Mother's Day: 11/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
It figured, Henderson thought. Arianna Luthor was making her move and Lois had naturally decided that now was the perfect time to have her triplets -- and of course, CJ didn't want to pull his father away from his mother at such a critical juncture. The boy was becoming more and more like Clark Kent every day -- which only figured, he thought -- except for the fact that there was a disturbing streak of Lois Lane in him. Clark, Lois and he were going to have to come up with some way of convincing people that the Superman clone was long gone; that was for sure. CJ didn't need to have that suspicion hanging over his head for the rest of his life. He might be his father's genetic twin, but he tended to think like his mother; at least in certain circumstances. In any case, Henderson thought as he was yanking his pants on over his pajamas, he was going to have to somehow keep St. Cloud and Pilson from realizing that CJ was that clone. One thing was for certain: life had certainly become a lot more exciting since he had discovered Clark Kent's secret -- but he wouldn't willingly give up the knowledge, or the responsibility that came with it. It wasn't exactly being on the police force, but it was certainly just as important for society at large.
Well, the first thing to do was to notify St. Cloud of the location of Arianna Luthor. He had no doubt that the boy was correct in his identification of his father's enemy. He and St. Cloud had shown the children a picture of the woman the evening before. Henderson had reasoned that it would help them to recognize her if they saw her, and also help them to avoid her. He should have realized that CJ would probably use it to track her down. Clark and Lois were definitely going to need to talk to him about this tendency to involve himself in things best left to adults, but Henderson had to admire the boy's initiative. If he managed to survive to adulthood, the world would definitely benefit from a superhero with the drive and investigative instincts of Lois Lane. However, if it hadn't been probably a useless endeavor, he would have been strongly tempted to tan the boy's hide. Of course, he'd also been of the opinion that Lois might have benefited equally from the same treatment when she had been a child. On the other hand, he thought, as he headed for his car, with Lois, it might not have made any difference, either. It took all of her husband's super powers to keep up with her. How could mere human parents have managed?
Once in the car, Henderson dialed St. Cloud's number with one hand while steering expertly as he backed out of his parking spot and pulled out onto the street. Single-mindedly, he headed for Centennial Park.
**********
And now, Part 11:
Wyatt waited, huddled next to Alex, until the sounds of running feet disappeared into the distance.
'Are they gone?' Alex's mental voice asked apprehensively.
'I think so.' Wyatt ventured to push up the edge of the canvas and peek out. Darkness met his gaze, but to the east the faintest hint of light was apparent. If they didn't get out of here soon, it would be too late. 'Do you hear anybody?'
'No.' Alex's mental voice was trembling.
'Neither do I.' Wyatt listened again, but all he could hear was the pounding of blood in his ears. CJ had led the bad guys away. He hoped that his friend was fast enough to escape the two of them. 'Come on.'
'I'm scared,' Alex said.
'So am I," Wyatt answered. 'Let's get out of here anyway.' He lifted the canvas and squirmed from beneath it. After a slight delay, Alex followed.
Crouching low to stay in the shadow of the pickup truck, Wyatt led the way to the end of the driveway. From somewhere, he could hear the rumble of motors, and when the first car came around the corner, its headlights off, he wasn't surprised. Quickly, he pulled Alex down next to the wheel. 'Quiet!'
The cars screeched to a stop in front of the house. Wyatt hesitated a moment, wondering what to do, but the answer hit him almost at the same instant. 'Keep quiet,' he told Alex. 'Just agree with everything I say.'
'Okay.' Alex answered.
Wyatt continued to kneel on the concrete of the driveway as shadowy figures piled out of the cars. Men streamed past him, and he could see the outlines of weapons in their hands. For a moment he entertained the hope that they wouldn't be seen, but as the last man came even with them, he paused.
"You two!" he ordered softly. "Stand up!"
Wyatt obeyed, careful to keep his hands in sight. He didn't *think* the guy would shoot a kid, but he didn't want to test the theory. "Don't shoot us!"
The man surveyed them. All Wyatt could see of him was a man-shaped shadow and the blur of his face dim in the pre-dawn light. On his chest a badge of some sort gleamed in the pale light of the fading moon. "What are you kids doing here?"
