45
Six Weeks
"Damn it!" Clark cursed, as the fifth diaper tore in his grasp.
Chloe laughed and took the bag from him. "No one tell the D.D.S. that I've found the ultimate way to confuse fearsome alien invaders."
"Uh-huh, Chloe. If I have to give Aunt Martha five dollars for swearing in Kryptonian, you're totally putting in ten for the a-word."
"Oh you have got to be kidding me. It's not even a bad word," she huffed.
"In this house it so is," Kara quipped, scrunching up her nose as Clark tossed the used diaper into the trash. "Aunt Martha is on a huge kick to make sure no one uses that word around here, especially about us."
"I wasn't going to point to you and Clark in case the one month old was confused, yeesh," Chloe clarified.
"It's a bad habit," Kara sing songed. "Aunt Martha's got this huge rule, plus she totally confiscated all my Will Smith DVDs. I am in serious Men in Black withdrawal."
"Kara?"
"What?" She asked, cooing a little at her nephew.
"Uh, you got caught by the actual MiB."
"Yeah, but if Carter had looked like Mr. Tall, Dark and Big-eared I'd have hung around."
"That's a scary amount of non-logic," Chloe remarked, rebuttoning up Kon's little Bob the Builder onesie. Clark sighed when he remembered there was a time when he had no idea that was even a word.
"Seriously, he's not even that hot but it's the ears. Like I said, higher civilizations? They've all embraced the nerd look. Kal never would have gotten laid back home."
"And that's five dollars from you Kara. Either we learn not to swear or we all go broke," Clark replied, waiting patiently for her to fish a five dollar bill from her wallet.
"Or," Chloe said, cradling Kon against her shoulder. "Kon has a college fund ready to go that doesn't even include Uncle Oliver or Uncle Lionel."
"Oh, Chlo, not you too. We are not going to start calling Lionel 'uncle' anything. It's creepy."
"Oh get over it, Kal," Kara snapped, taking Kon from Chloe and cradling him gently. "He's probably going to be your new stepfather eventually."
"As soon as all our blood tests come back 100% human," he groused. "No way, no how."
Kara laughed. "You're powers of denial always amaze me. I mean, really. If you hadn't had the team of doctors and the huge stomach and Kon's heartbeat and everything, I bet you'd still have yourself convinced that you weren't pregnant."
"I knew I was pregnant and that's another phrase you have to start dropping from your vocabulary. I can't explain to an over inquisitive three year old where he comes from."
"Three? With Chloe as the mom? He'll be demanding an in-depth interview at two, easy," She chirped. "Fine, I'll work on avoiding all the swear jar words. Even if I think 'alien' is a stupid one to have. Seriously, am I the only one who likes E.T. here?"
"Mom and Dad never let me watch that one," Clark muttered. "How did you even see it?"
"Jimmy has introduced me to the finer points of science fiction."
"Before or after you came out of the proverbial closet?" Chloe asked.
"He started before. It was so obvious we were going to work out. I mean, we really just need a few groupies."
"I am not a traveler groupie," Chloe replied. "Now hand back over my traveler son."
"Not a groupie, su-ure," Kara replied, stretching out the last word into two syllables. "You and Jimmy just have it bad for the highly evolved."
She snorted. "And the highly evolved ALFs around here can't make a diaper work."
"It's not about being smart," Clark defended.
"Besides, we didn't have these. This stuff is beyond primitive. You might as well just strap rocks or something to him."
Chloe grinned and patted Clark's stomach. "Is this another one of those rants about how your technology-the stuff that blew the whole place up, remember, and kept you in stasis for two decades-is better than ours? I so don't buy it."
Clark snorted. "As the guinea pig in the whole set up, I have to tell you I'm not that thrilled with our technology either."
"We never had stupid things made of plastic that rip every five seconds either."
"That's the pain of superstrength that you two are going to have to adjust to," Chloe replied, setting Kon back in his crib. "Seriously, you had almost a month head start."
"And it's still a pain in the other a-word," Clark replied, eying the swear jar on top of Kon's dresser. "I'm not saying whatever there was in the before and the long, long ago was better, but there has to be something better than some plastic."
