Chapter 2
Taken aback, Clark stared at the two police officers, trying to think of any reason for why the local authorities wanted him. Could it have something to do with the whistleblower he and Lois knew? He thought he and Lois had been very careful about that. Or, perhaps some shadowy government organization was finally making its attempt to capture Superman - had they found out his actual identity? Thoughts of Amanda Waller and her demonstrated untrustworthiness came to mind, but he - as well as the rest of the Justice League - had been very careful about that too. But as far as he could see there were no hidden military vehicles or aircraft in the vicinity, and he could tell from the respiratory rates and heart rates of the cops in front of him that they weren't stressed at all, as might be expected of someone trying to capture an alien or a metahuman; their manner suggested this was just another routine job for them.
"But why?" Clark asked as the police entered his apartment. "What have I done?"
"Sir, your questions can be answered at the station. We're only here to make sure you arrive at the station safely."
"No!" Diana suddenly blurted out. She sounded just as puzzled as he, but angrier. "I want to know why you want Clark! What has he done?"
Officer Hernandez turned already-weary eyes to the indignant Amazon. "Ma'am, this is a matter concerning only Mr. Kent-"
"I'm his wife! You're not arresting him for no reason!"
The other officer spoke. "He's not under arrest, we're requesting that he answer some questions for the Sheriff's Department."
"What questions?!"
Jon, who had been quiet and half-asleep until Diana picked him up, began fidgeting uncomfortably in his mother's arms, whimpering in confusion at the strange noises.
"I'm sure it's nothing, Diana," Clark said, trying to calm her down, but he saw the flash of anger in his wife's eyes and realized that this situation would escalate to a very unpleasant level if he didn't try to defuse it right away.
"Clark, you're not going anywhere with them!" Diana's accent was definitely noticeable by now, not a good sign.
Hernandez spoke up, looking aggravated now. "Ma'am, this is not up for discussion. We need to bring Mr. Kent back to our district station. You can pick him up there when Mr. Kent is done satisfying our questions."
"Diana," Clark interrupted. "I'm sure this is all a mistake, I'll get this straightened this out at the station, and you can pick me up later, like they said," he glanced at the officers. "Right?"
"Clark, I can't pick you up because the car is in the shop, remember?" Diana began bouncing Jon in her arms as his whimpers turned into cries. "It's been there for two days, now! Anyway, you're not going anywhere until they tell me why!"
The cop named McAlister then clearly decided that the best strategy was to ignore Diana completely. He turned to Clark.
"Sir, we need you to come with us now. Put your hands behind your head, please."
"What? But…" Clark protested even as he instinctively complied. Diana stared in complete dismay as her husband let himself be handcuffed by the female officer. Little Jon began wailing, sensing the rage and distress that practically radiated from his mother.
"What are you doing to him? There's no need to cuff him like a dog!"
"This is only for his protection and ours, Ma'am," Hernandez said, as calmly as possible. "This is procedure whenever we encounter resistance."
"I'm not resisting," Clark insisted. "This isn't necessary."
"I'm aware of your concerns, Sir, but your spouse is-"
"A thousand Furies!" Diana bellowed in barely coherent English, her voice almost as loud as Jon's. "Get your hands off my husband!"
"Diana, calm down!"
The two officers, as quick as they could manage, escorted Clark outside the apartment. Diana followed close behind, venting various English and Themysciran epithets in a voice that could be heard all over the street.
Clark felt himself being hustled to the officers' black-and-white; he saw that some of the neighbors were peeking outside their windows at the commotion, even the old Korean lady, unfortunately. The two guys across the street had stopped tossing their football to watch the drama. Jon was now howling at the top of his small but prodigious lungs, as Diana followed them out, still arguing.
Just great.
"There's no reason for you to take him! Whose order is this? Who are you really working for?
"Ma'am, please step back and let us do our jobs…."
"You have no right to take him away like this from his home and family!"
"Ma'am…"
"Don't 'ma'am' me! I want a damned good reason-"
Clark could see the expression on the female officer's face become one of distinctly high-pissoff. It practically shouted out: Bitch, if you didn't have that baby I'd taze you in a heartbeat!
"Diana, I'll be fine! Go back inside!" Clark pleaded. She glared at him, as if he was secretly in on this. What the hell did she expect him to do? Fly off? Send these cops flying halfway to LA? Sometimes she didn't exactly think very clearly.
Diana vented more curses as McAlister opened the rear door and pushed Clark in, a hand on his head. This time she shouted to Clark:
"They can't get away with this! I'm-I'm going to call Bruce!"
