Wow. Well, everyone, sorry this chapter has taken so long to come out. I intended this part to be about a third as long as it is now, but...well...you know how things get. The words tackled me, shackled me, and strung me up until they got their way. So there you are.
Thank you my wonderful reviewers! You make all the time put into this story worth it. Thank you thank you thank you!
Enjoy,
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Chapter 31: Clark Kent Returns
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Clark stepped out of the taxi and into the rushing veins of working Metropolis. People bumped into him—brushing and pushing against him—and he winced, feeling claustrophobic and uneasy at the contact. He lifted his briefcase, looked guardedly at the way across the bustling sidewalk he would have to make to get to his destination, and started forward—apologizing every step of the way until he was finally able to inch through towards the revolving doors of the Daily Planet.
He was swept along with the morning rush of news people, and managed to squeeze himself in the farthest corner of the elevator. He pushed against the wall, not touching anyone around him and trying to slow his pounding heart.
No one seemed to notice him, or care. And for now, that suited Clark Kent just fine.
Lois. She was only a few minutes away, now. He counted the floors, adjusting his glasses nervously.
People flowed out, people flowed in. He just watched the numbers.
Would she be glad to see him? He hoped she was there, and not out chasing a lead already. She had been busy in the time he was gone, but he needed to see her.
The elevator stopped on the press floor, and the doors eased open. Clark paused, listening to the sounds of the bullpen before him.
Lois was out there.
The doors started to close.
Catching himself, Clark blinked and moved forward, managing to tread on somebody’s toes and trip on someone else’s briefcase before stumbling to catch the doors right before they shut. He murmured a general apology and stepped out.
He the door closed behind him and he paused, fixing his coat from the general jostling and hefting his briefcase before starting forward slowly.
Lois wasn’t at her desk.
Clark hesitated, but then lowered his glasses to x-ray into Perry’s office as he set his briefcase on his desk. The vision had returned during his time at the farm, along with all of his powers except flying, and perhaps his invulnerability. And while there were still faint scars on his arm and leg, even those had all but ceased to pain him, except after a cloudy day of particularly harder work.
Sometimes he could almost pretend that as those scars faded, so would the memories. But he knew that it was a lie; he was changed, and there were some scars, though physically invisible, that would never entirely heal, and now they were as tender as open wounds.
He shook himself, trying to banish the darker thoughts. He was back. Lois was here, and if his powers kept returning, he would be able to ease into things over this weekend, and perhaps by next week he’d be able to fly back to Smallville and see his mom.
Ah. There she was. Standing in Perry’s office, her stance one of righteous fury—Lois Lane’s trademark stance. He didn’t want to eavesdrop, though he was curious, but he contented himself with just watching. He could imagine her words anyway. He could imagine her clipped voice, so melodious even when angry. He drank up the sight of her flashing eyes, the firm set of her mouth, how her arms were crossed before her like a physical barrier.
He wouldn’t have minded just staring at her all day.
Lois’s fury seemed to be close to bursting. Finally, she threw up her arms and opened Perry’s door, and Clark finally let her words reach him.
“Fine, Perry, just fine!” Lois shouted loud enough for the whole bullpen to hear. “But next time I ask for a pay raise, don’t lie to me and tell me your budget is too tight. I see right through you!” She slammed the door, and the glass windows shook in their frames enough that Clark was afraid that they might shatter.
She stormed towards her desk, her dark hair flying out behind her like a cape.
She was beautiful.
She strode like a train, heedless of anything in her path, and Clark wondered for a moment if she would barrel right into him and run him down without even noticing, leaving him broken behind her. He would have opened his mouth to warn her, but he seemed to have lost feeling in his tongue. In fact, he seemed to have lost feeling in everything. He was just floating—lost in staring at Lois Lane.
Lois.She didn’t run into him, though. In fact, she didn’t seem to notice him at all. She stormed right past him and plopped down in her desk, and began sorting through the mess of papers sprawled over her desk—which looked even worse than usual—as she muttered under her breath. Clark winced at some of the harsher sentiments.
She fell silent after a minute, leaning over her papers with such intent so as to close out the rest of the world entirely.
