DISCLAIMER:Smallville or Buffy are so not mine.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hi! If you’ve gotten this far it means you’re reading this. Please drop me a reply: as short as ‘Yo’ or as long as you want, good or bad.
Dawn walked into the Magic Box, ready for work. She found someone unexpected at the research table.
“Willow, what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t comfortable here by yourself?
“Thanks for not saying I’m not allowed to be here alone. Anyhow, I though Anya would open early for sure, with ‘Midsummer’ coming up so soon.”
“What’s Midsummer?”
“A pagan Sabbat.”
“Like a holiday?”
“Yeah. Xander’s got a dial-up modem and my laptop was here. And truthfully,” she added, “if I spent another day watching daytime TV and crying in my cereal I don’t know what I would have done.”
“I know what you mean” Dawn responded truthfully. She had lost enough people in her life to know the ups and downs of grieving.”So what are you up to?"
“I’m doing a background check on someone and-”
“Really? That’s great! Can you show me how you do it?”
“There’s no way I’m going to show you how to hack, but you can watch the process.”
“Cool.” Dawn pulled up a chair and made herself comfortable.
“So who is it?”
“Clark.”
“Oh, no! Why are you investigating Clark? He’s done nothing but be super nice; did something happen? Have you all be keeping secrets from me again,” Dawn asked emotionally, “because I swear if you have-”
“Yes and no. See Dawnie, we usually don’t look anyone up until something happens. I sort of took an interest when Clark showed up with Xander, but he wasn’t snooping where he wasn’t supposed to, he wasn’t asking questions and he and Xander really get along. I didn’t really have the energy anyway, so I didn’t do anything.”
“So what did you learn so far? Nothing, right?”
“He’s exactly who he says he is. He was adopted in 1989, by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who are both alive and involved in their son’s life.”
“How do you know?” She asked, squinting at the screen.
“I called the house and introduced myself. They sure are proud of him.”
“That’s so sweet.” Dawn said wistfully.
“Yeah. So right now I only have the basics. He goes to Smallville High and he probably is 16, give or take a year.”
“Buffy’s going to freak when she finds out she’s been checking out a guy who’s like, 10 years younger than her.”
“Try 6.”
“Whatever, it’s still like, ‘wrong’, and I’m going to love seeing her face. I can tell her right? Can I tell her? Please Willow, please, please, please, please let me?” At Willow’s nod she clapped her hands excitedly and did a little arm dance. “Woo. So what else have you got?”
“Writes for the school paper, gets great grades, ran for Class president and lost.”
Dawn frowned sympathetically. “You’re in the school records, what do you do next?”
“I haven’t found anything that would make me suspicious, but let’s say I want to go deeper, what else could help?”
“Newspaper?”
“Long shot, he’s really young, but we can check out if anything bad’s happened to his family or if something public happened to drive him here.”
“The Smallville Ledger. What’s a Ledger?”
“ledg·er n
1. a book or page with columns for debits and credits, on which to transcribe financial records
2. a gravestone that lies flat on the ground
3. a horizontal beam in a scaffolding that is attached to the uprights and supports the beams (putlogs)”
“Say wha?”
Willow went on explaining the procedure. “So I type his last name in here and we’ll see if something comes up.”
“12 articles?”
“Maybe his parents are famous?” Willow supplied her theory.
“Or maybe he is. Check it out.” Dawn said, getting closer to the screen.
“Local Boy saves Lex Luthor,” read the redhead.
“Wow, go to the next one.”
“Lex Luthor 2, Death 0. Lex Luthor sacrificed himself today as a madman took control of Luthorcorp #3 Fertilizer plant. His bold move ensured the visiting freshman class of Smallville High School, got out safely… Yadda, yadda, yadda… Luckily, student Clark Kent stayed behind… helped him cheat death once again by pulling both the young scion and the Hostage taker up from the side of a bridge that was about to collapse… bla, bla, bla,” she said, skimming once more. “Lionel Luthor was forced to make the decision to lock down before his heir could get free and looked relieved when his son was pronounced safe… Something, something. Luthorcorp insist officially there never was a level three but the company will pay the man’s medical bills.”
