“So, what’s next?”
“I don’t know, Dad,” Clark answered as he savoured his cup of coffee.
Yesterday, after he’d towed the thawed tractor back to the Keegan’s farm, he and his father had returned home where they’d proceeded to test his returning abilities. They’d discovered while most of his powers had returned, they were all at different strengths and he had needed to work a little to control a few. He could zoom in with his sight on items far away, to some extent, but the x-ray vision was barely there. His heat vision was sporadic at best. He had almost succeeded in reheating a cup of tea when the strength of the heat flared, and the cup had exploded. He was fast, but not full speed, and while he could jump over the barn in one giant leap, he couldn’t fly at all.
He’d gone to sleep elated that his powers returning, and Luthor hadn’t taken everything from him, yet frustrated that he had to re-learn control. He’d woken this morning early, the loud sounds of his mom making breakfast in the kitchen, informing him his superhearing was returning, and giving him a burst of hope that things would return to normal.
Naturally, the first thing he’d tried was floating over the bed. When that hadn’t worked, he’d tried jumping out of his bedroom window. At that point, his mother had put a stop to his attempts to fly and ordered him inside for breakfast. Now, after some light morning conversation while they ate, his dad had asked him the question he’d been asking himself repeatedly over the last twenty-four hours.
“What do you guys think?” He asked as he observed his mother’s anxious expression, and his father’s concerned one.
“Now, Clark, that’s not our decision,” his father began.
“I’m just looking for your input,” Clark began defensively. “I don’t know what to do. Part of me wants to go back, and part of me wants to stay.”
Martha, topping up their coffee cups, asked the obvious question. “What would you do for work? Is there anyone hiring journalists in Metropolis.”
“That’s the problem, Mom. I don’t want to work for any of those papers, and I don’t want anything to do with LNN, even if Lois is running it now.” Clark noticed a puzzled frown on his mom’s expression at the mention of Lois, but didn’t ask about it.
Jonathan picked up his black coffee and leaned back in his chair. “What about your apartment?”
“I didn’t sign a lease, but still have to give notice, so I’ve got at least a month with a place to live, and a few days to decide if I want to move.” Going back to Metropolis suddenly seemed like the right thing to do. As wonderful as it was to be back at the farm, with his powers starting to return, he wanted to go back to his place, sleep in his bed, and try to piece his life back together. “Maybe I’ll book a flight for tonight, stay the weekend in Metropolis, and head back here in time for the harvest.”
“How will you get back?” His dad asked.
“I’ll call, get a flight out tonight. If I can fly under my own power by this evening, I’ll just cancel the ticket.” The more he spoke, the more confident he was becoming. Luthor was gone, and he suspected no one else knew anything about what had happened to Superman, other than Inspector Henderson. If he returned to Metropolis and Superman was still absent, it would just continue to put more distance between himself and his super alter ego. He’d be fine. “Dad, can you give me a ride to the airport?”
“Sure, son.”
“Why don’t you call Perry, or Lois to pick you up at the airport? I’m sure…”
“No Mom, not Lois. I’ll just take a taxi.” At the curious glances from his parents, he shrugged and tried to explain. “Lois was at my apartment every day after the wedding. It’s a bit too much right now, for both of us. I was injured, and she’s just lost her husband,” Clark stated bitterly. “We’ll end up arguing again. It’s best if we let our lives find their new normal before we try to figure things out.” If we do, was his unspoken thought.
His mom stood abruptly, scraping her chair on the kitchen floor, the sound making Clark wince. She hurried out of the kitchen, into the living room, and he could hear her rustling papers, before she returned, armed with several newspapers.
“I wasn’t sure if I should say anything, I thought you knew already.” Martha slid the first newspaper to Clark, folded over several pages. “She didn’t marry Luthor.”
Clark stared at the article in shock. The reporter claimed that the ceremony had not been completed before the police had entered, complete with a series of photos showing the chaos that had erupted outside of LexCorp Tower. The last photo of the series showed Perry holding Lois, guiding her away from the entrance. He felt himself getting warm, his heart rate increasing, and tried to force his breathing to stay even and steady. He felt nauseous as he continued to read the article, describing when Luthor had escaped the police, and ran out of the room being used as for the ceremony.
“Clark, what is it?”
He heard his dad ask the question as he pushed his chair back from the table, and ran outside into the morning sunshine. He stood, leaning on the railing of the porch, his head between his hands. His parents joined him, his dad resting a hand on his shoulder.
