A Date for the Fourth of July
Part 2 for
By LastScorpion
(disclaimer in part 1)
(Warning: Although I know how this story comes out, I have not yet written it all down anywhere! There's a chance that I'll never finish. Naturally, I don't PLAN on that happening, but who knows? Usually I finish at least the first draft before posting anything, so this is making me nervous!)
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Dawn woke up happy, took a nice cool bath (darn Midwestern weather!), got dressed in yesterday's clothes (yuck!) and bounced down the stairs. The kitchen was full of activity. There was homemade bread and homemade jam, Kent Organic milk and fruit, and cold fried chicken. Everything had been grown and prepared on the place.
Clark and his dad came in, stomping their feet on the porch to dislodge the dirt. They were conversing enthusiastically about crops or something. It seemed like Mr. Kent was glad to have Clark back after his little monster-hunting jaunt. Every time Dawn saw them together, their closeness struck her as odd. Maybe it was another Midwestern thing, but she'd never get used to people's fathers being around and, you know, glad to see them and stuff. Lex's dad seemed less weird to her than Clark's did.
Clark noticed her coming into the kitchen and beamed. "Hey, Sleepyhead!" he greeted her. "You just getting up? We've been working for hours."
"Bite me, spaceboy," Dawn sniped good-naturedly back.
Cara was setting napkins around the table, and Lex was helping her with the flatware. It was funny to see that bald head gravely bent down to listen to the little girl's chatter, and the serious way he took Cara's bossing him around about how to set the table.
Buffy drifted in from the living room, holding Lex's tiny telephone. She looked lost in thought, but that was considerably better than just plain lost, and Dawn was glad to see it.
"What's up?" Dawn asked.
"Xander says nothing. He says Willow's got no prophecies and Chris has no suspicious deaths and it's Midsummer at Hell Central and I should take a vacation. In Kansas."
Dawn let out a delighted laugh. "Cool!"
"I guess."
Buffy handed Lex back his phone. Dawn noticed how the billionaire looked at her sister, and the way his hand tried to linger on Buffy's hand when she gave him back his cell. She smiled. Suddenly she felt like Mrs. Bennett.
Buffy went on. "But I have nothing to wear! Okay, that came out whiney. But literally, nothing to wear. And nothing of any kind, actually. And no means of getting home. And...."
Lex cut off the rant with a hand on Buffy's bare shoulder. Dawn liked the expression on Buffy's face when she looked up at him. Clark and his parents were washing up and setting out food; only Dawn and Cara were paying attention to Buffy and Lex.
"Don't worry," Lex said in a low voice. "I'll get you anything you need."
Dawn felt like pumping her fist in the air and shouting, "Yes!" Instead she just watched her sister blink cutely up at the richest non-evil guy she'd ever heard of until Martha Kent told everybody to sit down for lunch.
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This was nice, Clark thought as he passed the plates of food around the kitchen table. His dad looked happy, too. Clark had heard the occasional story about big family gatherings from Jonathan's childhood, but the Kent family had dwindled down to almost nothing by the time Clark fell to Earth, and four at the table was about the most he was personally familiar with.
Mom gave Buffy a jug of milk and asked, "What did your friend Xander have to say?"
"All quiet on the Hellmouth front," Buffy smiled. "He said not to hurry back."
Dawn looked like she was bubbling over. "You can come stay in my dorm for another week! It'll be great! We didn't see half the stuff in Metropolis last time that I wanted to show you!"
Clark was confused. "I thought you had a lot of lab work you had to get finished this month?"
Dawn's face fell a little, and Clark was sorry he'd said anything. "That's right, I do. I only have 'til Saturday to finish my milestones for June. I gotta get back to the lab!"
Mom laughed at Dawn's sudden mood shift. "Not until after lunch, I hope."
Dawn calmed down immediately, and smiled as she took another piece of bread-and-jam. "Tomorrow's probably soon enough."
"Maybe you could stay at the penthouse," Lex ventured. Clark didn't know how anyone could look elegant eating fried chicken with their fingers, but Lex somehow managed. "There's plenty of room, and my father probably won't be there for a while -- maybe the castle would be better. It's completely empty at the moment, except for Mrs. Digman, and I'm sure she'd be glad of the company."
