Well, I had a burst of creative energy and got this up sooner than I expected, since even before my stomach flu I was aiming for tomorrow. This seems shorter on plot than I was hoping for, so I don't feel as if I've moved as far ahead as I would have liked, but Lois and Perry just would not stop chatting! I guess it has been many years since they've seen each other. Hopefully the next chapter will do a better job at moving the plot along.
Ann - thanks again for noticing the use of Clark, the clerk. As you can see, I used it here - twice.
“So what is it you do for him when he's been exposed to kryptonite?” Perry asked when Lois had closed the door. At Lois' wide eyes, Perry chastised, “What? Did you think I got to be editor of the Planet because I could yodel?”
“You knew he was Superman?” Lois asked, shocked.
“Of course, Lois,” Perry said. Then understanding dawned on his face. “You knew, didn't you?”
“I did for the last few months, but not, not when it happened.”
Perry said nothing for a moment and Lois took the opportunity to change the subject to the more important topic of Clark. “I don't know what do for him. I'd probably call Martha.”
“I tried,” Perry said, “but there was no answer.”
Lois shook her head trying to determine where the Kents were. They should have been in bed. Maybe they did not hear the call while asleep. “They're probably asleep. I think we should keep calling until they wake up. We need to know what to do for him and they'll want to know anyway.”
Perry nodded his head as he moved back to the bathroom. “Getting as much of this stuff off him as possible makes sense to me for now.”
Lois nodded in agreement as she moved towards her phone. As Perry had said, no one answered when she called, but Lois Lane was nothing if not persistent and just let it keep ringing.
As she watched Perry move another washcloth over Clark's features, finally a bleary sounding Jonathan answered the phone.
“'lo,” he said, gruffly.
“Hi, Jonathan. It's Lois,” she said, keeping her voice as calm as possible.
“I think he's out on a rescue, Lois,” Jonathan said with a yawn.
“No, he's here, Jonathan. And he's…” Lois paused to take a deep breath. “He's covered in kryptonite dust and...” Lois' voice finally broke and through sobs she said, “and we don't know what to do for him.”
“Change his clothes, get him in the shower. Whatever you can do to get it off of him. Martha, wake up!” Jonathan sounded much more wide awake and somewhat frantic. “We'll be leaving soon to make sure we get to Wichita before the first flight out to San Diego. We'll be there as soon as we can. Martha, wake up! Our boy is dying.”
With that, Jonathan hung up the phone.
Lois stared at the handset in shock. Finally she shook her head. “I don't think they know what to do either,” she said through her tears. “Jonathan sounded frantic. But they are on their way. They should be here tomorrow. He did say that we should try to get Clark into the shower to get the dust off of him.”
“I can't. He's too heavy,” Perry explained.
Lois sat next to Clark on the couch, placing her hand in his. “Clark?” she asked, quietly. “Clark, we need your help.” Lois sniffled and took a breath before continuing. “We need to get you into the shower. Can you help us?”
Clark said nothing, just continued to stare straight ahead. Lois' sobs got louder again and Perry went back to the bathroom to wash the washcloth again.
“Lois,” his soft voice finally responded. “I…I…Everything h…h…hurts,” Clark whispered.
“I know. That's why we need to get you into the shower.” Lois explained, trying to keep her voice steady.
“I c…c…can't. I c…c…can barely m…m…move. L…L…Lois, I love you,” he whispered, his voice getting progressively weaker and finally his eyes closed as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Lois stared at him in shock for a moment until finally panic gave way to an idea. She ran into her kitchen looking for a bucket and then filled it with water from the sink. When she came back into the living room Perry was wiping another washcloth along Clark's arms. “Help me,” Lois said, sniffling again. “Move the coffee table and the end tables away from the couch.”
Seeing the bucket in her hand, Perry quickly moved to help her. When the area was clear, Lois moved closer and poured the water over Clark's head. Perry stood nearby to help and rubbed the washcloth over Clark in an effort to increase the amount of displaced kryptonite dust. They did this three more times, pushing Clark over on the couch in an effort to get his back as well, before they felt they did all they could.
“Can you stay here just a second?” Lois asked Perry.
“Where are you going, darlin'?” Perry asked her.
“We need to get the dust away from him. Lucy and Sean have a wet vac. It will have to do until tomorrow when we can rent a shampooer.”
