stands_for_hope | The Not Quite Justice League in... The Bee's Pleas!!!

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The Not Quite Justice League in... The Bee's Pleas!!!

[continued from here]

Finishing his article, clearing everything with Keith, those things took time. That was why it took a few hours before Clark was ready to make his usual call to Lois that night. He had worried that he might not make the time window that she cleared every day to talk to him and the others, but he was proud to say that he'd left himself an even half an hour as long as everything was to schedule.

After the fifth time she didn't pick up (didn't so much as text or ping him), it became clear that things were very much off schedule.

Clark made his way back to the main floor where everyone seemed to congregate and headed straight for Tony, holding up the phone to him.

"I know we're all tired and we've certainly had a long day, but... can you find out where Lois's phone is from the number here?"

In all the madness of the day, all the fighting and the close calls and the weakness brought on by the proximity of kryptonite, he'd lost track of her heartbeat. Usually, it was simple enough to pick up over the phone once again, a steady pulse that he could find his way back to once the phonecall had ended.

He couldn't hear her. He couldn't tell where she was. And she wasn't answering her phone. She always answered her phone. He didn't want to think anything was wrong, but he wasn't naive enough to discount something like this. Not after today. Not after they'd pulled out kryptonite weapons.

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Sandy looked down the hall at the two men and walked over to sling his arm around Mike's shoulders as he addressed the lot of them.

"You've got our numbers. I'm sure, Mr. Stark, that we'll be seeing one another again."

He wasn't sure if Tony knew about Ted's current gripe, but he had a feeling it wouldn't stay secret long. Kara wasn't exactly the kind of woman people missed around.

"It was good to meet the neighbors, though."

Down the hall, Clark opened the door to find Diana sighing tiredly and nodding to Lois, who was smiling again even though it was very close to splitting her lip again.

"Did we get loud?"

Clark wobbled a hand. Mostly not.

Mike lifted a hand in a wave to everybody in the room and, arm around Sandy's waist, led him out toward the garage. The two of them had a bit of a ride ahead of them - with two cars in their convoy. "Okay, we'll start out in mine," he said, "and we'll switch to Michael's partway. He'll get bored if we don't."

A voice sounded in Mike's ear and he rolled his eyes. "We'll see." And that he said to the invisible someone he was speaking to.

Jim leaned in behind Clark. "We couldn't overhear until we were right here. ...I couldn't, anyway. But I understand what you mean. We want you better, but you're right. We do need evidence, too."

Sandy headed over to the more modern car, the one he was more familiar with, though he took the time to give the other a small wave of greeting as he made his way to the door.

"I'll defer to your judgement."

He, on the other hand, had things to think about on the ride. Like the first place he was taking Mike out to dinner at. And whether he could get the man flowers or if that would be seen as ridiculous or if the gesture might still have the desired affect.

Back upstairs, Lois winced as she shrugged.

"Hell, I'd love a magic whammy job to make me feel all better. But if I went through the trouble of getting this done to me, I'm gonna make sure they pay for every hair on my head they decided to harm."

Clark looked mildly distressed about the whole thing, but he nodded to her answer. Diana did as well before reaching over and carefully putting her hand on Lois's shoulder.

"Bravest of sisters, know that I will assist you in your time of pain whether it is through ray or by the simple gift of caring."

Lois smiled at the lot of them.

"I know. That's part of why I'm not dreading this as much as I should."

"All right, you two," Mike said after stowing his duffel in Kitt's trunk. "We're on our way to New York. Michael said no meeting in him in Denver - so he'll see us sometime soon. And that means you two get to work in tandem for a while."

"This should be interesting," the elder said.

The younger agreed. "Our strengths should complement well."

"Just warn me before you decide to unsheathe those gatling guns of yours."

"Of course."

Mike smiled as he climbed into the driver's seat. "Okay, boys, off we go."

Jim gave Lois a smile, though, and said, "I'm pretty good at washing hair. I'll give you a hand when we get home."

Just an offer, but he was pretty sure Lois would take him up on it, especially if he was careful. And maybe a little creative on how he did it. After all, their kitchen counter was a little tall for that.

Sandy gave Mike a quick kiss after slipping into the car.

"Been a while since I did a road trip. But I think I'll enjoy it well enough. It's all about the company, after all."

And they were on their way.

--

"Ugh, if there's something I want more than to nail every one of those bastards to a wall, it's to feel clean again. Don't be surprised if I take you up on that, Uncle Jim."

Diana rubbed her shoulder gently.

"We shall all assist. This is definitely a 'family emergency' which the community center will certainly accommodate."

"And I'll pull over for anything. Food, drink, bathroom breaks, stretching legs - just say it and we'll pull off," he promised, then leaned over to rest his cheek to Sandy's. "This'll be fun."

And he had to admit to himself, part of him was itching to get back on the road, no matter what he ran into. And then, he and Sandy were on the road, Kitt and Kitt both following the loops down the parking garage and out into the city. The Mustang had shifted colour before they'd exited, going from black to green. It wasn't much, but it was at least pretending to be covert. The elder Kitt couldn't quite do that, but... well. He'd draw attention anywhere.

----

He nodded. "I used to help Steve out after he got into all his fights. I'm pretty good at washing around injuries, but I figure there are some things you'll want someone else for."

But then, he thought he'd offer some good news.

"Did you hear what that kid Mike said? Apparently Hydra's chasing their own asses down in South America, going around in circles."

