When Churches Come Crashing Down
Folc4evernaday
Part 29
***
Lucy tugged at the hem of her suit jacket as she examined her reflection in the mirror. A month ago this suit had hung off of her; now she barely fit into it. She placed a protective hand over the small bump that had formed at her waistline. It was hard to believe that in a few short months this bump would soon form into a baby.
A baby she would bring into the world to face the mess she’d made of her love life. Her baby’s father was suing her for custody before the child had even been born. There had been a time that she had thought of Jimmy Olsen as her best friend. That was also the time that she had believed in true love and happy endings. Lex had brought her back to reality on that notion.
She had no desire to allow herself to be drawn into another man’s spell the way she had with Lex; even if that meant she would spend the rest of her life alone. She was just beginning to rebuild her relationship with her sister and that would have to do for now. She couldn’t take having her heart broken again.
***
It was early morning when Jack opened the door to the archive department at Top Copy. He yawned as he made his way to the desk he’d come to be very familiar with. He’d been holed up in the archive department for the last few weeks. The research he’d been sent to do along with filing away reporters’ stories had been tiresome. Along his daily route, he’d also learned from his colleagues that Sarah Doughtery’s presence was not as welcome as he’d first thought. She talked a good game but had not revealed her cards yet. Many were resentful of her climb up the ladder without paying her dues. Jack wasn’t sure what that meant, but he had an idea.
There was something off about her and Jack was determined to find out what it was. She was very guarded around everyone. The story she had pitched to Barry had brought the ratings up, but she still refused to divulge that last piece of the puzzle in order for him to strike gold with the viewers.
Jack had his suspicions about who Sarah was hinting at as superman’s alias, but he had no proof. He’d recognized the living room the pictures had shown. It was the same living room he’d been caught in a few months ago. An innocent man that had gone out of his way to assure that Jack and his brother were taken care of. Was it fair that his life be turned upside down for a few ratings?
***
“You doing alright?” Clark asked, taking a seat on the edge of Lois’ desk later that morning.
“I’m fine,” Lois nodded, “It’s just hard leaving him with anyone…”
“I know.” Clark sighed, placing his hand on her shoulders. “He’ll be fine.”
“I think we should start looking into what Mayson was working on,” Lois said, changing the subject. “She’s been missing for over twenty-four hours. I’m sure the DA’s office is loving this, but we need to find out what cases she was handling. Maybe someone wanted to send a message?”
“Could be,” Clark nodded. “I’ve got a call into Mr. Knox right now,”
“Don’t hold your breath,” Lois muttered.
“He may surprise you,”
“Hey, Lois, CK, Henderson just called for you. He said it's urgent,” Jimmy said handing them a message slip.
Clark nodded, “Thanks, Jimmy,”
“No prob,”
***
“No way,” Lois said, shaking her head.
“I understand where you’re coming from,” Henderson began.
“Do you?” Lois asked angrily. “That woman kidnapped my son and ….”
“Lois….” Clark placed a hand on her shoulder for support, a silent message for her to calm down. It still scared him whenever she got upset. The close call she’d had …
Lois took a couple of shallow breaths before continuing, “She made everyone think he was dead. Now she wants us to HELP her?”
“What exactly are we supposed to be able to do?” Clark inquired. “We’re not exactly her biggest fans. If she is being railroaded…”
“I don’t buy it.” Lois cut him off. “All the hiding and manipulating she did. I wouldn’t put murder past her. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was responsible for Dr. Benzen’s murder.”
“That’s still under investigation,” Henderson said dryly.
“I’m sure it is, but what business is that of ours? Last I checked that was your job. She wants to cry about being railroaded; you can investigate.” Lois sniped.
“She asked for you specifically,” Henderson said before cocking an eyebrow at her, “And last I checked it was your job to get the exclusives. Don’t you think this falls under both our jobs if she’s innocent?”
***
“You can’t keep me here!” Mayson yelled at her captor. “People are looking for me,”
“Don’t worry you’ll soon be moved to a more cushioned cell,” Nigel snapped back.
“What do you want from me?” She cried.
“Leverage,” Nigel said coolly.
***
“What a waste of our time,” Lois muttered as they stepped into the Daily Planet lobby. “I don’t care what Henderson says. We are not getting sucked into that woman’s lies.”
Clark silently nodded as he pressed the call button for the elevator, “It's probably for the best,”
Lois turned to look at him, “What?”
“Nothing,” Clark shrugged, feigning ignorance.
“You think we should take the case,” Lois guessed, reading him.
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you’re thinking it,” Lois glared at him as they stepped into the elevator. “I don’t care. I am not doing anything to help that woman.”
