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She played with her Jell-O aimlessly, her eyes more focused on the three silhouettes outside her hospital window, who spoke with animation, many gestures made in her direction. A new stranger had arrived earlier, who had looked as crestfallen as the others when he had discovered that she didn't remember him either.
"I'm Oliver. Oliver Queen." He had said, a hopeful tone heavily coated his voice.
She gazed at him uncertainly, shaking her head. "I don't even know who I am so what makes you think I know who you are?" She had argued, the snarky comments a comforting cover for her massive confusion.
He had stood back up, a sad smirk on his face. "Well, she definitely remembers how to run her mouth." He commented sadly, a sad but hopeful smile on his face that wilted as he realized she wouldn't rise to the bait. The blonde, who had been standing in the background placed her hand into his, ushering him out with a soft mumble of his name. The other hung back for a moment and she glanced awkwardly at him until he gave her a small grin before slowly following the other two.
"I've contacted every doctor I could get a hold of. Sent her file to them too." Oliver told them as they all convened outside Lois' room. "What has the doctor said?"
"Amnesia. Plain and simple." Chloe said.
"I figured this would be more your territory, Clark."
Clark unclenched his jaw, eying Oliver with almost a harsh glare before deflating. It was no use getting mad at Oliver for trying to lighten the situation.
Chloe glanced quickly at Clark before asking her question in one big breath, "And Sacks?"
There was a deep silence where for a moment Clark wanted to punch every hard surface until they were nothing but soft powder beneath his hands.
"He's still in surgery. He'll make it but whatever hit him," Oliver eyed Clark who gave the most indifferent look, "That man will never be the same but this is me not caring."
Chloe took a moment to grab Clark's hands, staring softly at him. "I would have done the same thing. Don't you dare feel guilty or I will slam you into a wall." She said with a smile.
At first Clark thought she meant don't feel guilt over Sacks but he soon realized he meant over Lois, which was right. The familiar burden of guilt had been weighing down on Clark heavily and blame was not to far behind.
"I could have..." He started.
"What Clark? What could have possibly done?" She interrupted hotly. "There was Kryptonite. There's always Kryptonite."
"I really hate those damn rocks." Oliver mumbled in the background. Clark almost gave a small smirk at that.
"Clark," Chloe brought his attention back to her, "Stop blaming yourself and think about what we're going to do about Lois." She said sternly, glancing over his shoulders to where Lois eyed them curiously through the blinds. Clark and Oliver turned to look and Lois snapped her head back down, taking a new found interest in her Jell-O bowl.
"Have you called the General?" Clark asked Chloe, suddenly very worried. "Or Lucy?"
"I couldn't get through to him. He's on a mission down in Peru and isn't reachable for awhile and Lucy, well, that's like trying to catch a fly."
"So...about Lois?" Oliver chimed in.
"Maybe she should stay with you, Chloe?" Clark offered even though he wanted Lois within close proximity to him.
Chloe got some sense that wasn't what Clark wanted but she felt compelled to take charge of her family.
"Yeah, that's fine. Maybe something will ring her bells."
"And Oliver, I want you to find out who Sacks talked to in jail." Clark ordered turning to Oliver who, slightly taken aback, nodded nonetheless. "Someone in there knows I'm The Blur."
"And what are you going to do?"
Clark shrugged his shoulders as he glanced back at Lois who had fallen asleep, her head rolled to the side facing them. For a moment, Clark forgot what had happened. Her features softened by the calmness of sleep; it put Clark in a fantasy where Lois was fine, Sacks was behind bars and they were nowhere near this place.
"What I do best..." He said softly.
Oliver smirked. "Worry?"
Chloe pushed the door open, scanning her apartment before turning her head back behind where Lois stood, an expectant look on her face.
"This is it." Chloe stood in the middle of the apartment, her arms spread wide as she smiled at Lois.
She peeked her head in slowly, her eyes fleeting from object to object, sometimes stopping on one for a moment before moving to the next. Nothing was familiar. Nothing brought any feeling of recognition and for a moment, Lois wanted to run back to the hospital, the only familiar place she had come to know. Her stomach churned with anxiety as she looked back Chloe...her cousin and it scared that someone so close was so far away.
