Chapter Seven
Suicide Slums
Lois and Clark stared at the large looming warehouse that had rust growing on the side and some of the windows were smashed while some were boarded up, "Are you sure this is the place?" she asks looking down at the scribbled address on his notepad, "This doesn't really look like the type of place a toymaker would work."
"Well from what Chloe pulled off the database we know that this use to be a toy factory back in the 1980s before it was closed down." He states while they walk towards the main door only to stop when they see that the door is cracked open with sounds of movement taking place within the building, "Looks like we're not the only ones interested in this place."
Lois immediately starts headed towards the open door but is quickly pulled back by Clark, "Whoever's in there could be dangerous. We should wait till they leave to search the place."
"All the more reason to see who it is; they could lead us to Schott."
"But what if they are the person we've been looking for? We can't just charge in there asking questions that's how you end up getting hurt or worse."
Lois just scoffs at his attempts to keep her from entering the building, "As FDR once said, 'The only thing we have to fear is fear itself'. You're never going to make it as a reporter if you don't dive head first into the story."
"Is that why Perry always looks like he's about to have a heart attack whenever you leave his office?"
"It's the partial reason." she responds with a shrug while they slip through the door making sure not to make a sound as they made their way towards the source of the noise.
Unbeknownst to the reporter Clark was scanning the entire facility with his x-ray vision until he spotted the source of the noise, "It's coming from the boiler room." He starts walking off towards the direction ignoring the look that crossed his partner's face as they made their way down the rickety stairs which gave out a rather loud creak when they reached the bottom half of the stairwell.
"Nice job Clark, now he knows we're here." She says in a hushed whisper despite the fact that they have probably been exposed, "Why is it my fault?" he responded immediately in a matching whisper as they continued down the final steps.
The two began to silently bicker back and forth while they still made their way towards the noise's source, it wasn't until a ticking sound reached Clark's supersonic ears that he immediately stopped and suggested, "I think we should get out of here."
"Give me just a few minutes to get some picture then we can get out of here." Replies Lois as she heads over towards a rather large workspace that was filled with doll's heads with missing eyes, some were cracked with scorch marks and others that looks almost normal. "Looks like Belle Reeve let a patient out early." She starts snapping pictures with her phone unaware that Clark was searching the area for the source of the ticking, "He must've taken off when he heard us coming. The coffee pot is still warm."
"Lois…I think now would be a good time to get out of here." Clark's voice called out leading the intrepid reporter to her partner's side in attempt to talk some sense into him when she spotted the giant teddy bear whose inside stuffing was ripped out and replaced with a large amount of C4 and a timer that was reaching the minute mark, "I think your right Smallville. Let's get out of here before we become front page news."
She immediately grabs his arm and the two rush out of the warehouse just as the explosive went off sending the two crashing to the ground while large clouds of fires shot out from the windows encasing the entire building.
Lois moved a piece of hair out of her way and slowly rose up with her suit now covered in dirt, "I knew I should've worn something less workplace related." A groan causes her attention to immediately shift towards her still fallen comrade, "Clark" she rushes to his side to make sure he wasn't hurt in the explosion.
When he turned around she saw him looking down at his broken twisted black frames, "These are the only pair I had." He says slipping the frames into his coat pocket, "My optometrist is not going to be happy when he sees this."
"You should consider wearing contacts." Lois responds moving to stand up rather annoyed that he was more concerned about his glasses then the fact they were almost blown sky high, "Lucky you found that thing when you did otherwise we would've ended up front page news." Her words immediately struck a cord and she turned around to ask, "How did you find it?"
"Just lucky I guess." He replies rising to his feet just as the sound of sirens could be heard and he notices a look cross her face before it was replaced with her 'determined to get the story' face, "Listen about yesterday, I was out of line trying to force you to talk to me and I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to be sorry about. We should've talked about our situation before all of this and I was too afraid to do it but now we've said what we needed to say, we can go on working together like civilized people and not angst filled teenagers."
Before he could say anything else the police, fire, and ambulance pulled into the lot with the red and blue lights to cast off the surrounding buildings while a crowd gathered to watch the spectacle.
