After Nightfall: The Return of Superman
Chapter 7: Loss
The Metropolis General emergency room was not where Lois had planned to be at this time. An hour ago, she'd been sure that she had enough influence to change the destination for Superman's ambulance. However, she'd come face to face with reality.
First she'd tried calling Dr. Klein. He said he'd be happy to work with a medical doctor, but was unwilling to force himself into the middle of things and insist he be named as Superman's physician without more real familiarity with his potential patient.
Then Lois had tried calling in favors from the military. She had some friends, and at first she thought that approach was going to work. However, when her contacts got back to her, she learned that her initial secrecy about Superman's return had come with a political price tag. Both the military and space establishments had been embarrassed at being out of the loop for the Nightfall Swarm mission, and for the moment, Lois was not going to get any help.
Finally, out of pure desperation, she tried calling in some favors from the mayor and city council. Apparently she wasn’t owed any favors.
She'd tried three avenues of attack – science, the military and political – and they'd all failed. Her last hope had been that Clark would regain consciousness before he was transported, but that didn't happen either. So here she was, surrounded by others from the media who were looking to get the jump on the story of Superman's hospitalization.
“Lois,” came a familiar voice from behind.
She turned to see Dr. Klein approaching from the far door. “Hi, Bernie. Thank you for coming.”
“Not a problem at all. Do you have anything new on Superman's condition?”
“No. The sunlight seemed to help, but he never woke up.”
“I'll do what I can,” he said, “but I'm honestly at a loss as to how to approach taking care of Superman. Do you know anything about any previous injuries? Did he tell you any details about the aftermath of the first Nightfall mission?”
Lois considered her answer carefully. Ever since this afternoon she'd been thinking that it was way past time for Clark to have a doctor. “Did you have time to think about a possible doctor for Superman?” she asked, ducking the question for the moment. “I mean on a long term basis.” she added quickly. “Would you be able to provide medical support for Superman?”
“Probably,” he answered with some hesitation. “I guess it depends on how close his physiology is to that of a human.”
“So if he's more like a normal man, you would recommend yourself?”
“No. I would only be the best choice if he's less human. The closer he is to a normal man, then the better he will be served by having a regular medical doctor.”
Before Lois could reply there was a commotion at the ambulance entrance and a scattering of, “That's the one!” and “He's here!”
Lois started toward the center of the commotion, but her desire for a little isolation left her too far from the ambulance entrance. The other reporters had her quite effectively blocked out. “I should go meet with the admitting doctor,” Bernie said. “I spoke with him before I came over. He seemed glad to have my input.”
“Go,” Lois said, “But I'd like to continue our discussion later.”
Bernie nodded then turned and headed through the door that led to the treatment rooms. As soon as he turned away, Lois started working her way through the other reporters. She'd been in this town too long to let a little pushing and shoving get between her and her story. And when the story was her husband... well the other reporters won't know what hit them.
One advantage of being a smallish woman was that she could slip around and through spaces that most men didn't even realize were there. Of course, a few carefully aimed elbows also came in handy. By the time Carl and Jacob were pulling Clark's gurney out of the ambulance, she was right at the front of the group.
“Carl!” she shouted at the paramedic, “How is he?”
The paramedic glanced her way. Why was he smiling? “You can ask him yourself,” he said as he pulled the gurney out.
An instant later Lois had her answer. They pulled Clark's gurney out feet first. When his head cleared the ambulance he was awake and smiling in her direction. Her first thought was to run to him, but fortunately the crowd of reporters prevented her from making such a mistake. It wouldn't do for the wife of Clark Kent to be seen hugging Superman just as he came off the ambulance. There were shouts from other reporters, but Lois barely noticed them. All she knew was that her husband was awake and smiling at her.
The reporters tried to follow Superman into the examination room, but the hospital seemed to be well-supplied with large, intimidating orderlies who quite effectively blocked the door. As soon as Carl and Jacob disappeared into the room, Lois realized that she might be able to get some information from Cindy. Unsurprisingly, by the time Lois had reached the ambulance, the young paramedic was surrounded by reporters and being peppered with questions.
