Superman Returns fic: The Ignorance Defense, gen
'Twas the night after Christmas, and all throughout LJ, the people were posting gifts they didn't quite finish on time. This is for dingogrrl, who's been looking for some way to reconcile Superman Returns (and the presence of Jason) with Conner Kent (Superboy). A lot of this is inspired by her ideas.
Title: The Ignorance Defense
Rating: PG for thematic material! Hee.
Summary: Those who don't understand the past are still bound by it.
Note: This is still set very much in the Superman Returns 'verse. I have taken elements from DC comicsverse, but they are hardly a pure translation. Knowledge of the extended DC universe (yes, including Smallville) is helpful, but not required.
Also, Lex Jr is played by this guy. Amazing coincidence, yeah?
Now:
Just as Superman was about to leap from the pavement, Richard White's hand caught his forearm. Checked mid-step, he pulled Richard two steps forward and slightly away from the crowd before he stopped and looked back at him. "Is something wrong, Richard?" he asked.
Richard shook his head. He smoothed his tie with the hand that slid off Superman's. "Can we get together to talk? Privately, sometime?"
Superman hesitated briefly. "If there's a problem--"
"It's about Jason." Richard kept his voice low, and his steady gaze broke for the first time as he glanced around warily. "Sometime soon, alright?"
Superman nodded, expressionless. "I'll find you," he said, and then he was gone--flying away. Richard turned away and disappeared in the crowd.
Later, they found each other on the roof of the Daily Planet. Richard was confidant that Superman would notice him up here, and that's where he planted himself, with his lunch and his Blackberry.
"Jason," Superman reminded him. He hovered over the ledge for a moment, but settled on his feet beside Richard.
Richard didn't mind coming to the point directly. He still found speaking to this man, costumed and heroic and taller than him, quite disconcerting. "He needs you to be a part of his life."
Superman kept his head tilted down, and Richard gave him the privacy of hiding his expression. "Lois has made it quite clear that she doesn't want him to know--who I am."
"That you're his father," Richard corrected. In the days that had already passed since the revelation, he had found it easy to be the one who said it. The difficult things were somehow far less difficult when he was the only one willing to confront them. It was not a new discovery for Richard. "Well, he needs to know, regardless. We don't get to pick and choose reality for him. It's the truth and the only thing we can do is handle it."
Superman returned his look quietly. "The truth," he repeated.
"Yeah," Richard answered. "One of the things you stand for, isn't that?"
Superman nodded shortly. "I realize you are--you are correct, Richard," he said slowly. "But Lois is his mother, and I haven't been...around. I'm not convinced she's wrong, or that there is or even should be a place for me in Jason's life right now."
Richard shrugged. He held up the other half of his sandwich. "Are you hungry? And would you mind sitting down, because looking up at you in the sun is giving me a migraine."
Immediately, Superman stepped down and sat beside him. A moment later, he took the sandwich. "Thank you, Richard."
"Look, like I said," Richard went on, after taking the last sip of his water. "You're his biological father. Whether or not you are a part of his life is not the question."
"I thought it would be best all around to respect Lois' decisions when it comes to Jason."
"Well, Lois isn't really making any decisions at all right now," Richard replied. He reached into his briefcase and pulled out his last resort: a bag of corn chips. "And my name is on his birth certificate, as well, so I think I have a say in Jason's life."
So that was how it began. Richard created opportunities to give Jason time with his father. As for what Lois knew or didn't want to know, Richard insisted she had to choose for herself how she handled it. For now it was her choice to pretend it wasn't happening. She came home later and later from work in the evenings.
*
Then:
It was stunningly easy to find out everything he wanted to know. There were certain predictable keywords, of course, and everything revolved around Superman, and from Lex Luthor to Superman to Lois Lane hardly took a leap of logic. Lois Lane to pregnancy was a more fascinating step.
When Lois found out she was pregnant, she went to a free clinic and made an appointment to get an abortion. She considered going to the police, and she considered going to a psychiatrist, and she considered writing an incisive editorial about her experience as a victim of unexplainable rape. Superman had been missing for two months and she’d been denying the pregnancy almost as long, and she didn’t know how it fit together, but somehow she just knew the abortion would hurt her more than carrying this baby. Ultimately, she didn't tell anyone anything; she just made an appointment with the obstetrician her insurance recommended.
