By Anne Spear <raggedyanne7@yahoo.com>
Rated: PG13
Submitted: June 2008
Summary: In this crossover fic-a-thon entry, Jimmy discovers he has step-sisters, Clark discovers strange doings in the conference room, and yet more people discover the SECRET. Prepare to be Charmed.
Author's notes: This was written as a response to Mr. D8a's Crossover-fic-a-thon. Actually, it was started long before the challenge was issued, but the fic-a-thon was just the motivation I needed to finish it. Many thanx to Sherry for her quick editing...I was the one who took forever to respond. Any and all feedback should be send to me at the above email address.
***
"Jimmy...visitor."
Jimmy Olsen looked up from his computer screen to see Jack Olsen sauntering down the ramp. Jimmy met Jack halfway across the newsroom floor. "Dad, why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he greeted his father with a manly hug and back pat.
"I didn't know I was until the last minute. You know how the spy business is," Jack answered, lowering his voice at the end.
"How long can you stay?" Jimmy asked, leading the way back to his desk.
"I'm not sure but at least a couple of days. I was hoping we could catch a ball game or something."
"That would be great," Jimmy answered, dragging an extra chair over to his desk.
As Jack sat, two men in dark suits approached him. "Jack Olsen, aka Victor Bennett?" the taller one asked.
Jack looked up, warily. "Yes?"
"You are under arrest for the murder of Doris Bennett. Please come with us."
"Dad?" Jimmy rose from his chair. "What's going on?"
"It's nothing, Jim," Jack assured him. "But do me a favor, just in case." He reached into his inner jacket pocket as he stood also and retrieved a small box, handing it to his son. "Take my PDA and call the home number for Halliwell. Tell Piper or Phoebe that Victor may need their help."
"Okay," Jimmy said. "Should I call a lawyer?"
"Not yet," Jack answered as one of the men started to tug on his upper arm. "Just call Piper and let her know what's going on."
"That would work if I *knew* what was going on," Jimmy mumbled to himself as he watched his father being led away. He sat back down and opened the electronic device his father had given him. When he pressed the button for "address book," a screen appeared asking for a password. <Good thing Dad gave me that the last time he was here,> he thought as he pushed each letter, J-A-M-E-S. He scrolled through the names to find the correct phone number, then lifted the receiver and dialed.
"Hello?" a groggy female voice answered.
"Could I speak with Piper, please?"
"She's not available right now. This is her sister...can I help you?"
"Phoebe?"
"No, Paige."
"Oh...um...this is Jim Olsen from the Daily Planet..."
"I think we already have a subscription," Paige interrupted.
"Huh? Oh. That's not why I'm calling. I have a message from Victor. He said to let Piper or Phoebe know that he may need their help."
"Why?" Paige asked. "What happened?"
"Two men came and arrested him," Jimmy told her. "Something about someone named 'Doris'?"
"Dang! I knew that wouldn't go away," she said, mostly to herself. "I just have to wake up the others and we'll be right there."
"Wake up?" Jimmy asked. "It's almost 9:30."
"East Coast time maybe, but we're in San Francisco."
"Oh! Okay, let me give you my cell phone number and I'll come get you when your plane lands..."
"No need. Just do me a huge favor. In about 15 minutes...hm, better make that 30...go someplace completely private where no one else will see you."
"Okay..." Jimmy agreed hesitantly. "Why?"
"You'll see. Don't forget...totally private, okay?"
"Got it."
The line went dead and Jimmy hung up. He quickly finished the project he'd been working on before his father arrived then went into the small conference room. He locked the door and pulled all the shades closed.
<Okay,> he thought, looking at his watch. <Now what?>
Just then, a column of white twinkling lights appeared in front of him. As he watched, three women just appeared out of nowhere! Jimmy took a startled step backward, hitting the back of his knee against the chair which caused him to fall into the seat.
"You must be Jim," the one in the middle stated, then continued when Jimmy didn't answer. "Sorry about the surprise entrance, but it's a little hard to explain 'orbing' over the phone."
"Orbing?" Jimmy asked, finally finding his voice.
"Yep. It's the fastest way for us to travel...and much cheaper than three airline tickets."
"Who...who are you people?"
"I'm Paige, this is Piper and that's Phoebe." Paige indicated each of her companions as she introduced them. Piper was the oldest but also the shortest of the three. Of Phoebe and Paige, Jimmy couldn't tell which was older but Paige was the tallest. They all had dark brown hair and seemed to be close to his own age.
"So, how do you know Victor?" Phoebe asked.
"And what kind of trouble is he in *this* time?" Piper seemed annoyed.
