Chapter 26: Taken
For two weeks Marcus watched the activities at the house during the day, heeding his boss's warnings to clear out of there before four o'clock. Jason played outside on the good days and usual only his grandparents seemed to accompany him. A few times, the little boy had ventured close to the woods and Marcus knew that once he had the kid, he would have to get to his car and have the Kryptonite that the boss had supplied him with ready.
Aside from work and now that they had their plans set, Clark was spending the nights no one needed Superman working on the house. The men Bruce hired had already dug out the basement and Superman had completed the tunnel around the time they finished pouring the concrete on the floors and securing the walls in the basement. The work was going slower than what he liked but in another month or two, the house would be complete and his family would be safe.
Lois sat back against the pillows in bed smiling as Clark rested his cheek against her bare belly. She was now 20 weeks along and there was no denying that she was pregnant. A few people at work had begun to notice, including Jimmy who agreed not to make a big deal once they had confirmed that for him. Right now their little one was being very active and Lois was enjoying having Clark there this time around.
The little flutters against his cheek assured Clark that their newest child was healthy, and Dr. Sanderson was also pleased with the baby's progress and growth. Lois's last appointment two days ago had included an ultrasound and again she had refused to know the sex of their baby, wanting it to be a surprise. Clark lifted his cheek from her belly and placed a kiss there before he pulled her shirt back down. It was night and this was time for just the two of them. "What does that feel like for you?" he asked as he settled back against the pillows gathering her into his arms.
"Right now, just fluttering, but in a few months, if memory serves me correctly, I'll be a little less comfortable." At his questioning look she continued. "Right before Jason was born, I could have sworn that his foot was wedged into my rib cage, or at night it felt like he was sleeping on my bladder." Lois sighed as he moved them to rest on the mattress. She knew that he would be soon gone to work on the house and missed having him with her, though she knew that most nights she would be on her own, even when the house was finished. Her thoughts turned to the baby and she wondered how the birth would change their lives. There were bits of Jason's first days of life that Lois remembered and some she blocked out because of all he had gone through. A part of her was anxious because in two weeks she would be at 22 weeks and that was the time she went on bed rest with Jason. Her thoughts shifted again and she thought about what this would be like for Clark. He had stepped in so naturally to being a father to Jason and she wondered how he would be with a newborn. "Have you ever been around a newborn?" she mumbled against his chest.
Clark opened his eyes and smiled. "When I was little mom made sure I attended church and sometimes there would be a new little one introduced to the congregation. A few of my friends had younger siblings but I don't really remember being around any new babies," he offered.
"Does that make you nervous?" she asked raising her head up to look at him.
"I'm not sure what to expect, but you will be here to show me the way, so, no, I'm not worried," he replied as he lifted his head from the pillow and met her lips with a gentle kiss. Once her head was resting back on his chest he thought about what she had said. He was enjoying being part of this pregnancy and watching Lois' body change to accommodate their growing baby. A half hour later she was in a deep sleep and Clark gently moved out of the bed. He changed into his Superman outfit before he headed across the hall to check on his son. Jason was sound asleep and didn't move when Superman kissed his cheek. For a moment The Man of Steel watched over his little boy. Jason was still healthy and both he and Lois were fighting to keep him that way. Knowing that he had much to do, Superman left through his son's window and headed toward Metropolis to see if anyone needed his help.
In order to get his hands on the boy, Marcus knew he needed a hand and had Robert join him the day they planned to take him. It was sunny and again unseasonably warm. The two men had it planned out and both of them had huge chunks of Kryptonite should Superman show up. Not long after noon, the boy arrived outside with the elderly man, and the two thugs watched him at play. Jason had the ball and as he had done the past few times he accidentally lost the ball bringing it right up to the edge of the woods.
Ben watched his grandson with fondness happy that he could run and play again. Jason had been kicking the ball around and it escaped rolling down the large hill toward the woods. As his grandson began to go after it Ben walked to the edge of the hill ever mindful of his grandson and noticed something that should not be. "Jason stop!" exclaimed Ben as he began to go down the hill after him. Right before his eyes two men emerged from the woods and Ben ran faster gaining on Jason who had stopped but was not moving. "RUN, JASON, RUN!" Ben shouted.
His grandfather's words jolted him into motion and Jason managed to dodge the first man while he grabbed at his necklace. He tried to remember what to do but the other man was gaining on him. "DADDY HELP," he screamed. The bad man with the pony tail caught him up and Jason tried to scream again as he wrapped his hand around his crystal but already something was pressed over his nose as his grandfather yelled for him to fight. "NO!" Jason felt really tired and dizzy and tried to kick but he just wanted to sleep.
Ben's lungs were screaming for him to stop running but he continued after the men who were already in the woods. He saw one of them pull something out of his pocket and as the man turned to face him Ben dropped to the ground just as a bullet was fired. He dared to look up and saw the men disappearing behind the many trees. He got to his feet and began to run again but realized that it was too late. Ben fell to his knees gasping for breath and then all went black.
