Clark softly closed the door of his den behind him as he looked back across the room to his wife pacing back and forth with a strand of black hair twirled between her fingers. Without warning, she angrily kicked over a vase that was standing adjacent to her. It shattered into pieces over the floor as the woman wrapped her arms around herself and gripped her elbows while grinding her teeth
"Lois," Clark said in a surprised tone. He then walked over and slid his large arms around his her torso and cradled her body close to him. He placed his soft cheek against her silky hair and allowed her chin to rest on his shoulder as the fire of anger within her subsided enough to talk.
"I'm gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch," Lois mumbled in her husband's ear.
"We don't know it was Lex," Clark cooed as he rubbed her back in order to calm her down. "Plus, we won't get anywhere by making rash judgments…"
"Clark!" the woman shouted as she quickly pulled out of her husband's embrace and looked him in the eye. "Let's recap. You found her naked in an alley only a quarter of a mile from her home! She begged you not to take her to the hospital. Now why do people ask not to go to a hospital after something like that? Maybe because they don't want to be found by someone high up! When you brought her here, she was uttering the words 'office,' 'Kryptonite,' and 'fire' before she started the silent treatment. After I finished screaming at you for not taking her to a hospital, I started deciphering those words while you tended to her in our room. Think about it. Lex has a ifire/iplace in his ioffice/i, and wears a iKryptonite/i ring! Plus, you said yourself that Lex might be abusing her after seeing her at that last press conference."
"I didn't know, though." Clark said through clenched teeth.
"The woman was emaciated and had a grimace like she was in pain! I completely agreed with you when you whispered it to me! She was obviously depressed and I figured it was from emotional abuse from working for that creep. How that jerk could abuse someone as amazing Chloe just convinces me that his soul is straight from hell! And now he goes and rapes her! Not only did he make it physical, but he took away her freedom! I hope he burns alive!"
"Lois!"
"You know I'm right! You feel it, too! You just don't want to show it 'cause you're afraid you'll upset her! She's not here now, Clark! You don't have to be stone-faced all the time!"
Clark hated times like this. Just like he had X-ray vision to see through people's bodies, she could see right through his soul. She also had the ability to break through the barriers in which he kept his emotions locked.
"I can't…Chloe's smarter than that."
Lois shook her head as she said, "I think it's safe to say Chloe lost her head when she took the Press Secretary job for Lex in the first place. She would be the closest staff member to the man…which also further incriminates him. Face it, hon! It's an open and shut case."
"To you it is! All the evidence you showed me is circumstantial! It would never hold up in court."
"Court? Clark…" Lois searched her mind for more arguments to throw in her battle of words, but she suddenly realized that it would do no good.
"You're in denial," she uttered. Clark's head shot up at the suggestion and was about to rebut when his wife beat him to the punch. "The chances of getting justice done are slim to none if Lex really did this. There is also a chance that Chloe could be the city pariah if she comes out with this information. That's why you don't want it to be Lex."
Clark really hated when she did that. He hung his head and grimaced before giving a reluctant nod. He then rubbed his eyes before saying, "After all of the times I've foiled his schemes. After all of the times I've nearly been killed by him. After all of the times I've seen the horrid person he's become, I can never punish him in the way I want to. I don't want to kill him, because that would make me no better than he is. I just want to put him in prison and make sure he never hurts anybody else again. But I never feel like I can make it public, because of the obvious reasons."
Feeling regretful about her previous harsh tone, Lois put her hand on his cheek and used her thumb to wipe away the wetness her husband was trying to hide. "I know, honey. You've told me. We've tried printing so many stories on his crimes, but either we can't get enough evidence or Perry doesn't let us print them because of the fear."
"It's almost like we're in a dictatorship."
"Yeah, only everyone actually loves this dictator." Lois said before resting her head on his chest and letting him stroke her hair.
"I know," Clark replied. "Part of me never wants to expose him because I think that the positive attention will do him some good."
"Yeah, but it's only inflated his boisterous ego even more."
"I just wanted so badly for him to have changed. I didn't want to believe it when he said he had an epiphany, but I forced myself to. I wanted him to change. It was the good Lex that I became friends with, and it was the good Lex that I hoped was returning. In reality, he got worse, and his crimes became more deadly. Before I knew it, it got to a point where it was impossible to arrest him because he has the public eating out of his hand and the police and the district attorney's office deep in his pocket."
"…except Lana," Lois interjected. "Even though having one DA on our side against a billionaire doesn't do much good."
"Which means that Chloe will never get justice she deserves if it is him."
"So we can only pray that it isn't Lex…"
"…even though it most likely is."
The couple simply stood there in each others arms, minds going in many different directions. They didn't want to go back in that room. They couldn't bring themselves to look at Chloe and know that there was nothing they could do for her. After all of the times they helped strangers in the same, if not worse, circumstances than this, they were shattered that they could not help a girl that they knew and loved so much.
"Do you ever wonder if Chloe wouldn't have worked for him if we had waited a little longer to get together?"
Clark closed his eyes and sighed at the suggestion as his heart sank in remembrance of the not-so-distant past. "Every day," he whispered as he held his wife tighter.
"I hate this, Clark," Lois uttered as her voice began to break due to oncoming sobs. She buried her face in his thick neck and let her eyes empty onto the edge of his bright cape. Clark laid a small kiss on her head while he tried to hold back his own tears. However, several broke through the pain-filled barrier Clark erected to protect the women currently in his life.
"I know, Love," he whispered as his own voice cracked. As the second ticked by, the crevices in which his tears had to travel through grew as his brow scrunched. His growing anger was showing itself in a way it rarely did.
"C'mon," Lois said as she wiped her eyes and walked toward the door. "We have to go in there and get her to talk. I think we've been careful long enough."
Clark nodded as he dried his own cheeks and took her in hand in order to follow her. However, once they reached the living room, he stopped short, forcing his wife to look back at him in question.
"I'll find a way to get her justice," Clark bellowed in a stronger voice as he looked into her eyes. "I don't care how long it takes or how hard it is, the bastard who raped her is going to pay."