In the silence, Clark’s declaration seemed to ring out. Lois knew it was only an illusion however; most of the people in the room were probably still deaf from the music. She’d been careful to stuff cotton in her ears before entering, and she could still hear her ears ringing.
Lucy’s date stared at Clark dumbly, as though he hadn’t heard the challenge that Clark had issued. In all probability, he hadn’t. The hand on his arm and the look in his eye, however, left little to the imagination.
“You don’t want to be involved in this,” Joe said, his voice unnaturally loud in the silence.
Clark apparently tightened his grip, because Joe winced, and slowly released Lois’s shoulder. He took a step back, and Clark allowed him to pull away.
“Why don’t we discuss this in the morning, when everyone is feeling cooler. Miss Lane looks as though she could use a little sleep.” Though Clark’s tone was mild, the look in his eyes was not. Despite herself, Lois was impressed. He showed no fear at all at the thought of a physical confrontation with a man three inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than he was.
Lois could see people moving quickly out the doors, and for a moment she entertained the fantasy that it was in response to the tableaux before her. A moment later, however, the voice of the DJ blasted from the loudspeaker.
“The party is over, people. The cops are on their way. Let’s file out in an orderly fashion.”
Giving a collective angry moan, the crowd pushed forward. Lois could understand the irritation. The sun had barely set and the party was almost over. It wouldn’t be easy for most of the partygoers to find an alternate venue to dance in.
“Why don’t you just pay em off!?!” One teenager yelled angrily. “It’s not like we didn’t pay you enough at the door!”
The price had seemed reasonable to Lois, but then, she had a decent salary. She doubted that most of the people in the crowd had worked a day in their lives.
Lois glanced back at the two men, noticing that Joe had backed off. Both men had a look of concern on their faces.
“I think it’s time to go,” Clark said.
The sounds of the crowd were growing angrier, and for the first time Lois realized that they might be trapped in the middle of a riot.
“I’m not leaving without Lucy,” she said.
Clark glanced at the doors. “I think the cops just reached the front. Is there a back way out?”
“How the hell should I know? I didn’t organize this.” Joe Johnson’s voice was sullen.
Lois could see people returning through one of the doors, and the crowd surging away from that point. While she had little doubt that she’d be able to use her press pass to escape jail, claiming that she was covering a story, Lucy and Clark didn’t have that same assurance.
Lucy’s swaying became more pronounced, but before she could sway bonelessly to the floor, Clark had caught her and swept her effortlessly up into his arms.
“Let’s go this way,” he said, gesturing with his head.
Lois glanced at Joe, who was staring at them uncertainly. After a moment he cursed under his breath and stepped away, vanishing into the crowd of milling teenagers.
Clark moved as though he knew exactly where he was going, pushing his way carefully, but quickly through the crowd until they were behind the Dj’s booth.
Lois could see the Dj and promoters hastily packing equipment onto a cart, which was pushed halfway through a door hidden by a set of red curtains.
Shifting his grip on Lucy, Clark grabbed the cart and quickly pulled it back through the doorway. Ignoring the angry shouts of the promoter, he stepped through the door, with Lois following closely behind.
The door lead out into a loading dock. From this side, Lois could see that the curtains had covered a large, overhead hanger style door on the other side. Several vehicles sat waiting in the darkness, but none of them were running. Lois wasn’t quite ready to add grand theft Larceny to her small list of crimes anyway.
Clark moved quickly through the maze of cars, as though he knew the route well.
Lois could see a heavy gate leading out to the street. She could also see the distinctive red and white flashing light patterns that told her that the police were outside waiting.
“This’d be easier if we had a phone.” Clark said. “We’ll need a cab when we get out of this.”
Asking for a cell phone had been like asking for the moon, at least from the way Accounting acted. Eventually, everyone would have them, but for the moment, she was stuck doing without. She gritted her teeth. She’d have a word with Perry in the morning. It’d be nice if his reporters, while hanging over the jaws of death in pursuit of the story could at least call for help.
Clark found a door into the warehouse next door. He reached for the knob, and Lois thought she heard a metallic sound. The door swung open.
The odds that the door would have been left unlocked were slim, but Lois wasn’t willing to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The darkness inside was total. Lois reached into her handbag and pulled out a small flashlight. A quick check showed her that other than the offices on the other end of the building, the warehouse was empty.
