Close to Home - chapter 10
Close to Home
10
Wednesday
He was tired in the morning - he'd stayed in Gotham until pretty late helping Tim track a shipment of some kind of chemical ordinance - and he was apprehensive all through his chores and the flight to school. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say when he saw Jake, or how he was supposed to act. Sorry for not noticing you maybe had a thing for me? Please stop having a thing for me so that we can be friends again?
He kind of wished he could have stayed in Gotham. Alvin's apartment was a shithole, but the couch was comfortable. Tim wouldn't have minded. He'd been in a good mood all night, and he hadn't even teased Kon much about his predicament. Tim seemed to be treating this like any other undercover assignment, which was about the most wonderful and reassuring thing Kon could have hoped for. Tim's undercover work was good.
He'd grilled Kon about Jake and the other kids until they'd decided exactly what he ought to know about them, and about Smallville. All Jake knew was 'Tim from Gotham,' and that they saw each other on weekends. Tim was pretty insistent he try to keep it that way until they'd settled on a more concrete story, and to keep it simple and true when he couldn't avoid telling someone something. Kon's cousin was friends with Tim's family, and that's how they met. They'd known each other five years. Tim was already out of school, and a little older - thirteen years older, technically, or fifteen if you counted the time Kon had spent dead, but never mind that part.
It certainly could have been worse. Kon was pretty sure he'd have given Tim hell if the situation had been reversed. Then again, Tim never would have gotten himself into Kon's position, unless of course it were part of some kind of huge sneaky plan. Tim was excellent at sneaky plans.
The one jab Tim had made had been at Kon's observational skills, which Kon thought was probably fair. He'd compared Kon to Dick, though, which totally wasn't. Jake hadn't had to jump him to get his attention...
He didn't see Jake's truck in the parking lot, but that didn't have to mean anything, right? Maybe he'd been dropped off, or something. Maybe he wasn't avoiding Kon. Maybe...
Kon stopped on the steps leading up to the school. Something was wrong. He wasn't sure why he knew, but - no, he just needed to stop and think about it - about what his senses were telling him.
No one was on the steps outside the front door. Usually they were covered with students at this time of the morning, milling around waiting for their friends. Today, there was no one, and Kon could only hear a few people in the front hall by the office. Most of the school was empty, but there was an uneasy crowd in the gym, packed into the bleachers and muttering unhappily. They were scared, he realized, as he recognized the tone of their voices, the pace of their heartbeats. He couldn't make out individuals through the ruckus, but the collective nervous tension was enough to make his hair stand on end. He pushed open the door.
There were two teachers standing in the hall directing students - Kon'd had one of them for Comp Sci a while back. And - Jesus, he thought, when the man between them turned around - a cop. A cop in uniform, with a gun and everything. Kon really, really hoped he was there to talk down at them about drugs.
"Conner," Ms. Spencer said, when she saw him. "There's an assembly this morning in the gym."
"What happened?" Kon asked, his heart suddenly in his throat.
Ms. Spencer looked away toward the doors, where a group of students was straggling in. "Please go to the gym," she said, her voice tight.
Shit. Kon swallowed hard and took off walking, keeping to normal speed only until he was out of sight. He hurried to the side door and slowed down again when he got to the breezeway, where a few kids were clustered around the teachers standing outside the gym. There was another cop just inside the open double-doors, a short blond woman with a walkie-talkie in her hand.
No one was answering the other students' questions, so Kon went inside. He spotted Delilah by her hair and Clarence by his height and hurried across the open floor to scramble up into the bleachers. Most of the club was there, spread out to save seats, and Mel was standing at the end of the row, apparently doing a headcount.
"Who's missing?" He asked, when he reached them.
"Conner!" Delilah cried, stepping right over Mel's girlfriend to hug him tightly. "Thank fucking Christ! Nobody'd seen you - "
"I just got here," he said. He patted her back and pushed her gently toward her seat before turning back to Mel.
"I wish we had a proper roster," she said, frustrated. "I can't be sure. But I haven't seen Daniel or Caroline or Beth or Hamilton - "
"Or Jake," Kon finished, feeling his stomach drop, and she nodded. Jesus fucking - Kon spun around and started scanning the stands.
