AN: Sorry it took me a long time to update this. Thank you for coming back to read it.

Chapter Four

Lois hadn't forgiven herself for falling asleep when she had got back to the hotel. She had drawn up numerous plans to help her husband, she had tested numerous theories and hypotheses. She still couldn't find the right way of doing it. She closed her eyes and flinchedo as she heard some labored breaths. She didn't have superpowers but it was as if he was communicating with her. She heard his yell of pain and grabbed her coat, putting her shoes on. "Clark," she whispered. She knew that something was wrong, well everything was wrong but there was something even worse.

After checking with Clark's parents that their son was safe, she rushed out. She didn't care that it was one o'clock in the morning. Those were cries of anguish, cries for help which she had just witnessed. She couldn't just ignore them.

She had broken into places before and although this was one of the most high tech places where she had, she could do it. It took her only a little over an hour to get into the lab but she could already sense that a doctor was there. She was fortunate enough to grab a flashlight which showed her files on the desk, there were also samples of Clark's bones, tissues, skin, she was scared to find an organ or two.

Her eyes then caught onto something that scared her all the way through her body. She wrapped an arm around her midsection about to throw up but it wasn't time for that now. She didn't really have time for anything other than to get to him. Her eyes burned with the labelling she had seen: 'Superman Lobotomy'. She felt more ill than she ever had before. They weren't going to kill him but this would destroy Superman. He worked by showing his character and passion.

Bolting down the hallway, she saw that the light was on in the room where Clark had undergone that torture before, where she had seen him have to endure the pain of them cutting into his body with tools that had been affected by Kryptonite. She heard him groan again and, not caring about her own life, she rushed in, grabbing the gun she fortunately had in her coat pocket.

"Get away from him!" she ordered. "I'll shoot!"

Lois looked over to Clark where his head was bandaged. Her eyes widened but she didn't put the gun down. Had she been too late? Had they finished the operation already? I'll make sure you get help, sweetheart, she thought to herself. How would he be when she could finally speak with him? No, it didn't matter. Lois saw the doctor move towards him with a knife and she fired her gun into his dominant arm. "I'm not kidding!" she said and the man took out a gun of his own.

"Neither am I," he replied. Lois felt her breath tighten and she looked again at Clark but only for a fraction of a second.

"What have you done to him?" she whispered, the hate obvious in the tone of her voice. The doctor laughed sadistically and Lois felt her body move automatically. She pulled the gun on him again, grazing his shoulder but causing him enough pain so he dropped his weapon. She saw him approach her and, using the skills she knew, was able to kick, punch, and throw him enough that he lost consciousness. She saw the blood. He wouldn't bleed out like that but maybe she should call someone…after she found out Clark's condition.

"Sweetheart," she whispered as she came to close to him and saw the green glowing rocks that were making him weak and keeping it so that he couldn't fight back. Had they really operated on his brain? She closed her eyes, feeling the tears before chucking the rocks as far as she could away from him. What if they had gone through with the operation? What would be the best thing for him? Would she have to try to find an assisted living community for Superman?

After she got rid of every piece of Kryptonite she could see, she very gently unrolled the bandages that were covering his head. There was a heavy bruise but no scarring, no signs of the operation. She placed a hand on her chest in relief. She gently cupped his cheek and kissed his forehead. "Honey?" she asked as she dared herself to kiss his lips. He was so much colder than usual. She felt the tears roll down her cheeks

"L-Lo-" he said extremely weakly as his eyelids fluttered.

Lois grabbed his hand and sobbed loudly. She squeezed onto it, she needed to support him now, she needed to get him out of here just like she should have the day before. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him to her chest. His entire body was weak and cold. "I'm here," she told him as she felt him struggling to breathe. "Clark, I'm right here."

Hearing the sound of sirens, she held to him closer, she closed her eyes tightly once she had seen the wounded doctor. He was alive. They would get him medical attention before he was too badly wounded but what would happen to her. She had done it out of self-defense but she had also broken in here. What would happen to her love? Would they take him back to the room? Would they complete the procedure without a way of stopping them?

Lois made up her mind in that moment that unless they were to physically force her arms off of him, she was going to hold Clark pressed close to her chest, no matter what. Maybe he wasn't a citizen by birth but they had made him a citizen. She had just not listened to them and that was her fault. He was a citizen of this country. Perhaps he was of alien birth but he wasn't an alien to her. In her eyes, Kryptonians weren't really aliens because they didn't look like those cartoonish aliens that were shown in sci-fi movies.

