Part Six - Chasing the Sun
"Why can't I go in there!" Lois demanded for the tenth time.
She'd walked alongside the gurney as far as a pair of doors with an electronic lock and a sign saying "RESTRICTED AREA", and then the three doctors had told her in no uncertain terms that she was not going any further, but with no satisfactory explanation. A beefy security guard stepped in front of her as they wheeled Clark out of sight, and she glared at him, mirroring his arms-folded posture in defiance.
She'd collared every white-coat walking by to get herself admitted, but none of them seemed to care that she was Lois Lane, top reporter for the Daily Planet, Superman's closest friend and Clark Kent's partner! No credential she could bring out would illicit any help, until the doors swung outward towards her and Katia poked her head out.
"How did you--?" Lois began, both surprised and testy that the woman was allowed to be with Clark while she was not.
"There's a back way. Come through, Lois." Katia beckoned, and the security guard, who looked about to step in with his brick-wall physique, stepped back at the scientist's chilling glare and quickly-flashed security ID. Lois hurried on into another, identical corridor, listening gratefully to Katia's report.
"They've had to put Superman into a clean room, because the radiation compromised his immune system. Even breathing on him might be fatal right now."
Lois fought down a wave of fear. It shocked her to think that the Man of Steel could be so weakened. And how long would he remain this way? Maybe permanently? It was a fate worse than she could imagine; to live and yet be trapped in a protective bubble. Superman would never stand for it, Lois knew - he could never be a spectator in life, any more than she could.
"So, what are they doing for him now? I mean, he'll heal, right?" Lois asked earnestly, pouring in all the optimism she could to quash her suffocating doubts.
Katia didn't reply, her gaze drawn to the left as she stopped in front of a plate glass window. Lois followed her look into the room beyond.
It was like déjà-vu. Days ago she'd been weeping before a window as Jimmy lay injured and covered with monitoring equipment. Now Clark lay there unconscious, attended by two doctors in white overalls and masks who were carefully cleaning and dressing the wounds on his hands.
They finished up and exited through a kind of airlock, sealing up Clark's room thoroughly before they removed their masks and turned to the two women.
"Dr. Slomowitz," one of the medics began, "I'm Dr. Warwick. Now, I need you to be completely honest with me. What's really going on here?" His tone held an edge of anger, and Lois was surprised to see the usually fierce Czech scientist a little intimidated by his firm tone.
Dr. Warwick continued, the exasperated tirade of a man who is used to having all the answers. "This stuff that can hurt Superman… I saw that hold-up at the Daily Planet on TV, and it looked to me like the rock was dangerous only so long as he was exposed to it. The problem is that now he's away from it, he isn't recovering. At a guess I'd say his condition isn't entirely due to his actions this evening - he's suffering cumulative effects of radiation! But how can that be?"
His sharp blue eyes bored into Katia's. "I know you're in this mess deep, doctor. But however much trouble you think you're in, it's going to get a whole lot worse if Superman dies." The last line was almost a growl.
"I worked for Colonel Trask," Katia admitted, "I was given a rock of alien origin for study some weeks ago. I was directed to make a sedative gas using the Kryptonite, but at the time I did not know what it did or why it was requested. Then Trask brought Superman to me, and he has been a prisoner for the last several days, kept powerless by the gas. I think this may have caused some long-term damage." Katia looked at the ground, shame in her eyes. "I followed orders - Bureau 39 had the power to have me deported, or killed!"
Dr. Warwick turned his eyes away from Katia in disgust. He looked to Lois, who was still anxious to know Clark's prognosis. "I won't sugar-coat it, Miss Lane; Superman's organs are starting to shut down, his blood… well, we can't even get a handle on that because we have no normal sample for comparison!"
Katia looked up sharply, "I can get you a base sample of Superman's blood from my lab! Perhaps a transfusion of his own clean blood from before this massive dose of radiation would help?"
