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.*･｡. WAITING FOR SUPERMAN .*･｡.
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035.
SHINE FOR THE TIME.
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——

When Lois had arrived home that afternoon — on time for one of the first days in the last six months — she had headed straight upstairs and to her closet.

   For the entire afternoon and evening, she had tried on almost every item she owned. From jeans to skirts, jackets and crop-tops, to scarves and hats. She paired up the outfits and then repaired them, changing a pair of shoes to heels, or a skirt to a dress. Lois had gone through everything, hoping to find the right item for the rave. While she didn't care about the date itself, she still wanted to make an effort. It was a party, after all, and it would look weird for her not to be wearing a cute outfit. What best friend of Lydia Martin didn't wear a cute outfit to a underground party?

   She eventually decided on some skinny jeans a cute shirt, a bit of makeup on her face and her hair curled. Smiling at herself as she twirled around in her mirror, Lois couldn't help but feel impressed with her choice. Lois dressed pretty casually most days, though she never looked like a slob. She often looked nice, but when it came to parties, she looked great.

    "You look nice, going somewhere?"

   Lois shut her eyes and sighed, before spinning on her heel and smiling widely, "Dad! How was work?"

    "It was my day off." Matthew deadpanned. He raised an brow at his daughter as he observed her attire and then the yellow ticket on her bed, walking over to pick it up. "What's this? A party?"

"Well, actually— I told Allison that I would go out with her tonight. To get her mind off her breakup with Scott," the girl spoke sweetly, noticing the way that he glanced between her and the ticket. She pursed her lips and smiled wider, "I know that I'm technique grounded—"

"You're right— you're grounded, Lois."

She hummed, "Dad—"

"You're grounded, because you locked Jackson Whittemore in a stolen prison van. He may have wanted to drop the restraining order against you, but I'm not going to forget that." He shook his head, trying to avoid looking at her pouted lips. Matthew could tell that she felt bad still, but that didn't change anything. "You've been completely off the rails lately, Lo! You don't come home before curfew, and you keep skipping classes..."

Matthew continued, "...and don't think for a second that I wasn't aware that you, Stiles and Scott kept hanging around the old Hale house, last year! Why have you been acting like this?"

Lois didn't respond. She couldn't respond.

How could she respond to that?

There was nothing she could possibly say that would make it better, nothing that would make him understand. No matter how much she wanted to tell him the truth, she couldn't. This life she now lived wasn't a safe one, and she didn't want her father getting wrapped up in that. It wasn't safe for him to know about it all.

She had already lost one parent, she wasn't losing another.

"You used to care about school and kept your grades up, and you were only late home when you went to a lacrosse game."

When she said nothing, he sighed, "Lydia used to come over all the time and now I haven't seen her in months. I used to think that Scott and Stiles were always such a good influence on you, that you were all good influences on each other. But, I don't know—"

"—maybe I was wrong."

"You've known Stiles since he was born, dad." Lois told him gently, "You know he's not a bad influence, and neither is Scott. They're the best teenage boys, around."

"I know that they've both been just as bad as you have, recently. You all have," the man let out a breath, taking a seat on her bed amongst the clothes and shoes. She watched him intently and rolled her eyes when he wasn't looking, "What's happened to you, honey? What's going on? Is there something bothering you? You say it's not your mother, but—"

Just like earlier that day, Lois felt something inside of her set alight; a spark of a flame igniting in her core. His comment had burnt her heart and she found herself shaking with anger, with betrayal. She was sick and tired of the people around her using the excuse of her mother to try and explain why her behaviour had been so erratic lately, so unpredictable! When really she was out there, trying to save them all. Her father, Lydia — the whole town of Beacon Hills. All of it sat on their shoulders. Lois, Scott, Stiles, Allison, Luna; they had all been thrown into this life without a chance to escape it, and they were trying to save people. But did they get any thanks? No. Instead, they got grounded. Labelled as a bunch of no good, mis-behaving kids.

Even her own father thought that this was all because of her mother, when really, he had no clue.

No one did.

"What's bothering me, is that you don't trust me enough to make my own decisions!" She snapped, unable to escape the hostility she felt when her mother was mentioned. "It bothers me that my dad won't let me be a teenager!"

"Yelling at me isn't helping your case, Lois Lane!"

His tone was deadly, one that brought her to immediate silence. Lois took in a few deep breaths, unable to breathe — the air felt thick, hard swallow. Was she breathing? Did she ever learn how?

Why did people bring her up?

