Chapter Text
Eve has spent a good while building up what Lex’s pocket-dimension-prison looks like, so when she actually does see it, she’s vaguely underwhelmed.
What she’d gathered from whispered gossip and the occasional implicit threat when Lex was in a bad mood had really made it seem like the seventh circle of hell—but honestly, her cell is pretty clean. She doesn’t think the seventh circle of hell would be clean.
She’s also by far the best dressed in her cell block, not that she would’ve expected otherwise, but it’s nice that everyone else can see it too through the massive glass panels that separate the prisoners.
She wonders if she looks nice enough next time Lex drops by, maybe he’ll change his mind. She’s careful not to fuck up her hair. She doubts she’ll be able to get her hands on a Dyson Airwrap here.
She tries to befriend the prisoners around her, but she thinks Lex must have put her with the political dissidents, because they’re all terrible conversationalists. God forbid he throw her a bone and let her hang out with the cute girl in the pink dress she’d seen crying on the way in.
She hopes Jimmy understands the pictures. He can be a little stupid sometimes, but she believes in him anyway.
She hopes he remembers her, even if she never gets out. Jimmy might be the only person in the world who notices she’s gone. Him and her nail girl.
She hopes at least a few of the LuthorCorp employees will miss her. She’s always been nice to them—especially the interns, who are so scared of Lex. She tries to find whoever’s been yelled at last and sit with them and make sure they know he’s just like that and it’s not their fault.
She does think they’ll miss her, really—maybe they’ll even whisper to each other about it in those stolen moments she always loved being a part of.
She really can’t afford to cry. The guards confiscated her mascara.
~~~
She’s not sure how long she sits in the center of her cell before she can hear shouts from the prisoners in the next block over.
We’re saved.
She thinks maybe it’s just another way for Lex to torture them all. She thinks it even as she’s in the giant cargo ship, being jostled from all sides by prisoners, really truly in the damp filth of hell. It’s all a daze. It’s all so bizarre.
She still doesn’t quite believe she’s free until she’s in the middle of the road in Metropolis and she sees Jimmy Olsen lingering uncomfortably, attempting not to catch her eye.
She sprints to him, flinging herself into his arms. Now we can be together forever.
Jimmy folds his arms around her, a little hesitant, like he always is.
She thinks she stays there for a minute or two—she doesn’t know. It’s loud, and she’s gross and exhausted, and she’s beginning to realize that she doesn’t have a home anymore.
She pulls back, keeping her hands on Jimmy’s shoulders because she’s scared he’ll run away and leave her all alone here.
He must see something in her face, because his reluctant smile breaks into something like concern.
“Hey,” he says quietly, squeezing her arm. “Lex is gone. Everything’s gonna be okay.”
Lex is gone. Eve doesn’t even know what that means.
She blinks back hot tears—she doesn’t need this large of a crowd seeing her break down.
“I don’t have anywhere to go,” she admits in a low voice.
And for all of his stubborn reluctance to agree to spend time with her, when it comes down to it, Jimmy doesn’t hesitate.
“Yes you do,” he says firmly, offering her a hand to follow him through the crowd. “You have my place until you get back on your feet.”
Eve remembers Jimmy’s apartment, from back when they dated. It’s tiny, and cramped, and very rarely truly clean. His bathroom is the size of her shower at Lex’s.
The thought of living in a place like that makes Eve bounce, a little, on her heels.
She takes his hand. “You’re the best, Jimmy.”
Jimmy rolls his eyes—she thinks it’s subconscious, at this point—but he smiles.
~~~
The first thing Eve does when she arrives at Jimmy’s is shower. Luckily, she got him hooked on a couple of her hair products back in the day, so she’s not completely without normalcy.
She manages to put back on her outfit from yesterday—gross, but not grosser than wearing Jimmy’s tattered clothes—and call a couple of her LuthorCorp contacts from Jimmy’s landline to see if she has a chance of getting her stuff back.
Her favorite intern says no. Apparently all of Lex’s personal belongings are in lockup as criminal evidence. Unlikely to be released to a girl with absolutely nothing, on paper.
She refuses to cry about her stupid fucking Dyson Airwrap on a phone call with a twenty-year-old who’s about to lose the only job he’s ever had.
“Let us help out,” Jack says. “Let us all pitch in, send you a little money. It won’t be much, but maybe it could help.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Eve says flatly, staring at the last nice pair of boots she’ll ever own. “You barely make minimum wage. You all need that money more than I do.”
“At least we made something,” Jack points out quietly. “You were basically an employee, and you never made a dime in an account in your name.”
Employee. Girlfriend. Hostage. What’s the difference?
~~~
There’s another problem that Eve hadn’t anticipated—the nightmares.
It starts the first night, sleeping on Jimmy’s couch. She wakes up with a scream, somehow convinced Lex is here to drag her off of the couch back to LuthorCorp and his dangerous moods and manic obsessions.
She clamps her hand over her mouth, but not before Jimmy has swung open his door, half-sprinting out of his room to her side.
