Author's Note: I think I posted this before on and then I became chicken and then deleted it. Anyway, here it is again. I found it as I was flicking through my comp. Um, yeah. Here you go …
CHAPTER ONE
Her father was going to kill her. Not that she could blame him but she was going to be dead whenever she got back. If she got back. She was still in the same position as she had arrived. She remembered a blinding flash of light and then darkness. And then the seemingly never ending darkness that now surrounded her. It was cold and she had no idea where she was. She was uncomfortable, covered in dirt and … naked? Well, that was one complication that she would report back to her father. She sighed and covered herself as best she could with her arms. She had to think. She had to make a plan. She stared at the wall. She had landed in the caves. Whilst staring at the paintings she decided that through some good fortune perhaps he would realise that she was missing. After all, she would be late for their date tonight. Scratch that… she would be absent. And once he realised that he hadn't been graced by her presence he would know that something was up. She shook her head and brought her hand to rub her temples and then corrected her thoughts. "No, Dumbo would think that I stood him up and then he would sulk. And then notice I was missing... wasting precious finding me time." She shook her head once more. She stared at the cave wall. Hoping it would miraculously open and take her home. She looked down her naked form, her eyes moving from her arms to her hands to her fingers. She swore. Another consequence of her little mishap… anything that was on her had simply disappeared. Not only would her father kill her but also that poor unfortunate creature that happened to fall in love with her.
She heard a sound. Footsteps on the dirt floor of the cave. And then the shining light of a torch. Her eyes widened as the beam of light was nearing her. She had to say something, otherwise her naked form would become the star of someone's perverted floor show.
"Hey, watch where you shine that thing!" she shouted to the approaching figure.
Although, it seemed that her saying not to do something compelled the figure to do it. As soon as the light found her it quickly retracted. The figure's voice mumbling apologises. She heard him remove his shirt and in the darkness saw the faint outline of an arm handing the shirt for her to wear. She quickly put it on. Satisfied that it was covering all the necessary areas she said, "Okay, Wiseguy, you can flip the light on now."
As soon as the figure did she saw that she was dressed in light blue flannel. Casting a small confused smirk she looked up at the figure, now able to seen in the new light. She let out a small gasp as her eyes met his confused and embarrassed ones.
"Oh my… you're Clark Kent."
He looked back at the near naked stranger, very much puzzled. "How do you know my name?"
She shook her head. "That's not important right now."
She took a few more tentative steps toward him and leaned in and looked up to look at him. "You must be like 16 or 17 years old."
"I'm eighteen," he corrected, still very puzzled at this new arrival.
She drew her arms around herself, did some calculations in her head and looked back up at him. She sure had a story to tell when she got home. "Lucky for me, you like to do the whole layers thing with your wardrobe. Thanks for the shirt."
"You're welcome. What are you doing here anyway… this late and this …" he trailed off, clearly not comfortable with broaching this subject with a stranger.
"Naked?" she finished for him. "I kinda did something that I wasn't supposed to and got a bit lost."
She felt like telling him the truth would not be the wisest thing to do. It could alter a lot of things. And she was sure, almost sure, that things would work themselves out. He would save her. He always did.
He furrowed his brow. He didn't know why he was at the caves at all. He just woke up and felt compelled to go there. When he saw her… naked no less… he was surprised. Something fishy was going on. After all this was Smallville. And people appearing out of thin air was certainly something to be wary of. He saw the girl approach the paintings of the wall, as if she was studying them.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
She turned to him, slightly annoyed that he disturbed her study of the paintings. "Watching grass grow, what does it look like?"
Her hands drifted over the figures in the paintings. She remembered how she studied these with her father and then Dumbo himself. She was stuck and she knew it. And the paintings on the cave wall weren't going to help her out.
"Do you live near here?" Clark asked, filling in the silence that had filled the cave. He felt compelled to help her. And he certainly couldn't just leave her here.
She made a tisking noise with her tongue and made a face at the wall. How was she supposed to explain this?
She hesitated. "I'm not exactly from around here."
Clark raised his eyebrows and she clarified. "I don't mean in the outer space sci-fi kind of way."
She could have kicked herself. 'Subtle… real subtle.'
Off Clark's highly confused look she continued, "Look, it's just a bit hard to explain."
"Well, do you need a ride anywhere?"
She arched her eyebrow at him. 'He drove here? Really? I'm willing to bet there is no car outside these caves.'
But then where was she going to go? She had no way of getting home and she knew no one. And if she was where she thought she was, there would be a little bit of trouble if she was to be seen. Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma.
"Look, I'll just start up the car and I'll meet you out there. And then we'll figure out what to do from there," he suggested.
She stifled a giggle and nodded. He was going to run home and get the car.
When he left she kicked the ground. What the hell was she going to do?
As he ran across roads and fields and farms with the truck over his head, hoping at this hour that no one was awake to see him, he couldn't help but wonder about the strange girl. As soon as he was close to the caves he got in the car and drove it towards the cave's entrance. As if on cue she appeared in his gigantically oversized flannel shirt and wandered into the passenger's seat of the truck. He could sense her unease. Something was not right here.
