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Be Not Echoes	By : Isabelle_Jennings Category: DC Verse Comics > Justice League Views: 3673 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: this story is non-profit, I don't own Justice League or any DC Comics characters

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
LOST AND FOUND
BOOK 1: BE NOT ECHOES
PART 1: LOIS LANE IS MISSING
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--J'ONN--
Lois Lane had been missing for more than a month now. The news story had died down, The Daily Planet, Lois's paper, were the only ones besides him still keeping hope alive, running a small page two missing persons ad every day, offering a reward for any information. He'd looked for her using methods beyond the capabilities of anyone on the planet, and he hadn't found a trace. All his training and abilities seemed to amount to nothing where this was concerned. It was a blow to his self-confidence almost as much as it was to his soul. J'onn J'onzz had very few true friends on this world, who knew him for who and what he really was: A manhunter from Mars, the last of his people escaped to Earth after a plague of fire wiped out the rest of his people. Lois had known though, she was what the humans called his 'best friend'. More than that perhaps, it was hard to define for him. Humans were so very different. He'd been on this world for more than a hundred years and he still wasn't completely used to their ways, or completely comfortable around them. Lois had been an exception to that, she'd even put her life on the line to save him the first time they'd met. As fragile as humans were compared to his kind, that courage had deeply impressed him. Even charmed him. They'd made love once. He in the form of a female, as Lois, like many humans, was attracted to her own gender rather than the opposite one. The whole concept of human love making had just seemed so odd to him, actually. She had wanted to join minds even. The whole experience, while not as unfulfilling as he'd feared, had left him feeling unsettled somehow though and he'd retreated. He had held back during their love making too, hadn't actually shared with Lois all that he was as she had with him. Now, he couldn't help regret his actions. Perhaps if he'd not let his fear and grief get the better of him so, he would have been with her when whatever happened to her took place, perhaps he'd have been able to help her.
With what he was doing now, he hoped to make up for that. J'onn stood in front of the mirror in Lois Lane's apartment and inspected himself, or, rather, inspected herself, carefully. He'd changed his body to match Lois's form, down to the DNA level as much as was possible for him, it would take very close testing to show him for the counterfeit he was. He, or rather she (as she was actually truly female as she was now, her race could change genders as they willed), wasn't even taking a chance on making clothes from her own bio-mass, she was using Lois's clothing, even her perfume. Whomever took Lois could have who knew what sort of capabilities, that required as much careful attention to detail and caution as she could manage.
She ran her hands over her body, closing her eyes and adjusting tiny little things within herself, trying to make sure even the feel of her skin matched Lois's exactly. She sighed and smiled to herself. "Alright Lane, get your head in the game. Time to get this show on the road." She touched her hair just the way Lois did and had to wonder a little at the affect. She reached out and touched the mirror, tracing a pattern. "It's like you're right there, but you're not." She told the reflection wistfully. She had a lot of Lois inside her, it wasn't hard at all to talk like she talked, move like she moved, even that certain sparkle in her eyes when she smiled, she could do that too, all it took was to flip a particular mental 'switch' inside her mind and it became second nature for her. They'd made love, Lois had showed her all of that. Her memories? She had them. Also many of her feelings and emotions. She wasn't just like Lois, but she could act close enough to convince anyone but, perhaps, a lover who'd known her very, very well, and Lois hadn't had one of those when she'd been taken.
She went and started to get dressed. An hour and a cab ride later, she was getting off the elevator and walking into the news room at the Daily Planet. She'd gotten lots of looks, people recognizing her on the way in. Jimmy Olson, the photographer Lois most often worked with, had rode up on the elevator with her.
"Lois Lane!" A voice barked as she walked off the elevator. "Tell me I'm not seeing a ghost!" It was Perry White, the Planet's editor-in-chief. Also one of Lois's circle of friends.
"Perry!" She went over and hugged him. "So good to see you again."
"Lois, thank God." A tearing up Cat Grant gave her a hug and kissed her full on the lips. Smiling. "For old time sakes." She explained with a weak smile. She was married, to a man, now, but she and Lois had had a one night stand once and they'd been friends since.
"Wow, remind me to get lost in the Russian tundra more often." She smiled, gently wiping away Cat's tears.