"Sort of like dialysis?" Lois agreed, remembering Mr. Mestre, the only man to have come through Trask's sick experiment unscathed.
Dr. Warwick nodded his assent. "I'm willing to try anything at this point."
Katia made the trip to her lab and back in a record fifteen minutes by express motorbike courier, and Clark was swiftly connected to a bag of his own blood. Lois and the doctors stood back and hoped for the best, but Dr. Warwick looked doubtful.
"I just don't know... I've never treated an alien before, much less one who is supposed to be invulnerable to harm! I've been analysing the emitters Superman disabled: each one was like a miniature Chernobyl! He's been exposed to radiation more powerful than the sun! No ordinary being could possibly survive it, but if he had his powers…"
Lois' didn't hear the rest of the doctor's statement - the idea blazed through her mind like a bolt of lightning!
"The sun!" She exclaimed, "It's the source of his powers! It would help him heal!"
Katia was nodding emphatically now, too. "Yes, you are right! In my analysis of his blood chemistry I found his cells to be solar-responsive. But," she looked out of the nearest window at the deepening blue of the sky, "We are too late. The sun has gone down."
Dr. Warwick was already on his cell phone. "Radiology? Have we got a UV tanning bed down there? Great, we're on our way!"
Lois paced round the nurses lounge, sat briefly in one of the comfy sofas, then got up to pace again. She was grateful to have been given this private space to wait in, since the ER was still full of the public and media, and she had no particular wish to go through questioning again. On the way down to radiology she'd been hounded by one enterprising young reporter who had been loitering in the elevators hoping to catch someone. He had refused to take 'no comment' as an answer and grilled her about whether Superman would survive, and about her relationship with Clark… the snot-nosed rookie had the nerve to ask if she was intimate with the Man of Steel! Must've worked for a tabloid.
Clark had been put into an ordinary tanning bed, the kind Lois had used herself a few times in winters gone by when she couldn't stump up the cash for a trip to somewhere sunny. She had no idea if it would work, but there was simply nothing else she or any of the 'brilliant scientific minds' could come up with.
She closed her eyes and pictured his face. Clark's face. How many times in the past year had she pictured Superman; his rich, dark eyes and firm body so well-displayed in that tight outfit? How many times had she held in her heart the strong, gentle voice that bid her good evening and flew off from her windowsill? Her hero, her fantasy. She had wanted to know all his secrets, to be the only woman in the world favoured by the god in blue tights. It was a selfish dream, and yet now she knew that it had come true anyway. Clark had always favoured her, doted on her. She had seen his unwavering affection as a sweet, slightly pathetic little crush on a more experienced colleague. Lois was fiery-tempered, sassy and confident; everything that would dazzle a mild-mannered farm boy… and she had secretly enjoyed his adoration because it inflated her ego to be so elevated in someone's eyes, even it was only Clark.
Only Clark? She laughed at herself in her mind. How had it all gotten so complicated? At two in the morning, after ten or more cups of disgusting hospital coffee and the stress of waiting endlessly for any change, the complexity of it all fell away and her exhausted mind latched onto only the true, logical, simple nature of things.
Clark was Superman.
Clark loved her.
And she loved both of them… she loved him.
As much as she feared for his life right now, Lois was suddenly suffused with the joy of that simple admission. She smiled from ear to ear, just thinking about how easy it was to say it over and over to herself.
I love him! I love him!
She wiped her eyes on her sleeve, smiling through the tears which would not stop falling. She had never thought to be so blown away by the reality of being in love. Her ideas on the subject were a mixture of her past train-wreck relationships and a hundred soppy romance movies. This was different - this was real.
She was still standing there, grinning foolishly when a nurse came into the room.
"Oh, you've heard, then?" She asked, seeing the tears of happiness on Lois' cheeks.
"No, what!" Lois' mind was suddenly dragged back to the present.
The nurse, puzzled, informed her that Superman had woken up. Lois didn't stop to enquire further, but bolted out past the nurse and round the corner towards the solarium.
