Chapter Text
Chrissy sat next to Lois in the stands of the Smallville football stadium, the tension between them was palpable. Their disagreements had been getting worse, but this most recent fight had been bad, really bad. Chrissy wondered about their future together as partners. But they put their argument on hold for the time being to at least appear civil while attending the football game.
As the lone reporter for so many years, Chrissy had become accustomed to covering these games. High school football had always been a mainstay of the Smallville Gazette and their major draw for readership.
That changed after the events related to Morgan Edge and the continued presence of the military in town. Being billed as Lois Lane’s independent news venture certainly had not hurt their paper’s reputation, either. Their paper was starting to gain more mainstream recognition for many of their more hard-hitting stories and opinion pieces.
Over the years, she had gotten accustomed to reporting on the games and taking a few pictures, even though photography was hardly her specialty. Until this past year, she figured reporting on high school football was pretty much the extent of her journalistic career. But now she wanted more, so much more for herself. And where before she would have been proud to be Smallville’s lone reporter covering the local happenings and human-interest pieces she was now resentful of being relegated to these types of stories. She had had a taste of real journalism. She had interviewed Superman! Covering Smallville football and Harvest Fest and Mr. Miller’s giant pumpkin just felt like a cruel joke.
She had hoped she and Lois would share some of these smaller local stories that were essential for their current subscription base until their online ventures could bring in more revenue. But Lois somehow seemed to find a way out of covering these stories. It was one of her points of contention with Lois although hardly the main source of ire at the present.
Truthfully, Chrissy did not mind covering the football games considering Lois’s boys were on the team. Lois deserved to focus on cheering and supporting her boys during these games. They did make a habit of sitting together at games, sometimes using the downtime between the action to discuss matters related to the paper. But not tonight.
General Lane was there tonight; he had been a fixture at most games but did not always sit with Lois. They seemed to have fairly regular disagreements as well. But tonight he sat on the other side of Lois and they seemed to be whispering about something of concern and Chrissy noticed them glance briefly in her direction. She wondered if it was about her and the argument with Lois? Or was she being paranoid?
The General and Lois both seemed to stop whatever they were whispering about and return to more normal conversation about the boys’ latest play on the field.
As the game continued, Lois and Chrissy continued to awkwardly ignore one another. Chrissy pretended to jot down the occasional notes in her pad. She got up to take a few pictures of the action, it was an easy excuse to break the tension. She perched herself near the field to snap photos but mostly her mind was replaying their fight from only a few hours earlier.
***
“So hear me out….” Chrissy said to Lois. She knew suggesting any story related to Superman was a potential minefield with Lois. “I’ve been working on an article related to Superman for several weeks… but it also relates to Smallville, too.”
Chrissy had hoped that the Smallville angle might make Lois more amenable to her covering the story. But as usual, she saw the subtle signs of Lois’s displeasure. The tensing of her muscles and clenching of her jaw.
But Lois at least attempted to hide the disapproval on her face. Her eyebrows raised slightly but she didn’t look up from the paperwork she had been working on at her desk before Chrissy broached the subject.
“Oh, what kind of story were you thinking?’ Lois replied nonchalantly. However, the death grip on her pen defied any attempt at ease in her tone and demeanor.
Chrissy knew she had a limited amount of time before Lois found some reason to shoot down any story related to Superman, so she unleashed a torrent of words to make as much of her argument as possible.
“So I’ve been reading a bunch of blogs and forums about Superman lately and of course everyone has been abuzz about his disappearance from Metropolis and decreased sightings overall. And I started to put together a timeline with locations of confirmed sighting as well as speculated sightings from witnesses on social media.”
Chrissy could see Lois struggling to maintain her composure, but the small cracks in her façade could no longer conceal her rising exasperation. Chrissy knew she only had a short time to get in the remainder of her pitch for the article before Lois would find a reason to shut it down, the words flowing as quickly as she was able.
“And I compared this to the timeline of events in Smallville with Morgan Edge. And the drop-off in sightings in Metropolis definitely coincided with Edge taking over the mines. There was even a month where he was spotted near Smallville more than anywhere else in the world but of course that was also right around the time Edge was beginning his whole eradicator world domination plan so that makes sense. But its been months since then and Superman still hasn’t returned to pre-Edge level of sightings in Metropolis….”
“What’s your point?” Lois said coolly, finally looking up from her paperwork and meeting Chrissy’s gaze.
“Well, Superman has continued to be sighted significantly more frequently in the area surrounding Smallville. Like I did a statistical analysis and everything.” Chrissy saw Lois’s careful façade drop and clear frown appeared on her face but this did not deter Chrissy from pressing on with her argument. “And I think that there’s still something going on in Smallville that has Superman’s attention. Possibly related to the mines…maybe Edge is still involved someway. Maybe there is some continued threat that the people of Smallville have a right to know about”
Chrissy had expected Lois’s ire – she was used to that. But instead she was met with a sigh of exasperation and fatigue. She rubbed her eyes with both hands seeming to take her time to figure out how to respond.
“You can’t publish this story, Chrissy.”
Her voice quieter than she expected, unusually meek with a hint of sadness. In some ways this scared Chrissy more than her being outright angry. There was a tiredness about her - like she did not want to have to have the fight she knew was coming.
“I’ve done all the research, checked several sources. It’s ready to print…I just wanted to give Superman an opportunity to comment.”
“He’s not going to comment on this.”
