inside him, a tight knot was unwinding. "And I told you I'm a
good judge of character."

"Yeah, well the next time you might be wrong. You've got to promise me
that you won't tell anyone about this, Clark. You're my best friend, and
I'm telling you. Don't tell anybody else. I don't want you to get
dissected. Promise me you'll be careful?"

"Okay," he said. "I promise."

"Good," she said. "Start thinking ahead from now on. You could have been
in a lot of trouble this evening."

"Yes," he admitted, "But I couldn't let you die, could I?"

"I'm glad you didn't -- but we'll have to explain how you got out here
when we tell the sheriff about the pot farm."

"I came with you in your car," Clark said. "And followed you when the
guy held you up and dumped you in the lake."

She was silent again, obviously thinking. "Okay, I think that'll work,"
she said. "What about Mr. Irig? Isn't he going to wonder how you got out
here?"

"I'm supposed to be looking for Molly," Clark said. "I'll explain when I
get back that I got sidetracked. Wayne doesn't ask a lot of questions."
The trees opened up ahead of them and a short distance away he could see
the highway. "Do you mind if I pick you up? I think we can get back to
that greenhouse before the owner does if I run."

"Really?" Lois's voice sounded a little breathless. "Okay then, let's go!"

**********
tbc


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Second Choice: 4/?
by Nan Smith


During the workweek, between three-thirty and four o'clock in the
afternoon on Smallville's Main Street was probably the noisiest time and
place in the town, Clark reflected as he approached the Lane apartment.
High school had let out and teenaged kids had been set free for the rest
of the day. One couldn't say that rush hour in Smallville was very
intense but there were still a respectable number of vehicles trying to
make their way home from town. Adding to the noise, most of them had
their radios going, playing music or broadcasting the rush hour news and
that made it even more difficult for him to tune his hearing to listen
for Lois Lane's heartbeat.

He couldn't hear it and he hesitated, wondering what he should do. Most
likely she wasn't in the building but he couldn't be certain. At last,
he reluctantly lowered his glasses and peeked through the walls to scan
the apartment.

Lucy Lane was watching television, lying on her stomach on the floor and
munching on the contents of a bag of potato chips. Fragments of the
chips were scattered all about her on the carpet and a Social Studies
book lay on its face next to her, obviously abandoned in favor of the
afternoon cartoons.

Behind her on the sofa, and totally ignored by Lois's sister, Ellen Lane
lay either asleep or passed out. The bottle of vodka sitting open on the
end table and the half-full glass beside it would lend probability to
either scenario.

Well, that settled that. If she were present, Lois would never allow
Lucy to ignore her schoolwork in order to watch cartoons. He glanced
into the kitchen.

As might be expected, the stove was bare of any signs of preparation for
dinner. The bowls that had contained this morning's breakfast cereal
were still sitting in the sink and there was no trace of any of the
items that Lois might use to prepare dinner for her sister and herself
sitting out. There were a few cans of soup in the cupboard and the
freezer held a number of frozen dinners -- probably Lois's attempt to
make sure that her sister consumed the occasional balanced meal, he
thought with amusement. Lois had never made a secret of the fact that
cooking was not one of her skills. Smallville High had a requirement
that students must take four semesters of a selection of elective
classes during their four-year sojourn within its walls and Lois's
previous school had only required two, which necessitated that she take
two more. She had opted for Small Engine Repair and Metal Shop, and,
since the school had an unreasonable objection to a female in both of
those classes, she had been forced to substitute Home Economics in place
of Metal Shop in her second semester.

Two weeks later, after three fire alarms and three enthusiastic
evacuations of students from the Home Ec classroom -- and that wing of
the school -- in order for the noxious fumes from one of Lois's
creations to be cleared, Lois was transferred summarily to Metal Shop at
the urgent request of the Home Ec teacher.

It hadn't been through any intentional scheme that Lois might have
hatched, although he knew that she was completely capable of executing
such a plan. It was simply that Lois knew her limitations, and the
school administration hadn't believed her. Lois Lane and kitchens mixed
with all the alacrity of oil and water. Over the last months, Clark, who
had successfully taken Home Ec in his Sophomore year, had cooked a
number of meals in the Lane kitchen for the girls and their parent.

