The cabbie dropped Lois off at her apartment complex and didn’t give her a hard time about the fare or the lack of a tip. She didn’t realize he hadn’t asked her for money until she remembered Clark giving him a trio of twenties along with strict instructions to take it easy and head to the hospital if she passed out or exhibited any serious pain. Lois smiled as she remembered Clark’s kindness and care.
She pushed open the door, shut it and locked it behind her, then leaned against it. Clark was right. She was as tired now as she ever had been in Basic. And the Carlin building hadn’t looked a bit like an obstacle course.
It had felt like one had fallen on her when the bomb had gone off, though.
As she pushed off the door and moved to the bedroom to change, Clark returned to her thoughts. He hadn’t just been kind to her – he’d really cared about her. It wasn’t so much in his tone, but in his eyes. Yes, she’d been a little loopy, but she’d seen his expression. It resembled how he’d appeared when he’d cradled Cat in his arms when he’d rescued them from the EPRAD hanger, but there was more there. Maybe it was a reflection of how tired she was, maybe it was a delayed reaction to almost being blown up, but she didn’t think she’d mind if Clark wanted to hold her like that again. Of course, it would have to be the right time and the right place and he’d better not be dating anyone else like Cat or Karen or that blonde cougar Mayson Drake, but it would be nice to be in his arms again.
Oh, yeah, she was tired. Self-babbling, one of the surest symptoms of total and complete exhaustion. She’d put on some loose clothing and type up what she remembered from the bombing, make sure it was on a thumb drive for Cat and Clark when they came by. And she’d wait up for them to make sure they added her portion.
Perry would understand if she went right to sleep, but she wouldn’t.
*****
Cat and Clark sat down with Lois and her thumb drive and blended her account with the material they already had. Cat read it carefully and said, “This is good writing and I don’t mind saying so. Anybody who doesn’t like it needs to get blown up by a bomb.”
Clark chuckled. Lois, sitting at the kitchen table with her head propped up in her hands, opened her eyes and tried to smile. “Lois, honey,” Cat purred, “you go get some sleep, okay? We’ll go shove this down Perry’s throat and make him print it.”
Lois sighed and cautiously stood. “As long as it has my name on it.”
Clark chuckled again. “It’s going to have all our names on the byline.”
“Fine. Just put them in the order of number of Kerths earned.”
“Hey!” Cat blurted. “No fair! You’ve got three and I’ve got two but Clark doesn’t have any yet!”
Clark touched her on the wrist and made warm tingles run up and down her arm. “It’s okay, Catharine. Maybe we can all share the one this story will earn.”
“Whatever,” Lois mumbled. “I’m hitting the sack. Bring me something for dinner tonight, will you?”
Clark moved his hand and Cat’s wrist felt as if it had suddenly iced over. “Will do,” he said. “You just get some shut-eye, okay?”
She waved at them without turning around. As she closed her bedroom door, Cat stood. “We need to get this to Perry so he can tell us what a great job we’ve done on it. I’ll lock up.”
Clark’s eyebrow rose. “I see. You’re driving, I presume?”
“It’s my Porsche,” Cat sniffed. “Of course I’m driving.”
“Then I’ve got shotgun!”
She had to be careful. Being around Clark all the time could be habit-forming.
*****
In the newsroom, they printed a copy of the story, reviewed it for grammar and spelling errors – Cat and Clark each found one misspelled word – and sent it to Perry after they edited the file. Then each of them returned to their respective desks and spent much of the rest of the day making calls and checking old files for clues.
Cat caught herself glancing at Clark several times during the afternoon. He was always focused on whatever he was doing at the time, so he didn’t see her looking.
She didn’t know why she kept looking at him. She didn’t know why she’d felt that frisson of happy tension when he’d touched her in Lois’ apartment. She didn’t know why she wanted to walk over to him and plant a huge kiss on his mouth and tell him that she wanted a repeat of their last night together – several thousand times.
That wasn’t true. She knew why.
She also knew that couldn’t declare her full, abject, all-consuming love for him. Not now. Not yet. They needed to get to know each other again. They were both different people, no longer the kids they’d been that semester at Met U. She had to be patient, to wait for him to realize her worth, for him to understand the depths of her love for him. He was so wonderful in every way – Superman couldn’t be a better person than Clark was. Clark’s care and compassion glowed like a beacon, even now just sitting at his desk at work. He—
Enough! she ordered herself. Quit mooning over him! You have a job to do!
Perry chose that moment to bellow for both of them to come to his office.