“How can you know that?” Chrissy’s own temper was flaring.
“Because he just won’t, okay?” She could tell Lois was trying her best not to sound angry, but they had been through too many of these before. The both knew a fight was now inevitable.
“You haven’t even tried to ask him and you know he won’t comment? Unbelievable!”
“Chrissy, you don’t understand.” Lois began raising her voice.
“No, you’re right. I don’t understand,” Chrissy yelled back. “Explain what I’m missing. What do you know that you won’t tell me?”
“No…I don’t know anything...” Lois responded more softly now, seemingly trying to deescalate the situation. But Chrissy knew it was a lie. She had gotten good at recognizing the signs in Lois - the slight avoidance of eye-contact, a subtle waver of guilt.
“You’re dad’s no longer at the DoD. It isn’t a conflict of interest. Any info you have deserves to be made public, the people have a right to know what’s so important that has pulled Superman’s attention away from Metropolis. Our town was nearly destroyed, we have a right to know if there is still a threat out there.”
“There’s no threat to Smallville.”
“How can you know that for sure? You obviously know something that you just don’t want to tell me about. We’re partners. How can we continue to work together if you don’t trust me?”
“It’s not what you think!” Lois exclaimed.
“Don’t give me that BS about national security or protecting your sources. I’ve let you get away with these excuses for too long.”
“Chrissy, please….” Lois pleaded.
Chrissy was not backing down. “I’m publishing this story and there is nothing you can do to stop me. I gave you the opportunity to reach out to Superman as a courtesy but I’m publishing it with or without a quote from him.”
Lois slammed her hand down forcefully on the desk, “You CAN NOT publish this story, Chrissy.”
Chrissy jumped, startled by the intensity of Lois’s reaction.
“Then just tell me why!”
Lois seemed to think for a moment but then sighed through clenched teeth, “I can’t.”
“The only reason I can think is that you want to be the only one who covers Superman. You want to have exclusivity on all things Superman-related and hate the idea that I might have a newsworthy story involving Superman based completely on my own research.”
Lois threw her hands up in the air and laughed sarcastically, “Yes, that’s the reason. Whatever you want to believe as long as you do NOT print this story.”
“Oh, it’s being published online on Monday. You have until then to either get me a quote from Superman. Or give me an actual reason for why I shouldn’t publish it.”
“Give me the weekend….I’ll see if I can get a quote from Superman,” she grumbled begrudgingly. “But promise me you won’t publish anything before then.”
“Okay. But Monday morning it goes live… no matter what.”
“Fine!” Lois angerly looked at her watch and fumbled for her jacket hung on the back of her chair, “I have to go watch my son’s game, I can’t be late. So we need to leave now.”
There was still plenty of time before the game but Chrissy silently collected her things. Unfortunately, they had a ritual of carpooling to the stadium given that the Kent family still only had one car. Lois surely wanted to leave and end the conversation but they still had to share a short car ride to the school football stadium. Their argument might be on hold but neither felt like talking so they drove in uncomfortable silence to the Smallville football field.
As she drove, she noticed Lois furiously texting on her phone and imagined she was complaining to someone – most likely her husband. But Chrissy shook it off. She was doing her job. She was being the journalist she had believed Lois Lane to be, the type that fought no matter what for the story. Like they said, never meet your heroes. But even if Lois fell short of the reporter she had idolized as a girl, Chrissy was determined to live up to the ideal she had built in her mind even if Lois fell short.
***
Chrissy stood leaning on the fence by the side of the field with her camera in place as the Smallville team lined up for the next down. But as she looked through the lens adjusting the focus, she noticed something in the background. There were military soldiers surrounding the field. Not enough to be immediately noticeable, but definitely a significant military presence that seemed to be standing on guard. And they appeared to be armed.
She looked around the stands and the field. So far no one else seemed to notice. But then she saw Lois and General Lane both standing up, looking away from the play on the field and instead toward the sideline. They appeared to be trying to move down the steps as discreetly as possible.
Chrissy was not sure where they both seemed to be looking. Nothing seemed amiss on the sideline. The team seemed to be watching and cheering on the most recent play. But then she saw Clark Kent. His back was turned to the field and instead looking toward his wife. He appeared to be mouthing something to her, pointing directions with his hand to signal where she should go. There was an aura of authority she had never seen in Lois’s husband before.
She looked back on the field. A timeout had been called and the players ran back to the sideline. But Clark practically pulled both his sons by their jerseys pushing them away from the team huddle and off the field. There was a brief interaction with Coach Gaines who she could hear screaming something at Clark. Coach Gaines threw down his clip board and forcefully put himself in front of Clark, both hands on his hips seeming to try to block them from leaving. Clark seemed to say something to him calmly without trying to escalate the confrontation, but within a split second he’d adeptly navigated his way around the large coach pulling both sons behind him. The whole thing happened with surprising speed and even Coach Gaines seemed taken a back. But the Kent boys had already swiftly moved past the coach, off the field, over the track and to the edge of the stands.
General Lane stood near the exit talking animatedly into his cell phone making gestures of frustration with his hands. Clark and the boys met up with him at the exit.
Chrissy searched the stands for Lois. She found her pulling her niece Natalie away from a group of friends in the stands, climbing down the steps toward the rest of her family. Chrissy ran to try to catch up and intercepted her and Natalie near the bottom of the bleachers.
“Lois, what is going on?!?”