The Bombshell
Chapter Two
Clark was in the kitchen preparing a bowl of canned tuna when he heard Robin call to him that Lois was home. Oh, good, he thought. Might as well face the explosion head-on.
He grabbed a dish towel and wiped his hands as he walked into the living room. He walked to his wife, who was rooted to the carpet in the doorway, and kissed her on the cheek. “Hi, honey, glad you’re home. Want something to drink?”
She didn’t answer for a moment. “Lois? Are you okay?”
Lois slowly rotated her head towards him. “Clark?”
He saw the confusion in her expression and considered that he’d made a mistake by not calling her earlier. “Yes, Lois?”
“Who is that woman?”
Clark turned and looked at Robin. “You mean her?”
Lois pushed him sharply and actually knocked him slightly off-balance. “Are there any other strange women in my home?”
Now she’s mad, he thought, but at least she’s mad at me and not at Robin. “Her name is Robin McGyver. She was the only survivor of that plane crash today.”
Lois’s eyebrows danced above her lashes. “What? Clark, there were no survivors! All four crew and all sixteen passengers were killed instantly! No one could have lived through that crash!”
“She did.”
Robin walked up to Lois and held out her hand. “Howdy. Your man here told me I could clean up a little.”
Lois fixed her with a laser stare. “You’re wearing my robe.”
Robin looked down at her garment, then back at Lois. “Sorry, honey. You want it back?”
“Yes,” Lois hissed.
Robin shrugged. “Okay. Here ya go.”
She opened the robe and dropped it from her shoulders and demonstrated to both of them that she had no visible scars, tattoos, or other identifying marks. Clark reddened and turned away, but Lois just crossed her arms and intensified her glare. “You can put it away now, ‘honey.’ Clark doesn’t care how loaded your guns are.”
It was Robin’s turn to lift her eyebrows. After a moment, she pulled the robe back up and belted it closed. “I guess that means you don’t care neither.”
“Not a bit.”
“Okay. I guess maybe you wanna take a swing at me, too.”
Lois took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Not just now, but don’t forget about it.” She took a step forward. “Because I won’t.”
Without turning around, Clark said, “Ah, Lois? Robin’s not from around here.”
Lois snarled, “I can see that.”
“No, I mean she’s not from around here like I’m not from around here.”
Lois processed Clark’s comment for a moment, then stepped back and dropped her hands to her side. “Clark – you mean – are you telling me she’s – she’s from – “
Robin smiled and floated two feet above the floor. “Yep. My old homestead’s Krypton, just like his is.”
Robin drifted back to terra firma. Without thinking about why he did it, Clark turned around and stepped between the two women so that his left shoulder was in front of Lois. “Robin, you have to understand about Lois. She’s never met anyone else from Krypton.” He snorted. “For that matter, neither have I, except for those idiots from New Krypton.”
Lois’s eyes widened. “You’re from New Krypton, aren’t you? You didn’t leave with the rest of them! We’ll have to contact Zara somehow and send you – “
Clark looked over his shoulder and said, “No. Zara assured me that all of their people left with her and the mother ship. They can’t come back to Earth without me knowing about it, and since Nor is dead none of them have any reason to be here.”
He could tell from her expression that she didn’t believe him completely, or perhaps it was that she didn’t fully trust Zara, but since she didn’t say anything he didn’t pursue the subject. “My mom went out to buy some clothes for Robin, since she can’t wear anything of yours and the only thing I have that will fit her is an old sweatsuit. She should be back in a few minutes.”
Robin nodded to the front door. “She’s in the hallway now. I’ll wait for her in the bedroom, okay?”
Without waiting for any response, Robin turned and waltzed into the bedroom. Martha walked in the front door just as the bedroom door clicked shut.
Martha took in the sight of Lois staring holes in Clark, and she walked to the bedroom and handed the two bags from Cost Mart through the doorway. She retraced her steps, and as she passed Clark, she said, “Jonathan and I have some shopping of our own to do. We’ll bring back some fried chicken and coleslaw for dinner. See you two in a couple of hours.”
The front door clicked shut. Clark looked at Lois. Lois turned her head and stared at the bedroom door.
“Lois?”
She didn’t turn her head. “What?”
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
She slowly turned her entire rigid body towards him. Her words were cut from tempered steel. “Of course I do. But anything I say now, Robin will hear.”
He nodded. “How about I tell you how she got here?”
“Do your folks know about her?”
“Only because they were here earlier.”
She blew a breath out through her nose, then relaxed slightly and moved toward the couch. “Go ahead. I’m all ears.”
Clark took a deep breath and paced in front of Lois. “Her Kryptonian name is Kara. Apparently my father – Jor-El, my biological father – built another spaceship before he built the one that brought me to Earth. There were problems with the first ship, so he moved it to his brother’s storage unit and made him promise not to mess with it.”
