A New Hero Part 10
I know some of you don't like Caitlyn but she doesn't appear in this chapter. She is only mentioned.
<Around words indicate telepathic thought.>
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From Part 9
"Caitlyn," he looked up at her, "it might be a good idea for you to get used to the idea of calling me Clark." He looked at her a steadily, but his hands were shaking. "Clark Kent. Very glad to make your acquaintance."
"I'm surprised you told me that."
"Well, I am very confused. But, really, what kind of relationship can you have with Superman?" He smiled and softly said, "I'm think... I'm ready to give it a try."
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Zared drove to Jenni's house.. former house. Zared swallowed and knocked on the door. Jenni's dad, Danny, opened the door...
"Come in Zared. Most of Jenni's stuff is in the garage, but I... " He sat down. "Sit down, Zared."
Zared sat but could only think, "Oh, no."
Danny continued, "I couldn't finish with it. I just couldn't pack anything else."
Zared just raised an eyebrow, waiting...
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Part 10
Brook saw Zared leave and decided to say hi to Jenni. Should I go ahead and talk to Jenni? Maybe not. I'll just say hi. She peaked into the room and said, "Hi, Jenni!"
"Hi, Brook. How are you?"
"I'm okay. I just wanted to say hi. If you need anything, holler." She grinned and then just couldn't resist saying something. "Doesn't Zared look sexy in those black pants. Ooooh, they are so tight. Love you!" With that she skipped out of the room.
Jenni was so surprised that by the time she could think to say anthing, Brook was gone. She thought that maybe Zared didn't know his sister, or 'Brat', as well as he thought he did. I wonder if she knows. I sure hope you get home soon, Zared. Have I got something to tell you....
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Even though Brook had caught her off guard, Jenni was so tired. She fought sleep for a few minutes and kept hoping Zared would be back soon. She couldn't wait to tell him about Brook. She finally lost the battle, though, and fell into a deep sleep.
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Zared drove to Jenni's house.. former house. Zared swallowed and knocked on the door. Jenni's dad, Danny, opened the door, and smiled. Smiled!? He had actually smiled.
"Come in Zared. Most of Jenni's stuff is in the garage, but I... " He sat down. "Sit down, Zared."
Zared sat but could only think, "Oh, no."
Danny continued, "I couldn't finish with it. I just couldn't pack anything else."
Zared just raised an eyebrow, waiting. This could be interesting.
"I'm sorry, Zared. I've been acting terribly. I'm sorry." He shook his head sadly. "Maybe someday you... and Jenni can forgive me."
Zared answered haltingly, "Uhhh...well, Danny, I surely didn't expect this. I suppose I can... forgive you." He looked pensive. "You said some really awful things to me. You weren't nice to Jenni, either."
"I'm.. I... don't know what to say, Zared. It's just she's always been here, you know. And I..."
"Your wife left you." Zared paused, "You are having a hard time dealing with your 'baby' leaving, too, aren't you?"
Danny looked up at Zared. It was in that moment that Danny understood his own feelings. He nodded, "You are a very perceptive young man. You are really something. I should never have been mad at you. I should be grateful my Jenni has you, but you two still shouldn't have let yourself get in this position. You are both intelligent and should have known better."
"I know Danny. I know. Things just got... We made a mistake."
Danny shook his head yes. "I'm sure your dad must have told you the importance of using protection if you chose to have sex at your age. Even though I'd always told her she should wait til she was married, Jenni knew the same." He just sighed.
Zared just nodded, changing the subject. "Jenni has already accepted the idea of staying at our house. I don't think she will want to come back here."
"That's my fault. I understand. Now let me help you with the stuff I did get packed. I hope she'll see me."
"Yeah, Danny. I think she will. I think she will. Come over this evening if you want."
Danny nodded and they loaded Jenni's stuff in Zared's car. And Danny couldn't help but think that his baby really was leaving home....