"He-hem." Perry cleared his throat. Lots of others had gathered round.
"I think the chief's not so big on the PDA, Lois." Jimmy provided.
"Mind your own business, Olsen." Perry reproached him. "Now, what's this about the Russian wilds?"
She told them the story of how she'd been on the trail of a local human trafficking/prostitution ring and ended up hiding in a truck that took her to a plane that took her to Russia. She gave Perry a folder with her notes and a SD card with pictures on it. J'onn had dug this up and put a stop to it himself on the down low a week ago, he'd also discovered ties to parts of the Russian government and a certain U.S. senator that would make for a knock-out story sure to have Perry on cloud 9, as the Earth saying went.
She spent the rest of the day getting acquainted, or supposedly reacquainted, with everyone Lois had known at The Planet. She also passively felt with her telepathy for anyone who reacted in a suspicious way to â€˜Lois Lane's triumphant return'. That was the point of this after all. If he couldn't seek out those who'd taken Lois, he'd figured he'd take her place and see if her return stirred anything up. Made anyone worry. If a manhunter could not hunt his prey, it behooved him to arrange things so that his prey would be more likely to come to him.
Later that evening, J'onn, or Lois, found herself at a bar drinking club soda and flirting with Cat Grant. Lois had done most of the talking, Cat peppering her with questions, until Lois/J'onn finally asked. "Cat, is everything okay? I mean really? That kiss before, it seemed like more than..." She trailed off, having gotten a sense for this from the other woman's surface emotions, and not wanting to intrude on her mind unasked, having guessed it was most probably to do with her marriage.
"It's Ron, Lois, we've... I'm pretty sure we're getting a divorce. It's been getting worse for a while now. And, well, since you've been gone, to be honest, I've, um, sort of been missing you... Like in, um, more than just in a friends way?" She admitted.
Lois smiled softly to her and laid her hand and over Cat's. She was almost completely sure what Lois would do in this situation, so she did the same thing. "I see... Cat, would you like to come with me back to my place? For the night?" She asked. The real Lois had actually been carrying something of a torch for this woman for quite a while, secretly hoping something like this would happen and she'd get another chance with her.
Cat just looked into her eyes a moment then smiled a little crookedly with some embarrassment in her expression. "God yes." She admitted, finishing the last of her pina colada and getting up. Lois got up too, and wrapped her arms around the other woman as Cat kissed her. "Mmmm... I'm so glad you're back." She told in a heart-felt voice.
"Well, don't take this the wrong way," Lois said, brushing her hand through Cat's hair flirtatiously. "But I'm kind of so glad your marriage is in trouble." She smiled.
Cat smiled back shyly, swallowing a biting her lip a little. "Why don't men know to say things like that...?" She asked softly.
"I'm sure some do." Lois replied. "I think it's just a matter that your, I mean, for humanity in general, it's easier for a woman to... connect... with another woman. Or a man for a man. For a bunch of reasons. There's just... less of a divide there." She had observed this phenomenon and knew it had different affects from person to person. Some among humanity actually preferred distance in a relationship, while some could bridge the gap, and for still others the gap wasn't always so far, it simply depended.
"Mm, yeah, I guess I can see that." Cat admitted. "Can we go now?" She asked. "I... I really want to take that suit off of you." She admitted in a whisper. Cat was kind of buzzed, not really all the way drunk, just her inhibitions were lowered.
"I think that can be arranged." Lois agreed. "I haven't been with a woman since a week before I left the city, and... I've always kind of regretted it didn't work out between us, if I'm being honest." She told, leading Cat by the hand out the door.
"Me too..." Cat admitted softly, smiling as they exited the club.
"Taxi!" Lois called, then looked over to Cat and smiled.
When they got to Lois's apartment, J'onn was feeling kind of, well, afraid really. Her emotions were kind of all over the place actually, so she decided to throw herself into being Lois and not think about anything else. She opened the door for her guest and once Cat was inside, she closed the door and leaned against it smiling. "So, didn't you say something about wanting to take my clothes off before?" She stopped leaning and advanced on Cat a few steps. "You can now. If you still want to." She told her, keeping eye contact. She remembered the way Lois had been with her when making love and felt kind of a guilty thrill being on the other side of the equation actually. She, he, still remembered his lost wife of Mars very vividly, and had to consciously will him/herself not to think of her now. Cat was a beautiful person, she reminded J'onn of Lois herself a little, and she deserved a lover who was only there with her, not... not with a ghost.
