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Part 13/14
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Lois is close enough that I can feel her heartbeat the same way that Lucas' box called to me. Is she in the tent? Do they have Kryptonite in there with her? I can still hear the two heartbeats in the woods but Lois appears to be alone in the tent. I pull back the tent flap. She's tied to one of the chairs and her eyes are full of unshed tears. Her clothes are dusty and there's a rip across the hem of her shirt. She obviously put up one heck of a fight between here and Doc's house. Her face is filthy and streaked with the tracks of tears. She looks horrified as I step into the tent.
"Clark," she says urgently. "Just turn around and go. Right now."
"I can't just leave you here."
"Yes, you can! Please, Clark! I can't do this."
"Do what?" I break the ropes holding her wrists behind her back.
She shakes her head. "I heard them talking; they have Kryptonite. Please go before it's too late." She doesn't rise from the chair. In fact, she doesn't even move. Her hands remain clasped together behind her back, her knuckles white from the effort.
"Lois, they saw me come in the tent. I'm not dressed as Superman. It would be more suspicious if I left you here, wouldn't it?"
"Why didn't you just listen to me and go the first time I asked you?" A tear leaves her eye and makes a new track down her face.
"What's wrong? Is there a bomb? What's going on?"
"I don't know where the Kryptonite is, Clark. I don't know what they're planning but I know they think they can kill you. Please just leave." She's shaking as she answers. I scan her and the chair but I don't see anything out of the ordinary.
"Let's go." I hold my hand out to her but she doesn't budge.
"You first." She shakes her head emphatically.
"Why not? What's going on, Lois?"
"It's John and Jay. They want Superman. They beat up Doc and Josh in the hopes that he'd show up here. And then they…" She glances nervously around. "Where are they now, do you know?"
"They're still in the trees," I tell her. "I can hear them. They're watching for Superman, not Clark."
"I don't think I can do it again, Clark." Her gaze alternates frantically between me and the door of the tent.
"Do what again?"
"They wanted to know if I knew where to find Superman. If I knew how to contact him."
I hear movement in the trees. "They're coming this way," I tell her. "Please, let me get you out of here." I reach to pick her up and she finally moves her arms to push me away.
"Don't! If they catch you it was all for nothing…"
I see the underside of her arms as she says this and her meaning becomes all too clear. There are two round burns on each of her arms. The kind a lighted cigarette would leave.
"I didn't tell them anything," she whispers. "I didn't say a word and now it's all going to be for nothing."
I think I'm going to be sick. I take hold of one of her arms to look at it. She tries to pull away but I don't release her. I shift my attention to her face, "They burned you?"
Tell me I'm wrong, Lois. Please tell me they didn't torture you.
Lois is still shaking and I realize that it's from a combination of pain and shock.
I open the flap of the tent to find John and Jay standing just outside. They have automatic rifles and they gesture for me to put my hands up. I step in front of Lois and raise my hands.
"Clark Kent," Jay says with an empty smile. "I hear you're good friends with Superman, too."
"What are you doing, Jay?"
"How do you live with yourself? Both of you? Aiding and abetting a known alien menace? Doesn't it bother you that your girlfriend makes out with that freak? Or is that a turn on for you? I don't suppose you'd like to do this the easy way and tell us where we can find him?"
"I…"
Lois steps around me and shakes her head. "He doesn't know Superman. He tells everyone that, but he really doesn't know him at all." Her eyes plead with me to just go along with the ruse.
"But you know him, don't you, Lois? How would you feel if we did to Clark what we did to you? I bet he'd scream. The big ones always turn out to be babies." Jay gives a mirthless chuckle. "I gotta hand it to Lois. She didn't make a sound, even when we burned her."
<"I don't think I can do it again, Clark.">
My hands form into fists. They tortured her and she wouldn't even cry because she was afraid I would hear her.
<"…If they catch you it was all for nothing.">
They don't need Kryptonite to make me feel pain. Nothing could feel worse than seeing what they did to Lois. Except maybe knowing that she suffered through it without making a sound.