He glanced once more at Ellen Lane and shook his head. He knew that Lois
wanted to try to get her mother into some kind of alcohol rehabilitation
facility, but she had no way of forcing Ellen to cooperate and her
father had washed his hands of the problem. That didn't, however,
prevent him from calling up periodically to argue with his ex-wife over
some detail or other -- which inevitably meant more trouble for Lois and
Lucy for the next few days.

Well, Lois obviously hadn't come home after school. So now where should
he look? Clark shoved his hands into his pockets and began to walk along
the street, his glasses halfway down his nose and unobtrusively scanning
the stores that he passed on both sides of the street. He was beginning
to be seriously concerned. Lois was either very upset about something,
in deep trouble, or off with Ronnie Davis.

He doubted the last. Ronnie wasn't really her boyfriend. He'd been
around for a little over three months and had dated a number of the
local girls, Lois included. The town grapevine said he was the son of
Harvey Davis, who was the new owner of Jackson's Mercantile and Dry
Goods. The business had changed hands a few months ago when the original
owner had abruptly retired and left town. Rumor said that he had moved
in with his widowed daughter in Kansas City. Davis, the new owner, had
taken over at once and the town was slowly getting to know him. He
seemed like a nice enough guy -- a widower with two sons, one of which
was a senior at Kansas Technological Institute. So far, Clark had heard
that Ronnie, the younger boy, had graduated from high school in Wichita
and was taking a year off before entering Business School. He evidently
found small town life boring and had taken to entertaining himself by
seeking the company of the best-looking girls in town, much to the
disgust of the local boys. Lana had dated him a few times, Clark had
learned from a somewhat disgruntled Pete Ross. He drove a Mustang
convertible and it predictably drew the attention of the girls. Rachel
had gone with him once or twice and so had Ruby Everett and several
others. Lois, who was, in Clark's opinion at least, the prettiest girl
in the school and unquestionably popular with the boys, had also dated
him. Clark knew better than to argue with her -- her dating life was her
business but not for the first time he wished Lois's father had been
around to put his foot down. Her mother certainly wouldn't. Ellen Lane
lived much of her life in a drunken haze, and if the school officials
had known of it, Clark had no doubt that the state's social workers
would have been called in.

Still, the Ronnie option seemed unlikely today. He had picked her up
after school for the last three days, but he'd done that for Lana and
Rachel, and several others at different times as well. Besides, he
hadn't been there today and Clark figured he was out doing whatever he
usually did at this time of day when he wasn't chasing girls. What
worried him more was the possibility that Lois was off investigating
some story in her own inimitable way, which usually meant she was doing
something dangerous.

As she had been doing the first night he had saved her life at Harris Lake.

When she had come suddenly to consciousness and struck at him, only his
super-human reflexes had saved Lois from a probable broken or badly
bruised hand. She'd stared at him unbelievingly and then her rigid body
relaxed suddenly against him. He released her hand and it dropped to her
side. "What are you doing here? Where are we?"

"What happened?" he asked, in the vain hope that he might distract her
from the questions. The rowboat had vanished and from somewhere in the
distance he heard the sound of a car's engine starting up. "How did you
get in the lake?"

Lois was peering down at herself in the darkness and he saw her hands
fingering the cloth of her blouse and slacks. "What are you doing here?"
she asked. "And what happened to my clothes?"

"What do you mean?" he asked. He was stalling, trying to delay the
inevitable. "I heard you screaming for help and --"

Her hands flashed from her clothing to his. "Clark, you're soaking wet!
We've got to get you out of those wet clothes before you freeze. Where's
Wayne's car?"

"Uh --"

Lois turned her head, looking around in the dimness. Beside them, the
smooth surface of the lake gave a faint illumination to the scene. She
couldn't see as well as he could, but she probably could see enough.
"Where are we?"

"By the lake," he said, a sense of fatalism possessing him. There was
really no rational explanation that he could give her -- at least not
one that she would believe. "Why were you in the lake?" he asked again.

"Where's my coat?" she asked, totally ignoring his question. "At least
you can put that on until we can get you into something dry."

"Uh --" he fumbled. Lois got to her knees and made an effort to get to
her feet. He grabbed her as she swayed unsteadily. "Take it easy. You
nearly drowned -- or froze to death. I'm not sure which would have
happened first. I pulled you out. What happened? How did you get here?"

Lois sank back to the sand, but she was beginning to shiver in the icy
air. "Clark, what happened? How did you find me, and why are my clothes
dry -- and where's my coat?"