She burst in without knocking to see Dr. Warwick helping Clark out of the sunbed and into a waiting chair.
"Clark!" She exclaimed, dashing to his side.
"Miss Lane, please," Dr. Warwick began, a chiding tone in his voice, "Superman is very weak right now, you should probably give him a few hours to--"
But Lois wasn't listening. She knelt by his side and put her arms round him gently, looking intently into his eyes, waiting for him to say something, anything.
"W-were you crying?" His voice was little more than a whisper as he reached out and delicately touched her streaked face.
Her eyes brimmed again and she buried her face into his shoulder. His hand slid up her back and into her hair. "Shhh…" he soothed, "I'm fine, Lois."
She pulled back and looked him over, seeking the truth in his words. He looked like an ordinary man with a bad case of the flu - there were dark circles round his eyes, his cheeks were pale as he smiled weakly at her. His hands were still wounded…
"I thought the sunbed would help you heal," she began sadly, but he stopped her.
"It saved my life. It was a great idea Lois! I just need something a little stronger, that's all." He pushed her away gently and used the arms of the chair to heave himself to his feet like an old man.
"What are you doing? Superman you need to rest!" Protested Dr. Warwick immediately. Clark strode over to the window and pulled back the curtain. Lois understood what he was seeking.
"It's still night, Clark."
"Not everywhere."
Without any of Superman's usual grace, he opened the window and climbed out onto the ledge.
Lois and Dr. Warwick cried out in unison and ran forwards as he launched himself from the window, and fell straight down out of sight. About ten stories below, Clark was still falling. Lois wanted to turn away but she could not. Her stomach clenched so hard she could barely breathe as she silently willed him to fly!
Just twenty feet from the ground, the figure of Clark, now small and indistinct in the murky pre-dawn, took off sideways and gained speed and height. Lois let out her breath and sagged against the windowsill.
Lois twitched and frowned through a bizarre dream where she was the grieving widow at the graveside of Superman, the coffin draped in his bright red cape with its symbol of hope. Clark stood behind her in a black suit, his arms draped soothingly round her shoulders. Camera flashes went off all around as the world recorded the passing of the superhero, and yet Clark seemed strangely at peace as he held Lois close.
It was disturbing, but as her cracked mind tried to make sense of the wrongness of it all, the ground shook, the whole earth trembled under her feet, and a voice spoke, gently at first then more insistently…
"Lois, honey, wake up…"
The hand on her shoulder buffeted her more firmly. She cried out as the dream world smashed and her eyes snapped open to focus on the coffee machine in front of her, then took in her surroundings. She was back in the nurses' lounge, and the voice bringing her back to the present was Perry's soft Southern brogue.
"Wha- what time is it?" She mumbled.
"It's a quarter after four in the morning." It was not Perry who spoke. Lois leapt up.
"Jimmy! God, are you alright?" Without a thought she pulled him into a bear-hug, but let go quickly as he yelped in pain.
"Easy there, Lois," Perry scolded her, "Boy's been to hell and back!"
"And all because of me." Lois agreed sombrely. "I'm so sorry, Jimmy. You… you saved my life." She looked her young friend up and down, noting the bandage across his head and the dressings on his arms. And yet Jimmy's eyes were bright as he smiled at her.
"Yep, and don't think I won't be calling in that favour when a certain person's sister comes to town!"
Lois laughed, her tension draining away for a moment at his cheerfulness. Then she remembered why she was still in the hospital. She turned to Perry.
"Did Clark come back?"
"No one's heard anything yet, but I think he'll show up in his own time. Now you better go home and get some proper rest. Get! I don't want to see you back at work before noon!"
For once Lois was all too willing to follow her editor's orders.
