Fighting Crime Doesn't Pay

Chapter 8

Two weeks later

I'm sitting in the waiting room at Gotham Mercy Hospital. Apparently today is the day that they will finally let me in to see Mark. At first they weren't going to let anyone in at all when he first got here; but then Mark's dad threatened to sue the doctor in charge and they decided to let family visit. I tried to get them to let me in, but apparently family and like family are two different things. I can't stop thinking about that day, all of it really, but mostly the part where I said I love him while he lay unconscious in my arms. I talked it over a bit with Alexis, I had to tell someone. According to her I'm the last person to find out that I love Mark, she says he loves me too, but I'm not so sure about that. She said I should tell him for real, while he's awake. I want to, but I also don't. If he doesn't love me back it would ruin our friendship and I don't think I could survive that. And if he does love me back? What then? I mean, I've never really had a serious boyfriend before, so I don't have experience there, but in general love doesn't work out for me. One of the nurses walks into the waiting room.

"You can go in to see him now, Ms. Kent" She says. I get up and follow her down the hall. We get to the right room and she leaves. Very carefully I stick my head in.

"Mark..." I say. I walk in and see him sitting up in the bed. He looks a lot better, though he's not quite back to normal yet. He's reading a book and appears to be completely lost in it. I stand there for a few seconds until he looks up.

"Andy. I've missed you so much. Get over here." He says, beaming. He gets up and stands a couple of feet away from the bed, it's as far as the IV will let him go. I go over and hug him somewhat gingerly, he's still recovering. "It's really good to see you Andy. I have something that I need you to see, it's on that table there." He says. I stand up from the hug and go over to the table. It's an open envelope. I've heard that some people get really concerned with death when they almost die, understandable I guess.

"This isn't a will, is it?" I ask walking back over to him. He smiles.

"No, not a will. Just something I should have told you about a long time ago." He says, looking a little sad. Now I'm worried. I take a piece of paper out of the envelope and unfold it. I read the first few lines and my jaw drops, I look at the date on the envelope and it hits the floor.

"This says that you got excepted to MIT. Right out of high school." I say quietly. Mark had always wanted to go to MIT, what could possibly make him give it up? Part of me can guess the answer, but I don't want that to be true. I'm not going to hold him back, I'm used to not getting what I want, so it'd be more of the same.

"I did. But after a lot of thought I decided it would be better to stay in Gotham." He says, looking right at me. I can't meet his eyes.

"How could you do that? Gotham's my home but it's a hole. What could it possibly have that MIT doesn't?" I say, my voice getting louder as I go. I want to, and also don't want to hear the answer.

"You." He says, grabbing my shoulders. He doesn't grip hard enough to hurt, but this is the most intense moment we've ever had. "I love you, Andy." He says and I tear away from him. I turn around and fight back tears. Most girls would be happy to know that the man they love loves them back. Most girls don't have my history.

"You can't." I say, barely audible, but he hears me. I turn back to see almost forgotten rage burning in his eyes, his father's legacy.

"Why!? Why can't I love you?!" He shouts, grabbing me again. This time it hurts. "I have loved you for years. I never said anything because you're always so closed off. You don't have to be her all the time! You're allowed to feel something!" He yells. Tears threaten to leave his eyes. He's not just angry, he's hurt. The tears in my eyes finally break free.

"Because the only two people who ever loved me are dead!" I scream right in his face. "And I can't lose you." I add, quietly. The rage immediately leaves his face and he folds me up in a hug. I hug him back, still crying. We stand there in each other's arms for what feel like forever until I can finally say it. "I love you Mark." I say quietly. I look up and see him smile.

"Good, cause I'm not going anywhere." He says. He takes my face in his hands and leans down to kiss me. I bring my hand up to his face, feeling the stubble on his chin. His hand goes up and tangles in my ponytail. I lean in to him and his hands migrate to my back, pulling me in tighter. The kiss is soft and gentle, right now this is all we want, we've both waited years to get here, though only one of us knew. Some seconds later I hear awkward throat clearing noises coming from the door. We separate and look to see a nurse standing in the doorway.

"Sorry to interrupt, but we have to do another blood test." She says, answering the unspoken "Now?" with an unspoken "Yes, now." Mark sighs and sits back in the bed. the nurse gives me the eye and I take that as my cue to leave. I walk back into the waiting room, I should probably go home now, the apartment no longer causes me to have panic attacks, but I don't want to. My life has changed completely, not only am I now in a relationship, I'm pretty sure that it's with my true love. I suppose that could be hormones talking, but until I'm proven wrong it's what I'm going with. Going home like everything's normal seems like the wrong thing to do. So I just sit down in one of the waiting chairs and stare at the wall. A few minutes later someone sits down next to me, I look to see that it's Daniels.

"Thought I might find you here." He says. I look around to see if anyone is listening. No one seems to be paying attention.

"Have you learned anything?" I ask, referring to the police questioning of Anna Welman, who is now out of hospital but still in a wheelchair due to her double leg break.

"Well she confirmed that Super Girl snapped her legs. Something that I have managed to keep quiet, which has been extremely difficult by the way." He says, glaring at me. I nod sheepishly. I understand that it's probably best that breaking legs not make into the public image. Do I regret doing it? No.

"Anything else? Does she know about me?" I whisper. He shakes his head.

"Not at all. She needed a genius to build a robot and Mark was close by. You being his best friend was a total coincidence." He says. I sigh with relief.

"Thanks for letting me know." I reply.

"No problem. Are you going back to the beat?" He ask, dropping any hint of tact he might posses.

"Yeah. I might have to cut down on the patrols a bit, but you can count on me for emergencies. I'm gonna try to balance my lives from now on." I tell him. He nods as a way of saying goodbye, I guess and leaves. I sit there for a while longer, eventually I go home and sleep; enjoying the lack of nightmares that I'm still getting used to.

One week later

I'm sprinting (at human speed) across Gotham U campus, trying to make it to my next class. I get to the door when my phone starts blasting Blue Oyster Cult, I have a phone call. The noise throws me off and I skid into the door head first, which hurts, bad. This gets a few laughs as I take my phone out of my pocket.

"Andy here." I say into the phone.

"Hey Babe." I hear Mark say on the other end. I smile. "Good news and bad. Good news is that your class got canceled. Seems somebody sent an official looking email to the professor telling him that he won a huge prize giveaway and had to drive all the way to the other side of town to collect." I can hear the grin in his voice. There must be something pretty big going on if he's using his powers for evil. "Bad news is that there's been a Joker sighting down town. Apparently there's wide spread hallucinations coinciding perfectly with a bank heist." He explains. This time I grin.

"You call that bad news? I call that the perfect way to spend the afternoon." I say, smiling. He laughs. "Text me the details, I'm on my way." I say. and then, smiling I walk into the nearest deserted bathroom and Super Girl walks out.