"We're paperboys," Wyatt quavered. "We saw you guys and it scared us!"
"Oh. Well, get out of here, now," the man directed. "Move!"
"Yessir!" Wyatt replied. "Come on, Alex!" He led the way across the street toward the spot where he and CJ had left the bicycles.
"Can you ride a bike?" he asked Alex.
"Yeah. Not very well."
"Follow me," Wyatt directed. He righted CJ's bicycle and waited while Alex picked up Marta's bike. "All we need is to get around the corner." He mounted the bike and rolled forward with Alex wobbling unsteadily behind him.
**********
CJ ran, keeping tabs on his pursuers with his super-hearing. They weren't exactly the Flash, he thought, or even Quicksilver. They crashed through underbrush and pounded across open areas with all the grace of a pair of tanks thundering forward across barbed wire and stones toward the enemy lines. Still, if they managed to catch him it wouldn't be good. Somewhere in the distance he heard the warble of a police siren and hoped that Mr. Henderson's people wouldn't arrive at Arianna Luthor's house with horns blaring and lights flashing. The siren, however, seemed to be moving toward the opposite side of the park, so it was probably a police pursuit or something.
To the east, the sky was lightening. The sun would be up in fifteen minutes, and his advantage in the darkness would disappear. Surely Wyatt and Alex had had time to get away by now, he thought. It was time to lose this pair before they managed to catch him.
The footsteps behind him split suddenly, and he realized that the two men had gone to the right and left, apparently in an attempt to come at him from different directions. 'Come on, Mr. Henderson,' he thought. 'I could sure use some help right now.'
In actuality, he knew that he had no claim on the Deputy Mayor, but Henderson was his dad's friend, and he was sure he could count on the man to at least send help. CJ was quite sure the former police inspector was going to be mad at him, but what, after all, had he been supposed to do? If Mr. Henderson wanted to punish him after this latest mess, CJ could hardly blame him, but he hoped he would at least listen to the explanation. After all, he had a half-Kryptonian daughter.
He paused in a clump of trees, listening hard. There were no pounding footsteps now, but he could clearly hear the heartbeats of two men and the faint rustle of bushes and grass as they moved forward. They must, he thought, be pretty scared of Arianna Luthor. Well, if the things that he had learned about the woman from what she had tried to do to his mother, and the stuff about the clones and Crescent Island, were true, he was scared of her, too. She sounded to him like she was just plain crazy. Holding her own husband captive on an island and cloning the heads of companies so she could steal the companies' money and build a crime empire sounded pretty weird to him. And a woman who was willing to kill a little kid like Alex, just because he was inconvenient, had to be about as evil as it was possible to be. Dad always said that everyone had some good in him somewhere, but CJ didn't see where Arianna Luthor could be hiding it.
Someone was coming toward him through the bushes ahead, and he thought for a moment that one of the guys chasing him had somehow managed to circle around in front, but an instant later, he realized it wasn't so. He could still hear their heartbeats behind and to both sides of him, although they were growing closer.
The man stepped into view, and in dim glow of pre-dawn, CJ recognized Bill Henderson.
"Look out, Mr. Henderson!" CJ ran toward the Deputy Mayor, and at that instant he heard the click of a hammer being drawn back from somewhere to his left and behind him. CJ risked a quick glance over his shoulder, to see the second of his pursuers clutching a handgun, trying to bring it into line with Henderson.
Henderson, however, was faster. In astonishment, CJ realized that he, too, was holding a handgun, in the way CJ had seen the cops do on his favorite television show: his feet apart and planted firmly, one hand bracing the one that held the pistol, and the weapon aimed directly at Arianna's henchman.
"Drop it!" Henderson's voice sounded just like the cops on television, too. Something heavy thumped to the grass, but at almost the same instant, there was the click of another hammer from a spot perhaps twenty feet to his right, and then the report of a fired handgun.