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Zared quietly unloaded Jenni's things putting them in the room she was in - the room that he thought would eventually be theirs. As he worked, he thought about his dad's generous offer of allowing them to live there. Although they didn't discuss specifics earlier, he thought that his dad's proposed plan of providing them private quarters would involve one of the guest rooms on the ground floor. Dad had told him he thought they could put in a mini kitchen and maybe have both a living/dining room and a bedroom. Since both guest rooms had their own bathrooms, he thought it would be fairly easy to put in a mini kitchen. Both guestrooms were also large and could probably be divided into two rooms. He had chosen this guestroom, though, because of the french doors that opened onto the side porch. That way they would also have their own entrance. He wasn't sure though, if dad would allow them to use that particular room because it was so popular with guests. Even if they had to use the other guestroom, they would have a nearly private entrance through the laundry room. Come to think of it that would be closer to the 'secret' room. Oh, well, he would talk about it with his dad, later.
Zared thought again that this room would probably eventually be theirs. Brook had suggested she stay in her room so she would be closer to Zared, but Zared felt sure Jenni would be more comfortable here. Besides Brook was the 'Brat'. Since his dad wouldn't let him sleep in the same room with Jenni, even if it wasn't in the bed, he would just have to sleep in the library to be close to her. His dad had told him that he didn't want the other kids to think that he approved of this situation. He didn't want them to get any ideas. Jenni slept the entire time he was unloading her stuff. When he was done, he sat down on one of the comfortable chairs in the room. After a few minutes, Jenni woke up and smiled at him.
"Hey, handsome," she smiled. Then with trepidation, she said, "How did it go with dad?"
"Jenni, you aren't going to believe this, but your dad was *nice* to me. He even apologized for his behavior. He wants to come see you and I told him to come by this evening if he wants. I hope that's okay with you."
"You've got to be kidding."
"No, I'm not kidding. I think the possibility and then surety that you were leaving made him sad because your mom also left."
She nodded, "I think you might be right. I don't think he's ever been here before has he? Did you give him directions?"
"No, he's never been here. I just gave him the address. He said he'd find it." Zared thought that Jenni's dad, Danny, was going to be very surprised when he got there. They had a *very* large home. He doubted Danny knew how wealthy his dad was. Dad didn't make a big deal out of it and had taught his kids not to either. They certainly didn't lead a wealthy lifestyle. If not for the house, no one probably would have suspected a thing. This was one luxury dad allowed. Dad had designed the house himself and he liked it a lot. All of them liked it. Besides being an author, dad had invested very well. Danny had made comments that a newspaper journalist couldn't possibly make much money. Maybe he didn't know his dad was a famous author, too. Sometimes Danny seemed to work so much and be so preoccupied with his own little world that he didn't seem know what was going on around him. Although until the last few days he had treated Zared well, Zared always had the feeling that Danny didn't think he was good enough for his daughter. He also seemed to look down on his dad. But then Danny was pessimistic about a lot of things. Yes, Danny was definitely going to be surprised. It wasn't that he thought Danny should suddenly start acting differently because of the money, but he did think he was going to be surprised about the house. "Your dad is going to be really surprised isn't he?"
"Yeah, he his. He has no clue. I wanted him to get to know you - not your money."
"You think your dad would be influenced by that?"
"I don't know. He certainly seems to work an awful lot. So he must like money." She just shrugged.
Martha walked in the open door, and said, "Hi, Zared. Hi, Jenni. You look much better. Your dad is here."
Jenni was surprised. "Oh, so soon?"
"I guess he was anxious to see you," said Zared. "I thought he'd be here later. Oh, well."
Zared got up and hugged his gramma. "I didn't think you'd still be here." Then he grumbled softly, "Jenni heard you. I had to tell her."
She smiled, "Yes, I've been helping the nanny some. She was pretty harried. I think Brook was... well being Brook. She's behaving now."
Jenni thought about Brat. Shoot. And now my dad's here. I'll have to wait til later.
Zared smiled, "That's 'Brat'." Hey, gramma, you know anything about a 'Caitlyn'?
"Caitlyn? Caitlyn. Hmmm... Caitlyn Kira?"
Zared nodded. "Yeah."
"Isn't she the one whose sister bought 'Superman' for her at the charity bachelor / bachelorette auction?"