As it turned out, she needed a specialist. Seven months later, her personal savings hit rock bottom, she moved in with Richard and Jason was delivered cesarean. She was below her target pregnancy weight and he was premature. He stayed in the hospital for two weeks and she stayed away from work for six.
It took relatively little research to discover what he needed to position himself accurately. Lois Lane's motivation, for all her elusive aura of mystery, was consistent and transparent. But then, the resources available to a Luthor were practically endless.
He didn't use his real name professionally, and hadn't since he left the exclusive boarding school where he lived among the other rich and secluded children of celebrities. He changed his name officially when he was 15 and his father was thrown into prison the first time. The medical license hanging on the wall of his office is made out to Alexander Harris, but his birth license reads Lex Luthor II.
*
Now:
Jason likes the quiet. Usually, when he and Mom and Daddy go out together, they go somewhere busy. At work, there's lots of people, and Jason doesn't mind them but he knows he has to play by himself because everyone is doing very important stuff and he might mess stuff up if he touches anything. Or they go to the park, where there's lots of kids, and Mom and Daddy sit on a bench or at a picnic table and Jason watches them until they have lunch spread out or Mom gets on the phone and Daddy comes to find him because he knows lots of the kids from school but he doesn't want to play with them. Sometimes they go out to dinner, but usually not because Jason can't eat anything at the fancy places and it's way more better to eat at home in front of the TV anyway.
But when they go out with Superman, they always go someplace quiet. No one else is around, and Daddy holds his hand as they walk from the car through the forrest to the abandoned dock on the river, and sometimes they have to sit and watch the boats going by for awhile before Superman arrives. He always looks embarrassed, even though Daddy and Jason both know when Superman's late it's 'cause he was saving somebody somewhere. Then he sits with them and he likes the quiet just as much as Jason does. He doesn't even hop up and say they're wasting time by just sitting there.
They talk about the boats passing by. Superman can see right into them and tell them what's going on inside. Sometimes, he looks but won't tell them--especially with the little motor boats--and Daddy grins and says, "Sometimes people go sailing for private time, kiddo." And Jason doesn't even care, because Daddy and Superman are having fun, and Jason knows he's the reason they're there.
It's like other things can't be so bad, too, if even Superman wants to hang out with him. He forgets he's keeping secrets about the kids at school, who don't talk to him since the time at recess when he made them scared. Or about Mom, who keeps forgetting to come tuck him in. Or about what happened when they were on Lex Luthor's ship.
Superman says he can come flying with him, sometime, if he likes--and his daddy can come, too, if he'd like that. Jason's thinking about it. He thinks that it might be pretty cool to fly without an airplane. But Daddy looks sort of nervous everytime he brings it up, so Jason decides he's not ready yet. He likes it lots that they just sit on the deck and don't go anywhere. He doesn't want to mess that up just because Superman can fly.
*
Then:
For Lois, pregnancy is so disconcerting that she's willing to listen to someone else for once in her life. When Dr. Harris says, take these vitamins, or make an appointment for every week just to be cautious, she does.
He even gives her that old line about a fetus sensing when its mother is unhappy, and she buys it. Her guilt-stricken expression is quickly followed by the presence of Richard White at her examinations, unfortunately.
Richard asks more questions and isn't hormonally challenged. He's obviously the sort of man to get romantically involved with a pregnant woman, but otherwise he seems extremely clear-headed. Fortunately, the baby actually is poor of health. The infant preoccupies most of their real attention.
It would be almost impossible for them to discover their doctor has been collecting natal material from the child from the moment he did the first ultrasound, even as he provides them expert medical care. The placenta is particularly precious to him. He carefully preserves it, locked in the facility he's built under his laboratory.
*
Now:
Jimmy was procrastinating again. He said it himself: "I know what you're thinking, CK, you're thinking I'm procrastinating. You know, procrastinators will take over the world some day after all these, you know, go-getters have all died off--"
"From stress?" Clark suggested with a small grin.
"Right, or just--like--too much exercise." He waggled his eyebrows and rolled his eyes toward Lois knowingly. Jason giggled. Clark didn't think he knew what Jimmy was talking about so much as was entertained by his antics.
