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J is for Jet Set
part 5 ( Table of Contents )
by Pam Jernigan

****

Lois only vaguely registered the sound of a car door closing behind her, but she did notice when the pick-up's engine roared to life. She grabbed onto Clark's legs to stabilize him, and looked over at Martha. "Is this such a good idea? Moving him, I mean? An ambulance would have to be a lot more comfortable than jouncing around."

"He'll be okay," Martha said, though her voice was less confident. "It's a short drive. We just have to get him home."

"Oh, right," Lois said, remembering why they wouldn't want Clark to be seen by professional medical personnel. If he'd been hiding this secret all his life, his parents must have been, too. Caution would be ingrained by now. "I guess a doctor couldn't do anything anyway."

Martha looked briefly startled, but then a muffled "look out!" from Jonathan warned them of an upcoming bump, as they moved from dirt road to pavement. Lois squirmed around, trying to find the best way to ensure that Clark wouldn't bang against the tailgate. He was heavier than a normal man, but the quilts beneath him were sliding around a little. She ended up sitting with her legs crossing his thighs, her sneakered feet forming a makeshift bumper between Clark's side and the tailgate. One hand had a grip on the waistband of Clark's jeans, and the other was clutching at the side of the truck.

Once the truck was on the pavement, the ride became much smoother, but Lois was still relieved when the truck pulled into the Kents' farmyard and parked on the grass just past the door to the house, as close as Jonathan could make it. The engine stopped, a car door opened and closed, and then a grimly efficient Jonathan was opening the tailgate. Lois slipped, just a little, as her support was removed, and she moved out of the way.

Lois watched Jonathan and Martha carry their son into the house. As they disappeared, and the immediate crisis was over, the rest of the view began to waver, and Lois felt her thought processes slowing down. Maybe this was all just a really weird dream. She certainly felt strange enough. But then, she reasoned slowly, if this were a dream then all the stuff before was a dream, too, and she didn't want that to have been unreal.

The bang of a screen door bouncing against the doorframe as it closed roused her, and she shook herself. She swung her legs down to the ground and landed -- not quite as lightly as she'd planned. Her legs seemed shaky, and she grabbed the truck for balance. After a second, she recovered somewhat, and walked toward the house.

Some small part of her brain pointed out that she was entering a stranger's house without so much as a by-your-leave, but the thought was shunted aside as irrelevant. She followed the sound of voices toward the stairs.

Martha was coming down the stairs, blocking Lois from going up. "Jonathan's upstairs getting Clark undressed and into bed." She was smiling, but there was a hint of steel in her eyes. "In the meantime, how about you and I have a little chat."

Lois met Martha's eyes for a moment, abruptly remembering that this was the mother Clark had brought her to meet. "Okay." She let herself be steered to the kitchen table. "Um, it's nice to meet you, Mrs. Kent. Or at least it would have been, without all... this."

"Yes. So you're Lois." Martha looked her over, with a critical eye. "Clark's said a lot about you."

Judging by the older woman's tone, she hadn't much cared for what she'd heard. Lois felt her stomach tense -- she'd just known that Clark's parents would hate her.

"I wouldn't have expected to see you anywhere around my son outside of work hours," she observed coolly.

Lois winced. "Look, I know I wasn't the world's nicest person to Clark all the time, but that's all changed now."

Martha still looked skeptical. "Changed how, exactly?"

"Well, the other night, I finally realized..." Lois trailed off, unwilling to share her emotions. Why on Earth had Clark ever thought his mother would like her? He'd be very upset to find out otherwise. "Never mind. That's between Clark and me."

"I see." Martha paused. "So tell me, dear... I didn't see a rental car out front, so I was wondering... How did you and Clark come to be here?"

"Well, we flew, of course," Lois gave the obvious answer to that silly question. Martha still didn't seem enlightened. "You know... Superman Express?"

Martha just studied her more intently. "And... where did Superman go?"

Lois frowned across the table. "According to you, he's upstairs with your husband, but I'm starting to think something funny's going on here. Unless..." a horrible, faintly plausible thought crossed her mind. "I mean, you know about him, right? Clark said you made the costume!"

Martha raised her eyebrows. "You seem to know quite a lot about my boy. As his mother, I have to ask... what do you plan to do about it?"

