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Chapter 17 – Families Matter
Richard and Lois remained for some time sitting silently on the sofa. She was leaning into his strong arms, her head resting on his shoulder and feet pulled up tucked partway under her body. One of his arms was wrapped around her shoulders openly offering support and warmth while his other arm rested on the arm of the sofa. Even after what seemed like several hours he still clutched the phone praying it would ring soon and bring news. Lois had asked him to call again several times but he had resisted, each time telling her to give it just a little more time.
They half listened as the newscasters droned on and on repeating the same information over and over. Talking heads and so called experts offered opinions and speculation was rampant. Finally one of the doctor’s who had attended Superman when he had been at Metropolis General was cornered next to his car by a particularly persistent reporter.
“Sir, in your opinion based on your firsthand knowledge while attending to Superman’s recent injuries if he was in fact shot with kryptonite bullets what are his chances of survival?”
The doctor looked up, he obviously had tried to get away without answering but finally acquiesced, “Not good and even worse if the bullets fragmented as they did on the other known victim now in the morgue...” He stopped, closing his eyes not liking what he was remembering, that even as hurt as Superman had been, his invulnerability had remained intact. His body had healed itself only after they had been able to remove the small bit of kryptonite from his then open wound. “I fear the invulnerability that has protected him so many times in the past just might spell his doom this time. If they can’t somehow remove that deadly poison from his body there may be no way to save him.”
Lois jumped up having heard the comment and refusing to play the patiently waiting citizen any longer. “Richard I can’t sit here just waiting for news. I have to do something…we have to figure out where they took him. I need to be there for him.”
Richard stood up beside her. “Lois I understand how you feel but they could have taken him anywhere. Surely they’ll call soon.” He said looking down at the long silent phone in his hand.
“Give me that damn phone.” When Richard frowned she added, “Please, I can’t stand this waiting any longer for Batman to find time to call back.” Lois grabbed the phone from his hand and didn’t hesitate to punch in the now memorized speed dial number.
“The phone you are calling is either turned off or out of the area. Please try your call again later.”
“NO!” Lois screamed and almost threw the offending phone before she realized she needed it.
Richard pulled her back into his embrace. “Lois, if he’s at a hospital perhaps he is just following the rules.”
Lois looked up into Richards face as she fought to control her emotions. “Since when did that vigilante ever follow any rules? We’re talking about Batman, remember.”
Richard stroked Lois’ hair in an attempt to calm her. “He said he would call. Unless you can think of something else for us to do I suggest we wait. It’s really only been a couple of hours.”
Lois calmed just slightly, “It seems like forever. I can’t stand this waiting not knowing. I feel so helpless.”
“I know.” He said continuing to stroke her hair softly. “I know… we’ll hear soon.”
Xoxo
Batman watched the doctors and nurses moving below him in close unison in the specially designed all-in-one hospital room from a small observation window. He could have watched on closed circuit TV from his private office down the hall but instead stood here alone watching, biting his lips as the doctors worked to keep his friend alive. He didn’t have many real friends and hated the thought of losing this one in particular, especially when the friend had just so recently returned from what seemed like limbo.
Batman had been worried the theories wouldn’t work. The doctor had said they would need to replicate some of Krypton’s environmental conditions in order to overcome the invulnerability Superman retained even while near death. It seemed to be working, an IV had been inserted, x-rays taken and the doctors were preparing to operate. Even the universal donor blood was determined to be an acceptable match, but then he did have a half human son so perhaps that should have been a given.
Everything seemed to be going as Dr Hamilton had expected, except Superman’s vital signs remained almost non-existent. Batman had watched anxiously as the doctor at first seemed worried and had tried to improve the patient’s heart and respiration rates with drugs before starting the operation but soon realized after studying the brain activity that it was somehow normal…for him at least while in this dire condition.
The doctor speculated out loud, “His body has nearly shut down and is perhaps trying to repair itself but is unable due to the presence of the kryptonite and the radiation it generates.” The doctor looked up sensing the unseen observer above, “We have no way of knowing if this coma like state is peculiar to his people when injured or to him in particular due to his long interstellar travels and life on Earth under a yellow sun.” The doctor took a deep breath. “Let’s proceed.”
Batman watched as the first incision was made and blood streamed from the large opening needed to remove the many bullet fragments and repair the extensive damage done. He was no pansy but was finding it increasingly hard to watch as his once powerful friend lay so exposed and helpless. Finally having enough he turned and left the room. He had removed his cowl just before leaving the observation room and it dangled on his shoulders as he walked down the private hallway towards his office.
