This story is a sequel to
Medical Miracles . Unfortunately, I am not sure if this story will make any sense without reading the first story. However, I hope you decide to give it a chance. I hope to post every 2 or 3 days.
I must thank several people for the creation of this story. First, Carol Malo, my archive GE for Medical Miracles. In a follow up email telling me she sent the story to the archive to upload, she told me that Dr. Klein might write an article about the whole thing. Thus, the line about Dr. Klein's article about "Quantitative Variations of the Effects of Red Light and Marinara Sauce" belongs only to Carol, and not to me. Also, thank you to my PhD advisor, Dr. J.T. Mortimer, for making me look up the word "serendipity". He's right -- it is a very interesting fact to know! (I also know about the Battle of Lepanto because of him!) And, finally, to my trusty beta Tricia who always encourages me whenever I think my story is absolutely awful.
Medical Miracles II: Serendipity
by Alicia U.
Lois Lane stretched languidly fighting against the powers trying to pull her from the depths of her peaceful sleep. She didn't want to open her eyes just yet; she would have to leave the warm, comfortable, wonderful nest of Clark's large, warm body.
At this moment, nestled in her husband's muscular arms, her life was perfect. Nothing in the world could tear them apart. She could stay like this forever.
But not if she couldn't stay asleep.
Stupid sun! Stupid daytime! Stupid circadian rhythms!
She couldn't fight it; she was awake.
Her eyes immediately fell upon her peacefully sleeping husband. He looked so innocent, so beautiful. She could watch him sleep for hours.
Without even knowing what she was doing, her hand softly stroked his face. She leaned down to plant a soft, chaste kiss on his lips. Resting her head against his smooth chest, she listened to the rhythmic, melodic beating of his heart.
As the steady heartbeat lulled her back to sleep, Lois's mind drifted.
Yesterday had been a turning point in their lives, driving them through the gamut of emotions and swirling them along the path of the unbelievable and the utterly unexpected.
Initially, all their hopes and dreams had been shattered when Dr. Klein had informed Clark that he would never be able to father a child with a human woman. The tests confirmed the vast differences between his alien physiology and human physiology that couldn't be rectified. It was something Clark had feared all his life.
He was different. He *wasn't* a real man. He truly was the last son of Krypton. He would never have a true blood relative.
Never.
Poor Clark had been absolutely crushed. For Lois's part, she had been equally devastated. Of course she was upset on Clark's behalf; she had always known how much Clark wanted children, and she longed to give them to him.
But that wasn't the only reason.
She hadn't realized how much it would hurt. Her heart was being ripped from her chest.
She had never considered having children seriously, but she had always assumed it would be a possibility somewhere down the line if she so chose.
Sure, she didn't want children at the moment, but she did want them eventually. And now every possibility of her having a baby with the man she loved had vanished. It felt almost like she had been robbed of something she never really had, but wanted ever so desperately. A child would complete their lives.
Lois and Clark had made a pitiful pair yesterday, both so absorbed in their raw shock, neither willing to consider any alternate possibilities. They had lost something precious, and would never be able to get it back. In a matter of hours, they had sunk into a pit of depression with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Then there came a soft knock on their front door. That fateful knock had changed their entire outlook on life forever.
HG Wells had shown up on their doorstep with . . . a baby -- their baby from the future.
Almost more unbelievably, he had told them that he knew someone that could help them conceive the baby he held in his arms.
Lois wasn't sure why she had believed him almost immediately. The moment she had seen the baby, she had known it was her baby in the old man's arms. An almost magnetic force had pulled her to the baby.
Could it have been a mother's instinct?
All she knew was she wanted to sacrifice anything to protect that little baby at all costs.
Clark had taken a little longer to convince. It was to be expected. He had been so horribly wounded by the knowledge that he was the one that would prevent them from having children that he didn't want to surrender to a glimpse of hope just to be shattered again. When he had realized that it truly was his future child, his eyes had lit up with a euphoria that made Lois's heart practically melt. It was like Clark's soul had been awakened and he was willing to take on their fertility problem with rekindled hope, knowledge that he could fix what had once been thought impossible.
Wells had told them that he knew a Lois and Clark from an alternate universe that would be able to help them conceive their child. Lois actually wasn't at all surprised that there was another alternate universe in existence, but she was shocked at the career path her counterpart had chosen. This alternate couple had chosen to go into medical research instead of journalism. Lois had trouble imagining what could possibly possess a Lois Lane of any universe to go into something like science instead of investigative journalism. Ever since she was a child, the thrill of the adventure of solving a mystery had captivated her and she had always known that she wanted to solve them for a living.
It had taken a while for Lois to get over the shock of learning that an alternate version of herself wasn't a reporter. Even by the time Mr. Wells had returned with their doctor counterparts, Lois still hadn't accepted that any version of Lois Lane could be anything other than a reporter. Needless to say, the two Loises hadn't gotten off on a good foot. In fact, they had tried to instigate each other. When the Clarks had heard a report of an earthquake in South America, they were both extremely leery of leaving the Loises alone together. However, after a time, they had realized that they had more in common than either could have ever imagined.
