FIC: The Prince and The Crossdresser, Part Six AGAIN
Still betaed by quiet__tiger
Remaining errors are still my own moral failing.
Part Six: Only Human Nature, part two
Adina clipped along the streets of Metropolis hurrying to the subway. It ran all night, but she wanted to make it back to the Penthouse before he went to sleep. Normally she’d be cutting it close as it was. There was no guarantee that he’d be awake at any part of the day. But she knew he’d been in the lab today and wasn’t back yet. She thought she might get home first and surprise him. She stopped at the crosswalk to wait on the white little man and wished she’d taken one of the cars.
“Hiya, dolly!”
She turned with a high chin and raised a brow at the man eyeing her. He had sort of a sleak, sleezy smooth look to him, like if she put her hand on him he’d slip out like a bar of soap. His suit was freshly pressed, though, and he looked like some kind of professional.
“Not your dolly,” she said flatly. He stepped closer. Her eyes flitted to the side, then back to him. The traffic was too heavy…
It wasn’t that he was bigger than her. She figured she was stronger, but there was something about the way his eyes were running up and down her form that made her want to bolt into traffic like a frighten doe.
“No? Someone else’s dolly? I wouldn’t be surprised.” He raised his hands. “Don’t be offended. I’m just trying to give you a compliment.”
“Save it. He’s expecting me at home any minute,” she lied smoothly, moving her head away from him, but still watching from the corner of her eye. He moved a hand in her direction. She pulled away sharply.
“That dress looks so soft. It’s expensive, I can tell. Your boyfriend well off?” he asked.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Of course it isn’t. I’m just being friendly.” He smiled. She panicked. She hit the button again. Twice. “Now, come on. You don’t have to worry about me.”
His eyes reminded her of Jimmy. He did a better impression of a human being, however.
“I’m not worried. I just want to get home.” In one piece, she thought.
“I understand you being hesitant. A sweet young thing like you, out here, alone. But you aren’t alone.” He insisted. “There are lights. There are people.”
She looked at the semi-deserted sidewalk and raised a brow at him.
“You don’t think the people in the cars would stop if it looked like there was a struggle?”
Not in Metropolis. She pressed her lips together and pushed the button again.
“Don’t be scared.”
“I’m not scared. I just don’t want to talk to some greasy stranger I found on the street.”
“My name is Allen, alright? Not a stranger anymore. My friends call me The Connoisseur.”
“Why is that?” She slipped her hand on the other side into her handbag. He didn’t seem to see.
“Because I can’t settle for any common woman. I like a very special kind.”
Her fingertips brushed against her taser. “Oh? Special in what way?”
Why the fucking hell were the crosswalk lights so damn slow??
“Special like you, dolly.” He stepped closer. She pulled out her taser. The clacking and flashing came between them.
“Don’t. Maybe you’re really just being friendly, but back the fuck off, okay?”
He calmly reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. “Let’s not get feisty.”
Her heart pounded. Not again. Not now.
“Please don’t do this,” she said softly, blinking slowly. It didn’t feel real. It felt like one of those dreams she would have at night, pressed on her stomach, fingers gripping painfully in dark, private places they didn’t belong, until she woke up and Lex was holding her.
“Don’t scream. Don’t run. You don’t know how good a shot I am.” He was still giving her an odd smile. He motioned with the other hand. “Just move slow and do as I say. You’ll be alright.”
God, how she wanted to wake up in his arms.
“Define alright.” She walked slowly in front of him as he motioned, and he moved close to her, grabbing her arm as the other hand pressed the gun into her back. If she got out of this, she would have to consider asking for one of Lex’s guns. Maybe he would let her get one of her own. Adam had learned how to aim with a shotgun back home. They shot beer bottles off the neighbor’s fence until she called the cops for putting out her Jeep window. It couldn’t be too difficult to use a handgun.
Her mind was rambling. Her eyes were flitting around trying to see an out. A man in a business suit rushed past, heading home with his face to the ground. He didn’t even notice them. Even if he’d been looking up, the gun wasn’t visible between their bodies.
His scent, the odor of his overpowering cologne filled her nostrils. She felt a tear trickle down the side of her face. “Where are we going?”
“I have a hotel room.”
Lex would find him. If she didn’t come back. She knew Lex would find this man and have him killed, because even if he used an assumed name, Lex would be able to get his description. That wasn’t a comfort. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to live through this again. She didn’t want Lex to have to go through losing her, if it made him feel anything like she had over the past few months.
“So what’s so special about me?”
“I just love pre-op girls.” He said, sniffing her neck. Adina felt a shiver take over her body. Her vision became very sharp.
“Oh yeah?” She said, controlling her face. It was a fixed mask. Her body movements were controlled and steady.
“You aren’t afraid anymore? That’s good. We’re going to have a really good time.”
“You love us pre-ops? Well, I love my boyfriend.”
“Does he know?”
“Didn’t anyone tell you how rude it is to point out a lady’s small imperfections?”
“Almost from the moment we met.”
“And he doesn’t mind?”
“I’d thought I’d be seeing your sweeter half.”
”Not at all. He likes boys and girls, so he doesn’t mind me being in between.”
“You’re lucky to have him.”
”Just come home.”
“I know.” They hit another street and waited for the light. Four lanes. “So how did you read me?”
“I’m The Connoisseur. I’ve been watching you. I saw you adjusting your choker before.”
“I’ve been meaning to get that pesky Adam’s apple taken care of.”
“Well, and you haven’t been taking hormones long enough to fool me. I’m sure someone with less refined taste would never be able to tell. People are blind. You’re an exquisite specimen. I’m so often forced to settle for something too new and sour.” He trailed his fingers down her neck. “What’s your na-“
Adina bolted into the street. She heard a shot. One car skidded to a stop in front of her and another slammed against his bumper. She kept running in a frenzied flight across the street, twisting her ankle once and getting clipped by another car before she fell on the other side of the street. She pulled off her shoes, flung them aside, and hobbled away from the cacophony of horns. No one came after her, but she kept running.
There was blood quickly staining her dress. The streets here had even less people. Run? Or hide? She banged on the front door to an apartment complex then tried to pull open the door. It was locked to the outside.
“Help! Someone, open the door!” No answer. She darted around the building as quickly as she could manage into the alleyway. “Hello! Someone help me please!!”
She tried to jump to the fire escape, but fell hard on her injured leg. She had dropped her purse back at the intersection. She screamed up at the windows as loudly as she could.
”Please! Someone help! At least call the fucking police!”
“Oh, dolly.” He walked into the ally slowly, brandishing his gun. “Nowhere to run now. You can’t fool me. You can’t mock me, you little slut. I’m smarter. I would have liked to savor you in the hotel, though. Are you sure you aren’t going to cooperate with me?”
She hated the sickly sweet tone of his voice.
“Take it off.”
“No.”
“Do you want me to shoot you?” He said with a condescending air.
“I’d rather die. You’re going to kill me anyway, aren’t you?” she ground out, her voice trembling and high with fright and anger.
“Smart little slut, aren’t you? But think of it this way. If you play nice, be a good little girl, maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you go back home to your boyfriend.”
She furrowed her brows.
“That sounds good doesn’t it? So maybe you’re a little less pure-“
“I wasn’t pure when he met me. Do you think you’re the only sick fuck that rapes girls?” She demanded.
“Then he won’t care, will he?” He stalked closer to her.
“Oh, he’ll care.”
“Didn’t I tell you not to mock me? Stop mocking me!!” he shrieked, whacking her across the face with his gun. She took a deep breath and held very still. The barrel of the gun pressed into her forehead. “He’ll care more if I blow your brains out. Here in the Slums, they aren’t going to give a damn about you. One dead trannie in the ally? Probably just a whore working the streets for her operation money.”
She said nothing and focused on breathing. She thought of Lex’s expressive eyes. His tender lips. The Connoisseur’s hand was sliding up her dress as he grinned wildly in excitement. She thought of Martha’s smiling supportive face. Pattiecakes’ big, strong hands….
“You’re bleeding…” He moved it further, and she suppressed another shiver as his fingers brushed the lump under her dress.
Suddenly there was a great gust of wind. She blinked in disbelief. The man was being held over her head. The gun fell to the ground. It had been crushed into a ball.
“I don’t think this is an ideal place for a date,” a voice boomed. Adina, stunned speechless in confusion, looked up at the red sheet waving in the slight wind. They were floating. Floating midair.
“Superman! I… uh…”
“That’s me,” the firmly muscled man in spandex said. He turned his head to her. “Miss, are you alright?”
“No,” she said dully, still a bit astounded at her sudden rescue. Her mouth was swollen and she sounded as muffled as she felt. She’d heard about this guy, sure, but never seen him in action. Never really heard anything positive from Lex. “But better than I was going to be. I uh… thank you.”
“Hold on a sec.” He looked up at the people hanging out of their windows. “Please keep an eye on her until I get back.”
The man blurred out of sight and left her there, stunned and still terribly frightened. A few of the neighbors began to mutter amongst themselves. “Was that Superman?”
Adina attempted to stand, but without the adrenaline to keep her going, she couldn’t reach her feet. A moment later he blurred in front of her. “Let me give you a hand, Miss-?”
“Adina.” Her voice shook like a child’s.
“Adina.” He flashed her a hugely white, broad smile. She had the sudden impression that this was all fake. The Man of Steel did drag. How hilarious. “How about we get an ambulance here?”
“I’m not that badly hurt,” she muttered, wobbling on her feet. She looked down at her battered leg. The blood had soaked through her soft green dress.
“Well, I hope from now on you’ll be more careful.”
She stumbled back, her mouth agape. “What?”
“Next time, find someone to walk with you, and make sure you aren’t wearing heels that you can’t run in.”
It was surreal. His voice sounded like an automated public service announcement.
“Thanks for saving me. You can move on now,” she said with an icy chill. The man looked confused.
“I… uh…”
“You don’t tell a girl who almost got raped that it’s her fucking fault. How dare I walk around as a woman?? I should have worn a fucking parka,” Adina spat. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned against the concrete wall. It had to be the stress of the situation. The relief and the anger. God, she could go home to Lex now. He could hold her now.
“I… didn’t mean….”
“Of course you don’t. I was just asking for it, wasn’t I? Those Come-Rape-Me heels… this pretty dress. It’s red now. Isn’t that appropriate?! Now that I know the formula, I can stop worrying about assholes like that coming after me.”
His posture deflated. “Please let me take you to the hospital? Your leg…”
She looked, her eyes refusing to focus anymore. She wanted to lie down and stop moving.
“It isn’t broken. I x-rayed it. But you can’t walk far like this.” He offered her his hand. “I didn’t… I’m… just let me get you to safety? Please?”
“Am I ungrateful.” She leaned her head against the bricks. He moved slowly towards her, keeping his hands in sight.
“No, I say shit half the time not even thinking about it.” For the first time he sounded like a real person, and not a parody of himself. He was adorably young. Maybe her age, or a little younger. “I say what it seems like a hero should say. Be safe! Something like that. My mom would smack me for it sometimes... I don’t think people listen anyway, mostly. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”
“Anyone who keeps a creepy fucker like that off me gets at least one pass,” she conceded, letting him pick her up in his arms. “You… Hon, you’ve got to watch what you do, though. You can cut all the people around you down without even knowing it. I bet they listen to you more than you think.”
Clark smiled at her advice as he lifted off into the air. He couldn’t help but notice she was still shaking at his touch while she instructed him. He tried to be more gentle.
***
Clark came back to the hospital later that evening still wearing his suit and, of course, they let him in. Who denies Superman? Regardless, he approached the room slowly, feeling anxious with the flowers in his hand. He wasn’t particularly winning at diplomacy lately.
She’d seemed all right until he opened his mouth. How he managed to make a situation like that worse Clark really didn’t know, but he wasn’t impressed with himself.
As he approached heard her speaking. “No, he’s not, I swear. He’s just a boy. No matter what he said, I’m glad he was there. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of it, to be honest.”
At the following silence, Clark leaned his head into the doorway and knocked on the frame.
“Superman?”
“Luthor?” Clark straightened and looked back at the man in the wheelchair. He was holding Adina’s hand tenderly. She, in her hospital gown and without her wig, regarded him in surprise and with bit of embarrassment. Clark tried not to let his startlement show. This answered a lot of his questions. Although it opened up others. “Well at least I know for once the culprit isn’t going to get off in the legal system.”
“The culprit is lucky Adina told me not to have him killed,” Lex said sharply. She smiled weakly.
“I can’t let him get out of prison buggery.” She was sitting up in the bed against more pillows than were usually allotted. “Flowers?”
