"Then we have to see Dr. Klein."
"Why?" They hadn't even talked about him! And Clark never wanted to see him again after yesterday. That man. . .
"To test the vaccine," she said matter-of-factly. "You *need* to test it." Lois needed to know the results as soon as possible. The waiting might kill her!
"Test it? You want me to be exposed to kryptonite voluntarily?" What if it didn't work?
"Clark, how will we know if it worked or not if you don't test it?"
"Well. . . I just don't like the idea. . ."
"Clark! Don't you trust Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark?" She rubbed his leg in a comforting manner. "And even if you don't, we need to test this in a controlled environment. I don't want you out on the street in god knows where when some crazy person comes up to you with a stolen piece of kryptonite to be the first time you test it! You need to see if it really works like we think it does, to see if it has any limitations. The only person in this universe that can do it is Dr. Klein."
Of course he trusted Dr. Lois and Dr. Clark implicitly. Actually, he trusted this alternate version of himself so much more than the Clark from the first alternate dimension, probably because Dr. Clark had *his* Lois and wasn't competition. Yes, he believed Dr. Clark about the vaccine, that it had worked on Dr. Clark. Who was to say it would work on Reporter Clark?
Clark took a deep, shuddering breath. "What if it doesn't work? What are we going to do?"
"What do you mean, what if it doesn't work? It's going to work."
"How do you *know* that, Lois."
Lois took a deep breath before she said, "I don't *know*. No one *knows*. But I *believe* it will work because I *trust* our friends. Why would they tell us something that doesn't work?"
"But . . ."
"Clark! I need to believe it will work. It's one thing that keeps me going."
"But what if I am convinced that it will work, and it doesn't? It's happened too many times. For so many reasons, I really want this one to work. I am so set on it working . . . what if it doesn't? It will break my heart."
Clark took a shuddering breath. There. It was out in the open now.
Lois hugged her husband tightly. So that was his problem. He didn't want to believe it would work because he wanted to avoid the hurt that was bound to overtake him if it failed. She wasn't sure what to say to him; she couldn't argue with his logic. It was a good point.
"But you can't think like that. If you expect the worst, it's bound to happen."
Clark took a deep breath. Even though he didn't want to believe it would work, he knew there was a possibility it could work. And that meant they had to test it. She was right. It was far better to test it in a controlled environment than to take his chances on the street.
"Fine. How are we going to tell Dr. Klein about this?" He changed the subject abruptly on purpose because he didn't want to further the discussion about his fears since he already felt vulnerable enough.
Lois was surprised at his abrupt acquiescence, but she wasn't going to protest. She decided to face the other problem at hand. "What do we really need to tell Dr. Klein? We could just tell him the story Dr. Clark told us about how he discovered the vaccine."
"That I somehow ended up drinking a liter of peroxide?"
Lois shrugged. "Well, yeah. Tell him you were putting out a fire at the peroxide factory and you swallowed it by accident."
"And where is this peroxide factory? Do peroxide factories even exist?" Clark hated lying. He was so bad at it; he needed to have a concrete story to work from. They needed to cover all the angles flawlessly.
"I don't know. Just say it was at a chemical factory. Be as general as possible. The only important part is that you drank the peroxide and then you were exposed to kryptonite without any effects and that you want to test it to see what happened. Maybe even let him figure it out himself. He would love it. It would probably make his day, no, his life!"
"I wish you could come with me," he said simply. Without her with him in Dr. Klein's office, he would probably mess up the story. They were the perfect team, complementing each other's strengths and compensating for the other's weaknesses.
Lois smiled and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "I really wish I could come with you, but. . ."
"You can't come because we don't want him to know about me yet, especially after the. . ."
"Fertility tests," Lois finished. As much as she respected Dr. Klein and loved him for everything he did for Superman, she knew they couldn't let him in on their secret at this point. Maybe they would tell him eventually, but not now.
"But honey, I'm a terrible liar." Clark sighed deeply. Without Lois with him, how was he going to explain this situation to Dr. Klein?
