Once again, I'd like to thank Nancy for betaing this. Hope you guys enjoy.

PART THREE

Riverview Alternative School was a second-chance school for students who have had problems with traditional schooling. The majority of the students had come from difficult family situations. The families were all in the lower income bracket, and the school was almost as poorly funded as they were. But despite all the difficulties this created, I loved my job. I really made a difference in the lives of these kids, and the way I saw their lives turn around was more than enough to compensate for all the frustrations along the way.

But today, I could barely concentrate on my lessons. Supernova had taken hostage of my thoughts and refused to let go. He made an excellent impression on TV, but his appearance in person was infinitely better. He seemed more colorful, as if a two dimensional figure had suddenly sprung into 3-D. And I liked him. I liked spending time with him, and maybe I was crazy, but I got the impression that he liked spending time with me. I wanted to see him again. But he was off flying around and saving the world; there was no way for me to contact him short of jumping off a building and hoping he would catch me. I disregarded that idea not only because it put me in possible danger, but also because it might not be him who would catch me and I didn’t think that that was a good way to make a first impression with the family.

By the end of the day I was no closer to a solution than I was before. I tiredly let myself into my apartment, and heated some soup for supper. Supernova was on the evening news stopping some sort of volcanic eruption. Figures. While I spent all day moping about because I couldn’t see him anymore, he was battling the torrential forces of nature. Suddenly, a soft tapping on my balcony window startled me. I whipped my head around to see Supernova himself standing there. I raced over and let him into my apartment, giddy with excitement. He had come to visit me!

He stood awkwardly in the center of the room, nervously glancing around.

“I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” he began.

“No, definitely not,” I babbled. My tongue was loosened by the excitement I felt from his impromptu visit. “A bad time, that is. It’s a good time. Anytime really is a good time. It’s not like I was doing anything important. Not that I don’t ever do important things. I mean, I do have a life you know. And I’ve got friends… but no boyfriend, right now…” Ugh, this was terrible. Why couldn’t I have shut my mouth before I made a complete lunatic out of myself? “But the point is: I’m glad to see you again.” Despite my spew of verbal diarrhea, he gave no signs of regretting his visit. He merely smiled at me. “I see you’ve been keeping busy.” I gestured toward the TV which was still showing the volcano story.”

“Well, that’s part of the reason why I came over here tonight.” He shuffled his feet nervously.

“It is?” I asked blankly.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever battled with a volcano before, but it tends to leave one feeling a little tired.”

“Oh, really? I… didn’t know.” What was he getting at?

“Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you could give me the night off tonight. Maybe stay at home and watch some TV instead of falling into rock quarries?” I recognized that same teasing attitude from before, and I easily slipped into the routine.

“Well, I dunno,” I hedged. “I had planned a spelunking expedition for later this evening. It would be a shame to have to reschedule.” He nodded sagely.

“I thought that might be the case. So in order to sweeten the deal, I brought you this.” Out of some invisible fold in his clothing, he brought out an inky-black shimmering rock. I held out my hands to accept it.

“Oh, it’s gorgeous.”

“Obsidian,” he told me. “It’s an igneous rock. When lava is cooled rapidly-”

“There’s no time for the particles to crystallize,” I continued. “Instead, the rock takes on a glass-like structure.” I turned the rock over in my hands. “You can even see the little tracks where the lava flowed. Where did you get this?” He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head in the direction of the TV. My eyes widened. “You took this from that volcano today?” This changed the whole nature of his gift. The only way that this rock would’ve cooled enough by now was if he had done something to speed along the process. It wasn’t something he had just stumbled across while walking down the street, he had *made* it especially for me. “Wow. Thanks.”

“I thought it might come in handy for your lessons.”

“It will. A lot of my students have difficulty understanding concepts in the abstract,” I explained absentmindedly. I was still trying to process the fact that the rock I was now holding in my hand had been a mass of molten matter just hours before. “Having a physical example that they can actually hold and touch really makes the difference. Thank you.” We smiled inanely at each other. I didn’t know what to say to him. He had gone out of his way to bring me this rock, but how was I supposed to respond to it? Then Supernova awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Well, I guess I better get going…”

“Wait!” I called out before he had a chance to exit via the balcony. “I know it’s your evening off and everything…”

“Yeah?”

