Chapter Fourteen – Justice League Universe
A/N: I'm using the consensus that Gotham is located in New Jersey while Metropolis is located in New York. That seems to be where they are located the majority of times in different media. Metropolis is located on that little jut out New York has so that way they still have the bridge connecting Metropolis and Gotham together over the water.
After they drop Ko off back at home, Bruce and Clark make their way to the apartment that the teenager that took the video of them lives at. The apartment is located in one of the more run down neighborhoods of Gotham and it makes Clark wary. Bruce doesn't seem concerned at all as he walks down the sidewalk, passing sketchy people and dark alleys. Clark sticks close him. Clark might not be able to get hurt himself, but Bruce can. It doesn't matter that Bruce can take care of himself. Bruce is dressed in fancy, expensive looking clothes which means there's a greater possibility of getting mugged.
"Are you sure this is correct?" Clark asks close to Bruce's ear.
Bruce raises an eyebrow at him. "Of course, I'm sure. Barbra even double checked for me."
With a sigh, Clark continues to follow him. "Aren't you nervous at all?"
"Are you?"
"A little."
Bruce stops walking and turns to look at him. "For yourself?"
"For you." Bruce scoffs with an eye roll and continues walking. "See, I knew you would have that reaction."
"And you know why I had such a reaction." He stops again in front of some stairs leading up to an apartment building. "Here we are." Bruce walks up them and to the buzzer, buzzing the bell to the correct apartment building.
"Hello?" comes as greeting.
"Hi, we're here looking for Teresa Antonietta," Bruce says into the speaker.
"Who is this?"
"Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent."
There's a long pause before the front door finally buzzes and Bruce opens it. He motions for Clark to follow and they ascend the stairs inside until they reach the third floor. They then find the number for the apartment and knock. After a few minutes, the door opens a crack and a teenager peeks out. "What do you want?"
"I think we have something to discuss," Bruce says.
The girl looks Bruce and then Clark up and down, closes the door, unlatches it, and then opens it all the way. "Come on in. My mom isn't home right now."
"Isn't it a school day?" Clark asks.
"Yeah, so?" Teresa crosses her arms defiantly. "You going to make me go?"
"No one is going to make you go." Bruce turns to her after looking around the apartment. "Especially since we have something important to talk about with you."
"It's about that video isn't it?"
"Yes."
"You want to know what I'm going to do with it, huh? Worried that I saw your mysterious little baby flying around like Superman." Clark squirms a little and then catches himself quickly. "Baby a meta or something? One you found and decided to adopt?"
"Something like that," Bruce confirms.
Clark eyes Bruce, hoping he knows what he is doing. "And what about him?" She motions to Clark. "What's his deal?"
"Where not here about him." Bruce gets her attention back onto himself. "I'm here about the baby. We want to know if you plan on exposing him."
Teresa's arms are still crossed and her foot is tapping out to the side. She makes a thinking face. "It depends."
"On what?" Clark asks.
"I was wondering when the two of you would show up. I'm guessing you had one of your people at that Wayne Tech. track where the video came from." Bruce nods. "They must be pretty good to have tracked me."
"What do you want in return Teresa for your silence?" Bruce prompts.
She looks at Bruce and then Clark and then back to Bruce. "Simple really. I want out of this neighborhood for one." When she doesn't get a reaction out of either of them, she shrugs. "Mom works a shitty job with shitty people. Makes crap for money and so we're stuck here in this dump apartment and horrible neighborhood. Did you know just a couple days ago there was a gang war that happened in the streets. Three dead, just lying there in the road until someone finally called the cops." Clark glances to Bruce who is looking to the ground. Clark knows Bruce has been slacking as Batman since he's been so busy and exhausted dealing with Ko. Then there is Clark who has Metropolis to deal with, Dick can do only so much while he's visiting from Blüdhaven, this isn't Jason's part of town that he takes care of, and there's no way Bruce would send Tim out without him. Now he's probably blaming himself for the gang war and not being there to stop it. "It scares my mom," Clark hears her heart jump and knows it scares her too. "So, I want out. For both my mom and me."
"How can I do that?" Bruce asks, finally looking up at her.
"Money." She shrugs again. "We need money. My mom is poor, in debt, and she doesn't make enough in her current job to get out of it let alone have us live in a good neighborhood. Once we have the money then she also needs a good paying job so she can continue to afford living in a good neighborhood." She takes a step closer, still trying to look tough but her mask slips a little and Clark can see the desperation. "You own so many businesses Mr. Wayne. You must have a job opening somewhere." She bites her lip and swallows hard. "Please."
