Chapter 12

It was early Saturday morning the x-jet took off for Smallville. Being less than 2 weeks before Christmas it was still pitch black as the sleek black jet serenely flew westward. On board were the Professor, Beast, Clark(in his Superman uniform for the moment), his parents along with Shadowcat(you try and stop her from having a chance to see the Fortress of Solitude), Iceman(who was using this as an excuse to visit Chloe. What can he say he likes her), Spyke(his aunt 'volunteered' him for the 2nd time in just over a week, feeling he needs a lesson about hard work and responsibility) and Sam(who was along because it was his turn).

It was Sam's turn to be part of the small group going out to assist with Smallville's rebuilding. That was the other reason they were all here. From the stories of the others who had gone it seemed like they, as in the X-Men, were starting to build real bridges and connections with Smallville's mutant community which Sam figured was part of the reason they were doing this. He isn't leader of the New Mutants just because he has a pretty face ya know.

Clark sits with his arms folded across his chest, his expression stern. He isn't looking forward to this. Then again he isn't exactly in the cheeriest of moods. It has only been a few days since he and Rogue broke-up and he can tell you that his heart is still smarting like crazy. Seeing your ex is always awkward. Clark thinks that is probably true for most people. Well he has to live under the same roof as his. Just try and imagine that level of awkwardness with the cool glances and difficult silences whenever they're in the same room.

That being the case he guesses he should be welcoming a chance to avoid having to see her by coming on this trip...but he's not because, despite the small improvement in their relationship, to Clark, Jor-El is still a pompous ass and pain in the butt.


Soon enough, or too soon depending on your point of view, the x-jet sets down near the Kawatche caves and the group aboard disembark. Clark carries the Professor in his wheelchair since he is the strongest and well it is only polite and proper. These are guests about to visit his sort of home.

They reach the alcove with the plinth. Clark instructs them to gather close around it before he drops the key into the thin slot. They are all engulfed in a blinding flash of light.

The first thing the group notices is the temperature. It was cold. Freezing cold. That would be why Clark instructed them to wear something warm.

When their eyes adjust the second thing that happens is all of them adopt the same expression of wonder as they stand amongst the forest of ice columns that compose the Fortress.

"Oh my stars and garters," Hank exclaims in a voice of total awe.

"Welcome to the Fortress of Solitude," Clark says.

Martha and Jonathan are in as awe at what they see. It is also a very physical reminder of just how...alien their son is.

"Wow," Kitty squeaks. It was more awesome than she imagined. She doesn't even know where to start.

"Is there a reason it's so cold?" Evan complains. He isn't quite as enthralled as some people by the spectacle around them.

"We're in the Arctic Evan and it's December," Clark explains. "We might as well get on with this," he decides. He looks up. "Jor-El!" he calls out.

"My son," Jor-El's voice booms out. "You have returned."

"I brought guests," he says in a tone that shows how absurd that sounds.

"Indeed," Jor-El says in a flat tone that doesn't show any inflection as to how the disembodied voice feels on that.

The Professor clears his throat, feeling he should step in here as this was his idea. "Greetings, Jor-El. I am Charles Xavier."

"I know who you are from my son's memories, Charles Xavier."

"Then you know he has been attending my Institute as he learns about his powers and himself."

"I am...grateful for what you done for Kal-El but his time with you is drawing to it's conclusion."

"Is it?" Charles questions that.

"Mutants, for all their gifts, are still human. My son is a Kryptonian. You cannot understand what that means. Only here, with me, can he learn and understand his true heritage."

"Perhaps what you say is true but what I can understand is what it is like to have your mind violated."

"I do what I must. Kal-El was being overly difficult in accepting his destiny."

"His destiny will be whatever he chooses it to be," Jonathan repeats something he said just before he made that deal with Jor-El 2 summers back to get Clark back.

"As I said to you then, Jonathan Kent, you cannot comprehend Kal-El's true destiny."

"You know I'm standing right here," Clark mutters impetuously, frowning annoyed at being spoken about while being ignored.

Charles raises a hand in Jonathan's direction as a request to allow him to speak. "Jor-El, however important you deem Clark's destiny to be, I cannot see how it justifies your actions. You set about creating a whole new personality, a whole new person. In a way you were murdering Clark Kent."

"The safety of the 3 elements was at risk. I did not have time to pointlessly debate with my son who stubbornly refused to obey me."

