Fic: Superman: Aftermath | DCU/SR | Clark/Lois | PG-13 | 14/56
Title: Superman: Aftermath
Author: Saavikam
Fandom: Superman Returns
Pairings: Lois/Richard, Clark/Lois
Rating - This Chapter: PG-13
Chapter Word Count: 4,616
Summary: In the days following the events of Superman Returns, both Clark and Lois are reeling from events that have changed their lives forever, and the city of Metropolis is in shambles. Things only get worse as Lois's relationship with Richard takes a nosedive, the US government wants to send a survey and potential mining mission to New Krypton, and vast amounts of kryptonite show up in the hands of criminals on the streets of Metropolis.
Chapter Summary: After Lois brings Jason back to the Planet for the evening so she and Clark can get some work done, Perry gives her a new assignment and Clark helps Jason deal with his emerging abilities.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction. Superman and the DC Comics universe are property of DC Comics and Warner Brothers. No money has been made or will be made from the production of this work. Darn it.
Author's Notes: This has been one of my favorite chapters, for a variety of reasons. ^_~ Two more chapters are now in beta, and should be posted in the next 2 days.
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Chapter 14
With Jason rushing ahead of her, quickly weaving his way through Daily Planet staffers, Lois stepped through the doors to the bullpen, her thoughts continuing to linger on Richard. Watching her son tear through the newsroom, she wondered again how he would take the news that the only father he had ever known was probably leaving for good after his business trip. For now, he seemed totally oblivious, and Lois supposed that was all right. Jason was excited more about Superman and all things related than he had ever been about anything else, Richard's sea plane included. So much so that he was like a totally different boy.
Though the change in him was so stark as to seem alarming in a way, rationally, she knew that it was probably due to his newfound health; he hadn't needed his inhaler once since Saturday morning, and they had Superman to thank for that. Of course, if she hadn't exposed Jason to kryptonite during his troubled infancy, things might have been very different. He might have been this energetic ball of sunshine since the beginning. But she'd examined every angle of her decision and sorted through the guilt, and now all she could do was to try to relegate the entire line of thinking to the 'better left in the past' file.
Lost in thought, she didn't immediately notice that at the other end of the bullpen, Jason's trip had ended at Clark's desk.
“Clark!” he called out, prompting the reporter to look up from his computer as he nearly crashed to a halt at his feet. A smile spread across Clark's face as Jason flung his backpack to the floor and jumped up to hug him.
“Hey, Jason!” he returned, momentarily stunned, hugging him quickly and setting him back on the floor, where the little boy proceeded to take off his coat and rummage through his backpack.
Pulling out a paper, Jason thrust it into Clark's hands. “Look! We got to paint today, so I painted-” he lowered his voice to a whisper “-Krypton.”
Feeling a tiny wave of excitement come over him, Clark examined the paper, and sure enough, it was a picture of Krypton. Or at least, Krypton from the imagination of a five year old. The bottom half of the page was covered with what resembled New Krypton, except with prettier colors: reds, pinks, blues, yellows, and greens. Overhead, the sun shone in bright red, and the sky was pale blue and pink. Realizing it was a pretty accurate representation, Clark couldn't help but grin, “Wow, Jason, this is amazing!”
As Lois finally approached, Clark stood and looked at her, noticing how her face was scrunched up in confusion at them. It hit him that she must have been quite baffled by the connection he was making with Jason. After all, it was Superman that was his father. On the heels of that revelation, a small feeling of hope welled up in his chest that she might eventually put two and two together, so that he wouldn't have to tell her himself, before the thought was squashed with, Coward!
“You guys got back pretty quickly,” he observed.
At that, the look of confusion on her face was replaced with a quick smile. “Yeah, Eighth Street was finally opened back up, and since the Metro was back to full capacity this morning, traffic was a breeze. Did I miss anything good while I was gone?”
“Actually, you missed a lot.” He handed the painting back to Jason, who stowed it in his backpack and scurried off towards Perry's office. “The Chinese president and Russian president gave a short press conference about a half hour ago. Looks like they don't want anything to do with a mission to New Krypton,” he explained as the pair stepped across the aisle to Lois's desk, where she shrugged off her coat and purse.
“Wow. If that doesn't effectively end the whole thing, I don't know what could. Maybe we were wrong about the situation. Maybe the rest of the world is more behind Superman that we thought,” she mused, crossing her arms in front of her.
Clark nodded in agreement. “We can hope, at least. The problem is, until we can get Lex Luthor back into police custody, the government will probably keep using him as an excuse to go forward with the mission. They'll probably decide to go it alone, no matter what the G8 or the UN decides.” The feeling of frustration swept over him anew. They hadn't had any luck finding even the slightest bit of evidence to point them toward Luthor, and the longer it took them to locate him, the greater the possibility that he would never be found.
“Damn.” Lois stopped and picked up a notepad from her desk, flipping through it quickly. “Well, I've still got to interview Stephen Vanderworth again about his involvement of the military in this whole thing - and don't think I'm looking forward to that one bit,” she visibly cringed. “But while I'm at it maybe we can see if Luthor left a money trail or something. I know we didn't find anything before, but they might have something new we couldn't get to before.”
“Sounds good. If you want I can-”
“Mommy!” Jason interrupted as he ran up and threw his arms around Lois's legs. “Uncle Perry wants to see you in his office,” he said with an air of importance.
Lois smiled down at her son and brushed his hair back from his face. “Oh, are you his messenger now?”
Jason nodded. “Uh-huh. He said I could have Uncle Jimmy's job until he came back.”
“Oh, I see.” She looked up at Clark and tilted her head toward Jason. “Do you mind?”
“Oh, not at all, Lois!” Taking Jason by the hand, Clark led him back across the newsroom, and Lois heard the beginning of their conversation as she headed toward the editor's office. “Jason, why don't you tell me what else happened at school today?”
