Episode Fourteen: Bedside

000000000000000000000

Mornings in the Metropolis Memorial Hospital brimmed with chaos. Chloe watched the movement of nurses, doctors and patients from her perch next to Jimmy's bed the entire night. Because Jimmy's condition improved greatly over the course of the night, the doctors chose to keep him down in the ER until he awoke from the sedative. He required quite a few stitches along the wound, but thankfully nothing more. If the werewolf's claws had pierced just a few inches deeper, Jimmy would probably be in surgery, under the hands of surgeons desperately trying to save his spleen, or possibly a kidney. Other than the wound on his chest, and a bump on the head, Jimmy came out of the experience with everything intact.

But for Chloe, it wasn't nearly good enough.

She took the last sip of her coffee, her tenth cup since she's been here. Nurses continued to encourage her to go home, get some sleep. But Chloe just couldn't leave Jimmy here alone, especially when she blamed herself for what happened. Though she had not yet heard the reason why he had come to her so unexpectedly, Chloe could hardly be angry with him for following her. Because of him, she was alive. Jimmy had shown up just in time to save her from the first close call. Just in time to give Clark a few more seconds to arrive and save them all.

Without either of them involved, someone would have ended up on the werewolf's menu by the end of the night.

Sighing deeply, Chloe looked up from her Styrofoam cup to gaze at Jimmy. He only opened his eyes once since the ambulance brought him here, and just after he was shuffled into the trauma room. When he saw her looking over him worriedly, he smiled softly then drifted back into momentary darkness. The ER nurses and doctor's worked on him for a little while, stabilizing his condition with numerous medicines. In a very short time he was off the heart monitor, stitched up, and fast asleep in a bed behind a curtain in the emergency room, safe and sound. Chloe sat next to him almost the entire time, save for a short walk to stretch her legs at a little past three in the morning. And, of course, whenever she needed to refill her coffee cup.

While she waited for Jimmy to improve, thoughts of the past few days settled uncomfortably in her head. Much to her dismay, Chloe felt her mind lingering back to Clark and the excitement she felt when he had saved them for the thousandth time. Of course, she loved Jimmy for coming to her rescue, and risking his life to save her. And though Clark had super powers, he risked his life just the same. If he had come within a few more yards of the werewolf, Clark would have been just as vulnerable as Jimmy. Clark knew the personal risk he was taking by coming to her aid, yet the danger didn't faze him in the least. The danger never fazed him. He had rescued her so many times, that she eventually lost count after the first few years in high school. And while in his arms last night, having just escaped the jaws of death again, Chloe felt safe. She felt like she could close her eyes, even with a werewolf still very close, knowing nothing bad would ever happen to her while protected within Clark's embrace.

With Jimmy she rarely felt that way. She liked him quite a bit, enough to sleep with him more than a handful of times. But he didn't sweep her off of her feet.

Chloe cursed herself for even making the comparison at a time like this. Jimmy tried to rescue her. He really did. And he had come within inches of losing his life, or, at the very least, going on with one less functioning organ.

Then why was she thinking like this? Did she love Clark that much more?

Bemused, Chloe stood and walked over to the coffee pot next to the nurses' station. Because she had been there almost the entire night, the nurses eventually gave her full access to the free coffee. Though it was hardly gourmet, it was far better than the vending machine sludge she tried to drink for the first hour of her stay. After she poured herself another cup, Chloe started to walk back towards the motionless Jimmy.

But a hand casually took hold of her arm.

"Hey."

Chloe turned to the voice, and smiled. "Clark ... hi."

Clark smiled back weakly, and then looked over to Jimmy. "How is he?"

"Better," she replied. "Though after just barely escaping a werewolf murdering spree, anything would look like the Garden of Eden." They walked closer to him as she spoke, but Clark promptly stopped, leaving at least ten or more feet between him and Jimmy. When Chloe noticed he was suddenly missing from her side, she looked back to him confused. "Clark?"

"Sorry," he whispered. "But I can still ... feel it."

Chloe glanced to Jimmy for a moment, then back to Clark. "You mean ... ?"

He nodded.

"Short of Jimmy taking a bath in the green goo, you shouldn't be feeling it now," she said softly, coming up close to him. "The nurses stripped him completely, and I looked through his belongings myself. I didn't see anything even resembling kryptonite."

"I don't know what's causing it either. I just know I can't be very close to him right now."

Chloe gazed back to Jimmy curiously. "Sounds like the victims have more in common than just werewolf encounters."

