PIE SQUARED by Terry Winder
Copyright 2005

Disclaimer: I don't own them and my life would be so different if I did.

A/N: This is a sequel to Doctor Iron's Kalimba Song. SPOILER: Divided We Fall
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There's a feeling a man gets when he knows that he is about to die because of his own stupidity; when he knows death is coming because he screwed up; when he knows he has no one else to blame for his imminent demise. Reality, as he knows it, seems to slow down. Everything becomes a slow-motion picture that he is unable to control. He becomes a spectator in his own life.

That man becomes super-sensitive to his surroundings. He can feel the sweat form and run down his brow. His mouth goes dry as his hands become sticky and wet. He suddenly becomes aware of nuances in colors and smells that he'd never noticed before. His armor becomes heavier. His knees become weaker and he wishes he'd trusted his senses when they told him: Steel, don't go in the cafeteria. Vixen and Shayera are fighting over the Green Lantern.

John Irons, also known as Steel, had come to the cafeteria wanting something to munch on before he started his after-action report. He'd been on a long space mission with Kara.

Kara.

He was fond of her and knew she was fond of him. She's a good kid. No. A good woman. Sometimes, he felt she was as close to him as she was to her cousin, Superman.

On the way back to the Watchtower, he'd told her that he'd do the after-action report. But as soon as he'd landed the Javelin in the shuttle bay, he knew something was wrong on the station. The flight deck, the passageways, the elevators, everywhere was abuzz with the whispers about how Vigilante, Vixen and Shayera had just returned from an unsuccessful Thanagarian ambush intended to kill the winged woman. At some level, he felt sorry for Shayera, but he was stunned when he overheard conversations about how Vigilante had been wounded breaking up the fight those two were having over the Green Lantern. The rumor was that they were going to fight in the cafeteria. Why not just take it to the gym? Why the cafeteria? I don't understand. This makes no sense.

Some of the civilian staff were wagering over who would win. Some felt Vixen could take the Thanagarian by using speed. Others said that if Shayera got airborne, it would be over rapidly. But fighting…over a man, that didn't seem right and that certainly didn't seem like something he'd thought Vixen…Mari would do.

Since their meeting and exchanging of autographs a few weeks back, they had shared a table in the cafeteria several times. It wasn't a date or anything, just sharing conversation over a meal the way co-workers in other jobs might do.

But he did like her.

She was fun. She asked him simple questions about himself, his home, his family and his degrees that he could answer without sounding like a complete idiot or a pompous jerk. And she laughed at his jokes…his very bad jokes. She just made him feel comfortable.

No, the Mari he knew – thought he knew - wouldn't fight over a man. And he was relieved when he entered the cafeteria and found that they weren't fighting. The women had been laughing, drinking tangerine rum, and whispering. Still, he hesitated to make his presence known. He'd learned early in his adult life there were two things a man didn't do: get between two elephants mating and two women discussing men. The law of averages says that there is no physical or emotional way a man survives either event.

He'd been standing in the doorway for almost a full minute before Shayera finally stood up and left. Shayera nodded at him as she walked out in an acknowledgment of his presence. It was then that he noticed Mari was smiling at him as he moved out of Shayera's way. He approached her table noticing that she still held a half-empty glass of drink in her hand.

"Hi," he said. He looked around. Even the cashier had left her station while the two women were in the cafeteria. How am I going to pay for my coffee?

"Hi yourself," she answered. She set the glass on the table and smiled. "Won't you sit down?"

Her tone was flat but her eyes had a twinkle that seemed to say she'd be disappointed if he declined. "If you're sure I'm not intruding," he answered.

She made an excessive gesture of looking around the empty cafeteria and then back up at him. "Trust me. You're not intruding."

He sat down. There was a short silence. Come on, man. Don't stare. Find something to say to her.

He cleared his throat and her eyes smiled at him. "You seem to be the talk of the station," he said trying to sound matter of fact. "Everybody's still talking about you and Hawk…Shayera bringing back that ship."

She smiled. "I seem to recall Vigilante being there, too."

So far so good. "Yeah, but the rumor is he was hurt trying to keep you and Shayera from killing each other," he said.

The smile left Mari's face. Rapidly. Uh-oh.

Her eyes narrowed into a vicious stare. "The rumor is wrong," she said sharply.

