Part nine at last! Thanks Nancy for BRing this for me even though you've been going through some RL craziness. Hope you guys enjoy!
PART NINE
“A blindfold?” I looked at the multicolored tie in Jor’s hand dubiously. “You can’t be serious.”
“Please, Kaylie? I promise it’ll be worth it.” I reached over and pinched the fashion atrocity he held out to me between my fingers and examined it closer.
“Please tell me this isn’t one of yours.”
“It’s actually my dad’s. My sister’s on this vendetta to cure him of all his fashion foibles, so she’s taken to hiding his ties at my apartment in the hopes that he won’t think to look there.”
“Well what can you expect from a man who thinks that multicolored spandex would make for a good work uniform?” I caught sight of Jor’s wounded expression. “But I’m sure that *you* have impeccable taste in ties,” I reassure him. “It comes from having a sister.”
“Thank you for that vote of confidence. Now will you let me put the blindfold on?” I allowed him to cover my eyes with the tie and pull it tight. Then he led me out of the window and we flew off to the undisclosed location of our remedial date.
I had gotten pretty comfortable flying with Jor over the time we had been dating. Flying in his arms actually felt much more stable than standing at the edge of a balcony or on top of a ladder. It was as if gravity didn’t really matter anymore. We traveled all over the world for our dates. It was surprising how few people really knew what Supernova looked like, especially in out of the way locations. Even though he kept his hair the same, a pair of sunglasses and a sloppy shirt was enough of a disguise to throw everyone off. But tonight I hoped that we were staying closer to Metropolis. I didn’t like the feeling of the blindfold over my eyes; flying was disorienting enough on its own without having my vision impeded. Jor let me down just a few minutes after we took off, and I heard the click of a door or window closing after us. As he pulled the tie off of my head, I found myself standing in the middle of an apartment of modest size, yet still comfortable and homey.
All of the ‘rooms’ spilled into each other, with no clear boundaries. A finish-stripped table and chairs created the dining area that was just slightly removed from the designated kitchen. A sloppy cream colored leather sofa just asking to be cuddled up on marked off the living room. Rich hardwood flooring was punctuated by dark, lush throw rugs. Cheery patterned curtains hung from the windows and there was a whole greenhouse worth of plants decorating the space in brown ceramic pots. A couple doors led off the main room where I assumed the bedroom and bathroom were located. Jor came up from behind and wrapped his arms around me.
“Is this your place?” I asked, my face splitting into an awed grin. I felt his head nod in response.
“What do you think?”
“I think it was worth wearing that terrible tie for.” I turned my head sideways to receive a kiss.
“Mmm. High praise indeed.”
“So tell me honestly: How much did your sister help in decorating this place?”
“She made most of the decisions and I was relegated to do the grunt work,” Jor confessed.
“I knew I was dating a smart guy.” He led me over to the table which he had set for dinner with candles and everything. He brought out two plates from the oven and set one in front of me, sitting down across from me. “Did you cook this for me?” I exclaimed as I inhaled the delicious aroma. Fish and… something else equally good.
“Yes. And that’s a rare thing so you should enjoy that while you still can.” We ate together, talking about nothing in particular. I couldn’t stop looking over his apartment. This was where his lived. A true expression of who he was. Although the apartment was warm and welcoming, the walls were suspiciously bare, and I could see a couple hooks where photographs normally hung. Of course he wasn’t going to leave family pictures hanging off the walls while I was here. Even though I knew what he really looked like, the rest of the family were still mysteries to me. It disappointed me though, how even if he had brought me to his home, he still didn’t feel like he could trust me completely yet. But it wasn’t like I was completely trusting of him, I chastised myself. I had no right to ask him to share everything with him unless I was willing to do the same.
He insisted on clearing off the plates for the both of us after we had finished and I stretched lazily, full from the delicious meal. He then brought out dessert, some kind of chocolate concoction.
“Thank you for sharing this with me,” I told him as I fiddled with my fork, meaning more than just the supper.
“Kaylie,” he shoved his hand through his hair, suddenly nervous. “I asked you here tonight for a specific reason. This situation has been hard on you. A lot harder than you let on at times. I know it’s been difficult keeping this a secret, and that what I’m asking of you is completely unfair-”
“Jor, we’ve already discussed this. Many times.”