She crossed her arms. “I take it Jor-El’s brother didn’t keep his word.”
Clark frowned. “That’s where the story gets a little fuzzy. I think Kara must have been about two at the time Krypton exploded, so she remembers a little bit about her biological parents. I think they were professional associates of my uncle, Zim-El, and Kara’s dad must have corrected most of the problems on the first ship, because they launched it when they saw Jor-El launch – well, me.”
“Okay. So what happened to her?”
“She landed in the Appalachian mountains, somewhere in West Virginia. A sharecropper and his wife found her and raised her as their own. I suppose no one questioned them having one more girl child.”
“What happened to the ship?”
Clark shrugged. “Robin doesn’t know. It’s possible that her ship was in that Bureau 39 warehouse we broke into where my ship and my globe was, or maybe it was buried and forgotten. She never heard anything about a globe with her ship, either.”
“What’s she been doing for the last three decades?”
“Working with her adoptive parents, at first, and then at odd jobs around the country, usually working for cash. She’s done a lot of things in her time.”
Lois sneered for a moment but didn’t say anything. Aloud, she asked, “What kinds of things?”
Clark frowned slightly. “She didn’t give us much detail about that aspect of her life. I think she’s seen some pretty difficult times, though, especially when she had to leave places to keep her powers secret.”
“Like you used to do?”
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. Like I said, her story is a little fuzzy in places. A lot of places, actually. I don’t know all the details yet.”
Lois sat down and leaned back. “Where does she call home?”
“As far as I can tell, she doesn’t have a home. She just wanders around, doing what she has to do to stay alive.”
“Oh, good,” she muttered, “a super-powered vagrant.” Before Clark could react, she added, “What was she doing on that plane?”
“She was working for a temporary agency in Kentucky when she heard there were some entry-level openings at LNN. She said she’s tired of moving around so much and wanted to put down some roots, even if it was in the big city.”
“So why haven’t we heard from her before now?”
“She doesn’t want to be a super-heroine. She just wants to be left alone.”
Lois shook her head. “That’s not likely to happen, Clark, especially not now. The authorities are still trying to find the twentieth body in the wreckage of that plane. They won’t find it because she’s in our bedroom getting dressed. Her name, or whatever name she was using, is in their computer. Somebody must remember her from the departure point in Louisville, and we can’t just tell people that Superman rescued her and dropped her on our doorstep. This is not the kind of mystery that’s going to just go away.”
She was right. And that worried Clark more than he was willing to admit, even to his wife.
*****
Lois knew Clark was trying to do the right thing where Robin was concerned, but she wasn’t sure he knew what the right thing was at the moment. It was as if he’d latched onto Robin simply because she was from Krypton without thinking through the ramifications of his actions.
He was being impulsive and she was trying to hold him back. That was certainly a role reversal.
Before Clark could respond to Lois’s last statement, the bedroom door opened and Robin stepped out. Lois stood and examined her critically. She was about five feet ten inches tall, and slender almost to the point of anorexia. She appeared to weigh no more than one hundred ten pounds – if she weighed that much – but Lois knew that Kryptonian physiology was denser than human, and that she could survive for an extended period of time on little food as long as she had enough sunlight. She’d brushed her hair back and secured it with one of Lois’s old scrunchies. Her eyes were light gray and her skin was clear. Her new clothes were basic business casual style, and they fit her well. Lois admitted that Robin was attractive despite the poor first impression she’d presented.
But something in her body language concerned Lois. She didn’t move like Clark did, confident and relaxed and openly trusting. Nor did she walk like so many of the New Kryptonians had, as superior beings disdainful of other inferior creatures. Instead, Robin reminded Lois of a prey animal, ready to flee at the first hint of a threat. But what could threaten her? She was Kryptonian, and even though Lois hadn’t seen any demonstration of her powers other than floating, she’d survived a plane crash that had killed all the other people on the aircraft.
And that reminded Lois of what the flight controller had told her. He’d been almost in tears as he’d told her, “It just dropped out of the sky! It was right in the approach groove, coming in perfect on the glide path, and it just fell down! I don’t know what happened! It was like the pilot suddenly pushed the stick all the way forward and shoved the throttles all the way up and deliberately flew it right into the ground! Planes don’t crash like that, not by accident.”
There was a lot more to this Robin McGyver than met the eye, and Lois was suddenly determined to get to the bottom of it.
This was a time to play the gracious hostess. Lois stepped forward and said, “Robin, please forgive my bad manners. I had to cover a story while on vacation and I didn’t get the whole thing, I twisted my ankle, I had to take a cab back to my own home, and I find a stranger here who’s from someplace far, far away. I apologize for my lack of hospitality. Did Clark get you something to eat?”
Robin eyed Lois warily. “No.”
“What would you like? We have some steaks I could grill, or I could make you a sandwich, or even some pasta if you’d rather have that.”
Robin hesitated as if measuring Lois’s sincerity. “A sandwich or two would be nice.”
