Beyond the Sun

43

"Oh! They're lovely!" Naturally Clark stopped in his tracks when a rather enthusiastic voice chirped from over the nurse's station. He watched as the nurse stood up to have a better look at the small group of flowers which were in his hand. "Sunflowers, huh? You know my sister was right into the whole meaning of things, be it colours, flowers, food...she was weird. Sunflowers, let me see, they always position themselves to get the maximum amount of rays as possible. This can be symbolic to spiritual faith and worship, because don't we all follow our own beliefs?" The nurse smiled and wistfully looked at the flowers as she leaned her arms against the station before her and rested her chin in her palm. "It can also symbolise unwavering faith...symbolically this can be something akin to the heart and soul of humankind always seeking and keeping a connection with the source of their God, or Goddess, or whatever." The nurse waved a hand nonchalantly at him. "Ah! Haven't spoken to my sister in years, and this stuff is still rattling around in my brain! Hm, meanings of your chosen flower can be: faith, longevity, healing, slightly ironic considering the surroundings, focus, and good luck. If you want to get real fancy and connect the flower to the sun then the meanings of that would be: vitality, life, warmth, pleasure and light. So! Who's the lucky lady?" The nurse was certainly a chatty one, and Clark stood looking at her with wide eyes as he tried to process this assault of information.

"Annie Lockett...I know they're going to wake her up today, but I just wanted to drop these in..."

The nurse pouted, "You're going to just drop flowers off for her and then leave before she can see them? Why, I don't know whether to be shocked, confused, or angry. If I were her I'd prefer you to stay with the flowers, she's in room fifteen, if you didn't already know." The nurse smiled and waved a hand down the corridor.

Clark whispered a quiet thank you before stiffly turning and walking off. That was one weird nurse, not to be rude, but she was quite different to the others which were walking about stoic faced and clearly on some sort of mission with the way they were walking with a steadfast pace. He came to Annie's room and peered through the window, she was on her own, he looked from one end of the corridor to the other, he wondered where Rebecca was. Perhaps because they had hoped to wake Annie up today, she had gone off to pack Annie some clothes and that.

With a sigh, he moved into the darkened room, the curtains were open a fraction so there was some natural lighting in the space, the ceiling lights were off, and so was the light which was fixed to the wall near the bed. Clark edged around the bed and just looked at her. It did just look like she was asleep, though yes, she was, if he didn't know any better he wouldn't have thought she was in an induced coma.

Moving over to the bed he reached out and placed his hand over hers, careful to avoid the things she was rigged up to, along with the cannula which was in the back of her hand. Looking to the wheeled table close by, he walked over and pulled it so it was at least halfway down the bed. Placing the flowers on the table he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little envelope. Putting it so she could see it, he moved back to her side, kissed her on the forehead and left the room.

He nodded to the bubbly nurse as he passed and simply exited the hospital without bumping into Rebecca. He thought he would, yet no, she was evidently still at home. Climbing into his truck, which had avoided Zod's wrath, he turned the key in the ignition and reversed out of the parking lot. When he got home, Martha looked at him with a frown. "What are you expecting to happen? Her to shout and scream at you to get out? Like Annie would ever shout and scream at you."

"She's going to have enough people fussing around her," Clark said while taking an armful of broken boarding and throwing it onto the pile which was steadily growing. They were in the middle of trying to rebuild the house. He had already pulled her truck out of the hole in the wall, he did this the same night that the invasion had ended and he had dropped Annie off at the hospital. He'd returned to Martha and explained everything to her, he made sure she wasn't hurt before they tried to clear some of the damage up.