Jason was sitting on Clark's lap and Clark was doing some procrastinating, himself. He just felt that snatching a few moments, unrecognized, with his son was more a case of different priorities.
"Jimmy, aren't you supposed to be developing the pictures that go with my--" Jimmy disappeared before Lois finished the sentence.
"Just finishing, Lois!" trailed behind him as he skidded his way across the newsroom.
Clark looked down at Jason. "What did he just say about exercise?" Jason grinned. Clark loved that Jason came over to his desk to talk. He always asked politely whether Clark was "busy with a story" but he wasn't looking for entertainment. Everytime he dozed off against Clark's chest while Clark typed, he accepted it as a gift. Jason's interest couldn't possibly last, and neither would his small size.
Clark looked up at Lois. She rested her hand on Jason's shoulder, but she was watching the television over their heads. "The incident, which took place less than an hour ago, triggered a sequence of events that took the residents of this apartment building completely by surprise. Many families, undrilled in fire escape patterns, now find themselves trapped in their eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth story homes."
"I suppose Superman will be there," Lois observed slowly. "I'd better--" she gestured vaguely. She bent down slightly to to speak to Jason, "Sweetie, you'd better go find Daddy so Clark can get back to work, alright?" She turned away before Clark could say anything and hurried back to her desk. Jason was already climbing off his lap. Clark sighed, giving him a hand.
"Sorry, buddy. Guess you better do what your mom says."
"Can I wait here 'til you get back?" Jason asked, looking back up at him. "Promise not to touch anything."
Clark opened his mouth to question him, but Jason glanced back at the television, which was now insisting the situation was becoming increasingly drastic. Jason stepped aside as if Clark was trying to get up. Clark closed his mouth, and smiled at Jason, the corners of his mouth automatically curling into a well-used smile. He nodded. "Okay, Jason. I'll be back after awhile." He got up and set Jason in the seat he had just vacated. "Tell your mom I said it was okay if she asks."
Jason nodded, hair falling into his eyes, and turned back to the television set. Clark supposed he expected to see him in the live shot within a matter of minutes, and he was right to be confident. Superman appeared to avert disaster, and when he turned to face the reporters he had decided the choice was Richard's again. In front of the television stations, he displayed the same distantly benevolent smile.
*
Then:
The child was quite sickly, which surprised him. In an effort to counteract whatever difficulty Superman's genes had acclimatizing to Earth, he added a little bit more of himself to the petri dish. It just made the project that much more personal, he thought.
The first embryo was not a success and had to be discarded. He surprised himself with his emotional involvement. It had been many years since he was so passionate about his work. When at last a viable specimen registered as intelligent life, Lex couldn't sleep for 48 hours straight and spent his time calculating risks and allocating budgets, planning for the future and eventually, hovering in a delirium over the chemical vat hypothesizing how the boy's powers would manifest.
His own father didn't try to contact him when he got out of prison this time, and it's just as well. He has a life to protect--more than just his own life, now.
*
Now:
It took three weeks of planning to get Lois to go out with him. Once he made a reservation, she couldn't get out of it, and that was the plan. He wasn't ashamed of his tactics. He lived with the woman, but she still managed to avoid serious conversation. Jason was a good shield for that. Jason had both connected and acted as a natural buffer between them for his entire life.
The way that she looked at him in the candlelight, he knew that she knew what he wanted to talk about. She was begging him with her eyes not to bring it up, but Richard wasn't okay with that. He could deal with her not talking about it, but she couldn't, and that was the problem. They couldn't be in the same room together without suffocating from her fear of when he was going to bring it up.
"Lois," he said, taking her hand across the table. She sighed and looked away. It was a gesture of irritation when she took her hand back.
"Richard, I can't do this," she said preemptively.
"Lois, I don't want to--I have nothing to accuse you of. I don't know who you think I am that you're afraid of this conversation--"
"It's not that--"
"Then I don't know who you are that you're afraid to face this head-on, with me on your side." He leaned forward and lowered his voice slightly. "With him on your side, for God's sake, Lois. We can work this out. For Jason's sake."
She started fiddling with her hands. "Richard, this is not the place to have this discussion. It isn't fair to spring this on me--"
"Lois." He heard the snap in his voice and stopped. He clenched his teeth and looked out the window. The restaurant was on the river, but their view was obstructed by the riverside shopping plaza. It was a busy scene, lit by streetlights. He sighed.
