Just as a warning, my guess is the next post will be sometime on Friday, January 2nd and potentially the weekend. The week looks sort of busy.
Thank you as always to Kelly, Beth, and Carol for all their help.
From Chapter 18
“Martha?” I asked. “This is Lois.”
“Lois, hi!” she replied, sounding genuinely pleased to hear from me.
“Hi. Um… Perry said Clark called in sick. I didn't think he could get sick,” I said quietly, deciding not to beat around the bush.
Martha laughed slightly. “I think he's fine, but I'm sure he'll be happy to talk to you. I'll go get him.”
“Thanks, Martha,” I said before I heard her place the phone on the counter.
“Didn't you get my message?” Clark asked a second later.
I glanced at my phone and realized the message light was blinking, but I hadn't really paid attention before now. “No,” I admitted. “I was running late today so went directly to the staff meeting. What's going on?”
Clark sighed, “I was helping my dad with some stuff on the farm. Remember I told you there's some weird green rock that saps my powers?”
“Yes,” I answered, seeing where this was going.
“Well, we turned up more of it,” Clark said.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, I felt pretty awful yesterday, but I seem to be okay today. But no super-powers so I don't have a way back to Metropolis.”
I laughed. “I guess that makes sense. Do you think you'll be back tomorrow?”
“I hope so,” he said. “You know, when I was a teenager I wanted nothing more than to be normal. But now… I feel like something's missing when I am.”
“Trust me, Clark,” I told him. “Powers or not, you are not normal.”
Chapter 19
July 1994
Chad literally slammed the door on his way in. “What's up?” I asked. Slamming the door was my thing – Chad was normally much more controlled.
“I have to work the ER shift again tomorrow,” he complained.
“I thought now that there was a whole new crop of residents…”
“So did I,” Chad interrupted. “But apparently, I'm good at it.”
“That's a bad thing?” I asked with a slight smile.
Chad sighed, “No, obviously not. But I don't want to keep getting stuck filling in for them. It's just… I feel like they're taking advantage of me.”
“I'm sorry,” I said, walking over to put my arms around him. “It does sound like that.”
“And you know, it's not like someone covers my pedes shifts for me when I've spent the night in the ER. They just let the nurses handle anything that comes up,” he continued to complain. “So, my patients suffer because they can't manage the ER shifts.”
I continued to hold him, not sure what to say.
Finally, he sighed again. “I'm sorry,” he said as he sat down. “I didn't mean to blow up at you.”
“You didn't blow up at me. You blew up in front of me. That's more than a little okay. I do it to you all the time.”
Chad reached an arm out to pull me onto his lap. “But you're cute when you do it.”
“Tell me that next time I'm blowing up and that may take care of all your worries.” When Chad looked at me curiously, I explained, “I'll hit you in the face so hard you'll start scaring the patients and no one will want your help anymore.”
Chad laughed and I could tell he had let his anger go. “I love you,” he whispered before he kissed me.
************************
“So,” Chad said as we sat down to dinner. “I had a good day today. Well,” he continued at my look, “before I went a little crazy about the ER shift.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“Apparently Mike's office screwed up and made an appointment for one of his patients to come see him at the hospital today instead of his office,” Chad said and I nodded. It wasn't uncommon for some of the older doctors who had private practices to see patients during their hospital shifts if someone needed an appointment urgently.
“Well, Mike was supposed to be in his office today, and no one told him he had an appointment at the hospital. I was free when they came in and agreed to see them. You should have seen this little girl, Lois. She was so cute. Her name was Debbie and she had brown hair with the brightest green eyes you've ever seen. She felt awful, but was smiling and just so even tempered despite not feeling well.”
“What was wrong with her?” I asked.
“She had the flu, so her mother wanted to give her an antibiotic. Can you believe this little kid was complaining about missing school?”
I smiled. I might have been like that at seven, too. Back then, school was a chance to play with your friends, but mostly I smiled as I loved this aspect of Chad's job – he loved interacting with the kids and I loved watching his face as he described these parts of his day.
************************
Clark and Chad came in two days later looking worn out. They had been continuing their Superman experiments and had stepped things up. Chad had asked Clark to bring some kryptonite back from Smallville, and after buying a lead toolbox in town, he had done so.
Until this morning, though, they had been too worried about using it. Chad wanted to see if the quantity mattered, but both were worried about incapacitating Clark when his help could be needed.
“So?” I asked, although I already feared the answer from the look of him.
“Size matters,” Chad said, “but only in how fast the stuff works.”
“I feel awful with even the smallest piece,” Clark said, collapsing into a chair.
“And no powers?” I asked.
Clark shook his head. “It took longer to lose them as Chad used a small piece, but I'm completely un-super now.”
Chad sat down next to me and placed a head on my shoulder.
