[CHAPTER 11]
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Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other. --Albert Pike
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Sunday, early evening
Lois sat on the couch in Clark’s living room watching him instruct Jory on how to clean up his toys. The elder Kent’s had invited her over for dinner before they drove the rental car to the airport for their return flight to Smallville. Lois had a feeling that Clark’s parents had wanted her around for insurance after they’d left.
Happily, Lois’s parents hadn’t pressed when she told them she wouldn’t be able to make it to their house for dinner. The Lane Sunday dinner tradition tended to often get postponed when Lucy wasn’t in town – especially when Lois’s investigations got hot.
“Why don’t you sign to him?” she asked. The adorable little dark-haired boy seemed to have taken to her pretty well, but she still felt the effects of the language barrier. Jory was a happy child, and his immediate affinity to strangers indicated a couple of things about his upbringing: first, he felt safe and secure around the people who took care of him, and second, he didn’t meet a lot of people outside of his security circle. He was loved… and sheltered.
It both warmed and worried her.
Clark turned to her to respond to her question. “He’ll learn to lip read faster if I speak to him.”
Lois tilted her head. “You’re parents do both; they sign *and* speak to him.”
Clark seemed to bristle. “He’s growing up in a hostile world where people are not going to bend to meet his needs. He’s going to be different and if he doesn’t learn to cope, he’ll be forced to live on the outside. I’m just preparing him to survive.”
Lois kept her expression blank. She didn’t want him to think that she was judging him… she was just observing. “I have a theory about that voice you heard on Friday,” she said, steering to a less personal topic. “Someone’s testing you.”
“Who would do that?”
Lois shrugged. “Any number of people – government, criminal… anyone who wants to assess what kind of threat you may be.”
Clark frowned and leaned against the wall he was standing next to. “Would the government have people jump off of buildings just to see if I could catch them?”
“Ideally? No,” Lois replied lightly. “But I don’t know that our government, in its current state, is acting at its most ideal.
Clark looked doubtful and Lois reminded herself that he was the type who believed in the system and rules. “Someone had to have the equipment to broadcast that signal, and as you said, it couldn’t have been just a generic radio transmission.”
Just then, Jory approached her and placed a small brown stuffed bear on her lap. He made a few signs and then looked at her expectantly. From what she could gather, he was tapping two fingers from each hand together.
“Oh… hello,” she said, picking up the bear.
Jory made the sign again and pointed to the bear.
“It’s a very nice bear.” She looked to Clark for help.
“He wants you to give it a name,” Clark translated.
Jory grinned at her and made the sign again.
“Okay,” she said, lifting the bear and gazing thoughtfully at its furry face. “How about… Cocoa?”
Jory reached up and pulled the bear down, looking up at her with a confused expression. Belatedly, Lois realized that he couldn’t see her mouth with the bear in the way.
“Cocoa,” she repeated, mentally asking herself why she thought saying it louder the second time would make a difference.
The little boy looked to Clark for help, obviously not recognizing the word.
Clark thought about it for a minute before putting one of his hands facedown and curling the other into a C shape. He then moved the C in a circle over the back of his hand. “Chocolate,” he said aloud.
Jory’s face brightened and he pulled the bear’s ear into his mouth, pretending to bite it. Lois heard him make a small grunting sound and realized that he was laughing.
She couldn’t help but laugh herself.
~.~
Thursday
Another week passed and Lois realized that she wasn’t the only one that knew that Superman didn’t come out to play after a certain hour. However, she was the only one who knew that the hour in question was the time extended day care at the Planet ended. Some internet forums suggested a time zone issue, and some debated the idea that his ‘batteries’ ran out after a certain time. Lois had rolled her eyes at that one – those people obviously ignored the fact that Superman had engaged in plenty of night rescues before his recent change of schedule. The MPD had bulked up their personnel on Superman’s off hours – another example that the city and criminals alike were taking notice.
The truth of the matter was that he was too stubborn to ask his partner to babysit.
“Hey, Clark,” Lois called across the aisle. “Do you think Superman has a partner?”
Clark looked up frowning. He flicked a glance at their surroundings to see if anyone was paying attention to their conversation and wondered why Lois would be bringing up something like this. “A partner?”
“Yeah, you know, someone who helps to pick up the slack, makes it easier for him to do his job?”
