Chapter Text
Silver Springs
1.
Sleet was falling from a red tinted sky, ice crystals pelting the picture window of the 10th floor hospital room. It was private and quiet, except for the constant beeping from the heart monitor. As annoying as it was, it was a good sign. That was the only comfort at the moment since Lois hated hospitals. It wasn’t just because she had been a frequent patient since moving to Smallville. No, it ran much deeper than that. However, she had elected herself to be Jimmy’s caregiver in the absence of her cousin, his new bride. Flashes of the wedding and its aftermath of a dark creature danced in her head only to be replaced by blue-green eyes staring into hers as their dance had just begun. It calmed her and also chipped away at her heart.
She let out a breath, rubbing the soft cotton material of the hoodie sleeves. The room had a chill, but maybe it was her thoughts that had sent the shiver through her body. Her thoughts betrayed her and went back to that night. She had been on the porch with a bottle of champagne talking with Oliver, having an awkward conversation about the feelings she was having. It was time to cut the cake and then all hell broke loose. The floorboards of the porch quaked. The lights flickered and then went out. Oliver had told her to stay outside and call 911 while he ran toward the havoc. Her stomach was in knots hearing the screaming. Sirens wailed and in the flurry of running guests she looked for Clark. As the dust settled she saw him walking down the fragile stairs from the loft talking with Oliver, his head held low.
Chloe.
Her mind thought the worst at first, like the first time when she was 18 and learned that her cousin had perished in an explosion at her safe house. Lois had been on a mission then and felt the same feelings begin to erupt.
“Where is she?” she said, meeting the pair at the bottom.
“Lois…” Oliver began, trying to lead her out.
She pushed him away forcefully. “Cut the crap, Oliver. If my cousin is in this barn somewhere, I want to see her.”
“She’s not here, Lois. She was taken,” Clark said.
“Taken? By whatever did this?”
He simply nodded.
“We’ll find her, Lois,” Lana said, hobbling down toward Clark. She had a nasty gash on her leg, but she was still pretty. Clark reached out to stabilize her.
The nastiest thought popped into Lois’ head. She wasn’t going to listen to the voice of John Kreese and “sweep the leg”, so she smothered whatever jealous feelings that were bubbling deep down. It wasn’t the time or the place to be feeling such things.
She looked around the destruction, taking in the carnage. She gasped and started to run when she saw Jimmy on the ground.
As the EMTs filed in she was determined to watch over Jimmy while Chloe was missing. She was whisked into an ambulance and observed as they worked on his pale form. Usually so lively and energetic with positivity, to see Jimmy so lifeless and bloody was jarring. Doctors rushed him into surgery and if he made it out he would get medivacced to Star City. Oliver was already on it. Assuming she would be going with Jimmy, he offered his apartment for her to stay at. She knew she would go, at least until Chloe was found. She was walking past Lana’s room, about to check in, when she saw Clark already in there. He was preoccupied, his hand on Lana’s shoulder. Lois rebounded from the doorway, hit with the shrapnel of a truth bomb.
Lois stood in the hallway and nursed her invisible wound, resigned to the fact that she was once again left behind. Not officially yet, but she saw the writing on the wall. She wasn’t going to be oblivious and put herself through pining, so she decided that she would take the high road---which, in this case, was a helicopter to Star City.
She was distracted, her mind running a mile a minute, until Clark’s voice pulled her out of the maelstrom of thoughts.
“Lois.” She turned toward him as he walked toward her and asked, “How are you holding up?”
“Jimmy's in bad shape,” she answered.
Perplexed, he responded, “The nurse said they had him stabilized.”
“But he's not out of the woods. He has severe internal bleeding,” she explained. “They're medevacing him to Star City to one of the country's top surgeons.” She watched as Clark took in the news, exhaling with a forlorn expression. “I'm gonna go with him,” she said with finality. She was taken aback by the shock that took over his face in her reveal. Though, she wasn’t going to be convinced otherwise. This was a new assignment and Lois Lane didn’t back down or give in. “I'll stay there until I hear from ... Chloe.” Clark nodded slowly. She sensed a slight hesitation, but she wasn’t going to analyze it. He understood. He had to.
Her emotions started to get the best of her. Her voice started to tremble as she rattled, “Why did this have to happen to her? Why do these terrible things keep happening all around us?”
In a rapid action, Clark pulled her into a tight hug and she almost melted into it. She wanted to relish the feeling of his arms around her, borrowing the strength he had and letting it permeate through her. His embrace, the feeling of his heart beating against hers, the hitch in breath by her ears was hindering her resistance. Over his shoulder she looked at the doorway he had exited from. She flashed back to the entrance of the barn, a shadow entering the scene. Maybe what they had during the dance could be resurrected but at what cost? Her sanity? Her heart? They had a spark, they threw kindling onto it, and she felt the heat---and got burned. Then she got figuratively trampled with Chloe’s kidnapping and Jimmy’s injuries. It was too much. It was all too much.
“I promise. We're gonna get Chloe back." Clark said with conviction.
Yes, they would get Chloe back, but there was another layer. Could they eventually get back what was under the surface with them? Could she lean on him if someone else from his past was also leaning? Sure, he had two shoulders, but the weight of the world was always on them too. The least she could do for both of them was not be a liability with questions about their relationship and provide that as a relief.
“What if we can’t?” she asked, her spirit deflating, losing hope, as she stared into his eyes.
She walked away, her heels echoing against the hard, shiny floor. Before she rounded the corner she gave him one last look, an anguish he couldn’t mask on display. She wanted to run back and grab him, hold him like he had just held her, but she had a duty to be Jimmy’s advocate. Contrary to what Oliver had told her, Clark didn’t need her. She then determinedly walked down the hallway in her orange dress, like a shining autumn. She was strong. She was confident. She was prepared.
Until she wasn't.
Her phone buzzed and eventually chirped in her pocket. Her eyes broke away from the red sky and down to her pocket. She pulled the device and the screen flashed and scrolled the words: Missed Call. Voicemail.
She sighed as she saw the time and the name. Clark.
He was nocturnal, it seemed, but who was she to judge since she was up at the same time? Sleep was a luxury and on a battlefield being alert was a priority until the mission was over. She looked over her shoulder at Jimmy in his hospital bed, hooked up to various machines with a tube down his throat to help him breathe from a collapsed lung and severe chest trauma. She shook her head and took another breath as she looked at her phone again.
She and Clark were playing phone-tag, usually leaving things unsaid. This was a late night call, possibly strategic if he thought she was sleeping. However, this was voicemail number two. The first one had been left a little over 24 hours after arriving in Star City when she was talking to Dr. Rowan Russell. It was crazy to see that one of the country’s top surgeons was actually an old Army brat she knew when she was younger. She knew him as “Russ” and, being around eight years her senior, she saw him as an older brother. She knew him when she was six and possibly at one of the lowest parts of her existence. Now he was taller, with a dark bushy beard (and a medical degree), but there was still a familiarity there that she desperately was latching on to.
When she listened later to that first message she could hear the anxiety in Clark's voice, then toward the end it had ebbed out.
“Hey, Lois. It’s Clark. I wanted to let you know that Chloe is safe. She’ll probably be in touch soon. I just…I wanted to let you know. We found her.”
He had kept his word. His promise. That’s what he was saying. He hadn’t forgotten about informing her. Now there was a second message in the second week she was away.
Well, at least that was something.