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Chapter Thirteen: On The Edge
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"Ella.. Ella.. Eleanor, are you ignoring me?"
Ella sighed. "No, Kimberly, I'm trying to do my work," she hissed back, finally acknowledging her friend before going back to her math and trying to ignore her other classmates who kept turning to stare at her throughout the lesson.
Kim waited until she was onto the next question before leaning over again. "Are we going to talk about what happened with your Dad?" she asked, sounding more concerned than anything.
"Nope, I don't think we are," Ella replied simply. She still hadn't gotten rid of the sick feeling in her stomach and it had just gotten worse after her talk with Dean.
"Alright," Kim sighed.
Ella paused mid-equation and stared at her friend. "Alright?" she asked, raising her eyebrows. "That's it?"
"Isn't that what you wanted?," Kim asked with an eyeroll.
Ella just shrugged and returned to her work. She wanted to be left alone, she just hadn't expected her best friend to listen to her. She didn't want to talk to anyone after that morning. She used to think it might be nice to finally admit how she'd felt all these years about what she was but Dean’s reaction had just made her feel worse.
She had hoped that maybe he'd feel the same way, perhaps not as strongly but surely out of the six of them she wasn't the only one to have trouble with being only half-human? If Dean's reaction had been any indication the mere thought that feelings like hers could exist would shock the family.
"Hey, Ella," someone behind her whispered, poking her in the back with a pencil.
"Leave her alone," Kim snapped before Ella could even turn around.
"Something you would like to share, Miss Koe?" The teacher asked, looking up from his desk with a stern gaze.
"Sorry," Kim apologized while Ella tried to ignore the fact that the whole class was now staring at them.
"Well, back to work then," he instructed them, seemingly oblivious to anything out of the ordinary in the room.
Most of the other teachers were trying to act like nothing had happened yesterday but with the huge crowds outside the school and Lucy prancing everywhere like she now owned the place it was becoming harder to ignore. Although Mr. Astor was so old Ella doubted he was pretending, the man probably didn't even own a TV and honestly had no clue Superman's daughter was in his class.
"Is it true then?" the boy behind her, Theodore Gregg hadn't yet given up and there was another poke with the pencil.
Ella tried to ignore it until the fifth time and then she snapped. Faster than he could blink she whipped around and snapped the pencil in half before returning to her work.
The boy yelped in shock and Mr. Astor looked up again. "That's it." He stood up and walked over to the desk behind Ella. "Mr. Gregg I'm not sure what's gotten into you but screaming during my class is strictly prohibited."
There was a ripple of laughter through the class as Theo tried to explain. "She broke my pencil," he claimed, and Ella turned around to find him pointing at her.
"Well I don't blame her," the elderly teacher said with a frown, looking at him over the top of his glasses, "the way you were prodding her with it. Yes, I saw that," he continued as Theo's eyebrows went up in surprise, "and that's certainly more the type of behavior I'd expect from my sixth grade class. Please bring your books up the front, you'll continue your work there where you can't distract poor Miss Kent." The class snickered as Theo gathered his things and followed Mr. Astor to the front of the class.
Ella didn't join in though, she thought if she opened her mouth she might throw up for real this time. Theo's distraction had almost been welcome because her thoughts now returned to her talk with Dean and how she was going to deal with him when he confronted her again.
Her thoughts were interrupted when Kim slipped her a piece of paper with writing on it. It's okay if you don't want to talk now, she read, but I'll still be here to listen when you're ready.
PS- I forgot my lunch, can you lend me $5?
--
"You'd better hurry, I heard they're packing up now." The voice drifted over the trees and through the hot, dry air to the two men.
Kyle and Will shared a tired look. "Again?" Will asked, shaking his head, "this is Australia, most of it's desert, how many news stations can they have?"
"It's a newspaper this time," his girlfriend, Georgia, told them as she and Jackie returned from their water run. "They seemed pretty disappointed when we told them he'd left."
"I still don't get how you guys didn't know your friend was Superman's kid," Jackie said frowning at the two men as they tried to pack up their gear faster.
"Jackie, now's really not the time," Kyle told her as he spotted the reporters coming towards them.
"Yeah," Georgia agreed, giving the other girl a poorly concealed glare, "besides, it's Dean we're talking about. He's built like a tank anyway, it's hardly a surprise he has the lineage to back it up."
"Aren't you annoyed he lied to you though?" Jackie pressed, either ignoring or simply not seeing the looks the other girl was giving her.
"Once again," Will said, throwing the tents into the back of the truck, "this is Dean we're talking about. He doesn't lie, he just hardly says anything at all. Hey, there." The last words were directed to a group of reporters who'd now reached them.
They'd been pestered by a few international correspondents who happened to be in the area but the way these ones seemed wholly unbothered by the glaring sun and stifling heat told Will they were local.
"Morning," Kyle greeted them with a nod and a tight smile, "What can we do you for?"
"You're Dean Kent's friends?" one of them asked, stepping forward with an eager look on her face.
"We are," Will confirmed, "but I'm afraid he's gone and we can't really help you if you're come about the whole Superman thing. It was news to us too."
"So he never mentioned his father to you?"
"No, of course he did." Will frowned. "He just-"
"Look," Kyle interrupted his friend, jumping off the back of the truck as he secured the last of their gear, "we've talked to about fifty other reporters today so why don't you just go find them and you can all compare notes or something," he suggested, opening the door of the truck and indicating to he girls to get in.
"But-"
Whatever the reporters had been trying to say was drowned out as Kyle started the engine. "Sorry for interrupting you back there," he apologized as Will got into the passenger's seat. "I just thought we should move on."
