Thanks once again to my awesome betas!
PART TWENTY-FOUR
*~Ellie~*
I lazily flicked a page over in my book as I waited for Jay to come home. How long does it take to go for a run, anyway?
Finally, I heard his steps come down the hall. His heart was still beating strongly from the exercise he had done, and his breathing was heavy. The key scraped in the lock, and Jay entered his apartment. Immediately, his eyes landed on me lounging on the sofa.
“Surprise,” I grinned.
“Achoo!” he sneezed loudly.
“You’re sick?” I asked with concern, putting down my book.
“Just a cold,” he brushed it off. “Nothing to worry about. I didn’t know you were coming by.” He began to pry off his beat-up running shoes.
“I saw you running in the neighborhood as I was flying over and I decided to give you something to come home to,” I replied.
“You could’ve joined me,” he said, finally loosing one foot from its cage. He had said the cold was minor, but I couldn’t help noticing how congested his voice was.
“Yeah right,” I replied dryly.
“No, seriously.” He began working on the other shoe. “You would’ve gotten some fresh air and exercise.”
“I had to go rescue a capsized fishing boat this morning. That’s plenty of fresh air and exercise for me.”
“Okay, fine, Miss Smug. Go ahead and be lazy.”
“I’d probably just annoy you if I was there, anyway,” I told Jay. “You’d be puffing along, working hard, and I wouldn’t even break a sweat.”
“You’d keep me motivated,” he amended. Finally, his foot popped out of the shoe, and he came over to me. He leaned down over the sofa as his lips met mine. His scent was heightened thanks to his recent exercise, and I felt his damp hair as I reached up to pull his head closer.
“You’re sweaty,” I commented.
“Uh huh,” he agreed. He moved in closer to me, but suddenly yanked away. His sneeze barely missed me.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked with concern.
“I’m fine, Ellie,” he rolled his eyes. “I just have a nasty cold. You know how it is,” he shrugged, dropping down next to me.
“Well, no,” I couldn’t resist saying. “I don’t.”
“Oh, come on. You must’ve gotten sick some time before your powers kicked in.”
“Well, I might’ve had a runny nose a couple times, but that’s it,” I shrugged.
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope,” I grinned smugly.
“You *never* got sick in all of thirteen years, and you still had no idea that your dad was Superman?”
“Hey, I’m not a stupid as you think,” I defended, not liking where this was going. What happened to my gloating about my good health?
“You’re not?” he asked disbelievingly.
“No. If you could never remember being seriously sick, the first thing to pop into your mind wouldn’t be: ‘Oh my god, my father must be Superman’,” I told him. “You’d think that you have a really strong immune system or something. Or maybe you’d think that you must’ve been sick at one point, and you were probably just too young to remember.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Jay conceded.
“Of course once I found out the truth, everything sort of clicked together,” I told him. “And I realized that being sick is something that I’ve never actually experienced. You know, I’ve always wondered something,” I remembered suddenly. “Is it really impossible for you to sneeze with your eyes open? Cause that’s what I’ve heard, but seems kind of weird to me. Can’t you just try to keep them open and then they’ll stay that way?”
“I… don’t know,” Jay told me, a bit thrown by the question.
“Oh.”
“I’ll give it a try the next time I feel one coming on,” he told me.
“Would you really?”
“Yeah, sure,” he rolled his eyes in amusement.
“See, I knew there was a reason why I loved you!” I exclaimed, reaching over to hug him.
Jay gave me one in return, humoring my excitement. “But you didn’t get your powers until you were thirteen,” he remembered after a pause. “So does that mean you’re immune to disease even without your powers just because of your genetic makeup?”
“That’s actually been one of my pet projects for a while,” I shared. “Of course, I haven’t been able to put much work into it lately, but now I may go back to it. It’s a difficult thing to test.” I traced the lines on his hand as I spoke. “But I think the reason behind it is that my powers were actually working to protect me even before I knew they were there. I experienced the same thing growing up with injuries as I did with illness. I’ve had a few scratches before, but never anything that even required a band-aid.”
