Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Clark's Heart (8/10)

Previously, on Clark's Heart:



"Lois? What's wrong?"

"I don't feel right," she'd managed to say. "I can't be sure, but I think...I might be having contractions. But it's too early. He can't be born yet. It's still too early." Fear leapt, unbidden, into her voice.

"It's okay," Martha had said, taking charge of the situation. "We're in the best possible place for you," she tried to joke, making light of things to put Lois at ease. "We're already at the hospital. We'll just get you over to the maternity ward and get you checked out. It's probably just false labor, but we'll have someone take a look at you just to be sure, okay?"

"Okay," Lois said, too afraid that it might be preterm labor to argue that she wanted to be with Clark.


***


Two hours later, Lois and her child were declared to be the very picture of health. Scans of the baby and Lois' uterus showed that everything was normal, and that her contractions were, indeed, just false labor. To be sure that the baby was not in any distress, the nurses had hooked Lois up to a fetal monitor and had watched the baby's heartbeat naturally rise and fall as he twisted and squirmed within her, or settled down for a moment to rest.

For close to an hour, Lois had been confined to a bed, all the while missing her husband. She was so sure that Clark would have loved to be at her side while their son was being checked. She could picture the fascination in his eyes as he would have watched the print-out from the machine, showing rises and dips in both her contractions and their son's heart rate. Martha had stayed by her side in Clark's place, and though Lois was grateful for the support, it hadn't been the same. Even Jonathan had come to show his support, though he'd been content to wait for the women in the waiting area and skim through a magazine.

At long last, however, Lois was free to go. As fast as she could, and despite the doctor's orders to take it easy, she'd rushed through Metropolis General, making a beeline for Clark's room. She arrived somewhat breathless and paused outside of his room, catching her breath.

It sure is hard to move fast these days, she mused, rubbing her nearly seven months pregnant belly.

Then she plunged into Clark's room, only to stop short a second or two after she entered. Everything was exactly where she'd left things. Except for Clark.

Clark was missing.


***


"Clark?" Lois called out frantically. "Clark?"

"What's going on?" Jonathan asked, puffing slightly from trying to keep up with his determined and single-minded daughter-in-law.

"Clark's gone," Lois said, almost screaming and near hysterics.

"Gone?" Martha asked, trailing her husband by a step or two.

It was true. All traces of Clark had vanished from the room. His bed was empty, the pillow still creased from where his head had laid not two hours before, when Lois had last seen him. The machines that had been keeping him alive were gone - the room's silence without the various beeps and whooshes was deafeningly loud.

"Oh, God," Lois pleaded, tears flowing, her body shaking. "Clark! Where are you?"

"Perhaps I can answer that," came a new voice, unbelievably calm in the midst of Lois' panic.

Lois wheeled around, toward the source of the voice. At first, the person standing there didn't register in her mind. But when it did, all she could think was 'how?'

"Zara?" she stuttered after a moment of gaping, as the other woman came to her side and touched her shoulder.

Zara smiled in confirmation. "Hello, Lois."

"What's happened to Clark? Is he...he...he...?" She couldn't force herself to finish.

"He's in surgery," the ruler of New Krypton said, looking Lois in the eyes. "He's getting a new heart."

"How?" Lois asked. Then, catching herself, "Not that I'm ungrateful, mind you. But, how?"

Zara shook her head and looked around pointedly. "Not here, not if we value our privacy," she said in a hushed tone.

Lois nodded. She knew they wouldn't be able to wait things out in Clark's room. But the waiting room would offer them no privacy at all.

"Where to?" she asked.

Zara smiled conspiratorially, though Lois caught a hint of sadness behind it. "Come closer. All of you."

Lois waited while Jonathan and Martha stepped closer. When they are all within an arm's reach, Zara touched her right wrist with her left hand, where Lois knew a highly sophisticated control panel was located. She pressed a button and a white light engulfed the four of them. Lois had to close her eyes against the brightness, and when she was finally able to open them again, she found herself in a familiar setting.

"Your ship?" she asked.

Zara nodded. "I thought it would offer us the most comfortable and private location. There is so much to tell you, and I'm sure you have a hundred questions."

"More like a hundred thousand," Lois said.

"And I will do my best to answer them all. Please, sit," Zara offered, as four comfortable looking and plush chairs sprang into existence. "I'll be back in a moment."

