***~~~***
Chapter 9: Impact
***~~~***

When Clark woke up, or more precisely, since he’d hardly slept at all, when he decided to get up from the couch, he was disappointed that he wasn’t feeling better. All the scrapes and bruises still hurt just as much as yesterday and he still had that strange all-over body ache that he’d first noticed at the hospital. Yesterday, once the day got going, he’d barely noticed the pain. But in the stillness of the morning, the discomfort was conspicuous. At least the burning sensation deep inside wasn’t as bad as it had been early yesterday. He hoped that it wasn’t going to be permanent.

He had learned so much last night. Now he knew that he’d fallen for Lois right from the very beginning, but when she’d noticed, she’d slapped him down. Based on what she said last night, as well as the fact that he apparently never did or said anything again, her words must have been particularly harsh.

But that seemed to have changed. She now seemed like she was open to the idea of him as a potential romantic partner. This was great, but it made things even trickier. She’d asked for time to get used to the idea of thinking about him in that way. That meant he had to give her enough space to relax while she adjusted. However, he didn’t want to repeat his earlier mistake and be so distant as to risk appearing uninterested.

She did need him as a friend. As Clark thought about what others in the office had told him yesterday about Lois, and what he’d seen in the past 24 hours, he suspected that she hid a lot of herself behind a hard and tough exterior. For now, Clark felt that what she probably needed was for him to be her best friend and supportive partner. He was determined to have the lovesick schoolboy take a break and, by being her friend, show Lois that she was the most important person in the world.

His preparations for the day went quickly. It only took Clark a few minutes to get ready and then they were off to Lois’s apartment. While Lois drove, Clark tried to see if he recognized any buildings. He was looking at storefronts on Lois’s side of the road when her voice startled him. “Clark! You aren’t wearing your glasses.”

He put his hand to his face. Sure enough, the glasses weren’t there. “I completely forgot about them this morning.”

She kept looking back and forth between Clark and the road with a puzzled look on her face. “I’ve never seen you without your glasses before. Do we need to go back for them?”

“I don’t think so.” Clark looked around to see if everything was in focus. “I can see fine. You’re sure that I need them?”

“I think so. Like I said, you always wear them.”

Clark picked up an early edition of the Planet from the floor of the car. He held it at various distances from his face to make sure he could read correctly. No matter what the distance, the text was crystal clear. “I’m not having any problems. Could the accident have fixed my vision?”

She shook her head doubtfully. “I don’t see how.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine at least until we get into the office. I think I remember seeing a spare set of glasses in the drawer of my desk. Maybe the accident did fix my vision. It would be nice to have something good come out of it.”

A few minutes later, Lois parked her Jeep near her apartment. When they got out of the car, he caught Lois staring at him intently. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head slowly. “No. You just look different without your glasses. There’s just something that I can’t put my finger on.”

“Lois, if it’s going to bother you, I’ll put on some glasses as soon as we get to work.”

She laughed softly at the offer. “It doesn’t bother me. In fact, you look good without them. You should think about contacts.” Before he could reply, she’d turned away.

When they entered her apartment, Clark noticed that as she crossed the doorway, Lois stopped just inside the threshold. After a brief pause, her face took on a scowl and she stepped into the apartment.

“Is everything alright?” Clark asked.

She continued slowly into her apartment. “Yeah. I was just thinking about that copy of my apartment in Lex’s shelter.” She continued into the room and waved her arm at a chair. “Go ahead and have a seat. I’ll be out in just a few minutes.” Then she headed for a door that Clark guessed to be her bedroom.

He waited in her living room while she prepared for the day. Lois was at least as fast as Clark was, and in only a few more minutes, they were back in Lois’s Jeep and on the way to work.

The office was abuzz with activity when they arrived. Considering that they arrived extra early, the level of activity was noteworthy. Lois had headed right for the coffee machine and Clark was on his way to his desk when Jimmy came up to him. “Hey, CK. Nice look. Are you wearing contacts?”

Clark was coming to realize that he was going to get that question a lot today. “Good morning, Jimmy. I forgot my glasses at home. By the time I realized they were missing, I was half way to work. I can see fine without them. I’m thinking that my accident might have fixed my vision problem. I want to try to go the day without them and see what happens.”

Jimmy stepped back and gave him a once-over. “It’s a good look for you. Good luck.” Before Clark could reply, Jimmy had rushed off to finish whatever errand he was on.

The pattern of work today was to be unusual. Instead of the regular morning and evening editions, the Planet was going to be issuing several smaller, “Prepare for Nightfall” notices. Each “notice edition” was very small, just a few pages, which enabled the Planet to produce four of these through the day. Today’s regular evening edition was much smaller than usual and was little more than the combination of the notice editions. The paper was publishing all sorts of information about shelters and soup kitchens that planned to operate through the troubles. They also included lists of personal items that people should consider taking to shelters and things to leave home.