Clark pulled his hands from his keyboard and waited for the other shoe to fall.
Lois finally looked at him. “Do *you* have a partner, Clark?”
Clark narrowed his eyes. He had no idea what she was trying to say to him and the longer he thought about it the further lost he became.
The sound of his phone ringing pulled his gaze from hers. “Clark Kent.”
“Mr. Kent, this is Aubrey, from the child care center… You asked that we call if…”
Clark straightened in his seat. “Is Jory… Never mind, I’ll be right there.” Without waiting for a response, he hung up the phone and ran through the newsroom and down the stairs.
He heard the crying before he got to the front door of the day care. The bright pictures of painted children that decorated the walls did nothing to soothe his nerves. He waved distractedly at the male receptionist and headed directly to the Director’s office.
The woman sitting on the couch in the office looked up when Clark hurried through the door. She moved from the couch to give him room to sit down next to the crying child.
“Thank you,” Clark said.
“Mr. Kent, are you sure we shouldn’t call a doctor?”
“No, this happens all the time.” Clark hesitated briefly before reaching out to place his hands over the small ones that Jory was pressing against his ears. He then pulled the child into his lap and held him to his chest. “I just have to hold him through it.”
Clark tucked Jory’s head under his neck and looked up at the Director. To his surprise, the woman was no longer there. In her place, Lois stood at the door watching him with concern. She stepped into the office and closed the door, and Clark realized that she must have followed him when he ran out of the newsroom. He rocked back and forth soothingly as Jory’s cries quieted to a high keening sound.
“What’s happening?” Lois asked.
Clark sighed and held the child closer to his chest. “He suffers these attacks. His ears hurt.”
Lois crossed to the place in front of him and leaned against the desk. “This happens often?”
“Lately,” he answered gravely. “They’ve been coming closer together.”
Lois looked to be close to tears herself and he understood the emotion. He hated to hear a child cry, especially when he was helpless to do anything to prevent it.
“He’s sick? What do the doctors say?” When Clark didn’t respond right away, her eyes grew wide. “You *have* taken him a doctor haven’t you?”
“Of course we have. He’s been going to a doctor in Smallville since he was four months old. That’s when his hearing problem was diagnosed.” He put a hand on the back of Jory’s head and began stroking his hair gently. “The doctor in Smallville can’t help him anymore.”
“Is that why you brought him to Metropolis? To get more opinions?”
“Not exactly,” Clark confessed.
“What do you mean, not exactly? There are some of the world’s best specialists here!”
Clark breathed a sigh of relief as Jory’s cries trailed off. Looking down, he saw that the child was asleep; worn out by the ordeal. “I’m working on finding the one person who can help him,” he said solemnly.
Lois watched as Clark wiped the tear tracks from the sleeping boy’s face. After hearing Clark say Jory’s name in such an alarmed tone, she had followed him out of the newsroom in fear that this was going to be something she needed to report to Martha. Instead she had stumbled upon a scene that threatened to break her heart. It was all starting to make sense now that she had this additional piece of information to add to the puzzle.
Lois had thought Jory seemed to be a little small for his age, but knowing that he had been sick all of his life made sense some how. The fact that the Smallville doctor could no longer help him made Lois’s mind rewind back to Martha’s comment about time running out. The pieces were sliding together, but she didn’t like the picture that was being created.
“Lana Lang.”
Clark looked up at her, and instead of the betrayed expression she expected to get from the reminder that she had tracked his computer back when they’d first met, he only looked defeated. “Yes.”
“That’s why you’ve been searching for her.” Lois couldn’t believe there was anything more that could make this already strange Clark situation any stranger. “Have you found anything?”
Clark shook his head. “Dead ends.”
They were both quiet for a few minutes, watching Jory breathe peacefully. It was such a difference from the traumatic cries he’d been emitting ten minutes earlier.
“Clark…” She paused and waited for him to look at her. “Is she Jory’s mother?”
“No!” Clark whispered vehemently in response. His focus turned back to Jory, but his brow was still creased with anger.
The emotion of the answer made Lois doubt its truth.
~.~
Tuesday, evening
“The question that is on everyone’s mind is, where is Su…”
The news radio show commentators were halted when Lois shut off the car’s engine. She climbed out of her Highlander, pulling her bag with her, and headed toward the apartment building. When she arrived at the apartment door, she knocked lightly.
