“Clark needs to go after them,” Lane implored the resistance leadership barely holding in her fear and anger. “Two days is too long not to have heard anything.”
“We knew that this mission could take time,” LL began, trying to keep calm in the face of the other woman's obvious anger. LL had a visceral dislike of Lane, resenting her for all she hadn't endured, and she was hard pressed to treat her fairly.
“They might be prisoners, and we're sitting here doing nothing!”
“A lot of humans are prisoners now, and nothing will be done for them,” LL interrupted her venomously. “Sometimes there are casualties in war -”
“How dare you act like his life is worth less than any earth born person,” Lane raged. “My husband came to this world with a genuine and honest desire to help. You expect me to just accept that he'll be sacrificed to your cause without even any attempt on your part to rescue him? Clark – how can you be okay with this,” she turned her anger towards Clark who looked at her, a helpless look in his eyes. He didn't have a chance to say anything because LL was raring to rebut.
“This isn't a cause, Lois, this is the liberation of billions of people. Do you think your husband would want us to destroy our chances at freedom? If he's as noble as you make out, I hardly think so.”
“No, he won't want that,” Lane snapped back at her. “But I will not abandon him, even if you are willing to do so and even if you are so unwilling to upset any earth person in this world that you'd let him be gone,” she snapped at Clark. “I suppose this is the result of all that eggshell walking you've had to do!”
“Lois, I'm not willing to abandon him,” said Clark, trying not to react in anger. He knew Lane was hurting, but her parting shot had been cruel and when he saw Lois's face turn pale, he knew his own wife had figured out Lane's intended meaning. “I personally don't think he's in danger. I'm not picking up on any -”
“Clark, he's blocking. Okay. He's blocking so that none of the bad Kryptonians will pick up his signals.”
“If he were in trouble, he'd call out for help.”
“No. He wouldn't. Would you? Would you, if you thought it would endanger anyone?”
Clark paused and then shook his head.
“No. I wouldn't.”
“And you two are more than doppelgangers... you're practically carbon copies in terms of how you think and act. Face it. If he's in trouble, you won't know.”
“We can't just charge in there and risk the safety of this mission. Clark knew that going in,” said Lois trying to calm her down.
“The man you love is right here. Alive and well. It's easy for you -”
“I'd like you to stop now for a moment and think about what it is you're about to say to me,” Lois interrupted, her tone one of command. “Really ask yourself if that's true. If I am okay with your Clark being a prisoner of the same monsters who imprisoned me. “
Lane paled and stopped her outburst.
“I'll never win there, now will I? No matter what I may think – my opinion is always going to have no weight in this world with those of you who have suffered.”
“You can't know,” said LL haughtily. “You've lived a happy little fluffy life – it's so sad about your hard life with your struggles with your father, and Claude,” she said sarcastically. “Poor little broken Lois. But you have no idea. What we've endured takes your problems and relegates them to the realm of laughable.”
“That's not fair,” said Clark, looking LL directly in the eye, causing her to visibly stiffen in fear. He didn't care anymore. He wasn't going to let her walk all over him to the point where he wouldn't defend a friend. “Lois's life hasn't been horrifying, true – and I personally can't be anything but glad for that. You might hate her – or resent her – or whatever this emotion is – but really – there's nothing to be gained for treating her so badly. She came here with Clark willing to help and she's borne your criticism with an amazing amount of forbearance. It's not her fault that she didn't have to live through this.”
“Hey, I don't wish she'd lived through this,” said Lois, ignoring LL's sudden silence.
“I wasn't really referring to anything you said -”
“I think you were on some level... because let's be honest. I've been kind of bitchy to her at times as well.”
Clark went silent.
“And you … and – I know I'm not the most pleasant person to be around at all times – and I'm not asking for you to lie to me here,” she addressed this to both Clark and Lane. “I get it. But while I do think that you,” she nodded at LL, “dislike her, I think that it's not that hard to see why. You're right. It isn't fair, and it's good of you to stand up for your friend... but try to understand – when you've been through hell, you resent the people who escaped unscathed. Just like you might have resented the other world's Clark for not having to deal with his secret exposed all the time.”
Clark reddened at her words, aware that he had confessed this to her.
“I'm sorry,” he finally said, addressing LL. “The thing is, while I can't truly understand, I do see where this all comes from. I can't just say nothing though - Lois may have had the easiest life of all of you, but I don't see that she's denying the truth that her perspective might not be as broad as yours. She's scared for the well-being of someone she loves. And I definitely understand that.”
LL finally found her voice after the horrible attack of dread that struck her when Clark had looked her right in the eyes and spoke in a tone that was so firm and resolute. Like that, he was more like Kal-El than ever before even if he didn't radiate menace or contempt.
Clark wanted to apologize for scaring her but knew that loss of face would infuriate her more than anything, so he kept quiet, waiting for her response.
“Look. I get it. I'm sorry, Lois,” she said, surprising Lane. “And I don't say this out of fear,” she said, her eyes coldly grazing Clark, letting him know that he might frighten her, but he'd never command her. “I realize I'm... broken. I realize I'm hard. It's not your problem and I appreciate that you consented to allow him to help us. We won't abandon him. But can we just give them a little more time? There's a lot of intel to gather, and I fear that it will take a few days to do this. Zara is much wilier than you think. Her survival instinct rivals ours.”
Clark flinched at the thought of Zara suffering.
“Ah, do you get a sense of her well-being,” he asked LL, refusing to go back to his old way of sitting silently through meetings where they were both in attendance.
“No, but I don't feel she's in trouble either,” LL responded after a momentary hesitation. She could see that Clark truly cared for Zara and her heart jolted again with the pain of never having that kind of feeling in her life ever again. She hated to admit it, but Clark clearly was a very good man. Selfless and caring, he wanted to save everybody.
“If we don't hear back from them, we'll plan another invasion,” said LL with an ironic look at her own choice of words. “We'll get them back.”
Lane nodded, her expression and body language still tense and miserable. Clark dared to put a supportive hand on her arm and was rewarded when she gave him a pained smile.
“I'm sorry,” she said to him. “I was way out of line. I know you want to do the right thing.”
“No worries,” he told her. “Believe me when I say that I understand.”
