Until the End

by Catherine Bruce <vidgoddess@gmail.com>

Rated PG

Submitted April 2008

__________

Okay, so I have always wanted to write a story about this. It's always been at the back of my mind, demanding to be written, and thanks to the gentle prodding of CapeFetish it finally is!

Thanks to CapeFetish for the impromptu Betarizing, though I warn you! All mistakes are mine!

Takes place in a skewered version of Lois and Clarks. And sadly, it is much shorter than I had originally anticipated. But hopefully, it still packs a punch.

*wonders where the evil laughter is coming from...*

**

He had originally come to this universe to help, to stop Tempus from taking over as John Doe in this dimension, and to help bring Lois's Clark Kent home.

Clark knew now that his search for Lois - his Lois - was futile. She had died, prematurely, and without her he knew that his life was incomplete.

This one, though, desperately needed his help, whether or not she wanted to admit it.

He had done all that he could to try to rescue his counterpart. But in the end, Lois was left with a husband trapped in the depths of time, and he was left listening to the sounds of her heart breaking.

"I'm so sorry," he had tried to say, wanting nothing more than to bring her comfort.

"I knew it," she had cried, pounding her fists against his chest. "I knew that your coming here was a mistake! If you hadn't been here - he would be!"

Clark tried to hold her, to allow her to let loose with all the grief that she tried to bottle up from the rest of the world, but she refused. He wasn't the same as the other one, as the better one, and through her grief and despair, she lashed out on him in ways that he would never have expected.

He had made up his mind what it was that he was going to do before he had even crossed dimensions, when H.G. Wells had first told him of what had happened. If it came down to it, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he would give everything for Lois's happiness, no matter what plane of existence she lived on.

However, when it came down to acting on it, he was afraid. More so than the Man of Steel should ever be.

I bet he wouldn't hesitate, he thought begrudgingly, trying not to truly despise his other self.

Clark had stayed in this alternate dimension for several days after the failed attempt to retrieve Lois's true husband. At first, he hadn't had the heart to leave her during such an emotional time. In the end, he realized that he had just been stalling.

On the third night, when he had kissed her thoroughly, she hadn't pushed him away. He tried, desperately, to pretend that it was real, that she was there. But when she clung to him, her body shaking as her eyes were closed tightly, whispering the name of a man who was both himself and someone who no longer existed, he knew that he had to stop this.

"I'm so sorry," he had whispered again, even as she was already pulling away, away from him, closing herself off to the world. He hated himself for causing that look of devastation in her eyes, wishing that he could somehow bring the light back to her face.

He of course, knew the way how.

On the fourth night, when Wells suggested that they finally go home, Clark readily agreed. However, as the old author put in the coordinates to a timeline that offered nothing but loneliness, Clark whispered an apology as he dumped the older man onto the ground, knowing he could get home.

Correcting the time and place, Clark found himself in an alleyway. Checking the time, he knew he had arrived when he needed to.

Moments later, his double arrived. One well placed blow later, and Lois's husband lay, crumpled on the ground unconscious, never knowing what it was that he was about to miss. He would not know what Clark was going to do for him, and for Lois, until it was too late.

Then, too soon, he was reaching through the time portal, wanting only to touch the one woman through time and space that held his heart one last time.

As he was swallowed up by time, his only prayer was that his alternative self knew just how lucky he was to truly hold the heart of Lois Lane.

-end

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