"You just couldn't stay away, could you?"
Clark stared up at her, speaking into his mouthpiece without looking away. "Dr. Takamoto, can I just see you later?" He hung up without looking.
"Well?" Linda tapped her foot.
Lois came up behind her. She'd been such a man-hater lately. "Linda, what is with you?"
"Lois, he's..."
"Clark Kent," he said quickly, standing up and pumping her hand. "I think we've met. Didn't you... uh... spend some time in my old town?"
Linda seemed to be glaring at him as they shook hands. "You just bet I did and..." She looked over at Lois and dropped his hand. "Lois, he..." She looked at him, then back at Lois. "He... This one time, he... dinged my rental car... When we were... visiting. Don't you remember?"
"No, I... Is that how I know you?" She really hated these blank spots.
"Yeah," Clark said quickly. "I'm still very sorry about that," he said to Linda.
"Well, sorry won't cut it. I really think you should pay for what you..."
"Oh, I will," he said, nodding. "In fact, I'd discuss it now, but I have an interview at STAR labs and..."
"STAR labs?" Lois blinked at him. "Who? Their receptionist won't even talk to me."
"Dr. Takamoto. He's this..."
Lois' jaw dropped. "I know who he is. He's famous for designing this prosthetic arm that receives commands from the brain. How did you land that?"
"Well, you know what they say about catching flies, Lois..."
"That they get stuck in a web of lies?" Linda asked, lifting her chin.
Lois looked from one to the other. "Linda, it was only a rental car. Will you let it go?"
Linda narrowed her eyes. "I will when he pays."
"I definitely want to get to that." He grabbed his briefcase. "But I really need to go. It might take a while." He stopped and stared at Linda. "Probably won't be home till after seven."
Linda nodded, her lips tight. "That's funny. I have someone to meet at seven."
"Really?" Lois wasn't aware she knew too many other people in Metropolis. "Who?"
"Just this friend of Ollie's. I'm positive you wouldn't be interested. It would only be me and some idiot, talking about all that sneaky... political stuff."
"Great meeting you, Linda," Clark said, smiling a little too wide. "I hope you have a good meeting, there."
"Oh, I will," Linda answered with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
Lois watched him walk away. "Okay... What..."
Linda shook her head. "I just... I just don't like him."
"Clark? He's harmless."
Linda laughed humorlessly. "He sure seems that way. I guess Superman does, too."
Lois walked ahead of her, smiling. "Superman doesn't seem harmless, exactly. But he does seem... Well, noble."
Linda laughed again, still with no real humor. "Noble? I can think of another..."
Lois stopped. "Linda, what is going on with you and the man-hate?" She touched her arm. "Did you fight with Ollie?"
"No... Well, yes, but..." She smiled. "It's not important. I... I really do want to hear all about your meeting with Superman."
"Well, you could fool me. You just hung up on me when I tried to tell you about it."
"I was in a mood." She waved her hand. "You know me." She took Lois' arm. "You can tell me all about it over lunch."
********************************
"I hope you understand that I'm taking a real risk in trusting you, Doctor Takamato."
The older man waved his hand. "Call me Murray." He stood and rubbed his hands together. "Clark... Oh, can I call you Clark?"
"Uh, yeah." He looked down at his suit. "I mean, when I'm wearing this, but..."
"Do not worry on that note. I'm fairly used to this business where the clothes make the identity." He sat Clark on a chair. "My greatest friend used to moonlight much like you're doing." He drew back sadly. "Until the day he died." He peered at Clark. "But you... You seem to be invulnerable." He picked up a hammer. "I... uh... Do you mind if I..."
"Oh, sure. Go on, but be careful."
"Well, I don't have to if you think it'll..."
Clark smiled. "I meant to be careful for yourself."
Murray laughed. "That's a good one." He drew the hammer back and aimed at Clark's stomach. "But I'm sure just..." He backed away after the hammer hit, holding his hand. He looked at the floor. The hammer's head was off, its wood handle split in two. "I see what you mean."
Clark sighed. "Nothing of this earth can really harm me."
He stared Clark's shirt front. "But no damage to your shirt either."
"It wasn't always that way. As I grew up, it developed. And it perfected after my training with my father. Anything close to my body is surrounded by the same..."
"Back up, back up." Murray tilted his head. "Your father? Are there others like..."
Clark took a deep breath. Something about this man told him to trust him. It was the same instinct he'd had about Virgil Swann. There were people in the world with IQs that rivaled anything he had. These people could help him, help his friends. Not all brilliant men were destined for madness like Ernest Hamilton.
"Doctor..."
"Murray," he corrected quickly.
"Murray... Maybe you should sit down."
*****************************************
It was only six o'clock. He typed away at his laptop, putting the finishing touches on his article. Murray had been kind enough to toss him a few facts about his public work. It wasn't investigative journalism, more of a piece on the wonders of modern science. But he couldn't come back empty handed, not after Lois had made such a big deal out of STAR labs.
"Clark, you really should get started," his mother called from the living room. "At least finish packing."
"Mom, you of all people should know that won't take more than five minutes." He looked through the wall toward the living room. She looked up. The woman was damn near psychic.
"Rush too much and you'll break something or forget something." She broke a piece of thread in her teeth.
"I'll be careful. Besides, I need to finish this article."
She looked up, smiling through the wall. "You're working? I have to say, I was leery about you working at The Planet, but you seem to be doing well. I really did like your article on the senior center. It's a travesty that people aren't doing more for the elderly."
He found himself blushing. "Oh, it wasn't much, Mom," he called back. He emailed the file to himself at The Planet and shut down his laptop. "Besides, working at The Planet has its set of consequences." He put on his glasses and moved into the living room.