“I know we have. And even though you say you’re fine with the way things are right now I know you still have problems. But I just… I need to tell you…” he trailed off.
“Tell me what?” I asked patiently.
“About a year ago,” he began shakily, “I was dating this other girl. And we were having… difficulties. Maybe if I had looked at things a bit closer, taken a step back to examine, I would’ve realized that there were other problems but as it was… I-I thought the reason we were fighting was only because I hadn’t told her the truth yet.”
“So you did?” I asked curiously.
“Yeah.” He pushed his hand through his hair again and I could see the pain this still caused him. “It was a disaster. I took her completely for granted and all but abandoned her as she tried desperately to cope with keeping this massive secret that I had pushed onto her.” He sighed heavily. “In the end we just didn’t love each other enough to work past the problems we faced.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I whispered.
“The thing was,” he continued painfully, “I was so determined that she would be the one and it hurt so incredibly much to admit that I was wrong. I gave so much for that relationship and then to have it all evaporate… I don’t know if I can go through that again. I need… time to be sure. I have to know absolutely this time around. Even though right now…” He sighed again and winced apologetically. “I’m making such a mess of this. But… do you understand what I’m saying?” I nodded in response.
“I understand,” I told him as I reached out to clasp his hand in mine. He wasn’t ready yet. And it might take him a lot longer to be ready than it would take me. We laced our fingers together, and then he finally looked up to meet my gaze. Tell him! A voice prompted from the back of my head. I wasn’t fair that he was sitting here pouring his heart out to me while I had my own gigantic secret that he didn’t know anything about. The least I could do was give him some sort of hint of what I was hiding. The words clogged in the back of my throat. My heart started pounding as I tensed in anticipation of what I was going to say.
“Jor…” I struggled to find to courage to continue. I smiled shakily in his direction, and he returned it to me, probably relating my inner turmoil to feelings regarding his confession.
“I have something for you,” he said, and then disappeared into the kitchen. The moment was broken. I didn’t know whether to be glad or disappointed. He returned to the table, bearing a small box which he handed to me.
I don’t really know what I was expecting to be inside that box, but it certainly wasn’t the cheap men’s watch I found when I opened it. It was at least thirty or forty years old, and the face had a matrix of scratches across it. There was a small dent along the outside metal rim, and the hands were stuck at 3:14.
“Gee, thanks?” I had to assume there was some kind of deeper meaning to this gift, but I was at a loss for what that might be.
“You know how you were saying yesterday that it bothered you that you couldn’t contact me?”
“Jor, I didn’t really mean that. I was just upset and-”
“This watch will enable you to get a hold of me whenever you want.”
“Really?” I asked curiously. “How?”
“It emits a supersonic signal whenever you pull the pin. I’ll be able to hear it and know that you want to talk to me.” I wrinkled my forehead.
“So what, I’m supposed to treat you like some kind of dog?”
“Pretty much,” he replied smartly. “But I have better conversation skills.” I turned the watch over in my hands and, surrendering to curiosity, pulled the pin. Nothing happened.
“It’s not working,” I complained. Wincing, Jor reached over and pushed the pin back in.
“You won’t be able to hear it, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” I blushed at my forgetfulness. “But you can hear it? Even across the city?”
“Trust me, it comes in loud and clear.” He took the watch from me and slid it onto my wrist. He must’ve had the strap adjusted or something because despite the large face, the watch fit snugly around my wrist. “Sorry it’s a little banged up and old, but it was a prototype developed years ago that didn’t really end up going anywhere so there wasn’t a lot of selection when it came to style.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I think this is the nicest gift anyone has ever given me.” And it was, because he *listened* to me. Despite my constant denial that I needed a way to contact him it *did* bother me that I had to wait around until he decided to show up. He had listened to that problem and given me a solution without me even asking for one.
“Kaylie, it’s just something that I thought would help-” He was interrupted by a whoosh and a click coming from the same window that we had entered earlier.
“Hey, it’s me,” the intruder announced. “I just stopped by wondering if I could-” Her last words were bitten off as she spotted us sitting together.