Clark raises his hand. "Um, hello. You know if you had just explained to me about the power and danger of the 3 stones I would have been more than slightly inclined to go look for them," he points out.

"More likely you would have believed it a deception on my part."

"That's, uh, not necessarily true," Clark says, not sounding all that certain of the truth of his own words.

"Way to sound convinced," Kitty whispers at him.

Clark makes a face at her.

"Jor-El, what you have done is leave Clark's mind in a perilous condition," Charles argues back.

"My hand was forced to release him before he was ready."

"I do not believe your position is consistent," Charles proposes.

"In what way?" Jor-El asks back and you can hear the flare of disapproval in his tone at being argued with by some lonely human.

"Protect him and deliver from evil. Those were your words, yes?"

"They were."

"Yet you chose to force him into a world where he would face that evil before he was ready."

"His destiny could not wait any longer."

"I have to disagree. Jonathan is correct, Clark's destiny is what he will choose it to be. A parent's role in part is the same as a mentor. It is to teach them what they need to know to make their own choices."

"You speak from a lack of understanding. I sent Kal-El to Earth for a very specific purpose. Your world is in grave peril of following Krypton's fate into self-destruction..."

"Here we go," Clark mutters. He's heard all this before. He sits himself down. "You might as well get comfortable. This is going to take awhile," he advises as he sits himself down. He knows this to be true because he had been forced to listen to Jor-El drone on about his destiny for 3 long, long, long months.


An hour later...

Everyone is thoroughly cold as the Professor and Jor-El seemingly debate everything they can think of shooting each down with one logical argument after another. Bottom line is at the moment no-one is winning.

Martha had been all prepared to give Jor-El the wrath of an angry mother but after an hour here even she has reached the end. In fact she has had enough of listening to this. She rises to her feet. "Stop! Just stop!" she intercedes herself bringing Jor-El and the Professor's debate to an end. "I don't care who is right or who is wrong. All I care about is my son who is suffering and the only thing I want of you, Jor-El, is to know whether you can help him."

Everyone just stares at Martha wide-eyed in shock that she had the gall to speak up like that.

"You are a passionate person Martha Kent," Jor-El praises her. "I am glad Kal-El found his way to you."

Martha is a little stunned to hear that. "I...uh...I'm glad he came to me," is all she can say. Clark has been one of the brightest lights in her life. "Can you help him?" she gets back to what is important.

"I can reintegrate the varying personalities within his mind," Jor-El confirms he can help Clark but he cautions, "It is a delicate and time consuming procedure."

"And who will I be at the end of it?" Clark asks because it's a good question.

"My son."

"Gee, so helpful," Clark mutters.

"I think Clark means will you use this opportunity to..." Charles tries to think of a phrase that is not too offensive sounding.

Jonathan just decides to say it. "Enslave him."

There is a silence for a moment.

"Ok I'm starting to get worried," Evan whispers, looking slightly concerned at the silence as if it is the prelude to something bad about to strike them.

"I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by Kal-El's success in obtaining the elements. I will not enslave him," Jor-El says. "However you also cannot expect him to be the same after I have melded the 3 hues of himself together," he then adds as a caution.

"That is true. I cannot deny," Charles tells the Kents, relating his own experience of similar incidents.

"I think we need to discuss that as a family first," Martha decides and when she is saying that she means not here.

"If I agree there is also the issue of this training?" Clark queries. Now the Professor and Jor-El have finished debating with each other it seems like a good moment to raise it.

"It would require considerable time, Kal-El."

"And that's a problem. Time is something I don't have a lot of to spare. I have a dangerous enemy who is loose."

"Lionel Luthor," Jor-El speaks what he can pick up from Clark's mind.

"When we battled in the summer he promised to create a whole army of superpowered suits, powered by kryptonite. Personally I think he'll try and fulfil that threat. I don't believe it would be considered wise to let him create an army powered by the one substance that can kill me, do you?"

"You have matured, Kal-El," Jor-El says in what is praise. "And you are correct. This human must be apprehended."

"So?"

There is a flash of light and Clark finds himself suddenly alone.

"Fear not. I have sent them back to the caves," Jor-El explains what he has done. "I wish we speak alone."

Clark frowns. He isn't happy that was done without some warning beforehand. "So, what is it you wish to say?"

"Your mind needs to be healed. I regret I have contributed to it's present state...and you do require training in your history if you are to fulfil your great destiny."

