Thanks everyone for being so patient with me and my erratic schedule. Good news is that I've finished my finals! So I have a couple weeks of freedom to write and rebuild my buffer before the Spring term starts.
Previously...
“Well… I’m leaving now,” Kal spoke into the silence.
“Fine,” Lois replied.
“I’m not sure when I will be back,” he spoke again.
“I won’t wait up.”
Kal waited, not really sure what he was waiting for. Finally, he turned away to exit the apartment. His hand had just touched the doorknob when Lois spoke.
“Have fun on your date.”
Kal’s hand froze on the handle.
“My what?”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kal pulled his hand back from the handle and turned around to face Lois.
“What did you say, Lois?” he asked with increasing panic.
“I heard you and Mayson talking today outside the conference room,” she told him, staring into her carton. “I don’t know how you expected to hide it from me.”
“I wasn’t trying to hide anything, Lois!” Kal told her, pushing his hand through his hair. “We are just going as friends! Purely platonic.”
“Oh, please,” she rolled her eyes. “You can’t expect me to believe that.”
“Why not?”
“It was just… the way she said it. There’s no way anyone could see it as platonic.”
“Really?” Kal asked in surprise.
“No one could’ve mistaken it,” she said affirmatively.
“I did!” Kal exclaimed. “Lois, I honestly didn’t think that Mayson saw it that way.”
She snorted impatiently. “Kal, have you never been hit on in your whole life?”
“Hit on?” he asked desperately, trying to grab hold of one thing in their whole conversation to make sense of. “What does that mean, Lois?”
The spoon fell from Lois’ hand.
“You haven’t,” she realized. “You’ve never been hit on. I mean, not really. Unless you count girls who are constantly swooning over Superman, but that doesn’t really give you enough experience to know if someone’s flirting with you. All they do is breath heavily and stare. I’m not going to give Mayson much credit, but at least she’s more intelligent than that.”
Kal sank into the armchair as he let Lois’ words wash over him. The only thing he knew about Earth romance was that it was messy. Humans were more emotional than Kryptonians were, and he knew that people often got hurt in human relationships. Mayson seemed like a good woman, and he didn’t want to hurt her, but at the same time he wasn’t sure what to do.
“Lois, I cannot meet her tonight,” Kal told her, putting a stop to her chatter. “If she thinks it is a date, then I will only disappoint her.”
“So, what, you’re just not going to show up?”
Kal sighed, feeling completely lost. He had no idea how to handle this. “What do you think I should do, Lois?” he asked.
Lois tapped her spoon against the carton of ice cream, clearly thinking the problem over.
“Well… You could go on the date, and then let her know sometime during the evening that all you want out of it is friendship. That would probably be the best option. It would still hurt her, but not as bad as some of the other options.”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Kal shook his head. “Clearly, I cannot understand social situations like this enough to respond appropriately. I could end up making a bigger mistake without knowing it.”
“Unless Kryptonians have a habit of lifting up the skirts of their casual friends, I think you’ll be okay,” Lois replied.
“Lois!”
“Sorry,” she apologized. “I know this is uncomfortable for you.” She sighed as she dug her spoon into the ice cream again. “But I really see this as being the only decent way to tell her. You could call her, but-”
“I can do that,” Kal decided. “If I call her now, that might give her time to find someone else to go with.”
Lois shook her head. “You can’t stand her up, Kal. Look, I’m not the biggest fan of Mayson, and the way that she just asked you out after only an hour or so of you working together seems a little bold. But you made a commitment to her, and you can’t just back out now.”
Kal hesitated, not sure what he should do. But Lois seemed very sure, and he supposed that she would know best. Given her initial reaction when she thought that Kal was actually going on a date, she probably felt that at least seeing Mayson tonight was important. And although he had no romantic interest in Mayson, he didn’t want to hurt her.
“All right,” he agreed. “I will go with her tonight. But I’m going to explain to her that there is no way that we are having a romantic relationship.”
Lois nodded her approval. “It’s the best thing for you to do, Kal. Really.”
Kal turned back around to head out the door when Lois called him back again.
“Wait, Kal!”
“Yes?”
Lois got out of her seat and reached for her purse. She dug out her wallet and pulled a few bills from it.
“If she wants to go out for coffee or something after,” she explained. “Mayson seems like the type of woman who would offer to pay at least her half, but you should offer to pay first. Then she’ll probably offer again, and you should offer back one more time. If she looks like she wants you to pay, then you should insist, but if she wants to pay, then you should let her.”
Kal took the bills, suddenly feeling more anxious. How was he going to cope with these complicated rituals by himself? Up until now, he had had Lois to rely on.