“Well, in science we learned about how come Pluto isn't a planet anymore and...” her son's voice trailed off as she entered Perry's office and shut the door behind her.
Lois smirked, “Your assistant said you wanted to see me?”
Looking up from his desk, Perry returned a faint smile and huffed halfheartedly in return, then regained his usual stoic demeanor. “Did Kent fill you in?”
“Of course. He said there was another press conference. I haven't seen the details yet. You want me to write it up?”
“No, no. Richard's faxing in a report sometime in the next hour or so. What I need from you is another interview with Superman.”
“What? Why, Chief?” she demanded sourly, brow furrowed with sudden confusion. One minute she was ready to interview the Vanderworths again, the next she's back in the midst of the never ending Superman saga. It was as if Perry knew she didn't particularly want to speak to him today, and especially not for an interview. They still had too many other things to straighten out first, and she just wasn't ready to start sorting them all out yet. For that matter, she hadn't even had time to deal with Richard leaving yet! Unwittingly, her own words echoed in her head, “I was practically his press agent.”
“Christ, Lois. After Richard tore up the president this morning the whole world wants to know what Superman thinks about everything that's going on. And we've been over this: you write about Superman, we sell papers. Now, I know that whatever happened between you and Richard has been eating you up all day, and don't think no one's noticed, because it's as plain as day, but you need to push it aside and get back to work.”
Lois's jaw dropped as panic set in for the second time that day. She didn't know how, but Perry knew what had happened. If Richard had said something... She prayed that wasn't the case. If she couldn't trust Richard to keep quiet about their split, and the reasons for it, then she might as well just go ahead and shout it from the rooftop. Hey everyone, Superman is the father of my son and I lost my fiancé over it! And to think, she'd been worried about Clark guessing the truth. Her joking remark to Clark about everyone knowing seemed somehow prophetic now, and at that, rage swept aside the panic running through her.
Fuming, she waited for the editor to finish his tirade.
“I don't care if you have to throw yourself off the roof. Find Superman and get us a statement about everything that's been happening. I want to know just what he thinks about the president and this scheme of his, and I want to know it yesterday!” Finished with his lecture, he sent her away with a wave of his hand. “Go!”
“But Perry, I've got other stories that deserve a little more attention right now. The situation over at the Vanderworth estate might give us a lead on Lex-”
“No buts, Lois. Kent's supposed to be working on the Luthor story. I'm sure he can handle it. Now go!”
With gargantuan effort, Lois firmly suppressed the urge to scream at Perry. It seemed he was using her relationship - former relationship - with Superman for all that it was worth. Not that that was anything new; he'd done it before. Furious, she spun on her heel and stalked out of the editor's office, muttering under her breath, “It's not like I have Superman's phone number...”
* * * * *
As soon as Lois reentered the bullpen to stride down the broad center aisle, she found Jason still excitedly recounting his day at school to Clark, who happily held the little boy in his lap. She stopped short upon seeing them, her her anger falling away and her argument with Perry immediately forgotten at the sight.
She wasn't sure why, but seeing the two of them getting along famously like this amazed her. She'd thought that Jason's enthusiasm toward Clark was similar to his demeanor toward Jimmy, as if he were a cool uncle, but somehow, she realized, this was different. Indeed, Jason had found a true friend in Clark, just as she had. What surprised her more was that Jason had never had this kind of rapport with anyone, including her and Richard. He'd never opened up with anyone like he was with Clark. He was so animated, his little eyes wide with excitement as he discussed astronomy in the same breath as schoolyard politics.
Looking at Clark, she smiled as he seemed to be hanging on Jason's every word, taking him every bit as seriously as he had taken her only that morning. It suddenly seemed odd to her that of all the people to come back into her life recently, it was Clark that was currently making the biggest impression. Go figure.
Mentally shrugging off her train of thought, she continued her brief journey through the newsroom, stopping at his desk. “So, what have you two been conspiring about?” she smiled, her hands perched on her hips.
Clark and Jason both looked up at her with what she could swear was the same exact expression, with errant locks of hair hanging over their eyes, like two kids who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Oh, uh,” Clark began, “Well, we've been discussing the merits of adoption.”
“Adoption?” Lois asked, her brow wrinkled in more confusion.
Jason jumped in, “My friend Zhueying at school was adopted. Her mom and dad went all the way to China to get her. Just like how Superman's parents sent him all the way here to be adopted, and Clark was adopted too.”
“Oh, I see.” She looked to Clark, “I'd forgotten you were adopted, Clark.”
He nodded, still gazing at Jason, “Mm-hmm. My birth parents died in an accident right after I was born, and my adoptive parents, my Mom and Dad, found me and took me home to Kansas, where I grew up.”
Jason looked back at Clark, clearly fascinated by everything he had to say. “Did you grow up in a city?”
Clark shook his head, “Nope. I grew up on a farm. We grew corn, and raised all sorts of animals, mostly chickens and some cows.”
Lois realized she had been left outside their conversation, but couldn't help smiling as the pair went on about chickens and cows. Their banter was quite possibly the most oddly adorable thing she had ever seen. Weird.
After a few moments she remembered the assignment Perry had charged her with, and cleared her throat, “A-hem. Boys? Clark?”
Clark looked up sheepishly, “Oh, sorry Lois. Is everything okay with Perry?”
“Yeah, I just have a new assignment on top of everything else.” She rolled her eyes, Dammit, Perry, then looked back at Jason, snuggled securely in Clark's lap. “Hey, munchkin. Why don't you get your crayons out of my desk and color for a while so me and Clark can get some work done?”
Jason nodded excitedly, “Okay!” and slipped down from Clark's lap to ran off to get his crayons.
