----Chapter 16
Where had all the red hair gone? She was hugging Martha Kent, the vibrant red head that had made a farm house feel like home to her, but she no longer sported the vibrant red hair. It had been replaced by a shade of gray nowhere near as... Mrs. Kent-like!
They released each other and Lois plastered a smile on her face, and was met by a smaller smile Martha was wearing. "Oh, honey, how are you doing?"
"I'm adjusting. Year 2021, married to Smallville with a daughter and a fetus, and he's from another planet? Takes a little time, or so I'm guessing since it's taking me a little time."
Lois was distracted by a pulling at her shirt. She found Jordan had snuck up to them and was looking for a little attention. Lois picked her up and settled her on a hip, still speaking to Martha. "Some adjustments are more scary than others, but also more rewarding." She grinned at Martha before looking back down at Jordan. "What's up, baby girl?"
"The sky!"
The statement had been spoken with too much enthusiasm for it to be serious compared to how Jordan had spoken since Lois had known her. She rolled her eyes and looked back to Martha. "And that's all the evidence I need to know that she's really mine."
"Can we watch some TV, mommy?"
"Sounds good, Jordan. What should we watch?"
"Bugs and Daffy!"
Lois grinned. The girl had good taste in cartoons. "I love Bugs and Daffy. Why don't you go turn 'em on and..." She froze and looked at Martha. What did they call Martha with Jordan around?
"Well be there in a sec, honey," Martha said as she took Jordan off Lois' hip and placed her back on the floor.
She watched Jordan run over to the couch before turning back to the older woman. "Sorry, but Clark didn't tell me what Jordan calls you and I froze."
"She just calls me Grandma, dear. That's all it takes for her to make my heart swell just like it did when Clark was her age. Come to think of it, this was just about the age she was when we found him."
"What exactly do you mean found him? I mean, you've used the term previously but I figured that it meant in an orphanage. Knowing Clark's heritage, it's bound to be more complicated."
Lois watched her smile, more to herself than anything, before she spoke. "Jonathan and I found him in a cornfield. It was just after the first meteor shower. A meteor had hit in front of us and Jonathan couldn't stop in time to keep us from going into the crater, so we ended up upside down. I opened my eyes and there was a little boy, my little boy, naked and staring at us. I knew right there that he'd found us, and he was my joy."
Sighing, Lois smiled sadly. "I wish I could have had that with Jordan. As it was, I thought she looked familiar but could have never guessed we were even related."
"Don't beat yourself up, dear. No one would expect that from you."
"Yeah, well, that can't keep me from feeling guilty about it. It fits in with my stellar track record with family." She folded her arms and took a deep breath before speaking again. "Ok, enough of me being depressing. To change the subject, got any good stories about time I don't remember?"
"What has Clark told you already?"
"Well, Smallville's been jumping around with his stories a bit. Mostly he tells stories that relate to what's relevant in our conversation. It's a little confusing, though. So far we've covered time he spent in the hospital with me before I woke up, a conversation he had with Chloe when I was in physio, the first time we talked when he got back from his training, the first conversation we had when he started at the Planet and Jordan's birth."
She realized, for the most part, he'd concentrated his stories towards the time of the attack. "Thinking about it, I guess he hasn't jumped around much except for Jordan's birth. Oh, and Chloe told me about the first time I forgot."
"Well, that's a lot better than last time. When you forgot during your pregnancy with Jordan he jumped around like crazy. Had you a lot more confused than you are now."
"I find that hard to believe, but I think Jordan may be a buffer for that. I'm doing my best to not be confused around her."
"You're a good mother to that little girl, Lois. Anyway, I guess I'll stay with the early stuff since that's where you've had your focus."
---
If she was going to complain about something pertaining to public office, it was going to be the paperwork. There always seemed to be more waiting to be read once she finished what she'd already been given. As it was, though, it always gave her a topic of conversation with Lois.
