Once more I have to again offer my thanks to HappyGirl, IolantheAlias and, of course, TFB for beta reading this story. We all benefit from their input.

Feedback here please.

Bob

Great part!! I love Henderson for working it out for Lois, how Lois consulted with Superman's doctor, her visit with Clark, etc! Loved everything!

And thank you for putting this up tonight so I had something new to read!!!

I second EvelynC's comments. Glad to see Bill helping Lois help Clark. And I assume the StarLabs scientist is Dr. Klein? Wouldn't Lois know who he is? Just wondered why he wasn't mentioned by name.

Good luck with the posting schedule! I loved your list of excuses, btw.

Oh, good! I really liked this part! Maybe it wasn't a good thing that Lois blew up at Lex, but I'm glad she did. And I'm glad she made Henderson understand how strangely that policeman had been behaving. Is that policeman really working for Lex?

And I really, really liked Lois whispering those words of love to Clark!

Ann

I like the way you handled getting Lois as Superman's next of kin.

This cracked me up: Sometimes even the smartest people are fooled. But I'm glad she didn't fall for it.

Love the blow up with Lex. Personally I don't you even needed the justification of the meds - the trauma she'd been through would've be more than enough. But the med side effect works too.

Glad to hear more about the Kryptonite bullets. Can't wait to see how you have Superman get out of this one.

Joan

oh I just loved this chapter!! This is a very awesome well-written fic and I'm enjoying every word of it.

boy, sure hope Lois gets in to see Clark - she is liable to go into a true rage if she is stonewalled anymore!

Excellent part!

I, too, liked Lois helping the doctors about info on kryptonite and her visiting him at the end. And I loved how Lois blew up at Lex, at least if was blamed on the meds if Luthor does get suspicious.

Looking forward to more!



P.S. I also liked your list of excuses

You fixed it.

Great job, Bob. Sorry I'm too sleep deprived to beta the rest, but I will be reading.

I guess the first thing I’ll do is address HappyGirl’s comment: You see, back around 1980 or so I actually worked in a hospital. I based some of the last two chapters on my experiences. (I worked in housekeeping and literally cleaned up s**t for a living.) Anyway, my recollection was that the hospital staff was generally not that reluctant to talk about how people were doing. Earlier versions of this chapter had the staff opening up to Lois and telling her about Superman’s condition. Well, both HappyGirl and IolantheAlias pointed out that would never fly in the mid 90s. My fix was Bill Henderson to the rescue with a friendly judge. Anyway, maybe the staff was more tight-lipped back in 1980 and I just remember it wrong. Still, score another one for beta readers.

Bob

Bob, I agree. The hospital staff would *certainly* gossip amongst itself about Superman. How could they not?

But Lois is an outsider (and worse, she's a reporter), and these days there are all those annoying medical privacy laws. Plus, I'm sure that hospital administration has made severe threats, promising hellfile and brimstone to anyone who leaks info about Superman to the media.

But you are so right. I'm sure everyone who works in that hospital has got the inside scoop on Superman and how he's doing. They just won't talk about it to non-hospital people.

And that's my opinion. Thank you.

The HIPPA laws were passed in 1996. I also worked in the medical field (as a medical technologist), and I can attest to the fact that the difference between before and after HIPPA was like night and day. (Or, I guess the correct analogy would be it was like day and night. )

Vicki said: What I remember is that while we didn't just talk to anyone about what happened in the hospital, it wasn't that bad. Based on what I see in the news, it is WAY worse now.

Bob