Last time:
Lois
"What the hell is this? The Betty Crocker Bake-Off? Get back to work! We've got a newspaper to run!"
At Perry's bellow we all scattered.
Well, Clark and I didn't scatter too far.
"I want to go look for him," he told me quietly, his chair pulled up near my desk. It was turned so he was straddling it, his arms folded over the back and his chin resting on them.
"I know." I couldn't really get to one of his hands to hold it so I put my hand on the back of his neck, rubbing his hairline gently.
What I really wanted to do was go somewhere, take him in my arms and kiss him senseless.
Instead of that, I pulled up the Planet's internal WIP file. Before I could get too far, it hit me.
"Platt was at that warehouse," I said suddenly.
"What?"
I nodded. "Zymak told me there was someone in there – an out of work, slightly crazy scientist."
He moved back and then smacked his head. "Of course. Billy and I went by there earlier looking for him, but I was so preoccupied with the 'flying man flew off with my wife' thing that it didn't register. Henderson said they took someone to the hospital but not who and that he was going to be okay."
I pushed back from my desk. "Let's tell Perry we're headed to the hospital and that we might have a lead on Van-El and we'll check it out, too."
He nodded and moved his chair back over to his desk. "Let's go."
*~*129*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
What I really wanted to do was go find my brother.
I didn't care about Platt or anything else.
Okay – that wasn't strictly true, but the fact that my brother was alive trumped everything.
"You need to go see your folks," Lois said as we walked out of the Daily Planet building. "They're going to be wondering what's going on."
"I know." I sighed. I did need to go see them.
"Go on. I can handle this and I told Perry we were heading home once we were done. Give me a call before you head back and I'll let you know what I'm up to."
"Okay." I gave her a quick kiss – the kind I barely thought about anymore – and headed for a nearby alley.
Faster than the eye could see, I headed for the sky. When I was far enough up, I stopped and searched, but there was no sign of my brother.
I headed towards Kansas as quickly as I could, finding the explanation for why my parents hadn't called. It was Tuesday which meant Granny was at the Senior Center in Hutchinson. Mom and Dad were both out in the south field working.
They looked up, surprised, when I landed in front of them.
"Clark!" Mom said with a grin. "What are you doing here?"
"Have you guys seen the news at all this afternoon?"
They shook their heads. "We've been out here most of the day. Why? Is everything okay?" Dad asked.
"Um..." I sighed. "Can we go inside?"
They exchanged a glance. "Sure," Mom said.
Ten minutes later, we were sitting watching the repeated ANC coverage. They were rerunning the footage of Van-El over and over. His name hadn't made it public yet; I guessed Perry was holding on to that tidbit for the morning paper.
I hadn't spoken since I turned it on. Dad's jaw was twitching and Mom's mouth was open.
"Clark, is there something you need to tell us?" he finally asked quietly.
"Where'd you get the costume?" That came from Mom.
I sighed. "It's not me."
"Then who is it?"
"Van-El," I said. "My brother."
They exchanged another glance – this one puzzled. "Who?" Mom finally said.
"My brother." My brow furrowed as I thought. "Did I really never tell you about him?"
"Uh, no," Dad said. "We would have remembered that."
"When my parents – Jor-El and Lara – were working on a ship for me to escape in, there was someone else there, too. They said he was my brother, Van-El. He was about fifteen or sixteen or so and they said it was too hard to make a ship large enough for him or for both of us so they made one for me and sent me here." We watched as he put his arm around Lois' waist and took off.
"Lois talked to him?"
I nodded. "She thought it was me. She was ready to read me the riot act for doing something like that without talking to her about it first. I mean, we've talked about it in general a few times, but nothing like 'oh, by the way, I'm becoming a super today'. She said we could almost pass for each other, especially if it was someone who didn't know us well or from a distance. I guess they were able to build him a ship but it took longer to get here. He tried to find me when he arrived, but he's thought I was dead for over a decade."
"When are you going to meet him?" Dad asked.
I shrugged. "Lois said he needed some time to adjust to the idea of me being alive or something, but that she gave him every possible way to contact either one of us, so hopefully it won't be too long. I'm thinking about going for a 'run' or something tonight and going to look for him. Maybe try to catch him at a rescue or something and follow him until he talks to me."
