Nothing Left-Part Six
"Look Jonathon I've known you and your family as long if not longer than Clark has been alive you can tell me anything!" Dr. Barnes was very serious. "Ok. Do you remember when Clark was found after the meteor shower? Well see we found out that he came here, to earth during the meteor shower. Later on in his development he developed . . .abilities." Jonathon was searching for a reaction. Dr. Barnes stood there and when this had finally registered, "You're sayin he's an Alien. What kind of abilities?" He looked at Jonathon, not blinking. "Clark has super speed and super strength. Also, he has x-ray vision and heat vision." Dr. Barnes replied, "Wow. So he's from another planet. How did you keep this hidden?" He asked subtlety not knowing what to think or say because he had never been confronted by a problem such as this. "We have only told one of Clark's friends and he's been really careful not to tell anyone else. There is one more thing. Clark's only weakness is the meteor rock which is called kryptonite. That's why we called you. The kids that tortured Clark strapped a lot of meteor rocks to him tonight and tied him up so he was hanging in the pool from the diving board and he stopped breathing for a long time. The problem is he usually recovers fast from injury, but he had prolonged exposure and he is breathing weakly and hasn't woken up yet. He is freezing and doesn't seem stable and we can't take him and bring him to a hospital. Please Doctor you're only hope." Dr. Barnes nodded, "Where is he at?" Jonathon pointed, "Upstairs, there is a girl upstairs. Just tell her she can wait downstairs with us." Dr. Barnes headed upstairs and told Lana to wait downstairs.
Dr. Barnes took blood samples and examined Clark from head to toe. Clark's veins were green around his legs were the meteor rocks were strapped. Barnes gathered that because the meteor rocks hurt Clark that prolonged exposure to the rock would take away his ability to heal. He needed more answers but he was fairly sure Clark was in a coma because he was unresponsive. He called from the top of the stairs for Mr. and Mrs. Kent to come upstairs so he could relay his findings. He started out very gentle because he knew what he had to say was going to be hard to say. "Alright I examined Clark I gathered that prolonged exposure did him a lot of harm. I can't be sure on all this because as far as I know it there isn't a specialist on this earth that can help you. I didn't have any trouble getting blood so 'skin of steel' didn't help him at all. It seems that prolonged exposure takes away his ability to heal temporarily or permanently I can't be sure. The parts on his body where the rock was strapped caused him to sustain green bruises and because he stopped breathing for a considerable amount of time he has . .ah .uh . slipped into a coma. He could wake up tomorrow if his body says he can go on or it could be longer." Martha cried out and Jonathon teared up as he hugged his wife. This outburst caused Lana to jump downstairs. She knew that the loud shriek meant something was wrong. "Doctor could our son not wake up?" Jonathon worriedly asked. "The fact is, that I'll medicate him, I don't know what good it'll do, and I'll do all I can, but if Clark doesn't have enough strength then it's possible he could stop breathing again . . .for good. Also, we don't know if my medicines will have any effect on him, they could. We'll have to wait and see. I'm really sorry. If there is anything I can do from now on. I'll keep his secret safe." With that Dr. Barnes shook Jonathon's hand and proceeded downstairs and out of the house. Lana jumped up after he left and waited for the Kents' to come downstairs.
