Chloe fiddled with her keys as she approached the Talon. Haven spent a few hours working at the Isis Foundation, her mind kept wandering to what happened with Lois and Clark, and how her broken husband was doing being part of it, so she decided that after a few hours, it was probably safe to go home. Two things could have come out of her fix-up: they killed each other, or perhaps more optimistically, they got together. Chloe smiled at the prospect of her wayward cousin and best friend finding love and hurried up the stairs, not sure what she would find.
She opened the front door and stared into an empty apartment. The good news was that the ice cream was gone, the bad news was so was Clark and Lois. "Hello?"
"Chloe?" A voice shouted from the bedroom. "Is that you?"
Chloe walked into the bedroom to find her husband lying helplessly on the bed, just as she'd left him. "Hi you." She walked over and lay down beside him on the bed.
"Hi you? Chloe you left me with Lois and Clark! I had to listen to all of it." Jimmy stated, a look of awkwardness spread over his face.
"All of what?" Chloe asked suspiciously, her mind refused to imagine what Lois would do, but she thought Clark had a bit more reservation.
"All the yelling and then the making up, the private words that outside parties shouldn't listen in on..." He looked to Chloe who looked almost relieved. "That's not what I meant Chloe, they didn't..." He looked awkwardly. "They left about a half hour ago, I don't think Lois wanted to leave me alone, so they watched some TV."
"And you were awake for everything?" Chloe asked, snuggling up to him, hoping that he was the source for her gossip.
"Well I woke up hearing Clark shouting at Lois for being stubborn or something, and then made it to the end when they finished the dance they started at our wedding and –" Jimmy was cut off by the gigantic smile spreading over her face, and the 'Aww' with which it accompanied. Jimmy joked, "It saddens me that this is more exciting to you than our own wedding."
Chloe gave him a lop-sided grin. "Nothing was more... eventful, than our wedding, how about that?" She laughed, and squeezed him into a hug until Jimmy winced. "Oh God Jimmy, I'm so sorry. Are you ok?"
Jimmy's wince broke into a smile. "As long as you keep hugging me that hard when we're old and grey, I'll be perfect." He smiled sincerely, "Bruises heal."
Chloe looked at the purple yellow bruise seeping out beyond his bandages. "I could make them heal a whole lot faster Jimmy, all you have to do is ask." Chloe held her hand out over his bruises.
Jimmy took her hand away from his body and kissed the back of her hand. "I wouldn't. This is my pain Chloe, I don't want you to experience it." He smiled gently at her, this was one of many things she loved about Jimmy. "Besides, this way you're waiting on me. I like it that way."
Chloe laughed. "Oh yeah, well don't get used to it." She leant down and kissed his soft lips, the same kiss she hoped she'd experience for the rest of her life. She was safe, and her husband was safe, that was enough for her. Jimmy was her happiness, and nothing could ever take that away from her.
The rest of the day passed slowly for Lois. She returned to the Daily Planet, to her desk, and Smallville – Clark – said he needed to go and take care of some things on the farm. After their revelation at Chloe's, and their first kiss, they'd snuggled up on the sofa watching the best of Jerry Springer and ridiculing the guests. She'd always hated Jerry Springer, and when the hour was up, Clark revealed he did too, which begged the question of why they'd been watching it for an hour. They joked about it, a comfortable, playful discussion, and she privately concluded that they watched it because it was on, and it didn't matter what they watched, as long as it was together. They finally decided to leave, knowing Chloe would be back soon and she checked on a continually unconscious Jimmy before leaving.
Her mind kept replaying the kiss; his breath was warm against her cheeks, her nerves reverberated against his, and she could feel her heartbeat rise with every inch closer they got. He held her hand by his side, his other hand rested on the small of her back, and though the music kept playing, it felt like the whole world went away as he leaned down and softly brushed her lips with his, and then –
"Lane!" Tess Mercy shouted from the stairs, making her jump three inches out of her seat. Regaining her focus to the stairs where the red-head stood, she gave her a bewildered look. "There's a fire spreading on 45th Street, I want you on it. Now!"
"Right!" She shouted, Lois jumped up out of her seat and grabbed her pencils and bag and, in an agitated fashion, headed for the stairs as Tess busied herself with her daily checking up on the basement staff. In a way, this was the best possible thing that could happen to Lois right now, a distraction, a way to make the day pass in a productive manner. Lois Lane didn't drool on some guy when there's serious reporting to do; ok, so a fire wasn't that exciting, but it's not like she was ever going to get a Pulitzer, it was just something to focus on that wasn't tall, handsome and incredibly well-built.
Calling a taxi from outside the Planet, Lois could already see the smoke from the streets ahead, and it looked like the fire was spreading rapidly. How that was she didn't know, it's not like the buildings were made of hay anymore, there were safety precautions against this. As the taxi accelerated, then braked, then accelerated again, it became clear to Lois that it would take her at least 20 minutes to get there when by running it would only take 8.
Lois weighed her options and then her mind was made up to run, as three ambulances and two squad cars overtook her and everyone else on the road. She paid the driver and let herself out, breaking into a run on the sidewalk and realising high heels were not the smartest option for this kind of activity. Nevertheless, as she ran, the sirens got louder which she interpreted to mean that she was getting closer, and it seemed she was right because as she turned the corner the caught sight of the flames flickering out of at least three building windows: a bakery, a bank and a family home.