Later, CJ wouldn't quite remember how he had done it. Instinctively, he twisted about. He could see the bullet spinning toward William Henderson, aimed for his heart and everything dropped abruptly into slow motion. CJ took two steps forward. With a dreamlike sensation, he slapped almost casually at the projectile with the flat of his hand, knocking it aside. His palm stung, and he wondered in a detached way if the bullet had gone through the skin. Then Henderson's weapon fired, and everything jumped back to normal speed. There was a scream of pain and the big bruiser-type with the gun spun to the grass, where he lay grasping his shoulder, his weapon skidding to the dirt path. CJ could see blood leaking out from between his fingers.
"Don't move!" Henderson barked. CJ twisted around to see the second gunman, his hands held high in the air.
"Don't shoot!" The man's voice was a shrill, terrified squeak.
"Lie down," Henderson ordered in a somewhat calmer tone. "Right next to your buddy there. Spread your arms and legs as wide as you can." He kept his handgun aimed at Arianna's henchman until he was stretched on the ground next to his less fortunate companion. Then he glanced sideways at CJ. "Are you all right, kid?"
"Yeah." CJ put his hands behind his back, determined that no one would see his hand bleeding. Henderson raised an eyebrow, but removed a cellular phone from his pocket and punched in a two-digit number with his thumb. "Rene, I have a package for you." He glanced at CJ. "My car's that way. Go get in and wait for me."
"Yes, sir," CJ said.
**********
It was nearly half an hour before Henderson opened the door of his car and got in. CJ roused himself from the half-doze into which he had fallen and braced himself for a scolding.
The Deputy Mayor didn't say anything, however, until he had started his car and pulled out onto the street. It wasn't quite six o'clock but it was broad daylight, and there were already cars on the road.
"I'm not looking forward to explaining all this to your mom and dad," Henderson said, finally. "Is your hand all right?"
CJ opened his hand to display a colorful bruise on the palm, but, as he had discovered a while earlier, the skin was unbroken. "It's a little sore. It'll be okay."
Henderson glanced briefly at the bruise. "I guess you probably saved me from being shot," he said. "Thanks."
"You're welcome," CJ said.
"Want to tell me just what you thought you were doing?" Henderson inquired, mildly. "I thought your dad and I told you to try to stay out of trouble."
"You did," CJ said, "and we really meant to. Honest."
"Where's Dillon?" Henderson asked.
"Back at the house," CJ said.
"Didn't he come with you?"
CJ nodded. "Yeah." He cleared his throat. "How did you find me?"
"Your friend, Linda, told me you were running from two of Arianna's goons," he said. "And the address of her house. It wasn't hard to figure out which way you'd gone."
"Oh," CJ said.
Henderson glanced sideways at him. "Why don't you start at the beginning and tell me how you found her," he suggested.
CJ gulped and took a deep breath. It looked like he was going to have to tell Mr. Henderson about the telepathy thing. He hoped his dad wouldn't be upset. "I can talk telepathically to other Kryptonians," he said. "To my dad, and Marta and Linda."
"I know," Henderson said.
"Oh," CJ said, relieved. That made it easier. "Well, this morning, I woke up when my dad was taking my mom to the hospital to have the babies --"
The whole story came tumbling out. To his credit, Henderson didn't interrupt except to encourage him to clarify a point or two when the explanation became so involved as to make no sense, but other than that, he remained silent. As CJ finished, he pulled his car up to the curb of the Kent townhouse and cut the engine. "That's quite a story," he said as he set the emergency brake. "And you say that Wyatt and this kid, Alex, are waiting for you in your room?"
"Yeah," CJ said. He glanced sideways at Henderson. "I'm sorry, Mr. Henderson. I didn't know what else to do. I didn't mean to get into trouble."
The Deputy Mayor raised an eyebrow. "If I didn't know better, I'd say that was your mom talking," he said. Slowly, his lips relaxed into a faint smile. "I guess I can let it slide this time, but you're going to have to explain to your mom and dad," he said. "And next time try calling for some backup instead of trying to handle something this serious on your own. Is it a deal?"
CJ nodded, feeling somewhat relieved. "Mr. Henderson?"
"Yes, CJ?"
"What about Alex? What's going to happen to him?"
"Now that," Henderson said, "is a very good question. Normally, he'd wind up with Social Services, but if by some chance he's partly Kryptonian, that could be a bad idea. I guess we'll have to get Dr. Klein to find out for us. Fortunately, I'm in a position to pull a few strings. Don't worry about Alex yet. We'll think of something."