“Hmm,” Jay mumbled in reply. I could tell that he was listening, but I could see the impact his cold was having on his energy.
We made an interesting contrast, I decided. There was Jay, with a body marked with scars, and sitting here with a terrible cold. And there was me. Having never been sick, and being practically indestructible.
“But the good thing about all that,” I told him, “is that I don’t have to worry about catching your cold.” And I kissed him in order to demonstrate just how useful that trait was.
I didn’t feel I would ever get over how wonderful it was to do things like that without any worry of controlling my powers. While initially I might’ve worried about having a relapse, my confidence had become completely cemented over the last few weeks. We didn’t have a thing to worry about.
Unfortunately, Jay wasn’t as enthusiastic as he normally was. He broke off early, and rested his head against the back of the sofa, breathing with his mouth hanging open.
“Why did you go for a run if you were feeling this sick?” I asked him, running my fingers through his hair.
“You don’t get sick days in the NIA,” he informed me.
“Well, you’re not in the NIA anymore, are you?” I asked critically.
“No, I’m not,” he admitted with a small grin.
“So that means you get to have a sick day,” I announced. “Here, I’m calling the gym for you and letting them know that you won’t be in.” I reached for my phone, and found the number on my contact list.
“Ellie…” he protested weakly. But before he could finish, his face crumpled up and he let out a sneeze. Miserably, he reached for a Kleenex, and blew his nose.
“Did it work?” I asked, once he was done.
“What?”
“The eyes open thing. Did it work?”
“Oh. No, I forgot,” he confessed.
“I’ll remind you next time,” I told him.
He rolled his eyes. “Here, give me the phone,” he said, reaching to grab it from my hand. “I’ll call the gym myself.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Then I’m going to go into the kitchen and make you some soup. I know a good family recipe.”
“I guess this is part of that ‘in sickness and in health’ thing, huh?”
“Yep,” I agreed. “Except I haven’t actually taken any of those vows,” I reminded him, “so I’m off the hook whenever I want to be.”
“Well, I think that’s a mistake I’m going to have to correct,” Jay remarked. “I can’t have you running off to save the world while I’m sitting here all sick and everything.”
“Not so fast, buster. You have to give me a proposal before I’ll even consider doing anything like that.” My words were casual, yet my heart started thumping at the idea. Were we ready for something like that yet? The reply I got was a resounding yes.
“A proposal, huh?” Jay mused.
“Yep. And just so you know, it better be *crazy* romantic or else I’m going to be saying no.” With that comment, I sauntered off to the kitchen.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Jay called after me. “I’ve got that all taken care of.”
I stopped mid-saunter. “You do?”
“Yep,” he grinned.
“What do you have planned?” I demanded. “When is it? How long have you been planning it for, anyway?”
“I know you don’t have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, Ellie,” Jay told me. “But these things are actually supposed to be a surprise.”
“You seriously have a proposal planned?” I asked.
“I do,” he told me. “Do you… have an answer planned?”
“Well, that would depend on how romantic the proposal is, wouldn’t it?” I said cheekily.
“Oh, right,” he remembered. “Well, in that case, I’m pretty confident.”
“You’re not even going to give me a hint?” I wheedled.
“Of course not.” He shook his head emphatically. “You’re… going to have to…” His nose crinkled up in a way that was quickly becoming familiar.
“Remember to-”
“Achoo!” he cut me off.
“Did it work?” I asked intently.
He paused. “No,” he finally decided. “I closed my eyes anyway.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll try again next time,” he offered.
“Okay,” I agreed. “But in the meantime…”
“You’re going to make me some original Kent soup while I call the gym,” he filled in. “It is Kent soup, right? Not Lane soup?”
“Definitely Kent,” I reassured him. “Trust me, you’ll love it.”
“I have no doubts about that,” he replied. “None at all.”
* * *
*~Jay~*
Jon stood up from the table, clearing his throat. Conversation died as everyone turned to look at him.
“Since our Best Man is still MIA-”
“I’m *trying* to get a hold of Alex now,” Lucy spoke up desperately, her phone pressed to her ear. She had that desperate mom tone in her voice, but Brad had arm slung around her, keeping her from panicking.
