Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville, just my many, many, OCs. Lol.
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Casey Kent is not in a very good mood. It's supposed to be a special day. Maddie Van horn, well Maddie Hoch now, is having her baby shower here, in the Kent home. And Casey has no problem with that. Really, she doesn't. She loves Maddie like she was her sister. It's just that she's not too thrilled with all the work she has to put into it.
The inside of the house was no problem. She and her older brother, Andrew, zipped from here to there, cleaning the place up spotless in the matter of minutes; but outside is a different story. Though they don't get many visitors, outside is where witnesses can be.
So the two of them have been left to do the yard work while their mother heads out for Metropolis with their youngest sister, Noley; and Lizzy and Jonathan are sent to run special errands.
Casey sighs heavily. It's her umpteenth time realizing just how long it's going to take to get the farm in order; and for the hundredth time she wonders why the outside of the house has to be done if the baby shower is taking place inside.
Impatiently, she tucks a few wisps of her long blonde spirals behind her ears and pulls up another stupid weed.
"Hey Case," Andrew calls over just as she's about to start swearing about the unfairness of this arrangement.
"What?"
"I'm gonna go check out the mansion real quick. Wanna come with?"
Casey considers it for a few seconds. The Luthor Mansion caught fire three days ago; burned to the ground actually. No one got hurt though. The owner and their father's boss, Tess Mercer, was away on business at the time.
"Sure," she decides with a shrug of her shoulders. There really isn't anything too exciting about exploring a pile of ashes; but then again, it's got to be better than pulling weeds.
"Cool. On your mark…."
Casey rolls her eyes. He wants to race? She's fourteen years old. He's fifteen. They're not little kids anymore.
She takes off before he can say, "get set," and is standing before the ruins in no time.
Her first thought is that the Luthor mansion hasn't exactly "burned to the ground." The basic structure of the mansion is still intact. Just certain parts have caved in, some windows have been shattered, and the collapsed west wing, where the fire obviously originated, has been grotesquely marred by the flames.
So yeah, the mansion is inhabitable; but by no means has it "burned to the ground."
In fact, it looks kind of… cool, the way it is now. Like, maybe years from now it'll be that "haunted" place stupid little kids dare their best friends to spend the night alone in; or that place high-schoolers throw "unauthorized" parties in.
"Hey, you cheated!" Andrew yells at her once he finally catches up.
Casey rolls her eyes. Seriously? She only got a second's worth of a head start, yet she'd been gaping up at the mansion for all of two seconds before he arrived. If they'd had a fair race, she still would've beaten him by a whole second. That's practically a landslide by Kent standards.
"I would've won anyway." Casey says matter-of-factly, because as mentioned before, it is a fact.
Andrew shoves Casey playfully. She shoves him back much harder. Then they get into it.
Casey doesn't get to fight too often, not physically anyway, but she likes it. She likes proving she can be just as tough, if not tougher, than other people. The guys especially.
And Andrew loves letting her try. Hey, he's got three sisters and a human mother. He needs at least one of them to be able to take care of herself! Well, he'd prefer they all knew how, but that's not gonna happen. Lizzy's…Lizzy; all sweet and noble and always turning the other freakin' cheek. Noley, well, Noley's…Noley. Seriously, for a kid who bounces around from one thing to the next as quickly as she does, she's not very observant. She's way too naïve; never believing there are bad things, and people, in the world despite the fact that their father is Superman, a renowned hero who deals with bad things, and people, nearly all day. And then there's his mother…and his aunties…and his cousins….and…let's just say that Andrew's all for Casey being tough. That's one less person he has to worry about; so during any of their little "wrestling" matches, he never takes it easy on her. It's good for her. A real bad guy won't hold back if he's going after her. It's Andrew's duty as her older brother to make sure she's prepared to face anything, or anyone, that may come her way.
Of course, he would never seriously hurt her, but it won't hurt Casey too bad if he grabs her by the arm and slings her into the mansion. So… that's exactly what he does.
And not only is he sure that it won't hurt her, but it won't do much damage to the mansion either because he's thrown her into the west wing, the part of the mansion that's been ruined the most by the fire. He doesn't even hear her break anything when she lands.