She continued sewing. "By consequences you mean Linda."
He sighed and fell into the easy chair. "She's gunning for me. She'll be here."
"You should have told her a month ago." She shook her head and smiled.
"Could you not enjoy this so much?"
She shrugged. "It's not about you. I'm looking forward to some female company. After she's done lighting into you, I have a nice Beef Wellington and a Merlot for us." She stared at Clark. "I trust you'll have the brains to make yourself scarce by then."
"I'm sure I'll be in the city, anyway. Someone's bound to do something stupid on a Monday."
"If not, I think you should drive the truck into Metropolis, start getting your things in the apartment. Maybe clean it up a bit."
"Smells like kitty litter," he muttered.
"Take what you can get. The rent wasn't bad and the space is pretty nice."
He peered at her hands. "What are you working on?"
She held up a dress shirt. "Snaps. I'm sewing the buttons on the outside and putting snaps inside. That'll stop your reign of destruction."
He laughed, then turned serious. "What am I going to do, living alone?"
"Make some friends?" she asked hopefully.
"That'll be hard. I can't exactly have poker night if I have to constantly rush off." He leaned back and watched her work. "What about you?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, Clark. With everything settling, I have so much more time. I could start a book club, go antiquing. The possibilities are limitless."
"Yeah, but..." He broke off, standing. Something loud outside. "What is that?"
"Probably the chopper," Martha sighed, still sewing. "Tell Linda I'll be waiting when she's done with you."
He took a deep breath before moving. He knew that, the moment he got outside, he'd be confronted with an angry red-head. He was right.
The chopper had hardly touched down, when she jumped out. "Why can't you leave my cousin alone?"
"Linda, I..."
She rushed up. "All you put her through and you just can't stop. You..."
"I want to explain, but come to the barn. My mom..."
She looked at the house and seemed to calm down. "Yes. Okay. I don't want to put Martha through the pain of watching her son get creamed."
He led her in and started up the stairs. "We both know there's nothing you can do to me physically."
"Oh, but I can. I even thought of it. Do you know she has kryptonite in a box in her apartment?"
He turned at the top of the stairs. "What?"
Linda nodded and moved past him to the couch. "Yeah. She showed me. She even went online and showed me some of Chloe Sullivan's articles in The Torch. Most of the archives were deleted. Apparently, the paper went in less controversial directions after she graduated. 'Did you know our cousin did all this?' she asked me. It broke my heart. She even pulled up a picture of her and said 'She doesn't look the way I remember her. She looks a lot like me' And..." She sat down, covering her face. "I know she's thinking about Lucy somehow. And I had to cover and reinforce this lie and... This has been killing me, Clark."
"I'm sorry." He sat in the rocking chair.
"You should be. even with all that happened... If you hadn't shown up, she could have handled it. And now everything has changed and she's still getting close to the truth like she always did." She looked over at him. "She chose this, Clark. The least you could do is accept it and respect it."
"I've tried," he said. "I stayed away from her for so long, but I had to make sure she was safe. Linda... You know how she is. She never has a thought for her own safety. The girl wanders bad parts of town, she got herself mugged for real and... Well, one day I was just watching and Jimmy saw me and... Before I knew it, I had a job at The Planet."
"You could have said no."
"I didn't want to. And you have to believe me, I'm not trying to make things the way they were. She'd been getting close to my secret again. She was... Well..." He explained about the fish market and her investigation of the things he'd done.
"Yeah. Ollie told me about that job. But this one, he..."
"He didn't know. I haven't told anyone over there." He stared at her. "She hardly even tolerates me. I don't have a shot at even being friends with her again."
She folded her arms and sat back. "And Superman? What about him? He has a shot at putting her right back where she was."
"I won't take advantage of her."
"Again," Linda said loudly. "You won't take advantage of her again."
He nodded. "I know what I did. I'd give anything to change... some of it." He stared at the floor. "I just need to watch over her. I love her and..."
"What?" Linda stood and he found himself leaning away as she came over. "You love her and you say this to me and now, when it's too late, when she..."
He stood as well. "It wouldn't have made a difference, Linda. The things she went through, not just with me, but..."
"No." She pointed at him. "It would have made a difference. We women can take a lot of shit if we have the love of a good man."
He sat back down. "I'm not a good man."
"You could have been. She's never looked at anyone but you. And now..." Linda laughed bitterly and moved back to the couch. "Well, it's still true. Only you. There's better men, but I could never tell her that." She leaned her head back and sniffled. "I just want her to be happy."
"I want the same thing. And I want her to be safe. Linda..." He stood and moved to the couch. "We're not on opposing sides, here. I'm glad to see she has everything she wanted. I just want to help make sure she gets to keep it."
Linda took a deep breath and looked over at him. "And I want you to keep your distance. Can you do that?"
"I can. Clark, Superman... I won't let her get to close to either. I'll try my best."
She wiped her eyes and sat straighter. "Maybe you will. At any rate, she's not too into Clark anymore. That's my only comfort. She actually thinks you're just as dorky as I always did."
"Oh, good," he lied. Was he really dorky?
"Yeah. I asked her what she thought of you. 'Clark's like this geeky new kid at school. I think he has a thing for me, but honestly. Him? He'd probably faint if he saw my bra strap'" She laughed. "Yeah. I liked that."
He tried to laugh. He'd have to be more careful. She'd probably noticed how often he stared at her. He should focus on work, maybe. If he got fired, he'd have no way to look after her. "Linda, I'll be as dorky as you think I am. Dorkier."
"Good. Because I know where she keeps that kryptonite."
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