Zara turned and left, disappearing through a doorway. Lois sat, and was surprised by how comfortable the chairs actually were. It almost felt as if it had been contoured specifically for her pregnant body. The aches in her lower back disappeared and a foot rest appeared out of thin air as she imagined how much more comfortable she'd be with her feet up.

"I never thought we'd see her again," Jonathan said in a low, wary voice.

Lois knew that Clark's parents bore no ill-will to Clark's former birth wife, but it had to be difficult for them to be on Zara's ship. After all, the one time they'd been aboard a Kryptonian vessel, they'd been used as evidence by a deranged lunatic in his effort to have their son killed.

"Neither did I," Lois agreed.

Oddly, enough, it was comforting to see the woman. She'd never been able to hate Zara, even when the Kryptonian had been married to Clark. It hadn't been her fault, and Lois had known that Clark would stay true to his word to only be hers - one heart with her, regardless of the uncountable miles between Earth and New Krypton. Sure, Lois had felt bitterly jealous of Zara - after all, the woman had been married to the love of Lois' life and, as far as Lois knew at the time, she was never going to be able to see Clark again, let alone hug him, kiss him, make love to him.

"To be honest," Zara said, returning, holding a small bundle in her arms, "I never expected to see Earth or any of you again either."

It took Lois a moment before she realized that the bundle Zara was holding was a swaddled infant. A girl, if the pale pink blanket was any indication. Next to Zara's empty chair, a bassinet looking piece of furniture appeared, though it was unlike any Lois had ever seen. Zara placed the child down, smoothed the blanket she was swaddled in, and smiled before seating herself.

"Congratulations. She's beautiful," Lois said, peering over at the infant. Then, realizing as she looked around, "Where's Ching?"

"Thank you," Zara said, her eyes misting over. "This is Kala, named, in part for your husband because Ching was so indebted to him for finding a way for us to be together. Ching...is actually the reason why I came here, to Earth. But the story goes back further than that. It's easier if I explain it from the beginning."

Lois nodded. "Okay, but one more question first. You said Clark was in surgery. How? No one's been able to find a fix for his heart."

"He's getting the transplant that he needs," Zara said, a bit elusively. "A Kryptonian heart to keep him alive and well."

"A transplant?" Martha asked, incredulous.

Zara nodded.

"But that would mean..." Lois said slowly. "Who?"

"Someone worthy enough of living on, in part, through Kal-El."

Dread flooded Lois, along with understanding. "Ching?"

Again, Zara nodded. "I'm afraid so."

Lois felt tears well up in her eyes. At first, she had hated Ching with a passion, for all of the horrendous tests he'd put Clark through. But as she'd come to know the man and his motives, and even come to work with him once Clark had returned home to stop Lord Nor from his planned hostile takeover of Earth, she'd found herself coming to like the man and even respect him. His death was a powerful blow to her heart.

"I'm so sorry," the three said together, nearly with one voice. "What happened?" Lois added.

Zara sighed heavily. "It all started a couple of months ago, just after Kala was born. A ruthless race of beings called Zorteps set eyes on our struggling planet, just as we were starting to see some changes for the better - things Ching and I had seen here and tried to implement in our home world. The Zorteps hail from an even less inviting planet called Zaranthall, from a galaxy you here on Earth have not yet discovered. We barely even knew of it, and it was closer to us than it was to Earth."

"They wanted your home?" Lois guessed.

"Not quite. It turns out, New Krypton's core was rich in gasses that Zaranthall was running out of. Gasses the Zorteps needed to sustain life on their planet. They wanted our supply, but doing so..." She shrugged.

"It would have been Krypton all over again," Lois said, understanding. "It would have destroyed the planet's core."

"Causing the planet to explode," Jonathan finished for her.

"Exactly," Zara said, looking far older than Lois had ever known her to look. "They attacked us, in the middle of the night. There had been no warning signs, no threats, no attempts at negotiations. Just a precise, deadly, and completely unanticipated strike."

"That's horrible!" Martha exclaimed.

"A lot of people died that night. Good people. Families, for the most part. We mounted an immediate counterstrike, of course. And for a while, we held our own. But that initial attack was not much more than a scouting party, as we later found out. Their army arrived in full, out-manning us in every way. They had at least fifteen soldiers for every one of us. And I mean every one of us. Old men, pregnant women, children."