Mom sighed. "I'm not saying you shouldn’t try to find him, but if he said he needs some time, he probably needs some time."
"What's that mean?"
"I mean, look for him, but don't push – not yet. Give him time to come to you."
I thought for a minute. She was probably right. She was Mom, of course she was right. "How long do I give him?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. See what happens."
"I did see him," I said quietly. "He flew Lois back into the newsroom." My face wrinkled in disgust. "You should have heard some of the things people were saying. I mean, nothing horrible in the xenophobic sense, but wondering about his sex life and stuff like that."
Dad raised a brow at me and I knew that was the wrong thing to say. We hadn't had that discussion since I told them Lois was pregnant but I knew it had crossed Dad's mind at the very least. Probably Mom's too.
"Cat actually said to give her an hour 'under the hood' and she could tell if he was an 'import or domestic'."
Dad grimaced and Mom winced at that.
"So you've thought about doing something similar?" Dad asked.
I nodded. "I've helped out when I can but I'd like to do more. The first time I saw the Incredibles, I saw the potential there. So did Lois. I think maybe that's why Christopher likes it so much – on some subconscious level, he knows he might be able to be one someday."
"Might?"
I shrugged. "Obviously, neither of them are invulnerable at the moment. Who knows if they inherited my powers?"
They nodded.
"Anyway, we've talked about it in passing, but I'd told her a long time ago it would be at *least* after college and probably after the whole thing with Christopher is resolved before I'd seriously consider it."
"I guess we'll see how it plays out then."
The sound was turned all the way down but the banner on the bottom asked if he had a secret identity – like the supers or Batman and so on.
My phone buzzed. "That's Lois," I said, reading the screen. "She's on her way home. I better go."
"Tell her congratulations on the front page story on her first day at work. I noticed the byline," Mom said standing up to give me a hug.
"She told me once a long time ago and again recently that she'd always planned on using Lane or Lane hyphenated for her professional name and was kind of disappointed that she wasn't going to be able to."
"Well, why ever not?" Mom asked. "It's not like you'd refuse to let her hyphenate her last name or some nonsense like that."
"No. Daniel had mentioned it after we got married – that anything like that might give him something further he could use to claim that Christopher wasn't my son or something. It's part of the reason why we chose to name him after both my dads – it's something I would have wanted to do at some point anyway, but with everything else, it was safer for him than naming him Christopher Samuel or something."
Mom rested her head on my shoulder. "You know, we knew what you guys live with, but I don't think I understood until I stayed there last summer. The security, the lockdowns, all that..." She shuddered. "I don't know how you live with it."
"Sadly, it's become normal. Christopher doesn't know any different. Neither does Nate, but he's too young to understand. Christopher is, too, really. He just knows he's not supposed to ever go outside without a grown-up and Scott or Steve or both go with him everywhere he goes."
I gave her a squeeze. "I gotta go. I love you both and unless something truly desperate happened – like saving Christopher or something – I wouldn’t do the super thing without talking to you guys first anyway."
"That's good to know. And you're right," Dad said. "Christopher or Lois would take preference over talking to us."
We said our good-byes and I flew back to Metropolis.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
I went to the hospital but couldn't get any information on Platt's condition. I did manage to confirm that he was there but that was about it.
I called Serena and told her what I'd found.
Then I headed home.
I wasn't sure Perry would like it, but I also knew that I'd brought in two huge stories on my first two days and I also knew – better than anyone except maybe Clark – that if Van-El didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be.
Clark met me at the Jeep in the hospital parking garage.
"What'd they say?" I asked.
"They congratulated you on two front page stories in two days."
"And your brother?"
He sighed and leaned his head against the head rest. "I guess I'd never told them about him. Dad said I'd never told them much about the personal stuff the globe told me, but it didn't really tell me much either so..."
"Globe?" I asked, my heart pounding in my chest. Was he actually going to tell me something?
"It was the navigation system in my ship – I think, anyway. Kind of like a universal GPS or something. Some things I just knew when I picked it up the first time when I was... oh, I guess ten or so. It changed from a picture of Earth to another planet that I just knew was Krypton. It showed a few holograms over the years that told me a little bit about why I was sent here – that the planet was going to explode or something. Most of the time it just sits there – kind of an opaque white marble or something."
