Thanks again to 4ever1 for a quick beta and I need to send a special thank you to all of you who left me such wonderful reviews. I really do appreciate it!

Rhea

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As the hours passed and the distance closed, Lois' felt her unease grow. She knew that Clark had been trying to keep her safe, but that left her with the task of recovering lost ground. Couldn't he have brought her to her place in Metropolis? Why Kansas? At least it had been nice to check on Jason. She was relieved to see him well and enjoying his stay on the farm.

Clark was in the thick of things, getting answers without her. She had no doubt that Clark would willingly share the story, but that wasn't the point. He had elected to 'save' Lois without asking if she even wanted to be saved.

He had brought her here so quickly, Lois hadn't known what he was up to until it was too late. How did you argue with a man who was capable of such astounding feats? Lois grunted, crossing her arms across her chest. With great cunning and a whole lot of determination.

What stung the most was that Clark hadn't bothered to return and keep her updated. Lois didn't like being unnecessary and she certainly didn't like being forgotten.

Something didn't feel right.

It was unlike Clark to leave her hanging like this. Lois had a gut feeling that something had gone wrong. Clark was in trouble. Lois' anxiety grew. There was no word from Clark and no report of any Superman related activity that could have delayed his return.

This was why she was in the passenger seat of a small U-haul moving van, with a painful bladder, wishing she hadn't drunk so many cups of coffee. When the driver, an elderly man who thankfully had a lead foot, asked if she'd like to stop, Lois just shook her head.

Albert was Martha's neighbor. He was heading into Metropolis to assist his daughter in a move to the city after a very nasty divorce. Albert was more than willing to give her a ride eager for the company and for a sympathetic ear.

His youngest daughter Marie, had already gone ahead to accept a position at Metropolis General, and couldn't take leave to move her belongings out to the city. Her divorce had finalized just last week, and she'd been eager to get a new start on her life.

Albert's black eyes glittered with animation, and his chocolate skin, although creased, told a tale of a lifetime of laughter. Lois understood why Martha had befriended the seventy-plus year old man.

Albert made their squabbles sound like a soap opera, and she found herself relaxing at his wry humor. Lois wondered how anyone could possibly know so much about the personal life of his daughter and her recent ex. He missed his calling as a reporter. When she told him that, he laughed, obviously flattered.

He took this as an opening to probe Lois' current predicament. Not seeing any harm in telling him an edited version of the truth, and hoping that it would help to alleviate her stress, Lois opened up. She told him about their recent assignment, the missing people, and her concern over Clark's safety.

Albert rubbed his chin and asked. "Clark hasn't called?"

"I haven't seen him since Superman saved us at the accident."

"There you see. Everything is going to be fine. I'm sure with your young man working with Superman he's as safe as a baby in a cradle."

Lois made a non-committal noise in response.

"Although I wonder why Superman flew you there instead of Clark to his mother's house?"

"Testosterone."

Albert snorted in laughter.

"You men can't help but throw yourselves into the path of a bullet to save a woman. Always thinking that you're invincible."

"Not enough men these days are like that. Martha's talked so much about Clark, I feel as if I know him. I moved in after he'd left for Metropolis, so I never had the pleasure, but he sounds like a pretty special man."

"Well, he's . . . Clark." Lois said as if that should explain everything.

One shaggy eyebrow rose in amusement. His lips quirked in a quick grin. "I see you still have the ring on."

Lois shrugged, avoiding Albert's shrewd gaze, "These things aren't cheap. I really don't want to risk losing it and have Perry dock my pay."

"Uh huh." Albert said unconvinced. "You want to know what I think?"

"No." Lois answered firmly, but she was lying.

The scenery was a blur. It was just a few more miles until they reached the outskirts of Metropolis.

"I think you don't want to take off the ring, because it links you to Clark. I think you care a great deal about him."

"Of course I do. Everyone thinks Clark's a great guy."

"I think you're in love with him."

"I can't believe you still believe in love with everything your daughter's gone through."

"Oh she never had the Look."

"The Look?"

"You know. The glow someone gets when they're in love. Whenever you say his name, I can see it."

Lois snorted dubiously. "You want to know what I think, Albert? I think you're a hopeless romantic."

"That might be. But I'd bet next year's corn crop that I'm right."

When Lois remained silent crossing her arms across her chest, Albert chuckled.

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A man with Asian features knelt beside him and whispered, "The pain will pass soon." It was the man in the lab coat. Clark realized where he had seen him before. He was the driver of the truck that Lois had been watching late the other night.

"Who are you? What's going on?" Clark asked, sitting up with some difficulty.

"I'm Jon. I work in the research lab here at Genetech. You've been unconscious and we're just going to do a quick evaluation of your condition."

Clark could hardly pay attention to his words. He felt disoriented when he saw that Victor and the other two men were no longer on the other side of the glass. In their place, a card game was spread out on a small folding table.

A young woman, almost a child, dressed in a utilitarian coverall was leaning back in a folding chair, trying to hide a triumphant look from the man seated across from her. The man was so pale Clark decided that he was almost an albino. His eyes were fringed with long colorless eyelashes that gave him an almost otherworldly look.