Clark bites back his usual retort about making his own destiny for the sake of avoiding another pointless argument. "Yet I need to find Lionel. So what do we do? Do we do this part time?"

"It is not as I would have chosen but your phrasing is not inaccurate. It is the best we can accomplish in the circumstances."

Clark can't argue that. "I will try and fit it in. Now, return me to the caves."

"Very well. Before you leave I express my sorrow at the end of your courtship. I know of the pain you are enduring too well."

"I'll survive. I'm the last survivor of Krypton. It's what I do best, right?" Clark replies with stark hurt and pain in his voice.

"When you are ready for your training, I shall be here," Jor-El promises him and Clark feels he is saying that is more than just for his training. He almost sounds like a father.

Clark vanishes in a flash of light.


Smallville's Mutant Community...

Lilandra was in her room, her private space. Private time wasn't something she got a massive amount of considering her role as leader of this community. She knows she shouldn't grumble. This was her choice. The people here had needed guidance and protection and she had believed she could fulfil that role.

Lately it wasn't so bad. She had managed to create a working relationship with the Mayor yet she knew she and the others were still being watched closely. She had to walk a careful line.

There is a knock on her door. "Enter, Abbey!" she permits.

The door is opened by a blond girl wearing glasses with a bad case of acne. She was one of the newer residents of the community, Abigail Fine. Strictly speaking she wasn't a mutant. Her mother had used her to test an experimental beauty treatment derived from the meteor rocks. It worked, transforming Abbey into a physically beautiful young woman. It also had the side-effect of rendering Abbey's kiss deadly, in the sense it caused hallucinations so horrible the person would literally die of the horror.

When people started dying like that Lilandra had used her telepathic abilities to solve the mystery, so to speak, with Chloe's help. If Lilandra was to keep her charges safe she had to show she could keep order. Together Lilandra and Chloe found what Abbey's mother had done and put a stop to it.

Course that raises the issue of how Abbey's mother got hold of the rocks if Lex Luthor had supposedly cleaned up the town of them. There was, of course, no evidence linking him to Dr Fine's work but Lilandra and Chloe had their suspicions he was involved.

As for Abbey, with her mother locked up for various criminal charges involving illegal human experiments and use of controlled substances(which is what the rocks are considered now everyone is aware of their mutational effects), someone had to take care of her and that someone was Lilandra. The girl was traumatised and guilty about what she had done despite the fact her mother had pressurised her daughter into these tests. Abbey was here so Lilandra could help her learn to accept what had happened and move on with her life and more importantly do something positive with her life.

By now the effects of the treatments had, thankfully, worn off and Abbey had returned to her previous appearance. Lilandra assured her the acne would clear up...eventually. They had her on more traditional treatments at the moment.

Abbey is creeped out. "I hate it when you do that," she complains about Lilandra knowing who is at her door.

Lilandra smirks slightly. "What is it, Abbey?" she asks about what brings Abbey here.

"That Professor Xavier fellow is here."

"He is!" Lilandra says with surprise, her tone taking a higher tone. She rushes to meet him, only to stop in front of her mirror and take a moment to straighten out her hair and clothes. She spots Abbey grinning in the reflection.

Lilandra turns and places her hands on her hips in a stern manner. "And what are you smiling at, young lady?"

"The fact you have it bad."

"I have told you not to listen to the troublemakers around here," Lilandra reminds Abbey. She knows what group have started this rumour that she acts like a lovestruck teenager around Charles. She is going to rewire their brains to make them think their chickens. She swears to God.

Abbey shrugs. She is just happy to be somewhere where she is forgiven for her acts and where she isn't teased relentless for her appearance, unlike Smallville High. It would be why she let her mother talk her into those treatments. She should have listened to Clark. He always use to defend her against her tormentors and told her not to let people get her down. If he had stayed she wonders if she would have been smart enough to not listen to her mother.


Outside the small settlement, where the x-jet had set down, Martha and Jonathan were getting their first look at the home they were forced to leave behind.

For Jonathan it still holds a sense of failure and loss that he was the Kent that lost the farm that had been in his family for generations.

The group stand outside the x-jet. Clark had changed out of his Superman costume into his civilian wear since Superman tends to provoke a negative reaction out of some members of the mutant community, i.e. the ones he stuck in Belle Reve.

"Charles!" a voice calls out in delight.

