I don't have time to say much besides the chapter this morning; school just exploded in my face and I'm just glad I have these chapters already written so I can post them and run.

Thank you all again for your reviews!!! I hope you all are still enjoying this. It would be nice to know what you lurkers out there think! <nudge, nudge>

Enjoy!

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Chapter 10: What’s in a Name?

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The guards placed Superman on the bed relatively carefully, mindful of the new large bandage that was pressed tightly against his thigh. They stepped back, and the guard holding a weak-looking Lois let her go. They left.

“L-lois…” Superman’s weak voice called her name like a frightened child.

Lois didn’t answer at first, but stood there in the middle of the white room, shaking.

“Lo-is.”

His broken voice—not even a whisper—reached like the warmth of a distant, cloud-covered sun into the dark veils of her shocked mind. She blinked.

“Lois…please…” A hitched breath, almost like a sob, but not strong enough. A weak oath, like a prayer…

Lois came to herself slowly, blinking as the white terror slowly faded to…more white. White walls, white ceilings…white light…And Superman’s white face—his eyes open no more than half-way, as if the light pained him.

Lois blinked again. Screams. White screams, filled with white, blinding pain. His pain…her pain. Pain so deep in her heart that she was somewhat surprised to find there wasn’t a gaping hole in her chest as she brought a numbed hand over her heart White nothing—and red…red…red. There should be red all over her hands, the red of his cape—like pooling blood that flowed in the sky behind him when he flew…or puddled beneath him as he wept red tears…all of it illuminated by that terrible, horrid green. She shuddered, digging her fingers into her pant legs to wipe them off—to clean them of the red that had sunk beneath her skin.

“Lois, p-please….s-say s-something…”

Superman.

Her mind let out a prayerful oath—even in her head it was breathless and thin.

Superman. But no—she couldn’t move. She couldn’t move or they’d take him away…take her away. She couldn’t. She couldn’t. She shook her head wordlessly.

“Th-they’re g-gone, L-ois…”

Reality crashed down on her like a ton of bricks. Her legs gave out behind her and she fell to the floor, shaking.

“L-Lois!” his voice shook on a weak cry…and he twitched in a seemingly inborn sense to rise and help her…to make sure she was okay. But the twitch was all he could manage—and even that made him cut of in pain as consciousness swam before his eyes like a tempting darkness.

It was the gasp of pain brought on by that instinct that finally brought Lois out of her state of shock. “Superman,” she whispered. “Superman!”

She crawled forward—her legs shaking to badly to risk her standing again. She swore tearfully, crawling to kneel at his side.

“I’m here, Superman.” She grabbed his hand and leaned over him, her tears falling onto the neck of his suit. “I’m sorry, Superman. I’m so sorry. I—I…” Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and haunted.

“Lois.” Superman’s voice was so soft she had to lean forward to hear, but the edge of panic from the moment before was gone. Lois was there. She was looking at him, touching him—her eyes and hands a balm, unlike the others’. “I…I…I w-was flying…ar—around…M-Metropolis,” he stuttered around his staggering breath, “and…I—I heard this c-cry for h-help.” He stopped to swallow; it pained his scream-bloodied throat to speak. “It was this old…this old man. A sc-sc-scrooge, r-really…Wouldn’t let them s-set a foot on his y-yard. Some…some k-kids had s-set up a…p-prank—t-trapped his front d-door…so when he o-opened it he’d be…c-covered in fl-fl-flour and w-water. Th-they st-started pl-playing on his lawn, and he came storming…storming out only to be d-doused from head to foot in white s-sop. He-he started sc-screaming—r-really furious, y-you kn-know.”

His shivers were growing worse as he spoke, but he seemed determined to finish this. “I c-came, th-thinking it was…was some sort of—f-fire, or…murder…The k-kids w-were terr—terrified. Th-thought th-that if S-Superman came th-they w-were in real—really big t-trouble. J-just froze th-there…wh-ite as snow—snowmen…frozen. I-I’ve never seen any-anyone so ter-terrified.” He shuddered involuntarily, but pressed on, though his voice was growing weaker until it was little more than a mumble. Lois struggled to understand him. “Th-there w-wasn’t anything for…for me to do, s-so I j-just l-left. But this…this old m-man…e-every s-so often I’ll—I’ll hear him sh-shouting f-for S-Superman to—to come get th-these k-kids off his lawn. It-it makes th-them scurry away s-so f-fast you…you wouldn’t believe…it…” He actually chuckled—a rough, weak husk of a laugh that dissolved into coughs and shuddering breaths leaden with pain.

