Ficlet: The Eleventh Shot | SR | Jimmy, Clark | PG-13 | 1/1
Title: The Eleventh Shot
Fandom: Superman Returns
Characters: Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 690
Prompts: For the ES.C October 2011 Fic Grab: Time; For dcu_freeforall: Rain/Storm
Summary: Going through the day's pictures, a certain shot gives Jimmy pause.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything. I own nothing, darnit.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Not related to any series. This one takes place the day after SR ends. Warning for death of an OC (not graphic). Can be read as gen or slash.
The Eleventh Shot
Sorting through the day's pictures on his laptop, Jimmy nearly startles out of his skin at the flash of lightning and immediate crack of thunder that follows. Jeez, that one was close. Maybe a few blocks away at most. He'll be lucky if he doesn't lose power soon.
Figures that a major thunder storm would hit just when he's in the middle of work stuff.
A quick glance up from his makeshift work station in his living room, and he catches a glimpse of the rain outside his apartment starting to blow sideways. Yep, it's gonna be a bad one.
With a tug, he pulls the power cord from his laptop. Better to be safe than sorry. He's got a good eight hours of battery life if he doesn't tax his system too much, anyway. The automatically dimmed screen helps, too.
Doesn't much help him sort through his pics, though. With the dimming, he can't quite make out which images are the sharpest. That'll make his task a little harder, picking images to get in to Perry tomorrow.
Grabbing his beer from the coffee table, he takes a long swig and starts in on the second series of shots. Whereas the first set were from the cleanup around the Planet, these are from way downtown, where the entire facade of a six story apartment building simply fell off during the earthquake. He was lucky he was able to get down there to photograph the cleanup.
The people that were still trapped beneath the rubble weren't so lucky.
Some not even when Superman showed up, his first appearance after going missing from the hospital the day before.
Jimmy's fifth shot of the set shows nothing but a red and blue blur, streaking into the rubble. The next shows Superman gently lifting someone that he managed to pull out from the debris. The next, another blur. The next, another person.
And then... then there's a shot of Superman's profile, his focus turned tightly back to the pile, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
Another blur follows. And... Jimmy sighs heavily at the eleventh shot of the set. Superman, cradling a limp body in his arms, his expression looking like the world had ended.
He didn't get to the person in time.
Jimmy doesn't much blame him for leaving right after he finished pulling people out. He's seen that crestfallen look of guilt on the hero's face before, when he just hadn't made it to the scene of a tragedy in time to save everyone. Only... that'd mostly been years ago, before Superman had left, supposedly to find Krypton. And knowing what Jimmy knows, he isn't much surprised that that look has come back.
Clark has always been too softhearted to not be affected by the saves he's missed. Not to mention the crap he's been through since coming back. Finding out Lois is practically married and has a kid--Clark's, by all reckoning--had to have hit him hard.
Another crash of thunder startles Jimmy again, and with a huff, he shuts off his laptop and closes it. He's just gonna have to figure out what to turn in to the Chief later, after the storm. None of these shots will do, anyway. Jimmy just can't bear to expose his friend's grief like that.
When he lifts his beer again, this time to drain it, a knock sounds on his door, seemingly hesitant.
Who the heck's at his door at ten thirty at night?
Getting up from his couch, he opens the door to find a thoroughly soaked Clark standing there, his coat dripping on the hallway carpet and his hair hanging limply over his eyes and his rain-splattered glasses.
"Hey, Jim," he says quietly, offering a weak smile. "I don't, um, suppose I can stay with you? There's no place... else... um... and I...."
Gaping at him in complete shock that Clark didn't come to him sooner, Jimmy grips him by the coat lapels and drags him into the apartment, grabbing his suitcases--jeez, heavy!--after, and shutting the door behind them. "Get in here before you wind up in the hospital again," he admonishes him.
To hell with the pictures, he's got a friend to take care of.
~*~*~*~
Fandom: Superman Returns
Characters: Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 690
Prompts: For the ES.C October 2011 Fic Grab: Time; For dcu_freeforall: Rain/Storm
Summary: Going through the day's pictures, a certain shot gives Jimmy pause.
Disclaimer: DC and WB own everything. I own nothing, darnit.
Author's Notes/Warnings: Not related to any series. This one takes place the day after SR ends. Warning for death of an OC (not graphic). Can be read as gen or slash.
The Eleventh Shot
Sorting through the day's pictures on his laptop, Jimmy nearly startles out of his skin at the flash of lightning and immediate crack of thunder that follows. Jeez, that one was close. Maybe a few blocks away at most. He'll be lucky if he doesn't lose power soon.
Figures that a major thunder storm would hit just when he's in the middle of work stuff.
A quick glance up from his makeshift work station in his living room, and he catches a glimpse of the rain outside his apartment starting to blow sideways. Yep, it's gonna be a bad one.
With a tug, he pulls the power cord from his laptop. Better to be safe than sorry. He's got a good eight hours of battery life if he doesn't tax his system too much, anyway. The automatically dimmed screen helps, too.
Doesn't much help him sort through his pics, though. With the dimming, he can't quite make out which images are the sharpest. That'll make his task a little harder, picking images to get in to Perry tomorrow.
Grabbing his beer from the coffee table, he takes a long swig and starts in on the second series of shots. Whereas the first set were from the cleanup around the Planet, these are from way downtown, where the entire facade of a six story apartment building simply fell off during the earthquake. He was lucky he was able to get down there to photograph the cleanup.
The people that were still trapped beneath the rubble weren't so lucky.
Some not even when Superman showed up, his first appearance after going missing from the hospital the day before.
Jimmy's fifth shot of the set shows nothing but a red and blue blur, streaking into the rubble. The next shows Superman gently lifting someone that he managed to pull out from the debris. The next, another blur. The next, another person.
And then... then there's a shot of Superman's profile, his focus turned tightly back to the pile, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
Another blur follows. And... Jimmy sighs heavily at the eleventh shot of the set. Superman, cradling a limp body in his arms, his expression looking like the world had ended.
He didn't get to the person in time.
Jimmy doesn't much blame him for leaving right after he finished pulling people out. He's seen that crestfallen look of guilt on the hero's face before, when he just hadn't made it to the scene of a tragedy in time to save everyone. Only... that'd mostly been years ago, before Superman had left, supposedly to find Krypton. And knowing what Jimmy knows, he isn't much surprised that that look has come back.
Clark has always been too softhearted to not be affected by the saves he's missed. Not to mention the crap he's been through since coming back. Finding out Lois is practically married and has a kid--Clark's, by all reckoning--had to have hit him hard.
Another crash of thunder startles Jimmy again, and with a huff, he shuts off his laptop and closes it. He's just gonna have to figure out what to turn in to the Chief later, after the storm. None of these shots will do, anyway. Jimmy just can't bear to expose his friend's grief like that.
When he lifts his beer again, this time to drain it, a knock sounds on his door, seemingly hesitant.
Who the heck's at his door at ten thirty at night?
Getting up from his couch, he opens the door to find a thoroughly soaked Clark standing there, his coat dripping on the hallway carpet and his hair hanging limply over his eyes and his rain-splattered glasses.
"Hey, Jim," he says quietly, offering a weak smile. "I don't, um, suppose I can stay with you? There's no place... else... um... and I...."
Gaping at him in complete shock that Clark didn't come to him sooner, Jimmy grips him by the coat lapels and drags him into the apartment, grabbing his suitcases--jeez, heavy!--after, and shutting the door behind them. "Get in here before you wind up in the hospital again," he admonishes him.
To hell with the pictures, he's got a friend to take care of.
~*~*~*~