"What do I plan to *do* about it?" Perplexity was giving way to anger. "What on earth are you talking about? I'm not going to *do* anything about it. As if I could." Abruptly, she realized what Martha must be thinking. "Wait, do you think I was planning to print this?" Her words were coming louder and faster, a process not entirely under her control. "Or blackmail him or something?" Just because she'd been rude to Clark a few times? This was ridiculous. "How dare you?"

Martha studied her for a moment. "I had to be sure. Now that I know you know about Clark and Superman, I can be a little more direct." Her face softened a bit. "What is your relationship with my son?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but if you must know... I'm his girlfriend. Clark wanted to come help his dad clean up after the storm, and he brought me along for the ride." Lois sighed as her fear and frustration began to drain away, leaving her very tired. "We were having a very nice walk up until he fell over." She heard her own voice go querulous. "How could anything hurt him? Nothing's supposed to be able to hurt him!"

"You're dating?" Martha repeated, looking astonished. Then she shocked Lois by adding, "Oh, that's wonderful!"

Lois started to worry that Clark's mother had more than a few screws loose. "Okay, why is it wonderful, considering that you hate me?"

"Oh, honey, I don't hate you!" Martha reached out, not quite touching Lois's arm. "I'm sorry, Lois. I've been looking forward to meeting you, actually -- it's just, when you showed up here today, with no warning..."

Understanding slowly dawned. "...and with Clark collapsing and all, you just didn't know what to think."

"I had to be careful," Martha agreed, sounding truly apologetic now. "I didn't want to spill any secrets, in case you didn't know them already."

"I hate it when people play head games," Lois grumbled. Reluctantly, she added, "but I guess I can see why you'd have to."

"Please, forgive me." Martha smiled warmly, the first genuine smile Lois had seen from her. "I'm delighted that you're here. And I'm very grateful for what you did for him out there."

Lois didn't know what to say to that. Her gaze returned to the staircase. "Can we go upstairs now?"

"Oh, yes." Martha stood, motioning for Lois to go first. "Let's go take care of our boy."

****

Everything ached. His legs were as heavy as lead weights. His arms felt as if someone had been trying to pull them out of their sockets. His stomach still swirled sickeningly, and it hurt to breathe.

This was a vast improvement.

It took him a moment to remember what it was an improvement upon. Yes, this was much better. Upon consideration, he'd take aches over agony any day. He dimly remembered falling, and flashes of being carried... the jostling had not done his aches or stomach any good. He wasn't moving now, though. There was a rumble of a voice saying something. He couldn't make out the words, but he recognized his dad's voice.

Dad sounded worried. It occurred to Clark that he was probably the cause of that worry. With great effort, he opened his eyes, and tried to speak. "Dad...? I'm okay..."

He was in his childhood bedroom. That seemed very comforting. His father was looking closely at him. "Clark, you're safe now, at home."

More of this morning was coming back to him. "Lois... Where?"

"She's downstairs."

Clark drew in a breath, then coughed. "Ow. Remind me not to do that again."

There was movement in his doorway, and then Lois was in the room, heading directly for him. "You're awake!" She perched on the side of the bed, her hands touching his chest. "Oh, god, Clark, I was so scared..." She brushed some hair back from his face, watching him intently. "I thought I'd lost you."

He reached up to catch hold of her hand. "I'm okay, really." He tugged at her, and she seemed to understand the invitation, leaning down to give him a gentle kiss on the lips before moving sideways to give him a one-armed hug. She buried her head in the hollow of his shoulder, and he felt her body shake. She wasn't crying, was she? "Hey, it's okay... shh, Lois, you haven't lost me, you won't lose me. It's okay..."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mom come into the room to stand next to his dad, laying a hand on his shoulder, waiting for Lois to pull herself together. He brought a hand up to the back of Lois's neck, gently stroking, murmuring soothing nonsense.

In a remarkably short time, though, she sniffled and sat up again. With an embarrassed glance toward the older Kents, she ran a hand through her hair and tried to straighten up her blouse.

Clark stretched, evaluating. He still had a lingering soreness all over -- his arms and shoulders were the worst -- but he definitely felt better. His stomach was settling down now, too. He still felt weak and shaky, though. Well, that would soon pass; whatever had happened couldn't keep him down for long. Whatever it was... He'd be back to normal soon. He had to be.

