Chapter 13: Starting Point

Jason was having trouble sleeping. It was understandable given that he was trying to sleep on the cold hard floor of an empty room. He would pull his jacket over himself like a blanket, roll over, sleep for a few minutes and then wake up, deciding his jacket was better used as a pillow. A few minutes later he'd change his mind and switch back.

"Would you stop that?" Arden grumbled. He never would have imagined when he came to work for Lex Luthor that he would be doing little more than babysitting a child hostage. He had only fifteen minutes left on his guard duty, but the constant rustling was getting on his nerves. "Don't move," he warned as he jumped down off his seat on the counter and went out the door, locking it behind him. Jason could hear him talking on his radio outside in the hallway. He was telling Ralph to come relieve him early. Aware that this would probably be his only time in the room by himself, Jason seized the opportunity. He stood up, got as close to the small, high window as he possibly could and shouted "SUPERMAN!" at the top of his lungs.

Clark shot up in bed. He had been having a dream, very much like every other dream he'd had this week. He was flying over Metropolis, or what he presumed to be Metropolis; he couldn't really see through the dense fog covering the city. His x-ray vision revealed nothing but blackness beneath the haze, and all his super-hearing could pick up was static. But then, just before he woke up, he heard a voice calling his name.

Now, sitting up in bed, Clark found himself in that confusing place somewhere between sleep and awake. He wasn't sure if what he heard had been a dream or reality, but he certainly couldn't go back to sleep now, after hearing Jason's voice so clearly in his head.

His clock read 5:37. The sun would be up soon, but Clark didn't really have to wait for it to rise. He got changed at top speed and was out the fire escape and into the clear, golden sky within seconds. It would have seemed a perfect day for flying, had he not been so preoccupied with other, more important things. This flight was strictly for a recharge. Superman closed his eyes as he got nearer to the sun and stopped, letting his body absorb the revitalizing rays. He didn't want to be running on empty for the long day he knew he had ahead of himself. Whether or not that voice he had heard was real didn't matter to him. It was the only thing he had to go on at the moment.

Lois' morning was not nearly as eventful, unless you counted the myriad of scenarios that had been running through her mind since she got up. She had been imagining all the terrible things that could have been happening to her son and it was nearly enough to make her lose it. She couldn't stand one more day waiting for the police or Superman to figure out where Jason was. She felt like she was failing him, to not be out searching as well, and sitting idly by left her with nothing to do but let her mind wander, concocting more scenes between her son and the nefarious Lex Luthor.

Today, for the first time in nearly a week, Lois Lane headed back to the Daily Planet.

She entered the bullpen and was greeted by a silence that started at the doorway where she stood and slowly made its way to the far wall by the copy machines. Jimmy rushed over to her.

"Uh, Lois…you don't have to be here," he supplied. "All your stories have been reassigned."

"I know. I just need to do a few things." She paused, noticing he was eyeing her with concern. "I'm fine. I'll…I'll be fine. It's okay," she nodded, maybe trying to convince herself more than Jimmy. Noticing a few hundred eyes on her, she addressed the still-silent room, "You can all talk. Go back to work…I'm not going to crack." It took everyone a second to process it, and Gil was the first one to break the awkward silence with the sound of his fingers returning to their place on his computer keyboard.

Lois gathered the necessary items at her desk and headed straight for Perry's office after noticing Clark's desk was empty. There she explained her plan, however vaguely put together it was at this point. She and Clark - for surely he would agree to go with her - would put their job skills to good use and try to find Jason on their own. She knew Richard would disagree. He had never had the tenacity (or was it rashness?) that Lois had. If she checked, certainly she would find Richard at home, sitting by the phone. Maybe he was doing the right thing by following the police's orders, but if you asked Lois, anything was better than just waiting for the police, letting your imagination run wild.

And where was Clark?

He landed silently on the roof of the Daily Planet, cursing himself for being late to work. Clark knew Lois was going to ask him for help today, and now he might have missed it. Messing up his hair in the elevator, he double-checked to make sure no telltale signs of red or blue were sticking out from beneath his three piece suit. His morning flight through the city brought him no closer to Jason. Clark had never had this much trouble locating someone. He couldn't think straight. What he really needed was sleep and a place to clear his mind, but he couldn't do that either. All he could think about was his son. It had never been this personal before.

He spotted Lois in Perry's office and took a seat at his desk. He didn't turn on his computer; he didn't open his briefcase. He just waited.

