Disclaimer: Not Mine
Warning: Language
Clark slowed down his speed while flying back to Metropolis, hoping to find some trouble to occupy his mind, but the flight was awfully quiet. He would've given anything for a distraction. But no. Today was bound to be peaceful. Once home, he went to the studio to finish his article. He sat in front of the open file for a few minutes. Not a single word was typed. Closing his eyes, he placed his glasses on the desk and took his cell. She picked up at the third tone. "Hey, hon."
"Clark, baby. How are you?"
"I'm fine," he lied. "I'm home, trying to finish my article before going to Smallville." He smiled bitterly. "It seems my muses don't agree with my plans."
"Sweetie, you're not ok." Ok, so he hadn't lied. He had just tried. "You sound really sad, Clark." And apparently he still was a terrible liar.
"It's-- I can't tell you everything, Lo. I'm sorry, I just--"
"Hey, I know, hon. I'm not pushing it."
Lois' soothing tone tried to ease the weigh of what to him was nothing but yet another lie.
"But it bothers you," he said.
"It is like going back to the beginning, with you calling me Miss Lane through the phone and I trying to find the correct words without knowing if I was doing it."
"You said everything I needed to hear," said Clark lovingly through the phone. "It's just been a hard day. The woman that died..."
"Barbara Gordon. I read about it in the Gotham Gazette, Clark. It was horrible."
"The press left out some details, Lo. It was--" The lump in his throat was growing. Noticing it and not being the one able to be there in just a second to hold and support him, Lois intentionally diverted the conversation slightly.
"She was the daughter of commissioner Gordon. Bruce knew her?"
"Yes." And he was going to want to kill him when he found out he was likely to be blamed for her death. "She was also close friends with Dinah. Apparently their parents had worked together and they both met when they were kids."
--Good work on the lying department, Clark.
"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry. How is she?," asked Lois.
"Not doing very good. She went back to Star City after the funeral, Ollie will be joining her soon, he had to...tie some loose ends. Where are you now?"
"Barn."
"I'll be there as soon as I can, ok?"
"Love you."
"Love you too, Lo."
Lois hung up and looked at the boxes. There was a vinyl player and a box with some LPs. She took the one she had bought and looked at it for a moment.
"Another year without you, Chlo."
Metropolis General. Intensive Care Unit. May 29th, 2009.
Lois hated hospitals. She hated them. They hardly ever brought good news. And these past weeks had been hell. She had gone back to her time ready to beat the crap out of Tess for playing with alien orbs and magical rings when she realized all hell had broken loose. Clark was at the Planet, he looked as if he had seen a ghost, running towards her and hugging her while babbling about him and Chloe thinking she was dead. They had found Chloe? Clark's face had changed, he didn't know how to explain. Before she knew it, she was rushing to the hospital with him.
Chloe was in critical condition, with severe trauma and internal bleeding. She was still in surgery when she got there. She was unconscious the first night, and had to be rushed into the OR at three in the morning again. She was hemorrhaging, her bladder was damaged. The second surgery had been a success. Clark had offered to stay with her while Lois called uncle Gabriel and had some rest.
After calling Chloe's father, she had taken a shower and managed to sleep a few hours afterwards. When she woke up, she opened her wardrobe to change. Stored in the top shelf, she saw the vinyl player she had bought, wrapped and ready to be given to its owner.
When she got back to the hospital some of the apprehension she was feeling vanished when she saw her cousin awake.
Chloe was talking to Clark. He looked sad. She would've sworn she saw a tear going down his face. Clark looked and saw her. He kissed Chloe and went out.
"Clark, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said, trying to smile.
"I saw your face," said Lois.
"Chloe wants to talk to you. She needs a few more surgeries and they are inducing a coma for the recovery," said Clark.
"But she's going to be fine, right?"
"Lo, she's awake, go to her. I'll be outside."
Lois entered the room. All the noises coming from the machines were a little annoying, but as long as they beeped, that meant Chloe was there with them. "Hey, baby."
Chloe cocked her head and when she saw her cousin.
Lois loved that smile. The brightest of the family and probably half Kansas.
"Lo, you're here."
Lois hugged her softly, careful not to hurt Chloe even more.
"We couldn't find you, we-- where were you?"
Lois smiled and caressed her cheek. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Chloe chuckled at the comment, wincing in pain. Lois refrained herself from melodrama and placed all the defense mechanisms learnt during her mother's convalescences at the hospital. Forcing a smile, she talked. "You know what, couz? we'll talk about everything when you're better, ok?," said Lois, fighting against that traitorous tear defying her.
Chloe gave her one of her smiles again. "Yeah."
"You know? I have something for you."
"You already bought me a present?"
"Kind of kept a present from you."
"You're weird."
"I'm one of a kind, little cousin."
Chloe's face turned serious. "Lo, I--"
Lois cut her, holding her hand to make Chloe look at her. "Honey," she said placing her other hand on Chloe's forehead, "you're getting out of this, and before you know it we'll be going out to celebrate, and we'll...we'll go dancing, and jogging, and--"
"Lo, I don't think I'll--"
"Yes." Lois looked at her intently. "You will."
"You're truly one of a kind."
"You better believe it."
Outside, Clark could see both young women looking at each other, Lois the ever caring big cousin, almost sister, always protective of her. Chloe, his best friend, and the one person he had put in direct danger too many times.
"So, when are they putting you to sleep?," finally asked Lois.
