Love and Heroes

Love and Heroes


“Sorry” Clark called out as he bumps into many people as he walks along and carries his suitcase, accidentally catching others with the case in question. A male co-worker called out “Look out!” causing Clark to cringe and apologise yet again for the umpteenth time since entering the lobby of the Daily Planet.

Clark continued on grimacing as another male co-worker called out “Watch out will you!” Clark rapidly apologizes again when he hits a female co-worker next “Excuse me!” Clark called out “Sorry!”

Clark let out a sigh of relief, thinking nothing else could possibly go wrong. “Great. Would you be careful?” Jimmy Olsen, photographer for the Daily Planet and friend to Clark exclaimed, as Clark accidentally knocked over his camera. Luckily Clark catches it with his superhuman fast reflexes before it can hit the floor and be damaged.

Apparently he had spoken far too soon he thought hopelessly as he caught the camera and said “Jimmy.” Jimmy stood and looked at Clark in shock; his eyes are wide as he gaps at the older man. “Mr. Clark! I mean, Kent! Mr. Kent!” Jimmy exclaimed in shocked delight.

Jimmy hugged Clark and exclaims excitedly “Welcome back! Oh, my God!” Clark had to stifle a chuckle at the younger man’s enthusiastic response. Jimmy turned excitedly then exclaims before turning and leaving a grinning goofily Clark Kent. “Hey, come—Wait right there. I’ll be right back.”

Suddenly a man and a woman walk pass Clark; the man trips over Clark’s suitcase Clark exclaims apologetically “Oh, hey, sorry, guys, I’m still looking for a place to live.” Clark watches as the man and woman walk on a head, not sparing him a second glance as he says “If you know of anything reasonable.”

Jimmy’s comes up from behind Clark and says as Clark turns to face him “Behind you, Mr. Kent. I made it myself. It’s a cake.” Clark looks down at the cake, resisting the urge to glare in his friend’s direction, as his hearing picks upon Chloe’s softly stifled laughter

“Oh, it looks” Clark pauses trying to find the right words without insulting his young friend in anyway, still resisting the urge to go over and wring Chloe’s neck as she stifles a snigger at his discomfort for the situation “Delicious.”

Suddenly Perry White the chief editor of the Daily Planet calls out “Olsen! Where are the photos of that birthday-clown-massacre thing?” Jimmy calls back in reply and then gestures to Clark “I’m on it, chief. Hey, look whose back.”

Clark waves awkwardly as Perry says “Kent.” Clark replied “Hey, chief. Thank you for giving me my job back.” Perry replies “Don’t thank me. Thank Norm Palmer for dying.” Jimmy says awkwardly to Clark as Chloe comes over to join her two male co-workers “It was his time.”

Chloe added “Yeah, it was more then his time. I swear I’m honestly amazed he lasted as long as he did. Everyone knew it would take either Perry insisting he retired, or him actually dying, which is exactly what he went and did.”

Jimmy added, not wanting to talk about norm, even if he was old and it meant Clark had been given his job back, it was still really sad. Working at the Planet had been Norm’s life after his wife had died of breast cancer almost twenty years ago. They never had children because she had been unable. “Let’s get you set up, huh?

Perry suddenly called out “Olsen!” Jimmy turned to Clark and said “Okay, so I gotta run, but I will be back to check on you in a sec, Mr. Kent.” As Jimmy turned to leave Clark called out “Oh, hey, do you know where I can find Lois?”

He trailed off as Jimmy moved out of sight. Chloe eyed her friend sympathetically. She knew her friend was still very much in love with her cousin, and Lois had no idea what so ever. This infuriated Chloe to no end. Lois in Chloe’s opinion was far too self absorbed.

Clark sighed and headed for the large storage closet. He opened the door and looked around as he placed his suitcase down upon the floor. He startled when he saw the life size cardboard cut out of Perry white, grinning widely with large words displaying ‘Get to know your planet’

Clark exited the storage room and his head shot up towards the television, as he heard the sound of the familiar and much loved and cherished voice that belonged to one Lois Lane. Lois is interviewing a woman on TV, via an air shuttle

‘Lois Lane, Daily Planet. You also stated that the shuttle will usher in a new era of travel enabling the average person to afford transcontinental flight, but can you tell me the exact price an “average person” will be expected to pay?’

Clark looked on lovingly as he looked up at the TV screen and listened to the sound of her voice washing over him. It had seemed like a life time ago that he had heard the sound of her voice. Oh how he had missed the sound of her voice, like no other.

The woman Lois is questioning answers ‘The answer to that question is in your press packet’ Clark walked over to Lois’s desk as the woman on the TV continues to give a lecture on information of the shuttle.

