Consequences | Chapter 1/4

[sanalayla]

 

 

"While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.”

“Clark!” Lois stared out into the street, dazed by the conclusion she’d just reached. Her hand shaking slightly, she traced the line of her bottom lip and tried to come to terms with the magnitude of what he’d revealed to her. Letting out a breath, she glanced around the empty street and thought about what to do next. Clearly, she needed to hunt down Clark and talk to him. But how would she even begin to find him?

She was still lost in those thoughts when she felt her phone vibrating in her coat pocket. Her fingers clumsy in their eagerness, she almost dropped the phone as she took it out. Disappointed, her face fell when she saw the name flash across her screen. Perry White.

Taking a deep breath, in an effort to make sure she sounded normal, Lois answered the call. “Hi, Perry. What’s up?”

Perry, being who he was, dispensed with all formalities and dived right in. “What do you think is up? Did you get the ticket, kid?”

Lois rolled her eyes and started to walk back quickly towards the DP parking lot. “Yes, I did.”

“Well?” Perry asked. “What’s your answer, Lane?”

“Perry, I’m flattered, but….” Lois paused, trying to figure out what to tell him. Her footsteps echoed through the empty parking lot as she made her way over to her car.

“No buts, Lane,” Perry answered, filling in the silence when she didn’t complete the thought. “This is a great opportunity and I need a right hand man. We started this story together and we should end it together.”

Lois winced, suddenly feeling very guilty about all that she had found out recently that she couldn’t share with Perry. “The Red Queen? How’s your hunt going for her?” Lois figured that was a safe question to ask. And she was genuinely curious.

“I’ve got some leads. I’ll tell you more when we’re face to face.”

With a fond smile, Lois shook her head. “Of course.” She’d just reached her car and got in, turning the key in the ignition before adding, “I don’t think I can make it this time, Perry. There’s some stuff…” Lois hesitated, still trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened. “There’s a story here that I need to figure out before I can focus on anything else.”

There was a momentary silence on the other end of the line. Finally, Perry said, “Well, look, never say never. The flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow night. If you wrap up your story by then, hop onboard.”

“All right, I can promise that I’ll do that.” Lois chuckled, as she eased out of the parking lot and got onto the street, heading back towards Smallville. She never thought she’d see the day, but it looked like she’d finally met someone more stubborn than the General. “But don’t be surprised if I’m not there.”

“Don’t be surprised when you are there,” Perry shot back, with a laugh of his own. “See you later, Lane.”

Before Lois could respond, Perry had hung up. She stared at the phone in her hand for a moment and then immediately hit a couple of buttons to get Clark. The call immediately when to voicemail and she left a message.

“Smallville, this is Lois.” Wincing slightly, she paused and then added, “You probably know that. I mean, you know my voice.” She stopped and then added. “I think you do, anyway. You should. I mean….” Letting out a frustrated breath, she finished quickly, “When you get this, call me back. We need --.”

The phone let out a loud beep in her hand and she realized her message had been cut off. Just great. She hit redial and started again.

“So, as I was saying. We need to talk.” Realizing that those words sounded very ominous and nothing ever good came out of that phrase, she deliberately softened her tone and added, “Not talk-talk. I mean, just… talk. As in… we need to figure things out.” Chewing on her lower lip anxiously, she stopped at a red light and debated whether she should just flat out say that she knew he was the Blur. “I know that you….” Lois stopped, thinking that blurting something that important out in a voice mail - that anyone could have access to - was probably not the best idea. “… that you probably have stuff to talk to me about, too. Anyway, call me back.”

By the time Lois got back to her Talon apartment, she’d left him a dozen messages – each one a little shorter than the last. Finally, her last message was terse and to the point, “Clark. Call me. I’m… worried.”

Given the final time she’d seen him and the fact that she’d just handed him some mysterious disc that Zod had wanted for himself, she had to say that she was pretty worried that Zod had managed to get it from Clark in a way that hadn’t ended well.

