Chapter Eight
Maggie was finishing off her waffles while Clark raced around the apartment at super speeding looking for something, "Did you find them yet daddy?" she asks while still chewing her food.
He immediately stops and looks at her, "No and don't talk with your mouth full." she apologizes going back to eating while he continued searching until finally giving up, "Are you sure you haven't seen my spare glasses?"
"I think you left them in Morocco or maybe you left them in Cardiff." Responds Maggie while she rinses off her plate and puts it in the dishwasher, "You do lose them a lot."
He walks over towards his briefcase and immediately pulls out the missing pair of glasses he had been looking for, "I knew I had an extra pair somewhere." He slips them on and reaches over to grab his coat, "Are you ready for school?" she just nods running off towards her room to get her backpack, "See I told you that it'd get better eventually." He says handing her bagged lunch and the two started leaving for the day when suddenly Clark stopped and immediately walked back into the kitchen to refill Shelby's bowls before grabbing Maggie's hand and walking out ready to start the day.
Lois walked back towards her desk looking over the files recently faxed over from LuthorCorp, "Did you stay here all night?" his voice caused her to groan internally as she looked up to see him standing by her desk with a box of donuts and coffee, "They were all out of a maple so I just got an assortment." He puts the coffee down and flips open the lid extending it out towards her as a peace offering.
She grabbed a chocolate glazed with sprinkles and went to sit down at her desk with Clark still hovering, "Do you want something Small-Clark?" she asks clearly stopping from saying his nickname, "I've got lots of research to do on our story and Perry just set a deadline for it."
He nods and takes the box towards the coffee pots leaving it there for the rest of the staff, "I did a little research myself." He reached into his briefcase pulling out a couple bank statements, "Chloe managed to find Winslow Schott's financial records and it turns out that he's been living off the grid for years only popping up on the radar whenever he visits some toy store called Dobrotka's."
"That place was burned to the ground, investigators said a gas line exploded but the couldn't be sure." She takes the coffee off her desk clearly oblivious to the fact that Clark's name was scrawled across it and takes a sip.
"Maybe the store was just a test run for something bigger. Schott's obviously been planning something for years and it's not just robbery."
Something clicks for Lois but her competitive nature gets the better of her, "Olsen!" she calls out causing the young photographer to race towards her, "Take Kent down to the archives and see what you can dig up on fires in the late 90s primarily near the warehouse district."
Jimmy nods and starts walking away, "Aren't you coming Lane?" asks Clark looking from the eager intern to Lois, "It's not like you not to follow your own lead."
"Call it step 2 in Lois Lane's 5 step program to being a great reporter."
"What was step 1?"
"Survive the first day." She replies rising from her desk and giving him a light pat on the arm, "You might want to go after Olsen. Last time he went down to the archives we didn't find him for a week." She waits for him to leave before grabbing her coat and bag where she then proceeded to race out of the bullpen hell-bent on showing Clark why she didn't need a partner.
Maggie sat on a bench reading a book while the other kids played around her laughing and having a good time at recess, "Hey You!" someone called out causing the young child's head to perk up and immediately spot the boy she had stood up for waving at her from the fence.
Closing the book and carrying it with her, "I'm not suppose to talk to you." She states looking around to make sure none of the teachers spotted them, "I'll get into trouble again."
The boy had shaggy brown hair and wore a Warrior Angel shirt under his open blue and black flannel shirt, "I just wanted to say thank you for standing up to the guys. You didn't have to do that."
"My dad taught me to never walk away when someone's in trouble."
He smiled and stuck his hand through the fence, "I'm Alec. Alec Abrams."
"Maggie Kent" she says taking his hand into hers giving it a quick shake before his hand slipped back through the fence, "Do you like Warrior Angel?" she asks gesturing towards the shirt.
"Are you kidding? I'm an official member of the Warrior Angel fan club." He says while reaching into his pocket to pull out a laminated card with is picture and Warrior Angel logo in the back, "Have you read any of the comics?"