Clark wished he could think faster, which was odd because usually he
could think faster than he moved. Surreptitiously, he fanned her with
diffused heat vision again, warming her slightly. In the darkness the
swath of heat vision produced the faintest of pale red shimmerings in
the air. Lois, however, was looking around for her missing coat. "It's
hanging on the limb behind you," he said. "Just a minute." He got to his
feet to retrieve the sodden garment.

Lois managed to get to her knees again and reached for it. "My coat's
still wet. Clark, what happened? How did you hear me, and how did you
save me without freezing to death?"

He sighed and gave in. "Look, I'll explain it all later, if you'll tell
me what happened to you. Deal?"

She hesitated and he saw her nod a little reluctantly. "Somebody tried
to kill me."

"*What?*" It was only by a supreme effort of will that he kept his voice
low. "*Who?*"

She shrugged. "I don't know his name."

"Well then, why?"

"He caught me checking out his greenhouse."

"He tried to kill you for trespassing?" A few things were starting to
add up, however. A few months ago, Sheriff Harris, Rachel's dad, had
found a field of marijuana plants, growing quite innocently between the
completely legitimate corn stalks in a field, near a tumbledown shack
well on the outskirts of Smallville. He'd been trying for some time to
find the source of the pot that seemed to have invaded the town in
recent months, Clark knew, but it had been Wayne Irig who had provided
the clue. He'd seen the cultivated field by accident while tracking down
his bovine escape artist, Molly, on property that shouldn't have been
cultivated in over a year and was up for sale to boot, and mentioned it
to the Sheriff.

"Well -- not exactly," Lois admitted. "There's been a lot of pot showing
up in town again. I started looking around and I found out that Eddie
Driscoll was selling it. So I followed him this afternoon."

"*Eddie Driscoll* tried to kill you?"

Lois shook her head. "No, not Eddie. There's a farm just east of the
Driscoll property. The little one that sells eggs."

Clark knew at once the property of which she spoke. "It's not really a
farm. It's just a house. They grow some vegetables and have a bunch of
chickens and sell the eggs. A guy retired there a few years ago."

"Yeah, well, he's got a big greenhouse in his back yard. I followed
Eddie in Mom's car, and he went over there and talked to the owner, and
then he bought a bag full of something and drove away again. So I waited
until dark and started snooping around. He's growing pot in the
greenhouse. Rows and rows of it. It looks like a pretty big operation.
And he's got this fancy set-up for drying plants, and big bags of the
dried stuff stored in the back --"

"And you got caught," Clark said.

"Well -- yeah. Pretty much. The guy had a rifle. He tied me up and put
me in his car and drove out here. He made me get in a rowboat and rowed
out into the middle of the lake. Then he took off the ropes and made me
jump in the lake. I figured I could stay afloat until he left and then
swim to shore. I'm a good swimmer, and the lake isn't that big, but it
was so cold I --"

"Yeah," Clark said. "I get it."

"Anyway, I saw enough. We need to tell Sheriff Harris, and then I can
write it up for the Smallville Press. Don't you see, Clark, I can get my
name on a big story -- enough that they might hire me part time. If I
can do that, I'll be able to earn more money for school."

He nodded. "I understand," he said. "I just wish you'd told me. I
wouldn't have tried to steal your story -- and you probably wouldn't
have almost gotten killed."

She shrugged, looking down at her hands, clasped in her lap. "I know. I
should have. I just didn't think about it." She looked up. "I sometimes
do things without thinking and get into trouble. Daddy used to get mad
at me for being reckless. But we have the story. I *saw* the plants
growing in the greenhouse and the guy doesn't know I'm alive -- does he?"

Clark shook his head. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I saw him. He
was rowing away when I got here and realized you were in the lake. But
the problem is, it's your word against his. Sheriff Harris has to have
more to go on than that if he's going to get a search warrant."

She stopped and it seemed to him as if some of the life went out of her
voice. "Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess I need some kind of
evidence, huh?"

"Yeah," Clark said. His eyes met hers. "We need to go back. Together."

She looked quickly up at him. "Would you? You'd help me?"

He couldn't resist putting an arm around her. "You know I will."

"Great!" She started to get to her feet and this time he gave her a
hand. She hugged her arms around herself. "Brr! It's freezing, and my
coat's still wet -- and so are your clothes. How did you get me dry,
anyway? You promised you'd tell me what happened. And where's Wayne's car?"

