Disclaimer: Not mine
Dinah hung up her cell and placed it on her pocket while finishing packing her things. "Dick, Dick, you'd better leave her rested," she said to herself.
"What are you muttering?"
A half asleep Ollie came out of the bathroom, looking like he could have a few more hours of sleep.
Dinah smirked at the sight. "Good morning princess."
"Cute," said Ollie.
"You sleep like a marmot, sweetie. I already had breakfast, a stretching session for my sore legs and a long shower."
"I need my regulatory six hours of sleep, babe." Then he looked at her intently and a half smile curved up the right corner of his mouth. "Stretching your legs, uh?"
Dinah replied with a matching tone. "Excessive exercise yesterday."
"So, what were you mumbling about?," asked Ollie.
"Barbara's not picking up the phone. I'm guessing Mr. Nightwing has something to do with it."
"I though he was in New York."
"Well, it's not as if the Big Apple's that far from Illinois, you know? But he better leave once I get there. Today is girls' day and night. And I don't want anything to interrupt us. In fact," she took the phone from her trousers, showed it to Ollie and left it on the nightstand.
"Soooooo...not even me."
"Sweetie," Dinah approached Ollie and placed her hands around his neck, closing in on his face until their lips brushed against each other. "I've had enough of you for the next two-- no, make that three days. I'm still sore."
"So no chance of a--"
"In your dreams, archer." They kissed. "I don't want to be late for the airport."
"If you give me ten minutes to prepare I'll take you."
"Ten?," asked Dinah.
Ollie smirked. "Two minutes to get dressed, eight for my facial hair."
"One of these days I'm telling Bart." They kissed again, harder this time.
"I can always leave it in three. Do you know what I can do in five minutes?"
"Ollie!!!"
Two hours and a stretching series later, Dinah took Ollie's private yet.
No matter the time, London streets were always full of life. Ella could walk blending in the crowd and no one would notice the slight limp on her walk, or the whole prosthetic leg when she wore shorts or skirts during hot days. It was one of the things she loved most about the city.
Ella had gone to the computer store to get a few cables and accessories. Nevertheless, after her job offer, her computer would be as obsolete as Mac OS Jaguar.
Grabbing some fruit from the fridge once she got home, she sat in front of her soon to be ex-computer and turned it on. As soon as the system logged in, a window appeared with a message in green letters: Store away ASAP.
The alarm clock had been stopped several times before being permanently switched off. Not having slept at all, Lois and Clark remained as they had been for the last few hours, neither attempting to move. The white sheets half covered their naked bodies. Lois rested her head over Clark's bare chest caressing his pectoral hair with her fingers, and was the one to break the silence. "We're probably already late for work."
"I know," answered Clark. Still, none of them moved.
"I would've expected a call from Perry by now."
"I switched off the phones."
Lois raised her head to look at him. "He is going to be pissed."
Clark kissed her forehead and with his hand he gently placed her head back on his chest. "I think the article will keep the lion content. Once we remade the second part it turned into a pretty good piece."
"I was thinking more about his reaction once he reads the competition."
"There could always be a sudden spontaneous combustion of all written press."
"He reads the digital one, Smallville. He wouldn't spend a penny on other papers."
"Complete internet meltdown."
"Cat will make sure he reads all of them."
"Evening news will be reporting the strange case of a reporter waking up in the North Pole."
Lois turned and climbed over Clark. She was no small woman, but still she could accommodate comfortably on his body. She smiled and planted a soft kiss on his lips. "How gallant of you."
"Sometimes I scare myself. The things I would do for you."
Their remaining conversation took place in between kisses.
"Amazing."
"Disturbing."
"Utterly romantic."
"Impressively dangerous."
"Uncannily glorious."
"Unnervingly twisted."
"Perfect for me."
"Come here." Clark embraced her in a hug. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yes. Yesterday was yesterday, you know how I get," she sighed, "and Lex didn't help my mood." Then she looked at him mischievously smiling. "But that thing you did to me...That really helped."
Clark chuckled. "I'm glad to be of service."
"Been spending quite a lot of time with Ollie, haven't you?"
"Um...Lois..."
"Mmmmh?"
"Awfully awkward?"
Lois realized she had just mentioned her ex while naked on top of Clark.
"Oh, sorry. Sweetie, I didn't mean, oh my I'm--"
Clark was smiling. Teasingly.
"Actually I talked to Dinah."
"You heathen alien!!"
Lois playfully took her pillow and hit him with it, making Clark burst into laughter.
"That's Clark for you, Miss Lane."
"Oh, yeah, no talk of Superman while in bed. Little Clark feeling intimidated?," she said as her hand searched for the target below Clark's waistline.
Clark flinched at the touch and still smiling he took her hand far from his groin. "Ever felt it was?"
"No, but you're so easy to tease I can't help doing it at every opportunity you give me...I still wonder how you do it to sound so serious in front of your enemies, with the change of costume."
"The coat was heavy, and I realized black wasn't the best color if I wanted to be who I was destined to become," he simply stated.
"I bet Bruce is happy you changed into primary colors and let the black and dark for him."
"I never told you, but Ollie also designed a costume for me."
"I never told you, but he gave it to you after he got my approval. Although you didn't use it."
"Leather restrained my movements. Spandex was much more practical," said Clark.
