Thanks again to Nancy and Carol for such great BR work.
PART NINE
*~Jay~*
Dark, seedy streets made me feel comfortable. Strange, I know, but I couldn’t help it. It had become a habit of mine to take nighttime strolls in Metropolis’ slightly less attractive areas to help me relax and unwind. Having a little bit of nighttime activity often helped me sleep better.
Tonight was no different. It had been over a month since Ellie had exposed herself to Kryptonite in a misguided attempt to solve the problems we had been having. Although Brad and Lucy had been trying to find the root of the problem, they hadn’t managed to get much further than Ellie. The reality was that they were both very busy with all their official work at STAR Labs, and although it wasn’t exactly a huge secret that Superman and his children came to Brad, and Lucy by extension, for medical advice, they didn’t want to make it public that Nebula was having any issues that were out of the ordinary. So that meant that any research had to be conducted under the table, in whatever spare time Ellie, Brad, and Lucy could nab.
Ellie and I spent about as much time together as usual, although now that her family knew what was going on between us, they made more effort to make plans that included us. Probably a delicate way of making sure we weren’t tempted to spend too much time alone together, which could lead to frustration given our current troubles. But although Ellie’s family rallied in support, I could sense that Ellie was getting frustrated with the lack of progress. It had gotten to the point where she avoided talking about it with me, shutting down any attempts on my part to ask her how things were going. Ellie was the type of person who needed results immediately, and didn’t like to wait for things to reveal themselves in the proper time. While this was not always a complementary trait for a scientist, that was just how Ellie operated.
But no matter her frustrations, I did wish she would talk to me about them instead of shutting me out.
I took a turn off the main road and onto a smaller one that was even darker and seedier than the last one. If I remembered correctly, there was a pub down this block that would still be open. I rarely drank, and had no plans of doing so tonight, but it might make for an interesting change in scenery, and watching some of the regulars might be a good distraction. I was meandering down the block at a leisurely pace when a woman knocked into me, nearly pushing me into the pavement.
Despite the grungy blonde wig, trashy tube top, and gaudy jewelry, I still recognized the wide eyes and insanely impractical shoes. I was pretty sure I could recognize my sister in any disguise she could throw together.
“Oof! Jeez!” she cried as she bashed into me. Then she got a good look at me. “What are you- Oh, never mind, I’ll ask you later, just run!”
I followed Kaylie away from the pub, which she had undoubtedly come from. Although I didn’t hear anyone coming after us, I trusted her judgment that there was. It just meant that we were fortunate enough to have a decent head start.
It had been months since I had had a real reason to run. It was one thing to go for a run for exercise, and another thing entirely to run because someone is chasing you. I soon found a quick rhythm to fall into. The added incentive caused me to go much faster than I would normally run, and I relished the happy strain in my thighs.
But as much as I loved it, running for a long period of time is never smart. If a showdown is inevitable, it’s best to do it when you’re not gasping for breath with trembling legs. As soon as I spotted one, I pushed Kaylie in the direction of a dark alcove, and we ducked into the shadows. Holding our breath, it wasn’t long before we heard the gentle purr of a car as it crawled down the street, just a hair too slow to be considered causal. Thankfully, it passed by us without stopping.
Finally, we were able to relax.
“Help me get these off, will you?” Kaylie asked, bending down to undo the straps of the shoes that she wore. Like all of Kaylie’s shoe choices, they were the most ridiculous things I’ve ever seen. The heels were at least three inches, if not more, and they were those weird strappy things with the laces that cross around and tied near the ankle.
“What possessed you to get these things?” I demanded as I struggled to undo the tight knot. “Didn’t you grow out of you ballerina obsession when you were six like all the other girls?”
“They’re espadrilles,” she snapped. One of her blood red press-on nails snapped off as she picked at her other shoe.
There was a cool breeze in our dark corner that made my heart stop for a moment until I realized that it was Jon, arriving from the sky and dressed as Supernova. Although the red in his costume made it brighter than Ellie’s, it was still much darker than Clark’s electric blue suit.
“Jay? What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Apparently, I’m saving my sister from becoming a fashion victim. Literally,” I grumbled sarcastically.
He turned to Kaylie. “Did you get it?” he asked.
“You bet,” Kaylie grinned. “All on tape, with pictures to match. There’s no way he’s going to worm out of this.”
“Who?” I demanded.
“Senator Irving,” Kaylie replied happily, despite losing another nail in the war with her shoes. “He’s been accepting bribes from the CEO of GlenTech to push through those new radio transmission laws.” Giving up on the shoes for the time being, she pulled off the scraggly wig and shoved it in a bag that Jon was holding. “But I think he saw me looking at him a little too intently in the pub, so now I’ve got to make myself scarce.” Jon was helping her remove the copious amounts of jewelry that she had draped around her neck, leaving me to battle with those stupid espi-things by myself.
