Superman Movieverse Forum

Title: Family Reunion
Author: Mr. Beeto
Rating: PG-13
Beta: htbthomas and Shado Librarian
Summary: AU Twist on Donner/Singer Movieverse: Tie the three films together into a cohesive whole, and provide a more credible and interesting reason for Superman to have returned to Krypton.

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Author’s Notes:
As usual, my heartfelt thanks to the beta team, htbthomas and Shado Librarian.

Chapter 16 – New Discoveries

Thursday, September 28, 2006 2:30AM EDT
After putting out an arson fire that threatened a family in Detroit, Superman flew high into the stratosphere.  He trained his vision southwest to the Kent homestead in Smallville, and when the walls peeled away to reveal Kara in her bed, he closely scrutinized his sleeping daughter to visually measure her heart rate and breathing.  Still sleeping peacefully, he concluded.  Let’s hope it stays that way. 

He was relieved that the nightmares hadn’t found her yet that night.  He knew full well that she still had a long road to go psychologically, and there would be more tears and nightmares in the days and months ahead.  Had the shuttle malfunction not forced his return to duty, he would probably still be spending his nights at home watching over her.  However, as his mother correctly pointed out, if Superman continued to spend his evenings at home, there would be a frenzy of media speculation over it, which was something he didn’t care to explain.  Their solution had been for him to remotely monitor her with his vision every few minutes.  The first couple of nights had been nerve-racking for him, but he was now confident that he would be able to spot her agitation in plenty of time to race home before she knocked the walls down.  He was back to his normal routine, as far as the world knew.

Superman pulled his vision away from his slumbering child, closed his eyes, and extended his hearing across the region.  He eyes flew open at the sounds of a M134 Gatling gun discharging and the concussion impacts from depleted uranium rounds.  He opened his eyes, located the source of the disturbing noise on the roof of a Cleveland bank, and zoomed down across the landscape to intercede.  When the gunner turned his weapon on the hapless bank guards behind him, Superman accelerated to near light speed to intercept the shells before they reached their intended targets.  The situation was resolved and the perpetrators subdued a half a minute later, and Superman was back in the stratosphere, briefly focusing his vision homeward before moving on to his next rescue.


 
Thursday, September 28, 2006 6:30AM CDT
Clark stole quietly through the predawn darkness to Kara’s room and turned on the light as he entered.  She was sleeping on her side, tightly clutching her plush toy penguin, with Shelby at the foot of the bed.  He had noticed her agitation shortly before four o’clock, and had arrived in time to calm her before the screaming started.  It had taken her a while to fall back asleep, and he hated waking her from her peaceful slumber.  However, it was a school day and they had less than an hour before the bus arrived for her.

He gently rubbed her back as he called to her.  “Kara…  Time to get up and get ready for school.”  She grunted and rolled over onto her stomach.  “’C’mon, honey, time to wake up.”  Shelby walked up to the head of the bed, and started licking the exposed skin of her face, provoking her to roll over onto her back as she gently pushed the dog away.  Finally, she opened her eyes and sat up, her hair a rat’s nest from her tossing and turning during the night.

“The sun’s not up yet,” she complained groggily.

  “If we wait for the sun, there won’t be time to get ready for school before your bus gets here,” he explained.  “C’mon.  Let’s get a move on.”  Kara reluctantly got out of bed, followed her dad out of the room, and they both headed downstairs for breakfast.

Martha already had plates ready for both of them when they got to the kitchen.  “Eat up, both of you,” she ordered.  “You need to get some meat on those bones.”  She turned to Clark, and reminded him, “Don’t forget that Ben and I are having dinner with the Swans tonight, so you’ll need to be home on time.”

“I remember,” he informed her.  “Tom’s out of the hospital tomorrow?”

“Yes, and Sarah’s still up in Wichita with him until then, which means she can’t watch Kara tonight, either.”  Clark nodded his acknowledgement, and dug into his breakfast.

