Guess who's coming to dinner?

[oracle_watching]

I am a grown woman, Babs reminds herself as she rolls back and forth in the kitchen. I survived growing up in Gotham. I survived being shot by the Joker. I refused to sit in a corner and do nothing when so much was taken away from me.

The soup needs more pepper. The bread is ready to come out of the oven.

I lived through the year of No Man's

Comments

[_man_of_steel_]

Clark and Lois, along with Jonathan, walk up to the building.

"You ready for this?"

[_loislane_]

Lois doesn't mean to have Jonathan quite so tightly against her, but she hasn't yet acknowledged she's in hyper-protective new mommy mode. "Sure," she says breezily. "It's just the son of our paper's owner and his very capable wife. Is he sniffling?" More swaddling is tucked around the baby. "He might be sniffling."

[_man_of_steel_]

"He's not sniffling." Clark says gently. "He managed to ignore Degeneration Y, so my guess is that his immune system's already pretty amped up." He looks at Lois. "Asphyxiation, however, I'm not so sure about."

[_loislane_]

"He's sniffling," Lois counters stiffly as she dabs at her son's nose. Asphyxiation? She doesn't even know how to spell that. She appears to get the point, however and, ever so slightly, loosens her hold on her son as she notes in a defensive tone, "He's in the most fragile stage of infancy, Clark. You might think his immune system's fine, but I'm not taking chances."

Still, as she sneaks a peek at her husband, her eyes are twinkling. Just a bit.

[_man_of_steel_]

"Do what you feel is necessary." says Clark, before pushing up his glasses. "You can't be too safe."

He presses the button. This should be interesting.

[oracle_watching]

The front door to the Graysons' home has some rather visible security features. There's a small yet obvious camera lens set into the doorframe near the button Superman just pressed. Superman's x-ray vision permits him to detect other, more subtle security features ... though there's some lead sheathing in play, keeping certain sections of the building's infrastructure a secret even from the Man of Steel.

There's a clicking sound, then a woman's voice is heard through the speaker grill below the doorbell. "Mr. and Mrs. Kent, welcome. Please come on up. The elevator's waiting for you."

[_man_of_steel_]

Clark waits for Lois and Jonathan to enter first before entering. The doors slide shut, and soon, they're where they need to be.

[_loislane_]

Lois looks around before easing, at last, her hold on Jonathan, holding him up to Clark. "Here, Smallville, take your son while I get out of my coat. Besides, these people are your friends: you're the one that should be introducing Junior."

Besides, Clark is so adorable when he's with Jonathan, and, stupid Lane, she likes seeing him like that. He's pretty hot like that. What the hell does that say about her sex life?

That it was put on hold too damned long, that's what.

[_man_of_steel_]

He unwraps Jonathan from his babushka bundle that Lois had him swaddled in. He then looks around. "Hello?"

[oracle_watching]

"Shooooooes!" declares a very young voice from the direction of the kitchen.

"Good girl!" A soft hum heralds the appearance of the sophisticated iBot wheelchair. Its occupant has one hand on the joystick controller and her other arm around a wriggling dark-haired toddler. "Hello." Her smile is only a little nervous. "I'm sorry--we've been working on consonants."

"Dood durl!" says Mary, smiling proudly, then she cocks her head, looking remarkably like her father in that move. She points at the bundle. "Baby!"

[_nightwing_]

A cat comes scampering out, jumping up onto the table to inspect the visitors. Shortly after that, a somewhat tousled Dick Grayson emerges from the bedroom - finally wearing shoes. He flashes the Kents what he hopes is a disarming grin as he makes his way over to them.

Evening, sir, Mrs. Lane.

Habits, and all that.

Here, I'll get your coats --

[_loislane_]

"Hi," Lois answers before she looks at the toddler and then at the..

"You, um, have a cat?"

[_nightwing_]

Dick glances at Gypsy, who is apparently sizing up Lois with those green eyes of hers.

Yeah, she kind of adopted me a couple years ago.

[oracle_watching]

"We can put her in our bedroom if you'd like," Babs offers.

[_man_of_steel_]

Clark looks to Lois. He's not saying a word.

He then turns to Mary. "Hello."

[_nightwing_]

Mary's eyebrows rise up into her hairline as she returns the look with vivid, inquisitive green eyes. She's not sure about him yet.

"Aboo ana dada?"

Who knows what she's asking.