As the morning light sneaked in through her tasteful gauzy drapes, Lois threw her pillow across the room and huffed in frustration. She knew there was simply no way she was going to get a good solid sleep. After that disconcerting dream and the constant nagging thought that Clark had not been at all well when he left the hospital, her brain was buzzing with the thought that he might have crash-landed somewhere remote, with no transport and no phone, and who knew what havoc the radiation was still playing with his body?
She had been dozing fitfully in ten-minute bursts, but as the little alarm clock on her nightstand chimed 10 a.m., she finally gave up and moved to the couch. She tuned into Channel Nine News, where Brian Denver was still keeping vigil at the hospital in case there were any new developments in Superman's case. Lois was surprised that Dr. Warwick had managed to keep Clark's unsteady leap from the window of the radiology ward a secret from the hoards of press camped out in the ER.
Denver finished his on-site report and handed back to the studio, which proceeded to run a quite thorough round-up of the last few days. Lois considered switching off as the report began with extracts from Trask's home-movie inside the Daily Planet newsroom. She bit her lip as she saw the playback of Clark being dragged to the front and exposed as an alien. She nearly cried to see the lump of Kryptonite pressed into his hand. Then came the story of how the sickness had come to light, the rumours that it was Superman's toxin and the rush of frightened people into the hospital. Finally the arrival of Clark Kent in the ER, how braved the public hatred and heroically took all of the poison into himself, leaving him in critical condition. As far as the wider world knew, their hero was still fighting for his life in Intensive Care, and all medical personnel were sticking to that story.
There followed a side-story on the discovery of Colonel Trask's body at Chemkya Labs. Police were eager to question Dr. Katia Slomowitz, but she seemed to have disappeared.
No kidding, thought Lois. Katia was in all this up to her pretty little neck, and as much as Lois wanted to hate the woman for hurting Clark, she had to grudgingly admit Katia had also helped save his life, and Lois hoped that she wouldn't end up in jail for working with Trask under duress.
Lois looked out of her window and wondered again where Clark was now. It was pretty average weather outside; the sun struggled through the clouds to fall weak and stripy on the pavement. He'd gone in search of some strong solar energy… maybe the Caribbean, or the Sahara desert? Or would he take it to extremes and try to fly to the sun itself?
She flicked channels on the TV idly for a few minutes and sighed in resignation. If she wasn't going to sleep, she told herself, she might as well be somewhere useful. Despite Perry's orders not to show up till noon, she threw on some half-way decent clothes and headed for the Planet.
The glare of the sun on the snow was so bright, Clark had to squeeze his eyes shut and fly on blindly. It wasn't usual for him to feel cold, but he did. He'd visited this part of the Himalayas before many times; it was a favourite spot for him in times of stress, but never before had he truly appreciated the temperature of the place. Still, it wasn't warmth that he needed, but sunlight, and that was plentiful here. No tall buildings, no clouds, no trees, just the vast, stark beauty of the mountains.
His powers were definitely acting up. After his harrowing fifteen-story fall back in Metropolis, he'd been much more careful to fly relatively low and keep himself above the ocean in case of emergency landing. Still, he'd lost power temporarily twice across the Atlantic, falling almost to the waves before he found the strength to rise again. He gratefully touched down in Egypt where the sun was strong and high, and spent a few hours resting atop the Great Pyramid at Giza. After that little recharge, he felt strong enough to make a trip back to his apartment to pick up a fresh Superman uniform from his closet. It simply wouldn't do to be seen flying around in a baggy white hospital gown.
Now he floated with the breeze above the highest peaks in the world, his breath steaming in the thin upper-atmosphere. Cold was not a pleasant sensation, he decided, wondering if his powers would be a bit hit-and-miss for a long time to come. He was still 'super', just not as super as he remembered. He recalled the stab of fear through his heart as Trask fired his gun, the sting of the bullet that didn't make it past his skin but still left a little mark as a souvenir of the ordeal.
