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.*･｡. AN ODE TO CLARK KENT .*･｡.
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022.
DEATH BY BUG?
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——

   Lois jumped out of her car, eyes wide and panicked.

She had barely put it into park before swinging the door open and lurching out, slamming it shut behind her and making a fast beeline across the carpark.

It was late. Later than she had been to Beacon Hills Memorial, in the past — and she had been there late, seeing as Scott's mother worked there and their little band of fools always seemed to find themselves winding up in the morgue, or in a hospital bed of their own. Trouble followed them, and they followed trouble, and much of that trouble took place in Beacon Hills Memorial.

But, this time was different. Lois wasn't at the hospital because it was where the supernatural had lead her. At least, not specifically.

This time, Lois had been called there by Scott. That wouldn't have been so different, had it been for a supernatural problem that required the presence of the whole pack. That kind of call would have been somewhat normal. That call, Lois might have expected.

However, she hadn't expected the call that she had gotten: one that woke her from her slumber, knocking the textbooks and sheets of homework that she had meant to be doing (but fallen asleep) as she sprang up from her bed and stumbled around for her phone, and tiredly answered with a mumbled greeting. Lois hadn't been so surprised at the sound of Scott's voice; it was perhaps the least surprising part of the ordeal. The part that she had expected the most. But Lois hadn't expected what he had told her, and she most definitely hadn't expected to rush out of the house in her pyjamas with her car keys in hand. Lois barely remembered the drive to the hospital — but she had gotten there, regardless. So, she didn't really think that it mattered.

What did matter, was finding Danny Mahealani.

Her friendship with Danny had been a long one. Since Lydia had started dating Jackson, Lois and Danny had found themselves constantly surrounded with each other. And, being the two of the popular group that weren't dating another person in the group — or anyone at all, most of the time — or sucking faces at lunch, it had lead them to being friends. Pretty great friends, actually. They kept one another company when tagging along on date nights, at parties they had to go to, at movie nights at Jackson's house.

Whenever Lydia and Jackson were being gross and coupley in his bedroom, Lois and Danny raided his kitchen and ate all of his snacks. When Lydia was pretending to be a terrible bowler, Lois and Danny would sneak into the arcade and collect all the tickets they won, putting them together to share the best prize there was.

Danny was always the person that Lois asked for advice. Sure, she could ask her other friends for advice, and Stiles and Lydia practically knew her life story, but Danny was the person that she went to for proper advice — on boys, if there ever were any, if the dress looked as good as she thought it did, if her father was out of order for grounding her (he usually wasn't.) Danny did the same to Lois, with boy talk, and school gossip, and college pressures from his parents. He was her normal friend. The only person that wasn't caught up in the supernatural world, that she didn't run from the wolf pack with, who was focused on school and friends and boys.

Lois' only normal friend was Danny. He did normal things, and said normal things, and acted totally normal. Danny was the only person that made Lois feel like a normal teenager, all of the time.

He was the only normal one, left.

Ethan was tainting that.

A sense of guilt swooped over Lois, as she charged towards the hospital. She hadn't been as close to Danny recently, what with all that was going on. He was unknowingly dating half an alpha that she had beaten up, she was barely getting through each day since the start of sophomore year, and there was little time to hang out. It made her feel awful. Lois hadn't put in the time, not when she should have.

Lois should have been a better friend, lately. Instead, Lois had been a pretty crappy one. Pretty crappy, indeed.

Why couldn't be a normal friend? A good one? Why?

That was all she had wanted to be this year. A good friend, a good daughter. Lois hadn't wanted anything else in her junior year but to be good. To stop letting people down. And yet, she always seemed to fail. And it sucked.

As she neared the hospital entrance in a fluster, Lois caught sight of a familiar face. A sigh of relief passed her lips as she barrelled into the boy, feeling safe when his arms tugged her into his warm embrace and held her shaking body close to him. He had always made her feel so safe. Scott McCall made Lois feel safe.

"Where is he?" She clung to him, "Where's Danny?"

"He's—"

Lois yanked away from Scott when she caught sight of Ethan over his shoulder. Her eyes narrowed and a growl formed at the back of her throat.

Without missing a beat, she stormed up the steps, "Hey!"

"Lois..." he tried, but was interrupted.

"What did you do?" She demanded, "Huh? What did you do to him?"

Lois roughly shoved him, sending him stumbling back some in that she'd caught him off guard, but Ethan still stood his ground.

"I—"

"If you laid a finger on him, I—" Lois bit at her lip anxiously, feeling tears burn at the back of her eyes. Her head ached and an angry sob rolled off her tongue, and she sent him another shove to the side. Ethan took it, his face sombre. "I— I swear I'll—!"

A light wind brushed leaves across her feet.