“There’s no way out, here, “Clark said, looking around. “But I’ll bet there’s a phone in the back office. I’ll go check.”
He moved quickly through the darkness, and moments later, she lost sight of him.
Lois would have called out to him, but she heard the sounds of people moving around outside. She closed the door behind them, and switched off her flashlight. Lucy moaned beside her, and Lois quickly shushed her.
Lucy’s head was hot and feverish, and Lois wondered what her boyfriend had given her. While Lucy might occasionally drink to excess, she wasn’t a drug user. Still, Lois had heard that Raves were dangerous in part because it was easy to slip drugs into someone’s drink unexpectedly.
The voices came nearer, and Lois forced herself to be still. After almost a minute, the voices subsided.
She heard the light sound of footsteps coming toward her.
“I’ve got a cab coming,” Clark said. “Let’s get your sister out of here.”
“There are people outside,” Lois said. “It’ll take them hours to sort everything out and load everyone up.”
For a moment, Clark was silent. Then he said, “I think we can make it. Come on.”
Lois felt Lucy being lifted again, and she quickly grabbed on to Clark’s sleeve. “Are you sure about this?”
“I’ve been traveling for quite some time, Ms Lane. I’ve got an instinct about these sorts of things.”
A moment later, they were out the door and moving rapidly. The red and blue lights were still flashing, but the gate was open. Apparently, the police had chosen to take some people out through that exit.
Given the number of minors who were undoubtedly imbibing any number of illegal substances, they apparently weren’t taking any chances.
Lois didn’t see how they were going to get by the police, unless they simply waited them out. However, she wanted to have Lucy looked at by a doctor to make sure she wasn’t seriously ill. Even alcohol poisoning could be deadly, and Lois wasn’t sure exactly what else Lucy had been exposed to.
One by one, the bulbs in the street lamps around them began to explode, plunging the area into darkness.
“Is someone shooting?” Lois asked quickly, instinctively ducking.
“Let’s move,” Clark said, and a moment later they were. It didn’t take the police long to shine the headlights of the police cars on the place that they’d been, but by that time they were around the corner.
Lois didn’t have any doubt that someone had seen them in the red lights from the cruisers. It wouldn’t take the police long to find them, and running from the police was only going to get them into more trouble.
She sighed. She’d promised Perry that he wouldn’t have to bail her out again for at least a month.
To her surprise, a cab was already waiting on the street corner.
Clark opened the door and carefully slipped Lucy inside. Lois followed, while Clark walked around the car and got into the other door.
“Hey, you aren’t one of my regular customers!” the cabbie said as Clark moved into the back seat.
Clark leaned forward and handed the cabbie a bill. “Let’s just pretend, shall we?”
****************
Clark was glad that he’d simplified matters by looking for the closest cab to the scene and requesting it specifically when he’d called the cab company. The other cabs in the area had already taken some of the people from the rave out, and so it was the only one that would have been able to reach them in time.
Everything would have been much simpler if he’d just been able to fly Lois and her sister out of the same skylight that he’d flown out of to find a phone. In a better world, he wouldn’t have had to hide his secret. Still, no matter how much he liked Lois Lane, he wasn’t stupid. His father had been quite clear about what would happen if he was ever to reveal his secret to the world, and in the years since Jonathan Kent’s death, Clark hadn’t seen anything to disprove that.
He doubted that anyone would be able to cut him up like a frog, of course. At this point, he had to wonder if there was anything on the planet that could hurt him. Still, once he revealed his secret, he’d never have a life again. He’d be hounded by the government, by the media, by curious on-lookers and gawkers. He’d be a freak in a fishbowl, always looking out at a world that would never accept him.
Still, it would have been nice to have had someone to share his fears and dreams with as a teenager. The desire...the need for comfort and reassurance was something he hadn’t been able to eradicate from himself, no matter how hard he tried.
Lois called out an unfamiliar address, and the cabbie quickly pulled away from the street corner.
Glancing over at Lois, he wasn’t surprised to see how focused she was on her sister. Lucy was only semi-coherent, but Clark thought she’d be all right. He could smell alcohol on her, and traces of other scents which had been wafting through the air of the warehouse, but he didn’t smell any of the sickness that usually preceded serious illness.
“She’s going to be ok,” Clark said quietly to Lois.
“I just wish I knew what he’d given her,” Lois muttered, not bothering to look at him.
Watching Lucy carefully, Clark said, “I think you’d better pull over.”