On second thought, he doesn't hear anything. She should've come out by now. Usually, after being tossed, Casey barely gives herself time to touch ground before she's up and charging back at him. So…Why isn't she charging back at him?
Without hesitation, Andrew runs into the mansion, into the west wing where his sister disappeared. He finds her almost immediately, but he doesn't breathe a sigh of relief. He can't. Something's wrong. Casey's just standing there, looking down at the ground. He could call out to her, get her attention, but instinct takes over and he knows he's got to be silent.
He creeps over to his sister silently Then he looks down and sees what his sister is staring at.
It's a kid.
It's hard to tell, but he's certain the kid is a girl. The clothing is all ripped up and dirty, but he's sure it used to be a dress. And the hair; though it's matted and soot ridden, it's pretty long, a girly length.
Abruptly the child opens her eyes, and upon seeing the two strangers staring down at her she takes off. And I mean she takes off. If Casey and Andrew weren't half Kryptonian, they wouldn't have seen her go.
They only allow themselves to be taken aback for a second before they give chase.
The girl doesn't get far. In fact, she doesn't even make it past Hobb's Pond before they catch up to her.
Casey gets to the girl first and grabs her by the arm, gently though. The child is fast, like Casey and Andrew, but that doesn't mean she's invulnerable. The girl can very well be human. She could've developed the ability to superspeed by being exposed to Kryptonite. Or maybe it could've been passed down to her from one of her parents, or even a grandparent.
To Casey's surprise, once she's caught, the girl doesn't struggle. Not even a little. Instead, she looks up at Casey with somewhat of a mixture of confusion and curiosity. She's obviously intrigued by the fact that she's found someone else who's got abilities beside herself.
Casey scowls back at the child. It's nothing against her personally. The kid's small; probably around Noley's age, which automatically makes her a nuisance in Casey's book. Because Noley's the biggest nuisance Casey's ever had the misfortune of knowing.
"If I let you go, will you run away again?" Casey asks the child.
The little girl looks her straight in the eyes and says, "Yes."
Casey's eyes widen briefly. She wasn't expecting that. She was expecting one of two scenarios. One, the kid would say no, then try to run again anyway, and then Casey and Andrew would have to chase the stupid squirt down again. Or two, the kid says no and really stays put. Then Casey would have a long conversation with the kid so that she could figure out how to get her back home.
As for the kid actually admitting that she would run away again, well, it's odd but at the same time Casey can respect the honesty. It lets her know not to let go of the kid's arm anytime soon anyway, and that's exactly what she's going to do until they get her home.
"What are we gonna do with her?" Andrew asks.
He's not completely clueless. He knows that when finding a child, you're supposed to turn him, or her, into the police; but that particular option went out the window as soon as the girl displayed her "special" ability. They can't leave her with just anyone. Not even the police. Who knows what could happen to her if the wrong people get their hands on her.
"Maybe we should find her parents," Casey responds doubtfully. Call it intuition but Casey has a feeling that this child has no parents; and what's more, she feels like she knows this girl. There's just something so familiar about her, and it's absolutely frustrating for her that she can't figure out what that something is.
Andrew nods his head. It's a good idea. Find the kid's parents and give her back. Easy enough. Andrew squats a little in front of the girl, looking straight into her dirt-streaked face. "Where's your mommy and daddy?" He asks, automatically slipping into his "baby voice."
"I don't have a mommy and daddy." The girl responds immediately. "Will you be my mommy and daddy?"
"Uh…um…well, um"-
"No, we can't be your mommy and daddy," Casey answers impatiently and with a roll of her eyes. Exactly how many times was he gonna say "um" before getting around to answering such a dumb question anyway?
The girl doesn't respond. She doesn't seem to care that Casey's denied her of something she wanted. Maybe she's used to not getting things she wants, Casey thinks to herself.
Then Casey gives herself a mental headshake before she can start feeling sorry for the girl. The kid'll be fine. All she has to do is bring her home and then her father, Superman, can find her parents for her.
Hopefully the little squirt doesn't start to freak out about complete stranger-dangers trying to take her away.