"I can't believe that Senator Martin is trying to attach a pay raise for the senate on an education bill. They just seem to not be able to do something for the kids unless something is in it for them."
Martha shook her head and pulled her hair out of her face. "The gall of these people. They think that getting elected is a license to pad their wallets when most of them are already fairly well off without the senatorial pay!" Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down before she started yelling about her co-workers. "I don't mean to rant, Lois. You know how I get when people abuse attempts to help children."
Setting down her papers, Martha looked at Lois. The breathing tube had been taken out a few days ago, and the doctors were shocked she had made it this long. They thought Lois would have been gone within hours, if not minutes, of its removal, but she'd known her girl would fight. She sighed and spoke softly.
"I know I've said this to you every day you've been in here, Lois, but you're the little girl I never got to have. You and Chloe are two girls I pictured for Jonathan and myself. You two are the toughest, brightest and most independent women I've ever known. You fight for the world so that it can be a better place for everybody."
Martha took Lois' hand in hers, holding it for a moment before speaking again. "You, though... you're so much like I was at your age. You guard yourself as best you can, never letting the vulnerability show through. I know it's there, but you walled it up behind the duty you feel towards friends and family. In your haste to be the best person you can to everybody else, you neglect yourself.
"The difference is that I found Jonathan. I want you to find your Jonathan, somebody that can keep your heart safe and make you happier than you ever thought you could be. He'll have to be a man that can take on the world, because you're going to force him to before he gets inside your walls.
"I know you've never seen it or even let it cross your mind, but I think a man uniquely qualified for you is Clark. The two of you would be something special. I don't know if there is another man on this world that could handle you."
Martha brushed a tear from her eye, placing a soft kiss on the back of Lois's hand. She set it back down on the hospital bed and turned to the window, letting the steady snowfall pull her thoughts away for a moment. Thinking about Lois and Clark wasn't helping anything, because she knew they'd happen if... no, when Lois woke up.
"Looks like it's going to be a white Christmas this year," she thought out loud.
"W... what?"
Martha spun away from the window back to Lois, whose hazel eyes were half open. "Lois?"
She was answered by the same raspy voice she'd just heard. "Mrs. Kent?"
"Oh God, Lois!"
Martha moved over next to the bed, placing a hand on Lois' cheek as tears started streaming down her face. "My girl, you're awake," she whispered.
Snapping back to reality, she used her free hand to push the call button on the bed. She was answered by a voice over the speaker.
"May I help you?"
"Lois Lane is awake. Send a doctor right away!"
She was answered by silence and looked back to Lois, whose eyes had opened up more and were roaming about the room before finally settling on Martha. Her mouth opened, but instead of words she coughed, pushing the older woman into action. She grabbed her empty Sprite bottle and jogged over to the sink, which was about six steps away, and filled up her bottle with water.
She jogged back to Lois, placing the bottle at her lips before letting a small trickle start. Lois took what she was given for a moment before she turned her head away from the bottle slightly. Martha pulled it away and sat it on the floor while she watched Lois swallow and try to get her bearings.
"Where... we?"
"You're in Metropolis General hospital, Lois."
After appearing to struggle for a moment, Lois spoke again. "Why?"
"Oh, honey..."
That was all Martha could get out before a doctor and a team of nurses came into the room, promptly ushering her out in t the hallway. She took the opportunity to pull her phone from her pocket and dialed Clark, hoping he'd answer on the first ring. She had no such luck.
She had to call him two more times before he finally answered.
"Hey mom, what's up?
"Go to the Daily Planet and get Chloe, right away. Bring her to the hospital."
There was a pause before he spoke again. "Is Lois... did she die?"
"No, honey. She's awake." She heard what she thought was wind on the phone. "Clark? Clark, are you there?"
No sooner had she said it than she was greeted by a gust of wind blowing her hair into her face as her son appeared before her. He was staring into Lois' room, eyes wide. "When?"
"A few minutes ago, Clark. You need to go get Chloe and bring her here. More familiar faces will probably help dull the shock, though I don't know by how much. Now, go!"