"Nah, you don't wanna stay someplace all by yourself," Dad put in. "Besides, Lex is a single man; it wouldn't be proper. Why don't you stay here, at least until the Fourth of July? We've got room, and, no offense, but you could use some home-cooking."
"Mrs. Digman cooks," Lex said quietly.
"Be a pity to come all the way to Smallville from California and not stay for the Independence Day Fair," Dad wheedled.
Mom was looking at Dad with a smile Clark didn't understand. Cara suddenly was right next to Buffy, snuggling up to her. "Yeah!" Cara said, "Stay here with me!"
Buffy laughed. Clark wasn't sure, but it might have been the first time he'd heard her laugh. She sounded really happy. "Okay," she said. "Thank you very very much. But I totally need some clothes."
"No prob," Dawn exclaimed. She turned to Lex. "You'll take me into town and buy my sister clothes, won't you, Lex? I know all her sizes and what she looks good in."
"Dawn!" Buffy sounded scandalized.
"His dad did kidnap you. You have saved his life."
"He's saved mine, too." Buffy was kind of gazing at Lex. Clark suddenly thought he'd figured out what Dawn was so happy about.
"Let me buy you clothes," Lex murmured. Lex could be darn persuasive. That was probably part of what made him so good at business.
Buffy smiled. "Okay," she said.
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Fordman's was still the place in Smallville to shop for clothes. People who wanted something else would travel to the outlet mall just outside Grandville. Lex was willing to support local small businessman Bill Ross (who had bought the store from Mrs. Fordman) but there was no way in hell he'd frequent the outlet mall.
Lex leaned against the wall and watched Dawn riffle swiftly through the racks of clothes. She'd taken quite a while finding a pair of jeans that suited whatever criteria she was using. Two little shirts of some sort had been easier, and now she seemed to be hunting out a sundress. She pounced on one, making a cute little "Ah ha!" sound, and then headed over to another part of the store.
Lex, thinking of his own huge closets full of clothes, had expected Dawn to be looking for a lot longer. "Are you sure that's enough?" he asked.
Dawn turned and looked at him speculatively. "I forgot who was bankrolling this for a minute. Are you saying you think I should get her more?"
Lex looked at Dawn, holding the little armful of clothing, and thought. He really wanted to get home to the castle so he could take a shower and change. On the other hand, he thought a person staying in Smallville for a week needed more clothes than that. "Maybe we could come back for more later?" he ventured.
Dawn gave him a sly smile. "Don't you think it would be better if she came back with you later?"
Lex smiled back. What was he, slow this morning? Out-schemed by a nineteen-year-old Physics major. "That's a fine idea," he said, carefully not displaying as much enthusiasm as he felt. A man had to have some pride.
Dawn looked very smug. "I'll just go get her a few small essentials, underwear, toothbrush, comb, and then we can head on out." She bounced away.
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Cara had been carried upstairs for her nap, protesting all the way that she'd already had a nap, a long one, with Buffy'n'Lex! Now Mrs. Kent was packing up the morning's baked goods for delivery. Clark and his dad were out in the barn doing the same with the morning's produce. Dawn and Lex were out at the store. Buffy found herself alone.
She couldn't get dressed, because she didn't have any clothes. She'd had a bath the night before. She couldn't comb her hair, because no comb or hairbrush. It was hot and humid -- Kansas in almost-July. She felt all slept out, so no nap for Buffy. She couldn't worry about her job, because, hey, no job. She supposed she could worry about Sunnydale, but it was more than a thousand miles away.
For the first time since she'd been dead, Buffy found herself completely at loose ends.
She wandered all around the farmhouse, looking at things. Cara, it turned out, was even cuter when she was asleep. Buffy ended up in the big kitchen. Apparently she was being stealthy, because it took Mrs. Kent a couple of minutes before she looked up at her and said, "Hi, Buffy! Could you give me a hand with these?"
"Oh! Sure! I'm sorry, I should have come in before and offered to help."
"No, no, I was fine. They're all done anyhow. I just wondered if you could help me carry them out to the truck."
The orders were packed up into cardboard boxes and tied shut with brown string. Buffy looped a bunch of them onto each arm and followed Martha out into the yard.
"I see you got somebody else to help carry today!" Clark's cheerful voice boomed as they got to the truck. The truck-bed was packed with bigger, dirtier-looking cardboard boxes full of fruit and vegetables. Martha directed Buffy to load her things into the cab, where they were neatly stacked on the passenger's side of the worn bench seat.