Cat smiled a little of a shaky smile and walked closer to her, taking off her own shoes as she did. "You know just what to say to me..." Cat complemented her.
"It's easy when we want the same thing..." Lois replied, knowing that wasn't true much of the time, but thinking it just might kind of be this time.
Cat took off Lois's jacket, then started unbuttoning her silk shirt, Lois just looked at her hungrily and touched her occasionally as she was being unclothed, Cat leading her to the bedroom. Lois sat down on the edge of the bed in just her panties and a bra. Cat moved to take the bra off, but Lois stopped her. "First I want to see more of you too. Strip for me a little?" She asked with a hopeful kind of lusty wicked smile that also conveyed warmth and wanting.
"Um, yeah, okay..." Cat smiled, starting to take her clothes off in front of the other woman.
Lois just sat, elbows on her knees, chin on the heels of her palms, a speculative mood coming over her as her interest was completely absorbed in watching Cat remove her clothes. Done, Cat stepped over to her and cupped Lois's head in her palms, guiding her head up so their eyes met again. Cat was completely naked now, and Lois/J'onn felt her own body hotly responding as it had when she'd been with Lois as a female before, more so even as she'd made the changes so deeply and completely, and she was so invested in her role that she imagined she was feeling emotions very similar to what the real Lois would feel. Cat moved her back a little and straddled her, sitting on her lap and beginning to kiss her. Lois brought her hands to the other woman's body and kissed her back without restraint. It felt so good and so right to her, it was freeing somehow, to be so much someone else, to just let the massive and all-pervasive trauma in his/her past just fade away.
She felt her body being laid back on the bed, Cat fumbling a little to get Lois's bra off. "Fuck..." Cat breathed, biting her lip and getting up to strip Lois of her panties as well, making Lois smile, before getting back on top of her and capturing her lips again in a hungry, claiming kiss.
Lois groaned a little at the forward, aggressive mood, finding her libido further inflamed by it. She rolled Cat onto her back and got off her to go to the center of the bed so her legs weren't dangling anymore, she beckoned Cat to follow her, Cat did, claiming her lips again in a fierce kiss that landed Lois on her back again. "Just let me be in charge first, okay? Please?" Cat asked softly.
Lois smiled. "I'm yours, have your way with me..." Lois whispered in her new lover's ear. She felt Cat shiver just a little against her and saw her eyes light up a little and a hidden smile ghost across her face. That was one thing she hadn't noticed so much before, how not allowing yourself to read your lover's thoughts, emotions, self, made you pay attention so much more in an attempt to compensate. To learn what wasn't there to plainly see without effort.
Cat kissed her again, pressed her body down on her, sliding her body against her, causing her skin to react in ways that were new to her, her body felt heated and she moaned as Cat started kissing her neck, her hand sliding down between them to touch between her legs to her sex. The fingers slid inside and found Lois warm and welcoming, Lois arched her back and held onto Cat. Sliding against one another in a very sensuous, if a little rushed, way. Lois/J'onn felt something in the background calling to her, something in Cat wanted her to know it was there, it was magnetic and powerful, a resonance that scared her a little. She clamped down on the urge though, with all the force of her will, telling her telepathic senses to stay silent. Soon she was crying out her release and thought was surprisingly absent. She felt blissful in fact as Cat snuggled close and held her. Lois held her back and smiled up at the ceiling, just feeling happy. It was a strange feeling, but she decided she was just going to let it settle in. She moved and started lazily making out with Cat, rolling them over so they were both on their sides, Cat replying with soft sounds of encouragement and pleasure. "Tell me what you want..." She whispered.
