Ollie was walking outdoors despite the cold weather. He was wearing an expensive coat that was both light and good at keeping him warm. He vaguely noticed that it was silent other than the slight howl of the wind. He shifted the arm in his sling slightly as he made it to his destination preparing for the conversation he felt he had to have. He had been out of commission for a couple of weeks and could rarely even speak to Chloe, as it would have been hazardous to her health.
The side effect of this was that he had nothing but time to think about the encounter at the bank and couldn't even talk much to Bruce about it as he was pulling double duties as Batman. Ollie smirked slightly at the thought; Bruce had taken that day at the bank personally and refused to tell him exactly why. Ollie didn't know exactly what had happened in that bank but you would have thought that Bruce had been the one tossed into a wall.
Ollie sat down and waved awkwardly at the friend he had come to see, as he began to speak. " I'm sorry I haven't spoken to you in a while but it's been crazy."
" In fact I could have used your help the other day." Ollie laughed slightly at his own misfortune. It wasn't often that he got beat in a fight and he had to admit that when he got beat it was bad.
" Of course all I really needed was one of the three people with super strength I know by my side, in fact I met a woman over in Greece who might have given you a run for your money, although admittedly she doesn't have the same propensity for giving me lectures that you used to." Ollie shook his head at the memories before he became serious again.
" Look I know that I only come around here when things get bad, and that you can't really help me, but the truth is things are kind of rough right now." Ollie sighed and looked down before taking a deep breath and continuing.
" I think that Chloe and Lois are in over their heads, and I don't think that I need to tell you of all people just how stressful that can be." He put his knees up and rested his arms on them and looked back up as he continued.
" I know that no one comes around here much, but the fact is neither of the girls can even hear your name and still be anything but sad or angry." Ollie thought back to the time he had brought up the anniversary of the event and neither woman had spoken to him for three days, and that was saying something for both women.
" I guess I'm just trying to say that despite the differences that we had I still wish we were fighting side by side." Ollie shook his head.
" The man I fought at the bank…I've been beaten that badly three other times in my life. One was by that woman I told you about earlier, the second was a man from Gotham by the name of Bane, and the third was by you. I have to say that I sometimes miss the days when I only had Luthor to worry about and not Intergang and a whole slew of super villains."
Ollie paused and stood up as he rested his hand on Clark's headstone. " I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have a bad feeling about what's happening and could use your help." Ollie smirked a little bit, " Maybe you can ask the big guy to help us out a little bit, after all if your not one of the big guy's favorites I can only imagine what he thinks of me.."
He began to walk away before realizing that a joke wasn't where he wanted to leave things. " In all seriousness, I hope you're doing well up there and I'm doing my best to watch out for the girls. I've even kept an eye on your mom for you but she seems to be doing all right by herself… I'll try to make it out here as soon as I can but I hope you'll understand if it might be a while. " Ollie didn't have the heart to tell him that the farm wasn't being kept up as well as it had been.
He walked out of the quiet cemetery making his way back to his car shivering slightly. He didn't come to visit Clark very often but he always made a point to visit his grave every few months. After all he wasn't only doing this for himself, but for Chloe and Lois as well.
*****************************************************
Lois watched from across the bar as a small group of men sitting at Kal's booth were relaxing in their seats enjoying the view of one of the girls as she slid down the pole beside the table.
She looked to the bartender as she spoke, " What time is it?"
" It's about 3 A.M. Why?"
Three meant that Lois was off duty and that when the meeting was over she was free to invite Kal out for a late dinner. After going over the past couple of occasions in which Kal had taken her out she had somehow been sidetracked and the night turned into a date that she never intended to be on.
" No reason." She could hear him chuckling to himself but choose to ignore it as she refocused her attention on Kal.
She figured that this time she would invite him somewhere and take control of the situation. She wound up waiting another twenty minutes before the men stood up from the table, shook Kal's hand and walked out of the club all seemingly pleased with what had transpired.
Instead of staying in the booth as she had hoped he would, he stood up and made his way towards the back and proceeded into his office. " Goodnight." The bartender waived slightly as she made her way towards the back of the room.
She made her way down the hallway and past the series of doors until she came to the final one and was slightly surprised to find that it was unlocked.
Kal had just fallen down on the slide out bed in his office and sighed. He normally left what he considered minor issues to one of his 12 lieutenants because he hated the politics of it all. Tonight he had spent an hour zoning Metropolis amongst the five men who would normally work beneath his lieutenant and had been bored out of his mind. It was important in theory but ultimately all major decisions would be made by himself or by the lieutenant he put in charge of the city.
