Superman Movieverse Forum

Chapter Sixteen: Through The Eyes Of Others
 
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Metropolis Central Hospital was its usual bustling self on Tuesday afternoon. Hospital workers were used working every day no matter what that day had brought, especially in a hospital as big as Central. Whether it was Christmas, New Years or the revelation that a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist was secretly a superhero from another planet.
 
The rest of the world may be at home glued to their TV sets, watching as Clark Kent’s life was picked over piece by piece by the ravenous hordes of the media but in the sterile walls of the hospital there was still work to be done.
 
That didn’t mean they weren’t interested of course.
 
“Personally, I like him with the glasses more,” Renee Long told her fellow friend and nurse, Maryanne Reilly, as the two neglected their paperwork in favour of surfing the internet.
 
“I don’t know,” Maryanne said with a shrug, “he’s alright but he’s kinda old.”
 
“He doesn’t look it,” Renee laughed, enlarging a picture of Mr. Kent at an awards dinner for some journalist prize presented to his wife. The caption said he’d left early, complaining of an upset stomach only minutes before Superman was spotted rescuing a village in India from a landslip.
 
Both nurses had been working at the Central hospital for over two years, having transferred there at the same time, and saw the Man of Steel almost every week. Neither would claim to be anything close to a friend to him but you don’t work in the emergency services, especially in Metropolis, for long without getting to know him.
 
“Interesting,” Maryanne muttered, scrolling down the search results. “Hey, remember that?” she clicked on a page leading to an article about an eight car collision last year. It had shut down the city centre for three hours and claimed five lives, including two children that had died after Superman had delivered them to the central hospital.
 
“I wish I didn’t,” Renee sighed, “he looked totally devastated about that, didn’t he?”
 
“Hmm, says here that was that same time as one of his kids’ school recitals.”
 
“My Dad used to miss my recitals because he was too drunk to get up,” Renee said, “Now that pissed me of. But if he’d missed one because he was out saving people’s lives or some crap like that I’d have no problem.”
 
Maryanne just shook her head. The two nurses were firmly on Superman’s- or Clark Kent’s- side as were the majority of the other doctors, nurses and emergency personal.
 
“Doesn’t matter what the hell his real name is, he’s still saved countless lives,” Dr Robert Welsh startled the two friends as he leaned over Maryanne’s shoulder to look at the screen. It was only then they realized everyone else had been listening to them as well.
 
There was a general muttering of agreement at Dr. Welsh’s words and he continued louder. “I’ve seen ambulance drivers that complain all day about ferrying sick people around and that’s their goddamn job. That man never complained once about what he did, not matter how ungrateful people were. The fact that he had a family and a life he gave up time with to do this only makes me admire him more if that’s possible.”
 
“But you have to understand why people who knew him as Clark Kent are a little upset,” someone else who just ‘happened’ to overhear him replied.
 
“Oh sure,” he agreed, “I mean if Mr. Owens-“ he pointed to a man in bed four that had been in a coma for two years “- suddenly jumped up and yelled ‘surprise, I’ve been awake this whole time’, I’d send him into a real coma for pulling that crap. But all those freaks,” he continued, waving at the TV screen, “who don’t even know him but think the man should have told them just because they wanted to know. They can all go to hell.”
 
There was a louder ripple of approval at that as more people began to listen and Maryanne nodded. “He saved my brother from a car crash once,” she said, “in fact this whole city owes him their lives after that New Krypton thing.”
 
“You weren’t alive for that,” Renee informed her as if she might not already be aware of the fact.
 
Maryanne rolled her eyes. “No,” she agreed, “I wasn’t, but both my parents were and they were here when it happened. So I wouldn’t have died in it, in fact it’s worse because I wouldn’t even exist. People should be happy to find out he has a nice family and a great job because if anyone deserves it he does. What he doesn’t deserve is the whole world angry at him for having a freaking life.”
 
“Hear, hear,” Dr. Welsh agreed as another murmur of agreement swept through the reception area.
 
“Children, as fascinating as this gossip is and as much as I do agree with you there is still work to be done.” Everyone jumped a glanced guiltily in the direction of the head nurse who was giving the group her best ‘naughty children’ glare that she used when she would complain her staff were acting as such, particularly focusing on Renee and Maryanne as they hurriedly closed the web browser. Evidently you could take the nurse out of pediatrics but getting her to stop calling everyone ‘children’ was just too much to ask.
 
They were just about to start on their paperwork when the doors of the waiting room burst open and several people screamed as they all but flew off their hinges with a bang.
 
The assembled doctors and nurses stared in shock at the scene. It took Maryanne a few seconds to recognize the blood-covered man in a T-shirt and jeans holding the limp body of a teenage girl. By the time she realized who he was most of the other emergency staff had already sprung into action.
 
