“You know what to do, Kitty?” Luthor asked. The woman nodded, adjusting the nurse’s hat perched on her dark hair.
“I know what to do, Lex,” Kitty assured him. “Don’t worry.”
“Good,” Luthor commented. “Baxter will go with you, just in case.”
Luthor ran his thumb over the sharp edge of the kryptonite shard in his pocket – the shard that had been removed from Superman’s back, the shard that had the alien’s blood on it. He’d gotten the piece from one of the hospital employees whose job was to clean up the examining rooms.
The last piece of the kryptonite meteorite Luthor had stolen from the Museum of Natural History was supposed to have been sent to STAR Labs for study, but no one seemed to have noticed it had gone missing. No one seemed to have noticed the employee had gone missing as well. Luthor figured her body would wash up on the shore of Hobs Bay fairly soon and the police would assume she’d simply been raped and murdered – which she had been, after turning over the shard on the promise of ten thousand dollars cash.
“Have you got a fix on the alien?” Luthor asked Smith who was holding the alpha wave detector.
“He’s somewhere above us, on one of the upper floors,” Smith responded. He peered at the device in his hand then hit it with the heel of his free hand.
“Be careful with that,” Luthor hissed.
“I’ve lost him,” Smith announced.
“You’ve what?” Luthor glowered at him. “What did you do?”
“Nothing,” Smith defended himself sourly. “Obviously he’s stopped doing whatever it was he was doing that the detector was picking up.”
“But he hasn’t flown off?” Luthor demanded.
Smith shook his head. “He’s in the building. But unless he does something to trigger the device, we’re not going to find him.”
“Then we’ll just have to do something to bring him to us,” Luthor said, checking his reflection in the plate glass. Of all his wigs he liked this brown curly one best. He pulled a pair of eyeglasses out of his pocket and put them on, smiling. “Show time. You all know what to do.”
* * *
“I’ll stop by and check on Lois and Jason,” Perry announced as they got into the elevator. “You check on the baby, see what Jerome is up to.”
“Yes, sir,” Clark agreed.
The door opened on the ninth floor and Perry stepped out. The elevator doors closed behind him, leaving Clark alone.
Lois was mad at Superman because Clark disappeared? But she hadn’t made the connection. She hadn’t remembered that Clark was Superman, not really. It hadn’t clicked. So…?His ruminations were cut short by the elevator doors hissing open. He stepped into the tenth floor lobby and over to the wide window that overlooked the newborn nursery. The other Superman was sitting bare-chested, holding a baby in his arms. He smiled when he caught sight of Clark, handing the baby off to one of the nurses. He blurred into his shirt and cape before coming out into the main nursery.
“Nurse Marzollo,” the brown-eyed Superman said to one of the nurses. “This is Clark Kent, the baby’s father.” ‘Jerome’ gave him an appraising look. “You’re looking a lot better.”
“Feeling a lot better,” Clark admitted. “Still not a hundred percent, though.”
“You didn’t have the same thing she had, did you?” Marzollo asked suspiciously.
“Uh, no,” Clark said. “She’s too little for left-over Chinese take-out.”
Marzolo grabbed the note board with the baby’s records. “Miss Lane said the child’s mother died during childbirth?”
“That’s my understanding,” Clark said. “I couldn’t be there. We thought we had a little more time until the baby was due. Then things got complicated and Superman got involved.”
Mazollo gave Jerome a curious look and he shrugged.
“Well, let’s get a cell sample so we can do a paternity test,” Mazollo said. “Once that’s confirmed, we can get her a birth certificate.”
Getting a swab from the inside of his cheek took almost no time and he watched as Mazollo marked the sample for the lab and set is aside.
As soon as Mazollo was out of earshot. “How is she?”
“Much better,” Jerome said quietly. “Oh, and I doubt you have to worry about the test – if it’s the same as on my world, they’ll stop when they get the complete blood type. Kryptonian is a little rare and we do have the same blood type… You said you weren’t at one hundred percent?”
“The powers are gone,” Clark admitted. “Wells told Perry it might be permanent since apparently Superman is never seen in this time-line again.”
