This should answer some questions.
Set: Christmas. Lois & Clark S3, House S1(more or less).
Thanks to my beta, IolantheAlias!
*****
from part 1:
“No, no, nothing's wrong.” Superman took the notes and tucked them into a hidden pocket in the back of his suit. He crouched down to pick up Adam as gingerly as possible. “It's just that I know this man.” Superman paused, as if debating whether to say more. “I didn't expect to see him here. Is that all I need to know, Dr. Patel?” Superman asked as he prepared to take off.
“That's it, Superman. Thank you for your help.”
“Thank you, Dr. Patel.” With that, Superman and an unconscious Adam took to the skies.
*****
Part 2
A quick rap on her door roused Lois from her couch. One hand on the top lock, she put an eye to the peephole.
“Clark!” she greeted him as she opened the door. “I didn't know you were back. How was it?”
“Fine,” Clark said distractedly as he entered Lois's apartment. He gave her a quick peck on the lips as he walked by, then sat on the couch. He leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees and began fidgeting with his hands.
Lois sized up the situation with one look, closed and locked her door, then sat next to Clark and caught his hands in her own to still them.
She waited until he became aware of her actions and made eye contact. “What happened?” she asked softly.
“Huh? Oh, nothing. I mean, the rescue was fine. As good as can be expected in those situations.” Clark stopped and looked down again.
Lois waited patiently until Clark looked up at her again. “What is it?” she asked, in that same soft voice that no one else in her life would have even believed her capable of.
Clark took a deep breath and began. “Do you remember the clone Superman?”
Startled by the shift in conversation, Lois sat back a bit. “Sure,” she responded. “You dropped him off in the sun when he was dying.”
“Well...not exactly.”
“What exactly does 'not exactly' mean?” The tiniest note of suspicion entered Lois's tone.
Clark sat silently for a few moments before he visibly steeled himself. He rotated his body on the couch to face Lois and looked her square in the eyes.
“I know you're going to be mad about this. And you have every right to be. I should have told you. But you have to know that I didn't mean to leave you out. And especially after you knew everything, I would have told you what I'd done.” Mid-explanation, Clark began talking to himself as much as to Lois. “But I didn't even know he was alive. And I can't believe I didn't even go back there and check on him, to see what had happened...” Clark trailed off and fell silent again, looking away from Lois.
Lois blinked a few times in her attempt to decipher exactly what it was Clark had just said. Apparently, her mental English-to-babble dictionary did not work in reverse. She admitted defeat, in a voice that was slightly less patient and soft-spoken than it had been before. “Clark, I have no idea what you just said. What didn't you tell me, and who are you talking about? And what does any of this have to do with the Superman clone?”
“I couldn't do it, Lois. I couldn't just toss him into the sun and watch him disappear in a little fireball,” Clark said softly.
Lois made a slight grimace at the mental image conjured by Clark's words. “I understand that,” she said slowly, still grasping for comprehension.
“I got almost all the way there...and then I turned around. I left him with a family I knew in India. I thought he was all but dead when I left him, so I never even thought to go back and find out what happened. I left him and asked the family to see that he had a Hindu funeral, so I knew he would be cremated and no one would be able to use him for his DNA. The family agreed, and I left.” The self-imposed guilt weighed down Clark's whole demeanor. He was not even aware that he emphasized the word “left” in each sentence.
Silence reigned for a full minute.
“He didn't die, did he?”
Clark knew Lois did not really need an answer, as her question was more statement than query, but he gave a small shake of his head anyway.
“And you saw him at the train wreck in India?”
Clark nodded.
“Where is he now?”
“In the hospital.”
Her instinctive dislike for being left out of the loop already smoldering, Clark's practically nonchalant answer provoked the fuel of Lois's fiercely protective streak, which caused her explosive outburst and also propelled her off the couch.