She was very petite, with a small bone structure. Her blonde hair was scraped back into a French braid and she was clad in deep navy spandex with a gold cape. Unlike her father and brother, she chose not to wear colorful briefs over her suit, giving her a much more streamlined look. It was Jor’s sister of course, still in her Nebula disguise yet her brown eyes twinkled in a way that betrayed her true spirit.
“I didn’t know you were bringing her here tonight!” she exclaimed, smacking Jor across the shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was kind of a last minute decision,” Jor muttered.
“Ran out of near-deserted tropical retreats huh?” she teased. “I told you that you should ask me. I know some pretty good places along the Indian Ocean.” Then she turned to me. “Kaylie, it’s nice to finally meet you.” She stuck out her hand and shook mine firmly. “I’m Ellie.” There was a clatter of cutlery hitting the floor as Jor dropped his dessert fork in shock. “Whoops,” she giggled. “I forgot the whole secret identity thing. Don’t worry though, brother dearest. It’s just a nickname not my legal name or anything.” Warm, bubbly, and sincere, I took to her immediately.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Ellie. I’ve heard a bit about you and I’ve been dying to meet the girl who can beat my boyfriend at arm wrestling.”
“Wow, he told you that?” She raised her eyebrows. “It must be an honest relationship if he’s willing to divulge personal humiliations like losing to his little sister. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to beat him since I was fourteen and he was sixteen. He did eventually get a handle of the super strength.” She sighed nostalgically. “But I’ve heard a lot about you too, Kaylie. In fact you’re pretty much all he talks about.”
“Really?” I blushed at the unexpected information.
“And I’ve been dying to meet the woman who can thoroughly chew out Supernova when he gets all condescending and noble.” Jor cleared his throat noisily, no doubt tiring of the embarrassment.
“Is there a reason you stopped by, Ellie? Or was it just to humiliate me?”
“Well, I needed a blood sample, but you’re busy now so maybe if you stop by the lab tomorrow-”
“How can you get a blood sample?” I asked curiously. Ellie opened the plastic box she had been carrying with her and held up the needle for me to see.
“It’s a Kryptonite alloy,” she explained. “A very weak amount of the radiation has no adverse effects on us yet enables me to puncture his skin.”
“Ellie works with our family doctor,” Jor further explained. “Right now she’s researching… What is it?”
“Colds,” she told us. “I want to know if the reason why we don’t get sick is because we’re invulnerable or because we’re not fully human and therefore Earth germs don’t affect us.”
“Well it won’t take you long to draw Jor’s blood,” I said. “Why don’t you do it right now? I don’t mind.” Ellie and I both turned to face Jor.
“All right, fine,” he conceded. As Ellie readied her sample kit, Jor rolled up his sleeve to expose his inner elbow.
“So what kinds of things does Jor say about me?” I asked Ellie as she pulled on a pair of latex gloves.
“Oh, the usual,” she told me breezily. “That you’re smart and beautiful and charming and kind and funny and understanding and everything a man could ever want.” She slid the needle under Jor’s skin expertly and inserted the test vial. “I would’ve pegged you as extremely boring except he also said that you’ve got a sharp tongue and you’re not afraid to stab him with it.”
“Ellie…” Jor groaned.
“Oh relax. You need someone who can dish it out as good as they’re given.” The full test vial was removed and a second was popped in. “As soon as you told me how she yelled at you that one night for pushing her into a mud puddle I knew you guys would be great together.”
“You know I broke a brand new pair of shoes because of that incident,” I remarked
“And he hasn’t flown you to Italy yet to by you a pair of replacements? I thought I taught him better than that.” A third vial was inserted.
“I thought you were supposed to be backing *me* up, Ellie,” Jor complained. “Whatever happened to families sticking together?”
“The female bond is stronger than that, my dear brother. Also, any girl willing to date you deserves all the support she can get.” Ellie winked in my direction. She pulled the needle from his arm and pushed a cotton ball down on the puncture to stop the bleeding. Jor inhaled sharply in response to her touch.
“Sadist,” he muttered.
“Wimp,” she shot back.
“Weirdo.”
“Doofus.”
“Science geek.”
“Techno dork.”
“Freezer Breath.”