Clark found himself amazed that someone with superspeed could move as slowly as Kara did getting ready for school in the morning.  He had to keep reminding her how little time remained until her bus arrived.  Somehow, against all odds, they were still on schedule, though Clark wasn’t sure how much longer that would continue.  He looked through the ceiling into her room, and discovered she was re-reading one of her books, rather than packing it into her book bag.  “There’s not time to read that right now,” he hollered up the stairs.  “The bus will be here in two minutes!”

“I’m coming!” Kara hollered down.  She shoved her book into the open backpack on her bed and quickly X-rayed it to make sure she had everything.  Finally, she threw the pack over her shoulder, and slowly walked downstairs.

“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” Clark asked seriously.

“Uh-huh.”

Clark X-rayed her backpack to make sure everything was in order, before guiding her to the front door, where his mother was waiting.  “Looks like we’ll make it on time after all,” he commented cheerfully.   He gave her a quick hug before letting her out the front door.  “Have a good day at school,” he told her kindly.  “I’ll see you tonight.”  Martha took Kara’s hand and walked her to the road just as the bus was pulling up.  Clark watched as she climbed onto her bus, and once it pulled away, he let himself out the back door and disappeared in a blur through the cornfields.



Thursday, September 28, 2006 8:45AM EDT
The Man of Steel dove through the stratosphere in a wide circular route to Metropolis and approached the city low over the ocean, as had become his habit.  Though no longer concerned with revealing Superman’s presence, it still seemed prudent to avoid leaving a pattern of telltale sonic booms that someone might associate with a work shift.  As he neared the waterfront, he flew up above the city at high subsonic speed and disappeared down the elevator shaft at the Daily Planet building.  Moments later, Clark Kent stepped out of an empty elevator, and clumsily made his way down the aisle to his desk, worrying his coworkers with several near misses.

Clark heard Lois’ heartbeat quickly approaching behind him, most likely for another confrontation over the EMP story, which Perry had run on the front page below the fold.  It had turned out to be a good story, especially after fine-tuning it the previous evening and adding in some late-coming exclusive information.  His contacts at Star Labs had revealed that the feds were extrapolating from their analysis to focus on an affluent borough to the southeast of the city center.  Clark had filed his story late, changing the title to “EMP Probe Focuses on Donner Heights.”  He hadn’t expected it to make the front page.

He sat down and was about to boot up when Lois sat on his desk and threw the front section open across his laptop.  “What the hell do you call that?” she demanded.

Clark visibly focused his attention on the story above the fold, which was accompanied by a photo of Superman lifting the disabled plane from the Genesis shuttle above his head as he relocated it from Dolphin Stadium to Homestead Air Force Base.  “Oh, um, looks like Superman finally got that plane out of the stadium–”

“Below the fold!” she bellowed.

Clark’s gaze drifted down to the other headline.  “Oh.  Perry put that on the front page?”

“Why, yes, he certainly did,” Lois replied sarcastically.  “The story that ‘wasn’t very good’ and that he probably wouldn’t even print.  Right there.  On the front page.”

  “I, um, refined it a bit after… after a source came through with some new information last night,” Clark explained calmly.  “I didn’t think it would make the front page, though.  Slow news day, maybe?

“You told me that you didn’t get any information from the power plant yesterday,” Lois huffed angrily.

“I didn’t,” Clark insisted.  “It came from the Star Labs forensic analysis on fried components collected from all over the city - the damage seemed most severe in Donner Heights.  But the sample size is too small to be statistically significant and their analysis too subjective.  Of course, that didn’t stop the feds from extrapolating from it and shifting their manpower there.  They’re desperate to show progress.”

  “Did your source give you any other new information that you’ve neglected to tell me about?” Lois demanded.

“Um, no, I don’t think so. Not really.”

“There better not be, because I’m tired of having this conversation with you!” Lois hollered.  “And don’t even think of hiding it from me if you find out anything else about the EMP!”

