(no subject)

[dovelike]

Eirene kicks at a rock, her face set in a thoughtful scowl, and watches it bounce across the dirt lane only to vanish into grazing land beyond a dilapidated fence. The last week seems to have taken its toll on Clark and she's not even sure that her reason for talking him into taking her to Smallville is valid anymore. Chloe doesn't even remember her, not as the friend Eirene had hoped she'd turned into. So many deaths in so little time, it isn't a wonder that Clark opted to hide in the loft, and she can't blame him for the desire to set things aside for a little while and just exist.

She's beginning to wonder if he even heard her come in and let him know she was going for a walk. Probably did, with that super-hearing, but he didn't seem like he was paying attention, another thing she can't fault him for.

Well, that's what this little stroll down a country lane is for: thinking. For tonight she's borrowing the guest room at the house, and tomorrow Clark will probably suggest she return to Milliways. It's not something Eirene wants to do; abandon him when he needs someone just to be around, but she's also never overstayed her welcome.

She's also not paying attention to the road behind her, so when the old Caddy veers and hits her, all Eirene feels is a sudden burst of pain across her back, and something break inside when she lands just past the base of the ancient oak a few feet away. The car, and it's elderly driver, end up ramming right into the tree trunk, its horn blaring uselessly.

Thump-thump-thump-thump, thump thump thump thump...

Comments

[hero_farmboy]

Clark had heard her, he just didn't feel much like responding. Chloe had just called with the details of Lana's funeral - set to take place in just a few days. He knows he should be grateful that Chloe's alive to call him at all, and he is, but he can't help but relive those few minutes when it seemed like he'd lost them both, one right after the other.

And Lana wasn't coming back.

So when Eirene calls up that she going for a walk, he just nods, despite the fact she can't exactly see him. He assumes she'll get the point and somewhere, a part of him makes note that he should probably apologize to her later for being such a jerk, but that will be later. Right now, he just wants to be left alone.

It's not too long after that he hears the crash, the car horn blaring endlessly that finally gets his attention.

And then there's the sound of a heart beat that's starting to slow down, the pattern becoming erratic and irregular. That's when he starts to run.

[eirenikos]

There's a few seconds, or minutes, of shock, where Eirene tries to figure out what just happened; why she's suddenly face-down in the grass, what's making that horrible screeching sound, why she's struggling to breathe. She spits dirt out of her mouth before pushing herself to her feet; or, at least, that was the plan.

She makes it onto her side, still lying prone, when the pain really hits. Across her back, where the car--- hit? Now she can see the Caddy, but her vantage point is too low to see if there's anyone inside, and there's a terrible fire rushing up from her stomach and pelvis that robs her of the ability to do anything but whimper.

Eirene knows, instinctively, what's going to happen, even when her brain shies away from it. It's terrifying, the panic welling up in her throat, so she opts to ignore it in favor of making it onto her back.

She's going to die in a strange world, far from family and home, and there's nothing she can do about it.

[hero_farmboy]

It takes him all of five seconds to get to her, dropping out of superspeed just a few feet away.--a bus sideswipes an SUV--"No. No no no."

And then he doesn't know what to do. Instinct is to scoop her up and take her to Emergency, but... that could hurt her more. He shouldn't move her. So Clark Kent calls 911.

his cell phone is dropped once he's sure they know where to find them, and then he kneels down beside her. "Eirene." His voice is barely above a whisper. "Eirene, can you hear me?"

[eirenikos]

She can, though it takes a while to penetrate through the fog her thoughts have become; running over the list of things she still had to do, the family members who aren't going to be pleased at all that she's gone and been this clumsy.

"Clark."

Eirene's eyes open with some effort, squinting against the expectation of blinding sunlight, but Clark is effectively blocking it with his frame.

"Check the car. Might be people," she stops to catch her breath. Talking hurts like hell. "Please. Go look."

[hero_farmboy]

"The ambulance is on its way." He can already hear the sirens. "They'll be fine. You'll be fine. I'm not leaving you, okay?"

[eirenikos]

She won't die alone. Eirene clings to the thought that, here, at least, there will be one person who cares. And really, it's all that anyone can ever ask for.

"Okay.

Beat.

"Promise me that you'll get... I want to be buried with mom. Get me home."

Please.

[hero_farmboy]

"No." That sounds very firm. "I'm not going to have to do that." He can't. Losing Lana and Chloe in the same day was bad enough. Even though he got Chloe back, they still don't know what really happened to her, or if it could happen again at any moment. Losing Eirene would be more than he could handle.

"You're going to be fine."

[eirenikos]

It seems easier just to nod, and fight back the upsurge of nausea, then argue with him. Maybe he's right and she will pull through. This is something to laugh about down the road over a latte and hot cocoa. 'Remember that time I almost died? Yeah, taken out by a Cadillac. Would've looked great on my tombstone.'

Except her heartbeat is still slowing down, and there is a numbness creeping up her legs to mingle with the pain. Internal bleeding. Probably.

"Clark?"

[hero_farmboy]

"I'm here." That's not his voice cracking, honest. He reaches for her hand and gently laces his fingers with hers.