"I remember you saying that only a thousand or so people had escaped Krypton's demise," Lois said, a profound sadness washing over her as she saw where Zara's story was heading.

"We never stood a chance," Zara said, her tone of voice telling Lois that she knew Lois had already foreseen how the story would end. "Even if we'd been able to arm every single person, we never could have won."

"How many survived?" Lois asked.

"Three."

"Three?" Martha repeated, her face falling.

"When the ships arrived, bringing more of the enemy, we tried to evacuate. Ching and I waited until the last Kryptonian was safely loaded onto the floating palace. It was our duty to ensure the safety of our people. We watched the vessel lift off and cloak, hopeful that everyone would be okay. Our plan was to take our own ship and rendezvous with the palace once we were all out of imminent danger. The Elders had insisted that we take a separate ship, just in case something happened. The Zorteps must have had some kind of radar that could detect cloaked ships. As Ching, Kala, and myself lifted off in our own ship, we saw a massive explosion in the upper atmosphere."

"Are you sure it was the palace?" Martha asked, aghast.

Zara nodded sadly. "There was no mistaking the pieces of wreckage that we saw falling to the surface, the cloaking stripped away as the computers failed. Ching and I were lucky. The Zorteps must have thought they got us all in that one explosion. We escaped, our ship unscathed."

"I'm so sorry, Zara," Lois offered sincerely. But in the pit of her stomach, a cold fear grew, alongside the immense grief she felt over an entire race brought nearly to extinction in one fell swoop.

Clark could have been a part of that, she thought to herself. He could have been killed in a hostile takeover, even if he'd survived whatever Nor might have thrown at him on New Krypton.

"Thank you," Zara replied, choked up as she recalled the events.

"And Ching?" Jonathan prompted after a moment. "What happened to him?"

Zara's entire face fell as she recounted the events. "As you know, Ching was an accomplished military man. He was, by no means, our most talented warrior, but he ranked among the top fighters. I tried to talk him into leaving the fighting to the others. After all, Krypton needed a leader. He wouldn't hear of it. Knowing Kal...ah, Clark, even for such a short time as he did, changed my husband. He wouldn't heed my pleas. He said that any leader worth his salt would fight alongside his men, not hide while others risked their lives. He could not ask them to do what he himself was unwilling to."

"That does sound like something Clark would say," Jonathan said with a fond smile.

"The last time he went out into the battlefield, he took a plasma bolt in his abdomen. It was a serious wound, but he refused to let it slow him down. He made certain that every last citizen of New Krypton was onboard the mother ship, then got Kala and me to our own ship."

"It caught up with him, didn't it?" Lois asked gently.

"As soon as we were in the clear, and that it was evident that no one was coming after us, he let me tend to his wound, but only then. We couldn't stop the bleeding for a long time. I put us on course for Earth, hoping we'd get there on time, so that your yellow sun could heal him. But the plasma bolt that had hit him was different from anything I've ever seen. It didn't just wound him. It continued to eat away at him rapidly, leaving him in agony. I did the best I could, pumping him full of painkillers, and it seemed to take away most of his pain. But that was all I could do. Traditional treatments would not work." She paused and appeared to gather herself for the next part, swallowing hard before she could continue. "We arrived too late. Ching died of his wound before we could reach the light of your sun. I used the ship's onboard medical supplies to freeze his body, in an effort to preserve it so that I could give him a proper funeral once I landed."

Zara dabbed at her eyes and Lois rose from her chair. She went over to the grieving widow and new mother, putting her arms around her in a comforting hug, knowing that her gesture was woefully inadequate. She felt like she should have been able to do so much more for Zara.

"He was a great man," she whispered sadly as she hugged the woman.

After a moment, Lois pulled back and returned to her seat. She settled into the cushioning, resting her body while her mind swirled with rampant thoughts.

What was happening to Clark now? Was the surgery going well? Would his body reject Ching's heart? Would he have to hang up Superman's cape for good? How had Zara known that Clark needed the heart in the first place?

"Zara, I want you to know how grateful I am - how grateful we all are - that Clark is receiving his transplant," Lois said after a minute. "But...how did you know?"

Kala stirred sleepily in her bassinet. Before Zara answered Lois' question, she stood and picked the child up and rocked her in her arms. She paced, bouncing the infant ever so softly as she spoke.