Part of the Planet’s coverage had been to publish some changes in the laws of New Troy. Yesterday morning there had been a rush by people to get wills in order. However, the biggest change was the elimination of the waiting period for getting married. As of this morning, the waiting period was gone and the marriage business had been jumping from the moment the revised law took effect. It seemed that many couples that were planning marriage wanted to be husband and wife when Nightfall arrived.

Finally, the Planet was publishing reports of the ongoing meteor strikes. The fireworks show of smaller fragments had started sooner than had been predicted as did the reports of actual impacts. Clark made some calls to scientists that Lois knew, and they had said that there seemed to be far more ahead-of-the-main-body rock chunks than had been suspected. When Clark pressed them on this, he learned that before the Nightfall mission, most of the attention had been centered on determining the composition of Nightfall. The data on the surrounding debris fields had only received minimal attention. When Clark brought Lois up to date on this data, she seemed to think it was important.

“Why didn't you press those scientists harder for more details? That kind of data might turn out to be very important.”

“I’m sorry,” Clark replied. “I was looking for news that we will publish today. The information didn't seem very important. From a news-distribution perspective, there isn't time to do anything with this data. Besides, I don't know these people.”

Lois’s reply was sharp. “You do know them.” Then she seemed to gather herself and answered in a more tolerant tone. “We both know these people. You just don't remember.” She paused again. “Remind me to brief you on who you know and how well you know them before you call our contacts. You’ve been doing all this so well that I tend to forget how much you don’t remember. Anyway, I agree that this information isn't newsworthy now. But it might be relevant later for the Superman investigation.”

This caught him by surprise. Were they investigating Superman? “What Superman investigation?” he asked in a confused tone.

“When this is all over, we’ll need to find out what really happened to Superman. I know how these things work, and I've already seen it starting with what Lex said. Everyone in some position of authority will be looking for a scapegoat and Superman won't be here to defend himself. We're his best friends. We need to know everything about that mission. Something like this, where there was more debris in front of Nightfall than expected, is a critical clue to clearing his name.”

Clark couldn’t help but be warmed by her energy and passion. She must be the best partner anywhere. He had to wonder how was he lucky enough to be assigned to work with her. “Superman is lucky to have you as his friend, Lois. I'll keep that investigation in mind for any calls I make the rest of the day. Do you have any more errands or phone calls for me to make right now?”

She paused briefly as if going over a list of potential issues in her mind. “No. Have you tried calling Smallville again?”

“Several times. There just isn't any way to get through. I called the phone company and they said it's just a matter of overstressed lines. I'll keep trying every half hour or so, but they warned me that I probably won't be able to get through. Do you have anything else for me to do?”

“Not really. Go ahead and write up what you have. I think the deadline for the next extra edition is in about an hour or so and you should see if you can have something for that release.”

Clark was confident that he could easily meet that deadline. That got him thinking about planning and deadlines and reminded him that he had a ‘planning’ question for his partner. “Lois, are you staying here tonight? Perry has suggested that all of the Planet staff bring their families and spend the night in the shelter here in the building. It’s still surprisingly calm outside but the police are still expecting an outbreak of violence at any time. I’m planning to be here and…I guess it’s not really any of my business but I was curious about your plans.”

“I’ll be staying here too. I want to be in a place where I feel like I can do something valuable. I need to be involved. I just couldn't see sitting in my apartment on a night like this.”

Clark felt relieved that she would be somewhere relatively safe. “Based on the reports I've seen, there may be some fragments hitting in this area big enough to destroy a building, but there won't be very many big enough to destroy a properly built shelter. Do you need anything from your apartment?”

She shook her head. “No. I picked up some personal items on the way in this morning. Do you have everything you need?”

“Sure. I have my toiletry kit and a picture of my parents. I don't know what else to bring in.”

“I guess it's tough to know what's important when you don't remember things.”

Before Clark could respond, Lois's phone rang. Since most of her calls today had been about stories they were working on together, Clark stayed at her desk while she took the call.

“Lois Lane, Daily Planet.” Her tone was pure business. “That's very kind but I'll be working here all evening. – Everyone in the office will be in the shelter in the basement of this building. – Goodbye.” With each phrase, her tone had seemed to reflect more irritation.

“Was that one of your parents?” Clark asked.

“No. My mother is in California and I have no idea where my dad is right now. That was Lex inviting me to stay with him again.”

“It sure sounds like he thinks you two are dating.” The words were barely out and he already regretted them.

She scowled at Clark for an instant before she snapped back, “We aren't dating.” Then she seemed to get herself back under control. “However, based on how he's acting, and that copy of my apartment, I can see that he had other things in mind. Between what he said about Superman and realizing that he's had me investigated and may have even had my apartment searched, whatever he thought was going to happen is over now.”

