Bruce Wayne watched the footage of Jor-El, Kal-El and Vice-President Zod meeting at LuthorCorp, naked from Dinah Lance's bed. Dinah came out of the bathroom, wearing a short, silk robe with a picture of a canary on it.
"Well? Anything good?" Dinah asked, dropping the robe and slipping into bed beside Bruce. Bruce's jaw clenched.
"I don't know," he admitted, "I haven't learned anything that I didn't suspect."
"Oh come on, Bruce! Jor-El is a bigamist! There is no way Ella Lane knows her husband has a wife on Krypton. And Zod brought up a good question: does Kal-El's mother know?"
Bruce raised a brow.
"How is any of that pertinent to the security of this planet? The Kryptonians are not here to peacefully co-exist with us. I never believed that. And that bit about behavior camps..."
"Well," Dinah purred, caressing Bruce's arm, "Kal-El was specifically talking about one person."
"Lois." Bruce said, his voice taking on a hard edge. Dinah stopped touching his arm.
"Bruce, you're worrying me! Don't tell me you could possibly REALLY like her? Didn't we all agree to infiltrate the House of El circle, any what we could?"
Bruce said nothing.
"I mean you didn't even have to get to know her, what with Jor-El working for you. And you can see that he is fonder of you than he'd care to admit." Dinah reminded him.
"Maybe. And as for Lois, it isn't that I mind her. But I have to admit, those stories the Daily Planet has allowed her to write about 'The Batman', are off putting." Bruce huffed. It was clear Lois wasn't a fan of his other persona and had him practically pegged a criminal.
So when Jor-El brought Ella to Wayne Enterprises for a tour, Bruce was more than surprised to see that Lois had tagged along. If she had any inkling of who he really was, Bruce could not see it. And yes, she had this way of staring at him as if in a trance. But other than that, he didn't mind her that much.
"Oh come on, Bruce! Those stories are on page six somewhere! Plus Lois is a liar. She did a story about 'Black Canary' claiming she knew who I really was. Then her 'source' conveniently died of pneumonia. The only reason she is still at that paper is because of family connections."
"Yes," Bruce said, "and that's another thing: Kal-El."
"What about him?" Dinah asked.
Bruce got out of bed and began to put on his pants. He tilted his head at her.
"You don't see it? He doesn't want to put Lois in a camp when the Kryptonians 'take over' because he hates her. He's hot for her."
Dinah smirked!
"Bruce, no! I've seen him turn purple with rage the few times she's visited LuthorCorp. She is hostile and openly disrespectful towards him. And can you blame her? The El's broke up her family, Kal-El has slept with her younger sister and is now doing her cousin."
"And," Bruce said sardonically, "he'd love to get his hands on Lois. And she's the only one with a whit of sense in the Lane family. She sees right through him."
"He's not that bad. He's fair enough to work for." Dinah allowed. Bruce eyed her.
"Don't tell me you're forgetting what they're planning?"
"No. But I think that he's more human than you would think. Like for example, I don't see that he likes Lois, no. But I do see that he flinches, whenever Jor-El speaks kindly of you. He's jealous." Dinah informed Bruce, just as his phone rang. He walked over to the nightstand and picked it up.
Lois Lane.
"Lois," Bruce answered as Dinah stared at him, "what a nice surprise."
"Yeah, hi. Listen, I've been framed and I'm down at the Metropolis police station. I know Gotham is a ways away, but I don't suppose you could bail me out? I called Chloe but she's short on funds."
Bruce now stared at Dinah as he spoke.
"You've been framed? You're telling me you were arrested?"
"Yes."
"For what, may I ask?"
"Bruce, this is so wrong and stupid! I was covering a protest for the Daily Planet and it got kind of out of hand. There was a fly on a police officer's face and when I reached out to get if off of him, he took it wrong. He lied and said I punched him! I mean I would never punch a cop! I have all the respect in the world for them!"
Bruce almost smiled at that very half assed sounding story.
"Actually, I am in Metropolis. So tell me which precinct..."
"You're here?"
"Yes. Now just tell me..."
"You were in town and you didn't call me or anything? We could've had lunch."
"Not if you had been arrested, Lois. And I was going to call you." Bruce informed her.
Lois, on her end, wasn't buying that! And yet she didn't know why. Maybe she HAD been wrong to call him. Just as she was about to say something else, she saw Kal-El enter the building.
"Uh never mind. Kal-El is here." Lois said darkly. Bruce could hear her unhappiness and felt a bit concerned.
"He's there to bail you out?"
"Yes and to lecture me, I'm sure. Listen, thanks anyway, I'll see you around." Lois said, hanging up and staring at the phone. She didn't think she would be seeing Bruce 'around', to tell the truth. He had been in Metropolis and hadn't even contacted her. What was that saying? He's just not that in to you.