Cat told her and Lois complied. They spent the next long while exploring one another, mapping the ways to bring one another pleasure and increased intimacy, friendship, the first sparks of what could be love if they both were to choose that path. And so it was that Lois found herself on her back again, Cat's lips on her tit, her left hand on the other breast, her right playing her sex just so. She could hardly think rationally anymore, things were leaking through under the surface, a part of her far off realized it but couldn't figure out how to act on that knowledge to override the part of her that had become Lois and didn't even really recognize the warning in time, when that thing, that magnetic pull just clicked and she reached orgasm and she was opened up, all of her, and all of Cat too, their minds, memories, souls even, mixing together, giving, just flowing freely, no restraint. It was a complete imprinting, the kind that took place normally during love making for a Martian. More completely even than she had shared with Lois. There, she'd taken in all of Lois, but shielded Lois from her own most broken, ravaged places, not having wanted to inflict that on another person. But something, that something she had tried to keep away, had just unlocked that something inside her. That resonance. She knew now completely what it was: The loss of a child. There was no other feeling like it. It was a wound that simply went to the core of a person and never went away, left you forever changed. And the hurt inside of her from that, it just couldn't stand to let another person suffer that same hurt alone when it was in her power to offer comfort.
The connection between them was bright, unreasoning, blindly feeling. Just joys and sorrows, all life's experiences, shared without censor or judgments. Intimacy, almost as much as two people could have. But the light or sharing/joining did not last, and the next thing Lois really knew, she was holding a sobbing Cat to her and she was staring blankly up at the ceiling, tears running mutely down her cheeks, her mind trying and failing to find peace and a sense of self again. This had hit her hard, in a place she had been very unprepared to be hit, she felt more than a little shattered. So she just held the crying woman in her arms and waited for enough time to pass to where she would feel able enough to put herself back together into some semblance of a whole person again.
An indeterminate period of time later, she realized Cat was wiping her tears away. She looked into her eyes and saw a soft, trembling smile, and she reached up wordlessly to wipe the other woman's tears away as well, shyly returning the smile. "I'm so sorry..." Was all she could think to say.
"Shh, it's... it's okay... I know it, it wasn't your fault. You were, you were just trying to help Lois, she was your only friend, of course you would... and... we just... we both lost the same thing, you... much more than me... ~results will occur even without choice's blessing~" She spoke the last in Martian language.
J'onn/Lois took a second to realize she'd heard that right. It had been so long since she'd heard her birth language spoken aloud from any lips but her own. She smiled a little at that. "Thank you for that." She told.
"I know... everything... absolutely everything about you, don't I? Such a long life... you aren't even a woman, or, you hadn't... chosen to be, not since you were young, not until now? I'm... it's not even the same thing for you is it, genders?" She asked. "You can choose whenever you want, and..." She shook her head. "You've been alive over eleven hundred years... All these memories, like they're mine now too..." She got up and held herself, rocking a little. "How do I make sense of all this... It's... so much... and Lois, I remember her memories too, and your wife's, M'Yri'ah, I remember for her too... I'm Cat, I'm Cat Grant though. How... how do I... remember who I am...?" Starting to cry as J'onn could sense a powerful wave of sadness, sadness that wasn't supposed to be hers to bear, start to come over her.
Lois brought her hand to Cat's cheek. "Look into my eyes..." She told her softly. Cat did, with a shaky but whole-hearted trust. Lois gently entered her mind and, piece by piece, started to put things in order. Put structures in place to deal with the grief and sadness, so she could function. She would need to maintain them, deal with them for herself, but she had all of J'onn's long experience to help her, and she had her own strength of character too. "Do you sense what I'm doing?" She asked softly.
"I... yes... I remember this... I can, I know this, don't I? I know..." She trialed off.
"Everything I know, yes." Lois smiled a little shakily. "I can take it away for you, close the new memories off, blunt them perhaps?" She offered.
"But you can't for your own, can you? That's not how it works... No, I... I don't want you to change a thing. I'll... I'll be fine. And I don't think..." She looked at her, met her eyes and Lois/J'onn knew pretty much exactly what thoughts were going on behind those eyes, even without looking for herself. "I don't want not to know you, J'onn." She touched her face softly, almost reverently. "I'm, I'm not sure if I, you're not Lois, and this is so much, I don't think I..."
"It's all right." Lois smiled. "I know we won't be lovers again, not anytime soon at least. I know you just as well as you know me now, remember?"