“No,” Cindy said, “he didn't tell us anything about what happened in the building. He only regained consciousness a few minutes before we arrived here.”
“What did you give him to wake him up?”
“Nothing. We couldn't start an IV because the needle wouldn't penetrate his skin. And he was unconscious, so we couldn’t give him anything orally.”
“What did he say when he regained consciousness?”
“He asked what had happened, and how long he'd been out. He also asked if anyone else had been hurt during the building collapse. In general, I'd say that he seemed more concerned about someone else getting hurt than he was in his own condition.”
“When...”
“There isn't anything else,” Cindy insisted, cutting off the question. “Like I said a moment ago, he only woke up just before we arrived, and that's all we know. Now, I still have to clean up this ambulance for our next call, so please excuse me.” The nearest reporters barely had time to get clear before she had closed the ambulance doors from the inside.
Lois headed back inside the ER. There was no way she was going to go home until she knew what was happening with Clark. Then it hit her, she had more data on the story. Only a handful of reporters knew that Clark had woken up inside the ambulance and even fewer were aware of the details she'd heard from Cindy.
The pay phone was taken but Lois remembered something from when she had been in high school and had volunteered as a candy striper in this hospital. She headed into the general care wing and found an empty room. Sure enough, there was an unused phone that would be perfect for calling in the story.
She was about to dial the number for the Planet when she remembered her earlier error in not updating Clark's parents. So, instead of dialing the Planet, she dialed the her own phone number. She'd asked Clark's parents to wait at their apartment until Clark could resurface. She figured that they might come in handy for providing an excuse for his whereabouts during this time. The phone only rang once.
“Martha Kent speaking.”
“Martha, it's Lois,” Lois said in hushed tones.
“Do you have news on Clark?” Martha asked, the concern evident in her voice.
“Yes. I'm at the hospital. His ambulance arrived a few minutes ago. I haven't been able to get close enough to find out anything yet, but he was awake when he came off the ambulance. He smiled at me.”
“That's great news. So he's going to be okay?” Martha asked.
“I think so,” Lois answered, trying to sound confident. “I wish he would have just flown away when he came off the ambulance, but I guess we have to be happy that he's awake.”
“He'll be fine,” Martha assured her.
“Thanks,” Lois replied. “I wish we could talk longer, but I need to go. I have to call in the story of Superman’s arrival at the hospital into the Planet.”
“I understand, Lois. Do you want me and Jonathan to stay here?”
“Yes, please. If Clark suddenly feels better and heads home, someone should be there.”
“We'll stay for now,” Martha said. “Try not to worry too much.”
“I'll do my best. Good bye.”
Lois heard the phone click signaling the end of the call. Lois took a deep breath and composed her thoughts for calling in the story, then dialed the Planet.
~~~***~~~
No matter what she tried, she couldn't fall asleep. Lois had been at the hospital for more than an hour after calling in the updates to the Superman story. She'd been hoping that she would be there to see Superman come out of the ER room and fly away. Unfortunately there had been no announcement and Perry had finally sent Nicholson to relieve her. She'd only left when Nicholson promised to call her immediately if anything happened. Once she got home, she briefed Clark's parents on the cover story she'd invented, and sent them off to the White's to try to get some sleep. At that point she was thinking that Clark would be home any minute.
But he wasn't. What had happened? Why wasn't Clark home yet? Once she'd discovered Clark's other identity, she'd been relieved that the one thing she didn't need to worry about was his well-being. After all, nothing could hurt Superman. At least, nothing but that Kryptonite stuff, and other than the samples that were left-over from the original Nightfall mission, there didn't seem to be any more of that. But between the Nightfall Swarm and what happened today, she was getting the impression that being married to Superman was as stressful as being married to a cop or a soldier.
“Lois,” she heard from the outer room. “Are you awake?”
