Happy Birthday, Annie!
Yeah, I know this is late! OK, very late! Sooo--a very merry Unbirthday to you!
your fan,
claire
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Lois, Clarks, and Annie For AnnieM Despite the small bar, the Mexican restaurant was so completely and unmistakably a family place that the young reporter from Metropolis University could not imagine why her source had insisted on it as a meeting place. Flicking her long hair behind her shoulders, Annie sank into the darkest corner she could find. Every little edge would help with this one. It was so hard to stay focused on the issue. Having arrived first, she took a chair that kept her own face in shadow, but left the bench on the other side well lit.
Trouble was, she had not counted on the hat. Well, really, the hat would not have been so concealing if she hadn't been distracted by a story on the television. President Doe was making an address, but she could ignore that guy now matter how darned…
But suddenly, there was Superman deposing John Doe! Now, that was worth seeing. She swiveled to watch the TV over the bar. It couldn't have happened to a darn nicer guy, but the arrest did kind of ruin her planned exposé on Doe's sabotaging of the University. She was completely distracted until there was a little grunt across from her. She turned to meet her source.
The sombrero, titled forward, hid everything.
Her informant had slipped into the place across from her while she was distracted. There was enough visible to show her only that her informant was very elderly, so she waited politely for him to make a move: to say he still had something or that the meeting was now useless.
Nothing happened.
"Were you going to tell me something?" she prodded.
The sombrero moved. It could have been assent.
"You know Doe's secret?"
There was a funny choking sound, and the sombrero pitched forward. The young reporter instinctively leaped backwards. A wide, solid chest stopped her motion. Turning, she looked up into the calm brown eyes of Superman.
"Are you alright, Miss?" He asked politely.
Resting on Superman's chest, of course I'm fine! Shaking herself, she thrust out her hand and found habits to carry her through, "Annie, Chez News, Met U. There's something wrong…" She turned to the sombrero on the table.
"Amigo," Superman was suddenly leaning over the man, suggesting in Spanish that the man should go to the hospital. When the man in blue gently lifted the hat, the young reporter saw the face of the community leader she had been trying for so long to interview. The man coughed and looked up at the super-hero.
"You got him?"
Superman nodded.
"At last it paid off, my never being able to have a battery watch!" His eyes looked glazed, but suddenly he focused on Superman's face.
"You look a lot like Clark Kent," he sighed, his accent resonating the words, "without the glasses."
The old man shuddered, then unmistakably died.
The young reporter choked. For some stupid reason, she could not shake a vision of her co-editor, back at the student paper. "That's it? No busts? Just an old man cashing in his chips?" He would grouse. "What kind of story is this?"
"Are you all right, Annie?" Lois Lane was right there. She'd done some mentoring for Annie.
As a professional, Annie resisted the urge to…cry on the elegant gray shoulder, scream inanities, do any of those things.
"Fine," she nodded, surprised at how cool her voice sounded, even if it was about sixty feet away from her.
"I'll just take him to the hospital, in case there is anything they can do," Superman was saying to Clark Kent.
Clark shook his head. "He didn't want any special interventions. As long as "John Doe" is gone, he'll be happy to go join his wife."
People were coming from everywhere. Most seemed to be family; everyone knew what to do. Annie noticed that there was noise, but it was all very far away. Superman and Clark helped Annie and Lois step away from the booth with the body.
In her detached state, Annie found herself thinking that these two men did look a lot a like. Funny she'd never noticed that before. Odd, to see them together as well. She'd never seen that before either.
"Well!" The voice of the Star's star reporter snarked across Annie's detachment. "Look who's first on the scene. If it isn't Lane and Kent and that cute little reporter from Metropolis U."
Annie cringed, feeling five years old and ready to scuff her Mary Jane's right into the woman's too perfect orthodenture. The refreshing burst of anger had brought Annie back to herself. Annie turned, allowing her bag to swing, smacking the Star rep. It was strictly an accident. According to her Philosophy prof, she didn't even have to apologize. So she did not.
Lois winked at her. Superman took her arm and cut off the rival reporter's attempt at retaliation.
"Why are you here?" Annie asked Lois. Actually, they were now leaving the little restaurant, so she nodded back toward it. The Star woman was making a pest of herself with the family.
"Your family patriarch is dead. How do you feel?" Lois nodded kindly at some relative walking past her, and answered Annie. "Your source was invaluable to us as well," her mentor nodded. "He had one of those bodies that neutralize electrical currents, so he wasn't taken in by John Doe."
"How did
you," Superman asked Annie, " know that something was wrong with Doe?"
"They do ask us to think at Met U. I know a lot of students get by without making the effort, but, well, Doe just wasn't, I don't know, right, somehow. I mean, just how darned nice can a guy be?"
"Good for you," Superman smiled at her.
Superman smiled at me! "'Superman'!" Clark Kent called as he made his way up to Lois. Funny, how he put the name in quotations. "Mr. Wells says he'll be delayed a little. He suggested we might want to be seen, you know, together."
"Good idea, Clark," Lois smiled and took his arm. They exchanged one of those private little looks that married people seemed to have.
Annie happened to see past them to Superman and momentarily surprised a quickly surpressed expression. There was frustration and a little jealousy, but most of all Annie saw a great deal of painful longing.
He was in love with her too, but she chose Clark.
Annie's heart bled for him.
Superman turned to her suddenly. "Annie, you need another story. Why don't you come with us? Com'on; make it a foursome to clean up John Doe's mess." He swept her up off her feet. "I'll carry you; Clark can carry Lois, and I'll keep him aloft linking elbows, like this."
The foursome rose laughing into the sky. The patronizing Star woman was left in the dust, literally.
It was a day to remember; the foursome toured the world! It was really sad to come to The End.
Superman was obviously in love with Lois, but he and Annie had a good time. As he dropped her off at the University, he thanked her and added, "We'll never do this again, Annie, but thank you for coming. Maybe someday, you'll work with Lois and Clark at the Planet."
"But it will never be like this," Annie couldn't shake the feeling that he was leaving--
really leaving. "I'll always remember."
He whispered something very quietly as he lifted away, but Annie's heart heard it quite clearly.
"So will I, Annie, so will I."
