Woken up by a knock on the door

*knock knock, knock knock knock* *ding-dong*

I wearily opened my eyes and let out a groan as the morning sun burned my eyes. I rubbed the stinging sensation away and glanced at the clock. Who the hell was visiting us at...

11:48 AM. Oh, I guess it wasn't that early after all.

Next to me, Kara was more alert, already sitting up in bed and staring off in the direction of the front door. After a few seconds she looked mildly surprised.

"It's Lois," she told me, "Wonder if she left something here last night... don't worry, I'll get it."

Kara gracefully slid out of bed and left the bedroom. I started to get out of bed myself, but stopped when I noticed Diana staring at me from her chair in the corner of the room, her hands resting on the pommel of her sword.

"Good morning," she said with a smile.

"Morning, Diana," I said back. Noticing how utterly exhausted she looked, I asked, "Did you get any sleep last night?"

"No," she said simply, "Bodyguard, remember? Ensuring you and Kara's safety was more important."

"Well now that we're up, maybe you should-" I started to say, but I was interrupted by Kara shouting my name.

"Charlie! Lois wants to talk to you!"

"Shit... one second!" I yelled back. I grabbed the first pair of grey sweatpants from the dresser I could find, put them on over my boxers, and exited the bedroom. Out in the living room, I found Lois Lane sitting in the armchair holding a paper cup from Metro Burger.

"Morning Charlie," she said, before wrapping her lips around the cup's straw and taking a long sip of its contents. Before I could formulate a response, she looked past me and added, "...and Wonder Woman. I thought your guard shift would have ended by now."

"It did a few hours ago, but these two slept in," Diana answered, walking up to stand next to me, "And I didn't want to leave while they were still asleep."

"That was considerate of you," Kara said as she came from the kitchen with two mugs of coffee in hand. She handed one to me with a peck on the cheek, then offered the other to Diana, "Here, you look like you need this."

Diana took the mug without a word. As I drank from my own to wake me up, I asked the question burning in my mind, "So Lois, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Lois set her cup down and pulled out her phone, "Well to be frank, I was hoping I could ask you a couple of questions about what happened the night you were kidnapped by Metallo."

I sat down on the sofa and sighed, "In other words, an interview. Why didn't you do this last night?"

"Last night I was here as Kara's family. Today I'm here as the Daily Planet's star reporter." She paused, then added, "Also, Clark thought it'd be in poor taste to bring it up during game night."

"And he's fine with you doing it now?" Kara asked.

"Not really," Lois admitted, "But he also doesn't know I'm here. I told him I was investigating a lead down at the docks. Alright, now it's my turn to ask some questions..."

"Wait a minute," I told her, "I'm not entirely sure I'm ready, or willing, to give an interview right now. What would I even say?"

"That's what I want to help you with," Lois said, "Look, the only reason you haven't yet been visited by other reporters is because a lot of them are looking for you at your old apartment. You really need to file a change of address, by the way."

"I was gonna get to it eventually..."

"Point being, once they figure out you live here, and they will eventually if something more exciting doesn't happen soon, they're going to want to talk to you about this too. But unlike me, if you slip up and say that Kara is Supergirl, they aren't going to omit it. In fact, that'll be the new headline." She gave me a smile, "So consider this your practice interview. I'll help you get the wording of your story down so that you don't accidentally reveal anything you shouldn't."

"And get the first exclusive with Charlie in the process," Kara pointed out.

Lois shrugged, "Okay yeah, that too. But come on, I deserve something for my trouble."

"I don't think this is a good idea," Diana said, "Charlie is still under the League's protective custody at the moment, and we're not certain that he is out of danger yet. This might bring too much attention to him."

"Are you sure that's not what we want though?" I asked her. When she gave me a worried glance I explained, "Like you said, you guys have no leads so far. The way I see it, if someone was working with Metallo, I'm in danger either way, and this could be enough to draw them out. And even if it's not, or he was working alone after all, this will at least prepare me for the other reporters."

I looked towards Kara and smiled, "Besides, I have the best overprotective girlfriend a guy could ask for. I'll be fine."

Kara blushed and smiled back at me.

"So is that a yes?" Lois asked me. When I gave her a nod, she pressed the record button on her phone, pulled out a pen and notepad, and said, "Alright then, let's start at the beginning. What were you doing before Metallo grabbed you?"

For the next half-hour or so, I recounted the story about my **** and the subsequent rescue by Supergirl, Nightwing, and Starfire. It quickly became apparent that this practice was necessary, as Lois caught me a few times saying 'Kara' instead of Supergirl, or calling her 'my girlfriend', and recounting certain things Metallo said that might make my connection to Supergirl too obvious. I was at least able to keep the full story about what happened with Starfire in the woods a secret, merely telling her that Starfire took me out of the city limits until Metallo was defeated.

Near the end of the interview though, she caught me off-guard with a question I wasn't expecting: "So, before I came here I stopped at the Metro Burger where you work. Or used to work, I should say. Your friend Tom thought you were dead, and your boss is already planning to hire your replacement. Why didn't you answer any of their phone calls to you these past three days?"

"Wait, what? They didn't call me!"

"That's not what they said," she told me, "According to them, your phone went straight to voicemail whenever they tried."

"Why would it..." I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I realized something, "...oh my God. I'll be right back."

I got up and went to the bedroom, rooting around the laundry hamper until I found the pants I was wearing that night. I found my wallet in the pockets, but no phone. I then searched the floor, my phone charger, and even inside the drawers of the dresser and nightstand. Nothing.

