The Memoirs

Bruce was not having a good day.

First, he'd woken up to Dick splaying an elbow between his ribs. Second, he'd dropped scalding coffee on his lap by accident, then cut his hand when he jumped in pain. Bagel? Splattered with red. He'd broken two plates and nearly electrocuted himself in the Bat Cave. Not to mention he'd blabbered his secret to Lionel Luthor, was taking Clark fucking Kent on a joy ride to Hardwick Manor, and was indecently randy.

No. Today was turning out to suck.

But he didn't mention that as he landed the Bat Wing on a roof a few blocks away from Luthor Tower, and had jettisoned to it with lover in tow.

He landed, sharply, on the balcony of the apartment, and opened the glass doors without a noise. Lionel was half asleep on the couch, and he'd like to keep it that way as he walked, in shadows, toward where there was sound coming from one of the back rooms.

Dick landed lightly behind Bruce, mask in place and cape swirling around his boots as he crept quietly behind his lover. Bruce was a little on the cranky side, having not had the best of days, and he just knew that he was going to have to come along, if for no other reason than to keep all-out war from breaking out between Bruce and Clark, because on the best of days, they were like oil and water. Since today wasn't the best of days, it was more like napalm and naphtha.

Bruce crept, silently, swiftly, down the hall, and knocked once before pushing the door open of the last bedroom.

Clark looked up from Lex, who was helping him finish belting the utility pack around his waist, and arched a brow. The mask Bruce had made him hid his identity a little better, the curls smoothed and yanked back slickly doing the same, and he moved away from Lex to walk, with clicking boots, to stand in front of…

"Batman."

"Superman."

"Xander," Lex muttered to himself as he finished the last buckle and tucked the cape in over his lover's shoulders. He was used to seeing Bruce in uniform, but this was really the first time he'd seen Clark in uniform and ready for action, and the difference in his lover surprised him. His voice was huskier, his face was different, even the way he held his body was different; Superman didn't hunch over, hide, or shuffle; he stood tall, proudly, shoulders thrown back and chest puffed out as the El family crest gleamed proudly in the lamplight.

Bruce noticed it too, but he didn't say anything. He understood, perfectly--when the suit came on, the man inside came out. He nodded at Lex, opened the doorway to the balcony, and without a word, shot his grapple and jumped off the side of the terrace.

"Show off," Clark muttered, as he leaned down to plant a warm kiss on Lex's mouth. "Stay safe. I'll contact you when we've found something."

Lex kissed Clark back, and touched his shoulder gently. "Are you okay with flying?" he asked softly. "You haven't since... CK." He looked up. "Be careful."

Dick cleared his throat. "Scuse me, but we do have places to go." He held out his arm. "If you don't mind, Supes, we need to motor. Lex... stay clear."

"I'll be just fine," Clark murmured, and he turned, moving to the balcony, and with a movement that seemed lighter then air, pushed off from the terrace, convinced himself he wasn't going to plummet to his death, and took off flying over the dark figure swinging through the air.

Dick followed, the pulley on his grapple hooking onto Batman's and pulling him behind Bruce as they headed back towards the roof, to the Batwing.

Lex was left on the empty balcony, looking up into the dark night sky as his lover and his best friend disappeared into it.

A hand fell on his shoulder, and Lex jumped a little until he turned around and saw Lionel standing there. Lionel followed Lex's line of sight, had taken in the empty room, and he just sighed quietly. "Don't worry, Lex. He came home safely before, he will this time. Come back inside; there's work to do."

Lex nodded, and after pausing to fold Clark's street clothes over the foot of the bed, Lex followed his father out of the bedroom and back to the living room, where their laptops waited.

Bruce, as soon as he let go of his grapple, fell into the front seat of the bat plane. He saw Kent land near him, looking shaken but firm, and he flipped a few buttons on his cowl to include Clark in the comm link. "Hear me?"

"I've got super hearing, Batman. I can hear an ant five thousand miles away," Clark answered, a little smugly, but he nodded. "I can hear you. I'll follow."

Dick pulled himself out of the comm as he landed in the backseat, and barely swallowed a snicker. "Careful, Batman. Even I can hear your teeth grinding."

"Get in the plane," Bruce snarled, and shut the top of the plane as he fired the engines up, and watched, albeit a bit jealously, as Clark simply lifted up from the ground and hovered, like a really ugly angel, flapping cape and strong body, and alright, maybe he looked a little majestic. Whatever. Bruce pushed it out of his mind, growling under his throat, and lifted the plane up without another word.

"If it makes you feel any better? I still love you the best, Batman," Dick said, strapping himself in and settling the oxygen mask and radio earpiece over his face and in his ear.

"Shut up," Bruce muttered, and without another word he shot the plane off toward east Metropolis, and saw in the mirrors that Clark was following, as he promised he would. He looked like he might drop out of the sky a time or two, and had to land once, but he kept up, and that was something because Bruce was pushing speed. Showing off his toy, of course.

Falling out of the sky was an understatement. Every time he thought he was going to plummet to the ground and break his head open like a watermelon on the concrete, Lex whispered through the link and he heard CK's echoing voice. You can fly. You can do it! You just have to believe you can, and you will! Yeah, well, Clark was having as much success as could be expected for a nineteen year old alien.