"In the olden days here ," Chloe muttered, "It was all cloth. Considering that the milk starts green and gets worse from there, you should be thankful for the finest that the Pampers cooperation supplies."
"Whatever," Kara replied, pausing when the phone rang. "And there's being saved by the dong."
"It's bell and…never mind," Clark said, picking up the receiver in Kon's room. "Hello? Kent Residence, Clark speaking."
"Did you know that this is a hard number to track down?"
Clark blinked. "Mr. White?"
"The one and only."
"Oh, well if you needed Chloe, I think her cell is completely charged."
"And I talked to her about an hour ago before she had to run off and help Ms. Lang with something," Perry said, his tone amused. "I wasn't calling for her. I already have a nice set of quotes from her to integrate into a piece on the Johnson murder trial. It's not a business call."
"I see?"
"Firm statements there, kid. No I needed to talk to you. I…can you meet me in Metropolis in about three hours?"
"I can't give quotes, you know," Clark said uneasily. "My mom's press secretary gave everything official on Connor's birth last week. Besides, even if I was going to take interviews, I'd be giving them to Chloe and make The Ledger extra exciting."
Perry laughed. "And I don't do that kind of schmaltzy, puff piece crap either. Clark," he said, lowering his voice. "This is serious. I'd bring your cousin too. This concerns her as well."
"I don't understand."
"Clark, she's not your adoptive cousin, is she?"
He gulped and hoped it didn't sound too loud on the phone's amplifier. "What did you say?"
"Like I said, it's serious, and I need to talk to both of you. Clark, three hours at the diner across the street from the Planet. I'd ask for twenty minutes but there are appearances to keep up, aren't there?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Yes, you do," he replied, clicking the phone off.
Clark swallowed again and cursed under his breath when the handset snapped in his grasp.
"Clark?" Chloe asked. "What's wrong?"
"It's that guy you work with, Chloe, the one who wrote all those stories about Uncle Lionel's trial."
"Still creepy to hear that," Clark muttered.
"Are you serious?" Chloe demanded. "What does he want with you?"
"I don't know. National senator's son, troubled pregnancy, any of that ring any bells?"
"And he didn't ask at all about Kon. He wanted to see me, too, and he implied that we could both be in Metropolis in under twenty minutes when he knows that we're still in Lowell County."
"Oh fuck!"
Kon, predictably, started crying when Chloe shouted and Clark shook his head as he felt his chest grow a little wet. "Okay, so I'm going to change first and then Kara and I are on damage control."
"He works with me. Shouldn't I be going?" She demanded, holding her chin high with her usual righteous indignation.
"And that ear-shattering wail would be Kon asking for one of his parents. Chlo, you can intimidate Perry later. Hell, take Dinah and Andrea with you when you do it, but someone needs to watch Kon and I promised him it would be just be me and Kara at the meeting."
"I'm usually the Butch to your Sundance."
"Llamas!" Kara shouted, picking Kon back up and trying to sush him in Kryptonian.
Chloe arched an eyebrow at his cousin. "What does that even mean?"
"The movie was shot in South America so yay llamas!"
"Higher life forms, my a-word," Chloe said, taking Kon back. "My son's going to grow up to be a big, dumb traveler, isn't he?'
"Ouch and you hit us all where we live," Clark replied, sighing as he slipped on an oversized sweatshirt. "Chlo, I promise that you can have your crack at him. I need someone to stay with Kon now."
"Kara's available."
"And he asked for her. Nothing's going to happen in the next few hours, okay? Give us until six o'clock and then you can maim Perry yourself."
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him as she patted Kon's back. "You're not using him against me, are you?"
"Of course not. It's just that if one of us goes, the other has to stay or con my mom or something. She's in D.C. and Kara's on deck tonight so it's your turn."
Chloe shook her head and jiggled Kon a little on her hip . "Oh how I wish you'd never had sex."
"Swear jar!" Kara chirped, practically shoving the thing in Chloe's face, before taking his arm and dragging him to the Big Apricot.