With a defeated sigh, I made my way back out to the living room and sat down, burying my face in my hands, "My phone's gone. I must have lost it at some point during the attack. And with everything that's been going on, I didn't even notice..."

"Oh yep, that'd explain it," Lois said.

Kara sat down next to me and rubbed my back soothingly, "It's okay... I'll try looking for it later."

"Thanks," I said quietly. Admittedly, I wasn't as torn up about the phone itself as I was that everyone at work assumed I had died. Tom was a close friend to me, and to think he had heard what happened and went through these past few days thinking I was dead really got to me. And while I wasn't really attached to my near-minimum wage job, the fact that my boss' response to my assumed **** was to immediately hire someone else to replace me was a sobering reminder of just how insignificant I was to my employer. Well, former employer. In any case, I promised myself to borrow Kara's phone later in order to call Tom and let him know I was okay.

"Okay, I think that's everything," Lois said, stopping the recording and standing up. She tore the page from her notepad that she had been writing on and handed it to me, "Here's a list of things you should work on for future interviews. Practice them when you have a chance. In the meantime, I'll write in my article that we talked in 'an undisclosed location'. For your safety, of course."

"Of course," I repeated with a smirk as I pocketed the paper, "Thanks, Lois."

"No problem," she said, putting the notepad and phone away, "Now, I need to get going. I wasn't completely lying to Clark when I said I wanted to investigate the docks, and I told my photographer I'd meet him there at one."

"You want me to give you a lift?" Diana offered, "I'm heading that direction anyway."

Lois waved her off, "Thanks, but I don't want Jimmy hounding me with questions about what I was doing with Wonder Woman. He's already annoying enough when it's Superman. Speaking of which, I almost forgot..."

She dug around in her purse and pulled out a small box, which she held out to me, "This is for you. Clark was going to give it to you later, but I figured I'd save him the trip and do it myself."

Curious, I took the box and opened it. Inside was a rather nice looking silver watch with the Superman symbol engraved on the face. It didn't look like anything special to me, but Kara's eyes lit up when she saw it.

"Is that what I think it is?" she asked excitedly.

Lois nodded, "Yup. He just finished it this morning."

I looked between the two smiling women in confusion, "Er, what is this exactly? Other than a watch, I mean."

"It's a signal watch," Lois explained, "Clark had one made for Jimmy way back when, and after you got kidnapped Kara asked him to make one for you too. If you press the button on the side, it activates a high-frequency alert that can be heard by Kryptonians from... well, I actually don't know the maximum range, other than that it's pretty damn far."

"Oh, that's cool," I said, quickly putting it on my wrist. Looking over the watch, I managed to find an unmarked button on the side.

"This the one?" I asked.

Lois nodded, "Yes, but don't-"

But at that point I was already pressing it. When I did, the Superman symbol that I assumed was an engraving started flashing red, and it made a tiny beeping sound I could barely hear. Kara, on the other hand, winced and pressed her hands against her ears.

"Shut it off!" she shouted.

"Sorry, sorry!" I said, pressing the button again to make the noise and flashing stop.

"Welp, that's my cue," Lois said, starting to back up towards the front door, "I'll see you two at the next game night, and- shoot."

A loud gust of wind emanated from above us, and everyone in the room looked up to see Superman himself hovering above the skylight. He opened it to let himself in, and as he did he glared at Lois and crossed his arms.

"Oh, hi honey!" Lois said innocently, a sugar sweet smile on her face, "I was just on my way to the docks, and I thought I'd drop off the new signal watch on the way. But traffic was a nightmare, and..."

When Superman didn't let up on his stare, Lois sighed and slumped her shoulders, "Alright, fine, you caught me. But hey, at least we know the watch works, right?"

"Uh huh," Superman said, landing in front of her, "How about I take you there myself so you can avoid that nasty traffic? And on the way you can tell me all about your next Pulitzer winning article."

"Please, this won't even make my top five this year," Lois scoffed, "No offense, Charlie."

"Hey, I know what city I live in," I said, "I'm fine just being the flavor of the week."

"Well it was still nice seeing you again, Kara," Superman said as he picked up Lois, "And Charlie, be careful with that button, okay? As you can see, it's a little sensitive."

"Will do," I said with the two-fingered salute I'd seen the Man of Steel himself do on occasion.

He chuckled at this, then turned to leave. As he did, he asked Diana, "I thought you were supposed to leave at nine."

"I was waiting for them to wake up," she answered, "But then Lois showed up and I figured I'd stick around for coffee. Now that I'm done, mind if I tag along with you?"

"By all means," Superman said, lifting off the ground at the same time she did. The pair of heroes, and Lois, gave us one final wave before leaving through the skylight.

"Finally, we have the place to ourselves," Kara said, "What do you want to do now?"

"Borrow your phone," I said bluntly, "I want to call Tom and let him know I'm alright."

Kara frowned, then nodded and went to grab her phone. I caught it and dialed Tom's number, and after a few rings it went to voicemail. I knew he'd probably be working right now, but I still left him a message to let him know that yes, I was alive and totally okay, and that I'd explain further if he called me back.

When I was done with that, I handed the phone to Kara and said, "Okay, I'm done."

"Good," she said, a grin creeping over her face, "Now how about we have some fun? Anything you have in mind?"

I smiled back at her, putting my arms around her waist, "Oh, I can think of a few things..."