“In the hospital?!?! Clark! What is he doing in a hospital? How did you let that happen? Where is he? We need to get him out of there. We'll take care of him. Maybe Dr. Klein can look at him. What's wrong with him?” As she spoke, she paced rapidly back and forth in front of the couch. At the last question, she abruptly wheeled around and came to a halt beside Clark, who was still seated.
“I don't know.”
“What?” Frustration made Lois's response short. She sat.
“He was helping at the train wreck in India, and then he collapsed. I didn't see any of it, I didn't even know he was there. But just as I was getting ready to leave, checking in with the Red Cross to make sure they didn't need me anymore, he fell into a coma. One of the volunteer doctors there told me to take him to a specialist he knows at this hospital.” Clark shook his head, in the defeated manner of one faced with an impossible dilemma. “I didn't really know what to do, but I knew he needed help. He gave everything for me before. I have to do whatever I can for him.” Clark was still quiet, but some of his defeat and guilt was beginning to give way to determination.
“Where did you take him?” Lois sensed Clark's emerging determination and empathized with his desire to help the clone.
“Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital,” Clark answered.
“Well,” Lois placed both hands on her knees, preparing to rise, “then we better get moving. We need to get to that hospital and figure out what's going on.” She grabbed her shoes from under the coffee table where she had kicked them after work and pulled them onto her feet. “I'll drive, and you can make some phone calls on the way. We'll have to call Perry and let him know we may be out for a couple of days. It won't matter; there's nothing going on at Christmas anyway.” After picking up her purse, Lois led the way out of her apartment then locked the door behind Clark. They started down the hall as she continued to verbalize the to-do list. “Then we'll need to call your parents. There's no telling how long we'll be at the hospital with...the...” she broke off, unwilling to continue calling him “the clone,” but unsure of another moniker.
“Adam,” Clark supplied, recognizing her quandary. “That's what the Red Cross workers said his name was.”
“Okay, Adam it is.” By this time, they had made it to the parking garage. “There's no telling how long we'll be at the hospital with Adam. But they might as well come to Metropolis if they still want. We'll have Christmas somewhere in the middle of all this. Your parents are pretty adaptable, and we have a couple of days before Christmas anyway.” Lois ceased talking for a moment as she focused on pulling out of the parking garage and into Metropolis traffic. “Then I'd like Jimmy to find out whatever he can about this hospital and this specialist, just so we know what we're getting into. What did the Red Cross doctor in India tell you?”
“His name was Ramesh Patel. He said he knew of this specialist at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. He gave me the medical information they had on Adam and told me to take him to Dr. Allison Cameron. He knows her from med school or something, I guess.” Clark went on, “Turns out Dr. Cameron works in the department of a Dr. Gregory House. I didn't speak to him, but I told Dr. Cameron that Lois Lane and Clark Kent would be coming and that they were friends of Adam's.”
Lois said thoughtfully, “We might have to do some fast talking to get any sort of access to him.”
“Possibly,” Clark agreed. “Before I left, I heard them say they had roused him from the coma and that he was stable. I'm hoping we can talk to him in private and get some sort of story straight. I don't know what he does or does not want the doctors to know, but someone is probably going to have to be told that he is a clone, possibly even told that he's a clone of Superman.” Clark was serious, but his resolution was firm. “I don't want to give anyone the full story, but if it comes to that, I will consider it.”
“We'll figure it out,” Lois assured him, then fell silent, mulling over the situation. Clark pulled out his cell phone to start making calls. Lois concentrated on thinking, driving, and listening to Clark's side of the phone conversations.
*****
“You missed him.” Dr. Cameron slapped a folder on her colleague's desk as she spoke.
“Oh, you mean you cured the patient without me?” came Dr. House's snarky reply. “I'm just so... overwhelmed,” faked emotion was supplemented with faked sniffling. “My baby birds are beginning to fly and soon they'll be gone!”
“Oh, shut up. Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about.” Dr. Cameron's tone adopted a fair amount of its own snark.