"I really don't know what's going on. He was arrested for the murder of someone named Doris Bennett and he wouldn't tell me what it was about. I *don't* know him as Victor...his name is Jack, Jack Olsen and he's my father," Jimmy answered.
"Your father?! Are you sure we're talking about the same man?" Piper asked.
"Well," Jimmy started pulling his wallet from his back pocket, "I have a picture of him." He flipped the pages to the right one and showed them a photo of himself and Jack, taken the last time he'd been in town.
"Yep, that's Victor," Paige confirmed.
"But how do *you* know him?" Jimmy asked.
"Well, that's a kind of a long story..." Phoebe started, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Jimmy," a male voice called, "everything okay in there?"
"Yeah, CK!" Jimmy called back. "I'm fine."
"You're sure? Because I thought I heard something fall."
"I swear that guy could hear the grass grow..." Jimmy whispered to the Halliwells. To CK he called back, "I...lost my balance, but I'm okay, really!"
Outside the conference room, Clark Kent pulled his glasses to the end of his nose and stared at the door. He pushed his glasses back up and shook his head as he turned and walked back to his wife, Lois' desk.
"What was that all about?" Lois asked him.
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "I noticed Jimmy going into the conference room alone, and then I heard a strange sound..."
"What kind of sound?" Lois asked.
"A high-pitched hum...kind of a sound. Now, there are three women in there with him."
"Where did they come from?"
"I have no idea, but they are definitely there and they weren't before."
"They're not ghosts or anything? 'Cause we do not have time to deal with any ghosts right now..."
"No, they're solid and human, as far as I can tell."
"What did Jimmy say?"
"That he's fine. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they come out with him."
Back inside the conference room, Jimmy was reassuring the sisters. "Clark is a good guy. Any other reporter I'd think was just being nosy, but Clark really would be concerned if he heard me fall."
"We've always had each other, but it must be nice having a good friend like that," Phoebe commented.
"So," Jimmy prompted, "how *do* you know my dad?"
"You may want to sit down," Phoebe suggested.
"Or we'll have Clark in here checking on you again," Piper commented.
"Look, I just got my dad back into my life and I really don't want to lose him again, so can somebody *please* tell me what's going on?" Jimmy insisted.
"Okay, short version...your dad is also their dad," Paige stated, indicating her sisters.
"What?!?"
"You didn't have to be so blunt!" Phoebe glared at Paige. To Jimmy she explained, "It's true. He married our mom in 1969 and left in '73 after Piper was born. They got back together again two years later and I was born in '76."
"I was born in 1974," Jimmy commented quietly.
"Boy, Victor sure was a busy little bunny..." Paige muttered, which earned her a pinch from Piper.
"So, he's not your dad?" Jimmy asked Paige.
"No," she answered, "we have the same mother, but she met my dad after Victor left the second time."
Jimmy took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm gonna have to let this all sink in later when there's *time* to freak out. Right now, I need to know who Doris Bennett is...or was."
"She was his latest wife," Paige answered.
"How many wives *has* he had?" Jimmy gasped.
"We don't know of any others," Phoebe explained, "but we were estranged from him for a long time, too."
"Just out of curiosity, what did he tell *you* he does for a living?" Jimmy asked.
"Software salesman," Piper answered. "You?"
"Originally, he owned a demolition company but, about ten years ago, I found out he's an agent for the NIA."
"Which would explain the different identities," Paige deduced.
"Right," Jimmy agreed. "So, when did he and your mom actually get divorced?"
"The first time he left, before Phoebe was born. I'm sure his marriage to your mom was legal," Piper assured him.
Jimmy heaved a sigh of relief. "Boy, have I got a lot of questions for him once this is all over..." he muttered. To Piper, he asked, "So, what happened to Doris?"
"She was killed, sort of, by me and Paige," Phoebe supplied.
"You what?"
"But she wasn't human," Paige insisted, "so we really didn't kill her, we...vanquished her."
"Vanquished? As in 'evil'?" All three sisters nodded. "So, what was she?"
"We're not sure exactly..." Paige tried to explain. "She was working for a sorcerer, so she was probably a demon."
"And how did my...um, our father end up married to a demon?"
"She manipulated him into it just to get close enough to steal Piper's baby," Phoebe explained further.
"Great, so now I'm a brother *and* an uncle!" Jimmy muttered. Piper snickered and Phoebe glared at her.
"I know this is a lot to absorb, but let's help our father first, and then we can sort it all out," Phoebe suggested.
"Okay," Jimmy agreed.