Clark had been reading over the information that Klein had sent to him on the last body found at the harbor. Last night had been a good night for him and the house was slowly coming to life. He had gotten most of the frame work built and erected and today as he worked, Wayne Construction would continue what he had not been able to finish last night.
The body was like the others with nothing anyone in forensics could use to identify who the person had been. Something else Clark had been working on was the call Lois received a few months ago from someone needing to meet with her. Clark knew that Lois had gone down to the pier only to find that her contact had gone AWOL or that something had happened to him. Last night when they talked about it, she agreed that the last body could possible be that man, but it still didn't add up. Suddenly he felt the watch on his wrist start to vibrate and quickly left the news room. Clark twisted the knob which on an ordinary watch would move the hands of the face of the watch to change the time, but on his released the hinge allowing him to lift the face up revealing a digital message which read JK. His son was in danger and that was all he needed. Clark went back into the office finding Lois talking to Jimmy and had to fight to remain calm. "Lois I need to talk to you about that contact list," he said as he gave a brief smile to their friend before he guided her out of the news room. He led her to a secluded part of the Lobby and told her Jason was in danger.
The color in her face drained and Lois pushed him toward the stair well. "Go, Call me…I don't know what to do..." Lois wanted to go with him but she knew she could not and after he hugged her he was gone.
By the time they got to the car the boy was out and Robert noticed his fist closed around something. He gently pried the kids hands open and found the crystal necklace. Something about the way the kid clung to it bugged him and Robert yanked it from his neck and through it to the ground before he laid Jason on the floor of the back seat and put a small piece of Kryptonite on his chest before Marcus started the car and they began to speed away.
Superman looked at his watch again and found that Jason was no longer moving. He scanned over the woods and focused in until he found out why his son was no longer moving and shut his eyes, but only for a moment. He tuned his hearing in and heard a car and in less than a second he found a blue Mercedes speeding away. Superman used his x-ray vision and saw Jason and the Kryptonite on his chest. All rational thought left him as he flew down toward the car landing on the road a mile ahead of it. As the car drew closer he began to feel week and realized that there was more Kryptonite than what he had seen. He fought to keep his strength as the car came into vision and knew he would have to risk injury or Jason would be in more trouble than he was already in.
Marcus had the petal nearly to the floor and suddenly he saw the man in blue. He smiled and pushed the petal down further as Superman flew up.
"Where did he go?" Robert asked and before Marcus could say a word, the car began to slow down. Robert turned around and saw Superman in back of the car realizing that they were dragging him, but that he was affecting their ability to move forward. "Don't stop. Give this car all it's got or the boss will have our heads," Robert shouted.
His arms hurt as did his legs and it was becoming very hard to get the car to stop. Superman was on both feet being drug along behind the car as it began to speed up. He tried to use his X-ray vision to locate the rest of the Kryptonite but could not. The sun went behind a cloud and suddenly his hands could no longer hold the back end of the car. All Superman could do is watch as it sped away and when the sun came back out and he tried to fly he could not.
Seated in Perry's office Lois waited with him hoping and praying that her son was safe. As Lois looked at the clock for the 100th time she found that two hours had gone by since he left. She had been so distraught when he left that she nearly collapsed when she entered the office. Jimmy had dropped his camera and caught her before she could hit the ground bringing her here. It was obvious that her boss was worried about her but Lois assured him that this had nothing to do with the baby. Just when she thought she would go out of her mind the door opened and Clark stepped inside. The look on his face told her what she didn't want to know and Lois wanted to scream. "Where is he?" she finally managed.
Perry could see that they needed to be alone and left without a word. He had a feeling something had happened with Lex and would find out later.
Once their boss was gone Clark walked over to Lois and knelt down in front of her. "Luthor has him," he said as his voice broke.
"No, no. You had that thing on your arm how can he have him?" Lois shouted her question to him not caring who heard her at this point.
Clark tried to touch her but she shrugged away. "There was Kryptonite - a lot of it. I tried to stop the car but I couldn't.
"Where was Ben and your mom?" As soon as Lois said that she saw the pained look in his eyes and put her hand over her mouth.
"Ben was with him and went after the two men. I found him in the woods, and he's had a mild heart attack. Mom is with him at the hospital in Gotham. Lois, I'm going to get him back, before they took him I was looking over the information on that last body. I think it ties in with that man like you said but we need to find out where he called you from.
"How do we find him? We haven't had any luck so far and Lex wants Jason dead. Oh, God, this can't be happening," she sobbed finally allowing him to hold her in his arms. She knew that Clark had a point but right now her mind was a jumbled mess and all she wanted was to find that this was all a bad dream.
His head hurt and when Jason opened his eyes he was strapped down to a bed in a dark room. "Mommy," he called out. There wasn't any response at first and then a door opened and the lights went on. It was the bald man and Jason shut his eyes.
"Now, don't be afraid. I think maybe you and I could be friends," Lex said amused at how easily this capture had gone.
"You're a bad man and I hope a dragon burns you to dust." Jason said as he looked at the bald man and puckered his lips.
