Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Fidelity 1/?

This is a direct sequel to my earlier story Honesty, which is still in the process of being edited and uploaded to the archive, but the TOC is available here . If you haven't read that story yet, then you may want to before you start this one, otherwise you'll probably be a little lost.

Once again hats off to Nancy for BRing this and giving me such great ideas. Flashbacks are outlined in *** Hope you guys enjoy!

PART ONE

She pushed against the back of her chair and smoothed her hands over the glossy wood of her desk. It had taken her a long time to get to where she was now. She looked different than the way she used to, and not only because of the judicious application of cosmetic surgery. She disliked the use of the word “older”, but there was an air of wisdom about her, a deeper understanding of life, perhaps, which gave her an advantage she didn’t have in the past.

She had been patient all those years. It hadn’t been easy, but she had done it through careful planning and strategy and slow moving caution. Bit by bit, she had slowly moved towards her goal.

And now it was being threatened. She had been caught red-handed and although she was relatively free for the time being, it wouldn’t be long before the jaws of justice would clamp down on her once again. Luckily, she had taken precautions against such a thing ever happening. She just needed to keep a cool head, and not get overly excited. She had a plan. There was a knock on the door to her private office.

“Come in,” she invited. The door opened to reveal an attractive young woman clad in a pencil skirt and low cut blouse. Her hair was glossy and light while her makeup was artfully applied. Just like her mentor, this woman had no qualms about using her feminine charms to get what she wanted. “Why are you here, Gertrude?” the older woman asked.

“We found him,” Gertrude told her with pleasure.

“Are you sure he’s the one?” she asked pointedly, not yet daring to believe that they had found him. Gertrude nodded, her mouth twisting wickedly.

“Got too close to the truth without the proper precautions. We have him down in the basement.”

“Excellent,” her employer murmured.

“Should I deal with him in the usual way?”

The woman started to nod her approval, but then she reconsidered.

“Wait, Gertrude. I think there might be a better way to make an example of him. Or perhaps you might’ve… forgotten?” Gertrude caught onto the hint immediately.

“Very well. I’ll go do it right now.” She exited the office and the woman spun herself absently in her chair. Everything was coming into place. Their newest prisoner would be the perfect test subject for what was to come, what was to enable her freedom. She had worked so hard to get where she was now, and she would do whatever was necessary to ensure that she would stay here.

* * *

It had been just over two weeks since I had found out Jon’s true identity. And I guess you could say it had been just over two weeks since Jon had found out my true identity. We had spent the time well, living in a honeymoon-type bliss as we discovered all the little things we hadn’t known about each other before. I discovered that Jon had competed in chess on a national level in high school, and Jon somehow convinced me to give him a lecture in the art of disguise. In addition to all the newly acquired knowledge, we were finally able to publicize our relationship. We actually went out on dates in Metropolis, or other places that had people. Like today, for instance.

Jon was taking me to Paris, which meant that we would have to get an early start to account for the time difference. He suggested that we meet at the Daily Planet beforehand, where he could give me a tour of the newsroom before he left early for the day, and of course I jumped at the chance to do this.

I had chosen to take a cab to the Daily Planet. For one thing, parking was always horrendous in this area of town, not to mention the traffic. In addition, Jon was going to be taking me home the super way, so I would’ve just ended up leaving my car parked somewhere over night, not something I was overly keen on doing.

My musings were distracted by a sudden screech and crash that came from up ahead. I quickly paid the cabby what I owed him, and then rushed to the scene of the car accident to see if there was anything I could do to help out.

I wasn’t the only one there by the time I arrived. I watched with the rest of the population on the street as Supernova assessed the situation and began helping victims out of their vehicles. Luckily, no one seemed seriously hurt, and an ambulance arrived quickly enough along with the police to take care of the accident. Supernova spoke briefly with the officer in charge, and then flew away, too fast for the human eye to follow.

It didn’t take long for the people on the street to return to their everyday business. Superman had been patrolling Metropolis for over thirty years. He and his children were a common sight in the skies. But I was still dumbstruck. Even though I had first met him as Supernova, actually seeing Jon performing rescues on the street was another thing entirely.

“Hey, Kaylie,” a voice suddenly greeted from behind me. I jumped a little and then turned to face my boyfriend. He had changed out of the suit and was now wearing a tie and glasses instead.

“Hey,” I replied. “That was amazing just now. Was everyone okay?”

“I think a couple people might be a bit shaken up,” Jon replied. “But they should be fine. Were you just heading to the Planet?” I nodded. “How about I walk with you then?” We set off down the sidewalk together.