"Now, when he was arrested, which agency were they from?" Paige asked.
"Um, well, now that you mention it, they didn't say."
"Well, it wouldn't be the NIA, because they'd know he was an agent," Piper stated.
"And it probably wasn't the CIA, 'cause they don't usually deal with domestic crimes," Phoebe added,
"So that leaves the FBI," Paige concluded, "since she disappeared in San Francisco and he was arrested in New Troy."
"I think Clark has a friend who works for the FBI," Jimmy recalled. "Maybe he can look into this."
"Okay, we'll orb into an empty elevator and come back in the normal way and you check with your friend," Paige suggested.
***
"So, I think our next step..." Lois looked up at her husband who was staring at the conference room door. "Would you stop spying on them?"
"I'm not spying," Clark insisted. "I heard that sound again and wanted to know what it was."
"And..."
"There were twinkling lights and then they were gone."
"The lights were gone?"
"Yeah, and the women."
"Just gone? Disappeared?"
"Yep."
"Poof! No longer there?"
"Well, they sorta went *up* as they disappeared."
"They flew?"
"Not exactly."
"Well, what...exactly?" Lois struggled to keep her voice down.
"Look, all I can tell you is what I saw!"
"Hey, CK?" Lois and Clark were so focused on their ridiculous conversation that they never even noticed Jimmy leaving the conference room and walking over to Lois' desk.
Clark turned and smiled at the younger man. "Yeah, Jimmy?"
"Um, is your friend still in the FBI?"
"Matt Young? Yeah," Clark answered.
"Could you call him for me? I need to find out where they're holding my dad."
"Jack's been arrested?" Lois asked. "On what charge?"
"I'm also looking into that," Jimmy answered vaguely.
Clark lifted the receiver on Lois' telephone and dialed a number from memory. "Matt? Hey, it's Clark. I'm glad I caught you in the office. Lois and I wanted to thank you again for dinner last week. You'll have to come to our place soon." He listened for a moment, then answered, "Of course, I'll cook..." He gave a weak shrug in Lois' direction as she glared at him. "Listen, Matt. I have a huge favor to ask. My friend's father was arrested..."
"This morning," Jimmy whispered.
"...this morning and I need to find out where he's being held and what the charges are." After a short pause, Clark continued. "Jack Olsen. Hmm, no record at all?"
"Try Victor Bennett," Jimmy suggested.
"What about Victor Bennett?" Clark asked into the phone.
"And see if he knows anything about Doris Bennett," Jimmy requested.
"Okay," Clark was looking at Jimmy but still speaking to Matt. "Is there anything on Doris Bennett? Oh...okay. Well, thanks for checking. Yeah, Friday night's perfect. Okay, see ya'." Clark hung up the phone and told Jimmy, "There are no open cases involving anyone named Olsen or Bennett."
"What happened...exactly?" Lois asked.
Just then, the elevator door opened and the Halliwell sisters entered the newsroom. Jimmy waved to them and they came down the ramp to join him. While his back was turned, Clark nudged Lois and mouthed, 'that's them' to her.
"These are my very good friends, Lois and Clark," Jimmy told the newcomers, then turned to the Kents and continued, indicating each woman, "this is Piper and Phoebe, my half-sisters and their half-sister, Paige."
Clark and Lois rose and began shaking hands with each Halliwell, hiding their surprise to hear that Jimmy was no longer an only child. The last hand that Clark shook was Phoebe's. As soon as contact was made, she started as if she'd received a shock. "Are you okay?" Clark asked her.
"Yeah," Phoebe answered quietly. "Um, you know Superman, right?" Lois and Clark looked at each other, then Clark answered affirmatively. "I think he may be in danger," Phoebe told them.
"What? How could you know that?" Lois asked.
Phoebe hesitated and looked at her sisters.
"Could we go somewhere private?" Piper asked.
"Sure, the conference room is over here," Jimmy offered, leading the way. He held the door for everyone else then closed it again. The shades were still pulled from earlier.
"Are you sure about this?" Piper asked Phoebe.
"Very."
"Okay," Piper turned to Lois and Clark. "You may want to sit down first."
Lois plopped into a seat and twirled her pen impatiently. Clark sat next to her and leaned forward, eager to find out more about Jimmy's new family.
"Right," Phoebe started, smiling a little too much to cover her nervousness. "I sometimes get these...psychic visions when I touch people or things, and when I shook hands with Clark, I saw Superman in a lot of pain because of a green rock on the end of a staff held by Merrill."
"I thought your visions were always in black and white," Piper commented.
"It was," Phoebe told her, "except the rock which glowed green. That's got to mean something."
