And Ch. 7...
See notes in Ch. 6...
Last time:
Lois
Before long we were walking across campus. I was trying to ignore Clark and Lana's PDA as we did. He'd told me once that they were waiting until they got married to really be together, but sometimes it sure seemed like they needed to go get a room somewhere. As long as it wasn't mine. Joe had his arm draped around my shoulders but that was as close to PDA as we usually got.
Before long we got to the frat house where the party was held and I soon lost track not only of Clark and Lana but Joe as well. I sipped on my soda and looked around the room but didn't see any of them. If I didn't come across any of them in the next fifteen minutes, I was going home.
*~*7*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I couldn't find Lana anywhere. This was different than what I'd expected, but I wasn't really sure what I'd thought it was going to be like so...
Looking around some more, I thought about trying to locate her heartbeat, but the music and loud talking – and what I was sure was going on upstairs – discouraged me from trying.
Was that Lois? She was going up the stairs with Joe right behind her, his arms around her and it looked like he was kissing her neck as they moved in unison.
It struck me as odd because Lois had said she and Joe didn't do the kinds of things that would lead to them walking up the stairs like that. I shrugged. She was a big girl.
I moved through the crowded room towards the kitchen to get another soda. I ran into Linda who told me that Lana told her she was heading back to the dorms since she couldn't find me. I frowned and thanked her. I started to head for the door and go back to the dorm myself when I noticed Joe sitting on the couch making out with a red head.
I frowned again. Then who was Lois with? I squelched the panic I was starting to feel on behalf of my roommate. I moved quickly towards the stairs. Once up them, the noise from the party was muffled enough that I could try to find her heartbeat. I tried to tune out any other sounds that were coming from the rooms around me, but was only partially successful.
Finally, I located her heartbeat coming from one of the common areas on the third floor. I called her name, softly then louder. I saw someone jump up from behind one of the couches and take off at a run. I thought about going after him, but I was more concerned about Lois as she wasn't yelling at me. If I'd interrupted something, she'd have been on my case.
"Lois," I called softly. I heard a groan and walked around the couch. There she was, struggling to sit up.
A flash out the window caught my eye, but I didn't see anything when I looked more closely.
"Clark?" she asked. "Is that you?"
I moved to her side and supported her as she sat all the way up. "Are you okay?"
"I think so. What happened?"
My face was grim. "I thought I saw you go up the stairs with Joe, but then I saw Joe downstairs and I got worried about you."
She shook her head. "I think I'm okay."
I looked around and, if possible, my face grew more serious. "You'll probably want these," I said handing her shorts to her.
Her eyes were wide as she looked back up at me. "Was there someone else here with me?"
I nodded. "I didn't see who it was but he took off as soon as I got up here." I looked around for any possible evidence of what he might have done and saw several empty condom wrappers under the couch but had no idea if any of them were new or old or what.
She sighed and rested again my chest. "Will you take me back to the dorm, Clark?"
Her voice sounded kind of funny.
"Sure. Let's go."
She giggled. Lois didn't giggle. "Can you turn around while I get dressed?"
I nodded and stood to stare out the window. A minute later, her arm linked through mine and her head rested on my arm.
"Take me home, Clark." She sighed deeply.
I looked down at her. "Lois, look at me." She looked okay, slightly sleepy maybe, but that's it. I grasped her lightly by the shoulders. "Did you take a drink from anyone?"
She shook her head. "I don't think so. Got my own soda."
"Did you leave it alone?"
She bit her lip and frowned. "I don't think so."
"Is there any way you could have been drugged?"
"I don't think so."
I sighed. I wasn't sure I believed it. "Why don't we take you to the hospital and see what they say?"
"No. I just wanna go to bed." She leaned into me and rested her head against my chest. "Will you take me to bed, Clark?"
"I'll take you to the hospital."
She shook her head against me. "No. I just wanna go home."
I sighed again. I should probably just take her anyway. I scooped her into my arms and carried her down the outside set of stairs I'd noticed on our way in earlier. I headed towards the Ellen Lane Memorial Medical Building. The path took us right by the dorms.
"Clark, there's the dorm," she said as I walked past.
"We're going to the hospital. I think you should get checked out."
She struggled against me until she managed to get to her feet. "No, I'm not going to that building. It's named after my dead mother and I won't go." She started towards the front door of Weller Hall.
Resigned, I ran after her. "Fine. I won't make you go, but at least let me get you upstairs."