"I knew something was wrong when we attained the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere," Zara said, her voice sounding even more hollow and distant than it had during her recollection of the last days of New Krypton's existence. "I tried to connect to him, telepathically. But, I couldn't locate him. Ching was gone, I had nowhere else to go. So, I cloaked the ship and brought it in closer, hovering once I was above Metropolis. It wasn't easy, but I finally located the sound of your voice. How Kal-El does it without even trying is beyond me. Truly, there is a special bond between you two."

Lois nodded. "He's always said he could find me by the sound of my heartbeat alone."

Zara smiled sadly and continued to pace. Kala had since stopped fussing, and had drifted back into a peaceful sleep.

"I finally found you in Kal's...I mean, Clark's room at the hospital. My apologies. After a lifetime of calling him Kal-El, my tongue seems slow to get used to his Earth name. But, by the time I could settle Kala down, you weren't there. His medical chart, however, answered all of my questions. As I was looking it over, a Dr. Klein came into the room to check on Clark. He recognized me immediately as one of the ones who'd been with Superman when he'd said his goodbyes to the people of Earth. He then let me know that he knew of Clark's...differences, once he seemed sure that I was also in the know."

Jonathan automatically bristled at the compromise of Clark's secret, but then seemed to think better of it. Lois couldn't fault him for it. It was simply a reflex, to want Clark's secret to remain locked up as safe and secure as possible. But in this one, rare case, Lois was thankful that Dr. Klein had trusted the knowledge with Zara.

"He told me that Clark's time was growing dangerously short. I said that I could provide a heart for a transplant, but that he needed to hurry. Ching had already been dead for five hours."

"That explains why no one contacted us," Lois said, knowing from her research that, for humans at least, five to six hours was the maximum time for maintaining the viability of a heart.

"Dr. Klein said that Clark had already filled out paperwork, granting him the ability to do a transplant, in case the worst should happen and he would be unable to sign for himself if a heart or procedure was suddenly found."

Lois remembered the forms in question. Clark had filled them out shortly after he'd been admitted to the hospital that first day, hours before the heart attack that had left him on life support.

"I returned to my ship and sent Ching's body to the operating room that Dr. Klein directed me to, and to feed Kala. I heard you in Clark's room not long after," she said, looking toward Lois, "and beamed back down to tell you everything."

"It's a miracle," Martha said, tears in her eyes. "You appeared just when things looked bleakest. And then, to find that Clark and Ching were a match..." Her voice trailed off.

Zara stopped pacing and sat, still cradling her daughter. "Well, I will confess that it was never an issue of finding a matching donor. Kryptonian DNA is different from that of Earthlings. We don't, for example, have differing blood types. Any one of the people on New Krypton could have been Clark's donor."

"I can't tell you what this means to us all," Martha said, shaking her head as if embarrassed by the inadequacy of her words.

Zara looked down at the baby in her arms before speaking. "I'm just glad that at least one good thing could come from my husband's death. It helps ease some of the pain, knowing that his death wasn't in vain."

"He did what he thought was best for his people - your people," Lois reminded her. "He was a hero. He always was. He always put everyone else before himself, even at the expense of his own happiness."

"He was a good man," Jonathan agreed. Though he and Martha had only briefly met Ching during the New Krypton Incident, as they had come to call it, Clark had spoken highly of the man to them.

For several long minutes, no one spoke. Everyone seemed to be weighing all they had learned, digesting the information, and mourning Ching's passing. Lois felt so conflicted. On the one hand, she was devastated that the man had died, leaving Zara a widow and never having the chance to see his baby girl grow up. On the other, she was elated that Clark was getting a heart, the one thing he needed most in order to be able to see his son be born and grow up into a man. And that same elation made her feel so incredibly guilty, that she could take any relief and hope from a friend's death - that she could dare to feel such happiness when Zara's heart was so clearly breaking.

"You should return to the hospital," Zara finally said. "I'm unfamiliar with surgical practices on Earth or how long they last. You may be needed to answer questions. Certainly someone will want to inform you of what's going on."

Lois nodded. "Come with us."

Zara hesitated. "I should probably stay here."

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone right now," Lois said. "I think it's better if you come with us. I know it won't take your grief away, but it might help ease the pain. Besides, as far as I'm concerned, you're family. I don't let family suffer alone."

