Disclaimer:
I do not now nor have I ever owned DC Comics, the characters of Superman, Batman or the Justice League
A Trio of Virtues
Part I
Cardinal Virtues
...Fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object;
Justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly;
Prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it;
Temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved.
- St. Augustine
-{()}-
Fortitude
Lois Lane died on a Tuesday.
There was nothing anyone could do.
It was just one of those things.
-{()}-
Sadly, Superman never heard her screams because there never were any. As her team was ambushed, the result it had on her pulse caused him pause but didn't alarm him. Deeply imbedded with Coalition forces in Afghanistan, her rapid heartbeat was not unusual nor was the stress-filled rhythm found there. Superman learned after his last fly over that an angry Lois can be a scary thing. His presence, she contended, was a detriment to her getting the story. That last flyover was to be the last time, she insisted. Huddled inside a cave, pressed into a small recess, she reconsidered. But, it was too late. Just as she was about to cry for help, Taliban forces bombed the shaft. The falling stones hit her head first before proceeding to crush her entirely.
It was the lack of a heartbeat that alerted him first. He searched for it with his super-hearing. When that failed, he contacted the League. J'onn triangulated the location of her JLA GPS tracker and read him the coordinates. Upon arriving, the sight that greeted him was horrific. Crumbled rock and bloody bodies led up to the demolished cave. Layer by layer, he stripped out the rock until he found her lifeless body.
After a moment of personal grief, he wrapped her body in his cape and flew her to Metropolis. He deposited her in the coroner's office and left without saying a word. If one can stumble while flying, then he certainly did as he headed for their apartment. He flew in through the balcony doors and sealed himself away in the home they once shared at 1938 Sullivan Place.
Surrounded by anything that smelled of her, he sat on the floor at the foot of his bed. He held his crumpled red cape against his nose and breathed in deeply. Tears ran for a while, but after a few minutes, they dried up, leaving only salty tracks behind.
That was how Batman found him.
After gaining access to the building through the roof, he used the utility elevator to reach the nineteenth floor. With a few flicks of his wrist and his trusty bat-pick, he easily unlocked Clark's door. He walked swiftly through the apartment until he reached the bedroom door. At the doorway, he came to a complete stop as their eyes met.
"Leave, Bruce. Now."
"No."
"Now!"
"What kind of a friend would I be if I did something like that?"
Letting the cape in his hands sag into a pile between his legs, Clark asked, "What are you going to do, Bruce? Are you going to save me? How are you going to do it, this time?"
Wordlessly, Batman pushed away from the doorjamb, entering the room a few inches at a time.
"There's no quick fix for this. She was my wife, and now, she's dead. We were supposed to have decades. Instead, we had a few short years. I never thought the end could come so soon."
At his final words, bells went off in Batman's mind. He inched ever closer to Clark.
"She was Human and so very fragile – Like all of you are. I knew what would happen. I knew she would die someday, most likely before me. I just never thought it would end like this."
Again, a bell rang through Batman's head.
Slowly, Clark laid his head back against the mattress. He looked at the ceiling and blinked a couple times before he spoke again. "Just leave, Bruce. I don't want anyone to see me like this. It'll be over soon. Then, you can come back and pick up what's left of me."
Coming to stand at Clark's feet, he stared at the large golden "S" shield on the broad chest and said, "This isn't all about Lois."
"No, it isn't."
"What is it then? I've never known you to be fatalistic."
"I'm not going to commit suicide if that's what you're thinking."
"Okay. I believe you."
A minute passed. Batman stood in silence. He waited patiently for Clark to finally look up at him. Once their eyes met, he watched sorrow boil over into rage.
"Why are you still here?" Pushing off the ground, he came to stand nose to nose with Batman. "Why won't you just leave me alone?"
"Damn it, Bruce!" yelled Clark as he grabbed Batman by his Kevlar suit and slammed him against the wall. "I don't want to spend what little time there is left fighting with you. Can't you understand that?"
"No, I can't. So, explain it to me."
"I'm not human. Where loss is something you all learn to live with, for me, it's not that simple." Hanging his head, his strength ebbed away from him. His hands became gentle and slid down the gray fabric under his fingertips. Slowly, his hands fell, swinging weakly. Looking at the white slits in the cowl before him, he whispered, "Kryptonians mate for life."
