I'll Be You For Christmas
By: C. Leuch  <isuleuch@hotmail.com>
Rated: PG-13
Submitted: January, 2004

-------------------------------------

This story is a continuation of my next gen series, which 
started with Dawn Of Discovery. Reading those first would 
probably give you a better of idea of what's going on here, 
although I won't necessarily say they're required reading. 
The characters of Lois and Clark are property of DC Comics 
and Warner Brothers, all others are mine.

I'm dedicating this to LauraBF, my beta reader and a great 
writer. Hope your LnC muse comes back, because we could use 
a few more of your fics around here.

********************************


	Snow flurries were just beginning to fall as Jon Kent 
made his way onto the roof of the Daily Planet. Above, the 
sky was gray and dreary, the wind pushing the clouds along 
but bringing a decided chill to the air. Days like this 
made him extremely glad to be invulnerable, he thought in 
passing as he lazily spun into his suit and took off into 
the air.

	Christmas time was quickly approaching, but life at 
the Daily Planet took no breaks for holidays. Neither did 
the Metropolis PD, which was why he had been assigned the 
story he had. The police had decided to set up a 
prostitution sting this chilly evening, hoping in one bust 
to nab those who would buy a little bit of holiday 
companionship, and to pick up the women who would be 
willing to sell their bodies in another. His job was to 
observe a little bit of the action, then publish the names 
of the guilty, maybe with a little bit of personal 
information, just to try and take a bite out of what was 
become a booming industry. All in all, not a very exciting 
story, but in a city that was desperately trying to clean 
itself up before the holidays, it was important.

	The police had given him the location of the first 
bust, and he quickly zeroed in on it, deciding to land a 
couple blocks away, where there was a little less activity.  
The neighborhood was fairly nice and relatively close to 
the business district, where most of the known clients 
worked. Traffic was heavy both on the road and on the 
sidewalks as work was just getting out for most of the 
downtown. Weaving through the mass of people, he approached 
the site, a busy street corner. Under normal circumstances, 
it might have been hard to make out one or two people 
against the crowd, but in this case, he could easily make 
out two women, dressed in loud and tacky clothing, 
loitering near the roadway. Most of the passersby ignored 
them, briskly moving along toward an unknown destination. 
But every now and then, someone would stop and talk to 
these women, crowding them, touching them in ways that a 
stranger should have no business doing. Jon stopped about 
half a block away and watched for a moment as the operation 
moved, and the woman ushered the man to a nearby alley, 
where the man would disappear and the woman would emerge 
only a couple of minutes later. This happened a few times 
in the span of only a couple of minutes, a very efficient 
operation, to be sure.

	Satisfied that he had observed enough to satisfy the 
story he would be writing later that evening, Jon decided 
to move closer to the action and interview the personnel 
involved. With a smile, he slowly walked the remaining half 
block, blending into the crowd and eventually slipping 
behind one of the undercover officers unnoticed.

	"Hey, hot stuff," he said, his voice deep. Startled, 
the officer quickly turned toward him, offering an 
obviously faked smile until her eyes locked onto his face. 
The smile faded, but only for a moment, replaced with an 
expression that was far more sly.

	"Howdy. Looking for a little action, handsome?" she 
asked as she hiked up her fishnet stockings under her vinyl 
micro skirt. Her tongue ran across her frosted pink lips, 
and her sky blue eyelids batted a few times, just for 
effect.

	Jon smiled, playing along. "Well, see, if I say yes, 
I might get in trouble," he said, drawing a pout from her. 
"And my girlfriend would KILL me."

	Her hand slinked up and gasped onto his tie, pulling 
him into her. "What your girlfriend doesn't know won't hurt 
her. Besides, for you, I'll do it for cheap."

	"Cheap? You?" he asked, laughing a little at the 
question. The feather boa strung across her shoulder 
fluttered in the wind, revealing a bare shoulder. "I 
would've never guessed. But..." He let himself succumb to 
her light tug on his tie and leaned in toward her, his lips 
ending up dangerously close to hers.

	"Not so fast, sailor," she said, pressing the fingers 
of her free hand against his lips. "Follow me." With that, 
she led him by the tie to the alley, where an unmarked van 
lurked in the shadows. She looked toward the van, shook her 
head, then leaned up against the brick wall, her hand still 
firmly affixed to his tie. With a sultry smile, she pulled 
him in toward her again, and their lips met, this time in a 
long and steamy kiss.

	"Who knew I'd have a thing for trashy women," Jon 
commented breathlessly as she pulled away and relinquished 
her grip on the tie. Her mouth pulled into a smirk and her 
eyes narrowed at the comment, eliciting laughter from him.

	"You need any help down there, Di?" a voice called 
from the van.

	"I think I can handle this one," she called back as 
she placed her hands on her hips and regarded Jon again, 
eliciting more laughter from him.

	"So," he said, straightening out his tie, smiling 
devilishly. "I think you should wear this to dinner 
tonight. My mom would get a kick out of it," he said, 
appraising her, and watching as her eyes narrowed even 
further. The smile spreading across her face negated the 
effect, and soon he found himself being whapped across the 
face with the boa.

	"As much as I would like to show off my...assets to 
your parents, I will not be caught dead in anything like 
this once this stakeout is over," she said, turning toward 
the van. Her stiletto heels clicked briskly along the 
pavement, and he followed, removing his suit jacket as he 
went.

	"Here, you must be freezing," he said, wrapping it 
around her shoulders.

	"While wearing enough makeup to put Tammy Faye to 
shame does have some insulation value," she said, pulling 
the coat tightly around her. "Yes, I am freezing. Thank 
you." She looked over her shoulder and smiled, warming him 
up a little in the process. "You know, I've brought down 
the mob, I've patrolled the beat, but somehow this wasn't 
how I imagined spending my days on the force." When they 
reached the van, she pulled open the passenger door, 
sending a burst of warm air into the alley. The cop in the 
driver's seat eyed Jon suspiciously, drawing a nervous nod 
from him.

	"Marty, this is Jon Kent, with the Planet," Diane 
continued, regarding the other cop.

	"And also her jealous and highly protective 
boyfriend," he added, giving a sideways glance to Diane.

	The other cop looked between them a couple of times 
and shrugged, taking a sip from a cup of coffee. "So you 
come out here to see the show?" he asked, drawing a 
venomous glance from Diane.

	She then looked toward Jon questioningly. "Actually, 
that's a good question," she said, rubbing her hands 
together and holding them in front of the van's hot air 
vent.

	"I've been assigned to cover this story for the 
Planet. I SWEAR I had no idea that Diane would be here, 
outside of her precinct, might I add. That was just a 
bonus."

	"I just BET it was," Diane mumbled, drawing a snort 
from the other cop, who quickly turned away, giving his 
attention to other matters as two sets of eyes immediately 
turned toward him. "I'm stayin' out of this one," he 
muttered, taking another sip of coffee. Diane and Jon 
turned toward each other, each wanting to say something, 
but neither having the fortitude to go first.

	After a moment, Jon leaned over and gave Diane a 
quick peck on the cheek, careful not to land squarely in 
the middle of the mountain of blush. "And before I dig any 
more holes here, I think I'll check in with the precinct 
and see how that end of it goes."

	"You're a smart one, Kent," she said, reaching up to 
wipe away a lipstick smear from his mouth.

	"Did I mention that I'm also, you know, highly 
protective and jealous," he said, regarding the rather 
large opening in her shirt in the chest region.

	Diane smiled a sultry smile. "Yeah, I think I heard 
that." She placed a finger under his chin and gently pushed 
upward until his eyes were looking into hers again. "And 
we're both professionals, no matter how much it must just 
kill you," she added, bringing a conciliatory nod of the 
head from him. She took off the jacket and handed it to 
him, then fluffed her hair and her chest region, closed the 
van door, and began to walk back toward the street. "Seven 
tonight, right?" she asked over her shoulder.

	"Right. And feel free to wear that if you want," he 
added.

	Diane wiggled her hips and kept walking. "In your 
dreams, Kent, in your dreams." Jon could only watch as she 
entered the crowd again and resumed her position, 
professional, in that dirty girl kind of way that could 
drive a man crazy. With a glance into the van at the 
laughing policeman, Jon headed out of the alley and away 
from the action, toward the police station. Somehow, days 
like this hadn't entered into his planning when he had 
started dating a cop. Too bad, too, because outfits like 
that could make the whole thing worthwhile.

***

	Jenny tore a handful of paper out of the notebook, 
and tossed it into the fireplace in CJ's apartment, adding 
to the sizable pile that was already there. Finals had just 
officially finished the day before, and something about 
tearing into that reminder of her suffering just felt good.

	"Goodbye, political science," she said, wiping her 
hands against each other to get of the flecks of paper 
leftover from the notebook binding.

	CJ tossed a stack of old quizzes and tests on top of 
the rest. "And goodbye, history of modern socialism."

	"Are you sure you're not going to miss that?" Jenny 
asked, her eyebrow arched. "I mean, in the real world, we 
discuss theories on the evolution of socialism all the 
time. Might just help in your future quest for justice 
against criminals and all that stuff."

	"If Karl Marx tries to rob a bank, yes. Otherwise, I 
get the sneaking suspicion that it won't really come up," 
CJ answered, deadpan. "What about you? Political science is 
important stuff."

	Jenny shrugged. "I'm keeping the textbook. The notes 
don't matter."

	"Except when you symbolically want to get rid of 
them," CJ finished, bringing a nod from Jenny.

	"So what are you waiting for?" she asked, gesturing 
toward the pile. The next moment, CJ squinted at the stack 
of paper, and instantly they shot into flames.

	"We should've brought marshmallows," Jenny muttered, 
and CJ laughed.

	"I'm way ahead of you," he said, walking into the 
kitchen, reaching into the cupboard, and retrieving a bag 
of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, and a large 
Hershey bar. Jenny sat cross legged on the floor and shook 
her head, chuckling. "What would the ceremonial burning of 
last semester's notes be without smores?" he asked.

	"Well, I wouldn't know. This is kind of a first for 
me," she said, retrieving a poker from the set of fireplace 
tools and skewering a marshmallow with it. "You know, we 
are completely going to ruin our supper."

	"It's for a good cause," CJ said, kneeling next to 
her and adding his marshmallow to the skewer before guiding 
it into the fire. "Besides, we have a few hours."

	"Which reminds me," Jenny said, watching the flames 
lick the confection. "I want to get there early. I need to 
ask your mom about what to get for Christmas for the 
Superman who has everything."

	"She'll just tell you that he wouldn't want anything. 
And it's true," CJ said, cuddling up to Jenny and putting 
his arm around her waist.

	Jenny closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. "I know," 
she said. "But it just feels wrong not getting him anything 
when he's been so generous to offer to fly us to my folk's 
place and back for Christmas Eve."

	"Well," CJ said thoughtfully. "I've found the 
humorous things tend to work pretty well. Did I tell you 
about the time we got him real authentic strength pills 
from the nutrition store?"

	"'For the man who only wishes he could be faster than 
a speeding locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a 
single bound,'" Jenny said, laughing at the mental picture 
it brought. "I remember those. Superman pills, they called 
them."

	"I remember him using the phrase, 'paybacks are 
heck', in connection with that present, too," CJ added, 
opening the packages of graham crackers and chocolate and 
arranging them for the impending smores.

	"This is why I'm asking your mom - you're no help at 
all," Jenny replied, drawing the marshmallows from the fire 
and examining them. "This okay for you, or are you one of 
those people who only think a marshmallow is done after it 
turns into a charcoal briquette?"

	"Works for me," CJ answered, pulling the marshmallows 
off the pokers and placing them on the assembled bits. "Bon 
appetite," he said, raising the smore. Jenny raised hers in 
the air as well and they brought them together with a 
crunch before digging in. Maybe they were ruining their 
supper, but with Kent family gatherings, there tended to be 
less eating and more talking. Besides, political science 
and the history of modern socialism never tasted so good.

***

	"We're going where?" Lois asked as she closed the 
house door behind her. Clark removed his coat and held out 
his arm as he headed toward the closet. Lois quickly 
shrugged out of her trenchcoat and handed it to him as she 
bent down and pried off her heels.

	"Well, the way I see it, this is the first Christmas 
that we'll be having since Jenny and Diane unofficially 
became members of the family," Clark started.

	"What about Jenny's roommate, the snoopy one?" Lois 
asked, kicking aside one shoe, then the other.

	"Susan? Yeah, her too I guess. Anyway, since this is 
the first official family gathering of the holiday season, 
why not do it someplace special?"

	Lois placed one hand on her hips and looked at him, 
thinking. "You're the chef," she said, walking slowly 
toward the stairway. "I mean, if it were up to me, 
tonight's meal would be around several boxes of pizza."

	Clark smiled and followed her toward the stairs. "The 
chef feels like eating out tonight, that's all. Plus think 
of it this way - that's eight plates, eight glasses, eight 
sets of silverware, and one large kitchen that you won't 
have to clean up after they leave."

	"That I won't have to clean up?" she asked, throwing 
a glance across her shoulder. 

	Clark had seen that look enough to know what it 
meant. "That WE won't have to clean up," he amended.

	"Better," Lois said with a smile, climbing the 
stairs.

	Clark ran up a couple of the steps to catch up to his 
wife. He laid his hand on the small of her back, causing 
her to pause. As he made it to the step behind her, he 
leaned forward and placed a kiss on her neck. "You always 
liked Sydney this time of year, as I recall," he said. 
Memories of nights of the past spent in the shadow of the 
famous opera house ran through both their minds.

	"Can you blame a girl?" she said, leaning back 
slightly. "A little bit of summer sure feels good after the 
snow starts flying around here."