“I… uh….”
“Do all the girls you save get flowers? Or just the girlfriends of your nemesis?”
“I didn’t know… he was with anyone.”
“Come in, hon.” Adina motioned with a light smile. She seemed so much stronger now. Not the crying shaking little girl he’d brought into the hospital. Clark stepped forward and handed her the flowers. Lex was glaring at him with a guarded expression. He repositioned his hand on Adina’s protectively.
“No, I don’t.”
“What?” Adina asked, looking at the flowers.
“I don’t always visit the people I save. Of course, when I think I probably caused them as much damage as their attacker, I do.”
“What? What did he say to you?” Lex demanded. Adina shook her head.
“I’m okay now.” She insisted to Lex before turning to Clark. “I don’t actually know you well enough to give a damn what you think of me.”
“Uh… Good, then. I guess.” He shifted his feet. Lex’s lips twisted into an amused expression. Clark flushed as he realized Lex was amused by the fact that The Superman was kept off balance by his Adina.
“It hurt, but I was pretty shaken already, okay, hon? Don’t worry about me anymore. As for you,” She analyzed his broad attractive face. “Sometimes we…. see ourselves changing and we find out that we don’t know who we are. You seem to think you need to play this crazy part in tights and a cape.”
“Uh…”
“Don’t force yourself into an identity that isn’t you. It isn’t worth it.”
Superman fumbled and ran his hand through his hair. He stopped and looked at the gel in semi-disgust. He used too much of the stuff.
Lex broke the silence. “I hate to keep you.” He almost burst into laughter at the abashed look on Superman’s face. “I mean, to be graced with your visit twice in one day.”
Clark opened his mouth, then shut it, deciding to accept his loss for the day and just leave. He already felt behind both of them in both intelligence and wit, and he’d never feel on their level while he wore what Chloe called his ‘Super Hypnosis Inducing Spandex Skin.’ When she’d seen the outfit for the first time, she couldn’t stop staring at his crotch, mouth agape. “Feel better, Adina.”
“Back ‘atcha, Supes.”
Clark walked out of the room and heard the wheelchair following him. He considered speeding off to avoid the confrontation before he turned to face Lex. “Have you slept at all? You look like something The Mortician dug up and only half-assed the revival.”
“I have something to say to you.” Lex said firmly, his face grave. Clark braced himself for the torrent of angry words. “I… have to thank you. For protecting her.”
“Oh… It’s what I do. She kind of caused a traffic pile-up when she was running away from that creep. It caught my attention, so I was able to help her. That’s all.”
“Well.” Lex started to wheel back. Clark hesitated.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t save her because she looks a little like you? Or if I’d known she was your girlfriend? You should know by now that I don’t operate like that.” Clark frowned, realizing that that was exactly what Lex thought. It hurt to realize Lex thought he was capable of hurting his loved ones. “The police will probably want to talk to her. This guy has killed quite a few people already.”
“So I’ve heard.” Lex said dispiritedly. “I read the news.”
“So you know who he normally… targets.”
“I’m aware.”
“They were getting close. And he was getting desperate.”
“He must have been to try something like that in an ally of this city.”
“I’m glad I won’t have to come down on you for killing him. That would really test my commitment.”
“I feel for you.”
Clark rolled his eyes. “I think you of all people know how dangerous it would be if I didn’t have such strict standards about habeas corpus and the sanctity of life.”
“Frankly, I lost faith in the legal system a long time ago. Doing the ‘right thing’ has always resulted in more people getting hurt.”
“That’s pretty short sighted for you. You’re always accusing me of not seeing the bigger picture. It’s about keeping the system working to prevent evil actions.”
“Define evil. And the system doesn’t work. My father is still on the streets.” Lex turned to wheel back into Adina’s room.
Clark said nothing, but made an understanding nod he knew Lex couldn’t see, and sped off.
As Lex wheeled back into the hospital room, he watched Adina putting the flowers on the nightstand. She looked a little worn, but mostly cheerful and turned her head to him.
“Babe, you don’t look good. Come here.”
“I don’t look good?” Lex drawled. He wheeled over slowly and stopped at the side of her bed.
“Hey, I look better than you.”
“Every day of the week,” he replied. She motioned for him to come closer and he steadied himself against his chair and the bed and began to climb in with her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I had to keep thinking of you. He said he wouldn’t kill me after, if I cooperated, but… I didn’t believe him.” Adina put her arms around Lex as he curled into her. “I thought maybe it would give me time to think of another way to get away.”
He kicked off his shoes. “You’re thinking like a Luthor.”
“And that’s terrible.” She stroked his head, listening to him chuckle. “Suits me, I guess.”
“And what did the suit say to you, exactly?”
“Let it go.”
“Since when do I let anything go?”
She planted a kiss on his head and continued to stroke his skin for a few minutes. When she opened her eyes she saw people standing over her. Lex’s head was on her chest, and he was drooling on her. She rubbed her eyes.
“Martha?”
“Yeah, sweetie.” She came in as quietly as she could. Patrica and Chloe stood by the doorway. “Wow, you have a lot of flowers.”
“Dave and Leah are about five hours away right now, so they called in a garden.” She smiled and met Martha’s eyes amiably. The older woman sat by her side.
“Uh, Adina… I didn’t know you knew Lex,” Chloe said, failing at casual as her eyes fixed on the pale, skinny man sleeping on her friend.
“The significant other, right here,” she replied in a singsong voice.
“Oh. Wow.”
Adina didn’t really know how to read Chloe’s expression, but she seemed to be simply processing the information around her in that wide-eyed way of hers.
“Oh, um… how’d your visit with your mom go?”
“It went. I’d ask you how your evening was but gah!” She leaned against the nightstand and looked at her sympathetically. “I’ve been here. Where you are. It sucks a lot. And then time will pass and it sucks a little less.”
Patrica leaned down to give her a hug and looked worriedly at Adina’s bruised face. “I’m so sorry this happened, Adina.”
“Oh, love you, Pattiecakes.” She rested her head back and smiled at them. “I’m fine, really. The man in tights stopped the bastard before he got too far. Thank you for coming, though. Really. It helps.”
Adina rubbed Lex’s back wondering if he would wake up. Often he was a light, fitful sleeper. “So what’s with the cuts and bruises?”
Chloe raised a hand to her cheek then gave a broken smile. “Mom… got upset.”
“She hurt you?” Adina took the girl’s hand. Patricia moved behind her and put her large hands on Chloe’s shoulders.
“She didn’t mean to. She… was trying to tell me something, I think.”
Adina nodded. Martha looked confused. “I didn’t know you’d found your mother?”
The three other women looked at one another. Chloe fixed her eyes at a point on the wall and spoke in a tight voice. “She’s in Belle Reve.”
“Oh. Oh, sweetie.”
Adina closed her eyes, still petting Lex’s back, and listened as Martha coaxed the story out of the young woman.
A few minutes, an orderly came in to show them out. Martha was crying a little and holding Chloe tightly. The three rose slowly and each gave Adina a hug over Lex’s head.
“We’ll be back tomorrow.” Martha insisted.
“I’ll probably be out by then. You can come by the Penthouse, if you want.” She shook Lex’s shoulders gently. “Time to get up, baby.”
He didn’t move.
“Alex?” She shook harder, her voice rising. “Alex?!”
***
There was a ceiling rushing by him. The hysterical shouting had faded away, replaced with a businesslike discussion of blood cell levels and fever and decreasing the source of the abnormal cells and what a poor bastard this guy was. His eyes fluttered open and closed. He kept trying to force them to stay open, but it was too difficult.
Another voice. An older woman telling him to hang on as she ran beside him. His eyes opened again and his head rolled over. Then he saw her.
Long black hair and wide wide dark eyes that watched him as he was swept past. Holding a bouquet of flowers.
Lana was a vision that day. Her hair hanging down her back with braids woven around sprigs of lilies, framing her rosy, wide face. Her dress was shining white and sleek on her slender body, professionally personally designed. She floated down the aisle like an angel.
Chloe practically buzzed in excitement. She caught Lex’s eye and gave him a wink. He unsuccessfully fought a grin. If this union had Lana’s best friend’s approval, particularly given Chloe’s initial hatred of the idea, nothing could go wrong. He wouldn’t be messing this one up.
On his side stood Toby and Stan, the young janitor from his building. He was making eyes over at Lois, who pretended not to see them. His ‘best man,’ was, in fact, his bodyguard Hope, although she looked pretty sharp with her cropped black hair and tuxedo. Lana had been forced to restrain herself regarding bridesmaids. Since Lex didn’t have any male friends to speak of, groomsmen were hard to come by.
The preacher spoke grandly of matrimony and fidelity. The speech was somewhat littered with references to the lifelong commitment implied by marriage vows, certainly a dig at Lex’s well-known serial monogamy. Lex and Lana exchanged their vows, written by themselves, promising to always be loyal, to love and to protect one another, in their whole, as they were and not as what they wanted the other to be.
They exchanged rings. Custom made as the engagement rings had been and inlayed with Kryptonite for their protection from unwanted alien intruders.
It had been a long engagement.
His eyes opened. He heard the sound of an electric saw.
“NO!!!”
***
Doctors had been in and out of the private waiting room, and Adina could no longer tell what time of day it was. Someone had put her wig back on her head. Dave and Leah had breezed in for a little while to comfort her. Then they had gone somewhere. To fetch lunch, maybe. There were other people here to see Lex. She didn’t know all of them, and some of them stayed for awhile then left, patting shoulders and speaking platitudes.
“It’s so hard to believe that Lex is that sick. He seemed fine the last time I saw him.”
“You know how good he is at hiding things, Lana.”
“He never used to hide them from me…”
Adina felt a hand on her shoulder as she put her face in her hands and time slipped away from her. It felt like the strength was bleeding out of her. Voices whispered over her shoulder that everything was going to be all right.
“Hey, Princess.”
She looked up fretfully to see Toby crouching in front of her. He cupped her chin and crooked his mouth. “Our Prince is in there. Still alive, the tough bastard. They’ve got him in the ICU.”
“Can I see him?”
Toby nodded. “He’s not going to be happy when he wakes up.”
“If he wakes up…” Lana said and then squeaked in pain. “Chloe, why did you do that?”
“The doctors here don’t think he will, but us who’ve worked with him before know better. He’s going to wake up. And he’s going to tear ‘em a new one.”
Adina felt someone helping her to stand. She turned her head to see Robert giving her a soft smile. “Don’t forget your crutches.”
“Crutch… oh fuck.” She grumbled, trying to fit them properly under her arms. Then she noticed that at some point, someone had helped her into a pair of jeans so she could lay in the waiting room without embarrassing herself. “Thanks buddy.”
“Go on.” He gave her a kiss on the forehead then plopped back down on the couch next to Chloe and Lana, whose eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him, no doubt wondering how Lex knew these people. She shot up.
“Um... can I go in to see him?”
“No,” Adina snapped, making her way to the door. She heard Lana asking Chloe what Lex was doing with a woman like that.
Hours later Adina found herself moving in and out of the ICU when the doctors would let her. They’d eventually given Adina a wheelchair to save her arms and her strength.
“Looks like we’re playing musical chairs, babe.” She laughed bitterly to herself, rubbing a spot of exposed skin on his right hand. It looked like he had tubes coming out of every part of his body. The machines forced his chest to rise. It was his only response. “My turn next, I guess.”
Lana looked more pissed every time Adina came back into the waiting room, and she considered just kicking her out. She considered kicking everyone out besides her girls. She’d never met Lex’s father before now… not as herself. She suspected that if Martha hadn’t been hovering over him, she would be getting the grilling of her life, and perhaps demands that she let him see Lex. But Lex had given her power of attorney for a reason, and she would never betray him like that.
“Fever’s down,” she said simply, wheeling back into the room. Dave rubbed her shoulder and offered her a sandwich. She shook her head.
”Not still worried about your figure, are you?” He teased, half-heartedly.
“Gotta keep that fat ass under control,” she joked back, smiling at him. He put the sandwich in her lap anyway and sat on the arm of the couch.
“I don’t see how his fever being down is an indication of anything good, considering the whole of the situation,” Lionel remarked. He was irritated to find that his intelligence had been incomplete. Apparently having cancer was something of a moral failing. Adina poked at the wrapping of the sandwich. It smelled like salami… maybe with turkey and Italian dressing… she wished she had an appetite. Might have been the painkiller she was taking, or the overtiredness…
“Actually… that’s a pretty good sign. Either the antibiotics magically started working, and they weren’t. That’s why he got the fever. Or… his immune system found some way to spring to life despite the fact that it’s been compromised by the cancer. This could be a really good sign.”