“The NIA put you onto this?” I guessed.
“Yeah,” she replied. “Jon and I have been looking into it together for a few weeks now, and we finally got the break we needed tonight.”
“Well, I don’t know about looking into it together,” Jon commented. “You’ve been doing most of the legwork and I’ve been hanging around in the air in case you need me.”
“Plus helping me hack into a few less than legal places and making sense of the information,” she pointed out.
“Well, that too,” he agreed with a grin.
“How about helping me with these shoes?” I asked plaintively. I hadn’t been able to make a dent in the super-tight knots.
“Here, I’ll just…” he trailed off as his head shot up. “I’ve got to go,” he told us quickly, and then blew off quickly.
“Drat,” Kaylie muttered, glancing down at her now bare feet. “These shoes cost me seventy bucks!” It appeared that rather than mess with the hopelessly tangled laces, Jon had chosen just to break the strings and unravel them that way.
“Serves you right for wearing such crazy things in the first place,” I told her.
She chose not to pay attention to me and instead rifled around in the bag Jon had left behind. She produced a pair of jeans, socks, and runners, and proceeded to pull the jeans on underneath her skirt.
“So you’ve still been taking cases for the NIA?” I asked her.
“Not too many,” she replied. “But if something comes along that I think is particularly important, then I agree to do it. And Jon helps me out too, which makes it less stressful.”
“About that: Why didn’t Jon just fly you out of here instead of letting you run away from the pub and then end up having to change here?”
“How pathetic would that be?” she rolled her eyes. Her jeans were done up, so she unzipped her skirt and slid it off over her jeans. I have no idea where she learned to do things like that. I know for a fact they don’t teach them at the NIA. “I can’t let Jon do everything for me,” she continued, “so we made a deal. He hangs around and watches over me, but he lets me do my thing unless for some reason things get really ugly.” She grabbed the socks and shoes, putting them on with care as she avoided stepping in the street with her sock feet.
“Sounds fair.” That’s definitely something that Kaylie would do. She was always stubbornly independent.
“You know, it’d be so easy to just get in the habit of letting him do everything. He’s way faster than me and stronger and…” She looked up from tying her shoe. “But I guess you don’t need me to remind you about that,” she winced. “Sorry, Jay.”
“No problem,” I shrugged. “It’s not like it’s a taboo subject or anything. You almost ready to go?”
“Um, I think so…” She dug around in her bag, yet didn’t seem to find what she was looking for. “Shoot. I forgot to bring a jacket. Do you mind if I…” She was eying my sweater pointedly.
I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Although the change in clothing and hair color should be enough to put any scouts off the trail, no one wore just a tube top in mid-November. It would draw too much attention to her. Recognizing defeat, I removed my sweater and handed it to her ungraciously.
“Next time be sure to pack for the weather,” I grumbled. “Unlike your fiance, I actually feel the cold.”
“So how is it going with you and Ellie?” Kaylie asked as we started down the street together.
“Pretty good,” I shrugged. “As you know, we’ve got a bit of a stumbling block, but I think we’re still doing well.”
“Any progress in figuring it out?”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “But they’re working on it as hard as they can.”
“I imagine they would be. I can’t even imagine what Jon would be doing if something like that happened to us. Probably run off to Antarctica in guilt or something.”
“Why guilt?” I asked. “It’s not like it’d be his fault.”
“I dunno. Some superhero complex or something,” Kaylie shrugged. “I guess there’s only so long you can save the world before you start to take responsibility for everything.” She kicked a rock out of her path. “And of course, even having all those powers is scary enough. When I had Jon’s powers I was-”
“Wait, you had Jon’s powers?!”
“Oh, yeah. You know that whole Sproxton thing a while back? Well, he had honed in on Jon and was targeting him. Brad and Ellie used this red Kryptonite laser and it transferred his powers onto me.”
“Wow. How was it?”
“Well, it was amazing. But it was also terrifying. To have all that power, and to know what could happen if you make a mistake… Anyway, I can understand where Ellie is coming from with this.”
“You know, she never really told me any of that,” I reflected. Was that another motivation behind her failed attempt with Kryptonite?
“Maybe you should try talking to her about it,” Kaylie suggested.
“Yeah, maybe I will,” I replied. “If I can grab her at a spare moment where we can have that kind of conversation. Between trying to find a solution to this problem, her grad studies, and time spent as Nebula, spare time has been a scarce commodity.”
“I know how that feels,” Kaylie sympathized.
“I guess you would. You’re working two jobs right now, and if you count Jon’s help with the NIA, he’s working three.”
“Plus, we have to decide by Friday which band we’re going to hire for the reception.”
“I liked those guys with the matching Mohawks,” I suggested jokingly. “Why don’t you hire them?”
“Not happening,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “I’m not having screaming at my reception.”
“Your loss,” I shrugged.
