“You have kids?!”
Lois stared at her hero, dumb-struck. Superman turned to face her, the cell-phone still in his hand. They were the only two people in the alley.
She'd been covering the fire. He had stopped to give her a quote. She was certain she was the only one who'd heard something ringing under his cape. She knew she was the only one who'd followed him here.
“L-Lois!” he stammered. “I...uh...”
“Are you married?” she asked immediately, her voice refusing to rise above a squeak. The very thought made her heart feel heavier than a brick.
He shook his head. “No, I'm not.”
Well, that was something, at least. Still... “But you do have...children... ”
He stared at her for a long moment, then sighed, nodding once.
“Who is their mother?”
The question made him wince. Was this a sore spot? Had Superman been through a bitter divorce? It was hard to picture someone so wonderful going through something so ugly and terrible. What were the causes? Irreconcilable differences? Was his wife jealous of his groupies? Was she right to be? Or maybe she had cheated on him with Batman?
He glanced behind her. “Lois...”
Or maybe she had simply died, Lois thought. That could well be it. Perhaps he still missed her. Maybe, in his eyes, no other woman could ever hold a candle to her, and that was why he seemed so determined to ignore Lois's advances...Not that Lois had been making many advances; she was a professional, after all.
“Can we discuss this somewhere else?” he asked her, breaking her train of thought for a moment.
It took Lois a second or two to process the question. “What? Oh! Of course.”
He scooped her up into his arms and took off. Normally, flying with him would have thrilled her. Now, all she could think about was who else had flown with him this way.
They landed on a mountaintop, somewhere beyond the outskirts of Metropolis. “Is this your home?” she asked him.
He stared at her for a few seconds, then burst out laughing. “No, Lois, it isn't. I just, well, wanted somewhere more private for us to talk.”
Well, that made sense. “So, where do you live?”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “You never asked me that before.”
The accusation—though he probably hadn't meant it as one—made her blush. “Who is she?” she asked again.
Again, that wince; Superman sucked in a breath through his teeth. “It's...complicated,” he told her.
“Messy divorce?” Lois guessed. “Never really married? Questions of paternity?”
He blinked at her.
“Don't worry,” she assured him, “this is all off the record. I just want—I mean, you can tell me anything. I'll understand.”
“I'm not so sure you will,” he replied with a shake of his head. “The truth is, Lois, I barely understand it myself.”
She waited.
“Technically, they're adopted,” he said. “And technically, they're mine.”
Lois's eyebrows raised.
“I'm not sure how much I should tell you,” Superman said, “but, some time ago, a man came to me; he was from a world very much like our Earth...”
“Krypton?” Lois guessed.
He shook his head. “No. It was another Earth. He said there were other versions of you and me—” he broke off abruptly. “And other people,” he quickly added. “The other version of me was their father. I'm not completely sure what happened, but he and his wife...died.”
Lois stared at him. “And you believe this crazy story?!”
He chuckled. “Let's just say I have some very good reasons to give it the benefit of the doubt.”
She didn't understand his strange little smile, but he was clearly very sure. “So, you're raising someone else's children?” she clarified.
He shrugged. “I suppose that's technically true. But they have my DNA, and since they were so little...well, how are they not mine?” he pointed out.
Lois thought this over. “Can I meet them?” she asked.
Superman grinned. “Maybe someday,” he replied. “I have a feeling they'd like that very much.”
-END-
