#nctmyfears

   bruce weighs every word carefully.  as things go further and further in the direction bruce fears, he knows he has to be extremely careful.  he doesn’t know jessica as well as he knows some of the others, so it’s nearly impossible to figure where her head is at.  and if she firmly believes in clark’s actions, if she stands as firmly beside him as some of the others seem to, then there’s a certain danger to reaching out at all.  “ with everything that’s happened, i wanted you to know that you and your partner are...welcome in gotham. ”  it’s an odd thing to say, especially to someone wearing a ring like hers, but the time for staunch rules may have come to a close.  and the time to offer a hand, the time to suss out his allies, has come.  “ how are you handling this all, jessica ?? ”

       “ any news ?? ” it’s a foolish question because clark already knows if there’d been anything, he’d have followed the lead through before any of them. it’s clear he doesn’t want an answer anyway. his gaze is focused instead on jess’ ring and he grits his teeth, “ jessica, can it find her ?? can it detect anything ?? ” he wouldn’t normally ask this of the newest recruit, wouldn’t put her in a position of feeling like she’s disappointing him if it doesn’t work, but - this is lois and clark has so little options left. he can’t see anything. he can’t hear anything. if superman can’t find her then who will ?? 

    -- “ hey, jess, ” kyle greets, hesitant at first.  he hates that, hates that everything since he’s gotten back to earth feels so freaking tense.  but kyle makes himself settle after a moment and he reaches out and pulls jessica into a hug.  he’ll be damned before he lets anyone or anything keep him from being himself with his friends.  “ i was hoping you could help me find hal.  i’ve been back for a couple days, but i haven’t gotten a chance to talk to him.  wanna see where that nutjob’s head is at, ” he jokes.

“ where next ?? ”  a simple, but loaded question given the setting.