"Hey…um…." This is the part where Casey calls the kid by her name, because calling a child "you" or "kid" to their face is slightly demeaning, but…Casey doesn't know the kid's name. So she changes her question from, "What do you say you come with us to our house; just until we figure out a way to get you home," to a much simpler question; "What's your name?"
Andrew raises an eyebrow at her.
Casey mouths "what" and shrugs her shoulders as if she hadn't done anything weird; like her brother is the one acting a bit odd.
Truth is, she knows exactly why she got "the eyebrow." Normally, Casey is certainly not above belittling little children by calling them kid, squirt, monkey, or any other word that isn't actually their names. She just doesn't feellike doing it to this particular child. No, she isn't going soft, but this girl is not like a lot of kids Casey's met; and Casey has been around a bunch of those aggravating little suckers. This girl is way too…passive. The way she didn't struggle when Casey caught her; the way she's not even trying to tug her wrist from Casey's grasp right now; the way she just accepted the fact that Casey and Andrew weren't going to be her "Mommy and Daddy;" I mean, Noley would've gone through at least a dozen "why nots" and "how comes" before she shut up and accepted it; and even then, she still wouldn't have fully accepted it.
But because this kid is not giving Casey any kind of trouble, the girl can have a little respect from Casey. Not much; but enough to get called by her name rather than any of the not so friendly terms of endearments she's reserved for kids who haven't hit puberty yet.
"I don't have one." The girl answers so solemnly that there's no doubt in Casey's mind that the child is telling the truth as she knows it.
Casey sighs. Great. Just great. The kid has amnesia. This just keeps getting better and better.
"What do people call you then?" Andrew finally speaks up again, and thank God it's to say something other than "uh" and "um." "You have to be called something."
"Eighteen." The child answers.
"What?" Both Andrew and Casey ask at the same time. Surely they heard wrong; if not that, then the child heard the question wrong.
"What do people call you?" Casey asks again, just to be sure.
"Eighteen." The child repeats tolerantly, using the same tone of patience she'd been using before.
"People call you…eighteen…like the number," Andrew questions. It's unnecessary; he knows that. He's fully aware that he heard the child right; but, he's trying to make absolutely sure he actually heard "eighteen," and not Amy, or Andy, or Annie, or something other than eighteen.
"Yes, eighteen. Like the number." The child answers calmly, again in that same patient tone as before. There's absolutely no hint of sarcasm or patronization in her voice whatsoever.
"But…why?" he gapes at her.
Seriously? Casey rolls her eyes. She's not as stumped as her brother is. The reason why a mysterious child with abilities would be called a number rather than a name is very nearly common sense. She's obviously been some form of test subject, or something like that. It's almost as if Andrew's never seen a sci-fi movie in his life.
"Because I'm number eighteen," the girl simply says.
Before Andrew can get another useless word in, Casey cuts in. "Where are the others?"
If this kid is number eighteen, then it stands to reason that there are at least seventeen others.
"They're dead."
Andrew visibly shivers, but tries to hide it. Yes, death is bad and sad and there's no shame in shivering at the thought of it; but he didn't shiver because of the mention of death. It was the child's response. She was so casual about it. There was absolutely no hint whatsoever that she'd been affected by the others' deaths.
And maybe she hadn't, Andrew finds himself thinking on the bright side. Maybe those others died before she was even born. If she never knew them, that would explain why their deaths seem to mean so little to her.
"How…How'd they die?" Andrew asks.
The girl turns slightly and points at the ruined mansion. "The fire." She says simply; still there's no sign that she's been affected by the deaths of other people. Her eyes are dry; her voice clear and steady.
"Holy shit." Andrew and Casey whisper together.
There's something going on here, something dangerous. All of Smallville had been informed by the media that no one was hurt during the fire. But that's obviously a lie. There's been a cover-up. And only very powerful people can cover up the death of so many people.
Casey looks down at the child. The girl is silently looking up at her, waiting for whatever's going to happen next. It's that look that starts to make Casey feel a bit protective of the girl. The kid is all alone now, probably hasn't had a good sleep, or much to eat since the fire; a fire that this child somehow survived. Was she supposed to die in that fire with the others? Does anyone know she's missing? If so, is she still in danger?
