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Synopsis of Chapters 1 - 8 Missing Lois - TOC ***
Where we left off in Part 11... in the middle of their couples counseling sessionShe stood up and walked to the window. “Take me home, Clark. Take me home.”
“Lois, it’s the middle…” What was he saying? “Okay, Lois. I’ll take you home.”
Lois glanced over her shoulder at him. He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her; she was still shivering.
“Stay, Clark. Don’t leave me again.”
“You left her?” Dr. Friskin asked, her eyebrow raised.
“I went on assignment last summer. I was gone…” He shook his head.
“Ten months,” Lois whispered, still staring out the window.
“Six weeks.”
“Ten months?” Dr. Friskin flipped over the pages of her notepad. “Lois, didn’t you have a dream, where Clark…”
“No! No!” Lois adamantly shook her head, before shooting a glare at the doctor. “No, I didn’t.”
“My mistake.” Dr. Friskin closed her notepad.
He glanced between them. Where he,
what? Was gone ten months? He wasn’t gone ten months. What had Star said? He would have returned almost a year later. What did Lois know about that possible future, the future where Superman never returned? What had Wells told her? Was that what terrified her? Was that what was giving her nightmares of Trask? Not a real boogeyman, but one from another possible future? Clark wished Lois would… could tell him, but he couldn’t push her. Reluctantly, he decided that if she could wait for him, he could wait for her.
***
Part 12Penny turned on the radio and set Lara on the blanket she spread on the living room floor. Just two more weeks until her graduate classes started. Lois had been acting strangely since their night at the seminar. She had asked Penny twice if Bruce Wayne had called. He hadn’t. And four times more her boss had warned Penny against dating Bruce, if he did call. Not once had she pleaded Jimmy’s case.
Did Lois know what Penny knew? Her relationship with Jimmy was a lost cause. Once Lois had described Jimmy as being full of potential. Potential that would never be tapped. Penny sighed. Who would continue to date Jimmy Olsen, who would never be more than a reporter, if he was even that lucky? Especially if she had discovered another – highly eligible –superhero. Yes, Jimmy was sweet and caring, but he was still a little boy at heart and would be for years to come. Penny needed a man. Had Lois seen that, too?
The one problem with Superman was that he had always been obsessed, aka in love, with Lois Lane. Now, Gotham City’s Caped Crusader, Penny cheered up just thinking about him, on the other hand… Okay. He wasn’t as bright and cheery as Superman, but when he took out crime, he wiped it out. He didn’t do P.R. speeches or charitable events, he just fought crime and then went back to his life – whatever that was… Penny had her suspicions, but they were just crazy. She had been working on her computer program all summer. Thanks to the Kents, she had been able to concentrate almost solely on that for a few hours, every day.
When Penny had met Bruce Wayne at the seminar, she had been really tempted to move back to Gotham City. He was just the kind of benefactor she needed to help her with her computer science degree. But despite the connection that Penny had felt with him, that even Lois had noticed, she had never heard back from him. She sighed. Win some, lose some.
The music stopped and it was time for a short newsbreak. Lara was into scooting at the moment. If Penny took her eyes off the kid, she would be across the room before the nanny knew it. Not that there was anything for Lara to get into. Clark had baby proofed the townhouse right after Penny had started working there.
Penny shook her head. It probably took him two minutes, if that. She wished Lois and Clark would just admit to her that which she already knew. That Clark was Superman. It was so obvious, she didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it earlier. Penny had no idea what they were so afraid of. It’s not like she would tell anyone.
“Bruce Wayne, head of Wayne Enterprises, said that nobody was hurt when the computers in the biomedical division of Gotham Laboratories, subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises, exploded last night. He said that the computers had overheated due to a clogged vent. In other news…”Penny froze. Her brother Matthew worked at Gotham Laboratories. He was working on a new antibiotic cream to help heal cuts and wounds, including surgical scars.
She glanced around. Where had Lara disappeared off to? She looked around the living room, checking under the fish tank, under the sofas, coffee table, and Lois’s desk.
“Lara,” Penny called, feeling almost ridiculous doing so. It wasn’t like the kid was going to respond at six months.
Penny went into the dining room, checked under the dining room table and all the chairs, even inside the playpen, even though she knew Lara had been next to her on the blanket not two minutes before.