"Woah— woah!" Scott intervened when she sobbed again and went to shove Ethan once more. He stepped between them and took her hand before or collided with his face, moving her back a few inches and away from the alpha twin. She was shaking, Scott noticed, as he tried to take her attention away from Ethan and calm her down. "Lois. Lois, hey— look at me." Scott took her face in his warm hands and looked into her teary eyes, "It's okay; Danny is okay. My mom managed to stabilise him, and he's going to be okay. Alright?"

Her breathing began to calm, and she nodded slowly. Lois' eyes flickered to Ethan as she blinked away more tears, then back to Scott. She realised how close to her, he was. His eyes were pretty.

    "I know you're not gonna believe me," Ethan spoke with his hands raised in innocence. "But I didn't do anything to him."

   Scott sighed and stepped away from Lois, but kept her close by just incase. He stared at Ethan with a disbelieving stare, "All we know is that the minute that you both got here, you went right for Danny, and your brother went for Lydia."

    "We're not gonna hurt him," he said.

    "Why should we believe you?" Lois squinted at him.

    "Because we knew one of them was gonna be important to you, Scott, and now we know it's Lydia."

"Y'know— that doesn't make me feel much better," her eyes in slits, Lois crossed her arms. She was defensive over her friends, in this case both Lydia and Danny being close to her heart, and she would gladly hurt anyone that tried to hurt them, first. Scott may not have been Danny's close friend, but Lois was. Hurting either of them hurt Lois Lane.

    "Aiden needs to stay away from Lydia," she said, "And you both need to stay away from my cousin— alright? He doesn't know any of this."

   Ethan furrowed his brow, "You have no idea, do you?"

   That stumped Lois.

   No idea? About what? What was with this alpha pack and telling her that she was totally clueless? She hated it. She hated them.

   Scott span on his heel, taking their attention with him, and the three watched as a car pulled into the parking lot. It swung from side to side, as though the driver were drunk or asleep, and pulled to a sudden stop when it veered towards a parking space and drove straight into the back of another vehicle. Car alarms started to ring and Scott took off towards the vehicle, Ethan and Lois in tow, and yanked open the driver's seat door to make sure that they were alright. But, when they peered into the car, no one was there.

   It was as though the driver had disappeared.

   As though no one had been driving it, at all.

   All that was left in their wake was a butterfly, stiff and unmoving. They all shared a look; none of them knew what had happened, but they all had a strong feeling as to why it had.

• • •

    "Danny?"

   His head tilted towards the door, and he beamed.

    "Lois," he croak tiredly, but smiled big, nonetheless. Danny gave her a wave to come over, "My favourite person! Come sit with me, I'm bored out of my mind."

   She let out a laugh and scurried over. Lois set herself down in the chair and grabbed his hand, "When has hospital ever be fun?"

    "I dunno, but the food sucks." Danny's words made her roll her eyes playfully. The boy snickered and fiddled with her fingers and thumb absentmindedly. Under her smile she seemed nervous, and it made him frown slightly. "Hey— I'm alright, yeah? I'm gonna be find, there's no need to worry, Lo. Did Scott call you?"

    "Yeah—" she hummed, "—I heard Melissa was amazing."

    "She saved my life," Danny nodded.

   Lois' voice was soft, "She's pretty great, huh?"

   He agreed, and the two fell into a comfortable silence. Danny watched closet as the girl at his side pursed her lips, her eyebrows cinched together in thought, and her fingers tapped his palm. She seemed far away, lost within her mind. Then again, Lois had been like that a lot, lately. For the past year, perhaps. It always seemed as if there was too much going on in that brain of hers; like a million thoughts were whizzing around, back and forth, up and away, all in the frenzy of her pretty, little head.

Over the years, he had gotten to know Lois well — or, at least, he thought he knew her well. Of course he didn't know everything about her, not like Stiles or Lydia, but he knew her well enough to know that she usually wasn't the type to act so distracted. For the most part, Lois Lane was a pretty focused person. Sometimes a bit carried away with her sarcasm and wit, and often babbling a lot of nonsense, but focused, nonetheless. Lois was driven, and adamant, and stubborn. She knew what she wanted, when she wanted it, and how she wanted it to be. Danny had always assumed that side of her came from her father being a prison lawyer; he had met the man and they were very much alike. Two great minds. The point was, Lois Lane was rarely as distracted as she had been during the course of their sophomore year. Last year, she had acted bizarrely.

All of them had. Lois, Stiles, Scott. Not to mention Luna and Allison, and Lydia had clearly been out of sorts. Even Jackson had been acting strange. Very strange. Then there was Isaac and Erica, and then Boyd, all three who had changed drastically.