* * * * *
Two hours and about thirty phone calls later, neither Lois nor Clark were any closer to finding any sort of trail Luthor might have left. After Lois had spoken to at least three of the Vanderworths, somehow managing to aggravate the head of the estate to the point of hanging up on her in the process, Clark had tried contacting the banks their fortune had rested in. Which produced exactly nothing. It was almost as if over a billion dollars had simply gotten up and walked away. Clark had resorted to looking for places where large sums of money might have shown up out of the blue, but that turned out to be an even more daunting and fruitless task.
Still frustrated, he and Lois tried to think of what Luthor might try to spend his money on, and after the obvious suggestions of clothing, wigs, cigars, and manpower, they drew only one logical, and inherently traceable, conclusion: a new yacht. He would have needed a way off the island, a way to travel somewhat incognito with little restriction.
So the pair began a search for yacht builders. After all, Luthor would've demanded something brand new. Still nothing. Not a single yacht had been sold in the past two weeks that Luthor would have been interested in or had immediate access to.
At ten after six, Clark hung up the phone with the sales rep at Trinity Yachts and pushed back from his desk, feeling like he'd wasted another afternoon on a wild goose chase. Running his hand through his hair, he glanced over at Lois, who was finishing up another call herself. She thanked the person on the other end, and hung up her phone.
“Anything?” he called over to her.
“Zip,” she replied, shaking her head. “You?”
“Nothing.”
“All right, then. Time to regroup.” Standing, she looking to make sure Jason was still in the conference room, where he'd taken his crayons and a stack of paper. Of course he was right where she'd left him, happily swinging his legs back and forth as he colored. Lois smiled, shaking her head again, then turned to Clark. “You know, I'll never understand how he can be bouncing off the walls one minute and then spend hours on a single task,” she laughed.
Clark gave her a crooked smile. “I think he gets it from his mom.”
“Hey!” Surprised by her partner's offhand comment, she grabbed a blank piece of paper from her desk, wadded it up, and threw it at him.
He ducked, laughing, then straightened in his chair, trying not to smile. If only it could be this good...
Lois stared at him, her hands on her hips and a look of puzzlement on her face. So now you think you've got a sense of humor, huh farm boy?
Staring back for a moment, he noticed the glimmer in her dark eyes. Dammit, she's beautiful. But this wasn't the time for mooning, he caught himself, and he broke his gaze away from her, feeling his cheeks warming. Standing clumsily, he muttered, “Well, uh, anyway, maybe I should get us something to eat, since it looks like we'll be here for a while.” He pushed his glasses into place with an index finger.
But Lois had noticed the way he'd looked at her, and she felt an odd push inside of her, as if she was on the verge of a major break in a story. She just couldn't pin it down, though... Still looking at him, she replied quietly, “Yeah. Um-” she paused, shaking off the strange feeling, then raised her voice back to normal, “Why don't you order some Chinese? That way you won't have to go anywhere. Just skip the Kung Pao chicken and remember to get snow peas and white rice for Jason.”
Clark nodded quickly, “Sure.”
“Okay, then,” she replied. Looking at her watch, she remembered the interview she needed to get. “Um, Clark, if you don't mind keeping an eye on Jason for a few minutes, I think I'm gonna go get some fresh air.” What a pathetic excuse, she thought to herself. Even Clark should be able to figure that one out by now.
“Sure, Lois. No problem,” he smiled at her.
“Great. I'll be back in a few minutes,” she replied, before grabbing her coat and purse and heading to the elevator, almost wishing she still had that pack of cigarettes on her.
* * * * *
Clark watched Lois head up toward the roof, looking determined and irritated. He'd overheard her and Perry's earlier argument in that tinny, far away tone, so it was clear she was heading up in the hopes that Superman might make an appearance. Only he'd just volunteered to watch Jason while she was gone. Damn. Not that Lois seemed particularly excited to have to see him. The expression on her face was quite clear.
Glancing over at Jason, who was still happily coloring away, he smiled to himself. Yup. Definitely more like Lois. He still couldn't get over what a fantastic son he had.
But he still had work to do, and after a few minutes of more mind-numbing research he called for Chinese delivery, then walked into the conference room to see what new masterpieces Jason had created. “So what have you been working on?” he smiled as his son looked up from the table.
Jason grinned back, “Oh, you gotta see!” With one hand he swept his crayons and current work in progress out of the way. “Look!” he urged Clark as he shuffled through the pile of papers he had spread out on the table. He pulled one paper from the pile and pointed to it. “This is when you stopped Mommy's plane from crashing.” He pulled out another paper, “And this one is when you saved that lady who crashed her car.” He pointed to another, “And this one is when me and Mommy were on the big boat and the bald man said bad stuff about you. I made it like a story, see?” His eyes were positively lit up with excitement.
“Wow, Jason, this is... Wow!” Clark beamed with pride, glancing over some of the other drawings that lay over the table. There was one of him holding up the Daily Planet globe, one of him holding up New Krypton, one him in his work suit with the glasses, one of who he supposed was Richard, waving and smiling... “So you've drawn everything that's happened since week before last?”
Jason nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh! Before you came everything was boring, but now I have lots of stuff to draw about,” he smiled again, pushing his hair back from his face.
Clark picked up the picture of Richard, “This must be your dad.”
“Yep. But that's at the end of the story. That's from yesterday.” A frown replaced Jason's smile. “That's when Daddy went away.” He looked up with his big blue eyes, and for a moment, Clark was stunned into silence, with no idea how to proceed.
“It's okay,” Jason said. “You don't have to tell me that Daddy is coming back after his trip. That's what Mommy said, but I know it's not true. I heard them fighting.”
Uh-oh... “Um, what did you hear, Jason?”
“Daddy was mad because Mom had a secret.” The little boy's bottom lip began to quiver.
