For some reason, I had a really tough time getting through this chapter. It just didn't want to be written! I tried a couple of different directions and this is the end result - not because I'm happy with it but because I want to move on, so excuse any wobbly bits you might find. With that in mind, enjoy, and hello to my new readers!
Chapter 6: The Commander
Clark sat hunched over on the stoop of his parents' house, scratching at the dirt by his feet with a stray branch that he had found nearby. His parents weren't home and he couldn't call them to ask where they were because he had forgotten to charge his cell phone that morning. (Maybe he wanted to be alone because if he had tried to find them he would have heard them only a few miles away at the Ross's.) So here he was.
He was hurt. Lois had been angry with him and had turned to her ex-fiancé – his best friend – for comfort. And for some reason, Bruce was a little too easy with the smiles when it came to her… No! It was too overwhelming to think about! Even his cape sagged in dejection as it hung limply against him.
He barely looked up when he sensed Bruce approaching. Not even when Bruce took a seat next to him on the stoop. Well, Clark resolved that he wasn't going to be the first to say anything. Unfortunately, he then remembered that Bruce was the reigning world champion of that little game, so grudgingly he spoke. "So," he began (in a voice that he hoped was nonchalant), "are you and Lois still in love?"
His friend glanced sideways at him when he noticed the tremble in his voice and sighed. "…Clark," said Bruce resignedly, "don't be a doofus."
"I am not a doofus! I know all about the heart-shaped scar on your inner thigh." Clark grit his teeth as he viciously scratched the dirt at his feet.
Bruce's quirked an eyebrow at this. "And you're bringing this up because…"
"Because Lois can't stop talking about it! Well… she mentioned it to Batson once. But I heard it too and now it's all I can think about!"
"Kent, if you want to see my inner thigh so badly all you have to do is ask."
Clark snapped the branch in his hands and finally met his friend's eye. "It's not funny, Bruce!"
Now Bruce frowned. "You're right, it's not. Lois and I were engaged—"
"Spare me the gory details!" Clark cried.
"—ten years ago," Bruce continued sternly. "When she found out that I was Batman I had to teach her a series of security questions for her own safety."
"That's a weird security question," Clark huffed, "FYI, most people would use their mother's maiden name."
Bruce hid a smirk as it dawned on him what was actually going on. He fell in love often; soon after ending things with Lois he had found Kathy Duquesne, which had been unexpected and rather nice while it lasted – then he saw Diana toppling the Imperium and hadn't stopped thinking about her since – all the while he was also juggling Selina and Talia and Zatanna and avoiding Barbara, and well… Lois had been long forgotten amid all of this activity. And while Clark may or may not have talked things out with Lois, he hadn't gotten closure with Bruce regarding their little fling. And unfortunately, Clark needed to talk things out to process them.
He decided to get it over with now. "What else you got?"
Clark gaped at him.
"We've never talked about what happened between Lois and me. It clearly still upsets you. What else do you have to say about it?"
This was invitation enough for Clark, who was realizing that pretending for all those years that his best friend and his girlfriend had never dated was probably unhealthy. It was almost eager the way he shouted, "You want to talk it out? Fine! You shouldn't have done it! You knew that Lois liked Superman! That's why you used her in the first place, to get to Superman."
"That is why I struck up a conversation with her, but when I talked to her, I liked her. She's a phenomenal woman. And she was single at the time. I jumped at the chance."
"But she liked me!"
"And yet you did nothing about it. At the rate you're going, I doubt if you ever will. What are you waiting for, Clark? Just because it didn't work out with me doesn't mean that she can't make it work with someone else who's not you."
At this, the anger that had been buoying Clark up until now suddenly seemed to vanish. His voice fell. "What if that's better for her?" He hung his head. There. He had admitted his greatest fear.
Bruce sensed this. "Maybe you should ask Lois what she thinks."
"…maybe I'm too afraid that she actually does feel that way."
Had they been discussing anyone else's relationship, Bruce would have already deemed the topic too frivolous and swept away. But he knew how important Superman was to the world. And he knew how important Lois was to Superman. So it was with genuine concern that he decided to smooth things over. "She figured out that CJ is your son, you know. She was seeing green because she thinks that Lana Lang is his mother."
