Ella Lane could not believe Lois was asking her such a thing!
"No, Lois, I have never slept with Kal-El! Why would you even think such a thing?" Ella demanded. This whole day was just beyond bizarre! First this meteor shower out of nowhere, then Lois ending up here, not to mention her strange conversation with Moira. The only saving grace was that she called Chloe's phone and found that she and her aide had arrived at the mansion. At least she knew her niece was safe.
Bruce entered the room, just as Ella spoke those words. He asked the nurse to excuse them and closed the door behind her. He then turned and stared at Lois.
"This can't be kept a secret any longer, Lois. It's time your family knew the truth. All of it." he counseled.
Ella looked over at him.
"The truth about what?" she asked suspiciously. She looked from Bruce back over to Lois.
"Lois? Are you going to explain yourself? Why did you ask me that horrible question?"
Lois was slow to answer and Ella looked at Bruce.
"I'm getting the doctor in here. She was hit harder than any of us realized."
"No, Mom. I'm fine. I didn't ask you that because I'm suffering from brain damage." Lois sighed. She then pulled up the hospital gown and opened her legs slightly. Ella leaned forward and gasped!
"What is that?" she asked.
"Kal-El put his hand there and suddenly this mark is on me. I am also suddenly tired all of the time unless...unless I have sex with Kal-El. And the only way this mark disappears is if I become pregnant with his child."
Ella looked from the mark to Lois then over at Bruce, before looking at Lois again.
"Honey...that is absolutely ridiculous. So Kal-El tricked you into a relationship? Is that what you were trying to tell me earlier before Bruce arrived? Lois, why didn't you come to me with this? Jor-El would have just told you Kal-El was full of crap."
Bruce decided to step in.
"Ella, the reason Lois was branded, was because Kal-El has slept with other women in your family. We, at first, thought that this was because of Kal-El's relationships with Lucy and Chloe. But we now have reason to believe that the only way that mark could've appeared on Lois, is if Kal-El had been with three other women in her family-not two."
Ella stared at Bruce for a long time, and he could see she was trying to not only process his words, but eliminate all other possibilities.
"Well then Moira is the only other possibility here." Ella finally said. "I mean I really have no way of knowing how long she really was catatonic. And she's been acting so oddly lately."
"What do you mean?" Bruce asked.
"I mean I just called her to make sure she was alright and I would swear to God, and this is crazy but I have to say it, it sounded like she was in the middle of sex with someone! That and she told some lie about Jor-El being married. I'm just saying for all we know, Kal-El might have paid her a visit on Chloe's behalf and something happened between them."
Lois looked over at Bruce, who glanced at her. Lois, personally, just didn't believe that scenario. But what was even worse, was that her mother had been told Jor-El was married and chose not to believe the accusation. And at one point, Lois had been kicking the idea around in her head to tell her mother herself. That was a no go now.
"I'm going to get a hold of Jor-El," Ella said firmly, "this whole thing sounds like utter nonsense!"
"Mom, he knows about it." Lois revealed. Ella looked at her with surprise.
"Jor-El knows about this and never told me?" she countered.
"There is a lot he never told you, Mom. I think you should go and find him." Lois said quietly.
Ella struggled to quell her growing unease. Lois was in the hospital. She had been hurt during the meteor storm. But somehow, this emergency had turned into some kind of drama about herself! And she decided she WAS going to take Lois's suggestion and find her husband! How he could know such a thing could happen to Lois and not tell her, was beyond Ella's level of comprehension!
Not to mention, that Kal-El was going to have to leave the mansion! Sam was going to give her hell about this after that Lucy debacle! Ella felt a headache coming on. This was not the way she had wanted to spend Thanksgiving!
"I'm leaving. I'm going to assume that Bruce will be bringing you home. By the time you get to the house, you had better have an apology for me, are we clear?"
Lois said nothing and Ella did not wait for her to answer. She turned and Bruce opened the door for her to leave. Ella stalked down the hallway, never recognizing Kal-El, who was disguised as a nerdy looking orderly! His name tag said Clark K. He stared after Ella, recognizing a certain anger in her stance, before pushing up his badly fitted glasses and walking towards Lois's room.
Kal-El could not take the chance of being detained by the authorities. He needed to get Lois out of here and to someplace safe.
But when he approached her door, Kal-El could hear Bruce's voice inside. He decided to take a chance and go in anyway...
Lois and Bruce looked up as Kal-El quickly entered and removed his glasses! Bruce raised a brow.
"You're taking a hell of a chance coming here." Bruce noted coolly.
"But you won't give me away, will you?" Kal-El asked just as coolly, before focusing on Lois.
"What happened? Why are you here?" he asked in a no nonsense tone.