“Lois, I wasn’t intentionally keeping anything from you,” Clark insisted defensively.  “Just when the new information came in… well, it was after you’d already gone home, and I still had a job to do.”

Lois rolled her eyes, and irritably told him in a loud whisper, “Clark, I know you’ve been trying to prove yourself to Foswell, but I think you’ve made your point.  It’s my turn now, so back off the EMP story.   Besides, I have some exclusive sources that you don’t, so it’s best that I take it from here.   Weren’t you going to cover the FEMA story?”

“Not much is new there, and Gil’s been covering it,” Clark informed her.  “I really wouldn’t want to steal it from him.  I think it’s all he’s got.”

“Then find something else!” Lois hissed.  Her point made, Lois turned and marched back to her desk, and her angry glare sent colleagues jumping out of her way.

Clark watched as she walked away.  Same old Lois, he concluded happily.  My, that was fun!  I probably shouldn’t push my luck, though, so I’d better let her take the EMP story now...



Thursday, September 28, 2006 3:15PM EDT
Richard gazed out at Lois through the window of Perry’s office, only vaguely aware of the discussion going on in the editors’ meeting.   What is going on with Lois? he wondered.  She had calmed down in a surprisingly short time after their argument the previous night, but she had remained aloof and sequestered herself in their first floor office immediately after putting Jason to bed.  His brief attempt to interrupt her to clear the air had been met with an angry glare, and he’d wisely backed off.  Any hope he had of talking through the matter in the morning disappeared once she saw the paper with Kent’s story on the front page.  She had been livid and rushed out the door in record time to confront him at the office.  Why did that bother her so much?  She wasn’t even in town to cover the story until yesterday afternoon.

Kent was another mystery that was bothering him.  Lois had never mentioned the man, even though they’d been partners for the three years prior to his hiatus.  She also seemed more threatened by the competition from him than he had ever known her to be with any of their other colleagues, and had never know her arguments to be as heated as they had been with him the previous day.  Of course, I can’t remember the last time anyone else got the upper hand with her like that.  The other curiosity was how well the man was able to read her.  One look and he knew that she had talked to her father.  They were even finishing each other’s sentences, something that he would never dare try.  How is it that someone who’s been gone for six years seems to know her better than I do when I’ve spent most of that time under the same roof with her?

Richard was brought out of his reverie by Perry’s gruff shout.  “Richard!” Perry barked.  “Are we boring you?”

“What?  Oh, sorry, Uncle Perry,” Richard apologized.  “Just a lot going on, I guess.”

Perry glanced through the inside window where Richard had been staring and spotted Lois at her desk.  He turned back to Richard and sternly demanded, “Keep the personal bullshit at home.”

“Easier said than done when she’s right there,” Sam muttered.

“Yet another reason why nobody should ever fish from the office pond,” Perry concluded.  “Present company included.  Actually, that goes double for all of you, because you’re management.”

“Everything’s worked out just fine for Lois and me,” Richard declared.

“That remains to be seen,” Perry countered.  “Now, what’s the problem that has you zoning out at staff meetings?”

“It’s personal.”

“Not when it affects your work,” Perry insisted.  “Out with it.”

“Lois seems… I don’t know, different?” Richard answered pensively.  “She accused me of holding her back professionally last night, and she’s gone after that EMP story with a passion I’ve never seen from her before.”

“You might not have seen it, but the rest of us have,” Perry informed him.  “That passion is the fire she had when she started working here, the fire that earned her all those award nominations years ago… and the fire we all thought she’d lost after he left.”

“She said that Superman was just a story,” Richard protested.

