Superman Movieverse Forum

Chapter Nine: Life As We Know It--

Evelyn Jones was the middle child of five. It was part of the reason her and Jason got along so well, she understood what it was like to come from a large family. However there was a big difference between their families, while Jason flew down to Metropolis every week and was constantly calling his siblings and parents to catch up, Evelyn hadn’t seen her older sister in two months and hadn’t spoken to the rest of her family for almost half a year.

She hadn't been entirely sure how her sister would react when she showed up on her doorstep not ten minutes after the world had found out her future father-in-law was Superman. She was lucky she had been passing by when the news broke, she wasn’t sure how interested she’d be to the press but she had enough sense to know that their apartment would be surrounded. The fact that Superman’s eldest son also lived there would be enough to draw the media like flies to honey.

So far her sister’s apartment had remained media-free although several stations had called up to ask about Evelyn and Jason, luckily Nina, her sister, had enough sense to deny any knowledge of it. ‘Jones’ was a common name after all- the calls had stopped after about the fourth time Nina had told them they had the wrong Evelyn. However, despite Nina’s protection of her sister, it seemed Evelyn was the only one who still liked Jason.

As soon as she had seen her sister at her door, Nina had called an emergency family meeting. Their parents had shown up almost immediately, followed by her younger brother Mike. Luckily, her younger sister and older brother lived in Europe so they weren't part of what could only be described as the night from hell.

Her father had spent the entire time at the table complaining loudly about how he'd 'always known that Kent boy was hiding something' and that Evelyn 'was right to leave him'. And he'd refused to listen to her, no matter how much she'd explained that she'd already known who his father was and that she hadn't left Jason at all.

"You're father's just looking out for you," her mother had said after the meal, "he only has to turn on the TV to see how bad this could get for you. Maybe you should consider breaking it off with Jason."

At which point Evelyn had given up on both her parents and tried her siblings. That had only gone slightly better. "Well, I kinda like him but you have to look at the facts here," Mike had explained, "he's Superman's son, and he's the one he abandoned for five years, he'll probably get the most attention. If you're with him you're going to be in the media."

Nina had pretty much the same idea. "Evie, we only want the best for you, and we're not sure that the best thing at the moment is to be involved in this."

After that she'd just gone straight to the guest room where she was staying and locked to door. Her cellphone had been ringing constantly with friends pretending to check if she was okay but most just wanting to know the full story. She had just ignored it for most of the night, instead trying to take her mind off her family by working on some projects for work, until she'd heard Holding Out For A Hero, Jason's personal ring tone playing.

The conversation had been shorter than she'd wanted but Jason had assured her everything was under control. Evelyn didn't believe that for a second but she hadn't wanted to argue. He'd asked her to stay somewhere safe and promised to visit her soon. She'd tried not to mention how her family had reacted but she had a feeling Jason had noticed it anyway.

Breakfast had been tense, Mike had gone home sometime after midnight but her parents had stayed. As soon as she had sat her father had launched straight into a list of people she could stay with and what she could do while she broke up with Jason and found a new apartment, clearly having given it far to much thought. Nina and her Mom had tried to keep the peace but Evelyn had ended up storming out of the kitchen before anyone had finished.

She had really hoped Jason would've shown up then, maybe they could've explained together why they didn’t want to break up and stopped her father before he'd done something stupid.

Of course it was too late now.

"I'm so sorry, dear," her mother said for the hundredth time as they watched the TV, "he said he was only going out to get some milk."

"I have milk," Nina snapped at her mother as she put an arm around her sister. Even though she'd been on the side of Evelyn breaking it off with Jason even she never would have gone to the lengths her father had.

"My daughter wants nothing to do with you," her father snarled from the TV, in the CNN studios, "do you hear me, Jason Kent," she practically spat the name out, "stay away from my daughter and leave my family alone."

"That was Mr. Henry Jones," the anchor reappeared on screen, "Mr. Jones came to our studio early this morning with a message from his daughter to Clark "Superman" Kent's oldest son-"

"Bastard," Nina spat, apparently now firmly siding with her sister.

"Nina," their mother gasped, "don't speak that way about your father-"

"Mom, stop defending him," Nina yelled back, leaping off the couch, "I don't care how much he still blames Superman for his brother's deaths it gives him no right to-"

Evelyn blocked them out, placing her hands over her ears. She knew her father had issues with Superman, his brother had died in a fire two years ago and he blamed the Man of Steel. Evelyn had always thought it was stupid to blame someone for their absence, but she understood his need to do so. He'd often made comments about how much he disliked Superman, often unknowingly in front of his son. He'd even once gone on some sort of protest rally but she wasn't sure if she could ever forgive him for this.

She came back to herself as Nina placed a hand on her shoulder again. Her mother had left the room and Evelyn knew it hadn't been a pleasant departure. "You okay?" Nina asked softly.

"I'm fine," she sniffed, realizing for the first time she was crying. She wasn't surprised, what her father had done had hurt deeply, even if she was still mostly in shock.

"Jason won't listen to him," Nina assured her, "he's smarter than that."