The kitchen door was rocking back and forth. Penny raised a brow. Slowly, she pushed the kitchen door open. “Hello? Clark, did you come home?”
There, on the counter, was a bunch of bananas. And when she meant a bunch, she meant an entire bunch from a banana tree. Penny shook her head again. Like Clark would find that bunch of bananas in Metropolis. Lois explained them as a gift from Superman to Lara, when he learned their daughter was starting solid foods. Uh-huh. Right.
Penny heard a soft thump and a whimper. There was Lara. She had scooted and scooted until she came to a stop at the breakfast nook. “How in the world did you get all the way in here so fast, little one?” She laughed, scooping up the little girl. “You certainly have your Daddy’s speed.”
Penny gulped, staring at the baby in her arms. Running into the dining room, she set Lara down in the playpen. She grabbed her cell phone out of her purse and dialed her brother’s number. On the fourth ring, he picked up.
“Matthew!”
“
Hi, Sis. Just the person I wanted to talk to.”
“Shut up, Matthew. I need that blood sample back. ASAP. Put it in an envelope and send it overnight,” she demanded.
“
Penny.”
She took a deep breath to try to keep her voice from shaking. “Matthew, I need that tissue back,” she said more slowly.
“
I’m fine, Penny. Thanks for asking. Just a slight concussion,” he told her.
“What? You were in the lab when the computer exploded?” Penny whispered, sitting down at the dining room table, glancing over at Lara. Lara was hitting her gavel against the floor of the playpen.
“
As a matter of fact, I was running that blood sample you sent me.”
“Oh, no. No. No!” Penny gasped, covering her mouth. “Did the entire mainframe get destroyed in the fire?” she asked hopefully.
“
Pretty much. Luckily, Mr. Wayne tells me the files were all backed up nightly. So, we only lost a day’s work.”
“Oh.” She cleared her throat. “And that blood sample?” Please. Please. Please, say it was destroyed in the fire.
“
I was able to save that.”
Damn. “Oh, good. Send it back to me, before you do anything else today.”
“
It’s the find of the century, little sister.”
“No, it’s not. Send it to me or I’ll tell Mom what really happened to her car on prom night.”
Her brother gulped. “
You wouldn’t.”
“I’m serious, Matthew.”
“
Penny, that blood sample overloaded the computer and crashed it.”
She gasped. “No. No. No! Matthew, that blood sample needs to come back to me, ASAP. If you tell anyone about this, I’m dead. D.E.A.D., dead. Understand me?” Penny heard a shuffling over the phone line. “Matthew?” Penny whispered.
“
Hello, Penny. I’ve been meaning to call you,” a new voice said.
“Who is this?” she asked as a chill passed down her spine.
“
Bruce Wayne, dear.”
The phone slipped out of her fingers. Bruce Wayne, she sighed.
No! She might like him but the Kents certainly did not. Clark was going to kill her.
“
Penny! Penny!” She heard Bruce calling to her.
She picked up the phone again, clearing her throat. Still the best she could manage was a hoarse whisper, “Hello, Mr. Wayne.”
“
Why, Penny, have you become so formal? I was Bruce just a few weeks ago.”
Her face flushed. “You remember me?”
“
Of course, Penny. Now, Matthew, here, was telling me you sent the blood sample that crashed my biomedical computer. Where did you get it?”
How gullible did he think she was? “A friend of a friend of a friend of mine, who has a boyfriend who has this great immunity. You see, Bruce, I didn’t have his permission to share his blood with Matthew or Gotham Labs and now he’s threatening to sue if I don’t give it back. Turns out, he was on special medicine…”
“
Penny, you and I both know that’s not where you got this blood sample.”
“Of course it is, Bruce. So, why don’t you just overnight it back to me,” she suggested, adding a softness to her voice. “We wouldn’t want Gotham Labs embroiled in a huge lawsuit. You know those lawyers, once they smell blood… Please, Bruce.” She threw that last plea in for good measure.
“
O-kay,” Bruce said slowly. “
You’ll have it back ASAP. Where shall I send it?”
Penny exhaled. He bought it. Always best to mention lawsuits to the filthy rich. “Matthew has my address. And thank you, Bruce. You’re a lifesaver, literally.”
