Disclaimer: No copyright infringement is intended. Only certain super-heroes' dignities were harmed in the making of this fanfic. And this is the last chapter! I'm wiping away a tear as I write...

CHAPTER 11: PERHAPS, PERHAPS, PERHAPS…

Three Days Later

"Are you sure about this?" Bruce asked quietly.

"Of course I'm sure." Jason White was distracting her, begging "Auntie Harli," to give him another Superman ride, which basically meant laying on her back on the floor and whooshing the little boy through the air on her hands and knees. The Daily Planet bull-pen was staring in fascination as the one-time pin-up of Gotham's Most Wanted tickled, giggled and played with someone about a quarter of her age. She'd really taken to the little boy, and (more worryingly, for his mother) the little one had taken to her. The news crew were having trouble imagining her doing any of the things she'd supposedly gotten up to with The Joker, and if anything Jimmy's crush on her was worse.

"But Belle Reve is a fine hospital," Bruce continued, still sotto voce. "I could ask them to transfer you somewhere," he glanced pointedly over at Clark, who pretended not to notice "Where you'd be happy."

"I'd be happy in Gotham." She smiled that pixie-like little grin of hers and tried her best to look reassuring. "Besides, Metropolis is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here. Everyone's so friendly: it's really starting to creep me out." Mentally Clark heaved a sigh of relief. The last three days, since the medication had started to kick in, had introduced him to a far calmer, less manic Harli but he still wasn't sure he'd want her around all the time. Although, she certainly did seem to make his painfully enthralling life even more interesting. And something told him she could use a friend, since whatever Bruce Wayne wanted to tell himself they were, friends most certainly did not cover it.

"But-"

"Don't you want me to come back?" she asked in exasperation.

He paused, and Clark could tell the next sentence was difficult for Bruce. "I want you to be happy," he said eventually. "And I don't see that happening in Gotham, and especially not in Arkham."

"But I'm not going back to Arkham, Clark has seen to that. Haven't I just given an interview to a fine metropolitan newspaper about how I foiled not one but two super-villains in the course of one evening? And I didn't even mention how I talked some sense into the Man of Steel. Come on Brucie, according to everyone at the moment I rock! Besides," she continued, picking Jason up and tickling his tummy (eliciting squeals of laughter and even a smile from Lois) "they couldn't put me back into Arkham, for my own safety."

"What's an Arkham?" Jason asked.

"It's a place where they put you when you've done really bad-" she began.

"It's a place where they put you when you get sick," Clark interrupted, speaking over her. "So that you can get better and don't hurt yourself." He picked the boy up and put him on his shoulders, feeling the familiar bittersweet thrill of spending time with someone he would always love and always watch from afar. He takes after is mom that way, Clark mused.

"Did you get sick?" the boy asked her, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, I got sick." She smiled sadly to herself, "And I did some very dumb things."

"Didn't your mommy and daddy try to help you?"

"My daddy died when I was very little, littler than you." Bruce's eyes widened. She mustn't tell people that very often, Clark realised. "And my mommy, and the people who took care of me after that tried to make me better but they couldn't."

The child frowned. "Why not?"

"The sickness I had, only I could make myself better. With a little help from some really cool people." She smiled fondly at Clark.

"Did Mr. Clark help you get better?"

Everyone laughed at that. "Yeah, Mr. Clark did, in his own way."

"I helped too," Bruce pointed out, straightening up so that he didn't look quite so short around Kent.

"Yeah, you did. You and Ivy, and the Batman."

The billionaire shook his head. "Never thought I'd live in a world where Poison Ivy would be a good influence on you."

"Why not? We live in a world where a man can fly."

"Batman can fly too."

She snorted with laughter. "Please! Superman flies. You can tell when he has a hold on you; it's all natural and graceful and controlled. Feels like he's doing what he was born to do." She leaned conspiratorially towards Richard White. "I should know, I've flown with them both. How many dames can say that? But Batman, it's different: it's terrifying, and dizzy, and your heart's in your mouth the whole time. It's not really flying at all: it's more like picking a fight with gravity…"

Clark tried very hard not to laugh at Bruce's outraged expression. "So that's what that's about, is it?" he asked, gesturing snippily to the black Superman t-shirt Harli had worn into the interview.

Lois, Richard, even Jimmy, were snickering. Clark continued to swirl with Jason, earning more whooping laughter. He was glad the boy didn't hear Harli's whispered "If it makes you feel any better I'm wearing Batman underwear." He doubted Lois would be happy with her son asking what precisely Harli had meant. "Don't get me wrong," the young woman continued aloud "I got a lot of respect for the Batman. I mean, he's saved my life. And even before that he was always what you'd call a worthy adversary." Bruce harrumphed, apparently unplacated. "And it's hard not to be impressed, he's quite a man. And there's just something about the new cowl that really brings out the gold flecks in his eyes." Here we go again, Clark thought. "Something about the shape of the eye-holes, you can really see how long his eyelashes are. And they're totally long for a man, but in a butch way."

Bruce perked up at this. "You like that, do you?"

"Yeah, totally. I mean, one of the only good things about getting caught was when he'd bring me in." She didn't apparently notice the office growing quieter. Clark made ever louder plane noises to keep Jason distracted. "He'd be all gruff, but you know, kinda understanding too? Although if I'd had my way I'd get rid of that cape-"

"You don't like capes?" Lois asked, and immediately blushed. Richard rolled his eyes.

Harli grinned at her. "Well I was always walking behind him, and it kinda spoiled the view, y'know?"

Clark knew. Lois knew. Lord, even Jimmy knew what she was getting at.