“How could his immune system do that?”
Adina shook her head and took a nibble of the sandwich before putting it back down.
“Dammit, Adam. Eat it,” Dave hissed into her ear, so the others couldn’t tell what he was saying.
“I’ll answer you when you call me by my name, Daisy,” she snapped back. He looked surprised then wilted. Leah smacked his arm.
“Eat your sandwich, Adina. Eat. Shower. He’s going to be here when you get back. We’ll come grab you if he wakes up while you’re gone.”
“Yeah,” Dave added. “A… dina. You have to heal too.”
She relaxed her frown. “I know you’re right. But don’t expect me to have super regenerative properties. Because I’m damn tapped right now.”
***
Her wide eyes watched him as he regained consciousness. He looked so beautiful and clean, just from having all of those tubes off of him. The doctors were standing back a bit, aside from Toby who sat sprawled in a chair in the corner looking like he wanted a smoke. She was afraid of how angry Lex was going to be. He would scream and yell, and then revert to feeling guilty afterward for having shown the emotion.
“Alex?” Her eyes were a little watery, but she didn’t care much. It meant she could see his waking face just a bit clearer despite her tired haze. His skin was so white that it seemed translucent and his eyes seemed very bright. He breathed in slowly.
“Just had to make it all about me, didn’t I?”
“Oh, well. I knew you were a drama queen when I fell for you,” she said with a wan smile. He wiggled a little, trying to sit up. She held her breath as he raised his left arm to caress her face.
And suddenly realized his hand was gone.
“Ah…” Lex’s eyes fixed in horror at the stump. Adina waited, keeping her body straight while she watched his face attentively. He made a strangled noise but was otherwise speechless. Minutes passed in complete silence.
“Let’s go home.”
She jumped a little. “I uh… Alex…”
“Did they have you sign anything?” He asked. She shook her head in confusion. The doctor beside him began to protest. “We’re going home.”
“Sir, we need to monitor you…”
“I don’t want to waste any more of my hours in a hospital. I’ve spent too much of my life here as it is,” he said firmly. Toby shrugged at the doctor and waved him off. The man went scurrying out of the room for support.
“I see.” She wiped away a tear. He reached out with his left stump then, realizing with a disgusted grimace that he couldn’t grasp her arm, reached over with the right hand and placed his remaining hand on her.
“I’m not giving up. I promise I’m not giving up. I’m just giving up on my idiot doctors. I told them I didn’t want them to amputate!” He gave an exacting glare at Toby.
She nodded. “Toby said you’d be pissed.”
“Sorry, man! I wasn’t even here yet. It probably won’t help at all. Just one more thing for your body to have to heal.” Toby shrugged as Adina gave him a scathing look for his pitiful bedside manner. “Heh. Lemme get you signed out of here.”
Lex met Adina’s eyes and raised his brows timidly. “Let’s go home? Please?”
It was a little frightening to see him beg her. Then she realized that she was perhaps the only person in the world he might beg. She set to work unhooking the remaining monitors and tubes. Finally that part time job in the nursing home found a use.
“Fuck off,” she told the orderly when he tried to stop her. “We have three good hands between us, and if I can find it, I’m willing to use the fourth as a slapping device. Get your pansy ass out of here and get the exit paperwork started. We’re going.”
She drew Lex into her lap on the wheelchair and started for the door. Lex buried his face in the crook of her neck and laughed hysterically. “Only you would think of using an amputated body part for a weapon.”
“I’m a practical girl.”
After swatting off several doctors, and encountering a nurse who had already prepared the exit paperwork, since she’d worked here long enough to know that Lex wouldn’t stay the night if he were conscious, they pushed into the waiting room.
“Brace yourself,” She whispered into his ear. Lex scowled and curled his left arm around her waist out of sight.
“Good god, son,” Lionel exclaimed standing up as soon as he saw them. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Leaving,” he said flatly. He swallowed at the tight dryness of his throat and recognized it as a result of the machine. Although facing this gauntlet of unwanted visitors might have had an effect.
“Lex, you can’t,” Lana protested. He turned his head to her.
”Take care of our little girl,” Chloe cheered in a singsong voice. She beamed and smoothed down the slinky, sea green dress that Lana had thoughtfully picked out for her bridesmaids.
“Thanks. I will when I can find her.”
“Well, hurry up, Warbucks Jr. You two have to smush cake in each others’ faces,” Lois shot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stan coming her way. She pointed up, left, then in the direction of the bathroom. “Uh… yeah.”
Chloe laughed. Hope came over and gave Lex a big bone-crushing hug. “It’s so good to see ya smile, Boss.”
“It’s an interesting feeling. Only time will tell if all this smiling ends up breaking me like fine China.”
Hope hit his arm. He rubbed it. It actually hurt. That girl never could control her strength.
“I’ll be back with the bride in a few. Make sure the crowds don’t riot.”
After a quick check of the bathrooms, he started walking down the hallways trying to see if she’d ducked into another room for a breather.
“Stop!”
“No.”
“We have to stop! Lex-“
That sounded like Clark. Clark had not been invited. Lex quickened his pace.
“Forget LEX for once!”
And that was definitely Lana.
He ran toward the door that had been left ajar halfway down the hall and flung it open. He stopped short at the sight before him.
Lana was practically mounting… not Clark. Kal-El. The alien. His enemy. His spandex was halfway off, and she had hiked up her wedding dress. He wondered how everything had gotten so terribly quiet. It was never quiet in his head.
“Lex!” The alien said.
She was wearing her ring. Lana was wearing their ring. Her wedding ring and the engagement ring designed to keep them safe from this monster. Had it been switched? Had she planned it from the start? It didn’t matter. It was a plan. Against him. This was willing betrayal.
“Haven’t you ever heard of closing the door?” an eerily calm voice said. “Locking it, even.”
Lana tried to disentangle herself from the alien while still looking dignified. The alien started hopping around trying to get back into his spandex. He looked extremely chagrined about what they’d been doing. Almost shy at Lex seeing his nakedness.
“Maybe we should have gone for the off-white dress,” Lex suggested dryly.
Lana fell onto the floor, then stood quickly and slapped him hard in the face.
He slapped her back, and she hit the ground, clutching her mouth as blood trickled down. He blinked in surprise at the sight of her crumpled from his blow. God, his hand hurt.
“Hey!” The alien reached him in a blur, pushing him into the wall. “Don’t hit her!”
“But she can hit me? She can hurt me, and you don’t give a flying fuck about that??”
“That’s different, and you know it!”
“Of course it is! I’m a Luthor. I’m not even human. I don’t fucking count in all of this.” He dug his ring into the alien’s belly. It groaned loudly in pain, and Lex felt his own stomach lurch. “I guess they messed up the set, Lana. We should ask for our money back.”
He turned on his heel and left. If he had his way, he’d never have to see the bitch again. Either one of them.
“Don’t look at me like that, Lex.” Lana stepped backward. “After the note you gave me, I thought… we could try. I didn’t know that you were sick, but I want to help…”
“And what are you going to do. Fuck Adina against a wall?”
Lana sighed heavily. “You don’t have to be like that with me.”
She turned with a pout to leave. Lex focused on the wall until the door slammed. “Note?”
“I have your handwriting down pat,” Adina said a bit smugly. Chloe let out a short bark of laughter when she realized what Adina had done. “I figured buying her a place at the museum in Grandville would be much more cost efficient than the therapy bills we’d both need from dealing with her.”
“I guess…” he said with some levity. “It’s a good thing you have my signature down so well. Left-handed too. It’ll come in… handy.”
She nuzzled his head and moved the chair forward. “I hate to brush all of you off, but we need to get home.”
“You aren’t leaving this hospital with that.” Lionel stepped in front of them with an expression of clear disgust on his face.
“Lionel, stop it,” Martha hissed, pulling him back roughly. “Lex, I’m glad you’re awake. You two go get some rest.”
Lex reached up with his remaining hand and let her squeeze it. “I appreciate the turnout. Hi, Chloe. Is this going to be on the cover of the Daily Planet?”
“As if they’d give me the cover,” she scoffed. “I know Adina from D.O.G. I came to visit her, then… y’know. Along for the ride.”
“Small world.” Lex looked around at all the people in the room. Mostly Adina’s friends, many of whom seemed actually concerned for him as well. Although they seemed to have the sense to stand back and give them some space. “Don’t worry. I have private doctors that can check on me at home.”
Lionel spoke again with soft admonishment in his voice. “Lex, I think this is a bad idea,”
Lex raised his stump. ”I think it’s a bad idea to have doctors that don’t respect my wishes. If they’re going to lop off a body part every time I get a fever, there isn’t going to be much of me to bury.”
Lex tried not to smirk at the look on his father’s face, although he regretted the hand that flew to Martha’s mouth and the choked noise she made. If Lionel had thought his son was damaged before, his expression told Lex that he’d exceeded his father’s expectations in that area. He wondered if Adina could ever forget the look on his own when he’d seen it for himself. “If we’d caught it before the cancer had spread, this might have been more worthwhile… To say I’m not happy is an understatement. You’ll understand if I want to take a more controlling… hand in my treatment from now on.”
“Oh my God.” Martha said, just before sweeping both him and Adina into a hug. He stiffened a little. “I’m sorry, Lex, I just need to do this.”
“It’s… okay. You’ve presented admirable restraint up until now, I think.”
“We need to talk about what you’re going to do with Luthorcorp, after…” Lionel said, defeated on the issue of keeping Lex in the hospital.
“Listen you cold sonnava-“ Adina’s voice shot venom in Lionel’s direction.
“No, we do. I know you could handle it, Adina, but I don’t want you to have to.” He wrapped a few strands of hair around his fingers. “And I’d like to see you be able to grow your hair out again.”
“There’s also the matter of your will…”
“The matter of my will is of no matter to you whatsoever,” Lex said shortly. “I’ve been putting some thought to the matter of how to deal with Luthorcorp, and I will notify you when we need to discuss it.”
“Lex-“
”Goodbye, dad.”
They rolled out of the room, and as soon as they were clear of the door, Lex rested his head on her shoulder. Adina’s friends followed quietly and said soft goodbyes to her, telling her to call when she needed them.
“Hang in there, Alex, buddy. Okay?” Robert grinned at him. Lex’s face opened in surprise.
“I’ll do my best. Well, I’ll try to hang on to the rest of my appendages at least.”
“Come over to the Éclair sometime. Fred’s dying to fatten you up.”
“Oh no. My figure,” Lex said dryly. Chloe gave Adina a hug around the shoulders from behind. One arm squeezed Lex’s face in the process. He didn’t move but rolled his eyes upward to look at her.
“Uh, sorry Lex.” She pulled her arms back and put her hands in her back pockets.
“You’re permitted to touch me by accident. But only by accident.” His eyes shone in amusement seeing her take him seriously for a moment.
“Okay, we’ll let you guys go. I don’t know how long Martha can stand being around your dad.” Dave kissed Adina’s cheek. “See you later, Addy.”
“Okay okay, Davy.”
***
Adina was glad they were living in the Penthouse for the time being. Limping all around the castle would be a little too much for her right now. Having the both of them in a wheelchair would be fairly pathetic, and she was so emotionally fatigued she really just wanted to spend all of her time lying down. She probably would be sleeping now, except every time she closed her eyes, strange fingers were on her, touching her. She couldn’t even try to sleep unless Lex was beside her.
At the moment she was heading towards the east side, where she could hear intense piano playing. It would start then stop. Pause, then start again. She hobbled into the gold and cream decorated room. The windows were huge and had a clear view of the skyline and a bloody sunset. Lex moved fluidly, pounding the keys with his one hand. Then stopped. He looked up at Adina.
“I apologize.”
“Why?” She limped over to the bench gingerly.
“I never really played for you when I could.” He twiddled his fingers over the keys, releasing a few scattered notes. “I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the thing. My mother used to play, you know. She taught me, and she was professionally trained. She used to hold concerts for the society folks here in Metropolis.”
Adina nodded and scooted next to him.
“I was always falling in and out of it. It made me think of her, which wasn’t always a good thing. Sometimes it was a comfort, and sometimes it made me terribly sad.” He sighed. “And angry. It’s the same with Lana. She loved to hear me play.”
“Well, Luthorcorp has some pretty intense cybernetic programs, if I understand them right. Or there are medical programs for reattachment.”
“I don’t think we can have it reattached. The bone structure was already deteriorating. One of the reasons I haven’t played much lately. It hurt.” His left arm was resting in his lap.