“
Uh-huh. See you soon,” said Bruce, hanging up.
“See me soon?” Penny stammered, looking at Lara. She picked her up and held her to her chest. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.”
Penny set her back down in the playpen and just stared at this child. Lois had told Penny that they were in the process of adopting Lara, even when Penny asked her pointblank after Lara’s hand healed completely within minutes. Jimmy had said something about Lara being found on the Kents’ doorstep. There was no way Penny could have known Lois was lying. What Penny did was wrong, very wrong – so very, extremely wrong – but how was she supposed to know Lois had lied to her? Maybe Lois hadn’t lied to her? Maybe she didn’t know that Superman had had a child with another woman. Penny shook her head. That didn’t sound like Clark. He adored his wife.
The nanny gasped. Maybe Lois did know. Maybe that was why the Kents were sleeping in separate bedrooms. And had been since Penny had started working there… since that weekend in Memphis, the one where Bruce mentioned Clark had walked out on his wife. What if Lois had kicked him out, when she learned the truth about Lara?
Penny lifted up her phone and dialed.
“
James Olsen, Daily Planet.”
“Jimmy,” she breathed his name.
“
Hey, Penny. I’m kind of in the middle of something right now…”
“This is important, Jimmy.”
“
O-kay. What’s up?”
She couldn’t tell him the truth. He was Clark’s best friend and the sooner Clark knew, the sooner she was dead.
“I need you to tell me what happened at the Bruce Wayne interview.”
Her boyfriend laughed. “
Important, huh? Look, Penny, I’m really busy. I’ll tell you my war stories later, okay?”
“Jimmy, have you ever seen Superman mad?” Penny asked, noticing she was chewing on her nails. She pulled her hand away from her mouth. She only did that when she was stressed. Oh, right, sending Superman’s daughter’s blood off to Gotham Laboratories for her brother to use in his medical research. That couldn’t possibly be thought of as stressful.
“
I thought you were the Superman expert, not me.”
“On paper, maybe, but you know him in person. Please, Jimmy.” Oooh. That sounded a little to desperate.
“
Is everything okay, Penny? Lara, okay?”
Penny sniffled. Oh, great. Now she was getting emotional. “She’s fine, Jimmy. Scooting up a storm.” She smiled. She really did love the little nipper.
“
Scooting?”
Penny laughed through her tears. “Yes, Lara does this alligator belly scoot move instead of crawling. If she keeps this up, she’ll be flying next.” She covered her mouth. Why had she said that? She looked at Lara and covered up the mouthpiece on the phone. “Don’t you be getting any ideas.”
“
Hey, CK. I’ll have those numbers for you in a minute. I’ll talk to you later, Penny. All right?”
Had Clark heard her talking about Lara to Jimmy? Was that why he went to Jimmy’s desk? Did he hear her ask about him getting mad? Or about Bruce Wayne?
“
Penny? Penny?”
“Bye, Jimmy,” she mumbled and closed her phone.
What was she going to do? What was she going to do? She couldn’t run off and leave Lara. She couldn’t run off and take Lara. Both those ideas were off the table. Superman would hunt her down no matter where she went – if she took his daughter. Anyway, it would only make him even more mad. From what she knew about Superman, he was a good, decent person, who would
never kill someone on purpose. Penny always liked that about him. His kind soul.
But that was before Clark had become a father. She knew people did crazy things to protect their kids. Like tell people that they had found them on the doorstep and go through the insane paperwork and hoops of adoption, instead of admitting the truth: that Lara was half-Kryptonian. Lara couldn’t be full Kryptonian, she bled. But being half-Kryptonian would explain why her cut had healed in a matter of minutes.
No wonder Lara’s DNA had caused the lab’s computer to overheat. Penny bet it was chock full of interesting genetic material any lab in the country would
kill to get their hands on, if her charge’s father didn’t beat them to the punch. Punch. Yep, one of his punches would be enough to kill her.
Why, oh why, had she sent a sample of Lara’s blood to her brother to help him with his research? Sure, Lara’s awesome immunity would certainly have helped Matthew’s search for a new medical salve for healing wounds. Of course it would, it contained Superman’s invulnerable DNA. But her brother was a full grown man. He didn’t need her assistance. Penny had been big-sistering him again.