"That's right!" Martha replied. Jonathan Kent was standing at the rear of the truck, wiping his hands on a rag. Martha went to him and took him by the elbow. "Honey, could I have a word with you?"
Clark started loudly enumerating all the different kinds of vegetables they grew on the Kent Organic Farm, and who ordered how much of what kinds, but Buffy's Slayer-hearing still picked up a few masculine protests of the "But I was gonna work on the tractor for a while" variety from the conversation behind them. She ducked her head and smiled a little. Clark, who could obviously hear his parents' conversation even more clearly than she could, started to laugh. Soon they were both giggling like idiots, and they were barely able to compose themselves when Clark's dad came out of the barn. He walked up to the truck and said, "Son, howsabout I do the deliveries today. There's some people on the route who I haven't seen in a month of Sundays. You can take Buffy around the place, show her the crick and stuff."
"Okay, Dad. Thanks. That'd be great."
Martha was leaning against the outside of the barn, gazing fondly at her husband. Buffy and she smiled at each other.
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"And this is the crick," Clark said, pointing out the little watercourse. He'd already shown Buffy the whole barn, including his Fortress of Solitude and all the swallows' nests and the place where the owl sometimes was, and the vegetable plots, and the sweet corn, and the cows, and the milking-shed, and the beehives, and the orchards. She'd showed a surprising ability for climbing trees (Clark politely averting his eyes, because she was wearing a nightgown still) and told him about sneaking out of the house to fight monsters in high school. They skipped the compost heap.
"Crick, huh?" Buffy said. She slid her feet out of the plastic sandals she'd apparently stolen while on the run from Lex's father and stepped into the edge of the water. "Why do you call it that?"
"I guess actually it's a creek. Everybody I know pronounces it crick, though." Clark sat down on a rock (non-meteorite) and untied his boots.
"Ooh! There's fish in here!" Buffy squeaked. "And tiny little lobsters!"
"Minnows and crawdaddies," Clark specified. He rolled up his jeans legs and put his feet in the water, too.
"Well, this is just neat," Buffy smiled. She was awful cute when she smiled. It must run in the family.
"There's a swimming hole downstream a ways. We could swim later, if you want."
"Maybe. I don't have a swimsuit or anything, and I don't know what Dawn's getting me."
"Well, people do skinny-dip," Clark offered tentatively.
"Clark Kent!"
"What?" Clark could feel his face getting hot. He didn't mean it like that! "I just mean, I mean it's way out in the country, and probably no one would see you -- alone! Not with me or anything! I mean...."
Buffy was laughing herself breathless. Clark stopped feeling so self-conscious and started getting a little worried that she might choke. After a while, she finally stood up straight, wiped her eyes, and caught her breath.
"You done?" Clark asked with his eyebrows raised. He felt a little bit insulted, and he was trying to look cool and grown-up.
"Yeah," Buffy gasped. She waded out of the water, shook her feet off, and put the sandals back on. Then she patted his shoulder. With him sitting on the rock and her standing next to him, his shoulders were about on a level with hers. "I like you, Clark," she told him, smiling. "I hope you and Dawn get along forever."
Clark didn't know what to say in reply to that, but he felt kind of warm inside. He put his socks and boots back on, and they went back up to the house.
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Dawn felt smug as she sat on the Kents' front porch with a glass of iced peppermint tea. Lex was inside playing with Cara. Buffy's new clothes were hanging up on the clothesline, almost dry in the amazing Midwestern July heat. Mrs. Kent was making dinner -- Dawn had cut up the cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad and been sent outside. She felt like she and Buffy were making a good impression on the Kents, which was good, and Lex was starting to strike her as somebody who might actually be good for Buffy. Not that it would take much to be better than all the other contenders for that title, but still.
Clark and Buffy approached the house, laughing. Oh, that was good to see.
"Hi, you two!" she shouted. "Did you have a nice time?"
"We really really did," Buffy answered. "Your boyfriend invited me to go skinny-dipping."
"What?" Clark sputtered. "I did not! I, I, I...."
The Summers girls both laughed at him. Dawn thought he was probably making a bigger production of his indignation than he really felt. The big guy had to be a pretty good actor, after all, to pull off that whole Clark Kent/Superman dual identity thing.
