Chapter Seventeen
Weeks Later…
Since the fire at S.T.A.R. Labs, Clark had been working extra hours as Superman to figure out how the incident had occurred in the first place often switching roles with Lois so he could attend to his fatherly duties.
Clark walked back into the bullpen while adjusting his tie when he noticed a rather large blow up picture of his superhero alter ego in Perry's office, "There you are CK." Jimmy appeared at his side with a proud smile, "Finally got the picture that's gonna jumpstart my career as a photojournalist. The chief's even talking about moving me up from the basement."
"I'm happy for you Jimmy." He states and pats the enthusiastic boy on the arm when he noticed Lois walking towards her desk looking over some files, "Would you excuse me for a minute." He walks over towards her oblivious to the look that appeared on the bow tied photographer's face.
Lois wasn't paying attention to where she was going and immediately bumped into a strong surface but what really caught her attention was the pair of well-built arms that prevented her from falling.
"Looks like I'm not the only one with two left feet." He jokes with that charming smile that caused her heart to jump as his warmth surrounded her like a warm blanket on a cold night, "I…uh…" he quickly steps away clearing his throat as he did so, "I was wondering if you had any information about what happened down at S.T.A.R. Labs yet."
She was silent for a few seconds still reeling from the memories that came with having his arms wrapped around her, "Lois?" his voice knocked her out of her personal and somewhat inappropriate thoughts causing her to look up at him, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." She replies while walking around him towards her desk, "Just a little off my game today but it's nothing I can't handle." She states with a confident smirk on her face when she noticed that he hadn't walked away then she realized what he had asked her, "Oh!" she immediately starts flipping through papers until she pulled out a single sheet, "My source in the arson unit just faxed this over." He took the paper from her and quickly scanned it while she spoke, "Looks like there was a major power surge before the fire. They don't know what caused it but they're ruling it an accident."
"S.T.A.R. Labs has surge protectors and enough backup generators to relight half the city. This fire shouldn't have happened."
A large smile appears on her face causing him to look at her perplexed, "You found something." He states forgetting the sheet of paper on her desk and walking around her as she began working on her computer.
"I had Chloe work her magic and it turns out that S.T.A.R. Labs hasn't exactly been honest with us about what they were working on down in the lower levels. Turns out that Dr. Emil Hamilton was hired to look after a patient." her brows frowned and the smile disappeared from her face.
Clark peered over her shoulder to see that the file she was searching for was missing, "Who ever it was. They obviously don't want anyone to know about it." He stepped back after an idea forms in his head, "But maybe Dr. Hamilton can tell us what we need to know."
"No offense but how do you expect us to get a meeting with someone that obviously doesn't want us snooping around in his work?"
"Because I'm one of his patients." He replies then turns to walk back towards his desk, "You coming or what?" he calls over his shoulder as he grabs his coat and slips it on, "Headline isn't gonna write itself." A smirk appears on his face at the annoyed look that was on her face over his use of her words.
Once she grabbed her bag the smirk on his face turned into a smile when she walked past him, "Remember our deal? I ask the questions while you just sit back and look pretty." She pushes the button and waits for the elevator.
"I've never been referred to as pretty before." He states while they step into the elevator, "Handsome but never pretty." She doesn't look towards him but the cockiness on his face was evident.
"Shut up Clark." She responds just as the doors slide shut.
Maggie walked down the steps to see the bullies waiting for her at the steps causing the child to pause and start to walk the opposite way when she noticed that they hadn't spotted her, "There she is!" one of the boys exclaimed pointing her way as they gave chase.
She turned the corner and made it a few steps before running into another kid, "Watch where your going!" the kid exclaimed causing her to look up and to her surprise it was the same boy she had seen at the Luthor Mansion and easily recognized the Excelsior Academy uniform he was wearing.
The boys caught up to her but they stopped suddenly when they saw who was next to her, "What are you doing here?" the pudgy one asked looking from Maggie to the boy they seemed to know.
"I live in this city too." He moved past Maggie getting closer to the older boy and to her surprise she watched them back away, "Are these guys bothering you?" he asks her never wavering from them as he gave them his best intimidating look.
"I can handle it."
He scoffed and whispered something to the boys which caused them to run off scared leaving Maggie alone with her mysterious savior, "They won't be bugging you anymore." He states with a smug smirk when he turned to face her, "I'm Liam." He sticks his hand out to her which she accepts ignoring the warmth she felt from his touch.
"Maggie." Her hand slips from his and she picks up her stuff when she notices a black car pulling to the curb and Liam slipped into the backseat but not before saying goodbye.
The car drove away and Maggie started walking back to the flag pole with a smile on her face unaware that she had just met Lex Luthor's son.