“I’m… babe, don’t take this the wrong way… And don’t look at me like I’m about to kick your puppy because I swear I’m not.”
“Maybe we should get a puppy. Or a kitten. I’m not that fond of dogs.”
“Hush up.” She kissed his cheek. “I was… surprised at how well you’re taking this.”
“Yeah?” He sighed again and looked at the remains of his arm. “I don’t know if I’m just repressing everything or if I’ve simply gotten to the point that I just can’t be horrified at how little control I have over my body anymore. I’m sitting here at a piano playing with one hand and a stump, all the while hooked up to an IV because I can’t eat food anymore.”
Adina frowned and rubbed his shoulder.
“Under normal circumstances, I assure you I would be throwing such a tantrum it would crack open the fifth dimension.” They leaned their heads against one another. “Right now, I’m just tired. I think I bled out all of my anger. Whatever we do… it’ll have to wait until I kick this.”
“I like that attitude.”
“You think I could play the other part with my foot? I have some oddly long toes.”
Adina laughed.
“After… well, not just Lana. After Desiree and Mandy. And Helen and Clark and the things my father did and Claire and all those friends… you know how they say that the best revenge is living well?” He looked at her seriously. She nodded. “Well, considering how many people have genuinely tried to kill me, that’s what was often going through my head. Everyone wants you to die. There are a lot of people who wish that your mother had snagged you with a coat hanger. The best revenge is living well. The best revenge is living well. The best revenge. Is living. Living.”
Adina caressed the sides of his head and gave him a kiss on the crown. “That your only reason?”
“Not anymore. But it has been, sometimes.”
“Sometimes you needed that?” she asked. Lex pensively played a run of notes.
“Sometimes I came close.”
“I have something to show you. If you’re not too busy playing the piano with your feet.”
“I could spare a moment, I suppose.” he teased.
After shifting himself back into his wheelchair she led him into the large media room. He had a huge wall-to-wall television set in there. Lex looked up at her curiously then wheeled forward to inspect the room. After a few moments he was shaking his head.
She reached down and put a finger to his lips. He moved her hand away gently.
“There’s an old Greek story. Maybe you’ve heard of it.” Their hands intertwined and pulled against one another playfully. Adina tilted her head, listening. “There was a time on this Earth when there was no such thing as love. We couldn’t fathom it. Rather, human beings roamed the earth as monstrous many-legged, many-armed creatures. They were two sentient beings in one flesh. Some people had two men. Some had two women. And… you know there were some man/woman pairs too.”
Adina laughed. “Imagine that.”
“Odd, I know.” He stroked her hand with his thumb. “We didn’t know what love was because we were never lonely. We never lacked. So being the defiant little fucks that we are… The Powers That Be became angry over our presumptuousness and decided to punish us by splitting us apart. Zeus threw down lightening bolts and cut everyone in half. Then a storm came up, supposedly, and washed us all away so we couldn’t find our other half again.”
“So you think the storm didn’t really come? Grecian conspiracy theories?”
“Hardly. I think most of the time we’re too wrapped up in our pain to see who we’re looking at. We want to feel that, when we get put back together… love. The ending of our loneliness and of being half a person. But ever since then, we’re cut and bloody and lost. Trying to cope on our own.” Lex looked down and touched the tip of his tongue to his top lip. “I finally found you. Whatever happens, I wouldn’t have wanted to die incomplete.”
Adina straddled his lap, her fingers ran unafraid over where his left hand used to be, and they began to kiss.
***
Clark walked shyly through the halls of Lex’s Penthouse. For starters, he’d never been here before… as himself. And for another, Lex’s head butler was guiding him in. He felt incredibly awkward. As though he were visiting Lex to give him a petition or something.
“Have a seat, Clark,” Lex called from the expansive lavender sofa. Clark could see the top of Lex’s dome leaning against a short wig of black hair. On the gigantic television screen two characters battled one another. He tentatively stepped inside the impressive media room. He never remembered Lex keeping anything like this at the castle, although he got the impression somehow that in his spare time Lex mostly studied things and plotted world domination.
“I uh… I guess I’m surprised that I’m allowed in.”
“Well, I think this is the first time you’ve asked since… have you ever asked before?” Lex craned his head around. “I told you that you could come in.”
He motioned with his hand for Clark to approach them. Adina paused the game and twisted about so that she could see him, resting her chin on Lex’s shoulder. Her face wasn’t quite so welcoming.
“Uh…” He walked awkwardly around the sofa and stood beside them, both looking up at him in askance. Adina looking like she would like to cut out some of his vital organs. Clark took a moment to be amazed at how many different faces this woman could wear. Then he pulled out a vial. “Here.”
He offered it to Lex, who frowned a bit. Clark leaned over and put it in his hand.
“I didn’t have it tested.”
“You didn’t,” Lex repeated. His blue eyes softened and searched Clark’s for the meaning behind this gesture.
“No. I… I’m sorry for snooping in your business. I don’t know if it counts now. I mean it’s obvious what’s wrong and I was an ass to think it was your fault-“
“I didn’t either.”
“Huh?”
“I assume Mr. Krypton told you what I did. I didn’t have your sample analyzed either.”
“Wait. Clark took your blood?” Adina asked incredulously, starting to rise. Clark stepped back in spite of himself.
“If I’m not allowed to kill people, baby, neither are you,” Lex said sternly. She stood slowly, not so much shooting daggers with her eyes so much as katana blades.
“Why don’t I get us some drinks.”
“Go easy on the arsenic,” Lex called after her. He turned his head back around to see Clark staring at his stump. “Sexy, isn’t it.”
“I knew. I know. I mean that you didn’t. Uh,” Clark fumbled.
”Sit the fuck down already. You’re making my neck tired,” Lex ordered setting aside his controller and drawing his crossed legs closer. Clark sat. “Just don’t lecture me. I’m not up for it. I might decide to kick off before you got to the good parts.”
“I’m not here to lecture you.”
“Oh, the times they are a changin’!” Lex exclaimed with a funny accent.
“They must have you on some fun painkillers.”
“And how.” He gave Clark a bitter smile.
“So. Yeah. Sorry. That’s why I came,” Clark said, peeking up from his lap. Lex offered him a sardonic look.
“And I’m supposed to what? Forgive you? Let you make amends so that you can have closure with the dead man?”
“God, no, Lex. Jesus.” Clark looked away angrily.
”Of the three you just mentioned, I only really believe in one.”
“Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“God? Or cancer?” Lex looked at his pants. “Or me? Pretty sure I’m flaccid. Give me a minute, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Clark rubbed his hands against his jeans. ‘You hate me.”
Lex sighed heavily. “I don’t.”
“You do.”
“If I do, it’s only fair. You hate me,” Lex replied lightly.
“I don’t. I never did. I just…”
“You’re right. I do hate you.”
Clark snapped his head back in Lex’s direction. “Oh, nice. Ass.”
“But you know…. That never stopped me from feeling other things at the same time. I hated my father for years. Still loved him. I hate Lana now. And I still love her. Damn me.”
Clark cracked a smile. “It’s not her fault.”
“Someone went out of their way to make sure her ring couldn’t hurt that alien.”
“I… uh… what?”
“We had Kryptonite in our rings. Both of them. The stones of engagement ring and inlayed in the wedding bands. It should have been enough to keep him far away. But she was wearing them when… I saw… She planned it, Clark. I know that she did, and she doesn’t deny it. She wanted to be with him.”
“She doesn’t know anything about him.” Clark shook his head. “She let herself get swept away in it… because of his persona… but it wasn’t like…”
“Yes, Clark. Give me Lana Lang’s modus operandi in a nutshell,.” Lex drawled. Clark shrugged.
“I’m just saying that if anyone deserves your wrath, it’s Superman.”
“He gets that for free anyway. And he never fucked me and said he loved me.”
Clark sighed. He wanted to reach out to Lex but he was at a complete loss of how to even start. And he just looked so fragile.
“Want to play?” Lex asked casually.
“I didn’t even know you liked games.”
“I live for games.” Lex picked up his controller and then Clark noticed it. It was designed to be held one-handed.
“Wow.”
“Isn’t Adina amazing? It should help me improve my dexterity in my right hand. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that I could just change the world to suit me.” He held up the controller for Clark to inspect. Clark took it from him and looked it over. It had a handle through the middle for the middle and ring finger to hold the controller still, while the buttons were positioned for use by the thumb and forefinger and the pinkie could operate the directional pad.
“That’s pretty clever,” Clark admitted. “But changing the world to suit yourself… that would make you a megalomaniac.”
“Well… kinda that already,” Lex mused.
“Sometimes I don’t know.”
“You’re having doubts about your doubts in me?”
“I’m not sure of much right now. I’m never sure.” Clark sighed. “I just pretend I know what I’m talking about half the time.”
“You aren’t the only one.” Lex rubbed Clark’s leg. The man shivered at his touch and Lex turned his head and moved ever so slightly away, interpreting the action as a sign of disgust. “I think we all want to have certainty in our lives. Especially when we know that nothing is certain. It’s only human nature.”
“Human nature.”
“Humans and human approximates. Does that work?”
“Seems pretty inclusive.”
“I hate to leave anyone out when I’m making grand generalizations.”
Clark laughed. “You’re still so weird.”
Lex picked the vial out of his lap and dropped it back in Clark’s hand. “I trust you. Analyze it if you need to.”
“I uh…”
“It’ll make you feel better. It isn’t going to tell you anything you don’t know, though.”
“You never did.”
“No. But I didn’t have your permission either. And you have mine.”
“…Thanks.”
“I understand neurotic behavior better than most. Just don’t let it rule you,” Lex said with a slight, lopsided smile. He rested his head back on the large circular pillow. “Want to join us? I think we have another normie controller.”
“Normie?”
So Clark sat back, wasting his evening playing video games with Lex Luthor and the girlfriend who was kicking both of their asses at Justice Society Battle Royale. He just couldn’t help being jealous that Lex let her hold him while he had to resist wrapping his arms around his former friend while he still could.
***
“Oh! Hey. Perry. Back already?” Chloe turned from her desk to see the disheveled, sweat stained man hanging up his coat.
“Just for a bit. My kid is being a mini-megalomaniac, and I need to get control of the little bastard before I head back out.”
Chloe weighed his words carefully before opening her mouth to reply. Then she grabbed her desk as the office suddenly began shaking. Little white lines, like glowing bits of spiderweb, floated lazily before her eyes. Perry lit up a cigarette.
”You okay, kid?”
“You… uh…” She looked around wildly. “We didn’t just have a baby earthquake, did we?”
“Not that I know of. Though feel free to share whatever you have stashed in your top drawer.”
“You shouldn’t smoke in here. Pauline will have your neck.”
“She just hates it because it gives her cravings. She loves her cancersticks.”
“Cancer?” The glowing webs bounced then tightened. She followed them out the door.
The webs ran from person to person, dancing and intertwining. Everything was so loud and so bright and she could hear so much going on around her… human lives buzzing away in their endless interaction. Chloe shivered, her flitting green eyes trying to follow them all, as she realized how truly horrible, beautiful, wicked and purely purely awesome their reality was.
“So this is what madness feels like,” she said to herself in awe.
“Hey, kid!” Perry stepped beside her. “You okay? You look a little out of it.”
“I wish I weren’t so in it,” she replied breathily. She couldn’t take her eyes off the little webs of destiny weaving themselves between people. People following or being dragged along or forcing the webs in another direction.
“Perry?”
“Chloe, hey, meet the wife, Alice.”
“Alice.” Chloe turned her head. She frowned, seeing the connections in the pretty, brown haired woman. She turned her head away from them and narrowed her eyes sharply. “Oh, I see.”
“Uh… Nice to meet you.” Alice made a crazy motion beside Chloe’s back. Chloe looked back at her, opened her mouth, then decided to say nothing. A boy of about ten or eleven ran up next to his mother and demanded attention. He was an awkward amalgamation of traits. His ears stuck out like car doors. His eyes were a sweet sky blue with stray curling locks from his mop of unruly red hair. He didn’t seem like much of a megalomaniac to Chloe. Just bored and lonely.
The pieces came crashing together in her head, and she leaned over to the boy. “Hey, Junior. Do you like Superman?”
“I’m Jerry. And… I guess so. Yeah.”
Chloe realized he was peeking down her shirt. She gave him a wide, familiar smile. “How would you like to be a hero, too?”
>:3
The last bit will be explained in the next chapter for those of you going WTF. For the rest of you, you’ve probably figured out where I’m going with this.
Maybe one or two more chapters to go!
