And the race is on….

"What if someone wants to take him away?" Martha Kent and Laura Queen spoke at the same time just states away.

--

"Martha," Jonathan tried to soothe her.

"Unless that is the answer to this problem don't you dare handle me, Mr. Kent." She got up when she heard Clark cry. Clark Jerome was the name she assigned to the baby. She wouldn't give it to him until he was officially hers.

Her husband just watched her leave. He sighed a heavy sigh and went to get a drink of water. He passed a Kent family album on his way to the kitchen. He picked it up off the side table it was sitting on and flipped through it. Someday Clark's photos would be in the album. 'Darn, Martha's got me doing it, oh who am I kidding we're so keeping him.' He thought. He flipped through the pictures and got inspired. He put down the book and went and picked up the phone. He dialed his attorney friend that lived in the next county. He gave him the sad story of the baby left by an unwed and young cousin. The attorney got right onto the paperwork. Clark would be theirs and his destiny was now in the loving hands of the Kent's….

--

"Laura, be reasonable." Robert pleaded.

"I am being reasonable! You hired the detective and nothing. No missing persons, nothing. How can you not want to keep that precious boy?"

"I never said I didn't, there will just be a lot of questions."

"What your reputation not able to take it Queen?" she volleyed.

"Hey! We're on the same side, remember?"

"Huh, sometimes I wonder," She spoke as she sat in the rocker and watched the little blonde boy sound asleep in the bed they had put up for him. They had opted to not use the old nursery, it was just too strange. They made their bigger guest room across the hall from the Master bedroom his.

Robert shook his head and knelt in front of his wife. "Honey," He smiled. He then kissed her cheek. "You know I hate it when we disagree."

"Then don't disagree with me. He's so scared, he has nightmare's every night. He can't talk yet and he's so attached to us." she pleased kissing her husband on the cheek as he pulled up a stool next to her and sat and watched the boy sleep as well.

"I'm attached to him too," he spoke winking at his wife.

"Well then?"

"We can't keep calling him the boy," he spoke.

"Oliver. Oliver Jonas Queen." She spoke.

"Nice, very nice," he smiled holding her hand. "I will have Henry get to work on the papers." He spoke. "I will fly out tomorrow to work on the cover story."

"Thanks honey." She smiled victorious.

"By the way I got another notice from THEM regarding Ver…."

"Shhhh, not here and not now. I don't want to talk about that anymore." she spoke harshly.

"Alright, I have to go and make some arrangements. I'll be to bed in a bit."

"I'm gonna just sit here for a little longer," she smiled. He nodded and left the room.

"Uncle Jor El!" Tao shouted running from the lab to get the residence. "Help!" he was being chased by a shadow. He rounded the corner into the graphics room. It was a dead end, the shadow was coming, he looked up at the screen crying when he heard Jor El's voice and saw the man staring down at him, "You will survive Tao,." The shadow reached for him and the screen exploded…. Tao just screamed…..

"," he screamed and leaped off the bed and sat in the corner his eyes wide with fear, chest rapidly expanding and contracting as if he had just run for his life. He curled his arms around himself and cried. Laura watched with utter heart break seeing the fear on his face. She moved slowly toward him and Robert came running in the room. Laura was in front of the boy and Robert was soon by her side.

"Easy sweet boy, you're safe." She cooed, softly

"A," the boy spoke, "Is for Apple." He added through his tears. "B is for Ball," Lara just looked at him confused as he recited the entire alphabet.

"What's your name sweetie?" She asked as Robert sat stunned.

He only stared at her uncertain of what she said to him. He finally caught his breath and moved to the strangers in front of him. He grabbed a hand from each of them and brought it to his pendant.

The room went white.

"What the?" Robert asked.

"Greetings." A tall man in a white robe spoke staring at the couple.

"What the hell is this? Who are you?"

"My name is irrelevant at this moment. I have very little time and this message is urgent. If you are seeing this than you have found the other son. He is a special child, who has lost greatly. His parents were killed and his planet was destroyed when it went super nova."

"What?" Robert spoke confused.

"LISTEN!" his voice was harsh and silenced Robert. "This boy will love greatly and do great things with his life, it is his destiny. He cannot speak earth language he will need to learn. He is very bright and will assimilate quickly."

"Is that why he's here, because of the Planet?" Robert finally asked calmly.

"Yes, and in time he will be able to tell you more. He is the last of his kind." The man spoke and the image went shimmered then disappeared.

The couple was still on the floor, holding the pendant, staring at the boy who was staring at them.

"A is for Apple." He spoke. Laura reached and pulled him into a hug.

