Don't have a lot more time now, but I have to add a few things...
Lois felt a pair of arms grab hold of her and she turned dazedly to look into the eyes of her concerned editor. “Perry?”
“Lois, honey, are you all right?”
“Perry! It's Clark. I have to find Clark.” She started squirming in his arms to get free of his grasp.
“Now hold on,” Perry instructed her, slowly releasing her but keeping one hand on her, “You looked like you were going to pass out on me. We'll find Clark in a minute. You just need to...”
“No, Perry!” she wailed. “You don't understand. Clark's hurt. He's been wounded somehow. We have to find him.” She took his hand in hers and pulled on him, urging him to come with her down the hallway. They were close to the elevator. She would get on the elevator and...
There is something nightmarish about this. Like when another person can't understand what you are saying. You can't communicate. And you are desperate, because your best friend is hurt. And if you can't get to him, nothing matters.
They rode the elevator in silence. The ride was taking entirely too long for Lois. She glanced at the digital readout. It was going down in variables of ten and was currently displaying the fiftieth floor – she was over halfway there. Come on, come on, she thought furiously, move faster!
Take me to Clark! Take me to Clark!
She glanced down at her wedding dress and immediately felt tears trying to form but she held them back.
There is something about how the sight of her wedding dress makes her cry. So far her conscious mind hasn't told her that it was a crazy mistake to even consider marrying Lex, when the only person who matters to her is Clark. But her subconscious is strongly reminded of this when it sees her wedding dress, and it's her subconsciousness that puts tears in her eyes.
Lois hit the front doors at top speed and shoved through them, not caring that part of her wedding gown had gotten caught in the side of the door and ripped.
Of course she doesn't care about that - it was only the wedding dress that she wore for Lex. But what a powerful image the ripped wedding dress is.
“Come on, honey. I'll get you there. My car's parked just over there.” He gestured across the street. “I pity the person who gets in our way.”
Wow! Perry is so sweet and caring to Lois, and so ruthless to anyone who gets in their way!
Can you tell me where I can find a patient who was just brought in?”
The woman was typing on her computer and didn't look up or acknowledge Lois for a few seconds. Lois was about to get impatient when the woman finally looked up at her with tired eyes and simply said, “Name?”
It must have been a busy day. Lois finally realized that the waiting room area was overflowing with people. “Clark Kent.”
Lois didn't even see all the people in the waiting room. Wow.
Between her attire, her swollen eyelids and her tear-stained cheeks, she was sure she was quite a sight. But she wasn't leaving. Not until she got to see Clark and she knew that he was okay.
Yes, she must look funny - slightly crazy, even. But of course she isn't leaving. Her
life is in that hospital, in that exam room.
They looked around for a place to sit but there simply wasn't any. Lois felt like her legs were going to give out and considered just sitting down on the floor, wedding dress and all. Instead she leaned against one wall and tipped her head back to rest against it, closing her eyes.
Oh, imagine having to sit on the floor or even leaning against the wall when you almost feel like fainting.
How could the sun be shining while Clark lay inside a cold exam room in pain?
I think it was Mervoparkite who quoted this before. And it's amazingly good. Lois reacts as if the natural beauty of the world outside is an affront to the horror that has befallen Clark. As if all of nature should grieve for him.
A sob tried to rise in the back of her throat. This was her fault. Clark was here and was hurt because of her. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but if Luthor was dead and Clark was injured...
Interesting. she still doesn't know
how it can be her fault that Clark is injured, but she doesn't doubt that it
is her fault.
Why hadn't she listened to him? Why hadn't she believed him? If he died without ever knowing... thinking that she...
Tears began to slip past her closed eyelids and her breath caught as she tried to hold them back. She felt Perry's arm slide around her shoulders and he gave her a gentle squeeze.
*sniffle* I love this. Lois cares so much for Clark, and Perry cares so much for Lois.
It was her fault! All her fault. She had broke off the wedding with Lex and he had deduced that she was in love with Clark and he had... tried to kill him!
So
that's how it was her fault!
Lois's heart lurched in her chest. “No. No, he couldn't kill Superman,” she stammered. “Superman's invulnerable. There has to be some kind of logical explanation.”
She should have listened to him. He was lying in there in pain and Superman was missing and it was all because of her. “It's my fault,” she muttered softly.
Perry had been chatting with the two boys and he turned to look at her when he heard her voice. “What is?” he asked stiffly.
“Everything. If I had listened to Clark none of this would have ha...happened,” her voice broke and she cleared it. “If I had seen past Luthor's facade and seen who he really was...”
“Don't, Lois, don't do this...”
“No, Perry! It's the truth. How could I have let him deceive me like that? I pride myself on being able to read people...”
Perry wrapped one arm around her and gave her a soft squeeze. “He fooled us all, honey.”
“Not me,” Jack piped up. “I never trusted the guy.”
“Me either,” Jimmy quickly agreed.
Perry flashed them both a warning glance and their faces fell, looking chagrined.
I love this. So Lois, Perry, Jimmy and Jack.
Clark had been right. She had been about to get in bed with the devil. It scared her that she had known Lex so little. He had hidden so much from her.
Not like Clark. Lois knew Clark better than she probably knew any man; her father included.
In a way Lois knows Clark so well, but in another way she doesn't know him.
As her eyes adjusted to the light, she realized that he had some bruises on his right arm. The white light made his skin look pale and the sight of the purple flesh made her eyes tear again. “So sorry,” she murmured again. “You were right. You were so right and I was so wrong. When you wake up I'm going to tell you that. So you have to wake up, okay? You want to hear Lois Lane admit that she was wrong, don't you?” She laughed half-heartedly at her own joke but there was no response from Clark.
And Clark looks frail. Well, that's mostly from the Kryptonite, no doubt. Maybe I should be really worried about him, but so far I'm not.
But I love Lois's frantic worry about Clark. I love how she can't think of anything but Clark. I've said it before, but I could never understand how Lois could ever think it was a good idea to marry Lex. One explanation that has been offered by others is that she actually married Lex in order to stay friends with Clark. Yes, because she thought she would mess up that friendship if she got involved with Clark romantically. Maybe a marriage between them would end in catastrophe and she would lose not just Clark's love, but his friendship as well. That's why she couldn't ever get married to him. By marrying Lex, whose love really meant nothing to her, she hoped she could keep Clark's friendship.
I have always thought that this explanation is too crazy to be true. But the way you write Lois's desperation at the harm that has come to Clark, I can actually believe that this Lois married Lex at least partly as a means to secure her friendship with Clark.
Great chapter, DJ!
Ann