Willow skimmed through the rest of the articles, some of them mentioning Clark’s name in passing, one mentioning the death of the Kent’s cow heard and two others were write ups dealing with Martha Kent’s organic produce and gardening.
When she was done, she pointed to a group of articles on the screen. “There are still all those about bad things happening while he’s around, but-”
“Buffy’s ‘around’ when bad things happen, but she’s not the one ‘doing it’”
“Maybe our boy has a savior complex.”
“Or it could be a coincidence.”
“Yes. So what else could be relevant?” Asked the older woman.
“Don’t look at me.”
“How about the school newspaper, or his adoption records?”
“Why those?”
“Something he wrote or someone else wrote about him could give us insight into his psyche, and his adoption records may lead us to the reason why I electrocuted him and he didn’t budge.”
“You what?” Jumped the brunette, caught off guard.
“The magic withdrawal, or shortage or whatever the heck it is. God, it happened again last night. Only this time Clark was with Xander. I’m not sure what happened but Xander said he left for some ice and Clark came it to help. Xander pried us apart after it was over but he was perfectly fine. You remember the scars it left on Xander when he got hit with some, and my hands, well…” She readjusted her bandages.
“Yeah, so how could that be?”
“Demon blood?”
“Maybe. But he looks awfully good for a demon.”
“Alien?”
They both laughed.
“Maybe I was wrong. Maybe the surge wasn’t as powerful as before. Another charge blew up Xander’s lamp, like an hour earlier.”
“Why don’t we just ask him?”
“Hey Clark, how was your day? So, while you were there last night, did I electrocute you by any chance? Because if I did I am so sorry… M’not sure that would go over real well.”
“Right.”
The door opened and in walked a group of women. Dawn went to help them while Willow checked into Clark’s adoption.
Clark was nervous as ever. It was lunchtime at the construction site, and Xander hadn’t addressed him yet. They had just awkwardly gone about their work, trying not to make eye contact. Both of them were emotional men, and that did not help their situation.
Clark sat down at his usual ‘table’ and started nibbling on the salad his aunt had prepared. He nodded his head ‘hey’ to the co-workers that walked by. Clark didn’t know what to do; he wanted to offer his boss an olive branch.
He was just about to give up on the horrid food all together when a humongous bag of chips was set right in front of him. He turned to see Xander pull up a stump next to him.
Clark dug in, relieved.
“Hey man.”
“Hey. Look, I’m sorry for intruding yesterday, that wasn’t my intention,” he said sincerely.
Then he felt bad, because that had been precisely his intention at the time.
“Don’t worry about it Clark. I just get overprotective of Willow. I wouldn’t want anyone to see me that way, you know, sick and stuff.”
“Yeah.”
“So, you’re okay?” asked the older man.
“I’m fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah,” Clark insisted.
He just didn’t know whether he was supposed to mention what had happened, or pretend he had no idea. On one hand, Willow was experiencing something supernatural that he would like to know about, on the other, admitting he knew and possibly felt it, he could expose himself as “something supernatural.”
If Chloe had been here in his place she would be investigating, but Clark wasn’t sure if that was a good option. He liked to believe the best of people, and he truly believed his new friends were of the good. So that meant that if something supernatural was going on, and they could handle it, he didn’t really have the right to expose them.
“You’re cool Clark.”
“Thanks.”
And that made him feel worse. He was trying to convince himself not to get involved with whatever was happening. He was shy around them. He just was. These were not the people he had known forever. This was not the town he had grown up in… and the sisters were intimidating, fun, but intimidating. He had to admit he was very curious. He never could help helping people, and he had thought, no, he had known Willow needed help that night. She may still need help… Maybe he could help?
< Stop yapping and eat the chips, Clark > he thought, shutting out his confusing inner dialogue.
Xander looked far away. “Sometimes I just forget there are normal people out there,” he sighed, not sure if he had said it aloud or not.
Clark nodded, understanding profoundly.
They sat in silence in their own little worlds until Buffy came up from behind them. They both had a small-scale heart attacks when she tickled them.
“Jeez, Buff, you just took ten years off my life…. At this rate I’m going to bite it like, 2 years ago.”
“Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.”
“So what are my two favorite hunks doing tonight?”