	The hand on Lois's back found its way to her stomach, 
as his free hand grasped the railing. "Nothing like an 80 
degree, bug-filled supper to put you in the holiday 
spirit," Clark practically whispered against her neck, 
causing her to start laughing.

	"Clark Kent, the last romantic," she said as she 
pulled away from him and continued up the stairs. 

	"I try," he said, smiling. "But seriously, I don't 
think we've ever brought the kids all the way down there. 
It'll be a nice change. AND it will be romantic."

	Lois shrugged as she reached for her earrings. 
"You're the boss," she said, then turned to regard him with 
a sly smile.

	"I'll believe that when I see it," he answered, 
eliciting another round of laughter from Lois. With a 
dramatic sigh, he trudged up the stairs and into their 
bedroom, toward his waiting wife who, with any luck, would 
demonstrate to him all the ways that she was, in fact, the 
boss. And hopefully before the kids arrived.

*** 

	Diane pulled her jacket tighter as Jon piloted her 
car into the driveway of the Kent family home, next to a 
well used sedan that she was sure belonged to his brother. 
The heater in the car had been turned to broil for the 
better part of the journey as she tried to drive the chill 
out of her bones that had settled in after a long, cold day 
in fishnets and cashmere. Jon, bless his heart, didn't make 
any mention of the heat in the car. If he felt any 
discomfort at all, it was well hidden. Long after most 
mortal men would've shed their coats and blazers, rolled up 
the sleeves and loosened the tie, he sat comfortable and 
proper, and fully clothed.

	He regarded her with a smile as he turned off the 
ignition. "You can't still be cold," he remarked. Diane 
just raised her eyebrows and nodded. She suspected that he 
didn't know what it felt like to be truly, bone-chillingly 
cold. "It has to be ninety degrees in here," he added.

	Diane shrugged. "I think I'm going to make a beeline 
for your folk's fireplace once I get in there. That and a 
little eggnog will take me a long way."

	A spark of something mischievous shone in his eye as 
he reached for the door handle. "If you need me to help you 
warm up, just say the word."

	Diane smiled slyly and opened her door. "I can think 
of ways for you to warm me up, but somehow I don't think 
this is the place."

	She laughed as his face turned an interesting shade 
of pink, and instantly she felt one hundred percent warmer. 
Something about laughter just seemed to light an inner 
fire, making any unpleasant feelings just slip away. And in 
the months since she'd met Jon, she'd probably laughed more 
than she ever had before.  Walking around the car, she took 
his hand in hers and they walked silently toward the door, 
the cool chill of the air a forgotten memory. They climbed 
the steps, and Jon raised his hand to knock on the door, 
but he never got a chance. Both Jon and Diane wore 
expressions of surprise as the door was yanked open in 
front of them, and they were greeted with the smiling face 
of Jon's younger brother.

	"G'day!" CJ said as both Diane and Jon's eyebrows 
rose in unison. There had to be a punch line there 
somewhere, but CJ just looked at them with an odd smile, 
one that conveyed that he knew something that they didn't. 
After a moment, he stepped aside to let them in.

	Jenny had come up behind CJ, and as he stepped 
backwards, she wrapped her arms around him. "Subtle, honey, 
REAL subtle," she said, causing CJ's grin to deepen into a 
smirk. "Hey Jon, Diane," she said as she turned to the new 
guests. Diane raised her hand in greeting, still confused.

	Turning her head as she entered the house, Diane 
noticed that Lois and Clark stood in the middle of the 
living room, Clark's arm draped over Lois's shoulders, both 
of them appraising a large, freshly cut Christmas tree. The 
lights had already been strung, and the tree glowed, 
filling the room with warmth. Laura was fishing handfuls of 
ornaments out of a large Tupperware container, holding them 
up in front of certain parts of the tree and waiting for an 
approving nod before hanging it from the bough and 
continuing on to the next. Off in the corner, a fire burned 
in the fireplace, the mantle above already lovingly 
decorated, with five large stockings hanging down, awaiting 
their booty. It was an ordinary holiday scene with a family 
that was at once so very normal, but also so very special. 
It bothered her, then, that her police instincts were 
telling her that something was up, something that she 
couldn't quite pinpoint. As she stripped off her coat, she 
took a deep breath, then noticed what was missing - food. 
She couldn't smell any food at all, and they had come here 
for dinner. The possibilities brought a smile to her face.

	 "Hi everyone," Jon said, finally getting the 
attention of Lois and Clark. Laura put down the ornaments 
and shoved a box under the tree, looking expectantly at her 
father. It occurred to Diane that part of the odd feeling 
she had been having was related to the clothing that Lois, 
Clark, and Laura wore. It was definitely winter in 
Metropolis, but Lois was wearing Capri pants and a short-
sleeved blouse. Clark had on chinos and a polo, and Laura's 
hair was pulled back in a ponytail, lifting her dark hair 
off her bare shoulders. Diane smiled more widely as she 
came to the realization that wherever they were going for 
dinner, it was definitely warmer than it was here.

	"Hi Jon, Diane. We thought we'd go out for supper 
tonight," Clark said. He grinned as he reached for a stack 
of books in the coffee table, finally drawing out a world 
atlas. "I was thinking that Australia would be nice about 
now."

	"Australia? Wow," Jon said, making his way toward his 
father. The two talked in hushed tones over the map, 
flipping pages and pointing as they apparently discussed 
the travel route. Diane caught herself pondering an evening 
with kangaroos and koala bears in the outback feeling 
positively giddy.

	"We'll fly in shifts, I'll take Lois first and Jon 
will follow with Diane. Then we will come back and get the 
rest of you. How does that sound?" Clark said, regarding 
everyone else in the room. Jenny, CJ, and Laura all nodded 
happily, and with that, Jon and Clark headed toward the 
backyard with Lois and Diane closely behind, the 
characteristic whooshing sound announcing that the men had 
changed into uniform, and the flights were ready to depart.

	Only a few seconds after Clark took off with Lois, 
Jon gathered Diane into his arms and leapt into the sky. 
The ground quickly fell away beneath them, and they were 
off, streaking across the United States at a speed that 
Diane didn't even want to contemplate. The view was 
magnificent, as always, but she found her eyes drawn toward 
Jon. She still wondered how it was that they had ended up 
together, especially given how rocky their relationship had 
been at the outset. Rocky might not be the right word, she 
thought, amending herself. She had hated him, and that's 
all there was to it. Granted, she had to admit that there 
had always been that spark of pure physical attraction, but 
it had taken the revelation that he was the Crimson 
Superman to convince her that maybe he was an okay guy, 
after all.

	Diane studied his face, smiling despite herself. It 
was amazing how prejudice could convince you that someone 
was someone that they were not. Once she got past her 
prejudice against all reporters and allowed herself to get 
to know him, she had found that he was everything that she 
had ever wanted in a man. He was devastatingly handsome, 
that much was for sure. He was strong-willed, confident, 
yet soft spoken, and not too stubborn or macho to be 
involved with a woman who was hard-nosed and strong-willed 
herself. His sense of humor was subtle, but always there. 
She loved that he was interested in the same things that 
she was, too. Interestingly, the fact that he was also a 
superhero didn't really enter into the equation. Well, 
maybe it did at first. And she had to admit that the powers 
and the rescues were integral to who he was, but they did 
not define who he was, not by any stretch of the 
imagination.

	She still had a hard time believing how she had 
gotten so lucky as to have a man such as him be interested 
in her. She knew better than to look a gift horse in the 
mouth, as the saying went, but it was hard not to feel a 
little overwhelmed when he took her out to dinner in Europe 
from time to time. And tonight - Australia! After a day of 
freezing her tail off while pretending to be a cheap 
streetwalker, it was the best possible reward she could ask 
for. She felt like screaming into the clouds that she loved 
this man, even if she wasn't normally the type to give 
sappy platitudes. She couldn't help but love him.

	"Are you going to visit your folks for the holidays?" 
Jon asked Diane, interrupting her quiet contemplation. It 
was a question that she had secretly hoped he wouldn't ask, 
and she cringed inwardly as she tried to think of a way to 
phrase her answer. The Pacific Ocean now flashed by below 
them, the sun, still low in the sky, reflecting the oranges 
and purples of the twilight off the water. It truly was a 
beautiful and serene sight, but she ignored it in favor of 
her hands.

	"You know the cost of airfare nowadays," she said, 
knowing that the irony wouldn't be lost on him.

	He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Yeah I wish I knew 
where you could find some inexpensive flights," he said, 
trying to inject a little humor into the conversation as he 
brought her fractionally closer toward his chest.

	She looked up toward him, trying her best to smile 
and wishing she could think of a way to change the subject 
without being too obvious. "You see my dilemma, then," she 
said in a flat voice, turning away to look at the scenery.

	Jon sighed. She had never been very good at evading 
his questions, as much as she hated to admit it. "So what's 
wrong? You don't get along with your folks?" he asked. The 
subject of her parents had been brought up once or twice in 
the course of their young relationship, both times somewhat 
in passing, but she had never allowed herself to indulge in 
the details of her family during the conversations. Maybe 
he deserved to know at least a little about them, 
considering the trust he had placed in her. But somehow she 
didn't think that he would be happy with the full truth.

	 "Kind of. Over the last few years we just drifted 
apart. I was busy with my career, and they were busy with 
their lives. I told myself that it was for the best, 
because whenever I thought of home, I thought of the anger, 
all the anger that just seems to hang in the air there. I 
stopped being angry when I met you," she said, closing her 
eyes and resting her head on his chest. "But sometimes, 
right around this time of year, I think about them, and I 
get the urge to pick up the phone...."

	Jon nodded. It probably wasn't something he could 
fathom, to be willingly separated from the people who 
raised and loved you. But not everyone had the type of 
family that he had, and not everyone's home life had been 
filled with love and understanding. "A phone call is 
cheap," he said. "If you can't handle talking to your 
parents, you can always hang up. Maybe they'd like to hear 
how happy you are, how well things are turning out for 
you." His optimism was truly uplifting, and she thought for 
a second that maybe, just maybe, he had a point.

	Diane shrugged, then looked up at him with a smile. 
"I am happy," she said. "But I know that as soon as I tell 
my father about you, he'll start swearing at me in 
Spanish."

	Jon wrinkled his nose. "The reporter grudge?" he 
asked, and she nodded.

	"If you thought I used to be bad, talk to him 
sometime. You could be a saint and he still wouldn't trust 
you."

	"What about a superhero? I might just have a shot at 
that one," he said, coaxing a laugh out of her, finally.  
They flew in silence for a moment, both content to watch 
the ocean as the sun rose higher into the air in front of 
them.

	"I just don't think I'm ready to go back there yet," 
Diane said, her voice making it plain that her mind was 
made up. "Besides, I like being part of your family."

	"And I know they're glad to have you. I sure am," Jon 
said, kissing the top of her head. Within moments, a large 
landmass began to appear on the horizon, one that could 
only be the Australian continent. As they reached land, 
their course changed southward, toward Sydney. Soon enough, 
they were landing in a dark alley of the city, near an 
outdoor bistro, where Lois was already sitting at a large 
table. Jon gave her a wave and a nod, and set Diane on the 
ground, giving her a quick kiss before taking off into the 
air again. 

	Jon and Clark soon returned to Sydney with their arms 
full, and the family finally got together at the downtown 
bistro. Suppertime in Metropolis just happened to coincide 
with an early lunch hour in Australia, and as they ate and 
talked, the bistro started to fill up with other patrons. 
The weather was pleasantly warm, a far cry from the snowy 
blandness that awaited them in Metropolis. Diane found 
herself almost too warm, although she wasn't about to 
complain - she was having far too much fun to complain. 

	After the meal, they wandered around the city, taking 
in the sights. The harbor was beautiful under the noontime 
sun. The opera house, on the other side, with the Harbor 
Bridge behind it, was as beautiful as the pictures had made 
it out to be. Eventually they made their way to the zoo, to 
see all the native creatures that she had been so anxious 
to behold. Koala bears, kangaroos, and platypii, among 
other exotic beasts, called the place home, and each of 
them scrambled to have their pictures taken with the 
creatures. Diane wondered briefly if she would ever be able 
to show anyone those pictures, taken in a place that she 
surely didn't have the money or vacation hours to visit. It 
was strange to think that she'd have to keep some sort of 
hidden photo album, that she'd have to keep some memories 
concealed from even her closest friends, but she really 
didn't mind all that much, because she knew that she always 
had the rest of the Kent family to share these memories 
with. And Jon, who was quickly becoming her constant 
companion, would always be in the know, too. As long as she 
had him, she couldn't feel too resentful about the extreme 
privacy that her life had to hold.

	As the afternoon wore on, they wandered back toward 
where they had begun, passing through the parks by the 
harbor, the skies above starting to fill with dark clouds. 
She had heard Clark mention sometime during dinner that 
Sydney was sunny for over 300 days a year. Apparently the 
early part of the summer brought the storms, however, and 
as they stopped to take in one last look at the city 
skyline, thunder was beginning to roll overhead. Jon looked 
up at the sky, no doubt appraising the weather, then looked 
at her. His gaze held concern, and he didn't need to tell 
her that he was worried about her getting caught in a 
rainstorm. After being frozen, lightly snowed upon, and 
finally thawed, the last thing she needed was to endure a 
heavy rainfall.

	"You want to head back?" he asked her, and she looked 
out across the harbor, drinking in the view. In truth, she 
wanted to stay a little longer, but she also knew that the 
hour was becoming late back home.