Well, the hope that she'd forget about his part of the story was
obviously futile. He sighed. "I didn't bring it."

"Then how did you get here? And how did you hear me screaming, anyway?"

Clark sighed again. "This is going to take some explaining. Look; let me
fix your coat first so you don't freeze to death. Keep a watch out. We
don't want the guy in the rowboat to come back again." He took the
article of clothing and hung it back on the tree limb, spreading the
lower part of the garment one-handed.

"Yeah." She looked oddly at him for an instant, one hand again
tentatively feeling the dry fabric of her jeans, and then back toward
the lake. "I don't see anybody."

"Keep watching anyway. If he shows up with his rifle we could both be in
trouble."

Lois wrapped her arms around her torso and stood looking toward the
lake, obviously taking her assignment seriously. Clark trained a burst
of muted heat vision on the coat.

With a faint hiss, steam billowed from the soaked cloth, curling upward
into the icy air and diffusing outward into streamers of mist that faded
away into nothing. "Okay," he said, "it's dry. Let's get out of here.
It's about five miles back to the Driscoll farm, so we can talk on the way."

Lois had turned when he spoke and now she took the coat, giving him an
odd look when she felt the warmth of the cloth. Without a word, she put
it on and followed him back through the opening in the trees and brush
that he had broken in his headlong charge to save her life.

"Have you got a pocket hair dryer or something?" she finally asked.

"No. That might be easier to explain," he said. "Nobody ever knew this
but my mom and dad. They told me about it when -- well, when they
explained I'm adopted." He took her hand to guide her through the
darkness of the trees. "Be careful. There's lots of branches that can
poke you in the eyes or something."

"How can you see?" she whispered.

"Good night vision," he said. "It's all part of the story." He was
silent, trying to figure out how to explain it. "I'm probably not from
Smallville," he started out. "Mom and Dad didn't know where I came from.
They found me -- late one evening in Shuster's Field."

"Somebody abandoned you?" She sounded horrified.

"Mom and Dad never knew. Did you ever hear the old legends about
changelings? Babies the fairies left for a human couple to raise? I'm
almost tempted to believe them." He pushed up a stiff branch and held it
for her to pass. "It's a pretty weird story. I'm not sure anybody would
believe it without the evidence."

"What evidence?" she asked.

"Me," he said.

"Well, go ahead," she said a little impatiently.

He took a deep breath. "Right. Okay, Mom and Dad found me and pretended
I was their baby. They told everybody that Mom hadn't known she was
pregnant until she started having labor pains and had me at home. She
was a little plump back then, and I guess people believed her. Dad's
cousin was a doctor and he got them all the paperwork for a birth
certificate and everything, and nobody ever knew. They figured that was
the end of it."

"What does this have to do with how you found me?" Lois asked.

"I'm coming to that. They pretty much figured how they'd found me was
past and nobody ever needed to know -- not even me. Until I was ten."
Clark hesitated. "Then they had to tell me."

"Why?"

"I started to be able to hear things a long way off. I could hear what
people were whispering in the next room. It's no fun to hear somebody
making nasty remarks about you when they think you can't hear. It got so
I could hear things miles away -- people talking in normal voices. I
thought I was going crazy for a while until I learned to filter all that
stuff out."

"And that was how you heard me?" Lois sounded a little skeptical.

"Yeah. But that wasn't all. There were some other things -- I could run
faster than Dad's horses. We had a couple back then. Some other things
happened, too, and that was when they had to tell me about how they
found me. They figured I was some kind of scientific experiment or
something. But then they were killed in that car wreck and they never
knew the other things that happened. Anyhow, tonight I was at home when
I heard you scream and ran as fast as I could to get here in time to
pull you out of the lake before you drowned."

"Do you really expect me to believe this?" Lois said. "I wish you'd tell
me the truth. I'm really not in the mood for fairy tales right now."

"I'm telling you the truth," Clark said, almost offended that he had
told her part of his secret and she didn't believe him. "How do you
think I managed to dry your coat so fast -- and why doesn't the cold
weather bother me, even though my clothes are wet? It's because the cold
doesn't affect me and --" He stopped and turned, drawing her to a stop.
"Feel this?" He fanned his heat vision lightly over her again. "That's
how I dried your clothes."