Sometimes being stuck together in an enclosed space did wonders. They either had to kill each other, which, honestly, almost happened, or talk to each other. Thank goodness they had taken the initiative to get to know each other before they killed each other. It turned out that they were more alike than they realized.
By the time the two Clarks had returned, the two Lois's were acting like long-lost friends. Dr. Lois had become Lois's new best friend, for she had given Lois the greatest possible gift, a medical miracle. Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark had discovered not only a solution for their fertility trouble, but, even more importantly, a vaccine for kryptonite poisoning.
Clark would be immune to kryptonite! Was it too good to be true?
No matter what, they needed to try the vaccine. Even if it didn’t work, they had to at least try it. She had unwavering faith that it would work. It had to.
It would work because it had to work; it was that simple.
Lois was willing to try almost anything to protect the man she loved. Now that she had the cure for Kryptonite poisoning so close, she didn't want him to wait to try it. She would try anything to preserve his health so he would be with her for the rest of her life.
As she gazed at her husband's sleeping form, her heart was filled with a sense of love that warmed her soul. She wasn't sure how she had lived before she'd met him. He completed her in ways she could have never imagined.
When he slept, his face took on an almost angelic expression. He was the strongest man in the world, yet when he slept he appeared so vulnerable.
And that was why he needed to try the vaccine as soon as possible.
She wanted to eliminate any vulnerability. It would comfort her whenever he was away, knowing he was immune from the one thing that had hurt him so many times -- the one thing that could kill him.
"Mmmm, good morning, honey," Clark whispered, interrupting her thoughts. He reached out to her and pulled her close.
"You're feeling better today." She grinned at him, her spirits enlivened when she saw the lighthearted look in his eyes and the grin on his face. The burden he had carried yesterday seemed like it had completely dissolved and he was filled with his usual optimism for the world.
He grinned at her, wanting to come up with a witty remark, but nothing he could say could cover everything he was feeling. Instead, he reached up and cupped her face with his hand and brought his lips to hers in a deep, heartfelt kiss.
A passionate kiss could express so much more than words ever could.
"Mmm, you *are* feeling better today!" Lois exclaimed when they kiss finally ended.
"I still can't believe everything that happened yesterday. It seems almost like a dream."
Now was the time to discuss the kryptonite vaccine! Lois reached out to the dresser on her side of the bed and grabbed the notebook. "It's real, honey."
She was actually more excited about the kryptonite vaccine than about the fact that they would be able to have children some day. The vaccine was immediate while the thought of having kids was so far in the future that she didn't want to think about it.
"I still can't believe it. We're going to be able to have children."
Lois said simultaneously, "There's a kryptonite vaccine."
Clark grinned and said, "That's right! And the kryptonite vaccine!"
Lois glanced at the notebook with the chemical formulas and, more importantly, the exact formula to follow to make Clark immune to kryptonite.
"Get up; we have to go to the store to get the peroxide for you to drink."
Lois wasn't wasting any time.
"Do we have to do it now?" Clark ran a hand down her side. "It's sooo comfortable here like this. Can’t we just stay here . . . alone, together. We haven't been alone since . . ."
"Last night?"
"Oh. Right, but that seems like it was so long ago. So much has happened since then."
"Exactly, and that's the reason we have to get up."
"Thirty more minutes? That's all we'll need."
"Clark! We have to do it now! What if in thirty minutes, someone has kryptonite. Don't look at me. It has happened before!" Her voice softened, "I don't want anything to happen to you. I love you too much to ever think of losing you -- especially when I know we can stop your biggest threat."
"I love you, too, Lois. Let's do it."
Lois tugged at his arm. "Come on, let's get up."
"But it's so comfy here." He grabbed he hand and put it to his lips and placed a soft, gentle kiss on each of her slender fingers. It could wait a little longer. Right now, he wanted to relax in bed with his wife. Peroxide was always available. Lois wasn't.
"Clark! I promise, after you drink the peroxide, and we can prove it works, we can spend the rest of the day here. Heck, we can spend the next thirty days here!"
Clark grinned at her. "Is that a promise?"
Lois nodded slowly.
He quickly sat up in bed and took the paper from her hand. As he sped read the instructions, his face looked pained. "Lois, you want me to take some random vaccine before we even have Dr. Klein look at it."
"I thought we agreed that you were going to take it."
"I guess I'm just having second thoughts." Like thoughts about some of the strange side effects other trials had given him. The reward was monumental, but could he stand the trails he would have to endure to get there?
Plus, what if it didn't work?
"Don't you trust our alternate selves?" Lois didn't understand what he could be thinking. This seemed like the ideal situation.
"Of course I trust them." He backpedaled.
"Please take it, Clark. I don't want to image what could happen if . . ."
"Nothing is going to happen. . ."