"How are you feeling, Clark?" his mother asked.

"Oh, I'm fine," he said vaguely, not ready to inspect that question too closely yet. "But I'm dying of curiosity -- how did I get here? Seems like I missed it."

"We were walking, and then you... fell over." Lois's eyes were stark and red-rimmed, remembering. Clark gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "I didn't know what the heck to do. All I could think of was to get you out of there, away from... whatever. It seemed to work."

Martha nodded. "Then when she had you to a safe distance, she came to get us, and we all brought you home."

Jonathan stirred. "If you're sure you're all right, Clark, I think I want to go back over to Wayne's and have a look around."

"I'm okay. Just... tired." It was getting harder to keep his eyelids open. "Need to sleep a little bit, that's all."

Lois was glancing back and forth between him and his dad. "Clark... if you're okay, I think I'll go with your dad. He's going to need me. I can show him where we were when... whatever it was happened. I want to figure out what it was."

He smiled, his eyes drifting shut. "That's my Lois. Investigate..."

There was a rustle of fabric moving, and he heard his mother's voice coming closer. "You go on, Lois. I'll take good care of him."

His mattress shifted as Lois stood up, leaving a cold spot where she'd been sitting. "Thanks, Martha. I'll be back soon, Clark." There was one more brief caress on his arm before she exited.

Clark felt as if he was sinking into the mattress. It was okay, he could rest. He felt a flicker of satisfaction at the exchange between Lois and his mom. He'd known they'd love each other on sight. Silly Lois, worried about nothing...

****

The truck ride began in terse silence. Lois looked out the window at the scenery she'd been too busy to see before. Jonathan drove with economy, not wasting any moments or movements.

Jonathan broke the silence first. "What time would you say that you and Clark walked over?"

Lois looked at him warily. The question itself was innocent, but the tone was terse. She was making one heck of a first impression, she thought blackly. She focused on the question. "I wasn't really paying attention... we left Metropolis around quarter to ten, I think. It only took a few minutes to get here." She wondered if she might be in for another round of mind games. Might as well save them both some steps. "By the way, yes, I know Clark is Superman, and no, I don't have any plans to use that knowledge against him. I work with him, I'm dating him, and... we're just going to see where that goes."

Jonathan chuckled. "Now, that's putting your cards on the table. I like that." He paused for a moment, negotiating the turn off the paved road and onto Wayne's long dirt-and-gravel driveway. "I'm not worried, Lois. I saw you two in there. I raised Clark to be cautious -- enough to be paranoid, I suspect--," he added, his voice turning rueful, "about revealing his abilities. If he's comfortable with you knowing, that's good enough for me."

"Oh." Lois didn't quite know how to respond to that. Jonathan didn't say anything more, either, but now the silence seemed much more relaxed.

After a moment, she remembered his earlier question. "So, um, anyway, timing -- we got here before ten. Which I guess is nine, your time. We saw you weren't home, and Clark suggested we go for a walk. We weren't really looking at the scenery, though, just talking. Then we came down that rise toward the farmhouse. We were about halfway there when he just -- fell over. One minute he seemed fine, the next minute he was passed out on the ground." She shivered at the memory. "Do you think the time of day had something to do with it?"

They reached the farmhouse, and Jonathan carefully parked the truck before replying. "I don't know. I'm not ruling anything out."

"Works for me." They exited the truck.

"I want to talk to Wayne," Jonathan said. "You go on and find the spot you were. I'll be out in a minute."

Lois nodded, walking back towards the hill. It wasn't such a long walk as she remembered it. She had lots of details sharply imprinted in her memory, but the big picture was hazy. Where had they been, anyway? She walked up the hill a little way, retracing their steps. Okay, so... they'd come down through here, around the bushes... then they'd seen the tree crashed on the fence. Had they gone that way? Yes, she thought they had. She took a few more steps, watching the ground. Ah. This was it.

It seemed like an entirely ordinary patch of grass.