“Did you hear anything else?” He felt his heart pounding in his chest. If Jason had learned the truth from Lois and Richard's argument...
Jason shook his head as his eyes began to tear up. “Does Daddy not like me anymore?”
Clark was dumbfounded. Kneeling down beside Jason's chair, he did his best to answer his son's question. “Oh, Jason, no. I'm sure your Dad still loves you very much. And I doubt that anything could change that.”
Jason's chin trembled. “Then why isn't he coming home?”
Clark smoothed down the boy's hair. “I don't know, Jason. Only your Mom can answer that. I-”
Suddenly tensing up, Jason clamped his hands tightly over his ears, his face scrunched up in pain.
“Jason, what is it?” Clark prodded, mild panic filling him. “Jason?” He grabbed onto his shoulders as the little boy began to breath heavily. “Jason, is everything really loud?”
A weak nod was his only answer as Jason squeezed his eyes shut.
“Okay, Jason, try to stay calm. It'll go away in a second.” The memory of the first time his own hearing had kicked in flashed before his eyes. Only he'd been a teenager...
Squirming out of Clark's grasp, Jason whimpered. His hands fell from his ears and he pushed back from the conference table, only to propel himself backwards until his chair met the wall with a loud crash. Then, beginning to cry, he leaped down from the chair and scurried under the table, still breathing hard, with his hands once again clenched over his ears.
Clark could only wait and hope that no one in the bullpen had heard. He scanned the newsroom quickly, and luckily, no one was in the immediate vicinity. Then he looked up through the building. Lois was still on the roof, pacing and chewing on a fingernail.
Focusing back on his son, he tried again to calm him. “Jason. It's okay. Just focus on my voice, okay? All the other noises will go away.” Clark pulled several chairs out of the way, and crawled under the table with him. “Shhhhhhh... It's all right. There you go,” he soothed, putting an arm around Jason as the boy took a few sobbing breaths to stop his crying.
After a moment Jason's hands came away from his ears and he looked up at Clark, his eyes wide.
“Feel a little better now?” Clark asked, smiling faintly.
“Uh-huh.”
“Good. See, I told you it would go away. Now, why don't we come out from under the table, I'll clean all this up, and we'll find you something to drink? Sound good?”
Jason nodded in reply.
“All right then,” Clark smiled as he pulled himself out and up off the floor, offering a hand to his son.
Taking his hand, the little boy clambered up, still wide-eyed. He surveyed the room and the damage he had inflicted upon the wall, where the chair had left deep dents and cracks in the wood paneling. “Mom's gonna be angry,” he noted.
“No, your mom's not going to be angry. She'll just be happy you're okay,” Clark corrected him while returning all of the chairs to the table. “Here,” he said, pulling the last chair away from the wall. He patted the seat, and Jason jumped up into it as Clark slid it back to the table. “Dinner's coming soon, so we should put your stuff away for now, okay?”
“Okay,” Jason nodded.
“Great. I'll be right back,” Clark said, patting him on the head.
After a quick exit to get a cup of water for Jason, Clark sat down in the chair next to him, and helped him collect all of the papers and crayons.
“Clark,” the little boy asked after a moment, looking up at him as he stuffed a crayon into its box. “Why is all this stuff happening to me? Is there something wrong with me?” he asked matter-of-factly.
Staring back at him, Clark didn't what to say. He couldn't just tell Jason that he was his father. He'd never hear the end of it from Lois. Best to give him the short version, then. “Um, well, it's sort of a long story. But, I guess what it boils down to is that you're going to be a lot like me. You'll be able to do a lot of the stuff I can do.”
Jason thought for a moment, then asked, “Can you hear stuff really loud?”
“Mm-hmm. I can hear things really far away or things that are very quiet. I can see really far. I can even-” he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and leaned in close, “-see through things.”
“Wow!” Jason whispered. “Am I gonna be able to do all that stuff?”
Clark smiled, “I don't know yet, probably most of it, but we'll see.”
Just then the door to the conference room opened and Lois walked in, muttering, “-can't believe I wasted my time up there. Unbelievable...” She looked at the table. “What, no Chinese yet?” she complained. Then she stopped short, seeing the wall behind Jason. “Wha-?” Her eyes moved from the wall to Jason, to Clark, and back to the wall.
Clark stood quickly. “It's okay, Lois. Just a little, um, accident. Nothing to worry about.”
Lois's eyes narrowed. “Clark, what happened?”
“Well, um... Jason, why don't you go put your stuff away?”
“Ohhh-kaaaayyyy,” Jason sighed, giving him a wizened, knowing look. Clark shrugged in reply. He's definitely more like Lois...
Once the little boy ran off with his crayons and stack of papers, Clark shut the door and turned to Lois. “Jason had some kind of, I don't know, episode? He said he could hear everything really loud, so I'm guessing that he's got, you know, super hearing, or something? Then he sort of panicked and pushed himself back from the table and crashed into the wall. He crawled under the table for a while after that, but I got him calmed down, and he seems to be okay. You know, it's a good thing you warned me, because otherwise, phew, I don't think I would have been prepared for that.” He finished his lengthy explanation with a lopsided smile, and pushed his glasses up into place again, mostly for effect.
Lois just stood there, staring at the cracked and dented wall. “Holy crap.”
* * * * *
In the bullpen, Jason stashed his crayons and papers in his Mom's desk, then walked back toward the conference room, watching Clark mime everything that had happened as he explained the incident to Lois. As he watched them, he wondered why Clark hadn't told him how come he would be like him. Maybe Clark and his Mom were keeping a secret, too. But why?
Jason was starting to really hate secrets.
Finally, he reentered the conference room and closed the door behind him. “Mom,” he said, hugging her around the legs, “if you're gonna talk about me, you should know that I can hear you now.”
Lois looked down at her son, her eyes wide. “Oh.”