Charles smiles instantly as he sees Lilandra approach. "Lilandra," he greets her back once she is within earshot of a gentler tone of voice.

"I'm so glad you could make it," Lilandra says with much apparent joy at seeing him here.

"That's not an issue. As I said my X-Men are here to help...and I've brought a couple of other guests. This is Martha and Jonathan Kent. They use to own the farm."

Lilandra turns her attention to the red-haired woman and blond man. "A pleasure to meet you," she greets them and they warmly greet her back in a similar fashion.

"You did mention something about wishing advice on how to cultivate the land," Charles reminds her of something they discussed in one of their phone conversations.

"So I did," Lilandra recalls with a smile playing on her lips.

"Clark?" a voice tentatively queries.

Clark pushes his glasses up his nose and turns to the blond girl with the acne who had followed Lilandra out. He manages a small smile at seeing her. "Abbey. You're looking well."

Abbey smiles back. "You always said that."

"Because it was always true."

Abbey gives him a sceptical look. "Clark."

"Abbey."

"You don't need to humour me."

"I'm not humouring you. I never did."

"I should have listened to you. I wouldn't have gotten into as much trouble then," she says regretfully.

Clark wonders what she means.

"That's kinda of a harsh mutation ya got there," Evan says.

"What mutation?" Abbey asks.

Evan points at his face trying to indicate what he means. "You know all the scabs and things."

Abbey's face falls and she runs off, crying.

Clark doesn't hesitate and hits Evan across the back of his head.

"Ow!" Evan complains because that seriously stung. "What was that for?"

"Because you're an insensitive moron," Clark criticises him.

"How?"

"That's not a mutation. That was plain old acne. She suffered from it since she was 12. The kids use to tease her. Call her 'Scabby Abbey'."

Kitty and Bobby burst out into giggles and Clark fixes the pair a severe glare. Sam shakes his head at them.

"Katherine, Robert," the Professor snaps. "It is not something we laugh at."

Kitty coughs. "I'm sorry Professor."

"I'm sorry too," Bobby offers because of the look he is receiving more than he actually means it.

"You should be," Lilandra says sternly. "You don't know what her low esteem drove her to do."

"What do you mean?" Clark asks. Abbey was his friend...and god he has really let himself lose touch with almost everyone here except Chloe now he thinks on it.

"You were her friend?" Lilandra queries from him.

Clark shrugs a little. "I was. We weren't hugely close but I always tried to protect her if I could from the taunts."

"Then go, talk to her," Lilandra suggests.

"It's alright if I...?" Clark seeks permission to enter their little community.

"Certainly," Lilandra permits. "Everyone who is a friend is welcome here. I make it one of my rules."

Clark chases after Abbey.

The Professor fixes Kitty, Bobby and Evan with a disapproving look. "Lilandra since we're here to help is there some pleasant task we can find for Shadowcat, Iceman and Spyke?" he queries with the inflexion of the word pleasant indicate he means something entirely unpleasant.

Lilandra grins evilly. "Oh I'm certain I can think of something."

Evan, Bobby and Kitty gulp nervously.


Clark follows Abbey into one of the buildings that have been built for accommodation and she vanishes into what he guesses is her room. He knocks gently on the flimsy looking door. "Abbey. It's Clark. Can I come in?"

"Go away!" she shouts through what Clark can hear is a sob.

"No," is Clark's distinct response to that. "Remember what I said, Abbey. About not listening to people. Evan is an insensitive ass and I hit him for you."

Clark hears shuffled footsteps approach the door and it is opened a crack with Abbey peering out. "Y-you hit him?" Abbey queries, surprised to hear that from Clark of all people.

"Well I slapped him across the back of the head," Clark refines the description. "So does that earn me the right to come in?"

Abbey muses over her choices for a minute before opening the door and letting Clark in. She wipes the tears from her eyes.

Clark looks around the room. It was very sparse. Bed, table, chair and a battered old wardrobe. "I apologise for Evan. He's my friend but sometimes he doesn't think before he speaks."

"I'm use to it," Abbey says in terribly sad acceptance.

"I'm sorry too."

"For?" Abbey asks confused.

"Not being around. Not keeping in touch at the very least. I've let too many of my connections to this place and to my friends wither."

"Your life moved on. So did mine...only not so good."

"Do you want to tell me what happened?"

