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From Part 3:Sort out her personal life? He was burning with curiosity to know what she meant by that. Clearly do something about her husband - that was a given. Lex Luthor needed to be in prison for what he’d tried to do to his wife. But what else did Lois have in mind?
It was none of his business, he reminded himself. “You’re a great reporter. Any paper would be desperate to have you.”
“Well, that’s what I’m hoping,” she agreed, a note of confidence in her voice, which pleased Clark: one thing which had surprised him about their conversations over the past few days was the self-doubt he’d seemed to detect in Lois’s attitude.
“Just remember to let me know if they have a vacancy for a Smallville hack too, okay?”
*********
Now read on...A few minutes later, Clark landed lightly just behind the farmhouse. Lois had been silent for the last few hundred miles, leading him to think that she’d fallen asleep, but as he began to walk towards the house she stirred. She’d probably just been conserving her voice - he’d noticed that the more she talked the more she lost her breath and started coughing. “We’re here?”
“Yeah. Let’s get you inside.”
The back door opened as he approached, and his mother stood on the threshold. An expression of alarm crossed her face briefly as she noticed that he was carrying someone. He knew why, of course; it was obvious to her that he’d revealed his secret to the stranger he’d brought with him. He - and Lois - would have to reassure his parents that they had nothing to worry about. Well, once he’d had a chance to talk to Lois and assure
himself that he had nothing to worry about.
But his mother started to hurry towards him. “Clark! Is everything all right?” Her attention switched to Lois. “Hi, I’m Martha Kent. Are you a friend of Clark’s?”
“This is Lois, Mom,” Clark told her. “She’s been in an... accident and almost drowned.”
A look of comprehension crossed his mother’s face. “I saw something on the news. You saved her, honey?”
Clark nodded. “But she’s cold and wet. I need to get her inside and get her a change of clothes.”
“And a hot bath.” Martha turned and hurried back into the house. “You take Lois up to the bathroom, honey, and I’ll find her some dry clothes while you run the bath for her.”
“Your mom seems nice,” Lois said as Clark carried her into the bathroom, then set her down. She shivered again.
“Yeah.” He smiled. “I’ve been really lucky. I’m adopted,” he explained. “And I couldn’t have wished for more amazing parents than I got.”
“Adopted.” She nodded. “Yeah, that makes some kind of sense. You’re going to have to tell me just who or what you are, you know, Clark... Kent?”
He inclined his head. “That’s me. I never did introduce myself properly, did I?” He gave a slight shrug. “That was deliberate - if you started getting suspicious about how I was getting onto your beach, I didn’t want you to be able to trace me.” He dropped to his knees and began turning on the bath-taps.
She raised an eyebrow. “You told me enough about yourself that you would’ve been
really easy to trace. In fact, I had every intention of finding you.”
He stopped what he was doing to turn and stare at her. “You did?”
“Yeah.” She blushed, which puzzled him, but didn’t add any further explanation. “Anyway,” she added, “you can tell me all about yourself later. I want the full story - including what else you can do besides fly. That’s not all, is it?”
“Nope,” he admitted. “Not by a long way. And, yes, I’ll tell you - but remember, we have a deal?”
“Yeah.” Her reply was softly voiced. “Don’t worry, I’ll follow through. I think I can take it from here now, though.” She gestured at the bath. “You can leave me to it - I’m not going to drown in your parents’ bathtub!”
“Okay.” He retreated, ducking out the door just as his mom entered with some clothes, which she laid on a shelf.
“Come downstairs as soon as you’re ready, Lois,” his mom said. “I’ll have some coffee ready - and are you hungry?”
“Ravenous!” Lois exclaimed, the expression on her face suggesting that she’d only just realised it.
“Good.” His mom grinned, then retreated, shutting the door behind her and blocking Clark’s view of Lois. He blinked, feeling as if someone had dimmed all the colours in his world.
Don’t be fanciful, he told himself. He’d see her in half an hour or so, anyway - and he had some things to do in the meantime. Including making a phone call - and, he could tell by the expression on his mom’s face, explaining a few things to his parents.
“Yeah, I know,” he told her with a grin. “Downstairs. Now.”
**********
Twenty minutes later, having made his phone call to the Kents’ family doctor, Clark was sitting in the kitchen with his parents, explaining how he’d come to rescue Lois. His father stroked his chin with his thumb, concerned.
“I can see why you had to tell Lois about what you can do, Clark. But how can we be sure that she won’t tell anyone? Or write about you?”
Clark winced, having heard footsteps just as his father began to speak. Sure enough, Lois’s voice came from the open doorway.
“Hi, Mr Kent. I’m Lois Lane.” She advanced into the room, her hand extended. She was looking a lot better, Clark noted: her skin was back to a pale pink shade, and her eyes had lost their dullness. Her hair was damp again, but she’d finger-combed it into something resembling her usual style. The clothes his mom had found - a sweatshirt and leggings - were a little loose on her, making her look fragile, but overall she seemed a lot healthier than the sodden, barely-alive woman he’d pulled from the lake less than an hour ago.
It was nothing short of a miracle that she’d survived, he reflected, as he had on the last leg of the journey home. Lake Superior was the coldest by far of all the Great Lakes, and even in summer anyone unlucky enough to end up in the water anywhere far from land was likely to get hypothermia within an hour. He’d found Lois a mile or so from shore, true; all he could surmise was that she must have been fortunate enough to find a warmer current. That, plus the heat of the summer sun, must have been enough to keep her alive.
His father took Lois’s hand, greeting her warmly.
