The door to the helicopter slid open and Rhone took a step out. All of her men had congregated on the landing pad. There was sudden clapping and cheering at her presence and those that had gone with her. She smiled and helped her four friends out of the chopper. They were exhausted. She was too, but she didn't need to eat or sleep like they did. All she could think about was getting back to her small apartment; she wondered what day it was.
"Hey, Lex," Clark said coming through Lex's office door slowly.
"Hey, Clark," Lex said, looking up from his game of pool. He had been trying to occupy his mind for the past few days. Rhone said she would be back in two days; that was Tuesday. It was early Saturday. Not only that, he could find no way to contact her. The phone number her file had to her office just rang and rang.
"I just dropped off the produce delivery," Clark gestured behind him, even though the produce was far from being there. He was standing rigid.
Lex sensed that there was something else. He set his pool cue down on the table. "What is it, Clark?"
"This might sound a little strange, but there was this woman doing some work for you -- Rhone Chade?" he made it sound like a question.
"Of course," Lex's let a hint of worry seep into his voice.
Clark detected the worry and tilted his head smiling at Lex. Lex ignored Clark's assumption. There was nothing going on, after all. "Do you -- like her?" Clark hesitated on asking.
"She's -- interesting," Lex admitted after a pause. Clark smiled one of his wide smiles. Lex was frustrated that Clark read him so well. He changed the direction of conversation, "What about her?"
"Well, I haven't seen her around town since Monday," he started. "She helped me with my chemistry," Clark felt the need to explain to Lex. If Lex liked her, Clark didn't want him to think he was interested. "My parents wanted to invite her over to dinner to say thanks," Clark continued.
Lex nodded. The Kents were inviting Rhone for dinner? She had been in town for less than a week and already had an invitation Lex had not been able to attain in a year of valiant efforts. If Lex hadn't met her, he would have been surprised.
"And well, when I call her cell, all I get is voice mail for the past three days," Clark summed up the situation.
Lex looked at Clark, she gave him her cell phone number? He walked over to his desk and sorted through her short file. He sure as hell didn't have it. At that moment he realized potentially how much could be missing from this file. "…No one seems to know where she is. It's like she disappeared," Lex said after a pause. Or she never existed, he thought dryly. Clark got that must save the entire world look on his face.
"So we jump off the warehouse into the water, and two minutes later, BOOM!" Awol was regaling the rest of the team with the finer details of the mission. Everyone was sitting in the mess hall. Awol told stories the best, he had the faces, gestures, and voices. When he told a story, everyone listened. That was one of the reasons Rhone liked it when he went along. "The whole damn place went up in flames. Shrapnel missed my fucking head by this much," Awol held up his fingers a few centimeters apart.
"That must have been a rush," Nix said from his place beside Awol. Rhone smiled to herself from the back of the room. If anyone else heard this conversation, they would put them all into an institution for the insane.
"Well, we were all pretty bummed because Rhone wasn't in the water," Awol was suddenly somber. Rhone thought it was funny that no one looked back to her. They all just waited for Awol to finish telling them what happened. "She said that she wanted to make sure that he was no longer a threat before she left," he looked down. She had taken her artist's tube with her; they all knew what that meant. "So we swam the two miles to the 'copter rendezvous to avoid anyone that -- may have come to investigate a massive explosion," he continued. "And when we get there, who was waiting with Thaxx? Our fearless leader, -- it was insane!" he smiled and pointed at Rhone. All but one turned and clapped; she always took the most dangerous missions for herself.
"You should have seen the press on it, guys," Jazz said from his chair. "It was so high profile, I'd be surprised if they didn't know it was coming before it happened -- vultures," he finished shaking his head.
Rhone spoke for the first time, "They didn't know, they couldn't have." She walked to the front of the small crowd, "He sure as hell didn't," referring to the chemical arms dealer. They all knew what she said was true. They all stayed seated, they knew what was coming. She sat on the edge of a table, "You all worked hard to make this happen. You did a good job, and you all make me proud. It is an honor to work with you -- Bishop would be proud." She sat for a quite moment. One person got up and left the mess hall without a word. Everyone else sat quietly, everyone missed Bishop. His approval meant more than anything, even though he was no longer with them. No one blamed Rhone for it though. Well, one person blamed her for literally everything – the one that just made the exit.