Lois was silent for a long moment. "What was that?" she asked at last,
and this time her voice sounded more curious than skeptical. "It looked
like your eyes put out this faint red light."

"That was one of the things that happened after Mom and Dad were
killed," Clark said. "I think it's infra-red light. I call it heat vision."

"Do it again," Lois commanded. She extended a hand.

Obediently, he let the attenuated heat vision caress her hand and heard
her draw in a breath. "Well," he asked. "Do you believe me now?"

"I guess I have to," Lois said. "How do you do that?"

He shrugged, forgetting that she might not be able to see him in the
dark. "I don't know. I just want it to happen and it does." He took her
hand and began to lead her through the trees once more. "Are you okay
with this?"

"Why shouldn't I be?" Her voice sounded, he thought, a little surprised.

"Well -- Dad warned me, back when they told me about how they found me
that, if anyone ever found out, the government would come and take me
away -- they'd put me in a lab and dissect me like a frog."

There was a long silence. Finally Lois said, "I think your Dad was
right. Didn't I tell you you're too trusting?"

Somewhere inside him, a tight knot was unwinding. "And I told you I'm a
good judge of character."

"Yeah, well the next time you might be wrong. You've got to promise me
that you won't tell anyone about this, Clark. You're my best friend, and
I'm telling you. Don't tell anybody else. I don't want you to get
dissected. Promise me you'll be careful?"

"Okay," he said. "I promise."

"Good," she said. "Start thinking ahead from now on. You could have been
in a lot of trouble this evening."

"Yes," he admitted, "But I couldn't let you die, could I?"

"I'm glad you didn't -- but we'll have to explain how you got out here
when we tell the sheriff about the pot farm."

"I came with you in your car," Clark said. "And followed you when the
guy held you up and dumped you in the lake."

She was silent again, obviously thinking. "Okay, I think that'll work,"
she said. "What about Mr. Irig? Isn't he going to wonder how you got out
here?"

"I'm supposed to be looking for Molly," Clark said. "I'll explain when I
get back that I got sidetracked. Wayne doesn't ask a lot of questions."
The trees opened up ahead of them and a short distance away he could see
the highway. "Do you mind if I pick you up? I think we can get back to
that greenhouse before the owner does if I run."

"Really?" Lois's voice sounded a little breathless. "Okay then, let's go!"

**********
tbc

Second Choice: 5/?
by Nan Smith

As far as Clark could tell, Lois wasn't anywhere nearby. He'd walked
nearly the length of the street and hadn't heard her heartbeat, nor had
he spotted her with any of the visual scanning that he'd been doing.

He was tempted to go back to Wayne's and talk to Lois in the morning,
but some little instinct told him that he would do better to find her now.

She definitely wasn't with Ronnie Davis, he saw a moment later. Ronnie's
red Mustang convertible, complete with Ronnie behind the wheel and a
blond that looked strongly like Lana, came cruising slowly down the
street and pulled to a stop at Smallville's one red light. Well, that
eliminated one possibility. So Lois was either upset about something, or
she was off tracking down another story with the hopes of getting it
accepted by the Smallville Press.

In spite of the fact that her discovery of the pot-growing operation had
resulted in an arrest by Sheriff Harris, and her story had made it onto
the front page, the paper's owners hadn't been able to hire her. She was
under age, for one thing, Mr. Blume had pointed out gently, and while
they would be more than happy to accept stories like the marijuana bust
from her, they couldn't put her on the staff until she was eighteen. He
had, however, mitigated the refusal by paying a pretty decent sum for
the story. Lois had told Clark later that, even if it wasn't everything
she wanted, it was a step in the right direction. Her name had appeared
on a front-page story, even if it was a small town paper in the Midwest.
It would look good on her resume some day in the future, and she would
be freelancing for the paper whenever she could from now on. Clark
wished her good luck, but privately hoped that she wouldn't encounter
too much more in the way of big time crime in Smallville in the near future.

And Lois no longer doubted the story he had told her. In fact, a few
days later, after all the excitement from the discovery of a drug
growing and distribution operation in Smallville had subsided somewhat,
she had suggested that they should take a walk out somewhere well away
from town, where there was no danger of their being overheard and that
he could give her all the details that had necessarily been left out
that night at the lake.