"Yeah... but I still, I'd hate it if we weren't friends... I think, I could really use that in my life. Someone... who really knew me, just for me..." She looked down. "I wish I were as strong as you... Maybe, maybe some of your strength will rub off on me, now that I remember for you... Your entire race, your family, your... your daughter..."
"Your son..." Lois echoed, touching her face, tilting her chin up gently so their eyes met. Cat was crying again. "A drunk driver. Charlie James Markus. That was the name of the man who..." She looked away, anger flooding through her. "You wish you could kill him, I think I... I think I might wish that too. Only, in my case..."
"It would be easy. No one... you could kill him and..." Cat spoke.
"And no one would ever know. Yes, I could..." Lois admitted.
"But... you won't, will you?" Cat finished.
Lois looked up to her eyes. "If you asked me, I... I would if you asked me to. I think, I know... I would break my vow for that." She admitted. "To give you peace."
Cat smiled. "You would, wouldn't you?" She realized. "Thank you." She held Lois's hand to her own heart, moved over and kissed her.
They both closed their eyes and let the kiss play out. Cat reached out and touched Lois's thigh, Lois touched Cat's shoulder, but then, as if by mutual consent, they pulled away, and smiled softly to one another.
"I still want to stay over tonight." Cat told her.
"Of course." Lois, touched her shoulders.
"I think I need to divorce my husband..." Cat spoke.
Lois considered that. "~What time has passed, can never come again~" Lois said in Martian.
Cat smiled. "~What you say us true~"
They talked a good time longer, until past one in the morning, and then Lois set an alarm and they fell asleep together in each other's arms.
---CAT---
It was three weeks later now, and Cat had divorced her husband, Ron Troupe, also a reporter at the Daily Planet, and she and Lois/J'onn were roommates now, and best friends as well. The divorce had been hard, and Ron hadn't wanted to agree to it at first, but in the end he'd signed the papers and wished her well. Told her he'd always be there for her if she needed him.
It was a desperately needed new start for her though. As much as she cared for her ex-husband, she just couldn't live with him anymore. He was sad all the time about their son's death; she had been that way too, and still was somewhere inside, but she knew she couldn't stay in such sadness, not and survive it. She had to make a change and move on somehow. J'onn had been just what she'd needed as it had turned out. All the memories and experiences she'd gotten from her, she was still learning to deal with them all, but the whole experience had had a definitely positive net effect on her. And having a friend like her to reply on was such a good thing for her.
J'onn, or Lois... she really was so completely like Lois, wasn't she? And the weird thing was, Cat knew she could do the same thing if she wanted, at least as far as her mind went, if she practiced it enough. She was human, so her mind didn't work like a Martians, but she knew so much about how minds in general worked, that she knew she could make it work for her too. She could give herself Lois's personality and memories and act just like her, or like J'onn... or M'Yri'ah for that matter... it was still hard to think of M'Yri'ah, or... K'Hym... without tearing up. In any case, Lois, J'onn, M'Yri'ah, she knew she could become like them in her mind if she wanted, or take parts of their personalities and sort of mix them in with her own, but she didn't want to do that, be someone other than who she was. It seemed to really suite J'onn though, she could tell.
The same way her divorce and becoming J'onn/Lois's roommate had been a new start for her, she could tell being Lois was very much the same kind of new start for her. And, in a kind of odd way, that's how she'd come to think of her too, as Lois. Not the same Lois she'd known before, the one who was still missing and whom J'onn was still holding out hope of finding, but as Lois none the less. Just, a different one.
And it was amazing how close they'd become. Amazing how... completely secure and at ease you could feel around someone when you knew everything, absolutely everything, about them. Since their first night together they hadn't been intimate with one another, Lois had been right in thinking it wouldn't happen between them again. For her, it was just... too much, the idea of being with someone like that. So completely. Lois had been right about that too, she just needed more distance in a relationship than that. A part of her wished that wasn't true, but she knew it was none the less.
Lois, for her part, had completely respected that choice and they'd just been friends, best friends, ever since. Though, she could tell, if she said she wanted it, Lois would be with her that way. And that was kind of a nice feeling too. Very flattering in fact. That someone knew her so completely and still cared for her that much.