Clark walks over to the desk and smiles as he spots the certificate near Lois’s computer keyboard, a certificate stating her winning of the Pulitzer Prize. Chloe walked up behind him and felt something heavy drop inside of her stomach.

She knew instantly when Clark had got to the part where it stated what article she had written. Chloe felt her blood boil in rage at Lois, when she saw how the title had wiped the soft and loving smile from Clark’s handsome face. ‘Bitter, scorned bitch’ she thought venomously.

Clark felt his heart break as he read the title consisting of six words; only six, but six very powerful and heart breaking words “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman”. He couldn’t believe Lois had written such an article. But she had. The proof was right there.

Chloe watched as Clark swallowed before his eyes strayed to what she had dubbed the damnable article. It was a black and white picture of Clark dressed as Superman, accompanied by a large article, a large article of treacherous shit in Chloe’s opinion.

Clark swallowed as he practically ripped his eyes from the article. Chloe stifled a moan of deep pain and pity for her dear and much loved friend, as she saw where his gaze had finally landed. Clark turned to see the pinched, yet sympathetic look colouring his best friends beautiful face.

Chloe whispered loud enough for Clark to hear “Oh Clark I’m so terribly sorry. I would have given anything for you to have not seen any of Lois’s cruel stupidity.” She was shaking her head looking apologetically at him.

Clark turned and looked at his childhood friend and instantly took in her clenched jaw and her murderous glare; he could practically feel the raging flowing off of her in waves. He suddenly knew what Chloe had been keeping from him and, why she’d bristle and her jaw would clench when they had been back on the farm in Smallville, and he’d mention one, Lois Lane. Oh yes, he most definitely now knew what Lois had done to pissed off her cousin

Chloe watched as Clark picked up the photograph of Lois with Jason and Richard. She watched as Jimmy suddenly appeared and looked over Clark’s shoulder. She cringed as Jimmy let out an awkward laugh and commented. “Yeah, he looks just like his mom. Already takes after her too, especially when it comes to getting into trouble.”

Jimmy laughed nervously when Chloe shot him one of her looks of death. He tried to ignore it as much as possible. He after all did date her for and year and a half almost a year ago. Surely he was somewhat more immune to her deathly stare. Sometimes he thought she was scarier then even Lois Lane and that had just got to be saying something.

Clark asked startled “Mother?” Clark suddenly knew what else Chloe had been withholding from him. He now knew for certain why Chloe avoided talking about her cousin with him, like the plague. He could not be angry at her, knowing she had not wanted to hurt him, by informing him that the love of his adult life had moved on, whilst he had been gone.

Jimmy shared a nervous glance with a glaring Chloe as, he commented. “Oh, yeah, well, I guess you’ve been gone. Fearless reporter Lois Lane is a mommy.” Jimmy jumped slightly and Chloe cringed and moaned low enough for Clark to hear, when Clark’s emotions got the better of him for once, and he gripped the picture frame too tightly that the glass cracked slightly.

Jimmy nervously cleared his throat and said “Oh, you know, I’ll just-- I’ll just take that. That’s good.” Clark handed the photo to Jimmy and commented sounding not at all apologetic in the least, which Chloe caught onto and cringed. It was not often you caught Clark Kent being less then the perfect and mild mannered boy scout, in less a nice chunk of Red K was involved, which she suspected wasn’t the case here. “Sorry.”

Chloe currently knew her friend was in a lot of emotional pain. And she knew he took better to physical then he did emotional pain. Physical pain he could deal with, as it weren’t often he had to deal with that, in less there was a chunk of Green K hanging around the place.

Chloe snorted softly which only Clark heard, when Jimmy commented in regards to Lois and the cracked glass of the picture. “No. she’s got plenty.” Jimmy cringed and Clark eyed his best friend knowingly, as she commented with a snort and a roll of her eyes “Yeah, right, tell me about it, she’s got more then plenty.”

Jimmy snorted while Clark grimaced. Oh boy had Lois rubbed her dear cousin the wrong way, in the extreme sense. He could practically see the claws being unleashed, by the queen of snark. He hadn’t truly seen that side of his friend since high school, which usually happened when he and Lana Lang had been concerned.

He suddenly froze as he came to one conclusion and one conclusion only, if Lois was a mother, he presumed the man in the picture was the father of her child, and obviously her husband. He wanted to check, to be sure, although he knew it was morel likely the case then not. Oh well, he supposed he had always been a glutton for punishment when it had come to his love life, with Lois Lane, especially.

“Wait, she’s married?” Jimmy replied “Yes.” Chloe smacked Jimmy up the side of the head, making Clark wince and Jimmy hiss, as he moved away from Chloe, and stood on Clark’s other side, away from his ex-girlfriends reach of him.