*****
To say Perry acted as if he were pleased would be a serious overstatement of his apparent reaction to the story Cat and Clark turned in. “Okay,” he said, “we got a teaser under the front page fold about the bombing in the afternoon edition. We included Olsen’s shot of Lois getting blown back by the blast.” He looked up at them. “You’re sure she’s okay?”
Cat nodded. “That’s what the EMT said. Lisa Fairchild. We put her in there, too.”
“Good.” He picked up the paper version and slipped on his reading glasses. “This version does include Lois’ contribution, doesn’t it?” he asked. They both nodded at him. “Okay, now. You put in here that those attempted suicides earlier this week were fake, that Superman was always intended to stop them, that someone or some group is testing him to see what he can do with his powers, and that those rescues were probably designed to test his speed and reaction time.” He took off his glasses, then leaned forward over his desk and rubbed his face with his hands. “But you didn’t provide any hard facts.”
“Not only is that the logical conclusion, Perry,” Clark retorted, “it’s the angle that both the police and the ATF are pursuing. The few people who were injured at the Carlin building bombing were inside the police perimeter. If they had all stayed back, no one would have been hurt. The building was evacuated before Superman walked in the front door, which is when the bomb went off. No innocents were seriously injured. And we put all that in.”
Cat heard the little catch in Clark’s voice when he mentioned the injuries, but she didn’t think Perry did. She’d remember it for later thought. “You saw what Lieutenant Perkins said about the remote detonator, right?” she asked. “That supports the Superman test idea.”
Perry frowned slightly. “Yes, but I think we need to slice that out and save it for later, say when we have the final analysis of the bomb debris. We still don’t know where the bomb came from or who built it.”
Clark sighed. “So that goes in ‘hold for more proof file’ then?”
“It does. Just make sure you don’t lose it.”
“Chief,” Cat asked, “what’s your judgement on the rest of the story?”
The editor lifted it and nodded. “It’s very good. We’re running it tomorrow morning along with Olsen’s shot of the two of you tending to Lois on the front page. Davis will have a companion piece on all the collateral injuries. That one’s pretty short, thankfully.”
“You’re running it as is?”
“Except for the part about testing Superman’s powers, yes. I already told you it’s very good.”
Her voice rose slightly and she all but demanded, “Then why challenge the part about linking the fake suicides to the bombing?”
“I needed to know that you could defend your point of view in case of legal action against us. And before you explode all over me, I also know that you didn’t include any names hinting at who might be responsible. We don’t have enough evidence to get an accusation like that past the legal department without a lawsuit.” He waved his unlit cigar at them. “Good story, all three of you. I can’t tell for sure who wrote what part, which means you’re all three on the same wavelength. Excellent job. Look for it in the morning edition.”
She relaxed and smiled. “Thanks, Perry. We’ll tell Lois tonight when we go check on her.”
“Fine. You two go get something to eat, then go tuck Lois in for the night. Tell her she stays at home tomorrow unless she needs a doctor. You two, though, be back in here by eight-thirty in the morning, ready to knock this thing out of the park with the rest of the story.”
*****
Clark got in the passenger side of the Porsche and asked, “Where do you want to have dinner?”
Cat inserted the key and paused to think. “Some place where we don’t eat in the car. You feel like seafood?”
“How about the Sunburned Crustacean? We can grab a bag of those cheese biscuits for Lois.”
“She loves those biscuits, so seafood it is.” She grinned at him. “It’s almost eight, so the dinner rush should be over. We can pretend it’s a date if you want.”
He smiled back and turned to look through the windshield.
Hope I didn’t just overdo it, thought Cat.
*****
Cat rummaged around in her purse for a moment, then pulled out a keyring smaller than the one with her car key on it and held it up in front of Clark. “In case you’re wondering if this is a one-way key loan, Lois has a key to my place, too,” Cat said, “for emergencies just like this one.” She put the key in the lower deadbolt and turned it, then removed it and inserted it in the upper deadbolt. “Just remember to make some noise. If we try to be silent and she spots us before she knows who we are, it’s possible she’ll start shooting.”
He grinned at her for a moment, then she watched him realize that she was serious. “You’re not kidding, are you?”
“Not in the least.” She chuckled when Clark’s eyebrow lifted with Spockian skepticism. “I see that I’ll have to convince you. About three years ago, a burglar somehow got a copy of her key or picked the doorknob lock and slipped inside. Lois heard him from the bedroom and shot both her sofa and her refrigerator to death before the terrified burglar ran out unharmed. That was when she got the second deadbolt, and now she throws both of them every time she goes through the door. And before you ask, yes, she meant to miss the burglar.” She grinned and released the third and final lock. “Her landlord wasn’t at all amused when he had to replace the fridge.”
