Chapter 10:
Kim saw his eyes were still green and were growing brighter. She knew she had to act to try to bring Tommy back to the surface before the dragon got too much steam behind him.
"He will not have you!" Dragon exclaimed in such a cold tone that it was putting chills down her spine.
She reached out and caressed his face before kissing him deeply, "I'm still here, right here, baby. He won't, not if we can help it. Just calm down, we can handle this,” Kimberly said softly, “Please, come back to me my falcon." She kissed him again more passionately this time, as she runs her hands through his hair and holds him close. After several heated moments he finally does, and when they kiss breaks she pants, "welcome back, handsome."
"Are you alright, now handsome?" Kim asked worriedly.
"for now beautiful." Tommy's jaw was still tightened though, It wouldn't take much to bring Dragon back, He holds her close to him, letting the crushed card slip from his hand in doing so.
"Sorry I let him slip," said Tommy.
"It's okay handsome, I understand why you did. Just glad I was able to bring you back." she said with a smile, "I'm not going anywhere not if I can help it. I think I have Lois's card they should still be at work. You’re right we should call them, I have a feeling we could use all the help we can get. " she added.
She lets go to check her pockets and her purse. "Oh, here it is,” said Kim, pulling it out of her purse.and handing it to him.
He walks to the phone and dials the work number on the card, keying in her extension.
Lois was at her desk typing on her computer when the phone rings, "Could you answer that for me, Clark" Lois asked without breaking eye contact with her screen.
Clark walks to Lois's phone to take the call, "Lois' desk, Clark Kent speaking. How can I help you?"
“Clark, this is Tommy Oliver, Kimberly Hart's fiance, we have a problem here in Kim’s room.”
"What going on?" Clark asked worried now.
"Well when we got back to the room, after getting the dress and stuff, we found a floral display that’s taking up half the room. The card on it says it was from who you warned us about. We might need your help with this." Tommy said on the other side of the line.
"We will be right there," Clark said in a voice that Lois knew as there is trouble voice.
Lois hit save on her computer, “What wrong, Clark?”
"Lex, that's what's wrong." Clark said with a tightened jaw as he hung up the phone, “you were right, Lois. He has his mindset on getting Kimberly.”
She turns her computer off before getting up to follow Clark to the elevator, “What happened?” She asked curiously
"Lex sent her flowers with a card." Clark explained, “as you know he never does something in small measures.”
It was still twenty minutes before Lois and Clark arrived at Kimberly's hotel room
They knocked on the door hearing some giggling before Kim answers flushed and disheveled, just slightly out of breath.
"Hi guys, please come in," Kim says as she catches her breath.
"Are we interrupting something?" Clark asked with a grin
"No, just some horsing around. " Kim answered.
Lois and Clark step into the room, immediately noticing the massive floral arrangement, "Can I see the card?" Clark asked.
"Yeah, here, sorry it's a crumpled mess but someone crushed it up into a ball when he read it," Kimberly explained.
"Don't worry, with Clark it wouldn't be readable anymore." Lois tried to soothe them. Kim nods at that.
"Who the hell sends something like that to a person? It looks like it should be at a funeral, not as a personal gift." Kim sighed deeply.
Both Lois and Clark see Tommy brooding across the room.
Clark walks up to Tommy, "How are you dealing with this?"
"I'm not happy about it. I don't like someone else sniffing around her, or the fact that saying it makes me sound like a caveman." Tommy shrugged.
"Don't worry, I know what you are going through, Tommy," Clark said softly.
Tommy looks up at hearing that and sees true understanding in the other man's eyes.
Clark placed a hand on the former ranger commander's shoulder before he explained to him how Lex tried to come between their friendship and even now that they have a relationship, he tries to pursue her.
Tommy looks surprised. For while Kim and he had their troubles along the way, this was the first time someone was trying to steal just her heart and not all of her.
"Look it's even possible that it could have something to do with getting Lois jealous and if that doesn't help, he would at least have a pretty face on his arm," Clark said sharing his suspicion.
Clark could see twin flames of anger igniting in Tommy’s eyes, "He going to learn the meaning of no friggin way if he tries with Kim."
"I have a better idea." Clark smiled, "Why don't we let him see Kimberly didn't want her flowers?"
Tommy looks at him, "keep talking." curious to hear where this was going.
"I know that Lex hates it when people say no to him and what's a better way to say no than to donate the flowers without calling his name." Clark smiled a bit wickedly, "of course with the press present." Clark continued.
"That a great idea." said Lois, "In fact, we can call Jimmy and get some photos as well. The local children's wing of the hospital would work well."
"maybe say an anonymous floral display. " Kimberly said, “I like the idea and we sure are going to make some kids very happy.”
"I knew we needed to call the two of you." Tommy smiled.