"Kids!" Clark's mom called. "Dinner! Come on in and wash up!"
"Go ahead. I've gotta have a word with my boyfriend." She didn't think she was really fooling anyone with her fake growl.
Buffy smiled at them and went in. Yes, indeed -- good to see. Dawn grabbed Clark by his massive arm and hugged him tight. "Thanks for getting her to laugh again."
He was beaming at her. "Glad to help."
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Retirement woulda been a lot more fun if Marie had lived to share it with him.
Joe Stonetree popped another beer tab, levered his Barcalounger backwards, and sighed heavily, like a whale. The Blue Jays sucked this year, too. He downed half his beer, and snarled at the TV.
The doorbell rang.
Joe stabbed the mute button and set the beer down. He sighed hugely again as he got his massive bulk upright and pulled his ratty old bathrobe shut in front. Who would be ringing his bell at this hour?
It was a stranger, a skinny white guy with dark circles under his eyes and a wrinkled suit that looked like it had been slept in. Not that Joe had any right to complain about anybody's clothes.
"Can I help you?" Stonetree asked.
"I hope so," the stranger replied intensely. "I need to locate Nick Knight, Detective Nick Knight, right away."
"Huh. I'm afraid he's gone."
The guy looked almost staggered by that news. "What about Detective Schanke, or Dr. Lambert from the Medical Examiner's Office?"
"They're dead."
The guy sagged, just sagged. "What, all of them?" he whispered.
Joe didn't want to help this guy; he wanted to go back to his ballgame and his beer. On the other hand, the Blue Jays were a national disgrace, and the stranger looked like he really needed the help.
Protect and Serve.
Stonetree sighed yet again. "Hey, buddy, you look like somebody just shot your dog. You wanna tell me about it?"
"You wouldn't believe me," his visitor said, shaking his head and making as if to leave the porch.
"Huh. You'd be surprised what I'd believe." Stonetree stood aside from the doorway and gestured. The stranger looked at him dubiously for a long minute, then came in.
"Siddown. Make yourself at home." Joe turned the TV off and lumbered into the kitchen. "You wanna beer?"
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(Warning: Although I know how this story comes out, I have not yet written it all down anywhere! There's a chance that I'll never finish. Naturally, I don't PLAN on that happening, but who knows? Usually I finish at least the first draft before posting anything, so this is making me nervous!)
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Dawn woke up happy, took a nice cool bath (darn Midwestern weather!), got dressed in yesterday's clothes (yuck!) and bounced down the stairs. The kitchen was full of activity. There was homemade bread and homemade jam, Kent Organic milk and fruit, and cold fried chicken. Everything had been grown and prepared on the place.
Clark and his dad came in, stomping their feet on the porch to dislodge the dirt. They were conversing enthusiastically about crops or something. It seemed like Mr. Kent was glad to have Clark back after his little monster-hunting jaunt. Every time Dawn saw them together, their closeness struck her as odd. Maybe it was another Midwestern thing, but she'd never get used to people's fathers being around and, you know, glad to see them and stuff. Lex's dad seemed less weird to her than Clark's did.
Clark noticed her coming into the kitchen and beamed. "Hey, Sleepyhead!" he greeted her. "You just getting up? We've been working for hours."
"Bite me, spaceboy," Dawn sniped good-naturedly back.
Cara was setting napkins around the table, and Lex was helping her with the flatware. It was funny to see that bald head gravely bent down to listen to the little girl's chatter, and the serious way he took Cara's bossing him around about how to set the table.
Buffy drifted in from the living room, holding Lex's tiny telephone. She looked lost in thought, but that was considerably better than just plain lost, and Dawn was glad to see it.
"What's up?" Dawn asked.
"Xander says nothing. He says Willow's got no prophecies and Chris has no suspicious deaths and it's Midsummer at Hell Central and I should take a vacation. In Kansas."
Dawn let out a delighted laugh. "Cool!"
"I guess."
Buffy handed Lex back his phone. Dawn noticed how the billionaire looked at her sister, and the way his hand tried to linger on Buffy's hand when she gave him back his cell. She smiled. Suddenly she felt like Mrs. Bennett.
