Chapter 4

"Explain to me why I couldn't stay the night at Sam's again, Mom."

"Because we're going to see your Uncle."

"A whole day and a half early?"

"Yeah, now be quiet. I'm focusing on the road."

Chloe scoffed from the backseat where their border collie, Rusty, had her head resting in the girls lap. "You never pay any attention to the road. You're a horrible driver, mom. Face it. So don't use that excuse."

Lois sighed and glanced in her rear view mirror before shifting her eyes back to the road. "This time is different, Chloe. You guys -- "

Lois' cell phone rang, cutting her off. "Clark, hand me my phone?"

He did as he was asked, picking it off the floor by his feet where it had fallen, and placed it in her hand.

She flipped it open, pressed the 'Send' button and answered. "Hello?

"Lois?"

Clark's super freaky special hearing had suddenly decided to eavesdrop again,

"Yeah, Bruce. It's me."

"You're not going to believe what we found."

"What?" Lois asked, her forehead creased and her nose scrunched.

"Clark. We found Clark."

"Where?" Lois' voice had become urgent, almost commanding.

"In northern Idaho. He was just lying on the ground, although my guys did say that there were fresh footprints around him, like people had heard them and then run off. We did find a circular green imprint on his temple that we think is Kryptonite."

"Luthor," Lois said out of the blue.

"Pardon?"

"Clark told me that Lex Luthor had a ring of Kryptonite made when he had this split personality thing going on. Even though Clark turned that one into black Kryptonite, what's to say that he didn't make another one?"

"It's possible. How far away are you? I'm sure you want to see him."

"A couple hours at least."

"I wish you could get here faster."

"Yeah, me too."

"All right, Lois, see you when you get here."

"Ok."

She handed the phone back to her son.

"Dad's there?" Clark asked.

"Hey, what!" his sister asked from the backseat.

"Not now. When we get there."

A clear 'humph' could be heard from both other occupants of the car, but Lois ignored it.

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Lois exited the car and approached her 'brother'.

"Where is he, Bruce?"

"The guest bedroom right next to yours."

Lois muttered a thank you and ran inside the house.

"Chloe?" her uncle asked. "Mind if I take you inside? A doctor wants to look at you."

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Clark Jonathan Kent stared through the door way into the room where the comatose man lay; where his mother sat by the man's bed, running her finger's through the man's hair, anger festering in his chest.

How could his mother love the man that hadn't even stuck around to see his own children born? How could she stay by his bed for hours on end, just staring at his face when he hadn't even had the courtesy to let his mother know he was all right after 14 years?

"Clark," a soft voice sounded from behind him.

"What, Uncle Bruce?" he asked without turning.

"Let's take a walk."

"I'd rather not."

"Tough," Bruce said, taking Clark by the arm and steering him away from the guest room.

Exiting the mansion from the back and entering the garden calmed Clark somewhat. The cramped space of the room his father had lain in had made his suppressed anger fester, leaving Clark to curse his namesake for leaving them.

Bruce led Clark to a relecting pond near the center of the garden, where they shared a companiable silence for a short time while his uncle thought through the conversation he knew Clark needed to have.

Bluntness would have to suffice. His brain just wasn't working at the moment.

"Want to talk about it?"

"No," came the reply.

"Ok, but you're not going to go back into that house to just stare at your father. All that anger you were feeling isn't healthy, Clark."

No reply.

Bruce sighed. "Just what is so wrong with you father, Clark?"

Again, no reply.

Bruce sighed again. "Once you're ready to talk, I'm here."

He turned to leave when an angry voice started to talk.

"I hate my mom for loving him. I hate him for leaving. I hate Chloe for being able to deal with it better than I can. I hate myself for hating my family, even thought the bastard lying in that bed can't be considered family." Clark turned to Bruce, looking his uncle in the eyes, his face desperate. "How can she love him! He left before I was even born! He's been gone for fourteen years! I hate him for abandoning me! Why did he do that? All I've ever wanted was a father! And I could never have that! My mom wouldn't let me! She wouldn't go date other guys because of him! Because she thought he cared enough to come back one day! But when he does, it's in a frickin' coma! Even when he's finally in my life, he's not even aware of it. I hate him for that! I hope he dies in that bed! He'll deserve it."

Tears were trickling down the fourteen year-old's face with his notice of them.

Bruce pulled his nephew to him for a hug, trying to comfort him with the limited emotional experience he had.

"Clark...your father is the best man I've had the privilege to know. He's honest, honorable, and extremely kind. He left not because he wanted to, but because he had to. I can't tell you why. I'm not even sure he knows himself. All I know is that he didn't want to stay gone this long. He had planned to come back and be a father and a husband, but for some reason he didn't. And I can tell you that the only reason he stayed away is because he had to. For your protection. He would have come back to you three at any other circumstance."

Clark's breathing slowed against him and he slowly let the boy step away from his uncle.

"So…he didn't chicken out of raising us? He really loved us?"

"Yeah. And he loved your mother, too."

"But…what could have kept him away so long?"

"I don't know, Clark. I don't know."

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Lois sat by the bed who held the man she had been in love with since almost exactly nine months before the meteor shower; all she could bear to do was look at his face and run her fingers through his hair just like she had done fourteen years ago.

It was the only thing that actually convinced her that he was back in her life.

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Back in the garden, Clark's eyes felt like they were pulled up to a window in the side of the house.

He saw his mother's back, immediately telling him which room it was.

He had just felt a pulling emotion in his chest when his uncle asked him, "Clark?"

"Uncle Bruce…I think he's gonna wake up."

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Clark Joseph Kent woke up to rapidly beeping heart rate monitors and utter blackness.

He ripped off the breather and groped at his eyes until a soft voice startled him. "I can't see. Why can't I see?"

"Clark?"

It didn't take him long to know who it was. He had memorized her heart beat a long time ago, let alone her voice.

"Lois?"

"Oh, God, Clark. Where've you been?"

Clark edged towards the side of the bed that Lois didn't occupy. "I've…been running."

"Clark?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing? Do you not love me anymore?" After all these years; after all the time of being so sure of herself, suddenly she sounds like a schoolgirl with a crush.

Clark hesitated on the edge of the bed. "Of course I still love you, Lois."

"Then why are you trying to leave?"

"I don't wanna leave, Lois."

"Then what are you trying to do? Clark, you've just told me you can't see. You have no idea where you are. Let me help you."

"No," Clark said forcefully. "I can't stay. I have to leave right now."

"Why, Clark? Why do you have to leave after being gone fourteen years?"

"Because. They said I'd kill anyone that I loved."

A/N: So I had originally planned to post this with Memory, which is almost half done, but…I decided not to. This story for me is a lot easier to write, and I figured you guys wanted something to read.

Hope you enjoy and don't forget to drop a review!