Fic: A Perfect Symphony | DCU/SR | Clark/Lois, Jason | PG | 1/1
Title: A Perfect Symphony
Fandom: Superman Returns
Characters/Pairing: Clark/Lois, Jason
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,006
Prompt: For the 12days_of_clois Christmas Challenge 2009: #17: Piano; For the 2009 DCU FFA Winter Holidays Challenge: snow/ice
Summary: Snowpocalypse 2009 has hit the US, and Clark is working non-stop. That doesn't bode well for Christmas.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own it all. I own nothing. Darnit!
Author's Notes: Set in the Aftermath-verse. All you need to know is that Clark and Lois are married, and have had their second child, Lara.
A Perfect Symphony
Three days out into the worst snowstorm of the decade, it was starting to look like Clark wasn't going to make it home for Christmas. As it was, half the US had been crippled beneath the weight of up to two feet of snow, with heavy ice falls causing countless highway pileups―even after people had been warned to stay inside!―and power outages in at least five states. Clark had hardly seen the sun since the first flakes had fallen, the work non-stop even with the help of his few colleagues with abilities that could make a difference.
And all the while, he'd been counting down the days and hours, even as fatigue had begun to set in. The twenty-second had become the twenty-third, the twenty-third had become the twenty-fourth. It was Christmas Eve, now long after noon, daylight starting to fade along the Eastern Seaboard, and here he was, stuck just north of Minneapolis helping reconnect power lines that ice had downed. His hands ached from the current he kept subjecting himself to, complete disregard for his own body as he did his best to lift the lines back into place as quickly as possible so people wouldn't freeze to death in the sub-zero temps of the intense storm. His eyes even stung from using his heat vision almost continuously to melt ice and thick snow drifts that had buried vehicles, and to clear paths for emergency vehicles.
It was the worst he'd been worn down since Luthor had had Metropolis all but paralyzed three years before, but that was nothing compared to the crushing disappointment squeezing his chest, the growing realization that he was at best another two days out from being able to head home, get cleaned up and recharged. That he was almost certainly going to miss Christmas. That he would miss Lara's second Christmas.
Turning his hearing eastward, he tried to listen for his family, even as he worked on another set of power lines, current shorting out his senses for just a brief moment. It took almost no time afterward to pinpoint home, with Lois chewing loudly on a nail as she and Jason hung ornaments on the tree, Lara laughing at something with that lilting baby laugh, and light Christmas music playing in the background. God, it was the most beautiful thing to listen to, a perfect symphony of life and love, and he wished so hard that this work would be over soon so he could go home and be with them.
The power line repaired for the most part, he rose in the air, ignoring the snow and ice that tried to cling to him as he passed through the clouds, finally emerging into the pure afternoon sunlight over the Midwest. Two minutes, that was all he needed. Just two minutes to take in a little sun, gather himself and regroup to head for the next crisis.
Breathing in the clear air deeply as he turned to face the long rays, he stretched out the kinks in his shoulders, felt the tingle of photons start to infuse his skin and lend him energy. It felt so good.
But it couldn't last. Not with more work demanding his attention.
Tearing his focus away from Lois and the kids, he tuned into a local emergency band, feeling the vibrational shift in his ears as he hit the right radio frequency. Two more large-scale power outages waited to be dealt with about twenty-two miles to the east. A few auto accidents. A hospital that needed the helipad cleared of ice so they could accept patients by air. Plenty to do.
Another deep breath and a heavy sigh.
He couldn't go home, but at least he could call, for just a minute.
Pulling his cell from its hidden pocket in his cape, he hit the speed dial for home and waited for Lois to pick up. Hardly a ring passed before there was a click.
“Clark? Where are you?” came her worried voice from the other end. It warmed him as much as any hot shower might have.
“Over Minnesota. I, um, don't think I'll be home any time before tomorrow night at the earliest.” And God, he hated to admit it.
“Oh, Clark,” she sighed in return, and the disappointment so clear in her voice was almost a match for his own. “Well―” she paused a moment, then started again, her voice sounding steeled to the unavoidable, “We want to give you part of your Christmas present, okay?”
Not sure exactly what she meant, he agreed, “Okay.”
“All right, just listen for a moment,” she instructed, and so he did, opening his hearing to the east again.
As before, there was the beautiful noise of his family, the soft melody of Silent Night in the background, the tinkling of bells and ornaments being hung on the tree in the corner of the family room in the modest apartment. Such peaceful sounds, their breaths and heartbeats as they waited for him, small fingers moving over the keys of the―
And it hit him. The music wasn't coming from the radio.
It was Jason. Jason was playing an advanced arrangement of Silent Night.
His breath caught in his throat at the discovery, and he couldn't help the slow grin that moved over his face. “Is that... is that really Jason?” he asked finally, feeling a world away and right there with them all at once, and not quite able to believe it.
“It is,” Lois confirmed, and he could practically hear the proud grin in her voice as well. “Merry Christmas, Clark.”
“Merry Christmas, Dad!” came their son's voice both through the phone and over the distance in echo of his mother's.
“Merry Christmas,” he answered them both, his soul warming at the wonderful gift. Out here, so far away, with so much left to be done before he could be there with them in person, it was the best thing he could have ever asked for. It was his hope and his reassurance that they'd be there when he got home, and that Christmas wouldn't be missed after all.
