Wedding Consquences: 2/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
He shrugged. "I was in Africa for several months after I graduated from Midwest U," he explained. "For a little while I worked with a group of medical missionaries, flying in and out of the interior. I never had a license, though. It was simply a matter of one of the pilots teaching me to be a backup pilot, just in case. I haven't flown a plane in nearly four years."
"Thank god you remembered how." She fumbled with the seat belt. "I guess we'd better get out."
He shook his head. "We may as well stay where we are until the sun comes up," he said. "We haven't got a clue where we are. This sure as heck isn't Kansas."
He was right about that, she knew. "How about the radio? Can't we call for help?"
He gestured to two dangling wires. "I think our pilot made sure we couldn't do that, on the off-chance that we did get down safely," he said. "I'll take a closer look when it's daylight, but ..."
"Yeah. Oh, Clark ..."
He put his arms around her. "We'll get out of here, Lois," he said. "It takes more than this to kill Lane and Kent."
**********
And now, Part 2:
The cabin was cold, now that the heater was no longer on. Lois pulled her legs under her and wrapped her arms around her upper torso, tugging the light jacket tightly around her shoulders. Clark huddled in the pilot's seat and even in the dark of pre-dawn, she could tell that he was shivering.
"Clark?" she whispered. There was no reason to whisper but something about the hour and the circumstances seemed to make it appropriate.
"Yeah?"
"Are you cold?"
"A little." The words were clipped, and she thought she could hear the quiver in his voice.
"I'm freezing. It's summer. Why is it so cold?"
"I think it's the altitude," he said, and she was sure that his voice shook this time. "We're pretty high in the mountains."
"Where do you think we are?"
His dark silhouette turned toward her and she saw him shrug. "Anywhere within about fifteen hundred miles or so of Metropolis, maybe more -- but definitely *not* in Kansas." She saw him pull his jacket more tightly around himself. "If I didn't know better, I'd think we were in the Rockies."
"Could we be?" she asked. "How long were we in the air?"
"I'm not sure," Clark said. "I was asleep."
"So was I. What are we going to do?"
"Wait until morning. After the sun comes up we'll see what the lay of the land is." He shivered suddenly and violently.
"How do you feel?" she asked. She stretched out a hand and felt his face. "Clark, you're burning up!"
"Maybe your hands are just cold," he suggested, but there was no conviction in his voice, and she could hear it quivering.
"Don't be silly. We've got to get you something to wrap up in before you catch pneumonia. How do we get to the suitcases?"
"I'll get them." He started to unfasten his seat belt.
"You'll stay right where you are. Here." She pulled off her light jacket and covered his legs. "I'll get some of the clothing out of the suitcases. It may not be heavy, but three or four layers will provide insulation."
"Lois ..."
"Don't argue with me, Clark!" she snapped. "You're the only hope we have of getting out of this mess, and I'm not going to let anything happen to you!"
He gave a faint laugh that turned into a cough. "Okay, you're the boss. There's a door in the rear. The suitcases are in there."
**********
Some time later, Clark awakened to discover that he was covered in various articles of clothing, but at least he was warmer than he had been. Some. His throat was raw, his head pounded and his stomach had definitely been in better shape. He would never dismiss the suffering of a victim of motion sickness again, he thought vaguely. He'd had no idea.
He turned his head to see that the seat beside him was empty, and slowly it dawned on him that it was no longer dark. It was broad daylight. His chair had been tipped back as far as it would go and Lois had covered him with several of his shirts and her best skirt.
He raised his head and dropped it back on the headrest as the pounding behind his eyes threatened to make his head burst. "Lois?" he called. Then, louder, "Lois?"
"I'm right here." His partner hoisted herself into the cockpit. "How are you feeling?"
"Not too bad," he said.
Lois regarded him skeptically. "Right. Well, you look ghastly. Why not tell me the truth? How do you really feel?"
He hesitated and gave in. "Pretty awful."
"That's what I thought," she said. "I've been looking around. We're in the mountains, all right. No sign of civilization that I can see, but there could be a town two miles away and I wouldn't know it. There was some frost on the ground, but it melted when the sun came up. Anyway, there was a lunch pail with a couple of sandwiches and some coffee in a thermos back there with the suitcases. Probably the pilot's lunch. Would you like one?"
Even the thought of food made his stomach lurch alarmingly. "Not right now."
Lois wasn't fooled. "Is your stomach upset?"
"Kind of."
She rested her hand on his forehead. "You're still running a fever. I think you have the flu, Clark. Try to go back to sleep if you can. The more rest you get, the better."
He wasn't so sure about her diagnosis. It just didn't seem right that he should suddenly catch the stomach flu when he'd never been susceptible to any kind of infection as a child, even before his powers had started to come in. The only thing that he could guess was that it had something to do with his prolonged exposure to the Kryptonite cage -- some kind of delayed reaction, maybe. If he survived this, maybe one of Jimmy's friends at STAR Labs could figure it out. In the meantime ...
"Um ... Lois, I need to ..." He made a vague gesture toward the outside world. "I'll be right back, okay?'
"Oh ... sure." She stepped back to let him out. He unfastened the catch of his seat belt and tried to lever himself out of the seat, and nearly fell as his knees wobbled. Lois grabbed him.
"Clark! Are you all right?"
"Uh ... yeah." He paused to breathe. "A little shaky. Do you think you could give me a hand out of here?"