“What do we have?” Dr Welsh was asking but Superman didn’t seem to have heard him. Usually the Man of Steel would give a quick summary of what had happened and what injuries the patient had but currently he just looked to be in shock.
 
The girl was placed on a gurney and Maryanne recognized her before an oxygen mask obscured her face. Her face had been on the television constantly along with her parents and her five siblings. She was one of Superman’s kids- Maryanne hadn’t learnt all their names but she looked about sixteen or seventeen.
 
“Alright, looks like we’ve got a single stab wound to the lower abdomen, I can’t tell for sure but it seems like we might have something still in there,” Dr Welsh yelled once he realized Superman was in no condition to tell them anything.
 
The room continued to stare at him as his daughter had an oxygen mask placed over her head and was wheeled away. It was only when Maryanne saw a kids taking a picture with his cell phone did she snap out of her shock and remember she was a nurse.
 
It seemed weird to see Superman looking so lost in the hospital when he was usually so in control. But she pushed the idea of Superman out of her head for the moment. He was just another father whose child was injured and that Maryanne knew how to handle.
 
“Come with me, S- Mr. Kent,” she instructed, catching herself just in time and leading him after his daughter.
 
At least the paperwork would get to wait a little longer.
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Officer Ethan Rider was having a hell of a day. First he’d had to put up with three reporters from the Inquisitor trying to quote their "freedom of the press” rights at him to get out of arson charges. Then he had five people in a row that had come in to the station just to ask if it was true about Superman secretly being a journalist.
 
“Ma’am, I know as much as you. You’re better off watching the TV than coming in here,” he told one woman who seemed to think she should have the right to an audience with the mayor to talk about Clark Kent and his secret identities.
 
“We have a right to know!” She told him. “What’s stopping that man from coming into our homes and kidnapping our children?”
 
Thankfully she had been one of the more extreme examples. Most were just curious and several were in fact highly supportive him.
 
"Rider!" The voice behind him made him jump and he gratefully excused himself from the old man who was kindly telling him that in his day they never would have been fooled by a pair of glasses and a different hairstyle.
 
“Jones,” he greeted the short balding officer who was waving him over to where he stood with a group of officers, “isn’t it your day off?”
 
“Like hell I’m taking a day off today,” the older man snapped, “The whole city’s gone bat**** over this Clark Kent thing and the only person I know who’s gotten off is Lieutenant McKesson on account of she’s busy giving birth.”
 
“That was my excuse too, but they didn’t buy it,” the man beside Rider joked, provoking a laugh from the others but a glare from Jones.
 
“Look, you want to organize security for the Kent’s apartment building, the Daily Planet and deal with those arsonists in the back cell by lunch time then be my guest otherwise shut the hell up and listen. Choke, Adams and Leigh,” he pointed to three of the six gathered, “I need you lot to high tail it over to the Kent’s apartment building. There was an incident there and someone’s in hospital- we need to know exactly what happened and detailed statements from anyone who saw anything. The officers there are barely coping with the crowd as it is so stick around afterwards and lend a hand.”
 
The three men moved off quickly, perhaps some of it was their efficiency at their job but Rider had a feeling most of it was curiosity on what exactly the ‘incident’ was. “Becket, Wilson, Rider, you three are headed to Metropolis Central Hospital, we just got word that Clark Kent’s there with some of his kids. Still finding out what’s going on but where he is the media will soon follow. Captain Asker is already there, she’s organizing it so don’t ask me anything. You’ll be working with the hospital security and several other officers form various stations to keep everything under control.”
 
Rider kept his radio tuned to the news station as he drove but he knew enough to take any breaking news they said they had with a grain of salt. By the time he’d reached the hospital a crowd was already starting to gather and the only thing he knew for certain was that one of Clark Kent’s six kids had been injured.
 
The news stations couldn’t agree on which one or how it had happened but Rider had been on the force for just under six years. He’s seen more than one criminal take revenge on the family of the cop who’d put them or their friends away. He didn’t want to think how many might have been plotting to harm Superman’s kids since Monday.
 
He flashed his badge at the guard outside the ambulance entrance and asked, “Do you know where Captain Asker is?”
 
“Just in the main reception area,” the guard told him, “she said to send any cops her way.”
 
He thanked him and hurried to the reception area. He’d seen Becket’s and Wilson’s cars already parked outside- giving the impression of a stronger police presence than was actually available. But even through he knew he was running late he stopped to chat to several other officers he passed on the way.
 