“Clark,” she cried as she jumped out of bed.
Before she could even reach the archway that separated their sleeping area from the rest of the apartment, she reached her husband. In an instant her arms were around him and pulling him tightly against her. “I was so worried,” she said softly.
“I know,” he replied. “I'm sorry. I should have been more careful before I tried to do something like demolishing a building.”
All of the sudden the phone rang. Right this moment Lois didn't feel like letting go of her husband. After a few rings the answering machine engaged. “Ms. Lane, this is Veronica Nicholson. Superman came out of the ER room about a minute ago. He super-sped away without saying anything to anyone. I'm trying to get some information from the doctors, but so far they aren't saying anything either. I have the office cell phone and I'll be here at least another twenty minutes if there is something you need.”
The phone disconnected and Lois looked at her husband. “So what do the doctors know?”
“Nothing. They gave me some pills for the pain, but that's all.”
“Where do you hurt?” Lois asked, concerned.
“I sort of ache all over. But it isn't bad anywhere.”
“Clark, what happened? Did the building just catch up with you?”
“No. There was a wall that wasn't supposed to be there.”
“We talked about that possibility. I thought you could tear through walls with no problem.”
“This was reinforced concrete, and it had to have been more than six feet thick. I could batter through it, but at that time and in that place, it stopped me cold. Before I could recover, the building was coming down on top of me.”
“What was a wall like that doing there?” Lois asked. “I thought you double checked the building a few days ago to make sure that the plans you had matched the actual building structure.”
“I did,” Clark confirmed. “I thought I had checked everything, but I must have accidentally skipped over that floor. I don't know how I managed to miss that wall during my check. Also, based on all the research that Jerry did before the demolition, that wall should not have been there.”
“Lex had a lot of secrets,” Lois suggested. “Maybe it was something like that.”
“Maybe,” Clark agreed. “I need to ask Jerry.”
“So how are you now?”
“A little tired and a little sore. I think I'll be fine with some rest and sunlight.”
“Had you thought about getting checked out? I mean medically.”
“How would I do that? No one has any medical records.”
Lois paused for a moment. This idea had been swirling in her mind much of the time Clark was out. “How do you feel about Bernie?”
“I like him.”
“Do you trust him?”
“Sure. That's why we went to him for the Swarm mission. Lois, you know that.”
“Clark, Bernie has access to the test data from before the first Nightfall mission. He also has copies of Clark Kent's medical records after Nightfall.”
Clark's face went very still. “Are you suggesting that we tell him all about Clark Kent and Superman?”
“I think the events of the past six months make it painfully clear that you need a doctor,” she said seriously. “The only two that we can even consider trusting are my dad and Bernie. And, aside from any other concerns, my dad isn't the Superman specialist.”
“I see your point,” Clark said. “But...”
Lois cut him off with a finger to his lips. “But we can we talk about this in the morning,” she said. “For right now I'd like to spend the rest of the evening showing you how much I missed you.”
~~~***~~~
Two days after the collapse of LexCorp tower, the city was still abuzz about what had happened to Superman. Clark had returned to Superman duties the next day and the only statement that he had given was that he needed to be more careful if he ever decided to help demolish a building again.
Dealing with the general press had been easy. However, handling Perry and Jimmy had been far more difficult. They had defended Clark's sudden disappearance by using his parents as an excuse. Lois had made up a story about Clark's parents being near the demolition site when Jonathan felt ill. Clark's excuse was that he had rushed his dad to his and Lois's apartment and had been there the whole time. Jimmy seemed to buy the story, but they were far less sure of Perry. Their editor had accepted the story with a keen skepticism. Then he'd stopped asking questions. What he didn't ask pretty much convinced both Lois and Clark that he either knew the truth or suspected it strongly enough to back off.
Today they were in Bernie’s office at Star Labs. She'd finally convinced Clark that this was necessary and they both agreed that if anyone was going to know the truth, Bernie was the guy they wanted to trust.