He had been mulling things over in his head for a few days now and had come to a conclusion; He had to leave Metropolis. Intergang was once again the most feared organization in Metropolis. Intake was up both in legitimate and illegitimate businesses and there wasn't a criminal on the streets of Metropolis that dared overstep the authority that had been given to them, much less talk to the police when they were arrested, and tomorrow morning the news would report that Lexcorp was in trouble and that no one knew how it had happened.
On the other hand both Batman and the Green Arrow would only be held off for so long before showing up on his doorstep, or at the very least a doorstep that they shouldn't be on. Kal was confident but not stupid, and he knew it would be unwise to underestimate either man. Added to the reasons to leave the city was that the infiltration of Maccau was not going as smoothly as anticipated and Kal would usually have stepped in to change that by now. In fact there was only one reason to stay, and it was the only thing that had kept him here this long.
Knock…Knock….Knock.
Kal turned his head towards the door not needing to use any of his super senses to know who was knocking on it. He stood up, straightened his jacket, and pressed the button that allowed the bed to slide back into the wall. " Come in."
Lois opened the door and Kal instantly noticed that she was still in costume. " I just got off work, and was wondering if you wanted to do something."
Kal leaned against his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. " Well what do you feel like doing?"
Lois decided to mimic Kal by leaning against the doorway and crossing her arms over her chest. " Well I'm in the mood to play some pool, I figure I'll be able to win some cash off of you."
Kal laughed slightly, " It's 3 a.m. How many pool halls do you know of that are still open."
Lois quirked an eyebrow at him, " Which ever ones you own."
" And what makes you think that I own any pool halls?" Kal knew it was only a matter of time before a few of the pieces started to come together so far she hadn't asked anything to alarming.
Lois knew that this was her chance to find some actual information on Kal, after going over their last two outings she had realized that Kal was much more than a simple club owner. She didn't know how high up on the Intergang chain he was but she did know that he was running more than just the Elysian fields, whether he ran legitimate aspects or illegitimate aspects of the organization had yet to be seen.
" Call it a hunch." Kal watched as Lois twisted her lips into a sexy smirk and Kal knew right then he would be at a pool hall shortly.
" Well then why don't you change and let's go, it just so happens that a certain pool hall that I know of is open 24 hours a day." She only nodded in response as she exited the office and presumably went to change. Kal shook his head slightly; he realized it had taken Lois all of four short sentences to convince him to spend more time with her, even though he had just been thinking about leaving the city.
He opened up a drawer and pulled out a set of black khaki pants and a black golf shirt. It had been a long day and he really didn't feel like wearing his suit any longer. He put in a phone call to Wheels so that he would pull the car around.
He walked outside to see Lois already in the driver's seat of his H2. " You know I don't typically let anyone drive my cars."
Lois nodded her head, " Well I guess it's a good thing that I'm not just anyone." She knew that tonight she had to be in control every step of the way. That meant that she would have to be in the driver's seat both literally and metaphorically.
Kal sat down in the passenger's seat and leaned his head back before closing his eyes. Lois took the opportunity to start the conversation. " Seems like you had a rough day."
Kal laughed a little bit. " Not so much rough as mundane."
" You run multiple businesses, how could your day possibly be exciting… outside of interviewing new dancers of course." She quirked an eyebrow as she made a turn into the pool halls parking lot; Thinking ahead she had asked wheels where the closest open pool hall was and luckily it wasn't that hard to get to.
He opened his eyes as he felt the car stop but didn't get out of the car. Until now he hadn't noticed that she was in a pair of blue jeans with a jean jacket, and had a tight red top on underneath. She wasn't wearing any makeup and her hair was slightly messy. He had to admit she was even sexier than she was in the expensive dresses she had worn on their last two outings.
" I think you'd be surprised at some of the excitement that can come along with my job…" He briefly thought back to the bank job before coming back to reality, " Today just wasn't one of those days."
She smirked as they both stepped out of the car and made their way inside of the pool hall. Of the twenty or so tables within, only about five of them were occupied, surprisingly enough to Kal other than the employees none of the people within worked for him.
They made their way over to one of the tables near the bar and Kal began to rack as Lois picked up two cue's. Kal turned to the bartender and ordered two beers and placed them on the closest table before looking up at Lois.
She tossed a cue at him and spoke, " You rack'em, I crack'em."