“Pleased to meet you, Lois. Clark’s told us a lot about you. I hope you don’t mind -”
She interrupted him smoothly. “I can understand your concern, believe me. And, yeah, I guess that the story of a man who can fly would sell a few newspapers. But, you know, I’m not a reporter at the moment. And if Clark doesn’t want anyone to know what he can do then, even if I were, I could never do that to the man who saved my life.” Smiling, though Clark could see the nervousness in her expression, Lois took the empty seat at the table.
His mom reached across and patted her hand. “Thank you, honey. We’re very grateful. Now,” she added briskly, “what can I offer you? Is coffee okay? And I have some apple pie, or I could whisk you up some scrambled eggs or an omelette if you prefer?”
“Mom’s caramel apple pie is to die for,” Clark whispered to her with a grin.
“Apple pie would be great,” she said, smiling at his mother. “And I’d love some coffee.”
As his mom piled Lois’s plate high, she said, concerned, “I’m sure you want to call your husband, honey. He must be frantic about you! In fact, not that we’re not delighted to meet you, I’m surprised that Clark didn’t take you straight to him.”
Clark felt Lois’s gaze on his, and he instantly reached for her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “What I didn’t get around to telling you guys is that Lois’s husband was responsible for her being in that lake in the first place,” he said, hearing his harsh tone but not caring how he sounded. “He tried to kill her. I brought her here because I knew she’d be safe at the farm.”
His mother looked shocked; his father deeply concerned. But neither, Clark noted, appeared to disbelieve Lois’s claim. “You made the right decision,” Jonathan Kent said. “Lois is welcome to stay here for as long as she needs. And you do intend to call the police, don’t you?”
“No!” Lois exclaimed immediately. “Look, you don’t know my husband. He has influence everywhere - probably including several police forces. I - ”
“I can tell that you’re scared, honey,” Martha Kent interrupted. “And you’re safe here. Apart from anything else, you’re with Clark. He won’t let anything happen to you. And whatever you decide, we’ll support you.”
“Thank you,” Lois said softly. “You’re being very kind to someone you don’t even know.”
“You’re a friend of Clark’s,” his mother observed with a smile. “That’s enough for us.”
“I called our family doctor while you were in the bath,” Clark said as Lois ate. “I know you said you didn’t want to go to a hospital, but I’d really feel an awful lot better if Dr Klein looked you over.”
He was prepared for an argument, and for a moment the annoyed expression on Lois’s face told him that he was going to get one. But then she blinked. “Dr Klein? From Star Labs?”
“Star Labs in Metropolis?” Clark shook his head.
“No, honey - Dr Jill Klein is our family doctor,” his mom said.
“Clark, you know why I don’t want to see a doctor,” Lois said flatly. “I can’t take the risk.”
“Dr Klein’s as trustworthy as they come,” Clark promised. “Besides, we don’t have to tell her who you are. Just that you’re a friend who had an accident. But even if she recognises you from newspaper photographs she won’t say anything.”
“Yeah, but I can’t pay her bill without using insurance, and that’s impossible!”
“Leave me to worry about that,” Clark insisted. “Things are very different in the country, anyway.”
Lois still looked unhappy, which Clark supposed he could understand. She still barely knew him, after all, so why should she take his word that someone she didn’t know could be trusted? But Dr Klein, when she arrived, put Lois quickly at her ease, introducing herself, asking for brief details of what had happened and then taking Lois upstairs so that she could examine her properly.
The two women returned to the kitchen about half an hour later. In the interim, Clark should have been checking the news channels and websites for information about Lex Luthor. He’d even contemplated flying back up to Canada to see if Luthor was still there and still pretending to be searching for his wife’s body. But concern for Lois kept him glued to the house, pacing up and down the kitchen until his mom banished him to the living-room.
“So? Is she going to be all right?” Clark demanded impatiently as soon as he saw Dr Klein heading down the stairs.
“Lois seems to be doing much better than I’d expect for someone who’s been dragged out of a lake after several hours’ immersion,” Jill Klein assured him. “I examined her as thoroughly as I could here - checking her central nervous system, the state of her lungs and so on - as well as checking her temperature. Ideally, I’d like to get her into a hospital and do a neuro exam, but Lois refuses. You’re not a very good patient, Lois!” the doctor added dryly as Lois came down the stairs behind her.
“I feel fine,” Lois insisted.
“And the tests all indicate that you’re fine too,” Dr Klein corroborated. “If not, I’d already have called the ambulance. You’re a very lucky young woman - it looks like you might even have escaped pneumonia. I’ll run that blood test to see if you’re right about being doped, though, and I’ll get back to you later with the results. Clark, Martha,” she added, turning to Clark’s mom, who had joined them. “I need you to keep a close watch on Lois for the next twenty-four hours or so. Just check that she doesn’t get cold, and wake her up during the night to check her reflexes. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” Martha said quickly, before Clark could respond. “I’ll take care of that. And thank you for coming, Jill.”
The doctor grinned. “No problem. I owed you one after that pumpkin pie last week!”
“If you liked that, you’ll love my apple crisp!” Martha assured her. “Come on into the kitchen and I’ll give you some to take home.”
The door closed behind the doctor and his mother, and Clark turned to Lois. “See what I mean about things being different in the country? Jill never bills people for this sort of thing - she gets paid in produce. It’s only when something’s major enough to require hospitalisation that bills and insurance come into it.” He grinned at her, then sobered. The more he heard about what Lois had gone through - and so far he’d only heard snippets - the angrier he felt about it. And the more determined he became to see Lex Luthor brought to justice.
“Anyway, now that I know that you’re okay, want to tell me why your husband tried to kill you?”
*********
...tbc