Clark had eaten three slices of pie and watched Kara make a fort out of not only all the sugar packets on their table but also with the sugar packets on three of the neighboring tables. It had been a mind numbing three hours spent waiting for Perry. He should have stayed on the farm with his family, but he couldn't sit home either, trying to deflect Chloe's interrogation when he had no idea what Perry wanted or why everything was so urgent all of a sudden.
He could imagine some scenarios but all of them involved him and his immediate family either on prime time, in tiny cages, or a mixture of both.
"Kal, you're bending your fork again."
He sighed and eyed the crumpled piece of metal in his hand. "I know. I just wish he'd hurry up. I don't like waiting."
"You don't like waiting. I had to sit through six months to get to cute baby!"
"Kara, can you focus for about ten minutes?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I believe that I can, Kal-El. As far as I overheard, Perry White isn't even dropping hints any more, more like big ACME safes and he's asked to see both of us because he thinks we're…well, I assume he can pretty much guess who we are. So if I'd like to spend my three hours not worrying imaginary ulcers into my stomach lining and instead make an awesome stack of sugar packets before we probably have to relocate to Siberia or something, then I think I'm entitled. After all, I'm not the idiot who got knocked up by a rodent in the first place."
"That's a mouthful."
"You're very good at accusing me of being stupid when in the last year you've taken as many insane risks as I have, if not more," she said, frowning and quirking her head at him.
"What?"
"I...has your hearing been off lately?"
"Everything's been off lately," he groused "Did you know that my sense of smell still hasn't gone back to normal? I'm never going to eat bananas again."
Kara smirked. "I should get an order of those just because, but I'm serious. I've been hearing this weird buzzing or something lately. Sometimes it's better in Metropolis. Did someone put in a radio tower or something near the back forty? I thought I'd been imagining it, but I swear it's been going on for at least three or four months."
Clark frowned and perked up his own hearing. In a diner, even one with multiple health code violations and about three customers before the dinner rush, there was a myriad of noises-the clanging of the register, the smacking of lips, the heartbeats of the patrons and wait staff-but now that Kara mentioned it, he could discern just the slightest high pitch whine. "No, I hear that too. I…you said it's been four months?"
She shrugged, "Maybe five. Maybe I've just jacked into something new, annoying, and construction related in Lowell County. At least I'm not the only one who's heard it."
"Yeah, I can't explain this one. My hearing and sense of smell have been so screwed up since Kon, um..."
"Took up residence in your stomach," Kara replied quietly, looking over her shoulder as she spoke.
"Basically." He sighed. "I vote we worry about strange buzzing noises second and intrusive nationally syndicated reporters first."
"Deal," she replied shaking his hand.
"And that's the All-American camaraderie and family togetherness crap that will get your mom re-elected about eight hundred times," Perry replied. "Clark, good to see you."
It was Kara who beat him to everything. "I don't do pleasantries and neither of us is in the mood for it. You want to talk, go ahead and play Deep End."
"Throat, Kara," Clark replied, sighing. "She's not really a history buff."
"I'd bet not so much," Perry replied, eying her and taking a seat at the booth across from both of them.
"What do you want?" She repeated, her tone icy.
"That's not overplaying a hand," Clark complained. "Kara, take it down about ten notches. We're meeting at Ed's . It's not exactly a scene from a Bond film."
"Uh-huh but there was a lot of baiting and not a lot of useful information on the phone when he called."
"That's true. I try not to say too much on the phone. It's my cell, but it's not as if The Planet is a safe place to talk anymore. Freedom of speech is dead there."
Clark frowned. "I don't think I'm following you."
"Junior's been monitoring e-mails and going through employee hard drives for months. Someone that paranoid? I wouldn't put him past it to bug the whole place."
"Bug?" Clark asked and something about that seemed eerily topical.
"I can't prove it, but the less said in a building he owns, operates, and has declared himself emperor of, the better."
"What do you think we're going to talk about that is so sensitive? I've got nothing much to share except the latest on my rehiring at The Talon and Ka…Clark's been busy changing diapers. It's not going to be extremely Planet worthy," Kara groused and Clark clamped a hand on her wrist to keep her from leaning across the table and grabbing the reporter. It gave him the oddest feeling, restraining his cousin, as if she'd somehow become his consigliore.
