XYK
NB: Sorry for the insane break. This is number 1 of three new chapters, all of which should be up by Friday 23rd.
Chapter 14- "The Goddess."
"Speech,Speech,Speech..." The room full of reporters chanted.
Lois smiled and stood up on the nearest chair; she surveyed the faces of her colleagues and friends but couldn't see Clark. "OK guys, I've been asked to say a few words on my last day, so...."
Jimmy Olsen came bounding into newsroom "Fire, there's another fire!", he screeched.
Everybody turned away from Lois to gather around Jimmy.
Lois was stumped,but stepped off the chair and weaved her way through the crowd until she was standing right next to Jimmy and their Editor in Chief Perry White.
Lois picked up a slice of her leaving cake from the table and picked at it, before she could take a bite Perry yelled "Lane, this one's got your name all over it."
Lois watched her colleagues disperse and put the cake down on the nearest filing cabinet. "It's my last day. I can't report a story. I've got paperwork to get in order, forms to file, boxes to pack..."
"Consider it a leaving present." Perry said as he charged towards his office. Lois ran behind him trying to duck and weave around workers and inanimate objects.
"Can't Jeffery do it?"
"No!"
"Samantha?"
"No!"
"Louise?"
"No!"
"Preston?"
Perry stopped at his office door,"Your ass is mine until the day is over, now pick up a pen, a pad and hustle!"
Lois picked up her bag grudgingly. "jeez, anyone would think I was the only reporter in here."
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The high rise tenement was set ablaze by the time Lois reached the outskirts of Metropolis. All around her there was madness and mayhem ,police,fire engines,ambulances,paramedics and the hysterical former inhabitants of the tenement,all sharing their grief in an array of languages.
Lois got a little closer ,it was then that she spotted Clark in his Superman garb and her heart skipped a beat .Everything would be ok, it had to be.
He was carrying three people out of the carnage and going back in for more.
A young south Asian lady, dressed in a lime green sari covered in smoke and ash slowly walked towards Lois. She handed Lois her baby. The lady had to have been about 25 years old. "Look after my baby..please...".,the lady said as she fainted to the ground.
"OMIGOD!" Lois bent down as best she could and used one hand to check the ladys pulse , "We need help over here!"
Two paramedics came rushing over and started resuscitation on the fallen young woman. People whirled frantically past Lois. "Your mama's gonna be fine,just fine..please be fine."she whispered to the baby whilst gently rocking. She looked at the baby and noticed she had turned a shade of purple.
"I smell gas!" screamed a fire fighter.
"Get outta here, she's gonna blow!" said another.
Lois held her breathe. Where was Clark, she couldn't see him and although common sense told her that he was infallible her heart couldn't help but worry. Just then a huge bang rang out as windows exploded and flames rose as if they were licking heaven.
Everybody ducked for cover from the explosion. Lois held tightly onto the little girl who couldn't have been a more than a few months old.
Feet away the paramedics tried to resuscitate the baby's mother.
"Frank, looks like we've got a D.O.A.", said one paramedic to another.
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Lois stood up when the Doctor entered the hospital room. Lois hovered while the doctor checked the baby's charts and liquid glucose levels.
"This may seem awfully presumptuous, but are you Indian?"
"Yes. "The doctor answered in softly accented English.
"Is there any chance you could translate this for me. It's written in Hindi I think."
The doctor looked at Lois and leant forward to see. Around the baby girls neck was a necklace that had Hindi script engraved onto it " दुर्गा, "
"It says 'Durga' which means invincible. The Hindu deity of one who can redeem oneself in situations of utmost distress." The doctor checked the incubators air supply "If her name is anything to go by, this little one is a fighter."
Lois smiled her thank you to the doctor and the doctor smiled back, and then left the room.
Clark walked in with to plastic cups of sweet tea. He handed one to Lois who gratefully accepted the beverage.
"You want to explain to me what's been going on?"
"There have been a host of fires springing up all over the place. Edge city, Bludhaven and all around Metropolis. Mainly in poor and/ or illegal immigrant populated areas. " Clark put his hands in his pockets.
"How did I not know about this?" Lois looked astounded.
"You've been busy lately..." Clark let the words hang in the air.
Lois, suddenly feeling ashamed, looked down at the ground "Do we know who's doing it? I mean there are too many for it to be just a coincidence."
" No leads."Clark sipped his Tea.
"The night I moved out,the night that you came back covered in ash, it was because you were fighting another fire?"
"Yep."
Lois shook her head in disgust "I don't understand why anyone would do such a thing, to people who clearly have nothing."
"Our baby would have been about her age." Clark said more to himself then to Lois, but Lois caught the words by surprise and felt the tug of her heartstrings."Have the doctors been in ?"
"Yes." Lois followed his eyes towards the incubator "Smoke inhalation. Apparently she'll be fine but they want to keep her in for as long as possible to monitor her."
"Thank God." Clark said, still watching the sleeping infant intently."What about Social services?"
"Yeah they came. Since the hospitals are keeping her for a few days they're looking for any clues of family members here or back in India. But it doesn't look good-everything was burnt in the fire, and if they are illegal like her mother was, then they're not likely to come forward." Lois leant forward and put her head in her hands "It's a mess."
"I'll drive you home, Lois."
"I'm staying" Lois said sitting up right "She doesn't deserve to be alone tonight."
"No. No she doesn't" Clark pulled up another chair to the incubator and looked down at the beautiful sleeping baby.
PTO.