For Lois's part though, she'd been out with a string of other women for one or two night stands on a fairly regular basis since a few nights after what had happened between them. In other words, she was acting just like Lois would act. For her own part, Cat had gone out on a few dates too since then, just trying to see if anything sparked for her. It was hard for her, but she knew she wanted it. Wanted to meet someone. And knew she wanted it to be a woman. That just felt right for her now. The truth was, it's what she'd wanted in her heart form the start, with Lois, the real one. But things had gotten too intense between them and she'd ran. Right for Ron Troupe. That emotional distance thing. Things had been good between her and Ron during their marriage. They'd both given each other the space they'd needed. Ron had been a lot like her in that regard, kind of a private person who didn't open himself up that easily. When they'd had a son, when they'd had Casey, things had still been good. Cat had felt less... lonely, perhaps. Like she had more of a purpose at least. It had all crashed and burned badly of course when their Casey had been killed by that drunk driver. Now... now she was through hiding who she was, or playing it so safe. She wanted to find someone new and fall in love again. And this time, when she found her, she swore, she wasn't going to run away.
Lately, in addition to her society column, she'd been doing more and more human interest pieces. Mostly ones that had to do with children's issues. This one though, was on the East Metropolis City University campus. There had been a number of deaths, two instances of rape, and a few injuries at a college sorority party last night. During a party and after. The students had all been drinking, and many of the students' parents were in an uproar over it. Rightfully so, to Cat's mind. Researching it though, Cat had found that the school didn't have a history of this kind of thing, a little under the typical rates as a matter of fact. In the last year though, things had just seemed to go from bad to worse.
She went to interview one of the college professors, one who was trying to get reforms implemented. The school was pushing the line of hiring more campus security and setting a curfew to handle it, Professor Lemaris and some others wanted to bring in councilors and to do research studies for the best ways to deal with what was going on.
"Truthfully, I really don't know what's going on." Lori told her as they sat down in her office to talk. "This is my second year teaching here. My first year here, everything was perfect... Well, not perfect, but normal, relatively peaceful. This year though, it's... like we've been cursed." She looked down at her hands, obviously feeling saddened by the recent events.
"I've looked into it, and you're definitely right about that." Cat told her. "The year so far, there have been twenty-two deaths, students, faculty, and staff. The record previously for this school, for an entire school year, is seven."
"...I knew it was bad, but..." Lori shook her head. "I wonder if we really are cursed." She looked... kind of guilty saying that, actually. Like, maybe, somehow, it might all be her fault. Cat had a very hard time believing that could be true though.
In fact, after their interview was done, Cat asked Lori out on a date later that evening. Lori had been surprised, but had accepted the invitation, giving her a kind of charmed yet shy smile. The interest was mutual apparently, Cat considered as she left. She had a lot more to look into for her story, and they'd made arrangements to meet later.
Later that evening, Cat picked Lori up in the university parking lot to go on their date. They drove to a sea-food restaurant that Lori liked, located on a cliff overlooking the ocean.
The went in and the waiter seated them immediately, leaving them with water and menus at their table by the window. The restaurant had a balcony outside, but it was fiercely windy today and not that warm out here either, so it was closed for the day.
Lori was gazing out the window at the ocean beyond. The sky was cloudy and the view went on out into the horizon. "It's so beautiful, don't you think?" She asked. "The ocean?"
"I hadn't noticed." Cat told her honestly. She hadn't really been paying attention to the water, she'd been caught up in gazing at her date. She'd changed into a silver dress with shoulder-straps and had been wearing that and a coat when Cat had picked her up for their date. At what point during the day she'd been able to find time to go home and get the dress, Cat didn't know, but she was charmed by the effort, and, now that Lori had taken off her coat, was charmed by the dress and the woman in the dress even more.
Lori turned and smiled to her. "Thanks." She spoke, a little shyly. "I've um, I haven't done this in a while. Gone out on a date, I mean."
Cat caught Lori looking at her chest a little before returning her gaze to her eyes. She herself was wearing slacks and a sleeveless blouse. She'd unbuttoned a few of the buttons to show off some of her own attractive attributes of course. "And... you usually date women? Or..."
Lori shook her head. "I'm bi-sexual. That's... not going to be problem, is it?" She asked, suddenly a little weary.
