After The Storm 13/? - 05/21/07 12:47 PM
Joanne put her arm around Lois’s shoulder to comfort the younger woman. Doctor Maher hurried off to give the new medication to the baby, leaving a nurse to monitor Jason’s condition.
“How did you get here?” Lois asked. It had finally registered on her exhausted, panicky mind how impossible it was for the woman standing with her to even be there. “Why are you here?”
“It’s complicated,” Joanne said. “Let’s just say that Clark and I, my Clark, had reason to believe something bad was happening here and it was related to your visit. Then somebody with a planar travel device agreed with us.”
“Is your Clark okay?” Lois asked. The tempocane had returned before she and Clark could be certain that everything was going to be okay in ‘Joanne’s’ time-line.
“He went back to work this morning,” Joanne told her with a crooked smile. “Both jobs.”
Richard cleared his throat and both women - one brown with brown hair and hazel eyes, the other with dark brown hair and brown eyes - looked over at him. “Lois, you know her?”
Lois nodded. “Clark and I ended up at their house while we were gone. Like I said, it was an interesting visit.”
“Her husband is the E-n-C of the Daily Planet?” Richard asked Lois.
She nodded.
“Youngest in the paper’s history,” Joanne said proudly. “Increased circulation by nearly twenty percent in three years.”
“Sex, tragedy, and Superman,” Richard muttered. “Uncle Perry’s mantra. Guaranteed sales.”
Joanne chuckled. “When Superman’s been around for fourteen years, he’s not headline news unless it’s Earth shattering.”
Richard’s eyes widened. “Fourteen years? Are there any criminals left?”
“Violent crime is almost nonexistent, the petty stuff at least,” Joanne told him. “White collar crime hasn’t changed much. Organized crime has changed its tactics, less violence, more extortion, gambling, that sort of thing. Superman does more work dealing with accidents and natural disasters these days. Of course, there are still the criminals who think they can get away with attacking Superman. Needless to say, that doesn’t fly very well with us. We’re quite fond of our Superman.”
Doctor Maher had come back, hurrying into Jason’s room with only a nod to the three people waiting outside the room. The nurse was explaining something to Maher and it looked like he couldn’t decide whether he should be astonished or simply pleased. Lois noticed that the tracing on the cardiac monitor seemed more normal, assuming she knew what normal looked like, and the temperature monitor reading was dropping slowly.
Lois watched him give instructions to the nurse then he came out of the room and walked over to them.
He was shaking his head and grinning. “Miss Lane, I’m having a hard time believing it, but the medication appears to be working. Your son’s fever has broken, his vital signs are improving. Assuming there’s no reoccurrence of the fever, I think the prognosis is good.”
“And the baby?” Joanne asked.
Maher’s expression turned more serious. “She’s very weak, and she hasn’t improved nearly as quickly as the boy. Plus her blood work shows some abnormalities. We don’t know if it’s from the disease, or something else.”
Lois turned to Joanne. “I know she’s not… Clark missed so much with Jason… If the baby doesn’t make it, it’ll break his heart.”
“I promise you, we’ll do everything we can for both of them,” Joanne said earnestly. “But you should know, according to Mister Wells, in the original time-line - the one where you and Clark didn’t show up - both that baby and little Martha died.”
“Oh my God…” Lois murmured. “Is she…?”
“She’s fine,” Joanne assured her. “My mother-in-law’s watching them.”
* * *
Perry hurried up the stairs to the guest room where Alice was tending to Clark.
“Who’s downstairs?” she asked.
“Friends of Clark’s,” he answered. “They brought some special medicine for him.”
“What kind of medicine?”
“Kryptonian medicine.”
Perry handed the injector to his wife and watched as she inspected it. He quickly passed on the instructions he’d been given. She exposed the inside of Clark’s elbow and pressed the device to his arm.
Perry was surprised that the device even worked. He’s not invulnerable any more. Clark roused from his stupor enough to try to move away from the touch of metal on his skin. To Perry’s additional surprise, Alice was easily able to overcome him, holding his arm still until the medication in the vials disappeared.
Dear God, the story of the decade is in my lap and I don’t dare publish a word of it. Superman is sick in my guestroom and people claiming to be from a different universe are sitting in my living room claiming to be his friends.
“Easy, hon’, easy…” Alice was telling Clark. He seemed to relax at the sound of her voice and his breathing became easier. Alice checked his pulse.
“It works fast, what ever it is,” she said. “His pulse is stronger. I’m no doctor, but I’d say he might actually live.”
The lights in the room were dimmed, but Perry had the impression that Clark’s color was improving as well. He was still pale, even a little blotchy, but not as bad as earlier.
“Perry, I could use another cup of coffee,” Alice said. “And maybe bring up a 2-liter of soda and another jug of water. He’s pretty dehydrated.”
“I’ll be right back,” he promised.
“Mister Wells, how long before we know if what we’ve done is enough to correct the problem in the time-line?” Jerome was asking as Perry came down the stairs.
“It does take a little time for the changes to propagate forward,” Wells said. “Although I still don’t completely understand why that is. Professor Brown at the Academy of Temporal Studies tried to explain it to me once, but I guess I’m just a mechanic at heart.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Jerome pointed out.
“Oh, yes. You’re quite right my boy,” Wells said. He checked the screen on what looked like a PDA. “Oh dear…”
“What is it?” Perry asked. Both men seemed surprised to see him standing in the archway leading to the living room.
“It would appear that we have been successful in saving the life of Clark Kent, and of course, Superman – but the future time-line still appears to be in disarray.”
Jerome took a deep breath in and out. “Obviously something happened, or will happen, while he’s indisposed. Do you have any idea what it might be?”