* * * * *
Author: Saavikam
Fandom: Superman Returns
Pairings: Lois/Richard, Clark/Lois
Rating - This Chapter: PG-13
Chapter Word Count: 4,616
Summary: In the days following the events of Superman Returns, both Clark and Lois are reeling from events that have changed their lives forever, and the city of Metropolis is in shambles. Things only get worse as Lois's relationship with Richard takes a nosedive, the US government wants to send a survey and potential mining mission to New Krypton, and vast amounts of kryptonite show up in the hands of criminals on the streets of Metropolis.
Chapter Summary: After Lois brings Jason back to the Planet for the evening so she and Clark can get some work done, Perry gives her a new assignment and Clark helps Jason deal with his emerging abilities.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan-fiction. Superman and the DC Comics universe are property of DC Comics and Warner Brothers. No money has been made or will be made from the production of this work. Darn it.
Author's Notes: This has been one of my favorite chapters, for a variety of reasons. ^_~ Two more chapters are now in beta, and should be posted in the next 2 days.
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Previous :: Table of Contents :: Next
Chapter 14
With Jason rushing ahead of her, quickly weaving his way through Daily Planet staffers, Lois stepped through the doors to the bullpen, her thoughts continuing to linger on Richard. Watching her son tear through the newsroom, she wondered again how he would take the news that the only father he had ever known was probably leaving for good after his business trip. For now, he seemed totally oblivious, and Lois supposed that was all right. Jason was excited more about Superman and all things related than he had ever been about anything else, Richard's sea plane included. So much so that he was like a totally different boy.
Though the change in him was so stark as to seem alarming in a way, rationally, she knew that it was probably due to his newfound health; he hadn't needed his inhaler once since Saturday morning, and they had Superman to thank for that. Of course, if she hadn't exposed Jason to kryptonite during his troubled infancy, things might have been very different. He might have been this energetic ball of sunshine since the beginning. But she'd examined every angle of her decision and sorted through the guilt, and now all she could do was to try to relegate the entire line of thinking to the 'better left in the past' file.
Lost in thought, she didn't immediately notice that at the other end of the bullpen, Jason's trip had ended at Clark's desk.
“Clark!” he called out, prompting the reporter to look up from his computer as he nearly crashed to a halt at his feet. A smile spread across Clark's face as Jason flung his backpack to the floor and jumped up to hug him.
“Hey, Jason!” he returned, momentarily stunned, hugging him quickly and setting him back on the floor, where the little boy proceeded to take off his coat and rummage through his backpack.
Pulling out a paper, Jason thrust it into Clark's hands. “Look! We got to paint today, so I painted-” he lowered his voice to a whisper “-Krypton.”
Feeling a tiny wave of excitement come over him, Clark examined the paper, and sure enough, it was a picture of Krypton. Or at least, Krypton from the imagination of a five year old. The bottom half of the page was covered with what resembled New Krypton, except with prettier colors: reds, pinks, blues, yellows, and greens. Overhead, the sun shone in bright red, and the sky was pale blue and pink. Realizing it was a pretty accurate representation, Clark couldn't help but grin, “Wow, Jason, this is amazing!”
As Lois finally approached, Clark stood and looked at her, noticing how her face was scrunched up in confusion at them. It hit him that she must have been quite baffled by the connection he was making with Jason. After all, it was Superman that was his father. On the heels of that revelation, a small feeling of hope welled up in his chest that she might eventually put two and two together, so that he wouldn't have to tell her himself, before the thought was squashed with, Coward!
“You guys got back pretty quickly,” he observed.
At that, the look of confusion on her face was replaced with a quick smile. “Yeah, Eighth Street was finally opened back up, and since the Metro was back to full capacity this morning, traffic was a breeze. Did I miss anything good while I was gone?”
“Actually, you missed a lot.” He handed the painting back to Jason, who stowed it in his backpack and scurried off towards Perry's office. “The Chinese president and Russian president gave a short press conference about a half hour ago. Looks like they don't want anything to do with a mission to New Krypton,” he explained as the pair stepped across the aisle to Lois's desk, where she shrugged off her coat and purse.
“Wow. If that doesn't effectively end the whole thing, I don't know what could. Maybe we were wrong about the situation. Maybe the rest of the world is more behind Superman that we thought,” she mused, crossing her arms in front of her.
Clark nodded in agreement. “We can hope, at least. The problem is, until we can get Lex Luthor back into police custody, the government will probably keep using him as an excuse to go forward with the mission. They'll probably decide to go it alone, no matter what the G8 or the UN decides.” The feeling of frustration swept over him anew. They hadn't had any luck finding even the slightest bit of evidence to point them toward Luthor, and the longer it took them to locate him, the greater the possibility that he would never be found.
“Damn.” Lois stopped and picked up a notepad from her desk, flipping through it quickly. “Well, I've still got to interview Stephen Vanderworth again about his involvement of the military in this whole thing - and don't think I'm looking forward to that one bit,” she visibly cringed. “But while I'm at it maybe we can see if Luthor left a money trail or something. I know we didn't find anything before, but they might have something new we couldn't get to before.”
“Sounds good. If you want I can-”
“Mommy!” Jason interrupted as he ran up and threw his arms around Lois's legs. “Uncle Perry wants to see you in his office,” he said with an air of importance.
Lois smiled down at her son and brushed his hair back from his face. “Oh, are you his messenger now?”
Jason nodded. “Uh-huh. He said I could have Uncle Jimmy's job until he came back.”
“Oh, I see.” She looked up at Clark and tilted her head toward Jason. “Do you mind?”
“Oh, not at all, Lois!” Taking Jason by the hand, Clark led him back across the newsroom, and Lois heard the beginning of their conversation as she headed toward the editor's office. “Jason, why don't you tell me what else happened at school today?”