Cat shook her head. "No. In fact, I suppose we have that in common... or we would have at one point. Since my divorce, I've only dated women." She told her honestly.
"A bad experience with a man?" Lori asked, shaking her head. "I can certainly relate."
"No, nothing like that..." Cat assured her. "It was..." It was her turn to shake her head. "A story for another time. What about you though, this bad experience...? We can...?"
Lori shook her head and smiled. "Like you said, a story for another time."
Cat smiled back a little. Somehow caught in Lori's eyes just then. "So, um, have you always wanted to be a college professor?" Cat asked. Maybe it wasn't the best segue into friendly conversational waters she'd ever come up with but she hoped it would do.
The conversation went well from that point, and they stayed late and had dissert. When the date was over, Cat drove Lori home and they kissed goodnight, making plans to get together for lunch the next day on-campus.
---J'ONN---
It was some months later Cat had divorced her husband, Ron Troupe, also a reporter at the Daily Planet, and she and Cat were roommates now, and best friends as well. Cat was dating someone steady, a woman named Lori Lemaris, who she'd met investigating some strange goings on at the college campus where Lori worked as a professor, teaching sociology and mythology courses. Lois/J'onn had helped clear that up and the three had become fast friends. Lori had actually turned out to be a mermaid, much to Cat's surprise (as most people didn't think mermaids really existed). She had left her people to get away from an abusive former lover. Lori knew Lois's secret by now too, that she was really a Martian, and about the real Lois being missing. For herself, J'onn/Lois had kept up dating women on and off, but it never seemed to go past three or four dates at most.
She hadn't had any more accidents like what happened with Cat, but she also hadn't been able to really connect with any of the women she'd dated either. Which was just as well, the real Lois was also known for being obsessed with her work and not especially prone to commitment in her personal life. There was one instance, when Lois had been on a story about Intergang, a continual focus for her since she suspected they might have had something to do with the real Lois going missing, if only from their history together. She found and rescued a woman, Joan Dale, Miss America, who they had in stasis and were using as a power source. She fought a goddess named Lashina from Apokolips, and with Joan's help, defeated her. Lashina retreated back to wherever it was she came from. Joan hugged her in thanks and kissed her on the cheek. She was straight apparently, which was a shame, Lois thought, because she had definitely had what would be called a crush on her. Felt a connection somehow. Maybe just because she'd been a woman who'd lost her world too, or, at least her time. She'd been a little tempted to reveal her secret and become a man again, if only for the chance to see what could come between them. But her commitment to finding Lois overrode that impulse.
J'onn was getting more and more comfortable being Lois though, more so it actually started to feel more genuinely like the real her. She started to identify as female much more deeply too. It was so easy and so tempting just to be someone else, to change her gender even, it made her feel like she had a real chance of having a complete life again, not just echoes of her loss. That's how she'd been feeling all these years on Earth she'd come to realize, like she was an echo, of her people, the last of them sounding out to those nearby so they wouldn't be forgotten completely.
As it so happened though, today was the day she'd meet another of those echoes. She was at work, she'd noticed a man from across the room, he'd drawn her attention momentarily, but she'd been hard at work writing a story and had gone back to it.
"Lois! Get in here!" Perry, her editor, called from out of his office not much later.
"Be right there chief!" She called, rushing to finish writing the paragraph she was on.
"Now, Lane, I don't got all day!" Perry called back.
Lois grumbled to herself and typed a few last words before getting up and hurrying to the chief's office.
"Lois, I have someone I want you to meet. Real world traveler this one." He introduced from standing behind his desk, a gorgeous view of the city at his back. "Lois, this is Clark Kent. From Smallville, Kansas originally, if I understand. Brilliant writer."
Clark adjusted his glasses and extended his hand to her. "Pleased to meet you, I hope we'll be good friends." He smiled a little awkwardly to her.
Lois took his hand and looked him over. He was really well built, and, under the glasses, strikingly handsome too. The way he was acting, that was obviously a pretense of some sort. She looked a little into his mind and was surprised to meet a veritable blur of thoughts moving faster and in more directions than she could remember ever seeing, even in a Martian. She smiled. "I'm sure that'd be an experience." Lois smiled a little teasingly, flirting with him for some reason. "Pleased to meet you too, Smallville."