Perry and Jimmy had been right. Lois really
was practically foaming at the mouth for this story.
Clark stood there awkwardly. He cleared his throat, both in an attempt to catch her attention and to regain his ability to speak. He adjusted his coat with slightly shaking hands.
“Uh…Lois?”
She jumped and turned around sharply, knocking some of her papers onto the ground. Clark began to apologize, but she swept them up quickly and stood.
“Clark! Hi. Welcome back. I thought you weren’t coming in until next Tuesday.”
“I…uh, well, you know, I just wanted to get back and…”
Lois was nodding as he spoke. “Well, I’m glad you’re back,” she said. Clark’s heart lifted at her words. “Perry’s been trying to keep me on a tight rein; he says it’s too dangerous. But with a big guy like you following me around he’ll have to loosen up a bit.”
She dumped some papers into his hands. “Organize those, will you? I fell asleep reading through them last night and I guess I got a bit mixed up.”
Clark looked down at them, peering through the stack with x-ray vision. He gave a slight smile. It looked more like she had thrown the stack off a four-story building before gathering them up at random at the bottom.
“Okay, Lois.”
“Oh, and Clark…” Clark looked up at Lois’s suddenly softer tone. She looked him right in the eye and looked a bit abashed. “You know, I’m sorry about your dad.”
Clark met her eyes. She was so close, so beautiful. He wanted to step forward and hold her and never let go.
He managed to keep his feet in the same place, though he felt like at that moment, he could have flown to her.
“Thank you, Lois,” he said softly, looking down.
“I know I was a little…well, you know, before…” Lois gestured helplessly. “It’s been a hard time these last few weeks, and I just couldn’t think, and then everything with your dad…I guess I kind of am hard to stop when I get going, you know with a story and all, and this was a little more personal.” She glanced at him, and saw him looking at her behind his awkward glasses. “Of course, you know about that yourself, seeing as you’ve been as much in this as I have, of course—”
Clark looked up at her, his smile shy but growing slightly. He loved it when she babbled.
“It’s all right, Lois,” he said, though his heart settled slightly in his chest. He thought she had been friends with Clark Kent, and her angry and careless reception after his dad’s death had thrown doubt into his mind.
He needed her, and her rejection had hurt him, even if she hadn’t been cold to all off him—just Clark Kent.
In some ways, that had hurt even more.
She had seen him, stripped of his glory, his strength. She had seen him ripped down to his core—in his most desperate, primal state.
Yet somehow she continued to favor the hero over the man.
Why? Just tell her.He swallowed, his throat suddenly dry. The papers wrinkled in his hands from his tightening grip.
“Are you okay?” Lois said, noticing his sudden stillness and pale color.
Clark took a deep breath, but didn’t risk looking at her as he sought for something to focus on. He eased his grip on the papers, smoothing the wrinkles and a couple dog-eared pages with extra care.
“Y-yeah,” he said. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, Kent,” Lois said, sounding exasperated as she turned back to her desk. “It’s not like I’d be crying a river if my father died, but your dad…he was a nice guy, from what I met of him.”
“Despite his…cross-dressing?” Clark ventured, trying at a joke bravely.
Lois glared back briefly at him. “Oh, shut up, Smallville.”
Clark grinned at that, even though it lacked the former brightness that had been there before…before.
Things were getting back to normal. Everything was going to be fine.
Except that his Dad was dead, and had been jumping at shadows since getting back to Metropolis.
Clark took a deep breath, watching her for a moment before pulling himself away and to his own desk.
He sat down slowly, shifting the papers to one hand and letting his other hand drift over his desktop slowly as his computer started up. He felt like a stranger there, like he didn’t quite belong—like he was waiting for the real Clark Kent to walk in through the elevator doors and take his place.
He took a deep breath. No. He was here. This was real.
“Clark,” Lois clapped a hand on his shoulder and he jumped, dropping half of the papers on the ground as he flinched. “Oh! Sorry.”
Clark bent down to pick up the papers. “No—it’s all right,” he muttered. He straightened, putting the further-wrinkled and disorganized papers safely on his desk. “Sorry, I—I guess I was just a bit…distracted.”
