Lois stood up and walked up to Lex with a confident air. "You are a sick and twisted bastard," she told him in a menacing tone. "You think you know some dirty little secret on me, so you kidnap and harm our world's greatest hero? You got me. I'm here. Now where is Superman?"
"I'm surprised you're not more upset about your situation," Lex said matter-of-factly. "Given the fact that he's not only the world's greatest hero -" Lex lowered his voice to a hissing whisper. "- but your husband as well."
"What did you do to him anyways?" Lois demanded, not confirming nor denying Lex's claim. "Why was he sprawled on the floor?"
"I shot him," Lex said coldly.
"You - you what?!" Lois exclaimed. She knew enough about Lex not to try and appeal to his emotions. He had none. She knew to appeal to his practical side. "There will be no business dealings if Superman is dead. You know that, right?"
Lex just smirked. "Oh ye of little faith. I removed the bullet right after I shot the video that you saw. From notes I got off of Kent's computer, I learned that he heals from the yellow sun. I also know that the source of his power is the yellow sun. So, your husband is fine. Well, perhaps the word 'fine' is not the right word. I mean, he's in pain and agony from the bullet penetrating him, but the bullet has been removed and he's been bandaged up pretty good to keep him from bleeding out. He's also completely powerless right now since he hasn't been exposed to the sunlight."
"Ugh, you are such a monster," Lois said.
"Let's go see him, shall we?" Lex said.
Lois followed Lex half a mile to a dirty, dilapidated building. They walked inside. Lex led her to the basement.
"After you," he said, holding his hand out to let her know he wanted her to walk down the stairs first. Lois looked at him with uncertainty in her eyes. "If you're concerned about your well-being, I can assure you I don't intend on hurting you right now." He placed his hands on her belly and squatted down to be eye level with her belly. "You're carrying very precious cargo." A slap to his cheek brought him back to reality.
"You will not lay a finger on me. Or my baby," Lois said authoritatively.
Lex grabbed her throat in a choke hold and applied just enough pressure to hurt her and make her gasp for breath. He lowered his voice to a menacing whisper. "Keep in mind," he started. "Once this baby is outside of you, I have no use for you." His hand was quickly ripped away from Lois' throat, and he was suddenly face to face with Clark Kent.
"Get your hands off my wife," Clark growled at Lex. Lex shoved past Clark, making sure to use his shoulder to bump Clark on his injured side. Clark winced in pain, and Lois rushed to his side and grabbed hold of him. Clark steadied himself and wrapped his good arm around his wife, bringing her in closely to him. "Are you OK?" he whispered.
"Yeah," Lois responded, quietly. She was amazed at how much comfort she found just in Clark's embrace. "I'm just so glad to see you and that you're OK."
"I hope you both know that once this baby is born, I really have no use for either of you," Lex said as he continued down the basement stairs. He turned back to them and pulled a lead box out of his pocket. "You should both follow me down here. Unless, of course, you want to see what's inside my box." He unlatched the lock and slowly lifted the lid.
Lois felt her belly cramping mildly. She grabbed the handrail of the basement stairs to steady herself and felt Clark tighten his grip on her.
"Lex, no!" Clark yelled, quickly letting go of his wife and bounding down the stairs. He slammed his hand down on the lid before it opened. "We're here, OK? There's no need for meteor rock."
Still at the top of the stairs, Lois had to hide her discomfort. She could feel it starting to dissipate, but she didn't want Lex to find out what was going on: she had just had a contraction.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"Ms. Lane, I suggest you join us down here before I lose my patience," Lex's voice rang out.
"I'm coming, Lex," Lois said, waddling down the stairs. "I'm not as fast or as graceful as I used to be." She stood next to Clark, who immediately positioned himself in front of her, protectively. She held his hand and leaned into him.
"This arrangement can be as easy or as difficult as you choose to make it," Lex began. "You will do my dirty work. With all of your powers, you can get me access to the President, the Pentagon, all the money in the world, all the undiscovered diamonds and precious jewels. You will help me rise to power and riches. In return, I will keep your secret. I will keep my hands off your baby. You will go back to living your boring, old lives under the pretenses of mild-mannered reporter, and I will pretend that I know nothing about you. Do we have a deal?"
"Never," Clark growled. "I will never do your dirty work. That's not what I stand for."
"I'll give you some time to think things over," Lex said. "I think you'll change your mind. If you don't change your mind, for whatever reason, I will keep you and your wife in lock down. That baby should be making its way out soon. When it does, I will take your child. I'll raise it as my own. Seeing as how it's part alien, I will use whatever powers, he/she possesses, and raise an army. I will get what I want no matter what I have to do to get there. Do we have an understanding?" He didn't wait for a reply. He just smiled as he walked up the stairs to the basement. "Let me know when you've come around to my ways of thinking!" he called back down to them. They heard the door shut and lock click.