When the door to his personal lab opened, Emil Hamilton was surprised to see Clark Kent standing in the doorway along with a woman he didn't recognize.
"Well this certainly is a surprise." He states removing the latex gloves and throwing them in the nearby bin before shaking hands with his old friend, "I take it that your not here because of Maggie."
Lois looked at Clark confused at the comment and watched a look pass through his baby blues not looking at her as they stepped away from her whispering amongst themselves.
"Excuse me?" they looked back towards her, "Someone want to explain what the hell is going on."
Clark walked towards her, "Why don't you go outside? I've got it covered from this point." He could already tell by the defiance in her eyes that she wasn't going to comply with his request, "Please." He begged, "I'll explain everything later. Just let me talk to him."
"Fine but you have ten minutes then I'm coming back."
He waits until the door was closed before turning back towards Dr. Hamilton, "What were you working on at S.T.A.R. Labs before it exploded?"
"You know I can't tell you that." Responds Dr. Hamilton, "What I do for them is classified, some of it is even off the books."
"I trust you with my secret identity and my daughter's welfare but if I find out that you've been doing experiments to hurt me or her then I will come after you with everything I have."
Emil could see the seriousness in his words and immediately walked towards the laptop situated near the test tubes and beakers, "We've been friends for a long time Clark." The doctor states while copying several documents onto a USB drive, "I would never do anything to break that trust." He turns and hand the small thumb drive over, "If anyone asks you didn't get this from me."
"I owe you."
The door shuts behind him as he left where he handed the USB to Lois and together they walked out, "So" she drawls out while they walk down the street, "Why do you need a doctor? I thought you were supposed to be impervious to pain or something."
"Kara wasn't the only reason I left you in DC." She looks at him confused but was soon surprised by his words, "Maggie got really sick. It was so bad that they rushed her to the emergency room a couple days after I arrived back." There's a shakiness in his breath that causes Lois to slip her hand into his as an added comfort, "A friend suggested Dr. Hamilton and he's been our physician ever since."
"Did you ever find out what was wrong with her?"
"Whenever you're exposed to kryptonite it affects you right away and when you're no longer exposed to it the cells in your body automatically rebuild while your antibodies fight off possible pathogens that could cause illness or infection." Dr. Hamilton removes the slide of blood and replaces it with another, "This is Maggie's sample."
"As you can see there are no irregularities like yours but…" he trails off while rummaging around the small cold storage place in the corner to pull out a small brown bottle labeled simply with a the letter Kr, "Exposure is instant in your case but for Maggie it takes quite a while for the weakness to hit her."
Clark moves aside keeping a safe distance while Dr. Hamilton took the pipette and got the liquefied substance close enough to the blood sample and waited several minutes before the sample began to bubble before he finally pulled away but the blood was still bubbling, "Since she's half human it takes her body longer to recover from the exposure." He puts the vial back in the cold containment fridge.
"What does that mean?"
"Think of your immune structure as hyperactive, whenever a threat is eliminated your body goes right at work and instantly fixes the problem however Maggie's system has a slower response meaning that if she were exposed to a high concentrated amount of kryptonite for a prolonged period of time then it could possibly destroy her ability to fight off viruses and pathogens entirely."
"She could die." Clark's face went from calm to panicked as he fell into a nearby chair where he began running his fingers through his hair, "Smallville is littered with kryptonite." He looks up at Emil with an alarmed look on his face, "Is that the reason she got sick?"
"No." a sigh a relief is let out, "Her immune system has built up a tolerance to low amounts of kryptonite but there's something else…" Clark watches Emil pull out a file from his desk and hands it to the worried father, "The mutation in her DNA is preventing her kryptonian powers from manifesting. If we can somehow alter-"
"No." Clark states almost immediately cutting of the doctor from finishing, "I'm not gonna subject my child to experiments when there's nothing wrong with her." He rises to his feet almost towering over the doctor, "Just tell me what I want to know and then we're done here."
Emil throat clears, "All you can do for her is keep her away from large amounts of kryptonite but other than that she's a perfectly healthy child."
Lois didn't know how to react and instead squeezed his hand which he returned when suddenly the sound of a phone ringing interrupted their comforting silence, "I should probably get that." She slips her hand out of his and digs through her purse to search for her cell phone while Clark hailed a taxi.
Clark avoids using his superhearing on her conversation and flashes a small smile when she returns seconds later, "Why don't you go home? Have some one on one time with your daughter." She places her hand on his arm and returns the smile, "I can handle it for now and I'll call you if we find anything useful."
He looks at her hesitantly but the look in her eyes convinces him to accept her offer, "Great." She pecks him on the cheek and slips into the cab which drove away seconds later leaving Clark standing there with his hand on his cheek and Lois with large smile on her face.
TBC
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