And then, Matt had died. He had been murdered, drowned, and it came out that he had been stalking Lois, and other girls. He had been obsessed with Lois Lane. Danny had originally thought that maybe that was why she had been acting weird — maybe Lois had known that Matt was obsessed with her, the whole time, and that had been the reason she wasn't herself. But, he was sure she would have said something. Anything. Lois would have told him...

...wouldn't she?

Now that Jackson had gone to London, Danny would have said that Lois was his closest friend. She knew the most about him. She was the person that he called when he was bored, that would study with him when he was worried about his grades, who would listen to him babble on and on about the guys that treated him awfully.

   Lois would tell him he deserved to be treated like a king, and he should ditch any guy who treated him as less. She'd talk for hours on the phone, while he tried to get the grades his parents expected.

   Lois Lane was always available when he needed her.

   But, in the past year, she hadn't been so available. Lois had been busier than she'd ever been, and he started to see her even less.

   Summer was the most he had seen her in the past year, and for the first time in a long while, Lois had seemed herself. After a year of acting so strange, Lois and her friends had come back to school as though nothing had ever happened. Lydia wasn't a total nutjob, Allison and Scott weren't sneaking around, Isaac was the only one of his friends to have made it back, and Lois wasn't as lost in her own mind as she had been. Luna and Stiles were the only ones of the group who had stayed the same — mostly because Stiles was always acting a bit weird, and where he went Luna would follow.

   And then, it had all changed again.

   In recent weeks, they had started being weird, again. Sneaking off in the middle of the day, getting into fights, whispering in halls. The weirdest that they had ever acted had been at the cross country meet — the one that hadn't actually happened — and the night in the GLEN CAPRI. Everyone had been acting as thought they were insane. Even Ethan had been acting odd.

   Danny didn't know why, or when, but Lois Lane had gotten lost in her mind, all over again.

   He had noticed on several occasions, and this was one of them. Even in his half-asleep, medically induced state, Danny could still tell that Lois wasn't her normal self.

    "What's on your mind?"

   His voice brought Lois back to reality.

   She peered at him, raising an eyebrow, to which the boy rolled his eyes. Danny said, "Come on— you can tell me. What's wrong?"

   With his words, Lois started to crumble. The tears started to fall in waves before she could even stop them, and they tumbled down her cheeks and onto her lips. In that moment, Lois let it all out. All of the stress that came with trying to save everyone, the fear of the supernatural world harming the people she cared about, the panic of not knowing who she was, anymore — Lois didn't know what she was, but she was certainly something. It terrified her. She was so scared, more scared than she had ever been, and she cried. Lois cried, and cried, and clung to Danny's hand tightly.

    "God— I'm the worst friend!" She cried helplessly, "I barely make any time for you; I don't answer all your calls, and we don't study with pizza, anymore, I beat the crap out of your boyfriend—and it's like we haven't spoken in years!" Lois cursed, "And now you're here! Danny, you're lying in a freaking hospital bed, and—!"

    "I'm fine, Lo." Danny interrupted her tangent, wiping away the tears from her cheeks.

   Her voice was louder than she intended, "You nearly died!"

   He flinched.

    "Sorry—" she sighed, "Sorry."

    "Don't be sorry," he shrugged, "It's not your fault, I'm here."

   The words made Lois cringe, it felt like it was.

   After all, it was likely that Danny was here because they were yet to stop the Darach. While he didn't fit into the pattern, what had happened to him had seemed very sacrificial. Perhaps if they told him, if he knew what was going on, it wouldn't have happened.

    "Actually, Danny..." she sucked in a breath, "I have something to tell you." Lois bit her nails, "There's something you really need to know—"

    "I think I already know."

   Lois squinted at him. Had Ethan already told him?

    "You do?"

    "Yeah— it's kinda obvious."

    "It is?"

    "Totally," Danny wiggled his eyebrows, "You and Isaac."

    "Wait— what?" Her eyes bulged out of her head.

    "Oh— come on, Lois!" Laughing to himself, Danny poked her on the cheek. "It's so obvious! You guys are so into each other, it's hard not to see it. I mean, the two of you at the cross country meet? You think I didn't see any of that?"

   Lois frowned, "Any of what?"

    "Don't act coy, Lane." He snickered, "Y'know— when Jackson pointed it out, last year, I didn't believe him. But he was so right!"

    "Jackson—?" Lois clenched her jaw. Of course Jackson had set him off on this. He had tried to convince her that she liked Isaac at the start of summer, when she had gone to say goodbye to him.

   Of freaking course. Jackson Whittemore behaviour at its finest.

    "You guys are actually kinda suited," Danny said, "Plus, he got really hot since sophomore year. I can basically see all the sexual tension between you guys." She rolled her eyes, and he sunk down into the hospital bed with a yawn and a cheeky smile, "If you're asking me, I think you should go for it."

    "Good thing I'm not asking you, then." She quipped, smiling tightly.