“Never mind,” Lois said, turning and grabbing her purse from her desk. “Come along. Those papers can wait. I just got a call from Bobby Bigmouth, and I think we’ve finally got something.”
“We?” Clark repeated, slightly surprised but feeling that warm feeling in his chest again. Lois had always been reluctant to let
any partner into her stories, especially ones she had been working on so hard alone.
“Perry made me promise to let you back in once you got back,” Lois said, rolling her eyes. “He says it’s not safe.” She muttered something under her breath, and Clark cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose, a bit embarrassed at the rude comment.
“So…what did Bobby Bigmouth have?” he asked, even as he stood and followed her towards the elevator.
“An address,” Lois replied, turning to wave a piece of paper in his face even while she continued to walk, though she had to walk backwards for a couple steps to do it. She hit the “down” button on the elevator without looking behind her. “You’ve been following my series on Bureau 39, right? Well, General McPheron—if that’s his real name—and his men completely disappeared, but Bobby thinks he has a lead to them…and it’s about time, too.
Clark’s mouth had gone a bit dry. “Where?” he asked, his voice only slightly unsteady.
“It’s a warehouse in the Hobb’s Bay area.” The elevator opened and Lois stepped in.
Clark felt as if the ground had vanished under his feet—not entirely an unfamiliar feeling, but this time it was quite a bit more uncomfortable. He stared after Lois, feeling cemented in place as he froze.
“Clark?”
Clark blinked and bumbled forward, catching the elevator doors as they started closing before him for the second time that day, and this time managing to trip on the crack between the floor and the elevator. Lois caught his arm and rolled her eyes as she pressed the floor button.
“Honestly, Clark, I understand if you’re a little off balance from everything that’s happened, but please, just for a few minutes…stay with me, okay?”
I’d stay with you forever, Lois.“Okay,” Clark said unsteadily, pushing his glasses up. “Sorry.”
Lois gave him a glance like he was being intentionally dense. He gave her a nervous smile back, lifting his eyebrows in question.
“What?” he asked innocently.
Lois just shook her head and pushed the floor button again, as if that might possible make the elevator go faster.
“L-Lois? Do you think this is a good idea? I mean, shouldn’t we call the police? What if…what if it’s just a set up…like before?” His voice started nervous, and ended in almost a whisper.
Lois glared at him. “We can’t trust them, Clark. For all we know, they’re working right alongside these people. They’re all government people, and I have a feeling Henderson knew more than he was telling.” Clark opened his mouth to speak again, but Lois cut him off. “Honestly, Kent, I thought you came back here to work, not to hide. I’m going. If you want to get put on dog shows instead, feel free to head on up and tell Perry.”
There was one thing for sure—much as Clark was sick at the thought of running into Bureau 39 again, he’d jump right into their hands again if it meant protecting Lois.
That was one thing he would never regret.
Just as she was willing to do the very same for him, Clark realized. Or Superman, at least.
He shook himself, wiping his palms on his pant legs and adjusting his glasses with a shaking hand that he forced himself to still.
He had to focus. He couldn’t let fear stop him.
He tossed out his mind, determined to think of something else. Luckily, here it wasn’t that difficult at all to find a much more pleasant distraction.
They stood there in silence. Lois watched the doors, and Clark watched her, a small, unexpected smile growing on his face.
It was great to be back, if only to be at Lois’s side again.
Lois caught sight of his smile and frowned at him. “What?” she demanded.
Clark started and adjusted his glasses. His smile turned a little guilty. “Well, you know—it’s just good to be back, I guess.”
Lois’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him, and her stance was defensive and somewhat angry as she turned around, despite the tired shadow across her brow.
He should tell her. She deserved to know.
Clark glanced around needlessly—the elevator was empty but for them. He stuck his hands in his coat pockets to try and hide his shaking, through his fingers were damp with cold sweat. He cleared his throat.
“Uh…Lois?”
“Yeah, Clark?” She didn’t even turn to look at him.
Clark felt like his heart was about to pound right out of his chest. “I…” His voice cracked—his mouth was strangely dry—and he swallowed, and leaned against the elevator wall behind him as the world seemed to tip. “I…I—”
The elevator doors opened and Lois gave him a minute glance while she strode forward. Her lips were still tight, and her voice was clipped. “What?”