Zared's eyes got wide and he said, "I think you're right. I guess that's why dad called her Caitlyn." He shrugged then looked at Jenni, "I'll go get your dad, honey."
"I'll get you all something to drink and something to snack on. Okay?"
Zared nodded, saying, "Gramma, your the best. Thanks." He turned and left the room.
Martha looked at Jenni and said, "So Zared told you about the little barn incident, did he? Let's just keep that to ourselves, okay. He doesn't want Clark to know about it." Then she smiled and said, "Why was Zared asking about Caitlyn Kira?"
"Well, Mrs. Kent..."
"Oh, honey, you call me Martha or even gramma if you want."
She nodded, "Martha. I think Clark and Caitlyn are 'an item'. I'm not sure Zared really caught on to that, though. She's one of Clark's physicians and I think he just thought it really odd that Clark called her by her first name."
Martha and Jenni then shared a smile.
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Danny was just standing there staring and looking all around when Zared got to the front hall. It wasn't really a hall exactly, but that's what they called it. The room was huge. He looked at Zared, "I wasn't sure I was in the right place."
Zared smiled, "That was my Gramma Kent that answered the door."
"I don't think the lady that opened the door was old enough to be your grandmother."
"Oh, it must have been the nanny, then. Come on, I'll take you back to see Jenni."
Nanny? They have a nanny? As they walked, Danny kept looking around. "Wow, this place is something. I had - no - idea. I hadn't even realized you'd moved until I started over here. I was on my way to the other place when I thought to look at the address."
"We've been here about three and a half years. Dad designed it. Let's visit with Jenni and then I'll give you a tour."
Danny just nodded as they entered the guest bedroom where snacks and drinks were waiting for them.
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They had a pleasant visit. It was only a little strained. Zared had feared it would be worse.
After they visited, Zared gave Danny the grand tour. He had already shown Danny the library before they visited with Jenni. Jenni was in a bedroom towards the back of the house so after exiting through the french doors, Zared began the tour outside in the flower and vegetable garden that was Clark's 'baby'. He saw that he needed to come out and pull some weeds. After they stopped by the indoor / outdoor pool they entered the large family room. They proceeded to the game room, then the den which could also be used as a guest room if needed, and then dad's home office where his novels were prominently displayed.
Danny picked one of the books up, saying, "Your dad wrote
Winds? That's a great book. I guess I didn't pay attention to the author's name. Danny just shook his head in wonder. I've read the sequel, too. "What was it called?"
"
The Storm. He's working on a sequel to that, too, I think." He couldn't help but wonder what Danny's reaction would be if he'd seen the cleverly concealed 'secret' room that was beside the home office. Danny saw the the other first floor guest room, the sewing / craft room, the laundry room, the large pantry and kitchen, the breakfast nook, the regular dining room, the large formal dining room and then the luxurious living room. They returned to the 'hall' then proceeded up the wide sweeping staircase. Zared showed Danny some of the bedrooms, but not all. He didn't want to disturb his siblings' privacy if they were home. When he showed him his room, Zared remembered that he really needed to do something with the bloody clothes he'd had on when he took Jenni to the hospital. Fortunately they were in the closet.
Danny was particularly impressed with the master bedroom commenting on Clark's good taste. He also liked the large balcony off of the the sitting room, the master bedroom, and the small upstairs guest room. Danny thought, "Gadfries. How many bedrooms does this place have anyway? It's huge."
The upstairs sitting room is where they ended their tour. The nanny was entertaining his four year old sister. Lara hadn't seen her big brother in several days and ran to him. She adored Zared and it was obvious. "Zared! Zared!" She said 'Zared' with a half 'Z' half 'S' sound. She hadn't quite mastered 'Z' yet, at least not with his name. "You home! I missed you! How's Jenni? When's daddy comin' home?"
He picked her up and swung her around. "I missed you, too. And, it's 'you're' home not 'you' home. Jenni's down stairs. This is her dad, Danny." He set her back down on the floor.
"Oh, 'you're'. I forgot. Hello. I'm Lara and I just turned four." She held up four fingers. "I'm very pleased to meet you. This is nanny Anamarie." Anamarie nodded and smiled.
