WHO: Clark Kent and Karli Morgenthau WHAT: A friend in need is a friend indeed WHEN: Sunday, May 15, 2019 WHERE: Low Town, Madripoor | Facility Medical WARNING/STATUS: Completed via GDocs; CW: Gun violence
The fact of the matter was this:
Karli Morgenthau had been shot and left for dead.
Now, no one knew Karli was there. As far as the people who had dumped her in the filthy alley were concerned, she was a rich heiress who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten caught in the crossfire. Only part of this was true. She'd meant to be there, stumbling drunk into a high rollers game, all tittering laughter and hanging off one guy or another while they plied the cute blonde with drinks. The getting shot part had not been part of the equation.
Reaching up with the hand not currently trying its best (and falling) to staunch the bleeding, she pulled the stupid wig off and tossed it away with a grunt. If she was really about to die, it was going to be looking like herself, godammit. With a little more care, she peeled off the chameleon stealth mask next and stuffed it into the pocket of her ridiculous puffy coat. All of that took way more effort than it rightly should have. The shadows in the alley got steadily darker.
Blood oozed between her fingers, but she could barely feel the sensation anymore. Karli had never been particularly religious. Her life had been too hard for that kind of thing. In this one particular instance, however, there was exactly one being she chose to put her faith in, no matter how big of an epic long shot it was. She shut her eyes, took in a painful breath, and let it back out with a whispered, "Clark…"
"Karli-"
Clark knew his young friend wasn't home just then, probably not even in the country, but he was attuned enough to her voice to be able to pick it out even amongst the billions of voices which made up his own peculiar type of background noise. Honing in on the whispered call, he was in the air without much conscious thought and half way across the globe before the dust settled in the hay barn. Speeding across datelines faster than any radar could track him and diving into darkness as he arrived in Madripoor, he found her in a matter of seconds.
"Karli." A quick visual scan showed the bullet was still lodged inside, but time was of the essence in getting medical help. Brushing the back of his fingers briefly against her forehead he noted her temperature, pulse rate, and breathing. Relieved that the vitals were still present. "I've got you, you're going to be okay. I promise." Clark carefully lifted her into his arms, and pressed his hand against the bullet wound in one gentle motion. He didn't ask why she was there, or pass any judgment, even though he'd hoped she wouldn't continue to put herself in such dangerous situations.
"Hold on," His instruction to her could have been about their imminent flight or an urging for Karli to retain her grip on life itself. But as he rose into the night sky, he continued to reassure her, "there's a hospital nearby."
Her relief at seeing Clark descend from the night sky like some furthering religious analogy was palpable, but still secondary to everything else going on with her. At the very least, it woke her up a little more, enough to murmur "Hi, Space Dad" with a tiny rare smile before her head lolled against his bicep. Despite the care in his handling of her, she still hissed when he made his own attempts to put pressure on the wound. "No hospital. Too many questions."
Karli couldn't cobble together enough correctly firing neurons to explain the complexities of her situation with anything like coherency, but she squeezed the bit of him that was closest and required the least amount of effort to lift her hand to get to. It wound up being his shoulder, and not an inconsiderable amount of strength (for a human) went into trying to convey the urgency of the request. "If you… if you take me back, find someone who can get this outta me, I can—I can... I got somethin' in my flat that'll help. Just need another dose." Theoretically. "Please, Clark. I don't wanna be the reason this all gets shut down."
"Hello, Earth Daughter." Clark smiled down at her, fond but concerned; he knew despite his trying to be as gentle as he could, any movement would have been painful for her. A whispered apology followed her show of discomfort, but his expression pulled into confusion when Karli told him not to go to the hospital. But the grip on his shoulder let him know how serious a request it was and he nodded. Whatever synthesised substance she had taken to give her the enhanced strength and speed, he had to trust—hope, that it would aid her healing factor.
"This will feel unpleasant," he warned, even as he tucked her in as close as he could to his chest, to lessen their combined profile against wind resistance. A beat later he was rocketing up out of Madripooran air space and heading back to the facility at top speed. Thousands of miles passed and night turned back to day, but it was only a matter of moments before he landed on home soil. Better to use his speed to navigate the doors and hallways rather than fly into medical; but his arrival still sent paperwork fluttering from the nurses’ station.