As if sensing his regard, he turned to face Clark. The black of the man's eyes were startling, but it was the expression on his face that made his gut lurch. There was almost a gleeful malevolence written in every line in the man's face. He spread his cards out on the table with a flourish, his gaze never wavering from Clark's face. The young woman slumped in disappointment.

He glanced at his watch and nodded at Jon.

"Just lie still." Jon said as he neared him with a syringe. Clark recoiled, more out of fear of discovery than of the pain the needle could inflict.

Instead of breaking, the syringe slipped easily into Clark's arm, a testament to his weakened condition. The man withdrew a small amount of blood, giving him a sympathetic look.

"Why am I so weak?" Clark asked.

"You have the flu. It's a quite common variety. If you had gotten last year's flu vaccine, you wouldn't have suffered any flu-like symptoms. We just want to make certain it hasn't mutated after interacting with your system. You're the first one that's been exposed who hadn't been pre-selected from our candidates. We just need to make sure you aren't having some sort of reaction to the . . . therapy. "

His answers only prompted more questions. Did they know who he was? How had he gotten the flu, when he had never been sick a day in his life? Why were they infecting people with the influenza virus anyway?

Jon turned to leave. Clark tried to rise to his feet, but the vertigo was too much. He was dressed in a plain white hospital gown. His eyes grew wide as he wondered what had happened to his clothes. Then Clark relaxed as he realized that he had left his Superman suit in a compressed ball behind a pipe on the Daily Planet rooftop. Good thing that Lois knew the truth, because when he had flown her to Kansas, he hadn't even had to change clothing.

He watched Jon leave through the glass. Jon punched a code in the keypad, locking the door behind him. Then it struck him. Clark was trapped in a research lab, helpless, and scientists were about to examine a vial of his blood.

This was beyond bad. If they didn't know his true identity, it would probably only be a matter of time, before the truth was revealed.

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When Lois returned from the bathroom, Albert was waiting for her. She had seen the wisdom of changing into the non-descript coveralls that he had given her, but when she saw that his garb matched her own, Lois scowled. She tucked her hair into a matching gray baseball hat, watching him dubiously.

"You're going to this Genelab right away." Albert hadn't asked a question.

"Genetech. Yes."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

"You aren't coming with me." She said.

"If I go, you get door to door limo service."

Lois shook her head, but was in too much of a hurry to argue.

"I'm an old man. I need adrenalin just to keep my heart going. They'll never suspect me and besides, if I die, I've already lived a full life."

"Your argument is that you're expendable?" Lois said incredulously, a reluctant smile on her face.

He shrugged. "I told Martha that I'd help you, and I'm a man of my word."

Her concern over Clark's absence overrode her usual arguments. Lois only stopped to borrow Marie's phone.

"Lois!" Jimmy's voice was high pitched and more than a bit breathless. "We've been worried about both you and Clark since someone reported finding the license plate of your rental. Where are you?"

"Jimmy. Do you have any idea where Superman is?"

"There's been no sign of him. He's been kind of scarce lately. Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you want me to call the police?"

She thought about it for a moment and then said, "Clark and I got separated after the car crash."

"Car crash?!"

"I'm with a friend right now, but I think that Clark might have gone into Genetech without me. If you don't hear from me in an hour, send the cavalry after us, okay Jimmy?"

"Mr. White's just come out of a meeting. Do you want to talk to him?"

"I gotta' go. Thanks Jimmy." She hung up quickly. Lois knew Perry would not be happy, but she was grateful that she had managed to avoid talking to him. He would tell her to get back to the Planet and write up what she had and let the police look into Clark's disappearance.

Albert didn't say anything to her as they got into a small black sedan and drove to the research facility. It was remarkably easy to gain entrance through the back delivery area. Albert had a face that seemed incapable of deceit, and one look at his arthritic fingers, made him seem harmless.

Lois kept her head down as they made their way deeper into the bowels of Genetech. They passed a crowded cafeteria where she caught sight of Kai Lee sitting with a dark haired man. Was that her husband? They hurried past.

There approached an open door to a gym where a young girl was lifting enormous weights. Albert stopped in his tracks and said, "She's lifting more than four hundred pounds!"

"Shhhh." Lois tugged on his arm, so that they would remain unnoticed. There was also a man running on a treadmill, his legs a blur. He seemed to be moving as fast as Superman. A man in a lab coat holding some sort of device, turned from his observation, to look in their direction.

They ducked around the corner and out of sight. "Let's go back to the cafeteria, 'cause I want whatever that man ate for lunch." Albert said in awe.

Lois' mind was filled with questions. What exactly were they doing, and what had happened to Clark? It couldn't have been a coincidence that he disappeared at the same time others were exhibiting super human powers.

There were guards standing at a set of double doors ahead of them. Figures in environmental suits flashed a badge before the guards opened the doors for them.

Lois pulled Albert into a small room. It was very cold, air blew down from vents in the ceiling, and she could see lab coats and environment suits hung on a rack. Lois pulled one down and started dressing.

When Albert didn't move, she said, "You don't have to come with me, but I'm not leaving until I find Clark."

