Lane and Clark both left the kitchen unwillingly.
Clark had to fight every impulse to keep from turning around and going back in and he imagined that Lane felt the same way.
"It's okay," said Lane, gently as she put a hand on his stiff arm. "You know he won't harm her in any way, right?"
"I do know," he said anxiously as he looked down at Lane. "I'm scared, nonetheless. "
"I am too," she said softly. "For both of them."
"Oh, I know," he said, taking Lane's hand comfortingly. "It hurts him too. I"m sorry."
"Don't. I know he considers it worth any emotional pain if Lois can successfully block Kal."
"He was helping her," Clark whispered in amazement. "He actually helped her build a wall, and... she didn't - react to him as if he was the other... us... she knew. He got through to her!"
Lane listened to Clark's words and read between the lines.
"How did you two usually resolve these times?"
He looked at her, deeply ashamed.
"I left her alone," he whispered in horror. "To face him alone. I did. I was afraid to go in and talk to her or even sit with her, so I avoided her until it was over. I did nothing, Lois. I let her suffer and I did nothing. And then Clark just came right in and helped her build that wall... all this time I could have done that, and I didn't."
"You didn't know how," she said, urging his eye contact. "You did the best you could."
He shook his head, unable to speak now for the emotional burden on his heart. He felt tears prick at his eyes at the idea that he could have helped all those times she had suffered alone.
"I helped her once before," he finally said. "When she first came back, I went into her mind during a nightmare she was having, and I gave her a - a pep talk," he ended on a mirthless laugh.
"Why didn't you ever try that again," she asked, not accusingly, but wanting him to come to his own sense of acceptance.
"I was afraid that it would be a violation. I felt bad enough about what I did then. She had no idea I'd done it. And I felt like I'd - done something wrong."
"Did you ever tell her?"
"Yeah."
"And?"
"She said she wasn't angry about it... but I don't really know if that's true or not. Since he violated her thoughts so often, I never wanted to do anything remotely close to it."
"So going in and helping her push him out would've felt like you were violating her - that is, from your point of view?"
"Yeah, but only because I over-thought things."
"Or because my Clark didn't think it through enough," said Lane. "He's not conditioned to worry before acting where 'Lois Lane' is concerned," she gently explained. "He has no history to make his actions premeditated and careful. I never was afraid of him. Going in and helping her seemed like the logical thing to do."
"It all goes back to my walking on eggshells, again, right?"
"Well... yeah. Of course you do... because you've been conditioned to by her responses. Clark feels awful about driving her to that awful state yesterday," Lane said calmly. "But it's different for him. He can reach out without thinking it over because it's his instinct - to rush in and help. I'm sure that's your instinct too, but you've probably learned to curtail it."
Clark stared at Lane in amazement at how perceptive she was.
"That's it... I want to rush in and help and I have to remember not to. Sudden appearances or sudden intense emotional reaction can be devastating to her."
"So you should stop beating yourself up for not having done what my Clark did. I'm sure it had crossed your mind on some level and you dismissed it out of hand because you didn't want to engage in telepathic communication without her express consent."
"What you say makes sense, but It’s hard not to feel like I failed her,” he mumbled. “No matter what.”
They stopped talking when Lois and Kent entered the room. Clark forced himself not to react and let Lois set the pace. Looking at both of them, he saw how the recent invasion had taken a toll on both human and Kryptonian.
His Lois gave him a tight and not quite reassuring smile, but her worried gaze quickly flitted back to Kent.
“I’m so sorry, Clark," Lois said to Kent, putting an anxious hand on his forearm. "I infected you yesterday, it seems, and now you get to be an unwilling recipient of these horrible sendings."
Kent covered her hand reassuringly with his own and gave her a gentle squeeze.
“Lois, you had no idea that I would start receiving his sendings. How is this remotely your fault?”
“I ... I don’t - I just don’t like you having to deal with this too.”
“I can block him,” he told her with a smile. “Please don’t worry about it.”