Nurse Mizhouni was the one manning said desk and she was beside him so quickly he wondered if she might have super speed too. "We’ll take her from here, what happened?"
"Gunshot wound, the bullet is still in situ." Clark set Karli down on the bed indicated by the nurse and passed on the obs he’d taken during the flight. "We were travelling supersonic… I hope that hasn’t made Karli’s condition worse."
Unpleasant was an understatement. How much of that was the actively dying part vs. the flying Air Supes could be debated, but possibly not when a small piece of metal was actively wrecking her insides. Little strips of her skin stung where her clothes or proximity to Clark hadn't kept her from getting a nasty case of wind burn. She knew he'd been as careful as he could, so it wasn't like she was mad about it. Actually, she wasn't feeling much of anything except the kind of pain that was growing more and more distant as the nurse began to cut away her awful "club" top. The things she did for a job these days.
Stretching a hand out half-blindly, Karli didn't stop until it collided with something, but the room was too dark to figure out what. They'd moved so fast the blood on her palms had dried, and now the layers cracked and flaked as she moved her fingers in a weak grip. Might be she was just grasping at a bit of the bedding, but she hoped she'd caught her friend's attention. "Back of the freezer." She could barely hear herself, but hoped it would be enough for Clark's talented ears. "Behind the fish fingers. Just need—just need the one. Please."
His expression had settled on anxious and stuck there, keeping far enough away to not be a hindrance to the medical professional, and yet still in reach if Karli needed him. Her fingers curled into the black of his cloak and he moved closer, lifting into a hover to keep from impeding Nurse Mizhouni. Clark took Karli's hand between his and gave the tiniest of squeezes. It didn't matter that every fibre of his being protested the dodgy science behind whatever serum Karli had access to. All that mattered was saving her life. So patted her hand as he let go and parroted the directions; "Behind the fish fingers, I'll be right back."
As the Kryptonian vanished, Bones took Clark's place, Tricorder in hand, holding the instrument so it could complete its diagnostics. "Well, your flight didn't do too much extra damage at least. We'll have to put you under for the extraction and there'll be an analgesic too." The team bustled around, prepping a trolley with the items needed for the unexpected surgery and Bones gave a small smile of reassurance to his patient. "You're in safe hands here."
There wasn't much about the next few hours that Karli would later remember. It was mostly a haze of sensations with one long streak of a familiar burning agony as the serum re-upped in her system. She thought maybe they'd increased her pain meds at that point, because she knew nothing else until waking up in a hospital bed with a machine making steady beeping sounds, wires coming out from beneath her hospital gown, and a tube attached to her arm. "Floaty," she mumbled, testing out her voice and the weird way her mouth felt, but that was nothing compared to her head, which she tried to lift to look around. "Wherezzitat? Data thing? I gotta—"
Clark had had a trying few hours: persuading Dr McCoy to administer the serum had been easier than he initially thought, but apparently as traces were already in Karli’s system and it did work (to a degree), and was the patient’s wishes, she had the booster. The hardest part was the waiting, through the surgery and the nerve wracking moments as the serum initially started to work, causing Karli even more pain, which Clark had no chance of taking away. Humans, even supercharged ones, were so very fragile.
His friend didn’t have too many personal items in her flat, but Clark had brought pajamas for her, along with her datapad and the plaid blanket he’d given her for Christmas. It reminded him of one he’d had at the farm growing up, the one he’d pull over himself whilst reading on the sofa. It now lay atop the thin hospital sheets, tucked carefully across her waist out of the way of any medical wires or lines.
"I promise only your head is floaty." Clark smiled, relief and happiness equal in his voice. "Do you think you can type well enough for a network message?"
A laugh tittered out of her even as a warm sense of familiarity stole through her chest. Just a couple of seconds later, her gaze shifted until her vision sharpened on Clark's face. "Pity I didn't get an egg wish. Might be nice to see how you live." Her nose wrinkled a bit as she raised her arm, bringing the bandage she could feel into her line of sight. "Without the wind burn, though, yeah?"