Buffy went on. "But I have nothing to wear! Okay, that came out whiney. But literally, nothing to wear. And nothing of any kind, actually. And no means of getting home. And...."
Lex cut off the rant with a hand on Buffy's bare shoulder. Dawn liked the expression on Buffy's face when she looked up at him. Clark and his parents were washing up and setting out food; only Dawn and Cara were paying attention to Buffy and Lex.
"Don't worry," Lex said in a low voice. "I'll get you anything you need."
Dawn felt like pumping her fist in the air and shouting, "Yes!" Instead she just watched her sister blink cutely up at the richest non-evil guy she'd ever heard of until Martha Kent told everybody to sit down for lunch.
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This was nice, Clark thought as he passed the plates of food around the kitchen table. His dad looked happy, too. Clark had heard the occasional story about big family gatherings from Jonathan's childhood, but the Kent family had dwindled down to almost nothing by the time Clark fell to Earth, and four at the table was about the most he was personally familiar with.
Mom gave Buffy a jug of milk and asked, "What did your friend Xander have to say?"
"All quiet on the Hellmouth front," Buffy smiled. "He said not to hurry back."
Dawn looked like she was bubbling over. "You can come stay in my dorm for another week! It'll be great! We didn't see half the stuff in Metropolis last time that I wanted to show you!"
Clark was confused. "I thought you had a lot of lab work you had to get finished this month?"
Dawn's face fell a little, and Clark was sorry he'd said anything. "That's right, I do. I only have 'til Saturday to finish my milestones for June. I gotta get back to the lab!"
Mom laughed at Dawn's sudden mood shift. "Not until after lunch, I hope."
Dawn calmed down immediately, and smiled as she took another piece of bread-and-jam. "Tomorrow's probably soon enough."
"Maybe you could stay at the penthouse," Lex ventured. Clark didn't know how anyone could look elegant eating fried chicken with their fingers, but Lex somehow managed. "There's plenty of room, and my father probably won't be there for a while -- maybe the castle would be better. It's completely empty at the moment, except for Mrs. Digman, and I'm sure she'd be glad of the company."
"Nah, you don't wanna stay someplace all by yourself," Dad put in. "Besides, Lex is a single man; it wouldn't be proper. Why don't you stay here, at least until the Fourth of July? We've got room, and, no offense, but you could use some home-cooking."
"Mrs. Digman cooks," Lex said quietly.
"Be a pity to come all the way to Smallville from California and not stay for the Independence Day Fair," Dad wheedled.
Mom was looking at Dad with a smile Clark didn't understand. Cara suddenly was right next to Buffy, snuggling up to her. "Yeah!" Cara said, "Stay here with me!"
Buffy laughed. Clark wasn't sure, but it might have been the first time he'd heard her laugh. She sounded really happy. "Okay," she said. "Thank you very very much. But I totally need some clothes."
"No prob," Dawn exclaimed. She turned to Lex. "You'll take me into town and buy my sister clothes, won't you, Lex? I know all her sizes and what she looks good in."
"Dawn!" Buffy sounded scandalized.
"His dad did kidnap you. You have saved his life."
"He's saved mine, too." Buffy was kind of gazing at Lex. Clark suddenly thought he'd figured out what Dawn was so happy about.
"Let me buy you clothes," Lex murmured. Lex could be darn persuasive. That was probably part of what made him so good at business.
Buffy smiled. "Okay," she said.
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Fordman's was still the place in Smallville to shop for clothes. People who wanted something else would travel to the outlet mall just outside Grandville. Lex was willing to support local small businessman Bill Ross (who had bought the store from Mrs. Fordman) but there was no way in hell he'd frequent the outlet mall.
Lex leaned against the wall and watched Dawn riffle swiftly through the racks of clothes. She'd taken quite a while finding a pair of jeans that suited whatever criteria she was using. Two little shirts of some sort had been easier, and now she seemed to be hunting out a sundress. She pounced on one, making a cute little "Ah ha!" sound, and then headed over to another part of the store.
Lex, thinking of his own huge closets full of clothes, had expected Dawn to be looking for a lot longer. "Are you sure that's enough?" he asked.
Dawn turned and looked at him speculatively. "I forgot who was bankrolling this for a minute. Are you saying you think I should get her more?"