From their far more reliable sources he found out that Superman’s sixteen-year-old daughter Eleanor Kent had been attacked by a man wielding a kryptonite knife. She had spent three hours in surgery and was currently in a ‘critical but stable’ condition. Two of her brothers had also been with her but they were relatively unharmed with only the older one needing any medical attention for a few nasty cuts.
 
He also learnt that the whole Kent family was here, including on of the kids’ fiancées. Unfortunately word of that was spreading quickly and the
journalists were rushing to be where the news was.
 
Rider jogged up the last few stairs to the reception area hoping he wasn’t too late only to find that Captain Asker was occupied on her radio with some incident involving a cameraman trying to climb the side of the hospital to Eleanor Kent’s room. She waved him away and held up her hand, telling him to give her five minutes.
 
Rider shrugged and was about to seek out more info when he turned around and spotted Superman himself standing beside Commissioner Henderson. The noise level of the other officers dropped considerably when they noticed him.
 
According to an officer Rider had spoken to in the hall, Commissioner Henderson had cancelled a trip to LA to come to the hospital when he had heard the news. Rider watched him curiously; he was probably the one policeman who had had the most contact with the Man of Steel over the years, even after his promotion the two had often been seen talking together. Rider wondered if he was mad about the whole secret identity thing as well.
 
“Admit it, you knew,” the man who was at the moment both Superman and Clark Kent was saying with a tone that suggested he might have smiled had the meeting not been under such somber circumstances.
 
The Commissioner shrugged. “I had my suspicions,” he replied, “but I still got a hell of a surprise turning on the TV yesterday.”
 
“I think we all did,” the young, dark-haired woman standing beside Superman said with a roll of her eyes. Rider recognized her from the news as one of Superman’s daughters; the one at Harvard but her name escaped him for the moment. “By the way,” she continued, “there’s an Asian girl outside called Kimberly Koe. Can you let her in, please? She’s a friend of my sister.”
 
Henderson nodded to the first officer he saw, which just happened to be Rider, who quite wanted to stay and see what was going on but went to the door anyway. The crowd outside was blocking off the road and the cops on the entrance were only just managing to keep the reporters at the front away from the door.
 
There were a few Asian girls about the right age to be Eleanor Kent’s friend in the crowd that he could see but only one had managed to fight her way to the front and was angrily demanding that the officer closest to her let her through.
 
“I’m her friend,” she told him, “you have to let me in.”
 
“Yeah, you and the rest of the world,” the cop replied, trying to push her back so they had more room.
 
“Kimberly Koe?” Rider asked, ignoring the sudden barrage of question hurled towards him by the over-eager journalists.
 
“Yes,” she replied, “can I go in?”
 
“No, ma’am, I already said-“
 
“Actually, you can let her through,” Rider told the other man, “she’s telling the truth.”
 
The other officer just looked relieved to get rid of her as he let the girl through before returning to crowd control.
 
“Do you have any ID on you?” Rider asked before he took her inside, he wanted to be sure he had the right person and not just an opportunist fan trying to get in.
 
“Here.” Rider was surprised when the girl presented her passport to him but he supposed she had being expecting to be asked. “I’m not lying,” she told him as he looked closely at the photo and name, “who in their right mind would make up that name?”
 
He looked at her full name: Kimberly Karen Koe. “Alright then,” he agreed with an amused smile, “come on.”
 
"Is Ella alright?" the girl asked, her concern genuine.
 
"I'm sorry, miss," Rider apologized, "but I don't know, you'll have to ask the family."
 
The reporters were yelling to ask who the teenager was and why she being let it but Rider ignored them as he led Kimberly back to the room. Superman and Henderson were still there with Superman's eldest daughter and they had been joined by another blonde girl the same age as Ella.
 
Lucy, Rider remembered from the news, Lucy and Ella were Superman's twins. The twins were blonde, he recalled, even though they weren't identical, and so was the youngest boy. The other kids had dark hair and they all had the same unearthly blue eyes as their father.
 
“Kim!” Lucy exclaimed, hugging the other girl. Rider blinked several times, he hadn’t seen the other girl move at all. She was across the hall one moment and then she was beside him hugging her sister’s friend. “C’mon, Ella’s down the hall, she’s not awake yet but you can go in…” her voice faded away as the pair disappeared down the hall.
 
They were passed by another Kent, this one as tall as his father although, if Rider remembered correctly, Dean Kent was only eighteen. His head had a bandage on it and his arm was in a cast but his movement didn’t seem to be impaired.
 
“You should be resting,” Superman- Rider still couldn’t think of him as anyone else- said.
 
“I’m fine, Dad,” the teenager told him, waving off his complaints.
 