Chloe twisted her hands, "Anything?"
"No." She played with a piece of mail that was on a white coffee table next the door. She was surprised to see her name "Lois Lane" written in bold letters. It was comforting to see some proof that she, whoever she was, actually existed in the real world and not just in the heads of people who told her who she was.
"Did you want some coffee?" Chloe needed to change the subject. It was too much for her to handle Lois not recognizing where she lived. Where she slept.
"You know, that's the fourth time you've asked me today."
Chloe hung her head. "Sorry."
"Oh god! I didn't mean-Do I normally drink so much coffee?" She stammered out ashamed she made Chloe feel so bad.
"Yes. Sometimes more." Chloe chuckled.
Lois let out an easy breath. "Good because I could really go for some right now."
Chloe spun around into the kitchen while Lois followed awkwardly behind. She perched herself on the bar stool and watched as her cousin prepared the coffee. It felt odd. To even think the word cousin was odd since her family were strangers in her eyes.
"Oh, while that's brewing I thought maybe you wanted to look through this?" Chloe offered her a big green photo album that was old and worn, bursting at the seams with pages of overspilling pictures.
"You know...to look at." Chloe offered.
She grabbed the album with much trepidation. A part of her was bursting with curiosity, hope that maybe with just one glance something would come back. Even if it was her sister's name.
Lucy Lane.
But she wanted to remember it, not be told what it was. She gave Chloe a tight lipped grin, pushed the album to her chest and walked over to the couch all while feeling the heavy eyes of Chloe on her back. She sat on the edge of the couch perching the album on her knees. With a deep breath, she opened the album, the crinkle of the papers made it more bearing, as if she were opening up a treasure trove of gold. The first picture was an old one, the edges were worn down and it was faded in some parts but she could see the bright vibrant faces of two young girls smiling at the camera.
"Is that us?" She asked Chloe, who brought over two steaming mugs. Chloe gently placed them down, her head tilted to better view the picture.
"Oh yeah!" She chuckled, "That was the summer I came over to Fort Ryan. It was probably the only time The General stayed in one spot."
"How old were we?" She asked softly, running her fingertips over the slick paper that protected the picture.
"You were 13 and I was 12." Her voice grew distant as she thought back to that summer. "God, we got into so much trouble. Do you remember when we snuck into one of the tanks and pretended we were the A-Team? I was Hannibal and you were Murdock."
She lifted her head slowly to Chloe's, almost wishing she could say yes. "No."
Chloe's face fell slightly and she rubbed her thumbs up and down her coffee mug. "This is hard for me, Lois. I'm sorry if I slip up sometimes."
"Hey, you could tell me I like to juggle fireballs and kick puppies and I would believe you. I'd have fun with this if I wasn't the person..you know, not remembering things." She turned back to the album flipping the page. Her lips perked up in a slight smile as she gazed down at the photo.
"Something tells me I'm not so gung-ho about the color pink."
"That was prom. Yeah, your body was being possessed by Dawn Summers, who got the ability to transfer herself from body to body and she just happened to cross you and voila. She had a thing for hearts and pink."
Chloe glanced up from her ramble to the blinking eyes of Lois. "No, really." She asked, confused.
"Lois, Smallville is the freak capitol of the world. Besides our amazing corn fields and tractor races, we happen to the center of every meteor shower bulls-eye."
She shifted her eyes around, and overwhelming sensation to haul Chloe off to the hospital but so very curious to find out more. She opened her mouth to ask but the sudden rapping of the door cut her off.
"That must be Clark. Guy can't be away from you for more then two hours before he goes crazy." Chloe rolled her eyes as she walked over to door. "She's fine, Clark." She assured with sarcasm. "I can take care of her."
"I...I was..just...I just came...I-Chinese?" He stammered out, holding out a bag that Chloe grabbed roughly from him. She waved him in, slamming the door a bit hard. Clark stood awkwardly in the room as he saw Lois, looking back at him, an album in her lap.
"Chloe's showing you pictures?"
"Yeah. I was just looking at the one from prom." She said, lifting it up to show him. He walked over, the picture coming into better focus the closer he got. She was laughing hard, her face bright and her body tilted forward towards his. Her hand laid on his chest, leverage to hold her up and he was smiling down at her. Clark, for the life of him, couldn't remember what he had said to make her laugh so hard but the feeling of satisfaction that he could trickled back into him.