Clark shook his head. “Yeesh.”
She frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”
“You and she are both high-maintenance.”
Cat chuckled at him. “What was your first clue?”
He smiled but didn’t answer. After a moment, Cat opened the door and called out, “Lois? This is Cat. Clark and I are both here. We come bearing biscuits from Sunburned Crustacean.” No response. Cat took two steps toward the bedroom. “Lois? Are you awake?”
Lois startled both of them when she stood up from behind the breakfast bar in the kitchen. “I’m awake.”
Cat held the bag aloft. “We bring a peace offering, plus an imperial command from the Chief for you to stay home tomorrow.”
Lois slipped her pistol into her robe pocket and wrapped the garment tighter around her T-shirt. “Which one of you talked Darth Perry into that concession?”
Cat smiled. “He volunteered. Seems he doesn’t want one of his best reporters to be out of the office any longer than necessary.”
“Huh. That was nice of him. You two make yourselves at home while I go put on some clothes suitable for entertaining guests.”
*****
She walked into the bedroom and pulled the door almost shut. With the door cracked open like that, she could still hear normal conversations in the living room as long as they weren’t whispered.
“I hate that Superman’s being tested,” Cat said. “He came all this way to help and someone’s treating him like a lab animal. And what are you doing now?”
“Checking out her new couch,” Clark answered. “It’s not much to look at compared to the rest of the furniture in the room, but it’s very comfy. The arms are high enough for me to lean against without lying down. And it really ties the room together.”
Cat laughed. “Clark Kent, furniture critic. Never thought I’d see the day. You want to compare Lois’ couch to mine?”
The oblique invitation was the kind of thing Lois had heard from her friend to a man multiple times, but for the first time it angered her. In an instant, a towering rage rose up in Lois’ heart and she came close to bursting out of the bedroom with her sleeping sweats in one hand and her Beretta in the other.
The sudden reality of her fury threw cold water on her plans. And she was puzzled as to the origin of those instant feelings. Maybe her head had been hit harder than she’d realized.
She missed Clark’s reply, but Cat’s next words caught her up in the conversation. “I – I’m sorry. I’m usually not this forward.” The couch made a squeak that Lois recognized as Cat sitting down on the far end. “I guess Lois told you that I date a lot but I don’t commit past a certain point.”
“No, she hasn’t. And I haven’t asked.”
“Why not?”
“That’s your business, not mine. I assumed that if you wanted me to know about your social life, you’d make it a point to inform me.”
“I’d like to. Inform you, that is. And I – I’d like to include you in my social life, such as it is.”
Clark exhaled sharply and said, “Do you really want to go there?”
Cat answered with a wistful tone, one which Lois had rarely heard from her. “Yes. Because I want – I need to know if I have any chance with you. Not the thing we had before – that was built on deceit and youth and excitement about filing the story and a little bit of fear that I wasn’t good enough. But I’m not lying to you now. I’m eight years older than I was. I may not be the best ever at what I do, but I know that I’m very good at it. I’m not afraid of washing out like I was then. And I – I need to know if there’s any chance that we can go forward together – in life, I mean.”
It was too disheartening for Lois to listen to anything else. She had to put on the sweats and come out and have a biscuit or two and listen to a summary of Perry’s reaction to the story they’d turned in. She had to smile at Cat and pretend that she was happy that the two of them were planning a reunion after all these years.
She had to act like Clark’s response wasn’t the most important thing in her life at the moment.
*****
Cat waited on pins and needles as Clark pondered her statement. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Every ounce of air he exhaled stole a breath from her. “I don’t think so, Catharine. What happened between us wasn’t strong enough for a long-term relationship. The way it ended was pretty bad, and a whole lot of it was my fault. But while I like you as a friend, if I try to think about you as a romantic interest, it just doesn’t work in my head. I trust you as a friend, but – but I can’t see myself trusting you with my future.” He worked his mouth as if trying to decide whether or not to smile.
He didn’t. He just hesitated, then said, “I’m sorry.”
Cat looked away and wiped her face with one hand. His response wasn’t totally unexpected, but it still hurt deeply. “I see,” she finally said. “I – I had this hope that – that we could get past all that baggage.” She turned to look at him. “I really enjoyed dinner.”