Bruce Wayne had a sample of that blood. He hadn’t bought her flimsy excuse.
Friend of a friend of a friend. Ha! He didn’t need to hurt her to get a sample. She closed her eyes and thought again of that man she met at the conference. She just couldn’t see him hurting anyone… well, hurting her.
But Gotham Laboratories wasn’t the only medical research facility in the world. There was so many ways Penny could get killed by one of those crazy medical labs intent on the next medical breakthrough. Shot. Dead. Stab. Dead. Strangle. Dead. Drown. Dead. Just any ol’ way, dead was dead. And the nanny would be first in line on that hit list, too, if anyone found out about Lara’s origin. If she had known the truth then, she would have asked for danger pay. Would she even have taken the position? Penny glanced at Lara and the girl glanced up at her and smiled. It was her Daddy’s smile. She loved Lara. She hated that with her own stupid innocent mistake she had put both of their lives in danger.
Maybe Penny should just take Lara to Lois at work. Plead that she had a family emergency and book it out of town. She had no idea where she should go. China? It was a huge country and she knew the language. She could dye her hair, so she didn’t stick out. Yes, that could work.
Lara would be safe with her parents and Penny would lead Bruce Wayne or any other whack-job away from them. Bruce already knew too much about the Kents, but luckily he didn’t know everything. He didn’t know about Lara. Penny sighed. It was too bad, Bruce had seemed so pleasant, so genial, so handsome. But there was no way Penny was going to tell him where she got that blood sample.
***
Penny walked into the
Daily Planet. She had been there several times before to visit Jimmy, but today the atmosphere seemed different, the light more harsh, the noise level louder. She pushed Lara and the stroller out onto the newsroom floor. Lara giggled. The little girl loved going outside for walks, she loved noise and activity, she loved people. She was just like Lois that way. Penny gulped, pushing the stroller down the ramp towards Lois’s desk. It was empty. Oh, God, she wasn’t there. Clark glanced up from his desk.
“Hi, Penny,” he said at their side an instant later, picking up his daughter. “Hello, there, beautiful.” His daughter.
Penny swallowed. How come she had never noticed how much Lara looked like Clark, especially around the eyes?
“Hi, Clark.”
He spun Lara in the air and she giggled.
“Where’s Lois?” she asked, trying to sound casual, but knowing she failed miserably, when he turned and looked her directly in the eyes.
“At a doctor’s appointment. Everything okay?”
“Family emergency. My brother was in an accident. I need to go home to Gotham City.” Actually, she would head as far away from Gotham City as she could get.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Clark said, placing a reassuring hand on her arm.
Penny jumped and took a step back, looking at him with fear. She took a deep breath. Act normal, she told herself.
“Penny?”
“I was hoping I could drop Lara off with Lois and you at
The Planet. I know that’s totally inconvenient, but…” She started backing up. “I really should go.”
“Are you okay, Penny?”
She forced a smile on her mouth. “Of course. Just worried about my brother.” She looked at the little baby in his arms and a pang of guilt thumped in her chest. She held out her hands for Lara.
Clark handed his daughter back to Penny and she hugged her and whispered, “You’ll be safe, here, with Daddy, little one.” Goodbye, she thought silently.
Lara placed her hand to Penny’s face. She was always doing that. Penny kissed Lara’s palm and went to hand her back to Clark, but he wasn’t paying attention. He was looking up and off to the left. He grabbed the knot of his tie and then looked back at Penny and Lara, pausing, as if suddenly, remembering that they were there.
“Penny, there’s something I’ve got to do first. Can you watch Lara for another hour? I’ll send Lois home as soon as she gets back. I’ll even ask Superman if he can give you a lift to Gotham City.” Clark smiled. “I promise you’ll get there faster than if you were able to catch an airplane.”
Penny gulped. A ride with Superman? No thanks. Too many opportunities to be dropped from 20,000 feet. She needed to leave town, now. But someone must need Superman’s help. It was only an hour. When her boss arrived, she could tell Lois that she wouldn’t be needing that ride with Superman. Penny placed another smile to her face and nodded. “Sure. I can wait one more hour.” She hoped she could. She hoped she hadn’t just signed her death warrant.