She let her arm drop, thoughts and speech coming easier the longer she was awake. Her midsection thrummed in a dull ache that kept time with her pulse, which was better than the alternative. Karli sobered at once and sought out his hand, fingers wrapping around it. "I can manage a message or two, thanks to you, I should think. How long was I out?"
And then she remembered what she'd asked Clark to do.
Which meant he knew about the serum she'd been hiding this whole time. Anxiety twisted her insides, and she broke out in a cold sweat, shivering.
He winced in sympathy as she lifted her arm, there were a couple of patches which had looked terribly burnt by the end of their flight. "I'm sorry, in hindsight I should have wrapped you properly in my cloak, but I was in too much of a panic."
Carefully, Clark curled his hand around hers and allowed himself to relax a fraction, his smile a little bashful at the thanks. "Most of the day, I've been here since you got out of surgery. Krypto wanted to come in, but Dr McCoy was very firm about him staying outside." He glanced across at the window where his dog was hovering, literally. At the shiver his attention shifted back to Karli and he worried that she was in more pain.
"Are you okay? I mean, aside from recovering from a traumatic injury. I can get one of the medics." Worry creased his brow and he smoothed the blanket with his free hand.
The sight of the dog at the window wasn't nearly enough to dispel Karli’s mounting anxiety, but even she had to quirk a bemused half-smile—especially when Krypto put a paw on the glass. Unfortunately, the bubble was popped a second later when reality settled back in. She shook her head and instantly regretted it. "I'm—" Fine? Not remotely. "It's not—" She waved a hand at her bandaged midsection and did her best not to squirm anymore. Her fingers twitched in his hold, but she didn't pull away. "Who else knows about it? The serum."
As she gestured to her injury, he realised that it wasn’t the reason behind her discomfort which meant there was something else troubling her. He didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was and he made a little “ah” sound at her question. “Dr McCoy and the on-duty staff here. But they only know about the vial they just used. Nobody else knows and I won’t tell anyone about it.” He gave a tight little smile, “I’m used to keeping a big secret.”
"Confidentiality," she mumbled, one of the dozens of thoughts swamping her still recovering head. The last vestiges of the pain meds were being burned off quickly, mostly due to the serum, but also everything else. Her gaze had slid away as possibilities and ramifications ricocheted through her brain, but it snapped back to Clark with guilt writ large. "You shouldn't have to. Never meant to drag you into this, but you were the first person I could think of. Didn't even think of the bloody Accords. Fuck me." And now she needed to find a new hiding place. Bile rose in the back of her throat; she hadn't even told Sharon about what she'd brought with her through the portal. "No one knows there's more, right? No one else knows where it is?"
"You needed help. So I'm glad you called." Clark smiled gently, hoping to dispel some of the guilt she was feeling. "I won't ask why you were there, or how you came to be in such a state, but I will say that I wished you'd be a little more cautious next time." He couldn't stop Karli from doing what she did, he wasn't her parent, but that didn't stop him worrying for her. "Ah, yes, the Accords which I haven't signed." His expression twisted with displeasure, "You needn't worry. I wore my black suit, which is now equipped with a mask. Plus, the speeds and height I was traveling, they'd be lucky to pick me up on radar or satellite. I'm considerably smaller than a missile or jet." Shaking his head, he gave her hand another little squeeze. "I was moving too fast for anyone to see, even if I had crossed their path at the Consulate."
All of that earned another half-smile, really just a quirk of one side of her mouth, and a low noise of acknowledgement. The work she'd been doing recently for the Powerbroker made her no stranger to dissembling or outright lying, but Karli found she really didn't want to that with Clark. Right now, she could count the number of true friends she had on one hand, which was probably a sorry state of affairs; the last thing she needed was to alienate any of them. Heh, alienate. She chirruped a brief laugh, shoulders lifting off the medical pillows before settling again.