“I enjoyed it too, but as friends. Again, I’m sorry, but there’s a wall between us that I can’t get over. Believe me, I’ve thought about it seriously.”
She turned away again. “You’ve thought long and hard?”
“Yes.”
“And the answer is still a great big ‘no’?”
“Maybe not a great big ‘no,’ but it is still ‘no’.”
She clasped her hands together and looked away. “What about Lois?”
He frowned slightly. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me.”
“Do you – how do you feel about her?”
She caught his grin out of the corner of her eye. “I feel very positive about her. I can see myself having a close relationship with Lois. Assuming, of course, she wants to check out that path in the yellowed wood with me.”
“Path in the yellowed wood?”
“From the Robert Frost poem about two paths in the woods diverging from a single path. It represents the choices Frost made in his early life that led to where he was when he wrote the poem.”
“That’s an interesting metaphor. Not sure how I feel about being an untrod path, though.” They shared a sad chuckle, then she locked eyes with him. “Have you spoken to her about – about how you feel?”
“Not yet. I want to wait until we’re not neck-deep in an investigation.”
Cat coughed a half-laugh, half-sob. “You may have to wait a long time, then. She tends to find trouble like some people find coins on the sidewalk.”
“I know. If I have to, I’ll bring it up when I can. I just hope we’re not being shot at.”
She chuckled and nodded. “Or she’s shooting back.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“Um—” she hesitated, then said, “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“Please do.”
“Okay. Is – uh – is the way you feel about Lois a – a part of the wall between us that you say you can’t get over?”
He took a breath as if to speak, then sighed. “I wonder if I should tell you – I will tell you. And understand before I say this that I’m not trying to hurt you. In fact, I’ve never said this to anyone. Not to Lois, not my parents, not anyone.”
Cat felt her brows lift. “You’re not trying to hurt me by saying this, but you might? This sounds – interesting. Please continue.”
Clark licked his lips, then nodded. “Okay. Every time I’ve gotten anywhere close to thinking about any woman as a – a steady girlfriend, I guess, Mags gets in the way. She – you pop up in my memory and smile softly and I can’t see the woman without comparing her to you. And she loses.” He dropped his gaze, then looked up again and spoke softly. “Until now.”
Cat forced her lips together. “I think – you’re telling me that you don’t think of me when you – when Lois is in your mind.”
“Not quite. I do think of you, a little, and – here’s where I’m not trying to be mean or cruel, just honest – you come in second.”
She blinked. “Oh.” This time Cat dropped her eyes for a moment. “Is that – you think that’s a permanent condition?”
He grimaced, then said, “I’m afraid so. And I have to add that I’d say the same thing to any other woman.”
“Even Karen Wells?”
He snorted, then chuckled. “I think she’s finally quit dropping by my desk with writing suggestions or spare notebooks and pens. I could open a stationary concession with what she’s brought me.”
They laughed softly together. After a long moment, Cat kneaded her hands together, then looked into his eyes. “Clark?” she said. “Don’t leave Lois hanging. If you really have that ‘forever and a day’ love for her, tell her. Don’t make her guess.”
“If that’s the direction our relationship goes, I won’t hide it from her.”
“Good.” She sniffed and wiped her nose, then stood. “Um – well, then. Can you get home okay by yourself?”
His voice was gentle but firm. “Yes.”
“Good. I – uh – I’ll just be going then.” She took a step toward the door, then paused. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to be alone together right now.”
“I understand.” He relaxed against the back of the couch. “Good night, Catharine. I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
She nodded but didn’t say anything else. One foot went in front of the other until she found herself in the underground parking. All that was left was for her to go home and cry herself to sleep. He had, at least, been sensitive to her feelings. Even so, that discussion had wounded her deeply.
The damage in her life from their brief liaison was pervasive, poisoning every romance she’d begun. She’d never stopped to consider that Clark had suffered the same aftereffects as she. They were fellow veterans of the relationship wars, wounded in the same battle, suffering from their own limited form of PTSD. No wonder they both got along so well with Lois.
She really hoped Lois appreciated the man who’d just chosen her over Cat.
*****
Lois heard the front door open and close. She didn’t want to go to sleep yet, so she walked out of the bedroom in her cutoff sweats to get a glass of orange juice and was startled when Clark stood up.
She stiffened for a moment, then relaxed slightly. “I – I thought you’d – you’d gone home.”
She’d almost said “you’d left with Cat,” but obviously he hadn’t done that.
So why was he still there?
Clark walked around the couch and stopped near the back. “I wanted to have a conversation with you.”