"I just can't handle this right now, I'm sorry," she said softly. She rubbed her brow with both index fingers. She really did sound sorry. And she sounded tired. Unfortunately, he was aware that self-imposed late nights and following her own cross-town leads were the cause of her exhaustion. For a moment, he wished it was a fact he could ignore. But--Superman had warned him, just that morning, that he had another secret to tell. And he knew that if Lois didn't want to hear it, the secret would be one more thing they couldn't share.
"If you don't handle your life, Lois," he said slowly, making sure he kept his voice level, "it will go on without you."
She stopped twirling the ring on her finger and narrowed her eyes at him. "Is that a threat?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not a threat, Lois. It's an observation." He took his glass of wine and swirled it, but he didn't feel like drinking. "And I'm not saying we have to sit here and discuss this. I just--how can I tell you I don't mind handling this for us as a family without just saying it?"
She laughed harshly. "Okay, so you've said it. Fine. Just leave me out of it, Richard. I don't know how to--" She pressed her lips together and shook her head. "He's Superman," she hissed at him. Richard nodded. "How can he be in our lives without just taking over them?"
Richard looked at the table, to hide the sharp sting in his eyes. He couldn't answer. He swallowed.
Lois picked up her glass and drank the wine.
She leaped out of the car when they pulled up to the house. The babysitter was deployed to delay Richard on the front porch, and Lois disappeared into Jason's room. When he looked in on them, she was reading him a book. In the dim light, he couldn't tell if Jason's eyes were open.
Richard slept in his office. He finished a long article the next day at work, and then for the first time he wondered if this time Superman's big secret might actually make his life better.
And he realized he wanted to hear it regardless.
*
Then:
Through the crack between Daddy's seat and the side of the cabin, Jason could see his white fingers trying to lift the airplane. He knew Daddy could do it, because they'd flown together lots before, but Daddy always checked the weather before they went anywhere before. Even if he'd promised they'd go, Daddy always said "Old man Nature gets the last word, buddy, I'm sorry," and they stayed home when it wasn't safe.
Superman could fly in anything because he didn't need an airplane, but Superman was sleeping in the back. Mom was holding onto the back of Jason's seat and screaming, "Richard!" Mom didn't know about being quiet in an emergency.
"It's too choppy!" Daddy yelled back. He was going to save them, though, because he knew all about flying. And Jason didn't want to distract him, because flying a plane and especially take-off was very complicated and that was why Jason wasn't allowed to touch anything unless Daddy said he could first. So he held on to the sides of his seat as tight as he could and tried not to move, not even when the plane dropped back into the water and the waves splashed against the window by his face. As long as he was quiet, Daddy could get the airplane back in the air and then he knew they would be safe.
Daddy's shoulders jerked so hard as he pulled back against the throttle his seat pushed against Jason's knees, and then everything was falling forward as the plane kept dropping. Jason closed his eyes and held his breath and imagined Daddy's hands pulling back on the throttle like he'd shown him, "slow and gentle, Jason, it's a nice smooth movement--that's it, kiddo, see, flying's easy!" Then they really were flying, and Daddy's hands were steady and normal on the throttle when Jason opened his eyes again. He looked out the window and told himself, don't think about falling, and it will be okay. Then Daddy looked over his shoulder to see if everybody was okay, and Jason felt sort of sick.
And he thought: I didn't touch anything. But he still felt like he did something wrong.
*
Now:
He accelerated the clone's development so when he removed him from incubation he could pass for a child about six years old. Physical growth was only one component of raising a superpowered clone, and there was a great deal more to the education he planned for him. He knew from experience that loyalty must be bred in a face-to-face relationship and through persistant application starting young. This was the crux of his plan.
Already the clone was manifesting intriguing powers that Lex could only identify as tactile telekinesis, an ability to control his immediate surroundings with his mind. By the time Lex formed the boy into the tool he envisioned, he would finally once again control all the Luthor assets. He intended to rebuild LexCorp into the influential multinational corporation it once was.
Though he officially documented the boy as his son, he cannot abide being called "Dad." He'd grown used to other people calling him Alex or Dr. Harris, but in his own mind, that was not his name. So Conner called him Lex, instead.
