Chapter 15

Lois couldn't believe her eyes. She had watched her friend Jack Harkness sacrifice his life to save hers and now he was slowly getting up from the floor. She thought back to what Gwen had said just a few moments before, "The first time you have to go through this is the worse. After that it gets a little better, but you never fully get used to it. My first time was my first week on the job." Lois realized what Gwen had really meant. "Holy shit, how many times has he had to go through that?" she wondered. Lois watched the scene in fascination, unable to turn off her reporter's instincts. Jack was standing now wiggling fingers through the bloody holes in the front of the shirt he was wearing. He took his hand out, wiping it on the sleeve. Jack started to slowly turn around, taking stock of the entire room. He paused slightly to look down at the corpse of the robber who had shot him and who he had shot in turn. Lois saw Gwen palm something small to Martha who was walking over towards the clerk. Jack looked over at Martha and then to Gwen, a question in his eyes. Gwen gave a slight nod of her head and Jack relaxed a little.

Lois looked over at the clerk who was standing stone still, staring at Jack. All the color was drained from her face. She heard Martha say soothingly, "It's going to be Ok. I'm a doctor. Here, drink this water; it will help you deal with the shock you are going through." Lois saw Martha drop a small capsule in the water that dissolved instantly before the clerk took the glass and drank. "Good girl. Now to ease things a bit, I think you should lie down behind the counter for a few moments and breathe deeply. This will help you regain control and process what you saw. That's right, just like that," Martha said as the clerk lied down. "She's out, Jack," Martha said.

Gwen walked over to the wounded robber with the broken arm and leg, saying, "One down, one to go. Wakey, wakey, lad." She slapped the man across the face. He moaned loudly. "Can you hear me?" She asked. The man nodded, whimpering. "I need you take this," she said as she held out a small pill, "It will make you feel better." The man eagerly swallowed the pill. "Feeling any better?" Gwen asked sweetly.

"No," the man croaked.

"Good!" Gwen said as she punched him hard in the face, knocking him unconscious again.

"I thought you said it was going to make him feel better," Lois said, not at all feeling sorry for the robber.

"Oh, I did didn't I. I must have gotten that part mixed up. It makes me feel better when he takes it," Gwen said, massaging her hand.

"What was that you gave them? I saw you spike the clerk's drink with something before she drank it," Lois asked.

"Retcon," Jack explained. "It's a fast acting memory inhibitor / sedative that we developed some time ago. They are going to lose the last 24 hours of their lives. It was developed to help cover up things that we didn't want going public." Jack did one final turn around the room. "Ok, first thing. Lois and I need new shirts," Jack said. "Chloe, could you run up and grab some for us. Preferably one of the ones Lois stole from Clark for me, in case somebody saw me come in dressed as a Kent farm extra."

"On it, Jack," Chloe said as she raced up the stairs.

"Gwen, these two are obviously too stupid to be anything but human (or weevil) and glancing at their dental work, I'm going out on a limb and say human. That means we are going have to go with level 2 local agency containment. Get on the horn with Rhys and have him route an anonymous emergency call to a nearby cell tower. Tell him to say that they heard two shots, the first one louder than the second. Give us 5 minutes. Oh, and make sure that whoever he has making the call can do a passable American accent."

Gwen got on her phone and hit speed dial, "Rhys, honey. I know it's early but we have a situation. There was a robbery at the coffee house where we were at and there were shots fired….No, dear…I'm fine, and so is Martha. Jack was murdered, again. Jack killed the one that shot him and Martha and I treated the other to a broken arm and leg….Yeah, that's just what Jack said. You're so smart, I knew there was a reason I married you. Two shots, first one louder than the second. Right. Oh…hold on, you're not going to believe this. Jack is with a woman… Watch your mouth, and yes I am for real. Ok, get to work you, and give Jackie a kiss from Mommy for me. Love ya." Gwen hung up her phone. "5 minutes, Jack."

Jack had already stripped out of shirt and was tossing it in a trash bag he had grabbed from behind the counter. "Lois, no time to be modest. You're wearing a lot of my blood," Jack said. Lois took the shirt Chloe had handed her and slipped out of the one she had been wearing. Modesty wasn't the reason for her delay in changing. She had been marveling at Jack's chest. It was completely mark free; not one indication he had been shot.

Clark glanced away as Lois took off her shirt to put on another. He watched Martha put on a pair of surgical gloves she had pulled out of a pocket. She picked up the shotgun and racked the spent shell out of the chamber. She put the shotgun back in the dead man's hand and picked up the shell. She tossed the used ammo in the trash bag Jack was holding. Lois put her soiled shirt in as well. Jack made eye contact with Clark and said, "Clark, will you take this upstairs and put it where no one will find it."