Someone pushed by Clark and he flinched aside at the rough contact as he hurried to keep up with Lois. “It’s n-nothing. Never mind.”
Lois glanced at him. Something itched and irritated her at the back of her mind, behind a growing frustration. Now that Clark was back she felt the hole where Superman should have been even more than before. After all, they were the two men that she cared about in her life—though the kind of care was quite different between the two of them—and they had come around during the same time. When one was there, it just seemed like the other should be close by.
Besides, she had gotten pretty good and not thinking about Kal-El…for most of the time. His face only floated before hers during some moments, rather than constantly. But for some reason it seemed like every time she looked at Clark all she could think of was Superman.
It was annoying her. She and Melinda had spent most of their second appointment together on Wednesday talking about it. Again, while Lois couldn’t speak the specifics of what had happened with Kal-El, the woman was surprisingly helpful. But that didn’t keep her from arguing with Perry about it every time she got the chance—like she had been before running into Clark Kent back at his desk.
She glanced up at the sky as she passed through the revolving doors of The Daily Planet, ignoring Clark as he followed awkwardly behind her. There was no sign of any blue blur against the cloud-riddled sky, though she was silly to have expected to see it. She shook her head at herself as she flagged down a taxi.
The first two ignored her, and Clark stepped forward. “Uh…here…let me.”
He moved forward to wave down a taxi, then slowed his steps as he gave a loud whistle. Lois jumped slightly—the whistle was surprisingly loud and piercing clear, startling some pigeons from the ledges of some windows overhead and making more than a few pedestrians turn and look at him, but a taxi pulled to a stop immediately.
“Nice, Kent,” Lois said, stepping down past him towards the taxi. Clark grinned and followed, but managed to trip on the curb and knocked into her back, though not hard. He apologized, but she didn’t even bother to reply as she climbed into the taxi and barked off the address, leaving Clark to clamber in as quickly as he could. Or maybe not as quickly as he could, but at least as quickly as a normal man of his size should have been able to, though he did manage to catch his long coat in the door as he closed it and had to open it again to get himself all the way in. “Very nice,” Lois said, rolling her eyes.
There was a moment of awkward silence as the noise of Metropolis was closed off by the inside air of the taxi.
“Where’s your jeep?” Clark asked.
Lois sighed. “In the shop. I…had a bit of a mess getting away from B-bureau 39, you know?”
Ah. Clark remembered. She had mentioned something about getting shot at to Superman, but not that it had come so close—not that bullets might have actually hit her car. He stared at her, his heart rising to his throat as he realized how much danger she had gone through.
She could have died, as he had lain unconscious in the back seat, helpless as a bullet swept away her beautiful soul and left him alone.
He shivered.
Lois seemed to be concentrating on
not looking at him, for some reason, which was probably a good thing, Clark thought as he quickly wiped his face of those dark memories for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day.
He didn’t want her to recognize him, not because of that.
“You Lois Lane?” the taxi driver asked suddenly, breaking the awkward silence that had once again fallen.
There was a pause as Lois turned from looking out the window to the man with narrowed eyes. Clark looked at him for the first time too, feeling suddenly defensive.
He was a typical taxi driver—with some slight scruff but a general good air about him, but he was wearing a deep, dark red jacket that made Clark blink and look away quickly, his hands clenched and his stomach churning.
No. It was gone. It was no more. Clark slowly dragged his eyes back to the man, forcing himself to look to look back at the fabric. He made himself drink in the dark red color, looking closely at the fabric until he saw the texture of the threads and the fading from wear—not the deep, coursing blood that had first threatened to rise up and blind him.
It was over. He let out a long, slow breath, and came back to himself just as Lois spoke. It seemed like she had taken a long time in answering, considering how everything had froze at first sight of the color.
Clark felt a sudden urge to laugh at the thought of him—Superman—nearly hyperventilating at the sight of a red coat…but even mentally the laugh was feeble and mirthless and didn’t get to his lips before it died.