<"I would never let anyone hurt you either…">
I look at the burns on her arms and feel the bile rising in my stomach. They hurt her. *Burned* her repeatedly and she didn't tell them anything. I can't let them hurt her again. "Let her go and I'll give you Superman."
"Clark! No!"
"Why would I let her go?" Jay laughs. "You're friends with Superman, but I think he and Lois are more than friends. She's better leverage than you. You go tell him to come back here and then we'll let her go. But she doesn't go anywhere until we see him."
Jay pokes me with the end of his rifle. "Go on, go get him. Go call for help or do whatever it is you gotta do. You have ten minutes and then we start burning her again. Unless Lois wants to go ahead and call for him herself?"
John grabs her arm and presses his thumb into one of her wounds. Lois whimpers and falls to her knees. I take a step towards them and John puts his gun to her head.
"Come on, baby, just for me. One little 'help, Superman' and I'll stop," John taunts her. Lois' lips thin and turn pale from the effort not to cry out. This time I know she's doing it because she won't give him the satisfaction.
"Let her go!" I step forward and Jay puts his gun to my head.
"Clark, no!" Lois' voice is thick with pain. "Tell Superman that I don't want him to come here. Promise me, Clark. No Superman."
"Better hurry!" John looks at his watch. "Time is ticking away."
"Superman is more important than me!" Lois cries out as I reluctantly start to walk away. "I'll never forgive you if you bring him back here!"
I look at her arms. She closes her eyes.
"I'll get him. Just don't hurt her again."
I run back towards the house, making a sharp right turn when I reach the trees. I rush through the trees until I'm near the lake, watching them the entire time.
Lois is still kneeling on the ground. Jay is pointing his gun at her while John lights up a cigarette. He blows smoke in Lois' face and she turns away. She looks so pale beneath the defiant expression she's wearing.
I change into the suit and fly towards them, landing about ten feet away. "Let her go."
John and Jay both grin at me. Lois looks at the ground. John speaks first. "And then you just fly away? I don't think so."
"That was deal you made with Clark. Me for Lois. I won't fly away."
Jay raises his gun and pulls the trigger. My cheek burns and I put my hand up, startled by the sensation. Before I can process this another shot rings out and something searing and hot streaks through the right side of my chest. I drop to my knees, overcome with pain.
Kryptonite bullets. Why didn't I think of that? Another shot burns into me, this one through my left shoulder, close to where Arianna shot me. I fall onto my back, writhing in pain. Then another that catches me low in the abdomen. Lois shrieks. Jay swears and backhands her with his gun. She drops to the ground with a dull thud that sends a deeper kind of pain through me.
I can still feel the path the bullet made through my lung, yet it doesn't seem to hurt as much. Am I going into shock? My shoulder feels like it's on fire, but it's not as bad as when the bullet was lodged in there. My stomach roils with pain and then it, too, seems to abate.
Because the bullets passed right through me, I realize. Jay and John were too clever. Their weapons are too high-powered and the bullets didn't stop. I can feel my body knitting closed the holes that were made. The bullets must be nearby because I still feel sick, but I realize that I may just survive this after all. I have to do something before they see that I'm healing. I groan and roll into the trench, hoping that they won't look too close.
They're coming to the edge of the trench. I don't think I'm strong enough to take them on and I doubt that I could survive many more bullets. If they shoot me through the head would it fix itself? Do I want to take that chance?
<"…Everyone has a talent…" "…Go play dead all ready…">
I force myself to relax, concentrating on slowing my pulse as Jay jumps into the trench beside me. He kicks me and I manage not to flinch. That actually hurt. Jay puts his fingers to my neck.
"Well?" John asks.
"Might as well bury him here," Jay says with obvious glee. "My uncle is avenged."
"What do we do with her?"
"How about we let her bury him? It can be her penance for helping the alien." Jay kicks me again before climbing out of the trench. I find it heartening that it doesn't hurt as much this time. "Go on, honey. Get started."
There's a dragging noise and then I hear Lois gasp - they've pulled her over to the rim of the trench.
"Oh god, no," she whispers.