"But now that we have the vaccine, I don't want to think about what would happen if someone came after you with Kryptonite and you hadn't taken the vaccine yet and it's in our hands."
"Okay, honey, I'll do it. But what if something happens with the vaccine?"
"What do you mean?"
"Side effects. Like what if it makes me grow antlers or something?"
"Clark!"
He shrugged. It didn't hurt to cover all his angles. Those TV commercials for different, new medicines really scared him even though he couldn't even take them. For most, he had no idea what the medicine cured, but he definitely knew all of their possible side effects -- and none of them sounded the slightest bit pleasant! Who was to say that this vaccine wouldn't do the same thing?
Lois continued, "Thankfully, it's the weekend. I guess you're lucky we don't have to go to work today or tomorrow if you're so worried about funny side effects. But don't you think Dr. Clark would have warned us?"
"I guess."
"Come on, let's get dressed and go to the drug store and get some peroxide then you can drink it and be immune from kryptonite poisoning forever."
Since Clark was the one that was actually going to be drinking this vaccine, he wanted to be sure he had it completely right. "How much peroxide? What concentration? What if we get it wrong?"
Lois reached out to get the sheet of paper to see the formula. "Commercial grade; a gallon, almost 4 liters, should work."
"We're just going to run to the drug store to get a gallon of peroxide? Won't people look at us a little funny? What would normal people be doing with nine bottles of peroxide?"
"Who cares?" was her first response. Then she offered another suggestion, "We could go to several drug stores. But who really cares? So what if people look at us like we're crazy. How often does that happen anyway? We should be used to it. And, really, a gallon of peroxide is nothing compared to some of the other stuff we've done."
"That's true." Clark nodded. It did happen quite often. They often did things that made the rest of the world look at them like they were insane. "Okay, let's do it." He really was excited about the vaccine, but he didn't want to get his hopes up in case it didn't work as planned.
Lois squeezed his hand reassuringly and said, "Let's go," as she led him out the door.
**********
About an hour later, Lois and Clark returned home with eight large, brown, 500 milliliter bottles of peroxide. Lois pulled the first bottle out of the bag from Walgreen's and handed it to her reluctant husband. "Are you ready?"
Clark looked at the bottle quizzically. "Is *it* ready? Do we have to do anything to it or do I just drink it?"
What if it didn't work? What if he was drinking a gallon of peroxide for nothing? What if he and his alternate self had a different reaction?
Failure would be devastating.
He just didn't want to expect too much just to be crushed in the end.
"Of course it's ready." Lois couldn't understand his hesitation. He had seen the same instructions as she had. All he had to do was drink it! In her mind, this was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to them. She opened the top for him and raised his hand towards his mouth. "Just drink it already!"
He gazed into the bottle and made a horrified face. "That looks disgusting!"
"Clark! You can do it! How hard can it be?" He was stalling!
He made a show of plugging his nose and taking a first sip.
"I know I *can* drink it, honey." He made a horrified face as he tried to take the second sip. "That doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Clark, you swallow more disgusting things than peroxide on a daily basis."
"Well, yeah, but I'm usually too caught up in the moment to notice their taste."
Lois groaned loudly. "Can't you just do the same thing here? Just chug it! Don't you remember college?"
"Honey, this isn't the same. What if it doesn't work correctly if I just chug it?"
"Good point. I'm no scientist, so I have no idea how the body responds." Lois wanted to pull her hair out. Why was he making this such a production? She handed him the second bottle.
"Okay, one more sip. I can do it." He tilted the bottle and poured the cold, fizzy peroxide liquid into his waiting mouth.
"See, that wasn't too hard." Clark had been acting like drinking that peroxide had been the hardest thing he ever had to do. Maybe it was. He'd tried several potential kryptonite vaccines in the past and all had caused adverse reactions. Maybe he was just being overly cautious and his weird reaction was a defense mechanism.
Lois tried to reassure him by kissing him, but he pulled away quickly. "Lois! Don't kiss me! I still have peroxide on my lips!"
"Yes, you do! And now you might be immune to kryptonite." She stared at him trying to see if she noticed any side effects. "Are you feeling okay?"
Clark waited a second for the peroxide to firmly settle in his stomach, burped softly, and said, "I think . . . I think I'm okay. Nothing. . . yet. I don't feel any different. . . yet."
"It worked!" Lois exclaimed. Who would have ever thought a simple, widely available chemical like hydrogen peroxide, simple H2O2, would be the missing link between Superman and kryptonite! It was so simple, yet so ingenious. She owed Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark her life. "I'm sure it worked." Yes, she was being optimistic and making assumptions, but she desperately wanted to believe that it had worked.
"We don't know that yet!" He was being cautious. As much as he desperately wanted this cure to work, he couldn't let his mind accept it. What if it didn't work? He didn't want to face that kind of disappointment. It would hurt him so profoundly; he wasn't sure how he would deal with it.
"Then we have to see Dr. Klein."
To be Continued . . .