A few seconds later, Clark opened the door, looking at her with a confused expression.
Lois gave him a sidelong glance as she brushed past him and stepped through into his apartment.
“Lois? Is something wrong?”
“Do you know what’s happening in Northern Arizona right now?”
Clark looked away from her and turned to close the door.
“So you did hear about it,” she remarked, dryly.
“It’s the middle of the night,” Clark replied, flicking a glance toward the bedroom area. “In a few hours…”
“In a few hours, the fires will have spread.”
“I’ve been keeping tabs; everyone was evacuated and no homes are currently being threatened,” he reasoned. “In a few hours I’ll be able to go out and help them.”
Lois gave him a look that bordered on a glare. “Okay. You’ve been lucky so far. No natural disasters, no extended hostage situations… So far everything has happened within normal working hours. What are you going to do if these fires start spreading and your *schedule* doesn’t permit a break?”
Clark stiffened. “My schedule?” He gestured to the rear of the apartment with an alarmed expression.
Lois rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. Sorry. I don’t mean to insinuate… Look, let me start over.” She sighed and dropped her bag onto the couch. “Let me help you.”
Clark’s brow seemed to be permanently creased. “I don’t need…”
“Obviously, you do,” she countered. “You should be out there, doing what you do, not here pacing and waiting for the sun to rise.”
“If it got bad, I planned to just take him out to my parents.”
Lois plopped onto the couch and hugged one of the throw pillows to her chest. “You don’t fly with him,” she said.
Clark silently studied her.
“You don’t fly with him either because the pressure hurts his already sensitive ears, or because you don’t want him to confuse you with Superman in public.” She gave him a wry smile. “It’s okay. I’ll stay – you don’t even have to ask.”
Lois watched as he glanced toward the bedroom again and then to the balcony door – evidently torn. “He’s sleeping, Clark. You’ll probably be back before he rolls over.”
Coming to a decision, Clark blurred in front of her. When he was done spinning, he had transformed into the Superman suit and his hair was slicked back in the familiar style.
“Holy… wow.” Lois caught herself just in time.
Still, it earned her a look – to which she responded to by shrugging meekly. “Holy wow,” she repeated softly. “That’s what I was going to say.”
An amused smile flirted with Clark’s mouth before he slipped back on Superman’s mask of determination. With a curt nod he strolled toward the patio door, halting as he slid it open. “I should be back in a few hours,” he said.
“Okay.”
“But I’ll be listening for your call if you need…”
“Got it.”
“And Lois…”
Lois sighed, and rotated on the couch to face him. “Yes, Clark?”
His head dipped briefly as if whatever he wanted to say was hard coming out. “…Thank you.”
Before the expression of surprise had settled on her face, he was gone.
An hour later, Lois was sitting on the floor in front of Clark’s television watching LNN’s coverage of the wildfire suppression efforts. Superman’s appearance had been welcomed, and while his strength, flight, and invulnerability were amazing aids, the use of his super breath was not something that could be safely used at this stage. It appeared that Superman was going to be busy for a bit longer than expected.
Hearing a strange rustling sound, Lois turned off the TV and turned around. Jory was standing in the hallway rubbing his eyes with one small fist and clutching his little brown bear with the other. Lois smiled at the sight of the small boy dressed in all-in-one pajamas that included covered feet.
When he was finished clearing his eyes, he blinked sleepily and looked up; the confusion clear on his face. He put a fist to his head and pulled it away, looking at her questioningly. When she shook her head helplessly, he looked around. He made the sign again and shifted his eyes to the lit areas of the apartment bewilderedly. His lower lip began trembling and Lois could see the oncoming breakdown.
“Uh… okay,” Lois said. “Hold on, buddy,” she offered soothingly as she slowly crawled to him. “Hey…it’s okay.”
Jory’s eyes trained back to her as she got closer. Lois racked her brain in an attempt to remember the sign she had seen Clark make. She curled her right hand into a C shape and moved it in a circle.
“Chocolate?” she tried, a hopeful expression on her face.
The little boy tilted his head, his attention piqued. He lifted his bear up and held it out to her.
Smiling in relief, Lois smiled. “Yes, that’s him. Hello, Mr. Chocolate bear!”
Her animated expression seemed to brighten Jory’s spirits. He smiled and put his small hand against the side of Lois’s neck. Unsure of what he wanted, Lois looked at him with raised eyebrows.