"You baby boy have a safe home. Nothing will ever happen to you again." Robert was rubbing his back. He felt like an ass for his earlier guff to his wife. He also knew that they would stay as far away from Veritas as they could. Their soon to be son would be in far too much danger. He kissed the small child's head and scooped him up and held him as he sat in the rocker.

"Ollie." the man spoke as the child began to snuggle into the senior Queen's protective embrace, "I get you just don't understand now but you will. Let me tell you a story, our stories usually start out with 'Once upon a time,'" The man's voice was soft and low. Laura just sighed and sat on the stool next to the rocker to also rub the boy's back. 20 min. later the child was fast asleep and his new parents to be tucked him in and left to go across the hall to their room.

"Ohh Robert," she spoke holding her husband; her heart breaking for the child that not only lost his parents but an entire planet.

"I know baby, I know," he spoke kissing the side of her head. They slept with the door open so they could go and help him if he had more nightmares. From that evening on he never had another nightmare.

--

Ollie ran out into the yard, a huge goofy grin plastered to his face. His dad was setting up the targets outside again. Since the night his adopted parents learned of his heritage from his pendant he was very quickly immersed in the human culture. His parents gave him books to read and once he got the syntax and rules, he was a ravenous reader. He loved to be outside; at first the yellow sun seemed very odd and scary. The first time his parents took him into the swimming pool he was hooked. When he was outside it was as if the sun kissed the very core of him. He felt warmer than he could ever remember.

Today his parents were celebrating. They told him it was his birthday, a commemoration of the day of his birth, or in this case the day of his discovery. They had spoiled him all day, and now he was getting to shoot arrows with the bow he was given by his dad, who he called papa. He was very adept at weaponry. His father and he would spend hours in the yard practicing. They were also going on the family boat for a trip. It was the beginning of his happiest moments. His parents even had the family picture take in front of the boat, all happy and nothing could ever destroy that.

--

"I don't care what you say. There were two large meteors that hit; one in California that was never found and one in Kansas!" Lionel yelled. He was meeting with the head of the Veritas Group. "The traveler is here, and there may be more than one, find them."

"Watch your tone with me Lionel. I'm not one of your cronies that you can beller to and get your way. Be very careful how you talk to me. I am not above embarrassing in front of Alex."

"I'm sorry Kane, you're right…"Lionel back pedaled. Kane was the leader of a huge corporation and it was rumored he had mob connections.

"Much better, now I will go and see what I can find out," the man spoke and turned and left.

Lionel watched the man leave and hit a button on his office phone. A large man in a dark suit came in. "Jasyn, I don't like being threatened. Make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Got it boss." The large guard spoke and turned and left as well. Kane became the first of many involved with Veritas to disappear…

--------

The night before Ollie was to start Kindergarten he was sitting at his little table in his room coloring. He colored a sky with a red sun. Laura came in to get him ready for bed.

"What is this?" she asked looking at his art work.

Oliver got quiet and seemed to be thinking of his answer. "You're not afraid of me right?"

"Honey, no!"

"You 'member that I'm not from here?"

"Ollie is that your planet?" she asked trying to get him to not be afraid to talk of his heritage. The boy nodded. "The sun was red?" she asked. He nodded again.

"You want to tell me more?" she whispered. He set down his crayon and went and sat on her lap he wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed her neck. "Oh baby." She spoke rubbing his back. "I want you to look at me and hear what I say." She spoke. He did, "It doesn't matter to me where you came from or how you got here. You are here and are our son. I could never love you any less for any reason." He lunged to squeeze her again.

He pulled back and spun in her lap to face the table he reached out a hand and the crayon he was coloring with was now in his hand. "You sure?" he asked studying her face. She smiled and kissed his cheek and then blew a raspberry on it. He erupted into giggles.

"Pretty sure. How long have you been doing that?" she asked as she stood and set him down and reached for his jammies and handed them to him. He pulled off his t shirt and pulled on his jammie top. He had his mom turn around to put his pants on.

"Since last week," He spoke as he crawled into bed. She sat at the edge of his bed.

"Is that why you didn't want to see papa off to the airport?" The boy blushed. "Oh Oliver you know he loves you and doesn't care," she spoke. "But we must be careful ok? Tomorrow you will be gone for a half day with other kids and adults. Let this be our secret with papa?"

"Why?"

"Baby this is a difficult concept to explain to you, but trust me when I say that people have a tendency to fear what they don't understand. No one can do what you do and that makes you very special."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, and special secrets should be protected." She smiled warmly and then kissed his forehead. "Now get some sleep, papa will be back in the morning so we can take you to school." He gave her a wet sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"Night, momma."

"Good night baby boy."

"Love you."

"Love you with sprinkles on top." He spoke as he yawned and closed his eyes.