"And?"
"And nothing. Once one of the bondmates dies, the other follows shortly thereafter. It is simply a matter of biology."
"Biology? Continue."
"A chemical dependency exists between the bonded pair. The condition requires they reestablish the bond on a regular basis. Once one bondmate dies, the bond can no longer be maintained. About a month or two later, the remaining partner succumbs to the chemical withdrawal."
"She's been gone a month already."
"I know."
"How long do you have?"
"I'm not sure. I held her close while I flew her body here, but that closeness didn't seem to help much. I have a few things that smell of her here but her scent is mostly faded. We've spent time apart before, but never more than a month. I suspect I have anywhere from a couple weeks to a month at the max."
"How long have you known?"
"Not long. When I married Lois, I was still feeling the effects of that whole mess with the sun-eater. I couldn't fly. I had no powers. I was married a month before I got back to the fortress. I told the computer I had gotten married and suddenly it starts telling me all this stuff about bondmates and death."
"That seems like a strange time to tell you something so important."
"Tell me about it," he agreed with a vigorous nodding of his head. Observing how Bruce's arms crossed tightly over his chest and the narrowed eye-slits of the cowl, he explained, "Honestly Bruce, the fortress does this sort of thing, a lot. It only gives me the information it thinks I need to know."
"What are your options?"
"There are no options."
"Bullshit," he growled as he pushed Clark away. He advanced as Clark staggered back. Once Clark sank down on his previous spot on the floor, Batman came to stand before him. "There are always options. You're just not willing to look for them. You'd rather wallow in self-pity. It's disgusting."
"Pardon my French, but fuck you, Bruce. I'm the one dying, not you. You have no idea what you're even talking about."
"Pitiful," he sneered as he turned his back on Clark and walked over to the doorway. About a foot away from leaving the room forever, he stopped. Turning fluidly, he faced Clark and said, "I refuse to believe that in the long history of your planet, two people never came to the conclusion that their lives would be better apart. There has to be a cure for this condition. There could be a supplement that mimics the bond's effects. Something that works like methadone for heroin addiction. There simply has to be."
"There was no divorce on Krypton. No known cases, anyway. There isn't even a word for it in Kryptonian. As for a drug, the fortress isn't aware of any. After Lois found out about the bond, she wanted a cure or something that wouldn't require her to be tied down to a time limit. The fortress informed me that no artificial supplement had ever been developed. I had the fortress attempt to develop some kind of work around. It never could. There's only one alternative –"
"What is it?"
"It's impossible to implement now."
"Tell me what it is anyway."
"After the death of one partner, the remaining partner would replace the bond."
"Replace?"
"They would bond with a new person. It was rare but sometimes people got sick or one was considerably older. Traditionally, a substitute would be found by the bondmates together and an emotional connection would be forged in the weeks leading up to the person's death. That emotional connection was necessary so that the substitute bond would be strong enough to completely replace the preexisting bond."
"Okay, so we need to find you someone. I can do that."
"Listen, it's not that easy. It takes time to forge an emotional bond with someone and I don't have that kind of time."
"You need someone with whom you already have an emotional connection. I recommend Wonder Woman."
"Well, isn't that nice of you? I'd say we should ask her first, but I know that can't work. Lois was jealous of the time I spent with Diana. She knew Diana and I had a complicated past. It would feel like a betrayal and the guilt would most likely block the new bond from forming. I'm not going to sully the love I hold for Lois with something I'm fairly sure won't work."
"There are other female members of the league."
"Only the original members know my secret identity. Considering that this person would have to become a large part of my life, it would also have to be someone I'd feel comfortable bringing into my whole life."
"Can it be any race?"
"Yes, only a Kryptonian would be susceptible to the deadly side effects of the bond."
"Does it have to be a female?"
"No."
"To establish a bond, do you have to have sex?"
"Yes. It's the only way. Once established, the bond can feed off of close contact alone, but intercourse is required the first time."
"But, it can't just be with anyone?"
"No. Being Kryptonian, I doubt very much I'm even capable of casual sex."