"Mr. White, I have to say I'm confused here. I meant what I said about not offering quotes about my son or about my girlfriend's condition."
J'onn, quite nicely disguised as his mom's chief public relations aide, had not only released information, including the faked birth certificate, to the press a week ago about Connor Kent's birth, but he'd also mentioned that Lana had been suffering from anemia as well. It was a nice convenient way to explain why the whole family was still keeping quiet on the farm. Of course, even that couldn't explain why Lana wasn't out and about forever. He had no idea what to do about that and he had a sinking suspicion he was about to have an even more dire problem ahead of it on his list.
"It's not about either of those things. Gossip column stuff doesn't interest me. Sorry, I'd much rather write about your mother's newest policies or legislation than speculate on your love life, although, kid, I gotta say. You did a lot of stuff backwards. If you wanted to keep low profile back like you did when I was at X-Styles having your mom in the national spotlight was a huge mistake and screwing around with the ex-wife of the richest man in the country didn't help things either."
"I wasn't screwing around, exactly."
"The Kent bundle of joy had to come from somewhere. I'm just saying that you've seemed to go out of your way lately to be in the spotlight and I don't think it's doing your family any good."
"More with the cryptic. Would you like to try actually elaborating on a point for once?" Kara groused.
"I can do that," Perry replied, taking a swig of his coffee and frowning. Clark wondered idly if, even after all this time, the Pit Bull wished for alcohol instead. "Lex has been culling out the best investigative reporters on his staff for a special project. He approached me but I declined the offer."
"You can decline anything when the paper's owner asks?" Clark marveled.
"No, but I did show him a sample of how far I got the last time I tried something similar and he was unimpressed."
Clark gulped. "Last time?"
"Clark, Kara," he added as an afterthought. "Lex has hand selected three of the best writers under the Tiffanies to help him gather information on the two of you."
Clark tried to keep the bravado in his tone. "Lex has been researching me since I was a freshman in high school. This is not that much of a surprise. It fits his M.O."
"Does he usually abuse company resources to do it? I know the guys. Lex went for the young and flashy, a few of the Gabriel hires, but the kids aren't half bad. Whatever they're looking to find, they will. I just found it faster."
"Found what?" Kara demanded.
"Inconsistencies in his adoption and in the story of your happy home life."
"Is this the blackmail part of the evening?" she asked and Clark gulped as her clenched knuckles turned white.
"Of course not. I'm not that kind of guy, never have been, and I'm the kind of journalist who works on putting the corrupt in their place and not on tearing good people down. I don't know what else you are, but good people definitely describes both your cousin and Senator Kent."
Clark shuddered at the way Perry phrased that. "I don't…then what are you getting at?"
"I heard the whispers of Lex's special project and I dug first on my own. Everyone knows about Metropolis United Charities thanks to Rachel Dunleavy's craziness ."
"Clark," Kara enunciated carefully and he was sure she was trying not to slip into nicknames in front of Perry. "What does he mean about that?"
He sighed. There were so many things on both sides they hadn't confided to each other. He hadn't had time in the middle of Bizarro and Zor-El and everything in between to explain every bit of his life to Kara, and she'd forgotten that tiny little pregnancy detail. "Lionel arranged my adoption. There's nothing necessarily wrong with foundation he started to do it, but it only lasted six months and only handled two adoptions-mine and Lex's half brother, but everyone in Kansas has known that for over five years. It's not new."
"No, it's not, but the people who forged your records are good. Whoever did Kara's, and I suspect the Lady Editor had a hand in it, was better. Kid, yours are some of the best fakes I've ever seen, but they're still obviously fakes if you know your stuff. Kara's are significantly harder to see through but your stuff? The doctor's visits and the agency letters?"
"What about them?" Clark asked.
"Might as well be Monopoly money. It was never real. If I were you, I'd put whoever made Kara's stuff on that and revise. It's a miracle no one caught onto it all back when your mom first got sworn into national office. Kara, your stuff is still going to need to be fixed. They've held so far and I don't know why, but under enough scrutiny, no one's going to buy either of them."
"Excuse me?" She gruffed.