“Well, in science we learned about how come Pluto isn't a planet anymore and...” her son's voice trailed off as she entered Perry's office and shut the door behind her.
Lois smirked, “Your assistant said you wanted to see me?”
Looking up from his desk, Perry returned a faint smile and huffed halfheartedly in return, then regained his usual stoic demeanor. “Did Kent fill you in?”
“Of course. He said there was another press conference. I haven't seen the details yet. You want me to write it up?”
“No, no. Richard's faxing in a report sometime in the next hour or so. What I need from you is another interview with Superman.”
“What? Why, Chief?” she demanded sourly, brow furrowed with sudden confusion. One minute she was ready to interview the Vanderworths again, the next she's back in the midst of the never ending Superman saga. It was as if Perry knew she didn't particularly want to speak to him today, and especially not for an interview. They still had too many other things to straighten out first, and she just wasn't ready to start sorting them all out yet. For that matter, she hadn't even had time to deal with Richard leaving yet! Unwittingly, her own words echoed in her head, “I was practically his press agent.”
“Christ, Lois. After Richard tore up the president this morning the whole world wants to know what Superman thinks about everything that's going on. And we've been over this: you write about Superman, we sell papers. Now, I know that whatever happened between you and Richard has been eating you up all day, and don't think no one's noticed, because it's as plain as day, but you need to push it aside and get back to work.”
Lois's jaw dropped as panic set in for the second time that day. She didn't know how, but Perry knew what had happened. If Richard had said something... She prayed that wasn't the case. If she couldn't trust Richard to keep quiet about their split, and the reasons for it, then she might as well just go ahead and shout it from the rooftop. Hey everyone, Superman is the father of my son and I lost my fiancé over it! And to think, she'd been worried about Clark guessing the truth. Her joking remark to Clark about everyone knowing seemed somehow prophetic now, and at that, rage swept aside the panic running through her.
Fuming, she waited for the editor to finish his tirade.
“I don't care if you have to throw yourself off the roof. Find Superman and get us a statement about everything that's been happening. I want to know just what he thinks about the president and this scheme of his, and I want to know it yesterday!” Finished with his lecture, he sent her away with a wave of his hand. “Go!”
“But Perry, I've got other stories that deserve a little more attention right now. The situation over at the Vanderworth estate might give us a lead on Lex-”
“No buts, Lois. Kent's supposed to be working on the Luthor story. I'm sure he can handle it. Now go!”
With gargantuan effort, Lois firmly suppressed the urge to scream at Perry. It seemed he was using her relationship - former relationship - with Superman for all that it was worth. Not that that was anything new; he'd done it before. Furious, she spun on her heel and stalked out of the editor's office, muttering under her breath, “It's not like I have Superman's phone number...”
* * * * *
As soon as Lois reentered the bullpen to stride down the broad center aisle, she found Jason still excitedly recounting his day at school to Clark, who happily held the little boy in his lap. She stopped short upon seeing them, her her anger falling away and her argument with Perry immediately forgotten at the sight.
She wasn't sure why, but seeing the two of them getting along famously like this amazed her. She'd thought that Jason's enthusiasm toward Clark was similar to his demeanor toward Jimmy, as if he were a cool uncle, but somehow, she realized, this was different. Indeed, Jason had found a true friend in Clark, just as she had. What surprised her more was that Jason had never had this kind of rapport with anyone, including her and Richard. He'd never opened up with anyone like he was with Clark. He was so animated, his little eyes wide with excitement as he discussed astronomy in the same breath as schoolyard politics.
Looking at Clark, she smiled as he seemed to be hanging on Jason's every word, taking him every bit as seriously as he had taken her only that morning. It suddenly seemed odd to her that of all the people to come back into her life recently, it was Clark that was currently making the biggest impression. Go figure.
Mentally shrugging off her train of thought, she continued her brief journey through the newsroom, stopping at his desk. “So, what have you two been conspiring about?” she smiled, her hands perched on her hips.
Clark and Jason both looked up at her with what she could swear was the same exact expression, with errant locks of hair hanging over their eyes, like two kids who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. “Oh, uh,” Clark began, “Well, we've been discussing the merits of adoption.”
“Adoption?” Lois asked, her brow wrinkled in more confusion.
Jason jumped in, “My friend Zhueying at school was adopted. Her mom and dad went all the way to China to get her. Just like how Superman's parents sent him all the way here to be adopted, and Clark was adopted too.”
“Oh, I see.” She looked to Clark, “I'd forgotten you were adopted, Clark.”
He nodded, still gazing at Jason, “Mm-hmm. My birth parents died in an accident right after I was born, and my adoptive parents, my Mom and Dad, found me and took me home to Kansas, where I grew up.”
Jason looked back at Clark, clearly fascinated by everything he had to say. “Did you grow up in a city?”
Clark shook his head, “Nope. I grew up on a farm. We grew corn, and raised all sorts of animals, mostly chickens and some cows.”
Lois realized she had been left outside their conversation, but couldn't help smiling as the pair went on about chickens and cows. Their banter was quite possibly the most oddly adorable thing she had ever seen. Weird.
After a few moments she remembered the assignment Perry had charged her with, and cleared her throat, “A-hem. Boys? Clark?”
Clark looked up sheepishly, “Oh, sorry Lois. Is everything okay with Perry?”
“Yeah, I just have a new assignment on top of everything else.” She rolled her eyes, Dammit, Perry, then looked back at Jason, snuggled securely in Clark's lap. “Hey, munchkin. Why don't you get your crayons out of my desk and color for a while so me and Clark can get some work done?”
Jason nodded excitedly, “Okay!” and slipped down from Clark's lap to ran off to get his crayons.