Lois watched him smile as he took a drink as she broke the balls up, pleased to find that she had sunk three of them. " So what's been happening in your world lately?" She didn't even look at him as she continued to play the game.
" Well, my business in Metropolis is growing, but talking about me is only going to bore us. What about you?" She looked up this time, knowing that he was as always shifting the conversation.
" I take my clothes off for a living, now stop changing the subject. Technically speaking this is our third date and I don't really know anything about you. " Lois knew it was a risk, until now they had kept their time together vague. She knew that if he were going to trust her with anything she would have to give him a reason too, and the only way she could think to do that was by formalizing their relationship.
Kal quirked an eyebrow at her, " So you want to know about little old me?"
She looked up at him from across the table, " I'd hardly call a guy who's six foot four, and from the looks of it is solid muscle, little." She knocked in the six ball in, leaving only the eight, and the nine.
"Touche" He watched her as she moved on to the eight and nine balls seemingly engrossed in the game.
As Lois knocked in the nine ball she looked up again and decided for the first time to push the issue. She had been undercover as a stripper for a couple months now and was finally in a position to ask these questions without a reason for him to be suspicious. Instead of re-racking the pool balls she came over to take a sip of her beer. " Wow you lost that one fast."
She smirked at him, as he smiled back at her, " You do realize that I didn't even get to go up to the table."
" Well whose fault is that?" She put on an innocent face as he began to re-rack the balls.
She made her way back to the table and broke. " Now back to the issue at hand. Tell me something real about yourself."
" Why don't we just shoot a few more games and keep the conversation light." He smirked when she finally missed a shot.
" Well no one said I was perfect." She sat on the bar, she wasn't happy about his answer but she had all night to break him, and since he still seemed relaxed she saw no reason to stop her complaining.
The night wore on and both had to admit that they were enjoying each other's company. There was something about hanging out in a place that was not formal and not a strip club that made the night much less tense. Lois for her part was destroying Kal, he was down ten games to one and was tired of loosing.
" You know, you could have let me win a few games." He downed his fifth beer of the night as he plopped down onto the stool.
" I could have, and I might have; but you choose to talk about my life instead of yours like I asked. That meant that I had to get back at you somehow, beating you at pool over and over again was the easiest way on hand.
Kal shook his head, throughout the night she had been slipping in seemingly innocent questions that normally wouldn't have been a problem. They were however a problem once he realized that he wanted to answer them, and surprisingly enough he could see the genuine interest in her eyes.
As the latest game ended and Lois waited for his come back, Kal knew that it was time to pick the path he could never come back from. He could do the smart thing and leave for China and take over operations there, most likely to never return to the city that he had been through so much in. Or he could do the most impulsive and illogical thing he could ever remember doing and pursue a real relationship with a woman that would likely end up hating him when she found out that he was in fact her supposedly dead friend and simultaneously the person she had been trying to bring down for a very long time.
" How bout we make a bet." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the table as Lois racked the balls.
She stood up and looked at him, " I'm listening."
He nodded his head, " If you win the next game, I honestly answer 10 questions of your choice."
She quirked her eyebrow as her heart began to beat quickly in her chest. This could wind up being the big break she needed. " And if you win."
He smirked and Lois could see the challenge already forming in his eyes. " If I win, you come back to my place tonight, where you can ask as many questions as you want. I may not answer them all but that's what I get for winning."
She rolled her eyes, " That and me going back to your place."
He shrugged his shoulders knowing that their was no point in lying, " So are you in, or are you out?"
Lois smirked; the only game she had lost all night was when she had scratched while making the eight ball allowing Kal the easy last shot. " I'm in. Hell I'll even let you break."
Kal took the cue and smirked as he leaned over the table to shoot, smirking at the woman who was confidently leaning on a stool. " By the way I don't have any expectations…" Kal hit the cue ball and knocked in every ball on the table. " You can even stay in the guest room tonight if it makes you more comfortable. " He quirked an eyebrow at her challengingly.
Kal stared at her with an amused quirk of the eyebrow as she went a little bit wide-eyed wondering what exactly had happened. She quickly regained her composure remembering that she had promised herself she would stay in control tonight. " Well what are we waiting for." She quickly made her way towards the car hoping that Kal hadn't seen any of the panic written on her face. When she was out the door and out of sight she shook her head wondering what the hell she had gotten herself into tonight.
Kal watched her walk out and sighed as he let what happened wash over him; He couldn't help but wonder what exactly it was about this woman that made him willing to risk everything that he had worked for in the last six years, and somehow make it seem like the best decision of his life.
TBC…