Cross walked out onto the floor, hands raised, and people started to quiet down a little. It helped Kon to concentrate, and after a moment's thought he found Hamilton with the football team, and Beth and Caroline together near the door.
"Everyone," Cross said, his stressed voice amplified by a mic clipped to his tie. "Sit down, please, I - " There was a squeal of feedback, and Kon dropped to a crouch, his hands over his ears. Mel looked at him funny, but rested her hand on his shoulder. "I need you all to take seats and quiet down."
The teachers from outside came in and shut the doors behind the last group of students, which included - Kon sat down hard. Jake. Jake was okay. He slipped in at the last moment with their other missing member and climbed up into the stands by the door, with the girls. "We're okay," Kon said. "Everyone's accounted for."
"Oh thank God," Mel whispered, and crossed herself.
"Please," Cross said. Kon had never heard his voice like that. It was tight and rough, and tense enough to hit all his superhero buttons. He couldn't have been the only one to notice, either, because the room finally went quiet. "Thank you. I'm afraid I have unfortunate news. There's been another," his voice broke, and he took a moment to clear his throat. "A member of our school was the target of a violent attack, last night, and -"
Beside Kon, Katie's hand flew to her mouth. The murmuring picked up again, but Cross kept talking over it, even as Kon went back to scanning the crowd. Had they missed someone?
"The victim was a staff member," Cross said, and Kon's blood went cold. Oh God. They'd been counting students, but - "Alex Dalton was attacked last night in his home" Cross was drowned out by the collective outcry of several hundred students. Nearly everyone at Smallville high took biology at some point. It was on the college-bound and the agro tracks. And - well, Dalton's class was tough, but he was nice. Most of the students really liked him. He was young, and kind of dorky, and really fucking earnest about everything.
Cross was calling for order. Kon came back to himself to the sting of splinters under his nails. He was gripping the edge of the riser hard enough to crush the thickly varnished wood. Kon didn't even care - his stomach was roiling and he could barely see. Dalton.
"Please," Cross said, over the din, "Everyone! He survived the attack but - "
The students shut up all at once, like someone had hit the mute button.
"- but it's touch and go. He's in intensive care, and he hasn't woken up - I don't have full account, but it's very serious. We didn't find out until late last night, and I've been unable to secure a substitute, so if you - "
Cross kept talking, but Kon didn't hear him. He shrugged off Mel and Katie's hands and dropped over the side of the bleachers, hugging the wall as he rushed for the door. A cop and a teacher stepped toward him, but he dodged and kept going, until he made it to the doors, half-blind with tears and the red tint of rage, sick with self-loathing.
Something caught his arm, and Kon whirled to attack - Jake. Kon froze with hand in the air.
"Hey," Jake said, softly. A teacher had Jake's other arm and was trying to urge him back into the stands, but Jake was ignoring her. "Come sit with-"
Kon jerked away, hard enough to send Jake reeling into the wall. The sudden flash of fear on the other boy's face made the knot in Kon's stomach even tighter. "It's my fault!" Kon hissed.
"No!" Jake said. The teacher bent to help him up, and one of the cops put a hand on Kon's shoulder just as Jake said, "your eyes," in a warning tone.
His - Shit. Shit. Kon shut his eyes tight and shoved through the doors, out into the spring air, cool after the heat of the crowded gym. There was only one cop in the breezeway, and Kon was, of course, faster. He got around the side of the building, out of sight, and took off so fast he felt the air break against him like a wave.
Touch and go, he'd said. Intensive care. Hasn't woken up. Kon was going to be sick.
It was all his fault.
*
There wasn't a hospital in Smallville - not a real one, anyway. Kon didn't waste any time checking the outpatient clinic on the west side of town - he flew straight to Lowell County General and landed in the park across the street with enough force to leave a small crater. He tore across the road and the parking lot, right up to the front doors, before he remembered he was still wearing his glasses and button down. Shit. He didn't think anyone had seen him hit the ground, so he should be all right - except everyone in the atrium was looking at him. There was a line at the front desk, so Kon headed for the huge wall-map instead.
A woman in blue scrubs came out from behind the counter and approached him carefully. Kon was too busy trying to work out the legend to really notice her, until she put her hand on his arm. "Are you all right, son?" she asked. "Are you hurt?"
