Between Time and Space

By Dandello <momkat@dandello.net>

Rated: PG

Submitted: September, 2006

This is my take on what if Kal-El never returned to Earth as promised after BGDF.

The usual disclaimers apply, as always. I don't own any of them, but I do borrow freely and I don't always put them back where they belong.

______

Lois Lane was dying. At seventy-one, she'd had a good life - not the one she'd wanted, but a good life nonetheless. Her sons, Jason and Clark, sat at her bedside, their wives and children close by. She wasn't in pain, except for the one in her heart. The pain had been there for forty-two years - since the day the love of her life, her soul mate, chose honor and duty over his love for her.

She couldn't blame him for going to New Krypton, for accepting being made First Lord, bringing peace to a war-ravaged world. It had been her choice, too. So she lived with the pain, rebuilding her life, marrying a good man, having his children.

She'd been diagnosed with liver cancer only three months before and had refused treatment. It was time to go.

"Clark, wait for me," she said. Her younger son moved closer, then realized she wasn't speaking to him, but to her first love, Clark Kent, Kal-El of New Krypton. She smiled and her face was transformed. She stopped breathing.

****

"Lois," Kal-El, First Lord of New Krypton murmured. His eldest son and heir, Jon-El, looked up from his work to see his father's eyes glaze over. He reached out with his mind and touched his father's thoughts. They were filled with longing and regret and the image of a beautiful dark-haired woman who was smiling lovingly. Jon-El recognized the image - Lois Lane, the love of his father's life, the woman he'd given up to help and protect New Krypton.

"I'll be there," Kal-El, ruler and savior of New Krypton, promised as his heart stopped.

****

Lois Lane Kent White was buried in the Kent family plot in Smallville Cemetery, next to the empty grave of her first husband, Clark Jerome Kent. They'd never actually made it to the altar, but it was a moot point. As far as they, and their families, had been concerned, they had been married, even if for only a short time.

She had been lucky to find Richard White, Perry White's nephew, to partially fill the void in her heart. He had been a good man, much like Clark in many ways. She had wept bitterly when he died, wept that she hadn't been able to love him as he had deserved. As he had loved her.

The funeral service was a quiet one. Lois had been a top newspaper reporter, but she had always abhorred media attention, especially media attention on her relationship to Superman and on the disappearance and presumed death of her partner, Clark Kent.

****

Kal-El's body was displayed in state for three days in the rotunda of the Hall of Ancestors. Death had not diminished the solemn majesty of his visage, but the warmth of his eyes, the kindness of his smile, was gone. He was wearing his robes of state, emblazoned with the sigil of the house of El, a sigil recognized on Earth as belonging to Superman.

Jon-El and his mother, Lady Zara, had considered sending his father's body to Earth for burial, but decided against it. It was better for both planets if they forgot the other. Godhood was far too tempting, and Kryptonians became near gods when exposed to the golden radiation of Earth's sun for any length of time. Kal-El's body was consigned, in accordance with New Kryptonian custom, to the red sun of New Krypton.

****

"Beloved," Clark Jerome Kent called in a place beyond space and time. Clark was the favored name of his most recent incarnation, but he'd had many others, as had his beloved Lois. He spied a dark-haired woman with warm hazel eyes beckoning to him.

"Honey, over here," Lois Lane smiled, holding out her hand to him. He was tall and handsome, dark hair slightly mussed in the way she had always loved. He smiled at her, chocolate brown eyes filled with love, and her world lit up.

"You are so beautiful, and I love you so much," he murmured, taking her into his arms. "I am so sorry I couldn't come back. I'm so sorry I couldn't be with you."

"We're here now, so shut up and kiss me," she said. They kissed and joined in the dance of eternity, one soul, divided in two, always searching for the other. Here in this space that was not a space, a time that was not a time, there was but one soul, whole at least for a time as two bodies joined.

They walked through green meadows and gardens, ate golden apples, and drank ambrosia. They watched purple and orange sunsets and pink sunrises on golden beaches with others taking their rest in this place of eternal green summer.

"Did I make a difference?" he asked after a minute, or was it an eternity?

"Yes, on two worlds," she said. "But next time, stay in mine."

"What about Utopia?"

"There's time for humanity to create it for themselves," she said. "But you showed the way. Strength with compassion, honor and mercy."

"And you showed them truth, and love," he murmured. "We were the best. The hottest team around."

"We're still the hottest team around," she said with a smile. "And we'll be the hottest team wherever we are, so long as we're together."

"Is it time to go?" he wondered.

"We have two worlds to choose from."

"Earth will be okay without us for a while, I think" he said. "New Krypton can use our help."

"They'll never know what hit 'em," she said with a smile. "Don't forget me."

"Never, beloved," he said. "I'll be waiting for you."

****

Jon-El, First Lord of Krypton, looked down at his three-month-old grandson with wonderment. Chocolate brown eyes met his and he marveled at the wisdom he glimpsed there. "Jer-El," he murmured. "It's time to meet your birthmate, Loia of the house of Us. It's time to meet your future."

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