"Either you bury him or you join him," Jay says.
"We… we took all the tools back to the house." The waver in her voice hurts to hear.
"Then use your hands."
Lois takes in a shuddery breath. A few seconds later a small handful of dirt falls across my chest. I desperately want to give her a sign, do something so that she knows I'm not dead but I don't dare open my eyes.
"Oh, for god's sake, go get her a shovel or we'll be here all day," John says.
"Be right back," Jay says and then I hear footsteps running up the path.
Lois continues to throw small handfuls of dirt, carefully avoiding my face. Does she know? Or is she just unable to cover my face? John swears at her and a large amount of dirt drops onto my head. I realize John's kicking dirt into the trench. "Go a little faster," he tells her. His footsteps retreat and the folding chair inside the tent squeals as he sits down. Another large fall of dirt covers me, this time on my shoulder.
I shake my head a little to clear the dirt and open one eye. Lois isn't looking at me. She's kneeling on the side of the trench, turned sideways as she scoops more dirt. Even when she turns back to drop it in, her eyes are half-closed.
"Lois," I exhale her name softly. Her eyes fly open and her breathing hitches as she realizes that I'm talking to her. She blinks and glances nervously behind her.
"Don't be slacking over there, sweetheart," John tells her.
Lois peers down at me, dropping another scoop of dirt on my legs. "What should I do?" she murmurs.
Good question. Should I just grab her and fly away? If John isn't expecting it, I could get Lois out of here quickly. But then what would happen to Doc and Josh, back at the house with Jay? I listen to the house, picking up only the sounds of Jay singing to himself as he comes down the stairs of the back porch.
Where are Josh and Doc? I listen more closely. I can hear Doc, he's somewhere outside the house and, for a moment, he and Jay are nearly in the same spot. Is he hiding in the tall grass of the back yard? How is it that Jay doesn't see him? What about Josh? I listen harder and realize that he's running down the road towards Valentia. He's gone to get help. So Lois is the only one still in immediate danger.
Jay is entering the woods, his footsteps clatter on the bridge over the creek. I move into a crouch and Lois freezes. "Hold your breath," I whisper to her.
She blinks her understanding and takes a deep breath. I push away from the trench with everything that I have in me, gathering Lois into my arms as I shoot away from the dig site. Within seconds I bring us down in the woods far from the meadow. I set Lois down gently and she shakes her head, her eyes filling with tears.
"Why didn't you just listen to me?" she asks.
"I couldn't leave you there."
"And you're not going to leave me here, either. You can't go back there, Clark."
"What about John and Jay?"
"How are you going to catch them? What if they still have Kryptonite bullets left? What are you going to do then? Why didn't you just listen to me?" She slaps my hand away when I reach out to calm her down. "You just figure 'I'm Superman, nothing can hurt me' and you blithely fly in without thinking about whether it's dangerous or not!"
"The shoe doesn't feel so good on the other foot, does it?"
"What?" Her expression turns even darker.
"You do the same thing on an almost daily basis. You told me so yourself, you take risks you shouldn't because you know I'm around to save you. How frightened do you think that makes me?"
"That's different!"
"How? How is it different?"
"Because…" She's grasping at straws and we both know it. "Because it just is. You don't get hurt rescuing me."
"Maybe not, but *you* could get hurt. Today, you did get hurt…" my voice cracks and I feel tears come to my eyes. "Lois, why didn't you just call for help?"
"I couldn't! I knew they were going to hurt you. When they showed up at the house all I could think was that they wanted to kill you. How could I let that happen?"
"And what if I had left like you asked? What do you think they would have done then?"
She ducks her head. "I don't know. I didn't care, as long as I could get you to leave."
Lois reaches out and touches the hole one of the bullets made in the border of my S. Then she goes behind me and moves my cape to touch the hole it left when it passed through. Her head tips forward to rest against my back. I close my eyes, awash in the memory of the night the cabin collapsed, when we stood in the lake like this and she seduced me.
<"How about here? Does this hurt?">
"Lois, would you have left me there? If our places were reversed? Could you do it?" I ask.