He looked at his hands. The blisters were looking less angry now. How he had fought to keep in the scream as he grabbed the first of the radiation-emitters, its green glow a dead giveaway as to its contents. And as if that wasn't enough, there were nineteen more of the things… The searing pain - it was exactly the same as days before, when the raw Kryptonite had been pressed to his flesh in front of all of his friends, in front of the world.
Clark shook his head, trying to dispel the anxiety creeping over him about returning to Metropolis. The people would be glad to see him recovered, he knew. But then there were explanations to give, and life must go on despite the whole world now being aware of his real identity.
Clark Kent would be a celebrity, unable to escape the paparazzi by simply flying off as Superman had. His friendships and work ties would be put under the microscope, his parents interrogated about their decision to take in an alien child.
Doubtless Lois was already under a lot of pressure to give interviews, and Clark knew what kind of questions they would be asking her. Degrading, intrusive ones. Silently he apologised over and over for the hardship he had brought to the lives of those he cared about. He hated to admit it, but Trask had been right about that.
He shivered again. As beautiful as it was, the icy loneliness of the place was depressing him. He needed to go somewhere cheerful! Seconds later he was a red and blue streak over the South Pacific, headed for his favourite party-spot, Fiji.
Lois scribbled absently on the notepad before her and looked over to Clark's empty desk for maybe the hundredth time that morning. There'd been no word at all from him, no indication he was even alive. She'd tried calling his parents, figuring that to be the first place he'd go to recuperate, but they were incommunicado too.
In the last three hours she was meant to have written a page-one eyewitness account of Superman's unmasking in the Daily Planet newsroom, with the personal slant that only a close friend of Superman's and partner of Clark Kent's could bring to the piece. Instead she had reviewed the last few days in agonising detail, with new and complex emotions jumping up at every turn. Back at the hospital, with Clark at death's door, Lois had been able to admit her true feelings for him, but now in the harsh light of day it seemed more like an acknowledgement of something that was so, despite how much she wished she could change it.
Yes, she loved him. But she was also furious with him too! Clark Kent, the good and honest little boy-scout, had been lying to her from the very first day of their friendship. She remembered how his sudden exits used to drive her mad, how she had asked him directly to his face if he was hiding something from her. He had said no.
The worst part was that she knew the reason. He couldn't trust her. Her own partner! She had told him most of her deepest fears and most embarrassing secrets… given, his was a huge secret to share, but did he think she'd put it in the headlines the next day? No, she was a loyal friend! Lois felt sure she would have been supportive, helped him bear his burden of duality…
Ah, but that wasn't true at all. Lois could be frank with herself that had Clark ever told her he was Superman, she would have blown up at him like a volcano, for all the same reasons she used now. She would rant and scream at him…
But he wasn't here to be shouted at, was he? And that only brought back her concern for him, her desperate need to know he was safe, to see his face, to feel his strong arms.
So the cycle of anger, worry and longing went on, infuriating her almost to the edge of her sanity. There was no way she'd have the article done by five.
"What are you grinning at?" Lois barked as Samson walked past her desk, his eyes lit with anticipation. He stopped at the harsh question and his cheerful expression became defensive.
"It's an important day, Lois!" Samson informed her, "The Kents-vs-the National Whisper!"
"The Kents? What are you talking about?" If there was one thing Lois hated, it was being out-of-the-loop, but the last few days had been so exclusively focused on finding Clark, she had totally forgotten to monitor the world's reaction to the Superman revelation.
Samson was only too pleased to be back covering political stories again. Strange, considering how he'd spent years wishing for a more glamorous or exciting field, but now he found how much he loved the intricacy of legislation and debate. He took out his notes from the day before to show them to Lois.
"Well, the 'Clark-is-Superman' story was broken on Tuesday at noon, and within half an hour the Kent farm in Smallville was completely surrounded! Clark's parents holed up inside and refused to make any comment, so the press outside started to get a little bold. These two from the National Whisper were the first to officially trespass. Their photographer climbed up the outside of the barn into the hay loft for better photos, and Erin Gray, the reporter-on-scene, was picking the back door lock when the police showed up."
