Loss.

Author: Erika

Email: [email protected]

Fandom: Superman Comics.

Disc: DC comics and affiliates owns the characters and franchise, I just play with them.

Summary: Death in the family.

***

Her father had been someone to whom Lois had always looked up.  A man she admired, whose acceptance she had craved.  Growing up with a military man hadn't been easy, especially, when one considered that for many years she had believed her father had wanted a boy, a son instead of her.

She moved closer to the television, in the Presidential War Room, not really seeing the images in front of her, instead her mind replayed her father's last moments. Her father had died a hero, going into battle against unspeakable forces. Lois eyes glistened.

He could have been saved. He should have been saved, a part of her wanted to scream. She wiped the tear that fell down her cheek.

Never again would Lois hear her father's voice, listen to the sound of his laughter or see the smile he sent her way when he was proud of her.

She could still hear herself calling to him, begging her father to come back to the safety of the White House. Her mind replayed the horrifying images of soldiers dying, of men fighting an unstoppable force bent on destroying them. For the first time she had been afraid. Afraid for them all.

Not since Doomsday had Lois been uncertain of the outcome. Her father a retired general, in Lex Luthor's presidential cabinet, had climbed abroad a heavily armed military tank and had put himself in between the incoming invasion and the White House.

Lois coughed. Her voice was still hoarse. She had screamed for him to come back, only to be ignored. And then she had called the one person, the one man, who could have saved them all. Superman.

She walked away from the television screen, and ignoring the stares of the White House personnel, walked out of the room and into a small darkened hallway.  She gripped the paper she held in her hand tighter. It was a report detailing the events in Africa. The accounts of Superman coming to Wonder Woman's rescue.

She honestly thought she had resolved her misgivings toward that woman, but now ... she leaned against the wall.

She had called Superman. Begged for him to come and save her father, to save her, and instead he had gone and rescued Diana, her rival.

She thought back to the events of the past few hours. The battle had been intense, on all sides. From the accounts coming into the White House they had lost Aquaman and possibly Steel. Other heroes lay wounded or dying. Resources had been stretched to the maximum. Not enough heroes to protect the world. A decision was reached during battle that the Ark in Africa, containing the survivors of the multiple worlds already destroyed by Imperiex's drones, was to be saved at all cost, even if it meant losing Earth.

She was not blind to these facts but for one moment she had ignored all of this and put her father's life above others.  She had called to Superman, screamed his name but she had been ignored. At first he could not hear her above the chaos that surrounded him and when it looked like she was finally getting through to him, he had whispered and then shouted one word. One name. Diana.

It had been that whisper that had shattered her.

The pain behind that one word. The concern expressed in that name. The longing. The fear.  In the end she had lost her father and a part of her wondered if she had also lost her husband.

Back to Erika's page