Hi, Morgana! My mind is very much "beyond messed up" when it comes to writing!
Clark's too concerned with the lives in danger to really think about how he probably should have left things with Lois. He knows he royally screwed up by leaving like that, but telling her and bolting off wouldn't have been an option. He would have been too afraid of letting her sit and stew over his deception without getting to explain at all.
I did think of the radiation, but he kind of walked directly into a nuclear reactor to rid himself of the Kryptonite he ingested in Top Copy, and this would be less than that, since it's a leak and not a full blown thing.
Clark probably should have made for S.T.A.R. Labs, huh?
Oh, Lois is going to be mad all right!