Dick was watching out the side window, just shaking his head. Bruce was daring Clark to fall behind, and Clark was fighting to keep up. "You know, Bruce, it's not a competition. We're both on the same side here."

"That's what you think," Bruce muttered under his breath, but he slowed the plane down a bit to let Clark catch up as he streaked through the sky.

"No, that's what I know." Dick leaned forward as much as the safety straps would let him and he touched Batman's shoulder. "It's not. You've got nothing to prove against him. He's just a kid. He's just learning the ropes that you've been on for the last what, hundred years? Cut him some slack; he's jealous of your relationship with Lex and that's it."

"Way to make me feel twelve, Dick," Bruce answered, but there was a smirk in his voice as he wound around, staying out of the more populated area's and flying over forest.

Lost sight of Clark.

"Kent?"

Oh, yeah. He was okay. He'd had to land, and push off a tree, because he was about to panic, but he was great! "Fine. Sorry. Catching up," he said, loudly, in the comm, to be heard over the rushing wind, and came back up beside the left wing, stretching his arms out in front of him because it seemed to give him better balance and control.

"It's true, Bruce. It's like me being jealous of your relationship with Lex and feeling the need to show off and go Neanderthal on you," he said with a glare. "You've got the cool toys, you're the big kid on the playground."

"I am, aren't I?" he asked, not a trace or remorse in his voice as he flew lower, encircling a low gathering of trees before he found the perfect spot, and began to descend.

Clark did as well, moving a little away from the plane and landing with a bone-jarring thump on the ground. He straightened as the Bat Wing came down and its wheels did the same, landing firmly on the gravel and grass, and he looked up between the parting of trees. The Manor was enormous, the land it was on stretching at least a mile, and he frowned as he waited for Bruce and Dick to hurry up.

"Yes, you are," Dick answered as the machine landed, and he pushed open the cockpit. "And you should remember that. Big boys have to play nice too, you know, and not to sound like Diana here, but we are all on the same team."

"You did just sound like Diana. That's appalling, Dick," Bruce said, without answering as he leapt out of the plane, boots landing with a thump, as his cape swept around his shoulders. He walked forward to stand by Clark, looking through the parting of trees and keeping to the shadows. "Come on. Follow me."

"Yeah, I know." Dick's boots landed with a quieter thump as he didn't have the mass Bruce did, and his cape flared out. "On your ass, man." He flashed a grin at Clark. "Don't mind him, okay?"

"I live with the Luthors, Dick. Pissy snots don't bug me," Clark said, a skosh too loudly, and received a Bat Death Glare in return, which he smirked at, before following him towards the mansion. It was quiet, silent, and Clark watched, fascinated, as Bruce slowly and carefully disengaged all of the alarms and security devices. He shot silent tranquilizer darts at two Dobermans, who fell where they ran, disengaged the man alarm from the electricity box outside, and opened a window on the bottom floor, sliding in like night. Clark had no choice to follow. Wearing the suit was like wearing really springy spandex--it was very easy to move his weight around, and he was dead silent as he followed Bruce up the steps.

Robin the Boy Wonder and Batman's Loyal Sidekick couldn't help the snorted giggle that Clark's comment brought, but he was smart enough to have his face schooled firmly and emotionlessly by the time the death glare got transferred to him.

Once they were all three inside the house, Dick tapped Bruce on the shoulder, and pointed down the hall, then to himself, then to Clark and the stairs, and then to Bruce and the other end of the hall, and then held up a hand, signaling to meet back here in five minutes.

Bruce nodded, motioning a hand simply for Dick to explain this to Clark, and disappeared into the bowels of the house. The shadows swallowed him up, and soon he was gone.

Clark didn't need an explanation, he got it. He whisked up the steps, silently, pushing off and flying up them so his boots didn't click on the shiny wooden floor, and after using the banister for balance, came up to the second floor. He didn't bother landing, flying quietly and silently down the hall and stopping, at each door, to look inside.

He came to a library, but after rifling through it at super speed, he didn't find anything, and continued on, looking for the office.

Dick's rubber-soled boots were nearly silent as he went down his end of the hall. His cape rustled softly with his breathing as he stayed to the shadows. The wind outside made the shadows being cast through the windows dance, and he moved with them, staying silent as he passed by empty rooms, some with furniture but most without it, as though the house were just being moved into. Or out of, he added mentally, skulking further down the dark hallway.

It branched off again, going right and going left, and there were faint flickering of light. There was a steady little beep in his ear, helping him tick off the time to meeting back up with Clark and Bruce and he ignored it for now, creeping down the left side corridor to investigate.

Clark made it to the end of the hallway, and opened the last door beside a window, hoping, praying against his better judgment that--

OH GOD.

He froze, silent as the grave, as Hardwick gave a withering little snort from his slump, asleep on the desk, and he slowly, ever so slowly, backed out of the room, and shut the door with a very quiet click. As soon as he did he took five steps back in retreat, and pushed the button on his mask. "Bruce, Dick, I found him." was all he said, very, very, very quietly.

"Roger that," Dick answered back, just as quietly. "Where are you? I'm still downstairs; make sure he doesn't leave wherever he's at, and we'll meet up with you in a minute. I'm checking something out, but I'll be right there."

