Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Nighttime in the Daytime, 3/?

An AU take on Nightfall.
Thanks to Deborah Joy Levine and the pilot for parts of this.

Previously in Part 2:
Bob said, “Admiral Lane, this is Special Agent Clark Kent. He was the one chased by that black SUV.”

Clark turned to Lane, unconsciously squaring his shoulders. He found a pair of piercing fighter jock’s eyes staring into his eyes. Clark didn’t blink and looked back calmly. The Admiral thrust out his right hand, “Pleased to meet you, Kent.”

Clark accepted the offered hand and felt the very firm handgrip. He made his grip firm, but less pressure than the Admiral’s. A message sent and received.

Clark smiled one of his best smiles. “I was very happy to escort your daughter home safely, sir. And it has been a pleasure working with her at the Daily Planet. She is a very brilliant and talented woman.”

Another message sent and received.

Bob looked startled. He had no idea that Kent was working with the Admiral’s daughter.

Chapter 3. Holding Out for a Hero.

Clark cruised along under the moon, headed back for the farmhouse after the intense briefing and the shock of meeting Lois’ father. He had known who her father was from the phone call to Lois’ apartment while they were very enjoyably involved with each other. But to meet the man face to face took everything to a whole new level. Right now he needed to rest and think and get ready to face Rita tomorrow.

Turning over and flying face up, like a swimmer floating on water, he watched the moon. He was trying to divine his future. One thing he knew was that up to now his life had come in small increments of progress. This next event was one giant leap for his kind, whoever or whatever that was, he thought ruefully. All he knew was that he was different and he had not met anybody else that could do what he could. One of the reasons for his journeying after high school was to see if he could find anyone else with his abilities hiding anonymously. But he had no luck. Had his parents, Martha and Jonathan, had these abilities? ‘No, they couldn’t have. They wouldn’t have died in the car wreck,’ he thought to himself. As he matured, his desire to find his origins had increased and he still had no answers.

Early on in his personal discoveries, he had tried every dangerous sport there was, repeatedly throwing himself down mountains, walking the bottom of lakes, climbing Mt. Rushmore to pick Jefferson’s nose, and never found anything that could hurt him. To help out, he had done a little of the carving on the Crazy Horse Memorial, the world's largest mountain carving and situated in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Rolling over again, he spotted the lights of Smallville and, in the distance, the glow of Wichita. He landed on the porch of the farmhouse and felt under the fake hanging flowerpot for the key. He unlocked the door and entered, not bothering to turn on the electricity. He could see perfectly well in the house.

As part of his early forensic work, he had tested the scope of his own eyesight and found that he saw both farther into the infrared and into the ultraviolet. This meant living things literally glowed to him. He could also see inanimate objects because of their inherent black body radiation.

The house had sat empty and unheated since they had come back from Antarctica and all objects had settled down to the same temperature. In this, the week of Thanksgiving in Kansas, that meant everything had a temperature just above freezing. The moon, however, was shining brightly through the windows and he easily navigated the familiar house with no extra light. He went to the master bedroom and crashed. He was physically tired from the Antarctic Expedition and mentally tired from his life in Metropolis.

The next morning, Clark went outside to the power panel and turned on the electricity. He wanted hot coffee and the only kind he really liked was percolated coffee. Heating water with his eyes and dripping it once through coffee grounds just didn’t do it for him. Also he had a fondness for toast and he had never been able to make toast with his eyes to his satisfaction. So he perked the strong Kona coffee, plugged the toaster in and enjoyed fresh coffee, and hot toast with butter and jelly. He also turned on the hot water heater so he could enjoy the luxury of a hot bath.

Bathed, shaved and dressed, he was enjoying the silence of the farmhouse when he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Looking out through the front wall of the house, he saw the Ross’ number three truck driving up to the house. He saw Rita emerge from behind the wheel and reach into the bed of the truck to lift out her portable sewing machine in its case. She placed it on the ground, and then reached back in across the seat for a large bundle. Clark threw a plaid flannel shirt over his T-shirt, and then whipped down the stairs and opened the door to help her.

“Rita,” he called joyfully to his sister, “let me help you!”

“Hey, stranger, how’re you doing? Pete said you needed some help, so here I am!”

Clark took the bulky bundle and hugged his sister one armed. “It’s great to see you again, Tiny Sis!”

Rita hugged him back, marveling at his firm trim waist. Where had the gangly kid gone? With a final squeeze, she bent to get the sewing machine. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen you. Still getting into trouble?” She smiled up at him.

Clark grabbed the sewing machine from her. “Come on in! We’ll use the dining room table as the place of operation.”