* * * * *
Two hours and about thirty phone calls later, neither Lois nor Clark were any closer to finding any sort of trail Luthor might have left. After Lois had spoken to at least three of the Vanderworths, somehow managing to aggravate the head of the estate to the point of hanging up on her in the process, Clark had tried contacting the banks their fortune had rested in. Which produced exactly nothing. It was almost as if over a billion dollars had simply gotten up and walked away. Clark had resorted to looking for places where large sums of money might have shown up out of the blue, but that turned out to be an even more daunting and fruitless task.
Still frustrated, he and Lois tried to think of what Luthor might try to spend his money on, and after the obvious suggestions of clothing, wigs, cigars, and manpower, they drew only one logical, and inherently traceable, conclusion: a new yacht. He would have needed a way off the island, a way to travel somewhat incognito with little restriction.
So the pair began a search for yacht builders. After all, Luthor would've demanded something brand new. Still nothing. Not a single yacht had been sold in the past two weeks that Luthor would have been interested in or had immediate access to.
At ten after six, Clark hung up the phone with the sales rep at Trinity Yachts and pushed back from his desk, feeling like he'd wasted another afternoon on a wild goose chase. Running his hand through his hair, he glanced over at Lois, who was finishing up another call herself. She thanked the person on the other end, and hung up her phone.
“Anything?” he called over to her.
“Zip,” she replied, shaking her head. “You?”
“Nothing.”
“All right, then. Time to regroup.” Standing, she looking to make sure Jason was still in the conference room, where he'd taken his crayons and a stack of paper. Of course he was right where she'd left him, happily swinging his legs back and forth as he colored. Lois smiled, shaking her head again, then turned to Clark. “You know, I'll never understand how he can be bouncing off the walls one minute and then spend hours on a single task,” she laughed.
Clark gave her a crooked smile. “I think he gets it from his mom.”
“Hey!” Surprised by her partner's offhand comment, she grabbed a blank piece of paper from her desk, wadded it up, and threw it at him.
He ducked, laughing, then straightened in his chair, trying not to smile. If only it could be this good...
Lois stared at him, her hands on her hips and a look of puzzlement on her face. So now you think you've got a sense of humor, huh farm boy?
Staring back for a moment, he noticed the glimmer in her dark eyes. Dammit, she's beautiful. But this wasn't the time for mooning, he caught himself, and he broke his gaze away from her, feeling his cheeks warming. Standing clumsily, he muttered, “Well, uh, anyway, maybe I should get us something to eat, since it looks like we'll be here for a while.” He pushed his glasses into place with an index finger.
But Lois had noticed the way he'd looked at her, and she felt an odd push inside of her, as if she was on the verge of a major break in a story. She just couldn't pin it down, though... Still looking at him, she replied quietly, “Yeah. Um-” she paused, shaking off the strange feeling, then raised her voice back to normal, “Why don't you order some Chinese? That way you won't have to go anywhere. Just skip the Kung Pao chicken and remember to get snow peas and white rice for Jason.”
Clark nodded quickly, “Sure.”
“Okay, then,” she replied. Looking at her watch, she remembered the interview she needed to get. “Um, Clark, if you don't mind keeping an eye on Jason for a few minutes, I think I'm gonna go get some fresh air.” What a pathetic excuse, she thought to herself. Even Clark should be able to figure that one out by now.
“Sure, Lois. No problem,” he smiled at her.
“Great. I'll be back in a few minutes,” she replied, before grabbing her coat and purse and heading to the elevator, almost wishing she still had that pack of cigarettes on her.
* * * * *
Clark watched Lois head up toward the roof, looking determined and irritated. He'd overheard her and Perry's earlier argument in that tinny, far away tone, so it was clear she was heading up in the hopes that Superman might make an appearance. Only he'd just volunteered to watch Jason while she was gone. Damn. Not that Lois seemed particularly excited to have to see him. The expression on her face was quite clear.
Glancing over at Jason, who was still happily coloring away, he smiled to himself. Yup. Definitely more like Lois. He still couldn't get over what a fantastic son he had.
But he still had work to do, and after a few minutes of more mind-numbing research he called for Chinese delivery, then walked into the conference room to see what new masterpieces Jason had created. “So what have you been working on?” he smiled as his son looked up from the table.
Jason grinned back, “Oh, you gotta see!” With one hand he swept his crayons and current work in progress out of the way. “Look!” he urged Clark as he shuffled through the pile of papers he had spread out on the table. He pulled one paper from the pile and pointed to it. “This is when you stopped Mommy's plane from crashing.” He pulled out another paper, “And this one is when you saved that lady who crashed her car.” He pointed to another, “And this one is when me and Mommy were on the big boat and the bald man said bad stuff about you. I made it like a story, see?” His eyes were positively lit up with excitement.
“Wow, Jason, this is... Wow!” Clark beamed with pride, glancing over some of the other drawings that lay over the table. There was one of him holding up the Daily Planet globe, one of him holding up New Krypton, one him in his work suit with the glasses, one of who he supposed was Richard, waving and smiling... “So you've drawn everything that's happened since week before last?”
Jason nodded emphatically. “Uh-huh! Before you came everything was boring, but now I have lots of stuff to draw about,” he smiled again, pushing his hair back from his face.
Clark picked up the picture of Richard, “This must be your dad.”
“Yep. But that's at the end of the story. That's from yesterday.” A frown replaced Jason's smile. “That's when Daddy went away.” He looked up with his big blue eyes, and for a moment, Clark was stunned into silence, with no idea how to proceed.
“It's okay,” Jason said. “You don't have to tell me that Daddy is coming back after his trip. That's what Mommy said, but I know it's not true. I heard them fighting.”
Uh-oh... “Um, what did you hear, Jason?”
“Daddy was mad because Mom had a secret.” The little boy's bottom lip began to quiver.