Albert started to dress and asked, "Do you do this often? I didn't know that being a reporter was so exciting."

"You have no idea." Lois muttered. "Keep your head down, and don't say a word."

She found an empty plastic holder, intended for a badge. She hoped it would be enough. Lois clipped it to her clothing, and went confidentially up to the two guards. She flashed the badge holder quickly then turned away, pretending to confer with Albert. The two guards paused and then opened the door. Lois and Albert moved quickly inside and ducked around the corner.

"I can't believe that worked." Albert said, there was a definite note of admiration in his voice. "Those boys should be fired."

"Yeah, well, half the time if you look like you belong, no one will question you."

It was lunch time and the place was relatively deserted. They went to the first door and opened it cautiously. The first room she saw had a doorway with some sort of clear sheeting. Clark lay in a medical bed, various devices monitoring his vitals. His eyes were closed, his face pale.

Lois had to restrain herself from running to his bedside. She waited while a suited man took some notes and then absentmindedly moved passed them.

The first time she had seen him in a hospital bed she wondered if he would ever open his eyes again. For some reason, this was even worse. His skin had a slightly greenish, sickly cast. His eyes moved behind his lids like he was dreaming, but from the expression on his face, Lois guessed it was a nightmare.

The sight of him like this filled her with terror. He had never looked so ill, and it horrified her to find him so vulnerable. Although she felt as if her heart was struggling to beat, her mind remained clear. She had to get him out of here.

"Clark?" Lois entreated in a whisper. The heart monitor gave a lurch, setting off an alarm. Lois grabbed his arm ignoring the sound of approaching people. She'd fight them off one at a time if she had too, but she refused to abandon Clark.

She glanced up to meet Albert's eyes, and saw that he understood.

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Time became meaningless. Clark had been moved to some sort of hospital ward where he was the sole occupant. He was growing weaker; the only thing growing stronger was the pain.

If this is what it felt like to have the flu, he had shown far too little sympathy to those affected. He could see that Jon was growing worried about his worsening condition. Even if Clark understood the cause, he could hardly tell him about his alien physiology.

From the bits that he'd overheard when they thought he was unconscious, he'd pieced together some facts. Their research had involved using a sample of Superman's tissue taken while he had been weakened in the hospital following his exposure to the mass of Kryptonite.

As he lay there two things haunted him. First, Lois would never know what had happened to him, and second Jason would be alone as he came into his powers. Clark knew without a doubt, that he was dying.

They were wearing biohazard containment suits when they administered to him now. They were tracking his vitals particularly concerned with his "raging" fever. Clark didn't know if he was in fact all that feverish since his temperature was high by human standards. He did know that he wasn't all together lucid because when he managed to open his eyes, the woman peering at him through a translucent helmet looked just like Lois.

He tried to tell her that she had to leave before she caught this deadly contagion, but he couldn't find the strength to speak. When she placed her hand on his arm, he could swear that he could feel her desperate fear for him. A sound pierced the air and he saw the woman and her suited companion glance at each other.

Clark felt her grip on his arm, and he closed his eyes wishing that he could see Lois just one more time. The woman pulled off her helmet, swinging her hair free, and he realized that he hadn't been dreaming. It was really Lois. The sound of pounding feet and frantic yells finally registered and his eyes widened in horror.

"Lois!" He exclaimed, feeling guilty that she had put herself at risk because of his desire to see her. It was his fault that she was here risking exposure to whatever ailment was plaguing him. What would exposure do to her frail body, if with his enhanced physiology he could hardly cling to consciousness?

Victor Valentino walked into the room, garbed in a containment suit. He remained several paces away from Clark. "I'm sorry that it had to end like this, but my work is too important to be stopped by the morality of the American public. I was very much disappointed to discover that the newest additions to our community were in fact two reporters for the Daily Planet."

Victor turned to a man that was standing behind him. "Would you be so kind as to escort our visitors off the premises? We need to make sure that their greatest story will be that of their mysterious and permanent disappearance."

It was the man with the black eyes and colorless skin. He smiled in obvious pleasure. "I think that I might enjoy playing with them some before I get rid of them." He picked up a lock of Lois' hair, as he raised a questioning eyebrow at Victor.

"I see little harm in it since you already have the antibodies, Peter. Just make it quiet. I don't need anything to send the police back here again. Make sure you do a complete decontamination when you're done."

"Of course, dear brother."

Lois stepped hard on the man's instep and he gasped in pain. Almost too fast to see, Peter punched Lois in the face, knocking her against the far wall. Albert tried to grab Peter, but he was knocked down almost as quickly.

Victor left the room.

Clark struggled to sit up, his face a mask of fury. He rose unsteadily to his feet fueled by adrenalin and rage. Clark rammed Peter's back with his head, causing the man to impact into one of the monitors. It shattered on the floor. The blow caused almost more pain to Clark than it did to Peter as he watched the room spin.

Lois' was trying to rise to her feet. Blood was trickling from her nose, and her eyes were wide "Clark!"

He couldn't move fast enough to block the blow to his head. Clark felt the darkness clawing at his vision. He met Lois' eyes, trying to project one thought "Run!"

Then he knew no more.

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