"I got hit with a piece of meteor. It's nothing. The doctor is going to come back in in a bit and tell me what's going on. But I feel fine." Lois assured him.
Kal-El frowned and looked over at Bruce.
"And you are here, why?"
"Because I was with Lois when it happened."
"Why?" Kal-El asked blithely.
"Because I just was." was Bruce's snarky response. Lois decided to end this.
"Bruce, I need to speak to Kal-El, alone." she said giving him a knowing look. Bruce shook his head.
"I don't think that's a good idea."
Ka-El now faced Bruce.
"You owe me. I didn't have to save you when you fell out of that window at the Daily Planet. The very least you could do is show some common courtesy. I don't even think I received a 'thank you'."
"I'm sure I thanked you, Kal-El." Bruce said irritably.
"I don't think you did." Kal-El argued.
Lois looked at Bruce.
"Bruce just thank him. I know you did and just probably forgot..."
But Bruce decided to end this inane topic and do Lois's talking for her!
"Dr. Hamilton received information about how Lois would've gotten that brand on her thigh. In a nutshell, you would have had to have slept with THREE women in Lois's family, before your 'touch' would've left her in the shape she is in. Not TWO, but three."
Kal-El gave Bruce a blank stare before answering.
"And this information that Dr. Hamilton received was from a knowledgeable Kryptonian?"
Bruce looked away. Lois took over.
"There is a source I use for many of my stories. He was the one that told me that Jor-El was married. He just knows alot about Krypton and Kryptonians..."
"But," Kal-El suddenly snapped, "he is NOT Kryptonian? Mother of Krypton, how would he know ANYTHING about ANYTHING? I received that information from a well respected Kryptonian scholar! You have received your information through gossip!"
Kal-El then gave Bruce a hard stare.
"Get out of here, 'Batman'. Mankind is suffering because of the meteor storm. And instead of spreading lies, you should be out helping people."
Bruce took a deep breath. This looked bad, he knew. But he also knew Kal-El. And he was going on the offensive to cover his lies. He didn't believe Lionel Luthor had lied about anything.
Lois sat up straight.
"Just go, Bruce. Maybe you could help someone that's in trouble out there. I'll call you later."
"You will not!" Kal-El hissed. "Not until WE straighten some things out!"
"Just go, Bruce. I'm fine." Lois said. Bruce did not want to leave this room. But he could hear he had received a text and he just knew it was from Oliver-again.
"Lois, I will return to take you home."
"I'll take her home, 'Batman'." Kal-El said coldly. "And if you ever attempt to come between Lois and myself in this manner again, that stupid mask of yours will be the last thing you see. Are we clear?"
"Kal-El!" Lois yelled. "Stop this! Bruce saved me! I was unconscious. Besides Bruce doesn't gossip and neither does Dr. Hamilton! Bruce, leave...NOW!"
Bruce could see that Lois's dander was up. He had no doubts now that Lois could handle Kal-El by herself. Still, he would check back to make sure Kal-El did indeed take her home. He was wanted by the authorities like all other Kryptonians. Getting out of this hospital and back to the mansion, would not be that easy.
"Call me." Bruce said and walked out of the room. Kal-El shot a beam after him from his eyes, as soon as the door closed! He then faced Lois.
"You believe him, don't you?" he asked quietly. He moved to sit on the edge of her hospital bed.
"Kal-El, we're not in a relationship. Not really. We're just having sex to make a baby so that this mark goes away. You keep saying we'll be married but you can't even tell your mother that I'm about to be your future wife. You didn't tell her that she was about to be a grandmother. Your father has lied to your mother about what he's doing on this planet. My source is not that trustworthy on the human being scale, but all of his information has panned out. I guess I have no reason to believe he would lie about this." Lois told him truthfully.
"Lois, your reasoning is absurd! Why would I have relations with your mother? On some level my father does care for her. That would hurt him deeply. Do you think I would hurt my own father in this manner?"
"Kal-El..."
"I want the name of this source."
"I can't tell you."
"But Bruce Wayne knows who he is?"
"Yes. I mean Bruce told me he said it."
Kal-El slowly stood up.
"You didn't hear this FROM your source? Bruce told you that this man said it?"
Lois didn't know if she took a harder hit in the head than she thought, but suddenly, Kal-El was making a little bit of sense!
"Bruce wouldn't just tell me someone said something that wasn't true."
"Bruce is running around dressed like some deranged, rabid creature. Do not tell me you don't have doubts about his mental stability?" Kal-El challenged her.
Lois decided that this might be something she would just have to let go. Her mother was denying it. Kal-El was denying it. And Lionel Luthor, always correct on dirt she needed, was also the father of scumbag Lex Luthor.
"Alright. I will choose to begin that my source was mistaken. But I want you to go. I need to think about some things."
