The Beginning in the End

Chapter 2

Clark left LuthorCorp with Tess in his arms and instantly flew her to Metropolis General Hospital with trepidation and nervousness in his heart. He focused on listening to the sound of her heart beating but it was so soft that it scared him that she was quickly running out of time.

He saw the hospital only a few seconds after he had set off and then he the closer he got the more anxious he became. Clark landed in front of the hospital with a thud that shook the ground causing everyone in the area to stop what they were doing and look at him.

Clark found the first person he could and approached them with his friend still in his arms. "Please, you have to help this woman. She's been stabbed and she's bleeding to death."

That seemed to trigger the emergency response from the doctors and the nurses around. "When was she stabbed?"

One doctor asked him as he pushed a stretcher in front of Clark and he immediately placed on top of it but made sure to do so carefully. "I don't know when she was stabbed but she's losing a lot of blood. Please help her."

"Do you know this woman?" The doctor asked.

He shook his head. He hated to do it but Tess had not yet been publically connected to any of the superheroes besides Oliver and he needed to keep it that way for her safety and the safety of everyone else.

The doctor started looking her over as did a few nurses and in the rush to save this woman's life they completely forgot about the man that flown in with her that was dressed in spandex. "Prep OR 1 and get the surgical team set. Let's move her in ASAP! Let's go, people."

The team gathered around the stretcher and rushed Tess through the doors of the Emergency Room and left Clark standing there waiting.

"Excuse me?"

Clark looked around and found that while the people that were attending to Tess had forgotten about him that no one else had that was standing outside the hospital. And now, one woman had come up to Clark and was in front of him.

"Young man," The little old lady began with a warm smile. "You're the one that saved us from meteor, aren't you?"

Clark nodded, "I was just trying to help, ma'am."

"May I ask who you are?" She replied with another warm smile. Clark could see the others around him were coming in closer to get a glimpse of him and to hear what he was going to say.

Clark really did not know what do because while he was calm on the outside, his mind was on Tess and her wellbeing. So he just smiled back at the woman and the others.

"I am a friend." Clark said and then he took to the skies as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

He left in his wake a crowd of people staring at him in amazement.

Clark was back at the emergency room sooner rather than later because after he had placed Tess in the care of the doctors he had set out to find Oliver. He found his friend back at Watchtower in a frantic state of panic and anxiety.

When Clark had told Oliver where Tess was the two men were out of the door again and back on their way to the hospital. Clark followed Oliver all the way down to Metropolis General and he was torn between concern for Tess' life and wondering how close Oliver was to completely losing his mind because it appeared to Clark that Oliver was well on his track to freaking out.

They walked through the doors of the Emergency Room about a half hour after Oliver had found Tess on the floor of LuthorCorp. Clark trailed behind Oliver just a little when the blonde was walked right up to the receptionist and started blurting out words.

"My name is Oliver and my girlfriend was brought in a little bit ago. Her name is Tess Mercer and I would like to see her right away. She needs to okay, is she okay?"

Clark was startled not only by the urgency in his friend but by the fact that in the last half hour or so, Oliver had referred to Tess as his girlfriend quite a few times. He really hoped that it was just a slip of the tongue during his panic because if it was anything more than that things were about to get very complicated.

"Okay, sir I need you to calm down. I can look at our patient information but I need you to calm down."

Clark stood next to his friend at the counter and watched as the receptionist typed things into the computer. "Ma'am, I think she may be in surgery. She was suffering from a lot of blood loss."

The receptionist looked up from her computer screen. "Were you here when she was brought in?"

Clark panicked. He started thinking of anything that he could say besides how he had been the one to fly her in. "Uh—"

"Our friend works at the Daily Planet and was working on a story here when Tess was brought in so she called us."

The receptionist looked satisfied with that answer and turned back to her computer. "We have two people currently in surgery from the ER and one is a female Jane Doe suffering from loss of blood and one stab wound to the abdomen."

"That's her! She is okay?" Oliver asked.

The receptionist looked back up at him and Clark to give him a sympathetic look that made his heart clench in his chest. "I am sorry but it's too soon to tell anything and she is still in surgery so it could be a while. But I will let the doctors know that the two of you are waiting for word on her condition. Please take a seat."

Clark tugged on Oliver's arm as they made their way into the waiting room. It was full of people but they managed to find a place with two chairs and sat down.

It was hard to get Oliver still enough to sit down because he was practically bouncing off the walls. "I don't know what I am going to do if she's dies."

Clark sighed. "She's not going to die."

Oliver paced some more up and down the aisles of the waiting room while Clark sat down. "You don't know that, man. You are not a psychic, you can't see the future. She could die. And what I am I going to do if that happens?"

Clark shrugged and tried to repeat his earlier statement.

But Oliver continued talking. "Do you have any idea what it was like for me being on that island? I saw nobody, touched nobody, spoke to nobody for years, Clark. You remember what it was like for you to be without Lois, right?"

Clark nodded unsure where this rant was going to but he knew that Oliver was not going to be stopped.

There was panic mixed with desperation in his voice, and his body. It seemed to Clark that Oliver had something to get off of his chest and the fear that was inside was propelling whatever that something was out into the open.

But a part of Clark knew that also that whatever this something was would not be able to be put back inside again when everything settled down and he feared what might happen next for the friends he held so dear.

"You were lost without her, right? I was lost on that island, literally, for years. And by some chance of fate, only one person found me. It was Tess. She was the first person I saw after I had spent years alone on that island. I carry that image of her with me every day. It's in everything I do because I figure that if at the end of the worst time of my life I find the woman I love then hope always exists. She's my hope, Clark. I can't live without that."

Clark had to close his eyes when he heard it but the action went unnoticed by Oliver.

The woman I love then hope always exists. She's my hope, Clark. I can't live without that.

Oliver, his best guy friend who was married to his best childhood friend Chloe, had just confessed his love for Tess who was another close friend. This was surely going to get complex but for now, he could not focus on that.

Oliver had finished his rant by sitting down next to Clark and he decided to show his friend some support and comfort in his time of need. If Oliver's heart really belonged to Tess then the next few months of their lives would not be easy… add on top of that his new found level of publicity and Clark just hoped he would be able to find time alone with Lois in the next few months.

Clark sighed.

"Man, she'll be okay. You have to have some faith." Clark pleaded with Oliver as the man next to him tried to fight back tears. Clark saw as his friend calmed down a little and nodded his head in response.

"After everything I've seen today… I can go on a little faith." Oliver said with a soft voice as they both stared at the doors marked for surgery and knew that beyond those doors Tess was lying on a metal table clinging to her life.

And they waited clinging to their own faith that she would be able to survive.

End of Chapter 2.

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