Hands free of her burdens, Rita came in and started taking off her coat, wool hat and scarf to lay them on the couch. She called to Clark in the dining room, “It’s freezing in here. Didn’t you turn on the heat last night? How can you stand it this cold!” She took off the items anyway, rubbing her hands over arms of her sweater to show how cold she was.

Clark came in to the living room and looked at her questioningly. He was about to say, “The cold doesn’t bother me, you know,” when he stopped and looked at her. She wasn’t teasing him; she stared guileless at him. Had Pete never told her about him? Of course, he hadn’t because she was only 16 when he left. Somehow, he had assumed Pete had shared his knowledge with his younger sister. But maybe he hadn’t, assuming it wasn’t his secret to share. Well, this complicated things!

Rita continued, “Pete said you needed some kind of costume. I didn’t know what for, since Halloween has come and gone. A Thanksgiving party? Or are you doing the Santa at the orphanage thing? Anyway,” she continued as she breezed into the dining room to the bundle, “I brought a variety of materials. I’m sure we can do something!”

Clark followed her, shaking his head. He put his hand on her shoulder. “Rita, I have something to tell you. Then all this will become clearer and I’ll start a fire to warm things up.” She was still so tiny and petite, Clark felt like he was looming over her, so he pulled out a dining room chair and sat. Rita leaned against the adjacent chair back and waited patiently.

“You know I’m adopted, right.” Clark now looked up into her eyes.

Rita’s forehead crinkled. “I’m not sure. I was 10 when you came to live with us and I never really thought about it. You were just my new brother. You and Pete interacted more than we did because you were boys. Boy, was he a bad influence on you!” She winked at him, still teasing.

Clark smiled one of his brilliant smiles at her. She was a resilient person and she could take this, he assured himself.

Rita startled a bit at the intensity of his megawatt smile. ‘He has grown up into one handsome guy,’ she thought. ‘Down girl. He’s your brother. But not by birth,’ an evil little voice whispered in her head. She cleared her throat, “Go on Clark. What does being adopted have to do with anything at this point in time?”

“A lot, actually. I don’t think I’m from around here.”

“Kansas?”

“No, Earth.” If ever there was a definition of “looking askance” at him, Rita was now doing it.

Shaking her head, Rita said, “I’m not following you.”

Suddenly very nervous, Clark jumped up. He had never told anyone about himself since Pete so many years back and he was scared. “Where are my manners? You’re cold. Would you like some coffee? It’s fresh, I just made it.”

“Actually, I would like tea if you don’t mind.”

Clark almost rubbed his hands together in glee. What a perfect lead in! “Come on into the kitchen, I’ll make you some tea and tell you the story.”

They walked in and Rita took a seat at the kitchen table, watching Clark go to the sink and reach into the cupboard for a cup. He ran the water from the cold water faucet for a moment to freshen it, then put the water into the cup. Rita thought that was odd. The water had to be ice-cold from sitting in the water tank all night.

Where was the teakettle? Then, going to another cupboard, Clark rummaged about, pushing his glasses down his nose for some strange reason, and then reaching back and bringing out a box of tea bags and pushing his glasses back up with an air of triumph.

Bringing the box of bags and the cup of water over to the table, Clark sat down opposite Rita and took a deep breath. ‘Here goes nothing. I’ve got to start somewhere doing this in public.’

Rita watched transfixed as Clark took off his glasses and laid them on the table, then stared at the cup. Were his eyes glowing red? No, that couldn’t be. The water in the cup began to boil and then steam. Clark opened the box of teabags and unwrapped one and put it in the cup. He started pushing it over to Rita and then looked up at her.

Clark saw that Rita’s eyes were wide with astonishment. He tried to look back at her calmly. “Do you need sugar?”

Her voice was a whisper. “No, I’m fine with just the tea.” She took the cup and sipped tentatively. It was hot but not scalding. How had he done that?

“Let’s go start the fire.” Clark got up and extended a hand to Rita, still trying to exude calmness. Rita put her hand in his, but it felt like a small bird ready to fly away at any sudden movement.

They walked into the living room and Clark gestured for Rita to sit on the couch, then he opened the fire screen and saw that the andirons were empty. Turning to Rita he said firmly, “Don’t move. I’ll be right back. And I mean really, don’t move at all. It’s important and you’ll see why.”

After that statement, Rita felt a whoosh of air, the sounds of the door slamming, and an ax chopping rapidly like an insane woodpecker, and saw a blur that stabilized into Clark standing in front of logs stacked neatly in the fireplace. He turned his head to her and held up his index finger, said “Watch,” pointed to his eyes and then turned back to the fireplace. The fire suddenly ignited and began burning merrily without the benefit of any paper or kindling.