Does she? Abbey concludes she does if only because Clark was the one true friend she might have ever had. "You might want to sit," she suggests. "This could take awhile."


"Oh gross!" Kitty complains, utterly mortified by what she is having to do for recompense. "You just had to open your big mouth, Evan!" she snipes at him.

"I'm not the one who laughed!" Evan protests at her blaming this whole thing on him. "You too, Bobby!"

"You know if we could just use our powers..." Bobby begins to say

There is a cough. "Less arguing. More working," Lilandra commands from her supervisory position. "And no use of powers!" she insists upon. This is a punishment after all.

"She's worse than Logan," Kitty mutters.

"I so agree," Evan says.

"Ditto," Bobby says. Ugh, he'll never get the smell out. How can he go meet Chloe now, smelling of raw sewage?

Charles can't help but be amused. Lilandra had punished Evan and Kitty by having them assist in the upgrading of the sewerage systems of the farm. It had never been intended to cope with dealing with the combined waste of over 40 individuals over a prolonged period and was creaking, to put it mildly, under the strain. Meteors striking the ground hadn't helped. It meant that Kitty and Evan were down in the trench that had been dug out, now ankle deep in sewage as they help replace a section of pipe.

"So I believe someone promised me dinner," Lilandra teases lightly.

"And I intend to fulfil that promise. You free tonight?" Charles asks her.

Lilandra gasps. "Charles. Are you asking me on a date?" she feigns surprise.

"I believe I am asking a charming lady to share dinner and conversation with me. Is that what these kids call a date these days?"

"In my dictionary, yes."

"Then you may call it that...if you agree to my request."

"I'll have to think on it." Lilandra tilts her head off to the side before snapping it back round. "I have thought on it and I accept."

"I'm glad," Charles says with a warm, happy smile.

"Oh good god," Kitty complains. "I'm knee deep in stuff I don't even want to think about and those two are like planning a date out."

"I'm never listening to auntie O again," Evan swears since his auntie was the one who persuaded him to come today.

"You're in serious danger of crimping my dating chances here," Bobby complains.

"What did I say?" Lilandra barks at them, making herself sound annoyed. "Less talking. More working! Chop, chop!"

"Chop, chop," Kitty mutters under her breath in a mocking fashion. Honestly the woman has to be related to Logan and she's never getting the smell out. Someone, please shoot her.


Clark had listened carefully as Abbey told him about what happened with her mother with the kryptonite based plastic surgery. He asks the simple question. "Why, Abbey?"

"Because I was fed up of it."

"Fed up of...?"

"Being on the outside as life passed me by. You know what I mean Clark. You and I...we were never the main stream of the school."

"That's overrated. Trust me. I know."

"Being ostracised...you can't say it's a nice feeling."

"No. It's not. I experience it every day because I live with mutants and call them my friends and you know what I'm glad I do because the friendships I have are worth more than the superficial falsehood being in the main stream entails."

"I just wanted to be beautiful," Abbey says in a quiet whisper.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"I know that...now. God those 2 boys I kissed..." Abbey's face falls into her hands as the guilt nearly overwhelms her about the two people she inadvertently killed.

Clark moves over to where Abbey is sitting on her bed and bends down at his knees in front of her. He peels her hands away. "You didn't know," he says softly...or at least she said she didn't know the side-effects until after she had kissed them. As far as Clark could tell she was telling the truth.

"It doesn't make it better," she half-sobs.

"No. It doesn't," Clark is forced to agree from personal experience. "All you can do is try and live your life better from now on."

"Alone or with someone?" Abbey wonders, her expression indicating something...a want.

Clark sighs. "Abbey. I'm not the person to ask about that right now. I, uh, just broke up with my girlfriend this week."

"Oh," Abbey says, somewhat embarrassed. "Sorry," she apologises as she catches glimpse of the hurt in his face.

"I'm...learning to live with it," Clark says and he is. Slowly. "So I think it's been too long since you and I hanged out. Why don't we go do something?" he suggests, partially out of a need to distract himself from his pain and partially because he wants to renew his friendship with Abbey.

Abbey smiles lightly. "I would like that."


Later that day Clark finds himself walking down Smallville's main street with Abbey. There was a lot of damage still to be repaired yet people were trying to get on with their lives. It is heartening, Clark guesses, to see the resilience of people. His own heart is just a little too bruised at the minute to appreciate it fully.