They both wiped their tears and Martha decided that she had enough and went to bed, leaving Jonathon to tell Lana. Jonathon proceeded down the stairs and Lana stood up as he came down the stairs. Her face was red from crying. "Lana, Dr. Barnes said that because Clark stopped . . .uh um . . breathing for so long that it caused him to slip into a coma." Lana's face dropped, "He's gonna wake up though . .right." There was a long silence and then Jonathon spoke, "We don't know. If too much oxygen was deprived from his brain then he may not wake up." Lana felt as if the wind was sucked out of her. She couldn't breathe and she started to cry and Mr. Kent gave her and hug. "I'm going to call the sheriff to be on the lookout for the attackers. Don't worry I have faith in Clark."Jonathon stated. "Mr. Kent would you mind if I sat with him tonight?" Lana asked. "Not at all, Lana. Be careful though he has a lot of bruises." Lana nodded and went upstairs. Lana went into Clark's room
Lana slowly walked into Clark's room. He seem as if he was just as she left him. She sat down in the chair again and picked up his hand and kissed it. "Clark I'm going to talk now and I'm going to hope that you are listening but you just can't open your eyes. . . Clark, I'm so sorry. I know that you shouldn't care about my apologies but I've been wrong a lot lately." She started to cry, "Clark please don't die thinking . .that . .I hate you because that is not true. Clark . . I love you more than I have or ever will love someone else. You are forever to me, you always were if you would let me get close to you. I just needed to blame someone, for something that had nothing to do with you. I know the whole Lex thing was not your fault. I volunteered to help and used the first chance I could to take my anger out on you. Tonight made me realize that I cause you to be in harms way all the time. All you do is come to rescue. If you die, then you die because of me. Please . ." She held her hand over her mouth. "Do me one last favor and come back. Don't make me or the others that love you suffer like that. I know you have secrets and that this in love thing hasn't worked out once, but I hope you come back so we can give it another try and you can be honest. Clark, I love you so much!" With that she leaned in and planted a clean, sweet kiss on his lips. She got in bed with him and snuggled up beside him. She immediately noticed he was cold as ice. She wrapped her arms around him and put her head under his head, on his chest and whispered, "Come back, Clark." After that she drifted off to sleep safely in his arms.
Jonathon picked up the phone and called Sheriff Adams. "Sheriff, Clark was attacked tonight by some jocks at the Smallville High pool," Jonathon said. "Is he alright Mr. Kent?" The sheriff asked concerned. "Actually he's in a coma from the trauma he sustained and the loss of oxygen."
"Who did it, Mr. Kent."Sheriff Adams asked forcefully. "Some jocks from the high school, but Lana Lang can identify them. I wouldn't want to make you come out at this late hour and since it's not urgent, why don't you come by in the morning. We've all been through so much." "Well I'll be out to the farm in the morning tomorrow to have a conference with Ms. Lang. Goodbye." Sheriff Adams hung up.
Lana awoke the next morning to sunshine bright in her face. It was a school day but Lana was in no condition to go. She didn't want to leave his side in case he woke up or if anything went wrong somebody needed to be watching him. Since the kents refused to take him to hospital she felt like it was her job to watch over him. She looked up at his still lifeless face. "Good Morning, Clark." She placed her hands on his chest and felt his stomach as well as him breathing slightly. She wanted to see the bruises that Clark had gotten. She lifted up his white shirt to find his chest with a large green bruise all the way across it. Her mouth dropped because she had no idea how bad it was. She softly rubbed her hand over it. She out his shirt down and pulled up a chair next to his bed. She saw an astronomy book on the bedside table and thought he'd like to hear it, so she began reading to him. In the middle of reading to him, she remembered that Chloe and Pete hadn't been told what happened but she decided that she needed to tell them in person. She started to get up and then decided she could finish the chapter and leave to tell them.
When Lana looked up she noticed that it was about 11 a.m. She got up out of the chair. She leaned in and kissed Clark on the forehead. She whispered, "Take care Clark." She walked to the door and turned around to get one more look. She then proceeded downstairs to find Mrs. Kent cooking lunch and Mr. Kent reading the newspaper. "Hello Lana," Mrs. Kent said. They all had lunch and then Lana explained how she should tell Pete and Chloe and then she would stop by and get everyone dinner. "Mr. Kent,I wondered if I could stay with him tonight. I feel that because he's not in a hospital he needs to be watched and I'd be happy to do it, at least until we know something more from the doctor." Jonathon looked at Martha and then Jonathon said,"Yeah that's fine. Lana, the sheriff is coming over after lunch so you can identify the culprits."Jonathon said calmly. As he finished the sheriff knocked on the screen door, "Can I come in?" She asked. "Of course," Martha replied. "Ms. Lang, I was wondering if you could identify the men who did this to Clark?"The sheriff asked with her pad and paper ready to write. "Mike Laughlin, Barry Collins, and three other jocks I didn't recognize. I knew they were jocks because they had letterman jackets on,"She told the sheriff. "Thank-you," Adams said. "Well I'm going to go to tell Chloe and Pete." With that she left the Kent house to tell her two best friends the horrible news.