"I'm at the end of the hall, first hallway on the right," Clark whispered.

"Understood. I'm coming--don't make a sound, don't move," Bruce instructed, as he whisked his cape around himself and walked up the steps, as quietly as he could. He moved like the shadows being thrown off from the trees outside of the windows, silent as the grave, and when he finally stopped beside Clark, he saw the slightly panicked expression, the wide eyes. He'd done what he'd supposed to do. "Good job," he said, gruffly, before turning to the door, and opening it.

Sir Harry Hardwick was sleeping like a dead man; he heard nothing, not the soft click of the door, not the nearly-silent footfalls of the man coming across the room, not the soft swish of the cape around his boots, nothing. He just slept where he'd fallen asleep, hunched over his laptop, fingers slipping from the keys and glasses askew on his face.

"This is what it all comes down to," Bruce muttered, before grasping Hardwick's hair and yanking him back, towering over him like a dark black god of fury, his eyes blazing as he pushed Hardwick back in his chair without a single word.

Sir Harry was yanked awake, and he yelped loudly as his shocked eyes fell on the dark creature in front of him. "What are you doing here? Who are you, how did you get into my house?" he demanded, a dull pain growing in his chest that started to spread through his arm as he reached for the medicine bottle beside the laptop on the desk.

"Don't ask questions," Bruce snarled, watching the man reach for the medicine, and snatched it up out of his reach. "You're going to tell me everything, and how you're involved with the Venom project, Mr. Hardwick," Bruce growled, low in his throat.

Sir Harry was gasping for breath, his eyes and hands focused on the medication. "Pl-please, I don't know what you're talking about, my medicine, please." His voice was weak, but still crisp with the English accent of his birth. "Please."

"It makes me wonder, Superman, how many of the people who have died in the throws of the Venom begged for help, begged for medicine, begged for someone to take care of them because the pain was so severe that they couldn't breathe through liquefying lungs." Bruce got down, into the mans face, and hissed, "I know all about Jaheel and Bane, Mr. Hardwick. I know all about your connection, and I know all about the money that was being funded and where. So does a good chunk of the FBI. Even now, they're flying and driving here to apprehend you." Total bullshit, but Bruce grasped the man by the lapel, keeping the medication right out of his reach. "Tell me why you did it."

Sir Harry kept choking, kept wheezing, his free hand scrabbling at his chest as he fought to breathe. His arm felt like it was on fire, his throat was filled with grunts of pain, and he couldn't choke out anything past it, but he tried anyway. "D-don't... can't tell... please."

"No." Bruce was adamant on this, holding it right out of his hands reach as he snarled, low in his throat. "Not without a little trade, Hardwick. I give you one pill," because he knew the dose was two--one would keep the man from dropping dead before Bruce got what he needed. "And you tell me what you're doing with Jaheel. If I get the answers I like, I'll give you the other pill. If not, then I suggest you find a phone in this cave." He reached over, and with a wrench, tore the phone cord out of the wall, ripping wires along with it.

Sir Harry nodded his head wildly, anything to get the medicine, his eyes wide spheres as he gasped and choked.

Bruce opened the bottle, shook out one of the small white pills, and smacked it down on the desk, eyes intent and dark as he watched the man choke and wheeze.

One trembling hand shot out and picked up the pill, clutching it tightly in his fist because he knew that if he dropped it he wouldn't get another one. Instead, he made sure it got to his mouth and he swallowed it dry, barely enough saliva in his mouth to wash it down with but he forced it down, closing his eyes as he whimpered and waited for the pill to work.

After a few long moments, the numbing pain in his arm lessened, just a little, and his chest opened up just enough for him to breathe through as he leaned forward, wheezing as his starved lungs tried to suck in all the air they'd been denied.

Bruce smiled.

It wasn't a pleasant smile.

"There we go. Now talk, Hardwick, and don't waste my time."

Clark was silent, in the shadows, watching with horrified fascination as Bruce treated this man like...well, like a criminal. He was still shocked, no matter how angry he was, because he'd never been the physically violent type, so he stayed quiet, watching the interaction silently.

"I don't... I don't know what you want to know," Sir Harry whined, hand going to his chest to try and calm the spreading of the fire in his heart.

"Try me. Why don't you start with explaining just what the venom project is, and how you got involved." And without bringing attention to it, Bruce had put the recorder on in his Batsuit, listening silently with dark, hard, glittering eyes at the suffering man before him.

"I don't know what Venom is. I've never heard of this Venom project before," Sir Harry protested again.

"You're LYING!!" Batman roared, in fury, and slammed a fist nearly through the desk, but certainly hard enough to lead a very large fist shaped dent in it. "Start talking, Hardwick, or these pills get flushed and I let you die here in your own juices."

Sir Harry's eyes widened at the fist-shaped dent in his desk and at the person who'd left it. "I don't, I swear on my daughter's grave, I don't know what Venom is! The only thing I know is that I'm funding Jaheel's laboratory in Brazil! He's lined up human trials of something and to get the funding he agreed to screw up the Senatori man's surgery and administer the drug to him!"

"You mean to tell me you've been funneling money into a research project you don't know anything about? Hardwick, either you're stupid or insane," Bruce growled. "Not only did you have malicious intent against this Senatori man, but you also have been funding one of the biggest drug trafficking and human trials projects the United States has seen since World War Two."