Bruce is silent for a few seconds and then says, "I can get her a job but I need to know how much money you were thinking."
For the first time, Teresa looks unsure of herself. "I'm… I'm not really sure. I've been looking at some houses without my mom knowing but they're all so expensive and the taxes… We don't need any place big Mr. Wayne, we just… need somewhere good."
Bruce nods, his eyebrows drawing together in thought. "I can find you a place myself then. We're going to have to talk to your mother first though, to make sure she really wants this too. We'll disguise it as something. Maybe we can say you entered her into a drawing or something and she won. But before all this, Teresa, my own family is top priority."
Her eyes grow wide and then she hurries off. She's only gone for a few minutes before returning, DVD in hand. "Here, it's the video of you two and the baby having a picnic together. It's the only copy, I swear. I've deleted it off of the video camera and my computer." She hands it over. "You're welcome to check if you want. I swear I won't tell anyone as long you help me and my mom."
Bruce nods and she leads the two to her computer. Bruce gets on it to check. "Why go this far just to get out of this neighborhood?" Clark asks her.
Teresa shrugs. "Sometimes, when people live in shit conditions, they get kind of desperate."
"But you couldn't have known that our baby would be… a meta."
"I was hoping that sending the video to news stations would get me some extra cash. What a fool I was. They didn't give me anything for it. You're right though, I didn't know until I looked at the video. That's when I thought up this plan."
"You know," Clark starts. "You really didn't have to resort to blackmail."
"What else was I supposed to do?"
Clark can't answer right away as he really doesn't know the answer. What else could she have done? "I… don't know but I'm sure there was something better than this."
"Right, sure." She doesn't sound convinced.
Bruce gets up from the computer. "She's telling the truth. It's not on there anymore." She then hands over the camcorder and Bruce checks that, finding nothing. Once done, he turns to her. "Teresa, I'll be in touch."
"Wait!" She grabs a hold of his arm, stopping him. "How do I know I can trust you to do that?"
"I'm a man of my word, Teresa." She still doesn't look like she believes him. "Here." Bruce pulls out a business card and pen from his pocket. He scribbles something on the back. "This is my personal phone number. If I don't get back to you by the time the weekend is over, then call that number. I give you permission to give me hell."
She looks at the card and at Bruce's words a small smile slowly forms on her face. "Thank you Mr. Wayne and I'm sorry for blackmailing you. I really didn't know what else to do."
Bruce places a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine but next time, just try calling my office."
"Would that have worked?"
Bruce shrugs, getting ready to leave. "You never know." He then leaves the apartment with one last goodbye.
Clark catches up to him quickly. "Bruce, do you really think she will keep all this a secret?"
"I don't know, Clark, but sometimes there's no other options than to just hope that people do what they say they are going to do. She doesn't know that we are Batman and Superman and I'm not about to go scare a scared teenager into not saying anything."
They walk in silence for a little while, Clark smiling fondly at him. "Still, it's a good thing you're doing for her and her mom… even if it is because of blackmail."
"She had to resort to this because I wasn't being Batman enough. I've been slacking Clark and it's got to stop."
"Bruce, you've been taking care of Ko. All of us have. I've been slacking too, it's okay."
"No." Bruce stops walking and turns to him, anger in his eyes. "It's not okay. That's how people die Clark. It can't happen again, for me or you."
He starts to walk away again but Clark doesn't immediately follow him. Before Bruce is too far away, Clark says, "I learned a long time ago, Bruce, that I can't save everyone." Bruce stops but doesn't look at him so Clark walks up to him instead. "Do you think I like having to choose who I save and then listening to the ones that I didn't choose die?" Bruce doesn't say anything but he does look to the ground. "Sometimes… sometimes, Bruce, there's no way around people dying. In my case, I can't go to every scream for help I hear. In your case… darn it Bruce, sometimes you just need a break. You have a new baby with developing super powers in the house. No one is blaming you for focusing on him more than the people of Gotham. No one except you. You shouldn't blame yourself for putting your family first."
"Gotham should come first at all times Clark."
