Yes, I know it's a short update - I was attacked by my muse who demanded an entirely new direction.
-------------------------------------------------
Richard and Lois managed to man-handle Clark into the back seat of Richard’s Passat without too much trouble but he was shivering violently by the time they reached Park Ridge.
“Lois, I think he needs to be in a hospital,” Richard told her, looking at Clark worriedly in the rear-view mirror. Clark’s face seemed faintly green-tinged, although it was hard to tell in the dim light of the car’s interior.
“Richard, please trust me on this one,” Lois said softly, placing a hand on his arm as she looked back at Clark. “There isn’t a hospital anywhere near here that can handle this.”
Richard parked the Passat behind Lois’s A3 and then helped her get Clark into Perry’s house. Clark’s skin was unnaturally hot, even for a fever.
“What happened?” Perry asked Lois as he helped Richard get Clark upstairs to his room.
“Clark got hurt during the crystalquake,” Lois said, following them up the stairs. “Only he hasn’t been taking it easy like he’s supposed to and he’s not healing up like he should. And now he’s running a fever.”
“I’ve already told Lois he needs to be a hospital,” Richard told his uncle.
“I doubt there’s anything they can do for him,” Perry responded.
Richard and Perry got Clark onto the bed and started to undress the semi-conscious man. Clark roused enough brush them away with his hand.
“I can undress myself, thank you,” he managed to say through gritted teeth. It was obvious he was trying to keep from shaking.
“Richard, run downstairs and ask your aunt for some aspirin and a maybe a jug of water and a plastic glass,” Perry ordered. Richard looked from his uncle to his former fiancée. Both had turned to the chore of chivvying Clark out of his shirt and slacks and into the bed, over his weakening protests.
The man is obviously very sick, Richard thought.
So why won’t either of them accept that he needs to get medical attention? With a shrug of annoyance, he headed downstairs.Jason was asleep on the sofa in front of the television. Richard stuck his head into the kitchen and asked for the supplies Perry had requested. Then he went over to where Jason was lying.
At least I can get Jason home and into his own bed. Jason’s face seemed pale, but he wasn’t having any trouble breathing, really. Just snoring softly as he normally did. Then Richard touched him and realized that Jason’s skin was hot to the touch. As hot as Clark’s skin felt.
“Lois!”
—In Another Universe—“Clark, are you sure you’re up to going to work?” Lois Lane-Kent asked her husband as he sat down to breakfast. “I mean, you’ve been out of the hospital only two days.”
“I’m fine” he assured her. “All healed up. Not even a scar. And the powers came back last night. So everything’s back to normal.”
“You’re sure?”
“I’m fine,” he assured her once more, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “Besides, I’ve been away from the office for four days. They might figure out they don’t need me if I don’t show up.” There was laughter in his brown eyes, laughter that hadn’t been there for several days, not since he was attacked by the assassin sent by the now-dead Lord Xon of New Krypton.
“Well, even if they don’t need you, I do,” Lois said, grabbing his tie to pull him down into a kiss.
“As much as I’d like to stay home with you and the baby, I need to get going.” He pulled his tie out of her grasp and smoothed it against his shirt. “I’ll see you tonight,” he promised. “Have fun with the flooring people.”
She grimaced. The flooring people were scheduled to come in today to replace living room carpet. Carpet soaked with the blood of Lord Xon and her husband. They were having hardwood installed. It was easier to get blood off of.
Lois watched her husband leave, but she still felt uneasy. It felt like a storm was brewing on the horizon, flashing lightning she could just see out of the corner of her eye but disappeared when she tried to look straight at it. Four day old Martha Michaela started fussing in her carrier. Lois lifted her out, putting her to her breast.
“One good thing about Kent babies,” Lois told her daughter. “I might not be able to have chocolate or regular coffee for another year, but I’ll be back in my old clothes in no time.” She stepped out onto the back deck and settled into one of the chairs, watching the skyline of Metropolis. Martha sucked wetly at her mother’s breast.
“Wind's in the east, mist comin' in. Like something is brewin', about to begin,” Lois murmured to herself. Lara and Jordan loved watching Mary Poppins, especially the penguins. She shivered as the wind started to kick up and went back inside. Thinking of Xon had reminded her of their alternate-timeline visitors. She wondered how that Lois and Clark were managing with their new baby – a refugee from New Krypton.
She shivered again, only this time there was no wind.
TOC
