DISCLAIMER: Characters in this story remain the property of DC Comics, Inc. Movie copyrights and trademarks are owned by Alexander & Ilya Salkind, Warner Bros. Pictures, and TriStar Pictures. The story contained herein is meant only for personal enjoyment and no money is being made from the story. No infringement is intended. I offer this fan fiction as a tribute to the creative teams involved in the actual production of both the movie and comic. However, I reserve the right to any original characters I create for the purpose of fan fiction story telling.

At The Crossroad

Ethan was still asleep when Linda slipped out of the house to move to the Lane's. She felt it was the best way to get away from him. She knew that her resolve to follow Clark's advice would be melted the minute he looked at her with his doe like eyes. She was hurting more than if he had been the one to hurt her physically and emotionally.

Being torn between who she was, who she now was, and who she could be left her afraid. Afraid that she would make the wrong choices in her life on a planet that was not her own, in a life that she had yet to fully understand. Why did he have to go and propose to her? Their life was fantastic before he did that. Now, she was lost again and worse, she had lost the only person who was her beacon during her dark nights. Would she ever be able to correct this? What was the answer to everything that was boggling her mind?

Taking only the schoolbooks that she needed to complete the week-end homework, she flew to Lucy's place without even peeking into Ethan's room. They had made plans for her to land in the backyard before her parents woke up so that they would not see her in her alter ego identity.

"You flew in just in time. They will be up in an hour." Lucy whispered to her as Kara came to a soft landing beside her.

Taking her friend's schoolbooks, she pointed to the cabana and told her to change her clothes there before coming into the house.

Breakfast was a noisy affair at the Lane's. Linda and Lucy sat in the living area while her parents set about making breakfast.

"Remembering something?" Lucy nudged her when she noticed Linda staring at her parents who were setting the dining table not too far from the living area. She was remembering something. Ethan would be awake by now too. She should be at home helping him make breakfast. He could never get the toaster to work right. The bread slices always came out as charcoal bricks.

"Girls! Breakast!" Mrs. Lane hollered from the kitchen where the smell of freshly brewed coffee was permeating the air.

Turning off the tv, the two young women made their way to the dining room for a breakfast that made Linda remember Ethan even more. Coffee and scrambled eggs with toast. His favorite.

While the family got into an active discussion of how Lucy would celebrate her graduation with a disco party at the house, Mrs. Lane noticed that Linda was staring into her plate. Her mind was obviously not in the room with them.

"Linda dear, you haven't touched your food."

She continued to stare, not hearing anything.

"Linda..." Lucy elbowed her friend back to reality.

Lucy was already dreading the school week. If her best friend was going to be stuck in a catatonic state in every class, she would have to run interference at every turn. And with exams coming up...

"Oh, sorry. The eggs are delicious." Linda smiled at her hosts, taking a big forkful of eggs into her mouth.

The couple glanced at each other with a pitiful look meant for Linda. Lucy had already told them what had happened the night before. Allowing Linda to stay with them was their way of helping her. They knew she did not have any real parental figure. Clark did not know anything about raising a girl. Otherwise he would not have agreed to let her become room mates with her boyfriend. They still had their doubts about that set up but kept it to themselves. Now Linda needed parents and they hoped that by having her stay with them, they would be able to help her sort things out.

**********

Lucy invited her to take a swim before they buckled down to their schoolwork. Linda was apprehensive at first because she had never swam before and she did not have a suit.

"You can wear Lois' suit, you are almost the same size. Don't worry about swimming, it is just like flying only you move your legs up and down like scissors and you move your arms in a circular motion. It's a piece of cake for somebody like you."

She was right, Linda did super laps in pool without realizing it until she heard the water start to splash out of the pool.

"Sorry!" she told Lucy who was sitting on the ledge of the pool now and shaking water out of her ears.

**********

Mrs. Lane had ordered her to take an afternoon nap in order to recover from lack of sleep from the night before. She did not know that Linda never got tired. So when she peeked into the room of Lois that Linda had comandeered for the duration of her visits, Linda was just lying on the bed with her eyes wide open. She had a look of confusion and despair on her face, she had never seen such a lovelorn face on a young woman before.

"Linda, are you awake?" she pretended to ask.

"Oh, come in Mrs. Lane." Linda replied as she pulled herself upright on the bed.