*
In honor of Christmas, cut-tag text taken from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: "I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!"
Title: The Ignorance Defense
Rating: PG for thematic material! Hee.
Summary: Those who don't understand the past are still bound by it.
Note: This is still set very much in the Superman Returns 'verse. I have taken elements from DC comicsverse, but they are hardly a pure translation. Knowledge of the extended DC universe (yes, including Smallville) is helpful, but not required.
Also, Lex Jr is played by this guy. Amazing coincidence, yeah?
Now:
Just as Superman was about to leap from the pavement, Richard White's hand caught his forearm. Checked mid-step, he pulled Richard two steps forward and slightly away from the crowd before he stopped and looked back at him. "Is something wrong, Richard?" he asked.
Richard shook his head. He smoothed his tie with the hand that slid off Superman's. "Can we get together to talk? Privately, sometime?"
Superman hesitated briefly. "If there's a problem--"
"It's about Jason." Richard kept his voice low, and his steady gaze broke for the first time as he glanced around warily. "Sometime soon, alright?"
Superman nodded, expressionless. "I'll find you," he said, and then he was gone--flying away. Richard turned away and disappeared in the crowd.
Later, they found each other on the roof of the Daily Planet. Richard was confidant that Superman would notice him up here, and that's where he planted himself, with his lunch and his Blackberry.
"Jason," Superman reminded him. He hovered over the ledge for a moment, but settled on his feet beside Richard.
Richard didn't mind coming to the point directly. He still found speaking to this man, costumed and heroic and taller than him, quite disconcerting. "He needs you to be a part of his life."
Superman kept his head tilted down, and Richard gave him the privacy of hiding his expression. "Lois has made it quite clear that she doesn't want him to know--who I am."
"That you're his father," Richard corrected. In the days that had already passed since the revelation, he had found it easy to be the one who said it. The difficult things were somehow far less difficult when he was the only one willing to confront them. It was not a new discovery for Richard. "Well, he needs to know, regardless. We don't get to pick and choose reality for him. It's the truth and the only thing we can do is handle it."
Superman returned his look quietly. "The truth," he repeated.
"Yeah," Richard answered. "One of the things you stand for, isn't that?"
Superman nodded shortly. "I realize you are--you are correct, Richard," he said slowly. "But Lois is his mother, and I haven't been...around. I'm not convinced she's wrong, or that there is or even should be a place for me in Jason's life right now."
Richard shrugged. He held up the other half of his sandwich. "Are you hungry? And would you mind sitting down, because looking up at you in the sun is giving me a migraine."
Immediately, Superman stepped down and sat beside him. A moment later, he took the sandwich. "Thank you, Richard."
"Look, like I said," Richard went on, after taking the last sip of his water. "You're his biological father. Whether or not you are a part of his life is not the question."
"I thought it would be best all around to respect Lois' decisions when it comes to Jason."
"Well, Lois isn't really making any decisions at all right now," Richard replied. He reached into his briefcase and pulled out his last resort: a bag of corn chips. "And my name is on his birth certificate, as well, so I think I have a say in Jason's life."
So that was how it began. Richard created opportunities to give Jason time with his father. As for what Lois knew or didn't want to know, Richard insisted she had to choose for herself how she handled it. For now it was her choice to pretend it wasn't happening. She came home later and later from work in the evenings.
*
Then:
It was stunningly easy to find out everything he wanted to know. There were certain predictable keywords, of course, and everything revolved around Superman, and from Lex Luthor to Superman to Lois Lane hardly took a leap of logic. Lois Lane to pregnancy was a more fascinating step.
When Lois found out she was pregnant, she went to a free clinic and made an appointment to get an abortion. She considered going to the police, and she considered going to a psychiatrist, and she considered writing an incisive editorial about her experience as a victim of unexplainable rape. Superman had been missing for two months and she’d been denying the pregnancy almost as long, and she didn’t know how it fit together, but somehow she just knew the abortion would hurt her more than carrying this baby. Ultimately, she didn't tell anyone anything; she just made an appointment with the obstetrician her insurance recommended.
As it turned out, she needed a specialist. Seven months later, her personal savings hit rock bottom, she moved in with Richard and Jason was delivered cesarean. She was below her target pregnancy weight and he was premature. He stayed in the hospital for two weeks and she stayed away from work for six.