***
Penny paced in the living room. She looked at her watch again. Where was Lois? She needed to leave. The longer she stayed in Metropolis, the sooner Bruce Wayne would catch up to her. And the sooner he caught up with her, the sooner he would discover that she was Superman’s nanny. There was a knock at the door. Finally! She opened the door. Instead of finding Lois on the other side, she found Bruce Wayne.
“Bruce? What are you doing here?”
“Hello, Penny. It’s nice to see you again.” He smiled. Look at all those perfect teeth.
“I’m at work. I can’t let you in here,” she said, stepping into the hall. She shut the door behind her. Then she held up her hand. “I’m not allowed to have guests.”
Bruce took her hand and kissed it. “Still as beautiful as I remembered.”
His compliment threw her a moment. “You didn’t need to fly all the way out here, Bruce.” Then she remembered what Clark would do to her if he found this man so close to his home, his family. She shook off his hand. “The tissue, please.”
“I admit I wanted to see you again. I didn’t call because you are still dating that pup photographer and it would be wrong to steal you away from him.”
Penny backed up against the door, staring at him. He had wanted to call her? Was he really not interested in the blood sample at all? Was he just using it as an excuse to see her again? “Wrong?”
“Well, I know how close Clark and Lois are to Jimmy and Clark would certainly
frown on me hurting his friend.” For some reason Bruce sneered at the word ‘frown.’ “He’s highly protective of his friends.”
“Clark?” Penny gasped. Did he know Clark’s secret? She had to get Bruce Wayne out of here.
“I’m working on my image, you know.”
“It looks good from where I’m standing,” she whispered. Oh, God, had she said that out loud.
Bruce’s smile turned into a grin. “I’ve got quite a nice view, myself.” He took a step closer to her.
Penny tried to take another step back but she was pressed against the door already and when she stepped back the door opened and she fell inside with a thump.
“Oh, sorry. Are you all right?” Bruce asked, stepping inside the townhouse. He held out his hand to help her up.
Penny took his hand. It felt warm, but rough. “Your hands are rough,” she said looking more closely at him, at his hand in hers.
He shrugged, pulling his hand back. “I work out.”
“So does Jimmy, but his hands are soft. He spends most of his day in an office like you.”
Bruce actually seemed uncomfortable by this change of subject. “I rock climb.”
“Oh.” That would explain it. “How did you find me?”
“I thought you said you were studying computer science, not journalism.” He smiled. He was trying to charm her. It was working.
“Double major with criminal justice,” she explained, staring at him. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
“Matthew said you’d been babysitting recently and then I remembered Jimmy mentioning you were Lois’s new Nanny.” And of course he would have
their unlisted address written down somewhere.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said, taking a step towards him, trying to move him back out the door. “The Kents aren’t going to want you in their home.”
“We’re friends.”
Penny shook her head, taking another step towards him, but he was standing his ground. “No, you aren’t.”
“I understand you are an expert on all things Superman,” he said, abruptly changing the subject.
So, he had researched her after all. Lois had warned her that he would. Damn! Did he know about Clark? “I’m a fan.”
“Me, too. I figure it must be a lonely life… that of a superhero.”
“I thought that, too, until Jimmy introduced us. Then I realized Superman has lots of friends, including Lois and Clark,” Penny added for good measure. She grabbed Bruce’s arm and tried to move him towards the door, but he didn’t budge. The man must be all muscle. She swallowed.
Bruce raised a brow at this information. “I understand that you had quite a crush on the guy,” he said running a finger down her cheek. “Wrote a computer program to track him down.”
“Don’t touch me!” She snapped. “I don’t know you.”
Bruce dropped his hand. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“A school girl crush. That was a long time ago. I’ve moved on.”
Just like you should be doing, she wanted to add.
“To Jimmy Olsen?” he scoffed.
“For the time being, until a better man comes along,” she replied. Bruce was too close. That musky scent he was wearing didn’t smell designer, could it just be him? Her cheeks felt warmer with those thoughts.
Lara, she reminded herself. “Now, time for you to give me back my tissue and for you to leave.”
Bruce smiled down at her. Wow, Penny hadn’t realized how tall he was. Most men were shorter than her. She swallowed.