"Clark! There you are." It was Lois.

"L-lois, what are you doing here?" He tried to act surprised.

"Listen, I know you probably have a lot of work to do," she started, "but it would really mean a lot to me if you would help me out. Looking for Jason, I mean. I already asked Perry if he could spare you. Sorry. I got restless when you weren't here. Um…so what do you say?" She looked at him anxiously.

"D-definitely," he replied. "To tell you the truth, I've been doing a bit of investigating on my own." Lois' eyebrows shot skyward. "Writing about gas prices and smoking bans has seemed less and less important these days," Clark offered as explanation. "You can count on me."

"I knew I could." Lois breathed a sigh of relief. "So how about we hijack a conference room, huh?"

A few moments later they were tucked away in one of the empty conference rooms at the far end of the bullpen. Lois took out her laptop and an empty notebook and pencil. As Clark rummaged through his bag for his notes, he asked Lois how she was holding up.

"As good as can be expected," she replied. "I'll wake up feeling like it's all been a bad dream, and that Jason will be there at the foot of my bed waiting for me to get him breakfast. Then, I remember." Surely enough, every morning as lucidity overcame her, Lois would remember that it is real, and he is gone, and the life that she thought was so screwed up and complicated before was really as perfect as she could have asked for.

"I know what you mean," Clark said sincerely. Lois gave him a puzzled look. "Uh," Clark shook his head and cleared his throat, "Well, we, uh, we'd better get started. H-here's what I've got so far," he finished as he finally produced his notebook from his bag.

Jason stared through the darkness at the tiny rectangle where the window used to be. The last traces of light were disappearing from around the edges of the wooden planks that were now nailed over the room's only light source. Newspapers had been shoved between the boards and the windowpane for good measure. And extra soundproofing.

It would be night soon. Again. Jason wasn't really sure how long he had been sitting in that room waiting to be rescued, but he knew he hated the nights most. He was usually afraid of the dark, and he was even more afraid of it here than he was at home. At home, once the lights were out, he wondered if there might be a monster in his room, watching him. Here, he knew there was. And so he continued to stare at blank space where the window used to be, holding on to each last drop of daylight. Ralph leaned against the wall in the corner, as Arden had been taken off guard duty indefinitely. And that's when it happened. As Jason watched the last bits of sunlight disappear, the window, and the world behind it, suddenly came back into view. Jason gasped and Ralph came to attention.

"What?" Ralph demanded.

Jason looked back at the window, checking to see that it was indeed still boarded up.

Not willing or able to explain what he had just seen, Jason instead replied, "I have to pee."

Ralph rolled his eyes and got on his radio.

"Ugh, Clark, this is useless!" Lois declared as she threw down her pencil in frustration and ran both hands through her hair. "How could I let this happen?" she asked quietly.

"It's not your fault Lois," said Clark, looking up from his list of addresses. "There's nothing you could have done."

"I know, I just…I wonder if there is," she said as she picked up her pencil and began fidgeting with it again. "I know I have to do something, but I don't even know where to start. I mean, you've already checked all of Luthor's known hangouts, the police are out of leads, and why hasn't Superman been able to find anything? He's been around the whole world and doesn't even have a clue!" At that, she slammed her pencil down on the table, breaking the lead.

"He's trying," Clark supplied, feeling guilty for letting everyone down.

"I know," Lois replied as she wiped the broken pieces of pencil lead from the table. "I'm sorry Clark, I never should have asked you to come. We've gotten nowhere and now you're behind on your work."

Clark stared at the dark smudge the graphite left. "Lois," he said, "lead."

"Yeah, sorry," she said as she licked her thumb and started wiping away the dark spot left on the conference room table.

"No, Lois." He stopped her hand with his own and met her eyes. "Lead." He couldn't believe he had overlooked it. "Lead roofing, lead paint, walls full of lead pipes." There were so many places he had looked but hadn't seen. Sure, it was widely known that Superman couldn't see through lead, Lois had published it in their first interview, but usually when Superman was looking for a missing person, that person wasn't specifically being hidden from him. Clark silently cursed himself for not keeping a clear head during his search for Jason. Maybe if he'd been more calm and collected he would have thought of this sooner. The one person he can't find and the one substance he can't see through. They had to be together somewhere.

"Looks like we have a starting point," Lois said happily.

A/N: FINALLY, right? Thanks for hanging in there :) Reviews are love.