Rescuing
"Clark!" I whisper for the third time and still there's no response. He never ignores my calls when he can get to me. "No," my stomach roils at the thought they might've caught him. Saliva fills my mouth and I roll to my hip and heave into the long grasses around me, choking and trying to catch my breath. The bullet in my back moves and sends a piercing pain into my shoulder blade. Falling back to get it to cease, I collapse into large hands.
"Beth, we need to hurry." Clark grunts and tightens his jaw as he tugs at me.
"Oh, Clark…!" I smile at him, my lips shaking.
"Baby, I got us some transportation, but uh," he groans, "I need you to help me. Can you walk if I help you?"
Now I know there's something wrong; Clark would rather carry me than have me walk even when I'm healthy. The fear in his eyes fills me and I sit up with much strain and wincing in pain. Once on my feet, he wraps his long arm around my waist and I lean heavily against his shoulder, as we make our way out of the long grasses. "Are y-, you hurt?"
"C'mon, here, watch that hole." His breathing is vexed, like that of a normal man helping a woman walk, but he's not a normal man. "Easy," he opens the side door of an ambulance.
With me hanging onto the door for support, Clark actually does the lifting and sets me down on the passenger seat with a grunt. "Where did you get this?" I mumble, unsure he can understand me.
He closes my door and instantly, his door is open and he's reaching over to help me with the safety buckle I'm struggling with. "It was the Luthors'." He answers distractedly as he glances up in the rear-view and side mirrors. "I disabled their Land Rover, but the armored vehicles won't be-," His eyes widen at what he's seen, "God, here they come." Instantly, the rig is in Drive and we're speeding away.
The road is bumpy, normal for a country road, and normal for every day that I drive around this town, but today, it's excruciating. Trying not to wince with each pothole or swerve he makes around them, I struggle to hold on. "Ngh," I take a shallow breath at the nausea overwhelming me, "And I was finally feeling better..."
"I'm so sorry," he checks his mirrors and guns the accelerator. "I should've sent you with Oliver, you wouldn't have been hurt." He cuts his eyes to mine apologetically before digging in his pocket.
"I'm just glad," I pause with the pain and weakness assaulting me and I lean forward toward my own lap to keep from bumping my shoulder into the seat back. The throbbing is fierce and I slam my eyes shut to push out tears.
"Hang on, baby." Clark's voice is full of worry and regret. The next thing I hear is, "Oliver, we ran into a snag, can you come back and get us?" I open my eyes to see he's talking into his cell phone. "Beth's been shot and we're moving down route 411 away from the farm." He checks his mirrors. "No, I'll explain later; we're in an ambulance, but there are 4 armored vehicles about 200 feet behind me." He pauses, "I'll try." Placing his open phone on the seat beside him, he grips the steering wheel. "Hang on tight, Beth."
The rig swerves through an intersection, tires squealing, as he turns it north nearly without slowing down. I obey the urge to lean to my right to help keep the wheels on the ground, but as the vehicle breaks out of its centrifugal force, my body slams into the side door. I can't keep from screaming out at the pain ripping into me, cascading down my back and through my chest cavity. I can feel Clark's hand stroking my hair as darkness creeps into my vision and I collapse onto the bench seat between us.
Hands are on me, digging and pushing into my stomach and chest. I open my eyes to see Clark removing a seat belt from my ribs. Pulling me up to a sitting position, his eyes lock with mine for a split second. "Hold onto me, I've got to get you on that chopper."
I try to help him, but he's got my hurt shoulder against his chest; I'm unable to lift that arm to get it around his broad shoulders. "S-sorry."
"It's okay," he pushes out on a strained breath as he drags me off the seat and leans back to heft the weight of my frame against him. A few labored steps later and a second set of hands are on me.
"Here, let me take her," Oliver groans as Clark pushes me into his strong arms. He turns me into the wind of the whirring helicopter blades and does his best to walk fast. "Clark, what happened, are you hurt, too?"
"Oh my god!" Chloe cries out as Oliver climbs slowly into the helicopter and sets me on the seat next to her.
"Chloe, hold onto her, please."
"Of course!" Her hands are on my shoulders, tugging me into her lap, stroking absently, as she takes another breath. "Clark, you're hurt."
We watch as Clark climbs in last and sits beside Oliver across the path from us. The guilt on his face is palpable and it makes me forget the pain in my shoulder. After buckling himself in, he leans back against the fuselage and takes a deep breath. "I'm fine."
Oliver opens his bag, pulls out a white t-shirt and tosses it to Chloe, over my head, yelling to be heard over the whining engines. "Hold that against her open wound, try to stop the bleeding."
"Got it," she answers confidently. I know what's coming and I close my lips and eyes in apprehension. The pain on contact feels like I'm being cut in half with a dull saw and my whole body tightens. Unable to stifle my groans, she whimpers loudly as she maintains pressure on my back, "Sorry, sorry, I'm so sorry, I know this has to hurt." She sighs shakily and adjusts the cloth and pressure, "Guh-osh, this is a mess."
