They got out into the hallway and out of Mary's earshot. Chloe turned to Clark and hissed quietly, "It's Mike! He's here!"
"What?" Clark said, surprised.
"He's 'knocking at the door', and I'm going to let him in," Chloe said.
Clark hurriedly switched vision perception and caught Mike's aura in the midst of the ever-unusual embodiment.
"Mike! Are you and Rachel OK?" Chloe asked.
Mike took control of her body and looked around the hallway. "We're fine, Chloe," he said. "Hi, Clark."
"Hello," Clark said.
"What's been happening?" Chloe demanded in a sharp tone.
"We got to Metropolis, and made contact with James' law firm. They have us in, I guess you'd call it, a safe house, and they say we're going to go to Star City tomorrow. I wanted to see you before we left. Rachel is fine."
"I'm glad to hear that," Clark said, and he was. Despite her shyness, Rachel had impressed him as a smart and game kid, sort of a mini-Chloe, really. Maybe that was why he liked Rachel so much.
"Mike," Chloe said. "I need you to look at Perdita again. She isn't better. Maybe you can think of something else to do?"
"Darn it," Mike said. "I really thought that I did something."
As ever, Clark was struck by the essential weirdness of Chloe speaking both sides of the conversation. Clark casually moved a few steps, and turned his body to shield Chloe from a passing aide.
"OK, I'm willing," Mike said. He seemed much more at ease now. I guess getting out of prison will do that to you, Clark thought.
"We've got to get Mary away from there," Chloe said. "We're doing an interview. I can't suddenly be quiet for fifteen minutes after all the talking I've been doing." She grinned. "I mean, we could call it meditation or a prayer service, but right now? She'd definitely know something was up."
"I'll take her for coffee," Clark suggested. "Um, you don't need me, I hope?" God, he hoped not. After the disaster of their last experience together, he wanted to stay well away from the astral projection work.
"I don't think so," Mike said. As before, Clark could tell whether it was Chloe or Mike speaking. They were different people who happened to be in the same body, and that was that. "How about, if I need you, Chloe or I will come to get you?"
"Physically or astrally?" Clark asked. Yes, his life was weird. The fact that he could ask questions like this in all seriousness proved its weirdness.
"Whichever seems easier," Mike said. "Keep an eye out for us."
"OK. Chloe, you finish up the interview," Clark said. "Then I'll suggest taking her to the cafeteria for coffee."
They re-entered the room, catching Mary stroking her daughter's hand. Mary gently laid the hand back on the coverlet.
"Just a little bit more now, Mary," Chloe said, flipping on her recorder once again. She'd been asked by Mary to go to first names about fifteen minutes into the interview. True to her promise, Chloe asked a few perfunctory questions, then turned off her recorder. "Thank you. I can assure you that a story in the Daily Planet will be forthcoming."
"That's all I ask," Mary said, almost sadly.
"Um, Mary, I'd like some coffee. Can I get you to show me the way to the cafeteria?" Clark asked.
"OK, Clark," Mary said. Obviously, staring at her daughter's motionless form with company was no better than staring alone. She got up, and Clark arose as well. "Chloe?" Mary asked.
"If you don't mind, Mrs. D., I'll sit here a minute longer organizing my notes," Chloe said. Behind Mary, Clark gave Chloe an approving nod.
"Well, Clark, the cafeteria is at the extreme other end of the building," Mary began as they walked out the door. "It's hard to get coffee sometimes late at night…"
Chloe turned her attention back to Perdita's motionless form. "What do you think?" she wordlessly asked Mike.
No answer at first. She felt Mike gather his astral form and partially leave her body – Chloe was getting much better at recognizing things like that.
"I don't know, Chloe," Mike said. "You know how I said that she wasn't connected last time?"
"Yes?"
"Well, she seems more connected, but she's still just not right. I just feel that we're close here. I can just sense it." Chloe could hear the abstraction in the man's mental voice.
"I'll tell you what. Let's go in one more time," Mike suggested.
Chloe swallowed. The last time hadn't gone all that well. But, Mary had given her the interview…
"OK," Chloe whispered. And with that, Mike reached for her, helped her out of her body. The two of them approached Perdita. Mike dove in.
Clark faced Mary across the cafeteria table, each holding a steaming cup of coffee. Mary seemed lost in reverie, her eyes unfocused.
"Um, thanks for the interview, Mrs. Daugherty," Clark said diffidently.
"You're welcome," Mary replied distantly. Then she gathered herself and spoke directly to Clark. "And thank you for contacting Chloe. I think it's important to get this in the newspaper." She sighed.