It took relatively little research to discover what he needed to position himself accurately. Lois Lane's motivation, for all her elusive aura of mystery, was consistent and transparent. But then, the resources available to a Luthor were practically endless.
He didn't use his real name professionally, and hadn't since he left the exclusive boarding school where he lived among the other rich and secluded children of celebrities. He changed his name officially when he was 15 and his father was thrown into prison the first time. The medical license hanging on the wall of his office is made out to Alexander Harris, but his birth license reads Lex Luthor II.
*
Now:
Jason likes the quiet. Usually, when he and Mom and Daddy go out together, they go somewhere busy. At work, there's lots of people, and Jason doesn't mind them but he knows he has to play by himself because everyone is doing very important stuff and he might mess stuff up if he touches anything. Or they go to the park, where there's lots of kids, and Mom and Daddy sit on a bench or at a picnic table and Jason watches them until they have lunch spread out or Mom gets on the phone and Daddy comes to find him because he knows lots of the kids from school but he doesn't want to play with them. Sometimes they go out to dinner, but usually not because Jason can't eat anything at the fancy places and it's way more better to eat at home in front of the TV anyway.
But when they go out with Superman, they always go someplace quiet. No one else is around, and Daddy holds his hand as they walk from the car through the forrest to the abandoned dock on the river, and sometimes they have to sit and watch the boats going by for awhile before Superman arrives. He always looks embarrassed, even though Daddy and Jason both know when Superman's late it's 'cause he was saving somebody somewhere. Then he sits with them and he likes the quiet just as much as Jason does. He doesn't even hop up and say they're wasting time by just sitting there.
They talk about the boats passing by. Superman can see right into them and tell them what's going on inside. Sometimes, he looks but won't tell them--especially with the little motor boats--and Daddy grins and says, "Sometimes people go sailing for private time, kiddo." And Jason doesn't even care, because Daddy and Superman are having fun, and Jason knows he's the reason they're there.
It's like other things can't be so bad, too, if even Superman wants to hang out with him. He forgets he's keeping secrets about the kids at school, who don't talk to him since the time at recess when he made them scared. Or about Mom, who keeps forgetting to come tuck him in. Or about what happened when they were on Lex Luthor's ship.
Superman says he can come flying with him, sometime, if he likes--and his daddy can come, too, if he'd like that. Jason's thinking about it. He thinks that it might be pretty cool to fly without an airplane. But Daddy looks sort of nervous everytime he brings it up, so Jason decides he's not ready yet. He likes it lots that they just sit on the deck and don't go anywhere. He doesn't want to mess that up just because Superman can fly.
*
Then:
For Lois, pregnancy is so disconcerting that she's willing to listen to someone else for once in her life. When Dr. Harris says, take these vitamins, or make an appointment for every week just to be cautious, she does.
He even gives her that old line about a fetus sensing when its mother is unhappy, and she buys it. Her guilt-stricken expression is quickly followed by the presence of Richard White at her examinations, unfortunately.
Richard asks more questions and isn't hormonally challenged. He's obviously the sort of man to get romantically involved with a pregnant woman, but otherwise he seems extremely clear-headed. Fortunately, the baby actually is poor of health. The infant preoccupies most of their real attention.
It would be almost impossible for them to discover their doctor has been collecting natal material from the child from the moment he did the first ultrasound, even as he provides them expert medical care. The placenta is particularly precious to him. He carefully preserves it, locked in the facility he's built under his laboratory.
*
Now:
Jimmy was procrastinating again. He said it himself: "I know what you're thinking, CK, you're thinking I'm procrastinating. You know, procrastinators will take over the world some day after all these, you know, go-getters have all died off--"
"From stress?" Clark suggested with a small grin.
"Right, or just--like--too much exercise." He waggled his eyebrows and rolled his eyes toward Lois knowingly. Jason giggled. Clark didn't think he knew what Jimmy was talking about so much as was entertained by his antics.
Jason was sitting on Clark's lap and Clark was doing some procrastinating, himself. He just felt that snatching a few moments, unrecognized, with his son was more a case of different priorities.