“Even if it turns out she’s being charged with a crime she didn’t commit?” Clark pressed.
Lois closed her eyes a moment, pinching the bridge of her nose as she tried to gather her thoughts. “I’ve never seen you turn down a story before. Henderson is practically spoon feeding it to you,”
“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?” Lois asked.
“I think we should look into it; make sure the right person is being charged,” Clark edged cautiously.
“Fine, but I refuse to work this story unbiased,” Lois said as the bell rang announcing their arrival to the newsroom floor.
***
Lucy stared out the window at the morning sky as Ryan Knox paced in front of her shouting out the District Attorney’s plan of action on Mayson’s disappearance. She never realized how gray the sky looked in the morning. Was it because they were in the city?
Her friend was missing. Mayson was the only one she’d been able to open up to about her fears regarding the pregnancy. Her mother didn’t understand; her father was Dr. Sam Lane, a famous scientist with no intentions of changing himself for family. He wasn’t exactly the ideal grandfather. She understood now why Lois had waited so long to tell their parents about Jordan.
I feel it everyday it's all the same
It brings me down but I'm the one to blame
I've tried everything to get away
So here I go again
Chasing you down again
Why do I do this?
Her relationship with Lois was just now getting back to where it had been. Their relationship had been strained ever since she’d woken up after the attack on the Planet. Seeing Lois made her remember all the mistakes with Lex so she’d gone out of her way to avoid her. Then there was the whole not accepting her son’s death thing that had built what seemed like an immovable wall between them. She’d enjoyed the time she’d spent with Lois the other day. They’d laughed like they hadn’t in ages. There was still an awkwardness between them but a lot of that had to do with the lawsuit Jimmy had filed. She wasn’t sure whose side Lois was on regarding the custody suit and she didn’t want to put her sister in a position to have to choose so avoidance was the best solution. It just hurt not being able to share everything with Lois the way she used to.
Over and over, over and over
I fall for you
Over and over, over and over
I try not to
It feels like everyday stays the same
It's dragging me down and I can't pull away
So here I go again
Chasing you down again
Why do I do this?
The radio played a soft song in the background. Lucy smiled at the irony. Had Mayson been there she would have been shouting at whoever had their radio on in the middle of a meeting. The plan was to pretend like they were doing everything to find Mayson and keep the press out of everything. How exactly was that supposed to happen?
Over and over, over and over
I fall for you
Over and over, over and over
I try not to
Over and over, over and over
You make me fall for you
Over and over, over and over
You don't even try
“Mr. Knox, what are we supposed to do about those reporters from the Planet that keep calling?” Knox’s secretary asked.
Lucy sighed inaudibly. She already knew who was calling about Mayson’s disappearance.
So many thoughts that I can't get out of my head
I try to live without you, every time I do I feel dead
I know what's best for me
But I want you instead
I'll keep on wasting all my time
“Nothing,” Knox replied hastily. “They’ll give up eventually. Remember, no press. Whoever kidnapped Mayson is obviously looking for free publicity. That’s the last thing we’re going to give them.”
‘Yeah, right,’ Lucy thought to herself. Little did he know she’d already gone to the press…her sister anyway. He didn’t know what he was doing and everyone in the room knew it. Was she really going to let her friend’s fate fall in his hands?
Over and over, over and over
I fall for you
Over and over, over and over
I try not to
Over and over, over and over
You make me fall for you
Over and over, over and over
You don't even try to
Someone really needed to turn that radio off.
***
“I told you Knox wasn’t going to call you back,” Lois remarked smugly as they sifted through several files in the Daily Planet conference room.
“I still have faith,” Clark shrugged. “I like to give people the benefit of the doubt,”
“He’s too busy worry about his election year. He’s not going to want any bad press,” Lois retorted, “Which by the way; we are known for giving,”
“Only the criminals,”
“Exactly,” Lois winked, “He doesn’t want his dirty laundry exposed.”
Clark scanned the next file in front of him at super speed. “I wish we knew what we were looking for.”
“Anything that Mayson’s worked on in the last few months that could have gotten her kidnapped,” Lois said, reaching for another file.
“What about this?” He pointed to the file on Dr. Benzen and handed it to her, “Henderson said he doesn’t think the case is what it seems,”
Lois rolled her eyes, “I’m not doing anything to help that woman,”
“So, you’ve said repeatedly,” Clark sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “Isn’t it possible that Amanda Marshall is not guilty of every crime she’s been accused of?” Clark pressed. “And maybe just maybe the real killer is still out there?”