“Did she now?” Perry asked enigmatically.   “Well, then, I guess you have a mystery on your hands. “  Perry paused and glanced out at Lois in the bullpen as she rose from her desk and walked briskly towards the elevators.  He considered the situation for a moment and said compassionately, “Whatever the reason, her fire is re-ignited, and I’d wager that it won’t get extinguished anytime soon.  You’re going to have to adapt to it....  Now, if you don’t mind, get your head back on the job so we can continue with this meeting.”  Perry turned his attention to Sam, and asked brusquely, “Now, what the hell is Lois doing chasing the EMP story?  I was expecting a Superman exclusive from her…”



Thursday, September 28, 2006 4:30PM EDT
Superman concluded that though things were still fairly messy in Metropolis, it was certainly an improvement over Monday afternoon’s chaos.  Police, fire and ambulance communications were restored, and their fleets replenished with loaner vehicles from across the county while theirs were being repaired.  All of the trains were running again and National Guard buses were supplementing the Met Transit fleet well enough to keep all lines running.  However, there were still many traffic lights out, with the inevitable tie-ups and short tempers, even with police and National Guard directing traffic. Also, while the public sector was recovering rather quickly, things were not going so well for the private sector, with a few notable exceptions, such as the Daily Planet.  Most stores were still shuttered, with their cash registers and alarm systems still off-line from the EMP, and that had attracted a number of opportunistic criminals.  The situation had kept the Man of Steel busy.

Despite the demands of his heroic alter ego, Clark Kent had still managed to file a story by the afternoon deadline.  He submitted a public interest article on the effects of the business closures on the local community.  Such articles had always been a staple of his portfolio and had the advantage of being solid stories that pleased the editors without generating much notice otherwise.  That would be a welcome change from his recent front page articles, which had brought more attention that he was comfortable with.   After submitting that article, he had spent most of the afternoon apprehending petty criminals, and was only now rushing back to the Planet to prepare his second story of the day, this time on the economic impact of the EMP, which the Metropolis Chamber of Commerce claimed had a price tag in the billions.

His plans for the economic impact story were disrupted within moments of walking into the bullpen, when Clark found himself pulled into Perry White’s office along with a nervous Jimmy Olsen and an aggravated Lois Lane, and listening to the editor-in-chief’s monologue.  “Superman and the Daily Planet used to go together like bacon and eggs, Siegfried and Roy, death and taxes.  Now I want that bond back.”  He turned to Lois and said, “Lois, I know you’ve been sneaking around working on that blackout story–”

“EMP,” Lois corrected.  “It wasn’t just a blackout.  It was everything.  Cell phones, pagers, cars, planes, traffic lights.  Everything.”

“–but every other paper has its best-looking female reporters on every rooftop, waiting to interview Superman, and none of them have the history that you two do.”  Perry continued.

“What?  No!  Chief,” Lois complained angrily.  “I’ve done Superman.”  At Jimmy’s snickering, she quickly corrected, “Covered Superman.  You know what I mean.”

“Exactly, which makes you the expert,” Perry concluded.

“But there are dozens of other stories out there!”

“Name one,” Perry challenged.

“What about that city hall sludge contract controversy that you pulled me off of last week?  With potential Intergang ties?”

“Boring.  Gil can handle it,” Perry concluded.

“Why don’t you guys track down Lex Luthor?”  Jimmy suggested.  “I mean, no one has seen him since he won his fifth appeal, and he’s got more bad history with Superman than anyone.”

“Luthor’s yesterday’s news,” Perry declared.

“No, I like that idea, Perry,” Lois decided.  “Lex Luthor is a career criminal that nearly killed him, for Pete’s sake.  Just because he doesn’t fly–”

Clark leaned over to Jimmy and whispered conspiratorially, “How’d Luthor get out of prison?”

“The court of appeals called Superman as a witness and he was a no-show,” Jimmy whispered back.  “How much do you think that pisses off Superman now?”

“A lot,” Clark told him, matter-of-factly.

“Kent?  Blackout,” Perry declared.

“Chief!” Lois protested.

“It was his story to begin with, and he’s already had a couple days head start on you,” Perry pointed out.  “You have been reading our own paper, haven’t you?”

“He doesn’t have the ton of material I got from my sources,” Lois insisted desperately.

