The woman at the reception desk looked up as she heard the click of Chloe's heels against the black, marble floor. The lobby of Belle Reeve had a decidedly sterile, modern décor and the woman working there looked as cold as the surroundings.
"Can I help you?"
"Yes you can." Chloe smiled. "I'm here to visit a patient. He's an old friend of mine—the name is Davis."
The woman looked back down to her magazine and pointed over her shoulder to a sign on the wall. "Miss, it's almost eleven o'clock," She sniffed. "Visiting hours are over. Come back in the morning."
Chloe knew her approach was too simple to work.
"Oh, it's that late already?" She laughed, trying to play it off as the woman glared at her. She took a quick glance around, deciding she'd have to find another way to get in.
"Ahem." The woman cleared her throat loudly and shifted her eyes to the door.
Chloe took the hint. "Um, alright then." She took a few steps backwards. "Tomorrow morning—gotcha'."
Chloe headed out the door and back onto the sidewalk where she had started. "If Clark was here he could have just zipped right in." She grumbled, pulling out her cell to see if he'd called her back.
He hadn't.
She stuffed the phone back into her bag and headed around the right wing of the building to try and locate any unguarded back doors or service entrances. As she snuck around, climbing through a grouping of dense bushes, she heard the sound of a door creaking open and the sound of wheels on pavement. She crouched down deeper into the bushes and peered though the branches.
A few feet away a young man was wheeling a large, plastic bin full of garbage bags out to a dumpster. The door he had exited from, marked Maintenance, was still open, propped open by a crumbling red brick. Her eyes darted back to the guy as he tossed bag after bag into the dumpster. Her heart begun to beat faster and she knew it was time to make a move. Chloe stood up and took a step forward. When her foot came down it made contact with a stick buried under the mulch and there was a loud snap. She tried to make a dash for it, but it was too late. The young man had heard the noise and was headed straight for her.
Chloe was frozen, a few steps away from the entrance.
"Hey you!" He yelled, charging at her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I, I—" She fumbled for an excuse. She noticed a nametag hanging from his shirt. "Ted," She smiled, batting her eyelashes. "I'm sorry—I know how bad this looks—but it's just that I've traveled a long way to visit my friend." She cocked her head flirtatiously. "But the receptionist said visiting hours were over. Silly me, I know. But I just can't bear not to see my friend one last time before—" She paused dramatically.
"Before what?"
"Before he dies." By the look on his face, Chloe knew she had him.
"I'm so sorry."
"Yes, he's terminal." She whispered, her voice cracking. "I just had to do whatever I could to see him. I hope you understand—and that you will help me." She ran her hand further up his arm and took a step forward. "It would really mean a whole lot to me. It can be out little secret."
The man let a tiny smile escape and he dipped his head down closer to her. "Well, since you put it that way," Chloe felt his hand wrap up around her wrist. "I think," He smiled wider and Chloe nodded eagerly—this was going to work. "I'm gonna have to call security!" His grip tightened severely and he reached down to where a walkie talkie was clipped to his belt.
Chloe wriggled, trying to break free, but his grip was unbreakable. So in one swift motion she lifted her leg, kneeing him in the groin. He let out a wail of pain, doubled over and fell to his knees. The radio dropped to the ground and Chloe made a mad dash for the door. But before she could get away he had reached out and grabbed her ankle. She could feel his nails digging into her flesh, and as she struggled to break free she reached into her purse.
"I didn't want to do this—but you leave me no choice."
She whirled around and shot her hand out, zapping his back with her stun gun. A blue jolt of electricity shot from the device into the man and his eyelids flew open. He jerked back, his body went limp and he fell to the ground. He blinked a few times in shock before he passed out cold.
Chloe, still trembling from the adrenaline, stashed her weapon. "That's the last time I try to flirt my way in." She shook his limp fingers from her leg and stepped in through the door. It led to a dark storage room with boxes piled clear to the ceiling. There was another door at the far end of the room and she went over to it. She turned the handle slowly and pulled it open just enough to peer around the corner.
The coast was clear and she found herself in a long corridor. On the left were a few racks of clothing and rolling shelves of folded blankets next to a door marked Laundry. Chloe glanced up and down the hallway, seeing a few more non-descript doors, until she saw one at the far end marked Stairwell B. She ran over to it and pushed it open, climbing upwards till she came to a stop on the first landing. There was a door marked Level 1 with a small, square glass window at the top. She looked through it to see a hallway, dim and deserted. Carefully she opened the door and stuck her head out; it was quiet except for a distant beeping sound.
She let the door click closed behind her and crept up the carpeted hallway, thankful that it muffled her footsteps. She came to a stop at a corner and went to look around it when she felt a strong hand clamp down tightly over her mouth. Her eyes bugged and she instinctively went to scream, but stopped when she was forcefully turned around.
" Clark!" She whispered when he dropped his hand. "What are you doing? You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"I got your message." He whispered. "I got here as fast as I could."
"I could have used you a bit earlier." She quipped. "How did you get in?"
"I just zipped past the receptionist."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Figures. So, I guess the ban on super powers is off?"
Clark smiled sheepishly. "Yeah—gone like your reluctant reporter act."
It was now Chloe's turn to be embarrassed. She didn't even want to think about her behavior the past few days. "Don't remind me. Now, I have a plan." She inched forward again, looking around the corner. "There is a nurse's station down the hallway there. That's where you come in."
"How so?"
"Well, there is a nurse there right now. We need some sort of a distraction so we can get in there and get access to a patient directory or something—find out what room our guy is in."
Clark nodded and walked slowly up the hallway, getting as close to the nurse's station as he could without being seen. There, a woman in beige scrubs was relaxing in a chair, yakking into the phone. "Yeah, this night shift is killing me. I really need to find a new job." She complained, twirling a pencil in her fingers. "Wait—Metropolis General is hiring?"
Clark scanned the nearby area and saw a med cart up against the wall, unattended. He inhaled deeply, pursed his lips, and blew. The cart shot off like a canon, barreling down the hallway leaving a trail of papers and pills in its wake.
"Holy—" The nurse cried, her eyes wide with shock. The phone dropped from her hand as she hopped up from her chair and took off after it down the hallway and out of sight.
Clark spun around and signaled an all clear. Chloe ran up to meet him and the two rushed behind the nurse's station.
"Okay, remember to look for a list of current patients." Chloe whispered, sifting through stacks of paper littering the desk top.
Clark searched the shelves. "Got it." He pulled out a red binder labeled Patient Census.
Chloe grabbed it and flipped it open, her eyes twinkling. "Perfect." She began reading through the pages as fast as she could.
"What's the name?"
" Davis. That's all I got—could be the first, could be the last."
Clark grabbed it from her hand. "I can read a lot faster." He flipped through a few more pages quickly until he found a match. "Hey, right here." He said, pointing to a name in the middle of the page. "The only Davis in the book—Austin Davis, room 210."
"Yeah, and it looks like he was admitted only a few weeks ago."
Suddenly they heard a woman's voice. "Hello? Hello? Rhonda? Girl, is that you? What the hell is going on?"
Chloe picked the phone off the desk, clicking it back onto the receiver. "Alright, let's go."