“Sorry,” she mutters through tears. She doesn’t know what time it is. She doesn’t want to fuck this up, to get kicked out so soon. She can’t be alone out there. “Sorry, Jimmy, it won’t happen again.”
But the Jimmy she sees in the middle of the night is different than the one she’s used to. He’s soft, and gentle, and he holds both of her shaking hands and asks what happened and listens attentively to her confused rambling.
“Lex is in prison,” he assures her, “and you’re safe now. Okay? I’ll protect you.”
Eve laughs a little at that, which makes Jimmy draw himself up with fake indignation.
“You think I can’t beat a bald man?”
“I think it’s really sweet that you would try.”
They stay up like that, joking around, until Eve has calmed down and she doesn’t see a shadow in every corner. The funny thing is, for once, Jimmy doesn’t seem rushed to leave. She wonders what’s different.
“Goodnight,” she calls quietly after the soft Jimmy who exists in the middle of the night.
“Goodnight, Eve,” Jimmy calls back.
~~~
Jimmy’s off to work early the next morning, so Eve has the tiny apartment to herself to figure out how to start the rest of her life.
She checks the news for anything on Lex. She reads Jimmy and Lois Lane’s article. She really thinks she should get a credit on it—she did provide all of the necessary information—but whatever. She supposes they wrote it quickly.
She puts on the same outfit a third time. Jimmy gave her fifty dollars to go shopping today, but she feels wrong taking his money. She needs to find a job. She’s not sure she remembers how to do a real job.
She considers calling some of the other interns, but she knows they’re busy. Whatever’s happening at LuthorCorp now is going to be a disaster for their resumés.
Plus, they’re not her family. It’s pathetic that they’re her next closest thing.
She finds her way to the top floor of Jimmy’s building. The roof is unlocked, so she climbs up there, too.
She wishes the Luthorcorp building didn’t tower like that over the Metropolis skyline.
The wind whips around her face, absolutely ruining her hair, but it’s not like she’s serving a strong look today anyway. She sits down, dangling her legs over the side of the roof.
It’s weird, watching the people on the street from all the way up here. She’s struck by the way they cluster together, even in the middle of a work day. Friends on their way to lunch. Parents pushing children in strollers. Men in suits clumped on the sidewalk, discussing business deals, or whatever.
Eve was always good at connecting with people. She was always proud of how she could start a conversation with anyone: her barista, her favorite clients when she worked retail, the girls she ran with every morning. She liked to think that she was one of those people that other people wanted to be around.
She doesn’t know the exact moment that seeing Lex started to mean she wasn’t allowed to be close to anyone else.
“Hey,” a voice says from in front of her, and Eve startles, looking up.
It’s Superman, hovering just a few feet in front of her, fixing her with an unreadable expression.
“Can I sit with you?” Superman asks, gesturing beside her.
Eve nods, shuffling to the side even though there’s an entire roof of room. Superman descends gracefully next to her.
“I’m Eve,” Eve says. She’s not sure what else to say.
Superman smiles a little. “I’m Superman. It’s nice to meet you, Eve.”
“Sorry,” Eve says quickly, “If you’ve seen my picture with Lex in the news. I don’t agree with him about you—about anything, really. I always thought you seemed nice.”
“Thanks,” Superman says easily, “but you don’t have to apologize. I think you seem nice, too.”
Eve nods tightly, looking back over the street. It’s impressive no one has noticed Superman sitting on the edge of a roof yet.
“How are you doing?” Superman asks, as if they’re friends catching up after a long time apart, not Lex Luthor’s ex-girlfriend and Superman.
Eve squints at him. “Don’t you have better things you could be doing?”
Superman shrugs. “I want to be here.”
Maybe this is all a fever dream. Maybe Eve is still sitting in the center of a cell in Lex’s pocket dimension, hallucinating a Superman to talk to. That would really piss Lex off.
Superman looks down at the street silently, just like Eve had been. A passing group’s laughter is carried up to them with the wind.
“Do you ever feel lonely?” Eve asks. “Like, there’s no one in the world who really cares that you exist?”
Superman puts a steady hand on her knee. “I care that you exist, Eve.”
Eve hums. It’s sweet, if empty. She’s pretty sure Superman is like, legally required to care that every single person exists. So it doesn’t really count. She doesn’t need to say that, though.
“I read your article,” Superman says. “I might not be here if not for your pictures. Thank you.”
Eve looks up at him. The man looks genuine as ever.
“I know that I can’t understand what you’re going through,” he says carefully, “but I get the sense that Lex Luthor makes people’s worlds small. I don’t think it’ll be hard for you to find more people who care about you now that he’s gone.”
Eve blinks away the tears gathering in her eyes. She lowers her voice, even though there’s no one else here to overhear her. “I’m worried I’ve forgotten how.”
“’I’m Eve,’” Superman says, quoting her. He smiles. “Not too hard to remember.”
Maybe it’s just one of those things Superman says—truth, justice, and you’re worth the effort to be known, or something like that.
But he seems so sure of himself. Like it really is that simple, to get close to people again. Eve just can’t help but believe him.
She smiles. “I guess I’ll try that.”