“Yes,” Lois said slowly, her hands on her purse as if ready to use it as a weapon. Clark was tempted to x-ray in to see if she had a brick in there, but resisted, instead mentally checking to see how he could slip between the two seats and reach the break if he needed to put the man out of commission…maybe by knocking him over the head? “Why?”
“Well,” the man actually looked somewhat abashed. “I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but I have two kids who…well, I guess we’re all worried, is what I’m trying to say, Miss Lane. Have you…heard from the big guy at all?”
Lois’s eyes narrowed and she sat back.
“No,” she said.
The man deflated slightly. “Well, I guess you wouldn’t. It’s just…well, I’m sure you know already.”
“Yeah, I know,” Lois said, but her voice lacked any bite. She paused, storm clouds gathering over her brow as she frowned again, but this time not at the driver. “Why don’t you ask Clark here?
He was the last one to see Superman, after all.”
“What?” Clark asked, taken unprepared as both the driver’s and Lois’s attentions turned to him.
“Clark,” Lois said, and there was actually a light of hope in her eyes. “Have
you seen Superman?”
Clark winced. “Uh…no.” It
was true—the suits were still quite neatly packed away at his apartment. But even if Superman had come back, he’d hardly be yapping about it yet in front of this complete stranger.
Lois’s shoulders slumped and the light in her eyes faded. It looked like the woman’s spirit had been punched right in the gut. It only lasted a moment, though, before she straightened and a stubborn light appeared in her eye—like a knight armoring up for battle.
“He’ll be back, though,” she said, her voice firm as she leaned back to look out the window to the cloudy sky again. “He will.”
Lois had the taxi drive right on past the address, and they looked over at the dark and seemingly deserted building. Clark didn’t hesitate to try to x-ray inside, but the key word was “try.” The building was clearly either lead-lined or coated with lead paint, like many of the older buildings in this area of the city.
Lois called the taxi to a stop a good block away from the address she had been given. The taxi drove off, leaving them both standing on the edge of the street, overshadowed by the grey buildings around them. Lois looked down at the paper in her hand, then glanced around to get her bearings before starting off with a bold stride.
It took Clark an extra second to tear his eyes from the warehouses and he moved quickly to catch up with his partner. “Uh, Lois?”
“Sh, Clark!” Lois muttered, glancing around. “We’ll head around the back and look for a side door. There’s no point in being dense and just walking right to the front door and all.”
Clark was not going to suggest such a thing, of course, and Lois must have known that, surely. He didn’t like the condescending tone of her voice.
“What are you hoping to find?” Clark asked, hesitantly. “Why don’t we do a stakeout tonight, instead of just rushing in like this? I’ll bring dinner?” It wouldn’t be anything extraordinary, but he knew about a few good take-out places in Metropolis, even if they didn’t quite equal authentic Chinese food.
Lois didn’t even look back at him as she paused, glancing around the corner into a filthy alleyway between two towering buildings. She darted inside, leaving Clark to follow. “I’ve got…something else, tonight,” she said, sounding annoyed. Clark felt a pain in his chest at the flat rejection. “Besides, Bobby said there weren’t many people about—just a few coming and going. It could just be a meeting place, rather than an actual base or whatever. Besides, we don’t know if they’re even going to stick around that much longer, and I am
not about to lose another lead on these guys.”
Clark wasn’t ready to back down. His chest was beginning to feel tight and restricted at the terrible fear of what might happen if they were caught.
He hated it, that fear. He had always known some fear and uncertainty of being captured, it but was never so real—so tangible. He had never been so
terrified of being on a case with Lois.
Before, he had thought himself all but invincible. Even in dire straits he had been quite calm with the belief that everything would turn out all right. Now, he was only all too aware of his limits and weakness.
How did normal people do this? How did they face life day-by-day, always so uncertain about what could happen next? How could Lois be so
reckless to risk so much when she was so terribly mortal?
And it would be a lie if Clark were to say he wasn’t afraid for himself as well.
He swallowed, glancing around the next corner with Lois and glancing around quickly for any hidden cameras.
He had to be ready. Even if he wasn’t at full strength—he wasn’t sure what would happen if he had to try and stop a speeding bullet—he had to be ready. He couldn’t let fear stop him.