"Sprinkles and a cherry my love, night, night Ollie" she spoke and left his room with the door open, it was tradition.

--

Oliver thrived in Kindergarten. He learned a lot. It wasn't the language because he picked that up really easy. He learned kid stuff and that made him happy. He learned how to share, to be a gentleman, and even got gold stars for being a good boy. He made friends and laughed a lot. He loved the fact that he had a suit like his daddy's with a tie and everything. He especially loved recess. He loved to play and being in the sun left him feeling so warm. There was a boy he felt sorry for cause he was always by himself. One day Oliver asked him why and he said it was because the other kids didn't have as much money as his daddy. That was when Ollie learned the word snob and he didn't like that at all. It didn't matter that he was different to his parents. Why should it bother him how much money the other kids had. Ollie had tendency to stay away from Alex. He just wasn't very nice.

Ollie had become sort of a protector as well. There was a boy name Adam who his parents said was special. Ollie thought it was because he could do stuff like he could but his momma told him that that wasn't the case. Adam was born with Downs Syndrome and would need a lot of special help to get through school. Ollie thought that since he was special and his momma and papa took care of him that he should take care of Adam. Anyone who treated him badly or made fun of him had to answer Ollie. Adam was Ollie's very first best friend and the two were inseparable until the middle of the first grade when Adams' dad got a new job and they had to move away. That's when Oliver realized that goodbye wasn't forever and that people can leave your life and not be dead.

In the first grade Oliver was already the tallest in his class. He was friends with all the kids. Adam of course moved away, but there was always Jason. Jason was a quiet kid who had a fondness for frogs. He wore thick coke bottle glasses and had an inhaler in his pocket. All the other boys liked to pick on Jason to see if they could kick up his asthma. Oliver just thought that was mean. Jason came over to the Queen Manor all the time.

The two boys were in the back at the sand box, playing Monster Trucks.

"Ollie, my mommy says that you're 'dopted"

"Yeah,"

"That means you got no parents?"

"No silly I got parents, you met momma and papa." He spoke.

"Ohhhhhh," Jason's spoke leaving the thought like first graders do.

--

By the second grade Jason and Oliver were totally inseparable. Ollie was more like his big brother than his best friend. He would constantly get picked on and teased and Ollie was always there to protect him. Everyone knew that if you were in trouble that Ollie would be the first to come and save you.

Oliver did indeed live a charmed life. His parents spent time with him even with their busy schedules. When things got really busy Alice entered the picture. She was the nanny that came to take care of him when his parents had grown up things to do. Alice was in her mid 60's and always smelled like cookies. She and Ollie were like two peas in a pod. He was starting to love her as much as his momma and papa.

Ollie had also become the apple of his parent's social circle. He was invited to parties with other kids and Alice and his momma were with him. Papa had gotten busier with big grown up stuff. He sat him down one night and explained his job, the money, and the responsibility.

"Someday, this will all be yours!"

"No! You'll have it forever!" he protested and ran into his room and flopped onto his bed. Robert took his time to get to his son and sat on the edge of his bed and rubbed his back.

"No one lives forever," his papa spoke softly. "I know you have lost a lot in your short life, and if I could take that hurt from you I would. I hope the Good Lord grants me all of my years to be with you." He spoke.

"Oh, papa," Ollie sobbed.

"No matter what happens, your momma and I will always be with you." He spoke and the boy turned and hugged his papa tight.

"Then you should know it all," Oliver spoke. Laura came into the room drying hands with a towel.

"Everything ok? I thought I heard some yelling?" she asked.

"Please close the door momma." Ollie spoke. Laura looked at him strangely and did as he asked. Oliver moved away from his papa and put his had on his pendant and his ship appeared. A Hologram played, it was again Jor El. He explained everything, why the planet died, that there were 2 survivors, about Tao Ra, everything. When it was done Ollie turned and stood to face his parents. "Please don't hate me," he whispered.

Tears were sliding down the adult faces. "Why on earth would we do that?"

"They didn't know what a yellow sun would do," he spoke looking down at his shoes. "I had a nightmare last night that I lived longer than you. I can't lose my parents again. I thought if I never told you it couldn't hurt you." He struggled with his point. "Papa, you say you won't live forever, what if I do?" he sniffled. "I didn't want you to think I didn't trust you. I do, with my very life." he spoke. Laura had her mouth covered with her hand.

"Ollie," his father struggled. "I am so very proud of you. I love you son, no matter what…"

Robert left his son's room that night feeling ill. He not only had betrayed his wife and her wishes about Veritas. He now had betrayed his very son the boy that brought the life back into their large home. He had to be very careful now, so the family was safe and the "group" was satisfied.