	Diane sat down on a wrought iron park bench, 
motioning for Jon to join her. Thunder rumbled heavily as 
he sat next to her, but she really wasn't in any rush. "I 
was just thinking how romantic this is," she said, giving 
him a smile.

	His hand wandered onto her knee as his eyes followed 
hers across the harbor. "I guess I'd never thought of 
Sydney as a romantic place before," he said, and she nodded 
silently.

	"It's not really the place so much as the company, 
when you get right down to it," she said, and he slowly 
turned toward her, his expression somber. Lightning flashed 
in the distance, but she saw only his face. Slowly they 
leaned in toward each other and their lips met. The kiss 
was soft at first, barely a brush of the lips against each 
other. But gradually it deepened, and she found herself 
melting into him, devouring him, until, finally, she became 
aware of the world around her again. She smiled and giggled 
as they began to pull apart, her tongue licking her lips. 
He chuckled lightly, his eyes hungry, his breath still 
heavy against her lips. Under normal circumstances, she 
knew what came next, but they were in a foreign country, in 
public no less, and the next step would have to wait until 
they got home. Suddenly, she decided that maybe he was 
right - maybe they should go home sooner rather than later. 
She thought about saying as much, but before she got a 
chance, there was a bright flash of light.

	Later, Diane would think back on that moment and 
wonder how she could not know what it was. But at the time, 
all she knew was that suddenly it was very bright, and very 
hot, and she couldn't understand why. As the light went 
away and she got a chance to look around, she noticed that 
CJ and Jenny, who sat on a neighboring bench, appeared to 
have experienced the same thing. Lois and Clark, standing 
hand in hand nearby under the lone tree in the park, also 
seemed stunned. Diane's body felt tingly, but not in a bad 
way. She didn't think she had been hurt, but as some people 
began to approach from other ends of the park, she could 
hear their murmurs, and she began to wonder what exactly 
had happened.

	"My goodness, are you okay," a woman, who had 
practically sprinted to the site, asked. Diane looked at 
Jon, then looked at the woman, and didn't know what to say.

	"What happened?" Jon asked, looking genuinely 
confused. The woman gaped at him.

	"You were struck by lightning," she answered, 
disbelief in her voice. "It was the most amazing thing I've 
ever seen. It arced from that tree to each bench, and to 
those folks by the tree."

	"Lightning?" Jenny asked from the neighboring bench, 
and suddenly Lois and Clark were right next to them, both 
of them apparently over their earlier confusion.

	"Are you sure that's what you saw?" Lois was asking 
the woman, a hard edge present in her voice that Diane had 
never really heard before. She knew about the legend that 
was Lois Lane, reporter, but she had never beheld what it 
meant to be at the receiving end of one of her interviews. 
Now she was pretty sure that she was happier not knowing.

	The woman looked at Lois, a spark of anger in her 
eyes. "I've never been so sure of anything," she said, then 
turned back to Diane and Jon. "So are you okay?" she asked 
again, and Diane nodded weakly. "Do you need me to call the 
paramedics?" she asked, and all the Kent men began to shake 
their heads vehemently.

	"I think we'll be okay, thanks," Clark said, and that 
seemed to satisfy the woman. Other bystanders seemed to 
lose interest at that point, and they slowly wandered off, 
leaving the Kent clan alone once again.

	"Did it...?" Clark asked his wife, but as Diane 
watched in amazement, Lois nodded and rose ever so slightly 
off the ground. Diane looked down at Lois's feet, and she 
was shocked to see that there was nothing under them. Lois 
was levitating herself. But Lois couldn't do that, could 
she?

	"What the...?" CJ said softly, dittoing Diane's 
thoughts. They were all looking at Lois with varying 
degrees of surprise, all except Clark, who seemed very 
resigned.

	"Lightning has been known to do...interesting 
things," Clark said softly. "Including transferring my 
powers."

	Slowly, Jenny turned toward CJ and Diane looked 
toward Jon, each with identical expressions of wide-eyed 
surprise on their faces. "If I'm touching someone when I'm 
struck, that's when it happens. Even if there's just metal 
between us, that's all it takes. It hasn't happened in a 
very long time," Clark continued, but Diane's mind was 
spinning. She was touching Jon when it happened...AND there 
was metal between them. Did that mean...could she...?

	Fat raindrops started to fall, interrupting her 
thoughts. It was now definitely time to leave, she knew. 
Jon gathered her up in his arms before she had a chance to 
ponder the situation anymore, and before she knew it, they 
were streaking across the vast Pacific.

	"Do you think it's true?" Diane asked after a couple 
of minutes. Jon didn't turn toward her, his expression 
unreadable.

	"My mom floated," he said finally, shaking his head. 
"That made a believer out of me."

	"But what about us? Do you think I could do that, 
too?" she asked, and Jon took a deep breath. Maybe he was 
afraid of that prospect, she thought. Or maybe he was just 
feeling overwhelmed by the whole situation, which she could 
believe. But what if she COULD fly? "I want to try," she 
whispered, and Jon looked at her sharply, alarmed.

	"Here?!" he practically choked, but Diane only 
nodded. "We're miles in the air, going several times the 
speed of sound. What happens if you can't?" he asked. She 
loved it when he was concerned about her, but she would not 
be swayed on this. To be able to fly would be incredible, 
and she had to at least try. And what better place was 
there to do it, over an empty ocean, with nobody around to 
observe and miles between her and any possible harm that 
could come to her.

	"Then you'll be there for me," she said, her hand 
working its way up and absently playing with his hair. She 
could feel his tension drain away, and he ducked his head.

	"Okay," he finally acquiesced. "Move around so that 
you're spread out underneath me," he said. His arm around 
her chest pinned her tightly against him as he dropped the 
arm that held her legs, and she twisted in his grip and 
spread herself out so that she was laid out, directly 
underneath him. The flight seemed totally different from 
this new perspective, and she immediately had a deeper 
understanding of how the birds felt. It seemed so much more 
like she was soaring now, gliding along the sky above the 
earth, free. But she wasn't content with this, and Jon knew 
it.

	"Take my hand," he said, placing his free hand in 
hers. She grasped it tightly, a cold wave of excitement 
washing over her as she realized what was coming next. 
"Ready?" he asked, and she nodded. With that, the arm that 
had held her solidly to his chest fell away, and she 
gasped. But, to her amazement, she didn't fall. She held 
Jon's hand tightly, knowing that was all that held them 
together now, but she willed herself to drift sideways, out 
from underneath him. She grasped him, changing grips until 
finally they were flying side by side, both of their arms 
spread out as far as they could, their hands grasped 
together. There was only one more thing to do, she thought, 
but faced with the possibility of what letting go could do, 
she gulped, reconsidering for a moment, but only a moment. 
She turned her head toward Jon, locking eyes with him, then 
nodded ever so slightly and let go.

	Part of her told her to close her eyes, to not 
witness the plummet to the ocean that might be coming. 
Another part of her just tried to concentrate on whatever 
it was that would keep her up in the air. In the end she 
did both, and as she pried her eyes open, she realized that 
she wasn't falling from the sky. The ocean was still 
rushing by below her, the clouds still floating above, and 
Jon was still beside her, just outside of her reach. She 
was flying!

	"You're doing it," Jon said, an awed tone in his 
voice. She turned back toward him and beamed.

	"I am," she said, then laughed. He laughed, too, and 
suddenly ducked underneath her and popper up on her other 
side. Confident now in her new ability, she started to 
rotate onto her back, enjoying the view above. It was so 
effortless, flying like this. All she had to do was will 
herself to do something, and it was done. With a whoop, she 
willed herself to go faster, and suddenly Jon was behind 
her, but it only took a second for him to catch up. For the 
rest of the flight back to Metropolis, they were like 
children, playing and laughing in the sky. Then, finally, 
as they approached Metropolis, he floated over and took her 
in his arms once more, and they landed.

	The magic that the sky beheld felt suddenly like it 
was very much behind her. Having her feet solidly on the 
ground again brought reality crashing back to her, and it 
almost felt as if the flying were some distant dream. They 
were back in Metropolis, back to the clouds and the dark 
and the flurries and the cold, back to their jobs and their 
problems and their bills, back to a place where superpowers 
just didn't seem the same. That wasn't to say that they 
weren't special, but they just didn't seem to have as much 
bearing on her, here in reality.

	As she and Jon parted from the family for the 
evening, she looked upwards and remembered, and vowed that 
soon she would be up there again.

***

	It was hard to tell that anything had changed, Jenny 
thought during the return flight home. Maybe, if she tried 
really hard, she supposed that she could see things more 
clearly than she could before. Her eyesight hadn't exactly 
been terrible to begin with, but now it seemed that 
everything had maybe a little bit more definition. From as 
high up in the air as they were, the world generally just 
looked like a patchwork blob of colors. Sometimes roads 
could be seen crisscrossing the countryside like so many 
strands of a spider web. Towns would dot the scenery, dense 
grids of buildings with no features distinct from that 
height, at least not usually. Now, however, she could make 
out the cars on the roads below. In fact, she realized, if 
she wanted to, she could make out the license plate number 
on the car, or even the occupants inside. Details began to 
come into focus in towns now, too. She could zoom in on the 
yard of a house and distinctly tell what toys the children 
had left strewn about, or how long it had been since they 
cleaned up after the dog. It was amazing, she mused, to be 
able to see such things from several miles in the air. But 
honestly, how often would she be able to use such a power? 
It seemed that that particular find was to remain a fun 
toy, and nothing more.

	Outside of her newly enhanced vision, she couldn't 
really tell that anything was different. She didn't feel 
stronger, although in truth she hadn't tried to exercise 
her new strength. She couldn't hear anything past the 
howling of the wind as they flew, although she didn't 
imagine there would be much to hear at 40,000 feet. Her 
eyes didn't burn, her mouth didn't feel like it was capable 
of freezing anything, and she certainly didn't feel 
invulnerable, not that she was particularly keen on doing 
anything that would put that power to the test.

	As they landed in the backyard of the Kent home, she 
decided that she didn't really feel any different at all. 
It was funny, but she'd had what she thought at the time 
were entirely fantastic and unrealistic dreams about what 
it would be like to be able to do all the things that her 
fiance could do. To bend steel in her bare hands, to set 
something afire by even looking at it, to literally be able 
to jump a tall building in a single bound. In each dream, 
those abilities had come with a certain feeling of raw 
power, like she was a coiled spring ready to pop at any 
time. Yet now, even though she was pretty convinced that 
she did possess his powers and probably could do all those 
things, there was no raw energy, no feeling of absolute 
power. She was just boring old Jenny Sears still, not that 
there was anything wrong with that.

	Jenny and CJ hung around the Kent home until everyone 
arrived, then thanked Lois and Clark for a wonderful 
evening and left for home. "So what do you think about the 
whole thing?" CJ asked as they pulled away from the house. 
She turned toward him, trying to read his expression but 
not having much luck.

	"You mean about the fact that I'm essentially you 
right now?" she asked with a grin. CJ arched his eyebrows 
and gave a sideways nod. Jenny thought for a moment, then 
shrugged. "I don't know."

	"Come on, you can't tell me that you never thought 
about what you would do if you could, I don't know, look 
through any wall you wanted to. Or take any metallic object 
and turn it into a work of modern art in no time flat." CJ 
gave her a challenging, if somewhat bemused, look, and she 
turned away, trying to hide a smile. Psychic abilities were 
not in the repertoire of powers, she had to keep reminding 
herself, even though it often felt like he could read her 
mind.

	"Well, okay, I have, but it's all my subconscious's 
fault," she answered, and he smiled. "I don't want to go 
into details, but suffice to say, I did some interesting 
things with heat vision and massage oils."

	CJ shook his head. "Wish I'D thought of that," he 
muttered, and they both laughed. The conversation drifted 
into more mundane things as the ride continued on through 
Metropolis, and all too soon they pulled up to her 
apartment building. They parted with a kiss and a reminder 
of what the schedule would be for the next day, and with 
that, she found herself on her own for the remainder of the 
night.

	She had only been home a few minutes before deciding 
that a chilly December night called for a nice hot cup of 
tea. As she filled the cup under the faucet and got ready 
to set it in the microwave, the thought occurred to her 
that she should be able to heat it up herself now. So how 
exactly did the heat vision work, she wondered as she 
regarded the cup. Admittedly, it wasn't the most well-used 
power that CJ possessed, and the occasions that she had 
actually seen him used it were few and far between, and 
definitely did not apply to food. Sometimes he'd use it to 
dry things, such as hair or clothing, and sometimes he'd 
use it in place of a match. Way back when they first met, 
she'd seen him welding steel with it. If nothing else, it 
was clear that there was a bit of variability in the 
intensity of heat that he could produce - it obviously took 
a lot more to melt steel than it did to dry a sweater. But 
surely boiling water was something that should be easy 
enough, and should she give it too much of a zap, it should 
just vaporize, and that would be that, right? Sure. With a 
wry grin, she locked in on the water in the cup and 
concentrated.

	"Come on," she said under her breath, even as the mug 
began to feel warm. But as the seconds ticked by, it became 
clear that there was no boiling, at least not yet. It was 
strange how the water seemed to heave up in the cup, but it 
refused to bubble or sizzle, or do anything that water was 
supposed to do when it got hot. Frustrated, she 
concentrated a little harder, and as the cup began to get 
decidedly hot, there was a loud popping sound, and she 
found herself covered with hot water. With a groan, she 
reached for a towel and began to sponge herself off. The 
water had managed to cover most of the upper reaches of her 
kitchen, and was now dripping down in a simulated indoor 
rainfall. Well, that was a real great start to the 
superpower thing, she thought - she'd somehow managed to 
explode water. Fortunately, nothing worse had happened.