"So, where to?" he said as he began to drive onto the main road.
"I think I may need clothes," she put bluntly.
Clark squirmed a little in his seat. "Well, I know someone who owes me some favours."
She kept her eyes focused straight ahead. She needed to formulate a plan. She was nowhere near home, no money, no food, nothing that could identify her, and she still didn't know if anyone back home had realised that she was missing. There was trouble afoot. That and she was sitting next to THE Clark Kent. Sure, she had met him before but he wouldn't know that. She sighed. She vowed silently to herself to not touch when they tell to not touch. Somehow, in the back of her head, she knew that it was a futile attempt.
"So, where are we going?"
"A friend's place."
A friend? She flicked her mind back and tried to recall Clark's friends from Smallville. She remembered a Chloe, Pete, and she added (very reluctantly) Lex Luthor to the list.
"Friend? Anyone I've met."
He grinned. As if remembering something funny or at the very least happy. "Unless you've been run over by a car, then I don't think you have."
'Oh no. We're going to see Lois Lane.'
The look on Lois's face when we arrived at her door in the wee hours of the morning was priceless. Her hair in a very loose ponytail, that threatened to undo itself, her slim body in oversized pattern filled pyjamas and stifled a very large yawn.
"What the hell… Smallville?"
Her eyes fell onto the girl in Clark's shirt. "And who's your gal pal?"
Clark rolled his eyes and motioned for the girl to get inside as Lois just stood there utterly confused.
"She's not my gal pal. I found her in the caves. I think she needs help and she won't tell me who she is."
"So, this is what you do on your Friday nights?" she said as she stifled another yawn, leaving the door open for Clark to come in. "You wander the streets and rescue damsels in distress."
The girl quietly bit her lip at the reference of her being a damsel in distress. She was not in distress. Just lost.
Clark shut the door and resisted any attempt to argue. He needed her help and she was already peeved from being woken up so late in the night… or early in the morning.
"So," Lois continued. She had led to them to her circular table and began pouring coffee for everyone. "Who are you?"
'Blunt and straight to the point,' the girl thought. 'Just like I remember.'
"That's not important…" she trailed off. What could she say? Even her being there would get her into trouble. Big trouble. She needed to have a mind wipe trick ready. If only she could…
"That's what you said to me in the caves, that it's not important," Clark said as he sipped the coffee. Even though Lois was not a genius in the kitchen, coffee was the one thing she could make to perfection with her eyes closed.
"Actually, I said how I knew your name, wasn't important," the girl corrected.
"Well, at the moment none of this is important," Lois said, ignoring the look Clark gave her. "What is important is getting you some clothes."
With that she grabbed the girl's hand and led her to her room leaving Clark confused about Lois's course of action.
Lois sat the girl on her bed and started to pull clothes out of her wardrobe.
"Hmm… okay. The last time I lent clothes to somebody… namely my sister, I never got them back. Hopefully, I won't have that problem with you. Although, you'll probably need my mailing address since you'll probably be long gone before you return these to me. Unless you're going to go on a shopping spree while you're here but I don't see any credit cards on you… or anything else on you for that matter."
Lois had pulled out several pants and shirts. "Okay take your pick and leave the rest on the floor… I'll… I was going to say I'll fix it later but why lie for?"
She flashed the girl a huge grin and left the room.
"So, she always talked this much? That's good to know," the girl whispered to herself, searching through the piles of clothes … hoping to find a clean pair of underwear.
"So you found her in the caves?" Lois said as she sipped her coffee.
He nodded.
"Lots of strange things happen in those caves. Makes you think, doesn't it?"
"No stranger, than usual. This is Smallville after all," he said, deflecting the conversation. "What are we going to do about our little visitor?"
"She's hardly little… she's just a bit younger than us, Smallville. Though it still begs the question: Who is she?"
The pair jumped as they heard the sound of a window slamming shut. Clark could hear light footsteps climbing down the fire escape. Lois ran into the bedroom whilst Clark slipped out the door and sped outside, cutting the girl off as she reached the street from the alleyway. Clark caught her by the arms and the girl wasn't the least bit surprised.
"Stupid window… who knew it didn't stay up?" At his look she added, "Well, it was worth a try. I'm not a prisoner or anything."
"And where did you think you were going?" he asked, loosening the grip on her arms slightly. "And why didn't you just use the door like the rest of us."
"Well, I was going to figure out a way to go home. And I didn't want to intrude on your cosy little conversation." She paused and commented, more to herself than to him. "My, my, what a hero complex you have."
They both heard Lois approach and Clark relinquished his grasp on the girl, now fully dressed in a pair of Lois's jeans (which she had to roll up at the bottom because Lois was taller than her) and one of Lois's long sleeved tops in black.
"One would think you were guilty, running away like that. But as far as I'm concerned you haven't done anything wrong." Lois stepped forward slightly, menacing and curious. "Or have you?"
The girl stared up at Lois. With a sense of familiarity and respect. The girl smiled. This was the Lois Lane she remembered.