Evelyn nodded, she hadn't been concerned about that at all but it was nice to know her sister was supporting her even if her parents weren't. "We're engaged," she said softly, she hadn't wanted to tell anyone until then, especially not her father, but it just slipped out.

"That's great!" Nina cried, sounding genuinely happy for her which brought up Evelyn's spirits somewhat. "I can't believe-" she broke of suddenly with a small "oh"

"Evie?" Jason's voice asked softly. She looked up to see him standing by the open window.

Without a second's thought she flung herself into his arms. "Thanks god you're here," she gasped, relaxing into his arms as he held her. Somewhere behind her she heard Nina leave the room but she didn't pay any attention. "Did you see the news?" she asked suddenly, "it's not true, I still love you."

"That's good," Jason said with a small smile, "because I still love you too, and it'd be pretty bad if we got married when we didn't," he joked, trying to cheer her up.

She didn't say anything and after a moment he spoke again. "I saw the news," he said softly, "on my way over. You're Dad really doesn't like me does he?"

Evelyn sighed. "No," she told him, "you know he still blames Superman for not saving his brother, and apparently he's decided you can be to blame as well."

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"No," she admitted, knowing he'd be listening to her heartbeat and could tell if she lied, not that she wanted to lie to him anyway, "he's my Dad," she tried to explain, "he's supposed to support me no matter what, not decide I can't marry you just because he holds a ridiculous grudge against your father. I really hate him for this," she sighed.

Jason was silent for a moment. "Can I take you somewhere?" he asked, in the way that meant, somewhere only he could take her.

"Please," she said, stepping onto his shoes and feeling the familiar thrill as the world spun into a blur of color before coalescing into a truly amazing view of the world above the clouds.

Evelyn sighed and took a moment to admire the view before asking, "any particular reason we're up here? Because this is old hat by now if you were just trying to impress me."

Jason shrugged. "I'm taking a leaf out of my Dad's book," he admitted, "this is something he used to do with us kids when it seemed like everything was out of control. See, there." He pointed off into the distance and Evelyn squinted her eyes to make out a V of birds flying past.

"What am I looking at?" she asked after a moment.

"Life," Jason replied simply, "because we have to remember no matter how bad things get, it goes on. The world keeps turning, the birds keep flying. You did notice the sun rose today despite everything going on?" he asked seriously and Evelyn found herself laughing.

They stayed up there for a long time, just enjoying the view and, for Evelyn at least, the silence. "I have to go," Jason sighed after some time, pulling her closer as she shivered in the cold. "Dad's doing an interview at the Planet and I really wanted to be there for him, but I had to see you first."

"Ah," Evelyn nodded, "the inevitable choice between your fiancée and your family," she sighed.

"You know," Jason told her, hearing what she'd really said, "no matter how your Dad feels about me, I'll never ask you to choose between me and them."

"I know you wouldn't," Evelyn assured him as they descended, "I know what my father did seems pretty unforgivable but they're my family, Jason, I know were not as close as yours but I can't just cut them off. And I'm not going to leave you either."

"So what are we going to do?" Jason asked.

"I don't know," his fiancée sighed, "but we'll figure this out."

--
"-and returning now to the one piece information that has everyone talking. His kids."

"That's right, Ford," the voices on the TV caught Danielle Green's attention as she walked back into the living room, "Superman, aka Clark Kent, has six children. And as we saw last night, they're no denying they're his."

The image changed to show her roommate, Sophie, effortlessly carrying an elderly man out of a flaming building and delivering him to the medics before shooting off into the sky. The camera tried to follow her but she moved too fast.

Dani switched it off as the phone rang for the third time in as many minutes. "Tag," she said brightly as she picked it up.

"Pardon?" asked a confused voice on the other end, "Um, I'm looking for Sophie Kent, is she-"

"Entschuldigung," Dani interrupted, "Sprechst du Deutsch?"

"Er… sorry," the caller apologized, "Wrong number."

Dani grinned as she threw it back on the couch and started on the cold pizza that was her breakfast. It probably would have been easier to just leave it off the hook, but not nearly as much fun. So far she'd been a confused German three times, she wished she'd thought of it when the news stations had been calling instead of just denying all knowledge and hanging up.

There had been several knocks on the door which she'd ignored, and one attempt to pick the lock which had stopped after she'd yelled through the door and threatened to call the police.

Her e-mail inbox was full, including a message from Harvard informing all students that classes were still running as normal. Dani had found it a little odd that they felt the need to tell everyone it was business as usual and that what had happened yesterday had been no big deal. It sounded to her as if the admin thought it was a huge deal- or else they wouldn't have said anything unless something hadn't been business as usual.

"What are you doing here?" a voice behind her asked, startling her so much she fell off the couch.

"Holy crap," she yelled, screaming up to see who it was and relaxing as she saw her roommate Sophie. "Jeez, you scared me," she laughed nervously, putting a hand over her still pounding heart.

"What are you doing here?" Sophie repeated, stepping off the window sill and closing the window. "I thought I told you to go somewhere else."

