Clark’s breathing had gone from bad to worse even as the emergency room team transferred him from the gurney to the examining table. One of the technicians pushed a thick black hose-like tube down his throat and set up the respirator. The rest of the team was already starting their protocols. Determine current condition, check for other injuries, start IVs, take samples. The suit was cut off his body, put in a bag for later examination.
The lighting had already been shifted to a redder light spectrum. After fourteen years of having Superman in Metropolis, the largest, most modern hospital in the region was actually prepared to treat an injured Kryptonian.
Klein, a medical researcher at Star Labs, had hospital privileges for only a handful of patients: Superman, and the Kent family. Lois knew that Klein had told the hospital administrators that Clark’s year on New Krypton with Superman had altered his physiology to closer to Kryptonian than expected. He’d also dropped hints that Kryptonians had visited Earth before and left offspring who’d bred into the population. According to this theory, there was the possibility of humans with minor Kryptonian traits, like fast healing and an ‘allergy’ to kryptonite, being part of the general population. It was a brilliant ruse.
“Okay,” Klein said. “We’re under the Red Sun protocol. No one is allowed in here unless expressly allowed by myself, or Mrs. Kent here. There will be a security guard outside this door at all times.” He turned to the EMT still standing there. “Oh, and thank you, you can go. But, please keep this confidential. We don’t want bad guys to find out what’s happening.”
“Is he going to be okay?” the technician asked.
“I don’t know yet,” Klein admitted. “First we have to figure out what’s wrong with him.”
Lois stood in the corner, watching, waiting. The medical personnel had put her out of their minds. How many times had she stood like this? Not that many, really. Most wives would never experience this even once. But then, she wasn’t most wives. Clark was Kryptonian, immune to Earth diseases, except when depowered by kryptonite, or under the effects of a red sun like Krypton’s had been.
“Heart rate 55, BP dropping, 80 over 60,” one of the nurses announced. She turned Clark’s head to one side and Lois could see bright red blood pouring from his nose. The fresh bandage on his arm had turned crimson.
He was bleeding to death before her eyes. Dear God, help him.
Klein barked out instructions and activity in the room became frenetic. She watched as Kenyon started more I.V.s, pouring fluid into Clark’s veins. An orderly brought in bags of blood, and more tubes went into Clark’s body. Klein had talked Clark into keeping a supply of his blood in storage at the hospital some years ago. Lois wasn’t sure how much blood they’d set aside, but there was so much blood on the floor now.
The phone rang and one of the nurses answered. After a moment: “The lab says the main toxin looks like a Warfarin derivative, but there are other things they haven’t IDed yet.”
“That gives us something to work with,” Klein said. “Mephyton, 50 milligrams, slow I.V., 1 milligram per minute, no more, so keep an eye on it.” He turned to Lois. “It may take a while. Maybe you want get some coffee or something.”
Lois managed a smile at the scientist/physician. He didn’t have any other patients and his bedside manner frequently left something to be desired, but Klein’s social skills had improved somewhat over the past fourteen years. “Thanks, but I’ll stay,” she said, hugging her coat around herself.
Clark I
Calling this a long day and night was putting it mildly.
Martha and Wanda were trying to get the blood off the leather sofa. Kal-El flew Richard back to his home, back to Penny who was watching the Kent children.
“What happened?” Penny asked, obviously seeing the stricken look on her husband’s face.
“An alien assassin attacked Superman. He’s in the hospital,” Richard explained. “We don’t know how bad it is.”
Penny covered her mouth with her hand. “How’s Lois?”
“As well as can be expected, considering,” Kal-El said. “She went to the hospital with him. I was going to take the kids back to their house. Their grandmother and Wanda can take care of them.”
“We can watch them,” Penny offered. “No need to wake them. But the baby should be with her mother.”
“I’ll see to it,” Kal-El promised.
Within a few moments he was heading to Metropolis General with a baby in a carrier, looking for the child’s mother.
X-ray vision revealed Lois was seated inside the door of an examination room. A guard stood outside the room and a medical team was hard at work over a dark haired man. Kal-El realized with a start that they were working on Clark. He wasn’t invulnerable. Kryptonite, or was it the poison?
He landed outside the emergency room doors and walked inside. As late as it was, the emergency room was busy.
An attendant spotted him and the baby. “Superman, can I help you? What’s wrong with the baby?”
Kal-El wondered a moment how he was going to explain. “Nothing’s wrong. Her mother came in a while ago, with your Superman.”
“Mrs. Kent,” the attendant said. “They’re in treatment room five, right over here.” She led him to the room with the guard at the door.
The guard opened the door slightly and spoke to Lois. “The other Superman is here, with a baby.”
Lois came out into the hallway. She looked exhausted, dark circles under her eyes.
“Richard and Penny offered to watch the children but suggested baby Martha should be with you,” Kal-El explained, handing the carrier over. “I found the assassin’s body in the river and disposed of it. I didn’t think you’d want any surprises on that front.”
“How?” she asked.
He tapped the side of his face next to one eye and smiled. The smile faltered as he looked beyond her, into the treatment room. “How is he?”
She shook her head. “They’ve mostly stopped the bleeding, but they’ve gone through all the blood he had put away here. Doctor Klein is wondering if they can use fresh human blood instead. But we just don’t know. They can’t get his blood pressure up, even with the anti-shock garment. He’s never lost this much blood before. They have him hooked up to monitors I never knew existed.”
“I’m not sure if human blood would be a good match. I mean, Kryptonians are human, but there are differences,” Kal-El said. “Maybe . . . I don’t know how close a match I am, but we can check, assuming we can even get a sample from me.”
“They should be able to,” Lois said. “Depending on how you react to red sunlight.”
“Is that how they’re keeping him vulnerable?”
Lois nodded and led him into the treatment room. “Kryptonite exposure turns off his powers, but it’s too dangerous to use, and it takes a long time for him to recover. Red sun spectrum is safer.” She stepped over to Klein and beckoned him over to Kal-El.
“Bernie, this is Kal-El. He’s Superman’s counterpart from an alternate time-line,” Lois explained. “He’s offered to donate blood, assuming it’s a match.”
The doctor looked both surprised and relieved, shaking Kal-El’s hand as he looked over his shoulder at one of the nurses. “Manda, can we get a type and cross-match here? He’s volunteered to donate.”