The door to the office opened and Bernie came in. “Sorry I'm late,” he said cheerfully as he closed the door and headed to his seat on the other side of his desk. “I've been buried with requests for data ever since the Nightfall Swarm mission.”
“People are wanting information about Superman?” Clark asked.
“Not really. Well, there was some of that at first, but mostly it has been requests for how Superman and I performed the intercept mission. The space guys want to make sure that they capture the information that I learned about running that sort of mission.”
“What information are they most interested in?” Lois asked.
“Mostly is about how we communicated. They want to know how we worked with the time lag in communications. They have also asked a lot of questions about how I provided Superman guidance information so that he could find the targets. I think they are thinking about future space missions.”
“I guess that would be valuable,” Clark speculated.
“It is,” Bernie agreed. “I didn't think much about it at the time. Superman and I were mostly making it up as we went, just doing what needed to be done. Speaking of which, have you heard from him? How is he?”
Lois looked at Clark and nodded for him to go ahead.
“We're here about him,” Clark said. “After the building collapse, he realized that he needed someone to turn to in case he gets injured.”
“Yes,” Bernie answered. “Lois and I talked about that at the hospital. But I'm not sure I'm the right person.”
“Bernie, there's more to this than just taking care of Superman. The person that serves as his doctor will have access to information about him that is very private,” Lois said.
“So in this case, the best physician is not necessarily the best person,” Clark added.
“I understand,” Bernie said seriously.
“Are you willing to take the job and protect Superman's confidences?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Then what do you need?”
“I need to see Superman. I'd like to run some follow-up tests to see how the building collapse affected him. It's too bad that he doesn't have a medical history. That would be valuable to provide a background.”
Clark took a deep breath. “He has a medical record – at least a short one. And you already have it.”
“What? No I don't. All I have are the results of the tests that we did before the initial Nightfall mission.”
“No, you have more than that. You have all of the medical information from when I was recovering from amnesia.”
Bernie went stiff. “What are you saying?”
“I'm saying that I am Superman.”
“But you can't...” Bernie sputtered. “I've seen the medical reports. I studied them carefully when you were recovering from the gas poisoning. You're a normal man.”
“I guess there are differences that don't show up in normal tests.”
Bernie looked back and forth between Lois and Clark. He looked like he was trying to figure out what to say, but no words come out.
She turned to her husband. “Clark, show him.”
Clark glanced in the direction of the door. Then he levitated so that he was floating up near the ceiling of Bernie’s office. “Unless a normal man can do this, ” Clark said, “are you ready to accept that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person?”
Lois watched Bernie's reaction as Clark levitated. It was almost funny. Until this moment she would not have had a good feel for what 'calm shock' looked like. Now she knew. When Clark first started to levitate, Bernie's reaction was to simply watch with almost clinical detachment. It was as if he were watching some planned experiment play out. Then, after another second, she realized that he appeared frozen as he contemplated Clark hovering above.
“Dr. Klein? Are you still with us?” she asked.
That was all it took to snap him out of it. He shook his head ever so slightly and looked at her. “Yes. Of course. Sorry, I just...” Then he looked back up at Clark floating above. “Well, that's... amazing.”
“So you believe us now?” she asked.
Bernie just nodded and Clark lowered himself back to his seat. “We need you to help us figure out what happened at Lex tower,” Lois said directly.
“Of course,” Bernie said. “But there is so much more. I would have never guessed that you would be so normal. Hold, it!” he exclaimed, “Are you a regular man that acquired your powers later?”
“I really don't know what I am. I arrived as a baby in what my adoptive parents say looked like a space ship,” Clark answered.
“Really!” Bernie exclaimed, “What did it look like?”
“I don't remember. I only saw it once and that is part of what I lost to the amnesia. I only know that I saw it because my parents told me that I told them about it. They remembered it from when they found me, but all they could really tell me was that it was very small.”
“I wish you two would have trusted me right away after Nightfall,” Bernie said.