Hardwick glared at the dark-dressed figure through the pain. "What do I care what's being done with my money? Luthor took it all anyway, and my sweet darling Victoria on top of it all, and if I had to fund that to make him pay for hurting her, then that's what I'll do."

"You wanted Senatori dead, didn't you?"

"Of course I did!" Harry spat out. "After what they did to Victoria, I want them all dead."

Oh, shit.

He pushed the side of his cowl with his gloved fingers. "Robin, contact Metropolis PD and tell them to get here as soon as possible."

Clark took a step forward. "What can I do?"

"Nothing," Bruce answered, as he took out another pill from the bottle like he'd said he would, smacking it on the desk. He opened his belt and pulled out a long length of strangely shaped, thick wire, which, as soon as Hardwick had swallowed the second pill, he wound around the mans arms and legs to keep him tied up.

Robin nodded from down on his end of the house. "Batman, you might want to come down here and take a look at this," he said, looking around the small laboratory that was sitting at the end of the hallway. "I haven't touched anything because quite frankly, it looks like Dr. Frankenstein's been in here, but you really need to see this lab."

I figured, Bruce wanted to say, but he stayed silent. "I'm sending Superman."

Clark nodded at Bruce, but didn't say anything, just taking off flying down the stairs and through the halls, following the signal he could hear pinging, where he could here Dick *breathing*, and went down the steps, around a hall, and found the door ajar and Dick inside a lab that would have made Lex choke. "Holy shit."

"Yeah, that was my reaction too," Robin said softly. "I'll bet you next year's tuition that if we tested half the stuff in here, we'd come up with Venom."

"It stinks," Clark answered, wrinkling his nose. "Did you call the cops?"

"Yeah, while you were on the way down. They're on the way, and they're sending an ambulance too." He motioned to the radio in his ear. "He's got to be seriously, heavily connected with someone in research or development to get some of the equipment he's got in here. There's the sonic imager, which is still in the early test stages, there's the 3D ultrasound, and I really wouldn't go near those cages in the back because I can see eyes glowing and they don't look happy."

"He said he doesn't know what Venom was, but I could hear the lies in what he was saying. Bruce has got it on tape record--the evidence in here? He's screwed." Clark shook his head as he frowned at some of the poisons sitting boiling in several tall beakers.

Dick nodded. "Yeah, I figure he was trying to cook down what he's got here and get rid of it since Jaheel got caught." He nodded towards the door in the side wall. "That connects on the other side of the hall to a hospital room--it's empty, I checked, but I'm betting that it's been recently occupied. I just don't know by whom or what."

At the words, something very dark, very primal, and very angry in Clark's heart kicked twice. "Want me to make a sweep of the grounds? Got my X-ray vision."

Dick nodded. "Yeah. Take a look around. Anyone other than Batman and Hardwick, we'll radio Bruce about it and go check it out."

"Check."

Without another word said, Clark gave a shove off the ground, and took off through the air. It whisked past him as he flew, the darkness of night strange on his face as he flew, as fast as fast as he could, and began to look over the grounds with X-Ray vision. The dogs were still asleep where Bruce had shot the tranquilizers at them, and there was a random assortment of wild life on the grounds--rabbits, mice, possums, rats.

Children.

He stopped scanning, almost immediately and looked again just in case he was mistaken.

A tiny skeleton of a human being was curled up beside a clump of what looked like a mound of earth, unmoving, but the chest rose and fell, very slowly.

Horror clutched at Clark's gut as he flew down, as fast as he could, tearing through the trees as he scanned like the demon to look for anyone else. there was nothing. The cemetery that must have held the rest of the Hardwick family was filled only with the dead, and the rest of the grounds, as he landed, were similarly empty but for the servants quarters on the other side of the house from where Bruce and Dick were, and what appeared to be a plump woman was asleep.

Clark walked towards the clump of bushes, his eyes immediately turning normal, and he looked down at the leaves, where very pale skin was just visible. He began to push them aside, trembling himself as the little girl shuddered, and he pushed leaves and dirt and muck off of her.

A little girl, no older then four, lying half dead, nauseatingly starved, keening like a wounded rabbit.

He lifted her in his arms, carefully, whispering nonsense to her as he fought to keep his stomach to himself, and took off toward the house again, keeping her carefully cradled against his chest.

"Superman?" Robin asked into his comm, hearing the violent retching. "Superman, come in. Check in or I'm starting a search, over." He keyed Bruce in, so that he could hear the whole thing.

Oh, Clark came back. He didn't bother being quiet. He crashed through the front door, the tiny girl, wearing nothing but a tiny white hospital gown too small for her, lying like a skeleton in his arms. He moved through the house, fury etched into his very heart, and though the little girl shivered in her arms and mewled softly he didn't stop until he shoved into the lab. "I found her in the woods surrounding the house. We must have passed right by her when we landed. Get me some water, and some blankets, alright? She's been out in this weather at least for two days."

"Holy shit. Batman, there's a little girl here. She's bad; looks like two day exposure in this rainy fucking weather. Superman's got her; we're going to get her a blanket, and I'm going to see what's taking the ambulance so long!" He grabbed Clark's shoulder. "Come on. Let's go." Dick jerked open the connecting door and led the way into the little hospital room, and grabbed up the first blanket he came to and wrapped it around the little girl. "There, baby."