She had borrowed her mother's car again, and they had driven out in the
direction of Porcupine Gulch, which was actually an ancient, abandoned
quarry. Once there, they had gotten out of the little car and walked
while he told her the story of how his parents had seen what they
thought was a meteor in the sky and tracked it down, only to find a tiny
ship of unknown origin with a baby inside.

"A rocket?" Lois asked, when he described the ship.

"They didn't know what it was," he said. "Dad said some people claiming
to be from Cape Kennedy came by a few days later, saying that Houston
had tracked some space debris that had fallen somewhere in the area. Mom
and Dad were afraid they were after me, so they didn't say anything.
After a while the men left again."

"Who do you suppose they were?" Lois asked.

"I don't know. They never found the ship, though. Dad hid it under the
floor of the storm cellar. It's still there. I went back a couple of
years ago to look at it, after more stuff happened."

"What *did* happen?" Lois asked, and he had told her how the strange
powers had appeared, one by one, and how he had learned to cope with them.

"I was scared I'd burn somebody by accident," he admitted. "And when the
x-ray vision started up I spent most of my time staring at the ground. I
mean, I accidentally looked into the girls' locker room that first day.
I couldn't look Rachel in the eyes for a week afterwards."

Lois eyed him with a sort of awe. "Most guys wouldn't think that was a
problem," she said.

"I guess," Clark said. "My mom and dad taught me to respect girls,
though -- even back when I thought they all had cooties."

Lois laughed. He couldn't help thinking how sexy that laugh was, and he
was equally sure she had no idea of how it affected him.

"You learned how to control this 'x-ray vision' thing since, haven't
you?" Lois asked. "That's the important thing."

"Yeah. That was back in ninth grade. It was the last power that
appeared. I just hope no more show up."

"No kidding," Lois agreed. "Did your parents ever say why they thought
this was happening to you?"

Clark shrugged. "The only powers they knew about were the hearing and
the speed -- and the strength. I started to get a lot stronger than a
ten-year-old kid should be. Dad told me he and Mom figured I was some
kind of scientific experiment -- that somebody had been trying to
develop some kind of super being, and that I mustn't ever let on that I
could do this stuff. He was afraid that whoever had given me these
powers might try to take me back and make me work for the government --
or if maybe the Russians had done it, our government would dissect me to
try to figure out how the powers worked. After the accident I was scared
whoever 'they' were would come and get me, but nobody ever did. I was
pretty careful."

"I don't blame you a bit," Lois said. "Nobody ever found out, did they?"

Clark shrugged. "I don't think so -- although I wonder about Wayne,
sometimes. He doesn't talk much, and he never asks me questions when
something odd happens. I kind of wonder if he knows something but
figures the less said the better."

They had walked partway around the quarry and stopped on the lip of a
bluff above the deep cut in the hillside. A brisk November wind was
blowing but neither of them paid attention to it. "So I'm the only one
you ever told?" Lois asked.

"Yeah," Clark admitted. "You're the only person I ever had to rescue
from attempted murder. I couldn't let you drown. Besides, I really
didn't think you'd tell anyone about me."

"Well, you were right about that," Lois said. "Besides, even if I did,
who would believe me? Not that I would, anyway," she added hastily.

"I know," he said. He glanced at his watch. "I have to get home pretty
soon. I have to help Wayne reinforce the fence. He's got this one cow
that's always getting through it. Last week she got out and the next
thing Nettie knew, Mollie was standing there in the middle of her living
room, chewing her cud. The front door's latch hadn't caught and she'd
just pushed it open and walked in."

"What did you *do*"

"Well, Nettie tried to lead her out but Mollie wouldn't budge. Then she
tried to push her out, but you might as well push on a brick wall. If a
cow doesn't want to move, she isn't going to."

"Couldn't *you* get her out?" Lois wanted to know.

"That's what I was wondering. Nettie was pretty worried about her carpet."

"I would be, too! What happened?"

"Well, Wayne came in and grabbed the strap around her neck -- you know:
the thing the cow bell is fastened on -- and yanked on it, and you know,
she followed him out without any trouble at all. Wayne has a way with
animals. He says it's 'cause he knows how to get their attention. But he
doesn't want Molly breaking out again. The next time she might wind up
out in the road and get hit by a truck or something."

"Yeah," Lois agreed. "Poor cow."

"Wouldn't do whatever hit her any good, either," Clark said. "I guess
we'd better go."

