Once again, thanks to Nancy and Carol.
PART THIRTEEN
*~Jay~*
I had returned from Christmas in Smallville to find out that my little lessons with Chris had been expanded to include a couple of her friends. They wanted to find out what she was learning, Chris explained. They seemed like decent enough girls, so I had no problem including them. But soon enough I was getting between five to eight girls each day who were eager to learn something. Although many of the girls only came once a week or so, Chris was there every day with no exceptions. I always made sure to plan on meeting them in the late afternoon or early evening to make sure none of them were missing out in any classes. I wasn’t sure about the others, but I suspected Chris would have no problem skipping school if that meant she could spend more time here.
It was three weeks into my post-Christmas sessions when I first noticed something wrong with Chris. Before she could sneak out with the other girls, I pulled her aside to have a talk.
“You were favoring your left side,” I told her.
“It’s nothing,” she replied. “I’m just tired today, that’s all.”
“Don’t do that, Chris,” I said sternly. “What happened to you?”
“Nothing!” she insisted. “I just need to practice those blocks you showed us the other week a little more.” She tried to push past me, but I stopped her.
“Chris, who did this to you?” I demanded. “You *need* to get some help.”
“I don’t want any help. I’m fine, okay? And you promised you wouldn’t pry.” She pushed me aside and went to collect her bag. “I can take care of myself, Jay. Just drop it.”
I watched her leave, then whirled around to slam my fist into the punching bag. It felt good enough for me to repeat it a few times. Sure, I had promised not to involve myself in her personal life, but this was starting to be harder than I thought. Someone was abusing her and every instinct within me yearned to protect her. But she needed to at least take the first step on her own.
I was so busy thinking about this, that I didn’t realize the man who was behind me until I left the punching bag abruptly and almost plowed right through him.
“Derek!” I exclaimed in surprise. “What’s going on?” Derek was the manager of the gym, and although I wouldn’t really call us friends, I didn’t mind talking to the guy every once in a while.
“We need to talk,” he informed me seriously.
“Okay,” I agreed.
He led me into his dinky little office off the main desk. It smelled even more like sweat than the actual gym, and was crammed with broken equipment and battered furniture.
“Coffee?” he offered me.
“No thanks. What is this all about?”
“Look, Jason.” The chair squealed in protest as he wheeled it closer to me. “I’ve kind of turned a bit of a blind eye to the girl who’s been hanging around here for the last while. But it’s gotten to the point where I can’t ignore it anymore. There were nearly ten girls in here today, and none of them have memberships to the gym. That’s ten people taking up space that could be taken by people who actually pay. As much as I like what you’re doing, I have to keep this business afloat.”
“Most of those girls can’t afford memberships.” I didn’t know all that much about them, but given the state of their clothing and the area of town we were in, it was a fair guess.
“I realize that,” he nodded. “But I have a solution you might like.” He stuck the end of his pen in his mouth and leaned back in the chair. “If you agree to teach a few of those self-defense classes to some of the paying clients, then I’ll let you use the space to teach a free class as part of your employee contract.”
“Wait a minute. You want to hire me?”
“I can’t pay you much at first,” He told me frankly. “But if you get more paying customers enrolled in your class then your wage would reflect that, of course.”
“You want to hire me,” I repeated as it slowly sank in.
“Yeah. I do.” He grinned around the pen. “Are you going to give me a response, or just keep me hanging?”
“I think…” I replied slowly. “I would have to say… Yes. It’s a deal.”
* * *
*~Ellie~*
“I’m still not sure I understand,” Mom frowned.
“The machine gives us a reading of Clark’s aura,” Uncle Brad explained patiently.
“We want to measure how his aura transfers onto you,” Aunt Lucy continued. “You’re going to be used as a sort of control variable as we analyze what’s going on with Ellie.”
“I still don’t understand how it could be her aura that’s causing all these problems,” Dad said. He turned towards me. “When you perform rescues, you fly with people at speeds and heights that should be way too extreme to be comfortable. Unless you’ve had problems with that as well?”
“Nothing like that,” I told him. “But when I’m flying with someone it’s like I’m consciously protecting them. So in that situation it’s not a big deal. But it’s when I don’t put in any conscious thought that it’s a problem. In theory, anyway.”
“So, in order to test that theory, you want us to…”
“Kiss?” Lois finished. “With you guys watching?”