"It does," Clark confirmed. "It has to be kryptonite."
"So, who's Merrill?" Jimmy asked.
"A wizard Paige and I fought last year. He was working with a sorcerer who tried to steal Piper's son."
"And what was the sorcerer's name...Voldemort?" Lois sneered.
"Lo-is," Clark whispered a warning to his wife.
"What?" Lois spoke directly to Clark. "You don't seriously believe any of this?"
"Is it any more outrageous than anything else we've dealt with?" Clark countered. He knew something was different about these women from what he'd seen earlier. Unfortunately, Lois didn't have his abilities and she tended to only believe what she could see. "Just hear them out, okay?"
"Fine," she reluctantly agreed, but her pen twirled faster to show her irritation. Clark sighed and turned his attention back to the Halliwell sisters.
Piper spoke up first. "Okay, I'll try to give you the short version. There is an ongoing war between good and evil that most people are not even aware of. We are witches on the side of good. Our mother and grandmother, in fact all the women born in our family since before the Salem Witch Trials were. We each have different powers and one of Phoebe's is seeing the past and future."
Lois sighed loudly and stared up at the ceiling while continuing to twirl her pen.
"If it's proof you want..." Paige started. She held her hand out, palm up, and said, "Pen." Lois' pen was surrounded by white twinkling lights, then it disappeared and reappeared in Paige's hand. Paige looked at Piper, who nodded slightly. Paige threw the pen into the air toward Piper, who waved both her hands at it. The pen exploded in midair, showering the table with plastic dust. "Happy?" Paige asked a very speechless Lois.
"How...how," Lois stammered.
"I told you," Piper insisted. "Magic."
Phoebe moved closer to Jimmy. "If I could touch you, maybe I can see what happened this morning," she suggested.
"Sure," Jimmy agreed, holding out his hand.
Phoebe grasped his hand and closed her eyes and for a moment nothing happened. Then she jumped as if startled. "It was Kane," she announced, opening her eyes and releasing Jimmy's hand. "He's a warlock that was working with Cronyn, the sorcerer," she supplied for Jimmy, Lois and Clark's benefit.
"So, how do we find him?" Clark asked.
"They took Dad to draw *us* out," Piper explained. "There's no need for you to get involved."
"Jack helped Superman find Lois and Jimmy when Trevanian was going to kill them. I will not let him down now."
"Well, we could scry for him," Paige suggested, "but we need something personal of his."
"His PDA!" Jimmy blurted out. "He gave it to me before he left. It's in my desk."
"Perfect," Piper said. "Paige, can you orb home and get the crystal?" Paige nodded and disappeared in a shower of sparkles. Jimmy waited until she was gone, then opened the door and left the conference room. "I should start writing a vanquishing spell," Piper added. "Do you have some paper?"
"Sure," Lois replied. "In my desk...and I'll get you another pen too." Lois left the conference room, then Piper remembered that they would need a map of the city as well and followed Lois, leaving Clark and Phoebe alone in the conference room.
"So," Clark began, trying to sound casual. "In your vision, was Superman wearing his uniform?"
Phoebe sighed. "No," she told him quietly. "He was wearing glasses and a suit and a very crazy tie..."
Clark looked out into the newsroom and saw Jimmy looking for a map. "Lois knows, of course, but Jimmy..." He looked back at Phoebe.
"He won't hear it from me," she assured him.
Just then, Paige returned in the corner, out of sight of the newsroom. She placed a small crystal attached to a long string on the table. The others returned and shut the door again.
***
An hour later, Lois parked her jeep in front of a warehouse in Hobbs Bay. She and Jimmy emerged from the front seats, while the Halliwells exited the back.
"So, everyone knows their part of the plan, right?" Piper verified.
"Right," Paige answered. "We go in from the front and distract them..."
"While I find a back way in and grab the staff with the kryptonite..." Jimmy added.
"And I wait out here for Superman and act as look out," Lois finished.
"Good," Piper confirmed. "Let's go."
Jimmy headed south down the street, then ducked down an alley two doors down. The Halliwells waited a few more minutes then Piper blew the front doors open with a wave of her hands.
Jimmy followed the side alley to another one that ran behind all the buildings on this block. He found the correct building, but the back door was locked. He picked the lock, then stepped back and looked up. There was an open second-story window and he decided he could reach it if he climbed onto the dumpster. Once inside, he stood on a metal catwalk and was able to see two mean-looking guards just inside the back door. <Good thing I didn't go in that way,> he thought. The rest of the room was one large warehouse with boxes all around the perimeter. In the front of the room, he could see two men facing his sisters and Paige. The older one, he assumed this was Merrill, was holding a long staff with a large green stone set at the top above everyone's head. The air between the factions was shimmering and it looked like a force field effect in a science fiction movie. His dad was tied to a chair to the left, outside the force field, and he did not look good.