It was still a novelty to be able to do this. In the months we had been together prior to Jon telling me who he was, we had had to stick to my apartment, or occasionally to some remote, far off place that didn’t see Supernova as much as Metropolis did. But now we could walk out in the open for everyone to see that we were a couple. I’d also told practically everyone I knew that I now had a boyfriend. Because I had never seriously dated, it was a great feeling to finally be able to show people that I wasn’t as socially inept as they thought. I had even managed to send a note to Jay. Even though my brother had known that I was seeing someone for a long time, I was finally able to tell him Jon’s name, and let him know that we were completely committed to each other.

It was a short walk to the Daily Planet. Jon guided me through the foyer, up the elevator, and into the bullpen.

The newsroom was absolutely full of action and energy. People were running in every direction yelling things at each other and talking loudly on phones. Jon gave me a tour around the newsroom, introducing me to colleagues and giving me an idea of the operations behind the newsroom. It was interesting to see his interactions with other people. Although he was still Jon, it was a quieter, slightly more deferential version. He then led me down a little corridor just off the newsroom until we came to a stop outside a frosted glass door that bore his name.

“Your office?” I asked. He nodded in affirmation, and then held the door open to let me in.

Piles of paper covered nearly every surface, and the guts of at least two computers were scattered across the remaining space of his desk. His personal desk chair was clear, but the chair opposite held a set of binders that were threatening to explode due to the overflow of contents. There was a bookshelf leaning against the wall that sagged under the weight of the fat technical books placed upon it. But the crowded feeling of the small office was combated by the huge window behind the desk. Although it looked into the alleyway, I suspected that Jon liked it that way as it provided an easy exit when he needed it.

“What do you think?” He asked me, closing the door after us.

“You never would guess by your apartment that you’re such a packrat,” I teased him. “Is all this stuff really necessary to hold onto?”

“Of course it is,” he defended. “You never know when something might come in handy.” I began browsing through his bookshelf.

“A guide to Windows XP?” I held up the book in question. “Where did you pick this up? A museum?”

“Garage sale,” he admitted sheepishly. “But it does have some good background information and what happens if one of the reporters stumbles across an antiquated machine and they need me to search through it for information?” I rolled my eyes, but didn’t comment. I wandered over to his desk and found a picture frame buried among the circuit boards and wires.

“This is of us,” I commented in surprise. The picture had only been taken about a week ago when we were at Lois and Clark’s for a family dinner.

“Our first picture together,” Jon commented as he stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around me.

“I didn’t think you’d get it framed,” I told him, pleased that he had done so. “We look happy together,” I commented.

“We are happy together,” Jon said with a little amusement. “Aren’t we?”

I’m still not entirely sure what happened at that moment, but the next thing I knew, I was sitting on top of Jon’s desk with him pressing against me, and the bits of computer had been swept onto the floor. His fingers dragged through my hair, and I heard several bobby pins suffer the same fate as the computer parts did.

“We shouldn’t…” I protested breathlessly as I came up for air, “Not at your work…”

“Shh…” he told me, and brought us back together again. I could feel his hands playing with the hem of my shirt as I yanked on his tie to loosen it. I kicked off my shoe and slid my foot up the side of his leg. He grabbed hold of it and used it to wrap my entire leg against his. In some far off remote corner of my mind, I was aware of the sound of the latch clicking as the door opened.

After a strong yank and a moment of blurred vision, I found myself sitting on top of the binders that were placed on the one chair. My shirt had been pulled back into place, but my hair was still mussed, and I noticed that my shoe was missing. Not to mention the flush that still covered my cheeks and the way my lips hung open, not yet realizing that there was nothing for them to kiss. Jon must’ve put me here at super-speed, because I looked to see him sitting at his desk chair, trying to appear collected, yet some papers were still fluttering in a telltale fashion.

I turned to face the intruder. She had a small, compact build, and her straight brown hair shimmered in the light coming from the window. She looked uncomfortable being in the room, and when we made eye contact her discomfort doubled.

“I-I’m sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t know you had someone visiting. I knocked, but you must not have heard.” I didn’t, that’s for sure. And given the fact that Jon and I both looked guilty as hell, I figured this woman had already guessed why we hadn’t heard her knock. Jon was the first to recover. He cleared his throat nervously.

“Yeah, sorry about that. Amanda, this is Kaylie. M-my girlfriend. Kaylie, this is Amanda. We… work together.” Immediately, I understood the intense undercurrents that I sensed in the room. This was the girl that Jon had dated before. Whom he had told the truth to, but then ended up breaking up with anyway. How awkward must it be for him to have his ex-girlfriend in the same room as me? And not to mention the tension that she must be feeling to come face to face with the person who was now with her old boyfriend.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kaylie,” she spoke to the floor. “Sorry I intruded. I’ll just get going.”

“Wait! Amanda!” Jon called to her before she left. “What did you need?”

“Oh, my computer keeps freezing up. But don’t worry about it,” she dismissed hastily, “You can come look at it another time, it’s not a big deal.” I could tell that she desperately wanted to get out of the office as soon as possible.