"He said a scientist was supposed to give him Superman's powers, but that he doesn't have any," CJ said. "He can talk the Kryptonian way, though, and I didn't start getting my powers until I was ten. He might not be old enough."
"That thought did occur to me," Henderson said. "What I'm really interested in, though, is how he can be part Kryptonian, and younger than even your sister. It's not as if there are a bunch of Kryptonians around to choose from. Why don't you take me in and introduce me. I'll figure something out."
**********
"Okay," Bernard Klein said. "The first baby is crowning. On the next contraction, I want you to push. These guys are small," he added somewhat unwisely. "It shouldn't be hard."
"Not for *you*!" Lois practically snarled.
Clark squeezed her hands. "We're almost done," he said encouragingly. "Think how nice it'll be to be able to see your feet again." He noted Lois's slight flinch as the contraction began to build. "Okay, honey. Push!"
Lois bared her teeth at him, but then closed her eyes and mouth as she put all her effort into the job. That was his little tornado, Clark thought proudly as he let her squeeze his hands so hard that it would have paralyzed the fingers of an ordinary man. Nobody could concentrate on getting a job -- *any* job -- done like his Lois.
"Stop!" Bernard Klein said quickly. "Just pant for a minute, Lois."
"What's going on?" Lois gasped as she struggled to obey.
"The cord's around this one's neck," Klein said. "Just let me get it untangled here ... okay, now one more push and I think we'll have a baby."
Lois breathed heavily. "Just a second --" Her hands jerked as the next contraction began. Without urging, she took a breath, held it and began to push.
"Great!" Clark looked over his glasses at the doctor's exclamation, trying to see what Bernie was doing, but the scientist was too quick for him. "Congratulations," he continued. "You've got a baby."
"Well, what is it?" Lois demanded, acerbically.
Clark saw Bernie grinning behind his mask; then the doctor held the baby high for its parents to see. "What is it?"
Clark hugged as much of his wife as he could, fighting the tears that were trying to fill his eyes as they took in the red, gooey baby girl. "Marta has a sister!"
"Well, finally!" Lois said, but Clark saw her turn her head as Bernie handed baby number one over to the waiting nurses and the attending pediatrician. Then she grimaced as the next contraction rippled over her abdomen. "Uh, Bernie ..."
"Oh, I know. We're not done yet," Bernie assured her cheerfully. "Okay, on to baby number two ... looks like this one is bottom end first," he added a moment later. "Not a problem. We know there's plenty of room."
"Well, what is it?" Lois demanded. "If you can see it, you know what it is."
The corners of Bernie's eyes crinkled as the doctor grinned. "Impatient, aren't we?"
"Bernie!" Lois said warningly.
"You're playing with fire, Bernie," Clark said, only half-joking.
The doctor snorted. "CJ and the boys have another brother," he informed them with a grin. "Maybe together the four of them will have a fighting chance."
Clark was glad the mask he wore hid his grin as Bernie finished delivering the second baby.
Baby number three was right on the heels of its brother, it seemed. At least, so to speak. Lois had almost no breathing space before the third baby made its appearance. Bernie held up the smallest of the babies: a second girl, who weighed in at a healthy three-and-a-half pounds. The nurses allowed the two new parents a few minutes to hold their babies and then whisked them away to the preemie nursery, where they would be monitored for any signs of complications arising from their early entrance into the world. Clark stayed silent, holding his exhausted wife's hand as the nurses moved around, doing all the various things that they did for a new mother.
"We did it," Lois whispered.
"We certainly did," Clark said. "You were amazing, honey."
"You always say that," she said, her voice a thread of sound.
"That's because it's always true," he replied promptly. "Go to sleep. You missed out on a whole night."
"Are you going to call Martha?" she asked.
"In a little while." His watch said it was quarter after six. The reality of the problems facing them would return soon enough, he thought. He preferred to stay here with Lois for a little while longer, watching her sleep and enjoying the relative peace after the last few frenetic hours. "Let's let everyone sleep for a little longer. It's Saturday morning."
**********
tbc