Jimmy crept along the catwalk to the right side of the room and jumped down silently, hiding behind a stack of boxes. Once he was sure he hadn't been seen, he started toward the front of the room, staying behind boxes as much as possible. Every so often, he caught a glimpse of his goal. He saw Paige attempt to orb something, probably the staff, but nothing happened. Then he saw Piper wave her hands but that failed as well. He wished he could hear what they were saying, but he wasn't close enough yet. Next, he saw some of Merrill's goons sneaking around behind the witches and he knew he had to hurry. The staff was probably creating that force field, which was keeping the Halliwells' powers from working. When he'd gotten as close as he could with stealth, he realized that the force field was only in front of Merrill and Kane, not behind them. With their attention on the Halliwells, they'd never expect an attack from the rear. Gathering up his courage, he ran straight for the wizard, tackling both men at once. Before they could recover, he grabbed the staff and raced for the back door. The guards at the rear of the room moved to stop him, then they suddenly froze in place. Jimmy stopped and turned to look at his sisters.
"I can freeze time, too," Piper explained. "Quick, put that rock away!"
Jimmy slammed the end of the staff against the cement floor, breaking the setting for the kryptonite. Next, he removed a large canvas bag from his back pocket and unrolled it, marveling again at how convenient it was that Lois keeps lead-lined bags in her desk. Once the stone was in the bag and tied tight, Superman flew in and landed near Jimmy. Jimmy handed the bag to Superman, who thanked him, then ran to check on his dad. As he got closer, he realized that one of Jack's eyes was swollen shut and bruises were starting to form on his jaw.
"Dad, what happened?" Jimmy asked as he moved behind Jack to untie his hands.
"This is nothing," Jack answered, but winced when his arm was released.
Just then, everyone else in the room started moving again and one of the goons jumped Jimmy from behind. Jimmy flipped him over his head and kicked him where it would hurt any guy, human or not. Instead of stopping him, it just made the goon madder. Suddenly, he changed. He got bigger, his face turned red and he grew sharper teeth. As Jimmy started backing up, Superman appeared next to him and punched the demon with an uppercut that sent him flying into the wall. The moment he impacted, he burst into flames and disappeared, screaming.
Superman handed the bag back to Jimmy. "Give this to Lois and she'll make sure it gets to Star Labs. I have to get Jack to the hospital," he explained.
"I'm fine," Jack insisted, trying to stand on his own.
"You have three cracked ribs and a dislocated shoulder," Superman told him as he lifted Jack gently and flew out the front doors.
"Jimmy, get out of here!" Phoebe yelled as she levitated and kicked another demon in the face. Piper was blowing them up with a gesture and Paige was orbing weapons all around. As he ran for the front doors, Jimmy could hear the sisters chanting the vanquishing spell.
***
"So, I showed the ER doctor my NIA badge and he didn't ask too many questions," Jack finished explaining to a very crowded room. Jimmy, Lois and Clark had arrived through normal means to find that Jack had been given a private room and Paige, Piper and Phoebe had orbed in shortly after. Jack was now sitting up in bed with his left arm in a sling.
"And when were you going to tell *us* that you're a secret agent?" Piper reprimanded him.
"Well, you girls have been through so much, especially after losing Prue, that it just never seemed the right time to drop something else in your laps."
"Yeah, like, 'by the way, you have a brother'," Phoebe laughed.
"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Like that."
"How *did* you get into the spy business in the first place?" Paige asked.
"I was a private eye for a few years then, when I left 'Remington Steele Investigations,' the NIA recruited me." Jack shrugged. "It felt like a good fit, so I stayed."
"So, we're agreed," Jimmy started, sitting on the edge of his dad's bed, "no more secrets...no matter what, right?" He held his hand out.
"Right," Jack agreed, placing his hand on Jimmy's. Piper and Paige placed each of their hands over Jack's and echoed, "right" and all four looked at Phoebe. "Right," she replied, placing her hand on top of the pile and glancing over at Clark.
THE END
Author's notes: Most of the history told within this story took place during the "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" episode entitled "The Dad Who Came in from the Cold" and the "Charmed" episode "The Day the Magic Died." The inspiration came from the fact that James Read, one of my favorite actors, played both Jack Olsen and Victor Bennett. The rest just fell into place.