Smallville General
My mom and I waited anxiously in the waiting room. The doctors haven't updated any of them about Lois's condition. Lana stayed behind at the Talon, answering questions from the cops and helping to clean things up. Chloe came with me and mom, but left soon after, something about an article that needed to be written up.
I hoped it wasn't the shooting. That's the last thing I wanted to read in the Torch paper.
Shortly after mom and I came into the ER with Lois, dad rushed in as soon as he got the call from me. Mom was pretty shook up but as soon as dad came, she was less stressed and emotional. Who wouldn't be emotional when you were holding the life of the person who saved you in your arms?
So many thoughts flew through my mind, I couldn't think straight.
We waited. And waited. And waited.
The double door entrance opened and out came Lex Luthor. Upset and frantic.
"Where is SHE?" he asked the desk clerk angrily. "Lois Lane," he adds.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Luthor, but Miss Lane is in the operating room right now," the clerk replies as calmly as possible.
"What's HAPPENING? Is she OKAY? ANSWER ME!"
I've never seen Lex react this way over anyone before. Not with his father. Not even with his former wives.
"Please, Mr. Luthor, we're doing the best we can"
I stand up from where I sat and approached him. "Lex," I say but he shoved my arm off his shoulder.
"Get away from... Clark?" Lex was sweating, his face full of worry. "What are you doing here?"
"She saved my life," my mom suddenly interrupted. Lex is confused. My mother continued. "Lois saved my life"
Lex looked like he was off-balance. I try to give him a hand but he slaps it away. "Stay away from me!" his voice was deep. Scared. Almost final. "Stay away from Lois and stay away from me," he ordered. "She's my friend, not yours"
If this was any other instance, I'd tell him he was being unreasonable or irrational. Truth is; Lois isn't a friend of his. He'd like to think that they could be friends but that's not what's important right now.
What's important is that she survives.
"Look," I try to reason with him.
"GO AWAY!" he yelled forcefully at me. I step back in shock and ashamed. Is this what it felt like for Lex whenever I threw his friendship in his face and asked him to leave me alone? Whenever anyone judged him? If so, it didn't feel all that great.
I felt my dad touch my arm. "Come on Clark, we're no help arguing here. We'll call in the morning." I wanted to protest, say that I wasn't doing anything wrong, but a part of me knew it was Lex who should be by her side when she wakes up.
She will make it.
I refuse to think otherwise.
Five agonizing hours later, Lex sat waiting for a doctor, anybody, to tell him how Lois was doing. Finally, someone came to him.
"Mr. Luthor?"
"Yes, that's me." He stood up, shaken and nervous. "How is she?"
"Are you her husband?"
He shook his head. "What does it matter? Is she okay or not?"
The doctor inhaled deeply. The stomach wound was severe. It is rarely what you see on television. When a bullet enters the body, you can describe it almost like a spinning missile. The amount of damage and relative size of the entrance and exit wounds depends on many factors: the caliber of the bullet, the distance from the victim when fired, and the organs, bone, blood vessels and other structures hit.
How does a doctor explain this to a man like Lex Luthor?
"We've stopped the bleeding and she's resting comfortably." He decided that details were better left to family, and he didn't appear to be one.
"So she's okay?" Lex relaxed a little.
"We'll know more once she's awake"
"Can I sit by her?"
"Mr. Luthor..."
"I'm not going to ask again, Doctor"
The doctor agreed in defeat. "Very well. If anything happens, please notify the nurses immediately."
Lex followed one of the nurses to Lois's room without so much as a thank you.
ICU – Lois's Recovery Room (Sometime Later)
Striking bones causes the bullet to become misshapen, flattening out. The bone shatters, creating splinters that themselves can become lethal weapons, and altering the path of the bullet in an unpredictable manner.
Sometimes the final resting place of the bullet in the body or the place where it exits is very unexpected. As a general rule, exit wounds are larger than entrance wounds - sometimes inches larger, if the bullet's shape has become distorted by the structures hit.