"Fine."
I scooped her up again and this time she rested her head against my shoulder immediately, snuggling down into my arms.
"You're so strong, Clark," she sighed. "Joe's not anywhere near as strong as you are and he's pretty strong."
"Sure he is."
"And you're better looking, too, but Lana's got her claws in you."
"Lana doesn't have claws, Lois."
"No, she has a funny looking car."
"She doesn't have a car. Well, she does, but it's in Smallville," I told her as I managed to open the door to our room.
"Yep. It says 'De Vil' on the plates."
"You call her 'Cruella'?" I asked, unable to keep the shock out of my voice.
"Shhhh... Don't want her to know that. She hates me already."
"She doesn’t hate you." I wondered how I could get her onto the top bunk without floating her up there and decided it wasn't going to happen. I sighed and laid her gently on my bunk.
"Sure she does. She told me so."
"She did?" Lana was a lot of things, but I didn't think she hated Lois.
"Yep. Not long after we moved in together. She told me not to get any ideas about ever seeing you naked." She giggled. "She doesn't know the first time I met you, you were only wearing a towel, does she?"
Okay, warning another girl to stay away from me did sound like Lana. She tended to be kind of territorial sometimes, but I didn't like her hanging out with other guys and I knew if the situation had been reversed, I probably would have had a few choice words for her male roommate. "No, she doesn’t," I finally said, pulling a chair up near the bed.
Lois sighed again. "If you ever want to drop the towel and come up..." Her voice trailed off again.
I looked down and she looked like she was asleep. Good. She could easily embarrass herself this way. She didn’t smell like alcohol and she said she didn't drink it, but I guess it was possible that a beer for someone her size could have had that kind of effect on her. She wasn't necessarily drugged and she'd kill me if I took her to the hospital. I thought I got there before anything happened to her.
I climbed into the top bunk. A glance through the walls on the way in had shown that Lana was sleeping and I didn't want to bother her. We all had class early the next morning as it was.
~*~*~
November 2003
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I tried to open my eyes, but they weren't working right. I groaned and looked at the clock but it wasn't there.
I wasn't in my bed.
I was in Clark's bed.
So where was Clark?
I cautiously felt behind me and was relieved to discover that he wasn't there.
I heard a creak above me.
"Clark?" I called softly.
A pair of bare feet appeared over the edge of the top bunk and then Clark was standing there, having jumped off my bed. He moved to sit next to me. "How're you feeling?" he asked quietly.
"My head hurts. And why am I in your bed?"
"What do you remember?"
I thought about it for a minute. "I remember walking across campus with you and Lana and Joe. I remember getting a Pepsi and drinking it. I couldn't find any of you and I was going to head back here in a few minutes and then..." I struggled to remember. "Nothing. What happened?"
Clark sighed. "I saw you going upstairs with Joe..."
"I've told you, Joe and I aren't..."
"I know," he interrupted. "But you're a big girl. For all I knew, you'd changed your mind or something. I ran into Linda who said Lana had left when she lost track of me. Then I saw Joe sitting on a couch making out with a redhead and realized that it wasn't him who you were with. I went upstairs to look for you and found you behind a couch in a common area on the third floor."
Bile was rising in my throat as he told the story. "Was I alone?" I whispered.
"No," he whispered back.
"Who was it?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. He took off pretty fast and I was more worried about you."
"Did he...?" I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question.
"I don't know. I don't *think* so. It wasn't that long between the time I saw you going up the stairs and the time I found you. You weren't wearing your shorts and underwear though." He didn't look at me as he said it. "I gave them to you and you got dressed and I carried you back here. I tried to get you to go to the hospital but you refused."
"Why?" That didn't sound like me. Not with a doctor for a dad and a nurse for a mom.
He shrugged, but didn't say anything.
"What? Why didn't I want to go?" He was keeping something from me.
He sighed. "You refused to go to the building named after your mom."
It was my turn to sigh. "I don't like going there for that reason, but I wouldn’t not go just because it's named after my mom if I needed to. That still doesn't tell me how I ended up in your bed," I pointed out.
"How was I supposed to get you up to your bunk?" he asked. "You were practically asleep when we got here."
"And you didn't take me to the hospital? You didn't think I was drugged?" I didn't understand why he would have let me saying I didn't want to go stop him.
"You flat out refused. I was going there and we passed the dorms and when I told you where we were going, you actually managed to stand up and tried to walk to the dorms. You weren't going to let me take you."
