Birthday Surprise
By Thomas Mc

Chapter 10

Kristen gently closed the front door then rested her forehead momentarily against it as she breathed a deep satisfied sigh. After a second she turned and seemed to drift in a warm haze toward the stairway. Halfway to the base of the stairs she was drawn out of her dazed state by the voice of her brother.

"How did your date go, Sis?"

Kristen looked over into the family room to see her father and brother both staring back at her. She took a breath then replied in a sigh. "It was wonderful." Her smile took on soft romantic overtones as she recalled dancing across the skies of Metropolis in Jonathan's arms.

Her father frowned, unsure what to make of the dreamy look on his daughter's face. "What did you do at the prom?"

She focused in on her father and brother, her smile becoming one of deep satisfaction. After a pause of a couple of seconds she replied. "We danced."

Christopher remarked with a hint of a smirk on his face. "I take it, you enjoyed dancing with Jonathan?"

Kristen's smile became even dreamier as she replied. "Like dancing on air."

Father and son, both with raised eyebrows, looked at each other as Kristen turned and drifted up the stairs to her room, still lost in her dreamy fog.

Paul's eyebrows were raised in surprise and uncertainty with a hint of worry mixed in. He had seen that same look before on his wife's face, usually after a bout of lovemaking. Just how close had Kristen and that boy gotten while they were out on tonight's date? He wasn't sure he liked where this line of thought was taking him.

Christopher's eyebrows were raised in surprise and speculation with a hint of amusement mixed in. When she had said 'dancing on air' was she speaking figuratively or literally? Considering who she had been out with, she could have meant it either way. He silently cheered for his little sister. It looked like she had ended up with a good one.

As the gaze of both males turned toward the top of the stairs they were both thinking the same thing 'tomorrow morning there would be questions.'

~ o ~

High above Superman and Superboy drifted along in silence on a last pass over Metropolis before retiring for the night.

Clark grinned at the dreamy smile he saw plastered on his son's face. After a short while, he broke the silence. "Your mother and I were on our way back from the 'Planet' when I heard music coming from out of mid air. We saw you with Kristen dancing on air about a thousand feet away and about a dozen feet above us."

Jonathan looked over at his father in surprise. "You saw us?" He felt the heat rise in his face at the realization that his parents had witnessed that little interlude.

Clark chuckled at his son's reaction. "Yes, we saw you." He paused a moment, watching the expressions passing across his son's face before continuing. "If the two of you had pulled your attention away from each other long enough to look around you, you might have noticed your mother and I doing the same thing not too far away."

Jonathan's eyes opened wide. "You and Mom were dancing on air?" He asked incredulously.

Clark chuckled and responded. "We call it 'Sky Dancing', and we've done it many times." He tilted his head in amusement. "Though it has never occurred to us to bring along our own music like you did."

"But you're old." Jonathan remarked incredulously.

Clark laughed outright at the look on his son's face. "We're not that old."

Jonathan took a few moments to absorb this new aspect of his parents. Apparently the concept of 'Sky Dancing' was not as unique as he had thought. Finally he asked his father a question that had just occurred to him. "When was the first time you and Mom went sky dancing?"

Clark smile at the memory his son's question had conjured up. "About a month after she learned my secret identity."

Jonathan's eyes opened wider. "Wow, just like me and Kristen."

Clark chuckled. "In a way."

Father and son flew for a while in silence, each immersed in their own thoughts, until the sound of a fire alarm drew their attention. They glanced at each other, nodded and dived toward the location of the emergency.

~ x S x ~

As Paul made his way down to the kitchen, his mind continued to swirl around his worries about his daughter and that boy, Jonathan Kent. As he sat down at the table he cut loose with a huge yawn and picked up the morning paper. When he opened the rolled-up paper the headline practically screamed at him and he was suddenly wide awake.

Senior Prom Interrupted By Pipe Bomb Scare

Paul scanned quickly through the article, getting more agitated as he read. According to the article it had been more than just a scare. There had been a real live pipe bomb that had gone off within seconds after Superboy had removed it from the building. "Sharron!" He called out.

"Yes, honey, what's wrong?" Sharron responded as she rushed up to the table where Paul sat.

He passed the paper over to her. "Have you seen this?"

She glanced at the paper then did a double take as the headline sunk in. "A bomb at Kristen's prom?" She plopped down into the chair and began reading the article. Her eyes got wider as she got further into the story. How could something like this happen?

Paul's mind kept revolving around the same questions. Why had she said nothing about this last night? Why had she acted the way she did? It was as though she had been completely unaware of what had happened at the school. For that matter why had he not heard that boy's loud car drive up last night when she got home? Something was not right here and the possibilities that were running through his mind were really beginning to get to him.

