Author's notes: I'll have some more posted later on.
Warning: Violence.
9 years later…
"Sam, are we ready?"
Lex's Secret Service member du jour nodded. It had taken ten long minutes for another quick sweep, but the duties to protect the safety of the President of the United States were nothing to shirk.
Finally, the door to the 'Beast' opened, and an impeccably dressed Lex waved and smiled to the eagerly awaiting crowd. He knew most of them had arrived four hours in advance to get the best seats in the house. He stepped up to the podium and the cheers died.
"Thank you for coming. I apologize that it took so long to hang the Seal up." He gestured to the podium's front where the Presidential Seal sat and grinned through the murmured chuckles and muted laughs. "As Mr. Kelley extrapolated earlier, education is a very important investment in the people of our great nation. As such, I am here today to award six students from the city of Metropolis with the Presidential Award of Excellence. Heidi Klein, Joshua Bates, Lawrence Owens, Moneesha Flynn, Gerard Ali, and Lara Kent please step onto the stage to collect your much deserved award."
Six students, two from high school, two from middle school, and two from primary school, shuffled in a single-file line—likely in a rehearsed maneuver—and turned simultaneously to face the crowd amid the loud cheers. Lex saw the flailing from Martha Kent as she quickly grabbed her husband and son to hug them. Her red hair flashed in the sunlight as Lex smiled patiently for the blinking cameras. It wasn't often that a President directly handed out this award.
Some of the awardees gave him stink-eye, particularly the junior high students. Lex had asked for significant changes and reform for public school education, long overdue. With a ready and willing Congress and the advice of people who understood education, the bills had passed into law.
Regardless of how these kids felt, he called them each to the podium, one at a time, shook their hand and handed them the slip of paper with his honest-to-god signature.
Applause and cheers bowled over them and Lex continued to smile as he waited. Then he looked to the students. "Now, I'm supposed to wax poetic about how your hard work and diligence in academics, your outstanding record in volunteerism, and your sense of fairness and responsibility towards your fellow peers shows a remarkable level of maturity, but I believe you all already know that. Am I right?"
Murmured chuckling sounded from the crowd. Each of the students except for Clark's girl nodded.
"You disagree, Ms. Kent?"
The burnt-umber-haired girl stepped up to him with her hand outstretched. The crowd shifted uneasily, and others murmured about her, but someone shouted, "Let her speak, Mr. President!"
"Someone get her a mic," Lex insisted.
A staffer handed a microphone to her in under a minute.
"Mr. President," she began in a stately manner most nine-year olds could never manage. "Everyone is capable of these things for which we are being awarded. However, it's your job to stress that, while role models we may be, it is possible for anybody to be honest, fair, and hardworking whatever the discipline. It merely takes conviction to do that which is right. Thank you." She handed the microphone back to the staffer, while the crowd went nuts.
That's when hell's gates broke open.
Bullets were tearing up the stage front, while students screamed. Some fled off the stage, while others were snatched by trained staffers. Lex grabbed the girl—scant seconds that earned him a couple of hits to his back—and ensconced the both of them behind the podium, slamming the inner door shut that automatically locked.
The sound of bullets ricocheting or embedding themselves in the armored podium reverberated through Lex. He knew he had to be doing something right if people were trying to kill him, again, but he hated that innocents were caught in the crossfire.
There were cracks of gunfire raging outside and screaming as absolute panic ignited. He clicked on the tiny light inside the cramped 'safe room' to banish the darkness. "You alright?"
"I…" She stared down at her arm, dragging her fingers through the blood dripping from her shoulder. Her eyes were bottle green, like Clark's. The photos of her always gave a flat color to them.
"Let me bandage that." Lex pulled the two clean handkerchiefs from his pockets, balled them up and pushed one on either side of the wound to make a compress.
Lara didn't cry. Lex wasn't sure if she was in shock or not. "Hold this."
The small, shaky hand with a silver ring around the thumb pressed the cotton against her shoulder, while Lex singlehandedly ripped the sleeve off of his delicate long-sleeved shirt. He quickly wrapped it from the top of her shoulder to around the opposite side of her waist. He was starting to feel dizzy and then his breathing clipped in a way he knew was trouble when he tasted pennies in his mouth.
"You're shot, too." Her bloodied hand hovered over the two that had gone through cleanly in the front. Then, she concentrated her attention on his chest and got a very frightened look on her face.
"It goes with the detail," he joked, trying to keep her calm. "I'll be okay."
She frowned at him in concern. "They missed your heart but..."
Lara Kent sounded as if she might argue the point of his health.
"You're handling this well. Are you trained in first aid?" Lex asked her. The world had that fuzzy-edged charm. He coughed a bit into his remaining sleeve, which came away dark red.
What the hell happened to his security detail? The paramedics? Lex had a feeling this latest assassination attempt might prove successful. He leaned into the podium wall. The muffled sound of gunfire and cries of 'Superman!' came through. Lex didn't have the energy to roll his eyes at the irony of his arch-nemesis coming to his aid.
"Not exactly…trained," came the hesitant reply. A soft touch pressed against his shirt, causing a sharp thrust of pain.
His eyes fluttered only seeing snippets of worry from the young girl.
"I won't let you die," she stated firmly. Light bloomed from her fingertips and quickly blotted out the dim light above his head.
Lex blinked several times, dismissing the vision of his mother knelt next to him, and then he no longer felt like he was drowning in his own blood. In fact, he was much more alert than he ought to be with his injuries. "Lara, what did you—"
The girl collapsed against him, hands outstretched and arms curled between them.
"Sir!" Two people wearing ballistics gear had ripped open the door after keying the unlock sequence and helped him to stand. "Airlift's here to take you, sir!" A bullet-proof helmet was placed on the President's head as he was flanked on all sides, completely surrounded. Lex stayed low, protectively cradling the girl in his arms.
Lex managed to make it to the helicopter without anyone shooting at him and buckled in with her in his lap. He absolutely wouldn't let this current Kent mystery slip from his grasp.
As the side door closed, over the soldier manning the gun inside the helicopter he saw Superman. A hard stare came from his arch-nemesis dressed in bright blue and red spandex. Lex snorted, lightly patting the Kent girl's head. As if he'd had anything to do with this latest attempt on his life.
Men and women dressed as Secret Service, Sam among them, were hogtied, near knee-high red boots. A pile of assault weaponry and grenades were a hundred meters off. The place was swarming with police, the FBI, and the National Guard.
"Hospital. Now," Lex ordered into the mic built into the helmet.
"Right away, Mr. President."
The girl didn't stir.
TBC.