    "I got myself a nice guy, Lo." Danny hummed tiredly. He let out another yawn as she tucked him in under the covers, "It's time you found yourself someone. You deserve to be happy."

    "Who says I'm not happy?"

    "No one—" he shrugged, "—but I can just tell."

   Lois wasn't sure what to say to that, so she opted for changing the subject as she sat back in her chair.

    "Isaac isn't exactly a nice guy, anyway. I could do better."

    "Whatever you say, Lo..." he muttered, "I didn't know you got a tattoo?"

    "What?" She asked, confused. He knew all about the tattoo she had gotten when she turned sixteen, "You were with me when I got it, Danny."

    "Not that one..." he hummed, his eyes slowly shutting. Within seconds, Danny soundly drifted off. A nurse came in with a smile, telling her that he was on a lot of medication and that visiting hours were over, and then told her that she could have another five minutes. Lois had smiled, wishing the nurse a good night, and turned back to Danny. New tattoo? He was on so many drugs.

    "That's not what I even wanted to tell you," Lois sighed, and laughed quietly to herself. "Damn you, Mahealani."

   Perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps telling him everything would have avoided harm from coming to him this time, but perhaps it would put him in even more danger. She wasn't sure. There was no way of knowing, not really, but maybe this was all for the best.

   Lois sat in silence for a while. She held his hand and listened to him snore, contently watching his heart monitor beep regularly.

    "It really wasn't me that hurt him, you know."

   She grit her teeth, "That doesn't mean you're in the clear."

   Ethan sighed, leaning against the doorway of Danny's hospital room. He tucked his hands into his pocket and shrugged, "Can't we at least try to get along?"

    "No."

    "He cares about you," Ethan tried again, "It'd be better for him if we just acted—"

    "I'm not pretending to be friends with you," Lois turned in her seat to glare at him, "Not after everything you guys have done."

    "We didn't kill Derek."

    "But you killed Erica," she told him, her heart aching at the thought of the blonde beta. They hadn't been friends, but she had deserved to live — she had so much life left to live. "You nearly killed Isaac, and you wanted to kill Derek."

    "Derek isn't exactly innocent," he narrowed his eyes.

    "Derek's not killing innocent people!" Lois snapped at him, her voice quiet but harsh. She stood up from her chair and pointed a finger at him, "You are, Ethan. You're a cold-hearted killer."

     "And you're a total bitch," Ethan clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, "You know, that?"

   Lois wasn't remotely fazed, "I've been told."

   With another glance at Danny, wishing she didn't have to leave, the girl sighed. She just wanted to keep him safe. And with Ethan, Lois didn't feel like Danny was safe. Not with an alpha twin, who was apart of the pack that was killing to get to Derek Hale. Danny wasn't safe with the one guy that made him feel truly happy. Happy was what Danny deserved to be, Lois wanted that for him, but not with someone who was putting him in danger. As much as she had wanted her friend to be happy, she wanted him to be alive, more.

    "Stay away from him." She said, slowly walking towards the door. Lois looked up at Ethan with a blank, emotionless face, but he knew that her eyes held warning. This was a warning. "Stay away from him, stay away from Lydia, and stay away from my cousin."

   After a tense second, Lois slipped past Ethan. He grabbed ahold of her wrist before she could get far, tugging her back and into his chest. She wriggled, trying to get free, but his grip was firm.

    "It's not Derek that he wants."

   Lois stilled, but said nothing.

    "Deucalian doesn't want Derek," his voice was quiet and he spared a glance to the empty hallway. If she hadn't been so close to him, Lois was certain that she wouldn't have heard anything he was saying. "Derek's just the bait."

    "He has to get rid of Derek, first..." she muttered.

   Ethan nodded his head, "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm gonna." Another look around the hall, "Derek's in the way. With him gone, it's easier for him to get what he really wants. This isn't about Derek Hale — Deucalian wants something else." His amber eyes bore right into her brown ones, "Two things, actually."

    Two things.

   Lips pursed, Lois stepped away from Ethan and he dropped her wrist. The information was hard to believe. He was hard for her to believe. After all, he was in their pack — why did he keep telling them things that could help them? She didn't understand it. No matter what he said, Ethan still couldn't be trusted. He had killed innocent people. He had killed Erica Reyes, and he wanted to kill the rest of them.

   Her face grew stony again.

    "If I see you hanging around Peter, again—" Lois gave him once last threat, "—I swear I will personally end this whole thing. Starting with you, and your brother."

   They held hard eye contact for a moment longer, and then Lois turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

    "You can't keep everyone safe, Lois Lane." His voice came from behind her, and she nearly stopped. But she kept on walking, and Ethan called out to her again. "You'll realise it, soon."

   She stepped into the elevator.

    "You're more valuable, than you think."

  
——

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