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Tweak says, "he's an airborne ranger,"

Lois Lane; Intrepid Reporter (thatlanewit) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2012-08-02 00:26:00

Entry tags:

clark kent/superman, lois lane

Who: Lois and Clark
What: Lois wants to work herself to death. Clark won’t let her.
When: Thursday night
Where: starting at the newspaper
Warnings: angst, possibly swearing on Lois' part

It all came back to a conversation that seemed to have happened a lifetime ago. Two kids sitting together, talking about the future, and making promises that were never going to be. Lois had brought it up during the engagement party, remarking on how her and Chloe had said they’d wait to marry their soulmates, and while she’d told Chloe later on that she’d been wrong and Jimmy was obviously the one for her, Lois had never really believed that. It wasn’t that Lois didn’t like Jimmy, she loved the kid, but the spark had never been there between the two of them and the eventual divorce had only proven her suspicions right. Jimmy Olsen was not Chloe Sullivan’s soulmate.

It didn’t seem to matter in the end though. Not with her baby cousin back in the complex’s medbay, laying on cold metal. There would be no living in houses next to one another, no growing old and doing a hundred other dreams that should have been laid out for them to accomplish. In one swift moment all of those dreams had died and time couldn’t be rewound to undo what had been done. Life moved on after death, even when one didn’t want it to. People still got up to go to work, criminals still committed crimes, and the world kept turning.

Lois hadn’t stopped moving since Oliver told her what had happened, and while it had taken her time to accept what he was saying as truth, once she had seen Chloe’s lifeless body there had been no denying what he’d told her. Tears had wanted to fall, her body had wanted to crumble to the ground and scream at the injustice of it all, but she’d held it all in. Stared at the body of her cousin and then walked away to find out what happened.

The surveillance cameras around Watchtower hadn’t caught an angle that could tell her too much. Bodies halfway in the frames or the lightning not good enough to give her any idea what she was seeing. Just that Chloe had touched Jason and Tess and while the other two rose moments later, Chloe had fallen, never to get up again. She watched the footage over and over, not realizing how time had slipped away until the sun rose and she knew she had to get ready for the office.

She couldn’t say exactly how she managed that, body running on autopilot and she found herself behind her computer, typing away before anyone else had headed in. She tried to ignore everyone, answers quick and short, almost robotic when she had to reply, and focused on the stories she needed to get in. Maybe she’d been snappier than usual, and her spelling definitely had become more atrocious, but the articles she’d written were sound and the research she had painstakingly sought out was better than decent.

It was nearing the end of the work day and she dreaded how quickly it seemed to be approaching. Lois knew she needed to come up with an excuse to stay, needed a reason to continue to sit behind the computer and ignore the world around her, especially the man across from her that she had a feeling was watching her every move.

She didn’t want to go back to the complex, didn’t want to sit in that apartment with all the time to think about what had happened. With that much idle time on her hands Lois knew her imagination would run away from her. That her mind would have ample time to think about what Chloe’s last few moments had been like, how much pain her baby cousin must have been in, and how she hadn’t been able to do anything for her. Everything that Chloe’s life was supposed to become had been ripped away in seconds and Lois didn’t know how to reconcile that with what she knew was meant to happen for her cousin. Maybe it would have been better if the Seal had never brought them to Lawrence, but part of her felt horrible thinking that way--there were some parts of being brought to the city that she wouldn’t wish away for the world, and the mismatched emotions were throwing her mind for a roller coaster ride that she wanted to get off of.

At least if she stayed at work, she could try to focus on something besides how the world had come crashing down around her. She could push aside all the pain that wanted to devour her from the inside out and lose herself in the story of others. It was easier to focus on trying to dig up the dirt needed to expose the campaign funds being withdrawn illegally from one account or investigating why there had been three separate fires in one part of town, all buildings owned by the same man. Anything besides the fact that she was going to need to plan a funeral.

Lois whirled around in her chair and headed for the coffee pot, intent on brewing another to get her through until at least midnight.

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ex_savior698
2012-08-11 08:27 am UTC (link)

Clark didn't dare argue. If she didn't want him to apologize, he wouldn't. It was hard not to, he had to admit, because when someone was in pain it was all a person really could say. There was nothing that Clark could do to change what had happened to Chloe. He couldn't go back in time, he couldn't bring her back, he couldn't do anything. All he could do was tell Lois that he was sorry. He was sorry, but it was a sentiment that Lois was obviously tired of hearing. He couldn't really blame her for that. When his father had died, Clark hadn't wanted to hear it from much of anyone either. He hadn't wanted to talk to anyone about it, he hadn't wanted to put up with all the talk about how good of a man his father had been by people Clark had barely known...Clark hadn't wanted anything to do with it back then. But, at the time, he had put up with every bit of it. Not just because he knew it was what his father would have wanted, but because he couldn't have left his mother to endure all of that alone. He still kind of wished that they had both told everyone to back off. So when Lois told him to, he did. No questions asked. Clark just kept flying, mouth zipped shut and mind focused on the task of getting Lois to the Fortress as quickly as he could.