Lois stared at him, tears welling in her eyes again that she couldn’t stop. She put her hands over her face and swore tearfully. He was losing it.

“Lois,” Superman whispered. A shaking, slightly blood-smeared hand brushed against hers, and his cold fingers curled around her own. She looked down at him, seeing how terrible he looked—his eyes slightly sunken and dark against his stark-pale face. Tears and sweat mingled together, even as his shivers began to rise from the chill that seemed to infuse his body. But he was looking at her through that veil of helplessness, confusion, and pain…concerned for her. Terrified for her. Torn deeper than the flesh by her pain. “It—it’s funny, Lois. You were supposed to…to laugh. Not—not c-cry.”

His hand began slipping away—too weak to hold it up for long, but Lois clutched it and held it next to her heart, his words breaking a floodgate and causing a new shower of tears to drench her cheeks as she sobbed.

Superman’s breath hitched. He had no control over his body, it seemed, and at Lois’s second breakdown the darkness settled down around him all the more. A shuddering sob shook his frame, but it seemed as if he had shed all his tears already. His eyes stung, but he couldn’t cry. He hurt too much to cry.

“Oh, Superman,” Lois’s voice was thick. “I don’t know how Logram could ever doubt that you had a heart.” She bent down and kissed him—brushing her tear-damp lips across his, though it lingered for a moment longer than a simple thank you. Tears from her own eyes dripped to mix with his as they held each other, broken in the pure cold light of the white room.

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Lois jerked awake from a nightmare of harsh red and terrible green and white sounds of screams of agony. She tried to sit up, shaking and feeling damp tears on her face again, but a gentle hand rested on her shoulder and she looked over to see Superman lying beside her on the floor, turned the slightest bit so that he could reach her. “Lois. It was a dream, Lois. You’re…you’re okay.”

Lois took a moment to slow her terrified thoughts and nodded, taking a deep breath to try and compose herself. She sat up, wiping the tears from her face almost angrily—since when was Lois Lane a leaky faucet?—and looked back at him. He looked perhaps even worse than before they had fallen to sleep. His expression was pale, yet somehow…empty. As if in the last procedure the doctors had somehow removed a part of his soul. Guilt alone shadowed his eyes like a shroud, and he avoided her gaze almost fearfully.

Lois didn’t ask permission. She didn’t allow him to pull away. She reached forward and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close but gentle as she rested her head on his chest and felt the weak tremors that still shook his body. Her breath changed to match the shaking breath of the man she held and she closed her eyes, forgetting, for a moment, the dreams that were their lives. Everything that was was them.

It seemed a lifetime before either of them broke the silence. “Superman,” Lois began softly. She paused, tilting her head slightly to look up into his pain-shadowed face. “It seems, after all this…” She paused, and her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “What…what is your name? I mean, it seems kind of…silly for me to be calling you a name that I made for you when we’re…like this.”

Superman’s expression was humorless as he shifted. His eyes were bleak. “I guess I’m not so super anymore, huh?” he whispered weakly.

Lois’s heart clenched. Her words were firm. “Of course you are,” she emphasized, though her words broke with unshed tears. “It’s not your powers that make you who you are, Superman. I mean, instead of coming to save us, you could have done anything you want with nobody to stop you.” She took a deep breath and gently put her hand on the side of his face. “It’s what’s inside that makes you Superman. It’s your compassion, your selflessness, your caring. That’s what makes you Superman. And that’s what makes you more human than anyone else I’ve ever known, no matter what biology says.”

A single tear beaded at the edge of Superman’s eye and dripped down his temple to touch her palm on his face. He shut his eyes, letting out a long, shaky breath.

“Lois, I’m…I’m C...” His voice was thick, and he paused to clear his throat. He opened his eyes and they were unwillingly drawn upwards to see the ever-present camera perched like an emotionless eye over the door. No…he could not tell her, even now. His parents were still out there…vulnerable. He began to shiver again. “Cl…K—Kal-El. My name is Kal-El.” It was a name he had only heard out loud once—it had been whispered to him when he first touched the globe from his spaceship, along with the name of his home planet.

Lois bent over him, brushing a light kiss over his chilled brow. “Kal-El,” she murmured, her hand moving to brush gently through his hair. “Go to sleep, Kal. We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

Superman managed a weak smile—but not one of hope. It was a knowing smile as if he saw right through her and knew how empty her words were, but that was aware of how hard it was for her to keep up her hope—to keep believing. He loved her so much his heart ached with the conflicting ties of his despair.

“Thank you, Lois,” he whispered, closing his eyes as he forgot everything but the caring touch of her warm hand on his face.

TBC......

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