Clark shakes his head. "That's not how it works Bruce. For me, for any of the Leaguers, for Dick, Tim… Jason. It just doesn't work that way for anyone Bruce. Even the common citizen who isn't a hero. Bruce." Clark turns him so he's facing him and lifts his head up by his chin. "Bruce, family is extremely important, especially to you. Not even Batman can deny and beat that."
Bruce stares into his eyes for a long time before he reaches up, cups Clark's face, and pulls him down into a kiss. When he pulls back he says, "Still, I need to get out there more Clark." Clark sighs. "No, Clark, I believe you, I do, and I trust you and what you said, really. But now that we are getting the hang of having Ko and this relationship slash marriage thing, we need to start focusing on our cities again. We can't keep neglecting them. Please tell me you understand."
"Only if you tell me you understand where I'm coming from."
This time Bruce sighs. "I do Clark." He rubs at Clark's chest, following his own hands with his eyes. "I understand and you're right, family is important to me and probably will always come first. But that also doesn't mean I need to ignore Gotham so much either." He reaches up and fixes Clark's glasses with a deep intake of breath. "And you Metropolis."
Clark watches him closely, tries to read the emotions in his eyes, but Bruce is keeping them hidden from him. He decides to acquiesce. "Okay Bruce."
Bruce nods and starts walking again. "Because I suggested it yesterday, I gave Alfred the weekend off since we'll be in Smallville. As he requested to take this opportunity and go back to England to visit some family, he'll be leaving a day early so he'll leave tomorrow morning. He should be back either Monday afternoon or Monday night if no delays occur."
"Okay."
"Once he's back, then I'll start going out as Batman on a more regular basis again and you'll start patrolling Metropolis on a more regular basis again as well."
"Okay."
Bruce looks back at him before he climbs into the car's driver's seat. "Clark, I mean it. We need to start working more seriously again. No more avoidable deaths."
"Okay." Clark watches Bruce get into the car and wonders what Bruce would say about avoidable deaths if he could live in Clark's shoes for a day.
…
"Are you sure you packed enough diapers and formula?" Bruce is currently scrounging around the carry-on bag, looking through everything Clark and him put in it.
"Bruce, he doesn't need to eat and he never goes to the bathroom." At Bruce's annoyed glare, Clark rolls his eyes. "Yes, I did, don't worry."
"I will worry. Whether he needs to eat or not, he's starting to get a taste for it." Bruce looks up at him and his eyes just scream like you Mister Alien who doesn't need to eat yet you do anyways. "And just because he doesn't go to the bathroom, doesn't mean it's sanitary or comfortable to stay in the same diaper all day."
"You're acting as if we aren't about to fly in your private jet and instead fly commercially."
Bruce glances over to where a few paparazzi have gathered behind the rope fencing the airport put up for them. Even at the distance they are at, they still flash their cameras. "Flying in my private jet or not, Clark," Bruce looks to him, closing the bag, "doesn't mean I'll have everything at my disposal. Have you even ever ridden in a plane before?"
"No, I haven't actually but I can't imagine it being that much different from flying myself. It's just enclosed instead of out in the open… and with comfy seats."
"Private jets and first class have comfy seats Clark." Bruce slings the bag over his shoulder and Clark picks up Ko's baby carrier in which Ko currently is asleep in. "Commercial seats, not so much."
"How would you know?" Clark asks, following Bruce.
Bruce chuckles. "Clark, I wasn't Bruce Wayne for five years when I went off training. I couldn't exactly fly first class when I didn't want anyone to know who I was."
They get on the plane easily and Bruce straps Ko into a safety seat for takeoff. Of course, this wakes the baby up but he luckily behaves himself as Bruce works on him. Bruce then gives him a pacifier. "When did we get one of those?"
"I just got it recently. It will help with his ears when we get higher up in altitude." Bruce gets into his own seat and buckles in. Clark follows suit. "When you're flying, do you even have any of those symptoms of altitude change?"
Clark shakes his head. "Nope, never."
"Hmm." Bruce looks back to Ko. "He probably won't then either."
Clark looks to Ko who is happily sucking on the pacifier. "Well, he seems to like it anyways so I would say it's a good call."
They don't have to wait long to get up into the air and soon they are on their way. Bruce leans back, unbuckles, and closes his eyes. It's early Saturday morning, way earlier than Bruce normally gets up. "The flight is a little under three hours."
"I could get there in less than two minutes."
"Don't brag." Bruce peeks open an eye and then closes it again. "Kansas is also an hour behind New Jersey."