The sweet little girl was shivering, and she wasn't even that much aware of having been picked up. But she knew voices were talking to her, and she felt something warm tucked around her shoulders, and she gave a little cry as she stretched and banged the top of her head on Clark's chin. "Daddy! Where's my Daddy?"

"Shhh. He's upstairs with my friend… we're going to keep you safe, alright?" Clark asked, looking down at her and carefully stroking the mussed curls from her forehead as she cried. "It's okay... I'm going to keep you safe, alright? Would you like a drink of water?"

Bruce, in the meanwhile, was busily snarling and trying his very best not to smack to man tied to the chair in front of him around. "A little girl? You've sunk to new lows, Hardwick." he looked up suddenly, as the sound of ambulances could be heard in the very far distance, and smirked.

"That's my daughter, she's been missing for days now, she needs her injection, please. It's downstairs, in the laboratory, in the blue bottle marked with her name," Harry pled softly. "She gets sick if she doesn't get it, please, please."

The little girl just kept crying. "I want my Daddy, misser. I want my Daddy, he makes it stop hurting, I want my Daddy!"

"Shhh, it's alright baby. What's your name?" Clark asked, as he wrapped her tightly in a blanket and picked her up, holding her tightly to his chest as he took the glass of water Dick handed him and made the little thing in his arms drink as much of it as possible. "Why were you outside?"

"I went to visit my mommy," she said. "I'm named like her. My name's Victoria." She drank the water, but it burned her throat and she started crying again.

Clark didn't have to ask where her mommy was. "Hello, Victoria. That's a very, very pretty name, you know." Clark looked up when he realized that cops were screeching to a halt outside. "Some men are going to come in to make sure your house is okay, alright? Would you like to stay with me? My names Superman, by the way, but you can call me Supes."

"You know, Supes...," Dick said with a grin. "I'm not getting happy vibes from this whole thing." He sighed. "Batman's with Hardwick--"

"That's my last name!!" little Victoria piped up, still drinking from the cup. "Supes is a funny name."

"--and we need to take her upstairs for medical attention," Dick finished.

Clark barely heard the guy as he lifted the little girl up into his arms, making sure she didn't slosh water down her front as he carried her up the stairs, still talking to her. "Supes is a weird name, but it's not my real name. Just my superhero name. What's yours? Do you have a super hero name?" he asked the tiny girl, as he walked up the steps and out into the foyer.

"What's a thuperhero?" she asked, lisping a little as she tried to drink and speak at the same time.

"Someone who goes around saving people, of course," Clark answered, with a smile, as he looked up into the face of a detective he didn't know, but could guess was the lead man on the case. "Hardwick's upstairs with Batman."

Detective Dan Turpin peered back at the masked whoever-he-was and glared, looking down at the child as his squadron kept their guns out and whisked up the steps. "You've got to be Superman." He glared, but nodded over his shoulder at Robin. "Gordon told us you'd be here. Who's the kid?"

"We're not sure. She says she's the daughter of Victoria Hardwick," Clark answered, as he carried over the threshold and outside, to the ambulance waiting.

Robin gave a curt nod back. "Yes, this is Superman, and he's going to take the girl to get medical treatment. You'll have to ask Mr. Hardwick who she is, Detective," he answered, nodding at Clark's back as he went away.

The little girl stuck her hand up over Superman's shoulder and waved it at the other funny person in the mask, then blinked up at the one holding her. "Are you going to take me to see my Daddy now?"

"Not right now, honey. Your Daddy might b--" Why the fuck was she calling him daddy? he stopped, puzzled, and looked down at her. "Don't you mean granddaddy, Victoria?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No, my daddy!"

"But didn't you say that your mommy was outside? Was she in the cemetery, Victoria?" he asked, quietly, and set her down on the edge of the ambulance as the medics were inside with Hardwick.

She nodded. "Yes, that's right. She dieded when I was born."

"So he's not your daddy, baby. He's your granddad," Clark answered, because something was prickling the back of his neck insistently, and he met Dicks eyes before looking back to the tiny thing.

"He's my DADDY!" she yelled, and then kicked him. As soon as she kicked him, though, she started crying because it hurt her foot. "You... big blue meanie!!"

Robin gave a nod. "Yeah, see, I told you? Not good vibes, man." He came over a little closer over Superman's shoulder.

Clark didn't bother wincing when she kicked him--he didn't even feel it. "I'm sorry, Victoria. I just had to think about it for a sec, you know?" He nodded firmly at her, to show her he was doing just that, and scrunched his eyes up as he thought. "I never had any grandparents, so I don't even know what to call them. But okay, he's your Daddy, I believe you. Your mommy, she was called Victoria Hardwick, right? Have you seen pictures of her?"

The little girl nodded. "Yep. She was pretty. She looked just like me when I was a little girl. Daddy showed me pictureses. Said we could be sisters if I wanted to pretend, but I came from her so she was my mommy."

Something very dark, and very nauseous, was churning in Clark's stomach. "Hey, Victoria? You know how I said I'm a superhero?"

"Uh huh. I members." Victoria put the empty cup down on the tailgate of the ambulance.