Clark walked over in front of his sister sitting on the sofa and held out his hand, palm out to tell her to stay down. He slowly used mild heat vision on her, starting on her feet and working up to her neck. If he couldn’t inspire confidence in his sister, how could he do it to total strangers?

“Oh, wow. That feels wonderful, Clark! I’m all warm. How did you do that?”

“A controlled version of what started the fire. Great for carving snow men!” He gave her a crooked smile. He sat down beside her, sitting sideways to face her. “I can do other things too. I haven’t found anything that can hurt me. If I fall, I don’t’ get injured. I can freeze things with my breath.” He blew at the fire in demonstration and the fire went out and ice cycles formed on the brick above the fireplace opening. Then he lit the fire again with his eyes.

“Oh my. That is soooo cool.” She turned her head to look at him again. “So why do you have all these…things you can do, that nobody else can do?”

“I don’t know why. I just am. So I figure I came from somewhere else, somehow.”

“Did the Kents have these talents?”

He shook his head no. “If they did, they wouldn’t have died in that car wreck.”

“Does Pete know about this? What am I saying, of course he does. You were thick as fleas and twice as annoying, even if he is five years older than you.”

Nodding agreement to both statements, Clark said, “Yeah, I showed him what I could do just before I left to satisfy my wanderlust. You remember the lake and the boathouse?”

“Sure. You even wrote an article for the Smallville Sentinel about it.”

“What the article didn’t say was that Pete almost drowned that day we were at the lake.”

Holding her hand to her mouth, Rita exclaimed, “Oh, no! I didn’t know.”

“Actually neither did Pete. A rotted timber fell on him and held him underwater. That’s when I found out I had certain talents. I swam over to him quickly, easily removed the timber and carried him out of the water even though he was bigger than me at the time. I turned his head so the water could drain and luckily it did because I didn’t know CPR at the time. He regained consciousness after a short while and thought he’d fallen asleep on the shore. The next day I went back to the lake and dismantled the boathouse and stacked the wood single handedly. That’s when I found out I was really stronger than kids my age.”

*+*+*+*+*+*+

”I don't know about this costume thing, Clark,” Rita said, looking at the heap of material on the dining room table. “How can this help disguise Clark Kent from the rest of the world?”

“It'll work. It has to. If I have an effective disguise, I won't have to worry about people finding out about me. I can still have a private life and you, Pete and our folks won’t be in any danger from the prying eyes of the tabloid press.”

Nodding in understanding, Rita unfolded her laptop and started it up. “This is dress designer software, meant to show you different looks without me having to actually sew something up. I scanned the latest picture of you from the house and am using it as the template. We can change looks as we go along.”

Clark was very impressed as he sat down at the table beside her to look at the pictures.

“Before I understood what you really wanted, I cooked up a turkey costume for Thanksgiving, “ she pressed a series of keys and Clark was standing in a turkey suit.

The turkey suit reminded Clark of a certain woman dressed as a chicken. He suddenly realized he was really missing her.

“And a Christmas outfit,” Rita continued, unaware of Clark’s momentary inattention. Rita clicked again and Clark was Santa, then he was an elf.

“Very impressive, Rita. But I don’t think Santa rescuing people or an elf would rescuing people would really work!”

”Come on. Let's really get started. I hope you don’t mind music. I do my creative best with background music.” Rita pointed to her CD player she had brought in from the truck. Clark looked at it doubtfully. “What? So it’s old fashioned; the truck has an eight-track player in it. Who has eight-tracks anymore? At least I’m more up to date than that.”

To a firm beat, the music started playing.

The first look was a plain black outfit, much like his scuba suit. Clark shook his head no. “That won’t inspire any trust. Pete doesn’t want me to look like Batman.”

Rita keyed in another pattern, and Clark was covered in leopard skin. He just shook his head in dismay. Rita’s eyes sparked in mischief.

Astride a horse with a long lance with a red banner at the end, Clark was in white armour. Rita laughed hysterically at his expression.

Clark looked like Robin Hood in green leather and leggings. He started tickling Rita to get her to be serious.

Clark wore the suit of the most prominent driver of the NASCAR circuit. It reminded him of the time he had driven funny cars for a while.

Clark was a circus muscleman in leotard and tights with padded muscles in the arms and legs. “Wait, that isn’t bad.”

Rita looked over at him. “You’re kidding!”

“Well, not the padding and beige, but all one color, just not black or green.”