Lois had nodded and started to turn, and that was when it had happened.
Her foot slipped on a patch of grass and she staggered for an instant,
trying to get her balance. Clark reached out to steady her, just as she
overbalanced and fell.

Clark grabbed for her, off balance, and the next instant, clutching each
other, they went over the edge together. Lois screamed.

All Clark could think of was that he couldn't let her die. Not now. Not
the best friend he'd ever had. Then he became aware of something out of
place. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked down.

They were hovering in the air, forty feet above the floor of the ancient
quarry.

In utter silence they hung suspended in mid air, neither quite believing
what had happened.

"Clark?" Lois's muffled voice brought his attention back to her.

"What?"

"Are we floating?"

He looked down. "Yeah. I think so."

"*How* are we doing this?"

He looked down again and back at her face, bare inches from his own. She
looked almost as stunned as he felt. "Um ... I think it must be me doing
it."

"You mean you can *fly*?"

He gulped. "I guess so."

"Then fly us out of here!" she commanded.

His brain seemed to have gone completely numb. "Uh -- I don't know how."

"Well, how do your other powers work? The ones you can turn off and on."
Lois demanded.

"Uh...I sort of *want* them to," he'd managed to stutter back.

"Well, for Pete's sake, *want* us to fly back up there!" she commanded him.

Her exasperated voice had managed to startle him out of the shock that
seemed to have paralyzed every individual muscle and brain cell, and he
nodded shakily. "I'll try."

And like that, it had worked. They began to rise slowly back toward the
bluff from which they had fallen, and, less than fifteen seconds later,
they came to a landing on the hill above the quarry.

Lois sat down hard, her legs apparently unable to hold her upright.
Clark sat down beside her, equally shaken. For almost a full minute they
stared at each other in shock. Finally Lois spoke.

"Wow," she said faintly.

That seemed to cover it.

**********

After they had recovered somewhat, Lois and he had walked back to the
car. Neither of them said much. Clark had been trying to absorb the
implications of this brand new power that had suddenly manifested itself
to be put to instant, emergency use. Lois had been silent, too, until
she pulled the car to a stop by the side of the highway that ran past
the Irig farm. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she said finally.

His heart sank. "Are you scared of me now?" he asked bluntly.

Her eyes widened. "*Scared* of you? Clark, you saved my life! Again!"

"So you're not scared?"

"Of course not! Just -- kind of stunned, I think. Do you have any days
off at all this week?"

"I'm free most of Sunday -- after I do the chores," he said. "Why?"

"I was just wondering --" She broke off, looking a little unsure.

"You were wondering?"

"If you could take me over to your old home and we could go down in the
storm cellar and you could let me look at your ship."

He began to grin. "You're something else, you know that? You just fell
over a cliff!"

"So what?" Lois said. "Nothing bad happened, thanks to you. You have to
learn not to dwell on the past, Clark. It's not worth it. Why don't I
pick you up at noon on Sunday?"

Which was how they found themselves on the Kent farm, three days later,
clambering down the steps into the Kent family's ancient storm cellar.

"Watch your step," Clark said. He held the flashlight he had brought
from the Irig farm so that she could see where to put her feet.

"There aren't any rats down here, are there?" Lois asked as she lowered
herself cautiously down the rungs,

"No," Clark assured her. "There's nothing for them to eat."

"Did you ever actually use this place?" she asked as her feet touched
the floor.

"Sure. A couple of times," Clark said. "A twister came within a mile or
so of us when I was five. We stayed down here for an hour, maybe -- and
another time when I was eight."

"I haven't seen any since I've been here," Lois said. "Do they happen
very often?"

"It's been a quiet year so far," Clark said. He walked over to a section
of the floor where a dusty wooden box sat, supporting an ancient oil
lamp with a cracked glass chimney. Carefully he moved the box to one
side and bent. It took only a second to find the fingerhold in one of
the floorboards and he lifted the section of floor upward. Lois stood
back, holding her own flashlight steady for him. "Wow!" she said softly.

Clark leaned the wooden section up against one of the walls of the
cellar and flashed his light into the hole. Something inside reflected
back the light in rainbow colors. He looked down for the second time on
the strange, silver-skinned vessel that had somehow brought him to
Shuster's Field.

Lois approached carefully and knelt by the edge of the hole, looking
down also at the ship. "Wow!" she whispered again.

