Last time:
Lois
"Are you going to be okay?"
"What do you think?" I asked, irritated, pushing away from him. "Just go. Draw or whatever. I'm going to find my son and not let go."
I heard him sigh as I walked off, heading towards the kitchen without going through the living room.
"Come on, bud, it's about naptime," I said, picking him up off the stool. "How about I lay down with you for a while?"
"Wa' Ja' Ja'?" he asked.
"Sure, we can watch Jack Jack," I told him as I headed through the house.
Ten minutes later, we were curled up on my bed – the one I usually shared with Clark – watching Jack Jack.
I'd double checked all the doors before I started the movie. Christopher and I were securely locked in.
He was as safe as Daddy could make him.
I held him close and we both finally dozed off watching superheroes.
I just wished I *really* had one of my own.
*~*123*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
"I don't care if you sleep with her if it catches the bastard that did this."
I winced. I could see the living room out of the corner of my eye and heads shot up when they heard that.
I let out a deep sigh. "Don't do that. Please." I ran my hands up and down her back, pulling her a little closer to me.
"Fine, but I don't."
And there were pigs flying around outside right now. There was a long silence.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"What do you think?" She pushed away from me. "Just go. Draw or whatever. I'm going to find my son and not let go."
She turned and stalked off towards the kitchen. A minute later they were on their way upstairs to watch Incredibles and maybe take a nap.
I ran my hands through my hair as I watched her walk off before sighing and heading back to the living room. Nearly everyone was giving me looks of varying degrees of outrage and significance.
I turned to Steve. "Is the police sketch artist going to be here anytime soon to see if we can get a drawing of this guy?"
He shook his head. "It's going to be a while before he can get here."
I sighed and looked over at the Langs. "Would you mind helping me try to draw him? Or, Mom, do you think you could?"
Of course, Mom was more of an artist than I could ever be.
She shrugged. "I can try."
Half an hour later, they had a drawing all three agreed was a fairly reasonable likeness. An inspector, Henderson, I thought, showed up just as they were finishing it. Mom handed it over to him as everyone was introduced.
He frowned and turned to the Langs. "Are you sure?"
The three of them nodded.
Henderson sighed. "Well, the good news is it's probably not related to the Latislan stuff."
My head shot up. "What?"
"This isn't the first time we've seen this guy."
"Who is he?" Sam asked.
Henderson shrugged. "We don't know. They call him the Toyman because the first kids he lured he used toys on. More recently he's used ice cream like this time."
"Why did he take Christopher then?" I asked. "It's not like we have any money or anything like that. And he's usually surrounded by security."
Henderson took a seat and motioned to me to do the same. "I'd guess he was a target of opportunity. He probably showed up at graduation hoping to find the kid of some rich benefactor or something and found the grandkid of one. You may not have money, Mr. Kent, but Dr. Lane does. Ms. Lang recognizing your son and saying something thwarted his attempt – this time. There's no way to know if he'll try again. One of the kids he tried to abduct nearly a year ago got away and he's never tried again. Another, six months ago, got away and he was able to kidnap him a week later. The kids have all been released, unharmed, once the ransom was paid."
That was a bit of a relief.
But...
How was I supposed to tell Lois that there might be two madmen after our son?
"Where is Mrs. Kent?" Henderson asked.
"She took Christopher upstairs for his nap and probably a movie," I told him.
"I need to speak with her. Can you show me where we're going?"
I stood. "You won't be able to get in without a code anyway. The house is on lockdown."
"I noticed," he said, trying to conceal a smirk. "There's so many police officers and security guards outside, if I didn't know better I'd think the grass was blue." He turned. "Ms. Lang, would you join us?"
She nodded and stood up. I led the two of them through the house and up the stairs. I noticed Lana's eyes widen slightly as I punched my code in the keypad.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Christopher never leaves the house without security," I told her. "And this wing of this floor is secured whenever he's in it."
"Oh." It was barely more than a breath.
"Wait here," I told them as we entered the hallway, shutting and securing the door behind us. I went through the double doors to our room and found the two of them asleep on our bed, Incredibles still playing on the TV. I shook her shoulder gently. "Lois. Hey. I need you to wake up."
"What?" she whispered grumpily.
"There's a cop here who wants to talk to you and me and Lana."
Her eyes opened and she looked at me. "I'm not leaving him."
I nodded. "I know. They're out in the hall. It wasn't Navance."
"What?" She carefully extracted herself from Christopher – with just a bit of help from me. A second later, he was curled up under the blanket, still sound asleep.
Quietly, I told her what Henderson had told us.
There was a soft knock on the door as I finished. "Mr. Kent? Mrs. Kent?"
I looked at her and she nodded, pushing herself up off the bed and heading towards the seating area, using the remote to turn off the TV as she did.
I headed for the door and opened it to let them in. "Christopher's asleep," I said quietly.
They both nodded as they walked in. Lana looked decidedly uncomfortable as she realized we were in our room and not a living room or something.
Lois had curled up in one of the chairs, leaving no room for me to sit with her. I ignored the other two and grabbed her hand, tugging her onto her feet and pulling her into my arms. She only resisted slightly – because we had an audience, I was sure.
I lowered my face to the side of her head, the side away from Lana and Henderson, as her arms found their way around my waist. "Please don't try to do this by yourself," I whispered. "Please let me help you."