"Jimmy, aren't you supposed to be developing the pictures that go with my--" Jimmy disappeared before Lois finished the sentence.
"Just finishing, Lois!" trailed behind him as he skidded his way across the newsroom.
Clark looked down at Jason. "What did he just say about exercise?" Jason grinned. Clark loved that Jason came over to his desk to talk. He always asked politely whether Clark was "busy with a story" but he wasn't looking for entertainment. Everytime he dozed off against Clark's chest while Clark typed, he accepted it as a gift. Jason's interest couldn't possibly last, and neither would his small size.
Clark looked up at Lois. She rested her hand on Jason's shoulder, but she was watching the television over their heads. "The incident, which took place less than an hour ago, triggered a sequence of events that took the residents of this apartment building completely by surprise. Many families, undrilled in fire escape patterns, now find themselves trapped in their eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth story homes."
"I suppose Superman will be there," Lois observed slowly. "I'd better--" she gestured vaguely. She bent down slightly to to speak to Jason, "Sweetie, you'd better go find Daddy so Clark can get back to work, alright?" She turned away before Clark could say anything and hurried back to her desk. Jason was already climbing off his lap. Clark sighed, giving him a hand.
"Sorry, buddy. Guess you better do what your mom says."
"Can I wait here 'til you get back?" Jason asked, looking back up at him. "Promise not to touch anything."
Clark opened his mouth to question him, but Jason glanced back at the television, which was now insisting the situation was becoming increasingly drastic. Jason stepped aside as if Clark was trying to get up. Clark closed his mouth, and smiled at Jason, the corners of his mouth automatically curling into a well-used smile. He nodded. "Okay, Jason. I'll be back after awhile." He got up and set Jason in the seat he had just vacated. "Tell your mom I said it was okay if she asks."
Jason nodded, hair falling into his eyes, and turned back to the television set. Clark supposed he expected to see him in the live shot within a matter of minutes, and he was right to be confident. Superman appeared to avert disaster, and when he turned to face the reporters he had decided the choice was Richard's again. In front of the television stations, he displayed the same distantly benevolent smile.
*
Then:
The child was quite sickly, which surprised him. In an effort to counteract whatever difficulty Superman's genes had acclimatizing to Earth, he added a little bit more of himself to the petri dish. It just made the project that much more personal, he thought.
The first embryo was not a success and had to be discarded. He surprised himself with his emotional involvement. It had been many years since he was so passionate about his work. When at last a viable specimen registered as intelligent life, Lex couldn't sleep for 48 hours straight and spent his time calculating risks and allocating budgets, planning for the future and eventually, hovering in a delirium over the chemical vat hypothesizing how the boy's powers would manifest.
His own father didn't try to contact him when he got out of prison this time, and it's just as well. He has a life to protect--more than just his own life, now.
*
Now:
It took three weeks of planning to get Lois to go out with him. Once he made a reservation, she couldn't get out of it, and that was the plan. He wasn't ashamed of his tactics. He lived with the woman, but she still managed to avoid serious conversation. Jason was a good shield for that. Jason had both connected and acted as a natural buffer between them for his entire life.
The way that she looked at him in the candlelight, he knew that she knew what he wanted to talk about. She was begging him with her eyes not to bring it up, but Richard wasn't okay with that. He could deal with her not talking about it, but she couldn't, and that was the problem. They couldn't be in the same room together without suffocating from her fear of when he was going to bring it up.
"Lois," he said, taking her hand across the table. She sighed and looked away. It was a gesture of irritation when she took her hand back.
"Richard, I can't do this," she said preemptively.
"Lois, I don't want to--I have nothing to accuse you of. I don't know who you think I am that you're afraid of this conversation--"
"It's not that--"
"Then I don't know who you are that you're afraid to face this head-on, with me on your side." He leaned forward and lowered his voice slightly. "With him on your side, for God's sake, Lois. We can work this out. For Jason's sake."
She started fiddling with her hands. "Richard, this is not the place to have this discussion. It isn't fair to spring this on me--"
"Lois." He heard the snap in his voice and stopped. He clenched his teeth and looked out the window. The restaurant was on the river, but their view was obstructed by the riverside shopping plaza. It was a busy scene, lit by streetlights. He sighed.