The cabbie glanced into the back seat, then pulled over without making any comment.
Lucy crawled over Lois in her hurry to get out of the cab, and moments later, she began to heave.
Clark grimaced. The smell would have been overwhelming if he hadn’t been used to it from when he was younger. Being a foster child wasn’t easy; many of his siblings had taken the hard route out, and he’d been forced to hold their heads for them as they vented their sorrow.
Clark was out of the taxi and around the back, helping Lucy wipe her mouth.
“She’d better not puke in the cab!” The cabbie’s voice was belligerent. From the faint traces in his cab, Clark could understand the man’s irritation. He’d had this problem before.
“We’ll see that she doesn’t,” Clark said. It was probably best that Lucy’s body reject the alcohol before it really hit her system. Her body wouldn’t have as much to process, and she’d be less likely to have her system overwhelmed.
He wiped her mouth gently. “Are you all right?”
Lucy nodded. Her eyes were clearer now, though the misery in them was apparent.
“Did your boyfriend give you anything?”
Lucy shook her head, slowly. “The drinks were stronger than I’d thought they’d be. When I saw Joe...”
“Let’s get you someplace safe,” Clark said. With Lois’s help, he managed to get Lucy back in the car, though this time with him following Lucy into the passenger’s side.
“Take us to the emergency room,” Lois said to the cabbie. Turning to Lucy, he said, “I’m going to have you looked at.”
Lucy shook her head. “I don’t have any insurance.”
“I’ll pay,” Lois said. “Don’t worry about that.”
Lucy looked as though she was going to protest, but Clark placed a hand on hers and said, “Your sister is just worried about you.”
Sullenly, Lucy settled down.
The ride to the ER was made in silence.
***********
It took Lois three and a half hours to finally calm down. They’d spent three hours in the waiting room, amidst a host of the world’s walking wounded. Things had finally quieted down, and Lucy was in with the doctors.
Clark Kent sat in the chair across from her, looking as cool and unflappable as he had from the very beginning. He didn’t even have the grace to look bored, or to fidget, or to complain. He’d been nothing but supportive the whole time and he’d shown quick thinking earlier.
“I’m sure this wasn’t what you expected out of a first date.” Lois said, finally.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly how I thought it would go, but as dates go, this isn’t so bad.” Clark smiled slightly. “At least you made a memorable first impression.”
Lois grimaced. “You’ve been really patient about all of this...”
“I’ve seen it before,” Clark said. “You just do what you can and hope for the best.”
Closing her eyes, Lois groaned. “Mother is a reformed alcoholic. I’d have thought Lucy would have learned her lesson.”
“Do you drink?” Clark asked quietly.
Lois nodded. “Sometimes. I try not to do it to excess though...I don’t want to end up like my mother.”
“You don’t want the people in your life to have to make excuses for you.” Clark stared down at the floor. “You don’t want them to watch you self-destructing.”
Soberly, Lois looked at him. “I just feel helpless sometimes. It’s not just the partying...this is the first time Lucy’s done anything like this, and it may not even be her fault. It’s the men. Lucy makes bad choices.”
Not that her choices had been much better. Lucy’s choices were just more obviously bad for her. Lois’s relationships had always ended in disaster, and most likely, it was the choices that she’d made in picking her partners that had set her up for failure.
That was part of what made her attraction for Clark Kent so suspect.
She opened her mouth to speak again when she realized that a doctor was approaching.
“Ms Lane?” The doctor asked, looking at his clipboard. At her nod, he said, “I’m Doctor Wilder.”
“Is Lucy going to be all right?” Lois watched the doctor closely for any signs that he might be sugar coating the truth.
Dr. Wilder smiled. “She’ll be fine. Mixing MDMA and alcohol isn’t a good idea, and she had a minor reaction, but she’ll be just fine.”
“Someone gave her ecstasy?” Clark asked.
“Is that what she told you?” The doctor’s smile was patronizing. “We see a dozen cases like hers here every day, and they all try to claim that they weren’t taking the drug voluntarily. I wonder sometimes why they even try.”
Lois felt her face flush. “My sister doesn’t take drugs.”
Better than anyone, Lucy knew the damage that drugs could do. She’d lost a close friend to an overdose. Lois had barely known the girl, but Lucy had been affected deeply.
“I’m sure it makes you feel better to think that, but I doubt many drug dealers are slipping free samples into people’s drinks.” The doctor shook his head. “Now if it were Rohypnol, I could believe it, but...”
