Clark tried, he really did.

He could feel Sam watching him like a hawk as he did his best to pretend he was fully present, nodding and smiling as Jimmy regaled the group with stories of his early days with Lois, but he couldn't help but keep his super-hearing partly honed in on the bank. The result was like trying to listen with every frantic police radio in the city all chattering in his ear at once.

'Multiple shots fired!'

'We need all units responding!'

'They've taken hostages!'

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and caught Sam giving him another knowing look. Clark shook the concern from his face, plastering on another fake smile and trying to focus on what was happening in the restaurant. The waitress was halfway through taking their main food order, and Steve was re-enacting something with a knife and spoon that, by the look of the poor young woman's face, he guessed wasn't particularly savoury.

'Right, CK?' he asked with a satisfied grin.

'Uh… maybe we should just keep the cutlery for eating,' Clark replied, wishing he had any idea what he was avoiding agreeing with.

'There's some kind of invisible barrier, we can't get through!'

'This is a code purple, possible meta-human involvement.'

Clark could feel his resolve starting to slip. No, it wasn't the best time to disappear from his own Bachelor party, but no matter how much he wanted to prove to Sam that Superman wasn't always his priority, he wasn't about to let these officers get hurt dealing with something that was sounding much more serious than a bit of lost time from a guy's night out. Besides, he would hopefully be in and out of there before dinner was even served.

'Wait, stop, don't touch it!'

'Ahhh…'

'We have an officer down, I need medical!'

That was the final straw. He couldn't just sit there any longer. Clark stood up from the table abruptly, tapping Jimmy on the shoulder to grab his attention.

'Uh Jim, can you order me the Bourguignon?' he asked with his usual flair of innocence. 'I just have to run to the little boy's room.'

'Sure thing CK,' he confirmed, clearly thinking nothing of it as he turned back towards his friends.

He could feel Sam's eyes burning into him, and the more defensive part of him was tempted to just walk away from the table pretending he didn't notice the series of complicated expressions crossing the other man's face – but then he remembered that he was actually trying to improve their relationship, not actively piss him off.

Clark gave Sam a look that he hoped was somewhere between re-assurance and apology, before walking as casually as he could towards the bathroom doors so as not to draw any attention to himself. Once he was out of sight, he looked around for the nearest exit he could divert to.

'Hey!' the General's voice called out behind him, and he spun around in surprise, completely caught off guard.

Clark had allowed his awareness to shift to the worsening situation in downtown metropolis and had completely failed to notice he was being followed.

'Sam, I'm sorry but I really have to go,' he explained, his voice giving away a bit of growing frustration.

'I know that,' the General said dismissively, shaking his head like he thought that was obvious, 'I just wanted to make sure it wasn't anything the DOD might be able to help with.'

'Oh… Uh, I think i've got it,' Clark replied, relaxing slightly as he realised his soon to be father-in-law had switched into work mode. 'The Special Crimes Unit is on scene, I think they just need a little extra… fire power.'

'Okay, go,' Sam waved his hand, rolling his eyes like he was surprising even himself. 'I'll do my best to cover for you.'

Clark gave the man one last nod of gratitude before he diverted to the emergency exit doors and sped off towards Metropolis savings and loan, feeling completely baffled by the man's mixed signals.

Still, maybe there was hope for him to come around yet.

Dan Turpin stood at the front of the police line, pacing back and forth as he waited for his team to report in on the robber's latest move. His eyes anxiously lifted towards the clouds, hoping to catch a glimpse of that familiar red and blue.

Where the hell was Superman? Surely he'd have heard all this commotion by now? What was taking him so long?

He sighed and shook his head as he wondered what his younger self might say if he could see him now. He hadn't exactly been the biggest fan of Superman at first. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate what the guy was doing… some of the time. When he was just saving people's lives or pulling cats down from trees, Dan could see nothing wrong with that.

But there were times when Superman showing up interfered with police business, and in those early days the man of steel often crossed lines no civilian should be allowed to cross, no matter how many powers they had. There were just some things that had to be handled by the police department.

Otherwise it was just going to be a world of vigilante chaos, especially when more heroes and meta-humans started popping up.

They'd had a few run-ins in those first few months, and Dan wasn't proud of some of the things he'd said to him in anger – but the strange visitor from another planet hadn't responded like he would have expected. Instead of being defensive or aggressive, he'd simply listened, eventually sitting down for a discussion with Commissioner Henderson and coming up with a few agreements so that he could work with them. Dan respected him for that.

Over the last year, the landscape of Metropolis had changed so much, and certain corners of the crime world had definitely gotten… weirder. There was no way of directly linking that to Superman… but it was almost like the universe had decided to even things out on both sides.