Lois's jaw dropped. What was he talking about? "No you're not. You fooled me for two whole years."
"I am so sorry, Lois. I wanted to tell you, really, I did, but. . ."
"Let's not go down that road again." Lois sighed. She was the one who had brought up the subject. How stupid of her.
Clark nodded. Over the years, they'd had this discussion thousands of times and they'd hashed and rehashed everything they had done so many times and had completely worked through it. "What should I do? I can't keep lying to him. He grilled me hard enough about the fertility tests. I almost cracked."
"If you want him to answer your questions, you're going to have to tell him something."
"What about the truth?"
"The whole truth? That a Superman from an alternate dimension came to give you a kryptonite vaccine? Do you really think he'd believe you, or would he think you're completely off your rocker?"
"Okay, maybe not that much."
"Just be as general as possible. Really, I'm serious; say it happened when you were at a chemical plant. He can't ask too many questions there."
Clark nodded slowly. She was right. He couldn't tell Dr. Klein the truth. The poor doctor would think he was insane . . . or even more insane than usual. "Okay."
Lois continued, "Maybe since you discovered the Kryptonite vaccine accidentally, we can have him try to figure out the fertility treatment on his own."
"How do we know he'll make the connection?"
"We'll just have to take that chance." She shrugged. "And give him a lot of hints. I know Dr. Lois said it would be okay for me to see a regular obstetrician, but I want to have confirmation from Dr. Klein that the treatment works."
"And I'm not comfortable having him know the truth yet."
"He'd be just one more person that knows when he really doesn't have any need to. I mean, more criminals seem to be investing in truth serum these days than ever before. What happens if someone associates Dr. Klein with Superman?"
Clark laughed slightly. "Dr. Klein isn't known for having a high resistance to torture."
"Okay, so we're agreed. We're not going to tell Dr. Klein the secret yet."
"No, absolutely not. He has been really good for us -- helped me with so many problems, but it just isn't essential at this point."
Lois squeezed her husband's hand. Then she tried to lighten the mood, "Yeah, and he might do something crazy like try to publish a paper on the whole thing. I can see it now! The cover of 'Science' would read something like Quantitative Variations in the Use of Red Light and Marinara Sauce by Bernard Klein."
Clark shuddered involuntarily at the thought. "We're not telling him. Even though I think he knows better than that, I wouldn't put it past him!"
"No, we won't tell him." Lois pulled on his hand and dragged him towards the door. "But you *are* going to see him about the kryptonite vaccine."
Clark tried to stall one more time. "But it's Saturday. How can we be sure he'll even be there?"
"Clark! This is Dr. Klein we're talking about. Those weird scientist people are *always* in their labs, even on weekends. How many times have we gone to him for help with a story late at night or on weekends? He's always there. I think he might live there!"
"Okay, you're right." He sighed deeply. "I guess I have to go."
Lois kissed him gently. "That's right, Clark. You do." Off his unsure expression, she felt compelled to say, "It's going to work. Don't worry!"
Even though Clark wasn't so optimistic, he put on a smile for his wife's benefit.
Lois added, "Hurry home! I'll be waiting," as she kissed him softly and then practically pushed him out the door. Her heart thumped in her chest.
It was going to work. It had to.
Dr. Klein was a brilliant scientist. With enough subtle hints, he would figure out the vaccine and fertility solution on his own.
***************
Bernard Klein's office was a familiar place, indeed. Superman had been there so many times over the past two years, it almost seemed like a second home. However, right now, it seemed almost foreboding, unwelcoming. This small, sterile laboratory was the last place Clark wanted to be.
He paced around uncomfortably, waiting for the scientist to arrive. Of course Dr. Klein was there on a Saturday afternoon. Lois was right. He probably lived there. Was there ever a time when he ventured to STAR Labs that Dr. Klein wasn't either in his office or in his lab?
In fact, no matter what time of day or night, STAR Labs was always a bustling place. Lois had been right; scientists apparently never left their work!
Before Clark had totally straightened his thoughts and prepared himself to see Dr. Klein again, the door swung open and the short, bald man in a long white lab coat hurried into the lab.