“I’ll look at it today, I promise,” Jon said. “That new software the suits upstairs wanted us to install isn’t working properly, and it’s been a common problem. Just give me a few minutes.”

“Okay, thanks,” she mumbled before ducking out the door. Jon heaved a big sigh, and slumped in his chair.

“Is it always that awkward between you two?” I asked sympathetically.

“Not always,” he mumbled into his hands. “But letting her see me with you like this wasn’t exactly the most tactful thing I could’ve done. As you know, we had a really rough breakup, and there’s still a lot of awkwardness between us. We manage to keep a professional relationship, but it’s still difficult when our past collides unexpectedly. It’s just…” he trailed off as his head shot up in a very familiar action. The he groaned heavily. “I have to go help out on this,” he explained to me apologetically.

“Go ahead,” I told him. “I’ll just kick around in here for a while and try to tidy up some of the mess we made earlier. By the way, do you have my shoe?” That brought a little grin to his face. He looked around behind his desk, and then tossed it to me.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, and then shot out of the room via the window.

I puttered around his small office for a bit, picking up various flotsam that he fallen off his desk from before and trying to restore some sense of order to my hair. Amanda’s sudden entrance should be a lesson to us, I thought to myself. We were so used to seeing each other in secluded places that we weren’t used to having to be cautious about what we did and where. We needed to establish some boundaries. I vowed to discuss it later with Jon. A sharp rap interrupted my train of thought and I turned around to see a middle aged man with a trim build enter the room purposefully. He glanced around the room, looking for Jon, and then his eyes landed on me.

“Where’s Jon?” he demanded.

“He’s…” I stammered nervously. We had never gone through this before. What was his cover story supposed to be when he was off being Supernova? I had only ever seen him around people who knew the secret, so he didn’t have to lie to them. “He’s in the bathroom,” I decided. Wait, what if it took longer than that? “I mean he’s sick,” I rushed to correct. “In the bathroom. I don’t know when he’ll be out,” I finally finished awkwardly. To my surprise, the man’s face cleared at my stumbling attempt, and he stuck out his hand.

“I should introduce myself,” he said. “I’m Jim, and you must be Kaylie.”

“Oh, good. You know.” I breathed in relief.

“Don’t worry, it gets easier with time,” he reassured me. “Usually when he’s at work we say that he’s gone down to storage to do inventory. Nobody would follow him there, and he can reasonably spend hours at a time in that place.” I nodded in response.

“I guess it must be a good perk to have your boss in on the secret.”

“Definitely. When I was just a research kid, Clark was always having to come up with these nutty excuses for where he was when he was actually being Superman.”

“Wait a minute, you used to work in research here?” I asked critically.

“Years ago when I was just getting a start at my career,” he nodded in confirmation.

“Your name is Jim, as in *Jimmy Olsen*?” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t made this connection instantly when I heard his name.

“Yes,” Jim confirmed. “I used to go by Jimmy, but once I started climbing the ladder, I realized that Jimmy doesn’t exactly help to inspire respect. Why are you so curious?”

“Nothing,” I told him hastily. “It’s just that… I-I know your father.” Jack was like an uncle to me, and he had always spoken with fondness about the time his son had helped break open the Trevanian case. But he had never mentioned that “Jimbo” was now editor of the Daily Planet.

“You know my dad?” he asked interestedly. “How-” But he was interrupted by yet another person banging into Jon’s office. It was a wonder how Jon got any work done at all in this place.

“Jimmy!” she shrieked. “How could you put me on the Faison interview?! I work for the Daily Planet, not People magazine!” I could see Jim shrinking back into himself under Lois’ attack, and now I had no problem seeing the young twenty something who had worked as a researcher for the Daily Planet.

“Lois, Claire Faison specifically asked for you to interview her. She’s an international celebrity, it’ll bring a lot of publicity for the Planet.”

“So would uncovering government corruption, or busting open a crime ring,” she retorted. “But I guess you’re not going to get any of those because you’re going to have you best investigative journalist off interviewing pampered movie stars.” Jim pinched his eyebrows together.

“Please just do the interview, Lois?” he begged. She still looked at him stonily. “If you do this, then I’ll get Winkler to cover that school board meeting instead of you, okay?” he begged. “She won’t do the interview without you, and the suits’ll kill me if we lose it.”

Finally, Lois appeared mollified. “Fine, I’ll do it,” she grumbled. “But you owe me for this.” Then she turned to look at me. “Hi, Kaylie, Jon said you would be coming today. Where is he?”

“Right here,” the person in question answered. He had just come in through the window again. “There was a robbery at the bank, but everything’s taken care of now. And no,” he answered to the mutual looks on Lois and Jimmy’s face, “there’s nothing to report to the Daily Planet. Everything was pretty run of the mill.”