The old reporter rolled his eyes impatiently. "The records are excellent, indistinguishable from the true government issue stuff, but it still conflicts. There's no record of anyone in Jonathan Kent's side of the family having a cousin-first, second or removed-around his age. The documents say you exist, but I have a friend who lives outside of Duluth. He did me a favor. There certainly isn't any Kent Farm out there, no two dogs or anything else."
Kara glared at him. "Then your sources got it wrong. I'm from Minnesota and all of Clark's medical records are fine."
"For a cursory glance or even a second time over, sure they are, but people who are digging, really trying? They are going to find what's wrong with them, and they're going to find more than that. I don't know how you're keeping the mainstream press happy with it or how you've kept Lex away from it as long as you have, but Connor wasn't born at Smallville Medical Center."
"And now I do have to ask if you're hosed again," Kara bit back.
Clark shook his head and frowned apologetically at Perry. "Sauced, Kara, and that's a horrible thing to ask. She's sorry…uh, we both are."
"I sure as Hell am not sorry. He's making shit up, Kal."
Clark closed his eyes and just restrained himself from cursing. "Family name."
"Which family is a more pointed question, kid. Look, I spent more than my fair share of time covering the minutia of Lowell County. I got stuck there with you, but there were a few stories in my time in Granville and other places. The Lady Editor's theory must have some merit because there are some bizarre things in your county. I got to know the hospital staff there after a few brushes between me and the DTs. There were people on staff I knew well enough to call and double check the story for me. No one in the Kent family has been there in ten or eleven months. There's no record of Lana having an obstetrician anywhere if you dig hard enough. You've got the birth certificate and a doctor willing to vouch for it who's so old that he probably delivered your grandfather, Clark, but you bribe the right candy striper and poof! The whole thing collapses."
"I don't know-"
"What I'm talking about. Of course, you don't, but I thought you'd want to know this. I don't know what you can do to make the cover story stick better, but you need something. Get a few extra doctors on staff to corroborate things, add a foot note to Kara's records saying her parents are on a PeaceCorp mission or something to Tanzania. Whatever it takes, because those kids under the Tiffanies are going to figure this all out too and get it to Lex."
"And you're just warning us out of the goodness of your heart?" Kara sneered. "If you're looking for money or something, a farmer is a pretty stupid person to ask."
"I'm not. Clark saved my life once after everything I'd done to make his miserable and I'm returning some of that favor. Lex has it out for the both of you and he's upped the game by using the Planet to get whatever he wants out of you. I can't guess what it is exactly, but he's looking for a smoking gun and I think he's going to find it if he keeps pressing."
Clark bent his head low and ran a hand through his hair. He couldn't figure out Lex's game at all. The other man knew enough to know that having every color Kryptonite available to him was a worthwhile investment. He had the advanced warning and, God maybe even the spies in place, to be able to sneak up on him at The Talon. Lex had been tangling with Lana for months, probably hoping to weasel the truth out of her. It must have frustrated him to no end when she did one decent thing in her life and kept her mouth shut for her son's sake. And yet…Lex was still waiting and making his staff go through the details of things he already knew were frauds, like Clark's adoption.
"I…thanks for all of this. Is there anything else we need to know?"
"Two things," Perry replied, placing two glossy photos on the table in front of him. Clark frowned down at them. One was of Lana on a balcony of some expensive Metropolis building and the other was a grainy surveillance photo of him entering into the Planet. It had been taken the day of his first glitch because his poor (and now defunct) sweatshirt had a huge gash in it. Taking a closer look, Clark shook his head. Glitch or not, he'd been stupid to go to the Planet that late into his pregnancy. It wasn't nearly as obvious as he'd been in the last month before Kon's birth, but anyone who knew him and was really looking, as Lex was, would recognize how off he'd looked then.
"Photos, that's nice," Kara replied, her tone still non-plussed.
"The one of Lana was taken at a fundraiser for the Metropolis Opera House around what should have been her fifth month of pregnancy. You can see the bulge in her stomach clear as anything. Same photographer caught her drinking champagne in a corner. I traced the records. It was one of the DP's staff. Lex refused to print it."
"Well it was nice of him not to spread around things about Lana's drinking problem," Kara said as genuinely as possible.