“You can’t think like that, Lois,” she whispered out loud to the empty apartment. Casting a glance at the answering machine she and Chloe kept on the counter, her heart fell when she saw that there were no messages. “Clark is strong and he’s smart. He’ll be fine.” Unfortunately for her, her furniture was not in the mood to either agree or disagree with her.

Letting out a sigh, she pulled out her phone and punched in another number. This one also went straight to voice mail. Not bothering to hide the urgency in her voice, she said, “Chloe. This is Lois. I’m looking for Clark. If you know where he is or what’s going on, call me RIGHT NOW. Hell, even if you don’t know where he is, I want you to call me, anyway.”

Hitting the ‘end call’ button more forcefully than was strictly necessary, Lois sat down on her sofa and settled in to do something that she was never good at. Which was waiting.

*


“John! You found him!” Chloe’s eyes widened anxiously as John burst into the Watchtower. He was supporting Clark, whose face was ashen and white with pain. He could barely stand on his own two feet. “You got him before he hit the ground?”

John quickly moved Clark towards the make-shift bed that Chloe kept in the back. Easing Clark down onto the mattress, gently, he checked Clark’s pulse. “Yes. But just barely.”

Hovering around the bed, her hands twisting into knots, she looked at Clark with a furrowed brow. “I don’t understand. Why isn’t he healing?”

“He’d been stabbed with a blue kryptonite knife, Chloe,” John said, his tone grave. “I removed the knife, but I think that there’s still a piece left in there.”

Clark, who was unconscious, let out a moan and shifted on the bed, clearly in a lot of pain. Cautiously, Chloe reached out and lifted up his shirt and saw the knife wound. It was still bleeding and he was losing a lot of blood. Quickly, she ran over to the cabinet she kept with medical supplies and pulled out a large piece of gauze. She ran back and covered his wound, pressing down. In response to the pressure, Clark let out another groan, but didn’t wake up.

Setting his hand on Clark’s brow, he stated grimly, “He has a fever. We need a doctor. I can’t operate on him and pull out the piece of kryptonite.”

Chloe nodded, struggling to hold back tears. First Oliver and now this. Reminding herself that falling apart was not an option, she snapped out, “Fine. You hold this in place; I’ll call Dr. Emil.”

Her hands were covered in Clark’s blood, so her fingers were a little slippery on her phone, as she tried to dial the doctor’s number. It took several attempts, since the phone kept slipping out of her shaking hands. When the doctor picked up, she just said tersely, “Dr. Emil. You need to come to Watchtower NOW.” Without waiting for a response, she disconnected the line just as Hawkman came through the doors.

“Did you find Oliver?” Chloe’s voice was calm, but her heart was pounding rapidly. She gazed at the tall, imposing, figure before her. “Where is he?”

Carter looked at her steadily. “I couldn’t find any trace of him.”

Nodding stiffly, Chloe turned back towards the monitors behind her and began typing rapidly, intent on running some sort of a report that would give her potential locations he could have been taken to, given the time lapse and geographical coordinates.

Carter turned his attention to John. “How is he?” His gravelly voice was filled with concern as he nodded towards Clark.

“As well as can be expected under the circumstances,” John responded, in a matter of fact tone. “We’re waiting for the doctor.”

Carter nodded slowly and hit his mace against his hand. “Do you want me to go get him? Speed up the process?”

John cast a glance over his friend’s attire and one brow rose. “I think you’ll scare the medical staff. Besides, there’s no need. He’s actually right outside the door.”

True to his word, Emil came bursting through the doors two seconds later. Carter gave John a dirty look. “I hate it when you do that mind-meld stuff.”

John shrugged, but kept silent.

Emil didn’t bother to question the situation, given that he’d gotten used to the unorthodox activities at Watchtower. He made a beeline straight for Clark and began to check on him, firing off a series of quick questions towards John to get a sense of where things stood.

After a few moments, Emil stepped back and announced, “We need to get him to the hospital. I’ll have to operate there.”