She looked up, "What the hell are you still doing here?" They looked up, "I know you all got paid. I did. There are loose women and other sins to be had in this city! Get out there!" They smiled and clapped again; they loved her motivational "go out and get laid" speeches.
They all started to get up. Griffin came up behind her, "Will you be out this evening?" Even though he knew the answer.
She smiled at him, "I'm not in the mood to get a loose woman."
He smiled back, "You know what I mean."
"You know I have to get back to Smallville. I said I would be back in two days," she pointed out. She felt a pang of guilt when she thought about it. She didn't know why, it wasn't like they needed her there.
"We had to wait, and you know it. We had to wait for him to be there," Griff said as they started to walk toward their small apartments.
"I wasn't questioning the decision. I made it, remember?" she asked rhetorically.
He nodded, "And it was the right one." He looked at her, "You really should get some -- rest before you do anything. And consider a shower."
It was beginning to get dark when Rhone walked through the door to the Smallville Hotel Saturday evening. Matt, the man behind the desk, was on the phone. She waved at him and smiled even though she hadn't meditated in four days. She was surprised when he made a motion to wave her over. She gave him a questioning look when she walked over to the desk. She waited only a moment and he hung up the phone.
"Rhone," he began, "I was worried about you."
She smiled, "Thank you, Matt. But I just had to run back to Metropolis, there was a problem at the office."
"Other people shared my -- concern," he said as he handed her a couple of messages on hotel stationary.
She took them; this was new. Each was in different handwriting. She didn't read any of them, shoved them in her pocket, and adjusted the tube she was carrying. The phone rang again and she gestured for Matt to pick it up after she said thank you. The poor man had obviously been her secretary for the past few days.
She walked over and waited for the elevator. It occurred to her to check for any messages on her cell phone, although she doubted it. She was riding in the elevator when her cell phone displayed text. She squinted to make sure she was reading it right. It read, "17 missed calls and 2 new voice messages."
She pushed the button to hear the first message, "Hi, Rhone, this is Clark Kent -- we met at the Talon a few days ago, you helped me with my chemistry. Umm -- my parents and I were wondering if you would like to come over for dinner tonight, if you get this message in time." He rattled off his phone number, Rhone committed it to memory as she was opening the door to her room.
As she stepped inside the next message started playing. It was the same voice, "Rhone, this is Clark again, I was just worried that I hadn't seen you around town and you hadn't returned my call. -- My parents and I were just wondering if you were OK. Umm -- I think Lex is worried too so you should give him a call. Umm -- bye." She felt that pang of guilt she felt before. They were worried about her? No one -- ever worried about her. It was expected that she would survive. And Lex was worried about her? She hardly knew the guy, but it was nice that she had an attractive male thinking about her. Who was she kidding; he had chicks swooning for him all the time. Clark just said that to be nice, how would he know anyway?
She turned on the light and sat on the bed she had never slept in. She pulled the messages out of her pocket. She read the first one:
Martha Kent called Friday @ 3pm
Re: Concerned
Rhone looked at the message. It took her a moment to realize that Martha Kent was the woman Clark had introduced to her as Mom. She also noticed that the "Re:" had been erased several times and rewritten in. She smiled and thought of poor Matt trying to figure out what to write. She had the number memorized so she threw the note away. She read the second one:
Lex Luthor called Thursday @ 1 pm
Re: Invoices
Each of those lines had a line through them and below it, it read:
Lex Luthor called several times
She smiled again. Maybe he was worried. She threw out that message as well. The next message was folded -- several times. When she opened it, it was in a different handwriting. It was small, more -- artistic.
Rhone,
Please contact me when you get this.
Lex
She raised her eyebrows at this one. It didn't have a date or a time. She refolded the note and put it in her pocket. She thought about returning the calls she had received but she seriously needed rest. She even was willing to admit to herself that she need more than her normal 3 hours of quite contemplation.