His parents were still back at the mutant community. His father was trying to teach the basics of agriculture while his mother was just helping out generally. All the time spent at the mansion meant they had learned a few tricks in how to make a connection to people who would otherwise be extremely shut off.

Then there is, of course, the part where they raised him.

The Talon had managed to survive and was open so he and Abbey decide to drop in. Once inside Clark spots a familiar blond sitting with a brunette. He walks up to their table. "I wish I could say I was surprised but then again we all know you can't live without your hourly caffeine fix."

"Clark!" the blond cries happily as she leaps to her feet and hugs him.

"Hey, Chlo," he greets her softly.

Chloe spots Clark's friend. "Abbey?"

"Hi, uh, Chloe," Abbey says to her.

"Ahem," the brunette coughs annoyed at being ignored.

Clark rolls his eyes before he turns his attention to her. "Hello, Lois," he grudgingly greets her out of ingrained politeness. To state the obvious Lois had been discharged from hospital this week.

"Smallville," Lois returns curtly.

"How's the leg?" he asks her.

"Oh just peachy. The crutches are just a fashion accessory," she says sarcastically referencing her walking aids.

"I wasn't aware you had such a keen sense of fashion."

"Coming from the king of plaid that means absolutely nothing."

"Which is the same weight as your opinion carries."

Lois' eyebrows rise and Chloe worries for a moment that her cousin might use one of her crutches to smite Clark. To Chloe's surprise there is what appears to be a reluctant grin of admiration on Lois' face.

"Nice to see you have a backbone after all, Smallville," Lois compliments him.

"Well now I can sleep soundly," he replies with a deliberately snide attitude.

Before Clark and Lois can up the insults Chloe intervenes and gets Clark and Abbey to join her and her cousin at the table and moves the subject onto something a little more civilised.

During it Chloe manages to talk Clark and Abbey into joining her and Lois at home to spend an evening together. Lois may not admit this but she could do with some different company. Lois saw something terrible when those 2 Kryptonians murdered all those people and she still hasn't come to terms with it. Also there is the chance of Bobby joining them later and Chloe would definitely approve of that.

They soon get ready to leave. "You guys go ahead. We'll meet you outside," Chloe says since it takes a little longer with Lois' leg and Chloe wants to say something to her cousin in private. Once Clark and Abbey are gone she speaks. "Lo. I know you're going through a rough patch but can I ask you to try to be nice to Clark," she requests.

"Why?" Lois asks with a frown.

"Because he broke up with his girlfriend this week." Chloe had heard it from Bobby and not Clark but she guesses he just didn't feel like talking about it which is perfectly understandable.

Well Lois did guess that would explain Clark's sullen mood. "Alright. I'll go easy on the man fashion forgot," she agrees only because she knows break-ups suck.

"Thanks, Lo," Chloe says appreciatively.

"It's only because you're my favourite cousin."

"I'm your only cousin," Chloe says with a frown.

Lois' lips quirk up. "Really? Didn't know that," she says insincerely.

Chloe gives Lois the glare of death.


Clark, Abbey, Chloe and Lois pull up outside Chloe's house in Chloe's beloved little red beetle. Technically it was her father's house but he was still working abroad and she and Lois were living there. It had managed to survive the meteor shower intact. Chloe wasn't inclined to see it as a sign of anything.

Clark helps Lois out the car despite her protestations that she didn't need any help. In fact she said the same when he helped her in the car but despite how annoying Clark finds Chloe's cousin it is too ingrained in him to be helpful.

Lois hops toward the house on her crutches while Chloe gets the door for her cousin. The 4 are just debating what exactly they will do together when they stop as a brown haired teenager walks by chewing on a sandwich.

Chloe's and Lois' mouths hang open agape.

Abbey is confused.

Clark is too but can't help but notice the girl bears a resemblance to Lois.

The girl stops and blinks. She gives Clark a once over with her eyes as she swallows. She grins innocently as if butter would not melt in her mouth. "Hey sis. Hey couz," she says with a small wave.

Lois and Chloe almost shriek in reply. "Lucy?!"


Author's Note: Ut oh. The younger Lane sister is in town. Clark's virtue may be in serious danger. So, yeah, this is going to be a take on the Lucy episode. In the end I thought that Jor-El and the Professor would just debate each other into a stalemate so really nothing gets settled. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Lucy brings trouble into town with her and Lilandra and Charles have that dinner date.