"Practical but too revealing."
"Hence the shorts outside the tights, bad jokes aside, Miss Lane."
"Superhero with misplaced boxers, farm boy evolved into nerd with glasses, I love you all the same, Clark."
Clark smiled. "Your own personal nerd with glasses, forever. Getting cold feet in front of the most magnificent woman on earth."
"Yeah, that's me."
Lois acted as if she was beaming with pride at his remark, and Clark followed the play.
"And because it is you, then it came the fear of telling you my secret for real."
"You made damn sure I would spare your genitals when you finally confessed."
"I thought I had the upper hand, having already seen your reaction to knowing my secret. But you are a very intimidating woman, you know? Suddenly I feared for my reproductive's system well-being." Suddenly, Lois' face turned serious, a bit surprised at his comment. "What?"
"Um...you...you said..."
"I said..." Clark then realized. "Oh."
"It's nothing, Clark, it's just..." Lois sighed.
"Chris?"
"Partly."
"Clark took a strand of her hair placing it behind her ear so he could see her whole face. "Do you miss him?"
"Everyday. It's been two years, but..."
"I miss him too. He was a very brave kid."
Lois rested her head again on his chest and Clark held her, mentally scolding himself for bringing a delicate topic when she was still hurting. Then suddenly he became fully aware about one word she had just said. It wasn't just about Chris.
"Hon?," he asked.
"Yes?"
"You said 'partly'. What else is bothering you?," asked Clark concerned.
Lois looked away with a hint of melancholy in her demeanor.
"It's not that it's bothering me, Clark, it's...I don't know, it felt strange to hear you talking about reproduction with me."
Clark noticed her nervousness. For the first time in this specific conversation, she was nervous.
"Not that I wouldn't, well, you know, but the alien thing going on and the work schedules and--"
"Lois, stop it. You're babbling. I didn't mean to startle you. I don't know where it came from."
"It came from somewhere, that's for sure."
"Don't think about it now hon. I'm so used to hear about it that it sticked in my mind."
His fear of all the things that could go wrong if the miracle worked and they could actually conceive had been enough to close the topic every time it had been mentioned.
Clark suddenly realized that maybe it had been easy to avoid because Lois had not been that interested in considering the possibility of having a baby. Until now?
The access-card reader didn't respond.
"That's weird," said Dick frowning.
The cab driver shook his head. "Not so. We had a blackout yesterday, lots of machines crashed. Maybe Mr. Wayne's door broke too. 'You want me to honk?"
"No, it's ok. How much do I owe you?"
"25 bucks."
Dick took out his wallet and gave him the money.
"Here you go, thanks." He stepped out of the car in front of the Wayne Manor's gate. He had a message from Bruce to come directly to the manor as soon as he arrived. Bab's cell was off anyway, so she'd probably be asleep.
Once the cab was out of sight, Dick easily crawled up the metallic gate and got inside. Fortunately the doorbell worked. Climbing the old stately mansion's walls would've not been fun.
The middle-aged butler opened the door. "Master Dick, what a pleasant surprise," he said half bowing. Dick would never get used to that, but he had learnt to accept it. Alfred had been, was and always would be adamant to treat him or Tim in a different way than Bruce.
"Hi, Alfred," said Dick while entering the mansion, "actually it is not a social call, Bruce sent me a message. Is he home?"
"No, Master Bruce didn't spend the night here, he left some time after 2:00 a.m. Something to do with Miss Gordon."
Dick looked bewildered at the butler. "Barbara?"
"However I cannot give you more details, I'm afraid yesterday was my day off."
"That's ok, Alfred, I'll call him." Barbara had designed Dick's phone to also function as his regular comm link with Bruce, Tim, Alfred and herself.
"Are you at the manor?" Bruce's tone was unusually dry, even for him.
"I just arrived. Is everything--?"
"I need you to go to the Batcave. Barbara sent me some encrypted files."
"Are you with her?"
"Save them in an external hard rive. We'll meet at the Clocktower." Bruce cut off the conversation, leaving Dick no time to talk.
After leaving Dinah at the airport, Ollie went to Metropolis' Watchtower.
Right after Jimmy's death, Chloe had talked to him about turning the place into his own headquarters, trying to lure him back after the Doomsday incident. Before he could react, Zod had come. Returning himself from his own personal tumoil, Clark had found Dinah, and together they had tracked him. By that time Chloe was critical at the hospital. Leaving had been a big mistake. He should've been there to protect her.
He had created Watchtower after all, making Chloe's role as the computer whiz transcend Clark's range. Their last conversation in Metropolis brought him back to reality. The Justice League was really born the day Chloe left.
The tower bore memories of her. He missed her, and those walls reminded him of all the reasons why he kept his promise to go on. So he had transformed the place into the first headquarters the League ever had, and even after all those years and their new lunar Watchtower, named in honor of Chloe, he still went there whenever he was in Metropolis.
Turning the system on, he immediately received the signals of all members accounted for, except for Bruce's. Hopefully with Oracle on board he would be more responsive to the League's protocols.
He checked his mail. He had the weekly Young Justice report, the information Victor promised about the new equipment Barbara would need, some spam forwarded by Bart...The usual. Then one e-mail caught his attention. It only had two words.
Check Gotham.
"Ella?"
A/N: no music in this one.