He sat at his desk silent, his mind going back to what he knew was happening below him in the operating room wondering just how much longer it was going to take. After a time, he booted up his laptop and pulled up the breaking news. He looked at the time and realized it had been over four hours since he had taken Superman and over two and a half since he had left the observation room. Waiting was hard but he decided that watching was even worse.
Looking at the phone he sighed. Picking up his desk phone he placed a call. After one ring he heard the woman’s urgent voice from earlier. “Yes! Please tell me he’s going to be okay.”
“Miss Lane, he is still in surgery but we are cautiously optimistic.”
“Please, I need to be there. He needs to know I’m there for him, and that I always will be there for him.”
“Miss Lane…”
“Cut the Miss Lane crap, the name is Lois. Where did you take him and are you still there?”
“Miss Lane… Lois, I’m not sure that’s such a good…”
“Everyone needs to know their loved ones are there for them…Superman is no different. He needs me there as much as I need to be there. Damn it, where is he!”
“I’ll send a car. Expect it within the hour.”
Xox
Lois had relayed the news to Richard and raced upstairs as soon as the call ended. She took just over five minutes to shower and change into something comfortable knowing she might be wearing it for an extended period. She raced back down the stairs to pace in front of the windows holding her breath each time a car came down the street.
Richard had called Martha while Lois showered then joined her upstairs, also showering and changing into something fresh and more comfortable. He now stood patiently watching her.
Finally a long white limo pulled into the driveway just shy of fifty-five minutes after the call. Lois ran to the limo, the driver opening it for her. Richard followed close behind. “So are you going to blindfold us now?” Lois asked the driver sarcastically as he settled behind the wheel.
The driver turned to face her and smiled, “That won’t be necessary. Please buckle up though.” He turned back around and the window between them closed.
Lois half snorted in response until she realized the windows were not just opaque from the outside but also from the inside, even the one between them and the driver. They had no way of knowing where they were going. She looked over at Richard and they shrugged and settled back. There was nothing for them to do but endure the trip. After about twenty-five minutes the limo seemed to pull into some kind of winding structure. Lois wondered if they had taken a direct route or had the driver been directed to make the trip seem longer. She had been wringing her hands the whole time but felt better than she had waiting at home. Finally the limo stopped and Batman himself opened the door in the dark basement- like area.
“This way,” Batman said. He seemed all business. “They just finished the surgery moments ago and the doctor is prepared to speak with us.” The three entered the open freight elevator and Batman pushed an unmarked button then keyed in a code on an electronic keypad that suddenly appeared.
“With us, including… you?” She asked looking at the masked man then over at Richard wondering if he thought that seemed as strange to him as it did to her.
“Yes, Miss Lane, to all three of us. It is unfortunate his mother is not here, but we will have to suffice as his loved ones for the moment. I’m just surprised you brought your fiancé.”
Lois looked the man in the eyes wondering just what was underneath that mask he wore. “Touché, I just never knew the two of you were friends…and this has been one hell of a day.”
Realizing that was as close to an apology as he was likely to get from the well known reporter, Batman bowed his head slightly just as the elevator came to a fast stop and the doors swooshed open. “We both want the same thing. Our friend’s quick and complete recovery.” Exiting the elevator he began walking briskly. “This way, the doctor will be meeting us in a private consultation room.”
The threesome entered the room and took seats around a table. A couple of minutes later the doctor entered still in his scrubs. Lois stood up and spoke immediately. “Where is Superman, I need to see him, to know he’s alright.”
“Miss Lane, I’m Dr. Emil Hamilton. Superman is in what would be considered an ICU. He’s still in recovery from the surgery and the hospital staff needs to watch him very closely for the time being. No visitors allowed.”
“Please, I just need to see him. Just for a minute. I’ll suit up if you’re concerned with contamination.”
Dr Hamilton looked at Batman and the two men seemed to make a decision between them. “We can arrange for you to see him while I speak with you. This way please.” Lois and Richard followed the two men down a hallway into a small room that they realized was some kind of observation room. Looking down they saw two nurses one just finishing up bandaging a patient’s shoulder as the other added something to the IV drip and made sure it was adjusted right. The first pulled a warm looking blanket up to the patient’s chin as if tucking him in for the night.
Lois inhaled deeply upon seeing the man’s face as the nurse stepped out of the way. “He looks so pale, even more than before.”
“Miss Lane, Superman lost a great deal of blood during the surgery. The bullets fragmented and we had to be absolutely sure we got every last bit of them along with some surrounding tissue which appeared contaminated from the prolonged direct exposure. We also had to repair his right lung which had collapsed and was punctured in two places. Overall the surgery went very well, all things considered.”
