By JJ
Summary: When Lois collapses, Clark rushes her to the doctor. Tests reveal she might have cancer.
***
Lois Kent hadn't been feeling too well lately, but just thought that it was a small illness and shrugged it off. A week after the symptoms started, she got worse. Clark noticed it.
"Honey, what's wrong?" he asked, putting his hand on her forehead.
"Oh, I just don't feel real well. I'll be OK," Lois said.
"How long have you felt bad?" Clark asked.
"About a week," she said.
"A week! And you didn't tell me?" Clark exclaimed. "We're taking you to the doctor. I'll call Perry and tell him that we won't be in today." Lois didn't say a word. She just lay down on the couch. They got ready to go to the doctor. As soon as Lois was dressed, she collapsed back on the couch. "OK, Lois. It's time to go to the doctor."
"I can't move," Lois said. Clark picked her up, and carried her to the car. They went into the doctor's office and waited for Lois' test results to come back. The doctor came in.
"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Kent, we have found the source of why Lois hasn't been feeling well," the doctor said. "Mrs. Kent, we found a lump on your thyroid gland. Now, until we run further tests we won't know anything. It could be a goiter, which is just swelling on your thyroid gland, it could be hypothyroidism, which is just an underactive thyroid and you'd have to take a pill every day, or there's about a 25% chance that it could be cancer. Now, there is good news. If the lump is cancer, it's very treatable and you won't have to go through chemotherapy."
Lois talked while trying to hold back tears. "I-I might have cancer?" she asked. "Would I d-die?"
"Well, anytime you go through surgery, there's the small chance, you might not wake up from the anesthetic, but if you make it through surgery, you shouldn't die," the doctor said. "Like I said, the cancer is very treatable. We won't know for certain what the lump is until tomorrow around noon. Go home and we'll call you as soon as we know anything." Lois and Clark headed home.
"Lois, are you OK? How do you feel?" Clark asked. They sat down on the couch. Lois let everything out. She burst out in tears, and cried on Clark's shoulder.
"Clark, I don't believe it!" she sobbed. "I might have cancer! I don't want to go through surgery." Clark wrapped his arms around her and didn't try to calm her down. He knew that she needed to let her fears out.
"I know how scared you must be," Clark told her.
"No you don't," she cried. "You have no idea what it's like to find out that you might have cancer. You don't get any kind of illness. Clark, I don't want to die!"
"No, you're not going to die. You heard the doctor. Even if you do have cancer, it's very treatable," Clark said. "I'm not letting anything happen to you." The next day, Lois and Clark got ready for work.
"Now, Lois, we don't have to go to work today. Perry will understand."
"Clark, if I sit around the house and do nothing, I'll go insane. I have to keep busy. Besides, I told the doctor to call me at the Daily Planet. He promised he would," Lois said. They went into work. Perry greeted them.
"Clark, what did the doctor say yesterday?" he asked.
"Well," Clark started. "He said that they found a lump on Lois' thyroid gland. It could be a goiter which is nothing, or it could be hypothyroidism and she would just have to take a pill every day. But the doctor said there's about a 25% chance that it could be cancer."
"Oh great shades of Elvis!" Perry exclaimed. "How does Lois feel about this?"
"She's really scared, but they should be calling back around noon with the final test results," Clark repeated.
"Where is Lois?" Perry asked. "Did she stay home?"
"No, she came to work with me," Clark said. "There she is. By the vending machines." He headed over to the vending machines. "Honey, what are you doing?" he asked.
"Thinking. In one day, my whole world has been shattered," she said.
"Sweetie, we still don't know what the test results are. Think positively, OK?" Clark asked.
"I'll try," Lois said. "What time is it?" Clark looked at his watch.
"It's 9:15. Why?"
"They should call in two hours and forty-five minutes," Lois said. She took a deep breath. "OK, let's get started working." They sat down and went to work. At 12:30, they still hadn't heard from the doctor. "What's taking them so long?" Lois asked, pacing. "What if they found something so horrible and don't know what it is? I could have a rare case of something that's killing my organs. I could be dying!"