Clark looked at her more closely, noting Mary's slumped shoulders and worn face. "What's going to happen to you?" he demanded, surprising even himself.
Mary cast him a sharp look, then glanced away. "I spoke with the judges here," she said quietly. "I told them about the records…about what I did." Her hands took a pile of sweetener packets from the dispenser at the table. Nervously, she arranged the pink packets so that they all faced the same direction, then shuffled them nervously between her palms. "They're going to let me resign." She folded one packet in half, trapping the granular sweetener in one side. "I'm not sure what charges, if any, I'll be facing. They would prefer to avoid a scandal as much as possible."
"Oh," Clark said. It made sense.
"My husband still has his job," Mary said, apparently in a confessional mode. "But he's been told he has a performance review this Friday, and I expect him to be fired then." Her voice became even quieter.
"I'm sorry," Clark said lamely. He definitely didn't want to bring up the insurance thing now.
"Thank you, Clark," Mary replied. She stopped fiddling with the sweetener packets and squared her shoulders. "I'm not sorry I did it."
Clark gave her a questioning glance.
Mary met his eyes this time. "It was the right thing to do, to stop lying and tell you," she said firmly. "And if I have to pay the penalty for my sins, well, that's just how it is." She raised her eyebrows and leaned closer. "Clark, do you have a strong faith?"
"Well, um…" Clark said, nonplussed.
"Never mind. You don't need to answer," Mary said. "Clark, I thought I did. But then this tragedy happened with Perdita, and I found I really didn't at all." She swallowed. "I did wrong things…." She began fiddling with the sweetener packets again. "But when you get right down to it, really, what I have to do is put my faith in the Lord. 'Let go and let God.' And trust that things will work out." She leaned back, took a sip of her coffee. "So that's what I'm doing. I'm going to do what I can do, right things as much as possible, and leave the rest to God."
Clark sat in silence for a moment. He wondered if he could do the same. His tendency was to do more, try everything. Clark thought back to when his father had been ill. The hardest thing about his father's illness was realizing that, for all Clark's Kryptonian abilities, he was unable to restore his father's health. Familiar guilt overcame him; Clark knew in his heart that when Jonathan Kent assumed super-powers to bring Clark home from the Red-K bender in Metropolis, those powers had taken Jonathan's life force, burning up years in minutes.
So, over the years, Clark had brooded, dithered, moped, wondered. He looked at Mary in new respect. A middle-aged woman, facing the destruction of her hopes and dreams, life turned upside down. Would Clark have had the faith to accept things, to throw himself off a cliff not knowing if he would be caught but trusting it would be so? Mary seemed at peace with her decision. Was Clark?
He thought of another thing. Clark spent so much time keeping his secret, telling lies, not trusting anyone fully. Maybe that prevented him from taking leaps into the unknown. But now Kal had thrown him off the cliff, saying things that Clark felt but was too shy to say. Could this be a good thing in the end?
Clark realized with a start how much he needed Chloe. Besides his mother, and long-absent Pete, she was the only one who knew who he really was. She had trusted him. Kal had shaken that trust. He only hoped he could regain it.
"You've given me a lot to think about," Clark said quietly. They both took a sip of coffee, sharing the moment. Mary nodded, and the two finished their coffee silently.
"I see it!"Mike announced with a note of triumph. "It's right here! Do you see it?" He indicated a point in Perdita's aura.
"I couldn't before and I can't now," Chloe replied exasperatedly. It seemed that only Mike could perceive whatever it was.
"We've just got to make one little adjustment…right here…" Mike said, wordlessly directing Chloe to a part of Perdita's aura. Mike did…something… and, suddenly, with an almost audible click that even Chloe could sense, Perdita's aura snapped back into position.
Mike pulled them out of Perdita's body. Chloe stared in awe as Perdita's aura, once a dull gray, slowly changed into a bluish gray.
"That's that bit that I did just at the end last time," Mike said to Chloe. "We must have got it wrong then."
Chloe remembered it too – hastily throwing the last of Perdita's aura to Mike so that Chloe could grab on to Clark and keep him from "going away". Had Mike needed Chloe to get things correct then, and she wasn't there to help? Maybe that was why Perdita hadn't improved – maybe the whole thing had to be right.
"Are you sure she's all right?" Chloe asked Mike. "Her aura seems to…fit better – even I can tell that. But it still doesn't seem as swirly as yours or mine. Chloe frowned. "And I'm not getting a sense of her, like I did with you."
"I don't know, Chloe," Mike replied. "This is all new to me too."