	Deciding to forego the tea, she headed toward the 
living room and flopped onto the couch, turning on the TV. 
Her roommate had gone home for Christmas and taken her wall 
of Superman stuff with her, much to the relief of Jenny and 
the entire Kent family. It was amazing how much Susan had 
grown up after the Zarate incident - she was no longer 
Superman obsessed, and for a good reason. She was even 
personable now, if not somewhat reserved, and was quickly 
becoming a good friend to Jenny. Susan had even been 
invited to supper tonight, and Jenny suspected that she 
wouldn't have missed it if she had known that there was a 
flight involved. Even so, it was good that Susan was at 
home, reconciling with her family.

	The fare on TV was moderately interesting, but after 
about an hour, Jenny found herself yawning. With a start, 
she realized that it was well past midnight, and most 
definitely time for her to get to bed. By the time her head 
hit the pillow, her eyelids were drooping, and she was sure 
that sleep would come within moments. But as she closed her 
eyes and settled in, she heard something. It was hard to 
pinpoint what the sound was, but the more she concentrated 
on it, the louder it became, to the point where it started 
to take on a life of its own, pulsing and throbbing and 
making her want to will it to just go away. She turned over 
and pulled her pillow over her head, yet it persisted and 
grew louder, and other sounds began to join it. People 
seemed to be talking as if they were in the same room as 
her; a stereo thumped away somewhere very close; a 
television blared a laugh track. Then, as she clamped her 
hands over her ears, there was a siren. She could've sworn 
that the emergency vehicle was right outside her bedroom 
door, as loud as the sound was. The high pitched wail felt 
like a needle boring right into her head, causing her to 
gasp and tears to spring to her eyes in sheer pain. She 
silently pleaded for the siren to just stop, please stop, 
but it persisted, and the ache was unbearable. After a 
while, the siren faded off into the distance, but another 
siren quickly took its place, joined by a chorus of loud 
traffic and miscellaneous machinery.

	What was happening, she wondered as she finally 
started sobbing. The noise seemed to drive away all her 
thoughts, both good and bad, to the point that there was 
nothing but raw, terrible pain. Somehow this had to be 
connected to the bolt of lightning, whether it was part of 
the new powers she possessed or some side effect of the 
electricity. In any case, she was certain that there was 
one person she could call who could maybe do something to 
make it all somehow disappear. Prying one of her hands away 
from her ear, she blindly reached for the phone and dialed 
CJ's number. As he picked up, she managed to sob his name 
before the incredible cacophony of sound became too much, 
and she had to clamp her hands over her ears once more. She 
was aware that she was still crying, and she tried to say 
more, but he had already hung up, no doubt on his way.

	It took ten agonizing minutes for him to arrive, ten 
minutes in which she swore she heard everything that was 
happening in that part of Metropolis, things that she 
didn't want to know had happened, things that she could 
only imagine happening. She could hear people breathing, 
insects skittering, buildings settling. She could hear the 
wind howling past the buildings, carrying dried leaves and 
dust and sand that sounded like cannonballs as they hit the 
obstacles in their way. In the middle of it all, she heard 
his key being inserted in her lock, and hurried footfalls 
as CJ rushed to her bedroom.

	"Jenny," he exclaimed softly as he entered the room, 
crawling onto her bed and embracing her from behind. She 
realized that she had somehow curled herself into a fetal 
position, with her eyes tightly squeezed shut and her arms 
over her ears. At his touch, she felt some of the tension 
and anxiety begin to flow away, even if the sounds of the 
city still continued to torture her.

	"What's wrong?" he asked, his voice soft, concerned.

	"I can hear it all," she rasped, the sound of her own 
voice thunderous. "It hurts so much."

	She heard him sigh heavily as he pulled her closer 
into him. His cheek rested against the back of her head 
momentarily, his hand gently stroking her arm. After a 
moment, she felt his grasp loosen. "Do you trust me?" he 
asked as he rose from the bed.

	Jenny nodded. It was a question that he really didn't 
need to be asking - she trusted him implicitly, and he knew 
that.

	"It's going to get a little louder in here, okay?" he 
continued, and no sooner had the words escaped his mouth 
than a thunderous sound filled the room. She flinched, but 
then realized that it was the radio, playing softly. CJ 
climbed back into the bed, wrapping his arms around her 
once again. As she let herself adjust to the relative 
loudness of the room, she realized that she couldn't hear 
all the sounds of the city anymore. Gradually she removed 
her arms from in front of her ears.

	"Concentrate on the music," CJ said, and she did. 
When she was a kid, back in Missouri, she remembered doing 
something similar when thunderstorms would roll through at 
night. The radio or the television always seemed to help, 
even if it didn't always drown out the thunder. It was a 
trick that she had long since grown out of, and it had been 
forgotten, at least until now. As she became lost in the 
memories of summers past, the only thing she let herself 
hear was the music, and the steady sound of their 
breathing.

	"Much better," she said, snuggling into him. After a 
moment, her eyelids were heavy again, and sleep beckoned. 
With the music to mask the sounds of the outside world and 
CJ in her bed to chase away all the other demons that would 
confront her, she finally fell into a fitful, dreamless 
sleep.

*** 

	The evening was beginning to get late when Laura 
finally wandered up to her bedroom. After such a hectic 
night, visiting other continents, seeing exotic animals and 
witnessing the big lightning strike, it would be nice to 
settle into her quiet bedroom for a good night's sleep. 
There would be no school in the morning, no commitments or 
obligations, and that suited her just fine. Maybe she could 
finally get a little shopping done the next day.

	As she reached the top of the stairs, she noticed 
that the ladder to the attic had been pulled down. Curious, 
she moved toward the opening in the ceiling, looking up 
into the normally dark void to try and see what exactly was 
going on up there. "Hello?" she said, craning her neck to 
see beyond the long shadows cast by the dim glow of a 
single incandescent light bulb against the towers of boxes 
above.

	"I'm up here," her mother said from above, the sound 
of the shuffle of boxes following her voice.

	Interested and suddenly not all that tired anymore, 
Laura began to ascend the ladder. "What are you doing up 
there?" she asked. Her experiences in the attic had been 
limited, at best, although she knew quite well what it 
looked like directly above her bedroom. She could also tell 
you the contents of most of the boxes right above where she 
slept every night, but the rest of the vast attic was a bit 
of a mystery.

	"Well, I came up here to find something, and I just 
got caught up in all the old memories," her mom said from 
the far corner. Laura wandered over there, curious. Her mom 
was not generally the type to get nostalgic, to dwell on 
old memories. Right now, she was sitting on an old wooden 
trunk, an ancient cardboard box open at her feet, the 
various items inside holding absolutely no meaning to 
Laura. There was a faraway look on Lois's face, although 
when she caught sight of her daughter, it instantly 
disappeared, replaced with something much more pleasant.

	Laura sat down next to her mother.  Absently, she 
reached into the box, pulling out what appeared to be a 
mobile, composed of cutouts of eyes pasted to bits of foam 
core. She turned to Lois, one eyebrow raised, and jiggled 
the mobile.

	"Please tell me that you didn't spend money on this," 
Laura said, eliciting a smile from her mom.

	"No, I didn't. And no, I don't know why I'm keeping 
it. I think your dad put it up here, actually, as some sort 
of reminder of what could've been." At Laura's questioning 
glance, Lois just shook her head and took the mobile out of 
Laura's hand and put it back in the box. "Maybe I'll tell 
you that story sometime," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Or 
maybe not."

	"So what are you looking for?" Laura asked, pulling 
back the corner of the box and seeing other miscellaneous 
items.

	"Something that I put safely away a long time ago and 
hoped to never see again. I might have done a little too 
good of a job," she said, turning her attention to another 
stack of boxes. She moved to take one off the top, when 
Laura laid her hand on her shoulder.

	"Can't you just..." she said, raising her eyebrows 
and pointing her middle and index fingers at the box.

	Lois shrugged and nodded. "Yeah, I probably could. 
But what fun is that?" she asked, finally wrestling the box 
from the top of the pile and setting it at her feet. As she 
pulled the top open, a bright swatch of pink could be 
easily seen. "Aha," Lois said, pulling the garment out.

	"Ugh, what is THAT?" Laura asked, appalled at the 
glaring brightness of the pastel pink and powder blue that 
assaulted her eyes.

	"Did I ever tell you about the last time I got super 
powers?" Lois asked, holding the suit up in front of her, 
appraising it.

	"You mean it's happened before?" Laura asked, looking 
between the suit and her mother, finally catching the 
significance of the outfit. In its own way, she supposed it 
did look like something a superhero would wear, with the 
tight spandex and the flowing cape.

	Lois set the costume aside, then pulled a pair of 
pink boots from the box. "It was before your dad and I got 
married. A criminal we ran across built a weapon that 
actually stripped your dad of his powers and transferred 
them to me. I was the one wearing the tights in the family 
for about two days."

	Laura gaped. Was that possible? Her mom, a superhero? 
She supposed, given her family situation, anything was 
possible. But her mom didn't need to possess superpowers to 
be able to move mountains and fight crime. Still, it was 
interesting to think of her mother assuming the hero 
duties, in that loud outfit no less. "So are you going to 
go out with daddy in that?" she asked, and Lois shook her 
head.

	"Um, no that's not what I had in mind. I just thought 
it might be nice to have around in case I needed to do 
some...traveling." Lois reached into the box and pulled out 
the final piece of the costume, a dark pink mask. "That is, 
assuming it still fits," she added, looking down at herself 
quickly.

	"Traveling?" Laura asked, although she had a good 
idea that she knew what kind she meant.

	Lois nodded, giving Laura a sly smile. "Well, Jenny 
cornered me tonight and asked me what to get your father 
for Christmas."

	"Me too," Laura quickly added. At the time, the 
question had surprised her, until she thought of the types 
of things that CJ generally got for her dad. It would be an 
understatement to say that CJ was the gag gift champion of 
the household, and if the gift was funny, or ironic, or 
outrageous, then he would be the one to give it. The closet 
in her parents' room was still littered with the 50th 
birthday, over the hill gifts from CJ. The Superman pills 
from last year were collecting dust in the bathroom 
medicine cabinet, and Laura couldn't say whether or not the 
Superman boxers had been put to good use, but she liked to 
think that they lurked beneath the suit some nights. Given 
that, it would stand to reason that he was hopeless in 
giving good gift recommendations.

	"And I realized that I really didn't know what I was 
going to get him. You know me and last minute shopping," 
Lois continued, and Laura nodded. The story that would get 
Lois Lane's Christmas dollars would be the one open latest 
on Christmas Eve - it was a rule of nature. "But then I 
thought, hey, there's no reason that I can't do a little 
shopping around now."

	"I like where this is going," Laura said, suddenly 
envisioning a nice batch of German chocolate sitting under 
the Christmas tree. She smiled eagerly. "Like, Europe?"

	"Sure," Lois said. "Or the Mall of America. Or, 
really, anywhere that we could think of. You want to come 
along?"

	"Do you have to ask?" Laura asked, and they giggled. 
"Just, please, tell me that when we're in public and in 
front of people, you won't wear that," she said pointing to 
the outfit. Lois mocked a look of hurt.

	"Pastels were big when I wore that," she said, but 
Laura only laughed harder. Lois gave her a sideways look, 
then started to close up the boxes around her and neatly 
stack them again.

	"What am I missing?" came her father's voice from 
near the opening to the floor below. In a second, he had 
climbed up the ladder and was walking toward them, a 
curious smile on his face.

	All the mock consternation that Lois had been wearing 
suddenly fell away, and she positively beamed as she 
reached for the pink suit and held it up in front of 
herself.  Clark started to laugh. "Ultra Woman! I wondered 
where you had gone off to."

	"Ultra Woman?" Laura muttered, wondering who even 
thought up a cheesy name like that. Somehow, though, it 
seemed to match the cheesy costume.

	"I've been in disguise all these years," Lois said. 
"Mild mannered reporter. Sound familiar?"

	"Well, you can't be talking about my wife," he 
answered. "Mild-mannered would be the last phrase I'd use 
to describe her. Ow!"

	Lois wore an evil grin as she nudged him in the ribs. 
Clark rubbed his side, giving her a dirty look that only 
lasted until he started laughing. "You know, Ultra Woman, I 
seem to recall, before you hastily left last time, 
wondering what was underneath that spandex. I mean, the 
suit obviously comes off..." He smiled wickedly, and Lois's 
cheeks turned red.

	After a moment, she composed herself, then smiled 
knowingly, approaching him and wrapping her arms around his 
neck. "Yes, the suit comes off," she said, sarcasm present 
in her voice, before kissing him. He wrapped his arms 
around her, deepening the kiss, causing her to arch into 
him.

	Here we go again, Laura thought, quickly rising from 
the chest and making her way back toward the opening and 
down the ladder. Once they started kissing, there was no 
escaping the make out session, and it was generally best 
just to let them be. With a sigh, she made her way toward 
her room again. As weird as things were right now, with her 
mom and Jenny and Diane all possessing superpowers, it was 
still nice to know that some things never changed.

***

	Diane stood up and walked toward her window, pulling 
back the drapes and staring out toward her street and 
beyond. The television was giving the report of the news of 
the day, but after her experiences that evening, she had a 
hard time finding the mundane stories of petty crime and 
local politics all that important. She looked upward, 
toward the skyline of downtown Metropolis in the distance, 
and let her mind wander. The jubilation of her experiences 
had worn off, but the knowledge that she was different now 
had remained, and as the evening had grown later, a vaguely 
unsettled feeling had taken hold of her.