The ripping pain steadies and I open my eyes to see Clark holding a tissue out to me, silently watching me as his muscles and jaw tighten again. I hate that he's worried but his physical discomfort still has me worried. Have his abilities been incapacitated ever since I was shot? Was he shot, too?
Apparently Chloe is ready for an explanation, as well. "Okay, Clark, since Beth can't be heard over these ear-splitting engines, tell us what happened." His eyes shift to hers and guilt washes over him like he was just pushed into a shower of it. "Now!" She barks.
"Belay that!" Oliver yells and puts his hand up. Adjusting his headset microphone toward his mouth, he speaks in a dull roar, "What's our ETA?" "Okay, connect me with Dr. Bock at Target Freedom." He focuses on us again and lowers his hand. "Sorry."
Clark's hands twist together in his lap and his eyes fall to mine. "There were so many of them."
"You knew that!" Chloe lashes, her hands pressing harder into my back. I clasp my hand around her knee for support as I cry out.
"Chloe!" Oliver figuratively slashes his throat and her pressure lightens on my back.
Clark re-opens his eyes, revealing redness, "Lex asked me to go with him."
"Lex was there, in person?" He nods at Chloe. "What made him think you would willingly go?"
"He claimed to be a savior of earth; that I am just the beginning of some mass invasion, that what he learns from testing me will save mankind in the future." He looks down at me again, sadly. "Lana tried to spray me with her Kryptonite atomizer."
"Ooh, I gotta give her props for creativity." She shakes her head. "And Lex sure has your number with the guilt routine. So, I guess super speed came in handy?"
Suddenly, the burning in my back increases, my lungs starve for oxygen and all I can do is curl up and try to breathe. Chloe's hand falls heavily on my arm, trying to get it to stop jerking. My lips open for air and my held-back groans spill out in the open cabin. Clark kneels in front of me, placing his hand on my face. "Beth, we're almost there, please hang on."
With my lungs hiccupping for air, I just look at him and blink to communicate my love to him. His breaths are erratic and his muscles are clinched again.
"Clark, what's-?" Chloe leans over me to touch his arm. "Their bullets… she's got Kryptonite in her, doesn't she?"
Nodding slowly, he backs up and falls against his jumpseat trying to get back on it; his breaths deepen the moment he gets seated. She's right; that's why he couldn't carry me, why we fell from the sky when he tried to fly me away from the farm.
Oliver rubs his thighs and reaches for his headset mike again. "Yes, doctor, we have a 20-yr-old female, shot in the shoulder blade area with a large caliber meteor-based bullet, our ETA is 10 minutes, tops." Covering his mike, he bends toward me, "Beth, do you have any drug or latex allergies?"
I take a shallow breath and swallow, the tension is too much. With my shoulder jerking, I look into Clark's eyes through tears in my own. "No."
Ollie nods and releases his mike, "That's a negative, Doctor. Yes, she's conscious."
Clark's eyes widen and he sits up straight, "She's pregnant!"
I can feel the collective gasp in this small space. Oliver barks into his mike, "Hang on, doctor!" Yanking his headset off, he turns angrily at Clark. "I'm confused, how did she come to be pregnant?"
Chloe guffaws and teases through her hand. "Oh, Ollie, I'm in trouble if you don't know that!" Oliver glares at her and turns to Clark again.
My husband's lips open and close again as his eyes roll uncomfortably. His hand comes out, "We were told she had an abortion, and I guess we just accepted it, never tried to determine otherwise. But I could hear 2 sets of heartbeats this morning and when I used my x-ray vision, I could actually see the baby's heart beating." My chest lightens at the look of love on his face.
Oliver shakes his head wryly, grinning, "I'll never get used to all of your abilities, Clark."
"Oh my god!" Chloe jumps in her seat happily, causing me extreme discomfort. "We never did see them, well, extract the fetus," Ollie waves his hands at her to stop. "on tape." She leans over me, "Sorry, Beth, I didn't mean…"
She's not upsetting me, but I can't keep my eyes open any longer. I'm so tired.
Clark is near, his voice coos warmly against my ear. "Beth, honey…"
Clark.
--
I hate seeing her helpless. It's taking everything in me to not run in there and hold her. The doctor has her lying on her stomach to access her shoulder easier; her face is turned toward me, still. She looks like a little girl, so vulnerable, with her eyes closed in sleep and her lips pouting into the oxygen mask. I let her down. I should've pushed her into Oliver's chopper myself, but I thought I was in control of the situation and she trusted me. God, she trusted me to keep her safe. The glass wall between us keeps me from feeling the poison effects, but I can barely breathe, the pain is almost more than I can bear.
--