"What? Are you nuts? You'll never survive there!"
Clark straightened up and looked past Lois to Jimmy who was sitting on the couch, watching him getting yelled at.
"Toss me the aftershave, Jimmy."
Jimmy picked it up from the couch and threw it to him. Lois shot him a lethal glare.
"What?!" Jimmy asked
"We're here to talk him out of going, Olson, not help him pack!"
"It won't matter, Lois," Clark supplied. "I'm going to Gotham and you're not talking me out of it."
"Clark, you're too naive for that place. I'm surprised you made it out of your one-horse town alive. You're too sweet, to gentle and far too innocent to go there."
He ignored her. "I think I'll be fine."
"Why's that? Because you're friends with Superman?"
Close enough.
He walked into the bathroom.
"You know he can't save your ass if your going to Gotham."
Why? Because he was supposed to still be here.
That was something that had caused him a lot of controversy. Batman needed his help, but he couldn't just abandon Metropolis, right? Luckily Clark was staying for two to three weeks [had vacation time and sick time saved up] but Superman would be working both cities on and off. He still wouldn't be able to help his city as much as he'd like, but there were areas in Gotham that needed to be cleaned out. He couldn't ignore a request for his help, if it meant saving the lives of innocents.
"You're gonna get robbed, Clark," started Jimmy softly, and Clark could tell this wasn't just Lois's influence. Jimmy was naturally worried. "Mugged and shot and you're going to lie on the street, bleeding into the gutter, with no one bothering to help you, wondering why of all the places, you went to Gotham.
Descriptive. "I'm staying with Bruce Wayne. I think I can manage."
There was dead silence as he finished packing the rest of his hygiene products, then walked out into the living room. He saw Jimmy open-mouthed and gaping, and Lois staring shrewdly at him.
"This an acquaintance from your childhood?"
Just what he needed. More jealousy about his contacts. "Lois-"
"No, really, Clark. You've got the mayor, three senators, Superman, Lex Luthor, and now Bruce Wayne. Not to mention so many little contacts, and that Sullivan chick from New York."
"I don't have ti-"
"So did you meet Wayne when you were milking cows on the prairie? Was he a friend of the childhood Lex Luthor you knew so well?"
Clark rolled his eyes. He knew that Lois was angry because she figured that he'd just happened into reporting. She believed herself born for it, destined for it. It was the only thing she'd ever wanted to do, the only that that had ever turned her on the way it did and now, her partner the farmboy wonder, had more contacts and better angles that she did. It infuriated her more than she let on mostly, but this time she wasn't holding back.
"So, who else are you buddies with, huh? The President? How about some UN members?"
"Lois," Jimmy consoled. "Come on. Cut it out."
"No, Jimmy, I want to know." She looked back at him. "Who else? The whole Palestinian government? Good ole Gorbachov?"
He was finished packing. His plane was at one and he'd be in Gotham by three-thirty.
"Fine!" Lois grabbed her purse and stomped towards his front door. "Some great lead, some amazing place to stay. Don't invite people, only think about yourself. Whatever, Kent. Have a great fucking weekend!"
She slammed the door leaving Jimmy and him alone. Jimmy turned to him. "I'd stay but she's my ride."
Clark nodded and pointed to Lois's jacket thrown haphazardly on his couch. "Don't forget that, huh? I don't want her coming back up here feeling like an ass."
Jimmy laughed. "Is that even possible?"
He watched Jimmy leave, wondering if it was indeed possible for Lois to feel any sort of embarrassment around him, when there was a loud honk from the street below. He moved the few steps to the sliding door, though habit would have him ignore the familiar sound, and watched as a progression moved through the streets. Three black SUVs, two limos and three more SUVs.
Again out of curiosity, he used his x-ray vision. Just what he thought. Lead lining.
It was Lex's assemblage.
He sighed as he watched the group of vehicles go by. For an instant he could actually feel the distance between them as if it were a physical thing. Hundreds of thousands of perplexing and confusing miles seemed to stand between now and just a few years ago. Not quite years of innocence, but years of possibility. Chance. Sexual tension. And connection.
Now the road to reaching a time where things between he and Lex could be what it once was seemed unbearably twisted and impossible to trek.
His hand found the smooth glass of the door, but he didn't feel it. He was too busy trying not to admit to himself that the time to catch up had passed. He didn't want to think that Lex was too far gone to save, too lost to love.
No one was.
To be continued...