Thanks for waiting.
Remaining errors are still my own moral failing.
Part Six: Only Human Nature, part two
Adina clipped along the streets of Metropolis hurrying to the subway. It ran all night, but she wanted to make it back to the Penthouse before he went to sleep. Normally she’d be cutting it close as it was. There was no guarantee that he’d be awake at any part of the day. But she knew he’d been in the lab today and wasn’t back yet. She thought she might get home first and surprise him. She stopped at the crosswalk to wait on the white little man and wished she’d taken one of the cars.
“Hiya, dolly!”
She turned with a high chin and raised a brow at the man eyeing her. He had sort of a sleak, sleezy smooth look to him, like if she put her hand on him he’d slip out like a bar of soap. His suit was freshly pressed, though, and he looked like some kind of professional.
“Not your dolly,” she said flatly. He stepped closer. Her eyes flitted to the side, then back to him. The traffic was too heavy…
It wasn’t that he was bigger than her. She figured she was stronger, but there was something about the way his eyes were running up and down her form that made her want to bolt into traffic like a frighten doe.
“No? Someone else’s dolly? I wouldn’t be surprised.” He raised his hands. “Don’t be offended. I’m just trying to give you a compliment.”
“Save it. He’s expecting me at home any minute,” she lied smoothly, moving her head away from him, but still watching from the corner of her eye. He moved a hand in her direction. She pulled away sharply.
“That dress looks so soft. It’s expensive, I can tell. Your boyfriend well off?” he asked.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Of course it isn’t. I’m just being friendly.” He smiled. She panicked. She hit the button again. Twice. “Now, come on. You don’t have to worry about me.”
His eyes reminded her of Jimmy. He did a better impression of a human being, however.
“I’m not worried. I just want to get home.” In one piece, she thought.
“I understand you being hesitant. A sweet young thing like you, out here, alone. But you aren’t alone.” He insisted. “There are lights. There are people.”
She looked at the semi-deserted sidewalk and raised a brow at him.
“You don’t think the people in the cars would stop if it looked like there was a struggle?”
Not in Metropolis. She pressed her lips together and pushed the button again.
“Don’t be scared.”
“I’m not scared. I just don’t want to talk to some greasy stranger I found on the street.”
“My name is Allen, alright? Not a stranger anymore. My friends call me The Connoisseur.”
“Why is that?” She slipped her hand on the other side into her handbag. He didn’t seem to see.
“Because I can’t settle for any common woman. I like a very special kind.”
Her fingertips brushed against her taser. “Oh? Special in what way?”
Why the fucking hell were the crosswalk lights so damn slow??
“Special like you, dolly.” He stepped closer. She pulled out her taser. The clacking and flashing came between them.
“Don’t. Maybe you’re really just being friendly, but back the fuck off, okay?”
He calmly reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun. “Let’s not get feisty.”
Her heart pounded. Not again. Not now.
“Please don’t do this,” she said softly, blinking slowly. It didn’t feel real. It felt like one of those dreams she would have at night, pressed on her stomach, fingers gripping painfully in dark, private places they didn’t belong, until she woke up and Lex was holding her.
“Don’t scream. Don’t run. You don’t know how good a shot I am.” He was still giving her an odd smile. He motioned with the other hand. “Just move slow and do as I say. You’ll be alright.”
God, how she wanted to wake up in his arms.
“Define alright.” She walked slowly in front of him as he motioned, and he moved close to her, grabbing her arm as the other hand pressed the gun into her back. If she got out of this, she would have to consider asking for one of Lex’s guns. Maybe he would let her get one of her own. Adam had learned how to aim with a shotgun back home. They shot beer bottles off the neighbor’s fence until she called the cops for putting out her Jeep window. It couldn’t be too difficult to use a handgun.
Her mind was rambling. Her eyes were flitting around trying to see an out. A man in a business suit rushed past, heading home with his face to the ground. He didn’t even notice them. Even if he’d been looking up, the gun wasn’t visible between their bodies.
His scent, the odor of his overpowering cologne filled her nostrils. She felt a tear trickle down the side of her face. “Where are we going?”
“I have a hotel room.”
Lex would find him. If she didn’t come back. She knew Lex would find this man and have him killed, because even if he used an assumed name, Lex would be able to get his description. That wasn’t a comfort. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to live through this again. She didn’t want Lex to have to go through losing her, if it made him feel anything like she had over the past few months.
“So what’s so special about me?”
“I just love pre-op girls.” He said, sniffing her neck. Adina felt a shiver take over her body. Her vision became very sharp.
“Oh yeah?” She said, controlling her face. It was a fixed mask. Her body movements were controlled and steady.
“You aren’t afraid anymore? That’s good. We’re going to have a really good time.”
“You love us pre-ops? Well, I love my boyfriend.”
“Does he know?”
“Didn’t anyone tell you how rude it is to point out a lady’s small imperfections?”
“Almost from the moment we met.”
“And he doesn’t mind?”
“I’d thought I’d be seeing your sweeter half.”
”Not at all. He likes boys and girls, so he doesn’t mind me being in between.”
“You’re lucky to have him.”
”Just come home.”
“I know.” They hit another street and waited for the light. Four lanes. “So how did you read me?”
“I’m The Connoisseur. I’ve been watching you. I saw you adjusting your choker before.”
“I’ve been meaning to get that pesky Adam’s apple taken care of.”
“Well, and you haven’t been taking hormones long enough to fool me. I’m sure someone with less refined taste would never be able to tell. People are blind. You’re an exquisite specimen. I’m so often forced to settle for something too new and sour.” He trailed his fingers down her neck. “What’s your na-“
Adina bolted into the street. She heard a shot. One car skidded to a stop in front of her and another slammed against his bumper. She kept running in a frenzied flight across the street, twisting her ankle once and getting clipped by another car before she fell on the other side of the street. She pulled off her shoes, flung them aside, and hobbled away from the cacophony of horns. No one came after her, but she kept running.
There was blood quickly staining her dress. The streets here had even less people. Run? Or hide? She banged on the front door to an apartment complex then tried to pull open the door. It was locked to the outside.
“Help! Someone, open the door!” No answer. She darted around the building as quickly as she could manage into the alleyway. “Hello! Someone help me please!!”
She tried to jump to the fire escape, but fell hard on her injured leg. She had dropped her purse back at the intersection. She screamed up at the windows as loudly as she could.
”Please! Someone help! At least call the fucking police!”
“Oh, dolly.” He walked into the ally slowly, brandishing his gun. “Nowhere to run now. You can’t fool me. You can’t mock me, you little slut. I’m smarter. I would have liked to savor you in the hotel, though. Are you sure you aren’t going to cooperate with me?”
She hated the sickly sweet tone of his voice.
“Take it off.”
“No.”
“Do you want me to shoot you?” He said with a condescending air.
“I’d rather die. You’re going to kill me anyway, aren’t you?” she ground out, her voice trembling and high with fright and anger.
“Smart little slut, aren’t you? But think of it this way. If you play nice, be a good little girl, maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you go back home to your boyfriend.”
She furrowed her brows.
“That sounds good doesn’t it? So maybe you’re a little less pure-“
“I wasn’t pure when he met me. Do you think you’re the only sick fuck that rapes girls?” She demanded.
“Then he won’t care, will he?” He stalked closer to her.
“Oh, he’ll care.”
“Didn’t I tell you not to mock me? Stop mocking me!!” he shrieked, whacking her across the face with his gun. She took a deep breath and held very still. The barrel of the gun pressed into her forehead. “He’ll care more if I blow your brains out. Here in the Slums, they aren’t going to give a damn about you. One dead trannie in the ally? Probably just a whore working the streets for her operation money.”
She said nothing and focused on breathing. She thought of Lex’s expressive eyes. His tender lips. The Connoisseur’s hand was sliding up her dress as he grinned wildly in excitement. She thought of Martha’s smiling supportive face. Pattiecakes’ big, strong hands….
“You’re bleeding…” He moved it further, and she suppressed another shiver as his fingers brushed the lump under her dress.
Suddenly there was a great gust of wind. She blinked in disbelief. The man was being held over her head. The gun fell to the ground. It had been crushed into a ball.
“I don’t think this is an ideal place for a date,” a voice boomed. Adina, stunned speechless in confusion, looked up at the red sheet waving in the slight wind. They were floating. Floating midair.
“Superman! I… uh…”
“That’s me,” the firmly muscled man in spandex said. He turned his head to her. “Miss, are you alright?”
“No,” she said dully, still a bit astounded at her sudden rescue. Her mouth was swollen and she sounded as muffled as she felt. She’d heard about this guy, sure, but never seen him in action. Never really heard anything positive from Lex. “But better than I was going to be. I uh… thank you.”
“Hold on a sec.” He looked up at the people hanging out of their windows. “Please keep an eye on her until I get back.”
The man blurred out of sight and left her there, stunned and still terribly frightened. A few of the neighbors began to mutter amongst themselves. “Was that Superman?”
Adina attempted to stand, but without the adrenaline to keep her going, she couldn’t reach her feet. A moment later he blurred in front of her. “Let me give you a hand, Miss-?”
“Adina.” Her voice shook like a child’s.
“Adina.” He flashed her a hugely white, broad smile. She had the sudden impression that this was all fake. The Man of Steel did drag. How hilarious. “How about we get an ambulance here?”
“I’m not that badly hurt,” she muttered, wobbling on her feet. She looked down at her battered leg. The blood had soaked through her soft green dress.
“Well, I hope from now on you’ll be more careful.”
She stumbled back, her mouth agape. “What?”
“Next time, find someone to walk with you, and make sure you aren’t wearing heels that you can’t run in.”
It was surreal. His voice sounded like an automated public service announcement.
“Thanks for saving me. You can move on now,” she said with an icy chill. The man looked confused.
“I… uh…”
“You don’t tell a girl who almost got raped that it’s her fucking fault. How dare I walk around as a woman?? I should have worn a fucking parka,” Adina spat. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She leaned against the concrete wall. It had to be the stress of the situation. The relief and the anger. God, she could go home to Lex now. He could hold her now.
“I… didn’t mean….”
“Of course you don’t. I was just asking for it, wasn’t I? Those Come-Rape-Me heels… this pretty dress. It’s red now. Isn’t that appropriate?! Now that I know the formula, I can stop worrying about assholes like that coming after me.”
His posture deflated. “Please let me take you to the hospital? Your leg…”
She looked, her eyes refusing to focus anymore. She wanted to lie down and stop moving.
“It isn’t broken. I x-rayed it. But you can’t walk far like this.” He offered her his hand. “I didn’t… I’m… just let me get you to safety? Please?”
“Am I ungrateful.” She leaned her head against the bricks. He moved slowly towards her, keeping his hands in sight.
“No, I say shit half the time not even thinking about it.” For the first time he sounded like a real person, and not a parody of himself. He was adorably young. Maybe her age, or a little younger. “I say what it seems like a hero should say. Be safe! Something like that. My mom would smack me for it sometimes... I don’t think people listen anyway, mostly. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”
“Anyone who keeps a creepy fucker like that off me gets at least one pass,” she conceded, letting him pick her up in his arms. “You… Hon, you’ve got to watch what you do, though. You can cut all the people around you down without even knowing it. I bet they listen to you more than you think.”
Clark smiled at her advice as he lifted off into the air. He couldn’t help but notice she was still shaking at his touch while she instructed him. He tried to be more gentle.
***
Clark came back to the hospital later that evening still wearing his suit and, of course, they let him in. Who denies Superman? Regardless, he approached the room slowly, feeling anxious with the flowers in his hand. He wasn’t particularly winning at diplomacy lately.
She’d seemed all right until he opened his mouth. How he managed to make a situation like that worse Clark really didn’t know, but he wasn’t impressed with himself.
As he approached heard her speaking. “No, he’s not, I swear. He’s just a boy. No matter what he said, I’m glad he was there. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get out of it, to be honest.”
At the following silence, Clark leaned his head into the doorway and knocked on the frame.
“Superman?”
“Luthor?” Clark straightened and looked back at the man in the wheelchair. He was holding Adina’s hand tenderly. She, in her hospital gown and without her wig, regarded him in surprise and with bit of embarrassment. Clark tried not to let his startlement show. This answered a lot of his questions. Although it opened up others. “Well at least I know for once the culprit isn’t going to get off in the legal system.”
“The culprit is lucky Adina told me not to have him killed,” Lex said sharply. She smiled weakly.
“I can’t let him get out of prison buggery.” She was sitting up in the bed against more pillows than were usually allotted. “Flowers?”
“I… uh….”