"That man is even more deranged than I could have imagined," Lois said, making her way over to a twin bed that she saw in the corner of the basement. She slowly lowered herself down and leaned back, supporting her weight on her hand propped behind her in order to take some of the pressure off of her aching back.
Clark frowned at the sight. "Lois, are you OK?" he asked, sitting down beside her and placing his hand on her belly.
"Oh, um, yeah," Lois lied. There was no sense in panicking Clark just yet. Contractions could be brought on from stressful events, right? Everything about this event is stressful, Lois silently justified her choice to herself. She decided to divert his attention off of herself. "What about you, though? Are you OK? You're the one who's injured and doesn't have his powers."
"I'm fine," Clark said. "The wound hurts a little, but it's manageable. I could completely heal and have my powers restored if I could get outside and recharge with the sun, but Lex knows that's what I need, so he's not about to expose me to any sunlight. We have to find a way out of here. There's no way in hell I'm going to help Lex, and he will absolutely never lay a finger on you or our baby."
"I know," Lois said, taking his hand and interlacing her fingers in his. She gave him a warm smile. "I'm just so glad that you're here and you're OK. I was so scared when I saw the video footage of you sprawled out on the floor." She paused for a minute before continuing. "Clark, listen, what happened back at the Fortress….what I said to you….I didn't mean any of it."
Clark leaned in closer to Lois and gave her a kiss. "Don't worry about it," he assured her. "All is forgiven and forgotten."
"We have to get Lex to go back to the Fortress with us," Lois said. "Jor-El sent me back to Metropolis, but told me I had to make sure to get Lex to the Fortress, and Jor-El will see to it that he never hurts us or our family again."
"He's going to see to it that Lex can never hurt our family again? How? Is he planning on killing Lex?" Clark questioned.
"Clark, I honestly don't know what Jor-El's plans are to keep Lex away from our family forever, but what I do know is that he's a dangerous man. Smallville, I know that you would never take a life, and that you don't like seeing anybody lose their life, and your strong moral code is one thing I truly love most about you, but think about it, please. This is Lex Luthor," Lois emphasized. "He knows your identity, he knows that our baby is half-alien, he knows that a human and alien can reproduce. He will build up an army from our children." Lois felt tears falling freely as her fears were coming to the surface. "We have to stop him, Clark!"
"Shhh," Clark soothed, gently, wrapping his good arm around her and bringing her in close to him. He kissed the top of her head. "Lois, you and this baby are the very most important things in my life right now. There is absolutely no way I would ever let him lay a hand on you. But we can come up with some other plan that doesn't involve killing him. This is where Jor-El and I have always differed in terms of justice. We just need to think and come up with a plan. We're brilliant reporters, the two of us make a fantastic team - both in the office, and in our marriage. We can come up with a way to do this the right way without resorting to killing Lex." Clark stood up and walked over to the walls where large pieces of plywood had been nailed - obviously covering up windows. He started trying, in vain, to pull the wood off. "Arrrgghh!" he yelled out in frustration. He angrily beat his fist against the plywood.
"Clark, even if we could escape from here, what good would it do us?" Lois asked. "Lex already knows where we live and where we work. And you better believe the first thing he would do is go to the press and tell them our situation. Then every crook in the world would come after me, the baby, your mom, Chloe and Oliver, anybody they could to get to you." She stood up and immediately felt her stomach cramping. It was definitely more intense than the previous time, but not so much to make her cry out or double over. She put her hand to her belly and grimaced.
Clark's attention remained on the window. "Lois, I know you're right about -" he looked over and saw his wife in obvious discomfort. "Lois, what's wrong?" he asked, walking over to her.
She bit her lip in nervousness and let her eyes meet his. "Well, I've only had two, and they were 20 minutes apart, so it's nothing to get worked up about -" she started.
Clark's eyes widened as he realized what Lois was trying to tell him. "You're in labor," he whispered in disbelief. He stayed quiet for a minute - processing everything that was happening. "Are you OK?" he asked when I finally snapped back to reality.
"I'm fine," Lois said. "For now. Like I said, the contractions are only 20 minutes apart, and they're apparent enough for me to know they're happening, but not so much that they're causing me pain. Yet."
"OK," Clark said. "OK, good." He brought Lois in close and kissed the top of her head. "We need to do everything we can to make sure Lex doesn't find out about this."
"Clark, I don't mean to add stress to an already stressful situation, but we're living on borrowed time," Lois said. "They will get more painful, and it won't be long before I'll be able to hide them."
"I know," Clark assured. "We only need to keep this situation from him for a short time. Then it won't matter."
"Why? What's your plan?" Lois asked.
"We're going to convince Lex that we need to go to the Fortress," Clark told her somberly.
