Here is part ten. Thanks once again to Nancy and Carol for BRing this and making it better.
PART TEN
*~Ellie~*
I landed in the alley by the restaurant, taking a little extra time after my spin to make sure everything was in place and that I looked presentable. From what little I knew about Jay’s father, I guessed that he was a very particular person and would likely appreciate a clean appearance.
I had to admit I was a little nervous about this visit. Sure, it didn’t seem like Jay and his dad were very close, but he was still Jay’s dad. That had to count for something, and I wanted to make a good impression.
The restaurant was crowded, and it took me a while to pick out Jay’s head. The last time I had seen him, his hair was a very dark, almost black. But even though he styled it in the same messy spikes, his hair now had rich, red tones mixed in. Along the same lines as Kaylie’s hair, but a lot darker. The man sitting with him wore a stern expression, and a sterner suit. Big, strong hands that reminded me of Jay’s wrapped around a cup of coffee. They also shared the same broad, muscular build, but I saw that Jay was a little shorter when they both stood up as I came over to their table. Jay gave me a brief kiss in greeting, and then turned to face his dad.
“Dad, this is Ellie,” he introduced. “She’s Jon’s sister, as you know. And also… We’re dating.”
I turned to look at Jay in surprise. He hadn’t told his dad that we were dating?! We had been seeing each other for over three months now! But Jay just shot me an apologetic look, and turned to look nervously at his father, no doubt looking to see how his dad reacted to this news. So I pulled on a friendly smile, and stuck out a hand in greeting.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Stewart,” I told him bravely. Although I knew his name wasn’t Stewart, I wasn’t supposed to know about any of that, so I was willing to play along. Besides, I wasn’t really sure what his legal name actually was.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Kent.”
“Oh, jeez. Please call me Ellie, Mr. Stewart.”
“Very well, Ellie.” The nickname didn’t seem to come naturally to him, however no one ever called me by my legal name, so it seemed ridiculous to introduce myself with it. “I can’t say I’ve heard much about you,” Jay’s dad said as we all sat down.
“Apparently, Jay’s been keeping me a secret,” I commented lightly, still a little upset that Jay had forced this all on us last minute.
“What is it that you do?” Mr. Stewart asked me, taking a sip of water.
“Well, I’m currently at STAR Labs with my aunt and uncle as I work towards my Master’s,” I told him.
“Family connection,” he nodded. “Must be useful.”
“They’ve mentored me for a number of years, that’s true,” I replied carefully. “But I had to work hard to get my position and I still work hard today.” Two minutes into this conversation and I was already becoming uncomfortable.
“How old are you?” he asked suddenly.
“Almost twenty-four,” I replied, wincing a little as I rounded up the number. If anything, that would just make me appear more juvenile.
“So you’re the youngest of two.”
“That’s right.”
“I admire your dedication to progress so far at such a young age,” he told me. “What school are you attending?”
“University of Metropolis.”
“Never lived outside the city then?”
“No,” I replied with discomfort. “I’ve just always loved Metropolis. I’ve never really had a strong desire to leave.” I squirmed a little in my seat to try to avoid the intense scrutiny.
“Dad, Ellie didn’t come here to be interrogated,” Jay jumped in to defend me. “How about you drop the cop routine for now? You’re on vacation.”
I saw Mr. Stewart tighten almost imperceptibly. That comment had come dangerously close to revealing his NIA connection.
“Unlike you, Ellie,” Mr. Stewart began, “Jason has lived all over the country. He never seemed to be able to settle down in one place. One of the things he needs to work on if you two are ever to get along.”
My jaw literally dropped. Why would he make such a negative comment about his son? Especially since the reason why Jay had moved around so much was because of his selfless commitment to the NIA? But what could I say to Jay’s defense? I wasn’t supposed to know anything about the NIA.
Thankfully, our waitress came over to our table and took our orders. It was a welcome distraction, but after she left there was an awkward silence. I searched for a safe way to break the tension.
“I like what you’ve done with your hair,” I told Jay, reaching up to run my fingers through it.
“Thanks,” he replied. “I kind of felt like a change. But you don’t think it makes me look too much like an anime character?”
“It’s nice,” I said. “Makes you seem brighter somehow.”
“It draws attention,” Jay’s dad commented shortly. “And people will know it’s fake. No one has that color of hair naturally.”
Again, I was completely taken aback by this blatant criticism. And I was equally surprised when Jay didn’t do anything to defend himself. The Jay I knew would have some kind of smart reply readily on hand. But instead, he just drew patterns on the tabletop with his fork.