“About personal stuff, I presume.”
“Well, yeah.”
“About couches?”
His face went blank. “Couches?”
“Mine as opposed to Cat’s.”
“Um – couches – yours and Cat’s – you were listening at the door.”
“Yes. Why didn’t you take her up on her offer to compare couches?”
“Because I’m not interested in her in a romantic sense.”
“You told her that?”
“Yes, Lois, I told her that.”
“How did she react?”
His eyebrows drew down as if he were tired of the subject. “Not very well, I’m afraid.” He locked his deep chocolate eyes with her bloodshot peepers. “Do you have a problem of some kind with my choices?”
She tried to return the intensity but came up a little short. “They’re your choices, okay?” she insisted. “You don’t have to clear them with me.”
“But you’re busting my chops anyway. Why?”
She strode to the kitchenette for what she decided she really wanted, a glass of water. “This is my home, remember? I live here. You—” she lowered her volume to ease the impact of her next words “—you’re just an interloper.”
He frowned and tilted his head to one side. “Are you mad at me, Lois?”
Lois turned on the tap to fill the glass. “No.” She couldn’t meet his gaze, so as soon as she turned off the water, she told him the truth. “Yes.”
“Why? What did I do to make you angry?”
“You hurt my best friend and I don’t like that.” She lifted hard eyes to him. “Have I told you what she did my first month at the Planet?”
“Are you talking about the cuss jar or something else?”
“Something else.” She put the full glass on the counter beside the sink and looked at the floor. “I was having trouble with one of the guys in accounting. Supposedly something was wrong with my expense report. The little weasel called me into his office to ‘talk with me’ about it but what he really wanted was for me to go out with him and he didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer. He pushed himself against me and grabbed my butt.”
She took a step to one side and lifted her gaze to meet his. “Just before I dropped him, Cat came out of nowhere and slammed him against the wall, then read him the riot act. Said that if he touched me again without my express invitation, she’d shoot him in the foot and claim it was an accident and no one would ever believe otherwise because of his reputation, and if it happened again there would be another ‘accident’ like that one about halfway between his foot and his head.”
His eyes widened and his eyebrows rose. “So – she threatened to – to shoot him in the – where his – um—”
“She promised to make him a eunuch, yeah. And he believed her.”
He nodded slowly. “I think I understand. She saved you from getting hurt, right?”
“No. She kept me from hurting him.”
He nodded twice and said, “I see.” Her eyes moved to his, then she wiped her cheeks dry.
Clark shifted his weight to one foot and crossed his arms. “Maybe between the two of you, she’s the more dangerous one.”
Despite herself, Lois laughed. “You could be right about that, Kent.” She picked up the water glass and drained it. “So is that what you wanted to talk to me about, which of us is more dangerous than the other?”
He shook his head. “Not really, but I’m flattered that you trust me enough to share this with me.”
She put the glass in the sink. “You’ve proven yourself trustworthy enough to know some important things about me.”
“Thank you. What I really wanted to ask you, though, was if you’d like to go to dinner with me.”
The idea surprised her. “I don’t know,” she muttered. “I don’t like thinking of myself as the third wheel. Or the buffer between a couple.”
She saw the puzzled look crawl across his face and wondered at it. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
“What do you mean, what am I talking about? I don’t want to be the pity companion on a date between you and Cat. Or the buffer girl so you can take her some place cheap but with me there to keep her from calling you on it.”
“Pity companion – oh, no, that’s not right. That’s not what I meant at all.”
She slammed her fist onto the counter surface. “Then you can take her someplace nice! Just the two of you! Some restaurant with subdued lighting where she can dress up and glam out and you can wear a suit with no tie and show off your shoulders just a little and walk her to her front door and—”
“Will you listen to me! I don’t want to go on a date with Cat, I want to go on a date with you!”
She almost tripped on her tongue. “Wh-what? Me? You – you want to – to go to – to dinner with just me?”
“Yes! That’s exactly what I meant to begin with!”
“Just me?”
“Yes, just you! No Catharine Grant to get in the way, just you and me!”
She put her fists on her hips and almost yelled up at him. “Then why didn’t you lead with that, knucklehead? We both could have saved some time and aggravation!”
He towered over her and snapped back, “I tried to but I didn’t anticipate having to go two falls out of three just to ask you on a date!”
She bared her teeth but brought down her volume. “I’ll have to think about it!”
“Fine!” he growled back. “Since you’re staying home tomorrow I’ll call you just before I leave the office!”