"We need to take her home," Casey abruptly tells Andrew while hastily lifting the child into her arms and practically tossing her into her brother's.
Andrew automatically catches the child as a reflex, but under protest. The kid creeps him out a little. Okay, so she's just a little girl, but she's a weird little girl. Not weird like his sister Noley, who just has to have syrup and raisins on her hamburgers or she won't eat 'em. No, this is a different kind of weird. Take this very moment for example. After being tossed into Andrew's arm, the child just stays there. She doesn't wrap an arm around Andrew's neck the way most children's instincts get them to do, and she doesn't struggle to get down either. She just…sits there, like a rag doll. He's surprised he doesn't have to hold her head up in order to support her neck. Thank God she does that on her own.
"Why do I have to carry her?" he practically whines.
Casey pulls out her phone. "Because, I'm calling the parents. Dad first."
Andrew doesn't argue anymore after that. He doesn't want to be the one to call the parents. Sure, they very well may have saved a kid's life, but they would've never discovered a life that needs saving had they been doing what they were supposed to do; which was pulling weeds. And there's no way he'll convince them that disobedience could be a good thing at times.
Casey's call to their father is brief, so brief that she barely makes it home before she's hung up with him. He'd been too busy to talk; and judging by his breathing, she knows he was doing some heavy lifting. Maybe a cruise ship, or an airplane, or maybe something even heavier than that.
He told her to keep an eye on the child and he'll call her back in about ten minutes.
Once home, Andrew sets the child down. He does so slowly, wondering if she'll stand on her own or if she'll have to be manually prodded into a standing position.
She stands on her own, much to Andrew relief.
"Don't let go of her!" Casey yells, reminding him that the kid did say that if she was let go, she'd run.
Andrew snatches her hand up immediately.
Casey winces a little when he does so. She knows that Andrew didn't hurt her. They deal with humans all the time and know exactly how much pressure is too much; but this child, she's just so small, a wisp of a thing really, and when Andrew grabbed her hand her whole body swayed forward before she could right herself.
Maybe she's just weak from hunger. Who knows when was the last time she'd eaten anything?
"Are you hungry?" Casey asks the kid.
"Gonna make my breakfast, Sis?" Andrew grins.
Casey scowls at Andrew. "I wasn't talking to you!"
Andrew frowns back at Casey. He knows she wasn't talking to him. She should've known that too. Casey never makes breakfast, or lunch, or any other meal for anyone. It's obvious that she was talking to the child.
He tilts his head to the side a little, studying his sister's face.
That's when he realizes it. Casey Kent is actually concerned about this child!
Andrew breaks out into a full out grin, which Casey ignores.
"Do you want something to eat?" Casey tries again. Making sure she's staring at the kid.
"What do I have to do?" is the girl's immediate response.
Casey only has to think for a second. The kid seriously needs to take a bath before she eats. Casey hadn't noticed the smell before, probably because they'd been outside, but now that they're inside a confined space, the kid is single handedly funking up the whole living room.
"First, you need to take a bath. Then you can eat."
The kid doesn't respond.
"Do you understand what I've just said to you?"
The child nods her head. "Yes, I understand."
Casey squats slightly so that she's eye to eye with the child. Then, adopting the most stern and maternal voice she can find within herself, she says, "Good. I'm going to go make a phone call. Andrew's going to let go of your hand so that he can make you something to eat. You're gonna follow him into the kitchen, but you're not going to touch anything, and you're not going to run away. Then you're gonna take a bath. Then you're gonna eat. Do you understand all of that?"
The child nods her head once again. "Yes, I understand."
"Are you going to run away?" Casey asks, just to make sure they understand each other.
"No."
If the kid had been any other kid, Casey would've done more threatening; but since this kid seems to be abnormally honest, she ends their conversation with a simple, "Good girl," and a gentle pat to the kid's head.
Okay, even before Andrew started shaking his head at her as he led the kid into the kitchen, Casey was very aware that she just treated the kid like a dog. But in her defense, if the kid had a stupid name, she would've used it instead of referring to her as a "good girl."