“But I was wondering if you could give me a hand with a little bit of lightweight hero work,” I blurted out, and snatched the movie case off of my kitchen counter. This was such a lame idea…

“‘National Lampoon’s?” he asked.

“Every month I let my students have a movie day as a reward for the work they’ve done,” I explained in a rush. “But I always preview the movies to make sure there’s no violence, or language, or difficult family situations. Most of these kids get enough of that at home anyway.” He nodded sympathetically.

“I’ve seen plenty of those situations myself.”

“Anyway,” I continued, “who better to preview a movie than a shining beacon of good morals and decency such as yourself?” I looked at him expectantly as he gave me a scrutinizing look. I held my breath.

“Do you have popcorn?” he finally asked.

“I think I could dig some out,” I told him breathlessly.

“Then I’m in.”

“Great.”

The next day, I prepared in advance for Supernova’s visit. Although he never said directly that he would come, I suspected that he would drop by again. It was a bit of a game. I knew that his silly little excuse to bring me a rock was an excuse just as he knew that I didn’t really need him to watch that movie with me. Neither of us was ready to admit that we wanted to se each other for the sake of seeing each other.

He knocked on my window that night bringing a stunning example of black marble that had been polished to a high gloss. I let him in and accepted the gift with the appropriate thanks. Then he saw my kitchen table, his eyes widening in response to the cluttered surface.

“Dr Jekyll, I had no idea you were planning world domination tonight. I would’ve come by at another time.”

“It’s for my class tomorrow,” I explained. “We’re doing a science experiment.”

“Does the science experiment have something to do with wiping out the population of Metropolis? You’ve got enough chemicals here to dump into the river and poison everyone in the city.”

“It’s not that much,” I muttered, my face growing red.

“I thought you were doing Geology with the students.”

“This is for an older grade,” I told him. “I’m going to give them a selection of chemical compounds and they’ll have to identify the components in each.”

“And you have to make the compounds first.”

“Exactly.” Supernova surveyed the plethora of materials I had gathered in my kitchen.

“Looks like you could you use some help.”

“Well, only if you have nothing better to do,” I said nonchalantly.

“Just tell me what you want done and I’ll mix it up for you ‘super’ quick.” His eyes twinkled, as I froze. Super-speed? He couldn’t use that! He’d be done in less than a minute!

“No!” I shouted. He quirked an eyebrow, questioning me. “You can’t mix these with super-speed because then the… air bubbles get in and it’s very bad for the…” I searched my mind desperately. “The ions,” I concluded.

“The ions?” The tone of his voice indicated that he didn’t believe me, but I couldn’t exactly change my mind then.

“The ions,” I confirmed resolutely. “They get all messed up and then my students won’t be able to tell the difference between ammonium and calcium carbonate.” Liar, I silently called myself.

“I never knew that could be such a problem.” He told me disbelievingly.

“Look, buddy, who’s the science teacher here, you or me? Trust me on this one.”

“Okay! I bow to your expertise.” He reached over and picked up a bottle of distilled water, swishing it back and forth. “So I guess if I were to help you it would have to be at normal speed, huh?”

“That’s pretty much the situation,” I grinned up at him, knowing that he would accept regardless of the terms. The man had flown around the world to get a rock for me. It was safe enough to assume that he would spend a little time mixing chemicals.

“All right, then,” he finally replied, “What do you want me to do?”

For the next few minutes, we concentrated on the task ahead of us. Supernova responded well to instruction, and I gave him a clear outline of what mixtures I needed for tomorrow. We had been working in companionable silence for a while before I ventured forth into conversation.

“So besides scouring the globe for rare and mysterious rocks and mixing up chemicals with local science teachers, what do you do during off hours?”