Perry nodded his head as Lois turned to the door. She returned just a few moments later lugging the heavy vacuum cleaner. “Who are Lucy and Sean?” Perry asked.
“My sister and brother-in-law,” Lois answered as she plugged the vacuum in. She moved over the area with the spilled water carefully, taking in the area around it and doing so again and again.
Then moving to her closet, Lois took out a hammer and began hitting the vacuum everywhere but on the canister. “Whatever are you doing?” Perry asked.
“This needs to be broken. I can't have my sister using a vacuum that has kryptonite dust in it. I'll buy her another one…”
“Along with a new couch,” Perry commented.
Lois smiled slightly, “Yes, along with a new couch. But I don't want someone pulling this out of the trash thinking it's in good shape. I'll be right back, I'm bringing this to the dumpster.”
When Lois returned a few moments later, Perry had managed to get Clark to a more comfortable position lying on her couch.
“I think we need to try to wake him up,” Perry said. “It would be better to get him off the couch in case we didn't get it all.”
Lois nodded and moved to kneel beside Clark. “Clark, you need to wake up,” she shook him softly. “Wake up, Clark,” she said more strongly. “Wake up, damn it!” she said, shaking him harder and bursting into tears again.
“Lois,” Perry said, his voice soft and his hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. This isn't going to help him.”
“I know,” Lois mumbled around her tears. “But I don't know what will.”
“Let's leave him be for a few minutes,” Perry suggested. “Maybe having the kryptonite off of him will help him regain his strength faster and we'll be able to wake him soon.”
Lois nodded in agreement and moved away to sit on the floor in front of Clark, his hand still grasped in hers. “How did this happen?” she asked no one in particular, but Perry misunderstood and explained what he knew.
“I'm not really sure. I called you this evening after I heard the news about Barrow dying. I thought perhaps this would be a way for Clark to come back and I thought…” Perry paused, “well, I thought you knew about Clark being alive. When you didn't answer the phone, I went to leave a message on your machine,” Perry continued.
“Hi. You've reached Lois Lane. I'm out trying to win the Pulitzer, so unless you have something newsworthy to share, don't bother to leave a message. If you do have something to say that can be printed in the paper, leave a message at the beep.”
“Lois? Honey, it's Perry. It's so good to hear your voice. I wondered if you saw the news about Clyde Barrow. I was thinking that now that he's gone perhaps Clark could be Clark again. Any idea if he's back from Belize yet? Well, I'll…
“P…P…Perry?” came the very unsure voice.
“Clark?” Perry asked in surprise. “You're at Lois', son?” When Clark said nothing for a moment Perry realized that perhaps the person answering Lois' phone was not Clark. He felt himself flush hoping that whoever it was would not connect the dots and realize that he had just said that Clark Kent was in Belize – where Superman was.
“She's n…n…not here, Perry,” Clark said, his breathing labored.
Perry took a minute, convincing himself that it must be Clark before asking, “Clark, what's wrong? Are you alright?”
“N…n…no,” Clark whispered.
Perry gasped, certain now that it was Clark despite the fact that as Superman he could not understand why he would sound this way.
“P…Perry?” Clark asked, his voice still soft. “I c…c…can't get it off of me. If I d…d…don't make it until L…L…Lois gets back, will you t…t…tell her that I'm s…s…sorry,” Clark paused to breathe. “And that I l…l…love her?”
Perry, while not understanding everything Clark was saying, could feel himself start to panic. He felt for the chair behind him, needing to sit down. “Clark, listen to me. There's no need for me to tell Lois that. You'll tell her yourself. Clark, I'm only a couple of hours away in Los Angeles. I'm leaving now and will be there shortly. Can you hold on for two more hours if Lois doesn't get home?”
“M…m…” A slight sound came from Clark before Perry could hear the phone dropping to the floor.
“I got here in an hour and a half,” Perry told Lois. “The gods must have been shining on me because somehow even driving from Los Angeles I didn't hit any traffic.
Lois' hand tightened in Clark's, “And the witness protection thing?” she asked.
“I had to think of something,” Perry explained, “When John recognized Clark, I needed a reason why he wasn't dead. I'd been thinking of it since the newscast, trying to determine just how he could come back. I still didn't know what to do about that, was hoping you'd have some sort of brilliant idea when you showed up. I always did work best under pressure.”