"And let you sit through a loaded work day while you're in pain? No." Clark wouldn't have left Lois there for anything in the world. What if she had broken down in front of everyone? What if people started coming up to her? What if she found herself being attacked by questions of what's wrong, Lois? and are you all right? It wouldn't have gone well. He had to stick around all day. Clark had to look out for her.

Lois was turning toward his body, seeking warmth from the cold air that had begun to hit them both in full force. It didn't bother Clark, but he knew that it wasn't pleasant for Lois. He sped up just a little, hoping to get her inside before she turned into a human icicle.

"What it was made of, yes," Clark confirmed. "And you have to do this, Lois. I know you don't want to, but..." He shook his head. "This has to be done." At that, Clark found a landing point at the Fortress entrance and lightly reunited them both with the ground. Clark set Lois down, gently, and pulled off his jacket. Without saying anything, he wrapped it around her shoulders and walked across the snow covered ground to retrieve the Fortress key.

Compared to the Fortress itself, the method of entrance appeared to be far less impressive. It was a key. And it was just sitting on the ground. Clark bent over and picked it up, then carried it over to the Fortress' door.

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thatlanewit
2012-08-11 09:03 am UTC (link)

Lois pulled the jacket tight around her body, shivering slightly in the snow. Part of her wanted to embrace the numbness she could feel seeping deep into her body, to quickly rebuild the walls that the flight from Lawrence to this strange piece of another world had steadily broken down. Her mind wouldn’t cooperate though and she tried to blink away the tears in her eyes. She pushed her arms through the jacket sleeves so she could wipe the tears off of her cheeks, trying to erase any evidence of them having fallen.

She turned her attention to Clark, needing something to focus on besides the pain that wanted to overwhelm her and bring down. She couldn’t figure out what he was doing at first, her brain not quite making the connections as she watched him pick up the key. Once she realized what it was though she wondered why on earth he would leave something like that laying around in the snow where anyone could find it. Not that she suspected many people even made their way to that part of the wilderness, but on the off chance that someone did it wouldn’t take too long for anyone to figure out what to do with a random key on the ground.

“Some security system you’ve got going,” Lois murmured, nose wrinkling at the absurdity of it all. It was almost as though she could hear Chloe in the back of her head making commentary, pointing out all the things that could go wrong, and reminding Lois of when she’d been attending Smallville High with Chloe and their Clark back home.

The sound that she made next was somewhere between a laugh and a sob, and Lois forced herself to take a deep breath so she wouldn’t give into the crying spell her body was desperate for her to have. “Why does it have to be done? She’s not dead back home,” Lois pointed out, kicking at the snow, trying to keep it all together. “She’s alive. So she’s missing and off with Doomsday but...”

Whatever she had been about to say caught in her throat as she stared at Clark. Doomsday was not something she ever wanted to bring up with him again and she had a feeling it wasn’t something Clark ever wanted to discuss. Especially not in this place that was supposed to be a safe haven. “I didn’t...I’m...” Lois shrugged helplessly, gaze falling to the snow covered ground. “I’m sorry.”

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ex_savior698
2012-08-11 09:50 am UTC (link)

Clark smiled a little at her comment. "It's actually a little more complicated than it looks," he explained, placing the key back on the ground once the door was unlocked. Clark swept an arm out, gesturing toward the key. "If you don't believe me, you could try picking it up, but something tells me you're just not cut out for a key that weights around half a million tons." It wasn't the most subtle means to unlock the door, but the Fortress was already difficult enough to find. Combine that with a key that was nearly impossible to lift unless one had the strength to do so? Then, yeah, Clark really wasn't very worried. There weren't many people with that kind of strength here, let alone in his own world. The Fortress was perfectly safe.

Clark would have challenged her on the security system a little more, just for the entertainment of it all, but he could tell that Lois wasn't in any condition to be messed with right now. Her eyes were red. Was that because of the cold, or was it because she had been crying when he hadn't been paying attention?

No. Maybe it was because she was about to cry. Between the break in her voice and the look on her face, Clark could tell she was trying her hardest to keep it together. It had probably been easier back at the office, where she had been isolated and focused on multiple things at once. Now she was here, alone with Clark, and Clark wasn't holding back. She had to deal with this. Lois had no choice.

"Lois, that doesn't change what happened to Chloe here..." Clark trailed off. Chloe being alive (maybe?) back home was a good thing, but the Chloe that had been here was still gone. Was this denial? Was Lois going through the five stages? Clark winced and stepped forward, a hand already moving to reach for her shoulder, but paused when Lois unexpectedly brought Doomsday into the conversation. A sharp pang of dislike rushed through him at the very mention of the monster that had torn it's way through Metropolis, but Clark didn't let the emotion reach his eyes. Now wasn't the time for him to get angry about Doomsday.