“Like that’ll be any different from normal,” Aunt Lucy rolled her eyes. “Just don’t get too carried away, okay?”
Mom gave her a dirty look as she stepped in front of the camera with Dad. I focused on the monitor that would give us our results. Already, I could see Dad’s aura glowing brightly on the screen like a neon sign. Although Mom had some color in her, it wasn’t nearly as bright as Dad’s, enabling us to tell the difference.
Dad reached for Mom’s hand, and as he took it, I could see color flood into her, bringing her hand into light. The colors swirled around gently, highlighting the point of contact between the two of them. As their lips touched, the fireworks began, but lighting up Mom’s silhouette instead of the night sky. The vibrant tones flooded into her body, they harmonized with her natural, dimmer colors that were barely visible on the monitor beforehand. And although Dad’s colors were so much stronger than hers, she was not overwhelmed by the brightness. Instead, it seemed to strengthen her and bring her into completion. And Dad, too seemed to be stronger, more whole as a result of the connection. His aura pulsed excitedly as it travelled through him and into Mom. It was a symphony of color brought about by a thirty year relationship built on a foundation of deep love. And it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.
I turned off the program, and turned my chair away from the monitor. In theory, I should run a similar test on Jay and myself. But I didn’t have to, I knew.
We didn’t have that.
* * *
I landed on Jay’s balcony quietly, but he must’ve been waiting for me because he was at the door letting me inside in a flash.
“I thought you might be stopping by,” he told me. “You’ll never guess what happened today. The manager at the gym offered me a job. Just completely out of the blue. Amazing, huh?”
“Yeah, sure,” I replied vaguely. “Sounds great.”
“Ellie, are you okay? You seem upset about something.”
“Yeah. Uh…” I couldn’t find the words to continue.
“Did something go wrong with the tests at the lab today?” He placed a hand on my shoulder, and I stiffened involuntarily.
“Nothing went wrong, really,” I told him. “It’s just that… It seems like….” I took a breath, and started over. “Do you ever get the feeling that we’re not supposed to be together?”
“What?”
“I was doing those tests I was talking about today, right? And so I stuck my parents in front of the cameras to see how Dad’s aura interacts with my mom. And it was…I mean, you should’ve seen it, Jay, it was… magical. And I realized that there’s no way we have that kind of connection. Our whole relationship has been tainted by this huge obstacle between us that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon.
“And… and what’s the reason for that anyway? My parents didn’t have a problem, and Jon and Kaylie certainly don’t. So I can’t help wondering why we have such a hard time. There has to be a reason, right? There’s always a reason. And what if our reason is that we’re not supposed to be together?”
I don’t know what I expected him to do. Sweep me up into his arms, whisper a heartfelt reassurance and kiss me senseless? Instead, he just looked at me with bleak eyes.
“So what are you saying, Ellie? What is it that you want to do?”
“I don’t… I don’t know,” I whispered quietly. His stare seemed to sap all the strength from me.
“Because it sounds like you want to break up. Is that what you want?”
“I…” No, of course not! It wasn’t, was it? I wanted to… I was here because… I couldn’t think straight anymore. I had come here with no clear idea of what I wanted exactly, and things were quickly getting further and further out of control.
“Okay,” he nodded.
Okay? Okay, what? I hadn’t said anything!
“Just… Close the door after you when you leave, okay?”
“Jay-”
“Dammit, Ellie, I don’t want to hear any more! Just leave, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered. I nearly stumbled as I backed out of the room. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before I took to open air. Maybe if I flew fast enough I could burn the tears off my face.
* * *
*~Jay~*
***
The small room we had been allotted in the lab was eerily quiet. There was no trace of the previous atmosphere that had included angry taunts, disgusted mutters, and the occasional flying scientific contraption. Although I wanted to inject a little of that back in the room, the circumstances muted me. As far as we could tell, Jon had been subjected to the exact same procedure I had been. Although I had only known the guy a few days, it still affected me. I couldn’t imagine what his family was going through.
Ellie was sitting at her computer, eyes glued to the screen and typing furiously. Normally, I would’ve attributed the redness around her eyes to fatigue, but under the circumstances I guessed it was something different.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she replied shortly.
Not exactly the answer I wanted.
“Ellie, look,” I tried again. “I’m sorry about what happened to Jon.”
“Me, too.”
“No, really. And I know how you must be feeling.”
“How can you know?” she demanded angrily.