For the first time, Chloe tore her eyes away from her monitors and turned to face Emil. “No way. No hospitals.”

“Ms. Sullivan,” Emil began, “With all due respect….”

“No!” Chloe stated again, louder this time. “What’s going to happen when you operate and he gets magically healed five minutes later? It’s too dangerous.”

Emil stopped and gave her a look. “Okay, then. What’s your suggestion? I can’t operate without supplies. He’ll bleed out by the time I get everything here. As it is, it’s not a guarantee I can save him. Even with his powers.”

Rolling her eyes slightly, she hit a couple of keys on her keyboard and a back door slid open smoothly. It revealed a state of the art operating room. “Will that do?”

Blinking at her in surprise, Emil asked, “Why do you have that?”

“I’m a girl who likes to be prepared,” Chloe answered, grimly, and then turned her attention back to the monitor. She heard the three men behind her start to shift Clark to the other room and then her eyes landed on her phone, which was lighting up. Thinking it might be Oliver, she grabbed it and then her eyes narrowed in dismay when she saw it was Lois. Hitting ‘ignore’, she quickly scrolled through her incoming calls and saw that Lois had called her nine times.

Shaking her head slightly, Chloe thought about what to do. She couldn’t tell Lois where Clark was. The last she’d heard, Clark had told her that he’d broken up with Lois and he wanted her to go to Kenya. And that he wasn’t going to tell Lois his secret, because it would hurt Lois too much to know the truth right when he was supposed to leave her.

Glancing back at the room, where she saw Emil work frantically to save Clark’s life, she thought back to his words and how it wasn’t a given that Clark would live. She chewed on her lip while she tried to figure out what Clark would want. And she realized that he’d probably want Lois to get on that plane. If he didn’t make it, he wouldn’t want Lois to know, because he’d think it would hurt her too much. And then there was also the fact that there were some crazy people out there who had just kidnapped Oliver. Who knew if they’d go after Lois next?

Her mind made up, she quickly ran into the back room and pulled out Carter. Pointing towards the monitor, which had just finished creating a map, she said, “Carter, look for Oliver in those locations. Call every member of the group if you have to. But let’s find him.” She grabbed her bag and said over her shoulder, “I have to go talk to Lois.”

*


Having the spent the greater portion of the past few hours pacing back and forth in her small living room, Lois started to get a cramp in her legs. Wearily sitting down, she nervously began nibbling on her nail. For the hundredth time, she picked up very silent phone and checked to see if she’d gotten a message from either Chloe or Clark. Then, she hit the redial button and left yet another message for Oliver. “Ollie, this is Lois. Again. I have no idea why every single person in my life is MIA right now. Call me if you happened to stumble across Chloe. Or Clark, for that matter.”

Letting out a frustrated breath, Lois was just about to jump up and hop into her car to start looking for all these missing people, herself, when the lock clicked in the door. When Chloe walked through, Lois almost ran to her and threw her arms around her petite cousin.

“Lois!” Chloe gasped and broke away from Lois hold. “What’s going on?”

Lois stared down at her in surprise. “What do you mean? Didn’t you get my messages?”

“Um….” Chloe glanced down at the phone in her hand. “I saw that you called, but I didn’t check your messages. What’s going on?”

“Clark is missing,” Lois responded; her eyes narrowed on Chloe’s face as she tried to analyze her cousin’s reaction to the words. “I… need to talk to him. Do you know where he is?”

Chloe gave her a look, one brow high and her lips curved into a smile. “No, he’s not missing. He went to go visit his mom. I just talked to him an hour ago.”

“What?” Blinking in surprise, Lois looked down at her and then took a step back. “No… he….” Lois stopped, because it wasn’t like she could launch into a full explanation of what had happened the last time she’d seen Clark. Maybe this was the story he told Chloe before he went off to go confront Zod or did whatever the Blur did in his spare time. Finally, she just said, “That doesn’t make sense. I’ve called him twenty times. It’s not like him to not answer if he’s just in D.C.”