Luckily for Lois, she passed the worse.
Now she laid there in massive pain. She felt awful. Besides the pain she felt in her abdomen, the sounds of the heart monitors going Beep... Beep... Beep... is liable to make anybody go insane. She lifted her head and felt she couldn't do so.
The pain was excruciating.
What did they pump her with? And could she get more? The medicine that kept the pain at bay is close to receding, and she certainly couldn't have that happen.
She tried to look around. Flowers on the table. Flowers by the window. A teddy bear by her bed. Only one man would think of such a thing.
"Lex," she softly called out, ignoring the pain that by just breathing, it hurt.
"Look at you. You're awake," he came into view and a smile graced across his lips. "You had me worried." He didn't mention the Kent's, not yet anyway. She was one person he wasn't ready to share.
He moved his seat closer, holding up a flower.
"Lily," she smiled at the gesture. "My favorite"
"I know. I had it hand picked a few hours ago"
"Show-off"
Lex looked at her sadly.
"What is it?"
"I thought for a moment I was going to lose you"
"I get shot at all the time," she joked.
Lex frowned. "I can count in one hand how many friends I have in this world, and that's not many. I don't want to lose you"
She moved her hand on top of his, a gesture of comfort. "I'm here and I'm alive and I seriously want to get out of this hospital," she ended lightly, but truthfully.
"You're not going anywhere," Lex says sternly. Lois doesn't like hospitals. She never has. Not since watching her mother die in one when she was a child. "You need rest"
"I've done my good Samaritan deed." Then she remembered. "Is the woman all right?"
Lex is momentarily confused. "Who?"
"The woman at the coffee shop. The guy was going to shoot her, is she okay? Did she get hurt?"
One of Lois Lane's most beautiful qualities was her compassion. Even amongst strangers. It is one of the things that differentiated him and her most, but it was one of the things about her that made her the perfect friend to his not always perfect ways.
"She's all right, Mrs. Kent is very grateful," he answered. He had said her name and now there was no turning back.
"Kent?" she eyed Lex curiously. "You mean..."
"Clark Kent's mom. Yes"
She smiled. "Small world," she says.
Lex chuckled. "You are in Smallville"
Back at the farm, I paced back and forth in the living room, waiting on any news in regards to Lois's prognosis. There's a knock on the door and I answer.
"Hello Clark"
"Lex," I look at him in surprise. After last night I thought for sure he wanted nothing to do with me. It's funny in a sad sort of way; normally it was the other way around.
"Lois is awake. She's gonna make it just fine"
My heart skips a beat and I smile at the news. Lex caught my reaction and I stop while I'm ahead.
"Can I ask what happened?" I ask almost reluctantly, but I really wanted to know.
"You should know, you were there," he says with a bit of hostility.
"That's not what I meant"
"I know what you meant." He turned around and looked out into the field. "I'm not a good man," he began. "I know that now. I'm willing to do a lot of things to get what I want." He paused, his words hanging between us. I didn't know what to think, so I waited for him to continue.
"I made a promise a long time ago that no matter how much I become my father. No matter how dangerous I get. Lois would never get hurt by me. She's my best friend Clark, I trust her more than I trust myself.
"If you care about her so much, why don't you change?"
Lex smiled sadly and finally turned to me.
"Her father the General will be coming in later this afternoon. After that, her doctor is allowing her visitors. If you or your mother would like to see her, you're more than welcome"
Lex took off and I'm left alone thinking once again why my friendships are always so complicated. Why Lex seemingly changes into the good man I knew he could be in the presence of Lois and all the problems in between?
Sometimes I feel like two entirely different people.
The boy who just wants to live a normal life, and the man that wants to save it.
To be continued...
Author's Notes: You may think Lex is out of character, but he's not when Lois is concerned. She's a friend to him.