	Phantom sounds had filtered into her consciousness 
almost from the moment that they had returned to 
Metropolis. At first, she had tried to dismiss what she was 
hearing as figments of an overactive imagination, 
especially since the noises were often vague - hums and 
scrapes and creaks that were present in the background 
everyday big city life. Sometimes she heard bits of 
conversation that weren't meant for her ears, interesting 
little tidbits that certainly wouldn't have been uttered if 
the speakers had known that they were being overheard. If 
she concentrated hard enough and looked far out into the 
distance, out of the normal range of human vision, she 
could sometimes see the source of the sounds. It didn't 
take much imagination to know that her enhanced hearing and 
sight were more of Jon's powers transferred to her, ones 
that would have a more immediate effect on her everyday 
life. She knew that it was only a matter of time before she 
heard something that wasn't mundane, that wasn't harmless, 
and that she'd feel compelled to do something about.

	As she scanned the city beyond her apartment, she 
began to wonder just what she'd do when that time came. 
Secretly, she hoped that she wouldn't be the only one to 
hear the cry in the night, that Jon or Clark would come to 
the rescue, and that she wouldn't have to worry about it. 
But realistically, she knew that even super hearing had its 
range, and if Clark and Jon were in their homes far from 
her neighborhood or if they were out of town or otherwise 
occupied, she would have to be the one to come to the 
rescue, and she didn't know if she could do that. No, she 
thought, she knew she could do it. She was a police 
officer, and she'd been in situations where she'd had to 
rescue people before, even without superpowers. But what 
police officers did differed sharply from what superheroes 
did, and if she were to do all the super things that she 
would inevitably have to do, she couldn't do it as a police 
officer. Or as herself.

	A frown began to appear on her face as she pondered 
the idea of having a secret identity. All her experiences 
in that area had been through Jon, and to a lesser extent 
through stories that she had heard from Lois and Clark and 
CJ. On the outside, she knew that they still managed to 
lead normal lives, even while their other selves had become 
well known and sought after heroes. Clark had successfully 
been two people for the better part of 30 years, so 
obviously he was doing something right. On the other hand, 
she knew that there were drawbacks to having dual 
identities, especially in personal relationships with 
others. What if she answered a call and ran into a 
colleague from work? How would she react the next day when 
the incident was discussed around the office, and questions 
were raised that she knew the answer to?

	Diane sighed. She supposed that she'd cross that 
bridge when she came to it, but deep down inside she was 
becoming more and more certain that the time was coming, 
and soon. Letting go of the curtain, she made her way back 
to the couch, settling in and forcing herself to watch the 
news. This night, some big murder trial made the headlines, 
and Diane had to stop herself from yawning as they 
discussed the finer points of the prosecution's case. But 
as the local news finished and gave way to the national 
news, the breaking story finally caught her attention. An 
oil refinery was ablaze in Texas, the flames jumping high 
into the sky, billowing thick black smoke into the air as 
it illuminated the whole surrounding area in an eerie 
orange light. As the cameras scanned the scene, the two 
supermen swooped down from the air to offer their help. She 
scooted closer to the screen, watching keenly as the camera 
caught Jon flying in and out of the blaze, carrying out the 
wounded and tending to the fire. She never tired of 
watching him work, but at the same time she never felt 
entirely secure seeing him do the things that no normal 
person could do. Tonight he was doing it all, and he 
appeared to be a little worse for the wear. In only a few 
minutes on the scene, he was already covered in a layer of 
back grime, his normally cheerful face holding a grim 
expression that spoke volumes to her. He was tired: she 
could tell just from his eyes, but he would stay as long as 
it took to do the job, no matter how weary he was. That was 
just the type of person he was, and that was a large reason 
why she cared for him so very much.

	Even as her attention was on the fire on television, 
a sound interrupted her thoughts. It was far away, she 
knew, but it was certainly clear and distinctive. There was 
no mistaking the terror that was held in that scream, nor 
the telltale sounds of a scuffle that accompanied it. 
Someone was in trouble somewhere out there, someone who 
needed help. She turned her head and looked through the 
wall and outside, her eyes darting back and forth as she 
searched the darkened alleyways and street corners for the 
source of the sound. Biting her lip, she turned back toward 
the TV, watching as the camera followed Clark this time, 
carrying a person to an ambulance. There was nobody in 
Metropolis to help whoever it was out there that had let 
out that scream, nobody but her.

	Her mind raced as she turned again toward the world 
outside. How much danger was the other person in? Was there 
a gun? A knife? As the scream came again, she stood, a 
sense of resolve building inside of her. Did it matter if 
there was a weapon involved? Wasn't she sworn to uphold the 
law and protect the innocent? Someone had to help that 
person, and it sure looked like that someone had to be her. 
With a deep breath, she stalked toward her bedroom, finding 
a set of black clothing to change into. It took only a 
second to dress, and another second to rush out of her 
apartment and onto the roof. Clutching her police radio in 
one hand, she willed herself up into the air and over the 
city, toward where the screams had come from.

	The scene was only a few blocks from her apartment. 
In an alley, away from a normally busy city street, a man 
was standing over a woman, a bloodied knife in one hand, 
her purse in another. The woman had lost consciousness, and 
apparently a lot of blood. Without a second's hesitation, 
Diane quickly dropped from the sky, no sooner landing next 
to the man before she delivered a knockout punch across his 
jaw. He fell to the ground with a thud, the steady rhythm 
of his breathing assuring Diane that he was still alive, 
although he would have one heck of a bruise once he woke 
up.

	"Officer in need of assistance. Please send backup 
and an ambulance," she radioed, giving a location before 
jumping atop a neighboring building to wait for the units 
to come. It only took a few minutes before a siren came 
screaming down the street, coming to a stop where she had 
said she'd be. The first officer on the scene seemed 
confused at what he saw, and as a radio discussion started 
to take place, Diane only smiled and backed into the 
shadows. She didn't need to reveal herself to them - the 
scene pretty much spoke for itself. The ambulance came soon 
enough, but as they were loading the woman onto a 
stretcher, another siren pierced her consciousness, this 
one quite far away. This time she didn't have any 
hesitations about doing what needed to be done. After one 
last look down at the crime scene, she lifted into the air, 
shooting across the city toward the new destination.

	The police radio crackled with news of an accident on 
the interstate, one that the police had yet to reach. The 
wreck was easy to spot, especially with all the headlights 
from backed up traffic behind it. She surveyed the scene 
from the air, scanning inside the car to see how the 
passengers were doing. With a start, she realized that at 
least two people inside the crowded car had died instantly, 
their faces frozen in the sheer terror of the last moments 
of their lives. Three other passengers were alive, but 
trapped, and it would take hours for the jaws of life to 
free them. Without another thought, she was on the ground, 
keenly feeling the eyes of passers by on her as she ripped 
the car apart and floated all the victims, both alive and 
dead, from the car. The police were just arriving as she 
finished up, but she didn't stick around to socialize. 
There was another siren across town.

	The night wore on, crisis followed by disaster 
followed by accident. As she moved from crime scene to 
crime scene, she began to lose track of how many people 
she'd helped, how many calls she'd made to local police 
precincts, how many people had seen her do extraordinary 
things and gasped audibly. But with all that she'd done and 
all that she'd seen, one thing that she'd never forgotten 
were the faces of those that she hadn't been able to save. 
Each one of those was burned into her memory, torturing 
her, driving her on to each new crisis, driving her away 
from Metropolis if necessary, but always driving her. She 
knew that she was tired, but sleep was the furthest thing 
from her mind. As long as there was a need for her, she 
would continue on, so continue on she did, even after the 
sun began to peek above the horizon.

---

	Jon yawned and looked toward the east, noticing the 
black of the sky turning to a lighter shade of violet as it 
met the ground. The sun would be rising soon, and the fire 
was only now beginning to become manageable. He hated large 
fires, if only because one wrong move could mean the 
difference between something small and containable, and a 
large-scale disaster. Fire, more than anything else, had 
the ability to cause horrific injury and loss. It also was 
the one type of disaster that was most immune to super 
intervention. He could rescue those in the fire's path, but 
fire fueled by chemicals and oil couldn't be doused with 
even the coldest breath he could muster, not that he had 
ever been able to muster much cold to begin with, and 
invariably he would become just another fireman, handling 
hoses and dousing agents, and waiting.

	Superman landed next to Jon after a second, his eyes 
following Jon's toward the eastern sky. "You need to be to 
work this morning," he said, the statement not in question. 
Neither of them needed to say that it was already morning, 
and that rush hour was approaching quickly in Metropolis, 
one time zone to the east.

	"Do you?" Jon asked, and Clark nodded, then shrugged.

	"Nobody worries about me when I don't show up right 
on time. But you're still under your probationary period," 
Clark said, and Jon nodded. They had had this conversation 
on a few late night rescues, and he was always secretly 
relieved that his father was willing to take the extra 
super work in order to keep Jon in good standing as a new 
employee at the Planet. He wondered how his dad was able to 
do it when he was a new reporter, but he never asked. "Go 
on," Clark said quietly, and Jon turned toward him, 
offering him a smile for the first time since they had 
arrived in Texas.

	"Thanks, Dad," he said. Clark laid a hand on his 
shoulder and returned the smile, then took off again toward 
the fire. With that, Jon lifted into the air and set a 
course for Metropolis. Streaking across the Midwest, he 
planned his morning routine and his work schedule, mentally 
making notes of all that needed to be done, his mind still 
sharp despite the lack of sleep. Below him, hundreds of 
thousands of televisions in hundreds of thousands of homes 
had turned on and tuned to the various network morning 
shows, giving him a chance to catch up on the news even as 
he thought through the impending events of the day. He had 
expected the oil refinery fire to be the biggest news of 
the young day, and it was on many stations, but as he 
neared Metropolis, he began to hear strange reports that 
filled him with a sense of dread.

	It had been a busy night in Metropolis, apparently. 
Busy enough to cause the emergence of a new hero, a woman 
dressed in black who sounded suspiciously like Diane. 
Reports held that there was video, too, proof positive of 
her existence, but it hadn't aired yet, although it was 
only a matter of time. The newsroom would undoubtedly be 
humming once he arrived at work, and there was no doubt in 
his mind that he would become one of the growing masses to 
report the story. But on this day, being a reporter would 
have to be secondary to being a friend, and something told 
him that Diane had no idea what she had gotten herself 
into. He had to get to her, and quickly.

	As Metropolis loomed in the distance, he zeroed all 
his senses in, trying to find where the emergencies were, 
where he might be able to find her. The answer came quickly 
enough, the crowd at the scene giving away her presence. A 
house was on fire in the suburbs, and she was at the scene, 
rescuing the family's household pets as Jon hovered above 
the site, pondering what he should do or say when he 
landed. As he waited, he took the opportunity to observe. 
The reports had been vague about her appearance, referring 
to her only as a woman in black. That was certainly 
accurate, from her black slacks to her black blouse and 
sweatshirt, black shoes, and black gloves. Her hair was 
pulled back and fastened in a tight bun, and her face was 
mostly covered by an overly large pair of sunglasses. Her 
mouth was set in an expressionless line, her posture rigid 
and her demeanor stiff. Normally she had a real knack for 
talking with people at the scene of a crime, but this 
morning she wasn't saying anything, wasn't even really 
acknowledging anyone. It would be easy to image that she 
was angry, given the clues, but Jon had been in her 
position once, the new hero on the scene for the first 
time, and he knew better. She was probably overwhelmed, not 
that she'd ever admit that to anyone, and tired. But if he 
knew her, a little weariness wouldn't keep her from 
carrying on, and she would keep moving on from crisis to 
crisis until someone came and stopped her, or until she 
collapsed from sheer exhaustion. He needed to get her 
alone, he decided. She needed to go home.

	As Diane entered the house again, Jon zipped down and 
followed her in. He located the fire extinguisher on the 
way and emptied it on the fire, squelching the flames as 
best he could until the firefighters arrived. He found 
Diane in the master bedroom perched over a fish tank, a 
plastic baggie filled with water in one hand, a strainer in 
the other. So intent was she on her task that she didn't 
even hear him land, and as he placed a hand on her 
shoulder, she jumped, the strainer becoming a weapon of 
sorts as she turned toward him. As her eyes locked onto 
him, though, her haunted expression seemed to soften 
somewhat, her mouth turning up ever so slightly. 

	"You look like hell," she said as she laid the 
strainer down and reached toward his face, rubbing her 
thumb across his forehead and picking up a dark smudge of 
ash and grime.

	"Ditto," he said, grasping her sunglasses and gently 
pulling them off her face. Her eyes, now exposed to the 
world, seemed almost shockingly hollow and sunken. Up 
close, her skin seemed almost pale, the soft rosy vibrancy 
of her cheeks gone. Normally she was so beautiful and soft, 
her expression sharp and always intelligent, but now she 
was none of those, and he felt a twinge of sadness.

	"Bet you're wondering why I'm here," she said, 
looking away from him.

	"The thought did cross my mind," he answered, his 
hand working its way from her shoulder and down her back, 
feeling the tension in her muscles.

	Diane took a deep breath and looked down at the 
baggie she was still holding, sloshing it around ever so 
slightly. "I guess I'm rescuing goldfish," she said, her 
expression blank, the apparent humor of the situation lost 
on her. Jon smiled painfully, a part of his heart breaking 
at what he saw. Certainly the lives of all creatures were 
precious, but the fire at this house had been small and 
easily contained, and the goldfish were certainly not in 
need of rescuing. He wondered what she'd seen that night, 
how bad it could've been to drive her to be here when she 
really didn't need to be. It was almost like she was 
avoiding going home, avoiding going to bed where she just 
might be haunted by what she had seen on the job tonight.