"That's good! Well, I've got super powers, you know. I can make things get really hot with my eyes, and I can make slushies with a big puff of breath, and I can even hear things that are really far away." Clark said, hopefully keeping her attention as he slowly made his way up to his point.

"Oooh, slushies! I likes slushies. I'm hungry, too. Can we go see Daddy and then get something to eat? Mrs. Dixon in the kitchen always lets me have cookies and stuffs." Victoria was squirming a little bit as she got comfortable.

"Maybe later. But you know how I've got these powers?" he prodded, gently, as he watched her. "Well, I've got this super cool power where I can show somebody a picture in their heads. Would it be okay if I showed you a picture of someone? And you can tell me who they are? Like a game. And if you win, you get to have a slushie, okay?"

"Oooh!!! Like Memory!!!" She gave a little clap of her hands. "I love games. But Daddy's always too busy to play, but he reads to me at night and stuff!" She gave a huge grin. "And if I win I get... a cherry slushie?"

"A cherry slushie," Clark affirmed, with a smile. "Okay?"

"Okay!!! Let's play!!" She gave Superman another big grin.

"Wonderful." Clark crouched in front of her and gently took her hands, as he tugged on the barrier between his powers and Lex's. Lex, I need your help. Do you sense the little girl I'm touching? Send her a picture of Victoria. A G rated picture.

Lex's eyebrows raised, but he just shrugged. I know better than to ask. He closed his eyes for a minute, and flipped quickly through the virtual catalog of pictures in his head, and settled for the first time he'd seen her after Amsterdam, at the Metropolis Museum of Art. With a little push, he carefully threaded the picture through Clark's consciousness, and to the only other little mind in the connection.

"MOMMY!!!!" Victoria squealed as soon as the image came into her head. "That's my mommy Victoria! That I'm named after!!"

"Wow, she was very, very pretty!" Clark said, a small squeak in his voice. Something was incredibly wrong here, incredibly, indecently wrong. "You win!" he replied, with a big smile. "I'll get you your cherry slushie soon as I can, okay? First, you see those people over there? They're gonna bring you and your daddy to the doctor, to take care of, and I'll come see you later, kay?"

"DADDY!!!!!!!" she yelled, not hearing a single word that he said, because just then, Detective Turpin was leading Sir Harry out of the house in handcuffs, escorted by a policeman and two paramedics. "What's them people doing to my daddy!!! let me down!!!! I WANT MY DADDY!!!" Victoria wailed.

"Fuck, I told them not to come out yet!" Robin hissed into the earpiece, hand clapping over his other ear at the wail. He'd moved out of the little girl's line of sight as he relayed everything that was going on to Bruce.

"Victoria!" Sir Harry heard her wailing as he came out. "Victoria, no, it's all right. Stay where you are, darling. It's going to be all right."

"It's alright, come here, shh," Clark answered, as he picked her up as she screamed, and held her up into his arms as Hardwick was taken to the police car. "It's okay, Victoria. Promise. Hey, lookit, lookit me. Shhhh. Look at me." He answered, and gently turned her head. "I said it'd be okay, didn't I?"

She wouldn't be calmed. "Where is they taking my Daddy!!! I want my Daddy!!!" She started kicking and wailing again, trying to reach over Superman's shoulders as she sobbed for her father.

"Shhh, shh," Clark answered, turning her away from the scene and hugging her, tightly. Why? No idea. She was just a kid.

A kid he had a very funny, very panicky, feeling over. He didn't say anything, as Bruce swept from the mansion and came toward them, just rocking the sobbing little girl in his arms as she wailed.

"Superman, put the kid down, the cops will take care of her. We need to get you back, and Robin and I have to get back to Gotham. There's a lot of things we need to get finished and cleared up--I appreciate your help."

Clark shook his head. Hard. "No. I'll stay with her… they just have to look her over." And in his mind, he followed the logical steps. They'd take her to child protective services, where she'd sleep in an orphanage until family could be found, and if not, she'd become a ward of the state.

Yeah, well. Clark had already gotten attached.

The little girl kept kicking and screaming as the police car with Sir Harry in it pulled away, and she was wailing at the top of her lungs as she nearly strangled Superman with her grip on his neck.

Robin just sighed. "Supes... look. They'll take good care of her. It's what they do."

Clark wasn't bothered. A tiny thing couldn't hurt him, even if she was trying, hugging him as she was. "No, they won't. She'll go to CPS until they figure out what to do with Hardwick."

"It's not a bad place to be, Clark," Robin said reasonably. "They'll find her a foster family, and she'll be taken care of. Metropolis is second only to Gotham in foster care, and you know she'll be taken care of."

Victoria just curled up against Clark's chest and sobbed. "Why'd they take my daddy away, Superman?"

Clark looked down at the sobbing girl, and he couldn't do it. He couldn't. "There's something wrong with her," he said softly, glaring meaningfully at Bruce, then at Dick, as he hugged her close. "I can let them take her, not yet, not until we find out what's wrong. First of all, because Victoria Hardwick and Lex Luthor dated, and not once was there ever a mention of a child between them--I have it on personal authority that he's gay. This little girl is claiming that Hardwick's her father--he can't be, his wife died fifteen years ago, I saw it on the plot out in the cemetery. Alright? Something is going on here." He looked down at the tiny thing, and quietly cooed. "Shhh, it's alright. They just took him for a bit, to ask him some things, okay?" He gently tipped her head up. "We have to go talk to the police and stuff, but if you like, I have a friend who I think would like you to stay with him and his friend. Would you like that?"