"A few old issues that my uncle gave me but I don't really like the whole comic book thing, I like regular books though mainly ones about knights." She says holding up a copy of Tales of King Arthur, "I'm hoping to get a new book about Robin Hood for my birthday."
"When's your birthday?"
"I'll be eight in three months."
Alec just smiles and reaches into his backpack to pull out the latest issue of Warrior Angel, "Consider this an early birthday present." He says sliding the issue through the fence much to her surprise, "And as a thanks for helping me."
Before she could say anything the bell rang and every began to rush off back to your classes, "It was nice meeting you Maggie."
A large smile crept onto her face, "You too Alec." she practically skips the rest of the way to class with the smile never leaving her face.
Dust covered boxes covered his desk along with numerous files that were scattered across his desk, "Did you find anything yet?" Clark asks looking towards Jimmy who had practically buried his nose into paperwork.
"Nothing but a low level stories that never made it to print." Jimmy responds combing through the papers until coming across a clipping, "Check this out CK." He spins his chair around handing the clipping over to Clark, "I think we found our needle in a very large haystack."
Clark scanned the article which detailed the story of a tenement fire that took the life of a woman who worked at the old toy factory…the same factory where Lois and Clark were nearly blown sky high, "It says here that investigators suspected that the fire was caused by a lit cigarette. Firefighters rescued everyone except for Schott's mother who had been killed instantly by a backdraft when she was trying to get to her son Winslow."
"Maybe that's why he has a penchant for blowing stuff up to recreate what was done to him." Jimmy suggests taking the clipping back from him, "Going through hell and losing the only person to ever love you can affect anybody."
The comment strikes a chord with him and just clears his throat, "Grieving is apart of the human experience, we don't like it but we have to accept it." He looks over towards Lois's still empty desk, "Even if it still hurts."
Jimmy notices the concerned look on the reporter's face and follows his gaze, "You don't have to worry about Lois. The last time she ran off without telling anyone it was to bust this ring of dirty cops that were setting up innocent people to take the fall for their crimes."
Reconciled with the notion of her disappearance, he went right back to work with his focus was on both the paperwork and using his superhearing to locate Lois's heartbeat. It was a trait he used to listen to Maggie's heartbeat while she was still in the womb and had used it for several years to occasionally check in on Lois.
The familiar heartbeat was accelerated not from running but from fear. Clark immediately rose up from his chair causing Jimmy to give him a strange look to which he pretended to look down at his watch, "I forgot that I have a very important meeting." He grabs his coat and practically rushes out of the room leaving Jimmy very confused.
Slipping into an empty office Clark quietly tried to open the window only to find that it was sealed shut, "Damn" he whispers before speeding up towards the roof where he quickly threw his long coat to the ground and placed his glasses in its pocket, "Just like riding a bike." He says to himself as he steps onto the ledge and simply drops down falling a few stories before disappearing up through the sky in a black and white blur.
When Clark located the location of her heartbeat his landing was a little rough causing several cracks in the cement as he looked around to see no sign of her until he headed down a small alleyway and stepped on something.
Looking down Clark could see her press pass staring up at him, "Lois" he whispers bending down to pick up her pass which had a small smudge of blood on the edge, "Lois!" he calls out hoping that she had managed to get away only to hear nothing in response.
Using his hearing Clark scanned practically the entire city searching for her heartbeat only to hear silence.
TBC
I'm gonna leave it there just for the heck of it. After the little tiff Lois and Clark had, I wanted Lois to kind of want to go out there trying to show him that she doesn't need his help masking the fact that she's hurt. Also I had planned to introduce Alec into Maggie's part of the story early on but I could never figure out where to put it and I thought this would be a nice filler chapter until we get to the good stuff.
My reasoning for Clark taking off his glasses and coat before flying was kind of an amateur way at protecting his identity in case anyone saw him using his abilities and also cause I thought they would make him more noticeable if he flew. Cause I think someone would notice a guy in glasses breaking the sound barrier.
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