"Soon, I guess. I was kind of hoping you'd be here," said Chloe biting her lower lip.
"Of course I will, sweetie. I won't go anywhere."
"Good. Did you call my father?"
"Yes. He'll be here tonight." Chloe's face turned teary. "Hey, baby."
"I'm sorry, Lo, I'm sorry."
Lois hugged her. "You don't have to be sorry for anything, sweetie. You just have to get yourself right, ok?"
"I love you, Lo."
"Love you too." A knock on the door interrupted their moment. A doctor and a nurse where there.
"Miss Sullivan, are you ready?"
Lois cleared the tears on her cousin's face.
"I guess I am now."
"You can stay with her if you like," said the doctor.
"I'd like to."
The nurse moved a chair by Chloe's right side. Smiling, she addressed Lois. "You can sit here, the doctor will be working on the other side."
"Thanks."
Lois hated hospitals, but she had always been fond of nurses. She had never found a single nurse without a smile or a gentle word, or just a light mood to ease the pain. Nurses where her only warm memory from her time at the hospital when her mother was dying.
While the doctor introduced the thiopental into Chloe's vial, she held her hand.
"Lo?" She was staring to fade. "About that present?"
Lois chuckled, and held her hand tighter. "You are going to love it."
Chloe smiled one last time as her eyes closed.
"She's asleep now," said the nurse.
"We would like to check her vitals, make sure she's stabilized. Would you mind leaving for a minute?," asked the doctor.
"Of course."
Lois stood up and went out. Clark was waiting for her, with his apologetic trademark smile.
"How're you holding up?"
"She's going to be fine, Clark. I'm fine," said Lois playing her strong self out. "Come on, Smallville, buy me a coffee."
They started walking towards the exit, when suddenly she heard a long beep.
Everything happened in seconds.
Other doctors and nurses rushed into the corridor, running on the opposite direction. By the time Lois saw where they were going it was too late for Clark to hold her. They closed the door, but she saw the paddles and the flat line not changing. Clark stood behind her all the time, holding her, tighter by each desperate cry calling Chloe's name. But the damned fucking flat line didn't change. The continuous beeping sound of the machine didn't start beeping at intervals. It stopped when the nurse, now with a somber expression, turned the machine off.
"No."
Clark let her go, and Lois entered the room, not even hearing the doctor saying he was sorry. Her tears blurred her vision, but she directed it nonetheless towards her cousin's closed eyes.
"Chloe? Chloe, wake up. Chloe, please, I can't lose you. Please, honey, please, don't go."
Clark's heart ached that day. For Chloe, for Lois, for their family, for him. Lois cried over her cousin's battered body, holding on to her hand as if to dear life. Clark entered and placed his hand on Lois' back. "Lo..."
"I didn't get to tell her, Clark."
"Tell her?"
"Her present. She would've loved it."
"You would've loved it, Chlo." Lois placed the vinyl on the box, switched off the lights and went back to the house.
Normally, Ollie felt happy whenever he got back to Star City. California was still one of his favourite places to live. But tonight would not be one of those times. He opened the door slowly in case Dinah was asleep, but as soon as he saw the light on the kitchen he knew she was awake. Dinah was sitting on a chair, a small object in her hands.
"Hey." He stood leaning on the doorframe until Dinah acknowledged his presence, although didn't really address him when she talked. Her eyes were fixed on that tiny thing, looking like a bird shaped earring.
"This is the first communication unit she gave me. She wanted me to keep it because it was actually one of the few I managed not to lose or break." Ollie walked and sat by her side. "Even if we didn't see each other in weeks, we were always in contact. Even when I left, she was there." Ollie took her hand and kissed it. Then hugged her and let her get it all out. "Even when I left the Birds she was there. Now..."
"Shhh. Oh, babe..."
"Now I don't know what to do with that void, Ollie. I just don't--"
"I'm so sorry, Dinah."
"The funeral was almost surreal. I was standing there, but it was as if it wasn't really happening. And now I'm here, with an earring and an urn. And I still don't feel all of it, Ollie. I don't feel all the pain I should be feeling right now. Hell, she scared the hell out of me more than once, but she always came back, she always pulled through. I talked to Dick, but I just didn't know what to say. What he's lost..." Dinah buried her face in her hands. "Oh, God, Ollie, all he has lost..."
"I know, babe."
"And yesterday we were talking about babies while having sex and--this is so fucking unfair, Ollie, so unfair."
"Dinah, look at me." Ollie cupped her face with his hands. Her eyes were filled with tears again. "Don't blame yourself for this, please. Don't do it."
"I was thinking of all the choices she made through her life, about how she saved my life, in more than one way. And I just don't know how to deal with all this, Ollie, I just don't know."
"You will find your way. And I'll be with you all the time, for whenever you need me."
"I need you now."
"I won't let you down this time Dinah, I promise." He held her close. "I won't let you down."
AUTHOR'S NOTES: most I found out about induced comas was related to brain injuries, not to other body parts being harmed. Despite this, I remembered the end of Oliver Stone's WTC, where one of the main characters, don't remember if Nicholas Cage's or the other's, with severe injuries, was induced a coma in order to pull through the surgeries and recovering, so I guess Chloe's case can be legit.
Hope you enjoyed.
Music info: Not completely as a song used for its lyrics. The flashback scene at the hospital ran in my head in images, and the moment when Lois listens to the monitor's flatlining beep, I saw it in a video-clip-y way. The song 'No alarms' by Radiohead went with it.