“This has healed over.” Ellie commented, breaking the chain of insults. She removed the cotton ball from Jor’s arm and gathered her equipment together. She peeled her gloves off, bunched them into a ball, and tossed them into the kitchen garbage, making the long shot effortlessly. “I’ll let you two get back to your date. It was nice meeting you, Kaylie.” She flashed a smile at me. “See you around X-ray,” she shot at Jor, and then blew out of the room before he could come back with a retort.
“X-ray?” I asked Jor. There *had* to be a good story behind that name.
“Sorry about that,” Jor apologized, purposefully ignoring my question.
“I like her,” I grinned. “You guys kind of reminded me of me and my brother.”
“You have a brother?” Jor asked, surprised. “You never mentioned him before.”
“I don’t get to see him much anymore,” I explained to him sadly.
“Older or younger?” he queried.
“Does it matter?” I asked coyly.
“It makes all the difference,” Jor insisted.
“We’re twins, actually,” I told him. “And before you say it, no we don’t have any kind of psychic connection or anything else hokey like that.”
“Furthest thing from my mind,” he reassured me. We stood, collecting our plates from the table. After they had been dumped into the dishwasher, Jor led me over to the sofa and we sat down together. “You know, you don’t talk about your family much.”
“I don’t see them very much,” I explained. “There’s only me, my brother Jason, and my dad. They’re usually pretty busy with work so we don’t get together very often.” I shifted in my seat to lean back against him. “My mom died of lung cancer when I was six,” I told him, explaining the obvious omission.
“Kaylie, I’m so sorry,” he sympathized.
“It was years ago,” I told him, brushing it off. But then I paused to think it over. “Sometimes I wonder what I’ve missed out on, not having a mom. When it happened, I was almost too young to really comprehend it. My dad basically wrapped himself up in his work and I guess my brother and I turned towards each other.” I had never said any of this to anyone before. Maybe it was because I felt so safe with Jor that I was able to think all these scary thoughts. “I wanted so badly for my dad to love me,” I continued. “I tried so hard to impress him, to prove myself to him. But there was no way I could ever compete with Jay. Even though we’re the same age he was always bigger and stronger and faster. He was the boy and I was the girl and there was no way I could ever compete with that. I worked so hard to hide my faults, my insecurities. It’s stupid, I know. I was always afraid that if I showed my dad any kind of weakness then he’d see me as some sort of failure.” I twisted my neck around to get a better view of Jor. “But it was never like that with you. You’ve always treated my fears and concerns like they really mattered and like they weren’t silly girly insecurities.”
“Of course they matter, Kaylie. You matter.” Those simple words choked me and brought hot tears to my eyes.
“I know. To you I do matter,” I sniffled. “And that’s just one of the reasons why I love you, Jor.” I heard the sharp intake of breath beside my right ear.
“Oh, Kaylie… and I love you. All your strengths and weaknesses. All those insecurities you worry so much about but that just make you who you are. I love everything about you.”
* * *
That night I felt a definitive change in the way I related to Jor. And it wasn’t because of our profession of love. I knew I had felt that way about him for some time now and although finally saying it brought us to a new point in our relationship, it wasn’t what had brought about the change. It was Ellie.
Seeing Jor interact with her had shown me the undeniable realty that he had a life apart from the one we shared together. I had always known that, of course, but this was the first time I had been confronted with it. And I wanted desperately to share it with him.
I was ready for him to tell me the truth.
But I remembered the speech he gave me earlier in the night. He had a history. He had told someone. Someone he thought he loved. And now he wasn’t sure of me because of that. It angered me, this previous relationship. Why should our relationship be ruined by the failures of the past? Of course that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t Jor’s fault and it probably wasn’t even hers. But now he couldn’t trust me enough to tell me.
What I had to do was show him that we were different. Prove to him that I was worthy of his trust. And how does one show that they are trustworthy? By giving trust first.
Wait.
Was I actually considering telling him? Everything? We hadn’t even known each other for three months. Hardly any time at all!
But it wasn’t the time period that mattered here. It was the closeness. We loved each other. And you don’t lie to the person you love. Even though it was a huge risk. Even though I was jeopardizing everything by telling him. I would have to do it. You can’t have a loving relationship without honesty.