Richard looked up, concerned. “All things considered?”
“Well, we were operating on an alien, so yes, I would say all things considered.”
Lois couldn’t take her eyes off the man in the room below them, “Why is the light so red. Don’t you know he gets his powers and his healing ability from the sun? He needs to be in the sunlight.”
“Miss Lane, the light you speak of is part of the artificial Kryptonian environment we created specifically for him. We need to keep him in that environment for a while longer. At least until we’re sure we don’t need to perform more surgery and he is well past the need for IV’s or other invasive procedures. The environment was created in stages similar to putting a patient in a hyperbaric chamber and we can’t risk not being able to provide him immediate attention if needed.”
“That’s how you operated on him.” Looking at the nurses she noticed for the first time they seemed to be wearing warm clothing including hats that covered their ears.
“Yes.”
Xox
After speaking with the doctor a while longer, Lois and Richard had been shown to a nearby waiting room and provided food and blankets. Batman told them it would be a long night so they should just make themselves comfortable. Lois found it impossible to sleep and had taken the short walk to check on Superman several times during the remainder of the night.
By early morning Superman had recovered to the point where the doctors decided to start slowly bringing him back towards the earth-norm environment. When Batman finally rejoined the two in the waiting room Richard offered, “I should go collect Martha and Jason.”
“Why don’t we go together? My jet-copter can fly much faster and land right on the property. Lois can remain here with Kal.”
Richard answered wide eyed, “Ah, sure! Kal?”
Lois looked up answering Richard’s question, “Kal-El, that’s his Kryptonian name.”
As the two men rode up in the elevator Richard wondered aloud, “How are we going to get to it? I mean surely you don’t have the Bat-copter parked on a roof in Metropolis?”
“This one is a little more discrete.” The two men exited onto the roof and sure enough an unmarked jet-copter was waiting.
Richard looked around at the view and was frozen in his tracts as he realized exactly were they were, the S.T.A.R. Labs located in Queensland Park Borough next to Metropolis Harbor. He looked over at Batman who had also stopped and was staring right at him.
“If I even think you are about to tell a living soul any details about the place you just left, I will kill you.”
Richard swallowed hard, “You don’t really mean that… do you?”
“No, but it made you think. Come on, times-a-wasting. Martha is expecting us and I want to meet that kid.”
Richard considered what Batman had just let slip, that he must have known about Jason’s paternity. Then going over in his mind all that had transpired the last few hours, perhaps it wasn’t a bad thing for him to know. He relaxed and allowed himself to feel the excitement of flying in a near state of the art jet-copter with Batman piloting, of all people.
Xox
Just shortly after the men left, Lois had finally been allowed into the room with Superman. His coloring had improved dramatically from the prior night. The nurses were still keeping him covered and every time they lowered the blanket to check his vitals or the various bandages he would start shivering. He showed no signs of consciousness. She looked up at the monitor remembering back to the time in that other hospital room so stark and lacking in equipment compared to this one. Here they had been able to actually do something yet the vitals being reported on the monitor were the same.
Dr. Hamilton entered the room. “I’ve noticed you looking at the monitor. We’ve decided those rates are very normal for him. They’re steady and his condition is improving. It’s my theory that he’s in some kind of deep self imposed coma like state allowing his body to heal.”
“You mean he just wills himself into a coma?”
“It’s not exactly a coma, his mind is active but he appears unresponsive to outside stimuli. It could be a natural automatic response his body has. Either that or it’s an ability he developed from being in stasis during those intergalactic trips. Whatever, it keeps him barely alive against all odds allowing his body time and energy to heal.”
The doctor pulled the blanket down and slowly began removing one of the bandages. Lois watched and was amazed to see that the ugly incision seemed to look much better than it should have for a so recently completed surgery. The doctor smiled and replaced the bandage. Superman had already started shivering slightly so the doctor pulled the blanket back in place.
Lois stayed by his side and just a short time later he started to moan as he seemed to come to consciousness. Suddenly he opened his eyes and inhaled deeply, exclaiming “NO!”
Before Lois could respond he tried to sit up and escape the confines of the bed along with the many wires and monitors still attached to him. All he managed to do was practically fall head first out of the bed. Lois screamed and the two nurses came running in already having seen the radical changes to his vital signs on the monitor. The three women somehow managed to get the un-corporative Superman back fully into the bed. Several of the sticky monitoring patches become detached during his struggles.
Superman continued to resist the nurse’s efforts to calm him. Lois’ grabbed his right hand with both of hers as one of the nurses started to increase the flow of medications in his IV drip but the second nurse shook her head no, exclaiming “Wait, the IV is no longer in place.” The nurse tried to reinsert the IV that had been attached to the top of his left hand but the needle just bent when she tried to insert it.