Clark was face to face with the man who had hurt him so profoundly yesterday.
"Dr. Klein," he said stiffly.
"Oh, Superman. Good to see you!"
He didn't have the time or the energy for a social conversation. "I need to tell you something about. . . " Oh no! He was tongue-tied! Why now? See, this was why he needed Lois! "Well, about, I guess. . ."
"What is it, Superman?"
That was rude! Clark wanted to leave right there and never come back. Too bad he had promised Lois that he would test the vaccine. "Okay, Dr. Klein. This morning, I was putting out a fire at a chemical plant in. . ." Shoot! Where was the chemical plant? "Egypt." Where did that come from? Okay, he would go with it. "And there was an accident where I swallowed some chemicals. I think it was a large vat of hydrogen peroxide. Maybe a liter or so."
"Okay." Dr. Klein listened in rapt attention, mentally picturing everything Superman said. He wasn't sure what Superman was getting at, but he was sure it was something important.
"But the person who set the fire had Kryptonite. And it didn't hurt me." God, this sounded so lame. No one would ever believe this cock and bull story! He was so bad at lying! Look at who he was trying to lie to! Dr. Klein was the one person in the world that would believe this insane story.
"You're kidding!" Dr. Klein's mind was already working to determine any possible correlation between peroxide and kryptonite. How on earth? What kind of experiments could he perform? Where there any other variables? "How amazing. Are you sure it was kryptonite, Superman?"
"Oh, I'm sure."
"Really. Quite perplexing. Hydrogen peroxide, you say?"
Clark nodded. "I was wondering if it was a fluke or if there's something about the peroxide that somehow does something to make me immune to kryptonite." He knew he sounded vague, but he was shocked that Dr. Klein bought the Egypt part of the story. Could he have come up with a more random country?
"Fascinating! Peroxide is such a simple chemical, two hydrogen molecules bonded to two oxygen molecules, molecular weight 34.822. Typically used in bleaching agents and semiconductor etching. It's a very strong oxidizing agent that is very unstable, producing nascent oxygen."
"Dr. Klein, please."
"Oh, sorry, Superman. I was just thinking out loud."
Clark took a deep breath. As uncomfortable as it was, he had to do it. "I want to see if it was just a fluke, so I was wondering if you could get kryptonite and expose me to it."
Dr. Klein took a step back, startled. "Good idea, Superman. Once we know if it does work, I can try to determine its mechanism of action."
"Okay, let's do it." Clark wasn't sure what was going to happen, but he was prepared for anything. He wasn't putting any faith in this so-called vaccine, but he needed to try it, if only to satisfy Lois. No, he needed to know, too. It wasn't just Lois.
"Okay. Superman." He walked over to the special vault and made a show of deliberately entering all of the security codes.
And then. . .
Clark inhaled sharply. There it was. Kryptonite. His arch nemesis. The one thing that could kill him. And he was standing right before it. Now he was holding it. And . . .
Nothing. It didn't hurt. He felt normal.
Oh, god, he felt fine!
"Superman, Superman, what's happening?"
Clark looked at Dr. Klein and grinned. "Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"Absolutely nothing! It's amazing." He shook the kryptonite in his hand. "I'm holding kryptonite!"
Amazing. Wonderful. Exhilarating. He had challenged his biggest enemy and had won! Incredible.
He was holding kryptonite in the palm of his hand. And it didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt. He felt fine!
If only Lois were here to experience this with him. It seemed sort of cheapened not being able to share this moment with his wife, the one person that meant the most to him in the world.
Defeating kryptonite gave him such a high. Endorphins shot through his body, enhancing one of the most exhilarating feelings of his life. His emotions raced with excitement, but his happiness was somewhat dampened without Lois experiencing it along with him.
"Fascinating!" Dr. Klein exclaimed, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
"I guess it worked." Clark shrugged, not knowing the words to express his strong emotions. He didn't want to say anything else because he knew that he would bring Lois into the conversation.
(to be continued)