Perry frowned. "Lana's reputation precedes her, you know. She was in the public eye during her first pregnancy and she never went near anything stronger than seltzer water. It doesn't fit, and if you looked at the photo of Clark from about the same time…"
"Are you implying something?" Kara snapped.
Clark let out a steady breath. He was impressed in a way. His cousin would have made a Hell of a lawyer. "Mr. White, I really don't know what you're trying to get at here."
Perry looked over his shoulders and then hunched forward, keeping his voice low. "Kid, I know what I saw when I came through Smallville the first time, no matter how drunk I was. It's been a few years now and I've seen more of Smallville and Lowell County and there have been some bizarre things that have turned up since then. I'm talking about underground rings like in Lane's article and mutilations reaching from Patagonia to Quebec."
Clark flinched at the mention of Bizarro. "And this has what to do with me and Kara?"
"I can't quite decide on who you two are. You could be a meteor mutant like the Lady Editor."
Clark crossed his arms over his chest. "I think I've had enough of your accusations for one night."
"And Chloe's the most full service partner I've ever had, kid. We were following leads on an Intergang owned gambling parlor downtown and I was on the wrong end of a lead slug. I'd be dead if it weren't for her."
"You can keep a secret?" Kara scoffed.
"When someone saves my life, I tend to give the benefit of the doubt. My point is that with all the inconsistencies in your records, plus all the things I saw Clark do, I don't think you're two normal kids from Kansas and Minnesota. I'm not quite convinced you're meteor-infected either, not with as many powers as you have."
"I don't have any powers, Mr. White. We went through this five years ago," Clark replied tiredly.
"As far as I can tell, you're still fast, strong, nearly invulnerable and heal almost instantaneously." Perry glanced down at the photo from DP hallway and grinned. "I'd bet my Pulitzer that probably your least favorite ability is the one that allowed you to carry Connor to term."
Clark blushed. "You're crazy."
"I don't think so, not after everything I've seen and managed to piece together. Lana doesn't have doctors' records. No one's even seen her anywhere in the last three months, and I've heard things."
Clark's eyes widened. "What kind of things?"
"Lois, mostly. She didn't mean to say anything, but the girl can't keep her mouth shut. She made a big deal a few times with her cousin about your 'mono' and how much weight you were gaining, how sensitive you were to the smell of her hotdogs-which, incidentally, do smell like crap. No one else ever pays much attention to those kinds of things, but it's enough. I'm right, aren't I?"
"In the headed for Belle Reve way," Kara added.
"If that's how you want to play it," Perry replied sadly. "I wouldn't trust a top reporter either, outside of Miss Sullivan and, apparently, Miss Lane and Mr. Olsen."
"Huh?" He asked.
"Whatever the you two have going, most of the basement staff is in on it. Lois stopped mentioning you about the time you stopped coming by and it's quite obvious how attached your cousin is to Jimmy."
Kara rolled her eyes. "I get in trouble for Miss Sweet Corn but you're the one who's got the senator mom and the paparazzi trailing us."
"Sorry?" Clark said, wishing he sounded more confident. He'd never thought all that much about the occasional photo snapped here or there in Metropolis of him with Lana or of Senator Martha Kent's niece and "special friend."
"My point is that I can fill in the gaps. Wherever your abilities come from, you certainly have them, and whatever else Connor might be, he's clearly yours , Clark."
"Of course he's mine."
"And I mean straight from your own womb, then," Perry clarified. "The other reporters are Gabriel hires, like I said. They worked for The Enquirer and The Inquisitor before they worked here. They're going to see it too, if they haven't already gotten it to Lex. I felt it was fair to warn you. I don't know what you can do about it and I'll try and bury whatever I get my hands on first, but he's gunning for you, kid."
Clark shuddered. "I know that. I know he's after me and Kon, and I'm trying to figure a way out of everything right now, but it's all a big mistake. Lex is paranoid. There's nothing different at all about me or Kara or my son."
"It's a good thing being struck by lightning can't hurt you because that's the boldest lie I've ever heard," Perry replied. "Alright, we'll play it your way. The three of you are completely and boringly normal. What about him?" Perry asked, pushing one final glossy across the table.