"Chloe tells me I was possessed?"
"Yeah. Long story."
"Possessed by some freak with a fetish for pink. Obviously not that long." She stated, flipping the page again. Her brows lifted slightly then crinkled as she lowered her head closer to the book.
"What the hell am I wearing?"
Clark moved over and sat down beside her. His body tingled as she lowered into him as he sat down. "That was a costume ball held...by Lex Luthor." His voice grew soft at the name even though it left a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Lex Luthor?"
"Bad man. Next page." Chloe called from the kitchen, where she nibbled on chow mien. Lois obliged and flipped to the next page. This one made Clark's stomach fall but that didn't stop him from smiling. This one Chloe had taken on a bright spring morning a few weeks before the campaign had come to and end and his father had won. Johnathan and Martha had been standing outside when Clark and Lois had walked by arguing over Shelby who was rubbing by Lois. Chloe had just bought a new camera and had wanted to test it out. After many groans and a snap here and there by Lois, Chloe had managed to get everybody, even Shelby, into the picture.
"That's my mom...and dad."
"And the furball?" Lois asked.
"Shelby." Clark smiled. "You like her. A lot." He couldn't help it. Something about looking at that picture, about the ways things had been between them made him want to rub her the wrong way. Nostalgia, he guessed.
Lois turned to him, her lips lifting in a slight smile. "Chloe tells me we lived together."
Clark lifted his eyes to Chloe, who smiled at him through cheeks full of fried rice.
"Does make us..." Lois left the question in the air. Clark looked back at her. "Makes us what?"
"Well, were we ever...you know?"
He gazed back her. Her hazel eyes were wide with expectant answered that Clark felt like he couldn't give her. How many times the thought of them together had rushed through his mind, there and gone with nothing but a slight after-taste of pleasure that left Clark slightly fuzzy. Here, he could feed Lois a whole new world and she would never know. The thought was tempting but it wasn't real. Clark wanted Lois back. The real Lois. The Lois that sneezed around Shelby, that blasted Whitesnake in her car. The Lois that ran head first into trouble no questions asked and who liked to wear Clark's plaid shirts even though she teased him for wearing them. The Lois he had fallen in love with.
"No. We were never a couple, Lois."
"Oh." She turned her head back to the album, leaving Clark wondering if that had been disappointment he had heard in her voice or if it was just him.
Oliver sped through the streets of Metropolis, taking in the sensation of freedom as his surroundings blurred past him in streaks. He turned, rather fast, into a deserted street where the buildings turned from tall and majestic to pathetic and worn. He pulled into a stop in front of a rather patchy building that didn't look like it had long before it crumbled down. He got out of his car and walked into through the door, heading to the back room where Barney sat.
"How's my purple dinosaur?" Oliver asked, taking in his disheveled informant.
"I told you not to call me that, Queen." He spat.
"Can't help it. You awaken the inner child in me." Oliver quipped, pulling a chair over to the table that Barney had placed conveniently in front of him. "Got what I need and maybe I'll stop."
Barney snorted which turned into a fit of harsh coughing. Oliver sat in mild disgust as Barney heaved and thrashed in front of him.
"Do you need water?" Oliver asked after a few minuets had past and Barney had yet to calm down. Barney shook his head, his chins jiggling with every cough. He pointed to a dusty bottle that laid on the floor next to Oliver's feet. He bent down to pick it up, smiling as he read the label.
"Vodka?" With a shrug, he handed it to Barney, who guzzled it down in one chug.
"Can you just give me what I need before you die?"
"Yeah. You owe me big time, Queen." Barney rasped as Oliver opened the envelope Barney slid to him. "That wasn't easy to get."
Oliver read the letters. "You sure this is right?"
"Got it from the top and you can't get any higher then the top."
Oliver flicked him a look from over the tables before shoving the papers back hard into the envelope.
"What's the matter? They're not good enough for Queenie?"
Oliver stood up, throwing a wad of bills over to Barney. "Thanks." As he rushed out, he pulled his phone out.
"Chloe? We've got a big problem."