“I’m a better man.”
Now? Now, he was going to hit on her? Where had he been the past month? She pushed him towards the door. “Nope. You haven’t convinced me of that.”
“Yet.” Bruce still wasn’t moving an inch.
Time for another approach. She took a step back and held out her arms. “You want access to this, I need that blood sample back.”
His eyes showed merriment and his lips pressed into a real, genuine smile. “Interesting proposition, but no. It would be safer if I held onto that tissue for the time being.”
“
Safer? For whom?” she scoffed, moving into the room, pacing. “You didn’t bring it? Did you?” She guessed even smart men made stupid mistakes. Clark was going to kill her. Maybe not on purpose but accidents happen when people get angry. Especially someone with super strength. And Penny could just see Superman getting angry over this.
“Whose blood is it?” Bruce asked, following Penny into the room, watching her.
She knew she was acting nervous, but she wasn’t an actress she was a computer programmer. “I told you. A friend’s.” Penny put her hand to head. “You should leave. They’ll be here soon.”
“Who?”
“The Kents.”
“Do they normally come home for lunch?” Bruce asked, watching her.
“No, but today they are. I’ve got to leave.”
“Why?” he asked slowly.
“I just do. That’s all.” Penny started ringing her hands. “If you had just brought back that blood sample, I could have destroyed it and he’d never know.”
“You should never have sent it to your brother.”
“Yes. That was stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I thought it could help him with his research. How was I to know…” Penny glanced at him, realizing almost too late to whom she was speaking. “You need to leave. If he finds you here, we’ll both be dead.”
“Who?”
Penny stopped pacing and stared at him. “You know who.”
A mocking smile slipped onto his lips. “He’s not going to kill you, Penny. And he certainly isn’t going to kill me.”
“Yeah, well, excuse me if I don’t take that bet.” She shook her head and continued pacing.
“He has rules against such things and the man is quite a stickler for his rules.” Bruce chuckled.
OK. So, Bruce knew or thought he knew. Penny rolled her eyes. “He punched you in the jaw for making a pass at Lois Lane. What do you think he’s going to do when he finds out you have a blood sample of…” She almost had done it again. That man was unnerving her. She was the worst Nanny ever.
“Whose blood?” he asked, taking hold of her arms. He wasn’t being rough and, for some strange reason, at his touch her kneecaps tingled.
“Trust me, Bruce. You don’t want to know.”
He raised a skeptical brow at this statement. “And, yet, I keep asking.”
“I’m not going to tell you, so just stop. Leave, now. Destroy the sample in your vault. Forget about Metropolis. If he ever finds out you have it, I’m as good as dead and you’ll be next on his list. Please, Bruce.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
Penny was shocked by that announcement. “Well,
he scares me.”
Bruce wrapped his arms around her. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
Penny sighed. It felt good to be held by him. To actually rest her head on a man’s shoulder for once.
What in the hell are you doing? She pushed herself out of his embrace. “Leave. Please. He and Lois hate you. If they find you in their house…”
He started playing with his pinky ring. She had never noticed the emerald stone in it before. “Really? Hate me? That’s a little strong, don’t you think? I’m really not a bad guy.”
Lara started to cry. Penny ran over to her playpen. She had almost forgotten the girl was there; she had fallen asleep on the stroller ride back to the house and had been so quiet. She picked her up and put her on her shoulder. Lara just cried harder.
“What’s the matter, little one? You never cry.” Penny rocked her back and forth.
“Is that her? Clark and Lois’s adopted daughter?” Bruce asked, stepping up to her and running his hand over the baby’s head.
Lara only screamed louder.
“Get away from her!” Penny insisted, moving away from him, holding the baby protectively.
Bruce stared at her. “She
was found on their doorstep, wasn’t she?”
Penny nodded. Yep, that was what they had told her and their family and friends. She still nodded, fear in her eyes. “Calm down, Lara. Everything will be okay.” She kissed Lara’s forehead. “I’ve told you to leave, Bruce. You can’t be here.”
Bruce stared at her and Lara, the blood draining from his face. “The sample?”
Suddenly, through the window flew Clark. Not Superman… Clark.
*** End of Part 12 *** Comments