Chloe shrugged and said, a bit gently, “Well, you guys did just break up. Don’t tell him that I told you this, but I think you leaving for Kenya was hard on him. That’s why he left. He thought it would best if he put distance between you two.”

Lois’s brows rose at that. While it was true that Clark had been fairly happy to shatter her heart into a thousand pieces when he told her to go Kenya, she had to say that it was a bit hard to swallow the idea of a break up when he’d just kissed her as the Blur. Suddenly, she frowned at the thought. Why had he kissed her as the Blur? Did he even realize she’d figure it out? Or did he just do it because he could?

For the first time, the ramifications of what had just happened hit her like a ton of bricks. For months, maybe even for years, Clark had been lying to her. Spending time with her as Clark Kent and then talking to her on the phone as the Blur. In fact, he’d just cut off ties with her as the Blur a week ago, even while he continued to date her as Clark. Until yesterday. Yesterday, he’d decided he didn’t want to date her as Clark Kent, either. For a second, her legs felt weak, like they couldn’t support her and Lois sank down onto the coffee table before she fell.

Her whirling thoughts were threatening to overwhelm her. Swallowing a bit, Lois asked, faintly, “Do you know for a fact he’s in DC?”

Chloe pulled out her phone and hit a couple of numbers. When the other person picked up, she said, cheerfully, “Mrs. Kent? Lois was looking for Clark and just wanted to check to make sure that Clark was still there?” Before the older woman could answer, Chloe handed Lois the phone.

Lois held the phone to her ear, just as Martha was saying, “Yes, he’s here. He’s sleeping right now.”

“Mrs. K?” Lois didn’t exactly know what she was going to say, but she wished that Chloe wasn’t in the room, so she could just confront the woman about Clark’s superpowers. There was no way it was a secret from his mother.

“Yes, dear? How are you, Lois?” Martha asked, her voice full of concern. “Clark told me that you two broke up. I’m so sorry.”

Lois closed her eyes, feeling a fresh stab of pain cut through her at the words. “Yes, well….”

“You know, I think it’s for the best,” Martha interjected, her voice sympathetic, but brisk. “Your career is so important to you. And Clark… well… clearly, there are things he needs to figure out. I do think that Kenya is the perfect place for you to be right now.”

Lois frowned. She’d hadn’t expected that. Martha had been overjoyed that the two of them were dating. “Um… Okay….”

“All right, well, I need to go,” Martha responded, sounding a little distracted. “Take care of yourself, sweetie. Be careful in Africa!”

After Martha had hung up, Lois stared silently at the phone in her hand for a long moment. What was going on? The world around seemed to going too fast or she was going too slow. She couldn’t imagine that Mrs. Kent would lie to her. If she said that Clark was in DC, she believed her. Or, at least, couldn’t imagine any other alternative. So why was he avoiding her calls?

And the hardest question of all. Why would he break up with her to begin with, if he really wanted to be with her? For awhile there, Lois had started to think that he’d kissed her because he’d changed his mind. He wanted to be with her. But now that he’d followed that up with complete radio silence, she couldn’t help but think it was his idea of a good-bye kiss. But why?

“Lois?” Chloe took the phone from her limp fingers and gave her a concerned look. “Are you OK?”

Lois forced a smile to her lips. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she lied. “Just peachy.”

Chloe nodded, seeming to accept her words at face value. “So, you need help packing?”

Lois considered her options for a moment and then shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”

*


When the final boarding call was announced for the flight to London, Lois glanced around the airport one last time. Her heart fell when she didn’t see him and she realized, in that moment, that she’d expected him to come. Because he always did.

She picked up her phone and left, for the last time, a message for him. “Hi, Smallville. I just wanted to say….” Her voice broke and Lois took a second to compose herself. “I hope you’re okay. And you’re happy. And… um… bye.”