"Look, nobody's debating Lex Luthor's sexuality here, but this little girl... Supes, you don't know what she's seen, what she hasn't, what she knows, and if you're right, she could be sick even as we speak," Robin pointed out. "Thing is, we just don't know."

"Daddy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she said suddenly. "You're all strangers. I can't talk to you."

"I'm not a stranger. I'm Superman, remember?" Clark asked her, then glared at Dick. "Robin, you know what both my lover and I am. He's a certified genius."

"Stop arguing. My head is throbbing," Bruce snapped, then glared at Clark. "Superman, take the kid to the hospital, have her checked out, and then you do what you think is right. I trust your judgment. Robin, shut up and let's go."

Robin opened his mouth to argue again, but fell silent at Batman's growl. "We'll be watching, and let us know how it turns out."

The little girl sighed. "But you's a stranger cause Daddy don't know you."

Clark nodded, and watched as the two whisked toward the woods where the Batwing was. He looked down at her, wrapped around him in his arms, and sighed gently back, nudging one of her dimples with a fingertip. "Sure he does. Who says he doesn't, hmm? 'sides, you can trust me--you can always trust superheroes, Victoria," he said, matter-of-factly, as he hugged her close and looked at the paramedics coming toward him. "Lets get you to the doctor, kay? And then I'll take you to my friend."

She shook her head. "I don't like doctors. They poke me with stuff."

"Well, you see, I forgot to give you the second part of the rules from our game--cherry slushies can only be had after making sure you're okay," Clark said, wisely, as he set her in the paramedics arms, then climbed into the ambulance behind them, ignoring their stunned, open mouths as he sat in front of her on one of the benches.

She crossed her arms over her little chest. "Then I don't want a slushie, cause I don't like doctors!"

"Well, they aren't gonna poke you or anything. Maybe just a little, but you can hang out with me while they do it. I've been poked loads of times," Clark said wisely, though it was a total lie.

She shook her head again. "No. I don't want to be poked. I don't want doctors, I want to see my Daddy!"

"You can't see your daddy right now," Clark said, calmly, hoping to God she wasn't going to throw a fit. "You know, my friend has a lot of DVDs. Do you like movies?"

Victoria started to pout. "I don't care about movies. I want my Daddy."

Clark totally ignored the paramedics as the ambulance lurched and started towards the hospital, he could only assume. "He can't see you right now. But this friend, I'm going to take you to? He knows your daddy, and he knew your mummy, too."

Victoria thought hard about that. "Is he one of the good people or the bad people that hurt my mommy?"

"He's one of the good people. He liked your mommy very, very much, and they were boyfriend and girlfriend, but they broke up later and were just friends. He still liked her though, and I'm *positive* he'll like you."

Her little face screwed up. "That's the bad baldy man!!!!!!" she screeched.

Clark nearly fell over when the child squealed on top of her lungs. "Shhh! He's not a *bad* man."

"HE IS HE IS HE IS!! Daddy said he lied to Mommy and called her names and that he was a bad bad man that you couldn't never ever trust cause he'd hurt you!!!" She started kicking Clark again. "I won't let you take me to him, he'll hurt me!!"

Clark yelped when she kicked him, but as easily as he could, with the paramedics glaring at him, he lifted the little girl until she stopped kicking. "Look at me, Victoria. Act your age. You're four, right? be a good girl and act like a four year old." He said, first. "Second, you trust me, right? Cause I saved you in the forest?"

"No! You're taking me to the bad bad man!" She struggled in his lap but couldn't get free, so instead she screamed. At the top of her lungs.

He let her go as soon as he let her go, and instead yanked on the thread again. Lex! Help! Give me a good image of you and Victoria! I know its hard, but please do it!

One of these days, you're going to have to explain to me why we're doing this. But Lex complied, sorting quickly through his memories and picking out one of him and Victoria sitting in front of the fireplace, having sushi and sake for dinner, and carefully poked that through the link to his lover.

Clark pulled the picture and the link to the little girl he was holding, and carefully deposited the image in her head, making sure she knew it was him, and showed her the snippet of memory, though it made him slightly sick to see HIS lover with THAT woman, but he let her see it, quietly, as he held his breath and hoped to god she stopped screaming.

She did. "Whys Mommy eating with the bad man?"

Clark exhaled a very long breath, very aware the medics were staring, but he didn't care. "Cause she liked him. And he liked her, see? He wasn't mean to her, or bad to her, and sometimes she had temper tantrums, but he didn't mind."

She peered at him, cocking her head as she looked at the picture in her head. "But Daddy said he was the bad man. So is the one with all the funny-looking hair. He said they're both bad bad men that might hurts me."

"Well, they won't. Because they had a lot of Problems, you know? Lex...was like Cinderella," Clark answered, eyes twinkling down at the child as he said it. "He was really sad, and just wanted a Fairy Godmother, who was called Ms. Bird, to grant him his wish. And he wished and wished, and eventually, do you know, Prince Charming came and rescued him from all the sad things in his life. And now, he's very, very happy, and a very good man. And so's his dad, Mr. Weirdy Lion."