He had to get over this.
What were they doing? He should grab Lois and get out of there!
No. Truth, justice…these were what he stood for. He couldn’t let fear hold him back, or Superman would never come back, no matter if his powers came back or not.
You'll be okay.Clark took a deep breath, keeping his hearing focused. If he was blind to whatever was in the building, at least he could hear.
A car drove past in the street, which was visible just around the corner which Lois was currently peeking around. A couple long-haired and rugged men were walking on the sidewalk across the street, smoking and muttering about how it looked like it was going to rain. A rat scurried in the rubbage, and he could hear the bugs rustling around in the grime and filth of the rusted and overflowing garbage dumpster.
No cameras, from what he could hear or see, though he spent extra time looking for any lens that may reveal a camera hiding behind a lead shield.
Nothing.
Clark was jerked out of his careful observation as Lois ducked and darted across the alleyway.
“Lois!” Clark bit his lip, glancing towards the street again before ducking and following her, but feeling as conspicuous as…well…as he did when he flew around in blue tights.
Lois tugged on the silver doorknob that stuck out of a dull grey door. It was locked, but she didn’t even pause before reaching into her purse and drawing out a keychain with a bunch of different-sized picks decorating its loop. Clark shook his head mentally—Lois had apparently upgraded from bobby-pins and credit cards.
“Isn’t it a little risky to try and break and enter in the middle of the day?” Clark asked dryly, ignoring, for now, the warning fear in his heart.
Lois grunted. “Around here it’s probably safer,” she said from where she was crouched down, her head cocked as she glared at the lock as if she might get it to open through sheer will.
Clark shook his head at her and crouched down beside her, but didn’t lean against the wall behind him. He wasn’t exactly sure what filth covered the lower part of the grey wall, but he didn’t really want to know.
Thuh-thump, thuh-thump. Thuh-thump.Clark tensed suddenly, causing Lois to look at him. That was a heart beat, though he hadn’t recognized it beside his pounding heart, Lois’s familiar thrum, and the general continuous, gentle murmur of the city’s hearts. But no—this was closer.
“What?” Lois demanded, still feeling around with her pick in the lock.
“I…I thought I heard something,” Clark murmured.
Lois paused at that, looking down the alley towards the street as another car drove by. The rat in the garbage knocked over an old rusted coffee tin and tipped out of the trash with a squeak before darting off back into the mess.
Lois rolled her eyes. “Nice, Kent. If you see another one, just let me know and I’ll scare it off for you.”
“I think I can take care of a little rat on my own,” Clark replied, trying for a light tone despite Lois’s frustrated one.
“Of course not. Sorry, I forgot the whole ‘I grew up on a farm’ thing. I’ll make sure not to forget again.”
Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump.There was more than one of them. At least two, maybe three, and maybe even more than that. They were unfamiliar, and slurred together like a lazy melody of bubbling, muddy water. And Clark was quite sure that they were inside the building, only a few walls or rooms away from the pale grey door which Lois seemed so determined to open.
“Well?”It was a single word that Clark heard—a man’s voice, stern, slightly gruff, but not one he recognized. There was no answer. Maybe whoever had been addressed had given some nonverbal gesture in reply.
“Get on back to it, then.”Clark glared at the wall, as if perhaps if he tried hard enough he could see through it, lead or no.
Footsteps sounded on hard floor as two of the beating hearts moved away from a third, finally separating their sounds. Whoever was left just stood (or sat?) still, breathing in and out heavily and…smoking?
Clark had rarely used his superhearing for such blatant spying, and he concentrated, intrigued at what he could hear, and trying to figure out what was going on.
Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. Inhale. Exhale.
SNAP!Clark jumped at the sound that was so loud and close, compared to that which he had been focused on. Lois swore as one of her picklocks snapped, but hardly hesitated before selecting another one and diving towards the lock to try again.
“Uh…Lois?” Clark asked, his voice a bare whisper. “What do you plan to do once you get in? What if there’s someone inside?”
“Good,” Lois said through teeth gritted. “I don’t expect them to leave condemning paperwork lying around, so a quote would be nice.”