*


Clark opened his eyes and felt like he’d been hit by a kryptonite truck. Groaning slightly, he sat up and looked around the sparse room. Getting out the bed, he walked over to the open window and instantly felt better as the sun’s rays began to warm his body.

“You’re up!” Chloe sounded happy, but distracted, as she looked over at him from the coffee station she’d set up in the corner. She walked closer to him and handed him a mug of steaming coffee and grinned. “That was one hell of a nap.”

With a confused frown, Clark took the mug from her and asked, “What do you mean? How long was I sleeping?” The last thing he remembered was plunging the knife into his body as Zod was lifted into the air. It had been nighttime then and raining. Now, it was clearly the afternoon and sunny.

“Two days,” Chloe informed him, wryly. Then the hint of smile faded from her eyes and she added, “It was pretty touch and go there for awhile, Clark. You scared us.”

Swallowing slightly, Clark tried to process her words. “So, the Kandorians? Zod? Everything is OK?”

Chloe hesitated and then nodded. “Yes, they all made it. We think. No Kandorians around that our systems are picking up – either of the powered or non-powered variety. And Zod is gone, too. John put the Book of Rao in a safe place.”

Grinning in relief, Clark stepped closer to his friend and gave her a hug. “That’s great, Chloe.” He pulled back and smiled down at her. Since the immediate issues at been faced, he could now focus on what mattered with a clear conscience. “I have to go.”

Chloe grabbed a hold of his arm before he could blur away. “Where are you going?”

“I have to go find Lois,” Clark told her, not bothering to hide the happiness and excitement in his voice. “We need to talk.”

Her blue eyes filled with dismay. “Clark… Lois is in Kenya.”

“What?” Taken aback, Clark stared down at his friend for a second and then shook his head. “That doesn’t make any sense….” Why would Lois still go to Africa? He’d basically told her he was the Blur before he’d gone off to go fight Zod. “Did she tell you why she was still going?”

Clearly confused by the direction of the conversation, Chloe shrugged. “Well, for the same reason she was going before. I mean, you guys were broken up, as far as she knew, right?”

“No… she….” Clark paused and ran his hand through his hair agitation. “She knew I was the Blur, Chloe. I thought she’d stay….”

“You told her?” Chloe’s brows rose in shock. “I didn’t know that.”

Clark winced a bit. “I didn’t tell her exactly.”

“So, what, exactly did you do?” Chloe asked, suspiciously.

Clark glanced away, avoiding her gaze. While he and Chloe had been quite close over the years, he’d found that there some things in his relationship with Lois that he preferred to keep private. This definitely fell into that category. “Don’t worry about it,” Clark finally answered. “Just… I had thought she’d figured it out.”

“Well, to be honest, she may have,” Chloe replied. She appeared to be thinking back to her last meeting with Lois. “She did seem pretty determined to hunt you down. But then I…” Chloe paused and looked at him a little guiltily. “I think I may have played a part in her jumping ship. I kind of told her you were visiting your mom to put some distance between you two.”

Aghast, Clark’s jaw dropped. “What? Why did you do that?”

“Clark, you were dying,” Chloe answered defensively. “I thought I was respecting your wishes. That you’d want Lois to think you were okay. That is what you said about your one-way ticket to Kandorianville. I figured the same rules applied.”

“Chloe!” Letting out a groan of frustration, Clark shook his head. “I have to go find her. Everything’s different now.” He stopped and thought about it, and voiced his hope out loud, “She’ll understand.”

“I know,” Chloe answered. She licked her lips nervously and added, “But… you have to wait to talk to her. Right now, someone else needs you more than Lois does.”

Blinking a bit in confusion, Clark focused his gaze on Chloe. “What do you mean?”

“Oliver.” For the first time, Chloe’s face crumpled a bit and Clark saw the fatigue and stress etched into lines around her mouth. “He’s been missing since that night. We can’t find him.”

Nodding slowly, Clark wrapped his arms around and held her as she cried into his chest. “It’s okay. I’ll find him.”


TBC…