Lex shook his head laughing a little. "The only dragon in this room is me, and if you want to live to see your mommy and your daddy, then you better behave." Lex laughed as he left the boy in the basement room. The stone walls were embedded with lead as was much of the house which was what had kept Lex hidden for all of these months. Now the pain for Superman would begin and that made the mad genius very happy.
All alone in the cold room Jason tried his best to be brave and think about Dragons. "Daddy, the bad man has me and I need you now," he said over and over. Soon he was shaking and tried to get warm but with his arms bound up there wasn't a way too.
Two days passed with no word from Lex or any luck identifying the last body. Clark was worried about Lois because she wasn't eating and wasn't sleeping well. She refused to let him take her to see Dr. Sanderson and spent much of her waking time pouring over the files they had gotten from the new construction site at the pier.
Ben was recovering at home in the room he and Martha were sharing and felt incredibly guilty, but both Lois and Clark assured him that none of this was his fault. Martha was seated next to the bed where her husband slept as she held his hand, praying for her family and wondering when this would all come to an end. As she gently moved her hand away from Ben's his grasp tightened and when he opened his eyes she smiled at him.
"How could I have let them take that boy away?" he asked.
Martha leaned in and kissed his lips. "You didn't have any way to stop them, and none of us could have foreseen any of this. What is important now is for you to get better, Ben. Jason will come home, and I think all three of them will need us to be strong for them," Martha whispered as she kissed him again.
A knock at the door drew their attention and a moment later Lois entered the room. It was evident by the circles under her eyes that she was badly in need of rest but no one could tell her that.
"Ben, can you tell me what the two men looked like?" Lois asked as she sat down next to Martha in the chair next to hers. As Ben told her what he recalled, Lois jotted down the description he was giving her. Bruce had been in to see both her and Clark and said he knew someone on the Gotham police force who could do a drawing based in the descriptions to try and help identify the two men.
It was hard to remember that day but Ben shut his eyes and did his best. "The man who grabbed Jason had a pony tail. He had red hair and a mustache. He was maybe 5'6" and was as thin as a rail. I didn't see the color of his eyes but he was dressed in a business suit. Both of them were. Now the man who had the gun was heavy set with barely any hair on his head. They were both wearing business suits. I'm sorry that is all I can remember," he told her as his voice broke.
It was very difficult to hear about that day, but Lois could only imagine how hard this was for been to try and remember. In sympathy she reached out and took his hand. "We will find him, Ben. Try to rest," she said as she stood up. She felt tired and a bit dizzy, but there wasn't time for sleep
The cold, dark room was a bad place and Jason had been released from the restraints that held him in the bed. They brought him food but it made him sick because of his allergies. He had stopped crying for his daddy because he knew that he wouldn't come. The bad man told him that if his daddy didn't come he wouldn't hurt him or his mommy and Jason believed him. Now seated on the bed with a blanket pulled around his body Jason thought about Dragons and the sun. He felt really tired and dizzy, and he didn't know if it was morning or night.
Up two levels from where they were keeping the boy, Lex was planning the next phase of the grand plan. The little boy was getting sick, and that was what he needed. He smiled as he looked over the reports coming in from the east pier project. Everything was going as planned and in a few months the Metro Casino would open and would bring in more money, and his hope was to turn that area into a better place. It was all part of the grand plan to show the world that Lex Luthor wasn't the bad man the media made him out to be. Of course, none of it could happen as long as Superman stood in his way, and that was why this first phase of the plan was so important.
Clark woke as he felt the bed shift next to him and he opened his eyes as Lois sat up in bed. "Lois?" he asked
"Why can't we find him? Why hasn't Luthor asked for something from us?" Her mind was running wild with all of these questions and her arms ached to hold her son. "I keep hearing him call out to us, and when I wake up I know he isn't here," she said as she felt the baby begin to move.
Clark sat up and moved over to her side of the bed. He put her arms around her as she leaned into his embrace. "I want to look for him more than I have been, but you'd have to cover for me at work," he said. He had been reluctant to leave her but knew Lois was strong.
His words caught her attention and she turned to face him. "What if he has kryptonite? I don't think I could face losing both of you, because that is what he wants, Clark. He wants both of you out of the way," Lois told him as her voice caught on a sob.
As much as he wanted to go out there right now and start looking, Clark knew she had a point and knew that he would need Bruce's help to solve that problem. When he did find Jason he would have to face the possibility that Lex would use kryptonite much the way he had that day on the island when the large piece of that crystal was stabbed through his back. The one thing that he was grateful for in all of this was that Lex did not know of the baby, and Clark knew they had to find him soon before that became obvious. Lois's steady breathing against his chest alerted Clark that she had gone back to sleep and very gently he leaned both of them back against the pillows pulling a blanket over top of them. Once he knew that both Lois and the baby were safe, Clark got up to at least do a fly about around Metropolis and Gotham to see if he could find something, anything which might lead him to his son. In the morning he would talk to Bruce about what Lois had pointed out and hoped that somehow they could find a way to protect him against the threat kryptonite posed to him.
AN: Alright let me know what you think. Review please please please... Thanks to Beeto for the Beta reads and helping to brain storm and thanks to all of you who take the time to read this...
Eviefan