"I know that, it's an hour behind New York too and I do tend to fly from there to Kansas quite a bit, Bruce."
Bruce sighs. "Just making conversation, Kent."
"There's plenty of other things we can talk about but I think you want to take a nap." When Bruce doesn't say anything, he continues. "And you're just trying to rile me up so I'll leave you alone."
"You're cute when you get annoyed."
"Noted." Clark unbuckles and then pulls out his laptop. He might as well work on an article that needs to be submitted by Wednesday. "Get some sleep Bruce." A few minutes later, Clark looks up and sees Bruce watching him. "What?"
"Why are you still wearing your glasses?"
Clark shrugs. "Habit."
Bruce stares for a while and Clark tries to ignore him in favor of working. But then Bruce says, "Come here." Clark looks up again, blinks a few times, and then sets his laptop off to the side. He gets up and approaches Bruce who then reaches up, takes his glasses off and stares intently into his eyes. Reaching up again, Bruce cups the sides of his face with both hands, pulling him down for a kiss. When he pulls back, he smiles. "You have pretty eyes. I don't want you hiding them from me if you don't have to."
Clark really isn't sure what to say to that so instead he just draws Bruce into another kiss. "Okay, I won't." He smiles at him and goes back to his seat, continuing to work on his laptop. Soon, Bruce is sleeping softly across from him, head bowed slightly and mouth open.
They're an hour into the flight when Ko starts to get restless. Bruce wakes up when Ko spits out his pacifier and makes a loud screeching sound. With a sigh, he gets up, picks Ko up, and then settles back down in his seat, Ko in his lap. Clark decides to get up and make some formula, handing it to Bruce who then starts to feed Ko. Ko drinks it vigorously and Clark realizes Bruce is right about the baby starting to like eating. After that, Bruce burps him and then Ko slips out of his arms in favor of floating around the cabin.
Bruce is watching him fly back and forth with a fond smile and Clark watches Bruce with his own fond smile. Ko is laughing and gurgling as he floats around, not being able to control where he goes quite yet. By now, Bruce, too, is chuckling as well, the happiest smile Clark has ever seen on his face. Clark wants to get up and kiss him, his joy and love flaring in his chest at seeing such an image. Bruce is beautiful like this.
Bruce spreads out his arms. "Come here you silly baby." Ko, hearing Bruce's voice, squeals loudly and flails his little arms and legs. He turns his head to Bruce and amazingly floats over to him, plopping into Bruce's arms heavily as he loses the ability to fly. Bruce is full on laughing now and Clark's cheeks hurt from grinning so big. He decides not to comment on what he just witnessed, afraid he would ruin it.
…
They arrive at the farm two and half hours later, Clark being the one to drive the car. As soon as they pull up the drive, his mother is out the door and walking to the car, wiping her hands on her apron. Clark gets out and greets her with a big, tight hug, kissing her on the cheek. They then pull back. "Oh, Bruce, it's so good to see you again."
She goes up to him and wraps him tightly in her arms. He seems to melt into it. Bruce has only met his mother once before, back when they were just barely becoming friends. He had to meet her because Clark dragged him to the farm so the man could get a much needed vacation. He only ended up staying for five hours before he claimed that there was an emergency back in Gotham that he had to deal with. In that time frame Martha had deduced that he is Batman and he didn't deny it when she confronted him about it. "It's nice to see you again too, Mrs. Kent."
"Oh Bruce," she hits him playfully on the arm with her dish rag. "Call me Martha, please. You're now my son-in-law." Clark sees Bruce's lips twitch up into a small smile. "Now, where is my little grandson?"
Clark smiles happily at his mother and opens the back seat door to get Ko out. When he does, Martha is immediately taking him from his arms. "Careful Ma, I don't want him hurting you."
"Look at him," she says, holding him out to look at. Ko looks at her with wide, blue eyes and then immediately starts to cry. "Oh, shh, shh, it's okay." Martha gathers him to her chest but Ko pushes at her.
"Ma careful please," Clark says, reaching out a little. He doesn't want Ko to accidently use his super strength on her.
"It's alright, Clark. I know how to handle-" She's cut off when Ko gives a violent shove causing her to stumble backwards. Bruce is by Martha's side immediately, catching her before she hits the ground, and Ko flies right into Clark's arms, activating his heat vision that hits the car. The rental car.