We continued down the street, and although we didn’t talk, it was nice to just be together. We hadn’t really had the chance to spend time together causally in a long time.
“Look, Jay,” Kaylie spoke, breaking the silence, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you anything about this. You know, the whole investigating thing.”
“No big deal,” I shrugged. “I guess I should’ve assumed that you’d still be doing this kind of thing. And it makes sense that you’ve been working with Jon. I’m not in the NIA anymore, so you would have no reason to tell me.” I wished she hadn’t brought it up. In all honesty, it did bother me a little, but her talking about it only aggravated my annoyance.
“But you’re my brother. And we’ve worked together for years. You deserve some kind of loyalty.”
“It’s not about family loyalty, Kaylie,” I told her with defeat. “It’s about national security. You shouldn’t tell me what you’re doing. That would be breaking your agreement with the government, and could put both of us in danger. It’s probably best if you keep me out of it as much as possible.”
“Okay,” she agreed quietly.
“Look, why don’t you tell me some more about the wedding plans?” I asked her in order to change the subject.
She groaned loudly. “Anything but that. This whole wedding is taking over my life. If Jon and I knew how much effort this would take beforehand, we probably would’ve just eloped.”
“Well, I’m probably going to regret this, but if you need any help, you can always ask me, okay?”
“Really?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Because, there’s something that I could really use your help with and I wanted to talk to you about.” She chewed on her bottom lip anxiously.
“What is it?”
“I got a call from Dad today. And… he’s coming to Metropolis. For a visit.”
“What?” I nearly tripped over my own feet in shock. “Since when does he come to see you?”
“Since never,” she told me. “But he’s somehow got it into his head that he needs to meet the Kents and make sure that they’re acceptable or something. But Jay, I don’t know if I can handle that right now!” she admitted in panic. “The last time he came he drove me completely crazy not to mention that he got far too suspicious of one of Jon’s hasty exits. And that was only after a couple hours. Now he’ll be here for a whole weekend!”
“So you want me to keep him out of your hair? What makes you think that I can do that?” I didn’t want to see Dad anymore than Kaylie did. The last time I saw him was for a brief period before I was kicked out the NIA office in Metropolis.
“But Dad always liked you more than me,” Kaylie argued.
“Kaylie, I think if Dad’s going to go picking favorites, he’s going to go with the one he didn’t fire,” I scoffed. “Trust me, he isn’t about to give me any warm fuzzies at the moment. And I’m not the one he called. Clearly, he has no interest in seeing me.”
“Please, Jay,” she begged me. “I’ll still meet up with him and everything, I promise. All I’m asking is that you meet him at the airport and make sure he’s got everything he needs while he’s here.”
“He’s not using NIA resources?”
“No,” she shook her head. “This is a purely personal trip, so of course Dad wouldn’t dare make use of some executive perks.”
“Of course not,” I sighed. “Okay, fine. I’ll do it. See, I told you I would regret offering to help.”
“Thank you.” She hugged me tightly. “If we can get through the weekend without Dad finding out the Kent family secret, Jon and I will name our first baby after you, I promise.”
“I’ll try, Kaylie,” I told her. “But I’m not a miracle worker. If Dad’s spending any amount of time with the Kents, we better come up with a good story or he’s bound to get suspicious of something.”
“Yeah,” she agreed morosely. “I know.”
* * *
I fell out of the nightmare and landed on my pillow, heart pounding and sheets tangled. The echoes of my dream world still bounced around in my head.
Screams. Pain. Terror. Helplessness.
I staggered out of bed and into the bathroom. Choosing to leave the light off, I made my way to the sink, and chugged a glass of water. The cool liquid calmed me as it slid down my throat. The noise of the sink running helped to fill the empty silence, and banished those horrible echoes back to the dark corners of my mind. I gripped the edges of my sink tightly to quiet my shaking hands, and I caught sight of my face in the mirror.
My skin seemed chalky, and the dark color of my hair made a harsh juxtaposition. I was twenty-five years old, and I could already see indications of wrinkles. Signs of a life of stress.
A violent shudder passed through me, and I gripped the counter harder. Dammit, this shouldn’t affect me! My days with the NIA were over. Why couldn’t I just put them behind me?
I forced deep, even breaths through my lungs. Slowly, I calmed down enough to look at the mirror once again.
I could see softer colored roots peeking out beneath my near-black hair. Time to dye it again, I told myself. Briefly, I contemplated just letting it grow in as its natural color. But dyed hair made me feel safer somehow, even though logically I knew that there was no real reason for it now that I was no longer with the NIA. Besides, it had been so long since I had seen my natural hair color. I wasn’t even sure if I remembered what it looked like. I would have to do it early tomorrow if I wanted to get it done anytime soon, I decided. I was supposed to be picking Dad up at the airport at ten. And I didn’t dare be late.