Her head wobbles against my shoulder blade as she shakes her head. "No."
"You said you wouldn't forgive me if I brought them Superman, but I had to do it. Can you see that? I didn't care what happened, as long as they didn't hurt you again. Seeing what they did to you… that hurt more than any Kryptonite ever could."
She lifts her head from my back and comes around to face me. "You know when you said you were scared of the power I have over you?"
<"…I was scared, okay? You scare me. You don't realize the power you have over me…">
"Yes."
"It goes both ways, Clark. It scares me, how much I feel for you. I've spent years hiding from people because I didn't want to get hurt. And then you came along and I tried so hard not to like you. I've tried to push you away, to keep you at arm's length. I fell for Superman because he was safe. I always knew, deep down, that the fantasy of Superman couldn't work in reality. But he was safe because no matter how close it seemed like I was to Superman, it was always going to be platonic. It wasn't going to get messy. Falling in love with you was messy, even before I found out about Superman."
"And then it got really messy, didn't it?"
She lets out a rueful laugh. "Actually, no. It forced me to realize that I've been hiding from you just as much as you've hid from me. I think we're like two sides of the same coin, Clark. I work so hard to always look strong and you hide your strength from the world."
Lois' eyes sparkle with unshed tears as she looks up at me.
"When John and Jay burst into the house, demanding that we call out for Superman I realized that I would do anything to protect you and what you were hiding. You were right to create a disguise, Clark. And you're right that I wouldn't have reacted nicely no matter how you told me. I was so frightened when I saw that cabin collapse on you because I thought I had lost you and there was nothing I could do. But that was nothing compared to how petrified I was when I saw them shoot you. I had tried so hard to protect you…" She puts her hand over the bullet hole. "I can't lose you. You're my best friend, Clark. I would do anything for you. I… I love you."
Overwhelmed, I reach out and cup her cheek. "I love you, Lois." There's so much that I still want to say. That I'm sorry that I hurt her. That it will always eat away at me how they hurt her. That I would give anything to keep her safe. That I would trade my soul for another chance to make love to her. Can she read all that in my eyes? I think she might because she gives me a watery smile and goes on tiptoe to kiss me softly.
I can hear sirens in the distance, reminding me that we can't stay here all day, no matter how much I might wish for that.
Lois sighs against my lips. "I hear them, too. I guess we should get back there."
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As we come close to Doc's we can see that there are two police cars and an ambulance parked in front of the house. The truck is also parked in the driveway. "Emily went for help," I murmur. Then, a little louder so Lois can hear, "Jay is Emily's older brother. Jason Trask was their uncle."
"Trask? Really? Then I was right. She was behind this," Lois says smugly.
"Yeah, you were right. I'm not sure just how involved she was, she didn't know the cabin was going to collapse, or that the pier was rigged."
"So why did she come back?" Lois wonders.
"I think she's the one who brought the police. Josh couldn't have run into Valentia this fast."
"How did you know that she was Trask's niece?"
"She told me as we were coming back to the house. She took off when I came inside."
Everyone in front of the house shades their eyes to watch us descend.
"Lois, thank God," says Doc. "We were so worried."
"Did they find Jay and John?" Lois asks.
"They're searching the woods for them. What about Clark? What happened to him?"
"He went around the lake," Lois says. "He was going to the camp to call for help from there."
"So they didn't hurt him?" Emily asks.
Lois gives her a reassuring smile. "No. They sent him away to bring back Superman."
Emily looks over at me and flushes. "Superman, I… I'm sorry about all this. Really I am." She glances at the angry welts on Lois' arms. "And Lois? I'm truly sorry that they hurt you. I didn't think it was going to turn out like this. Will you tell Clark that? That I'm sorry?"
"I'll tell him," Lois says.
Another car comes over the rise of the hill. Marty gapes in amazement as he comes closer to the house and sees all the commotion. He parks behind the truck and gets out. He looks around as he walks towards us, taking in the police cruisers, the ambulance and the fact that Superman is here.
"What happened here?" he asks, his eyes wide with wonder.
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