"You were right I was, underestimating him, I've just never had this problem before,” Kimberly said softly
"We know Lex Luthor. He can be charming but he is dangerous." Clark said
"I didn't see any charm. I thought he was rather creepy, and narcissistic. It was all about him no matter what he was offering like he spent a lifetime buying and selling people." said Kim.
"Let's go to the hospital and make some children happy." Tommy smiled.
"You're going to need help with that it looks heavy," Tommy said to Clark, he was curious what the strong man’s reaction would be.
"You could be right." Clark said without giving a hint that he could carry much more than this thing, "Care to help me?"
“Sure,” Tommy said with respect for Clark. He would have believed him if it wasn’t for the fact that he knew what to look for or the fact that he knew that Clark was lying.
"Let me call Jimmy so he can meet us there before you two muscle men start with the heavy lifting,” Lois said even she didn’t let out that Clark could lift the thing on his own.
"You better put your friend on alert, cause I think he going to try something either at the ball or before," Kim said worriedly.
"Don't worry, he promised to keep an eye out at the ball," Clark said.
Tommy nods with a smirk on his face, somehow he knew Clark was going to say that. It was clear once you knew but he did a hell of a good job controlling his powers.
“I think the two of us can handle it.” Tommy smiled hiding what he found out about Clark. It wasn’t his secret to tell, he knew very well how important a secret identity was.
“I am sure that if I can spend some time with the kids it will be great. Tommy can even show them some moves. It is worth the slack I get from my management for an unscheduled appearance.” Kimberly said.
"Will they give you a hard time for it?" Lois asked. Lois was known for following her guts instead of the rules.
Kimberly shook her head, “Not too much, as long as I make them look good and not tarnish their image, I will be fine.”
"Oh, we will make sure you look very good in this article. It will help us with our boss too. He will do anything for a scoop." Clark smiled, “this makes it a bigger scoop cause it shows your not just a good gymnast, but a good person in general. "Come on, Tommy, let's get this piece to the hospital, in meanwhile Lois can call Jimmy and meet us there" Clark smiled.
“Sure, let’s get this grunt work out of the way. Do you think it would fit into your car, Clark?” Tommy asked, “I don’t think I can carry this thing to the hospital.”
"We are here with Lois's car, I don't own one but I don't think it's a problem." Clark smiled.
“I hope it's a big car, now I know why florists have vans. If not I rented a jeep wrangler that we could squeeze it into.” Tommy responded.
"Lois, her jeep is rather large so no worries," Clark said while he lifted the piece with him pretending it was heavy for him.
"Wait a minute how do you get around this city without a car?" Tommy asked even though he already knew the answer to that.
"If I am alone I use a taxi," Clark said without hesitation
Tommy knew there was no way he could carry this alone with help it wasn't too bad. He suspected that Clark was taking most of the weight while pretending it was a bit of a struggle.
"That must add up over time, you must make good money." Tommy said with a bit of a smirk that was hidden by the flowers, "The city must have good public transit to be able to get by without" Tommy replied.
"We can't complain but usually we are working in tandem so not a problem there. For work, we can give it in as expenses." Lois answered instead of Clark
Kim says oh really? that great." as they headed out to the elevator.
They were right, the floral arrangement just fit in the car with no inch to spare though.
Tommy wipes the sweat off his forehead. and says we'll follow in my car since there isn't room for us in there with that.
he took a breath and exhaled.
even being in the shape that effort had winded him. he looked over at Clark who wasn't even sweating.
Tommy put his arm around Kim's shoulders as they head to his car.
"What was all of that back there in the room? What were you trying to do? thinking you could trick him into talking or something?" Kim asked curiously.
“I just wanted to see how he would answer an unexpected question,” Tommy admitted.
"It's not our secret to tell, handsome, but he is prepared I must admit that. He has better answers then we did. How many times did we get stuck for an answer when asked for something we weren't ready for." Kim said.
“I know beautiful but I wanted to see if he stumble any.” Tommy smiled.
"What is your verdict, Sherlock?" Kimberly quipped.
“He stumbled a little admitting to not having a car but he covered well. Better then we would have.” Tommy chuckled, "I know we decided to keep our mouth shut but wouldn't it be great if he could be himself with us and in return we with him?" Tommy asked curiously turning serious now.
"You could be right, handsome. Let's do that when we are having dinner with them. That means we will have to come clean too." Kimberly said
After a few moments, Kim says “what makes you think they aren't having similar thoughts about us? Since we mentioned the rangers, they seemed very interested, maybe they suspect us to. So it could be beneficial, but again it's not only our secret to tell, we out ourselves, we out our friends too.”
“And here we thought retirement would be easy,” Tommy smirks at her which causes Kim to chuckle.
"How would you know, you never stay retired long enough to find out." Kim quipped
“Let’s think about this some more before we do anything.” Kim smiled and Tommy nodded. "Agreed," he said. at that moment they arrived at the hospital, “Are you ready for this?”
Kimberly nodded, “as I'll ever be.” She smiled.