He turned to her. "Where's the ICU?"
"Sixth floor," she said. When he took a step toward the elevator lobby, she tightened her grip. "But you can't just -"
Except he obviously could, because he'd shaken her off and made it through the door to the stairwell before she'd finished her sentence. He didn't hear any footsteps, so he flew straight up between the flights to the sixth floor and pushed through the door out into another lobby.
There was a desk here, too, and more women in blue. Kon hurried toward them and leaned over the desk. "I need to find a patient," he said in a rush, "Alex Dalton. He was admitted last night-"
"Are you family?" One of the women asked. The other turned around to her computer and hit a few keys.
"No," Kon said without thinking, and then wanted to kick himself. "He's my teacher," he said, trying to explain, "my - my friend. Please, I really need-"
"Oh," the other woman said, softly. She turned around, "the teacher. I'm so sorry, honey, he's on lockdown."
"What?"
"He's under guard," she explained. "State police."
"But-" Kon broke off. What were the police going to do? They needed metahuman containment.
"We can't let you in without approval from next of kin," the first nurse told him. She shot a look at her companion. "We're not even supposed to confirm he's here."
"Jesus, Marianne, look at him!" The other nurse snapped. She came around the edge of the desk. "Here, sweetie, come with me. You need to sit down before you fall down." She laid one brown hand at the small of his back and steered him to a glass door near the elevators.
"You don't understand-" Kon protested, but he let himself be led into small room full of vending machines and cheap, uncomfortable-looking plastic furniture. She pushed him at a chair the color of a bad avocado, and Kon sat. The chair creaked under his weight, but it held, and Kon grabbed his knees so he wouldn't break anything.
The nurse patted his shoulder and fetched him a little paper cone of water and - oh. A box of tissues. Kon took a few, self-consciously, and wiped his face. He blew his nose as quietly as he could.
"Oh, honey," the nurse said. "Are you by yourself? Where are your parents?"
"My-" Kon felt the words rattle around in his head, but he couldn't attach them to anything. "What?" Jesus his voice was rough. He didn't sound like himself at all.
"Your parents," she repeated with obvious concern. "You didn't drive here like this, did you?"
Kon swallowed. Fuck, he couldn't be expected to make up believable cover stories right now! All he could think of was Tim's advice for dealing with his friends, to keep it simple - and true. "I don't have any parents," he told her. "I'm here by myself. When I heard about Mr. Dalton I got here as fast as I could. Everything's kind of a blur." That last was a serious understatement. Kon was reasonably sure he hadn't gone through a plane or something on the way here, but...
"He must be one hell of a teacher," the nurse said, quietly.
"The best," Kon said, and then he couldn't do anything but press his face into his wad of soggy tissues and try not to make too much noise.
The door opened and shut behind him, but Kon didn't bother to look up. God, it was all his fault. If he hadn't asked Dalton for his help, if he'd been more vigilant, if he'd even been in fucking Kansas when it happened -
In his home, Cross had said. They'd gone after him in his fucking home. That wasn't - Fuck, Kon didn't even know where he lived. Would he have heard it from the farm? What if he'd been in town? He understood Tim's stupid, creepy cameras, all of a sudden - the impulse to watch everyone, all the time, just to be sure that when something happened -
Something always happened. There was always some sociopath waiting, watching for an opening, to electrocute you or give you a heart attack or beat you down or steal your powers and jump you six to one or start a fucking war.
"Hey, now," the nurse said, patting his knee. "What's your name, honey? Is there someone I can call for you?"
Kon swallowed hard and managed to get his face under control again. "Conner," he choked out.
He smelled coffee.
Kon dropped his hands. There was a woman standing in front of him with a paper cup - not another nurse, or at least he didn't think so. She was thin and pale, in a blouse and skirt and stocking feet, her brown hair limp around her drawn face. "You're Conner?" she asked, and crouched to his level. "Conner Kent?"
He remembered her all at once, from the funeral, sitting next to Dalton and passing a small girl between their laps whenever she got restless. "This is my fault," he whispered, not trusting his voice.
"The hell it is," she said kindly. "Lucille, can we add him to the list?"
"You bet," the nurse said, and smiled.
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