“Jon, I just got a call from the DA’s office,” Jim told him. “They wanted to know if I could get in touch with Supernova and tell him that the trial’s been pushed back a few weeks, so there’s no need to go in tomorrow.”

“They give any reason?” Jon asked.

“You know lawyers,” Jim shrugged. “I think the defense demanded more time to prepare his case or something.”

“I’d rather just get it over with,” Jon frowned. “But I guess it needs to be a fair trial so there’s no chance that they can ask for an appeal.” The he turned to me. “We’ll be out of here in a second, Kaylie. I just need to fix Amanda’s computer.” The he exited along with Jim. I turned to Lois who was still in the room.

“Do they have to testify very often for trials?” I asked, meaning Superman, Nebula, and Supernova.

“Not very,” Lois replied. “If that was the case they’d never leave the courtroom. But this is the Sharon Fleming trial that we were talking about.”

“She’s the CEO who got caught for dirty dealings a few months ago, wasn’t she?” I remembered the case when it first broke open just six months ago. I hadn’t known Jon then, but I did remember reading something in the papers about his involvement.

Lois nodded. “Supernova was instrumental in taking her down and was an eyewitness to many of the charges Fleming’s facing. She’s got a fleet of lawyers at her disposal, so the DA asked Supernova to testify to help strengthen the case. With him on the stand she doesn’t stand a chance.” I could sense the pride evident in her voice. Even though Jon always talked about how he wasn’t really into investigating, I suspected that he really did enjoy it, even though he might not admit it to himself. I was tempted to ask for more details, but then Jon came back again, having finished with Amanda’s computer.

“Ready to go?” he asked me.

“Fly us away, Supernova,” I told him. “I’m expecting candles, food, and a ridiculous amount of romantic sap and that’s a lot to cram into an evening so we better get a start on it.”

* * *

*** They hovered over the sight of the fire together, and Jon tried not to feel too self-conscious in his new suit. It wasn’t as bright as his father’s, but it was just as tight, and he had to restrain himself from constantly tugging on it. He had tried wearing it around in private to get used to the feel of the fabric, but he still wasn’t there yet. Just before they were about to dive into the scene, Clark put out an arm to stop Jon.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked his son seriously.

“Yeah, Dad. I’m positive.”

“Because after this, there’s no going back,” Clark told him. “Everyone will know about you, and they’ll expect you to stick around. It can be a big commitment. Maybe it’s too soon. Maybe you should wait another year or so.”

“Dad, I’m sure,” Jon affirmed. “I’ve thought long and hard about this, and I want to do it. Now can we get down there and help these people out?”

Clark’s face stretched into a grin. “You bet. Just follow my lead, okay?”

And at that moment, Supernova was born. ***

* * *

By the end of the evening, I had gotten my candles, food, and an absolutely ridiculous amount of romantic sap. We were just reentering Metropolis when Jon announced that the evening wasn’t over yet, and that I should close my eyes.

“Just don’t do any barrel rolls or anything,” I instructed him, a little wary to be flying without seeing where I was going. “I’d like to keep my dinner in my stomach.”

“Just relax,” he told me. “It’s not a long trip.”

True to his word, we soon touched down, Jon spinning into his street clothes, and I opened my eyes to see that we were in a dingy alley just off a deserted street. Pools of water collected in the uneven pavement, and the streetlights flickered lazily.

“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?” I asked, wrinkling my nose at a strange smell that I wasn’t really sure I wanted to identify.

“You don’t recognize it?” he asked. I shook my head. “Maybe because you’re not seeing it from the right angle. You were more towards the main street and sitting down, and I was over in this area holding up a couple of thugs who I had valiantly saved you from-”

“The place we first met!” I exclaimed. “And if I remember correctly, I wasn’t in any need of saving, valiant or otherwise.”

“Not the most romantic spot, is it?” Jon asked ruefully.

“But it is,” I told him hurriedly. “This is the place where it all began for us. It’s not exactly pretty or conventional, but it works for us. It just shows how unique we are.”

“Good. Because I brought you here for a certain reason.” My mouth suddenly went dry, but I didn’t interrupt him. Jon took a deep breath and ploughed forward. “When I first met you here,” he began, “you turned my world upside down completely. I tried to play the part of the hero, and you just walked right in and brought out who I really was. That’s how it’s always been between us. You just seemed to know me right away, and even though I didn’t know very much about you at the time, I felt a connection as soon as we started talking. And I’ve felt that connection strengthen over the time we’ve gotten to know each other.

“You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met, Kaylie. And I want to be a part of your life for as long as I live. And that’s why I’m asking you…” he knelt down on the grimy street, and held out a small box to me. In the dark, I could only see a small glimmer but I still knew what it was. “Will you marry me?” he finally asked. I had known ever since he had started talking that this is where he would end up, so I had my answer prepared already.

“Of course I’ll marry you, Jon. I couldn’t imagine doing anything different.”