"Clark here's a new hire, an honest to goodness news man, give Ron and you a run for your money I'm betting." Perry touted, apparently very pleased to find more proof that his profession had hope of maintaining its integrity into the future, despite what he considered to be the general level of dumbing down in the media as time went on. "I was hoping you'd show him the ropes around here, maybe partner up with him on a few stories? Get his feet wet in the big city and all." He asked.
"No problem, I'd love to." Lois replied.
"Now Lois, I know you don't usually like to work w..." He'd started to turn and pace. "What did you just say?" He turned around and looked at her, having expected this to be anything but an easy sell obviously. Lois winced a little internally, realizing she shouldn't have reacted like she had, the real Lois probably wouldn't have, but she was just so -curious- about this Kent guy...
"I said: It'd be a pleasure." Lois doubled down stubbornly, too late to back out now. "Come on Clark, daylight's a wasting. Bye chief, good talk!" Lois took Clark's hand and led him out of the office, Clark looking back a little confused at the chief.
"Well I'll be a monkey's cross-eyed brother on a Sunday in June." The chief said under his breath. "No taking him to Suicide Slum and leaving him Lois, I mean it!" Perry called after them.
"Sure thing, chief!" Lois called back. "Don't worry!"
"'Don't worry' she says." Lois heard Perry mumble to himself, causing her to smile a little at having flummoxed him.
"You have a desk yet, Smallville?" Lois asked.
"No, Mr. White told me to pick one of the open ones and plant myself." Clark told, not quite sure what to do with the briefcase he was carrying. Lois took it from him and sat it down on the desk across from hers.
"Here, this desk's open. All yours, if you want." She offered, moving to sit on the edge of her desk.
"I, uh, sure, that'd be great. Thanks Ms. Lane." Clark accepted graciously.
Lois shook her head. "Lois. I'm Lois, you're Clark." Lois corrected with a smile.
"Thought I was Smallville." Clark countered with a hint of a patient smile.
"That too." Lois smiled. "And that's more like it by the way. Come to think of it, what's with that shy-guy act of yours anyway? It's your shtick, right? How you catch people off guard?" She asked.
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure I know what you mean...?" Clark asked, doing an admirable job not to appear nervous, real nervous, not just pretend nervous.
"Sure you do. The slouched posture, the deferential mannerisms, the lack of self-assurance? It's an act." Though she was sure Clark did have a surprisingly well developed feminine side for a man in most Earth cultures, which was charming. She suspected he'd grown up with sisters. "Not a bad act, but an act all the same. I'm good at reading people, so don't bother denying it, Smallville. You might as well be an open book, as far as this reporter's concerned." She smiled.
"Oh, really. And if I'm putting on an act, who am I really then?" Clark asked.
"You know who you are, Clark. You don't need me to tell you." Lois smiled, got up and went to her computer. "I just need to finish up this story of mine on the local elections, send it down to editing. Mind hanging out here for a bit while I do that, shy-guy?" Lois asked, not bothering to wait to seat herself and start typing again.
"Sure do like nicknames, huh?" Clark observed. "I'm not going anywhere." And he went to sit at the desk across from hers that she'd offered him.
"Good. After, we can go out, beat the bushes, kick your tires, see what's what. I've got a few stories in the works, a meeting with a source at one. You can come along." Lois looked up. "I promised Perry I wouldn't ditch you. Don't make me regret it, understood?"
"Um, yes. Understood." Clark acknowledged.
Lois shook her head. "I'll get you to drop that act for me yet, Smallville. I'll bet you a hundred bucks." Lois told, smirking to herself a little as she started to proof read her work, not wanting to look bad to the editors.
"No bet." Clark replied, seeming more easy going now.
"Smart man." Lois quirked a little of a kind of almost shy smile at him.
"And you're a very smart woman, aren't you?" Clark told back.
"Caught me." Lois replied, a bit distracted, but still easily able to follow the banter. "You hungry? It'll be lunch time before long." She offered.
"Sure, I could eat." Clark agreed.
She looked up and caught his smile and froze just a second. Her heart beating a little faster. "Um, yeah. Great. Any objections to run of the mill deli fare?" She asked.
"None at all." Clark replied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(to be continued)
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Be Not Echoes