"No! Don't call Bruce!" Clark shouted as the door slammed in his face.
Hernandez and McAlister quickly got into their vehicle, exchanging knowing looks that said, Well, this is why we get paid the big bucks.
Clark twisted around in the back seat, watching Diana as the car pulled away from the curb and she faded into the distance. He heard her shout at the neighbors:
"What in Hades are you all looking at? Go back inside your homes!" She stomped off back into their condo, slamming the door behind her, with Jon still crying on her shoulders.
"I'm sure we'll have this all cleared up and you can return home," the male officer said half-apologetically. His companion seemed to heave a sigh of relief.
Clark was only listening out for his wife, if she was really going to call Bruce Wayne. He didn't hear her voice, but he could hear the neighbors all too clearly talking about this little episode:
"I wonder what all that was about?"
"I bet she was the one who called the cops...sick wife-beater! And she's got a kid too!"
"I knew they were just jumped-up trailer trash…and this used to be such a nice neighborhood!"
"You wouldn't think something like that could happen here!"
The sound of a dial tone, then: "Where's Kyung-hee? Where's my daughter?" The Korean lady.
"She's at her spin class, ma, what's up?" An Italian-accented voice.
"I want you to get me new apartment. This one no good! A thug lives next door! Police come! Take him away!"
"Ma, we talked about this before, it's a nice place! I'm sure it was a one-time thing, besides…"
"Yeah, with gangbanger right next door! You tell my daughter get me new place, or I move in with you!"
"Come on, ma, you know we don't have the room…"
"So why do you think she called the cops?" One of the football guys.
"She probably found his stash of gay porn in the closet." Snorting.
"You think? Too bad, she's a real nice-looking lady. Maybe I should pay her a visit later, see if she's up for some hot revenge sex." Crude laughter.
"Nah, you don't wanna mess with some hoe who calls the cops on a dude. Dude comes back from a hard day at work, she got all up in his face 'bout sum bullshit, and he prob'ly shoved her to get her offfa his ass, so she calls up the cops. Then whaddya know, the wife fights the cops! They always go back. Rinse and repeat. My cousin was a cop, he hated doing them domestic violence calls. Same thing all the time, what canya do. C'mon, let's go get something to eat…"
Glumly, Clark slumped down in his seat, and hoped all this would be over soon, like McAlister said.
After the police had left, Diana paced in impotent fury about the apartment, trying to calm herself and at the same time trying to get Jon to settle down, since he was still bawling at the top of his lungs. She was furious, not only at the authorities for dragging Clark away, but partly at Clark himself for just passively going along with them. She knew, rationally, that he could hardly do anything else – what could he have done, just flown away and revealed his true identity? Yet it rankled, because he seemed so helpless and vulnerable, and it wasn't the first time she had seen him not put up a fight. But really, most of her anger was directed at herself, for getting angry in the first place. It probably hadn't helped matters. She'd just made things more difficult for Clark. She knew she had a quick temper, was quick to anger. It was something she would have to work on, especially for Jon's sake. He was more sensitive than perhaps she and Clark originally thought.
Finally, a half hour later when Jon's wails had subsided to gasping hitches for breath, and he cried himself out, Diana felt calmer. But she was going to call Bruce anyway.
She sat down in front of her and Clark's computer, Jon lying tiredly in her arms. After what seemed like an interminable delay as the connection went through, Bruce's image appeared on the screen. He was dressed in a dark (no doubt expensive) business suit, and sat with his profile to her; his attention was focused on another screen which occupied his full attention.
"Diana," Bruce said in a perfunctory voice, not turning his eyes from his laptop. "What is it?"
"It's Kal...Clark...he's been arrested! The police came to our apartment just now…" she gave him a quick synopsis of the past hour.
"Is that so. Do you need bail money?"
Bruce's voice and manner were totally unconcerned. Diana felt her anger start its not-so-gradual ascent again.
"Bruce! Did you hear what I just said?"
"Yes, Diana, I heard you quite well. There's no cause for alarm if it's just a local matter. You said only two cops came for him, not federal agents. I'm sure he'll get a fair hearing."
Before she could retort, someone outside the visual range of the webcam handed a sheaf of papers to Bruce.
("The medical reports you requested, Master Bruce.
Thank you, Alfred.
Is there anything else you require, Master Bruce?
No, Alfred, that will be all.
"Very good, sir.")