"You did." Dani nodded. "But I called Phil to say I was coming and this other girl picked up asking why I wanted to speak to her boyfriend so I told her she could shove it and hung up."

"Wow, you have such a way with people," Sophie muttered, rolling her eyes. She wasn't really surprised Dani hadn't left, the girl always wanted to be where the action was. Even though Sophie could tell she wasn't lying she doubted Dani had tried too hard to find somewhere else to go.

"So how's the family?" Dani asked brightly.

"Fine, but the reason I'm here is because I heard from my next-door neighbor that I was getting kicked out so I'd rather talk about that."

“Fair enough," Dani agreed, before launching straight into the explanation, "So here’s the deal, you're not getting kicked out."

"Oh, thank god," Sophie sighed, she'd thought Kathy may have been exaggerating but it was nice to have it confirmed.

"I wouldn't relax just yet," Dani warned, " You may not be out just yet but there are some problems. Apparently seen as you can like, fly and crap, people are assuming you have the super-hearing and super-seeing, right?” Dani asked her.

“You mean X-ray vision?”

“Yeah, whatever. Well, it seems some people now think your high marks are not a result of just being smart and studying.”

Sophie felt her jaw drop as she realized what her roommate was implying. “They think I cheated?”

Dani shrugged apologetically. “Don’t shoot the messenger, I think some are just jealous you got a scholarship as well.”

“Oh my god.” Sophie buried her head in her hands, now feeling thoroughly sick. “I could lose the scholarship,” she realized, “if I’m accused of cheating… I didn’t,” she said suddenly, looking up to study Dani’s face. If her best friend thought she’d cheated what hope was there of convincing the board?

“Don’t worry,” Dani assured her, “believe me, I know you would never cheat. Besides, you’re fourth in the class, if you really could cheat why not go for first?”

“I’d at least be beating you,” Sophie agreed, making Dani laugh.

“Yeah, right, superpowers or no I’d love to see you knock me off second.” She grinned.

"Hey, I've been second," Sophie reminded her, relaxing slightly at the familiarity of teasing her best friend.

"Oh, only because I broke my leg and spent the day of a pop quiz in hospital. I guess that would never happen to you though," she shot back.

Sophie felt as if she'd just been pulled sharply back to Earth. She looked at Dani carefully for a moment before commenting, "You're still being remarkably calm about this. I mean, you just found out your best friend is an alien hybrid who can fly and will never get hurt and your reponse is… well-" she waved a hand at her relaxed and remarkably unflustered roommate "-this?" she completed.

Dani just shrugged. "I wasn't aware there was a certain way I was supposed to react," she said with a frown, "I mean, is there some sort of handbook on appropriate ways to respond when you find out your roommate is a superhero?"

"So you're not angry about the fact that I didn't tell you?" she pressed. She wasn't sure why she was so desperate to get Dani to admit she was angry, but she was sure she was.

"Look, I'm not angry at you," Dani said firmly, "so stop trying to get me to say that. I'm a little hurt you felt you had to hide all these cool things you can do, but angry? No."

"But why?" Sophie asked again. In her experience everyone was angry when they found out, Jason had told her stories of Lois' month-long rage when she'd found out. Her mother frequently told them about how pissed off Uncle Jimmy had been when told and she recalled only this morning Mr. Taylor's cold anger towards them.

Sophie had to admit Danielle Green was one of those people who could see a pig fly and only react with a shrug. But to see her this calm over something so big was a little unbelievable. "I honestly don't know," Dani continued, "I guess it's just 'cause I can see why you did it. I mean, why your Dad did it, if you'd been a superhero before like he is and not told me, I'd probably be pissed. But-" she shrugged "-your Dad has a lot of enemies and he just wanted to protect you guys. I can't really blame you for, one: not telling me something that was your Dad's secret and two: not telling me something that could endanger the lives of your brothers and sisters."

"And Mom," Sophie added.

"No, I'm pretty sure your Mom can take care of herself." Dani grinned at Sophie and it only took a moment before the two of them were in fits of laughter.

It felt good to get rid of the stresses of the day with her friend, Sophie thought, but it wasn't long before she had to pull herself back into the present. "I have to go talk to the Dean." She sighed, "Do you have any idea who made the complaint?"

Dani shrugged. "Not yet, but I can think of a few. Someone with connections, I mean people have been calling the news stations with since the news broke, the phone lines are jammed. According to Phil though, for all the stories about you lot coming in, hardly any make it on the air. But this one, the press got a hold of it as soon as it was filed, it's been on the news all night."

Sophie nodded, "Then I'm guessing it was probably someone who really doesn't like me. It was someone who was just genuinely concerned I'd been abusing my powers they wouldn't have gone into so much trouble. But I should probably focus more on proving I didn't cheat than worry about who thought I did."

Dani nodded but she had a frown on her face. "Soph, I don't mean to be a downer here but how exactly are you going to prove you didn't? It's not like you can prove you weren't listening or using your eyes."

"I don't know," Sophie admitted, "but the reason I'm becoming a lawyer is so I can fight for the truth. And this is one case I can't afford to lose."

--