Again, Zara hesitated, but slowly came to nod. "Thank you. I guess it would be nice to be around others."

Lois' stomach rumbled. "Come on. We'll even load up on...how did you put it? Nutritionally worthless snack foods?"


***


Lois glared at the clock on the wall in the waiting area as if she could will time to move faster just because she wanted it to. She got up and walked the length of the area, throwing her fourth bottle of water in as many hours away as she continued on to the ladies' room.

Everyone warned me about this, she thought as she squeezed into the narrow stall. I just never imagined how true their warnings were.

She finished, washed her hands, and dried them under the hand drier twice. When her hands still remained moist, she rolled her eyes and used her maternity shorts, wiping her hands on her hips. She eyed the hand drier disdainfully as she did so, as well as the sign above it, stating that, in an effort to be "greener" and eliminate paper waste, the hospital had done away with paper towels in the restrooms.

Thanks for your cooperation indeed, she thought scornfully.

She was still awaiting word from anyone on how Clark's surgery was going - the only update she'd received thus far had been from Sandy, one of Clark's regular nurses, who had been relieved to find Lois to let her know that Clark had been brought in for surgery. She had to assume that it was going well. She could not imagine it otherwise. She didn't know what she would do if the surgery failed. She couldn't lose Clark. She couldn't let Ching's death and Zara's sacrifice be in vain. But, regardless of what she wanted to believe, she still would have liked some status update on her husband.

She sat back in her seat in a huff. Jonathan and Martha were in the midst of a whispered discussion. Lois imagined it was likely nothing more than idle chat to keep their frayed nerves from snapping completely. Zara was singing softly to Kala as the baby sucked greedily at the bottle that was being offered to her. In the far corner, a teenage boy was absorbed completely into his handheld game, his brow creased in concentration while his father flipped through a hunting and fishing magazine. No one else was in the room at this hour, but earlier Lois had seen two other sets of families given news about their loved ones and sent to the recovery areas.

Her pager beeped. A quick glance told her it was Perry. She ignored it. She had called earlier to let him know that Clark was in surgery. That had been a mistake, she realized in hindsight. He'd beeped in twice already. She had ignored those as well. Now she turned the device off and tossed it to the bottom of her purse.

"She really is beautiful," Lois said as she peered over at Kala. "I see a lot of you in her."

"Thank you. She has her father's expressions, I think."

The baby scrunched up her face into a pout as she finished the bottle and Zara moved her to her shoulder to burp her. Lois couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her as she watched.

"She really does!" she said, still chuckling.

Zara laughed as well, just as the baby let out a huge burp. "She burps just like him too," she added wistfully. "Was that Perry again?"

Lois nodded. "Yeah."

"You should call him. He's probably going out of his mind with worry. I saw the way he looks at you and Clark. You're his children in all but blood."

Lois sighed. "I know. But I can't help feeling that as soon as I step away, news about Clark will come through that door."

"If it does, the doctor will wait," Zara assured her. "Go. Put his mind at ease."

"I guess," Lois grumbled.

Still, she pushed herself up out of her seat and walked to the hallway. She took her cell phone out of her purse as soon as she deemed it acceptable, not going far unless a doctor came out, but far enough that she wouldn't disturb the others in the waiting area. She quickly dialed Perry's home number. He sounded tired when he picked up, and Lois felt terrible that she could offer no real news, but promised she would call once she knew more. Then she was once again at Zara's side.

Another twenty minutes passed. Then, finally, the door leading to the operating rooms opened. A doctor stepped out and, for a moment, Lois' hopes flared.

"Mr. Davis?" the woman called, and the man on the far end of the room stood in answer.

Lois sighed again, nervously balling and flexing her fingers. Ten more minutes dragged slowly by. Out of the corner of her eye, Lois could see Mr. Davis and the doctor talking. She saw him collapse to his seat in relief. Even the boy with him put down his game as he gave his father a joyous hug.

The doctor led them away, smiling, to wherever their family member was. Lois could only hope and pray that her turn would come soon. Five minutes later, as if in response to her unvoiced thoughts, Sam Lane staggered through the door, looking a little worse for wear. He rubbed tiredly at his eyes and yawned.

Lois stood as soon as she saw him.

"Daddy?" she asked, her voice half a statement, half a pleading question.




To Be Continued...