“Do all the girls you save get flowers? Or just the girlfriends of your nemesis?”
“I didn’t know… he was with anyone.”
“Come in, hon.” Adina motioned with a light smile. She seemed so much stronger now. Not the crying shaking little girl he’d brought into the hospital. Clark stepped forward and handed her the flowers. Lex was glaring at him with a guarded expression. He repositioned his hand on Adina’s protectively.
“No, I don’t.”
“What?” Adina asked, looking at the flowers.
“I don’t always visit the people I save. Of course, when I think I probably caused them as much damage as their attacker, I do.”
“What? What did he say to you?” Lex demanded. Adina shook her head.
“I’m okay now.” She insisted to Lex before turning to Clark. “I don’t actually know you well enough to give a damn what you think of me.”
“Uh… Good, then. I guess.” He shifted his feet. Lex’s lips twisted into an amused expression. Clark flushed as he realized Lex was amused by the fact that The Superman was kept off balance by his Adina.
“It hurt, but I was pretty shaken already, okay, hon? Don’t worry about me anymore. As for you,” She analyzed his broad attractive face. “Sometimes we…. see ourselves changing and we find out that we don’t know who we are. You seem to think you need to play this crazy part in tights and a cape.”
“Uh…”
“Don’t force yourself into an identity that isn’t you. It isn’t worth it.”
Superman fumbled and ran his hand through his hair. He stopped and looked at the gel in semi-disgust. He used too much of the stuff.
Lex broke the silence. “I hate to keep you.” He almost burst into laughter at the abashed look on Superman’s face. “I mean, to be graced with your visit twice in one day.”
Clark opened his mouth, then shut it, deciding to accept his loss for the day and just leave. He already felt behind both of them in both intelligence and wit, and he’d never feel on their level while he wore what Chloe called his ‘Super Hypnosis Inducing Spandex Skin.’ When she’d seen the outfit for the first time, she couldn’t stop staring at his crotch, mouth agape. “Feel better, Adina.”
“Back ‘atcha, Supes.”
Clark walked out of the room and heard the wheelchair following him. He considered speeding off to avoid the confrontation before he turned to face Lex. “Have you slept at all? You look like something The Mortician dug up and only half-assed the revival.”
“I have something to say to you.” Lex said firmly, his face grave. Clark braced himself for the torrent of angry words. “I… have to thank you. For protecting her.”
“Oh… It’s what I do. She kind of caused a traffic pile-up when she was running away from that creep. It caught my attention, so I was able to help her. That’s all.”
“Well.” Lex started to wheel back. Clark hesitated.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t save her because she looks a little like you? Or if I’d known she was your girlfriend? You should know by now that I don’t operate like that.” Clark frowned, realizing that that was exactly what Lex thought. It hurt to realize Lex thought he was capable of hurting his loved ones. “The police will probably want to talk to her. This guy has killed quite a few people already.”
“So I’ve heard.” Lex said dispiritedly. “I read the news.”
“So you know who he normally… targets.”
“I’m aware.”
“They were getting close. And he was getting desperate.”
“He must have been to try something like that in an ally of this city.”
“I’m glad I won’t have to come down on you for killing him. That would really test my commitment.”
“I feel for you.”
Clark rolled his eyes. “I think you of all people know how dangerous it would be if I didn’t have such strict standards about habeas corpus and the sanctity of life.”
“Frankly, I lost faith in the legal system a long time ago. Doing the ‘right thing’ has always resulted in more people getting hurt.”
“That’s pretty short sighted for you. You’re always accusing me of not seeing the bigger picture. It’s about keeping the system working to prevent evil actions.”
“Define evil. And the system doesn’t work. My father is still on the streets.” Lex turned to wheel back into Adina’s room.
Clark said nothing, but made an understanding nod he knew Lex couldn’t see, and sped off.
As Lex wheeled back into the hospital room, he watched Adina putting the flowers on the nightstand. She looked a little worn, but mostly cheerful and turned her head to him.
“Babe, you don’t look good. Come here.”
“I don’t look good?” Lex drawled. He wheeled over slowly and stopped at the side of her bed.
“Hey, I look better than you.”
“Every day of the week,” he replied. She motioned for him to come closer and he steadied himself against his chair and the bed and began to climb in with her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I had to keep thinking of you. He said he wouldn’t kill me after, if I cooperated, but… I didn’t believe him.” Adina put her arms around Lex as he curled into her. “I thought maybe it would give me time to think of another way to get away.”
He kicked off his shoes. “You’re thinking like a Luthor.”
“And that’s terrible.” She stroked his head, listening to him chuckle. “Suits me, I guess.”
“And what did the suit say to you, exactly?”
“Let it go.”
“Since when do I let anything go?”
She planted a kiss on his head and continued to stroke his skin for a few minutes. When she opened her eyes she saw people standing over her. Lex’s head was on her chest, and he was drooling on her. She rubbed her eyes.
“Martha?”
“Yeah, sweetie.” She came in as quietly as she could. Patrica and Chloe stood by the doorway. “Wow, you have a lot of flowers.”
“Dave and Leah are about five hours away right now, so they called in a garden.” She smiled and met Martha’s eyes amiably. The older woman sat by her side.
“Uh, Adina… I didn’t know you knew Lex,” Chloe said, failing at casual as her eyes fixed on the pale, skinny man sleeping on her friend.
“The significant other, right here,” she replied in a singsong voice.
“Oh. Wow.”
Adina didn’t really know how to read Chloe’s expression, but she seemed to be simply processing the information around her in that wide-eyed way of hers.
“Oh, um… how’d your visit with your mom go?”
“It went. I’d ask you how your evening was but gah!” She leaned against the nightstand and looked at her sympathetically. “I’ve been here. Where you are. It sucks a lot. And then time will pass and it sucks a little less.”
Patrica leaned down to give her a hug and looked worriedly at Adina’s bruised face. “I’m so sorry this happened, Adina.”
“Oh, love you, Pattiecakes.” She rested her head back and smiled at them. “I’m fine, really. The man in tights stopped the bastard before he got too far. Thank you for coming, though. Really. It helps.”
Adina rubbed Lex’s back wondering if he would wake up. Often he was a light, fitful sleeper. “So what’s with the cuts and bruises?”
Chloe raised a hand to her cheek then gave a broken smile. “Mom… got upset.”
“She hurt you?” Adina took the girl’s hand. Patricia moved behind her and put her large hands on Chloe’s shoulders.
“She didn’t mean to. She… was trying to tell me something, I think.”
Adina nodded. Martha looked confused. “I didn’t know you’d found your mother?”
The three other women looked at one another. Chloe fixed her eyes at a point on the wall and spoke in a tight voice. “She’s in Belle Reve.”
“Oh. Oh, sweetie.”
Adina closed her eyes, still petting Lex’s back, and listened as Martha coaxed the story out of the young woman.
A few minutes, an orderly came in to show them out. Martha was crying a little and holding Chloe tightly. The three rose slowly and each gave Adina a hug over Lex’s head.
“We’ll be back tomorrow.” Martha insisted.
“I’ll probably be out by then. You can come by the Penthouse, if you want.” She shook Lex’s shoulders gently. “Time to get up, baby.”
He didn’t move.
“Alex?” She shook harder, her voice rising. “Alex?!”
***
There was a ceiling rushing by him. The hysterical shouting had faded away, replaced with a businesslike discussion of blood cell levels and fever and decreasing the source of the abnormal cells and what a poor bastard this guy was. His eyes fluttered open and closed. He kept trying to force them to stay open, but it was too difficult.
Another voice. An older woman telling him to hang on as she ran beside him. His eyes opened again and his head rolled over. Then he saw her.
Long black hair and wide wide dark eyes that watched him as he was swept past. Holding a bouquet of flowers.
Lana was a vision that day. Her hair hanging down her back with braids woven around sprigs of lilies, framing her rosy, wide face. Her dress was shining white and sleek on her slender body, professionally personally designed. She floated down the aisle like an angel.
Chloe practically buzzed in excitement. She caught Lex’s eye and gave him a wink. He unsuccessfully fought a grin. If this union had Lana’s best friend’s approval, particularly given Chloe’s initial hatred of the idea, nothing could go wrong. He wouldn’t be messing this one up.
On his side stood Toby and Stan, the young janitor from his building. He was making eyes over at Lois, who pretended not to see them. His ‘best man,’ was, in fact, his bodyguard Hope, although she looked pretty sharp with her cropped black hair and tuxedo. Lana had been forced to restrain herself regarding bridesmaids. Since Lex didn’t have any male friends to speak of, groomsmen were hard to come by.
The preacher spoke grandly of matrimony and fidelity. The speech was somewhat littered with references to the lifelong commitment implied by marriage vows, certainly a dig at Lex’s well-known serial monogamy. Lex and Lana exchanged their vows, written by themselves, promising to always be loyal, to love and to protect one another, in their whole, as they were and not as what they wanted the other to be.
They exchanged rings. Custom made as the engagement rings had been and inlayed with Kryptonite for their protection from unwanted alien intruders.
It had been a long engagement.
His eyes opened. He heard the sound of an electric saw.
“NO!!!”
***
Doctors had been in and out of the private waiting room, and Adina could no longer tell what time of day it was. Someone had put her wig back on her head. Dave and Leah had breezed in for a little while to comfort her. Then they had gone somewhere. To fetch lunch, maybe. There were other people here to see Lex. She didn’t know all of them, and some of them stayed for awhile then left, patting shoulders and speaking platitudes.
“It’s so hard to believe that Lex is that sick. He seemed fine the last time I saw him.”
“You know how good he is at hiding things, Lana.”
“He never used to hide them from me…”
Adina felt a hand on her shoulder as she put her face in her hands and time slipped away from her. It felt like the strength was bleeding out of her. Voices whispered over her shoulder that everything was going to be all right.
“Hey, Princess.”
She looked up fretfully to see Toby crouching in front of her. He cupped her chin and crooked his mouth. “Our Prince is in there. Still alive, the tough bastard. They’ve got him in the ICU.”
“Can I see him?”
Toby nodded. “He’s not going to be happy when he wakes up.”
“If he wakes up…” Lana said and then squeaked in pain. “Chloe, why did you do that?”
“The doctors here don’t think he will, but us who’ve worked with him before know better. He’s going to wake up. And he’s going to tear ‘em a new one.”
Adina felt someone helping her to stand. She turned her head to see Robert giving her a soft smile. “Don’t forget your crutches.”
“Crutch… oh fuck.” She grumbled, trying to fit them properly under her arms. Then she noticed that at some point, someone had helped her into a pair of jeans so she could lay in the waiting room without embarrassing herself. “Thanks buddy.”
“Go on.” He gave her a kiss on the forehead then plopped back down on the couch next to Chloe and Lana, whose eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him, no doubt wondering how Lex knew these people. She shot up.
“Um... can I go in to see him?”
“No,” Adina snapped, making her way to the door. She heard Lana asking Chloe what Lex was doing with a woman like that.
Hours later Adina found herself moving in and out of the ICU when the doctors would let her. They’d eventually given Adina a wheelchair to save her arms and her strength.
“Looks like we’re playing musical chairs, babe.” She laughed bitterly to herself, rubbing a spot of exposed skin on his right hand. It looked like he had tubes coming out of every part of his body. The machines forced his chest to rise. It was his only response. “My turn next, I guess.”
Lana looked more pissed every time Adina came back into the waiting room, and she considered just kicking her out. She considered kicking everyone out besides her girls. She’d never met Lex’s father before now… not as herself. She suspected that if Martha hadn’t been hovering over him, she would be getting the grilling of her life, and perhaps demands that she let him see Lex. But Lex had given her power of attorney for a reason, and she would never betray him like that.
“Fever’s down,” she said simply, wheeling back into the room. Dave rubbed her shoulder and offered her a sandwich. She shook her head.
”Not still worried about your figure, are you?” He teased, half-heartedly.
“Gotta keep that fat ass under control,” she joked back, smiling at him. He put the sandwich in her lap anyway and sat on the arm of the couch.
“I don’t see how his fever being down is an indication of anything good, considering the whole of the situation,” Lionel remarked. He was irritated to find that his intelligence had been incomplete. Apparently having cancer was something of a moral failing. Adina poked at the wrapping of the sandwich. It smelled like salami… maybe with turkey and Italian dressing… she wished she had an appetite. Might have been the painkiller she was taking, or the overtiredness…
“Actually… that’s a pretty good sign. Either the antibiotics magically started working, and they weren’t. That’s why he got the fever. Or… his immune system found some way to spring to life despite the fact that it’s been compromised by the cancer. This could be a really good sign.”