Lois, seeming to sense his fear, patted his shoulder reassuringly. “It’ll be okay, Kal,” she told him. “You’ve learned a lot about Earth culture, and I’m sure you’ll do fine. Just relax and everything will work out okay.”
* * *
Mayson looked across the table at her date for the night. So far, the evening with Clark had been a disaster. If she had known what the play had been about beforehand, she wouldn’t have asked him to go with her. Of course, her sister was the one who couldn’t make it through ‘Hairspray’ without gagging, so Mayson really shouldn’t have expected her to choose a cheery play. ‘Oleanna’ was definitely not good first date material, and now she was anxious to just forget about it for the rest of the evening.
But Clark was being frustratingly close-lipped. She had suggested they go out for coffee to help conversation, but all he had done so far was stare at his untouched cup.
“So…” she spoke awkwardly. “Are you from Metropolis originally?”
“Uh, no,” he replied.
She waited. When he clearly wasn’t going to elaborate, she dug deeper. “Where did you grow up?”
He looked up at her, his eyes wide. “Uh… K-Kansas,” he stammered.
She nodded politely. Maybe he felt that she was being too nosy. She should share something about herself. That might make him feel more comfortable.
“I grew up in Metropolis,” she told Clark. “I moved away from home for college but then ended up coming back here to work. I actually went to Harvard for my Law degree,” she mentioned nonchalantly. Normally, she wouldn’t brag about going there, but she felt that she needed all the points she could get here.
But Clark showed no sign of recognition at the mention of the school.
“You know,” she tried again, “Harvard.”
“Oh. Yes, of course,” Clark replied hastily. “I am familiar with the school.”
She could tell he was lying, which confused her even more. Who hadn’t heard of Harvard? And even if he didn’t, why did he feel the need to lie about it? There was something he was hiding, and she was extremely curious to find out what it was.
Of course, that was completely inappropriate behavior for tonight. This was supposed to be a date, she reminded herself.
But there was no reason for her not to do some gentle questioning to see if he gave anything up. And she would be subtle about it. She was pretty good at finding out the truth about people.
“So what do you do for a living, Clark?” she asked casually. A perfectly normal question to ask someone.
And Clark looked completely panicked.
“You do work, don’t you?” she asked innocently, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Uh, yes, of course I… Uh… Well, just like every *normal* person… who works.” He stopped talking abruptly, his eyes widening in realization of how he was sounding. He ducked his head in embarrassment, and mumbled a few words that sounded like absolute gibberish to Mayson as he raked a shaking hand through his hair.
“Clark?” she asked, genuinely concerned now. “Are you okay?”
He was silent for a moment, but then lifted his head, looking much calmer now. “Yes,” he said decisively. “I am fine. Sorry I got so upset. The thing is that I have just recently moved here and I do not have a job yet.”
”Oh.” Now Mayson felt bad for pushing the issue. Obviously he was going through a rough time and she wasn’t making it any easier for him. “We’ll I’m sure you’ll find something soon,” Mayson told him.
Kal nodded. “Thank you.”
They were silent again. Kal ran his finger tips over the rim of his cup, and Mayson swirled the cold dregs of her coffee around in the cup.
She put down her cup abruptly. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked. “You just seem so… distracted,” she told him. “Like you don’t really want to be here,” she added hesitantly.
Clark looked up at this with an expression on his face that came very close to relief.
“Mayson, I don’t want to hurt you,” he began. “But I have to tell you the truth. I’m not looking for a romantic relationship right now.”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. Based on the outcome of the night, she had sort of suspected something like this. Of course, that didn’t stop the swell of hot tears that started to build up.
“You are a wonderful woman,” Clark was continuing. “But I just cannot be in a relationship right now.
“Okay,” she spoke, trying to keep her voice even. “I understand that.” She smiled wryly. “How come all the nice guys are always unavailable?”
“Mayson, I-”
“No, it’s fine, Clark.” She stood up. “Look, I need to get going. I have a big case tomorrow.” She reached into her purse to pull out some money.
“Oh, let me pay for it, Mayson,” Clark offered reaching for his back pocket.
“No, I have it Clark,” she replied hastily. She didn’t want to feel like she owed him anything.
”But-”
“Really, I’ve got it. Besides, I’m the only one who had anything, anyway. You didn’t even touch your coffee.”
Clark hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. “Okay,” he replied.
“I’ll see you around, Clark,” Mayson told him.
“Bye, Mayson.”
She left the restaurant. It was official. Her worst date ever.
* * *
“Hello?”
“Lois, it’s Henderson.”
“Inspector Henderson!” Lois wedged the phone between her shoulder and her chin, and grabbed her notebook. “Do you have something for me?”
“I have information on the Miranda murder case.”
“Really? What is it?” She had just been getting ready to go out on an interview, but she could certainly spare a few minutes for this.