His sister started to say something but Rider didn’t hear as Captain Asker finally had time for him and informed him he was to relive one of the crowd-controllers who had been knocked over and broken his arm.
 
Rider was a little disappointed he had to leave the place where all the interesting things seemed to be happening but he did have a job to do and the word didn’t stop just because some journalist took off his glasses.
 
In fact, it got a lot crazier.
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Erin Jones frowned unhappily as she sent off her article about Dean Kent to the Chief. Like the rest of the bullpen she was working on the story of the moment- the fact that nervous, klutzy and forgetful Clark Kent was also the strong, handsome and outgoing hero Superman.
 
She knew it was the news of the century but she still wasn’t comfortable writing about a teenager who was probably in enough danger right now because of who his father was. Thankfully she didn’t know exactly how much of his father’s power the kid had inherited and she’d been able to write with complete honesty that, from the footage of the apartment fire he’d assisted with, it looked like Dean was just as powerful as Superman. It wouldn’t dissuade those with access to Kryptonite and a severe grudge but hopefully small-time criminals wouldn’t bother.
 
Erin hadn’t worked with Clark as closely as some of there other reporters but she knew him and his kids well enough. It was hard to imagine how they had all been fooled so easily by a simple pair of glasses and a clumsy act but Erin had quickly come to realize that no one had ever even considered Superman having a secret identity before yesterday so no one had ever looked.
 
It didn’t make the joke e-mails circulating about the blindness of the Daily Planet staff any less annoying though. She deleted two more forwards from reporters at the Daily Star and the Metropolis Times in her inbox without opening them. The jokes were terrible and nasty and only served to make most of the Daily Planet staff more hostile towards Clark.
 
“- laughing his head off behind our backs-“
 
And there went Gil again. Most of the other staff had chosen to get to work on their parts of the special edition the Planet would be printing that evening but Gil had taken it upon himself to try and turn as many of his colleagues against Clark as he could.
 
She supposed Clark hadn’t helped matters by blasting out of the bullpen and messing up everyone’s papers but ever since the news had come across the TVs that one of his kids had been attacked Erin had joined the previously small but now rapidly growing portion of the staff that thought Gil and his lot should just shut up and try and see things from Clark’s point of view.
 
Three more e-mails popped up in her inbox- yet another joke one and two from friends who knew she worked at the Planet and wanted the inside story on Clark ‘Superman’ Kent.
 
She needed a coffee. Anything to take the edge off the stressful day. She headed towards the break room but took a detour towards her friend Andy’s desk in hope of getting some company on her break.
 
Andy however seemed to be busy, he had the phone held to his head with his shoulder and was rapidly typing while listening to the person on the other end. “Uh-huh,” he said as he nodded and almost dropped the phone. “So neither of them can fly but all the older ones?.... Yeah- got it.”
 
Erin raised her eyebrows at that but didn’t interrupt. Andy typed a few more sentences and leaned back. “No, you’ve been very helpful. I’ll see you on Saturday okay…. Yes… only if it’s accurate…I’ll look forward to talking to you again then. Bye.” He hung up.
 
“Who was that?” Erin asked, causing Andy to almost fly out of his chair.
 
“Jeez, Erin, warn a man will you?” he yelped as he placed a hand on his chest. “That was my cousin,” he told her, waving towards the phone. “reckons she’s got info on Kent’s kids, about their powers and somewhat.”
 
“Really?” Erin raised a skeptical eyebrow, “so does half the city.”
 
“But,” Andy said with a grin, “she knows one of them personally. I’ve even seen them together when I visited.”
 
“Who?”
 
Andy shook his head. “Sorry, Erin, a journalist has to protect his sources. Hey!” he cried as she leaned forward to read what he had written. “Don’t go stealing my scoop!”
 
“You’re not honestly going to publish that his youngest son has no powers yet are you?” she asked in concern, thinking of the cheeky seven year old who often wreaked havoc in the bullpen.
 
“The people wanna know,” Andy replied with a shrug, “and it’s hardly like he’s been all that open with them.”
 
“But if people know Chris is vulnerable, they’re more likely to try and target him to get revenge on Clark.”
 
“So?” Andy shrugged. “His Dad’s Superman, he’ll look after him.”
 
“But-“ Erin looked at her friend in disbelief. Didn’t he know even Superman couldn’t do everything? Wasn’t one of his kids in hospital right now because as powerful as the man was he couldn’t be everywhere?
 
She shook her head, wondering if Andy’s cousin knew how much more damage she could be doing to a family that was already going through hell right now.
 
“So was there any reason you came over here?” Andy asked, “You wanted to grab a coffee or something?”
 
Erin looked back at Andy’s screen and shook her head. “No,” she said, “it was nothing.”
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