She looked around, trying to calculate firing angles. Apart from this knocked-over tree, there wasn't much cover around for a sniper. That seemed far-fetched, anyway -- even if someone had figured out something that could hurt Clark, they could hardly have been lying in wait. They hadn't planned to be here. Up until an hour ago, she'd expected to stay in Metropolis all day. No one could possibly have anticipated this. Unless it was someone who was already here, and who had followed them... Looking back towards the hill, she frowned. They'd come around a stand of bushes and saplings, obscuring them from view from behind.

No, it must have been something else. She looked around again, closer this time.

"Is this the spot, Lois?"

She turned to see Jonathan approaching. "Yeah, this is it. I still can't figure what it might have been." She filled him in on her discarded sniper theory. "There weren't any airplanes going overhead at the time, were there?" she asked without much hope.

"None that we heard."

"Well... if we rule out any sort of time-delayed poison, then it had to be something hidden around here. And not toward the hill or the house, I don't think." She began walking forward, continuing their earlier path toward the downed tree.

Jonathan nodded, taking a course that led nearer to the fence. "He did seem to get better when we got him further away from here."

"Right. Well, then..." Lois reached the newly-bare patch of ground. The tree's root system had torn right out of the earth. Tipped on its side, it was nearly as tall as she was. She walked over to poke at the clods of dirt still clinging to some of the roots. "I'm no expert, but I don't see anything." She turned to check on Jonathan's progress, then frowned as something caught her eye.

It was hiding in the edge of the uprooted ground, still partially buried. She walked closer, noting peripherally that it was only a few feet away from where Clark had fallen. It was a crystal of some kind. She'd never seen crystal of that color before, though. It almost glowed, reflecting a malignant green light. "I think I found something."

Working together, they unburied it. There was a clump of crystals, altogether about the size of a person's head. It looked even less innocent in full view. "Unless something better drops out of the sky," Lois said, "I think this is our culprit."

Jonathan picked it up.

"Um, maybe I should carry that. Just in case it strikes again. You can carry me better than I can carry you."

"I asked Wayne to keep an eye on us from the house," Jonathan replied calmly. "Now, what do we do with this? We can't leave it here."

"No, it's got to be hidden. Just not too close to Clark." It looked as if Clark hadn't been affected until he'd been within a few steps of it, indicating it had a short range. That was hopeful.

Jonathan huffed agreement. "Let's see if Wayne has any boxes we could put this in. I've got a spot in my tool shed waiting for it."

Wayne met them as they re-crossed the yard. "Did you find something?"

"We're going to take this, if you don't mind. And we need a case to carry it in," Jonathan said.

Wayne eyeballed the size of it. "I've got just the thing." He hurried back up to his porch, pulling out an old battered box. When he got within speaking distance again, he added, conversationally, "I'd forgotten about that rock."

"You've seen it before?" Lois asked, hardly knowing whether to be suspicious or relieved. If it had been around for years, then maybe...

"Well, only this morning."

So much for that. Well, at least they had it in hand, now, and could keep it at a safe distance.

"I was out this morning surveying the storm damage -- I'd heard the tree go over during the night." As he rambled, Wayne helped Jonathan get the crystal into the box. "That tree hasn't been doing so good lately, not sure why. And I'd been planning to run into town this morning to stock up on a few things, so I thought I'd better check to see if there was anything I needed to add to the list."

"Thanks for all your help, Mr. Irig," Lois said, hoping it would stem the tide of words. They reached the truck, and she crossed to the passenger side to let herself in. She was anxious to get back to Clark.

Jonathan placed the box on the seat between them, then climbed in himself. "Appreciate your help, neighbor." He closed the truck door, but rolled down the window.

"Oh, any time, Jonathan, you know that. What do you think that thing is, anyway?"

"It's dangerous, that's all I know."

Dangerous seemed like an understatement to Lois. At least they'd found it before it could do any more harm. They'd have to figure out some way to hide or destroy it, so it could never hurt Clark again.

"Well, it'll be interesting to find out," Wayne commented, leaning against the car, his arms folded and halfway in the vehicle.

Would this man never shut up? Lois wanted to go see if Clark was awake and back to normal yet.

"I don't think we'll be doing many tests on it, Wayne," Jonathan commented, starting up the truck's engine.

"Well, that's what I've been trying to tell ya. I saw this chunk a'rock this morning, and took a sample. When I was in town, I mailed it off to the state lab in Wichita."

****

to be continued...