But as Lex' body slumped in a heap on the floor, as Superman's eyes rolled back in his head and the stone fell from their hands, the tears spilled.
"Lex!" Kelly squealed.
She knelt beside Lex' body, turned him and started to remove his jacket to examine his injuries. Her motions were frantic and her hands trembled as she pulled a flashlight from her pocket to get a better idea of what was wrong with him.
Gretchen Kelly is a pitiful person. She must have twisted her life into a pretzel to make Lex love her. Just think of how much time and energy she wasted on a man who for the most part, didn't even know she was in the room. Urgh!
Lois’ blood ran cold. She took a step back. “Can’t you see that he’s not even fully awake yet?”
In her heart, she knew she couldn’t make the other woman see reason. But she couldn’t give up, either.
A small sob escaped Lois. “After everything you did to Clark, you have no right to hurt him!”
In this moment Kelly is a far greater danger than Lex! Her only thought and actions was to help that smooth criminal...
A voice startled her. "Everybody raise your hands! Keep them up where I can see them!"
Lois followed the order and beside her, Clark did too.
"Damn, Lane’s tip was right," a familiar voice said somewhere behind that wall of lights. It was Inspector Henderson. One of the lights illuminated Nigel’s broken body. "This one looks dead."
Finally Henderson and the uniforms have arrived. Yeah!
Ignoring the worried glances of the people around him, Superman locked eyes with Henderson. "You wanted to know what happened here. Let's go to the precinct, and then we can talk. You and me."
Stiffly, Superman walked down the corridor, steadying himself against the wall. Lois desperately wanted to help him, but she sensed that Clark wouldn't appreciate the gesture. He'd feigned indifference while Kelly had taken his blood. But it was more than obvious now how much the experience had rattled him. She wished she could just pull him into a tight hug.
Here at the end of a perilous three days, Clark gathers up his courage, strength and pride to face down worried medical personnel, the police and a rather impressed Inspector Henderson. He wants out of those ruins and to get back to the bare threads of his life. Most important of all, he had to do this without Lois' assistance. The sheer physical act of standing up and then walking down the corridor was well written. I felt like I was there. Bravo.