“Well, since it doesn’t look like he’ll be making it here tonight, I’d thought I’d start off with a speech instead,” Jon replied.
I tried to pay close attention to what he was saying, but I was quickly distracted by a gentle touch in the side of my calf. The sensation traveled up the rest of my leg like an electric shock. I snapped my head around to meet Ellie’s gaze. She had an expression that radiated pious innocence. Which, of course, was a total lie.
I guess being good for the entire rehearsal dinner was just too much for Ellie. But I wasn’t about to give in that easily. I turned my head away from her pointedly, and concentrated on what Jon was saying. Something about when he first met my dad. I could imagine the creativity Jon would’ve needed to come up with something nice about that.
Like the lightest of touches, I felt a spot of warmth hit my face. Again, I shot my head around to pierce Ellie with a stern gaze. Of course, by this time, I didn’t really mean it. Had she really just zapped me to get my attention? Her sparkling eyes told me yes.
Then her foot came back, tracing a gentle, tantalizing ellipse on the side of my leg.
Jon finished his speech, and sat back down, drawing my, and Ellie’s, attention back to the main action. Kaylie stood up in his place, and I forced myself to pay attention. I should really listen to what my own sister was going to say. There was always the chance she would share something embarrassing about me.
But then Ellie’s foot came back with a vengeance.
“Behave yourself,” I whispered, hardly even making a sound. I knew she would hear me.
She raised an eyebrow.
“For now, anyway,” I added in that same impossibly quiet whisper. “And then we’ll get out of here as soon as it’s decently possible.”
Clark turned his head around to glance back at us, and I ducked my head, mortified. I had forgotten that Ellie wasn’t the only person who could hear my soft whispers. Luckily, he didn’t look too stern, and instead seemed a little amused.
Clark returned his focus back to Kaylie, but it still caused Ellie to calm down, and we both focused enough to catch the tail end of Kaylie’s speech.
The formal part being out of the way, the table broke into smaller clumps as we all carried on casual conversations. Sometime during the speeches, Lucy had left the table, presumably to talk to Alex. I had hoped to snag Martha sometime during the night and talk to her about a piece I had started work on, but I was prevented from doing that by a tap on my shoulder.
“Do you have a minute?” Dad asked.
We took a few steps away from the main table in order to have some privacy. I had wanted to refuse his request, but the last thing I wanted to do was cause a scene. It was difficult enough with him here as is.
“What do you want, Dad?” I asked.
He was silent for a while, just gazing at the floor.
“I’ve been thinking,” he finally told me in a subdued tone. “About the Kent family.”
“Dad, I’m not going to talk about this.”
“Will you just listen to me about it, Jason?” he asked.
I stayed put. Mostly because he had actually phrased that as a question, and not a command.
“Your girlfriend…”
“Ellie.”
“Yes, Ellie,” he nodded. “I talked with her that day in the cemetery.”
“She told me you two met up,” I replied. If he was trying to drive a wedge by surprising me, he had the wrong idea.
“We talked for a bit,” Dad continued. “And she told me that she loves you.”
“I know she does.”
Dad’s gaze drifted off, and I could see that he had gone somewhere far away.
“I remember what that kind of love feels like,” he told me. “And I know that it can be taken away from you all too easily. Above everything else I may think is important, Jason, I feel that allowing you and your sister that happiness had a higher priority.”
“So… does that mean you’re dropping your investigation?” I asked, afraid to be putting it boldly in case I was wrong.
“I’ve trained you to have good judgment, Jason,” Dad told me. “I’ve respected it in the field, so there is no logical reason for me not to respect it in your personal life.”
“Dad…” I couldn’t even begin to say how much that meant to me. But I also didn’t think he wanted me to. “Thanks,” I finally said.
“I know Kaylie will find happiness,” he mused. “I don’t have any doubts surrounding that. I do doubt if she’s going in the right direction to gain that happiness, but I realize that’s not for me to way at this point.”
With that remark, he returned to the table, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
Ellie was quick to join me, though. “What happened?” she asked. “It looked like a pretty intense conversation.”