"Well," Bruce began, his voice slightly scratchy "I've always thought that the cape was a bit passé."

I just bet you did, Clark thought.

"I mean, it's silly," she continued, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "He probably never even noticed I'm alive, unless I was blowin' things up. Which was often."

Bruce leaned into her. "Oh he noticed! He definitely noticed! The first time-" he stopped, belatedly remembering he had an audience. "He told me the first time he saw you, you were wearing the first costume, the nylon one, you remember it?" She nodded eagerly. "Well you were just doing your gymnastics, somersaulting across the Gotham Opera House and he thought…"

"Yes?" Lois prompted, (speaking, Clark suspected, for everyone).

"He told me he'd never understood the phrase "poetry in motion," until that moment."

The office as one sighed. Everyone, even the guys, was a little bit in love with Batman at that second for saying that. Clark continued to tickle Jason, happy to be left alone with his child for once.

"But he always wondered," Bruce continued, then stopped, apparently afraid to go on.

"Yeah?" Lois leaned forward and the office as one followed suit.

"That time in Arkham, when you hoisted him over the pit of tar during the first riot, why… Why was the tar pink?"

Harli actually blushed. "Well, Mr. J. wasn't too happy about it, but I just thought… I just thought that if they were his last moments on earth, and he was such a worthy adversary and all, that the last thing he saw should be pretty."

"But the last thing he saw was pretty. The last thing he saw was you." Suddenly Bruce cleared his throat brusquely. "Before, you know, Robin saved him."

The office suddenly realised that they were watching something which quite probably should have happened in private. The two Gothamites were staring raptly at one another. Throw in a violin player and it was the climax of "Casablanca."

"Well," Harli said brightly, recovering first "I think that about wraps everything up." She looked at Lois. "If you have no other questions?"

Lane shook her head and held out her hand warmly. Clark remembered why he liked Lois so much. "No, that should cover it. Have a safe flight back to Gotham."

"We're taking the private jet," Bruce announced, trying (Clark could tell) not to sound smug and almost succeeding.

Harli nodded cheerfully, holding out her wrist. "Come on Brucie, get out the matching bracelets." The man reluctantly snapped a pair of handcuffs onto both her wrist and his. They shared a smile. "C'Mere, SuperJason," the young woman called, pulling Jason into a hug. "You are one great kid, little man. You know that?"

The boy nodded eagerly, and all three of his parents laughed.

"C'Mere Clark." She held out her arms and after a moment's hesitation Clark leaned down to give her a hug. He still felt a little nervous; meds or no meds he thought she might try to cop a feel but she behaved herself. "You ever need a place to run, or a place to hide, you come and find me, y'hear?" she whispered so softly only Superman could've heard it. He nodded, oddly touched by the offer. "And for Pete's sake, tell that dame your secret before your head explodes!" She took his face in her hands and solemnly kissed his forehead. "You're not on your own: Team Clark will endure!" she said, enunciating clearly. And then she was gone, skipping merrily after Bruce, who Clark couldn't help but note, had not put on his jacket yet. Interesting.

The world seemed strangely quiet with her gone.

"So you had an interesting weekend," Lois grinned. He was surprised she'd started the conversation. Maybe Harli had had a word. But no, he saw Richard smiling fondly at them and he realised White had taken his fiancee to task over her behaviour. God I wish I didn't like that guy! Clark thought to himself.

"Yeah, she was really a swell girl." And she was, psychosis and ex-boyfriends aside. He felt oddly lighter. He should have been worried, terrified that she'd spill his secret but he wasn't. Maybe insanity was becoming airborne, he mused. Or maybe he'd taken some of her advice to heart. She'd survived sincere amore, so would he. He thought sadly of Lois, of Jason, of all the years he'd lost. But there was nothing he could do about that now.

"Guilty, thoughtless, occasionally foolish. Loving, strong. You sound like one of us to me."

Maybe he was only human, despite his powers. And maybe it was time to let go of this belief, this jealously guarded secret that everything in the world was his fault and his responsibility. He felt guilty about the praise he received when he never really risked anything. Maybe it was time to take a risk, a real risk.

Like going off to Krypton? A voice in his head chimed. That risk sure paid off.

But that hadn't been a risk, that had been running away from risk, from choice. That hadn't been reckless, it had been burying his head in the sand. That had been trying to undo his life, his mistakes, his risks. Boundless possibilities narrowed down to one. And because if it he'd lost the only woman he'd ever loved and his child.

Just because Harli was crazy didn't mean she wasn't right.

"Hello, earth to Clark?" Lois waved her hand in front of his eyes, and he was dragged back to the present. "Where were you Clark? Mars?"

"No, I- I was just thinking about something Harli said."

"And?"

"And, and…" Suddenly it seemed that it was now or never. "Lois, could I talk to you for moment in private?" He said it in a rush, terrified he'd lose his nerve.

"Clark, I don't know…"

"It's really important."

She took a deep breath, and he could see her fingering the lighter in her pocket. "Okay, I can head up to the roof for a few minutes."

How appropriate. "All right, let's go."

She nodded to Richard and Jason, pulling on her jacket. She was silent all the way up in the elevator. He concentrated on his breathing, willing himself calm as they stepped out onto the roof, the lights of Metropolis like a twinkling Christmas tree before them.

"Okay Clark," she said briskly, pulling out her lighter "What's all this about?"

He took a deep breath. "Lois, we need to talk."

And you know what? Finally they did.

The Beginning

A/N Thanks to everyone who read and who reviewed, want to make sure this didn't disappoint. Hope you liked it, and for those of you missing Harli, there might be a sequel in the works… Just let me know whether you'd be interested. (Evil laugh…) Cheers!