Jory pointed to the bear in Lois’s lap and nodded.
“Chocolate?” Lois asked.
When she spoke, Jory’s eyes flicked back to her throat and the hand that was still there.
“Oh, I see.” Lois smiled at the realization. He liked to feel the vibrations. “You really should be asleep right now,” she continued, knowing that even though he didn’t understand her, he was getting something from the contact.
She pulled him into her lap, and when his face showed genuine surprise and delight, she began to wonder if Clark ever sat with him like this. In her limited experience with them, she had only seen Clark do anything remotely close to a hug was the day Jory had experienced his attack.
Jory looked up at her with a frown, as if wondering why she had stopped talking.
“Sorry. I was introspecting again. Do you know what that means?” she asked, exaggerating her expressions while she talked. “It means that I think too much – at least that’s what my sister would say.”
Jory yawned.
“Yeah, my sister would say that too.”
She chuckled and the boy snuggled closer against her chest, moving his hand and placing his face in the crook of her neck instead, maintaining contact so he could feel her talk. Lois pushed against the wall, getting to her feet while holding the child in place and tucking the brown bear under her arm.
“I guess I could tell you a couple of stories until you fall back asleep,” she said, walking down the short hall to the bedroom. “Let’s see… Once upon a time there was a reporter princess who lived in a tower with a big globe on the top…”
~.~
Clark landed gently on the terrace and soundlessly slipped into his apartment. The light was still on in the living room, but no one was in there. He made his way down the short hallway and glanced at the figures on the bed. While the loft in his apartment could have served as a small bedroom for Jory, he and his parents had decided against the idea of putting the little boy’s bed a flight of stairs above the main level. Instead, his toddler-sized bed was next to Clark’s, except on this night, he wasn’t in it.
Lois was lying on her back on top of the covers and Jory was soundly sleeping snuggled on her chest. The sight oddly warmed him in a way he’d never experienced before. It also piqued a mild sense of guilt that was altogether unpleasant. He turned away from the bed and walked to the bathroom.
Stripping off the soiled suit he had worn through smoke, soot, and fire, he stepped into the shower and tried to cleanse his weary soul with hot water. After a few minutes of basking in the warmth, he reached for the soap and began to build it into lather. He was unable to scrub the tendrils of guilt away the way he rid his body and hair of the smoky smell that had followed him home. The way Lois was holding Jory looked comfortable.
He had never been able to overcome his own issues to reach out to the child like that.
He loved the little boy – he knew that, even though he had never been able to admit as much aloud without great struggle. Clark had learned to guard his heart and to keep his trust focused on himself, and loving Jory was like strapping himself to a timed bomb. He was determined to find a way to stop the inevitable, but to his shame, somewhere deep down he had already conceded defeat. Jonathan JorEl Kent – the child named for two fathers stronger than Clark ever could be - was going to die.
And not being able to stop it was killing Clark.
But Lois didn’t know the stakes. She didn’t walk around afraid of the intersection between past and future, between love and loss, and between hate and obsession. She walked in with an open mind and heart and had been able to wrap her arms around a little boy who desperately craved the touch Clark had been unable – and unwilling – to give.
With those thoughts tumbling disconnectedly through his mind, Clark turned the water off and stepped out of the tub. He slipped into his nightwear and quietly returned to the bed. Gazing down at the two sleeping figures, he allowed one of the walls he’d built around his heart to come down. He would try.
Leaning down, he gently disengaged Jory’s arms from around Lois’s torso, and picked him up. Lois shifted and she pried open one eye to look at him.
“You’re home,” she whispered in a gravelly voice.
“Yeah, I just got back,” he replied.
Lois seemed to become aware of where she was lying. “Oh, your bed. I should get…”
“No, it’s okay,” Clark entered. “Stay there, I’m going to go sleep in the recliner out front.”
She blinked at him, trying to clear the sleep-created cob webs from her mind. “What time is it?”
“4:00 in the morning. We have to get up for work in a couple of hours anyway, so go back to sleep.”
Lois yawned and nodded, rolling onto her side still facing him. “You could have left him in the bed,” she said. “He was fine here with me.”
“I know he was.” Clark smiled at her softly, and then turned and carried Jory out of the room.
~.~
tbc