“He’s dropping the investigation,” I shared.
“Really? That’s fantastic!”
“Yeah. But he also said something weird. About how Kaylie isn’t going in the right direction for happiness.”
“What, you think he wants to break off the wedding?” Ellie demanded. “Now?!”
“No, I don’t think that’s it,” I replied. “I’m not sure what he was getting at. Anyway, he sounded like he was going to stay out of it, so whatever he’s thinking won’t impact the wedding.”
We didn’t get a chance to discuss it any further. At that moment, Lucy reappeared with a grim expression on her face.
“Did you get a chance to talk to Alex, Aunt Lucy?” Ellie asked.
Lucy shook her head tersely. “I want to tell everyone at once.”
We returned to the table, and everyone looked up expectantly.
“Well, I got a hold of Alex,” Lucy began, placing a hand on Brad’s shoulder to brace herself. “But unfortunately, he won’t be able to make it to the wedding. He’s in prison.”
“Again?!” Clark asked incredulously.
Kaylie and I shared a wince as we saw the effect that statement had on Dad.
“What happened to him?” Martha asked.
“One of those rainforest protests he’s involved in got out of hand,” Lucy shared. “He didn’t do anything, of course. But it’ll be a while before the police can get everything sorted out. There’s no way he can make it in time for the ceremony tomorrow.”
“Must be a genetic trait,” Lois smirked.
Lucy blushed in response, but before we could hear the story behind that, Kaylie cracked under the pressure.
“So what if he’s in prison? Someone just go bust him out!” she exclaimed.
An awkward silence descended. In a group that included three superheroes, and one high-ranking NIA director, it was difficult to know who was being addressed in that outburst. And of course, it wasn’t as if anyone would say anything about it in this environment.
But Kaylie caught hold of herself before things got really uncomfortable.
“Sorry,” she apologized moodily. “I’m sorry, okay? It’s just this whole stupid wedding…”
Martha laid a comforting hand, and Kaylie calmed down some more.
I turned to Ellie. “Is Alex going to be okay?” I wondered. I didn’t know much about Brazil, but there were many countries where being a foreigner in prison was a bad situation.
“He’ll be fine,” Ellie said. “He’s gotten himself into this type of situation before. They’ll just cart him back here once everything is sorted out. Having Nebula or anyone else drop in and fly him out would only be more trouble in the long run. Besides,” she continued, “the poor guy is starting law school in the fall, and this could honestly be the last chance for fun he’s got. He’d be pretty upset with me if I went and spoiled it for him.”
“I think I might like Alex, if I ever get a chance to meet him,” I decided.
“You probably would,” Jon jumped in.
I hadn’t noticed, but he had made his way over to where we were standing while we were talking.
“Jay, I just wanted to run something by you,” he told me. “Since Alex isn’t going to be here anymore, I was thinking it would be great if you agreed to be my Best Man.”
“Sure,” I replied.
“I know it’s a lot to take on last minute,” he apologized. “And I really don’t want you to stress about any of it, honest. But I was thinking you two might appreciate being paired together for the night, anyway.”
“That sounds great, Jon,” I told him. “Really, I’d be more than willing to step up.”
“Thanks,” he replied. “Alex’s tux *might* fit you, but if it doesn’t then just show up in a suit and that’ll be good enough. The tux is at our apartment. The window’s unlocked.” He glanced at Ellie.
“We’ll go pick it up,” she told him.
“Thanks,” he replied quickly, then left to join Kaylie, who was now sitting with Martha and Lois, still looking to be at the end of her rope.
“Well, I guess there’s one good thing that came out of all of this,” Ellie said optimistically.
“We get to spend a lot more time together tomorrow than we thought?” I asked her.
“Okay, I guess two good things,” she amended. “We also have a really good excuse for running out of this dinner early. What do you say we make a break for it?”
I looked over to see what my dad was doing. Unfortunately, he appeared to be making his way over to Kaylie. But although Clark was talking to Brad and Lucy, Kaylie was still surrounded by Martha, Lois, and Jon. They would be able to take care of my dad.
“Sure,” I told Ellie. “Let’s get out of here.”