Her voice suggested that her decision about Lex Luthor was final. That didn’t bother Clark at all.

***~~~***

Lois was convinced that she would never fall asleep. It was amazing how dark and cold a room could feel. Sitting next to Clark helped. In fact, it helped a lot, but she’d never sat in a basement while her city was seemingly being destroyed around her.

Perry had insisted that the staff move into the shelter right after sundown. The alert had come an hour earlier, but many, including Lois and Clark, just kept on working. Lois had tried to convince Perry that her place was out on the streets of Metropolis as the fragments arrived. She had used the argument that reporters had a duty to report first-hand on dangerous events. She cited Perry’s own history covering wars and natural disasters to support her case.

She was surprised that Perry not only turned her down flat, he’d taken the extra step of telling Clark to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn’t sneak out of the building. Then he went even further and threatened not to publish anything she brought in if he found out that Lois had been out of the building to get the story. She would have exploded but right at the end Perry got all fatherly and stressed how dangerous it would be. Not only would there be a combination of looters out making trouble and the National Guard and MPD units trying to keep the criminal elements in check, there was a very real risk from Nightfall fragments.

She had to admit that his argument was compelling. The announcements of a curfew had been going on all day and the threats for violating the curfew seemed real. There were some serious concerns of looting during the evening hours and, while the official position wasn't shoot-on-sight for anyone found outside, that was only the *official* position. Lois had the impression that, unofficially, it wouldn’t be pleasant for anyone caught out after curfew. And Lois had to admit that no amount of cleverness on her part would help if a Nightfall fragment landed on her.

Even before it got dark, the sky had been starting to light up with meteor trails. If it weren’t for the constant reminder that these beautiful streaks were carriers of untold death and destruction, it would have been a beautiful show. The sounds of meteorite impacts weren’t particularly noticeable until after dark. The first major hit sounded like nothing more than thunder in the distance.

There was still some daylight remaining when they had heard the first impact. Lois and Clark had gone up to the roof with Jimmy hoping to see something that would help in a write-up. They were up there for slightly over half an hour. They would have headed down much sooner but Jimmy was getting some great pictures of the city skyline with the occasional meteor trail in the sky above.

It was just after midnight that the strikes started to come more quickly. At first, Lois thought that being in the shelter would mean that she wouldn't have any feel at all for what was happening in the city. The sound from the early impacts off in the distance had been completely muffled by the shelter’s position below street level. However, when the hits became more frequent and got closer, she felt right in the middle of things.

As the night wore on, Lois felt like she would be able to swap stories with someone that had been through the London blitz during World War II. She’d heard explosions, felt tremors, and was sure that at least one building had been knocked down somewhere nearby. She never knew you could feel so much shaking coming through the ground.

Another explosion and crash came without warning. It startled Lois enough that she grabbed for Clark. One thing she’d learned tonight was that if you had to sit through the end of the world, it helped a lot to have someone to hold. Clark had been great to hold on to.

It was so strange. He was burned, bruised and lacking most of his memory, but she could tell that he was far more worried about her than he was about himself. He stayed right next to Lois all evening. He held her when she needed it, but he had also been sensitive to when she’d recovered and needed some space again. For most of the evening they’d been sitting together in a corner. The chairs and other, more comfortable accommodations had all gone to children and older people. The shelter was very full tonight.

As Lois looked at the people crowded into the cramped space, she thought back to Lex and his super shelter. If she had accepted his invitation, she was sure that there would have been a meal prepared by his private chef. It would have been served to her and Lex in a dining room. The two of them would have eaten alone in an elegant setting, just like they did on that first interview-that-felt-more-like-a-date. She was confident that he would have steered any conversation to his great plans for the post-Nightfall world. He might have even issued an invitation for Lois to help him with his efforts. The evening would have ended with Lois retiring to her ‘apartment’ and she'd be sleeping comfortably in that copy of her bed. Knowing Lex, she suspected his shelter was so sound resistant that she wouldn't be hearing the city being knocked down around her. Finally, if by chance the sounds of the bombardment did penetrate, Lex would certainly be available to comfort her. But she didn’t think that holding on to Lex would be nearly as comforting as sitting with Clark.

Instead, the night had become some sort of surrealistic date. She was sitting on a concrete floor with Clark's arm around her shoulders, comforted by his solidity. As she looked around at the people and families that were here, she knew that this was where she belonged. This was her city and these were her people. In that moment, the idea of spending the evening in the luxury of Lex's world seemed repulsive. As she nodded off, her head resting against the pillow that was Clark’s shoulder, she realized that the end of the world could be a great motivator for learning about yourself.

TBC

Bob