“But that’s hardly an issue,” I tried to defend Jay. “Lots of people dye their hair, there’s nothing special about it.”
“That’s always been one of your biggest flaws, Jason,” his father continued. “You’re enamored with flashy gestures and always heedless to the consequences.”
“So! Kaylie says you’re going to be here for the wedding,” Jay said loudly, making no effort to disguise the change in topic. “I’m surprised you were willing take time off.”
“I don’t shirk from my responsibilities,” Mr. Stewart told Jay sternly. “I think it’s important to be here for my daughter’s wedding. Even if that means taking time off work.”
“Oh, right. Responsibility,” Jay replied sarcastically. “We certainly can’t forget about that, can we?”
“Say what you want, Jason,” Mr. Stewart replied blandly. “But I take my responsibility seriously. Unlike some people.”
“Mr. Stewart, I think Jay said you were a structural engineer?” I asked desperately.
Jay shot me a dirty look for bringing up his father’s cover story, yet I didn’t really see anything wrong with it. Wouldn’t it seem strange if I didn’t bring it up? Besides, I was desperate to change the topic to something safe. Was it always like this between them?
“That’s right,” Mr. Stewart told me. “I don’t think you would’ve heard of the firm I work for. It’s relatively small, although we’re always growing.” He smiled insincerely. Then he turned to face Jay again. “I don’t suppose you’ve found any work yet?”
“Not yet,” Jay replied tightly. “It’s hard to find something satisfying after I dedicated so much to… the firm.”
“Well, if you had really dedicated yourself, then you wouldn’t be in the position you find yourself in today,” Mr. Stewart replied lightly.
“What?!” I exploded. Although I had been willing to stomach most of what this… this jerk had said beforehand, this comment made me blow my top. I had been with Jay as he worked through the aftereffects of his capture, memory removal, and subsequent firing from the NIA. The responsibility of what had happened fell heavily on his shoulders, and I knew that no one was more dedicated than he was. Being let go from the NIA had nearly crushed him, and I still wasn’t sure if he had managed to work past that.
But what would I say to defend Jay? I wasn’t supposed to be privy to any of the interplay that had happened between Jay and the NIA. And judging by the look on Jay’s face, he didn’t want me to jump to his defense.
“I’m sorry, Ellie, did you want to say something?” Mr. Stewart asked coolly. His intense stare made me shrink back against my seat.
“No,” I replied quietly. “I’m fine.”
Our waitress returned with our orders, and I dug in with no real appetite. It was just a way to distract myself from the dismal atmosphere at the table. Jay absently pushed food around his plate, and his father ate with scientific diligence.
“Kaylie wanted me to tell you that Clark and Lois would like to meet you for dinner tomorrow,” Jay informed his father with detachment.
“Good,” he nodded. “What time?”
“Six,” Jay replied. “At their place. I have the address written down.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Kaylie and Jon will be there as well.”
“And you two?”
“Yes,” I replied after a glance in Jay’s direction. “Although we might not be able to stay long.” I wanted Jay to have a way out if he wanted to. I wasn’t sure how he would be able to put up with an entire evening of this.
“There’s no reason why we can’t stay the whole evening,” Jay told us, shooting a loaded glance in my direction.
“Oh. Okay.” I guess he didn’t want an out.
“I’ll look forward to it,” Mr. Stewart replied.
Jay nodded bleakly.
The rest of lunch was just more of the same. It alternated between uncomfortable silences and Jay’s dad criticizing Jay for everything imaginable. Finally, it ended, and we exited from the restaurant together.
“I think I’ll just take a cab back to my hotel,” Mr. Stewart said. “No need for you to come with me. I’ll see you both tomorrow.” Although before I met him I would’ve been surprised to hear that he wasn’t staying with Jay or Kaylie, after spending some time with the man I decided that a hotel would probably be best for all concerned.
“Sorry about that,” Jay apologized to me as we started walking in the opposite direction his father had gone. “I should’ve told him we were dating before, but I hadn’t talked to him since before we met, and I just couldn’t seem to find the right opportunity today. And the way that he drilled you was just completely unacceptable.”
“Hey, forget about it,” I told him. “Sure, I was a little surprised, but I guess it’s understandable given your rocky relationship. But are you okay?”
“Sure I am,” Jay shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, he was just so… so critical! About everything. Even things that were completely unfair and beyond your control.”