"I was wondering if there is anything you need?"

"Well, if you don't mind, I need advice." Linda told her.

"About Ethan?"

"Him and what I should do with my life." Linda added.

Mrs. Lane took her place by the window seat, signifying that she was there to listen if Linda wanted to talk.

"I am just so confused! Clark thinks I should go to college and Ethan wants us to get married, and I have no idea what I want out of this life that I now have. There is so much pressure, I have a family tradition to continue and I don't know how Ethan can figure into Clark is right, maybe I should just break up with Ethan and go off to college." she sounded very desperate.

"I can see why Clark would advise you to get away from Ethan and go off to college. But the only thing that matters right now is you, what you want and how you want to do it." Mrs. Lane answered.

"That is just it. Why do I have to choose? Why can't I be everything all at once?"

"You can be if that is what you want to do. It will be hard but if you put your mind to it, I don't see why you should fail." Mrs. Lane encouraged her.

"I can go off to college, become a journalist like Clark, carry on a family tradition and still be happy in love?" Linda asked in disbelief.

"Of course. You don't have to go out of state for college, you are 18 now. If you want to get married, nobody can stop you. You can study right here in Midvale if you don't want Ethan to leave his job. You can be in love, married, with a family, and have an education. You can have it all if that is what you choose to have."

"But how do I do it?"

"That is something only you can answer." Mrs. Lane advised while she got up from the seat and began to straighten out the study table that held Linda's unfinished homework.

"Mrs Lane, how did you know that it was time for you to get married? How did you know Mr. Lane was the one for you?" she asked hoping that it would answer all the doubts she had in her mind.

She turned to face Linda then with a motherly look on her face. She felt sorry for Linda. She was an orphan who needed her parents most at this time. Not that Clark was not trying to do his part. But there were just some things in life that a young woman needs her mother's advice on. Things like love and marriage.

She sat on the bed beside her. "Mr. Lane was going to join the army at the time. Lois and Lucy spent most of their lives as army brats you know. Well, the week before he was to go off to the Vietnam war, he proposed to me. I thought it was very sweet of I was also disturbed by the proposal. We had only been dating 3 months before that and I was still a college junior. "

"So how did you know it was the right decision?" she queried hopefully.

"When he went back to the camp and I was alone in my room. I imagined my life without him and realized I did not see my future as clearly if he were not in it. When you can't see yourself living apart from Ethan, then you know you are ready." she gave Linda a motherly hug before she left the room.

"Mrs. Lane! Did you finish college?" Linda called after her as she opened the door to leave.

"With honors my dear." Mrs. Lane winked at her before walking out the door.

**********

"Can I see the rock?" Lucy asked when they got back to their dorm the next day. She refrained from asking to see the ring before they got into their room so as not to have the girls all giggling and crowding around Linda and demanding details of the proposal. Her parents had not realized that Linda was wearing an engagement ring because it did not look like one and she had told them that it was a gift from Clark.

Linda dropped onto the bed slugishly before holding her hand up for Lucy to ogle. "What rock is this? It isn't a diamond."

"I don't know Lucy, I did not have the time to ask him." she replied pulling her hand back.

"Wait!" Lucy caught her hand before she could fully pull away. "Did you know he had your S emblem carved into it?"

"What? No. I have tried not to look at the ring." Linda thought that the gesture proved even more that Ethan loved her no matter who she chose to be and accepted who she really was.

"You can see it clearly if you hold the ring at an angle. Otherwise, it looks just blended in to the gemstone. Can I try it on?" Lucy asked.

"Sure." Linda offered her hand back so Lucy could take the ring off. They wondered if the ring was the wrong size because Lucy could not pull it off.

Not even Linda, with all her super strength could take it off. She grabbed the ring by the setting and tried to pull it off. "Ouch!" she suddenly let go of her hand. She felt like she had been stung by a Kryptonian warrior ant. He finger carried a rash that burned deeply into her.

"What happened?" Lucy was concerned. The only other time Linda ever registered pain was when she was shot with Kryptonite.

"I don't know my own strength." Linda kidded. The sense of forboding seemed to be stronger now.

**********

Ethan was torn between visiting Linda at the dorm and giving her the space she was asking for. He was on the school grounds doing his work and he saw Linda running between classes. Usually, she would come over to him first and talk before she ran to her class. Checking to make sure he did not forget to eat, insist that he change his sweaty shirt, or anything that let him know how much she cared for him. She was his family. He never knew caring that way until she came into his life. But now she was obviously trying not to glance his way. She knew he would be standing there like he always did.