“You helped me block him, “ she said, shifting topics as the wonder of what had happened breached her thoughts. "It actually worked!"
"I'm so glad it did," he said, his eyes focused solely on her. "Can I ask you something... about the sending? feel free to tell me to shut up."
She shook her head. "No. Don't shut up. What did you want to know?"
"Did it come from Kal-El," he asked uncomfortably, hating that he was basically using his own name.
“Definitely. Definitely it came from him,” she said. “Why?”
He looked troubled, and then he paced away from them a bit.
“Did the message seem weird at all to you?”
“Weird as in, I’m getting vicious telepathic sendings from an alternate universe?”
Kent let out a mirthless sound at her words.
“No. As in... “ He paused. “it felt like Kal-El was in pain. He was suffering. He was calling out for help.”
“Um. No... that’s not what it felt like to me. I got - menace... intent to harm... bad stuff,” she said uncomfortably, shuddering at the memory.
“And I go that too, but that was ... encased in the other message, which came across to me as a plea for help.”
“Maybe whoever he was victimizing,” Lane offered meekly, not wanting to upset her doppelganger.
“It was the same voice, though... could he have a split personality, one that hates what he’s doing,” Kent asked Lois.
“Not that I ever saw,” she said harshly. “He never seemed in the slightest bit despairing or remorseful of his behavior. He reveled in it.”
“Look, I’m sorry,” Kent said to her, raising his hands in surrender. “I didn’t mean to imply he’s really a good guy or anything. I’m just wondering what’s going on.”
“Wonder why you didn’t pick up on the distress call,” Lane asked Lois.
“Probably because I panic and begin to have a breakdown every time I get one of these. I’m guessing you didn’t,” she addressed Kent.
“It freaked me out, but I didn’t - it wasn’t enough to - I mean, I never met the guy - so I have no reason to react how you did.”
She shuddered again, wrapping her arms around herself.
“Maybe we should stop talking about this,” said Clark worriedly.
“No,” said Lois. “No. If something strange is going on, we should at least get some idea of what. You know - the sendings started about 4.5 months ago,” she told the room at large. “Do you think maybe there’s more than one - like the way there are two of you here now?”
“Maybe another Herb brought another Kal in to fix the mess that is Lord Kal -?”
“So not the Herb we know... “
“God,” said Lane, “ This is hurting my head.”
“That’s the wine,” Kent ribbed her.
“I didn’t drink that much, oh you who can’t get hungover.”
“How can we find out what’s going on,” said Clark. “If there’s another Kal-El in that world and he’s broadcasting a distress signal and Lois is receiving it all we have to do is rescue him to shut off the messages. And it’s kind of the right thing to do too.”
“Or the stupid thing to do,” said Lane. “You’d both get killed. I for one wouldn’t allow it unless I came along”
“That’s even stupider,” said Lois, her voice rising with extreme agitation. “You have no idea what you're suggesting here. I’ve been there. And there’s no way in hell you should go there,” she addressed her doppelganger. “If Kal saw you and thought you were me... you would wish you were dead.”
“Of course I’m not suggesting we try to be heroes. We go in and get doppelKal...”
“DoppelKal..."
“I don’t know what else to call him.”
“This is dangerous on so many levels,” said Lois, her voice still angry. “Trust me. All of you are underestimating the danger. All of you,” she said sternly. “You have no idea. How could you possibly get it, if you hadn’t been there?”
“We did have an invasion of our own,” said Kent awkwardly. “When the new Kryptonians came. Nor... tried to take over the world... and nobody was really trying to stop him on the Kryptonian side of the equation. I mean - nobody but me, Ching and Zara, but that was a small and fairly useless effort.”
“Nor is a special kind of evil,” shuddered Lois. “But Kal makes him look benign by comparison.”
“What about Herb,” asked Lane. “I’m not suggesting we endanger him, but could he use his soul tracking device to help us out with this?”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” said Lois.
“Well,of course not,” Lane smiled back “What do you expect from Lois Lane.”
