*****Madness: Chapter 3*****
“The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four people is suffering from a mental illness. Look at your 3 best friends. If they're ok, then it's you.”
― Rita Mae Brown
Clark slowly buttoned up his shirt. Another appointment. Another round of needles. He could appreciate Bernie's thoroughness, but how perfectly did he need to understand Clark's blood make up? Couldn't he just get some DNA from another method? Or take any other sample that didn't involve needles?
His mind flashed back to the small room with magazines and the tiny cup, and he shuddered.
Nevermind.
"So, Kent..." Bernie looked more awkward than usual, and immediately alarm bells were going off in Clark's mind. The scientist was wringing his hands and avoiding eye contact. "I, um, I'm not quite sure how to ask this of you, but, I need to ask it anyway, and I'm sure you're not going to like it-"
"Doctor."
"Right. Well, here goes nothing." He took a deep breath, looking everywhere at once except his patient. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop having relations with Lois."
Clark felt his mouth fall open as the doctor continued to squirm and he managed to squeak out a small "What?"
Dr. Klein released a small sigh. "Look, Clark. I know it might be a lot to ask-"
"Might be?"
"-And that it may seem out of bounds, but I can assure you, I have my reasons."
He sighed. Could things get any worse? "Why?"
"A couple of reasons. I want to start monitoring your brain chemistry, first of all, and secondly, I'm going to be monitoring Lois a little bit more closely as well. How her body reacts to different things entering her system, with reference to your DNA or... other similar chemicals."
Clark nodded slowly. "Okay... How long would this have to last?"
Dr. Klein hesitated. "To start? Two weeks."
Clark let loose a groan and put his face in his hands. This hurt worse than the kryptonite.
"Clark? You can do this, can't you?"
He sighed, completely frustrated. Better get used to that feeling, buddy. "Yeah. I can do it."
*****LnC*****
Clark walked late into the Daily Planet, plopping down into his desk chair and dropping his face into his hands. Why oh why was fate so cruel to him? How could they torture him so? It wasn't fair.
He felt a pair of slender hands slink around his shoulders and groaned as they began to massage in a circular motion. "Mmm... Lois." He felt all of the tension drain out of his neck before his wife removed her hands and walked away to turn in their next assignment. He sighed and murmured to himself. "I can't believe that Bernie wants us to go two weeks without sex."
Suddenly Clark was covered in spewed coffee. He cringed and turned to see Jimmy, choking on his coffee as he leaned on Clark's desk for support. "Sorry, Jim. I, uh, didn't hear you come up. Didn't mean for you to hear that."
Once recovered, Jimmy struggled to keep from laughing out loud at Clark's fierce blush. "It's okay buddy. That was my fault. I was just dropping by those photos you wanted a look at for the Murphey case."
"Right. Right," Clark nodded, mostly reassuring himself as he took the files off of his friend's hands. "Yeah. I'll take a look. Yeah."
"Okay." Jimmy's expression suddenly grew very serious and he placed a firm hand on Clark's shoulder. "Hey. Hang in there buddy."
Clark groaned and Jimmy started laughing uncontrollably as he quickly stumbled away. "Great," Clark mumbled. "And there goes the whole news room."
"Hey, what was that all about?"
Clark turned in his seat to face his wife once more, this time with a slight frown. "Did you go turn in that assignment already?"
Lois gave him a funny look. "No, but I was just on my way to. Why?"
He shook his head. "Nevermind. It's nothing, really."
"Jimmy doesn't seem to think it's nothing."
Clark sighed before explaining. "Did Dr. Klein tell you that we'd have to keep from having sex for two weeks at your appointment yesterday?"
Lois looked to her feet sheepishly.
"He did?!"
She raised her hands in defense. "Hey, it's not my fault that you couldn't make it to the appointment because of a 'Superman exclusive'! Besides," her voice took on a sultry tone as her eyes darkened considerably. "I wanted one more night to enjoy myself with you."
Clark groaned. "Sweetheart, if we're going to survive through this at all, you're going to have to stop talking like that immediately."
His wife grinned at him wickedly, and Clark had a feeling that this challenge would prove to be more than he could bear. "Think of it as foreplay, Clark. Really long, hard foreplay."
Yep. Unbearable. "Honey, you're killing me."
She winked at him, but for now, thank goodness, Lois relented. "I'll let you get back to work. Right now I've got to turn in that piece on the Murphey trial."
"Wait! Wait!" She turned back to her husband's desk. "Here. Take Jimmy's photos. I didn't get a chance to look through them, but I'm sure they're fine. Perry makes the call anyway." She smiled coyly at him and stalked off towards Perry's office at a brisk pace.
Clark smiled after, gaze dropping to take in her delicious curves, knowing she was putting an extra swing in her steps just to torture him. He shook his head. She knew him too well.
"Kent!" Perry's voice boomed suddenly, attracting Clark's attention. "There'll be no ogling in my newsroom, understand? There is a deadline here, and I still have a gaping hole in my front page, so get to work!"
Lois tapped her boss on the shoulder and sweetly handed him their story.
"What in the hell is... oh. Oh." Perry looked back up at Clark, who was grinning at him. "Uhm, well. Make yourself useful. This ain't the Smallville Press, son. Get going."
Perry stomped off on his warpath, finding a new employee to harass and leaving Clark all by his lonesome. With a sigh, Clark returned to his work.
But what could he do? Now that their assignment was in, Clark didn't have anything left to work on. He should be out looking for stories, he knew, but for some reason he just didn't feel like doing anything. He sat there, bordering on catatonic, until his phone rang and nearly sent him out of his seat.
"Kent," he picked up quickly on the first ring. Please be something newsworthy. I'm going crazy with boredom.
"Clark Kent?" The deep male voice over the phone asked.
"Speaking."
There was a slight pause before he finally spoke- words that chilled Clark to the bone.
"They're coming for you."
Then there was nothing but dial tone.
*****LnC*****