Clark quickly brings his hand up to cover Ko's eyes, Ko still crying, and backs away from his mother and Bruce. He doesn't want to get any closer in fear of Ko hurting them. "Are you alright?" he asks, worried for his mother.
Bruce helps her up and she brushes herself off. "I'm fine Clark. It's not my first brush in with super strength."
"We're working on it," Bruce tells her, giving Clark an angry glare.
Clark starts to bounce Ko, trying to calm him down and soon Clark feels the heat on his palm diminish. Ko is clinging to him, tears still rolling down his red cheeks as he continues to cry. Clark can imagine that the heat vision probably hurts as it normally does sting a bit, especially when first developing. Martha looks to her chest that is forming a big bruise and then to the car that has been melted on one side. "You weren't kiddin' when you said he had some powers." She then approaches Clark who takes another step back but holds still when his mother gives him a warning glance. When she reaches them, she brings a hand to Ko's head and pats it. "Shh, it's okay. I'm sorry I scared you."
Ko blinks at her some more and gradually stops crying, eventually falling asleep in Clark's arms. "I'm really sorry Ma."
"Oh Clark," she pats the side of his face. "It's alright. I just scared him a bit, that's all." She then starts heading to the house, waving for them to follow. "Come on you two, I've got breakfast waitin' for you."
Clark starts to follow her but Bruce catches him by the arm. He waits for Martha to disappear into the house before saying angrily, "This is why you don't encourage him." Bruce points to the house. "People that aren't invulnerable get hurt. He could have given her a heart attack by doing that to her chest."
"I know."
"You know and you still laughed when he hit me, Clark."
"Bruce, I'm sorry. I know it was wrong and I shouldn't have. But I didn't think it would be this serious."
"Next time you don't think something is going to be serious, think about the ones that will actually get hurt by it." Bruce starts walking to the car, pulling his cellphone out. "I don't want to be afraid of my own kid, Clark." He leaves it at that, back facing Clark. He dials a number and Clark can hear the receptionist at the rental car place answer. Bruce must be handling the melted car situation.
Clark looks down to Ko who is still sleeping in his arms and sighs, going into the house. He sits down at the table with a heavy breath. "What's wrong, sweetheart?" Martha asks as she places a plate full of eggs and toast in front of him.
"Bruce lied. We haven't been working on his super strength." Martha motions for Ko and Clark hands him over reluctantly. He supposes she'll be safe as long as he is sleeping. "In fact, I've been kind of encouraging it."
"Encouragin' how?"
"By laughing. The first time he hit Dick, uh, Bruce's first adoptive son. That's when we first found out about the powers. I didn't laugh then but just a few days ago he hit Bruce pretty hard in the face twice. Both times I laughed."
His mother sits down in a Chair opposite him. "Why?"
Clark shrugs, not meeting her eyes. "I don't know, it just… looked funny and I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"Does he hit you?"
"Yeah but it doesn't hurt me." He picks up his fork but doesn't start eating. "I feel terrible about it now."
"I guess it took your old mother gettin' hurt to see the light."
"How are we supposed to teach a three-month old baby how to not use his super strength like that?" Clark pushes his plate away and lays his forehead down on the table. "This is becoming more complicated than I thought it was going to be."
He hears his mother sigh and she reaches out, placing her hand on top of his. "I don't know, honey, but I'm sure you an' Bruce will figure somethin' out."
Clark lifts his head. "I hope so Ma." He then gives her a half smile.
She smiles wide back. "No one said bein' a parent is easy."
"I know, Ma."
Bruce walks in then, thumb pointing behind him. "I got the rental car situation handled."
"What did you tell them?" Clark asks.
"I told them I didn't know what happened. I left the house and it was just…" he shrugs, "like that. Being Bruce Wayne has it's perks of being believed. No one really thinks dumb Brucie would ever do that to a car."
"Bruce," Clark pulls at his arm in order to pull him into his lap. Bruce goes with a small huff of annoyance. Clark buries his face in Bruce's neck. "I'm really sorry Bruce."
Bruce crosses his arms, rolls his eyes, and then lifts a slice of toast off of Clark's plate, eating it himself. "You're lucky I love you."
Clark smiles into his neck and then kisses him there, pulling back. "I love you too." Clark can feel his mother's beaming smile as she watches them.
A/N: Have no fear, that is not all to the Smallville visit. There will be a bit more in the next chapter. It's just this one is getting super, super long.
Hope you all enjoyed it. Thank you!