Oh, crap. John leaned forward. "Mari, I'm sorry. For what it's worth, I didn't believe the rumor but I…I guess I shouldn't have repeated it to you. Anyway, I'm really sorry. I was just kidding."

She glared at him. "I'm sorry too." Suddenly, her eyes softened and she sighed, rather loudly he would remember thinking later.

She put her hands around her glass and looked into his face. "Have you ever sat through a bad movie?"

"Sure, we all have." He smiled and leaned back. "Sometimes I wonder if some of the movies I've sat through were bad on purpose or whether I was bad for sitting through them."

She didn't smile at his little joke. Instead, she asked, "Why do you sit through a movie you know is bad?"

He studied her for a moment, then interlaced his fingers and brought his hands to his lips. He looked into her chestnut eyes, but was unable to read the emotion he saw there. "I dunno. I don't think anyone purposely says 'I'll go to a bad movie today.' I think we have expectations in the beginning that it will be…I dunno, wonderful.

"Then when it starts to go bad, we're in denial. You know, hoping that it will get better and these little annoying signals we're getting that the movie is bad are just bumps on the road and not the road itself. But sooner or later, you can't wait for the movie to end and you wonder why you wasted your time and money in the first place."

She brought her hands to her lips and nodded. Then she stood up and smiled weakly. "Good night, Steel. I think I'll go home now." She paused. "I have a sudden yen for some Bob & Terry's ice cream."

He watched her leave and slowly lowered his head.

Elephants mating and women discussing men. When am I going to learn?

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(The Watchtower - Shortly after the Ultimen attack the station and are defeated.)

Steel's ribs hurt – a lot. The tight bandage around his lower ribs made breathing difficult and painful. The crutches hurt his arms and shoulders as he leaned on them. If things had been different, he might have gone to the medical bay to lie down. But he was in charge of the station and he was determined to return the station to the founding members in the same condition they'd left it. He could rest after the station was back up and running.

He winced as he moved. His battle with the Supergirl clone had lasted a lot longer than it should have, but only because the clone wanted it. Despite all the technology and power in his suit, he was no match for the clone…the copy. But he was able to delay the Supergirl doppelganger long enough for Kara to take her on. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if Kara had arrived five minutes later. No. Don't want to think about it, but it wouldn't have ended well. That's for sure.

He sighed loudly. The clean up was slow but at least the clean up was happening. Power had been restored to portions of the station but sixty percent was still in darkness. Air recirculation had been restored and most of the holes in the Watchtower hull had been repaired. But now there was an odor starting to permeate the station. It was the smell of the rapidly decomposing bodies of the Ultimen.

The bodies weren't flesh and blood but rather an organic composite material that broke down into green pools of foul smelling sludge. It was sickening to smell and worse to look at.

Plastic Man, Atom Smasher and Red Tornado were assigned responsibility for the clean up of the sludge. Red Tornado created negative pressure in the affected portions of the station, drawing the sludge into a collected pool as Plastic Man formed a squeegee and pushed the sludge into the openings of the missiles that brought the Ultimen onto the station. The missiles were sealed and pushed back into space by Atom Smasher. Station crew sealed the openings making the station airtight again.

Steel stood in front of the operations display console, monitoring repairs. It hurt to sit and it hurt to stand, but standing hurt less. Kara stood next to him. She looked…concerned. He figured she'd used her x-ray vision on him and knew exactly how badly he was injured.

"Steel, you should be in the medical bay – resting. You'll only slow down the healing if you don't rest." She put her hand in his shoulder.

A smile creased his lips as he looked at her. "You are the one who should be in the medical bay. I don't have x-ray vision but don't you dare give me that stuff your cousin spouts all the time about being invulnerable." He paused as his smile got a little bigger. "I was there. I saw, remember?"

Kara smirked at him. "Touché. Can we both admit that today it hurts to be us?" She started to laugh and as she did, she grabbed her left side. "Owwww."

Steel smiled as he ran his fingers along his bandages, gently feeling his own ribs. "Today it hurts, but I think it hurts more to be your clone."

"You think, huh?" Kara laughed. Her smile was infectious.

Steel nodded. "Yeah. I'm pretty sure you ruined her weekend," he answered.