It wasn't much but I would take what I could get.
"Anyway, we watched the coverage on ANC, didn't really listen but they replayed the whole thing over and over – including his... conversation with you and taking off with you."
I cringed. "They got that on tape?"
"Yeah, they got that on tape."
"I'd bet Dad hasn't seen or heard about it or..." As though on cue, my phone rang. "Can you grab that?"
He pulled the phone out of my purse. "Yep. I'd bet he's seen it," he said handing it over.
"Hello?"
"Are you okay, Princess?"
I laughed. "I'm *fine*, Daddy."
"They're saying he's an alien and he *flew* with you."
I couldn’t tell him it wasn't the first time an alien had flown with me. "He's just a guy, Dad. Honest. I'll tell you all about it when we get home. But really – I mean the flying was cool, but I was never in any danger or anything like that."
"You're sure?"
"I'm *sure*." I winced. "Did Christopher see it?"
"Yep. He wants to know how you got to fly with Mr. Incredible."
I laughed again. "Just lucky, I guess. We'll be home in about fifteen minutes, okay?"
"Okay. See you in a few. Bye."
"Bye, Daddy." I hung up the phone and tucked it under my leg.
"Christopher saw it?"
I nodded. "I bet I'm going to be in for a tougher grilling from him than I was from Perry."
He chuckled. "Probably. The kid is obsessed with supers."
"I wonder why."
I didn't let myself think about it, but reached over and rested my hand on his arm. "How are you doing?"
He shrugged. "I'm antsy. I want to go fly around until I find him – and I may do a little bit of that later. But Mom pointed out that he probably really does need some time and not to push him or it could backfire."
"True."
"It's been a big week already. I mean, the almost kidnapping. Starting work. Our first big story on our first day. Working on the Messenger thing. The two most boring presentations ever..."
"You didn't have Jensen for World Religions."
He laughed. "True. I had my share of boring profs though."
"True."
"Anyway, if all that wasn't enough, now my brother I thought died when the planet exploded isn't really dead and is out there flying around putting out fires and stuff. It's just a lot to take in."
"Did you see Eduardo's article today?" I asked quietly.
"Rebels in Latislan?"
"Yeah."
"I'm not holding my breath."
"Me either, but a girl can dream right?"
He nodded.
That reminded me. "Hey, do you know anything about my byline?"
He smiled. "I wondered how long it would take you to notice and mention that."
"Well, I noticed and I'm mentioning."
"I talked to Daniel after our conversation the other day and he said he thought it would be okay. I thought about mentioning it to you, but then everything got crazy and I talked to Perry about it – I know it wasn't *on* your birthday, but pretty close, right?"
"Well, thank you. It means a lot to me."
"I didn't get to give you your real birthday present yet. I forgot all about it in the excitement. Remind me later."
"Another autographed script?" That I hadn't gotten a present from Clark had slipped my mind. And Daddy had told me a couple weeks ago that his went with Clark's.
"Nope."
"Any chance I could guess?"
"Probably not."
"Then I give up, I guess." I rolled my window down and punched my code in to open the gate. "But as soon as the boys are down... I want it."
He laughed. "Okay."
I pulled in front of the house and Christopher darted out the front door with Daddy close behind him.
"Mommy! Mommy! You f'y wi' Mi'ter 'c'edib'e?"
I laughed as he launched himself at me. "His name isn't Mr. Incredible. It's Van-El and yes, I did get to fly with him."
"Ca' I f'y wi' him?"
"Oh, I don't know. I don’t know him very well. Maybe if I get to know him I could ask him, but that'll be a long time."
He gave a big sigh. "'Kay. Ca' I ge' a... W'a's hi' na'?"
"Van-El."
"A Va'-E' doll?"
"Well, I don't think there's any Van-El dolls yet, bud. But if I find one, then maybe for your birthday, okay?"
He nodded. "Okay."
I glanced at Clark. I couldn’t quite read his expression. Jealousy? Was that it? Not much, just a touch?
Because there was a hero and it wasn't him and Christopher was excited about it?
Didn't he know that powers or no powers, he would always be Christopher's hero?
And mine?
Somehow, I wasn't sure he did.
*****
TBC