Wells shook his head. “Only that the event had, or will have, repercussions large enough to destroy the future that was.”
---------------------------------
TOC
“How did you get here?” Lois asked. It had finally registered on her exhausted, panicky mind how impossible it was for the woman standing with her to even be there. “Why are you here?”
“It’s complicated,” Joanne said. “Let’s just say that Clark and I, my Clark, had reason to believe something bad was happening here and it was related to your visit. Then somebody with a planar travel device agreed with us.”
“Is your Clark okay?” Lois asked. The tempocane had returned before she and Clark could be certain that everything was going to be okay in ‘Joanne’s’ time-line.
“He went back to work this morning,” Joanne told her with a crooked smile. “Both jobs.”
Richard cleared his throat and both women - one brown with brown hair and hazel eyes, the other with dark brown hair and brown eyes - looked over at him. “Lois, you know her?”
Lois nodded. “Clark and I ended up at their house while we were gone. Like I said, it was an interesting visit.”
“Her husband is the E-n-C of the Daily Planet?” Richard asked Lois.
She nodded.
“Youngest in the paper’s history,” Joanne said proudly. “Increased circulation by nearly twenty percent in three years.”
“Sex, tragedy, and Superman,” Richard muttered. “Uncle Perry’s mantra. Guaranteed sales.”
Joanne chuckled. “When Superman’s been around for fourteen years, he’s not headline news unless it’s Earth shattering.”
Richard’s eyes widened. “Fourteen years? Are there any criminals left?”
“Violent crime is almost nonexistent, the petty stuff at least,” Joanne told him. “White collar crime hasn’t changed much. Organized crime has changed its tactics, less violence, more extortion, gambling, that sort of thing. Superman does more work dealing with accidents and natural disasters these days. Of course, there are still the criminals who think they can get away with attacking Superman. Needless to say, that doesn’t fly very well with us. We’re quite fond of our Superman.”
Doctor Maher had come back, hurrying into Jason’s room with only a nod to the three people waiting outside the room. The nurse was explaining something to Maher and it looked like he couldn’t decide whether he should be astonished or simply pleased. Lois noticed that the tracing on the cardiac monitor seemed more normal, assuming she knew what normal looked like, and the temperature monitor reading was dropping slowly.
Lois watched him give instructions to the nurse then he came out of the room and walked over to them.
He was shaking his head and grinning. “Miss Lane, I’m having a hard time believing it, but the medication appears to be working. Your son’s fever has broken, his vital signs are improving. Assuming there’s no reoccurrence of the fever, I think the prognosis is good.”
“And the baby?” Joanne asked.
Maher’s expression turned more serious. “She’s very weak, and she hasn’t improved nearly as quickly as the boy. Plus her blood work shows some abnormalities. We don’t know if it’s from the disease, or something else.”
Lois turned to Joanne. “I know she’s not… Clark missed so much with Jason… If the baby doesn’t make it, it’ll break his heart.”
“I promise you, we’ll do everything we can for both of them,” Joanne said earnestly. “But you should know, according to Mister Wells, in the original time-line - the one where you and Clark didn’t show up - both that baby and little Martha died.”
“Oh my God…” Lois murmured. “Is she…?”
“She’s fine,” Joanne assured her. “My mother-in-law’s watching them.”
* * *
Perry hurried up the stairs to the guest room where Alice was tending to Clark.
“Who’s downstairs?” she asked.
“Friends of Clark’s,” he answered. “They brought some special medicine for him.”
“What kind of medicine?”
“Kryptonian medicine.”
Perry handed the injector to his wife and watched as she inspected it. He quickly passed on the instructions he’d been given. She exposed the inside of Clark’s elbow and pressed the device to his arm.
Perry was surprised that the device even worked. He’s not invulnerable any more. Clark roused from his stupor enough to try to move away from the touch of metal on his skin. To Perry’s additional surprise, Alice was easily able to overcome him, holding his arm still until the medication in the vials disappeared.
Dear God, the story of the decade is in my lap and I don’t dare publish a word of it. Superman is sick in my guestroom and people claiming to be from a different universe are sitting in my living room claiming to be his friends.
“Easy, hon’, easy…” Alice was telling Clark. He seemed to relax at the sound of her voice and his breathing became easier. Alice checked his pulse.
“It works fast, what ever it is,” she said. “His pulse is stronger. I’m no doctor, but I’d say he might actually live.”
The lights in the room were dimmed, but Perry had the impression that Clark’s color was improving as well. He was still pale, even a little blotchy, but not as bad as earlier.
“Perry, I could use another cup of coffee,” Alice said. “And maybe bring up a 2-liter of soda and another jug of water. He’s pretty dehydrated.”
“I’ll be right back,” he promised.
“Mister Wells, how long before we know if what we’ve done is enough to correct the problem in the time-line?” Jerome was asking as Perry came down the stairs.
“It does take a little time for the changes to propagate forward,” Wells said. “Although I still don’t completely understand why that is. Professor Brown at the Academy of Temporal Studies tried to explain it to me once, but I guess I’m just a mechanic at heart.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Jerome pointed out.
“Oh, yes. You’re quite right my boy,” Wells said. He checked the screen on what looked like a PDA. “Oh dear…”
“What is it?” Perry asked. Both men seemed surprised to see him standing in the archway leading to the living room.
“It would appear that we have been successful in saving the life of Clark Kent, and of course, Superman – but the future time-line still appears to be in disarray.”
Jerome took a deep breath in and out. “Obviously something happened, or will happen, while he’s indisposed. Do you have any idea what it might be?”
Wells shook his head. “Only that the event had, or will have, repercussions large enough to destroy the future that was.”
---------------------------------
TOC