There were more and more frequent cases involving things that couldn't be considered normal. Advanced technology. People with powers. As a result, he and his friend and colleague Maggie Sawyer had been selected to head up the new Special Crimes Unit, having the skills between them to deal with what other officers couldn't. Their new jobs had meant working with Superman quite regularly, and as a result, his attitude towards the man in the red and blue suit had changed.

Finally the voice of one of his new uniformed officers came over his radio, simply stating his name and badge number and then waiting awkwardly like he wasn't sure he was allowed to continue.

'Well come on, we haven't got all day,' he barked into the receiver.

He knew the special unit worked a little differently than most departments, but there was no time for treating people with kid gloves on his team. They went up against threats that would give most good cops nightmares, and he needed to be sure they were strong enough to handle themselves.

'Uh… Sir, it looks like they've all headed down to the bank vaults. Hostages with them.'

'They must be gunning for those private safe boxes,' Dan mused, becoming more and more convinced this was a targeted attack. 'We need to make sure they've got no way of getting back out of there. What's our team's position? Can we get a sedation bomb in there?'

'That's just it, Sir, there seems to be some kind of weird invisible barrier around the area, we can't get in. Every time someone tries, they just get thrown across the room. I've never seen anything like it,' the officer explained, his voice sounding just a little too awestruck for Dan's liking.

'Hey, this isn't a night at the theatre son,' he boomed at him, and he could practically hear the tension on the other end of the line. 'Jace, do you read me? Have you tried the new ENP devices?'

The special crimes unit had a number of tricks up their sleeves now for taking out some of the more… unusual weapons on the market these days, but things just kept getting weirder and weirder in his hometown.

'Loud & clear Dan. Tried the ENP, but no effect. We think it's a supernatural barrier caused by someone with powers rather than new tech,' came the more familiar voice of one of his senior officers, Aaron Jase.

Dan shook his head in frustration. 'Okay Jace, I want officers covering every possible exit route from that vault, as close as that barrier will let you get. And make sure everyone is kitted up properly. I don't want anyone getting hurt if this gets ugly.'

Bullet proof vests were a thing of the past for his unit. More often than not, they were kitted up with full body armour and helmets, with adaptions that seemed to be in need of an upgrade every other week.

The other man confirmed his understanding before closing the line. Just as Dan impulsively craned his neck to the skies once more, he felt a sudden gust of wind at his back and heard the familiar accompanying whoosh. He spun around, grateful to see Superman standing behind him with his usual calm yet powerful energy.

'Dan,' the man in the bright red and blue suit said simply, nodding at him with an air of professionalism.

'Nice of you to finally show up,' Dan couldn't resist chastising him.

'I thought you wanted me to stay out of police business?' the man countered with a flash of humour Dan didn't often get the chance to see.

'That was back when bank robberies were just a few guys with tommy guns,' he shrugged.

'What's the situation?' Superman asked.

'There's a lot of them – ten as far as we can tell, some with regular guns, some with more interesting weapons. They came in pretty hard and fast, there was a lot of gunfire - but it looks like they weren't actually interested in a massacre. They directed most of their initial gunfire at the ceiling and let the majority of the civilian's inside escape. Guess they didn't want too many unpredictable factors.'

Dan gestured towards a police van a few feet away, before heading over to it. Superman followed beside him silently.

'They've kept six hostages, and it looks like they picked these individuals out specifically – our team have confirmed they have the manager and a few staff members with access cards. But there are couple of guys in the group who we are still running profiles on.'

Once they reached the police van, Dan pulled open the door, revealing a small team of two officers with headsets, huddling over a couple of computers in the cramped space. He pointed towards a small screen inside, playing footage from the bank's security cameras. Superman watched thoughtfully for a moment before turning back to him.

'So what do you want me to do?' he asked, continuing to prove to Dan that he was making every effort to play by the rules.

'It looks like one of the robbers has powers. There's some kind of barrier stopping my team from getting anywhere near that bank vault,' he explained. 'One of my officers tried and he's now being patched up in the back of an ambulance. If you can get to whoever is generating that barrier and take them out, we should be able to deploy sedation tactics now that their whole team is all in one place.'

'Shouldn't be a problem,' the superhero said confidently, stepping back from the vehicle.

Dan braced himself for what he knew was coming just before the man of steel lifted off into the air, blasting Dan with that intense gust of wind he wasn't sure he'd ever get used to.

Reviews very gratefully received! Also open to questions, suggestions and requests - I make no promises, but if I can fit things into the story I will! :)