A chuckle escaped Clark, then he blushed. "…She was jealous?"
"Let's just say that Lois isn't the one who's stopping you two from riding off into the sunset."
Clark finally looked up and smiled at Bruce; the latter felt relieved. "I'm sorry for acting like this," Clark apologized.
His friend shrugged. "Love can make a person do stupid things."
"Yeah…" He made no motion to get up, deep in thought as he was. "…Bruce, who was Andrea Beaumont?"
Now it was Bruce's turn to grow thoughtful, but when he spoke, it was brief and impassive. As always. "I met Andy in college. She died a few years later fighting the Joker."
But Clark knew Bruce well enough to deduce that he had met Andrea before he became the Batman and that she died afterwards despite his being the Batman. "I'm so sorry, Bruce." The words seemed to fall flat. "Having Batson around must bring back some painful memories."
"You know me, Clark. I never forget."
Clark made a face. His heart ached for Bruce. Cold, calculating, paranoid Bruce became that way for a reason, after all. "I hate alternate universes!" he said a little vehemently. This sudden burst of emotion left Bruce looking entertained, so Clark grinned. "Let's get everything vibrating back to our universe's frequency."
They stood up in unison, two armored titans who somehow managed to look completely at home on Ma Kent's cozy front porch. "Let's."
Xx
They had a visitor in the Cave. Clark sped towards her when he saw who it was, but Bruce wasn't so enthusiastic. He remembered quite vividly that when he had first seen Batson's face a few days ago, he had been searching for a particular set of features mixed with his own (and he had then forced himself to ignore this inconvenient impulse). To see the owner of those features giving his Clark a hug in his Cave as CJ looked on was a little bizarre, to say the least.
Wonder Woman then turned her attention to him. "Quite a secret you two have been hiding," she remarked with a twinkle in her eye.
He would *not* let down his guard. Instead he demanded brusquely, "Why are you here?"
"Clark Jr. contacted me to ask for help," she answered, unfazed, "Naturally I didn't believe him so I came down here to investigate if there was an intruder in the Cave."
Unable to stay quiet any longer, CJ jumped in excitedly, "I got interrogated by the Lasso of Truth! It was awesome."
Bruce and Clark gave CJ quizzical looks but Diana grinned at him. "How wondrous – a teenage boy who does not shy from the truth!"
"CJ can't seem to stop telling the truth," muttered Bruce, and then turned to the young man in question. "What have you and Diana managed to accomplish?"
CJ too was unperturbed by Bruce's gruffness; while he animatedly described their progress in Bruce and Clark's half hour-long absence, Diana turned to Clark. "You named your son Clark Jr.," she commented. Clark shifted uncomfortably to hide his embarrassment and she added, "I would have expected a name like 'Krypto' from you."
"Why does everyone have something against that name?" he protested, "Krypto is a fine name!"
"It is a fine name… for a poodle."
Well Krypto wasn't a poodle, as far as Clark was aware. Come to think of it, Clark didn't actually know what breed he was… for all he knew Krypto was a Kryptonian poodle. But before he could defend his pet Diana excused herself to take a call from the Themysciran Embassy so he joined Bruce and CJ a few feet away.
"What made you call Wonder Woman?" Batman was asking CJ.
"I couldn't locate Superman in the Batcomputer communications system, so I looked up who had access to the teleporter coordinates of the Cave. The list was pretty small and the only person on there with enough strength to hold our teleporter casing together was Wonder Woman, so I decided to take a risk."
"A risk?" queried Clark.
"Yeah, kind of. I wasn't sure if this was enough of an emergency to get the Commander involved."
"The Commander?"
"Of the Justice League?" CJ prompted, "Wonder Woman?"
Clark's eyes widened. "Oh, ho!" he whistled, "Well this is an interesting development, Batman."
"Indeed it is, Superman," Bruce agreed. They exchanged amused looks.
CJ braced himself for another mistake. "Oh, sorry. Is she not the Commander of your universe's League?"