"Ma'am," one of the officers said to her and Lois still held close to her husband. "Please put your hands on your head, drop your weapon, and turn around."

"The weapon is on the floor," Lois told them as she turned to look at them and then looked at the gun, trying to draw their attention there. "As for putting my hands on my head, I am unable to do that. I'm holding someone much more important that myself."

"That's an order!" the police officer yelled at her and Lois moved her body to show Clark was nearly dead, the amazing and much-loved Superman was nearly dead. "Let go of the hostage!"

"Hostage!?" Lois yelled at him. "I just so happen to be his wife. It's this place that is keeping him hostage. He's done nothing wrong. Yes, his body is a little different than ours but he has the same rights. He is a citizen of this country despite the origins of his birth. I'm not letting go of him."

"I am sure that…" the man looked at the doctor who was starting to regain consciousness. "Get the paramedic in here for him," the officer said as he kept a gun pointed at Lois who was defiantly refusing his orders.

Clark looked up groggily at the officer. He managed to use enough strength to get out of Lois's hold and tried to stand up off of the table he was on but he immediately fell to the ground giving another sound of pain. "She-She's ri—right…" he struggled to say, his breathing still impacted. Lois immediately went to kneel beside him. She pushed his hair back, her pain increasing as she felt his high fever even for him. Despite the burn on her hand, she kept it on there for as long as possible.

"I have to get him out of here," Lois whispered as the officer's eyes widened and he stared at another officer. A third was coming up to him with the instructions for the lobotomy procedure.

"Seems like we got here in time, if we'd only been a moment later," he said and Lois glared at them. She saw Clark fall to the ground, his breathing was still painful to him and his eyes were closing. She moved his body so she put his head on her knees and very gently pushed her fingers through his hair.

"I got here in time," Lois argued. "But maybe not. He needs to be taken out of here. He needs to be seen by a safe doctor who won't use him as a lab experiment."

The officer nodded and Lois saw them lower their weapons. She held tight to her love. Would he be able to recover from this? He had survived when pushed to the very brink of death but somehow this seemed worse. His body would be able to heal itself even if it took a little longer than usual but his mind. Would his mind ever be repaired? Would he be stable when he woke up? She leaned down and kissed him.

"You're going to be all right," she said to him though she wasn't even sure if she believed her own words. "You're going to be all right."

LLCKLLCK

Lois stood in the hotel room with her arm wrapped around her waist. He was still ill. They had thought that there had been some kind of infection or at least after effect from the experimentation performed on him. His body was fighting it off but he was still weak, still unable to protect the world as he did once. He had been in this room for four days now and fortunately Dr. Kline had examined him and the Kents had brought Johnathan back. Lois gently placed another damp towel on his forehead but saw the smoke from it. She knew she had to treat his physiology different than a human's but he usually healed by himself

"Are you sure that there aren't going to be any charges?" she asked as she took hold of Clark's hand again. "They've checked his citizenship records. I mean, you said that when you adopted him, you listed him as an abandoned child and that was only six months after you found him?"

"Nine," Martha corrected her as she watched her son and daughter-in-law, "Nine months. We didn't want for anyone to take him away from us. We still don't -"

"Well, it's good that the government isn't going to touch him or at least that's what they say," Lois said as she saw that this time, Clark had only burned through one-quarter of the towel. That was an improvement. After placing the thick hand towel to the side, Lois snuggled down next to her husband. She let her head rest on his chest to hear his heartbeat which was abnormal even for him.

"Strange though how he can burn through the fabric and not burn my lips," she told them as she held onto Clark tightly. She wanted him to wake up and tell them how he was feeling. They had put his body into shock. They had done things to him that maybe not even Superman could recover from.

"Lo—Lo—is," Clark whispered, calling for her in his sleep again.

"I'm here, sweetheart," she whispered to him, kissing the fabric of the shirt over his chest. "I'm right here. They won't touch you again. I won't let them take you again."

At this point there was a knock on the door and Lois had a sinking feeling in her gut but she clutched tighter to Clark. Nobody would take him away from her. Nobody.

End of Chapter Four

Thank you for reading

Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Three

Kagome Avalon, Supernurse

AN: Thank you Kagome Avalon for giving me a refresher, I appreciate it since I forgot a few things 😊