Lois smiled. “Good. Smoked turkey and cheddar cheese okay with you?”
“Sure.”
“Mayonnaise? Lettuce? Tomato?”
“Uh. Sure, that sounds – nice.”
“Coming right up. Do you like iced tea or would you prefer a glass of soda?”
Robin glanced furtively at Clark, who only raised his eyebrows in confusion. “Iced tea sounds fine. You got some already sweet?”
Lois’s voice drifted back from the kitchen. “Clark doesn’t make it any other way. I won’t be a minute.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Lois could hear them in the living room; Robin apparently had little regard for privacy, her own or someone else’s. “Your wife ain’t quite what I expected, Kal.”
“Please, call me Clark.”
“Sure, if that’s what y’want.”
“It is my name.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Same reason I go by Robin.”
Clark hesitated, then his good manners took over. “Why don’t you sit down and make yourself comfortable?”
“Thanks.” Lois heard the sofa sigh. “Hey, this is a classy couch. Where’d you get it?”
“We bought it just after we signed the lease for the apartment.”
There was a puzzled note in the girl’s voice. “You bought it?”
Lois entered the room with Robin’s sandwiches on a tray, along with the bowl of tuna Clark had been preparing when Lois got home. “We paid cash, too. Clark hates to pay interest on anything. Clark, did you want this tuna or was it for Robin?”
“If Robin doesn’t want it, I’ll put it in the fridge for later. My parents are bringing home fried chicken, remember?”
Robin took the tray and began wolfing down the meal. She stopped to swallow and muttered around another huge bite, “I jus’ thought Sup’man got a lotta free stuff.”
Clark shook his head. “Superman doesn’t accept gifts unless they’re directed to the Superman Foundation. After all, Clark Kent may need a bed to sleep in, or this case a couch to sit on, but Superman doesn’t.”
Robin belched loudly. “Uh-huh. Maybe Superman don’t, but Robin does. This little birdie don’t got no nest to rest herself in. You gonna put me up here?”
Lois’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. Clark leaned in and said, “Actually, Robin, I was thinking more like a motel room.”
Robin frowned. “What? You gonna stick me in a crappy little motel when you got all this room here? What’s the matter with you, anyway?”
Lois recovered and gently asked, “Robin, couldn’t you just fly wherever you want to go?”
The girl snorted. “Sure I could, but I got no money! All my cash and my ID papers was in my purse and it’s all burnt up in the plane crash! An’ so was all my luggage! Even the clothes I was wearin’ got scorched pretty good ‘n’ that’s why I was wearin’ your robe when you come in! These sandwiches is good but they won’t last forever!”
“The motel would just be a temporary thing,” Clark said soothingly. “I think we can find you something more permanent, if that’s what you’d like.”
“Permanent. Yeah, permanent, long as it’s where some people are. I got tired o’ bein’ by myself.”
Lois stood. “I’ll take the tray if you’re done with it.”
Robin grinned. “Yeah, sure. Hey, I could get used to bein’ waited on.”
Like that’s going to happen, Lois thought. Aloud, she asked, “Robin, what did you mean when you said I wasn’t what you expected?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. I thought Superman’s wife’d be all rich and snooty and mean so’s other women would stay away.”
“But I’m not married to Superman. I’m married to Clark.”
Robin shrugged lazily. “Same thing, ain’t it?”
“No, it’s not. To the public, at least, Superman doesn’t have a wife or parents or loved ones. He has people he likes to hang around with occasionally, but no one he’s all that close to. It keeps the publicity down.”
She guffawed. “Like that story last year that you was messin’ around with Supes?”
Lois grimaced. “Yes, like that. That picture turned out to be a fake, remember?”
Robin shook her head. “I dint pay that much attention.” She stood abruptly. “Okay, you got a motel picked out for me or not?”
Clark lifted a hand. “If you could wait a minute, I need to check out Lois’s ankle. It’s swollen and I’m sure it hurts.”
Lois sat beside Clark and lifted her foot into his lap. “Actually, I’m really glad you noticed.”
Clark looked at and into her ankle, then nodded. “No breaks, and the ligaments aren’t damaged too badly. Unless you hurt it again, I don’t think you’ll need to see a doctor.”
Clark began massaging his wife’s ankle and foot. Lois winced a couple of times, but then she relaxed and closed her eyes. “That helps a lot. Thanks, hon.”
She opened her eyes and spotted Robin staring at them. Lois couldn’t decide if the girl was amazed at Superman’s solicitude or envious of their relationship.
Lois smiled and thought, Wait till she sees us when we’re really in sync.
Then a troubling thought struck her. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for Robin to see how loving and tender Clark could actually be. Maybe showing Robin how good she and Clark were together wasn’t a good thing. And she wondered why she was thinking along those lines.
Her smile slid away like the morning mist in harsh sunlight.