"They're almost here. Just hang on a few more minutes."

[eirenikos]

There's blood pooling underneath her now; lacerations from her back. She can feel it, smell the coppery aroma, and it only serves to remind her of her mortality. Eirene isn't going to make it, whether she dies here or at the medical center isn't important anymore.

"Tell them I love them." She slurs, her grip no longer as strong against his fingers.

[hero_farmboy]

"No." Clark squeezes her hand this time. "Eirene, please no."

And then the ambulance is there and the medics push him out of the way. Clark obliges, but the ever slowing sound of her heart in his ears tells him more than he could learn by listening to the emergency personnel.

[eirenikos]

"Clark." She's struggling for breath, to be heard above the shouts and tersely snapped instructions coming from the ambulance crew. But if anyone can hear her, he can. "I love you." Even though he doesn't, even if he loves Lana, and Chloe, she has to tell him before they load her up into the back of the ambulance.

Then someone puts an oxygen mask over her face, obscuring almost everything from sight. Eirene can barely make out snippets of conversation, enough to learn that the driver was killed on impact, and a slew of medical terminology that boils down to the fact she's ripped up inside.

And that her bones are extrodinary light, and fragile, almost like a human bird. It makes her smile before unconsciousness claims her.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark is prevented from getting into the ambulance with her by police, who are also now on scene. They want his statement; Clark doesn't care.

"I have to go with her, please."

"Son, she'll be gone before they get there."

[eirenikos]

That's ... not entirely true. Eirene fights for her life all the way into town; her heart beat barely registering at all by the time she's put on a table in the emergency room, but still there.

By the time Clark arrives, there is a team in place already readying the paddles in case they are needed.

Thump. Pause. Thump. Pause. Thump. Pause.

Then nothing.

[hero_farmboy]

It's déjà vu all over again. Clark was just here, not three days ago, with Chloe in Eirene's place in the emergency room, with people surrounding her and machines hooked up everywhere.

And he'd had to listen to her heartbeat drain down into nothing.

So he keeps listening, because this can't be happening again.

[eirenikos]

"Clear!" Pause. "Again! Clear." Pause. They try four times, the voltage raised a little with each successive attempt, and four times her body jerks as the electricity goes through it before Eirene returns to lying there without any movement at all.

There is no heartbeat and the rest of her is shutting down. It's the last thing that she would have wanted to put Clark through.

"Enough. I'm calling time of death." One of the er doctors looks wearily at the clock and rattles off the time before exiting the room and looking for Clark.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark is waiting as close to the room as he can get. "Is she okay?"

The doctor frowns and looks around Clark to the waiting room. "Mr. Kent, we need to find any of her immediate family."

"I'm sorry, I can't share any information with you until we've notified Miss Sullivan's immediate family."

Clark pales. "No. Not again, no."

[eirenikos]

This doctor, unlike the ones who treated Chloe, is more inclined to be sympathetic. However, he does have to notify her family first.

"I'm sorry, son. Can you provide a name or a number to call?"

Behind him, in the room, monitors are tracking the last internal organs shutting down while a nurse begins to cut the clothing off the body and put it in a trash bag.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark shakes his head numbly. "She doesn't have anyone." No one but him. "Can I see her, please?"

[eirenikos]

Another minute passes before the doctor slowly nods, and motions for Clark to follow him back in. "Janice, this young man wants to say goodbye." There's a look shared between them, one in which the doctor acknowledges the debt he owes to the nurse.

"That's fine, kid. Just stay on this side of the cot. Five minutes. That's all I can spare. Bruce," this is to the doctor. "Get me a coffee. No cream."

Eirene's lying in the position they brought her in, though most of the tubes were just removed by the nurse.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark stays to the back of the room until they're gone. Once he's alone, he approaches her slowly, careful to stay on the side he was told. It isn't until he sees her face - and strains his hearing to the absolute limit searching for a faint pulse somewhere - that his resolve crumbles and he barely chokes back a sob.

"I'm sorry," he whispers, reaching a hand out to brush her hair off her face. "I should have saved you. I'm so sorry."

[eirenikos]

Silence, and the faint whoosh of the machines on the other side of the cot, are the only things that answer back. It's probably not a good idea to watch the monitors catagorizing each system as it fails, either.

Clark has to know that if she could, Eirene would have taken this opportunity to hug him tightly. It's just how she is.

Was.

[hero_farmboy]

He'll spend the rest of his time just standing by her side, stroking her face and holding her hand. And trying not to cry.

[eirenikos]

At three minutes and two seconds, something happens. It's probably not noticeable at first, a tiny spark of electricity building in the general area of her heart, then diffusing along her nervous system. Just a blip, move along. But it happens again about twenty seconds later. Then ten seconds later, there's a faint popping noise, and every single machine in the room turns off.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark's hand stills where he's wiping a smudge of dirt off her cheek. At first, he thinks it's just a trick of his mind, sensing something he wants to be there but isn't.

And then it happens again. And again.

When the lights go out, he knows it's not just him.

"Eirene?"