"I just can't handle this right now, I'm sorry," she said softly. She rubbed her brow with both index fingers. She really did sound sorry. And she sounded tired. Unfortunately, he was aware that self-imposed late nights and following her own cross-town leads were the cause of her exhaustion. For a moment, he wished it was a fact he could ignore. But--Superman had warned him, just that morning, that he had another secret to tell. And he knew that if Lois didn't want to hear it, the secret would be one more thing they couldn't share.
"If you don't handle your life, Lois," he said slowly, making sure he kept his voice level, "it will go on without you."
She stopped twirling the ring on her finger and narrowed her eyes at him. "Is that a threat?"
He shook his head. "No, it's not a threat, Lois. It's an observation." He took his glass of wine and swirled it, but he didn't feel like drinking. "And I'm not saying we have to sit here and discuss this. I just--how can I tell you I don't mind handling this for us as a family without just saying it?"
She laughed harshly. "Okay, so you've said it. Fine. Just leave me out of it, Richard. I don't know how to--" She pressed her lips together and shook her head. "He's Superman," she hissed at him. Richard nodded. "How can he be in our lives without just taking over them?"
Richard looked at the table, to hide the sharp sting in his eyes. He couldn't answer. He swallowed.
Lois picked up her glass and drank the wine.
She leaped out of the car when they pulled up to the house. The babysitter was deployed to delay Richard on the front porch, and Lois disappeared into Jason's room. When he looked in on them, she was reading him a book. In the dim light, he couldn't tell if Jason's eyes were open.
Richard slept in his office. He finished a long article the next day at work, and then for the first time he wondered if this time Superman's big secret might actually make his life better.
And he realized he wanted to hear it regardless.
*
Then:
Through the crack between Daddy's seat and the side of the cabin, Jason could see his white fingers trying to lift the airplane. He knew Daddy could do it, because they'd flown together lots before, but Daddy always checked the weather before they went anywhere before. Even if he'd promised they'd go, Daddy always said "Old man Nature gets the last word, buddy, I'm sorry," and they stayed home when it wasn't safe.
Superman could fly in anything because he didn't need an airplane, but Superman was sleeping in the back. Mom was holding onto the back of Jason's seat and screaming, "Richard!" Mom didn't know about being quiet in an emergency.
"It's too choppy!" Daddy yelled back. He was going to save them, though, because he knew all about flying. And Jason didn't want to distract him, because flying a plane and especially take-off was very complicated and that was why Jason wasn't allowed to touch anything unless Daddy said he could first. So he held on to the sides of his seat as tight as he could and tried not to move, not even when the plane dropped back into the water and the waves splashed against the window by his face. As long as he was quiet, Daddy could get the airplane back in the air and then he knew they would be safe.
Daddy's shoulders jerked so hard as he pulled back against the throttle his seat pushed against Jason's knees, and then everything was falling forward as the plane kept dropping. Jason closed his eyes and held his breath and imagined Daddy's hands pulling back on the throttle like he'd shown him, "slow and gentle, Jason, it's a nice smooth movement--that's it, kiddo, see, flying's easy!" Then they really were flying, and Daddy's hands were steady and normal on the throttle when Jason opened his eyes again. He looked out the window and told himself, don't think about falling, and it will be okay. Then Daddy looked over his shoulder to see if everybody was okay, and Jason felt sort of sick.
And he thought: I didn't touch anything. But he still felt like he did something wrong.
*
Now:
He accelerated the clone's development so when he removed him from incubation he could pass for a child about six years old. Physical growth was only one component of raising a superpowered clone, and there was a great deal more to the education he planned for him. He knew from experience that loyalty must be bred in a face-to-face relationship and through persistant application starting young. This was the crux of his plan.
Already the clone was manifesting intriguing powers that Lex could only identify as tactile telekinesis, an ability to control his immediate surroundings with his mind. By the time Lex formed the boy into the tool he envisioned, he would finally once again control all the Luthor assets. He intended to rebuild LexCorp into the influential multinational corporation it once was.
Though he officially documented the boy as his son, he cannot abide being called "Dad." He'd grown used to other people calling him Alex or Dr. Harris, but in his own mind, that was not his name. So Conner called him Lex, instead.
*
In honor of Christmas, cut-tag text taken from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: "I told you these were shadows of the things that have been," said the Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me!"