His eyes never left Lois' room as he nodded and then disappeared as quickly as he'd appeared a moment before. Martha didn't bother to shake her head at his love sickness and turned back to look in Lois' room. She couldn't see much, but the nurses kept... the only word that came to mind was scurrying. The nurses were scurrying about the room, grabbing this and that.
She spent the next five minutes alternating between trying to catch a glimpse of Lois or the doctor and wondering why Clark was taking so long bringing Chloe back. She hoped that they could be here so that the three of them could go in together. She needed to call Sam and let him know, right away.
"Mrs. Kent?"
The doctor's words snapped her out of her thought process, bringing her back to reality. "How's Lois?"
"She's awake and alert, which is as close to a miracle as I've ever seen. The odds... well, we've been over that. All her vitals look good, we've taken some blood samples and have her sitting up. She's going to have trouble doing things on her own, though. After all her injuries and subsequent muscle atrophy, it's going to take a good amount of physio to get her back to the good physical condition you've told us she was in."
"If anybody can handle it, doctor, it's Lois. I think just waking up proves that."
He smiled at her, the first time she'd seen him genuinely do that in reference to Lois. "I agree wholeheartedly, Mrs. Kent. The nurses are going to be hovering for a while, but it looks like she's back for good. We should know some stuff for sure after we run an MRI and CT tomorrow morning. As it is, though, enjoy your time with her and tell her just how lucky she is."
With one last smile, he left and she stood alone in the hallway. She didn't want to keep Lois waiting, and with a silent chastisement of Clark not being fast enough for the first time in her life, she walked in the room, where a nurse was getting Lois into a sitting position. When her eyes met the hazel ones in the bed, she just wanted to go and hug her for every day that she'd been in a coma.
Martha waited for the nurse to move away from Lois before taking over the spot she'd been in, her eyes never leaving Lois's.
"Why... why here?"
How was she supposed to tell her what happened? How do you tell somebody they'd lost more than six months of life because of an attack.
"Honey, what's the last thing you remember?"
"Chloe getting... taxi. Walking home."
"Lois..." Martha took a deep breath, hoping that beginning again would also allow her to finish. "Lois, you were attacked on your way home from dinner with Chloe. It's a miracle that you're alive. You've been in a coma."
Lois' eyes never left hers, wide and watery. "How long?"
"It's been six and a half months, dear. Christmas is in two days."
Finally the younger woman's eyes left hers, and Martha sighed as Lois turned her head away with tears leaking down her cheeks. "Lois, it's ok to be sad. Tears are nothing to be ashamed of, no matter what you've been told."
"Not sad," she said, her voice holding a strength it had lacked a second ago. "Angry."
"Lois!"
Martha looked over to where the new voice had come from, finding Chloe and her son standing just inside the room. Chloe was quickly to the side of the bed Lois was now facing, crying with a ferocity Martha had not witnessed many times in her life.
"Oh god, Lois! You're really awake! Clark told me, but until I saw you, I couldn't let myself hope..."
Martha watched as Lois gave Chloe a weak but telling smile. "Too strong for own good. Takes more... to kill me."
---
"After that, I left the room to call your father and get him back to Metropolis as quickly as possible. They'd stationed him in Germany, if I recall, and he was in your room shedding a few tears of his own by 6am the next morning."
"The General cried?" Lois was barely able to hide her shock. Her father hadn't cried once since her mothers funeral when she was six. "The General does not cry. I should know, I was there for a good bit of it not happening."
"Lois, his eldest daughter had just woken up from a coma. He hadn't given up hope, but you know that he's a realistic man. He knew your odds were abysmal. He'd have to come to terms that he was going to lose you, a young woman that reminded him so much of the wife he lost. It was one of the happiest days of his life."
"Huh." Lois tried to think of something more to say, but failed miserably. The crying General was yet another thing to add to the list of crazy things she thought could never happen.