She nodded and I held her for another long moment before the shifting on the couch reminded me of why we were there. My arms slipped to her sides, grasping her hand lightly as I moved towards the loveseat. I found my fingers intertwining with hers and my other hand covered both of them.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kent, I need you to tell me anything - *anything* - you can remember. Was there anyone who looked a little funny? Someone who watched while you took pictures?"
Lois closed her eyes. "Maybe. There was a guy – he was wearing a red shirt, with a logo on it. Baseball hat, blue jeans, sunglasses. Just like Lana said earlier, but I distinctly remember seeing him leaning against a planter, just sort of staring in our general direction, but not necessarily at us."
"Did you see any distinguishing characteristics or anything like that?"
She bit her bottom lip and her brow furrowed. I ran my thumb gently over the back of her hand, trying to give her the support she needed. "Maybe."
"What is it?"
"He had a tattoo on his right bicep." She was silent for another minute, then shook her head. She opened her eyes and tears slipped out. "I don't know what it was. I remember seeing it – and it went all the way around his arm but..."
"That's okay, Mrs. Kent. That's great."
"I saw it!" Lana said, louder than she meant to I was sure.
Lois and I both looked immediately over at the bed. Christopher stirred, but didn't wake.
"Sorry," she said more quietly. "I saw it. It was an intricate pattern. Some kind of flower with thorns, but I don't think it was roses. I remember thinking that thorns didn't go with it, you know?"
He nodded and held out the sketch pad. "Mrs. Kent, does this look like the man you saw?"
She nodded instantly. "That's him." She collapsed against the back of the loveseat and I let go of her hand with one of mine to help support her. "Now there's two crazies after him."
"Not necessarily," Henderson said. "The tattoo information is new and could be a big help. Maybe because it's May or whatever, but no one's seen him in short sleeves before."
I ran my hand up and down her shoulder as she spoke again. "Please, Inspector Henderson. It's bad enough to have one crazy guy after us when we can't really do anything about it. This guy we can."
"Mrs. Kent, I promise you, I will do everything in my power to get him. I've been working this case for a long time now, and no one wants him caught more than me."
She nodded. "Thank you."
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
Clark and Inspector Henderson stepped out into the hall so Clark could let him out. I expected Lana to follow, but she didn't. She stayed on the couch, steadfastly looking anywhere but at me.
"I'm sorry," she finally said quietly.
"For what?" I asked, stifling a sigh. "You're the one who saved him."
She shook her head. "Not today. I'm sorry I was always such a bitch to you in the dorms." She wiped at a tear that wound its way down her cheek. "I've thought a lot of really mean things about you since you guys... got married and seeing all this, the security, the constant fear you must live under... It's not justified. You married the guy I thought I was going to spend my life with. I thought you had it all, especially when I heard you guys moved in here. You had Clark, you had his baby, you had everything I ever wanted. But the rest of this... I can't imagine functioning with all of this. I don't know how you do it. Clark told me after you got married that it wasn't real, that he never planned on being with you and all of that, but he couldn't explain. I've pieced it together over the years – from things one or the other of you have said when we ran into each other or the news or gossip around Smallville... I know Navance was threatening you and your baby and I'm guessing the only way out was to get married and stay married."
"So far so good," I said when she paused.
"I also know neither one of you thought Clark was really his dad. I got the impression that there was some end date in mind – some kind of expiration on what Navance could do or something and that he was planning on leaving and coming back to me at some point." She held up a hand. "He hasn't said anything that would give me that impression since right after you got married, so I'm not sure what the deal is now, but once I found out about Latislan for sure, I did some research and found the five year limitation and all that."
Her tears were coming fast and furious. "For a while, I held onto that, hoping that it meant what I thought it did, but when I saw him – the day he told me you were pregnant – even though he didn't give me details or anything remotely like that – I knew we were never going to happen. Not because of the baby or because he... 'cheated'..." She used air quotes. "...on me with you or anything like that, but I could see it. I've known Clark since we were babies. I see it in the way he looks at you, the way he holds you, the way he loves your sons, the way you danced together at Rachel and Pete's wedding... I don’t think he even realizes it and I don’t know if you do or not, but he loves you. He loves you in a way that he never loved me. I believe him when he says he never lied about his feelings for me, but it's different. I was so scared that first semester that he'd realize what was already happening between you two. He promised me that there wasn't anything going on and I believed him then and I do now, but the two of you..."
She shook her head slightly. "The two of you were always a better match than the two of us. It's taken a lot of soul searching for me to reach the point where I can accept that. And if he ever came to me and you two were truly over and wanted to try again, I might, but I don't think he will. Not even if you died or something. What we had was great in high school, but I don't know that it would have really lasted like we thought it would. I hope it would have – that it could have grown and matured and developed, but there's no way to know. And I've discovered that, really, at heart, I'm a small town girl, but Clark will fit in well here in the city – at the Planet. Much better than I ever would though I would have followed him in heartbeat."
She swiped at her cheeks again. "Don't give up on him yet," she said as she stood. "He loves you. He'd go to the ends of the earth to protect you and your kids. He doesn't realize it yet, though." She started towards the door and the stopped, turning back to look at me. "Take care of him," she said quietly. "At some point, something is going to happen that's going to shatter his world to pieces and he'll realize how much he *needs* you. I don't know what it's going to be – something happening to one of the kids that doesn't seem like it can be fixed, you leaving or kicking him out when the five years is up, but something is going to happen to tear his world to bits and he's going to need your help to put it back together. I just hope he realizes that before it's too late. You're the best thing that ever happened to him, even if he's too big a lunkhead to see it."
And she left.
*****
TBC