Is this what she had reduced him to? Looking at her from afar and her acting like she was being stalked by him? If he had only known that their perfect life would have changed this way, he would never even have tried to propose. He realized now that it wasn't the marriage that mattered to him. It was not physical intimacy, it was her, Kara, she was all that mattered in his was her love that kept him going. If he could only take the proposal back...

As he heard the lunch bell sound, he knew that she would have the afternoon off since it was a Wednesday. Usually, she flew to the house just to get some quiet time to herself. He would often drop in on her and keep her company until it was time for head check at the dorm, then she would fly back.

He wasn't going to last a few weeks this way. He needed her in his life. He needed to win her back. He had to tell her to forget the proposal. He would tell her it was a stupid move on his part and ask her to forgive him and take him back. He got into his truck and returned a few hours later with an armful of pink roses for her. Julie buzzed her room for him. It was Lucy who came down to talk to him.

"Ethan, you know she asked for time away from you." Lucy reminded him while they talked at the front desk.

"I know, I know. I just need to tell her something. If I could just have a moment with her?" he tried to coax Lucy.

"No way Ethan. Let her have her time. It will be best for both of you. Don't worry, I will look out for her." Lucy assured him.

He took a deep breath and looked at the flowers. "Will you make sure she gets these?"

"You got it." Lucy took the flowers from him and headed back to the room.

**********

"Ethan brought these for you. I told him you were not ready to see him yet." Lucy placed the flowers on the dresser table where Linda was getting herself ready to go to the cafeteria for dinner.

Linda did not see the flowers that Ethan had handed to Lucy. What sat on the table were a bunch of black roses. Death roses. Why would Ethan give her death roses? How dare he! She picked up what she saw to be wilted flowers and threw it into the trash.

"What did you do that for!" Lucy shouted at her. She bent to pick up the flowers. "You are wasting perfectly good flowers!"

"Flowers of death? Black flowers? What does he think he is trying to say?" Linda was visibly angry at Ethan.

Lucy looked at the flowers again and wondered what was going on with Linda. "If you don't want it then fine. I will put these in some water."

"Throw it away!" Linda demanded. She stormed out of the room and did not talk to Lucy for the rest of the night.

**********

"I don't know what came over her last night." Lucy was explaining to Ethan about Linda's reaction to his flowers. She went on to explain that Linda had been acting like a brat all day and her patience was really wearing thin. They were seated in the receiving area of the dorm without knowing that Linda was watching them through the floor from their 2nd floor room using her x-ray vision.

"I don't understand her. What did I do to make her so angry at me? I guess she really is serious about cooling off our relationship." Ethan said sadly as he stood up. It was obvious he would not be seeing Linda tonight either.

"Ethan, Linda doesn't know the first thing about the intricacies of human only knows and understands what you show her and what I explain to her. Don't judge her too harshly." Linda warned him, hurt that he would doubt the love her best friend carried for him.

"Make sure she at least reads this?" he handed Lucy the envelope.

"You bet." she replied as they exchanged good bye hugs.

"How could they do this to me? How long have they been cheating on me?" Linda's mind was showing her a picture different from what was actually happening. Her thoughts were filled with anger and jealousy at the thought of her boyfriend's and best friend's betrayal. How could Ethan hold Lucy that way and kiss her with the lips that Linda felt belonged only to her.

She pretended to busy herself with homework when Lucy returned to the room.

"Mail call Linda." she dropped the envelop on top of the book she was reading.

She opened the envelope. "Dear Lucy, I love you --- Ethan."

"Oh Lucy! How could you do this to me?" Linda dropped the card and jumped out the open window, flying off without a destination.

"What did I do?" Lucy ran to the window shouting. She picked up the card and read it.

"My Karalinda, I miss you. My heart is waiting to come home -- Love, Ethan."

Lucy was now definite that something was wrong with her best friend. It was time for her to talk to Clark. She left the room and went to the payphone outside the dorm building. They were not allowed to have private lines in the dorm rooms.

"Hello, Clark? Lucy here. We have a problem. It's Linda. I do not think she is coping with the break up as well as we expected her to. Can you come over?"