Both parents were distracted by the sound of Kristen bouncing noisily down the stairs. As they looked up they saw Kristen practically skipping into the room with a happy grin on her face and humming one of the currently popular romantic ballads. She seemed totally oblivious to their stares as she opened the refrigerator and stood there humming while she perused the contents.

"Kristen!" Paul called out a bit sharply.

Kristen turned around holding a carton of orange juice and looked uncomprehendingly at her father. At the same time Christopher arrived with a screeching halt at the door arrested by the tone in their father's voice.

"What do you know about this?" Paul spoke severely as he poked a bit forcefully at the newspaper lying on the table.

"Know about what?" She inquired finally noticing her father's demeanor and wondering what he was so upset about.

Christopher moved forward to see what it was that his father was pointing to. His eyebrows shot halfway up his forehead as he read the bold type upside-down headline.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Paul ground out. "Were you even at that dance you were supposed to be going to?" A horrible suspicion had begun to form in Paul's mind.

Stung by her father's words and annoyed that her father would doubt her, Kristen stepped up to the table and read the headline. She had forgotten that Jonathan's parents had been there. She certainly hadn't expected her father to find out about it this quickly. Then as the meaning of her father's words really sank in she became angry at her father's accusation and rebellion set in. "How dare you say that to me . . . if you've read about it then you know that I was there!" She spat out as she glared angrily at her father.

Her angry rebuttal shocked both parents. Paul responded. "What do you mean? What do you know about this?"

Kristen plopped down in a chair and started scanning the article. Christopher had come up behind her and began reading over her shoulder. The article was a fairly accurate description of what had happened with one thing missing. None of the kids involved were named in the article. "Well?" Paul was getting impatient. "What do you have to say? What were you and that boy doing last night?"

Stung even more by her father's renewed and more obvious accusation; Kristen's rebellious anger flared as she finally responded. "Yea, that's what happened." She glared at her father. "The three boys that brought the bomb were the Johnson brothers. The two girls that they assaulted were Stephanie and me, so yea I was there all right. In fact I was right in the middle of the whole freakin thing." She glanced at her mother, who was looking back in shock, then glared back at her father. "And it was Jonathan and one of his friends that came to our defense so I resent your dirty little implications." She jumped up from her seat and ran out of the room and up the stairs.

Paul looked after his daughter in stunned surprise. He and Kristen had always been close and she had never yelled at him like that before. He glanced back to see sympathy in his wife's eyes but was surprised to see frank disapproval in his son's eyes.

Finally Christopher spoke. "You really blew it this time, Dad." He shook his head. "You jumped right in with the accusations without even giving her a chance to tell you what really happened. Not to mention implying some pretty terrible things about Jonathan who, I happen to know, is a very nice boy that Kristen happens to be very sweet on right now." He sighed and turned to go up to see if he could calm his sister down before the situation got any worse.

Paul looked at his wife in surprise. "But . . . but I . . ."

Sharron put her hands over his hands. "They're right Paul." She took a deep breath. "Right from the start, you have been on that boy's case. You have not once given him a fair shake. And the kind of things that you were practically accusing them both of was unforgivable, especially considering what they both apparently went through last night."

"But she . . ."

Again Sharron interrupted him. "I know she shouldn't have yelled at you like that but, considering what you just said about her and the boy that became her hero last night, I can't really blame her for the way she reacted."

~ o ~

Christopher hesitated at the door to Kristen's room trying to figure out just what to say. He wanted her to know that he understood her side of things but he didn't think he should tell her why he had so much faith in Jonathan. The fewer people that knew Jonathan's secret the better and he was pretty sure that he was not on the approved list for that knowledge. In fact it was probably best if he just locked that secret away and never mentioned it to anyone.

He softly knocked on her door. "Kristen, it's Chris. Can I come in?"

He heard a muffled sniffling sound from inside the room then after a long time the door opened about an inch and he saw one slightly bloodshot eye peer out. Oh, boy, she had been crying. Dad's words had really hurt her, a lot. She quietly stepped back pulling the door open then went over to flop back down on her bed. Christopher stepped into her room and closed the door behind him. He then walked hesitantly over to her bed and sat down beside her. All the while he kept trying to figure out just what he could say to her to make her feel better and maybe smooth things over between her and their father.

~ o ~

Paul looked forlornly at his wife as the size of his blunder came crashing down on his shoulders. "How do I fix this? What do I say to her?"

Continued in Part 11

( rev 130514 )

Disclaimer: This story is based on the television series "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." The recognizable characters and settings in this story are the property of D.C. Comics, Warner Bros., December 3rd Productions, and anyone else with a legal right to them, and I have no claim on them whatsoever, nor am I profiting by their use. The story, however, is a product of my own imagination. No infringement on copyrights is intended. This story is presented merely for the enjoyment of fans.