“What, you expected him to say a whole bunch of nice things to me? He just tells me what he thinks.”
“That’s what he thinks of you?” I demanded, upset by the thought. “He’s your dad. He should be proud of you!”
“My dad’s not someone who hands out praise just for the sake of it,” Jay replied flatly. “You have to earn it.”
“And you have! You gave your whole life for your… job.” I didn’t want to go into details in such a public area. “And you excelled at it, even though you were probably a lot younger than a lot of people of your caliber.”
“And then I screwed it all up and have wasted my life ever since,” Jay replied. “Not much to be proud of there.”
“Is that what you really think?” I asked, pulling him aside and stopping. “That you’ve wasted your life?”
“Well, no. Not really, I guess,” he hedged. “I mean, the time I’ve spent with you has hardly been a waste. All I’m saying is that my dad’s not about to start showering me with compliments. After all, he’s the one who signed off on my dismissal.”
“Jay…” I started to say something, but then trailed off when my super hearing picked something up. “I’ve got to go,” I said instead, frustrated that this was cutting our conversation short.
Jay sighed. “Of course you do.”
I stopped. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing,” he covered quickly. “It means nothing. I was just hoping that we could spend some more time together this afternoon. It’s been, what, ten days since we’ve really seen each other?”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’ll try to stop by later today, okay?”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Be careful out there, all right?”
“Of course,” I replied. Then I ran off to find the nearest alley. Someone needed my help.
* * *
***
I opened cupboards and drawers, banging them shut loudly as I grabbed what I needed out of them. Sure, I had volunteered for this job, but that didn’t mean I had to be happy about the guy I was now going to be spending a ton of time with. This was a favor to Jon and Kaylie, and had nothing to do with Mr. Hot Shot NIA sitting on the stool over there. Even if he did have his memory wiped, that didn’t mean I had to show him any sympathy. I was sure he was arrogant enough to provide his own.
“Those cupboards can take a lot of abuse,” he commented blandly. “Are you always that hard on them?”
“I’ll be as hard on them as I want,” I snapped, closing the next one with extra force. A crack started at the bottom hinge and spread across the panel. Oops.
Jay’s eyes popped, and I couldn’t help but smirk. He probably wasn’t used to seeing someone with powers like this. I wasn’t sure, but from what I gathered he hadn’t spent a lot of time in Metropolis, so he probably hadn’t seen a lot of super-heroics in his lifetime.
“That scare you a bit?” I taunted.
“Are you superheroes always this nasty in person?” he asked me. “Or do you just not like me?”
I shot him a dirty look. “What do you think?”
I tried to focus on my task. I needed to figure out how to get inside this guy’s head and pull what he had forgotten. I had mentioned something about VR simulations at first, but I wasn’t sure that would work. *thump-thump* Shaking my head, I tried to block the sound out. What about hypnosis? No, probably not. *thump-thump* Besides, I doubted Jay would agree to something like that, especially if it was my idea. So what about…
*thump-thump*
*thump-thump*
I turned to glare at Jay. “Would you quit it?” I demanded.
“Quit what?” He looked confused. “I wasn’t doing anything.”
“Yeah, you were. You were…” Oh. Wait. “Never mind,” I mumbled.
“What?”
“Never mind,” I repeated.
“You can’t just let it drop now,” he cajoled.
“It was… your heartbeat.” I ducked my head in embarrassment. “I didn’t realize that… Anyway, just forget it.”
“You can seriously hear it?” he asked in surprise.
“Well, yeah. I don’t normally hear that kind of thing without trying, but you must just have-”
“What? An obnoxious heart?”
“Something like that,” I shrugged sheepishly.
“You said before that there was something wrong with it,” he remembered. “Is that why you picked up on it right away?”
“Well, maybe at first,” I told him. “But now it’s back to normal. It was probably just a reaction to whatever drugs and stuff were put into you.”
He nodded. “I should apologize for snapping at you then. You were just trying to help.”
“Thank you.” I was surprised to get the apology. Were we actually getting along?
“And you?”
“What?”
“I’m waiting for my apology.” The corner of his mouth twitched, and I was instantly back to being mad at him.
“*Your* apology?! Who said you were getting one?”
“Well, you haven’t been very nice to me either,” he shrugged. “I just thought it might be the heroic thing to do. Maybe even… *super*heroic.”
“Maybe I would if you weren’t such an arrogant jerk,” I snapped. “What makes you think you deserve anything like that? I can’t *believe* you would just-” Sirens. A police radio. “I’ve got to go,” I informed him tersely.