Lex looked at Dawn, holding the little armful of clothing, and thought. He really wanted to get home to the castle so he could take a shower and change. On the other hand, he thought a person staying in Smallville for a week needed more clothes than that. "Maybe we could come back for more later?" he ventured.
Dawn gave him a sly smile. "Don't you think it would be better if she came back with you later?"
Lex smiled back. What was he, slow this morning? Out-schemed by a nineteen-year-old Physics major. "That's a fine idea," he said, carefully not displaying as much enthusiasm as he felt. A man had to have some pride.
Dawn looked very smug. "I'll just go get her a few small essentials, underwear, toothbrush, comb, and then we can head on out." She bounced away.
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Cara had been carried upstairs for her nap, protesting all the way that she'd already had a nap, a long one, with Buffy'n'Lex! Now Mrs. Kent was packing up the morning's baked goods for delivery. Clark and his dad were out in the barn doing the same with the morning's produce. Dawn and Lex were out at the store. Buffy found herself alone.
She couldn't get dressed, because she didn't have any clothes. She'd had a bath the night before. She couldn't comb her hair, because no comb or hairbrush. It was hot and humid -- Kansas in almost-July. She felt all slept out, so no nap for Buffy. She couldn't worry about her job, because, hey, no job. She supposed she could worry about Sunnydale, but it was more than a thousand miles away.
For the first time since she'd been dead, Buffy found herself completely at loose ends.
She wandered all around the farmhouse, looking at things. Cara, it turned out, was even cuter when she was asleep. Buffy ended up in the big kitchen. Apparently she was being stealthy, because it took Mrs. Kent a couple of minutes before she looked up at her and said, "Hi, Buffy! Could you give me a hand with these?"
"Oh! Sure! I'm sorry, I should have come in before and offered to help."
"No, no, I was fine. They're all done anyhow. I just wondered if you could help me carry them out to the truck."
The orders were packed up into cardboard boxes and tied shut with brown string. Buffy looped a bunch of them onto each arm and followed Martha out into the yard.
"I see you got somebody else to help carry today!" Clark's cheerful voice boomed as they got to the truck. The truck-bed was packed with bigger, dirtier-looking cardboard boxes full of fruit and vegetables. Martha directed Buffy to load her things into the cab, where they were neatly stacked on the passenger's side of the worn bench seat.
"That's right!" Martha replied. Jonathan Kent was standing at the rear of the truck, wiping his hands on a rag. Martha went to him and took him by the elbow. "Honey, could I have a word with you?"
Clark started loudly enumerating all the different kinds of vegetables they grew on the Kent Organic Farm, and who ordered how much of what kinds, but Buffy's Slayer-hearing still picked up a few masculine protests of the "But I was gonna work on the tractor for a while" variety from the conversation behind them. She ducked her head and smiled a little. Clark, who could obviously hear his parents' conversation even more clearly than she could, started to laugh. Soon they were both giggling like idiots, and they were barely able to compose themselves when Clark's dad came out of the barn. He walked up to the truck and said, "Son, howsabout I do the deliveries today. There's some people on the route who I haven't seen in a month of Sundays. You can take Buffy around the place, show her the crick and stuff."
"Okay, Dad. Thanks. That'd be great."
Martha was leaning against the outside of the barn, gazing fondly at her husband. Buffy and she smiled at each other.
-----------
"And this is the crick," Clark said, pointing out the little watercourse. He'd already shown Buffy the whole barn, including his Fortress of Solitude and all the swallows' nests and the place where the owl sometimes was, and the vegetable plots, and the sweet corn, and the cows, and the milking-shed, and the beehives, and the orchards. She'd showed a surprising ability for climbing trees (Clark politely averting his eyes, because she was wearing a nightgown still) and told him about sneaking out of the house to fight monsters in high school. They skipped the compost heap.
"Crick, huh?" Buffy said. She slid her feet out of the plastic sandals she'd apparently stolen while on the run from Lex's father and stepped into the edge of the water. "Why do you call it that?"
"I guess actually it's a creek. Everybody I know pronounces it crick, though." Clark sat down on a rock (non-meteorite) and untied his boots.
"Ooh! There's fish in here!" Buffy squeaked. "And tiny little lobsters!"
"Minnows and crawdaddies," Clark specified. He rolled up his jeans legs and put his feet in the water, too.
"Well, this is just neat," Buffy smiled. She was awful cute when she smiled. It must run in the family.