Pausing for a moment, Batman made his mind process the incredible implications contained within the previous exchange. Slowly, he stroked his chin and rolled the information around in his mind.
"Again, I suggest Diana. One call to the Watchtower and she'll be here within a few hours. If it'll help, I'll also pay for some intense psychotherapy to help you sublimate your feelings of guilt."
That got a laugh. Looking up at Batman, he said, "I don't think I have sufficient time for psychotherapy to have any real benefit. I thank you for trying, Bruce. You're a good friend. We've been through a lot and it feels good to know that you're not willing to give up on me."
"Is Diana definitely out of the question?"
"Yes."
"Then, I nominate myself."
"What?"
"It's the only logical solution left. We're friends therefore we already share an emotional connection. Also, as far as I know, Lois never thought badly of me. In fact, I think she liked me. Diana is out because of your emotional hang-ups. John and Shayera are already in a relationship with each other and therefore are eliminated due to prior commitments. That leaves J'onn, Wally and me. If you'd feel more comfortable with one of them then I can go find him and bring him here."
"No! No, Bruce. You're right. You are the best nominee but you're looking at a life long commitment. I've never known you to even have a short-term relationship. Are you sure that you can do this?"
"Since only you would bear the biological ramifications of the bond, I don't have to worry about it getting in the way of my mission. As for the rest, I consider it a small price to pay."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes," he replied, as he knelt down at Clark's feet and began to tug at the bat-suit he was wearing.
"I thought you were straight."
"I've had encounters with both men and women," he replied with a shrug. Pulling off his gloves, he placed them on the ground side-by-side. Next, he unbuckled his utility belt and neatly folded it, placing it gently across the gloves. "Have you ever been with a man?"
"No."
"Then let me lead," he answered matter-of-factly. Reaching out his hands, he grasped Clark's knees and gently parted them.
"I'm not so sure about this, Bruce."
The hands on his knees stilled before they lifted off entirely. Following their fluid movement, Clark watched as those same hands pealed back the cowl, revealing the hidden face of his best friend. Next, off came the cape. Neatly folded, those same steady hands placed the cape and cowl on top of the belt and then immediately returned to his knees. There, they paused for a moment before the right one reached forward and gripped his chin, forcing Clark to meet Bruce's determined eyes.
"Clark, you're my best friend and I'm a man who doesn't have many friends. I'm not about to add you to the list of people I've lost if there's anything I can do to prevent it." As he spoke, Bruce slipped between shaking thighs. Rubbing at the tension in the muscles under his fingertips, his left hand made its way from knee to thigh to arm to rest beside its mate at the chiseled jaw line. "I need you to want this, Clark. If you can't work up a little enthusiasm for me then do it for the world. The world needs a Superman and I'm offering a way for you to give the world what it needs."
A nod of the head was all Bruce received in response. It was all the consent he required. Quickly, he descended on Clark, using his wet lips, nimble fingers and considerable skill to pull off their suits and drag them up off the floor. In the middle of the bed, naked skin to naked skin, he wore away at Clark's reluctance. Sensing innocence, he covered them with a thin sheet. Tasting naiveté in every kiss, he slowed down, giving Clark a chance to catch up.
However, the Man of Steel's resolve didn't last long. Some twenty minutes later, he wrenched free of Bruce's embrace. Sitting up in bed, his head in his hands, he said, "I can't do this. I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry, Bruce, but I just can't."
"What brought this on?" asked Bruce. Sitting up, he let the sheet pool around his waist as he leaned toward the heat emanating from the body beside him. "You seemed to be enjoying everything."
"It's not that. You're very experienced and it shows. It really does, Bruce, and that's part of the problem. This feels like a one night stand. I can sense the impermanence of it all. Everything we're doing here is to bide time. That's all and that's not enough. I've never just had sex with someone. I don't want to and, if I did, it probably wouldn't be good enough to replace the bond."
Taking a hold of Clark's shoulder, Bruce waited until blue eyes met his own before he asked, "So, what you need is for me to make love to you?"
For the second time that night, a nod was all the response he received. Again, it was all he needed. Running his hand up the back of Clark's neck, he threaded his fingers into thick black hair and whispered, "I can do that."