“Maybe, but highly unlikely,” Lois retorted, “If she was investigating a murder like this she would have had someone working with her,”
“What makes you say that?” Clark asked.
“It’s a dangerous case. She’s smart; she wouldn’t put herself in danger like that.”
“Huh, kinda like you wouldn’t put yourself in danger for a story? No matter how dangerous?”
Lois met his gaze and glared at him, “Point taken, but that doesn’t mean Mayson would do what I do.”
“You never know. Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think,” Clark pointed out.
“Hey, guys, I think I’ve got something for you,” Jimmy said, entering the conference room with a large file in hand.
“Great more files,” Lois grumbled.
“What is it, Jimmy?” Clark asked.
“ACL Industries,” Jimmy said simply, laying the file on the table in front of them.
“What about them?” Lois asked.
“It’s a dummy company all right,” Jimmy said with a broad smile, “but not for who you’d think. Did you know Luthor was married?”
“What???” Both of their heads shot up in unison.
“Arianna Carlin. They divorced a few years back, but she was set up with a pretty handsome annuity package. More recently ACL Industries has been busy buying up every company Luthor ever owned; making it another Lex Corp,”
“Are you saying Lex’s Ex-wife is out there picking up where Lex left off?” Lois asked.
“I’ve still got some calls out there to try and find out more on his ex, but that’s what it looks like right now,” Jimmy said.
A commotion in the newsroom caught their attention and the trio headed out into the bullpen to find out what was going on, “Benson, I want you downtown with a cameraman in tow. Find out what the Mayor plans to do about the situation. Schwartz, I want you on the fire department. What’s the take on a situation like this? How do they plan on keeping the prisoners incarcerated and not running amuck in the city….”
Perry continued shooting out orders as Lois and Clark looked up at the television monitors to find the answer to their questions. Superman stood in front of the city jail as it continued to burn in flames behind him. Sam Lane stood in the background, watching the scene, “Oh, my God…”
She looked to her right where Clark had been seconds ago; only to find an empty space, “Be careful,” She whispered in a low inaudible whisper she knew only he could hear.
***
Letter by letter she taped the anonymous message to the sheet of paper in front of her. Her knowledge of Superman’s identity would prove an advantage. Right now she needed to remind him of who had the upper hand so as to remain safe. Intergang was still intact, but its leadership had changed and she needed protection. Protection would only come from money and power; neither of which she had right now.
***
The air was filled with smoke. Alarms buzzed in the background as people screamed for help. Clark steadied himself as he approached the center of the chaos. The center of the chaos was a duplicate copy of himself; parading around in his superman suit. He had no idea what to expect.
***
“I’m sorry, Ms. Marshall, but I haven’t heard anything back from the Kents,” Henderson replied, watching Amanda’s face fall through the double pane glass.
“I didn’t kill her,” Amanda cried, “I was angry and hurt, but I didn’t kill her. I don’t know how to be that…cold.”
“Cold? You don’t know how to be cold?” Henderson asked, skeptically.
“I know. I know I did something horrible.”
“Your arraignment is ….”
A blast filled the room, knocking them unconscious to the ground.
***
“Oh, my God,” Lois held her hand over her mouth, fighting the tears that were threatening to overtake her. It was surreal to watch the scene unfold. Two Supermen fighting one another in the middle of the streets. She couldn’t keep track which one was hers and which one was….
She didn’t know what to call the other one.
They continued to move at super-speed across the screen; neither one of them backing down. Clark was invincible, but could he be invulnerable to his own strength? His heat vision? Could this imposter hurt him?
***
Everything hurt. Clark through another punch at his opponent; wincing as he felt the hard chiseled steel of his muscle meet his fist. This was nothing like the fight he’d had several months back with the clone that had come to Metropolis.
He was just as strong as him.
He wasn’t dying.
He was stronger.
***
Lois subconsciously placed a hand over her abdomen, gently stroking the tiny bump that had begun to form. She had the blinds in the conference room drawn as she poured herself over the files in front of her. She refused to allow herself to be sucked into the what ifs. Clark was going to be fine. He always was. He was Superman.
She was still on restrictive duties and Perry refused to budge on any of the conditions. She’d made several attempts to try and leave to find out more information about what was going on downtown, but Perry had stonewalled her on every attempt. Even Jimmy hadn’t been very forthcoming. She had resided herself to barricading herself in the conference room and researching anything and everything she could get her hands on that may explain the Superman double.
***
“Everyone in positions?”
Clark’s super hearing picked up on the voice of an officer a few feet away. They were surrounded by a swat team. The perimeter had been blocked off. He shook his head in disgust. He’d allowed himself to become a part of the destruction, “Don’t you see what you’re doing?”