Catching her breath, Lois bent down and looked up again to assess the situation. Twelve fire-fighters stood with two hoses aimed at the outside buildings to prevent the fire from spreading any further, and the police had formed a ring around the fire-fighters work to stop the gathering crowd from interfering.
Lois, being the intrepid reporter she was, forced her way to the front of the crowd to be directly in front of a bearded policeman, who lookied severely stressed. "Lois Lane of the Daily Planet," She introduced and flashed her press pass, "Do you know what caused the fire?"
"No press, ma'am." The policeman replied, looking worried as the flames flickered closer to them. It seemed that the fire-fighters were losing the battle with the fire, and Lois could feel the warmth on her face.
"Ma'am? What do I look like to you?" Lois retorted, then checked her attitude and put on the sweetest smile she could manage, it had worked with stiffs like this before and she hoped it would work now. "I mean, a brave guy like you, I bet you were the first on the scene."
"Look ma'am, as I've said, no press allowed, now let us do our jobs." The policeman was clearly not backing down, and neither would Lois, she would just go in with a different strategy. She smiled and backed off to the back of the crowd where she could regroup. Glancing around, a family of three, mother father and daughter were standing by an ambulance, being examined with a rigour the paramedics only asserted when something was serious. The mother was unconscious, the father badly burnt and inhaling oxygen, and the daughter looked so lost and frightened, that it made Lois go over to her.
"Hi, are you ok?" Lois knelt down to talk to her, but her estimation, this little girl was about eight years old.
She coughed, and nodded. "Is that your mommy and daddy?" Lois indicated behind the girl to the ambulance, and the girl nodded silently again. "Well, don't worry, they'll be just fine." Lois pushed the instinct to divulge information from the girl into the back of her mind; Lois knew the difference between a source and a human being.
"Please," Her voice was hoarse and high-pitched. "Help my brother."
Lois looked around the ambulance. "Ok, where is he?"
The little girl did nothing but look behind Lois and point to the house that was rapidly burning down, the door was in flames as they spoke. Lois looked back seriously to the girl and grabbed her shoulders , "Is your brother still in there?"
The girl nodded and began to whimper. Lois immediately stood up and ran back through the crowd to the same policeman, and in all the ruckus and noise, she kept shouting, "There's still someone in there! A little boy!" She kept shouting at him, trying the policeman beside him, but either no one heard or no one was listening to her.
Lois stood back from the crowd and looked up to the building as the roof caved in. "Oh my God," Lois breathed. As she glanced up towards the top of the house, she saw him. Between the dark grey smoke and the flames, peeking out from the edge of the window, she saw a little boy, couldn't be more than 6 years old, looking down at her frozen with fear.
Immediately, Lois looked about the house. The front door was burning, the fire-fighters were still trying to get the fire under control and she couldn't see anyone else to help her in time. Lois went round the side of the house, took a deep breath covering her mouth with her sleeve and punched in the side window. She could hear the policemen shouting at her, trying to run after her, but not managing to. She climbed through the window and saw the flames licking around the side of the door, and the smoke was heavy, thicker than she'd like. As she swung the door open, it fell off its hinges and she was faced with a staircase that would collapse any minute.
"Hello? Can you hear me?" She screamed and couldn't help but cough out the poisoning air. With no response, she climbed the stairs quickly, holding onto the banister for support. She made it to the top floor, the floor itself was burning from the flames downstairs, she could feel it through her shoes. "Hello?" She shouted again. "I'm coming!"
This time she heard a whimper, it wasn't loud, but it was enough. It came from the second room on the left; it was further away from the staircase than she would of liked, but then again she didn't like anything about this. "I'm coming," She repeated. "Just don't move." Taking each step carefully, she rounded the corner to see a blonde little boy curled up on the floor crying by the window. Lois coughed, she couldn't help it, it was so hard to breathe... Suddenly a flashback from the fire drills at school came back to her, she got down on her hands and knees where the air was lighter, only just, and crawled to the boy, holding out her hand. "Take my hand," He hesitated. "Come on, kid, we gotta get out of here."
He took her hand, and with him beside her they crawled out of the room. It was getting hotter, and Lois had to take off her jacket, exposing her flesh to the flames. The problem came with the stairs, she knew they couldn't crawl down them. Lois took in as much of a breath as she dare as the boy whispered, "Can't breathe..." And his eyes glazed over before they closed.
"No, kid, come on, not now." Lois almost begged, as the boy slowed to a stop and then a collapse. She tried picking him up, putting him on her back as she tried to stand up, but the air was thick and her lungs felt heavy. She stood, holding the boy in her arms, and attempted to get down the stairs but as soon as she took the first step, the foundations of the stairs collapsed and the wood holding them up had burned into ash. Lois held back a panicked whimper; but even she couldn't deny that this wasn't looking good. She returned back to the room, but the flames were growing around her up to her knees. Back at the window, Lois put the boy down and started screaming as loudly as she could, "Help! Can somebody help us! Please, there's a boy..." The window was locked shut and she knew she couldn't punch in double glazed windows. Lois tried to get the fire-fighters' attention, the police, even the crowd, but no one could hear her. Her voice sounder hoarse, her breathing was slowly and her eyes were feeling heavy. Lois collapsed beside the boy, her legs giving way. She faced the door, and as she drifted off, she felt a cool breeze and for a second, just a second, she thought she saw Clark's terrified look and his strong arms around her body, and then the world went black.
Thank you so much for the reviews - they inspire me to get another chapter up asap. Keep 'em coming, and thanks for the suggestions! I'll try to work them in.
Feral XXX