Then he looked at Danny. "Lara's birthday was last month and she's still very excited about it."
Danny said, "Wasn't that... mmm.. your mom?" he said softly.
Zared gave him a look that said, 'Stop.' She grabbed Zared by the hand, "Come on, let's go see Jenni!" She was excited.
Zared knew Jenni was asleep now. "Jenni's asleep now." Lara was dismayed. "But we'll talk to her before you go to bed, okay?"
"'Kay. *When's* *DADDY* comin' home? Why hasn't he called home everyday? He always calls everyday when he's out of town."
"I'm not sure, Lara."
She looked up at him. She thought that her big brother wasn't telling her the truth. She said, "You're.."
He interrupted her with a command. <Shhhh. Not a word. Not one word.> Then he smiled at her.
<Uh-huh.> She just looked up at him with wide eyes, but she didn't *say* one word. That was the first time she actually realized that she and her brother could speak in such a way. She couldn't name it as telepathy, and before she only *thought* she sometimes caught snatches of what people were thinking. She thought she had imagined it.
As Danny and Zared walked down the stairs, Zared explained that they very intentionally never mentioned Lara's birthday as the day before his mom had died. "It's a difficult time, but we have chosen - we *had* to choose, to celebrate Lara's birthday."
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The next day, Zared reluctantly had to go back to school. He left Jenni in Martha's care. Jenni kept thinking there was something she wanted to talk to Zared about, but she just couldn't quite remember what it was. Late that afternoon, Jenni was sitting in bed reading her boring geography book. She had a test in that class which her tutor would give her on Monday. Brook was outside of the guest room and was a welcome interruption. It also reminded her what she had wanted to talk to Zared about. She decided to just wait to see what Brook would do and say.
Brook had just arrived home from school. She was feeling brave so she decided she would speak to Jenni before Zared came home. She was standing outside of the guest room door thinking. Jenni hadn't commented on her 'tight pants' comment from the evening before. She thought that maybe Jenni didn't know what she had meant. Brook was crazy about Zared and he for she, but she also knew Zared thought of her as the 'Brat' and that she didn't have a clue. In truth, there wasn't much that went on in this household that Brook didn't know about. She was a lot smarter than Zared or most of her brothers or sisters gave her credit for. Only Jon and maybe daddy, she wasn't sure, knew not to underestimate her. Brook hadn't been told why Jenni was there, but she had quickly figured it out for herself. Brook knew Jenni wouldn't be here just because of being shot. Jenni's dad had always been too protective to allow that. She asked one of her sisters if in fact Jenni was pregnant and the look she had received confirmed her theory. Brook thought to herself that it was time everybody stopped treating her like 'just a little girl'. She liked Jenni so she thought that since Jenni was part of the family or soon would be that she would be a good place to start her 'not just a little girl' campaign. She wanted to see how Jenni would react to her knowing about Zared.
Jenni was still sitting up in bed trying to read her geography book when finally nine year old Brook flounced in and flopped down in a chair. "Hmmm... So you and my big brother are gonna have a baby. Hmmmp. I bet daddy wasn't too happy about you two having sex, was he, huh?" She grinned almost shyly - as shyly as was possible for Brook.
Jenni just looked at her, "You know about that? How did you know?"
"I'm no dummy. I know your dad wouldn't let you be here just because you were shot. It took me about five minutes to figure it out and when I asked Chloe', the look on her face told me it was true. What did daddy think about *how* you got pregnant? I imagine that since Zared... hmmm... got in trouble with the police," she giggled, "that he was pretty mad."
"How did you know about the police? I know you weren't told. And as for Clark's reaction, you can ask him... or Zared yourself."
"Hmmmp! There's not much that goes on around here that I don't know about." She leaned toward Jenni. "You know Zared has totally underestimated me don't you?"
"What do you mean, Brook?"
She giggled again and smiled like she knew the biggest secret in the world. Then she said, "Zared looks sexy in the black pants *and* the red shirt, huh? I like the cape, too." She grinned, but lost her nerve to say much more. "Love you! Holler if you need anything." With that she skipped out of the room....
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More soon....