Kal-El eyed Lois as she was brought out from some back room, carrying her belongings.
"You don't look any worse for wear." he noted as he finished signing some papers. Lois peered over at them.
"What are those papers? Is that some kind of official bail form?" she asked curiously.
Kal-El grinned! Lois was a bit taken aback by it, since the only other time she had ever seen him grin, was one time a few years ago, when she had accidentally stepped in some dog...
"It's better than bail, Lois."
Lois felt herself fuming!
"What is it, exactly?"
"You are remanded into my custody. Punching police officers is not an offense that is taken lightly on this planet." Kal-El continued, his grin now a smirk. Lois forced herself to calm down.
"I get that, Kal-El."
"I'm glad. Because the authorities here were hesitant to let you out of here even with bail."
"That's BS! You made them add this extra...crap! I don't need to be in anyone's 'custody', I'm over eighteen!"
"You do, if you want these charges to go completely away," Kal-El said, now looking her over, "for you see, the officer, who is over there, WANTED to press charges. I convinced him not to."
"By keeping me in YOUR custody?" Lois asked in disbelief.
"And for compensation."
"This is bullshit! I'm not going along with this and I'm telling my mother! And once I complain to her, she will tell your father and he'll force you to drop this crap!"
And with that, Lois walked towards the exit. Kal-El casually walked after her, then stopped and folded his arms, as he watched Lois look for a familiar looking vehicle. She then turned back to face him.
"Where's your car?"
"I had to park in an alley." Kal-El lied. "It's down this way."
Lois looked around. There was plenty of parking, so she couldn't see why Kal-El felt he had to park in an alley! But she sighed and followed behind him until they reached the tell tale alley and...
There was no sign of a car!
"What is this? Where is your car, Kal-El? This better not be what I think it is." Lois said suspiciously.
Kal-El opened his arms wide and smiled at her.
"We're flying home."
Lois turned and began to walk off, but Kal-El grabbed her from behind and flew up into the air with her quickly, in case passerby's heard her wails.
Ella Lane peered out of a window and saw Chloe's car in the circular drive, but no sign of her niece anywhere. But she did see Kal-El and Lois 'land'.
"Oh dear." Ella murmured to herself as she watched her oldest daughter's hostile body language. She lurched out of Kal-El's arms and skulked towards the front door. Ella moved quickly to another room, as to not look as if she was watching them, then eased out, as if she were just passing by in the front hallway.
"You make me SICK!" Lois snapped. "You practically kidnapped me into the sky! You know how queasy that whole flying thing makes me!"
"And yet you fly on airplanes all of the time, so 'flying' itself cannot be the problem here. Is it being in my arms that causes you to feel faint?" Kal-El asked in a fake manner, as if he truly wanted to know the answer.
It was at that point that Lois noticed her mother and turned completely away from Kal-El.
"Mom. I didn't see you there." Lois noted. She REALLY didn't want her to know that she had been in jail!
"Oh I can see that. I saw you two fly in. What was that all about?" Ella asked, her manner now no nonsense.
"I bailed your daughter of jail." Kal-El said bluntly. Lois sighed and turned back to him.
"You couldn't just cover for me?"
"Why would I do that? And it will be a matter of public record, I'm sure. I have yet to receive any kind of thank you for my kindness."
"Kindness?! First of all, I called CHLOE, not you! No one asked you to do anything!: Lois snapped.
"Lois," Ella said tiredly, "why were you in jail? Was this work related?"
But before Lois could answer, Kal-El did!
"Ella, that internship at the Daily Planet is not a job. She should be working at Luthor Corp. At least there she could stay out of jail."
"Oh yeah, I could just end up in prison instead." Lois said flippantly. Kal-El tried to refrain from scowling! Lois was always hinting that LuthorCorp was being run illegally and that everyone there belonged in prison!
"That's enough you two! Lois, I want to talk to you..."
"I can't. I need to shower and change, then meet with a source." she said and walked off towards the stairs. Ella stared after Lois then faced Kal-El.
"Chloe's car is here but I see no sign of my niece. Where is she?"
"In my bed, Ella. And I'm returning to it. I'll leave you to explain Lois's antics to my father." Kal-El said, turning and walking away from his step-mother. It wasn't that he disliked Ella, necessarily. But he never thought she was a necessary element in his father's life on this planet. He didn't like thinking about what would happen, when poor Ella was told about his mother. Maybe she could return to General Lane.
Meanwhile, Ella stared after Kal-El and shook her head. She felt powerless to stop the slow destruction of this family she had tried to put together. And Kal-El's relationship with yet another one of her family members, would probably not turn out well.
Ella decided she was going to speak to Jor-El about his son...after she talked to Lois.