Clark took the bag and walked up the stairs and into the apartment. Once he had shut the door he had to evaluate where he stood. He was helping dispose of evidence in a murder investigation. Clark felt better about it when he realized he was covering up the murder of a man who would soon be giving his statement to the Sheriff. The same man who was going to admit to killing the man who had tried to murder Lois. At that thought of someone trying to hurt Lois, Clark ground his teeth in anger. He tossed the bag in the sink and incinerated it with a blast of heat vision fueled by his rage. Clark felt better after physically venting like that and went back down stairs. He had just reached the bottom stair when the Sheriff walked in.

"What the hell is going on here? Kent, are you Chloe all right?" she said looking first at Clark and then at the rest of the crime scene. When she got a nod from Clark who was working at acting terrified, she looked at the others. "Lois Lane and…shit, I should have guessed. Harkness! These two friends of yours?" she asked Jack, indicating Martha and Gwen.

"Yes, they are. Gwen Cooper is the current leader of my former team and Dr. Martha Jones-Smith is with UNIT. They're here visiting me. We were all having coffee when this happened," Jack said with a wave of his arm.

The Sheriff and her deputy took everyone's statements and then compared notes. The statements were similar enough to be the truth. The Sheriff saw it like this: The clerk had gone into catatonic shock when the robber had pointed the shotgun at Lane and her. They had both been lucky Harkness was such a good shot. The entry wound was within a millimeter of being directly between the eyes. The odd thing was the wound looked like it was at an upward angle, like Harkness had been diving at the time he pulled the trigger. The other man was in terrible shape. Dr. Jones-Smith and Mrs. Cooper had worked him over when he stuck a gun in their faces. She smiled, "Weaker sex my ass," she thought. "Captain, I hate to do this to you since everything else checks out, but I need to see if you have a concealed carry permit for that gun of yours," she said.

Jack smiled warmly only slightly putting on the charm, "Of course Sheriff, I think this is exactly what you were looking for." Jack reached into his back pocket and took out a small brown wallet. He opened it up and showed it to the Sheriff. The Sheriff was surprised to see that Harkness had a valid Kansas driver's license with the concealed carry permit markings on it. Everyone else in the room saw Jack holding open his wallet, displaying a blank piece of white paper.

Martha leaned over to Lois and whispered, "Slightly-psychic paper, it makes people see what the user wants them to see, usually. It won't work on extremely strong willed people. I'm guessing you only saw a white piece of paper." Lois nodded, leased that she saw white paper instead of what Jack projected. She wondered if he had any more of those.

"Ok, looks good. I had to check. You folks go home and we'll take care of the mess here." The Sheriff paused and looked pointedly at Jack. "Harkness, how much longer are you going to be in my county?" the Sheriff asked.

"I'm moving to Metropolis before too long, so the only time I'll be here is visiting," Jack reassured her.

"Good," the Sheriff said. She dismissed them with a wave and called the coroner's office with her cell-phone.

Chloe was wearing a pair of blue silk pajamas to bed. She was snuggled up next to Jack who was propped up on some pillows. He, as usual, was wearing nothing to bed. Jack was absent mindedly stroking Chloe's hair. Chloe had decided to try to sleep even though she kept seeing images of Jack being shot, and then his ruined body laying on the ground every time she closed her eyes. She gave an exasperated yell and looked up at him. She wacked his chest with her hand. "You scared the shit out me, you know," she said. She whacked him again. "You died." She hit him again."You died," she said, but this time she was beginning to cry. She hit him harder. "You died, just like Jimmy died!" Her hand was balled up in a fist as she pounded on his chest, her tears flowing. "I had to watch you both die. I only had your word that you would come back." She stopped hitting him and looked up at him again. "You do realize how f***ing crazy it sounds when you tell someone that, don't you?" Chloe hit him once more for good measure and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. Jack tilted his head down and kissed the top of her head.

Lois had been having trouble sleeping. Her mind was a jumble of thoughts about near death, people who didn't stay dead, how good it felt to be in Clark's arms, and how to begin the opening moves of Operation Smallville. She had come to a tentative agreement with herself and decided to try to let herself be happy. She was starting to drift off when she heard Chloe yell. Lois jumped out of bed and cracked open her door. She peeked through and saw Chloe holding on to Jack, yelling at him, and beating his chest. Jack sat there and took the beating with a look of calm sadness on his face. Lois watched as he tenderly kissed the top of Chloe's head. Chloe was silently sobbing and Lois was about to shut the door when she heard Jack begin to sing softly to Chloe. Lois was stunned by his clear, beautiful baritone. Jack was singing in a language that she had never heard before. He continued to stroke Chloe's hair. Without knowing the language, Lois knew Jack was singing a lullaby to Chloe. Chloe stopped crying and after a while she drifted off to sleep. Jack continued to sing the song softly, even after Chloe had gone to sleep. A car driving by cast its lights through the window and onto Jack's face. Lois saw Jack had tears streaming down his face.

Lois softly shut her door and crawled into bed. She thought of Jack and his haunting lullaby as she drifted off to sleep. Jack had saved her life and now she was sure that he had saved her cousin's heart.