~*~*~*~
Fandom: Superman Returns
Characters/Pairing: Clark/Lois, Jason
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,006
Prompt: For the 12days_of_clois Christmas Challenge 2009: #17: Piano; For the 2009 DCU FFA Winter Holidays Challenge: snow/ice
Summary: Snowpocalypse 2009 has hit the US, and Clark is working non-stop. That doesn't bode well for Christmas.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own it all. I own nothing. Darnit!
Author's Notes: Set in the Aftermath-verse. All you need to know is that Clark and Lois are married, and have had their second child, Lara.
A Perfect Symphony
Three days out into the worst snowstorm of the decade, it was starting to look like Clark wasn't going to make it home for Christmas. As it was, half the US had been crippled beneath the weight of up to two feet of snow, with heavy ice falls causing countless highway pileups―even after people had been warned to stay inside!―and power outages in at least five states. Clark had hardly seen the sun since the first flakes had fallen, the work non-stop even with the help of his few colleagues with abilities that could make a difference.
And all the while, he'd been counting down the days and hours, even as fatigue had begun to set in. The twenty-second had become the twenty-third, the twenty-third had become the twenty-fourth. It was Christmas Eve, now long after noon, daylight starting to fade along the Eastern Seaboard, and here he was, stuck just north of Minneapolis helping reconnect power lines that ice had downed. His hands ached from the current he kept subjecting himself to, complete disregard for his own body as he did his best to lift the lines back into place as quickly as possible so people wouldn't freeze to death in the sub-zero temps of the intense storm. His eyes even stung from using his heat vision almost continuously to melt ice and thick snow drifts that had buried vehicles, and to clear paths for emergency vehicles.
It was the worst he'd been worn down since Luthor had had Metropolis all but paralyzed three years before, but that was nothing compared to the crushing disappointment squeezing his chest, the growing realization that he was at best another two days out from being able to head home, get cleaned up and recharged. That he was almost certainly going to miss Christmas. That he would miss Lara's second Christmas.
Turning his hearing eastward, he tried to listen for his family, even as he worked on another set of power lines, current shorting out his senses for just a brief moment. It took almost no time afterward to pinpoint home, with Lois chewing loudly on a nail as she and Jason hung ornaments on the tree, Lara laughing at something with that lilting baby laugh, and light Christmas music playing in the background. God, it was the most beautiful thing to listen to, a perfect symphony of life and love, and he wished so hard that this work would be over soon so he could go home and be with them.
The power line repaired for the most part, he rose in the air, ignoring the snow and ice that tried to cling to him as he passed through the clouds, finally emerging into the pure afternoon sunlight over the Midwest. Two minutes, that was all he needed. Just two minutes to take in a little sun, gather himself and regroup to head for the next crisis.
Breathing in the clear air deeply as he turned to face the long rays, he stretched out the kinks in his shoulders, felt the tingle of photons start to infuse his skin and lend him energy. It felt so good.
But it couldn't last. Not with more work demanding his attention.
Tearing his focus away from Lois and the kids, he tuned into a local emergency band, feeling the vibrational shift in his ears as he hit the right radio frequency. Two more large-scale power outages waited to be dealt with about twenty-two miles to the east. A few auto accidents. A hospital that needed the helipad cleared of ice so they could accept patients by air. Plenty to do.
Another deep breath and a heavy sigh.
He couldn't go home, but at least he could call, for just a minute.
Pulling his cell from its hidden pocket in his cape, he hit the speed dial for home and waited for Lois to pick up. Hardly a ring passed before there was a click.
“Clark? Where are you?” came her worried voice from the other end. It warmed him as much as any hot shower might have.
“Over Minnesota. I, um, don't think I'll be home any time before tomorrow night at the earliest.” And God, he hated to admit it.
“Oh, Clark,” she sighed in return, and the disappointment so clear in her voice was almost a match for his own. “Well―” she paused a moment, then started again, her voice sounding steeled to the unavoidable, “We want to give you part of your Christmas present, okay?”
Not sure exactly what she meant, he agreed, “Okay.”
“All right, just listen for a moment,” she instructed, and so he did, opening his hearing to the east again.
As before, there was the beautiful noise of his family, the soft melody of Silent Night in the background, the tinkling of bells and ornaments being hung on the tree in the corner of the family room in the modest apartment. Such peaceful sounds, their breaths and heartbeats as they waited for him, small fingers moving over the keys of the―
And it hit him. The music wasn't coming from the radio.
It was Jason. Jason was playing an advanced arrangement of Silent Night.
His breath caught in his throat at the discovery, and he couldn't help the slow grin that moved over his face. “Is that... is that really Jason?” he asked finally, feeling a world away and right there with them all at once, and not quite able to believe it.
“It is,” Lois confirmed, and he could practically hear the proud grin in her voice as well. “Merry Christmas, Clark.”
“Merry Christmas, Dad!” came their son's voice both through the phone and over the distance in echo of his mother's.
“Merry Christmas,” he answered them both, his soul warming at the wonderful gift. Out here, so far away, with so much left to be done before he could be there with them in person, it was the best thing he could have ever asked for. It was his hope and his reassurance that they'd be there when he got home, and that Christmas wouldn't be missed after all.
~*~*~*~