"Okay," Kara said in an apparent attempt to change the subject. "We're getting the power back and the missile holes repaired. What else do we have to concentrate our efforts on – besides general clean up?"

Steel frowned. "We've got to get the cafeteria up and running – now. That's the fastest way to show all of these guys up here that we won. If we can show them that not only did we beat those invaders, but that they took nothing away from us, not even hot coffee, we'll be stronger as a group."

"I'm on it," she nodded. She walked away, then stopped and turned around. "You know something?" she said. "I'm really proud of you. I am…I really am." She smiled broadly then headed toward the cafeteria to get a team working on restoring meal service.

Steel watched her leave and turned his attention back to the ops console. "I'm proud of you, too and I'm proud of this team up here," he whispered to himself.

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(The cafeteria – seven hours later)

Steel was tired. It had been a full day and he couldn't recall how long he'd been up. He knew it had been a while. Power and all station services, including the transporters, had finally been fully restored. Kara demanded that he take a break. He agreed without much argument. She really is a Super Girl…woman.

He looked at the cup of coffee on the table in front of him. Earlier the cashier wouldn't take his money for the coffee and later even brought a salad to his table, saying "thanks" as she walked away. The salad was good.

His coffee was growing cold. He rubbed the front of his neck, turning his head from side to side and then looked back down into his cup. He frowned at his reflection. He could still feel the clone's hands on his throat. I'll have nightmares about that fight for a while.

"Hi"

He was startled by the voice and knew that he'd jumped. He looked up to find Mari standing over him. She looked concerned.

"Hi," he answered trying to play off his initial reaction to her voice. He avoided making eye contact, staring at his cup instead. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay," she said as she sat down. "But more importantly how are you doing?"

He sighed. "I'm okay," he said. "We had a…busy day, today."

She reached out and placed her hand on his forearm. He looked at her. "So I heard," she said softly. "Rumor is you didn't fare too well with the clone."

He studied her for a moment before he finally laughed. "Ouch! That hurts almost as much as the clone using me for a dust rag."

There was sadness in her face. "I'm sorry," she said. She paused and then added, "Are you going to be okay?"

He straightened up in his chair. "I'll be a lot better tomorrow than the clone will be." He smiled and added, "But I'll tell you what. They threw good stuff at us and we beat it back. The guys up here did a magnificent job in holding this station."

Her eyes twinkled. "I know. I heard." She paused. "I think they had a magnificent leader."

His grin got wider as he said, "Thanks."

"I meant Kara," she said frowning.

He lowered his head. "Oh."

Suddenly she laughed and he looked up. "Of course, I meant you, John. You were wonderful."

He laughed with her. Okay, you got me with that one. Then he noticed that she still had her hand on his forearm. His eyes widened slightly.

"Didn't you once say you liked apple pie?" she continued.

"Sure. It's my favorite after key lime."

"How do you feel about French apple pie?" she asked sliding her hand down his forearm to his hand.

"It's fine. Why? Are you going to buy me a slice of pie?" he laughed. Her hand is on mine. Easy John boy. Don't blow this.

"Yup. Tomorrow after Superman speaks to the League in Metropolis, want to get some French apple pie?"

"Okay." A one word answer can't possibly get me into trouble, can it? Wait a minute.

"Um…Mari…ah…what about GL? I mean…I don't want to step on anyone's toes or anything, but won't he be…upset?" He hoped his voice didn't sound too apprehensive, too nervous. I don't want to get into a spitting contest with the Green Lantern over…pie.

She smiled. "Just worry about stepping on my toes." She paused. "John, I'm not inviting the Green Lantern, I'm inviting you. Tomorrow, I'm going to treat myself to a slice of some good French apple pie and I would really like your company." She stood up. "Now you're not going to disappoint me, are you?" Her smiled broadened.

He thought that she squeezed his hand ever so gently just before she stood. He nodded his head returning her smile. "Looking forward to it," he answered.

She walked toward the exit and stopped. Turning to gaze back at him, she smiled demurely. "Oh, bring a jacket, John. The breeze blowing off the Seine can be a little cool this time of the year." She turned and walked out the door.

Jacket?Seine? Paris? French apple pie? I get it! Apple pie in France.

Suddenly his ribs didn't hurt so much anymore as he stared at his cold coffee and smiled at the immense healing power of pie.

END