~~~
Jimmy calls the house to ask if Eve wants to go to dinner at his friend Lois’s. Eve enthusiastically agrees—she thinks it’s sweet that Jimmy even mentioned her to his friends, much less wanting her to finally meet them.
A few hours later, Eve finds herself drastically outnumbered, eating greasy pizza around a coffee table with three dorky journalists.
“That was really clever,” Lois offers, “with the pictures.”
Clark nods, pushing up his glasses. “I never would have thought of it.”
Eve doesn’t really think it was that clever. Clever doesn’t get you thrown in an interdimensional prison, she’s pretty sure. Still, she thinks Lois seems like the type who’d only say something like that if she really meant it. So it’s nice.
“Thank you,” she says brightly. “You all were clever to figure it out.”
“Clark was no help at all,” Lois points out, grinning.
Clark rolls his eyes, but there’s a familiar fondness there. It’s how Eve likes to imagine Jimmy looks when he rolls his eyes at her.
“It was an ill-timed stomach bug,” Clark admits, shooting Lois a look that Eve can’t quite comprehend.
“I’m starting to think we should get you in with a specialist,” Jimmy says, but Eve can’t look away from Lois and Clark. There’s something so comfortable about the way they interact with each other. Like they know every little thing the other is thinking. Eve wants to be known like that.
There’s a bit of an awkward silence following Jimmy’s comment, so Eve takes it upon herself to continue the conversation.
“So, how long have you two been together?” she asks.
Jimmy drops his face into his hands, groaning. “Eve.”
“Wh—we’re not—,” Clark blusters, glancing between Eve and Jimmy.
“Never mind,” Eve says quickly, “I’m sorry—”
“No, you’re not sorry,” Jimmy interrupts firmly, glancing at her and then back at Lois and Clark. “She’s not sorry, because it’s not her fault you two are so fucking weird.”
Eve thinks maybe Jimmy Olsen is defending her honor, in his weird, roundabout kind of way. She doesn’t know what to make of that.
“Jimmy?” Lois says under her breath, searching his face. “You know?”
“Of course I know,” Jimmy hisses. “I’m your best friend, Lois. I’ve known for months.”
Lois stands up abruptly, stepping around the coffee table to grab Jimmy’s arm.
“We need to talk,” she announces to no one in particular. “We’re going for a walk.”
Then the door shuts behind them, and it’s Eve and Clark alone in Lois’s apartment.
~~~
“Sorry,” Eve says again, even though she’s still not sure what she’s apologizing for. Clark still looks a little shell-shocked.
Clark blinks, looking over at her. “Don’t be. I think it’s been coming for a while.”
“Why didn’t you want Jimmy to know?”
She knows Jimmy didn’t always want people to meet her when they were dating—like, she’d be too hot and ruin his journalism cred or something. But Clark, Lois, and Jimmy are all journalists. And they’re all good-looking. So she doesn’t really get the secrecy.
Clark sighs. “It’s a long story.”
Eve shrugs. “Okay.”
She’s not sure what to say after that. They sit in awkward silence for a minute, staring at the uneaten pizza.
“How are you doing?” Clark asks eventually. “After everything?”
Eve looks at her boots.
“I don’t know,” she says honestly. “I guess I’m just trying to figure out how to make my world big again.”
She knows it’s probably nonsense, but Clark nods like he understands.
“We should do another double-date sometime,” he suggests. “When Lois and Jimmy have figured stuff out. We could get something better than pizza.”
It’s Eve’s turn to groan, now.
“Jimmy is not interested,” she says, glancing involuntarily at the door. “He’s made that clear.”
Clark raises his eyebrows. “Not to me.”
Eve perks up at that. “What did he say?”
Clark stands up, gathering plates on his way to the kitchen. “I am not saying a word.”
Eve jumps up, chasing him.
“Clark, tell me what the fuck he said.”
Clark never does betray Jimmy’s secrets, but he tells Eve all about the other Daily Planet workplace gossip, which is almost as good. Eve makes Clark lend her his phone so she can show him all of her favorite interns on Instagram and brag about their accomplishments like a proud aunt or something. (His explore page is really Superman dominated, which Eve thinks is kind of sweet but Clark seems deeply embarrassed by.)
She finds herself out of breath from laughing a few times—the kind of laughter that Lex never would have tolerated, but seems only natural, swapping stories on the couch with a friend.
By the time Lois and Jimmy return a few hours later, Eve and Clark have already conspired to get the four of them together again next week.
~~~
Eve wakes up early the next day. Clean clothes, this time: an old t-shirt Lois lent her that’s cropped on Eve and a pair of jeans that look like capris. Whatever. She’ll make do.
She braids her hair, too. She forgot how cute she looks with pigtail braids. Lex always wanted her hair down.
She parts with Jimmy outside of the Daily Planet. He offered to put in a good word for her for Cat Grant’s assistant position, but she doesn’t think she should work on the same floor as he does. She thinks she needs to make her world bigger than just Jimmy Olsen.
Instead, she turns right and walks down the street to the coffee shop on the corner.
The barista is hot, like all baristas are. It’s one of those things.
“Hi,” Eve says, smiling at her. “Are you hiring?”