What A Husband Should Be...
Previously..from Part 13
“Mr. Kent, Mrs. Kent is asking for you.”
“Okay…” Clark responded softly as he followed the nurse back in to the recovery room.
On the way inside the recovery room nurse related to Clark that Lois had come out of surgery and was doing well until this ’unknown doctor,’ now known as Tanaka, approached her bedside. “He stood there, by her bed, for a few minutes talking to her. Lois was awake but drowsy. As he talked to her, he injected her IV with what was later found to be succinylcholine, a paralyzing agent used with anaesthesia and pentathol which is the sleep inducing agent for general anaesthesia. He ran out so quickly that he dropped the syringes on the floor instead of in the needle box. The needle box had just been emptied. If Mrs. Kent had not been with us, monitored…“ the nurse dropped off without finishing that thought. Clark could read her inference. “We gave her those drugs for surgery, so they would have been otherwise hard to trace and figure out what happened if we had not been in this setting. The difference when those drugs are used during surgery is that we stick a breathing tube down to breathe for the patient,” the nurse related.
“Oh, God, she was suffocating?”
“Well, sort of, except she was asleep and didn’t know it. I’m sorry Mr. Kent, that it happened, but, she’s okay now,” the nurse said sincerely. “Right over there…”
“Thank you.” Clark responded to the nurse. “Lois, honey, …” Clark whispered as he held Lois’ hand and tears started to fall down his cheeks.
And Now...
What A Husband Should Be 14/?
Continued
Clark sat at Lois’ bedside in the recovery room and held her hand. She was awake but had her eyes closed. She seemed so fragile.
“Clark, I’m so tired. I’m just going to shut my eyes for a minute. Please, don’t leave.”
“Don’t worry, honey. I’m not going anywhere,” Clark replied.
“What happened? Why couldn’t the nurse find you?”
Clark proceeded to tell Lois of the events of the day. Lois opened her eyes and looked at Clark with a wrinkled forehead as he told the story. She could not believe that Luthor hated her that much. How could a man go from loving someone to the point of wanting to marry them to having so much hatred that he doesn’t give murder second thought? She started to think, maybe Luthor never really loved her in the first place. Maybe he wanted to control her just like everything else in his life. Lois thought to herself that Clark was right all the time. He had tried to warn her about the evil streak that Lex Luthor had but Lois would not listen. She had written Clark’s warnings off as jealousy.
“Clark, I’m so sorry that I didn’t listen to you, that I treated you so ba…” Lois started, holding back tears.
“Shhh…don’t worry about that now. We’re past it,” Clark assured Lois. “All that matters now is that we’re together and I’m not going anywhere.”
“Oh, Clark, what did I ever do to deserve you? You’ve been nothing but supportive and understanding,” Lois continued as she squeezed Clark’s hand that held hers.
Clark responded by placing his other hand on to of the both of theirs and resting his forehead on the ball of entwined hands. He then mumbled, “Lois, I love you so much.”
Lois just closed her eyes to fight back tears. Why couldn’t she say those scary words back to Clark?
It seemed that Clark somehow understood her struggle because he looked up into her face and waited for her to open her eyes. Then, he said in a soft voice, “Lois, you don’t have to feel guilty about not being able to say it back. I will wait for you as long as it takes. I do pray that one day you will feel the same for me as I do for you but I knew that you didn’t when I asked you to marry me. We can’t dwell on that now. You need to save your energy to get better and get out of here.”
Lois just shook her head in acknowledgement. She was afraid that if she tried to say something she would loose control of her emotions and have a tearful meltdown. God, how did she get so lucky to get such a wonderful man?
Lois was back in her room by early afternoon. Clark was still with her, at her bedside. Something just would not allow Clark to leave Lois’ bedside at that time. He just kept thinking about how he had almost lost Lois, not once, but twice, in the past week. Was his faith being tested?
By midnight, the nurse had to run Clark home. She insisted that he go home and get some sleep. She assured Clark that Lois was in a monitored bed and that she would be looked in on frequently, considering the day’s series of events. Reluctantly Clark left Lois’ bedside and headed for the hotel. He kissed Lois on the cheek as he stood to walkout of the room. He could tell that she was really tired by now.
When Clark got to his hotel room, he wasn’t sleepy. He noticed the red light flashing to indicate that he had…eleven phone calls, nine from Perry and two from the Kents. He knew that he should call and update Perry and his parents. It would be about 1030 in Metropolis and about 0930 in Smallville. Clark called Perry first.
Clark told Perry about Lois and her recovery and about Luthor’s fate. Perry had tried to call Clark earlier to tell him that Luthor’s private jet had been tracked to Tokyo, when they found out that he had a second set of passports and had flown out of Metropolis. That’s what all of the phone calls had been about. Henderson had been tracking Luthor but by the time he had sufficient evidence and a court order to have Luthor put back in jail, his jet was long gone. Henderson had suspected that Luthor would go to Tokyo to find Lois and Clark and that’s why he had alerted the Tokyo Police Department. Clark finally wound up his conversation with Perry after about half an hour and then called his parents.
The Kents were just concerned because they had heard the update on Luthor on the national news…a special report. They did not however have the details of what had happened with Lois. Clark filled them in.
Finally at about 0200, Clark got into bed. He was asleep almost immediately. He hadn’t realized how tired he really was.
The next morning, Clark awakened to a ringing phone. He looked at the clock just before he answered the phone. It was 0906.
“Hello…Clark Kent”
“Hi, Mr. Kent. This is Christine Sanders from the US Embassy. How’s Lois? I heard about her little situation yesterday on the news.”
“She’s great. She’s recovering without any residuals. But, then you know Lois…stubborn even in her injured state,” Clark said with humor in his voice.