“So is he as dreamy in person as he is on TV?” Faked sniffling was displaced by equally insincere gushing.
Abandoning the pointless thread of conversation, Dr. Cameron flipped open the folder on the desk. “The patient is a white male, approximately 30 years old. He was helping to recover survivors at a train crash in India when he collapsed. He exhibited expressive aphasia and muscle convulsions, which prompted the Red Cross doctors to send him to us via Superman. Blood pressure is normal, but he appears pale, he's running a slight fever, and shows some whitening of the retina. Superman left, but he mentioned that Adam has some friends from Metropolis who will be visiting.”
“So what are you waiting for?” Dr. House dropped the histrionics but the snark remained. “Gather the brain trust, and let's go visit our friend of the Man in Blue.”
*****
After about an hour and a half on the road, Clark's phone rang.
“Hey, Jim. You're on speaker.”
“Got some interesting stuff on this doctor you guys wanted me to look up,” Jimmy's voice issued from the small speaker on the phone.
“Really?” Lois asked, intrigued. “Like what?”
“Turns out he's some kind of phenom when it comes to weird diseases and stuff. Apparently, he gets all the difficult cases that no one can figure out and figures them out.”
“Is that all?” Lois queried.
“Nope. He has a tendency to, uh, skirt the law in order to diagnose and treat his patients.”
“So you mean he's the medical version of Lois,” Clark grinned as Lois shot him a glare.
“Uh, yeah, that's pretty much the picture I'm getting.”
“Watch it, Jimmy,” Lois warned.
“Oh, sorry, Lois. Forgot you were listening,” Jimmy hastily apologized.
“Uh-huh,” Lois said skeptically. “Anything else we should know?”
“Looks like there have been some complaints about his tactics...hmm...let's see...just skimming through I'd say he's kind of a drama queen.”
“Figures,” Lois muttered.
“Thanks, Jimmy,” Clark said.
“No problem, guys. Gimme a call if you need anything else. And, hey, if I don't see you before then, merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas to you too, Jimmy,” Clark replied.
“Thanks, Jimmy, bye!” Lois responded.
Clark set the cell phone in a cupholder in the Jeep's console. “What was that muttering about?”
Lois wrinkled her nose in answer. “Oh, it just figures. These genius types always have some sort of attitude to go with their smarts. Jimmy said he's a drama queen? More likely it's just his ego. You would think we might catch a break with an intelligent but personable and discreet doctor to deal with our unique situation. No, instead we get the genius doctor who will undoubtedly be able to help us, but he'll give us as much trouble as he does help.” Clark watched bemusedly as Lois juggled steering with wildly gesticulating. “Once! Just for once I'd appreciate a simple solution to a problem.”
Clark laughed.
“What?” Lois asked, indignantly.
“Lois, if our problems had simple solutions, you'd be bored,” Clark answered matter-of-factly.
“No I wouldn't!” she harrumphed.
Clark merely raised an eyebrow in skepticism.
“Okay, probably,” Lois relented. “But I would consider it a cosmic Christmas gift to us if this one were to play out easily. I was actually looking forward to Christmas with your parents.”
“I know.” Clark was sympathetic. “But we'll make it a good Christmas regardless. My parents are great at that, and you never know what kind of surprises I have up my sleeve.”
Lois reached across the Jeep and squeezed Clark's hand. “I do love you, Clark Kent, even when you do lunkheaded things like forget to tell me where you dropped off your clone.”
Clark looked at Lois, hoping to derive more meaning from her words through her expression. To his relief, he caught the mostly-teasing twinkle in her eye.
“Thank you,” Clark said simply.
“For what?” Lois was confused.
“For being you,” Clark replied. “No other woman in the world could handle the craziness that is my life.”
“Yeah, well, you're lucky you look good in spandex,” Lois bantered with a smile. “Besides, like you said, I'd be bored otherwise.”
*****
to be continued