	"Why?" he asked softly, and she looked surprised.

	"You weren't here," she said, a pained expression 
flashing on her face for the barest moment. "I couldn't 
just let things happen because you weren't here, not when I 
could do something about it." As her face turned up toward 
him again, he could see the red ringing her eyes, the tears 
threatening, and he knew that this had nothing to do with 
goldfish, or a small house fire in suburbia.

	"What kind of things?" he asked, hoping to draw out 
those painful details, hoping to make her open up so that 
she could firmly set herself in reality once again. He 
watched as she closed her eyes and frowned, taking a long, 
wracking breath.

	"Muggings. Accidents. Robberies. Any number of other 
things that I don't even remember anymore. Bad things, 
mostly." As she opened her eyes and locked into his, he 
felt the weight of all she had seen, and he understood 
implicitly. "I've seen a lot of things since I've worked 
for the Metropolis PD, but this was different. When you're 
a cop who's been called to a crime scene, you go there 
knowing that there was nothing you could've done to help 
those people, nothing. Somehow the certainty that you're 
doing all you can to catch the person responsible for the 
crime and make sure that it doesn't happen again is enough. 
But tonight, at every scene I was at, it wasn't enough, 
because I KNEW that I could've done something to save those 
people. A split second here or there and maybe..."

	Jon circled in front of her and gathered her in his 
arms. She eagerly embraced him, apparently not caring how 
dirty he was, and let out a sob. The bag of water fell out 
of her hand and hit the ground with a plop, a large 
metaphorical tear. "Maybe," he said, resting his cheek on 
her head. "But then again, maybe not. You can drive 
yourself crazy wondering what would've happened if you had 
just been a little faster, meanwhile missing the whole 
point. You did what you could, and that's all you can ever 
do, superpowered or not."

	"That's small consolation when you're holding someone 
in your arms who had been alive only a few moments 
earlier," she said, her voice small. He tightened his grip 
on her ever so slightly, wishing he could impart to her all 
that he'd seen and learned since he'd been on the job. When 
he had first started out, it had been hard for him to 
witness some of the things that happened in the normal 
course of being a superhero. He would sometimes let himself 
get carried away in emotion when something bad happened, 
losing himself in the work and forgetting who he was in the 
process. Fortunately he had a father who had been there, 
and who was always at his side whenever he needed it. Now 
it was his turn to be there for Diane.

	"I know, believe me I do. It never gets any easier to 
watch terrible things night in and night out, but sometimes 
you have to believe that things happen for a reason. Maybe 
you weren't meant to save that person, maybe you weren't 
meant to stop that particular crime. But you did care 
enough to go out there and try to do what's right, and 
because you care you'll keep going out there, and trying. 
And maybe next time you'll save that person, or stop that 
disaster."

	She sniffed, pulling back from him and searching his 
face. "I never had you pegged as much of a spiritual 
person," she said, her expression still haunted. She wasn't 
convinced.

	"Sometimes in this job, you have to be," he answered, 
his voice barely more than a whisper. You couldn't be a 
cynic and do what he did, what his father did. Sometimes 
all there was to hold onto in the face of disaster and doom 
was the basic belief in the goodness of humanity, and the 
idea that somehow a greater good would come out of whatever 
happened. Some might call that faith, some might call it 
spiritualism; he had never really considered it to be 
either of those. In his mind, it was just blind optimism, 
something that was instinctive and unwavering. He suspected 
sometimes that Diane didn't hold that same optimism, that 
maybe she embraced a somewhat darker view of life, but that 
didn't mean that she was incapable of seeing things as he 
did. Maybe it would take a night like tonight so make her 
come around. Maybe it would only reinforce her preconceived 
ideas. In the end, only time would tell.

	As she knitted her eyebrows together, the distant 
sound of sirens could be heard. The firemen were arriving 
at last, and Diane's job at the house was officially 
finished. "Come on, let's take you home," he said, nudging 
her fractionally toward the door. She appeared confused for 
a second but as she seemed about to acquiesce, her head 
turned toward the window, her hearing evidently picking up 
the same dull crunch that he had heard, too, the sound of a 
car crumpling that was as distinctive as it was terrible. 
It was hard to tell where or how, or even how bad it was, 
but it was obvious that she wanted to find out.

	"No, we have to go help," she said, her protest weak, 
yet blindly passionate at the same time. 

	"You need to go home," he insisted.

	She turned toward him, looking at him with disbelief.  
"I can't go home when there's still a need for me out 
there," she said, her demeanor becoming impatient.

	"There will always be a need for you, for us, out 
there," he said quietly, calmly. "Nobody, no matter how 
much they are capable of, can be everywhere at once to stop 
all of the bad things that happen all over Metropolis, and 
the United States, and the world. You can't blame yourself 
for events that are out of your control, and you can't 
blame yourself on the limitations that come with being 
human. You're allowed to go home; you're allowed to take 
the time to live your own life. And right now, you need to 
get some sleep."

	Diane looked conflicted, but Jon could tell that his 
words had some effect on her. As she looked back toward 
him, studied him, he silently begged her to recognize the 
things that he had discovered all those years ago, when he 
realized just what kind of choices his father had had to 
make in order to be with his family. After a moment, she 
nodded once, and the tension seemed to fall from her body. 
Silently, he took her hand in his, and they left, bound for 
her apartment. He stayed for a moment, making sure that she 
was settled in, before taking off to begin his day. There 
was a new superhero to report on, and he was just the guy 
for the job.

***

	The snow was blowing furiously outside as the sedan 
worked its way down the deserted interstate, bound for 
Kansas City. It had been an eventful last couple of days, 
to say the least, but Jenny was hoping that the excitement 
was over, at least until their arrival at the airport. 
Somehow, though, she had a feeling that something would 
happen, and a quick glance at CJ and the tight expression 
on his face told her that he believed the same. Quietly, 
she extended her hand toward him, and he gladly took it, 
giving it a squeeze before turning his attention to the 
snow outside. With a sigh, Jenny closed her eyes and leaned 
back, hoping that her memories from the last few days would 
somehow give her comfort.

	Superman had provided the flight to Kansas City on 
the evening of the third day before Christmas, depositing 
her and CJ at the airport terminal, then returning with 
their luggage. After a quick farewell he was gone, 
scheduled to return to pick them up at the same time that 
the United redeye to Metropolis was also scheduled to leave 
two days later. Their cover was flawless, and her parents 
had been none the wiser when they came to pick them up at 
the airport and drove them back to the family home in St. 
Joseph. Her parents had taken an immediate shine to her 
fiance, but she could understand why. He was at his 
outgoing best in the car, engaging all of his considerable 
charms to make the best impression that he could with her 
parents. In a way, she was very glad to see them getting 
along so well, but she knew better than anyone that the 
charismatic man that he was presenting himself as - good 
old funny CJ, the flatterer, the goofball, Mr. Personality 
himself - was really a protective facade. She supposed to 
some extent maybe he was all of those things, but he was 
also so much more, and she wished that the intelligent CJ, 
the sly and strong and sensitive man that she knew, would 
reveal himself to her family.

	As they neared her hometown, Jenny's parents revealed 
that they had taken an interest in CJ, following any news 
about Metropolis University football and cutting the 
clippings about it from the newspaper, saving them in a 
scrapbook in case anyone asked about their future son-in-
law. CJ had blushed at that, but he turned positively 
crimson when Jenny's mom proudly boasted that Jenny's 
engagement to CJ had made ESPN, and that they had taped it, 
shown it to all her relatives, friends, neighbors, and 
door-to-door salesmen who happened to stop by the house. 
Jenny wanted to crawl into a hole at the very thought, 
although she wasn't entirely sure that her parents weren't 
exaggerating. It was her turn to turn red when they finally 
arrived home, and as soon as they walked in the door, her 
mother made a bee line for the television, inserting the 
very well worn tape into the VCR, beaming the whole while.

	"You even upstaged Superman," her mom said proudly, 
pointing to the blue and red speck in the background that 
could only be the superhero as the tape played. She and CJ 
were the center of attention, however, and Jenny found 
herself mesmerized by the sight. Even now, several months 
later, she could close her eyes and remember every sound, 
every sight, every smell of that stadium. And she could 
remember exactly what it felt like, and how completely and 
totally content she had been right then, at that moment. 
Her eyes lowered to the ring on her finger, then they found 
CJ, who was now standing next to her, his hand resting on 
her shoulder. 

	Jenny's mother gripped the remote control to her 
chest, her eyes becoming moist. "I had no idea this was 
going to be on national television," CJ said softly to 
Jenny, seemingly serious. "I thought several thousand fans 
would be a lot of witnesses if, for whatever far-fetched 
and illogical reason you said no. Now I'm REALLY glad you 
said yes." A characteristic smirk was plastered on his 
face, and she felt the overwhelming urge to give him an 
elbow to the ribs, one that she KNEW would hurt, now that 
they shared his powers. Instead, she gave him a long-
suffering glance, then turned back toward the television. 
Even with his obnoxious sense of humor oriented toward her 
ears only, the shifting of his weight back and forth 
broadcast that he wasn't entirely comfortable with the 
situation he found himself in, as the strange guest and 
center of attention. She could certainly understand.

	"They have my birth recorded, too," she whispered to 
him. "Dad's colonoscopy is in the stack of tapes there, 
too, along with every birthday party and special occasion 
that my brother and I have ever had." That seemed to loosen 
him up a little, bringing the twinkle back to his eyes.

	"And she shows these to everyone? Your poor mailman," 
he said, drawing a laugh from her. His arm found its way 
down to her waist, and the rest of the world just seemed to 
fade. After a few more moments, the tape was mercifully 
over, and they got on with the business of being a family. 
Her mother made them supper, and afterwards they played 
Monopoly and watched tapes in the family library from 
vacations and Christmases past, her mother more than happy 
to show off in her own way to their guest. Jenny found 
herself having a good time, even though she and CJ couldn't 
be as close to each other as they usually were, if only for 
the sake of decorum.

	As the evening turned into night and the family went 
to bed, Jenny and CJ lingered in the living room, bathed in 
the soft twinkling of the hundreds of white lights on the 
Christmas tree. They both knew that that their time alone 
would be limited to the moments they could steal while the 
rest of the family slept, but they both recognized that the 
scarcity of such moments were what made them special. It 
was enough just to lie silently in each other's arms, 
reveling in the love and warmth they shared that words 
could do no justice to. It was during that first night, as 
they sat intertwined on the couch, that the first snowflake 
fell from the sky. The flurries began to change into wet, 
lazy flakes as they indulged in a long, steamy kiss, and as 
they ascended the stairs and parted company for neighboring 
bedrooms, the world was already turning white outside the 
windows.

	Jenny felt a slight shiver as she walked alone into 
her childhood bedroom. It felt strange knowing that CJ was 
sleeping under the same roof, but not here with her. Even 
though this was their first winter together, somehow she 
couldn't remember how she slept through those snowy nights 
without him nestled next to her. He was only a room away, 
though, and maybe, just maybe, they weren't as separated as 
she thought. With a sly grin, she remembered her new 
abilities, the ones that had so terrified her the night 
before but that she was now beginning to become accustomed 
to, as strange as the idea was. As she slipped off her 
clothing, she looked toward the wall, watching with 
pleasure as it seemed to dissolve in front of her. 
Apparently she wasn't alone in her desire to break down the 
barrier between them - she could see CJ standing in the 
neighboring room, a smirk on his face, his eyes locked on 
her nearly naked form.

	"Shame, shame," she said, knowing full well that he 
could hear her. With a start, he looked up, a modest 
expression of embarrassment flashing on his face before his 
lips formed into a wicked smile.

	"Just pretend I'm in another room or something," he 
said, waving his hand in a shooing motion and returning his 
attention toward her body.

	"Turnabout is fair play, you realize," she answered 
as she straightened up, her hands locking onto her hips. 
His expression was almost fearful for a few delicious 
moments, but then the recognition came to his eyes, and the 
wicked smile was back. Humming a tune under his breath, he 
performed the most awkward striptease that she had ever 
seen. With every garment of clothing removed, she laughed 
harder, and by the time he reached the lower layers of 
clothing, she had collapsed on her bed in a fit of giggles. 
He, too, was laughing, and with his audience gone, he also 
plopped down into his bed, his eyes still firmly locked 
onto her.

	"Are you going to be okay tonight?" he asked after a 
brief silence, rolling onto his side and propping his head 
up with one arm. He didn't have to say what the question's 
context was; they both knew all too well. 

	The question hung in the air for a moment while Jenny 
pondered the situation.  It could certainly be said that 
St. Joseph was a quiet town, especially compared to 
Metropolis, but quiet didn't apply so well when your 
hearing was sharp enough to clearly pick up a guy snoring 
in a house two blocks away. She closed her eyes, letting 
herself relax and her newly enhanced senses reach out. The 
fall of the snow outside sounded like a low roar, the sound 
of each flake hitting the ground reverberating in her head. 
In a way, it was just as bad as the sirens and screams of 
the big city, but it was also more regular, and after a 
while it was soothing. "Yeah, I think I will. Besides, 
you're only a glance away if I need anything."

	As she opened her eyes and flashed a smile at him, he 
could see a look of sadness cross his face. "Yeah," he 
said, his voice heavy. His eyes shifted away from her as 
his hands began to clasp and unclasp each other, and Jenny 
realized with a start that he felt guilty. She supposed 
that maybe she had been too caught up in everything last 
night to be able to see it, but now it was plainly written 
on his face, a look of pain that was so acute, her heart 
just broke. The powers were a part of him, it was true, but 
he couldn't blame himself for that bolt of lightning. And 
he certainly couldn't blame himself because she was still 
somewhat overwhelmed by what she could hear now. In fact, 
he had been the one who had offered her comfort, who had 
stayed with her and held her until the fear passed. He was 
still her hero, she thought with a smile, and she hated to 
think that he felt any differently.