Rita just set the computer cycling through colors, just about faster than she could see, but not faster than Clark could see.

“Wait. Stop there!” Clark exclaimed suddenly. “About two colors back.”

Rita backed up to an all blue number.

“Yeah, I think that would work. How about a darker blue? I need contrast against the sky so people can see me.”

“Can you sew that one up?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have that shade in any fabric.”

“Can I go get it for you? Or, wait, instead of you giving me directions to somewhere bewildering to a guy like a fabric store, how about we go together?”

“Wichita is an hour away.”

“Not if we fly!”

Rita choked out, “Fly? With you in the air?”

“I’ve flown Pete and haven’t dropped him yet.”

Rita muttered under her breath in a jealous tone, “Why am I not surprised that I’m second to Pete.”

“I heard that. Come, on, it’ll be fun. I’d like to do an experiment with you too.”

“An experiment? Is it dangerous?”

“No, not really, but it will be cold unless you get your coat on. Speaking of which, I need to get my black leather coat. Meet you outside in two.”

Two seconds later, Clark was waiting for Rita as she emerged from the house.

“How did I not see you get out here?”

“I flew down from the bedroom window. Just practicing. Now, I’d like to pick you up like an injured person to carry you.”

This was getting almost too much to take in. Suspiciously, she asked, “How do you carry Pete?”

“Side by side.” He gestured impatiently to get on with his plan. “Pretend to faint.”

Mischief twinkled in her eyes again as she did a theatric back-of-the-hand-to- forehead female faint.

Clark easily scooped her up before she got halfway to the ground and zoomed into the air. “You’re no challenge, Rita, you are so tiny.”

*+*+*+*+*+*+

Clark landed them in an alley behind Jeanies’ Fabrics in Wichita.

Whispering to Clark as he put her down, Rita said, “You know, earlier during the fire building stuff, you didn’t mention you could fly too!”

“It’s handy. That’s how I took Pete to Antarctica to see the total eclipse. But I have to be conscious of who or what my see me. With a costume, I could fly openly.”

“Oh, I bet Pete loved the total eclipse, astronomy nut that he is.”

Clark helped Rita pick out the color he liked but he didn’t understand this spandex fabric thing. Rita also picked out some red silk and some red dye.
Clark provided the cash.

*+*+*+*+*+*+

Back at the house the music played, Rita sewed and Clark paced. Clark wasn’t sure he ever wanted to hear that song again.

The scuba suit lay discarded on the floor after being the template for the costume.

“Try this on, Clark.” Rita held the suit out to him.

Clark looked at it a touch dubiously. It looked like a dance costume.

“Put it on like a wetsuit, feet first. We’ll figure out boots or shoes later. Oh, and you need these too.” She held out a pair of…

“Red underwear?”

“For the outside. Otherwise you’ll have a gaping hole in the front where you
don’t want it to be.” She didn’t voice the thought, ‘Unless you can hold it all day. Maybe you can.’

Clark whoosed to the bedroom upstairs. Rita was getting used to the fast exits. So Clark took Pete to Antarctica. She was going to have to tease Pete about that. Oh, yeah. Good sibling fodder.

Clark walked normally down the stairs, his bare feet sticking out of the bottom of the suit.

“How do you like that?”

“I don't know. It's certainly...colorful.”

Rita almost gasped aloud. This person didn’t look anything like her brother. Which was the whole idea, she reminded herself. He looked powerful, authoritative, and yeah, colorful. The red shorts needed a contrasting belt though to both hold them up and add a touch of another color. But what color?

Clark looked down at his chest. “I don't know... something's missing. Something...”

Clark turned and disappeared at a normal pace upstairs again. Rita then realized something else. That backside was way too distracting. He needed a… a cape! A red cape to hide the briefs! Proud of herself, Rita began planning the cape.

Clark returned in a moment holding a blue baby blanket with a gold “S” on it. “My folks had a trunk in the upstairs closet and this was in it. I never knew what it was for, but I think the symbol would be a useful thing.”

“That’s great, Clark! That will be very useful. Also, then I need some gold leather or plastic to make a belt for those briefs.”

“Back to Jeanies’ Fabrics?”

“Right. And get some lunch on the way.”

Well, he had to say that Rita got used to his abilities very easily. He just hoped the rest of the world would do the same. “Lunch! I’ve got to pick up Pete at noon in Baldwin City! What do you want for lunch?”

“Baldwin City? Oh, a Whopper Burger. Double with everything! And fries and diet coke.”