"There's a swimming hole downstream a ways. We could swim later, if you want."
"Maybe. I don't have a swimsuit or anything, and I don't know what Dawn's getting me."
"Well, people do skinny-dip," Clark offered tentatively.
"Clark Kent!"
"What?" Clark could feel his face getting hot. He didn't mean it like that! "I just mean, I mean it's way out in the country, and probably no one would see you -- alone! Not with me or anything! I mean...."
Buffy was laughing herself breathless. Clark stopped feeling so self-conscious and started getting a little worried that she might choke. After a while, she finally stood up straight, wiped her eyes, and caught her breath.
"You done?" Clark asked with his eyebrows raised. He felt a little bit insulted, and he was trying to look cool and grown-up.
"Yeah," Buffy gasped. She waded out of the water, shook her feet off, and put the sandals back on. Then she patted his shoulder. With him sitting on the rock and her standing next to him, his shoulders were about on a level with hers. "I like you, Clark," she told him, smiling. "I hope you and Dawn get along forever."
Clark didn't know what to say in reply to that, but he felt kind of warm inside. He put his socks and boots back on, and they went back up to the house.
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Dawn felt smug as she sat on the Kents' front porch with a glass of iced peppermint tea. Lex was inside playing with Cara. Buffy's new clothes were hanging up on the clothesline, almost dry in the amazing Midwestern July heat. Mrs. Kent was making dinner -- Dawn had cut up the cucumbers and tomatoes for the salad and been sent outside. She felt like she and Buffy were making a good impression on the Kents, which was good, and Lex was starting to strike her as somebody who might actually be good for Buffy. Not that it would take much to be better than all the other contenders for that title, but still.
Clark and Buffy approached the house, laughing. Oh, that was good to see.
"Hi, you two!" she shouted. "Did you have a nice time?"
"We really really did," Buffy answered. "Your boyfriend invited me to go skinny-dipping."
"What?" Clark sputtered. "I did not! I, I, I...."
The Summers girls both laughed at him. Dawn thought he was probably making a bigger production of his indignation than he really felt. The big guy had to be a pretty good actor, after all, to pull off that whole Clark Kent/Superman dual identity thing.
"Kids!" Clark's mom called. "Dinner! Come on in and wash up!"
"Go ahead. I've gotta have a word with my boyfriend." She didn't think she was really fooling anyone with her fake growl.
Buffy smiled at them and went in. Yes, indeed -- good to see. Dawn grabbed Clark by his massive arm and hugged him tight. "Thanks for getting her to laugh again."
He was beaming at her. "Glad to help."
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Retirement woulda been a lot more fun if Marie had lived to share it with him.
Joe Stonetree popped another beer tab, levered his Barcalounger backwards, and sighed heavily, like a whale. The Blue Jays sucked this year, too. He downed half his beer, and snarled at the TV.
The doorbell rang.
Joe stabbed the mute button and set the beer down. He sighed hugely again as he got his massive bulk upright and pulled his ratty old bathrobe shut in front. Who would be ringing his bell at this hour?
It was a stranger, a skinny white guy with dark circles under his eyes and a wrinkled suit that looked like it had been slept in. Not that Joe had any right to complain about anybody's clothes.
"Can I help you?" Stonetree asked.
"I hope so," the stranger replied intensely. "I need to locate Nick Knight, Detective Nick Knight, right away."
"Huh. I'm afraid he's gone."
The guy looked almost staggered by that news. "What about Detective Schanke, or Dr. Lambert from the Medical Examiner's Office?"
"They're dead."
The guy sagged, just sagged. "What, all of them?" he whispered.
Joe didn't want to help this guy; he wanted to go back to his ballgame and his beer. On the other hand, the Blue Jays were a national disgrace, and the stranger looked like he really needed the help.
Protect and Serve.
Stonetree sighed yet again. "Hey, buddy, you look like somebody just shot your dog. You wanna tell me about it?"
"You wouldn't believe me," his visitor said, shaking his head and making as if to leave the porch.
"Huh. You'd be surprised what I'd believe." Stonetree stood aside from the doorway and gestured. The stranger looked at him dubiously for a long minute, then came in.
"Siddown. Make yourself at home." Joe turned the TV off and lumbered into the kitchen. "You wanna beer?"
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