"How will Dean find us though?" Georgia asked before Will turned to raise and eyebrow at her. "Oh, right, son of Superman."
"It's good though," Will said in acceptance of Kyle's apology, as he turned back to the front, "better to be out of there anyway and onto somewhere where they won't know who we are."
"Imagine what it's got to be like for Dean though," Georgia reminded them.
"Dean?" Kyle asked with a shake of his head, "imagine what it's got to be like for his Dad."
--
"We have to go out and face them sometime," Lois said as she looked through the blinds of the conference room to the bullpen.
"I disagree," her husband replied.
"Oh, really?" Lois asked, turning to face him with an amused smile on her face. "On what grounds?"
"On the grounds that I don't want to."
Lois laughed. "Superman afraid of a few reporters being mad at him? I can see the headlines now, Man of Steel vulnerable only to kryptonite and the glares of his workmates."
"They're not just reporters, Lo'," he sighed, wishing he had brought his glasses with him, at least they'd be something to hide behind, "these are the people I've worked beside every day for over twenty years. And now they all think I was laughing a them behind their backs."
Lois apparently had nothing to say to that instead she just shrugged and moved towards the door. "Well, I'm going out anyway, I need to talk to Perry, find out what that old man knew but never told us."
Before he could protest she was gone, ignoring the sudden increase in whispers and pointing as she stepped out. Clark sighed, he knew he should follow but… he'd fooled these people for years with a stutter and a pair of glasses and no one likes to be fooled. Ralph was probably in the minority right now who either understood or would be willing to listen before condemning him.
It wouldn't take too long to follow Lois to Perry's office though, he'd hardly be in the bullpen at all. Then again, he turned towards the window, even on the top floor the windows could open, the Planet building being built before air conditioning had been available. He could go out that way and straight up to clouds where no one could see him.
He was so busy considering different escapes that the sound of the phone on the desk next to him rigging almost made him leap out of his skin. "CK, it's for you," in the bullpen Jimmy spoke under his breath after he transferred the call, knowing his friend would hear him anyway. "It's Richard."
Clark's hand actually shook as he picked up the phone but he stilled it before placing it to his ear. "Richard?"
"Hey, Clark," his wife's ex-fiancée replied.
There was an awkward silence before both tried to speak at the same time.
"Listen-" Richard began at the same time Clark tried to say,
"I'm sorry-"
"No, let me talk first," Richard asked him, when they both paused. "I don't want an explanation now, although I do expect one. I'd rather do that face to face."
Clark nodded in understanding, even though the other man couldn't see him. "When do you plan to come?"
"I've already booked a flight, we leave tomorrow."
Clark frowned. "But I could just come get you right now if-"
"I know," Richard interrupted. "I just..." he paused before taking a breath and starting again, "I'm bringing Eric and I just want to get us there by myself. I've flown that route a thousand times before."
Clark winced at the hint of accusation behind the words. He knew Richard had taken a lot of planes to come and see Jason while Jason had always taken the Kryptonian Express.
"I'm sorry," he said lamely, knowing it would never be enough to make up for years of deception.
Richard sighed in a rush of static down the phone. "I know. See you soon, Clark."
--
Mike Baker's heart was pounding as he sat across the road, watching the crowd of people outside the apartment building. Outside Superman's apartment building. Who'd thought the Man of Steel walked among them everyday as a mild-mannered reporter?
It was the only news anyone was talking about, many were excited or confused, but for certain people, people like Mike who were in a certain line of work, it had revealed an amazing opportunity. Six opportunities to be precise. Or seven if you wanted to take on his wife but Lois Lane had always been a target and it had never worked, most of the smart ones had stopped trying by now.
Mike took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves, he always got jitters before a big job, especially in Metropolis where the cops weren't the only thing you had to watch out for. But Mike was smart, he'd flown below Big Blue's radar for most of his life, careful to organize his heists to mobilize on short notice, such as when Superman was away helping at another disaster.
Until last month that was. It hadn't even been a big job, just a small break-in to grab a few shiny pieces of jewelry his brother, Tom, had seen hanging around some pretty girl's neck. Unfortunately Tom had made a mistake and the girl's boyfriend was home too, Mike had gotten away but the couple's yells had attracted the attention of the Man of Steel and Tom was now locked up in prison awaiting trial. Tom had been more 'active' in the criminal world than his brother as well, he was looking at life with no parole. And all thanks to Superman.
The funny thing was, until yesterday, Mike didn't really hold anything against the alien. He was just doing his job, like a cop or judge. Didn't mean he liked him but he hadn't seen the point in holding a grudge against a man who was simply on the other side.
But when he'd turned on the TV yesterday he'd realized something unbelievable. Superman was Clark Kent and Clark Kent was a journalist. He was a journalist- that was his job, not catching people who worked on the other side of the law- that part was apparently just something he did because he took some sort of sick pleasure destroying the lives of those who'd chosen a not-so-traditional way to earn a living.
Mike glared up at the building, putting a hand inside his jacket to make sure the object he'd purchased that morning was still there. It was heavy in his pocket but it was a reassuring weight. The man he'd purchased it from was well respected for supplying quality merchandise and this piece was particularly valuable.
Kryptonite, the three most beautiful syllables a man in his line of work could hear. This piece had been slightly cheaper than most because it wasn't the pure stuff- it had been dredged up from Metropolis harbor in the months following the New Krypton incident twenty-two years ago.
But it to would still do the job it was intended for. If Superman- Clark Kent- could take away Mike's family then Mike could take away his. He had six to choose from as well, six half-human abominations. Although he didn't know how long it would take for one of those opportunities to present itself, he was more than willing to wait.
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