"You can be a teenager and not break the rules," Matthew told her, calmer this time but still aggravated. "What kind of father would I be, Lois— if I didn't ground my daughter when she's been acting like—" her father took a moment as he looked for the right words, "—like this strange person that I don't even know, anymore? Hm? That'd make me a bad father—!"

His daughter sucked in, frowning at him and his words.

"I try so hard to make you the best person you can be. Yo raise you the way that she would have wanted..." he muttered.

A silence fell over them, his words almost echoing in the quiet. She knew that raising a child on his own must have been hard for her father, but she'd never truly recognised the pressure that must have come with it. Her father had been the best father anyone could have been given, in Lois' eyes — even though she missed her mother more than anything, he had been the one that was always there for her. He was the one who had wiped her tears and told her that it was time to move on, that had given her a new chance at a life in Beacon Hills.

Her father had been the one to pick her up from school, to put dinner on the table each night and help her with her homework, while also maintaining a nine-five job.

Lois' dad had spent his life juggling around work so that he could go to all the parents evenings, the school plays, ice skating recitals — so that he could afford to buy her new clothes, to take her out on her birthday, and save up the money for her to go to college when she decided whatever it was she wanted to study.

While raising a kid on your own was difficult, it was even more difficult to know what your wife would have wanted for them.

Raising a child as a widower wasn't the life that Matthew Lane had ever pictured for himself and his daughter, but he had made it work. With the help of the Stilinski's and the McCall's, and the smile on Lois' face, he had managed.

He had been there the whole time.

"You have made me the best person, dad." Lois whispered.

The sudden anger within her had disappeared, and now she felt deflated. She made her way to his side and sat down, at a loss for words that could make up for her behaviour.

"You managed to raise me on your own, and that's pretty good going— y'know?" She hummed, "A lot of people say that I can be a handful,"

Matthew chuckled quietly, "Tell me about it, kiddo."

   Lois gave him a playful shove. The tension in the room had seemed to vanish.

"She'd be proud," the girl nodded her head once. For once she didn't feel the need to cry when talking about her mother, and it was cathartic. Lois sighed, "I know I've been a nightmare, lately, but I'm not a different person. I'm still Lois, I'll always be Lois."

   Looking up from the ticket that sat in his hands, her father let out a heavy breath and nodded when he had let it out. He looked at his daughter from over his shoulder and pulled himself to sit up straighter, his demeanour much softer, like the father she knew. It was often that he had to turn into bad cop on Lois, he was always a good balance of both, but she understood why he had done it. But she just wished that it would never have to happen, again; though, she knew not all of their wishes came true.

    "I know you are. You're just a teenager, now. You aren't little anymore..." Matthew said. He pursed his lips and shut his eyes for a moment, would regret this decision?

"Which is why you can go to this party."

   Her head perked up, "What?"

    "You can go." He repeated, handing over the ticket, snatching it back before she could grab it. "Just for Allison's sake, okay?"

   Lois nodded rapidly, grinning wider by the second when he passed over the paper. She took it between two fingers and held it to her chest, thankful that she wouldn't have to sneak out in order to catch Jackson. For the first time in months, her father actually knew where it was that she was going. Perhaps she had lied about it being for Allison, but there was still a lot of things that she couldn't tell him. It wasn't safe.

    "I want you back by one," he told her clearly, Lois nodding her head at every rule, "Curfew extends over spring-break, okay? No funny business, no illegal activity. Hey— and no boys!"

   She chose to ignore the last one as she shot up and squealed, going back to making sure that her outfit was perfect. Lois didn't pay much attention to her father as he left, smiling softly at the women his daughter was becoming.

   When he looked at her, he didn't see his Little Lo, anymore —instead, he saw a teenager that was trying to get through her high school years with some bumps in the road. A girl that was lost with no mother, bur surviving with her father just as well. At that time, Matthew didn't see his six year old anymore, but he still saw Lois.

He saw his daughter. The one thing that made his whole life worth it; the reason that he had ever carried on.

   As her father left, slowly slipping down the stairs, Lois slipped out her phone with a grin. Her fingers danced on the screen.

TO: STILES                  SENT: 8:45
IM COMING OVER.
ITS TIME TO CATCH A KANIMA.

• • •

"You okay?"

"Yeah—" Stiles nodded his head. "—why?"

"You didn't say anything the whole way here, Stiles." Lois rose a brow, making her way to the trunk with him. In fact, he had been oddly white in the face from the moment she had walked into his house and told him that it was go-time, a phrase that usually got him excited and riled up. "It's not like you, is all..."

