Summary: While Lois Lane is in Star City she befriends a night nurse, Amy whose dark secret could lead the reporter to the story of the century....

A/N: This is co-written with a friend of mine- DreamsofNever AKA Kelly. She wrote the first chapter.

Also I'm sorry about the repost. My computer went a little crazy while I was editing Ch. 2 and deleted the entire story. So we're going to try again.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1:

Never Give up

The sun was just warm enough to relish it. A slight breeze rustled Lois' hair, and the smell of grass greeted her nostrils. She heard a giggle beside her and turned to the source.

"Lois, you're my best cousin-friend," Chloe's voice whispered. She couldn't be older than six or seven.

Lois laughed, and looked down at her hands. She was cross legged in a sea of grass. Her hands wove together a chain of daisies. For once, the General wasn't barking orders, and Lucy wasn't following her everywhere she went.

It was just Lois and Chloe. They had spent the whole afternoon playing hide and seek and chasing after ghosts that supposedly haunted the field behind Chloe's house. Lois hadn't seen evidence of one yet, but if Chloe believed… maybe she could let her skepticism slide just once.

The sunlight faded and the young blonde girl gave way to an older one. This time, she was just a recording on a TV.

"I don't even know where to start. I know you must have a million questions, but I don't know how many answers I can give you." Chloe looked down then, and Lois' heart almost stopped in her chest.

"If you're watching this, it means I'm probably dead. You were always the one good thing in my life, and if I didn't tell you enough, I care about you more than you'll ever know. Please find out who did this, Clark. You're the only one who can."

Clark. He was the answer. Chloe wasn't dead. She couldn't be.

Again, the scene shifted. She stood outside a barn. A large black monster sped away from it, a pale form slumped in his arms.

"Chloe!" Lois screamed. "Chloe!"

"Ms. Lane?" A voice hovered over her. Her arm flailed out to combat it. "Ouch!" someone said.

Lois' breath was ragged. Her eyes flew open, and pain shot through her body. She was sore all over. She couldn't quite remember why.

A redheaded woman in a nurse's outfit rubbed her arm a few feet away.

"Is it Halloween already?" Lois murmured in a half-daze.

Then it all came back to her. Jimmy, the hospital, Star City. Chloe.

She looked up at the nurse, who smiled warmly.

"You pack quite a punch," she whispered.

"Be glad I wasn't actually trying," Lois said, then grimaced. "I'm sorry, are you okay?"

"I've had patients do worse. I think the question is, are you okay, Ms. Lane?"

"Just a bad dream," Lois said with a forced smile.

"From what you described in your article, I can only imagine," the nurse said. "I'm Amy, by the way. I usually work the night shifts around here. But Mr. Olsen was my last patient. You look like you could use a nice hot chocolate. Want to come with me to the cafeteria?"

Lois looked over at Jimmy, then back to the nurse.

"I don't know… I probably shouldn't go anywhere."

"Well, you would actually be doing me a favor… You see, I'm kind of a fan. I mean, I had never read a tabloid before two years ago, but that story you wrote about the Green Arrow… And then ever since then, I've been following your career. I know you've got a lot on your mind, but it would be a personal thrill to have a drink with my favorite journalist."

Lois' muscles eased. For the first time in the last forty-eight hours, she felt a surge of joy at the compliment.

"Okay, maybe just for a few minutes."

Lois followed Amy to the cafeteria, and poured a hot chocolate for herself out of the dispenser. They took a seat at the empty cafeteria and Lois realized with a start that she had barely given herself time to eat in her time here. Not that she was exactly thrilled at the thought of consuming hospital cafeteria food, but for someone who liked to taste all the flavors life had to offer, it was strange to go without.

Then again, a lot of things were strange these past few days.

"So how did you become a journalist?" Amy asked.

Lois laughed.

"Would you believe, by accident?" At Amy's confused, half bemused expression, she continued. "I was jogging, and a barn door just fell out of the sky."

"That was your first article!" Amy said, an excited tone in her voice. "But I thought you just made that up for the Inquisitor."

"No way," Lois said, with a shake of her head. "I didn't choose the title, that's for sure. But it actually happened. I've never made up something for a story. Though, that's where my editor at the Inquisitor and I tended to disagree sometimes."

"Wow," Amy said with a low whistle. "It's all true, huh? I have to say, I'm a little jealous. What's Green Arrow like? I just loved your series on his heroics."

Lois avoided the other woman's eyes, and sighed.

"Green Arrow is… pretty impressive. How many guys do you know who just want to save the world?"

"None that I can think of," Amy said. "Wow. Is he as cute in person as he is in those photos I've seen?"

Lois tried to suppress a laugh and failed.

"You have no idea." She looked over at the petite nurse and smiled. "So what about you, Amy? What made you decide to get into nursing?"

"Well, I guess I've been taking care of people all my life. My sister had leukemia when we were younger."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Amy smiled.

"Everything happens for a reason, Lois. She beat it, and she's still healthy today. I would have to say she's stronger for going through it."

Before Lois could comment, Amy stood and cleared away her cup.

"But listen to me rattle on. I know you didn't want to stay too long. I'll be here tomorrow night, if you wanted the chance to take a break from… things."

Lois stood as well.

"Thanks, Amy. I would like that."

Amy beamed.

She began to walk towards the door, and then turned back to look at the nurse.

"Do you really think everything happens for a reason?"

Amy's smile faded and she nodded.