Clark frowned at the little boy with the wide green eyes and floppy hair. "Where did you get this?"
"Lex may have a reporter for each of you, but he also has someone set aside just for some kid in New Mexico-if they'd lived in Roswell, I'd have loved the irony. The question isn't 'where is this from,' kid. The real question here is, 'how is one Jackson Donovan connected to any of the rest of you?'"
"Don't play games with us now," Kara spat.
"I'm not. Lex hasn't gotten anything substantial on the kid as far as I can tell. He's not even related to that poor bastard who died by the same M.O. as the serial killer who stalked the Slums last year."
"He's not?" Clark asked carefully.
"No, his birth records all have him tied up with his mom's previous husband. The dates seem a little fuzzy, but according to all his records, Jackson is not related to the late Dexter Donovan."
Clark let out a sigh of relief. Apparently, Dexter had thought about how to cover his family's tracks and had done so fairly carefully. "Lex has people on him?"
"At least one and they've been watching him for about two months."
Kara cursed, luckily for the both of them in English, and then whispered to Clark. "They've been watching us first and then you went to see Ms. Donovan and Lex realized the Dax-Ur had more than rock samples to offer him."
"I…no way."
"Clark?" Perry prodded, distressed by having been left out of the conversation.
"I…Chloe and I visited Ms. Donovan because we were following up on a lead about the serial killings in Metropolis. If Lex has had had people trailing me for a few months now, then that might be why he became so interested in Jackson to begin with."
"This goes deeper than some unexplained serial murders, doesn't it?" Perry asked, his interest piqued. "The two of you, Connor, Jackson, and the late Dexter Donovan, you all have the same abilities. You're all connected in this."
"Didn't say that," Kara replied.
"And you didn't have to. Really, kids, don't give interviews ever. Let Jimmy and Chloe handle the press and, if they ambush, stick with no comments. You two can't lie to save your souls."
If we have them .
Clark shook himself out of such a melancholy thought. "I appreciate you tipping us off. This could help all of us, but there are things I could never tell you because they aren't even mine to tell."
Perry eyed the photo of Jackson on the swing set. "They're his secrets too, aren't they?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Kara hedged. "It's better if you pretend you never knew any of this and better still if you stopped asking questions."
Perry nodded and passed a small sheaf of papers to Clark. "These are all the documents I found in your pasts that were questionable and suggestions for how to cover your tracks better from senior reporters. I hope it helps. Clark?"
"Yeah?"
"You've thought ahead, haven't you?"
"Mr. White, believe me when I say that Kon's mother has been very sick." He didn't appreciate Kara's snort. Technically, no matter what his stupid ancestors had done to him, he wasn't the mother, but it was about ten times more complicated to say, "The parent who bore Kon was very sick."
"I can see that," Perry replied. "I never thought Miss Sullivan would quit The Planet, but she was very worried for Connor's health and, of course, for Lana's ."
"Uh, right," Clark continued. "We haven't had time to think much past Defcon 1 for months."
"Then start doing it now. Someone is going to have to start ensuring that not just your and Kara's medical records are authentic-"
"They are!" Kara insisted.
"Doth protest too much," Perry grumbled. "You have to make sure you keep up with Connor's own doctor visits and vaccinations. I don't think he's going to need them for real, but someone, somewhere, has to produce them. I assume, considering how close Lionel and your mother are, that you'd be wise to make it the Luthor family physician. Lex can hardly argue with the same man who gave him all his checkups too."
Clark considered that. "That's actually not a bad idea, not that Kon doesn't already go to doctors and stuff."
Perry sighed and pulled at a wad of rumpled dollar bills. "Stick to 'no comment.' You'll do better." Standing up, he pulled back on his trench coat and added. "It's not the three of you that I'm the most worried about."
"You're not?" Kara asked.
"Oh, I'd take Junior seriously, but what I meant was that you, Clark, have a history of getting out of tight situations. Your mom has been in the public eye for over three years now and you've managed to keep everything covered up. I'm worried about that kid you don't really know in a town you have no reason to have ever visited."
Clark waited until Perry was out the door before he answered, "Me too."