“How could his immune system do that?”
Adina shook her head and took a nibble of the sandwich before putting it back down.
“Dammit, Adam. Eat it,” Dave hissed into her ear, so the others couldn’t tell what he was saying.
“I’ll answer you when you call me by my name, Daisy,” she snapped back. He looked surprised then wilted. Leah smacked his arm.
“Eat your sandwich, Adina. Eat. Shower. He’s going to be here when you get back. We’ll come grab you if he wakes up while you’re gone.”
“Yeah,” Dave added. “A… dina. You have to heal too.”
She relaxed her frown. “I know you’re right. But don’t expect me to have super regenerative properties. Because I’m damn tapped right now.”
***
Her wide eyes watched him as he regained consciousness. He looked so beautiful and clean, just from having all of those tubes off of him. The doctors were standing back a bit, aside from Toby who sat sprawled in a chair in the corner looking like he wanted a smoke. She was afraid of how angry Lex was going to be. He would scream and yell, and then revert to feeling guilty afterward for having shown the emotion.
“Alex?” Her eyes were a little watery, but she didn’t care much. It meant she could see his waking face just a bit clearer despite her tired haze. His skin was so white that it seemed translucent and his eyes seemed very bright. He breathed in slowly.
“Just had to make it all about me, didn’t I?”
“Oh, well. I knew you were a drama queen when I fell for you,” she said with a wan smile. He wiggled a little, trying to sit up. She held her breath as he raised his left arm to caress her face.
And suddenly realized his hand was gone.
“Ah…” Lex’s eyes fixed in horror at the stump. Adina waited, keeping her body straight while she watched his face attentively. He made a strangled noise but was otherwise speechless. Minutes passed in complete silence.
“Let’s go home.”
She jumped a little. “I uh… Alex…”
“Did they have you sign anything?” He asked. She shook her head in confusion. The doctor beside him began to protest. “We’re going home.”
“Sir, we need to monitor you…”
“I don’t want to waste any more of my hours in a hospital. I’ve spent too much of my life here as it is,” he said firmly. Toby shrugged at the doctor and waved him off. The man went scurrying out of the room for support.
“I see.” She wiped away a tear. He reached out with his left stump then, realizing with a disgusted grimace that he couldn’t grasp her arm, reached over with the right hand and placed his remaining hand on her.
“I’m not giving up. I promise I’m not giving up. I’m just giving up on my idiot doctors. I told them I didn’t want them to amputate!” He gave an exacting glare at Toby.
She nodded. “Toby said you’d be pissed.”
“Sorry, man! I wasn’t even here yet. It probably won’t help at all. Just one more thing for your body to have to heal.” Toby shrugged as Adina gave him a scathing look for his pitiful bedside manner. “Heh. Lemme get you signed out of here.”
Lex met Adina’s eyes and raised his brows timidly. “Let’s go home? Please?”
It was a little frightening to see him beg her. Then she realized that she was perhaps the only person in the world he might beg. She set to work unhooking the remaining monitors and tubes. Finally that part time job in the nursing home found a use.
“Fuck off,” she told the orderly when he tried to stop her. “We have three good hands between us, and if I can find it, I’m willing to use the fourth as a slapping device. Get your pansy ass out of here and get the exit paperwork started. We’re going.”
She drew Lex into her lap on the wheelchair and started for the door. Lex buried his face in the crook of her neck and laughed hysterically. “Only you would think of using an amputated body part for a weapon.”
“I’m a practical girl.”
After swatting off several doctors, and encountering a nurse who had already prepared the exit paperwork, since she’d worked here long enough to know that Lex wouldn’t stay the night if he were conscious, they pushed into the waiting room.
“Brace yourself,” She whispered into his ear. Lex scowled and curled his left arm around her waist out of sight.
“Good god, son,” Lionel exclaimed standing up as soon as he saw them. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Leaving,” he said flatly. He swallowed at the tight dryness of his throat and recognized it as a result of the machine. Although facing this gauntlet of unwanted visitors might have had an effect.
“Lex, you can’t,” Lana protested. He turned his head to her.
”Take care of our little girl,” Chloe cheered in a singsong voice. She beamed and smoothed down the slinky, sea green dress that Lana had thoughtfully picked out for her bridesmaids.
“Thanks. I will when I can find her.”
“Well, hurry up, Warbucks Jr. You two have to smush cake in each others’ faces,” Lois shot. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stan coming her way. She pointed up, left, then in the direction of the bathroom. “Uh… yeah.”
Chloe laughed. Hope came over and gave Lex a big bone-crushing hug. “It’s so good to see ya smile, Boss.”
“It’s an interesting feeling. Only time will tell if all this smiling ends up breaking me like fine China.”
Hope hit his arm. He rubbed it. It actually hurt. That girl never could control her strength.
“I’ll be back with the bride in a few. Make sure the crowds don’t riot.”
After a quick check of the bathrooms, he started walking down the hallways trying to see if she’d ducked into another room for a breather.
“Stop!”
“No.”
“We have to stop! Lex-“
That sounded like Clark. Clark had not been invited. Lex quickened his pace.
“Forget LEX for once!”
And that was definitely Lana.
He ran toward the door that had been left ajar halfway down the hall and flung it open. He stopped short at the sight before him.
Lana was practically mounting… not Clark. Kal-El. The alien. His enemy. His spandex was halfway off, and she had hiked up her wedding dress. He wondered how everything had gotten so terribly quiet. It was never quiet in his head.
“Lex!” The alien said.
She was wearing her ring. Lana was wearing their ring. Her wedding ring and the engagement ring designed to keep them safe from this monster. Had it been switched? Had she planned it from the start? It didn’t matter. It was a plan. Against him. This was willing betrayal.
“Haven’t you ever heard of closing the door?” an eerily calm voice said. “Locking it, even.”
Lana tried to disentangle herself from the alien while still looking dignified. The alien started hopping around trying to get back into his spandex. He looked extremely chagrined about what they’d been doing. Almost shy at Lex seeing his nakedness.
“Maybe we should have gone for the off-white dress,” Lex suggested dryly.
Lana fell onto the floor, then stood quickly and slapped him hard in the face.
He slapped her back, and she hit the ground, clutching her mouth as blood trickled down. He blinked in surprise at the sight of her crumpled from his blow. God, his hand hurt.
“Hey!” The alien reached him in a blur, pushing him into the wall. “Don’t hit her!”
“But she can hit me? She can hurt me, and you don’t give a flying fuck about that??”
“That’s different, and you know it!”
“Of course it is! I’m a Luthor. I’m not even human. I don’t fucking count in all of this.” He dug his ring into the alien’s belly. It groaned loudly in pain, and Lex felt his own stomach lurch. “I guess they messed up the set, Lana. We should ask for our money back.”
He turned on his heel and left. If he had his way, he’d never have to see the bitch again. Either one of them.
“Don’t look at me like that, Lex.” Lana stepped backward. “After the note you gave me, I thought… we could try. I didn’t know that you were sick, but I want to help…”
“And what are you going to do. Fuck Adina against a wall?”
Lana sighed heavily. “You don’t have to be like that with me.”
She turned with a pout to leave. Lex focused on the wall until the door slammed. “Note?”
“I have your handwriting down pat,” Adina said a bit smugly. Chloe let out a short bark of laughter when she realized what Adina had done. “I figured buying her a place at the museum in Grandville would be much more cost efficient than the therapy bills we’d both need from dealing with her.”
“I guess…” he said with some levity. “It’s a good thing you have my signature down so well. Left-handed too. It’ll come in… handy.”
She nuzzled his head and moved the chair forward. “I hate to brush all of you off, but we need to get home.”
“You aren’t leaving this hospital with that.” Lionel stepped in front of them with an expression of clear disgust on his face.
“Lionel, stop it,” Martha hissed, pulling him back roughly. “Lex, I’m glad you’re awake. You two go get some rest.”
Lex reached up with his remaining hand and let her squeeze it. “I appreciate the turnout. Hi, Chloe. Is this going to be on the cover of the Daily Planet?”
“As if they’d give me the cover,” she scoffed. “I know Adina from D.O.G. I came to visit her, then… y’know. Along for the ride.”
“Small world.” Lex looked around at all the people in the room. Mostly Adina’s friends, many of whom seemed actually concerned for him as well. Although they seemed to have the sense to stand back and give them some space. “Don’t worry. I have private doctors that can check on me at home.”
Lionel spoke again with soft admonishment in his voice. “Lex, I think this is a bad idea,”
Lex raised his stump. ”I think it’s a bad idea to have doctors that don’t respect my wishes. If they’re going to lop off a body part every time I get a fever, there isn’t going to be much of me to bury.”
Lex tried not to smirk at the look on his father’s face, although he regretted the hand that flew to Martha’s mouth and the choked noise she made. If Lionel had thought his son was damaged before, his expression told Lex that he’d exceeded his father’s expectations in that area. He wondered if Adina could ever forget the look on his own when he’d seen it for himself. “If we’d caught it before the cancer had spread, this might have been more worthwhile… To say I’m not happy is an understatement. You’ll understand if I want to take a more controlling… hand in my treatment from now on.”
“Oh my God.” Martha said, just before sweeping both him and Adina into a hug. He stiffened a little. “I’m sorry, Lex, I just need to do this.”
“It’s… okay. You’ve presented admirable restraint up until now, I think.”
“We need to talk about what you’re going to do with Luthorcorp, after…” Lionel said, defeated on the issue of keeping Lex in the hospital.
“Listen you cold sonnava-“ Adina’s voice shot venom in Lionel’s direction.
“No, we do. I know you could handle it, Adina, but I don’t want you to have to.” He wrapped a few strands of hair around his fingers. “And I’d like to see you be able to grow your hair out again.”
“There’s also the matter of your will…”
“The matter of my will is of no matter to you whatsoever,” Lex said shortly. “I’ve been putting some thought to the matter of how to deal with Luthorcorp, and I will notify you when we need to discuss it.”
“Lex-“
”Goodbye, dad.”
They rolled out of the room, and as soon as they were clear of the door, Lex rested his head on her shoulder. Adina’s friends followed quietly and said soft goodbyes to her, telling her to call when she needed them.
“Hang in there, Alex, buddy. Okay?” Robert grinned at him. Lex’s face opened in surprise.
“I’ll do my best. Well, I’ll try to hang on to the rest of my appendages at least.”
“Come over to the Éclair sometime. Fred’s dying to fatten you up.”
“Oh no. My figure,” Lex said dryly. Chloe gave Adina a hug around the shoulders from behind. One arm squeezed Lex’s face in the process. He didn’t move but rolled his eyes upward to look at her.
“Uh, sorry Lex.” She pulled her arms back and put her hands in her back pockets.
“You’re permitted to touch me by accident. But only by accident.” His eyes shone in amusement seeing her take him seriously for a moment.
“Okay, we’ll let you guys go. I don’t know how long Martha can stand being around your dad.” Dave kissed Adina’s cheek. “See you later, Addy.”
“Okay okay, Davy.”
***
Adina was glad they were living in the Penthouse for the time being. Limping all around the castle would be a little too much for her right now. Having the both of them in a wheelchair would be fairly pathetic, and she was so emotionally fatigued she really just wanted to spend all of her time lying down. She probably would be sleeping now, except every time she closed her eyes, strange fingers were on her, touching her. She couldn’t even try to sleep unless Lex was beside her.
At the moment she was heading towards the east side, where she could hear intense piano playing. It would start then stop. Pause, then start again. She hobbled into the gold and cream decorated room. The windows were huge and had a clear view of the skyline and a bloody sunset. Lex moved fluidly, pounding the keys with his one hand. Then stopped. He looked up at Adina.
“I apologize.”
“Why?” She limped over to the bench gingerly.
“I never really played for you when I could.” He twiddled his fingers over the keys, releasing a few scattered notes. “I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with the thing. My mother used to play, you know. She taught me, and she was professionally trained. She used to hold concerts for the society folks here in Metropolis.”
Adina nodded and scooted next to him.
“I was always falling in and out of it. It made me think of her, which wasn’t always a good thing. Sometimes it was a comfort, and sometimes it made me terribly sad.” He sighed. “And angry. It’s the same with Lana. She loved to hear me play.”
“Well, Luthorcorp has some pretty intense cybernetic programs, if I understand them right. Or there are medical programs for reattachment.”
“I don’t think we can have it reattached. The bone structure was already deteriorating. One of the reasons I haven’t played much lately. It hurt.” His left arm was resting in his lap.