“Not much,” He replied. “I fly around looking for people needing saving, and do charity appearances” His expression was guarded, and I knew that he couldn’t be telling the real truth. It bothered me that he was side-stepping the question.

“Gee, that sounds like a real blast,” I replied sarcastically. “And here I was hoping for some juicy bit of gossip to pass on to the tabloids.” My outward denial of subterfuge seemed to relax him.

“Well, there’s also the secret bridge club that I founded with the police officers of the 12th precinct. Don’t tell anyone about though,” He joked. I smiled faintly in response.

“Seriously though,” I told him, “you do have somewhere to go when things get too tough, don’t you?” I searched in his eyes to find sincerity. “I can’t even imagine some of the stuff you must see day to day.” I shook my head sadly. “You’ve got to have a place to heal.”

“It can get pretty difficult,” he said hoarsely. “I tend to see the worst in people at times. All the terrible things they do to each other. All the deaths and injuries that happen for no reason. It can make you sick.” There was a haunted look in his eyes, and I felt the pain emanating from him. I reached out and touched his hand. The first physical contact we’ve had where he wasn’t lifting me out of some impossible predicament. He gave himself a small shake of the head, and removed his gaze from distant memories of the present. “But I do have people to go to,” He said reassuringly, “mostly my family. There’s my dad and my sister and of course my mo-” he cut the last word off in haste, but I had already figured out who he was talking about. The super family was notoriously reticent when it came to talking about the mother of the two children. Most assumed that she lived on New Krypton, or that she was a victim of a ‘passionate attack’ by Superman, and her identity was unknown by her own children. But the way Supernova included her in his list of confidantes indicated that she was part of the family here on earth. Why didn’t they say this in public? Were they trying to protect her for some reason? But Supernova was looking more and more uncomfortable with what he had just said, so I decided to just ignore his faux pas.

“And you have me now too,” I declared. “Honestly, any time you need someone to talk to you can come and see me. Really.” He gave me thankful smile.

“Kaylie, that means a lot to me. Thanks.” He stroked my hand, causing me to inhale sharply. I had forgotten that it was still on top of his. A small zing traveled through my hand and up my arm. My mouth went dry. I swallowed hesitantly.

“Supernova-” I began.

But before I could finish any half-formed thoughts, his head snapped up in a gesture that was becoming all too familiar.

“What is it?” I asked a little snappishly.

“I’m really sorry Kaylie, I have to take care of this.” He stumbled to his feet, almost knocking the chair over in his haste leave. “You can handle the rest by yourself, can’t you?” He gestured to the mess of chemicals still at the table.

“Yeah, sure,” I told him disappointedly.

“Great.” His reached the entryway for the balcony, and paused. “It was great seeing you again, Kaylie.” I gave him a small nod, and he left.

* * *

Jon flew in the direction of the sirens he had heard, mentally berating himself. How could he have let that happen? Why did he allow himself to become so open and unguarded? If he wasn’t more careful he would be giving away the whole family secret. That comment about his mom… There was no way she wouldn’t have picked up on it. How could she have relaxed him so much that he gave away something that important?

Kaylie Stewart was a human wrecking ball. Ever since their first meeting a few nights ago, she had been a master at tearing down the carefully erected barriers that kept his identity intact. He had tried to be the stand-offish stoic superhero, but he couldn’t resist the urge to bait her, tease her, smile at her, open up to her.

She scared him. He had never thought he could trust someone again, not after his last disaster of a relationship. He had vowed that he wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. Yet here he was, blabbing his intimate feelings and family secrets to this mysterious woman he had only known for a few days.

He should stop seeing her. It was too dangerous, eventually she would find out something that would give everything away. Tonight should be the last night he would see her. But he already knew he would be seeing her again. Although he had only known Kaylie for a few days, he had grown completely addicted to her. He craved the humor in her eyes, the laughter in her voice. She had never seemed fazed by his appearance as Supernova. It was as if she had the real x-ray vision and was able to look clear past the spandex and into the soul. Whatever the reason, whatever the motivation, Jon knew one thing for sure:

He had to see her again.