"Sure. Sit down on the floor and slide your feet out. I'll make sure you don't fall ..."
A short time later she left him to his privacy behind a clump of scraggly bushes and tall weeds that she had designated the "little boy's room". Clark hoped that he got over whatever was wrong with him quickly. This was downright embarrassing.
She was waiting for him when he made his shaky way back to the plane. The thought of climbing the two steps back to the pilot's chair in his current unsteady condition was daunting. Clark sank down on the bottom step, breathing hard, and lowered his face into his hands until the pounding in his head lessened somewhat.
"Do you want to sit here in the sun for a few minutes?" He lifted his head at her words to see that she had flattened the tall weeds in a three-foot circle and covered it with several pieces of clothing.
"Yeah." He gratefully lowered himself to the spot she had made for him. She sank down beside him, again, feeling his cheek.
"I think your temperature is coming down a bit," she said. "I hope so. I've never seen you sick before, Clark."
"I don't get sick too often," he said.
"Well, you're making up for it this time," she said. "You were kind of muttering in your sleep a while ago. You seemed kind of upset, and I think you were having a nightmare. I wanted to wake you up, but I decided you needed to sleep more."
"What did I say?" he asked.
"I couldn't make out most of it, but there was something about a cage, and Lex. It must have been one heck of a dream."
"I guess so. I don't remember." He glanced up at the sun, which was high in the sky. "What time is it?"
"Almost noon. I know you don't want to eat anything, but would you like a little water?"
Water sounded good. "Yeah."
"Okay. There's a stream over that way." She waved in the direction of a line of greener vegetation. "I boiled some water for us, just to be sure it's safe. I don't trust these mountain streams."
"Neither do I," he said. "How did you manage that?"
"I started a fire," she said. "I happen to have a little magnifying glass on my pocket knife. It's not very big, but it worked."
She brought him a thermos cup full of water and he drained it in two swallows. The liquid tasted wonderful on the dry tissues of his mouth.
"Thanks," he said. The cloth with which she had covered the trampled weeds was looking more and more inviting and the blood singing in his ears made him feel light-headed. He lowered himself to the ground, folding his legs up so that he could fit in the space she had created. Lois put a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you want me to help you back into the plane?"
He shook his head in negation. "Mind if I sleep here for a while?"
"No, of course not. I'll get something to cover you." She stood up and moved out of his sight. He closed his eyes, and was barely aware a moment later when she returned to lay several articles of clothing over him. Clark slept.
**********
The sun was swimming on the horizon when he woke again. Lois was sitting next to him and she looked around as he stirred.
"Hi," he rasped.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
"Better."
"Good." She took his hand. "A little while ago, I noticed you were sweating like crazy. I think maybe your fever broke."
"The headache's gone, so you're probably right." He felt like a washrag that had been wrung out and hung up to dry, but that was a lot better than feeling as if his head was on the verge of exploding.
"Do you want some more water?"
He nodded. His mouth felt like a desert.
"Here." Lois produced the thermos cup once more. "Take it slow."
He hoisted himself up on one elbow and took the cup. She steadied his shaking hand as he drained the contents.
"More?"
"In a few minutes," he said. Carefully, he lowered his shoulders back onto the ground. "I don't want to get sick again."
She nodded. "Clark, you were talking about a cage again. You kept muttering about it, and about me marrying Lex, and needing to stop the wedding. What happened to you?"
"What did I say?"
"Something about a cage, and being trapped and in pain. It was kind of garbled. You kept saying things about needing to stop Lex from marrying me, trying to save me from him. What was it about?" Her hand tightened. "Clark, what did he do to you?"
He closed his eyes for a long minute. She hadn't added it up, but why was he hiding it from her, anyway? She'd already told him that she loved him; that her crush on Superman was only that: a crush. Why hadn't he told her the truth?
"If you're too tired, I'll understand," Lois said. She stroked his forehead. "I'm sorry, Clark. I shouldn't be bothering you with this right now, but you kept talking about the cage, and Lex ... It's ... Lex did something to you, didn't he? something you didn't want to tell me about. He couldn't be satisfied with destroying the Planet and marrying me. He had to try to hurt you, my partner, too."
"Luthor knew I was a rival," Clark said. "He knew that I'd do anything to stop you from marrying him. He was going to kill me."
Her hand tightened around his. "That bast ..."
"Shh." He opened his eyes again. "You'll probably call me that in a minute, too."
"Clark, I'd never ..."
"Don't say never. There's something I haven't told you. I've wanted to for weeks ... months. But I couldn't ... as long as you were going to marry Luthor."
She bit her lip. "If it was something that Lex could have used to hurt you, you were probably right."
"He could have," Clark said, slowly. "He definitely could have. There's no question of that. I should have told you afterwards, though." He pushed himself shakily up on his elbow again and raised his free hand to remove his glasses. "Luthor lured me to the basement of Lex Tower -- his wine cellar. He wanted me to use my influence to convince Clark Kent to attend your wedding. He couldn't know, of course, that he was speaking to Clark. I told him I wouldn't do it -- that I'd use every power at my disposal to stop the wedding. That's when he told me that he had no more use for me. He dropped the cage over me. The bars were coated with Kryptonite, and I couldn't get away. I was there for over a day. I thought I was going to die there." He raised his face to let her look him directly in the eyes. "Look at me, Lois. Tell me who you see."
**********
tbc