Dr. Hamilton came blasting in, having been alerted to the commotion from where he had been resting in another part of the hospital. He quickly assessed what was happening and began assisting the nurses as Superman finally began to settle down.
Lois, still gasping Superman’s hand, had bent over the bed so she could whisper softly in his ear. Her voice seemed to soothe him as she told him over and over she was there and he was safe, to stay in bed and all would be well.
The monitor went from a racing heartbeat to what seemed like none at all, finally settling back to the previous steady but low rate of 40 BPM. Dr. Hamilton finally spoke. “As the environment became more earthlike the needle must have been slowly pushed up out of his skin. No doubt that is why he regained consciousness. He was no longer receiving any sedatives or medication.”
The doctor shook his head and sighed looking at Lois. “It’s good you’re here, he doesn’t know where he is but he obviously trusts you. He must have reached a level of consciousness now, without the drugs interfering, where he can, at least on a sub-conscious level, be aware of what is going on around him.”
“Last time he left the hospital as soon as he regained consciousness.” Lois intoned solemnly.
“Yes, I am aware of that, but his physical injuries were much graver this time. He needs to stay put for a little while to recover. His invulnerability is coming back but his other powers will take longer under this artificial sunlight.”
Lois nodded and placed her head on the bed over where her hand clasped his limp hand under the covers.
Xoxo
When Martha first told him that his Daddy Richard and Batman were coming to take them both to Metropolis Jason was excited but when the jet landed and Richard got out and approached the porch followed closely by a dark scary man he stayed back hiding behind Martha’s skirt.
Joining Martha and Jason on the porch, Richard immediately noticed his son’s unease and stooped down to pick him up wanting to let the little boy know he was safe in his arms. He
asked consolingly as he stood back up, “Hey, munchkin, you’re not afraid of Batman are you?”
Jason shook his head no, but his expression and stiffness said otherwise.
Softening his usual Batman voice wanting to reassure the small boy the dark man spoke up, “I know I must look scary to you, but I only dress like this to scare the bad guys.”
“Like that bad bald man that hurt … um Superman?” Jason asked in a small voice.
“Yes, I would have loved to scare that man, but he’s never going to hurt anyone ever again.”
“Is he really dead?”
Batman nodded. “Yes, and we’re here to take you back home. Your mom is with Superman, watching over him. Are you ready to join her?”
Jason nodded, no longer fearful he openly began to look the dark hero over from head to foot. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, but I reserve the right not to answer.”
“Huh?” Jason looked confused by that response and turned his head to look up at his dad who nodded for him to go ahead and ask. “Your cape is really long, does it ever get stuck?”
xox
The men quickly loaded Jason and Martha’s bags and soon the jet-copter was back in the air. It didn’t take long for the excitement of takeoff to wear off leaving Jason, once again, unusually subdued. He knew his other daddy had been hurt and they were heading to the hospital to see him. They arrived in the hospital and joined Lois at Superman’s side. Lois let them know that he had briefly regained consciousness before falling back into the coma- like state.
The family continued their vigil. Lois barely left his side and Jason curled up in her lap finally falling asleep. Martha was grateful to be there and didn’t even mind when she was introduced to the nurses and one of the other doctors as Richard and Lois’ son’s nanny. Dr. Hamilton, on the other hand, seemed to know or had guessed the true facts. Thankfully he only spoke candidly when the others were not present. Lois soon felt very comfortable in his presence and spoke freely to him asking a lot of questions.
Late in the afternoon Martha had taken Jason to get something for him to eat in the nearby waiting room. Batman retuned to the hospital room and noticing the little boy was not there he spoke hoping to bring a little levity to the room. “Miss Lane, I seem to remember your reporting that the Man of Steel was ‘faster than a speeding bullet’. Was that all just hype? Personally I’ve never felt a need to resort to such outright propaganda.”
Lois shot Batman daggers with her eyes just as the bedcovers rustled with movement. Superman had shifted slightly turning away from where Batman stood at the foot of the bed. As he moved he frowned and mumbled hoarsely, “I… heard… that.”
As soon as he spoke the people gathered closer around him but he was already falling back in that unresponsive coma-like deep sleep. His head now slightly buried in the covers. Lois looked up from him, smiling at Batman then at Richard, assured in the knowledge that Superman was indeed coming back to them. Those three simple words spoke volumes to her and finally, after nearly twenty-four hours, she allowed herself to relax.
Xoxoxoxoxo
Vger
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All That Matters - Families Matter 17/? (Read 1290 times)
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