Diana steamed impatiently. "Bruce, I don't like this. You think I don't know what that Waller woman at A.R.G.U.S. is up to? Do you think she would be dumb enough to send an army division against Superman? No, she'll do it sneakily, picking him, and us, off one by one-"
"That's highly unlikely," Bruce continued to work on whatever he was working on, his long, nimble fingers flying over the keyboard. "I would know if something like that was in the works. More likely it's that whistleblower case he and Lois Lane are working on, and his journalist side bit off more than he could chew."
Diana glared at Bruce as if she could strangle him through the camera. But possibly it was true what he was saying. Then she remembered that this whistleblower had dug up some dirt not only on the nefarious dealings of the government but also on several major corporations, whose systems he'd allegedly hacked into. Maybe he had something on Wayne Enterprises, which would account for Bruce's pissy mood.
"Never mind! I'll take care of Clark, as usual! Go make another one billion."
For the first time, Bruce looked directly at the Web cam, frowning. "Dia-"
Diana cut him off as she pushed the laptop cover down sharply. She sat still for a moment, feeling utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Clark wouldn't want her showing up at the station, she suspected that it would embarrass him. Not that she hadn't embarrassed him enough outside, she thought ruefully.
Jon hiccuped against her shoulder and she patted him gently on his little back. She hated this helpless feeling, like a wife wondering what had become of her man. Well, that was what she was now, and she had to accept it. But she wouldn't accept being helpless. Talking to Bruce hadn't helped at all. Maybe someone else would do. She opened the laptop again and typed some more. She knew who was working alone at the Watchtower.
Soon, Dinah's face came out the screen, and she immediately she noticed something was wrong with her colleague.
"Diana! What is it? What's happened?"
"It's Kal," Suddenly Diana felt her eyes water, oddly she felt like crying, but it was just the frustration coming out. At least Dinah, unlike Bruce, would listen to her. "He-"
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Dinah said sympathetically, quickly jumping to the wrong conclusion. "They're ALL bastards, Diana!"
"No, no, it's not that! It's something else..."
The two women talked for awhile, and it was true, Diana later felt infinitely better.
Meanwhile, at the station, Clark sat alone in a nondescript interview room.
He had arrived half-expecting to find a battalion of police and military awaiting him; perhaps Diana was right and it was all a ruse to get them separated. But nothing like that had happened. It was actually all very professional and formal. Hernandez and McAlister had taken the cuffs off as soon as they arrived, and then he was at the front desk, confirming his identity and signing some forms (just in case he later made allegations of police brutality, no doubt). No one else in the station paid any attention to him; in fact, it hardly seemed busy at all, just a few cops and civilian administrative employees going about their business. One or two clearly inebriated or high prisoners were brought in, and led away elsewhere.
He thought he would go with them but they steered him away from the temporary lockups, and led him to a room furnished with only two chairs, a long table between them, and a one-way mirror on one wall. They had even offered him a cup of coffee, which he accepted although he didn't feel like drinking it.
Then they told him "someone would be with him shortly." The cops left him alone in the room.
That was nearly an hour ago, and no one had shown up. He could see through the one-way mirror of course; no one was observing him and he couldn't hear anyone discussing him. Throughout the station people were coming and going, typing up reports, gossiping in the break room, and so on. It was like they had forgotten him.
Sighing, Clark still hoped he would get out of here soon. Maybe this was all a case of mistaken identity. He wondered again if it could have anything to do with the whistleblower he and Lois were in secret communication with, but they'd been very careful to preserve his confidentiality and he couldn't imagine how anyone might have discovered their connection. Anyway, reporting a story was not a crime, as far as he knew...at least not yet. But maybe this was some kind of intimidation. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to scare him off a story. If so, they had another thing coming. They (whoever 'they' were) would soon discover he wasn't the mild-mannered, passive man people mistakenly thought he was.
His thoughts turned to Diana. He hoped she hadn't called Bruce, but he knew she likely had. She would probably be upset when he returned home...they would have to talk about...
Suddenly the door opened and Clark looked up, thinking it would be another police officer or maybe a detective. But the tall, square-built man who came through the door was someone he absolutely didn't expect, and he felt the blood drain from his face.
It was General Sam Lane.
To be continued.
[A/N: I know in New 52 Sam Lane became a senator but in this fic he's still in the Army, which will fit better with the subsequent events of the story. What does he want with Clark? Has he discovered Superman's secret? Tune in next chapter to find out! As always, your reviews are welcomed!]