“Where?” he asked in surprise.
“You know…” I flapped my hand in the trademark family symbol. Oh wait… he didn’t recognize that. “I have to go help out with something,” I explained.
“Oh!” he exclaimed as the light switched on. “Then go! Go save a life or whatever it is that you heroes do.” To my surprise, there wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in his voice. He seemed to genuinely support my leaving.
I nodded brusquely, and spun into my Nebula suit, then ran out the door at superspeed. As I went, I picked up on the startled exclamation of the former NIA agent sitting in the lab.
“Holy-” The last part was drowned out as I took to the sky and the wind roared in my ears.
***
* * *
*~Jay~*
Despite our best efforts, Kaylie and I hadn’t been able to come up with a reasonable excuse for any strange behavior from the Kents. Lying to my dad was extremely difficult in the first place, and lying about something like this would be impossible. Of course, we quickly regretted the lack of cover story.
Lois answered the door when Ellie and I came up the walk.
“Everyone’s here already,” she told us. “Except Dad. He went across the street to go help the Jeffersons with a plumbing problem.” Classic Kent excuse.
We entered the living room to see Kaylie and Jon sitting on the sofa across from my dad. Judging by the way Jon was bouncing his leg and the way Kaylie was gripping his hand, I guessed that he was anxious to go help, yet felt he had to stay here in order to keep my dad from getting suspicious.
“Maybe I should go over and see if there’s anything I could do to help,” Ellie offered. “Just so Dad can get done sooner.”
“That sounds like a great idea, Ellie,” Jon commented in relief.
“Yeah, that would be good,” I agreed. I could see the stress this was already having on Kaylie, and having Ellie leave would be less of a problem than Jon.
“Come back soon,” Lois told her she pulled Ellie into a hug, no doubt whispering to her where exactly Clark was.
Ellie left, and the rest of us settled into our seats.
“So as I was just saying, Ms. Lane, it’s an honor to meet you,” my dad said. “You really bring some credibility to the media.” My dad hated journalists on principle, but here I couldn’t tell if he was lying or if he really did think that Lois was different from other journalists. Probably the former. Although Dad wasn’t going to hold back in front of just myself or Kaylie, tonight he would be playing the role of the perfect guest, and wouldn’t say anything critical to anyone. I was actually surprised with how dangerously close he had gotten to revealing too much with Ellie present at our lunch the other day. But that was probably just a reaction to being told last minute that Ellie and I were dating.
“Please, call me Lois,” she replied. “And thank you for the compliment. Speaking of which, I hope you won’t think that I’m being rude if I turn on the TV. I’m not sure if you heard, but there’s been a breakout in the prison upstate. Several inmates have escaped and the police are searching for them as we speak.”
So that’s where they had gone. My dad nodded, and we turned to see the news coverage of the fugitive search.
“Any enemies in that bunch, Lois?” Kaylie asked teasingly.
“I don’t think so,” she replied with a smile. “But I can’t understand how ten of them managed to escape all at once. I’ll have to talk to Jim about doing an article on it.”
We watched some footage of police sweeping the ground for fugitives. I caught sight of Ellie flying beside the police chopper wearing her navy blue suit with the gold cape flapping behind her. I was sure Clark was there as well, just maybe not on camera at the moment. As we watched, I saw Jon grow more and more uncomfortable with just sitting here doing nothing. Finally, he sprang from his seat.
“You know, I think I’m going to run… into the kitchen for a second and… check on the chicken.”
Kaylie reached up and grabbed his hand before he could bolt out of the room.
“Jon, I think… the *chicken* can take care of itself just this one time, don’t you?” she begged.
“Kaylie…”
“And I know you feel responsible for it, but I really think it can manage on its own for now,” she said. “And are you just going to leave me *here* while you go take care of it? Isn’t this more important than chicken?” I wasn’t sure if her code was as affective as she thought it was, yet butting in at this point wasn’t really going to help.
“But, Kaylie… I’m afraid the chicken might… burn.” He gave her a meaningful stare.
“But it’s not like it doesn’t already have help… Okay, fine,” she surrendered. “Go do it.”
“Thank you,” he kissed her cheek. “And remember, I *promise*. No ‘chicken’ at the wedding.”
He left the room in the direction of the kitchen, but Dad’s eyes remained glued on Kaylie. She blushed when she realized the attention their exchange had created, and how indiscreet they had been.
“We’re, um… We’re going to be serving beef instead,” she offered lamely.