“We couldn't,” Lois said. “Because of his amnesia, Clark didn't realize he was Superman until much later. All the time we were investigating the Nightfall mission, we had no idea that Clark was Superman. And later... well, that isn't the kind of information you share lightly. It's a very dangerous secret for Clark and everyone that is close to him. Can you imagine what someone like Lex Luthor might do if he believed that you or I knew who Superman's family was?”
“I understand,” Bernie said. “I'll be extra careful.”
“So, now that you know the rest of the story, what do you suggest for a follow-up to what happened?”
“I'd like to review your medical information. Then we'll need to figure out a way to draw some blood. I saw the ER team break two needles trying to start an IV on you the other night, so I know that won't work.”
“The only time I've been vulnerable was after exposure to Kryptonite,” Clark reminded him.
“We have that gas. I think I might be able to do something with embedding a trace amount in a needle.”
“Do you have to do that?” Lois asked. “I don't like the idea of exposing Clark to Kryptonite again.”
“If we're ever going to understand how he's different from you and me, we will need to start with his anatomy and blood chemistry. I promise we'll keep the exposure as small as possible.”
“What else?” Clark asked, clearly wanting to move on.
“We should repeat the battery of strength and speed tests that we ran before Nightfall. We established a fairly concise set of baseline data about your abilities. Since we're going to be testing you, it would be good to see if anything changed as a result of your Nightfall experience.”
~~~***~~~
Clark was back in Bernie’s office. He'd spent a lot of time with the scientist over the past few days. He heard a sound from behind when the door to Bernie's office opened and Lois came in. “Was it anything important?” Clark asked.
“Not really,” Lois replied, “Perry was just reminding me of the deadline for the evening edition.”
“Do you think we'll have anything that we can share?”
“I think it's best if we find something. You know the questions that the tests have generated. Once the general public learned that Superman was lifting ships again, we had a story that needs some kind of conclusion.”
Clark reached out and took his wife's hand. “I wish I knew what to think. I'm... I'm nervous.”
“Why?” Lois asked. “You told me that you were able to do all the tests.”
“Yes,” Clark agreed, “but some of the lifts were very hard. I wish I could remember how it went the first time.”
Before Lois could answer Bernie came in carrying a stack of papers. “Sorry, but I wanted to run one more set of calculations through the computer before we talked.”
“That's fine,” Clark said as Bernie took his seat on the other side of his desk. “Did you get enough information to generate meaningful results?”
“Yes,” Bernie replied, his voice suddenly somber. “I'm sorry for taking so long, but when the first set of results came in, I wanted to be sure so we performed a second round of tests.”
Lois looked sharply at her husband. “You didn’t' tell me that you were repeating tests.”
“I wasn't... I mean I didn't.” Clark turned to Bernie. “I didn't repeat any tests.”
“The duplicate tests were designed to test the same ability in a different way. We created new tests that may have seemed different, but tested the same ability. We weren't trying to deceive you. We were just trying to be as careful as possible.”
“Why?” Lois demanded sharply.
Bernie blanched at her challenge. He'd clearly never run into Mad-Dog Lane. “The preliminary results showed a marked decrease in your abilities.”
Both Lois and Clark were silent for a few seconds. “What kind of decrease?” Clark finally asked.
“Speed. Strength. Your ability to fly carrying a load. Pretty much everything that we had baseline data on from before Nightfall.”
“How much of a decrease?” Clark asked.
“At first the data suggested a drop of about a quarter. But when we ran more tests the number came in slightly below that. Based on the test data we collected, your abilities are seventy-four percent of what they were before Nightfall.”
“But that's just because he hasn't recovered from Nightfall completely, isn't it?” Lois suggested.
Bernie shook his head. “We don't think so. That was one of the things we were looking for.” He looked directly at Clark. “Your powers fluctuate based on your expenditures, but you recover quickly when you have access to sunlight. Of course, we can't say for sure until we have some data over different, longer time periods, but our official position is that the Nightfall experience has permanently cost you twenty-six percent of your abilities.”