"No, I'm fine." He denied, shaking his head and giving her a small smile. Lois saw right through it, knowing the boy like that back of her hand, but chose not to say anything.

He lifted the trunk door and picked up a black bag, one that looked pretty suspicious in Lois' eyes. She breiefly wondered what was in it, but gathered that she would find out soon enough. They had been filled in on what had happened with Deaton on the ride over, although and she Luna were still fairly confused. Not being present had meant it made less sense. They were still willing to try and understand it, though.

  "Scotty— grab the other bag, would you?"

"I can't," Scott shrugged, "Deaton said you have to do it alone."

"Okay—!" the boy scoffed, dropping the bag back into the trunk of his car with a thump! "This plan is really starting to suck."

Together, they boys had tried their best to explain what Deaton had given them to help in their efforts of catching a wild kanima: some sort of pixie dust for Stiles to trap supernatural creatures inside the party, so that Jackson and his master couldn't leave when the barrier was closed, and a whole bottle of pure ketamine to hopefully knock Jackson out with — at least until they figured out who his master actually was. He had said that ketamine would be strong enough to hold him down while they did their dirty work, but it still Lois nervous. Her head span at the thought of it.

She wasn't sure whether any drug would be enough to slow Jackson down, let alone put him to sleep. The girl trusted Deaton, but the kanima had seemed to show no weaknesses in the time it had been around — would a tranquilliser even work?

Would she be able to drug him, if she needed to?

   At the end of the day, Lois really did trust Deaton. He wouldn't have given them items that wouldn't be useful, she knew that. If Scott chose that his boss was credible enough to be trusted by the group of teenagers, a valuable asset, then Lois believed, too. They all did. That was why Lois took in a breath and pulled the ticket out of her pocket, ready to go inside and face the music. Literally.

   On the way over, she had been desperately trying to figure out what she would say to Matt if she bumped into him, during the night. She wasn't sure whether she should greet him, or just send him a smile, or whether that might look like she was trying to rub it in his face. Lois had already hurt him once by blowing him off for a boy that she could hardly even tolerate, but she had a stronger feeling that any intervention would just hurt him more. Or, maybe no interaction would do that. She really didn't know — hell, Lois didn't even know what she was going to say to Isaac when she got in there, and he was her fake date for the rest of the night! And, amongst all of that, they had to try and take down a Kanima while acting like normal.

   Being a teenager was hard.

    "I'll stay out here," Luna told the group, "I know I can't help Stiles, but I'd rather keep him company. I've never been a fan of parties, anyway..."

   Scott and Lois nodded in response, happy for her to be in the place that she felt safest, with the latter leaning down to look in the wing mirror of the jeep. She adjusted her hair and smiled, trying to look as normal possible. They couldn't risk anyone finding out what they were up to; she had to play it cool.

Whatever that meant. Lois didn't know cool, anymore. She hadn't felt particularly cool, in a long time.

   Just as she was about to turn to the boy and see if he was ready to go inside, Scott's head had shot up and towards the club.

    "No—" he muttered, "Not here, not now!"

   He quickly took off in a sprint, rushing into the event before any of his friends could even ask him where he was actually headed off to. The remaining trio gaped after him, left in the dust.

    "What—? Scott!"

Stiles groaned, "What am I supposed to—?"

He was too far gone.

"Okay, plan officially sucks!"

   Lois sighed when he had completely vanished from their sight. She clutched the ticket tightly in her hands and marched over to the passenger side of Stiles' jeep, diving in and throwing a couple of stray items around until she found a bottle of beer — one that had been left in there from the time that they had tried to get Scott drunk, to try and get over his first breakup with Allison. It was also the time that they had discovered werewolves couldn't get drunk, so only she and Stiles had gotten wasted.

Using the bottle opener on his keys, Lois popped the cap and took a large swig, nearly finishing the whole bottle in one single sip. There was no way that she was doing this sober — not at all.

   She peered over at Stiles and Luna, shoving the bottle into her best friend's hand, and then nodded.

    "Looks like that's my cue..." Lois hummed to herself, feeling the effects of the alcohol begin to set in. Her face flushed and her heart pounded much more slowly, a tight smile slipping into her face. "Right— let's get this over with."

   And then Lois was off, making her way into the underground club without turning back. It seemed like the plan had just started, and now they just had to wait for Jackson to arrive.

——

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