“I’m standing up for what’s right! You are an imposter; getting in my way!”
Clark winced as he found himself thrown through another window. It was a good thing he was invulnerable. “Imposter…? Ohhh!” He fell back to the ground when he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He looked to the right in surprise to find his shoulder bleeding and green and red glow coming from the wound.
The Superman double looked around nervously as the swat team moved in, “This isn’t over,” With that he was gone.
“Far from it,” Clark muttered as he struggled to stand up.
***
Everything hurt.
The light was too bright. The unfamiliar sounds in the room irritated him. Someone was in the room with him. He couldn’t place the sound. He really didn’t want to wake up and face the pain, but curiosity soon won him over. Bill Henderson slowly opened his eyes to look around. He was surprised to find ADA Lucy Lane sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, patiently waiting.
“What the hell?” He grumbled, carefully moving his arms to readjust himself in the hospital bed.
“You’re at Metropolis General,” Lucy explained softly.
“I figured that,” Henderson grumbled, lifting up his arm with the hospital bracelet attached.
“Do you remember what happened?” She asked.
“I was in the visiting room, preparing to take Amanda Marshall to her arraignment,” Henderson grumbled.
“And?”
“I got nothing else,” He shrugged. “Listen, can you do this later? I need some pain killers right now and thinking and remembering is the last thing on my priority list,”
“Fine,” Lucy shrugged, “You obviously don’t care,”
He rolled his eyes irritably, “I swear, between you and your sister…” He muttered under his breath, “What? What don’t I care about?”
“Your prisoner escaped,”
“What?”
***
It had been an exhausting day. Lois rested her head against the headrest of the rocking chair, holding Jordan close to her chest as she rubbed his back. She’d been covering for Clark all afternoon in between doing background information on everyone’s coverage on the fight in downtown. Criminals had escaped during the altercation. After the double had disappeared Superman had been busy trying to find the escaped criminals and return them to police custody.
There was still no word on everyone that had escaped. She hadn’t received confirmation, but she suspected Amanda Marshall was on that list. Her arms instinctively tightened around Jordan. His head turned from one side to the other, readjusting himself against her. He held a strand of her hair tightly in his fist.
Henderson would have called them by now. Lucy would have called them. No one had called.
It had been an exhausting day. She hadn’t seen Clark since this morning and her anxiety was growing with every minute that passed by. Nothing was making sense. The only explanation she’d been able to find to explain the Superman double was a clone; just like before. Unlike before, though, Dr. Leek was not around to be testing on frogs for his experiments. One scientist was however linked to clone research. He was a respected scientist in the community; and her father.
***
Lucy heaved a sigh of relief when she closed the door to Henderson’s room. The hundreds of doubts that had raced through her mind for the past few hours had now been squashed. Bill Henderson had not betrayed her. He had not helped Amanda escape. She couldn’t bare it if she’d found yet another friend she couldn’t rely on.
“Lucy?”
She turned to her right and saw Jimmy standing in the hallway. He looked like he’d been through hell. His clothes were wrinkled; he looked like he hadn’t gotten a decent night sleep for quite some time, and his hair was unkempt.
She hesitated a moment, “Hi, Jimmy,”
“How is he?”
She shook her head, “He had a building fall on him. He’s in pain,” She shrugged.
“Yeah,” He nodded, “I hope he’s gonna be all right.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, Jimmy,”
There was a long pause of silence between them for a moment, “How are you?” Jimmy asked.
“Fine,” She nodded, “I’m fine. I’m busy. I’m keeping very very busy, but I’m fine.”
Jimmy nodded, “That’s good,”
“Good,”
“Well, I guess I should…” He pointed to the door she was standing in front of.
She nodded, “Oh, sorry,”
“Yeah,” He nodded as he opened the door, “Take care of yourself, Luce.”
***
Clark winced in pain as he hedged his way inside the townhome It would probably have been easier to fly through the window, but his shoulder was in extreme pain and he’d already pushed himself to the limit most of the day.
He picked up Lois and Jordan’s heartbeats in the living room. She was probably furious with him for not coming back after the fight. He’d taken longer at Dr. Klein’s than he anticipated. The doctor had begun testing the Kryptonite that had been lodged inside his shoulder. He called it ‘synthetic’ Kryptonite. Apparently, it was the military’s weapon against him if he got out of control.
He grimaced as he looked down at the bruise on his shoulder. He knew it definitely worked on him, but would it work on the double?
Lois was lying on the couch with Jordan resting on her chest. They were both asleep. He smiled wistfully at the two of them. It looked like he was in the clear of Mad Dog Lane’s rage for the time being anyway.