“What... What does that mean in terms of my ability to perform the duties of Superman?”
“Nothing.” Bernie replied immediately. “Well, at least not for everyday actions. For all practical purposes, you are still just as strong and just as invulnerable as before. We do think it has impacted your endurance, but that will only show up in long-duration expenditures of energy like what happened during the Nightfall Swarm mission.”
“What about Lex Tower?” Lois asked.
“It might have had something to do with what happened at Lex Tower, but we just can't be sure. You hit a six-foot-thick block of reinforced concrete. Even at full power, that barrier might have stopped you for the second or two that it took for the building collapse to catch up with you. Your slow recovery may be related to your reduced abilities, but we just can't know for sure. The baseline data that we had from before the first Nightfall mission simply was not that comprehensive. With your permission we will periodically retest you to see how your abilities evolve and change, but for now that's all we have.”
Clark turned to Lois. “What should we report?”
She looked at Bernie. “Has this information been shared with the government?”
“Yes,” Bernie replied. “They assisted in designing the tests. You didn't ask me to keep that information secret,” he added defensively.
“No we didn't,” Clark reassured him. Then he turned to Lois. “We have to assume that this information will be widely available, at least in secret government circles, so I would rather make it completely public.”
Lois looked at Bernie. “Have you gotten any pressure to keep any of this secret?”
“Not really. I was very open with my government contacts that I was going to share all this information with Superman. If Superman chooses to share this with the Daily Planet, there isn't anything I can do about it.” He offered them a manila envelope. “This is Superman's copy of the test results and the report that I generated.”
Clark took the report but didn't open it. “Seventy-four percent?” he asked.
“I'm afraid so. But based on the tests you really shouldn't notice any difference in day-to-day activities. It wasn't your loss of speed that enabled the building to collapse on you, it was that concrete barrier.”
Clark glanced briefly at Lois. “Yes, that barrier,” he said softly.
Bernie continued without seeming to notice the interruption. “And I'm not sure what you expect to have shot at you, but you are still completely impervious to any conventional weapon. Bullets can't hurt you. We didn't test this, but based on my calculations even something like a high-velocity depleted uranium tank round wouldn't have a chance to hurt you. Even an artillery round – same result. You aren't as strong or as tough as you were, but you were so far above anything else, that the loss simply doesn't matter. Oh, it will take you a few extra seconds to fly across the world, but for getting around Metropolis or even the United States, the impact to your travel time will be barely measurable.”
“But I will run out of energy sooner. We saw that.”
“Yes,” Bernie confirmed. “And when you do get depleted, it will take longer to recover. If you want to be extra conservative, you might consider cutting back on Superman’s activities.”
“We were already considering something like that,” Clark said. “Being Superman was a learn-as-I-went exercise. From what Lois has told me and what I do remember, at first I was trying to help everyone with everything. I think I was going to have to cut back anyway. This just provides another reason.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Bernie interjected. “You need to be extra careful to stay away from Kryptonite.”
“I don't think you need to warn us of that,” Lois replied.
“Of course, but let me clarify,” Bernie said. “We believe that the Kryptonite somehow destroyed approximately twenty-five percent of your abilities. Some of the data suggests that if you were to go through another long-duration exposure to Kryptonite, it could continue to permanently remove your abilities. There is a chance that if you were to suffer continuous exposure, you could permanently lose up to ten percent of your abilities each day.”
“From what I recall of Kryptonite, I fear that a week of continual exposure would kill me.”
“I understand. But one of my coworkers suggested that a lower-level exposure could remove all of your abilities without killing you.”
“Dr. Klein,” Lois injected coldly. “Why are your researchers having that kind of discussion?”
“Please,” he pleased defensively, “I'm on your side. But when you have very smart people reviewing data and trying to understand what it means, ideas and meanings get discussed. I promise you that no one involved means you any harm. We are simply trying to understand the data and interpret its meaning. I assure you that none of those discussions ended up in any report.”
TBC