"Our League doesn't have a Commander," said Batman shortly – although thankfully they had an unofficial one in Superman.
"But don't give Diana that idea!" added Clark jovially; since day one, Batman had been their leader as far as Clark was concerned, whether or not he was part-time.
Diana joined them just then. "Give me what idea? About being the Commander of the Justice League?"
CJ shrugged when Bruce and Clark both shot him a look. "We already established that I can't keep a secret when I'm excited," he reminded them gently.
Diana laughed and put a hand on CJ's shoulder, which prompted CJ to blush furiously. Diana didn't notice, but the other two did. "Bruce," she continued easily, "The sooner you give the approval to CJ's modifications to the teleporter, the sooner he can go back home to his mother."
Bruce said nothing, but busied himself with going over the settings. It was quite a contrast from the easy working relationship he had found with CJ. With CJ his paranoia had seemed silly. With Clark and Diana (who, by the way, were his two closest friends – 'closest' being open to interpretation) it seemed necessary.
…Why had he stiffened up when Diana mentioned the word 'mother'? Yes, he had been attracted to her since the day they met, but years later, when she finally started to reciprocate those feelings, he pushed her away… repeatedly. It had been a long time since she had ceased all such overtures and thankfully they were still friends, but why did their current arrangement bother him?
"Looks good," he pronounced roughly and stepped back. "Let's test it one last time."
CJ grabbed another mannequin – on whose face he had scribbled a pair of glasses and a curl and the letters "C.J." (in case it wasn't already clear enough who it was meant to represent) – and placed it into the teleporter tube. Wonder Woman looped her lasso around the casing and pulled it firmly as Bruce entered the teleportation sequence into the console.
A beam of blue light – the sound of billions of atoms scrambling to realign themselves – then, nothing. Diana loosened the lasso and CJ bounded forward to check the inside of the tube.
"It worked!" he exclaimed. The adults came forward to survey it as well.
"Good," said Bruce, "Let's get Batson over here and send you two home."
Diana stole a glance at Clark then peered at Bruce. "Batson?" she repeated. Broke into a grin. Even Clark covered his mouth with his hand.
Bruce wished that he hadn't pulled down his cowl upon entering the Cave. He looked at CJ. "And this you neglected to mention?" CJ shrugged playfully.
"I take back what I said about Krypto," Diana said to Clark.
"Apology accepted," said Clark to Diana.
Bruce growled at them all.
Xx
Ten minutes after Clark left to get Batson, he returned to the Cave, wild-eyed. Batson wasn't in the apartment in Metropolis. In fact, Batson was nowhere to be found in all of Metropolis. This caused CJ to set off a minor earthquake.
Bruce put a firm but reassuring hand on CJ's shoulder. "Ra's al Ghul."
"He was alone for half an hour, Uncle Bruce! How is that possible?"
"It is," replied Superman, "Ra's keeps an eye on all of us, especially when he wants something." He still looked worried. He was definitely not a fan of Ra's.
"How will we find him?" Diana demanded.
Before Bruce could respond, CJ jumped away from him and to the main console (Bruce arched an eyebrow but let him take the lead). "We could scan Ra's's known bases of operations but we know that he cycles through them too often for it to be efficient," CJ explained as he started typing furiously, "Instead, we should look for centers of increased seismic activity and correlate those to the known bases."
"Agreed," Bruce agreed, feeling… proud? There's no need to get too attached, he told himself, the kid is leaving in a few hours.
"Seismic activity?" asked Diana.
"Our molecules are vibrating at a different frequency from those in your universe, so it's possible that we're causing vibratory dissonance here."
Bruce looked at Clark. He's smart, he communicated through a look as he nodded at CJ.
We need to find Batson, all I care about right now is Batson, was Clark's silent response. In the few hours they had spent together, Clark had grown heartwrenchingly fond of Batson. Clark knew perfectly well that his affection for the younger man was simply transference of his emotions towards Bruce, but intellectualizing it didn't change the fact that he would do anything for Batson, just as he would for Bruce.
Sure enough, CJ's plan of action yielded one location on the map: the Lazarus pit beneath Stonehenge.
Well, we're off to England! TEAM USA!
