Monday. November 9th, 2015. 11:45pm.
• • •
The crowd was large, and reporters were eagerly awaiting his arrival. Getting here was easy and getting through the crowd was even easier. They had parted like the sea at the sight of me. I held my head high and ventured to the front, ignoring the whispers and the stares. I flashed my Daily Planet ID to the officer at the front, and he told me there was no need, he knew who I was. Everyone knew who I was.
The vibration in my pocket caught me off guard, and I pulled out my phone.
"Hello?"
"Annie, where are you?" Lois asked.
"I'm at the capital. I can't get in. What's going on?" I could hear her quick breathing, "Are you running?"
"I'm coming to you. I have information you and Clark need to hear." In the background, she was cursing under her breath, and there was a low murmur of the train and people speaking around her.
"Information? What information?"
"Just wait there. I'm almost there."
"Lois. Tell me, if this has something to do with this trial you need to tell me."
She sighed, "Luthor orchestrated the desert raid. He knew Superman was going to show up. The bullet was made to kill him, Annie, you have to tell him. He didn't do anything wrong; he was framed from the beginning." She sputtered and in hushed tones.
She then hung up, and I looked at the phone, startled. To the right of me, an older lady with white hair and a gummy smile was watching me with interest. Luthor was behind all of this? It would make sense as of why he's suddenly so interested in me and why I was invited to the party. But why target Superman? Was he planning to show the world that Superman was no God by shooting him the bullet? I frowned and turned my attention to the sky when all the reporters began to stir, and their frequent flashes started to go off. A dozen anti-superman supporters and his fan club, The Kryptonians, began to holler at each other and at him.
He landed from above, lingering for a moment high in the sky before descending gracefully. I needed to get to him. I needed to tell him, so I pushed forward pulling out my badge.
"Sir, I need to get in there. I need to speak to Superman." I told the officer who had said he recognized me.
"Sorry, ma'am. You can't go in unless you're apart of the trial and last I heard sleeping with Superman doesn't get you a free pass." He said it so calmly that I almost didn't hear the hate in his words or feel the way his eyes glared at me.
"Annie!"
I turned to see Lois running up to me.
"He just got here. I don't think they're going to let me pass." She explained, out of breath.
"They won't let me either. Is there no way for us to get this information to him?"
We looked at each other for a moment knowing that we would have to hope that somehow the tables would turn and be in his favor. Once he was inside, she turned to me and explained everything. The bullet, the insurgents, the knowledge of their relationship. Everything. Luthor did it all so the people would point the finger at Superman and not see what he indeed was doing. She had found all this information out while I was setting up dinner dates with our moms and worrying about what the press was saying this week...
"Lois, thank you for staying on top of this. You're the better reporter, and I know we haven't seen eye to eye, but you've done more for him then I have, thank you."
She looked at me and gave a smile, "He's the happiest I've seen him. Don't discount what you've done for him just because I never run away from a good story," she laughed, "The way he looks at you is how you've changed him because he's never looked at me like that." Her voice was calm, and her face was passive, but her eyes were glossy.
"Lois,-,"
An explosion sounded directly in front of us, and I immediately ducked. Glass and pieces of the capital building fell away from the blast as a shockwave hurled through the crowd. People began to scream and run away as police officers ran towards the fire and called for paramedics and firefighters started to go through. The group was buzzing, and I watched the dark black tendrils of smoke billowed high into the sky, this was not what I mean by going in his favor.
• • •
Monday. November 9th, 2015. 12:25 pm.
• • •
Lois was on the phone behind me talking to Perry, and I took this opportunity to move past the barrier. First responders had arrived twenty-five minutes ago, bringing out body bags, pulling living breathing people from the fire and Superman was helping, to the dismay of his hate group. I had watched him go in and out for twenty-five minutes. His posture was stiff, and his face was hard with every glimpse I managed, it was worsening. The officer let me through, but I didn't get far until I hit another barrier and this was my last stop.
Clark was standing in the middle of the makeshift triage area surveying the people around him. My heart was hammering in my chest — tears threatening to fall. I knew there was nothing I could do for him, and there was nothing I could say. I breathed in, and his head snapped to me, our eyes met, and hot wet tears trailed down my face. Reporters behind me began to document this moment as we kept our gaze on each other. I didn't dare look away. With one last solemn gaze, he tore his bright blue eyes form me and flew straight up into the sky.
• • •
Monday. November 9th, 2015. 8:45 pm.
• • •
The day blurred into the night. I remember having a conversation with Martha; I had to calm her down. Reassure her that her son was safe even if I didn't know where he was. Perry had called me around four to tell me I was plastered all over the news too. That the reporters loved our "look of longing." I had to use all my restraint not to hang up on him. Lois and I haven't spoken since this morning, but her parting words were for me to be on the alert and aware of those around me.
The news reran the story, but this time with new information. The bomber was Wallace Keefe, the man who had vandalized the monument and had lost his legs in the Battle of Metropolis. Sighing, I dialed Clark's number, and it went straight to voicemail. My jaw tightened, and I was forced to leave another message. Standing up, I brushed out my slacks and spoke into my phone, moving about my apartment to loosen my legs and walk the nerves out.
"Clark, can you call me when you get this? I don't know where-," My voice stopped in my throat at the sight of Clark standing on my balcony. I ended my message and quickly ran over to the door, shoving it open.
He didn't take his gaze off the city below when he spoke to me, "I didn't see it. I was standing right there, and I didn't see it, Annie."
The wind was blowing, and my hair swayed as he turned his gaze to me, "Clark. This entire thing- all of it- was- is a setup."
"I'm afraid I didn't see it because I wasn't looking."
I frowned remembering our conversation about how he chooses who to save. He was blaming himself.
"All this time, I've been living my life the way my father saw it. Righting wrongs for a ghost," his frown is so subtle, "Thinking I'm here to do good." His gaze on me is strong, and his next words shake me to the core, "Superman was never real. Just the dream of a farmer from Kansas."
"Clark, that dream is all some people have, it gives them hope."
Clark turned his gaze to me, and I can see his struggle, stepping forward, I place my hand on his chest, my fingertips grazing the "S" logo, "This means something."
"It did on my world."
I frown as tears spring up in my eyes and the feeling of not being enough flows to the surface. I don't know what to say. I never know what to say in situations like this. Clark's voice is thick with animosity and pity and anger that I just keep my hand pressed to him, hoping that maybe he'll feel me and know that I'm here for him, that I want to help, I want to make him feel better and I won't let him go through this alone. Clark has another mindset, one he doesn't need help deciding. His last words echo in my mind once he shoots up into the sky, and my hand is eerily cool from the absence of him, do I realize that I'm in love with him.
"My world doesn't exist anymore."
• • •