"An encounter with kryptonite," Clark finished for her, though with a shade of skepticism. "But you even said you checked Jimmy's belongings, and there wasn't anything."

"Maybe not on him," she replied, turning back to Clark. "But maybe in him. You didn't remember seeing any shiny green rocks when you faced the werewolf yourself, but you felt their presence. Maybe it's in the werewolf, too. Maybe every time he strikes someone, he infects the person he strikes, if they survive, with kryptonite."

"But why am I not infected?"

Chloe shrugged a little, suddenly deeply concerned for Jimmy. If he had kryptonite ravaging through his system, there was no way to know how it would affect him. Knowing her past as she does, and recalling the database on her computer labeled 'The Wall of Weird', Chloe suspected Jimmy's life might change much more than anyone could fathom. However, Clark did have a point ... why wasn't he screaming in agony from the kryptonite pulsating through his veins from his own attack?

"Super healing? Maybe you heal too fast for the infection to take hold."

Clark sighed and revealed the pages of notes he took the night before from his back pocket. "Maybe," he acknowledged, remembering his past spent in the presence of other kryptonite infected people. "When someone injects it straight into their system, I could never get close to them until their body was flushed clean."

Chloe noticed the pages of notes in his hand and decided to change the subject. Despite the clear importance of the green rock to this case, she had trouble discussing it with Clark right now. It had only been a few days since the werewolf struck him, and the vision of his bleeding, shredded body had yet left her mind. Even worse, her boyfriend was in a hospital bed, possibly juiced forever by the toxin. Nothing about the green rock was pleasant to talk about right now.

"What are those?" she asked, gesturing to the worn pages.

Clark looked to them. "The reason why I'm here. I interviewed the witnesses at the Smallville Medical Center last night. The witnesses you didn't want to speak to, because you preferred to be chased through the woods by a werewolf."

"I didn't go to the park looking to be sliced and diced," Chloe corrected with a smirk. "I was following a lead."

"Which you have yet explained to me," Clark mused, stepping closer to her. Looking into her eyes, the amusement from his face vanished, replaced by the concern he felt the moment he saw the werewolf hovering over her terrified form in the park. "Why won't you tell me who gave you the lead? Or where you heard it?"

Chloe shrugged sheepishly. "You can bat your eyes at me all you want, but a reporter never reveals her deep throats, Clark ... even to impressionable farm boys like you," she insisted, though the guilt in her heart threatened to choke her. If Jimmy did develop some weird kryptonite induced ability because of his exposure to the werewolf, than she would really feel horrible. Me and my stupid insatiable curiosity. And my desire for the Pulitzer, no matter what it takes. "So what did you find out?"

"Well, no one actually saw Zack leave. They only heard something crash through the wall. And when the nurse on duty went to the room to investigate, she said she might have briefly seen someone jump out of the gaping hole just as she opened the door to Zack's room. Said it was too dark to see anything clearly, but she really thought someone had been there."

Chloe smirked. "So we're back to the dark, mysterious man hook?"

"I did try to follow the footprints," he offered, ignoring her sarcasm.

"And?"

Clark shrugged. "I followed them through the woods for a while, and then they disappeared. But there was only one set to follow."

"So you're saying the werewolf had take out?"

"Well ... possibly ... ".

"Or Zack left on his own."

Clark nodded. "Right."

Chloe thought about it for a moment. Though Zack might be physically strong, there was no way he could have shattered through the wall. Only Clark could have pulled off something like that. Someone could have visited Zack before hand and given him the appropriate tools to escape. But why hadn't the nurses noticed anything peculiar? Certainly the sight of explosives hidden underneath his hospital gown would have aroused some suspicion. Of course, someone on the outside could have blown the wall, which was possible. No one heard Zack scream for help, so it might have been someone he was expecting beforehand.

"Well, I think we should try to talk to the CEO again," Clark said.

Chloe grimaced. "We? Clark, I don't know if I feel comfortable leaving Jimmy ... ".

Clark placed a hand on her shoulder. "Chloe, you've been here all night. Jimmy's fine for now. The best way to help him is to find this guy."

Though she really had no intention of leaving Jimmy's bedside until he awoke, Clark did have a point. She was too deep in this case to falter now. She's risked too much, both Jimmy and Clark's life, and to turn back now would be foolish. If anything, she and Clark had to find this werewolf before it was too late for someone else.

"Okay," she said, glancing back to Jimmy's sleeping form. "I'll go."

00000000000000000000

to be continued