Before Lois could lunge at the doctor, Clark said, “When can we take Lucy home?”
“As soon as her mother comes by to collect her. She’ll be sleepy tomorrow, but I understand that Ellen Lane was a nurse once, and she should be able to monitor her.”
“You called my mother?” Lois asked, her heart sinking.
“She was listed on the insurance forms as the next of kin.” The doctor glanced back at his clipboard, then said, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Lois opened her mouth, prepared to tell him exactly what he could do with himself. Before she could say anything, she felt Clark’s hand on her shoulder.
“I think that’ll be all.” Clark said.
Before Lois could deny that, the doctor turned and headed down the hallway.
Angrily, Lois turned to Clark. “What gives you the right to butt in? You know as well as I do that Lucy wasn’t taking ecstasy.”
“You weren’t going to convince the doctor,” Clark said calmly. “And you were about to say something you’d regret.”
“Who made you my thought censor?” Lois felt her anger grow. “We barely know each other, and you already think you can made decisions for me? What sort of arrogant-“
“Lois?”
The sound of Ellen Lane’s voice stopped Lois in the middle of her tirade. Lois closed her eyes for a moment. The evening had turned into every nightmare she’d ever had. It had started out well, but as they always did, it had ended up with her mother.”
“Lucy’s fine, mother,” Lois said, hoping to forestall the inevitable barrage of questions. “The doctor said that she could go home at any time.”
Ellen Lane bustled into the room and said, “I know, dear. I know the charge nurse here, and she told me the whole story.”
Of course Ellen knew the charge nurse. She’d probably been called as soon as the name on the insurance forms had registered.
“This isn’t something you have to worry about, mother. I’ll take Lucy home and give her a chance to sleep it off. You didn’t have to come all this way.”
“Don’t be silly,” Ellen said. “I’m taking Lucy home. She’ll need someone with training to watch over her.”
Lois could see the first moment that Ellen noticed Clark standing in the background.
“Lucy lives with me, mother. She’ll feel more comfortable in her own room.”
Ellen snorted. “Sleeping on your couch? She needs a warm bed and a good breakfast. I’ve got that. What are you going to offer her? Cold cereal?”
“I doubt she’ll want to eat anything in the morning anyway.” Lois fumed. Ellen couldn’t cook any more than Lois could. Of course, Lois didn’t have someone who came to cook for her three days a week either, but still...
“Who’s this?” Ellen asked, looking up at Clark. Clark smiled.
“This is Clark. He’s a friend. He helped me bring Lucy in.”
“That was very generous of you, Mr...?”
“Kent.” Clark reached out to shake Ellen’s hand, but she ignored it. “I didn’t expect to be meeting Lois’s family quite this soon, but...”
“As far as Lois is concerned, she has no family. She hasn’t called in weeks and getting her to attend family functions is like pulling teeth. What exactly is it that you do, Mr. Kent?”
“Mother!” Lois felt herself flush. She hadn’t realized just how embarrassing her mother could sometimes be.
“I don’t suppose it matters,” Ellen said. “You won’t last any longer than any of the others.”
Before either Lois or Clark could reply, Ellen began ambling down the hall. A tall orderly stood at the end, with Lucy in a wheelchair. Ellen made clucking noises, then bent down to speak to her daughter.
Lois stared at her mother for a long moment before finally admitting defeat.
Turning to Clark, she said, “Let’s go.”
“You aren’t going to-?”
“She’s not going to change her mind, and she’ll win in the end. There’s no reason to even bother fighting about it. She’ll take good care of Lucy.”
“If you want to go with them..” Clark began.
“I haven’t slept under the same roof as that woman in years, and I’m not about to start.”
Lois knew better. Right now, her mother was focused on Lucy, but the moment Lucy fell asleep, she’d turn on Lois. Lois really didn’t feel like listening to her mother carp on for hours about her lack of responsibility in reference to her younger sister.
She already felt guilty enough. She should have gotten Lucy away from her drug dealer of a boyfriend the moment she saw him. Instead she’d been indulging in her own pleasure.
Her mother would have hated Lucy’s boyfriend. Then again, she really wouldn’t like Clark either.
Glancing back at her mother, Lois realized that the idea of doing something her mother wouldn’t do had more and more appeal.
“Take me home.” She said quietly to Clark.