Lois laughed a little, keeping it light so she didn't hurt herself on the doctor's orders.

"Oh, I hadn't heard, but it's nice to hear. It'd be nicer if I could go down there and see what they're looking for."

Clark crossed his arms at that.

"Oh no, Lois, you're not going anywhere for a little bit. You've got to heal, not to mention the fact that you'll probably have to do any number of interviews yourself with the UN."

She made a bit of a face.

"I hate being interviewed. Half of them are awful. And I am definitely not talking to any of those Fox News assholes. I'd rather they started going after my nails again."

Clark winced at the mention of her torture before walking around and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure we'll look into it, or someone will look into it, when we need to. Thankfully, it sounds like they might be looking for something that doesn't even exist."

Lois shook her head.

"Oh no, the kind of people who do what they did to me, they don't follow their own tails, and definitely for no reason."

"He said something about someplace they thought of as a kids' story - but like Tony said, we know Asgard's a real place now, so it might be real." He took a seat on the bed's edge, though, careful, and said, "But don't worry too much about your nails. I've lost a few back before I had anything in my blood and they grew back okay."

Jim held up his hand to demonstrate. They were fine. Not manicure-worthy, maybe, but he was a guy. He didn't do manicures.

"Well," and she glanced over at Diana, "my sister over there promised that if things don't heal up right, she'd bring me to Themyscira to get them fixed up. Or, you know, I promised her I'd let her."

Diana nodded in agreement, though it obviously still hurt her heart to see her beloved sister in such pain.

Steve said nothing on the matter of Jim's torture but Diana could see him twitch behind Jim, as did Lois.

Clark waved a hand.

"We'll get there when we get there. For now, let's worry about Perry, the UN, and all the typing I'm going to get to do for you in the next few months, hmm?"

"Ooo, yes," she said with obvious, playful delight, "I get to make you my keyboard monkey. This will be amazing. I'll have to yell at Tony to make you a laptop that can actually pick up your typing without overheating. TONY! You need to make Clark a better laptop!"

"The element of generosity has physical limitations, lady," came the answering yell, and Jim chuckled under his breath.

"I bet that means he'll do it anyway."

Tony was already wondering how he could do it.

He might have had an idea. Maybe.

...Maybe.

"The element of generosity wants an excuse to try and test Clark's physical limitations!" Lois shouted back, though it split her lip open. She didn't seem to care much at all about that but Clark rolled his eyes a little and leaned over to kiss her forehead.

"The element of kindness can pull Tony into the room for you. Careful."

"Not really my skillset, Smallville."

"Well, at least more careful."

"Y'know," came Tony's voice from the doorway where he stood, almost absently eating almonds, "you could just dictate to Jarvis. He understands phrasing and punctuation so you wouldn't have to do that annoying 'period, exclamation point' crap that Dragon makes you do."

"Clark understands punctuation too," Lois said with a little lift of her head. "And I'm not going to have JARVIS once we head back to the apartment."

"You could have." Tony shrugged. "If you asked nicely. And it'd take less time than me trying to build a keyboard that would withstand a kryptonian - no offense, Clark, but I have no idea what kind of processor it'd take to actually get your kind of speed. I mean, I'd like to try, but it'd take longer than you'd need him to type for you."

But then he paused.

"...I think."

Clark looked between the two of them.

"You know I do type on my laptop. It's called 'slowing down a little'."

Lois grinned over at him, then Tony.

"Oh, I know. I just like to tease our illustrious host."

"No, no, I'm... hm... Maybe I could do it with software... External keyboard..."

He was murmuring to himself as he started to drift away, pacing while he thought, and popping another almond into his mouth.

Jim watched, wondering if Tony even realised he was wandering.

Clark very gently leaned over.

"You could always use a laser-based keyboard and fine tune the processing speed on it so you're less restricted on materials," he suggested, less because he wanted a new laptop or a keyboard and more because he knew it'd drive Tony insane if he couldn't figure it out.

"Laser keyboards are less intuitive - no real feedback," Tony answered, "and that gets frustrating, but some kind of touchscreen..."

Bulletproof glass. Hmm.

Lois smiled over at Jim as Clark threw another suggestion at Tony and the smile was fond and warm and it said better than anything else that he'd been missed.

Jim stood, stepped up, and kissed her forehead, careful of how he leaned over the bed to do it. "Welcome home, Lois. We'll get you back to the apartment and get your hair washed soon. We've even got the elevator done right in time."

"I can't complain about the bed or the company. Both are a big improvement. Do you think I could get some food, though? They, uh... they didn't really feed me. Wasn't there long enough, I guess."

She smiled up at Jim.

"Like with airlines. Only without the peanuts."

He smiled back at her. "Anything you want. We were just getting breakfast, but we'll get anything."

"Just something. Clark made eggs?" and Lois looked hopeful at that. She loved Clark's eggs. He always managed to make them properly fluffy.

"I think we can get you some Clark-made eggs." In fact, he was almost sure that now they'd been mentioned, they'd materialise before too long.

Clark pulled away from discussing the issue of the keyboard ('I can actually feel the lasers, Tony, no, really') and headed straight into the kitchen like he was on schedule. Steve couldn't help a faint smile and Diana stepped up to stroke Lois's hair out of her eyes as they settled around her.

"I am so glad I wasn't going to be much help for Thanksgiving anyway," Lois said with a little grin. "That means I won't feel like a total putz. I can still buy a box of pie with three fingers, after all!"

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