I threw an arm over my eyes. "Well, thanks for trying."
He started to say something, but a knock on the door interrupted him. "Come in," he called.
Great. It was probably Lana and she was probably going to have an earful for both of us.
"Hey, hon..." She stopped mid-sentence. "Why is Lois in your bed?"
I groaned. "Must you be so loud?"
"Hangover, Lois?" Her voice dripped sweetness. Fake sweetness. Maybe I should call her Sweet-n-Low.
"No," I told her. "I didn't have anything harder than Pepsi last night."
Clark had moved to her side and taken her in his arms, kissing her lightly as he did so. It was disgusting. "I think someone slipped her something, Baby."
And really. Baby? What kind of nickname was that?
"And you rescued her?"
He shrugged. "Maybe. I saw her go upstairs with some guy and he ran off when I found her. I don't know who he was or anything."
Lana smiled at him and patted his bare chest. "Boy Scout."
"Eagle Scout," he said with a grin.
I rolled my eyes and groaned, pulling Clark's comforter over my head and trying not to notice that it smelled like him. "Get a room," I mumbled, knowing they wouldn't be able to hear me.
But it made me feel a little better.
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
I heard what Lois said, but Lana obviously didn't, so I didn't say anything. Since Lois was now huddled under my blanket, I took the opportunity to give Lana a much better good morning kiss than I could with an audience.
"We better get ready for class," I finally said.
She nodded. "It's a lot colder out today than it was last night. The first cold front already came through I guess."
I nodded. "That's what I heard."
She kissed me again. "Since we lost each other last night, whaddya say we go to that bonfire on Saturday?"
I sighed. "I don't know if we'll be back in time."
"Back? Where are we going?"
"Lois and I are going to Bremerton, remember?" I'd told her about it on Monday. "We're covering that Fall Fest for the school paper. Two hundredth anniversary or something."
"Two hundred and second," came a voice from my bed. "It started the same year the school was founded so it always gets a write up."
"Okay, two hundred and second. Anyway, we're leaving at like six in the morning. I'm not sure when we'll be back but it'll probably be at least seven or eight."
Lana smiled at me. That slow sexy smile I loved. "Well, then, it's a good thing the bonfire doesn't start until 8:30."
I smiled back. "I guess so. I'll try to make sure we're back by eight." I kissed her again. "We'll talk about it later, but right now we have to get ready for class." I kissed her one more time. "You better go get dressed."
She kissed me. "You too." She turned and headed for her room.
I waited until the door shut behind her to shut our door. "You okay under there?" I asked Lois.
"Fine."
"Are you staying under there for a minute?"
"Probably."
"Then I'm going to change real quick, as long as you promise to stay put."
"Don't worry," came the muffled reply.
I grabbed some clothes and changed as quickly as I could. I hated changing in the bathroom; it was just too small. Once dressed, I sat back down on the edge of the bed.
"Hey," I said, pulling the comforter back. "Are you okay?"
She rolled back over onto her back. "Yeah. I just need some Tylenol and some caffeine and I'll be fine. That and I need the opportunity to read Joe the riot act for making out with someone else."
"I thought you didn't care that much."
"I don't, unless he's on a date with me and then he better not be kissing anyone else."
Well, that made sense. I didn't really understand their relationship, but it worked for them. Or seemed to anyway. "Maybe he was drunk?"
She glared at me. "Don't defend him in some sort of brotherhood bond thing. I don't care if he was drunk. He shouldn't have been making out with someone else while he was on a date with me and my roommate shouldn't have been the one to rescue me – if, in fact, I actually needed rescuing. My date should have."
"You're right. Read him the riot act. And if you want me to punch him for you, I will. Or I'll hold him while you do." I smiled at her. I wouldn't really punch him and she knew it. But if he treated her poorly, I would come to her defense if she needed it. And she knew that, too.
Or I thought she did.
"That's okay. If he needs taking out, I can do it myself without you holding him. I've been studying Tae Kwon Do for several years now."
I smiled again. "Then remind me never to get on your bad side."
"Don't ever get on my bad side," she muttered. "And get out of my way. I have to get ready."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And don't 'ma'am' me, Kent," she said as she moved towards her dresser.
"Yes, ma'am," I said with a grin.
I caught the shirt she threw my way easily. She was going to be fine.
Joe, on the other hand... Him I worried about.
*****
TBC
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