"I do. I think we just don't always know the reason until long after all is said and done."

"You're not wrong about that," Lois murmured.

"Take care, Lois," Amy said. "And I can always be paged if you need someone to talk to."

"Thanks," Lois said, with a small nod. She pushed the door open and headed out into the deserted hallway.

A few minutes later, she returned to her perch beside Jimmy's bed and looked down at him.

"Sorry to leave you, Jimbo. Hope I didn't miss anything exciting in the last twenty minutes."

The only sound that greeted here was the steady beeping of Jimmy's heart monitor. Lois sighed and settled into the chair for her nightly attempt at sleep.

Lois fell into her usual stilted sleep and stayed that way until morning.

"Chloe?" a voice mumbled beside her.

A hand covered hers. Lois shrieked and pulled her hand back. Her eyes flew open and she sat up straight.

Jimmy's eyes were open now, and he winced.

"Lois, could you keep it down? My head hurts."

He struggled into a half sitting position, and his eyes darted around the room.

"Lois, why am I in a bed that's not mine, and what are you doing here?"

"Um…" Lois looked at him, casting about in her mind for a correct answer. "What's the last thing you remember, Jimmy?"

He studied her face, and Lois tried to hold back the tears that stung at her eyes. She attempted a forced smile, but failed.

Realization crossed Jimmy.

"That… monster… you mean that wasn't a nightmare? Chloe…" he shook his head, and then locked eyes with Lois, a lucidity that she wasn't expecting in them. "Lois, where's Chloe?"

Lois looked down, and shook her head. The tears threatened to spill over now, and her vision was too clouded to see.

"We don't know. Everyone's looking for her. Well, except I've been doing most of my looking via my contacts because I didn't want you to wake up alone in a hospital."

"Well, I'm awake now, so let's go."

Lois looked up, and Jimmy was already trying to untangle the tubes that were attached to his skin.

"Jimmy, stop," she said. She stood and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. "They will find Chloe, and she's going to be pissed if you get hurt because I let you leave the hospital before it was safe to."

Lois fumbled behind her back and found the 'call' button for the nurse. She pressed it and hoped that she could keep Jimmy calm long enough for the nurses to come.

"I can't believe you're just going to sit there and tell me that you don't want to go find Chloe!" Jimmy shouted.

Tears were now streaming down her face, though Lois didn't remember letting a single one shed.

"Of course I do, Jimmy. But I've tried. Believe me, I've tried, and you going out and possibly getting yourself killed is not going to help anyone."

The door to the room opened and Amy rushed in. She took one look at Jimmy and pulled a syringe out of her pocket.

Jimmy didn't even notice the new addition to the room until she'd embedded the needle in his skin. He looked up at Amy, a look of surprise on his face. A moment later, his eyes glazed over and he slumped against the bed.

Amy looked over at Lois, who swiped at the tears on her cheeks in a futile gesture. She smiled sympathetically, but thankfully said nothing.

"I'll go tell the doctor that Mr. Olsen woke up," she said.

Lois nodded, and then slumped into her chair.

Amy brought her coffee, but she barely touched it. Instead, she kept vigil at Jimmy's side. The worst part about it was that he was right. If she was the one in the hospital bed, she sure as hell would be out of there and looking for Chloe as soon as she could.

Two hours later, Jimmy groaned. Lois' eyes snapped to his face, and he looked up at her.

"So, that's what that feels like. I guess I had it coming, karma-wise," he murmured.

"You're not going to try to bolt again, are you Jimmy?" Lois asked. "Because I have something to show you."

She reached for the open laptop beside her and handed it to Jimmy, careful not to hurt him as she did so.

"What's this?" Jimmy asked, as she accepted the laptop.

"It's my Chloe tracker. The list on the left is the contacts I've talked to recently. On the right is a list of places that have had anything bizarre happen in the past two days. And in the middle is a map showing the most likely locations she might end up in."

"I'm sorry I doubted you were looking for her," Jimmy said.

"It's fine," Lois said, her eyes stinging again. "It doesn't matter, really. It's all useless, because she's not in any of these places. Not that we can find, anyways."

Jimmy looked up from the laptop, his eyes wide.

"You're with me because you think-" he began, but Lois cut him off.

"Don't, Jimmy. I haven't given up yet. I didn't give up on her last time everyone thought she was… you know, and I'm not giving up on her now."

Jimmy sighed.

"Life's not exactly quiet in Smallville, is it?"

Lois thought for a moment.

"It really isn't. You know what they say about small towns, don't you, Jimmy? They're usually not as wholesome as they seem."

"You've got that right," Jimmy said with a sigh.

The two fell silent again, and Lois settled back into the chair as Jimmy looked over her research on the laptop. An hour later, the clacking of the keys pulled her out of her stupor. She looked over at Jimmy.

He caught her eye and gave a tight smile.

"You're not the only one with contacts, Lane."

A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and Lois nodded her approval.

"Well played, Jimmy. Maybe our resources combined can crack this one yet."

It was easy to talk about it as if they were just researching a story. It was a whole lot easier than facing the fact that she was beginning to lose hope.

But what if we can't? She'd asked Clark that before she boarded the flight for life to Star City.

The question still rang in her ears, though she wasn't going to voice it again.

She was Lois Lane, and Lois Lane doesn't give up.

***********

Coming soon: Chloe returns and Lois figures out there's more than meets the eye to Amy...

A/N: Please review! You know you want too!