“Um, Ellie, I’m not sure if you remember the reason why I’m here in the first place but-”
“Oh, right. Duh. I’m sorry.” She rubbed her hand across her face tiredly. “I just… really want to get to the bottom of this. And not to sound callous or anything, but it was one thing when it was just you. But now it’s *Jon*. And it’s just…”
“It’s different. I know. I have a sister, remember?”
“Jon looked so lost,” she whispered. “To think what must’ve been done to him… And to you, too. Jay, I’m sorry I was so curt with you. I didn’t really understand before what you were going through.”
I swallowed my smug retort. Now wasn’t the time.
“Well, the good news is that you have my whole brain to play with in order to find an answer,” I said instead. “Got any bright ideas?”
“Well…”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve never actually tried this before… But I’ve always wondered what I would be able to see if I were to just… you know, take a peek.”
“You want to look at my brain?”
“Yeah. Given my enhanced vision, I’ve always wondered if there would be things that I could see that wouldn’t show up on any scans we could get off a machine.”
“Sounds like a reasonable idea to me,” I shrugged.
“I just… I’ll need to get closer to you,” she explained awkwardly, standing up and taking a step towards me.
“Okay.” I shifted around in my seat, trying to sit in a way that would be comfortable for both of us.
It took her four steps until she was close enough to touch me. She reached out, and her hands hovered just above my head. Then finally, contact.
Her hands were small, but sure and strong. Gaining confidence, she leaned towards me to get even closer to my head. But then she pulled back hesitantly. Looking up, I realized that her position gave me a very excellent view if she was practicing to be an exotic dancer. But it probably wasn’t the best position for someone who wanted to be seen as a woman of science. Finally, she balanced a knee on the edge of my chair, which pulled her up higher and left me staring at her stomach rather than her chest.
It was an incredibly close position. Her knee was grazing the inside of my thigh, and I could feel her breath ruffling through my hair. My leg twitched involuntarily, and her knee tensed as a result.
“Sorry,” I apologized, drawing my leg back.
“No, it’s okay. You just-”
“It was a-”
“-startled me.”
“-twitch.”
“Right,” she nodded. “Um, I’ll just…” She concentrated on my head again. I let her move it around in her hands as I relaxed completely.
It took me a moment to realize that our breathing had become synchronized.
“Do you…” The croakiness in my voice surprised me. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Do you see anything?”
“Yes…” Her voice came from some far away place tucked within her mind. “Um, I’m not sure what it is exactly, I’ll have to look some stuff up. It’s not like I have anything to go off of.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.”
“Yeah.” Her hands dropped from my head and landed on the back of my chair, just inches from my shoulders. Our eyes locked for a fractioned moment.
Then she pulled away. “I uh… need to go-”
“Look up the-”
“Right. The… The stuff.” She climbed off the chair, and scurried to the opposite end of the lab and started typing on her computer.
But I didn’t forget the way it felt to have her that close to me. And I found myself sneaking glances at her from then on.
My only saving grace is that I caught her doing the same thing to me a couple times throughout the day as well.
***
* * *
So.
We had broken up.
Huh.
Almost five months after we first met.
Dating Ellie was probably the one thing that kept me sane throughout those months. I always knew I had to keep myself respectable, if only for her. I don’t even know what she saw in me in the first place, but I did know that if I were to slip any further, then there would be no reason for her to have any interest in me. Bright, young, gorgeous women with a world of opportunity ahead of them do not date depressed ex-spies with nothing going for them. It was one of those laws of nature or something.
Not like any of that mattered any more. Ellie had obviously decided that it was time for us to stop deluding ourselves and get on with our lives. Or for her to get on with her life, seeing how I didn’t really have much of one.
I guess I should’ve been happy that after months of painful self-searching I finally had something that could turn into a career. But I just couldn’t manage any real excitement about the prospect any more.
Maybe I should consider moving or something. Get a fresh start in a new city and all that. Of course that’s what the whole idea of moving to Metropolis was, and that didn’t really turn out too well.
The buzzer rang. And it rang again. Then it rang again, continuously. I pulled myself up off the chair, and made my way to the intercom.
“What?” I asked dejectedly.
“Open up,” came the command. I followed the order with trepidation. This was one visit I did not need right now.
A couple minutes later, my doorway was filled with a tense, glaring, angry sister.
“What,” she growled menacingly, “did you do?”