It didn't really look like any of the big rockets that EPRAD fired into
space, carrying weather satellites and space shuttles out of the Earth's
atmosphere. For one thing, no full-grown human being could have squeezed
into it. It had been meant for a baby -- for him.

"What's this symbol on the front? Lois asked. "It looks like an 'S'."

"I don't know," Clark said. "There's another one -- sort of like a big
cloth decal that looks like it -- in the ship. And some blankets. I
guess they were for the baby -- me, I mean."

"Can you open it?" Lois wanted to know.

"I guess so," Clark said. He knelt beside the hole and reached down,
sliding his fingers under a narrow ridge of metal. With deceptive ease,
the top of the rounded front end of the craft lifted easily to disclose
the padded interior where he had lain.

"Wow!" Lois said again. She leaned over, flashing her light into the
cavity thus revealed. "They found you inside this? It doesn't really
look like a rocket, does it -- more like a space ship you see in comic
books or something."

"Kind of, yeah," Clark said.

Inside, neatly folded by Martha Kent's hand, were two thick blue
blankets of some very soft material, and resting atop them was the large
'S' decal that matched the symbol on the ship. Shut inside the tiny
ship, they were free of dust and clean as the night that Jonathan and
Martha Kent had found this strange craft.

"What's that?" Lois asked. She shifted her flashlight's beam so that
something within the craft gleamed dully in the light and then flashed
more brightly. "Do you see that? What is it?"

"I don't know," Clark said. He knelt on the ancient floorboards, shining
his light into the foremost section of the little ship. There was
something there, nearly concealed by the fabric of the blankets,
something spherical that he had not noticed before. It had either rolled
or been tucked far into the nose where it was almost invisible to all
but the most careful inspection. Cautiously, he bent and stretched his
arm out. It was almost out of his reach, but he leaned forward until he
was almost certain that he was going to overbalance, and his hand closed
around the object.

And he nearly dropped it. It felt like some sort of crystal, smooth and
slick to the touch but, unlike any crystal that he had touched before,
this substance was warm. Clutching his prize, he backed up.

"What is it?" Lois asked again.

"I don't know," he repeated. "I'm going to take it out with me and we
can look at it out there. Have you seen enough of the ship?"

"I guess so," Lois said. "We'd better cover it up again, just in case
somebody decides to come down here. Kids or somebody."

"Yeah." Clark manhandled the section of boards back down over the ship,
hiding it away again and set the wooden box holding the lantern back on
the boards. Finished, he picked up the strange sphere again.

It began to glow, a soft white light radiating from it, and he let it go
quickly, but the ball didn't drop to the ground as it should have. It
rose slowly until it was on a level with his eyes and then remained
there, floating motionless in the air -- and suddenly the featureless
surface changed.

"What's happening?" Lois breathed, staring fascinated at the phenomenon.
Even now, riveted by what was occurring in front of him, Clark found an
instant to marvel at Lois's courage. Other girls might have fled in
panic. She stood still, watching.

The surface swirled with color, taking on a reddish hue. The swirls of
red resolved themselves into an irregular shape glowing in an ocean of
white. Clark leaned forward suddenly as a single word reverberated
softly in his head and he knew, not knowing how he knew, that the globe
had spoken to him.

"Krypton," he whispered.

"What?" Lois asked.

The colors began to swirl again, and the red became mixed with blue,
green and brown and slowly faded away, leaving the other colors behind.
What they saw now on the surface of the sphere was something far more
familiar. It was a tiny and yet perfect representation of the Earth.

"Oh my god," Lois whispered. "Clark, do you see? That red thing was a
continent. It was showing you another world!"

Almost instinctively, he extended a hand. The glowing sphere moved
slowly and gracefully to settle in his palm and the glow began to fade.
"Krypton," he repeated in a hushed voice, awed at the implications of
what had just happened.

"What?"

"It showed us Krypton," he said, cupping the globe in both hands. There
was nothing unusual about it now. It was merely a ball with Earth's
continents pictured on the surface.

"How do you know?" Lois asked. There was no disbelief in her voice; only
curiosity.

"It told me so," Clark said. He lifted his gaze from the sphere and
looked at Lois, a faint tingle running up his spine. "It spoke to me --
in my head. That was Krypton -- the planet where I was born."

**********
tbc