“Well, the reason I called is to let you know that you’re back. We will issue another passport as soon as you can come by and get it. And then you can go home. You’ve got loyal friends back in the United States. This happened in record time. I wasn’t expecting anything until at least another week.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Sanders…for everything. You just don’t realize how much you’ve helped me…us. You‘ve been our support away from home and we‘ll never forget you for that.”
“It’s been my…our pleasure. Goodbye Clark.”
“Goodbye.”
Clark got up and dressed for the hospital. Right now seeing Lois was more important than getting a new passport. He would tell her later.
Sunday morning, Lois was discharged home. She still was not good enough to fly internationally, but could be out of the hospital. Clark got instructions from the doctors and nurses to take care of Lois. When they wheeled Lois to the front of the hospital, Clark pulled up the car and then lifted Lois into the passenger seat. Her cast had been removed but she still had some small bandages from the surgical incisions.
Lois and Clark got back to the hotel and Clark first carried Lois up to their room. Then he went back to retrieve her stuff from the car. While Clark was gone to the car, Lois sat and thought about how much her life had changed in the span of a week. She also started to wonder about some things that hadn’t occurred to her until now like her personal care. Right now nothing sounded better than a good bath and hair washing, but how could she do that on her own. <What’s wrong with you Lane? You can’t even stand up. We‘ll, Clark could help you to the shower. But he‘d have to help you stand up. He‘s your husband stupid. He‘s bound to see you naked one of these days.>
Just as Lois and her subconscious started to argue, Clark came back into the hotel room. He sat down next to Lois, bowed his head and rested his elbows on his knees. Then he reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out her rings that were taken off what seemed like so long ago.
“Lois…when the nurse handed these to me, I thought I would die. Please, let me place them back where they belong,” Clark said pleadingly.
“Oh, Clark…“ Lois whispered as she held out her finger and received the rings with a tearful smile. “I wanted to ask you for them, but I didn’t know if…if you…if you still wanted me…I mean look at me…”
“Lois, I’ll always want you, more than anything. You had to have known that.” Clark replied.
Lois just smiled as she admired the rings that Clark had given her, lovingly placed on that very finger just a week ago. And there he was recreating the moment. At that very moment, Lois knew that Clark would be forever.
“Lois, we haven’t talked about sleeping arrangements. I mean, I assumed that you should just have the bed and I’ll take the couch…”
“No, Clark, I can…”
“No, Lois, you need to be able to stretch out that leg and not be uncomfortable. You are recovering…”
“Clark! Why can’t we sleep in the same bed? We are married…I mean we don’t have to do anything…” Lois interrupted, nervously.
“Oh, I…I thought you wanted…didn’t want to sleep with me…not sleep with me…but…” Clark fumbled.
“Clark, we slept together the other night. Remember?” Lois said with humor in her voice.
“I know but, that was…different…I mean…”
“Oh, Clark, it’s okay. We’re gonna be okay. These are just minor issues,” Lois assured Clark as she held out her hand towards his. Clark responded by taking her tiny hand into his larger one.
Lois and Clark had dinner and watched movies. They sat on the couch, Clark with his arm around Lois’ shoulder and her head lying on his chest, talked and laughed like old times. Soon, it was after 2200 and Clark was starting to get tired. Lois seemed to be awake, so Clark wanted to be awake to help Lois if she needed. What Clark didn’t know is that Lois had her own inward struggle going on. She wanted a bath so badly, but needed his help. She hadn’t had anything more than a bed bath since the accident. Finally Lois just decided to just go for it.
“Clark…”
“Yea…”
“Could you help me…to get…get a bath?” Lois asked nervously.
“Sure…I’ll run your water and…”
“Clark, you’re gonna have to help me…I mean…I can’t stand up alone…and…”
The color left Clark’s face.
“Lois, I would have to see…be…touch…” Clark started as he went into a coughing bout.
“Clark, I don’t care about that…I mean I do…but…please…”
Reluctantly, Clark bowed an acknowledgement with his head. He didn’t trust his voice. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help Lois, to see her…oh boy…it was just that he didn’t trust himself not to respond to seeing her nak…like that.
Clark very carefully removed his arm from around Lois’ shoulders, propped her on pillows and wet to the bathroom to run her a bath. As he headed to the bathroom, an idea occurred to him. A bath wouldn’t be good right now. It would be awkward trying to maneuver Lois into and out of the bath tub without hurting her. A shower would be better because then he could stand and hold Lois up.
“Lois, what about a shower? Then I can stand and hold you up…I could wash your hair for you.”
“Okay,” Lois said, shyly.
Clark started the shower and came back to the couch to get Lois. He carefully picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. He gently sat her on the side of the bath tub and started to undress her with the care that he’d give to a fine piece of crystal.
Undressing Lois was eventually going to be Clark's undoing.
Lois was busy wondering to herself if he was as good a lover as he was with every other aspect of their marriage. God, she wanted him to touch her. It had been so long…years. Then she got scared. Maybe Paul was right. Maybe she was a lousy lover. Maybe Clark would be disappointed. And, she didn’t want that. She had to focus…Clark was saying something.
"Lift up a little and I'll finish undressing you," Clark whispered nervously.
Clark then stood and said, “Put your arms around my neck,” as he lifted Lois into the shower and closed the door. First he held her there in his arms and just looked into her eyes. Then he leaned his face down very slowly, to allow Lois a chance to turn away, and kissed her, thoroughly. She returned the kiss with just as much longing as he did.
The warm water and intimate contact was clearly too much for both of them. Clark soon found himself Clark turning off the water, getting a towel and wrapping it around Lois hair, then another around her petite body. He carried her from the shower to the bed and gently laid her down.
tbc