“What's wrong with you?” I asked. “I thought kryptonite only affects Clark?”
Chad nodded and I could tell he didn't want to talk about it in front of Clark for some reason. “We're going to start making dinner. You stay here and rest,” I told Clark. I didn't think we were in any danger of his ignoring me as he sat slumped on the chair.
“Okay, what's up?” I asked Chad as we went into the kitchen.
He moved to wrap his arms around me and rested his head on top of mine. “It was just harder than I thought.”
“Doing these tests?” I asked.
“Yeah. Watching the strongest man in the world get weaker and weaker. I wanted to stop, but Clark thought that once we started, we should continue,” Chad said. “It was just… well, hard I guess, watching him get sick. You should see what that stuff does to him. And it's scary looking.”
“What's it look like?” I asked. I vaguely remembered Clark saying it glowed.
“I'll go get it,” Chad said. He appeared again a moment later with the toolbox and opened it up. “Look quickly. I don't know if it can still impact Clark from here when he's weak.”
I glanced inside quickly, before slamming the toolbox shut. Chad was right - it was sort of scary looking, the way it glowed brightly. Although, I guess it might have been pretty if I didn't know it was poisonous to my best friend.
“It's…”
“Unearthly?” Chad offered and I smiled.
“Something like that,” I admitted. “So, are you planning to do more tests with it?”
“No,” Chad said. “I don't know that he wants to know anymore and I can't stand the thought of doing this again.”
“So what else are you two going to do?” I asked.
Chad shrugged. “I don't know. We hadn't really talked about it. I think I may try to sneak some of this into the hospital lab and look at it under a microscope. See if I can learn more about it that way. But other than that…”
“Hey, could you take a sample of Clark's blood now?” I asked.
Chad looked at me with a smile. “I can. Great idea, Lois,” he said as he leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.
“Clark,” he called as he moved to the living room. “Are you still interested in learning how different you may be from humans?”
Clark nodded, looking like was still pretty sleepy.
“Well, Lois mentioned that now might be a good time to take a blood sample,” Chad said.
“Good idea, Lois,” Clark smiled at me, but his smile was sort of weak, and I wondered if this was a bad idea.
“Maybe you should wait awhile? Feel a little better?” I suggested.
Clark shook his head. “No, we need to do it now or Chad won't be able to get the needle in.”
“You're sure?” Chad asked.
“Yeah, let's do it now,” Clark said. “I've heard these things hurt and I'd like to get it over with.”
I laughed slightly. “Do you know how much money I could get for a video of Superman saying he's afraid of a needle?”
Clark rolled his eyes at me as Chad went upstairs to look to see if he had supplies at home for a blood test.
************************
“I invited Clark over for dinner after his evening patrol,” I told Chad as I put my purse down. It had been a week since Clark and Chad's experiment with kryptonite. Chad had been running some tests of Clark's blood, but the going was slow. Chad had worked in a lab during med school, but he was sort of out of practice in running the tests now. Still he didn't want the lab guys to run the tests in case they suspected the blood wasn't human.
He mentioned yesterday that he had gotten some results he wanted to talk to Clark about, so inviting him for dinner made sense.
“Do you think he would mind if we moved it to tomorrow?” he asked me.
I cast my mind about. Was it some sort of anniversary I had forgotten? I couldn't think of anything.
“Um… I guess not. What's up?”
“I just wanted to talk,” Chad said.
“Okay, I'll go call Clark,” I told him.
After I'd talked to Clark, who was fine with rescheduling although I know he was interested in what Chad had to say, I set the table. Chad announced that dinner was ready right as I finished.
“Mmm,” I smiled as I took in the Chicken Cordon Bleu and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. “Very fancy. What's the occasion?”
“Does there have to be an occasion?” Chad asked.
“No,” I admitted. “But I know this takes a lot of work.”
“It's your favorite,” Chad explained.
“Well, I know that,” I said, bestowing a kiss on his nose before I sat down.
We ate in companionable silence for a minute or two before Chad cleared his throat. “I actually… I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“What?” I asked, looking at him and noticing for the first time that he looked a little nervous.
“I got… reprimanded at work today,” Chad said.
“Did they try to stick you with another ER shift?” I asked. Given his reaction last time, I could see him saying no.
“No,” he sighed. “Remember Debbie?”
I nodded. “The little girl with the flu from last week, right?”
“Right,” Chad said. “I got the results of her blood work back this morning.”
“Why did you take blood work for someone with the flu?” I asked.
Chad shrugged. “I'm not sure why, but something didn't feel right to me. I just wanted to be sure.”
“Did you do some sort of complicated test that it took so long?”
“No. The sample just kind of got lost in the lab and I forgot about it,” Chad admitted.
“So, did anything show?” I asked.
Chad nodded. “The blood test showed that she probably has leukemia.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling sad. Sometimes it was hard to hear about Chad's day.