Lois smirked a bit. “A clerk, huh?” she asked. “Clark, the clerk,” she clarified. “Cute, Perry,” and for the first time since she had gotten home, Lois gave a small giggle.
Perry smiled back. “That came to me, too. It was likely the name association that did it.”
The two sat in silence for a few moments before Perry spoke again, “Did I ever tell you about the time the King decided he needed a weekend away from all the press?” Lois rolled her eyes good naturedly at Perry as he resumed his Elvis story, silently thinking that she had missed hearing them. “He was at the beach when someone recognized him. They insisted it was him and he insisted it was not. Finally, in an effort to end the suspicion, he cracked and screamed, "I told you, I'm not Elvis. I rent cars. I work for Avis.'”
Lois raised her eyes at him, not buying the story for an instant, but Perry paid her no heed.
**********************************************************************
When the Kents knocked on Lois' door early the next afternoon they were surprised when Perry White answered the door, but their eyes immediately went to the couch where their son lay sleeping, Lois on the floor beside him, her hand in his and her head resting on his arm.
“Perry,” Martha whispered offering him a hug once she realized that Clark was breathing.
Perry gave Martha a hug and shook Jonathan's hand before gesturing them into Lois' bedroom. “He's been sleeping for several hours now,” he told them. “We think we got most of the kryptonite off of him, but we can't be sure. It would probably be good to change his clothes and get him off of that couch, but we can't lift him.”
“What happened to him?” Martha asked. Jonathan put an arm around her at the sound of the sob in her voice.
“We don't know,” Perry admitted. “I called Lois yesterday afternoon and Clark answered. He said she wasn't here. He was stuttering and sounded concerned that he wasn't going to survive until Lois got home. He passed out before we finished talking. I was only in LA, so I drove down as quickly as I could.
“Luckily old habits die hard. I had a lock pick with me and broke in when Lois didn't answer. She still wasn't here and Clark was unconscious on the couch.”
Martha whimpered and Jonathan pulled her closer to his side.
“I didn't know what to do,” Perry said, “so I called you, but no one answered.”
“We didn't go out yesterday, but we may have been in the barn or asleep,” Jonathan said, his voice gravely.
“Anyway, I noticed that Clark looked a bit peaked, so thought maybe a cold compress would be good. But it only took a minute before I realized something on Clark's forehead was getting green flecks all over the washcloth.”
“Kryptonite dust,” Martha said.
“What?” Perry asked.
“When Clark came back from that earthquake in Australia he said the area was covered in kryptonite dust,” she explained.
Perry nodded thoughtfully, before explaining, “I was still trying to get it all off of Clark with the washcloth when Lois came in. She was the one who thought of pouring water over Clark with a bucket. It seemed to have helped. He regained consciousness soon after that. I'm fairly certain he's just sleeping now,” Perry said.
The Kents nodded, not knowing what to say, when Perry remembered, “You should know that Lois came in with her editor, John Emerson. John recognized Clark.”
Jonathan gave a gasp and Perry placed a hand on his arm.
“He wasn't wearing the suit at the time, so John has no idea about that. But we needed a reason why Clark was alive. The reason I had been calling Lois was because the last of the gangsters from the club where Clark was shot died yesterday. So, I told Emerson that Clark had survived the shot, but had been living in the Midwest as a clerk as part of the Witness Protection Plan. He seemed to buy the story.”
Jonathan gave a sigh of relief at realizing that Clark's identity had not been compromised.
“Clark, the clerk,” Martha smirked.
“Yes, that's what Lois said,” Perry smiled back deciding to spare them the Elvis story.
“So, the kryptonite dust?” Jonathan asked.
“Well, Lois wet vac'ed the floor after we poured the water over him and then she destroyed the vacuum. She is going to hire a vacuum shampoo-er today and get a new couch once we can move Clark to the bed,” Perry explained.
The Kents nodded their heads at this while Martha mulled over whether or not shampooing the carpet was enough.
“Martha, Jonathan,” Lois said as she entered the room still looking bleary eyed.
Jonathan moved over to her first, wrapping his arms securely around her. “It's good to see you, Lois.”
Lois felt her eyes well up at tears. She knew it was partly concern about Clark that was making her emotional, but it was also Jonathan's being so happy to see her.
When he let her go, Martha moved in to give her a tight hug as well. Lois hugged her back.
When she moved away, swiping at her tears, she said, “I think he's awake,” and the group moved back into her living room.
