Some time ago I wrote three vignettes about Dr. Klein's fertility researches. Several people kept nagging me to write about the scientist once again and I kept refusing to do this. However, about a week ago Lara Joelle Kent asked me to translate them for a couple of German friends who aren't that trained in reading English. Thus I worked on these vignettes again and all of the sudden this idea came into my mind. Since I couldn't write on my other story anyway, I decided to give this idea a try. Please don't expect something earth-shaking. I hope you'll like it, though.
I didn't ask anyone to betaread, so all the mistakes are mine. The characters, however, aren't.To find out what happened earlier, please look here :
earlier Dr. Klein vignettes Sudden Paternity“Dr. Klein, would you please calm down now?” Superman asked nervously and felt his breath quickening as he looked down to the safe ground miles below them. He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to adopt his own advice. That wasn’t quite so easy in the face of a mad scientist. He had never actually envied Lois, but right now he wished he would have her courage. She had risked fights with forces much mightier than furious Dr. Klein. But as it was, the scientist seemed to be the one who would finally bring Superman to his knees.
“Calm down?” Dr. Klein spit angrily. “You honestly want me to calm down? May I remind you that all this is your fault? I was sitting in my lab, *untroubled* until *you* came.” He emphasized the words as if he was trying to assure a jury of his innocence. “I was just doing my researches after ages of waiting to get those darn samples and then you dare tell me it was all for nothing?”
They had been arguing about the same thing for quite some time now. Dr. Klein just wasn’t willing to forgive him. Hard as Clark might try to appease Dr. Klein, he was fighting a loosing battle. Who could have known that Dr. Klein would take the news of Lois pregnancy so badly? While Clark was brimmed over with joy that he was going to be a father, he hadn’t thought that sharing the news would have such disastrous effects.
“How could I’ve possibly known that…?” Superman tried to explain, carefully, because he knew it was important to avoid upsetting the scientist even more. Dr. Klein’s eyes were already gleaming dangerously, causing a shiver to run down the hero’s spine. Dr. Klein obviously wasn’t willing to listen.
“Well, it’s not exactly the first time this has happened, is it? You’re attracting trouble with the irresistible force of a strong magnetic field!” Dr. Klein said accusingly and tightened his grip on Superman. He hated flying, he always had. Again, he cursed the hero. Superman should have known better than to storm into his lab and blissfully tell him such devastating news. It really wasn’t the scientist’s fault that things had gotten so completely out of hand afterwards. He had just been thunderstruck. Nobody could blame him for this brief moment of inadvertency.
There would have been so many fascinating tests waiting for him in his lab. But instead of looking through his beloved microscope, he was desperately trying not to look down. As if this wouldn’t have been bad enough, he felt increasingly sick and his stomach clenched with the need to throw up. He should never have agreed to do any researches for Superman. How was it possible that his life had become such a mess?
“Please, Dr. Klein…” Superman begged breathlessly, but the scientist was already beyond the point where a simple "please" could have solved anything.
“Please what?” he blurted out and felt even more raging anger burn up inside him. “Not only did I wreck my lab, I also destroyed the *samples*.” He could nothing but whisper the last word, still shaken by the mortal sin he had committed. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve spent trying to get this research done? And now get us down, already.” Superman just made an indefinable sound. “And you better won’t tell me you’ve been too distracted lately to give me a new sample!”
“Please re… release your grip,” Superman begged in a hoarse whisper after he had futilely tried to speak for quite some time now. A little irritated Dr. Klein did as he was told and Superman coughed in relief. “Dr. Klein, you know just as well as I do that you’ve got my powers ever since you had that accident with the kryptonite laser back in your lab after I told you about my girlfriend's pregnancy. I know I shouldn't have told you and I'm sorry. But you need to calm down now if you ever want to return to the ground.”
Calm down! Dr. Klein grunted. That sounded much simpler than it actually was. How was Dr. Klein supposed to calm down when his whole research had suddenly been put a stake? It would take him ages to rebuild his lab and unfortunately there wasn’t any spare room throughout STAR Labs where he could get his research done.
All this trouble because it had taken the scientist an agonizing long moment to realize that he still needed to finish the fertility research. This moment had let to disaster. Dr. Klein hadn't even noticed how the Red Kryptonite Laser had dropped from his hands. And before he even knew it, his lab had become a battlefield.
Finally, Dr. Klein had remembered that Superman claiming to become a father was no proof of human- kryptonian compatibility. After all a man could never be certain he was actually the father of his child unless a scientist told him so. Unfortunately, they had already been high in the sky above Metropolis by then and Dr. Klein had sort of woken up from his personal nightmare, holding Superman's sleeves in a firm grip.
“I still need to get used to the fact that it is me who is flying,” Dr. Klein replied grumpily. As soon as he had said this, it dawned on the scientist that he had even worse problems than he had assumed. He had accidentally destroyed the entire lab... including the kryptonite laser.
And if Superman wasn’t super, his sperm wasn’t either.
Dr. Klein passed out.
The End Author's note: Needless to say, that Dr. Klein will wake up in time and save Superman. No heroes were killed to create this fic