“Miranda was killed by a time release poison that must have been given to her sometime during her stay at the precinct,” Henderson told her in a rehearsed tone. “Given the autopsy report, we were able to determine when she was administered the poison, and by comparing it to the log kept at the station, we found a reasonable suspect. Unfortunately, Detective O’Hara and I were unable to interview the officer in question. Douglas Kennard has gone missing, and none of his acquaintances have received any contact from him.”
“That’s all you have?” she asked in disappointment.
“Until we can find Kennard, our trail has gone cold,” Henderson replied. “We’ve been through all of his things and haven’t found anything to point the way to the person who put him up to this.”
“So you know for sure that he was working for someone,” Lois noticed.
“Off the record?”
“Of course.”
“There was no motivation for him to do it himself. Why would he risk his job to kill someone who was going to go to jail anyway? As far as we can tell, Kennard had no reason to want revenge or anything. It just doesn’t make sense for someone to take that kind of risk unless there was some sort of outside reason.”
“Extortion or bribery?”
“Does it matter?” Henderson asked wearily. “Whoever got Kennard to do it managed somehow. It’s not the method that I’m most concerned with but rather the person behind the methods.”
“Reminds you of someone, doesn’t it?” Lois spoke quietly.
There was silence over the line.
“Lane, you have to learn to give up on Luthor,” Henderson finally told her. “I know you’re still upset about the way things went down, but you can’t keep seeing him around every corner. That’s the kind of thing that will kill your credibility.”
“But you have to admit that it sounds like him,” Lois tried again.
Henderson sighed. “Yeah, it does,” he confessed. “But I can’t have him as an official suspect without something concrete to go on. You know that, Lois.”
“So if I were to get you proof…”
“Then I would have something. But I don’t have anything, Lois.”
“Not yet,” she replied. “But you will. Just give me some time.”
* * *
The car sat in the middle of the abandoned parking lot. They had no other company besides a few flattened wrappers that littered the asphalt.
“Okay, so the gas is the peddle on the right, and the brake is the peddle on the left,” Brian instructed Kal.
“And I steer with this,” Kal continued, placing his hands on the wheel in front of him.
“Right. See, you’re getting the hang of it.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Kal muttered.
“Of course you are. Here, why don’t you start up the car and go for a little bit. There’s a nice straight stretch ahead of you, and you can just gently curve around in a circle.”
Dubiously, Kal reached forward and turned the key over. To his satisfaction, the machine grumbled, and then roared to life.
He pushed the gas peddle with his foot, but was disappointed when the car didn’t move forward.
“You have to put the car into drive,” Brian instructed, indicating the gear shift.
“This is a ridiculous system,” Kal muttered.
“Just pull the stick back until it’s lined up with the ‘D’,” Brian told him. “Make sure your foot is on the brake, too.”
“This car is unable to anticipate any of my desires,” Kal complained.
“Well, we still have to learn to read each other’s thoughts before we can start making machines that are able to do it,” Brian replied, grinning.
“I suppose,” Kal smiled. “But I doubt that humans actually have the capacity for telepathy in the first place.”
“No? Have you tried it with someone here?”
“Yes,” Kal shrugged. “With a few people. It did not work.”
“Have you tried it with me?” Brian asked with sudden curiosity.
“It was like talking to the broad side of a barn,” Kal replied.
“I think you mean like talking to a brick wall,” Brian corrected after a moment of confusion.
“Oh. Yes, that would be it. Anyway, it is different than just not getting anything in response. I can sense somehow that my messages aren’t getting through. Although my hearing is infinitely better that it was on Krypton, everything is still strangely quiet.”
“That must be lonely, Kal.”
Kal didn’t reply. Instead, he reached forward and put the car into drive.
“Okay, good,” Brian said, going along with the change in subject. “Now give it some gas.”
The car lurched forward, and Brian grabbed onto the dash for support.
Kal braked harshly. “Sorry,” he apologized.
“No, it’s okay,” Brian told Kal. He slowly removed his fingers from the dash, taking a moment to calm himself. “This might take us a little longer than I thought.”
At that, Kal’s head shot up as he listened to something that Brian couldn’t hear.
“It may take even longer,” he told Brian. “I need to go.”
“Okay,” Brian replied. “We’ll pick this up another time. Go save the world, Superman.”
Kal exited the car, and shot straight up in the air, faster than Brian could follow. Thankfully, he had remembered to put the car back into park before he had left.
Brian got out of the car and circled around to the driver’s side. There was always such a difference in Kal when he was needed as Superman. He looked so much more confident and in control of the situation.
But that wasn’t what stuck with Brian the most. What Brian remembered most of all was Kal’s expression on the rare occasions that he mentioned something on Krypton.
It was always the exact opposite of the way he looked when he became Superman.