Frankly Lois wasn't surprised by this - she was well aware of the lengths a reporter would go to to get a story. How many places had she broken into herself? She felt like such a hypocrite, and yet still she couldn't suppress a wave of loathing for the low-down bitch who tried to break into Martha and Jonathan's home.
"So, at first it was just those two who were charged, until Cam the Clam got involved." Samson grinned widely at this, as though the name itself explained everything. This was starting to sound more and more like a gangster film, Lois thought. She was just about to ask who this dramatic character was when Jimmy strolled up to the desk, picking up on the story too.
"Cam the Clam, what a legend!" His grin matched Samson's. Seeing Lois' puzzled expression begin to edge into impatience, he elaborated. "Cameron Daley, the toughest lawyer in Kansas. They call him 'the clam' because once he's got someone, there's no way he's letting go!"
"And because he's so tight-lipped. The man hates reporters! Lucky for me I'm a friend of Clark's - he's giving me the exclusive!" Samson's chest swelled with pride and his face grew even more animated as he went on. "As soon as Daley found out what happened in Smallville, he swooped in and took over the case. Now he's going to the State demanding new privacy legislation to protect Superman's family in perpetuity, but the National Whisper is saying it restricts the freedom of the press, so…"
"So, you'd better run along to witness the debates, right?" Lois encouraged, having decided she had had enough of the young man's bubbly enthusiasm for legal affairs. Samson nodded an excited farewell to Lois and Jimmy and practically bounded away.
Lois sat back in her chair with a sigh of relief. "I'm glad someone's having fun with all of this." She said with a touch of sarcasm. Jimmy laughed lightly and dropped a brown envelope on the desk in front of her.
"This might cheer you up."
Lois opened the envelope and slipped out a number of glossy photos. Her breath caught as she looked at the scenes of Superman, back to his bright colours again, flying over Ayer's Rock in Australia.
"My cousin in Alice Springs was on a school trip. He's only fifteen, but quite the photographer already, huh? Think Perry'll give him a job at the Planet?"
"I'll make him your replacement if you don't get those down to Art five minutes ago!" Perry boomed from directly behind them. Jimmy snatched back the photos and raced off to the elevator.
Lois turned back to her computer and began to type in earnest. She could almost feel Perry's scowl over her shoulder. She was expecting a to be torn off a strip for her dithering and moping, but Perry only stepped round to face her and gestured to Clark's desk.
"Staring at it isn't going to make him come home any faster, Lois." His tone was uncharacteristically gentle.
"You make him sound like a kid that's run away from home," Lois sulked.
Perry shrugged as he turned away. "You never know."
That set a chorus of alarm bells ringing in Lois' head - the one conclusion she hadn't even considered. Maybe Clark had decided to run away! The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. His secret identity was known to the world - he could never again hide behind the inaccessible Superman persona. His family were under siege from the press, and no doubt the criminal underworld would soon find ways to exploit the people Clark loved, including herself. Lois gulped as she imagined the guilt he must be feeling for creating danger and hassle in so many lives. Then there was their own relationship to consider. Perhaps, rather than trusting that she might get over the betrayal and forgive him, Clark would rather cut and run than deal with that awkwardness and hurt. All in all, it would be much easier to stay away than to return and face the consequences of trying to fool the whole world.
No way! Lois told herself sternly, a reprimand for even imagining that he might be that cowardly. Superman or not, Clark Kent was the most courageous man she'd ever known.
She looked over at his desk one more time. Her partner should be sitting there, smiling at her, cheekily pointing out her spelling mistakes, maybe nipping out for Chinese food as they pulled an all-nighter on a difficult case… he was unwaveringly selfless, devoted and cheerful. She looked at her screen again, suddenly knowing exactly what angle her article would take. With a fiery determination, she began to type.
End of Part Six