“Then give it to him…  Lois, you’ll do Superman.  And Olsen, if you don’t get me some iconic pictures of him like I asked for, I swear you’ll be back down to copy boy!”

“I just gave you pictures of him at the Meteordome on Tuesday!” Jimmy protested.  “That was ‘under stadium lights’.”

“That was a photo-op for FEMA.  Superman was just shaking the guy’s hand.  Now this…”  Perry threw down a copy of that morning’s Daily Planet, with the front page photo of Superman lifting the Boeing 777 out of Dolphin Stadium.  He poked his finger down on the picture, and declared, “…that’s iconic, but we had to buy the shot from AP.  Now get out of here, all three of you, and don’t come back without something special!”



Jason was in a grumpy mood.  He’d gotten in trouble at school, and his Daddy had to come and talk to the teacher.  Now he had to come back to the office, instead of playing with his friends in AfterCare.  Once the elevators opened to the editorial floor, he’d run out, looking for his mother.  He spotted her leaving Uncle Perry’s office with Jimmy and that nice man he’d met the day before, Mister Kent.  He ran up to them while they continued talking.

  “Gee, Lois, I’m so sorry about that,” Clark said.  “I really thought I was done with the EMP story.”

“I bet,” Lois muttered skeptically.

“I’d really hate it if this little thing damaged our relationship–”

“Relationship?” she asked incredulously.  She opened her mouth to say more, but hesitated when she detected the motion from the corner of her eye, and turned towards Jason just as he ran up to her.

“Mommy!”

Lois knelt down, and pulled him into her arms. “What is my little troublemaker doing here?” she asked teasingly.

“I had a little meeting with his teacher after school,” Richard explained.  “He’s getting restless and disrupting class.”

“He was probably still a little stir crazy from spending so much time cooped up in the newspaper offices this week,” Lois suggested impatiently.

“Mrs. Myers thinks he’s not challenged enough,” Richard informed her.  “The other kids are just now learning the alphabet, and he’s already reading at a second grade level.  She had to give him some books borrowed from the other class just to keep him occupied.  She thinks we should test him for Talented and Gifted, and transfer him to a TAG magnet school.”

“Absolutely not,” Lois said angrily.  “The nearest TAG school is too far away from our neighborhood.”

“I already told her we’d try the TAG school.”

“Then you can call her back, and tell her that we’re not,” Lois hissed.  “It’s on the other side of town.”

“It’s not that bad of a trip from the Planet.”

“Contrary to what you seem to believe, the bullpen is not an afterschool playground, and that TAG school is still too far from our home.  If they can’t handle him without shipping him to the other side of town, then maybe we should think about the Montessori school instead.  It’s a better school and a lot closer to home…   How could you make a decision like that without discussing it with me first?”

“All right, I’m sorry.  I’ll call her back,” Richard promised with his hands up in a surrender gesture.  After a beat, he cautiously probed, “Is everything all right, Lois?  Did something happen that I should know about?”

“Are you suggesting that you didn’t know your uncle was taking my EMP story away and shoving Superman back into my life?” Lois asked skeptically.

“I had nothing to do with that,” Richard insisted quickly.  “Perry’s got a one-track mind where Superman’s involved – you’ve heard his ‘three things sell newspapers’ spiel.  Look, I’m sure you can find a way to do the story without bringing Superman back into your life.”

At the moment, the loud volume from one of the replacement televisions overhead interrupted them, as the hostess of the infotainment program announced, “There’s really no way around it, folks!  Superman is back in our lives!”  Her face was replaced with a still image of Superman, which was one of the rare shots showing him with a smirk on his face, rather than the usual stern expression.  Jason smiled up at the picture.  Like most boys his age, he’d been absolutely fascinated by the Superman stories over the past few days, especially since he learned that Superman had saved his mother and that they were friends.

