Chapter 3- You'll Always Sound Precocious

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Apparently the opportune moment that Jimmy had hinted at was a long time in coming. Several weeks after his short-lived conversation with Lois in the bar, life at the Planet seemed to return to the reality of five years previous, what with the reincarnation of the infamous Lane-Kent team and Superman's consistent talent for making front-page news. It was just like The Good 'Ole Days, and he enjoyed it.

So Jimmy neither saw Clark walking around with any particularly dejected or shell-shocked expression, nor heard any indignant screams of exclamations from either his or Lois's desk to suggest that the news had been broken. Clark was really taking his time.

As much as he knew it to be a bad idea, Jimmy couldn't really blame him. He himself had still to figure out when exactly he would approach Clark, say what he knew. It might be helpful, after all, for Superman to have someone "on the inside", to help him out were he ever to get caught in a jam, or if he needed someone else to make excuses for his frequent absences from work. Jimmy deplored the idea of a sidekick, and he assumed that Clark would too, but that didn't mean that he couldn't lend a hand every once in a while.

Of course, bringing it up to begin with just seemed a little too…confrontational, and Jimmy dreaded the idea of being confrontational with someone seventy pounds heavier and six inches taller than himself. So, just as Clark chose to wait, so Jimmy did also. Jimmy waited by the coffeemaker, at his desk, on the phone. Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait.

"Hi Mister Jimmy."

Again with the sneaking. What on earth (or off it, as it were) was with these people?

Jimmy swiveled in his chair to look at Jason face to face.

"Hey there buddy. What brings you to my neck of the woods?" The kid shrugged.

"Daddy has a meeting, and Mommy's on the phone." Jimmy nodded understandingly.

"Well, why don't you hang out with Mr. Clark?" Jimmy really did like the little boy, but he was insanely far behind at the moment and he really didn't have time to babysit.

"Mr. Clark had to go someplace."

A news alert suddenly reached Jimmy's ears from the TV monitor mounted on the wall above where he sat; something about mudslides in China, Superman there to save the day, etc. Standard stuff.

"Yeah, I bet he did." Jimmy turned back to his computer screen, hating to ignore the boy, but knowing full well that it was more than his life's worth to get these shots in before lunch. Besides, Jason would be able to handle the minor snub. A person couldn't even sit in on the Planet bullpen without developing something of a thick skin. But the kid didn't take the hint.

"Do you know where Mister Clark is?" Jason's voice was the very sound of innocence, but Jimmy had known the boy's mother long enough to be certain that the quiet tones held behind them an unquenchable inquisitiveness.

"He's probably at home, I'm guessing," Jimmy stammered, not daring to turn away from his computer screen.

"Okay." The kid wasn't convinced. Jimmy was starting to get nervous now.

"He'll probably be back in a couple of minutes, you can ask him then," Jimmy replied, using the ongoing TV reports to anchor his estimate.

The two of them were silent for a while, Jason having gotten out some colored pencils and one of his mother's pilfered legal pads. The air of their little workstation was filled only with the sounds of scribbling and clacking computer keys, until-

"Jimmy, does Mister Clark speak Chinese?"

Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Jimmy turned in his chair to see Jason still staring up at the TV screen, which was featuring some replayed footage of Superman rescuing a family from the rooftop of a flooded house, his back most decidedly to the camera.

"I don't think so. Why do you ask?" A four year old. He had been outwitted by a four year old. And Jason knew it too.

"Just wondering." There was a long pause, while Jason returned to his drawing with greater enthusiasm, almost bouncing in his seat. Jimmy barely dared to glance at his masterpiece, and when he caught a glimpse of the all-too-familiar "S" inscribed in a red pentagon, he whipped back around to force himself to focus on his uncooperative filing software.

"Honey?" Lois was finally off the phone. Jason turned around for a split second, leaving his drawing where it was, looking rather pleased with himself, before going back to his mother's desk, leaving Jimmy alone and astounded.

He had no doubts whatsoever about what Jason had meant him to get out of their conversation, and Jimmy was definitely impressed. It had been achieved with Richard's talent for subtlety, he could tell. Lois would never have been able to pull off something like that without cracking.

Jimmy couldn't help but feel slightly relieved to have something of a partner in crime. It was as though burden had been lifted from him, and he didn't even realize how heavily it had weighed on him until now. Of course, the fact that a toddler had managed to discover the same thing that he had sort of took him off his high horse. He could finally stop congratulating himself for being a smarty pants.

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AN- The next update will probably come sometime in the next day or so, as I managed to get more written over my trip than I had anticipated.