Evidently the drugs in her system weren't quite as worn off as she thought. It seemed to flow through her in peaks and eddies, when she least expected it. Karli blinked up at Clark and gave him a slow smile as she brought their hands up and put her cheek against the back of his. "I ain't had a friend like you in ages. It'd still be months from now that I'd come close, if the Snap had still happened. World went to complete shite overnight, but we clawed together something good out of it: a life worth having." Her eyes fluttered shut as she took a deep, painful breath. "I know it's not fair to want that back again, but I miss it. Things were hard, but they were simple, y'know?"
Mind reading wasn’t one of his powers, but for a moment he wished he knew what Karli had thought to make her giggle like that. He didn’t think it was just the pain medication’s influence. His smile was nothing but fond as his young friend lifted their joined hands to nestle her cheek against his. "My world was turned on its head too, though not with a snap. I lost so many people all at once; but Jason was there, and we worked through things together."
Clark nodded at her question, rhetorical or not. He really did understand that desire for a simpler life. Often he would want nothing more than to retreat to the farm and forget about all the world beyond those acres. It was probably why he felt so comfortable working at Bakketoppen in New Asgard, even though technically he was their PR man too. "The simple life is something I’d love right about now." He gave another little smile, "Maybe I’ll hide out here with you for a while."
"He sounds nice, even though that sounds terrible." It was an idiotic thing to say. Karli could hear it, along with the slight slur that softened her consonants into non-existence. Drugs were bad, but she didn't mind it so much. "Safe," the word slipped right past her dissolving barriers. If she didn't fall back to sleep soon, she'd say something she couldn't take back. "Wish I could meet him. I'm sure I could corrupt him good and proper in no time."
A snort sent pain lancing through her midsection. Kind of felt like less than she deserved. After breathing out slowly, she sent Clark a wry look. "I can offer quiet, but I think we both know I've blown well past simple." Warmth flooded her chest, such that she didn't think she was capable of experiencing anymore. Funny. "Still, 'm glad it's you. You'll stay, right? 'Til I fall asleep again?"
"I may be biased, but he is nice. I’m really proud of him. And even though I’m the only one who can remember what happened before the universe was undone and reknit, I’m always grateful for how he looked after me during that time." Clark smiled at the soft word, laughing at her final comment. "I’d like you to meet him, though I think he’s a little less corruptible than you think."
Giving a worried look at the monitors as her heartbeat ticked faster momentarily, his gaze caught hers again as she gave him a wry look. "Quiet is good enough, and of course I’ll stay."
Another hum, this one of understanding. If anyone could relate to having an entire universe rewritten, it was her. (And a few others, but that was despite the point.) Karli gave the hand she was still holding a gentle squeeze, but couldn't keep back her laugh or her smirk. "Guess we'll never know for sure."
Her brows collapsed as she recalled what she thought the day was. "I hope you know this wasn't what I had in mind when I suggested we do something for your birthday. At least I didn't make a right mess of the actual day. Need a for real rain check, yeah?"
"You never know, he might come through one day." Clark didn't know exactly if he should wish for his son to appear in this world or not. He did miss him, but with the accords and the general mirky feelings surrounding heroes in this world, he didn't want his superpowered son sucked into this universe. "He has powers too, not sure he'd be welcome here by the wider public, all things considered."
As her expression dropped, he gave a puzzled look, then realized that it would still feel like yesterday to Karli. "Oh, I didn't think this was your intended way to celebrate." Clark smiled, "I think a rain check is perfectly acceptable in this scenario. Though we'll have dinner just as soon as you're out of here and feel up to it."
"Soon." She was fading all over again, and the way she was nodding, like her head wasn't quite connected with her neck, Karli knew she was not long for the waking world. "Tell"—she yawned, eyes sliding shut—"tell Sharon this wasn't my fault, all right? Tell her… Tell her I didn't get made."
"I will, if I see her." Clark assured his friend, not mentioning the fact he would be having words about the whole putting people in danger thing with the other woman should he cross paths with her. As Karli drifted off, he pulled the blanket a little higher and gently laid their joined hands against the mattress, staying until she was fast asleep.