“I’m… babe, don’t take this the wrong way… And don’t look at me like I’m about to kick your puppy because I swear I’m not.”
“Maybe we should get a puppy. Or a kitten. I’m not that fond of dogs.”
“Hush up.” She kissed his cheek. “I was… surprised at how well you’re taking this.”
“Yeah?” He sighed again and looked at the remains of his arm. “I don’t know if I’m just repressing everything or if I’ve simply gotten to the point that I just can’t be horrified at how little control I have over my body anymore. I’m sitting here at a piano playing with one hand and a stump, all the while hooked up to an IV because I can’t eat food anymore.”
Adina frowned and rubbed his shoulder.
“Under normal circumstances, I assure you I would be throwing such a tantrum it would crack open the fifth dimension.” They leaned their heads against one another. “Right now, I’m just tired. I think I bled out all of my anger. Whatever we do… it’ll have to wait until I kick this.”
“I like that attitude.”
“You think I could play the other part with my foot? I have some oddly long toes.”
Adina laughed.
“After… well, not just Lana. After Desiree and Mandy. And Helen and Clark and the things my father did and Claire and all those friends… you know how they say that the best revenge is living well?” He looked at her seriously. She nodded. “Well, considering how many people have genuinely tried to kill me, that’s what was often going through my head. Everyone wants you to die. There are a lot of people who wish that your mother had snagged you with a coat hanger. The best revenge is living well. The best revenge is living well. The best revenge. Is living. Living.”
Adina caressed the sides of his head and gave him a kiss on the crown. “That your only reason?”
“Not anymore. But it has been, sometimes.”
“Sometimes you needed that?” she asked. Lex pensively played a run of notes.
“Sometimes I came close.”
“I have something to show you. If you’re not too busy playing the piano with your feet.”
“I could spare a moment, I suppose.” he teased.
After shifting himself back into his wheelchair she led him into the large media room. He had a huge wall-to-wall television set in there. Lex looked up at her curiously then wheeled forward to inspect the room. After a few moments he was shaking his head.
She reached down and put a finger to his lips. He moved her hand away gently.
“There’s an old Greek story. Maybe you’ve heard of it.” Their hands intertwined and pulled against one another playfully. Adina tilted her head, listening. “There was a time on this Earth when there was no such thing as love. We couldn’t fathom it. Rather, human beings roamed the earth as monstrous many-legged, many-armed creatures. They were two sentient beings in one flesh. Some people had two men. Some had two women. And… you know there were some man/woman pairs too.”
Adina laughed. “Imagine that.”
“Odd, I know.” He stroked her hand with his thumb. “We didn’t know what love was because we were never lonely. We never lacked. So being the defiant little fucks that we are… The Powers That Be became angry over our presumptuousness and decided to punish us by splitting us apart. Zeus threw down lightening bolts and cut everyone in half. Then a storm came up, supposedly, and washed us all away so we couldn’t find our other half again.”
“So you think the storm didn’t really come? Grecian conspiracy theories?”
“Hardly. I think most of the time we’re too wrapped up in our pain to see who we’re looking at. We want to feel that, when we get put back together… love. The ending of our loneliness and of being half a person. But ever since then, we’re cut and bloody and lost. Trying to cope on our own.” Lex looked down and touched the tip of his tongue to his top lip. “I finally found you. Whatever happens, I wouldn’t have wanted to die incomplete.”
Adina straddled his lap, her fingers ran unafraid over where his left hand used to be, and they began to kiss.
***
Clark walked shyly through the halls of Lex’s Penthouse. For starters, he’d never been here before… as himself. And for another, Lex’s head butler was guiding him in. He felt incredibly awkward. As though he were visiting Lex to give him a petition or something.
“Have a seat, Clark,” Lex called from the expansive lavender sofa. Clark could see the top of Lex’s dome leaning against a short wig of black hair. On the gigantic television screen two characters battled one another. He tentatively stepped inside the impressive media room. He never remembered Lex keeping anything like this at the castle, although he got the impression somehow that in his spare time Lex mostly studied things and plotted world domination.
“I uh… I guess I’m surprised that I’m allowed in.”
“Well, I think this is the first time you’ve asked since… have you ever asked before?” Lex craned his head around. “I told you that you could come in.”
He motioned with his hand for Clark to approach them. Adina paused the game and twisted about so that she could see him, resting her chin on Lex’s shoulder. Her face wasn’t quite so welcoming.
“Uh…” He walked awkwardly around the sofa and stood beside them, both looking up at him in askance. Adina looking like she would like to cut out some of his vital organs. Clark took a moment to be amazed at how many different faces this woman could wear. Then he pulled out a vial. “Here.”
He offered it to Lex, who frowned a bit. Clark leaned over and put it in his hand.
“I didn’t have it tested.”
“You didn’t,” Lex repeated. His blue eyes softened and searched Clark’s for the meaning behind this gesture.
“No. I… I’m sorry for snooping in your business. I don’t know if it counts now. I mean it’s obvious what’s wrong and I was an ass to think it was your fault-“
“I didn’t either.”
“Huh?”
“I assume Mr. Krypton told you what I did. I didn’t have your sample analyzed either.”
“Wait. Clark took your blood?” Adina asked incredulously, starting to rise. Clark stepped back in spite of himself.
“If I’m not allowed to kill people, baby, neither are you,” Lex said sternly. She stood slowly, not so much shooting daggers with her eyes so much as katana blades.
“Why don’t I get us some drinks.”
“Go easy on the arsenic,” Lex called after her. He turned his head back around to see Clark staring at his stump. “Sexy, isn’t it.”
“I knew. I know. I mean that you didn’t. Uh,” Clark fumbled.
”Sit the fuck down already. You’re making my neck tired,” Lex ordered setting aside his controller and drawing his crossed legs closer. Clark sat. “Just don’t lecture me. I’m not up for it. I might decide to kick off before you got to the good parts.”
“I’m not here to lecture you.”
“Oh, the times they are a changin’!” Lex exclaimed with a funny accent.
“They must have you on some fun painkillers.”
“And how.” He gave Clark a bitter smile.
“So. Yeah. Sorry. That’s why I came,” Clark said, peeking up from his lap. Lex offered him a sardonic look.
“And I’m supposed to what? Forgive you? Let you make amends so that you can have closure with the dead man?”
“God, no, Lex. Jesus.” Clark looked away angrily.
”Of the three you just mentioned, I only really believe in one.”
“Why do you have to make this so hard?”
“God? Or cancer?” Lex looked at his pants. “Or me? Pretty sure I’m flaccid. Give me a minute, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Clark rubbed his hands against his jeans. ‘You hate me.”
Lex sighed heavily. “I don’t.”
“You do.”
“If I do, it’s only fair. You hate me,” Lex replied lightly.
“I don’t. I never did. I just…”
“You’re right. I do hate you.”
Clark snapped his head back in Lex’s direction. “Oh, nice. Ass.”
“But you know…. That never stopped me from feeling other things at the same time. I hated my father for years. Still loved him. I hate Lana now. And I still love her. Damn me.”
Clark cracked a smile. “It’s not her fault.”
“Someone went out of their way to make sure her ring couldn’t hurt that alien.”
“I… uh… what?”
“We had Kryptonite in our rings. Both of them. The stones of engagement ring and inlayed in the wedding bands. It should have been enough to keep him far away. But she was wearing them when… I saw… She planned it, Clark. I know that she did, and she doesn’t deny it. She wanted to be with him.”
“She doesn’t know anything about him.” Clark shook his head. “She let herself get swept away in it… because of his persona… but it wasn’t like…”
“Yes, Clark. Give me Lana Lang’s modus operandi in a nutshell,.” Lex drawled. Clark shrugged.
“I’m just saying that if anyone deserves your wrath, it’s Superman.”
“He gets that for free anyway. And he never fucked me and said he loved me.”
Clark sighed. He wanted to reach out to Lex but he was at a complete loss of how to even start. And he just looked so fragile.
“Want to play?” Lex asked casually.
“I didn’t even know you liked games.”
“I live for games.” Lex picked up his controller and then Clark noticed it. It was designed to be held one-handed.
“Wow.”
“Isn’t Adina amazing? It should help me improve my dexterity in my right hand. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that I could just change the world to suit me.” He held up the controller for Clark to inspect. Clark took it from him and looked it over. It had a handle through the middle for the middle and ring finger to hold the controller still, while the buttons were positioned for use by the thumb and forefinger and the pinkie could operate the directional pad.
“That’s pretty clever,” Clark admitted. “But changing the world to suit yourself… that would make you a megalomaniac.”
“Well… kinda that already,” Lex mused.
“Sometimes I don’t know.”
“You’re having doubts about your doubts in me?”
“I’m not sure of much right now. I’m never sure.” Clark sighed. “I just pretend I know what I’m talking about half the time.”
“You aren’t the only one.” Lex rubbed Clark’s leg. The man shivered at his touch and Lex turned his head and moved ever so slightly away, interpreting the action as a sign of disgust. “I think we all want to have certainty in our lives. Especially when we know that nothing is certain. It’s only human nature.”
“Human nature.”
“Humans and human approximates. Does that work?”
“Seems pretty inclusive.”
“I hate to leave anyone out when I’m making grand generalizations.”
Clark laughed. “You’re still so weird.”
Lex picked the vial out of his lap and dropped it back in Clark’s hand. “I trust you. Analyze it if you need to.”
“I uh…”
“It’ll make you feel better. It isn’t going to tell you anything you don’t know, though.”
“You never did.”
“No. But I didn’t have your permission either. And you have mine.”
“…Thanks.”
“I understand neurotic behavior better than most. Just don’t let it rule you,” Lex said with a slight, lopsided smile. He rested his head back on the large circular pillow. “Want to join us? I think we have another normie controller.”
“Normie?”
So Clark sat back, wasting his evening playing video games with Lex Luthor and the girlfriend who was kicking both of their asses at Justice Society Battle Royale. He just couldn’t help being jealous that Lex let her hold him while he had to resist wrapping his arms around his former friend while he still could.
***
“Oh! Hey. Perry. Back already?” Chloe turned from her desk to see the disheveled, sweat stained man hanging up his coat.
“Just for a bit. My kid is being a mini-megalomaniac, and I need to get control of the little bastard before I head back out.”
Chloe weighed his words carefully before opening her mouth to reply. Then she grabbed her desk as the office suddenly began shaking. Little white lines, like glowing bits of spiderweb, floated lazily before her eyes. Perry lit up a cigarette.
”You okay, kid?”
“You… uh…” She looked around wildly. “We didn’t just have a baby earthquake, did we?”
“Not that I know of. Though feel free to share whatever you have stashed in your top drawer.”
“You shouldn’t smoke in here. Pauline will have your neck.”
“She just hates it because it gives her cravings. She loves her cancersticks.”
“Cancer?” The glowing webs bounced then tightened. She followed them out the door.
The webs ran from person to person, dancing and intertwining. Everything was so loud and so bright and she could hear so much going on around her… human lives buzzing away in their endless interaction. Chloe shivered, her flitting green eyes trying to follow them all, as she realized how truly horrible, beautiful, wicked and purely purely awesome their reality was.
“So this is what madness feels like,” she said to herself in awe.
“Hey, kid!” Perry stepped beside her. “You okay? You look a little out of it.”
“I wish I weren’t so in it,” she replied breathily. She couldn’t take her eyes off the little webs of destiny weaving themselves between people. People following or being dragged along or forcing the webs in another direction.
“Perry?”
“Chloe, hey, meet the wife, Alice.”
“Alice.” Chloe turned her head. She frowned, seeing the connections in the pretty, brown haired woman. She turned her head away from them and narrowed her eyes sharply. “Oh, I see.”
“Uh… Nice to meet you.” Alice made a crazy motion beside Chloe’s back. Chloe looked back at her, opened her mouth, then decided to say nothing. A boy of about ten or eleven ran up next to his mother and demanded attention. He was an awkward amalgamation of traits. His ears stuck out like car doors. His eyes were a sweet sky blue with stray curling locks from his mop of unruly red hair. He didn’t seem like much of a megalomaniac to Chloe. Just bored and lonely.
The pieces came crashing together in her head, and she leaned over to the boy. “Hey, Junior. Do you like Superman?”
“I’m Jerry. And… I guess so. Yeah.”
Chloe realized he was peeking down her shirt. She gave him a wide, familiar smile. “How would you like to be a hero, too?”
>:3
The last bit will be explained in the next chapter for those of you going WTF. For the rest of you, you’ve probably figured out where I’m going with this.
Maybe one or two more chapters to go!
Thanks for waiting.