“I know. Mike was out today and when I called to tell him, he said to go ahead and call her parents. We didn't want to waste more time before we let her know and do more tests to confirm the diagnosis and get her treatment if we're right,” Chad said.
“So,” I asked, “did you get a chance to talk to her parents today?”
Chad nodded. “Yeah, they came in around one. Debbie was in school, but I guess they could tell from the phone call that something was seriously wrong. It was so hard to tell them what we found. And I spent over two hours explaining the tests we have to do now and what the different treatment options are if we're right. I wanted them to understand that while this was awful news, in all likelihood, we'll get Debbie through this.”
“That's great, Chad,” I said, leaning over to place a hand on his. “I'm sure they appreciated it.”
Chad nodded. “They did. But Ken didn't.”
Ken was the residency program director and so effectively Chad's boss. “I don't understand,” I said. “What was Ken's problem?”
“Apparently, I was spending too much time with her parents,” Chad said bitterly. “According to Ken, Met General is a public hospital and we strive to see as many patients as possible.”
I didn't say anything. This was not the first time Chad had gotten in trouble for spending too much time with a patient and it was unlikely to be the last. I found it was best to just sit quietly and let him get his frustrations out.
“So, I guess we don't care how good we are, if we have good bedside manner or just tell it like it is and move on, no matter how that may make the patient feel. What I was supposed to do was to tell Debbie's parents that she has a life-threatening illness and then send them on their way so I could see other patients!”
We sat in silence for a few minutes before Chad looked up from his food. “I've been thinking,” he said his voice very soft. “I think this is a horrible idea, but I can't seem to make it go away.”
“What is?” I asked.
“I think… Lois, I'm so sorry,” Chad said.
“What?” I asked. He was starting to scare me.
“I just feel like I've been getting more and more frustrated here,” Chad said. “I'm starting to hate my job.”
“Oh, honey,” I said, getting up and moving over to sit in his lap. He moved his chair back to make room for me.
“I don't ever want to be somewhere where I can't see you everyday,” Chad said.
I could feel myself stiffen. “Are you… are you talking about leaving me?”
Chad buried his head in my shoulder. “No. But I am talking about… going away for a little while. Just for a trial.”
“What do you mean?” I asked and I could hear that my voice was hard, but it was either that or tears.
“I think… maybe Clark and Rachel were right to try to each pursue their own dreams,” Chad said quietly.
I stood up. I didn't want to touch him. I didn't want to feel him next to me as he spoke those words. “Clark and Rachel aren't together anymore,” I said coldly.
“We're not Clark and Rachel,” Chad said as he stood up and took a step toward me. “I love you more than anything, Lois. And I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Nothing is going to change that.”
“But you want to go away,” I pointed out, horrified to find that my voice didn't sound quite so cold and tears were now falling down my cheeks.
“No,” Chad said as put his arms around me and held me close. I tried to stay stiff in his arms. I didn't want him to comfort me, but I couldn't help it. He was my husband, the man who had soothed all my hurts for years. It was a habit to let him hold me while I cried. “I don't want to go away from you, Lois. But I think I need to.
“I feel like since we got back from Smallville, I keep comparing it to Metropolis and Metropolis keeps coming up short,” he whispered into my hair. “I feel like maybe if I spend some time in a small town, I'll see that things aren't perfect there either and I'll stop idolizing the idea.”
I nodded my head to show I understood. I did understand. I didn't like it, but I understood. I'd known for years that Chad's dream was to practice medicine in a small town, and he'd given that up for me.
I remembered when Clark talked about Rachel when I first met him, it all seemed so easy to me. If you love someone, you go where they need to be. Of course I had thought it was easy. It had been easy for me – because Chad had gone where I wanted. I had never given up anything for him. Wasn't it only fair that I let him try this and see if he liked it? But what if he did like it? What then?
“What if you decide it is idyllic?” I asked him quietly.
“I won't,” he said. “I'll miss you too much.”
“That won't have anything to do with the town you're in,” I pointed out.
Chad pulled away from me slightly and rested his forehead against mine. “I know,” he said quietly. “And I have no idea what we'll do if I like it. I mean, I do think in the end it won't matter. Even if it's great, I'll remember that I'd rather be with you every day, but… I'm so scared, Lois. I feel so angry all the time at work now. I'm worried that that's going to carry over and I'm going to start resenting you.
“I don't ever want to get to a place where I feel that way,” he said, his eyes brimming with tears. “Lois, I'd rather not see you every day than get to a point where I feel unreasonably angry at you all the time.”
I nodded to show I understood.
“We're not Clark and Rachel,” he said again softly, bringing his lips to mine. I could taste his tears on his lips. “We'll make our way through this together,” he whispered before he picked me up and brought me upstairs.
