A couple 'new' canon characters coming right up! I will admit to being nervous about the introduction of one. More about why in the FDK thread.
Thanks again to Queenie for her brainstorming help the other day that lead to yesterday's stuff wrapping up. I *think* I have two more chapters to write - as long as they don't get carried away [and I'll not define what kind of carried away].
I really hope to get it done today but no school for the little kids [which also means I don't have to leave the house either] and DD7 gets out early so... Part of it may depend on how much of the original ending I use - if any. I think too much has changed since I wrote it to use much...
We'll see.
Thanks again for the fabulous help of Beth, Nancy and Alisha.
Last time:
Lois
"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.
*~*130*~*
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
"Any luck?"
I shook my head as I pulled my shirt off. Lois was already in bed. "No. No luck." I tossed the black turtleneck into the laundry. "I flew around, stopped at a fire, but he wasn't there."
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
I shrugged. "He knows where to find us. If he's out and about tomorrow, maybe I can catch up with him. Perry's going to want us hitting the streets looking for him anyway."
She yawned and stretched. "Probably, but we also have another Toyman follow-up – his arraignment is tomorrow – and the Platt research. Was that fire arson? Van-El said he thought he smelled an accelerant of some kind but he wasn’t sure what it was – for all we know, it could have been paint thinner left behind by the last company to work out of there – but we should check it out. The transport is going up Sunday and we need to make sure there's nothing wrong with it. Even without searching for Van-El we'll be pretty busy."
I headed into the closet and brought a small box out. "Here." I tossed it to her. "Happy late birthday. You won't be able to use it right away but..."
She gave me a puzzled look, but ripped at the paper. She opened the box as I settled in my side of the bed before reading the note inside. "Are you serious?"
"As serious as Perry telling an Elvis story."
She squealed and launched herself at me. I laughed until I realized she'd managed to knock me over.
She was lying directly on top of me.
On our bed.
Where we'd made love.
She pushed back slightly as I reached up to brush a wayward strand of hair back.
I wanted to kiss her.
Really kiss her.
But I couldn’t.
She'd kill me if I ever did that again without making a full commitment to this.
To us.
And with the emotions of the last few days still running high, I didn't think it was a good idea.
She scrambled off me. "Sorry. I didn't mean to knock you over, but this is amazing."
"I'm not sure when we'll be able to go, but Mark is going to get me some dates of episodes he thinks would be good. He said they're talking about a really cool Christmas episode this year."
"Mark? As in Mark Harmon?"
I nodded.
"We get to be extras on an episode of NCIS? And spend a whole week on the set?"
I grinned. "Yep. He'd told me last year that if we ever wanted to get on the set to let him know and he'd get us passes or something. I sent him an email a few weeks ago and asked if this might be a possibility."
"You have Gibbs' email?"
"No. I have Mark Harmon's email."
"Same thing," she muttered.
I shook my head slightly. "Now," I warned, "the part will probably be something like random person sitting at a table in the background or something like that, but I still thought you'd like it. And I already talked to your dad and he said his gift is the plane tickets and hotel room when we go."
"This is incredible. Thank you. Are the boys going with us?"
I shook my head. "Probably not. I can't imagine trying to keep track of them on a set."
"You're probably right." She slid back down under the covers and rolled to look at me. "Thank you. It's a great gift."
I reached out and moved that strand of hair again. "That doesn't like to stay put does it?"
She shook her head. "Jen cut it too short. Once it grows out a little bit it'll be okay." She settled back onto her pillow. "Good night."
"Good night."
I knew sleep wouldn't come easy to me and it didn't.
After lying there for what seemed like hours, I headed out to the veranda and sat in one of the chairs, staring at the night sky. I knew I could do the same through the ceiling but it wasn't the same.
"Want to talk about it?"
I hadn’t even heard Lois come out behind me.
"Not much to talk about. Not yet anyway. Not until I can talk to him and get some answers."
She sat in the chair next to me. "I didn't think you'd be able to sleep tonight."
"You thought right. Don't know what to do about it though."
"I don't either. I just thought you might not want to be alone."
"Thanks."
We sat in silence for a long time before we spoke at the same time.
"You should go to bed."
"What about the globe thing?"
"What?" I asked.
"Could it tell you anything? I mean, I don't know much about, but maybe it knows something."
"I don't know how it works. I kept it in my room for a while and every once in a while it would glow and the hologram would appear. I moved it to another hiding spot with the ship when I got a bit older and would go down there once a week or so. Sometimes it would say something and others it wouldn't. Believe me, I've tried everything to get more information out of it and I can't figure out how it works. Maybe Van knows."
"Maybe."
"But you really should go get some sleep. I don't need as much sleep as you anyway and you've had a busy few days and you need to get some rest."
She yawned and nodded. "I probably should but I don't want to leave you alone."
I smiled at her. "I'm fine, really."
"Okay then." She stood up and yawned again. Her hand rested on my shoulder for a brief moment. "Let me know if there's anything I can do."
"I will."
She went inside and I could hear the sheets rustling as she settled into bed. I didn't know how much longer I stayed out there but it was the wee hours of the morning before I finally felt I could sleep.
~~~~~
Lois
~~~~~
As expected, I was covering the Toyman's arraignment. Clark was working with Serena – who was still only feeling okay at best but who wasn't missing out on all this if at possible – on the Platt stuff that he'd dropped off.
Billy was out chasing down any possible lead on Van-El. Mid-morning there were reports of jumpers – one right after the other. Van-El, by zipping quickly from one to the other, caught the second one. It seemed a bit odd to me, but Billy was covering it – trying to get interviews with the jumpers.