Jason heard Clark chuckle lightly and craned his head back, looking up at Clark as he looked back down at him with the same Superman smirk on his face as the picture on the television.  He looked between the television and Clark a couple of times, before his eyes grew wide and he started hyperventilating from the sudden revelation.  Mister Kent is Superman! Jason thought.  And he works with Mommy!  How cool!  As Jason was about to announce his wonderful discovery about his mother’s new co-worker, he started wheezing.

Lois heard Jason’s labored breathing and quickly checked his inhaler, replacing it with a fresh one from her purse and making him breathe in from it.  Once satisfied he was okay, she turned to Richard and sighed irritably.  “Well, you might as well take him home.  Looks like I’m going to be here late to brief Clark on everything I dug up on the EMP, and to start putting together the Superman story.”

“Actually… my sitter, um, has plans,” Clark informed them.  “She really made a point of reminding me that I had to be on-time tonight.”

“Fine.  Give me a few minutes to get my things together, we’ll pick her up from your sitter’s, and work on the story from your place,” Lois decided.

“Um, my… my place?” Clark stammered, visibly nervous.  “I, um… I’m not so sure…”

“Clark, why don’t you bring her back here,” Richard suggested.  “We’ll all stay late, bring dinner in, I’ll help with the Superman story, and you two can work on the EMP.  How’s that sound?”

“Swell!” Clark answered cheerfully, obviously relieved at the suggestion, while Lois and Richard both gave him odd looks at his choice of words.



Thursday, September 28, 2006 5:10PM EDT
Superman slowed to a stop high above the Atlantic two hundred miles east of Metropolis and reached out to bring Kara to a stop with him.  He turned to face her and told her patiently, “Remember what we talked about earlier.  We can’t let anyone know that you’re related to Superman or that we still live in Smallville.  It would raise too many questions.”

Kara rolled her eyes and told him, “I remember, but it’s stupid.  Keeping secrets makes things so complicated.”

“It would be worse if we didn’t keep secrets,” he insisted sternly.  “Kara, we’ve already discussed this, and I don’t want to repeat that argument.  Promise you’ll follow the rules?”

“Okay, I promise,” she replied irritably.  “Can we go now?”

Superman nodded, pulled Kara into his arms, and zoomed west to Metropolis, briefly coming to a stop on the roof of the Daily Planet before the pair stepped through the roof access door and Clark blurred into his civilian clothes.  A moment later, they stepped out of the stairwell onto the editorial floor and walked into the bullpen where they were quickly intercepted by a curious Jimmy Olsen.

While Kara and Jimmy exchanged greetings, Clark scanned the bullpen for Lois.  He briefly locked eyes with her through the glass wall of Richard’s office and offered her his usual goofy smile and wave.  He listened in as Lois turned to Richard and announced, “Clark’s back.”

“He’s certainly taller than I expected,” Richard muttered.

“Who? Clark?”

“Superman,” Richard corrected, spinning his monitor around to show the search results on his screen.

“Six-four,” Lois confirmed.

“I love that he can see through anything.  I’d have fun with that.”

“Anything but lead,” Lois corrected.

Richard took a closer look at the picture on his screen, one of the first taken after his arrival.  “I bet he’s–”

“–two hundred and twenty-five pounds, faster than a speeding bullet, invulnerable to anything but kryptonite, and he never lies.”

“Kryptonite?”

“Radioactive fragments from his home world, Krypton.  It’s deadly.  To him.  Why?”

“I don’t know.  Sounds like the perfect guy,” Richard commented.  He looked through the window and spotted Clark with Jimmy and Kara.  Jason had just walked up to them, lifting the garbage can off his head enough to see who he was talking to.  Richard scrutinized Clark more closely and asked, “How tall would you say Clark is?”

“I don’t know.  Six-three, Six-four.”

“About what?  Two, two-fifteen, maybe?”

“Sure, why?”  She followed Richard’s gaze, and found Clark grinning goofily and waving back to them.  She rolled her eyes when she realized what Richard had been suggesting.  “Jesus, you’ve got to be kidding!”

“What?”

