Identity Effect

Chapter 6

One and a half weeks later...

Starbucks at the main street of Gotham...

Chloe was typing her new article for the Gotham Daily about the city's hero – Batman.

"What was his name again? Bat what?" she mattered to herself, searching through the papers. "That's just got to be some kind of a sick joke"

She was tired of typing and looked up to see what was going on around her. That was when she saw her own sister Julie, buying coffee and chatting with someone. Chloe was about to call her when she saw the person Juls was talking to. It was Bruce. Then the dark-haired girl kissed him on the cheek, said good-bay and exited Starbucks.

Bruce turned around to find the table to sit and read his paper when he spotted Chloe staring at him.

"Chloe? Hi!" he said, making his way to where she was sitting. "Do you mind?"

She made some move with her head to show that he could sit.

"You were with Julie?" she asked still staring at him.

"Yeah. She's my old friend. You know her?" Bruce sipped his coffee.

"More or less" Chloe answered, turning to her work to put the point.

"What are you working on?" he looked at her notebook.

"Oh, this" she looked the way his eyes pointed. "The article for the paper. It's about that Bat...something..."

"Batman?" he helped.

"Right! You know anything about him?" she asked.

"No" Bruce said quickly, making Chloe notice it. "I mean everyone heard about him"

"Ok. Relax, that was a simple question"

"I know" he said with his usual calm voice. "Anyway, I have to go. Got a meeting. I'll call you"

"Ok, bay"

As Bruce took off, Chloe thought about this Bat-guy. What was that about him that made Bruce act the way he did. That was just one second reaction, but for her it was enough to understand that her friend knew much more then he told her.

Gotham University...

Samantha was about to start her shopping tour after the talk with the professor when her cell started calling.

"Hello" she flipped it open.

"Hay, Samantha" she heard a familiar voice on the other end. "Recognize me?"

"You bet I do, Luthor" she said jokily. "Why haven't you called me for so long?"

"Sorry, honey, I had my reasons..."

"Well, I now have my reasons not to talk to you" she tried to hide he grin from the phone.

"Come on, Sam!" Lex pleaded.

"Ok. So, why are you calling? The last time you called me to just have a civil conversation, you wanted me to find you information in my mother's computer. What do you want now?" she asked.

"Oh, that was rude. And unfair. I only wanted to tell you that I'll soon de in Gotham. That's all" he said. "You know, Wayne's throwing a party"

"I know" her smile faded.

"Wow, I can't believe he sent you the invitation after all you've...sorry, Sam" he stopped in middle of the sentence.

"It's quiet ok. I myself hardly believe it" she said coldly with a nervous laugh. "He called you?"

"No, but I've got the invitation. So, I've been thinking since I don't know anyone else besides your sister and you in Gotham, why don't we go together?"

"I don't know, Lex. I, actually, wasn't planning on going"

"You must go, Samantha. Or you want Wayne to think you're so weak that you can't even show there" he tried to convince her.

"You always know what to say, yeah? Call me when you're in the City"

"Is that a 'yes'?"

"It's a 'probably'" she answered and flipped the phone close. Why the hell everyone reminded her about Bruce? Sam was sick of it.

Central Park...

Clark and Julie were walking Julie's dogs: Cramer and Achilles. They liked Clark very much, so Julie decided to make it at least half Clark's duty to walk them.

"Listen, I wanted to talk to you" Julie said.

"About what?" Clark looked down at her.

"My friend's going to have this party on Sunday. Do you want to come with me?" she turned a bit red.

"Sure, I'd love too" Clark said and helped her with the dogs. "Who's party that's gonna be?"

"Bruce Wayne's" she answered.

"Wayne as in Wayne Corporation?" Clark was a bit confused, he'd never thought that he's going to meet another billionaire personally.

"Yeah. He's a family friend. Well, I guess, now only mine, couse there was this big fight between him and Sam. Actually, it's a long story and I don't really want to tell it" she said with a sad smile. "All I can say is that they broke up and now she's...she had that awful depression and now she's just angry...I just hope she'll find someone to relay on..."

"Don't worry, she will" Clark wanted to know what happened to that Wayne- guy and Julie's sister, but wasn't about to ask Juls anymore. Mostly because he was too exited on going with Julie to think about someone else's problems. After all, he's lost Lana when he was thinking about others and he wasn't planning to lose Julie.

TBC