He shifted, hand going around her shoulder instead. "No more apologies, remember? Come on. Let's get you inside. It's freezing out here."

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thatlanewit
2012-08-11 10:19 am UTC (link)

Of course the key would weigh an insane amount of weight. It really shouldn’t have surprised Lois and had she been able to focus on what he was saying she would have challenged him about that even being possible. As it was, she really didn’t care about the neat little trick and had just wanted to get out of the cold and inside the building where she hoped it was at least warmer. But then she had made the mistake of bringing up Doomsday and Lois was rooted to the spot, not wanting to budge an inch.

She still couldn’t bring herself to look at him, even with the way he had so easily brushed off her mistake. Lois knew as soon as she stepped through the threshold of the Fortress that there would be no turning back. The last of her walls would fall down and she would have to be as vulnerable as she had been when her mother had died all those years ago. It had been a time of pain and loneliness and while friends and random strangers had offered their support, Lois hadn’t received any from her father, the one person she had truly needed to help her deal with the loss of her mother. Sure, he had been grieving as well, but she’d only been six and had no idea how to process what had happened and even worse she had to be the strong one for her little sister.

Clark’s arm around her shoulders proved that this grieving process didn’t have to be like that one had been. She didn’t have to do it alone and while that didn’t change the fact that she didn’t want to do it at all, it did seem to chip away the last of her strength to keep resisting. His statement about apologies had her knees buckling beneath her and she nearly fell forward, reaching for Clark, needing his strength.

The tears she had been holding back were coming in full force at that point and Lois didn’t think they would ever stop. “You...don’t even...feel the...cold,” she told him between sobs as she was reminded of how cold Chloe’s body had been. How her cousin would never feel warm again. The life had been taken out of her and no amount of wishing or hoping would ever bring her cousin back. Not even Superman could do that. Nothing could and that loss hurt more than Lois could bear.

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ex_savior698
2012-08-11 11:11 am UTC (link)

If Lois thought Clark was going to let her fall over right then and there in the ice and snow, she had another thing coming. He grabbed her, pulled her up into his arms, and hugged her close to his chest as he started for the Fortress door. She was breaking. As much as it was what Clark had set out for Lois to do for her own sake, it didn't really feel like much of an accomplishment. It had been a necessary call, but it wasn't one that he had been excited to follow through on. He hated seeing her like this. The confident, know-it-all Lois Lane, who always had something smart to say, was shattering into a million pieces right now and Clark was terrified that he wouldn't be able to put her back together again. But that was something that was going to have to wait until later. Right now, Lois needed to be broken. As much as it tore at his heart to watch her like this, he knew that bringing her here had been the right call.

Once the Fortress had sealed itself behind them, Clark quickly carried Lois through various halls and walkways until he hit the living area. The second he found a bed, Clark settled down along it's edge, but he didn't let Lois go. He didn't know if she wanted to be left alone, or if she wanted him to stick around, but he did know that he had wanted to comfort her from the very moment he first laid eyes on her this morning and he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity now when it looked like she needed it the most.

Arms already wrapped around her, Clark hugged Lois close to him. There was nothing he could say. Nothing that would have made what had happened better. He couldn't tell her it was going to be okay, because Clark knew that nothing in the world would convince Lois that it would be right now, and he wasn't going to try and console Lois with tales of how great a person Chloe had been when he had barely known her to begin with. So he held her, quietly, and hoped that it would be enough.

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thatlanewit
2012-08-11 08:06 pm UTC (link)

As soon as Clark had gathered her into his arms Lois had wrapped her own around him, holding on with the little strength that she had left. Once the tears started it didn’t seem like they would ever stop and she pressed her face into his shoulder, all thought of trying to calm herself down forgotten as they traveled through the Fortress. Lois didn’t know what was happening anymore, too swept up by her loss to make sense of anything that was occurring around her, and for once she didn’t try to push through the pain and focus on some small part of the world to overcome all that she was feeling.

She was grateful that Clark didn’t leave. There would be some point where Lois knew she would want time alone, but this moment wasn’t it. She needed him there, needed to feel his heartbeat beneath her ear and his arms wrapped around her, steadying her as much as they could while she cried her heart out.

Eventually her tears stopped falling and her sobbing was replaced by hiccuping breaths, too tired to cry anymore. Her lack of sleep and the emotional turmoil she had been through was catching up with her, and Lois closed her eyes, not really seeing the point of keeping them open. It was hard for her to see the point to anything at that moment.

“Clark,” she finally said, voice raw and foreign to her own ears. Lois didn’t like how scared she sounded, how vulnerable she was in that moment. She desperately wanted to get back to the woman that she was, to gather all of her strength around her and keep going, but she was exhausted and that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. She was barely staying awake as it was and knew it wouldn’t take long before she fell asleep. She also knew she didn't want to wake up in some strange room by herself. “Please don't go.”

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