Kal-El did not like hearing those words. He reached for her hand.
"Things are in motion, that might not make things seem as simple as they appear to be for your kind. We will take over this planet, in all likelihood. And when that happens, you need to be prepared to take your place, by my side as my wife and the mother of my child. I will leave you to contemplate that. Not whether I betrayed you with your mother."
And with those words, Kal-El put his poorly fitting glasses back on and slipped out of her room. Lois put her face in her hands and breathed in deeply. Things were going to get worse before the got better. And all on Thanksgiving.
Kal-El agreed with Lois. Things were going to get worse before they got better. But not for him.
He used his super speed to return to the Talon apartment that he had planned to share with Lois, while Chloe was recuperating at the mansion. This place was supposed to be their little world away from the world. A place where they could be together unfettered by Lor-Zod and others that had infiltrated the Fortress.
But Bruce Wayne had ruined that. Bruce Wayne and Moira Sullivan, with her lies about that crystal. He would leave Zod to take care of Moira.
Kal-El would take care of Bruce.
He put on the Green Arrow costume and picked up his bag of the weapons he had so carefully fashioned at his office at LuthorCorp. He did not take to the skies, since he suspected they were being monitored.
He used his quickness to reach downtown Gotham and found a building that had not been reduced to rubble by the meteor storm. There were police mixed with ordinary citizens down below, that were still trying to process what had happened and help others.
Kal-El pulled back the bow and began firing off a round of arrows, the targets random and innocent! Screams could be heard and at one point, as planned, someone spotted 'Green Arrow' on the roof! Kal-El made his escape, climbing down a fire escape like a normal person, then carefully punching two police officers, as a normal male would, before he ran down an alley, then used his speed to get away!
One woman who had been hit by an arrow, managed to painfully get it out of her arm. A man that stooped to help her, gaped at the weapon!
"Batman did this!" he cried out.
Meanwhile, Bruce arrived at his meeting and listened to what Arthur Curry, who was known as 'Aqua Man' had to say. And he was actually glad he had attended.
"You're saying that the Kryptonians are hiding in the ocean?" Dinah asked in disbelief.
"They are dangerously close to Atlantis." Arthur confided.
"They are hiding. Regrouping, probably." Bruce noted. "And for all we know, they are working on ways to combat our weapons undetected."
"But they have been detected," Oliver said, "and we need to do something about them before they overpower us."
"I will keep an eye on things from Atlantis. But for now, I think we should help the surface dwellers in their time of need."
Dinah rolled her eyes!
"We're called humans."
Arthur glanced over at her.
"You have a way about you that is unbecoming."
"I could say the same about you!" Dinah sniffed.
"Okay, okay," Oliver refereed, "let's try and stay civil. Let's get back out there and do what we can for people."
But Arthur was not finished. He looked at Bruce.
"What is happening with the Lois Lane problem? I feel for her. She is in an impossible situation."
"You feel for her?" Dinah asked sarcastically. "And why is that?"
Arthur looked around the table.
"I'm sorry, have I not made it clear? I used to what you surface dwellers call 'date' her."
Bruce slowly stood up.
"What? When was this?"
"Some years ago."
"Uh," Oliver said, "she would have been in high school."
"What is high school?" Arthur asked. Dinah leaned forward.
"How old was she?"
"Grown. At least she looked it."
Bruce's nostrils flared! He knew there was a reason he didn't like this goddamned...
"How old did she TELL you she was?" Dinah pried.
"She might have told me she was fifteen. Maybe sixteen. Probably sixteen. Not that it mattered."
"Not that it mattered?!" Bruce now exploded. "You filthy sonofabitch..."
"You will watch how you speak to me!" Arthur yelled. "There is much you don't know about what took place! I was betrothed to another woman and could not make any sort of serious commitments..."
"Yeah that was because she was underage." Dinah told him.
"What is underage?" Arthur asked.
"On this planet, under eighteen...when you are older than eighteen." Oliver said flippantly.
"All I remember is 'teen' was after her age. She does not deserve to suffer at the hands of one crafty Kryptonian. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help the situation." Arthur said before turning and walking away. Oliver walked over to Bruce to calm him down, while Dinah stared after Arthur.
She wondered if Arthur Curry was the reason Lois had despised Kal-El from the beginning? Yes, his father had broken her parents up, but it occurred to Dinah that both Kal-El and Arthur had rather 'high handed' ways of speaking and viewing the world. Maybe the thing that made Lois repel Kal-El, was the same thing that made her eventually give in to him. Maybe Kal-El from Krypton reminded her of King Orin of Atlantis.
Dinah glanced at Bruce. Where did that leave Bruce Wayne from Gotham City then?