Those thoughts leave her mind as soon as she dials her mother. No, there really isn't much her mom can do with the kid besides what Casey's doing right now, but still, she's a mother. She'll be able to help Casey out tremendously because Casey isn't so good with little kids; especially weird ones. And this kid is most definitely weird.
Her mom answers on the third ring, probably because she's still driving. Casey really should've thought about that before she called. It's not safe for humans to use the phone while driving.
"No, Casey you can't take a break. It's barely seven o'clock. You haven't even been working for an hour yet." That's how her mother answers her call. Any other day, Casey would've smiled, because any other day that's exactly why she would have been calling her mother.
But today isn't any other day. "Mom, I need you to come home, now."
Casey can hear her mother's tone of voice change drastically as well as immediately. It's not often that Casey admits to needing Chloe Kent. "Is it an emergency? Did you call your father? Of course you called your father. Honey, I'm halfway to metropolis but if you need me to turn around"-
"Never mind," Casey sighs. It's not that big of an emergency. If it's gonna take an hour for her mother to get home, she won't need her. Her father will be home way before then. He'll take care of the kid. "It's nothing important. I can handle it," Casey concludes.
"Are you sure, honey?"
"Yeah, Mom. I'm sure."
"But are you positively sure because I can still"-
"Yeah, Mom. I'm sure."
"But if you truly need me I have Noley. I can be there within a few minutes if I"-
"Mom! I'm fine. I'm sorry I bothered you." Casey says quickly. Jeez! Her mom was willing to piggy back off of Noley? That's more dangerous than crossing an intersection with head phones and a blindfold on!
"Okay, I love you!" Chloe interjects, almost as if she's afraid her daughter's going to hang up before she can get that bit in.
Casey rolls her eyes. "I love you too," she says loud enough so that it's not technically a whisper, but low enough that maybe no one heard her. Of course, she does love her mother, but her mother can be a bit excessive with the lovin'. As a normal American teenager, she's got a "tell your parents you love them no more than twice day" rule that she tries her best to follow. But her mother can use up fifty "I love yous" within the space of two hours.
"Casey!"
Casey jumps. She literally jumps because of the way Andrew's yelled her name. Andrew's not afraid of anything, or anyone; so what the hell could possibly be that alarming for him?
"Casey, I think she's ready for her bath now," Andrew practically squeaks once Casey's entered the kitchen.
She can see that. The kid has taken off all of her clothes and is standing, butt-naked, in the middle of the kitchen. Casey snorts at Andrew's display of immaturity before taking the kid by the hand and leading her up the stairs.
Andrew scowls as he finishes making the girl's sandwich. Maybe he over reacted, but he was just surprised is all. Noley stopped running around the house without clothes on when she was about five. She'd started to get a little shy.
This kid is probably about nine so she should know better, right?
Or maybe she doesn't know any better. Maybe she's not right in the head. He thinks back to how detached she was about the fire and the people who died in it and maybe she's in some form of shock or has some form of Post traumatic issues going on.
That's likely.
He goes upstairs ready to share his thoughts with his sister. He's got his hand up, about to knock on the bathroom door, when it's snatched open.
"I need you to watch her for a second. I'll be right back," Casey orders without preamble. "Do you think you can handle it or are you going to need a blindfold?"
"Where are you going?" Andrew answers seriously, ignoring her little jab at the end.
"The kid needs a name. I'm getting the baby naming book from Maddie." Casey tries to be as nonchalant as she can when she answers her brother. She doesn't want him to see just how much it bothers her that the child is nameless.
She has a feeling that she's not successful, but surprisingly, Andrew doesn't seem to notice. He's preoccupied with other thoughts, troubling thoughts. Casey can tell.
"What's up?"
Andrew scratches the back of his head, a sure sign that he's a bit uneasy. "I was just wondering, can you pick up Dr. Emil on the way? I need him to check her, make sure she okay."
"Okay?"
"Yeah, physically, mentally…" he trails….
It takes Casey less than a second to realize it's a good idea. She hadn't given much thought to anything like that.
"Yeah, Andrew. I'll pick up the doc," She says. Then she's gone, leaving Andrew all alone with the strange kid.