She crossed her arms and stepped to one side. “Call about seven! I have a therapy session late tomorrow afternoon!”
“I’ll call you then,” he growled. He turned and stalked to the door, then stopped with his hand on the doorknob and muttered something that sounded like, “I’m not leaving it like this again.” His shoulders drooped, and he turned his face to one side and sighed over his shoulder. He sounded drained as he said, “Lois?”
She turned away and rubbed her face. “Yes, Clark?”
“Is it going to be like this if we start dating?”
She shook her head, then realized that he probably couldn’t see her. “Boy, I sure hope not.”
“Me too. This is exhausting. And I – I don’t particularly like it.”
A wet chuckle escaped her lips. “I’m sorry. I guess I really am high maintenance.” She sighed. “I hope someone someday thinks I’m worth the effort.”
She barely heard his final words for the night. “I think you’re worth that and far more. Good night, Lois. Sleep peacefully.”
“You too,” she whispered.
He slipped out of the apartment and left.
*****
Cat turned over in bed again, still unable to get comfortable. She wished that Clark had chosen her instead of Lois, that Lois hadn’t been caught between them, that Cat’s parents had stayed close to Metropolis instead of moving to Idaho so she could visit them and cry on their shoulders, that she’d never accepted that undercover assignment eight years before, that Superman would hold her the way Clark had held her—
A sudden thought burst in her brain and made her lurch up in bed with her eyes wide open. It couldn’t be true! It couldn’t be!
But if it were true—
Superman had held her, and on more than one occasion. True, they hadn’t been romantic occasions, but the feeling of being surrounded by those arms of velvet-covered steel was the same. And each time, it had felt remarkably similar to having Clark’s arms around her. The comparison simply hadn’t occurred to her before. All she’d noted before was that both men had muscles to spare and a gentle touch.
Could that mean—
No. It wasn’t nearly enough. If that were the only piece of evidence she had, she’d get tossed out of any court of law in the land. Perry wouldn’t entertain even an op-ed piece with a premise that thin. She wouldn’t believe it if she told herself about her suspicion. It just wasn’t proof of anything but Clark’s own physical strength.
If Clark were Superman, other things would show up. Like his surprisingly intense reaction to learning that Bureau 39 had been looking at Smallville a quarter-century earlier. Like his taking something from that little ship with the Superman crest on the front at the Bessolo street warehouse. Like his being on the far side of the Carlin building today where—
Where no one could see him.
And Superman had flown away without checking on the injured.
Maybe he’d somehow known that no one needed an emergency room or even hospital care. Or maybe he’d seen or heard something else he needed to take care of.
Or – someone else?
Maybe he’d never actually left. Clark had appeared beside Lois awfully fast. He must have been sprinting from the other side of the building. And he had been most attentive to her.
And if Superman had a girlfriend, Cat would run over every other reporter in the city to get the exclusive on the woman who—
A snapshot of what that woman’s life would be like burst into Cat’s mind.
If Superman had a girlfriend, Cat would want to interview her and learn everything she could about this mystery woman – and so would every other reporter in the world. The woman’s private life from birth would be splashed across the front pages of newspapers everywhere. Network news anchors would compete for the minutia on her family. Neither she nor her friends or loved ones would ever have a moment’s peace, and she’d be threatened by every hoodlum or crook or thug who decided to use her to control or just influence Superman. She’d be a political figure whether she wanted to be or not, and for the same reasons. And if she and Superman happened to end their relationship for any reason, she’d spend the rest of her life with a target painted on her chest. She might be in even more danger from that point on.
Cat would never do that to her worst enemy. She’d certainly not do it to her best friend.
But that all assumed that her original assumption was correct. Clark had been traveling the world for years, but Metropolis was the first place Superman had been seen in public. It could all be some bizarre coincidence that the two men had both recently arrived in the city. People came to Metropolis all the time. By itself, it meant nothing.
She’d long ago learned not to trust in coincidence, to treat it as a distraction at best and as misdirection at worst. Sometimes – some extremely rare times – coincidences did happen.
But multiple coincidences all pointing the same direction meant there was a fire generating that smoke in her head.
Cat got up and drank a glass of water, then visited the bathroom. Sleep, she mused, might never come on this night, now that she’d decided to discover for herself the truth of Clark’s “other job” – assuming he really was the hero she thought he was. Had there been anyone there to take her bet, she would’ve wagered real money that she’d be awake all night.
She would’ve lost that bet. The arms of Morpheus welcomed her the moment she lay down, and she soon slipped into a dreamless and relaxing slumber.
