Chapter 8
Lois drove back to Gotham faster than what was safe given how much ice covered the road.
It didn't matter to her.
The only thing that mattered right then was her boys.
Jon had called her from one of the chaperones' phones, crying too hard to tell her what was wrong. The alarm in the background had only scared her more.
Thankfully the chaperone took her phone back and explained that someone had pulled the fire alarm, but it didn't look like a fire had actually broken out. Despite that, the party was over due to the stress and damages that had come from the stampede for the doors, not to mention the injuries.
None were very serious, and Jon looked to be physically fine, but he was missing his glasses and terrified.
But then Lois asked about Conner, and was told that he was still unaccounted for.
They didn't know where he was.
The whole drive back was spent with a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel wishing Clark wasn't off in space and regretting dropping them off at the party in the first place.
She had just wanted them to have some fun.
Had Conner gotten separated from Jon in the chaos?
Was he okay?
Had he even been evacuated?
They both must be so scared.
She pulled into the parking lot, trying to not panic as everything she saw was lit by the flashing lights of firetrucks and various other emergency response vehicles, along with the Christmas lights already hung on the entrance to the building.
But, she reminded herself, the fire had been fake.
This was all just because of some kids dumb prank.
Not to mention they were at Bruce's place, which was why she had felt safe dropping them off at all.
As soon as her car was parked, she jumped out and ran over to where it looked like most of the kids were gathered, being comforted by several of the adults.
“Jon!”
Where?
“Conner!”
Where were they?
She looked quickly over all the faces, trying to find her sons.
There was a kid about Jon's age holding a red rag to his nose and crying, but when he turned she saw that it wasn't him. A man, probably the kids father, was tending to him, so she kept moving.
“Jon, Conner!”
“Mama!”
Jon!
An older woman dressed as Mrs. Claus was holding him and handed him over, along with a crushed pair of glasses.
“Jon! Oh, my god. Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Jon shook his head and hugged her tightly, sobbing into her winter jacket too hard to form coherent words.
Lois held him back just as tight, still feeling her heart racing out of her chest.
“I had the medics take a look at him just to be safe. He's got a bruise on his side and his glasses were stepped on, but other than that he should be just fine.”
That was a relief.
“What about his brother?”
Mrs. Claus frowned. “Conner, right? We're still sorting out which kids go with whom, but so far we haven't found him.”
Warning bells began sounding in Lois's brain, but in the interest of staying calm, for Jon if nothing else, she pushed them down.
“You haven't found him?”
“Not yet. But Jon has been so upset we've only had a name to go off of. Do you have a photo of him?”
Lois nodded and knelt on the ground. “Jon, I'm going to put you down for a second, okay? I need my phone.”
Jon hesitated but let go of her neck to grab her coat, freeing up her arms to pull out her phone and scroll through her photos for one that showed Conner.
“Here. This is Conner. When I dropped them off he was wearing a leather jacket, a choker necklace, and a Christmas sweater with a moose on it.”
Mrs. Claus took the phone and examined the photo, taken only a few days ago during the season's first major snowfall as they were all playing in the backyard.
“Hm.” She frowned and handed the phone back, squinting around at the other people in the crowd. “He… looks pretty distinctive. I don't believe I've seen him.”
Oh, no.
“Oh, but don't worry. I'm sure he's around here somewhere. I'll take a lap and see if anyone else knows where he is. We’ll find him, okay?”
“Okay, thank you.” Lois nodded, picking Jon back up.
Mrs. Claus went one way, and Lois and Jon went another, weaving through the crowd and asking everyone if they had seen Conner, all while doing her best to not assume the worst.
He was fine.
This was a stressful situation, and he was probably just… tucked away somewhere safe.
Or quiet.
He had done so quite a lot after his adoption, to the point that Lois and Clark had his room soundproofed to help.
But that didn't make sense either, because no matter how scared Conner was, he wouldn't have just left Jon.
Maybe they'd gotten separated, but Conner wouldn't just leave Jon alone like this.
“Conner!”
He even took it upon himself to carry Jon's spare glasses, just in case.
“Hey!”
Lois heard the shout and turned, finding a young woman in a blazer embroidered with ‘GBH' on the chest. Right under that was the name Anna.
“Are you missing a kid, too?”
“I am! My son, Conner. He's sixteen.”
Anna waved for Lois to follow her and led her over to where a handful of other adults in identical blazers huddled outside a multicolored bus filled with kids.
‘Gotham Boys Home’ was stenciled on the side.
“Four of ours are missing as well. We can't find them.”
“Four? So there are five kids missing?”
Anna nodded, but one of the other adults stepped closer, shaking her head. “Actually, I think there might be six.”
“What did you mean?”
“Just before the alarm went off, I saw a boy. I think he showed up all on his own, and he looked really out of place. I've been looking for him, but I don't think he evacuated when the alarm went off.”
This just kept getting worse.
Where was Conner? Had those other boys taken him somewhere?
Or maybe they'd gotten separated in the confusion and were still inside?
“Okay so there are potentially six kids missing?” Lois asked.
Anna nodded. “Yes. And two of ours have special needs. It's not like them to just wander off.”
Over near the front doors of the building, standing in hushed conversation with Oliver Queen, the fire capitan, and Santa Claus, was Bruce Wayne.
“You guys wait here. I'm going to go find out what's going on.”
And where on earth Conner was.