“I heard them screaming, out on the street. That’s when… Luthor, he ran from the police at the ceremony, and they don’t know where he ran to.” Clark took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, as always, conscious of how hard he exhaled. “He was in the cellar. He’d run from the police and instead of trying to escape, he came to kill me. But I wasn’t there, I was hiding.” He gulped a few more deep breaths of air, remembering hiding in the cramped space between the wall and the wine barrels, his skin burning, his limbs shaking from exhaustion. Breathing through the swell of panic he felt, he continued. “When he didn’t find me, he left. Once I escaped the building, I heard people screaming. I didn’t know… Inspector Henderson told me Luthor had died.”
As he spoke, a clearer picture of what had happened was forming. He’d remembered hearing the ceremony start, and the confused chatter after he’d hidden. His own screams of agony had drowned out the rest of the sound, he hadn’t been aware of what had occurred at the ceremony. Luthor had left the ceremony after the police had arrived, and upon not finding Superman in the cellar, had left, knowing the police were looking for him. Then, rather than face his crimes, he’d jumped. “Luthor left when he found the cage empty, I hadn’t bothered to think about where he’d gone. After I’d escaped the cellar, and was waiting for Henderson in the alley, and I heard the people at the front of the building screaming. I didn’t really put it together until now.”
He felt his father’s hand pat him on the shoulder several times, as his mom wrapped one arm around his waist to give him a half hug, and they stood there together for some time, as he calmed.
His dad broke the comfortable silence, patting his shoulder again before moving away. “You go get your flight booked, and then we’ll get the auger out to the silos. Head out to the barn when you’re ready.”
Clark stood, and followed his mom into the house, sinking into the couch as she handed him the cordless phone. “It’ll be ok, Clark,” she said with another reassuring hug, before leaving him alone. Pulling out the phone book, he found the number for the airline and dialed, hoping that trusting his gut this time wouldn’t land him in trouble again.
****
Perry placed the phone back in the receiver with a sigh. This entire week had come to naught, and he was flying out on Sunday. He had a full day tomorrow to find Jack and Jimmy a place to stay, before they had to be out on Saturday morning. If it came to it, they could all find a hotel for Saturday night, but that didn’t help the boys in the long term. He’d called Clark at his folks place, hoping that with Clark gone, he wouldn’t object to them staying there as he had generously opened his apartment up to them when they investigated Luthor. It had been cramped, but with each of them busy chasing down leads, they hadn’t been together long enough to get on each others nerves.
After being informed by Martha Kent that Clark was on his way back to the city, he’d left a message on Clark’s machine, hoping he wouldn’t mind helping Jack and Jimmy out for a few days. At least, he hoped it would only be a few days.
He’d also invited Clark to meet him at the café a block away from the old Planet building. It had always been a popular spot with the staff, and Perry thought it would be a good chance to catch up with Clark, find out how he was doing, before he left the city. After lunch he had a meeting scheduled with Mr. Stern, and would be bringing along Jack and Jimmy. He hoped that when faced with the two young men, Mr. Stern would be able to find some employment for them in one of his many companies.
That just left Lois. He hadn’t heard from her in the last few days, the last time he’d seen her was the night she and Clark had exchanged bitter words. He shook his head at the memory. When he’d spied the Jeep a few nights ago at Clark’s, he’d been hopeful they were starting to work through everything they’d been through over the last few months, but it seemed to have hit a rocky spot. Perry had been surprised at Clark’s harsh tone and choice of words, but was sure the young man regretted the exchange now.
Theirs was a friendship he never would have expected. Mad Dog Lane working with a partner, and thriving. As their friendship had blossomed, both of them had bloomed. Their work had improved, the investigations had been the best in the city by far, the best in the state, and a few had made national headlines, but they themselves had changed. Lois had softened. Not that she’d gone soft, but she was all edges before, which was confrontational at best, terrifying at times. Now there was a gentleness that emerged every once in a while. Clark, well, Clark learned to stand up for himself. It wasn’t that he was a pushover, but Perry knew Clark had been smitten with Lois and he’d been worried Lois would push him around too easily. As time progressed, the young man learned to rile her up, push all of her buttons, challenge her, and still show he cared about her, somehow breaking through the tough façade Lois showed to the world.
If only Lex hadn’t barged into her life. Perry couldn’t fix that, but he could help patch things up between Lois and Clark. Picking up the receiver, he dialed Lois’ number, intending on inviting her to meet him for lunch tomorrow.
****
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