Lex was outraged. I AM NOT FUCKING CINDERELLA, CLARK!! he bellowed through their link.

Victoria giggled. "Silly. Only girlses can have Fairy Godmothers."

"Nuht uh! That's totally not true. Because really, then who would the boys have? Fairy godfathers?" He asked, eyebrow raised, and totally ignoring Lex's bellowing.

"Boys don't get them." She stuck out her lower lip. "Only girls get fairy godmothers."

"I don't have a godmother, but I'm positive Lex does. Though she's not a fairy--he is," Clark mussed, before smiling down a the girl. "So... wanna see him? If you don't like him, you don't have to stay with him. Okay?"

She gave him a very distrustful look. "If I see hims, do I still have to see the doctor?"

"Well, yes. But? Just for a little, little while, okay? And I won't let them hurt you--Superman, here. Plus, you can see Lex too, and I'll ask him to bring a cuddly blanket for you. Would you like that?"

More distrustful staring. "Well... okay. But you have to make the doctors be nice. And the blanket has to be purple. Cause that's my favoritest color of the rainbow, even though Daddy hates it."

Clark… grinned. "You know, Lex likes purple."

Victoria grinned. "Really? I like that. The bad man likes purples."

"Yeah, but you can't call him that. He might get offended." Clark said, sternly. "'Baldy' will do."

She giggled. "Baldy man!" She didn't notice that the paramedics had stopped the ambulance or that they were coming around for her. "Tell the baldy man to bring me a pretty purple blanky!!"

"I will. Now, these doctors? Are going to take very good care of you, kay? I'll get Lex and his friend to come down to see you, alright?" Clark asked, as he leapt down from the ambulance doors. "With the purply blanket."

Victoria held out her pudgy little arms so he could swing her down. "And if he's not here when I get out, you will be, right?"

"Of course I will." He put his arms around her, feeling the tiny arms come around his neck, and something in his belly dropped, while his heart skipped, as he held the tiny, tiny little girl close before setting her down.

He was aware his voice was gruff when he spoke. "See you later, Ms. Victoria."

"Bye, Superman!" Victoria hugged the superhero tightly, and then waved at him over her shoulder as the paramedics led her off to the emergency room.

Yeah, well.

Clark's heart had lodged somewhere in his throat, and already a babbling litany was going on in his head over ways on how to convince Lex if they could keep her. He took off flying, trusting the police officers who'd followed the ambulance to fill the doctors in, as he soared over Metropolis back to the apartments.

He landed on the terrace, opened the doors to the bedroom he was sharing with Lex, and opened his mouth.

"We have to keep her., She wants to meet you, and a purply blanky. We have to keep her. I told her you'd be coming, so she'd be safe. We have to keep her."

Lex looked up calmly. "I'm assuming we're talking about a nice, cuddly puppy to add to the menagerie?" he asked, his eyebrow raised high.

"No. Um...no." He closed the terrace doors, drew the shades, and began to peel the suit off. The armor came off first, the mask too leaving his face slightly sticky from the stuff Bruce had used to put it on with, then tugged down the protective Kevlar suit underneath and then finally, when he'd finally stripped down to the skin, folded all of the suit up, set it in the metal case beside the TV cabinet, and headed straight for the shower.

"Ah. Then what...--Clark!" Lex tossed down his papers and followed Clark into the bathroom, sticking his head into the large stall. "Clark! What--and I'm almost afraid to ask this--who--are we talking about keeping?"

Clark put the shower on, his sweat damp, slicked hair soaking through with water as he stuck his head under the spray, and began to methodically scrub himself clean. "You need to get dressed, and get a purple blanket. I'll explain on the way."

Lex still had his head hanging half in and half out of the shower and pulled back so that he didn't get soaked. "Oh… kay. Clark? Where are we going and why do I need a purple blanket? And what are we discussing keeping?"

"Um...well, you'll see," Clark said, but it garbled more into a, "ub, we', oo'll seh'!" under the water spray. He scrubbed the soap out of his hair and off his body, before climbing out and beginning to thoroughly scrub himself dry. As soon as he had he rubbed the towel through his long hair to dry it, and padded into the bedroom to find something to wear in their suitcase. "Purple blanket."

Lex just stood bewildered, in the middle of the room. "Clark? Darling? I'm not MOVING until you tell me what the FUCK is going on!" he thundered.

"I'm not a darling," Clark answered, as he rose back to his feet with boxers, jeans, and a t-shirt, kissed Lex's pouting mouth, and began to yank the clothes on.

"You're not answering me!" Lex... didn't whine.

Oh, yes he did, and Clark found it desperately adorable. "I'll explain when we get there. Get your shoes on and lets go, Luthor," Clark snarked, kissing him again before he yanked his boots on, grabbed a jacket, and slipped out the door into the hall.

"BUT WHY IS THE RUM GONE!" he bellowed in frustration, before stalking over to the spare linen closet. He dug through it and came out with a soft flannel blanket, plaid in different shades of purple. He paused at the dresser, took a nice, long, deep drink of scotch and stalked out after his lover.

 

-fin-

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