“Did you hear anything else?” He felt his heart pounding in his chest. If Jason had learned the truth from Lois and Richard's argument...
Jason shook his head as his eyes began to tear up. “Does Daddy not like me anymore?”
Clark was dumbfounded. Kneeling down beside Jason's chair, he did his best to answer his son's question. “Oh, Jason, no. I'm sure your Dad still loves you very much. And I doubt that anything could change that.”
Jason's chin trembled. “Then why isn't he coming home?”
Clark smoothed down the boy's hair. “I don't know, Jason. Only your Mom can answer that. I-”
Suddenly tensing up, Jason clamped his hands tightly over his ears, his face scrunched up in pain.
“Jason, what is it?” Clark prodded, mild panic filling him. “Jason?” He grabbed onto his shoulders as the little boy began to breath heavily. “Jason, is everything really loud?”
A weak nod was his only answer as Jason squeezed his eyes shut.
“Okay, Jason, try to stay calm. It'll go away in a second.” The memory of the first time his own hearing had kicked in flashed before his eyes. Only he'd been a teenager...
Squirming out of Clark's grasp, Jason whimpered. His hands fell from his ears and he pushed back from the conference table, only to propel himself backwards until his chair met the wall with a loud crash. Then, beginning to cry, he leaped down from the chair and scurried under the table, still breathing hard, with his hands once again clenched over his ears.
Clark could only wait and hope that no one in the bullpen had heard. He scanned the newsroom quickly, and luckily, no one was in the immediate vicinity. Then he looked up through the building. Lois was still on the roof, pacing and chewing on a fingernail.
Focusing back on his son, he tried again to calm him. “Jason. It's okay. Just focus on my voice, okay? All the other noises will go away.” Clark pulled several chairs out of the way, and crawled under the table with him. “Shhhhhhh... It's all right. There you go,” he soothed, putting an arm around Jason as the boy took a few sobbing breaths to stop his crying.
After a moment Jason's hands came away from his ears and he looked up at Clark, his eyes wide.
“Feel a little better now?” Clark asked, smiling faintly.
“Uh-huh.”
“Good. See, I told you it would go away. Now, why don't we come out from under the table, I'll clean all this up, and we'll find you something to drink? Sound good?”
Jason nodded in reply.
“All right then,” Clark smiled as he pulled himself out and up off the floor, offering a hand to his son.
Taking his hand, the little boy clambered up, still wide-eyed. He surveyed the room and the damage he had inflicted upon the wall, where the chair had left deep dents and cracks in the wood paneling. “Mom's gonna be angry,” he noted.
“No, your mom's not going to be angry. She'll just be happy you're okay,” Clark corrected him while returning all of the chairs to the table. “Here,” he said, pulling the last chair away from the wall. He patted the seat, and Jason jumped up into it as Clark slid it back to the table. “Dinner's coming soon, so we should put your stuff away for now, okay?”
“Okay,” Jason nodded.
“Great. I'll be right back,” Clark said, patting him on the head.
After a quick exit to get a cup of water for Jason, Clark sat down in the chair next to him, and helped him collect all of the papers and crayons.
“Clark,” the little boy asked after a moment, looking up at him as he stuffed a crayon into its box. “Why is all this stuff happening to me? Is there something wrong with me?” he asked matter-of-factly.
Staring back at him, Clark didn't what to say. He couldn't just tell Jason that he was his father. He'd never hear the end of it from Lois. Best to give him the short version, then. “Um, well, it's sort of a long story. But, I guess what it boils down to is that you're going to be a lot like me. You'll be able to do a lot of the stuff I can do.”
Jason thought for a moment, then asked, “Can you hear stuff really loud?”
“Mm-hmm. I can hear things really far away or things that are very quiet. I can see really far. I can even-” he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper and leaned in close, “-see through things.”
“Wow!” Jason whispered. “Am I gonna be able to do all that stuff?”
Clark smiled, “I don't know yet, probably most of it, but we'll see.”
Just then the door to the conference room opened and Lois walked in, muttering, “-can't believe I wasted my time up there. Unbelievable...” She looked at the table. “What, no Chinese yet?” she complained. Then she stopped short, seeing the wall behind Jason. “Wha-?” Her eyes moved from the wall to Jason, to Clark, and back to the wall.
Clark stood quickly. “It's okay, Lois. Just a little, um, accident. Nothing to worry about.”
Lois's eyes narrowed. “Clark, what happened?”
“Well, um... Jason, why don't you go put your stuff away?”
“Ohhh-kaaaayyyy,” Jason sighed, giving him a wizened, knowing look. Clark shrugged in reply. He's definitely more like Lois...
Once the little boy ran off with his crayons and stack of papers, Clark shut the door and turned to Lois. “Jason had some kind of, I don't know, episode? He said he could hear everything really loud, so I'm guessing that he's got, you know, super hearing, or something? Then he sort of panicked and pushed himself back from the table and crashed into the wall. He crawled under the table for a while after that, but I got him calmed down, and he seems to be okay. You know, it's a good thing you warned me, because otherwise, phew, I don't think I would have been prepared for that.” He finished his lengthy explanation with a lopsided smile, and pushed his glasses up into place again, mostly for effect.
Lois just stood there, staring at the cracked and dented wall. “Holy crap.”
* * * * *
In the bullpen, Jason stashed his crayons and papers in his Mom's desk, then walked back toward the conference room, watching Clark mime everything that had happened as he explained the incident to Lois. As he watched them, he wondered why Clark hadn't told him how come he would be like him. Maybe Clark and his Mom were keeping a secret, too. But why?
Jason was starting to really hate secrets.
Finally, he reentered the conference room and closed the door behind him. “Mom,” he said, hugging her around the legs, “if you're gonna talk about me, you should know that I can hear you now.”
Lois looked down at her son, her eyes wide. “Oh.”
* * * * *