There was a large crowd gathering near a building at Third and Ordway when I left the arraignment. "What's going on?" I asked someone walking by.
"Bomb threat at the Carlin Building," the lady told me as she hurried past. "I'd get out of here."
Right. I headed towards the area.
I heard one of the officers say that the building had been evacuated. That was good.
Van-El landed in the middle of the cleared area. He glanced at me and something I couldn't quite place crossed his face. He spoke briefly with the head of the bomb squad before walking up the stairs towards the building.
I could hear local reporter Linda Montoya jabbering away live on whichever local network she worked for – or maybe she'd been picked up by one of the news networks by this point – with the possibility of Van-El showing up.
Perry said he'd been fielding calls all day wanting more information and even interviews with me.
He told all of them they could read about it in the Daily Planet.
The explosion nearly knocked me off my feet and stopped my heart in my chest.
He had to be okay.
I knew Clark said he was invulnerable but he'd never walked into an explosion.
And if something happened to Van-El now, before Clark had a chance to get to know him...
I breathed a sigh of relief and my heart started beating again when Van-El walked out of the building. He didn't have so much as a scratch.
"Lois!"
I turned when I heard Clark's voice. I heard a telltale whoosh and turned back to see that Van-El was gone.
"Lois, you're hurt." He reached for my forehead.
"I'm fine, Clark. Just a scratch."
"Let me see."
"I'm *fine*," I reiterated, submitting to the gentle ministrations as he brushed my hair back.
"I think you need a stitch or two."
"Can't you just..." I looked around. "...zap it or something? Cauterize it?" I whispered.
"No! It would *hurt* for one thing – badly – and your dad will want to check it out later anyway so it's not a good idea."
I sighed. "Fine. Where's a paramedic?"
A few minutes later, I was all stitched up and we headed towards Henderson.
"...somewhere within a two mile radius," he was saying.
"What?" Clark asked suddenly. "It was deliberate?"
Henderson turned to see us. "Kents. You've been on the job three days now. I think you need to get new careers – it's gotten way too exciting." He said it with a completely straight face and I thought he might actually mean it.
"Come on, Henderson. Lois got hurt. Van-El could have been hurt. Anyone in the building before it was evacuated could have been hurt." Clark could be persuasive.
Henderson sighed. "The explosion was radio-controlled, activated from an unknown point of origin within a two-mile radius of this site. Also, there were video cameras installed in the lobby that were *not* part of the building's security system, or any other system that the management company knew about. We think the two are connected."
I gasped. "You're saying someone waited for Van-El to appear, watched him enter the building, and *then* detonated the explosives?
Henderson nodded. "That's our theory."
"That's horrible!" I exclaimed, sharing a stricken look with Clark.
"Who would want to do something like that? Kill Van-El?"
I reached out and grasped Clark's hand lightly. I could only imagine the thoughts going through his head.
"Probably some criminal element wanting to know if they can eliminate him," Henderson said. "If he's 'a friend' who is a good guy, they'll likely want to get rid of him as soon as possible." Someone else hollered at him. "Talk to you Kents later. Seriously. New line of work." He walked off.
"Someone's trying to hurt him."
"He can't *be* hurt," I said quietly. "Not without Kryptonite and no one knows about that except us and your folks. *He* might not know about that. Did the globe ever say anything?"
He shook his head. "No. Nothing."
I sighed. "Well, let's get back to the Planet and get this written up."
"Yeah. Let's go."
~~~~~
Clark
~~~~~
Someone was trying to kill my brother – who I still hadn't met but who had taken off as soon as I got there – and had hurt Lois in the process. She was going to be fine, but she could easily have been hurt much worse. At least two other people were in the hospital.
We made our way back to the Planet and wrote up the bomb story. Lois wrote up the Toyman story. When we finished those, we headed to the conference room to see if we could help Serena.
"I think it's time to call in the big guns," she said with a sigh.
"Who's that?" I asked.
"Bernie Klein from STAR Labs." She picked up the phone and dialed a number from memory. "Bernie Klein," she said when someone answered. She was apparently on hold for a moment while the call was transferred. "Bernie?" Pause. "Yes, it's Serena. Do you know Dr. Samuel Platt?" Pause. "Good. We have a bunch of his notes here. Can we teleconference and see if you can help us with all this?" Pause. "Great. *See* you in a minute."
A minute later, a lab appeared on the Plasma screen at one end of the room. "Just a minute, Serena," came a disembodied voice.
"No problem, Bernie," she called back.
I glanced at Lois. I expected this to be some bowtie wearing, gray haired, lives in a lab kind of guy – like a stereotypical lab rat but that voice didn't sound like it belonged to that kind of guy.
Lois was frowning, but I couldn't figure out why.
A minute after that, a full head of dark hair appeared along with a forehead. We could hear some muttering.
"There," he finally said. "All done. I think." His face came into full view and my jaw dropped.
Lois gasped.
He was frozen in place. "Um, you know what, Serena? I have, um, something, um, in a beaker in the next lab and it smells funny. The fumes will kill my lab rat if I don't go get it. Have Billy bring everything over later tonight or in the morning."
The screen went black.
"That was odd," Serena said, a frown creasing her face. "He's usually very personable, besides being the hottest scientist in town." She turned and looked right at me. "Oh, my. *That's* why you've always looked so familiar. I could never place it. I thought you didn't have any family."
"I don't," I whispered. "Not that I ever knew of."
I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath, running my hands through my hair. This was a lot to absorb.
But now I knew who he was.
Van-El was Bernie Klein.
*****
TBC