	"The fact is, we're engaged in an intimate 
conversation, yet we're in two separate rooms. If that bolt 
of lightning hadn't happened, I'd only be WISHING I could 
do that." She flashed her most charming smile at him, 
watching as his expression softened. "The powers are really 
a gift, Clark; never doubt that I believe that. They're 
part of you, given to me in trust, and that makes them 
special." She set her jaw as she finished speaking, her 
expression conveying that there was no room for argument on 
that particular point.

	"You think?" he asked, his eyebrows raised and the 
corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. She wanted 
nothing more than to reach through the wall and comfort 
away that uncertainty, but she knew her powers only did so 
much.

	"Sure," Jenny answered, rolling onto her back. "And 
there's no wrapping paper required. The best of both 
worlds."

	"And I was in a panic there because I hadn't gotten 
you anything yet," he answered, deadpan, but as she looked 
back through the wall toward him, she could see the good 
humor back on his face.

	"Liar," she said with a wink and a yawn. The soft 
chiming of the grandfather clock downstairs signaled that 
it was way past their bed time, and with knowing glances, 
they both started to climb under the covers. She let the 
wall reappear in front of her as she rolled onto her side.

	"Night Jen," she heard him say.

	"Night Clark," she whispered in return, but she had 
no doubt that he had heard. As she closed her eyes and let 
her senses reach out once again, the normal household 
sounds and the dull roar of the falling snow greeted her, 
comforted her, and ushered her into a peaceful sleep.

--

	The next day, Christmas Eve, was more time with 
family, this time with turkey and pie, and more snow. CJ 
spent a lot of time entertaining Jenny's much younger 
brother, who otherwise would've had to fend for himself in 
the house full of adults. The two built an impressive Lego 
fortress between breakfast and lunch, further confirming to 
Jenny that CJ was very much in touch with the kid inside of 
him.

	As the afternoon wore on, the television began to air 
more and more news reports connected to the snow. The 
winter weather advisory that had been posted the night 
before had long since turned into a winter storm warning, 
and there was no end in sight. The interstates were 100% 
snow and ice covered throughout the region, and the 
snowplows were having a hard time keeping up. Jenny caught 
CJ looking at the weather reports from time to time, an 
uncharacteristically dark expression flashing onto his 
face, disappearing just as quickly as his attention was 
drawn away to some other event.

	Jenny didn't need to ask what the cause of his 
concern was. They were scheduled to fly out of Kansas City 
in the early morning, and the trip to the airport would no 
doubt be treacherous. But in reality, they didn't need to 
drive to Kansas City to catch their flight, a fact that her 
parents would not and could not know. She tried to think of 
ways to approach her mother and try to keep them from 
making the drive in the morning. Maybe she could say that 
they were going to catch a charter out of the local 
airport. Or maybe she could tell her that she and CJ would 
get something from the local car rental agency and drive 
themselves to Kansas City. Or...maybe something would 
happen in St. Joseph that would require the services of 
Superman, and he could offer a lift. But given the fact 
that such a thing had never happened in the nearly 30 years 
that Superman had been around, somehow she didn't hold out 
much hope of that happening. Even if it did, why would 
Superman offer to do such a thing for two people who he 
supposedly had only met in passing at a football game? 
Maybe she could just say that they didn't want to fly out 
until the weather cleared, and leave it at that. It didn't 
matter, she supposed as she finally got her mother alone. 
She would try whatever excuse it took to keep them safe.

	The conversation didn't get very far. There was no 
getting around her mother's stubborn insistence that they 
all go together at the predetermined time. She had seemed 
genuinely touched by Jenny's concern for her welfare, but 
she would have nothing to do with Jenny's noble 
aspirations. A rental car would be expensive, she'd said, 
and so would a charter flight. Missing their flight in 
Kansas City would require them to purchase new tickets, 
ultimately setting them back hundreds of dollars that they 
didn't have. And they were no strangers to snow, her mother 
had said adamantly, and that was all there was to it.

	Emerging into the family area after the conversation, 
she saw CJ beckoning to her with his eyes, gesturing toward 
the den even as he stood and walked toward it. She nodded 
and followed, closing the door behind her as she entered. 
The room was dark, the sun only recently having slipped 
below the horizon. Outside the window, the sky was dark 
blue, almost purple with the last bit of sunlight, 
accentuated by stars, something that she had missed seeing 
while in Metropolis. CJ's body was a mere shadow against 
the dark wood of the surrounding bookcases as he stood near 
the desk, staring at the phone.

	"I heard," he said, answering her unasked question as 
he dialed the phone. She knew instinctively who he was 
calling, although she wondered why it had taken him so long 
to make the call.

	"I figured," she said as she moved closer to him. Now 
that they were alone, she could see how tense he appeared. 
His posture was slightly hunched over, his lips were drawn 
into a thin, tight line. "My mom can be stubborn if she 
wants to be. Good thing she didn't pass that on to me," she 
said.

	CJ turned to her, one eyebrow raised in question, a 
half smile replacing the anxious expression he had worn 
only moments ago. He opened his mouth to respond, but he 
never got a chance, as his family picked up the phone on 
the other end.

	Jenny used her new hearing to listen in on the 
conversation, wondering absently how hard it would be to 
keep from eavesdropping on a regular basis, now that she 
could do it so easily. Not that she was a snoop, 
necessarily, but she WAS a reporter when she wasn't too 
busy being a student. Curiosity came naturally, and so the 
temptation would be there to be curious about, well, just 
about everything, even if it wasn't polite. How did CJ 
restrain himself...or DID CJ restrain himself, she 
wondered, looking at him with narrowed eyes. It would be an 
interesting conversation to have some time, but it would 
have to wait. With a sigh, CJ hung up the phone, the 
conversation finished, even though she knew that it had not 
been conclusive.

	"My thoughts exactly," she said, wrapping her arms 
around him from behind. He leaned back into her, his body 
visibly relaxing under her touch. "I wish we could tell Mom 
and Dad what the situation really was. It would make it so 
much easier...." she said with a shake of the head.

	CJ grunted. "Tell me about it. But I think I'd rather 
go through a few tense moments trying to cover for the 
secret than a lifetime dealing with the consequences. Not 
that I don't trust your family," he added hastily, and 
Jenny nodded.

	"I understand," she said, holding him more tightly. 
She had spent a few sleepless nights since meeting CJ 
pondering just what her life would be like if the world 
knew what she knew. Those thoughts had come even more 
frequently after her roommate found out the secret, and as 
much as she tried to ignore them, she figured it would be 
best to face them, if only as a reminder of why she had to 
be careful. Why they had to be careful.

	They stood in silence for a moment, their gazes 
turning toward the window. The thick white blanket of snow 
on the ground seemed to brighten the dusk, reflecting light 
from the streetlamps and the last remaining wisps of 
sunlight. "As much as I worry about what will happen when 
we get out in that, it occurs to me that maybe my mom has a 
point. Maybe it won't be as bad as we think it will," she 
mused, watching the snow swirl around in the light breeze 
outside.

	Her eyes, easily adjusted to the dark now, caught 
CJ's eyebrows rising in surprise. "Oh?"

	"It's not like we never get snow like this. Most 
people around here know how to handle themselves in this 
kind of weather. My dad's been driving me around in this 
stuff as long as I can remember, and I trust him 
completely. Plus, who knows - maybe by tomorrow morning, 
they will have cleared things off enough to make travel 
easier."

	CJ smiled a little, pondering that. "I guess you're 
right," he said, twisting in her arms. "But what kind of 
superhero progeny would I be if I didn't get worked up when 
all the TV stations are talking about the certain doom that 
awaits you when you step foot outside?"

	Jenny looked at him for a moment, trying to read his 
expression. Even though he had a tendency to joke about 
such things, he could also be deadly serious if he wanted 
to be. Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference, but a 
long look into his eyes revealed the mischievous sparkle 
that she had hoped to see. "Come on," she said, disengaging 
her arms from his waist and taking him by the arm. He 
shuffled his feet and looked at her in confusion as she 
started to pull him toward the doorway. "Lets go outside 
and see just how mean and nasty those snowflakes can be. It 
looks like it's died down, and I've been waiting all day to 
make some snow angels."

	"You've just been wanting to chuck snowballs at my 
head. I can see right through you," he said in mock 
seriousness, pointing the finger of his free hand at her.

	Jenny smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. "Ask and ye 
shall receive," she said, and that finally brought the grin 
she'd been waiting for.

	The remainder of the night was filled with fun in the 
snow, hot chocolate, and time with the family. The time out 
in the snow, making snowmen and lobbing snowballs at each 
other and at Jenny's little brother seemed to relax him, 
and for the first time since she'd been home, Jenny could 
see the real CJ as they spent the last parts of the evening 
chatting with her parents. The worry line that had been 
growing above his brow throughout the day seemed to be gone 
entirely. He wasn't trying to impress so much anymore; 
instead he was content to know that he had been accepted, 
and that he belonged with the family. As the night came, CJ 
and Jenny adjourned to their rooms once more, separate yet 
together once again. At some point in the night, Jenny 
swore she heard a large gust of wind and familiar voices 
chatting outside somewhere, but it may have just been a 
dream.

	Morning came far too soon. The sky was still dark 
when the family woke up. The house bustled with activity as 
Jenny's parents prepared breakfast and Jenny and CJ 
gathered their things. In no time, they were in the car and 
on the road. Even though the snow had stopped falling the 
night before, the wind had since kicked up, blowing it 
around and making conditions less than ideal. The snowplows 
had done their best, and even though the interstate was 
well-cleared in spots, in others, the snow had drifted 
across the travel lanes, leaving just two wheel tracks, 
often with ice underneath.

	Jenny opened her eyes once again, wishing that Kansas 
City would come sooner. As it was, all they saw were the 
rolling hills and snowy fields, and snow. Lots of snow. 
With a sigh, she squeezed CJ's had and looked out the front 
of the car, noticing that they were no longer alone on the 
roadway. Some other brave soul was also out and about, and 
driving about three car lengths in front of them. It looked 
like Jenny's father had settled in behind him, not willing 
to pass in the snowy conditions. She locked her eyes on the 
other car, which, in the dark of the pre-dawn hours, was 
nothing but two indistinct, yet hypnotic, red dots in front 
of them. For many miles they traveled together, until, 
suddenly, at a particularly snowy location, she noticed the 
taillights start to move from side to side, as if the rear 
of the car was fishtailing. After a moment, the car began 
to spin and slide sideways, off the shoulder of the road 
and down the embankment. Jenny's father uttered a curse and 
began to slow.

	"Stop the car," CJ said as they heard a muted crash. 
On the right side of the road, a creek bed was bathed in 
the light of the other car's headlights, but there was 
something else, too, a growing orange glow that could be 
one thing and one thing only.

	Gradually, the car came to a stop on the shoulder of 
the road. CJ's hand disengaged from Jenny's as he pulled on 
his jacket. "Help me," he whispered to her, then pushed 
open the door and immediately became lost amidst the 
blowing snow. Without a second thought, Jenny zipped up her 
coat and exited the car, making her way toward the wreck.

	CJ was now standing on the edge of the shoulder, 
squinting into the snowy breeze, surveying the accident 
scene. The car below them had rolled over as it slid down 
the embankment, coming to rest on its top, lodged against a 
box culvert. The fire that they had seen was small, burning 
in a pool of gasoline on the ground adjacent to the car. 
Jenny willed the exterior of the car to dissolve away, and 
it did, revealing the interior of the car and its three 
occupants, all unconscious.

	"We have to get them out of there," CJ said to her, 
an edge in his voice that was only present during very 
special circumstances. As she turned to look at his face, 
she saw nothing but raw determination. Underneath her 
jacket, she felt the goose bumps rise on her arms.

	"We?" she asked, drawing his attention toward her. 
Their eyes locked together, and she realized that he had 
fully intended to say what he had said. She knew well what 
he was capable of - she had seen it on more than one 
occasion. But it had never really occurred to her before 
that moment that ALL the things she had seen him do were 
now within her scope of ability, too. It was easy enough to 
think of herself with x-ray vision or with super hearing, 
but she had never been a physically strong person. The idea 
of one Jennifer Sears, who had maybe been able to bench 
press fifty pounds in the weight room during high school 
gym class, now being able to move mountains, seemed a 
little far-fetched. She had once broken a toe when she 
stubbed her foot on the coffee table at home, but now she 
was invulnerable? It truly would take a leap of faith for 
her assume the role of the hero, but as she met her 
fiance's gaze, it occurred to her that he had all the 
confidence in the world that she could, indeed help him.

	"You can do it," he said, without a hint of doubt. 
Jenny took a deep breath and nodded, and was greeted with a 
smile. With that, he was off down the slope. She followed, 
slipping most of the way. They split as they reached the 
bottom, each going to a different side of the car. She 
heard the screech of metal as CJ pulled the driver's door 
from its hinges. The passenger side door had deformed at 
some point in time during the accident, and would need to 
be removed, as well. She regarded it for a moment, her 
doubts from earlier resurfacing, if only for a moment. But 
as she reached out and grasped onto the door, the metal 
groaning under her fingertips, she thought of CJ and his 
unwavering confidence in her, and all the doubts magically 
vanished. With a grunt, she pulled, and the door came off 
in her hands easily.  Dropping it, she reached into the car 
and unlatched the passenger's seatbelt, grabbing the man 
before he had a chance to fall. He must've weighed several 
hundred pounds, but in her arms he almost felt weightless. 
She carried him through the snow and laid him next to where 
CJ had placed the driver. CJ was now working on the freeing 
the second passenger in the car, so Jenny turned her 
attention to the fire. Thinking cold thoughts, she pursed 
her lips and blew, and the flames immediately went out.