He knelt down next to them, brushing a strand of hair out of his wife’s face. He wanted to carry them upstairs to bed where they’d be more comfortable, but he didn’t want to risk waking them up. He lifted her head up and took a seat at the end of the couch, allowing her head to rest on his lap. He noticed a stack of folders on the floor. He reached down to pick them up and lay them on the coffee table. A manila envelope fell out onto the floor. It was sealed with no return address. He looked at it curiously. It was addressed to himself and Lois with no clue of the sender.
Jordan made a tiny grunt in his sleep. He lifted his head up in the air. For a moment he thought all was over and Jordan would wake up, but his head fell back down to his mother’s chest and a soft snore could faintly be heard.
Clark shook his head at his son’s antics. Even in his sleep, he was a trouble maker; just like his mother. He placed a hand on his back, feeling the soft rhythm of his breathing. He sighed in relief. It didn’t matter how many days or weeks or months he listened to Jordan breathing next to him; he would always have the anxiety in the back of his mind that something was going to happen to him if he didn’t check on him.
Would he be like this with the new baby?
He knew he was over protective. Lois had warned him about being too over protective, but he couldn’t help it. His family had nearly been torn about and it was only by a miracle that he’d been able to piece it back together.
He turned his attention back to the envelope in his hands.
“What are you doing?” Lois softly whispered, looking up at him.
“Nothing,” He whispered, looking down at Lois who had woken up sometime during his daydreaming. “Just thinking,”
She sat up, holding Jordan close. “It’s been a long day. Are you all right?”
Clark nodded, pointing to his injured shoulder, “Just bruised, but I’ll be fine in a day or so.”
“Bruised?” Lois asked concerned, gently stroking the shoulder he’d pointed at.
“Yeah, apparently ‘synthetic’ Kryptonite is the military’s new weapon of choice,” He explained, rubbing his shoulder as he spoke.
“Synthetic Kryptonite? What is that?”
“Something very very painful,” Clark explained. “I don’t know. Dr. Klein is going to run some tests and let us know. How are you?” He asked cautiously.
“Fine,” She shrugged. “It’s just been a long day.” She rested her head against his chest.
“Where did you get this?” Clark asked, showing her the envelope.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It must have come in with the rest of the mail.”
Clark ripped the seal to the envelope and a single 8x10 paper fell out. “I don’t think so,” He said, showing her the paper.
“What in the world?” She shot upright, grabbing the paper from him to read more closely.
“I know who you are.” Clark read.
“You think it's that Top Copy sleaze, Dunning, again?” Lois asked apprehensively. “He did that news report and…”
“I don’t know. This doesn’t seem like this style.”
“Then whose?” Lois snapped in a harsh whisper. “I’m getting a little sick and tired of the games being played.”
***
“Is there a reason why you called me out of my warm home at ten o’ clock at night?” Jimmy asked as he took a seat across from Jack at the local coffee shop.
“I think I’ve run across something I shouldn’t have,” Jack said, handing Jimmy a file.
“You woke me up out of a dead sleep for a file you could have given me tomorrow?” Jimmy asked skeptically.
“This is important. I’m giving you a copy of this. I have a copy at my place. I want you to make more and hide them. This is important,”
“How important?” Jimmy flipped through the file and looked up at Jack, “Holy…. Are you insane?”
“Nope, just lucky.” Jack flashed him a broad smile.
“You need to go to the police.”
“Oh, yeah that’s gonna do me a lot of good with what I’ve got. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I just need to make sure you’ve got my back. If anything happens …”
“Last time I had your back we ended up in a hostage situation,” Jimmy pointed out.
“Hey, we got out of it just fine.” Jack pointed out.
***
“Where is she?” Nigel fumed, slamming his fists against the glowing bars.
The missing ADA was no longer anywhere in sight. What had happened? Where had she gone? Someone had been here. The door was unlocked.
How?
***
No return address. No handwriting to compare. Even the paper and envelope were generic. There was nothing they had to go on in finding the person behind the veiled threats that had been sent their way.
Clark stared at the night sky through the ceiling, lost in thought. Lois had fallen back asleep after they’d put Jordan to bed. She hadn’t said much the rest of the night. He knew the letter weighed heavily on her mind as well. He still didn’t understand how someone could have found out his secret identity.
He had worked so hard to keep Superman separate from his and Lois’ lives. All the work he’d done to protect his family would be a waste if this came public. He wasn’t even sure if the mysterious sender had intentions on revealing his secret or if they were just entertaining themselves with torturing him.
<<’I know who you are.’>>
That didn’t give him a lot to go on.
***
TBC...