“Clark’s a geeky farm-boy, single dad from Smallville, Kansas,” Lois explained crossly.  “The only thing ‘super’ about him is his stress level.  Between Foswell questioning his abilities, his mom getting married again to the farmer down the road, and his daughter’s issues, he’s pretty overwhelmed.  Not exactly what you’d find on a superhero’s résumé.”

Richard chuckled lightly and turned his attention back to Lois.  “Lois, I wasn’t seriously suggesting that Clark was–”

“Sure you weren’t,” Lois replied sarcastically.

Relieved that Lois had unknowingly thrown Richard off his scent, Clark turned his attention back to the children in front of him.  Jason appeared delighted to discover a playmate close to his size, and had run up to Kara as soon as he had spotted her and invited her to join in his game, pretending to be Godzilla.  He suggested that Kara could be Gamera.

“What’s Godzilla?” Kara asked.  “And what’s Gamera?”

“You’ve never heard of Godzilla?” Jason asked incredulously.  “He’s the coolest!  He’s a hundred-foot-tall Japanese monster!  He destroys Tokyo in all the movies.”

“Why do you want to pretend to be a monster?”  Kara asked innocently.  “Grandma says we’re supposed to help people.”

“You mean like Superman?” Jason asked, as he peeked up at Clark.

“I guess,” Kara replied, shrugging her shoulders.  “But Grandma says everyone should try to do their part to help others, and nobody’s more important that anybody else–”

“But Godzilla is more fun!” Jason insisted.

“Hey there, you little monster!” Richard teased as he and Lois approached the group.  “How about we go get some dinner?”

“Yeah, burritos!” Jason cheered.  He looked over at his new playmate and asked, “Do you like burritos?”

“I don’t know,” Kara replied.  “I’ve never tasted one.”

”We can pick up some other things, too, in case she doesn’t like them,” Lois suggested.  She then turned to Clark and asked, “Does she have any food allergies we need to watch for?”

“No, she can eat pretty much anything.”

“Can Kara come with us?” Jason asked.

“Can I please, Dad?” Kara echoed.

“Daddy and Jimmy are just going to pick up dinner and bring it back,” Lois explained. “You sure you wouldn’t rather stay here?” She squatted down in front of the two children as they confirmed their wishes, and she closely observed them, letting her gaze drift between the two.

Clark smiled down at the tableau, but frowned at Lois’ sudden gasp and the spike in her pulse.  Lois quickly caught herself, masking her expression as she turned to Richard and asked, “You still have that extra booster seat in the trunk, right?”

Richard nodded.  “We’re good to go, as long as Clark’s okay with it.  Everything okay?”

“Fine,” Lois answered sharply.

“Well, I guess Kara can go with you,” Clark decided.  Turning to Kara, he said, “Stay close to Richard and Jimmy, and do what they tell you.  Okay?”

“Okay.”

Clark turned his attention back to Lois, anxious over what had excited her.  Her heartbeat was still racing.  “Lois?” he called.  “Are you sure everything’s okay?”

“Shh.”  Lois held out her index finger, signaling him to wait until the elevator doors closed behind Richard, Jimmy, and the children.  Finally, she turned to him, grabbed his tie, and pulled him into an empty conference room behind her.  She then released his tie, slammed the door shut, and turned to him, arms crossed.  “You remember the Niagara Falls assignment, don’t you Clark?” she asked sternly.

“Um, sure, like it just happened,” he answered uncertainly.  “What’s this about?”

“Do you think it’s about time you told me what happened there?” Lois pressed.

“Um, you were there with me,” Clark reminded her.  “You pretty much know everything that happened there.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Lois insisted mysteriously.  “Seems pretty obvious to me now that something did happen there that I didn’t know about.”

“Lois, I have no idea where you’re going with this,” Clark confessed.  “Can you give me a clue, please?”

“Oh, it just occurred to me that you probably know about something that had to have happened there,” Lois began sarcastically.  “Something that, oh, I don’t know, might explain why I gave birth to Jason nine months later!”




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