“Time is both fragile and strong,” Jerome said. “So are the powers. And things do change.”
Mazollo came back.
“Can I see her?” Clark asked the nurse.
“Right this way,” she told him, taking his arm and leading him into the interior intensive care area. She looked back the man in the Superman suit. “And thank you for your help.”
“Glad to be of service,” Jerome said with a smile. Then he left the nursery and disappeared down the corridor.
* * *
Kitty and Baxter slipped through the side door and disappeared down the corridor, heading toward the main elevators.
Luthor followed them through the side door, heading instead to the main reception desk. The white uniformed woman looked up at Luthor curiously. “May I help you?”
Sheep. “I had a report that Superman was in the building,” Luthor began, smiling at her disingenuously.
The woman shrugged. “A Superman impersonator came through earlier, but I haven’t heard anything about Superman himself.”
“You’re sure it was an impersonator?” Luthor demanded.
“Well, yeah. The suit wasn't quite right and the fellow had brown eyes,” the woman said. “I mean he was fit and kind of looked the part, but he certainly wasn’t Superman.”
“Interesting,” Luthor murmured to himself. “Where did he go?”
“He was asking about the neonate ICU,” she said. “So I assume that’s where he went to visit.”
“And the neonate ICU is on which floor?” Luthor asked.
“Tenth. But visiting don’t start until seven.”
“Who said we were visiting a patient?” Luthor asked, jerking his head to Smith. The other man sneered at the woman then went around the counter, grabbing her arm and pulling her out from behind the counter.
Luther looked around and spotted the security camera covering the main door and the reception area. “Not here,” he hissed. “Bring her with us. You can have your fun later.”
Smith shrugged and Luthor was gratified to see the terror in the young woman’s face as Smith started toward the elevators with her in tow.
* * *
Kitty looked around the corridor. She smoothed her skirt and made herself look busy reading a patient chart as she and Baxter waited for the other people in the area to leave. She only recognized one of them – Lois Lane, the boy’s mother. Lane called the younger man ‘Richard,’ and the older gray-haired man ‘Perry.’ Kitty didn’t catch the name of the other dark-haired woman.
“No, I’ll be okay,” Lois was saying. “The doctor was saying he plans to have Jason moved to a regular room in a little bit, then he’ll be able to have visitors. Assuming the tests turn out okay, I should be able to take him home tomorrow.”
“Lois, you’re sure you don’t want me to stay with him so you can get some rest?” the younger man asked.
“I’m sure,” Lois assured him, gently pushing him away.
“I can’t believe she threw him over for somebody else,” Kitty whispered to Baxter. “He’s cute.”
“Kitty, get with the program,” Baxter warned. “The b*tch is an alien lover and he found out and now she has some other poor sap on the line.”
“He’s still cute,” Kitty stated.
In a few minutes Lois entered the ICU room. She was alone with the boy. Kitty and Baxter crossed the hallway to the glass-walled room.
“Miss Lane, we’re here to take Jason over to the lab for some more tests,” Kitty announced, turning off the various monitors and disconnecting the lines from Jason’s body.
“Doctor Maher didn’t mention taking Jason to the lab,” Lois pointed out.
Kitty unlatched the side rail and lowered it then bundled Jason into one of the blankets. “Oh, Doctor Maher didn’t order it,” Kitty told her. “Someone else did.”
“Who?” Lois demanded. Kitty watched the other woman’s eyes widen as she spotted the gun in Baxter’s hand.
“Well, if you come along quietly, you’ll find out,” Kitty promised. “Otherwise…”
“You can’t honestly believe you can gat away with this,” Lois protested. “Kidnapping is a federal offence.”
“All we want are some blood and tissue samples,” Kitty told her. “If you want to come along, I promise you won’t get hurt. Otherwise, he’ll just shoot you and we’ll take the boy anyway.”
“Mommy,” Jason wailed.
“I’m right here, baby,” Lois assured her son. She glared at Kitty and Baxter. “I won’t let them hurt you.”
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