Clark just shook his head in wonder. Tiny little Rita could out eat he and Pete both. She must just burn it off with her energy. “Be back in a jif.” Clark whoosed back to the bedroom to change and run his errands.

By the time he got back, Rita had finished the cape and carefully hid it under her pile of fabric. She had a feeling that Clark might be resistant to the idea of a cape. After all, capes hadn’t been fashionable for men for over two centuries.

She stood up to shake out the kinks in her back and hands and walked to the front door to confront her brothers.

Pete walked in first, followed by Clark. Pete saw her expression and choked out a “What?”

Rita tapped her foot as she had seen their Mother do on many an occasion. “You didn’t tell me about Clark, you rat! I thought we shared things!”

Pete shrugged. “It was his secret to share, not mine.”

Behind Pete, Clark look worried. How upset was she really?

Relenting, Rita stopped tapping and smiled and reached out her arms to hug Pete. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other, both busy with their lives. Baldwin City was nearly two hours away from Smallville.

*+*+*+*+*+*+

After a celebratory sibling lunch around the kitchen table, Pete and Rita sat in the living room, awaiting Clark’s entrance. He had been resistant to the cape idea just as Rita had predicted, but had relented when she mentioned how photogenic his backside was without one. And, he could shelter rescuees in it. She stated how cold she had been when they flew to Wichita and back. Clark had also found a pair of red socks to complement his suit. He would search for some size 13 boots at a later time.

Clark emerged from the dining room and stood, arms crossed and legs apart, trying to look heroic - and succeeding.

Rita sucked in her breath. Now she really didn’t recognize her brother.

Pete’s jaw dropped. “Oh my god,” he said under his breath.

Clark turned to the full length mirror on the door of the coat closet by the staircase and examined himself critically, then turned back to the pair. “What do you think?”

Rita swallowed, then said, “One thing's for sure. Nobody's going to be looking at your face.”

Clark blushed, shocked, “Rita!”

She shrugged. “Well, they don't call them tights for nothing. I call ‘em like I see ‘em. Besides, what I meant was, that they will be looking at the pretty gold shield on your chest.”

Pete laughed, “Well, you wore football uniforms on the playing field and Speedos on the swim team. Think of it as the same thing. A uniform. I’ve got to say though, it is great camouflage. Nobody will see the stern FBI agent underneath.” Pete had to suppress a laugh from the image of Clark reading a perp his rights in the uniform.

Somewhat mollified, Clark turned back to the mirror. “I still don’t know about the cape. Is it too long?”

“Well, historically, the cape is usually mid-calf like yours. Too short, it’s a capelet and won’t cover um…the essentials. Too long it’ll drag in the mud. I love it. It'll look grand when you're flying.” Rita pondered some more, while Clark examined himself in the mirror again. “You know what would be great is another shield on the back of the cape, maybe in a bigger size. Do you have another one?”

Clark shook his head, “No, I don’t.” He turned back rapidly and the cape swirled out majestically behind him, then he reversed direction and did the same. “Yeah, I guess it would work.”

“Well, I just basted the shield on the front. I’ll take it off and take it home to my surger with the computer system. I can make as many as you need with that.”

“As many as I’ll need?” Clark asked a little bewildered.

Pete interjected. “You need spares. That could get torn and wrecked.”

“I’m not sure about that. Tight clothes don’t get wrecked when I do things. I’ve proven that in my ah…escapades to date. But I do need some spares.”

Pete decided to play devils advocate. “Are you sure you don’t need a mask, say a red ski mask, to hide your face?”

Protesting immediately, Rita said, ”No a mask makes him look like he is hiding something. A bare face tells them he is honest.”

“And as Clark, I wear glasses.” Clark fetched his glasses from the sideboard, put them on and ruffled his hair. “See, it won’t be me.” The juxtaposition of the red, blue and yellow suit and the glasses was jarring and didn’t look like either person.

“Exactly why do you wear glasses anyway, Clark?”

To see how he would sit in the uniform, he came over to armchair opposite the sofa to tell them. As he awkwardly sat down, he realized the further utility of the cape in hiding a rather embarrassing posture. “When I started to get my special vision, I discovered I could look through things even when I didn’t particularly want to. And I could burn things a little too easily. These glasses are leaded. I can’t see through lead, and it keeps my vision normal without having to consciously control it all the time.”

“You can’t see through lead?”

He shook his head no.

“I know you flew to the moon.”

Rita looked at Pete in surprise. Clark had flown to the moon?

Continuing, Pete asked, “Is there anything that can hurt you?

“Not that I’ve found on Earth.”

*+*+*+*+*+*+
tbc

Artemis