"Lois! Calm down," Clark said, jumping up and stopping Lois from pacing the room. "You don't have a rare case of anything. Sit down and relax." The phone rang. Lois and Clark looked at each other.
"You answer it," Lois said. "I want you to tell me." Clark picked up the phone.
"Hello? Hi Dr. Oxford," Clark said.
"We just got the results back," Dr. Oxford said. "We're sorry, but Mrs. Kent does have cancer. We'll need her in for surgery at 5:30 tomorrow morning."
"OK," Clark said. He hung up.
"Well?" Lois asked. "Tell me."
"They just got the test results back. You-you do have cancer," Clark said. "I'm sorry." Lois burst out in tears and cried on Clark's shoulder. He held her in his arms. Everyone stared at Lois. "Honey, do you want to go in one of the private rooms?"
"No! What difference does it make? I have some horrible disease that I could die from!" Lois sobbed.
"Shhh," Clark soothed. "You know that you're not going to die from it. The doctor told you that. Now, we're going to the hospital tomorrow, because surgery's at 5:30 in the morning. I'm not leaving you, you'll be OK." The next morning at 5:30 Lois and Clark were in the hospital waiting room. They called her back.
"Mr. Kent, you can walk back to her room with us, but then you'll have to come back to the waiting room," the nurse said. Clark walked back to Lois' room with her and put her suitcase in their. Lois was still squeezing Clark's hand. "Mrs. Kent, I'll need you to put on this hospital gown. I'll be right outside the door. Take all of your clothes off." Clark kissed Lois.
"Just remember, I'm right outside in the waiting room. You'll be OK. I love you, Lois," Clark said.
"I love you too," Lois said. She gave Clark's hand one more squeeze and let him go. Clark and the nurse left, and Lois changed into her hospital gown. When she came out, the nurse had a wheelchair. She took a seat and was wheeled to pre-op. After the pre-op, she was wheeled to the operating room and was in surgery for five hours. Clark was going crazy in the waiting room. Finally, the doctor came out. Clark jumped out of his chair.
"She's out of surgery," the doctor said. "But, she's not doing well. Her vital signs are bad and her heart rate is low. We did get the lump and all of the cancer is out of her body. We don't know if she'll make it." Clark wanted to cry. He could lose the woman he loved.
"Is she awake?" he asked.
"Yes she is. I think seeing you will fight for her will to live," the doctor said. "She knows what's going on and wants to give up on life almost." Clark knew that didn't sound like Lois. He went down the hall to her room.
"Hi honey," he said stepping in the door. Lois' eyes lit up.
"Clark," she said, reaching out her arms. He embraced her in a hug. "I'm dying."
"No, Lois, you're not dying. You're not going to give up on life. You have to think of me. If you fight for your life, you'll live. We've only been married for three years. We still have many, many, many, many years ahead of us. And we still want to have children. You have to live," Clark encouraged.
"Clark, I love you," Lois said. Her eyelids closed and her heart moniter went flat. The doctors rushed in.
"Code blue!" they yelled. Clark cried.
"NOOOO! I can't lose her!" he yelled. He stepped back.
"CLEAR!" the doctors yelled, pumping her. Her heart rate came back. "She's back," they said. Relief swept over Clark's face. Two days later, Lois still wasn't awake but was alive. Clark never left her bedside and Perry and Jimmy always came and visited her after work. Martha and Jonathan had also flown down to stay with Clark and Lois. At 2:13 A.M., Lois woke up.
"Clark?" she whispered. Clark rushed to her bedside.
"I'm here honey," he said. "So is my mom and dad. How do you feel?"
"I want to go home," she said.
"Well, maybe in a few days we'll be able to. I think you're going to be fine," he said.
"I want some chocolate," she said, smiling.
"Now I know you'll be OK," Clark said, smiling also. Lois was released three days later.
"Clark," she said. "It really meant a lot to me when I found out that you had been pretty much at my bedside the whole time I was in the hospital."
"Well, of course I would. When we got married I took vows to love you in sickness and in health, till death do us part. I wasn't going to let you die and part us this early in our marriage," Clark said.
"I must have married the best guy in the world," Lois said, kissing him passionately.
THE END
(insick.txt)