When Clark got home a little while later he immediately began to loosen his tie and pat Shelby on the head as he made his way towards the guest room that would soon be turned into Maggie's room once he moved all the stuff out and decorated.
Chloe looked up rather surprised to see him covered in dirt and soot, "Rough day at the office?"
He just smirked and responded, "You have no idea." He looked at the sleeping form of his daughter as she was curled up in a little ball with her panda bear stuffed under her arm, "When did she go to sleep?"
"About a minute ago, she wanted to wait for you but was out like a light the second she hit the pillow."
Chloe and Clark walked out of the room closing the door behind them but he made sure to crack the door so that the light peek through the cracks, "Thanks for watching her for me. I would've been here sooner but Lois insisted we go over notes for the article." He plops down on the couch running his hands through his hair clearly exhausted, "I didn't think working with Lois would be like this."
"What did you think would happen? Lois has always been meticulous about her work and when it comes to having a partner let's just say that she isn't exactly the best team player."
"She's so different then how I remember her. The Lois I knew was working for the Inquisitor writing stories about weather anomalies, illegal fight clubs, and celebrity scandals." He says looking down at his hands thinking of the past.
"People change in four years Clark." She replies and notices a strange look cross her friend's face which quickly causes her to ask, "Are you in love with my cousin?"
"No" he immediately replies looking towards her as if she had grown a second head, "Lois and I were friends. There may have been a few times where it seemed like something more but I wasn't ready for a relationship especially after…" he trails off allowing Chloe to fill in the blanks.
"Have you gone to see her?"
"What could I possibly gain from seeing her? I have to stay focused on what's in front of me and not dwell in the past."
Chloe goes to sit on the coffee table in front of him forcing him to look at her as she reached across and placed her hand over his, "You keep telling everyone that you've moved on and that your okay but we both know that's not the case. If you keep hanging onto this guilt it will ruin whatever chance at normalcy you have left."
"Thanks but I can take care of myself." He slips his hands out from under hers and rises up from the couch to walk over towards the kitchen.
"Sometimes I swear you're just as stubborn as my cousin." She says to him as she goes to get her stuff getting ready to leave, "Just think about what I said." She hugs him before heading towards the door.
After she left, Clark placed his hands on the counter and bowed his head taking in a deep breath trying to calm the wave after wave of emotion that wanted to break free but he had safely locked away.
A dead leaf flew across the damp grass only to get squashed by the heel of a shoe belonging to Clark as he walked up the small hill leading towards the ceremony that was taking place.
There were only a few people surrounding the coffin most of them were his friends who were there to show their support during this difficult time but his attention was focused on Alicia's grief stricken parents.
The world around him was blurry almost haze like through the entire ceremony unresponsive towards anything or anyone until the it all came back into view when the coffin was lowered into the ground and people began heading towards their cars while giving the Bakers their condolences.
Martha looked at her son and placed a comforting hand on his arm, "We'll be waiting by the truck when you're ready to go." He just nods staying silent as his parents left in each others arms.
"Clark" a voice caused him to look down to see Alicia's mom staring up at him with red puffy eyes evident that she had been crying, "We may have had our differences in the past over your relationship with Alicia but we just want you to know if there's anything that you or Maggie need we'll always be there for you."
"Thank you Mrs. Baker." Then she did something unexpected…she wrapped him in a warm hug which immediately caused reality to set in and the floodgates to open for tears he had not shed since first holding his daughter in his arms knowing what they both lost.
The memory faded away rather quickly when Shelby's wet nose began to nudge at his hand causing his attention to shift down towards the golden retriever who just sat there staring up at him, "Go on." He nudges the dog over towards the spare room, "She wont be able to sleep properly if your not there with her."
Shelby trots off pushing through the cracked door leaving Clark alone once again; he took off his glasses and placed them on the counter as he began rubbing his tired eyes while trying to block out the sounds of the city that reached his ears.
Even when he tried to ignore them the voices seemed to get louder until finally they slowly began to fade away when he collapsed onto the couch and fell into a deep sleep.
TBC
I can promise you that there will plenty of Clois flashbacks coming up soon.