He added eyeing his ex not at all pleasantly as he said “No. Not really. It’s more like a prolonged engagement.” Chloe snorted making Jimmy smirk in her direction as he continued. “But don’t ask Miss Lane when they’re tying the knot because she hates that question.”

Chloe all but growled causing Jimmy to cringe and Clark to let out a silent sigh, knowing it was official, he was not looking forward to being in the same room as the cousins. In his opinion, they gave a whole new meaning to the terms, ‘shit hitting the fan’, and ‘flying fur’

“Oh, please give me a break. She has no intentions, what so ever, of marrying Richard white. She’s just a bitter and scorned bitch, ever since Superman up and left, without telling her. Geez, anyone would think she owned him, she needs to realise that the world and Superman does not revolve around her, and that he is the people’s saviour, that he belongs to the world.”

She added around a sneer “Just because he smiled in her direction, and took an interest in her, does not automatically me she is his number one priority, that he’d drop everything and bend to her every whim. It doesn’t work like that.”

Jimmy moaned, having heard this rant ever since Lois wrote the article that had become infamous between the two female cousins. “Oh Chloe, please, don’t start that again. You and she have been at each others throats ever since she won the Pulitzer for that article.”

Clark frowned and said to Chloe “Chlo, I know Lois is not exactly your favourite person right now, and I think I more then know why that is, as well. But I never had you down as being someone jealous of someone else’s success.”

Clark instantly wished he could take that back, knowing Chloe was not jealous of her cousin, far from it. Chloe after all was a reporter before Lois, and was the one who had gotten the other woman interested in journalism.

Chloe hissed irritably at her friend, while Jimmy moaned and covered his face with both hands, as the seething blond stormed over to her desk and returned with a framed certificate and an award that resembled a shield that appeared as if it was made out of some kind of black mixed with gold marble.

She handed both items to Clark and spat. “Yeah right. Here Kent, this is me being jealous of Lois’s Goddamn stinking article that makes a cruel lie of Superman. An article wrote by a bitter bitch that was scorned. She doesn’t deserve to receive one of those awards. That article is a stinking abomination. She only won because it mentions Superman, and not even in a positive light like he deserves to be.”

She continued to rant, evidently seething. “He saved this world day after day, with no care to the self sacrifices he was making on a daily basis for this ungrateful world. She is pissed because for once he thought of his own needs. He has feelings and needs to; regardless of the fact he isn’t human. He left because it was something he had to do. She needs to realise that he never said goodbye because it was too hard for him.”

She added “And finally that article is a load of bullshit. The world does need superman. If it didn’t, then September the eleventh would have never happened. I wouldn’t have had to have shown you that article Clark, and Jimmy and I would have never had to have gone to New York and, seen all of that destruction and devastation. And people wouldn’t still be getting mugged and raped on the streets. The crime rate wouldn’t have gone up. Does this world need a savoir? You bet your arse that it does.”

She then gestured to the award in his right hand and the certificate in his left, and said. “That article I shown you back in Smallville, you commented on how you thought it was a sure Pulitzer just waiting to happen. Well, you’d been right, but naturally I never said anything, as I’m not one to blow my own horn.”

Clark’s eyes widened as he read the certificate before looking at the award held carefully in his left hand. The title for the article stated ‘A nation’s tragedy’ Clark flushed and looked up guiltily and apologetically at his friend, who was glaring fiercely at him.

He could clearly see that Chloe had won the award before Lois. And hers had been based on a tragedy he should have been around to help prevent, he still thought with deep heart wrenching guilt, no matter how many times Chloe insisted it wasn’t his fault. And he just thought of Chloe’s rant. He felt warmed at how Chloe had just defended his alter ego to the hilt. He looked at his friend lovingly, loving her even more for it.

Jimmy was eyeing Chloe in amazement. She truly was one passionate woman. Far too passionate for him to handle, that was one of the reasons their relationship had only last a year and a half. Plus he knew she was still very much in love with the mystery man who was the twin’s father. No one knew who he was or where he currently was. She was incredibly tight lipped. He had a feeling that Clark knew.

Plus the fact pf the matter was that he was in love with another Lane, that wasn’t Lois. He was in love with Lucy. He had met her not long after he had met Lois. Lucy had come to the Daily Planet to drop something off for Lois. Later on he had accompanied Chloe to General Lanes fiftieth birthday celebration. Then he had met her again when she spent a month with Chloe, when her apartment had been flooded, because of the neighbour who lived above her.

Jimmy shifted nervously and commented “Are you two alright? You both look like you could use a drink.” Clark and Chloe exchanged a look both silently agreeing that they needed to talk. Both smiled at Jimmy and nodded in consent to his idea.