“Recovering from the aneurysm you just gave me.”
“Clark?”
“Ditto.”
“So, what’ya doing here? Did anyone see you?” The older man inquired.
“I ducked as many of the boys I could,” the blond reassured him.
“Good. I wouldn’t want them starting up with me again about the last time you were here and that whole debacle.”
“Oh, come on. They are such babies. Anyway, I had the early morning shift at the fabulous Doublemeat Palace and now that I’m done, and have had two showers, I decided to stop by here and ask you if you had extra wood. See, I would buy it, but I don’t want to.”
“I’ll go check,” Xander stated, standing up.
“Behave,” he told Buffy, “and hands off the Ho-ho’s!”
Buffy looked happily at Clark who was trying to look busy filling his tofu sandwich up with a mountain of chips.
“You think it’s going to help?”
“It has to,” he said almost desperately, putting the second piece of bread back on top and pressing on it.
“So, how are you liking your summer ‘abroad?”
“It’s going good. A little homesick, but since my friends are busy, I don’t feel bad about being here.” Clark finally found a way to hold his sandwich without half of it falling out and he dug in.
Buffy gave him credit for not gagging. “So what are you doing tonight?”
“Helping Xander at the Magic Box.”
“Come on, it’s Friday night! We haven’t gone out in months and we still haven’t shown you a good time. There’s this club, it’s pretty lame but it’s home-”
“I’m 16.”
“Still on that are you? Well, don’t worry, they let everybody in. They only check ID if you’re drinking. Come on, we’ll get Xander and Dawn and Willow if she’s up for it, it’ll be fun.”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s a live band…” She singsong-ed.
A man in a uniform cleared his throat and looked up from a digitized clipboard.
“Are you Clark Kent?”
“Yes.”
“Sign here please,” he said, handing the boy a virtual pen and said clipboard.
He received a medium sized box and a card.
Buffy looked over his shoulder. The card read: Call me, Lex. And was inked on official Alexander J. Luthor Luthorcorp paper.
Buffy’s eyes widened.
Clark opened the box rapidly and found a phone, a charger, and 600 minutes pre-paid long distance. He brightened considerably and immediately started dialing.
“May I please speak to Lex? It’s Clark Kent.”
He stood up to pace around.
“Thank you.”
“Lex? How are you?” He asked enthusiastically, and then it dawned on him there might be a reason for the gift. “What’s happening? Is the plant going to be re-opened? Did something bad happen? How are my parents?”
“Wow Clark, slow down! Nothing is wrong with your parents and it’s too soon to tell about the plant. I sent you the phone because 1. Your father isn’t there to tell you to give it back. 2. You could use it to call your friends. And 3. I missed you. This town just isn’t quite the same without your friendly face.”
“I’ll be back in August Lex, don’t worry.”
“So, how are you holding up over there?”
“Well my aunt makes me these horrible lunches.”
“Sounds great. Anything actually interesting going on?”
“Their welcome mats say ‘do not enter’ or ‘not another step” or ‘stop or I’ll shoot’…”
“Sounds like my kind of place.”
“There’s this specialty store that sells them, I already bought you two of them.”
“Thanks.”
“Still, I like it. I’m working and I’m helping a friend rebuild his friend’s magic store.”
“Really. So you already made friends?”
“Yeah. His name is Xander, and there’s also Buffy and Dawn and Willow.”
“So what are they like?”
Clark wasn’t sure if Buffy could hear him from where she was seated, and he didn’t know if she could read lips, so he bowed his head and whispered, “um. Well, Buffy’s sorta standing right here, so…”
“Say no more… Oh no Clark, I just got a call on my emergency line. Look, call me on my cell next time. Whenever you want, okay?”
“Okay. Oh and Lex?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
“Bye Clark.”
Xander got back with a small ton of wood. He practically dumped it on Buffy when he tripped over a root. She caught it all, and that caught Clark’s eye for a moment.
“Thanks.”
“Whatever, now scram, I’ll see you later.”
“Okay,” she mumbled through the pile of wood that stacked up to her nose. “I’ll see you later guys! And Xander, we’re Bronzing it and we won’t take no for an answer,” she screamed while walking away.