Chloe stared at Perdita, seemingly half cured. Chloe just knew, somehow had a feeling, that there was more they could do. It was like Perdita waited for them on the other side of a window, and all they had to do was find a rock to break the glass.
Chloe took a deep breath. "We've got to get Clark back here," she told Mike.
"Clark? Why?"Mike replied.
"I…I can't say. I've just got a feeling. It just seems right to have Clark here. We can't leave Perdita like this till we've tried everything." Chloe shivered a bit. The last episode with Clark had blown up her careful world and the two of them were still picking up the pieces. But Chloe couldn't leave Perdita. Now she knew how Clark felt when he had the opportunity to save someone – if you knew you had the power, you had to use it. Or at least Chloe Sullivan did. She couldn't walk away now, not and live with herself.
Mike must have sensed her resolve. Hopefully he's not picking up the undercurrent of apprehension, Chloe thought.
"OK, let's get Clark in here." Momentary uncertainty from Mike. "Do you want to wait for him to come back, or do you want to get him?"
"I'll get him," Chloe responded. This was probably the last time she'd see Mike, at least for awhile, and she wanted, one more time, to taste the strange freedom of flying free, not tethered to her earthbound clay.
"OK, then, if you let go, I'll 'throw' you out for a good start." Mike seemed agreeable.
Clark sat silently at the table with Mary Daugherty, pondering their situation. Suddenly a twinge alerted him to Chloe's presence. He quickly switched to Aura-sight and recognized the bluish tones and the ever-changing swirls that made her uniquely Chloe.
"I think we should get back to Perdita's room now," Clark suggested. He kept an eye on Chloe's aura. At his words, a vaguely head-shaped projection nodded. Clark felt slightly relieved that he seemed to have figured out what Chloe wanted without her having to 'contact' him more intimately. Like Chloe, he feared what might happen should they join again.
"Yes, Clark, that's probably a good idea," Mary said dully. Then she perked up a bit and said, "Why don't you go up alone while I powder my nose? I'll meet you up there."
Good idea, Clark thought. "OK, Mrs. D.," he said.
As they got up from the table, Clark said, "I hope everything works out for the best, Mrs. Daugherty." He hoped she could hear the sincerity in his voice.
"Thanks, Clark," Mary replied. She said almost shyly, "You know, it's tough having faith all the time. I keep on having to work at it."
"Um, I can sort of sympathize," Clark said. "My life feels like a work in progress all the time." He gave Mary a small smile. "I'll meet you back in the room."
Mary stepped away, headed for the ladies'. Clark cast a wary eye at the semi-crowded cafeteria, and thought of the video surveillance throughout the SMC hallways. He decided against super-speeding back to Perdita's room, but appeased his sense of urgency by walking just a bit faster than a regular human could. To all witnesses, he would appear to be someone in a hurry.
He got back to Perdita's room and, knowing that Mike was present, scanned with Aura-Vision. Mike was there, anchored to Chloe's body, as was Chloe herself, apparently none the worse for wear for her trip to the Smallville Medical Center cafeteria to fetch Clark.
Clark looked over at Perdita and raised his eyebrows. "She looks different," Clark said.
"I know," Chloe replied. Mike let her do the talking. "Clark, she's still not right, though. You can see it, can't you?"
Clark frowned. "I can. She's better, somehow, whatever it was that you did, but she's still not….there."
Chloe took a deep breath. "Clark, I just have this feeling. We have to get together, the three of us again, and try to, try to, I don't know, find her. I can feel it. Perdita's there. Somehow we just have to get her out."
"A feeling?" Clark repeated.
"Yeah, a feeling," Chloe retorted. "Don't tell me you have hunches sometime." She softened her tone. "Clark, I don't know why. But something is telling me we have to try."
Clark looked at her. Chloe returned a steady gaze, but Clark could sense her trembling just a bit. The whole Kal debacle passed between them in one glance. This had the potential to be horribly embarrassing at best, and psychologically devastating at worst. He opened his mouth to refuse.
Then Clark thought of Mary, her leap of faith. Was that a sign to him? He looked at Chloe's eager eyes, and felt ashamed. How could he turn down someone in need? How many people had helped his parents during his father's illness? Had he ever thanked all of them? Clark straightened; he could live with embarrassment if he had to. Chloe and he could talk it out later. But there was no later for Perdita, unless Chloe was right.
"OK," Clark said, shrugging his shoulders.
"OK?" Chloe parroted, surprised at his quick acquiescence.
"OK. And Mary's coming back soon, so we should get right on it," Clark said.
"Well." Chloe nodded her head. "Let's get right on it, then."