	"Jennifer? Clark?" she heard her father yelling from 
above. The wind had picked up again, and the snow was 
blowing furiously. Without her enhanced vision, she 
wouldn't have been able to see more than the outline of a 
man up there. Surely he hadn't been able to see anything 
that he shouldn't have.

	"We're down here, Dad," she yelled. "Call the police. 
I think these people need an ambulance."

	"Already done," he said as he started sliding down 
the hill toward them. Jenny glanced over toward CJ, who had 
laid the final passenger next to the other two. He was 
busying himself trying to remove any traces of super 
activity from the scene now, forcibly shaping the doors to 
make it appear as if they had somehow fallen off during the 
accident. He also quickly created trails in the snow that 
would simulate bodies being dragged to their current 
position. Satisfied, he then kneeled beside the victims, 
joining Jenny as she worked to revive them. Her father 
arrived a few seconds later.

	As Jenny regarded her father, she was alarmed to see 
a look of shock on his face. The shock quickly morphed into 
surprise and, finally, wonder. "You saved them?" he asked, 
looking between Jenny and CJ.

	"I pulled them out of the car. Jenny put out the 
fire," CJ answered as he pulled off one of his gloves and 
checked the pulse of the driver. Jenny started to do the 
same to her charge, but she noticed that he seemed to be 
waking up.

	Jenny's dad looked at them with wide eyes for a 
moment, but then noticed the third victim, and moved to 
attend to him. After a few minutes, all who were in the 
other car were awake and alert, all apparently without any 
serious injuries. Jenny, her father, and CJ helped them up 
the embankment, and they all gathered around the Sears car 
while they waited for the ambulance to arrive. While 
Jenny's parents chatted with the folks from the other car, 
she snuck away, noticing a length of guardrail a couple 
hundred feet away that she could sit on.

	The sky in the east was beginning to turn a deep 
shade of violet, a precursor to the sunrise that was coming 
soon. The snow was still blowing by on the wind, but she 
didn't feel the cold. She found her eyes wandering back 
toward the crash site and the crumpled car, the doors lying 
in the snow next to it. It was official, she thought with a 
wry smile. She was super. And she supposed she was a hero. 
That made her...something she didn't even want to ponder.

	"Hey," CJ said, drawing her out of her thoughts. She 
hadn't heard him approach, but now he was beside her, 
sitting down on the guardrail.

	"Hi," she answered, a squeak in her voice.

	His arm reached over her shoulder and he pulled her 
in toward him. "Well, I think you can officially be 
considered a part of the Kent clan now, with that heroic 
rescue," he said, drawing a smile from her. "How does it 
feel?"

	"Does this answer your question?" she said, holding 
up her hand, which was noticeably shaking. With a grin, he 
took her hand in his and brought it toward him, kissing the 
top of it.

	 "You did great," he said softly, and she knew he was 
right. But that wasn't what she was nervous about.

	"Yeah," she sighed as she turned in his arms and 
leaned into him. "It's just...I guess I'm scared. It took 
nothing at all for me to rip that door off or to carry that 
man. I've used more effort trying to open a bottle of pop. 
When happens if I forget myself when I'm doing something at 
home or, even worse, in public?"

	There was silence for a moment as CJ pondered what 
she had said, his other arm wrapped around her, holding her 
in a comforting embrace. "I know it's probably a lot to 
take all at once," he said. "My powers came in gradually, 
so I had time to get used to being a little strong before I 
became a LOT strong, if you know what I mean." At her nod, 
he continued. "But if you think about it, you've had these 
powers for a few days now, and even though I'm sure you 
didn't know your own strength, you haven't knocked any 
holes in anything."

	"That's true," she said, letting her mind flash back 
to all the things that she'd done since the big lightning 
strike. There had been ample opportunity for her to slip 
up, most notably during the big snowball melee the night 
before. But nothing had happened.

	"I have faith in you," he said, placing a kiss on the 
top of her head. "You just aren't someone who would hurt 
anyone or anything."

	"But unintentionally? We all slip up from time to 
time," she answered, her voice small.

	His hands detached and moved to her shoulders, 
applying gentle pressure and twisting her around to face 
him. "Believe me when I tell you that you have nothing to 
worry about. If you were the type of person who used brute 
force on a daily basis, maybe I'd worry. But you wouldn't 
be you if you did that. I've never hurt you, have I?"

	She felt a pang at his last question, and tears 
threatened to form as she looked at the absolute sincerity 
in his face. "No," she answered, her throat tight.

	"And I would say that we've had some 
pretty...passionate moments together, haven't we?" A little 
smile had formed on his face now, one that was sweet yet 
wicked at the same time. There was definitely a reason why 
she loved this man.

	"We've had nights that have made my neighbors blush," 
Jenny answered, drawing a laugh from him. 

	"So trust me when I say that you have nothing to be 
worried about," he said, and she nodded, finally smiling.

	"What did I ever do to deserve the faith that you've 
put in me?" she asked, cupping his cheek in her hand. He 
shrugged, a look of mock seriousness forming on his face.

	"I think it started when you said, 'hi.' It was all 
kind of downhill from there," he said, a wide smile forming 
on his face. Under normal circumstances, such blatant 
teasing might warrant a round of tickling, or a good-
natured, long-suffering sigh, but all she could think about 
was how badly she wanted to kiss him, so kiss him she did. 
She didn't know how long they remained together, but as she 
began to gather her wits again, she noticed that the police 
and ambulance had finally arrived. Reluctantly, they pulled 
apart and stood, making their way back toward her parents' 
car.

	The police questioned them for a while, then 
questioned Jenny's parents before letting them continue on. 
By the time they were back on the road to Kansas City, the 
sun had risen above the horizon. Jenny caught her dad 
glancing back at them through the rearview mirror on more 
than one occasion, a proud smile on his face. It wasn't 
much longer before they were at the airport, in plenty of 
time to catch the flight that they were supposedly taking. 
Walking through the doors toward the ticket counter, Jenny 
could see Clark sitting on a couch in the reception area, 
his nose buried in a newspaper, but his eyes 
surreptitiously on them.

	She said her final goodbyes to her parents, hugging 
them both. CJ shook hands with her father and gave her 
mother a quick kiss on the cheek. With that, they parted 
company. As they met up with Clark and walked toward more 
deserted areas of the airport, he promised them that he 
would come back and make sure that her parents got home 
safely. With that, it was back to Metropolis, their 
Christmas trip to Missouri one that Jenny was sure that 
she'd never forget.

***

	As Diane woke up, she was aware of the bright 
afternoon sun streaming in through the westward-facing 
windows in her bedroom. She stretched and sighed, reveling 
in the warmness of the bed and the fuzzy feeling that came 
from a complete night of rest.  The last remnants of her 
dreams still lingered, providing a nice distraction from 
the reality that would confront her once she finally got up 
and started the day. It felt good just to lie there for a 
while, blissfully unaware of the news of the day, news that 
she was pretty sure she wouldn't be too fond of.

	She frowned a little as her eyes focused on the 
speckled ceiling, memories of the night before seeping back 
into her consciousness. It was odd to think of herself as 
some sort of superhero, on par with Clark and Jon, but she 
supposed that was what she had become now, although that 
was never what she had intended. All she had wanted to do 
was to help, anonymously if possible. When she had started 
out, she had intended to do what she did in such a way that 
a observer would think of her actions as nothing more than 
the work of some random good Samaritan, no different than 
anyone else in ability. But the rush of the moment had 
affected her, and it hadn't taken any time at all to get 
carried away, to extend herself further than intended, and 
to be seen. She was just doing what had to be done, she'd 
told herself, and it was true enough. Everything that she 
had done that night had been done based on the belief that 
what she was doing couldn't be done successfully by anyone 
else, and that lives were at stake if she had refused to 
act. But maybe she should've taken a step back at some 
point. If she had, maybe she would've seen that her actions 
had stopped being based on logic early on, and that it had 
been emotion fueling her for the majority of the night. And 
while emotion could be handy at times, last night it had 
made her careless and frenzied, and neither were the type 
of lasting image that she wanted to portray.

	There was something about seeing horrible things that 
had always caused her to somehow retreat into herself. 
Usually she had her job to fall back onto, the rigid police 
procedures that were at the same time regimental and 
comforting. She needed that as a sort of reality check, 
some bit of logic that she could cling to and concentrate 
on. Being a superhero, though, was something entirely new. 
There were no procedures, no paperwork, no police sergeant 
or partner to guide you along the way. The work of the 
superhero seemed to thrive on emotion, on the unchecked 
manic zeal to always do the right thing, to save those in 
need and stop the things that could harm others. She had 
never really understood before last night what it truly was 
that Jon saw and felt day in and day out, the emotions he 
was driven by even while he tried his best to not let them 
get out of hand. His was a life where logic held that in 
check, and where humor probably made it all bearable in the 
end.

	Diane smiled and pulled the covers back fractionally 
as she thought of Jon. In his own way, he had rescued her 
again last night. Everything that she had felt and thought 
in the course of escapades he had probably also experienced 
once upon a time. That night when the chemistry building 
had exploded on the Metropolis University campus almost a 
year ago now had probably been similar for him, although he 
had had his father by his side the whole time to guide him. 
And he had anticipated the coverage of the press. Of all 
the things about last night that gnawed at Diane, it was 
her total lack of regard for even the idea that she would 
somehow make the news the next day. She knew that she had 
been seen, and she supposed she knew that rumors would 
swirl because of that, but it occurred to her that, with 
the technology that was available now, it was entirely 
possible that there were pictures of her out there as well. 
The press had no doubt latched onto the story, carrying it 
to the national and even the world news, and splashing her 
largely covered face all over. Would anyone recognize her? 
Would she get strange sideways glances as she walked down 
the street now? Would random villains try and attack her? 
She knew that the answer to these questions should be 
obvious to her, that nobody had recognized the Kent men 
without a healthy dose of help, and that no random villains 
attacked them on a daily basis, but she still had to 
wonder. How blind could people be?

	With a grunt, she threw back the covers and swung her 
legs over the edge of the bed. As nice as the thought was, 
she couldn't stay in bed and ponder the mysteries of life 
as a superhero all day. With that, she was up and off, 
taking a shower, getting dressed, and putting on a pot of 
coffee before sitting down in the living room and grasping 
the remote control. She took a deep breath and cringed as 
she turned on the television, which was tuned to the news 
channel that had been on the night before. Normally, during 
the daytime, this channel reverted to mostly political and 
world news, but today there was none of that. Middle 
eastern terrorists and European Union squabbles took a back 
seat to what was going on in Metropolis the night before. 
On the screen was a dark, fuzzy video, showing a shadowy 
figure flying in and out of an accident scene. The caption 
under the video gave the time and location that the tape 
had been taken at, and Diane felt her jaw drop as she 
realized that she had been right. There really had been 
video taken of her, and she really was seeing herself on 
screen, although she had to admit that it would take quite 
a stretch of the imagination for anyone else to see the 
resemblance to her in that grainy video.

	"It's looking more and more like Superman was a 
pretty busy guy a couple decades ago," one of the 
commentators said. Diane almost laughed. The comment just 
seemed so absurdly out of place. But at the same time, she 
wondered how many people thought just that when they had 
heard about her the first time.

	"Didn't he just disappear for a week a couple of 
different times back then?" another man asked, and as the 
video ended, they cut to the two men in the studio.

	"As a matter of fact, he's done it several times," 
the first man said, shuffling some papers. "Two weeks in 
1996 - I'm betting that was the honeymoon. Another week 
about four years later, then again in spring of 2003, and 
again in the summer of 2008. I don't think it's a 
coincidence that two new superheroes show up recently that 
look like they just might be old enough to have been born 
during those one week disappearances. Makes you wonder when 
number three will show up."

	The camera switched to the second man. "Shadowy 
reports of another superperson around Metropolis surfaced 
about four months ago," he said, and Diane nodded. She 
remembered hearing about that even before she had ever met 
Jon. "While it is possible that those reports may correlate 
to this new one who showed up last night, the earlier 
reports had been of another male. So maybe number three HAS 
shown up, but was a little more shy than his siblings."

	The first man nodded and raised his eyebrows, then 
held up one of his hands. "What I thought would be fun 
would be to do a little bit of historical research," he 
said. An old photograph of Superman flashed on the screen 
just then. It didn't seem remarkable, really - he was 
smiling his cordial Superman smile, apparently at the 
successful aftermath of one rescue or another. "This is a 
photo from about six months after one of those infamous 
disappearances," he said, and suddenly, a little circle was 
drawn over his shoulder region, around what looked like a 
little white speck on his uniform. "Doesn't that look like 
baby spittle to you?"

	Diane snorted and quickly changed the channel. Poor 
Clark. Even if she HAD gotten a chance to think through all 
the possible consequences of her appearance, something like 
that was not likely to have been anywhere on the radar. 
Maybe it was best if she stayed far away from the news 
channels, she decided, finally finding a nice educational 
program to watch. When Jon got off work in a few hours, 
they could discuss all the other stories that had broken as 
a result of her appearance. Until then, it was probably 
better for her peace of mind to concentrate on other 
things, and just try and relax.

	With a sigh, she looked around, her eyes finally 
falling on her coffee table and an unread copy of Time 
magazine that lay on top. The cover story was about the 
most re