Clark stared at her, amazed at her bravery. The woman was relentless
Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. SNAP!Clark jumped again at the sound, his own heart beat picking up a pace as he reached up to grab his ears instinctively.
Lois swore again, this time pushing away from the door with the broken picklocks in her hand.
“Fail-proof picklocks my foot,” she spat, stuffing the ring back into her purse. “I want a refund.”
She turned her back to him, walking a couple steps down the alley and looking around.
Clark glanced at the lock as Lois moved along the wall. He glanced at her, then back to the lock.
It would be so easy just to break it. He had done it plenty of times before.
But the building was lead-lined. Who knew what was on the other side? Even if Lois seemed almost eager to meet up with whoever was there, Clark couldn’t think of a worse situation. All right, maybe he could, but he didn’t want to think of such a one, and running into Bureau 39 again would be bad enough on its own.
He couldn’t let them get caught again.
But they had to figure this out. He had to bring Bureau 39 to justice. Fear could not be allowed to conquer.
He turned away from the door, fixing his glasses with a shaking hand. “Uh, Lois?”
She was busy stacking a pile of rickety boxes, her eyes fixed determinedly on a small window some feet above her head.
“Come help me, Clark. That door is not going to just disappear, no matter how long you stare at it.”
Clark walked towards her, his dress shoes crunching on gravel, metal, and dried grime.
“Good. Now get me that big box over there. The wood one.”
Clark turned and eyed the box she had gestured towards. It was rickety, half-rotted, and had rusted nails sticking out at odd angles. He frowned, wondering if he should be worried about possible blood poisoning if his invulnerability proved too weak against the rusted metal.
He certainly didn’t want Lois climbing up onto it, that was for sure.
“Uh, Lois, I—”
I]Click, click, crick, crunk, crunch, crunch…[/I]
Clark cut off sharply, his hearing narrowing in at the sound of footsteps…around the back of the building.
“What Clark?” Lois demanded, but he was looking away from her, down the alley. The steps were coming—let them turn away, Clark prayed—but no…They were growing slightly louder in Clark’s ears. They were coming. “Clark—”
There was no time. Clark took the time they had and acted. He grabbed Lois’s arm and pulled her behind the heaping dumpster.
“Ow! Clark!” Lois had the sense of mind to keep the exclamation soft even as she jerked her arm away from his grip.
Clark pulled back as if burned. “Did I hurt you, Lois?”
Lois gave him an odd look at his reaction. “Dream on, farm boy. Now what the—”
“Sh!” Clark held out a hand to signal her to silence, and she obeyed, surprisingly. Clark rose slightly, pretending to peer over the over laden dumpster, but in truth settling to peering right
through it.
A man in black—clearly some sort of uniform, but with no markings that Clark recognized—came around the corner. He paused, holding a large gun and standing still at the intersection of the alleyway and his previous path.
Clark’s own heartbeat was thunderous in his own ears. Surely even a normal human being must have been able to hear it.
“T-there’s someone over there, Lois,” Clark said, his voice so low that Lois understood him more from watching his lips than from hearing. “And…he’s in uniform.”
“What?” Lois immediately began to rise, but at that moment that man turned and headed right down the way towards them with a slow, deliberate step.
Clark didn’t need to warn Lois—even she could hear the steady approach by now, and lowered her self back down. Her eyes fixed towards the sound, her face slightly pale, but determined.
Could they fight their way out? Would they be able to stay hidden enough in this shallow shadow beside the mountain of garbage, or should they try to run?
Thuh-thump. Thuh-thump. Crunch. Crunch.Clark’s heart went still.
There were other footsteps—coming in the other direction. Clark looked back to see another uniformed man, and felt his blood go cold in his limbs.
There was no time, and there was no chance they weren’t going to be seen.
Lois had a hand in her purse and was edging forward, her face grim as she tensed as if ready to attack, but she didn’t know about the second guard.
There was no time to act. There was no place to go…but up.
It was time.
Clark stepped forward, taking hold of Lois’s arm and pulling her against him. Her body was warm against his, and he felt his own heart burn inside of him, chasing even his fear away. He gathered all the memories, dreams, and emotions of flying before pushing off from the ground.
TBC...
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