Lois had never felt so uncomfortable in her life.

Gladys had left Lois and Chloe in her father's office alone, and they had been enjoying a tense silence between them, thus far.

Chloe was the first to break it.

"So, how long have Kal-El and you been sneaking around behind my back? I'd just like to know, how far back this thing you have with him runs?"

Lois sighed. It was time to face the music.

"Chloe, the day that Bruce took over as the owner of the Daily Planet, Kal-El drove me to work. At one point he put his hand on my thigh and basically told me he wanted me to give him a chance. I was not interested and I told him as much. By the time I got to work, his touch had left a mark that burned. That was the night you took me to the ER."

Chloe folded her arms.

"You told me you got some mark on your thigh, when you messed up Kal-El's car. I remember thinking that that sounded weird at the time." Chloe said coolly.

"I couldn't tell you what Kal-El did, Chloe. I didn't know what he had done, exactly. But I began to feel really tired all of the time. I confronted Kal-El about it and he took me to the Fortress. That was where he told me that that mark came to be on my thigh, because he had had sexual relationships with Lucy and yourself." Lois revealed. She decided to leave Lionel Luthor's theory out of this.

Chloe snorted!

"You're telling me this is my fault? Mine and Lucy's?"

"Yes. And no. The only way this mark disappears is if I have Kal-El's baby. And yes, I agreed to try and get the mark off."

Chloe shook her head.

"Beautiful, Lois. Just beautiful! You have painted me a scenario where in which you just must absolutely, positively have sex with my boyfriend AND be seen as some victim. Bruce clearly thinks Kal-El is some kind of beast for forcing you to do this. It never occurred to you to go to your father and see what military doctors could do for you? You just had to go along with this, hey?"

Lois said nothing for a long moment.

Then she spoke.

"I didn't have to go along with it. I wanted to." Lois said, looking her cousin in the eye. Chloe's face fell before the door opened and Sam and Ella came in. Ella could see something was going on between the girls and looked worried. She had been stupid to let a Kryptonian man cause such havoc in her family! She didn't necessarily regret leaving Sam Lane. But things were not as they should be between, Lois, Lucy, Chloe and herself!

Sam gave both girls no nonsense looks as he closed the door.

"Chloe, you can see. It's good to see you healthy again. Does your father know?"

"It just happened this morning when I woke up. Uncle Sam, we really need to speak to Jor-El." Chloe said.

"So Gabe does not know that you can see?" Sam asked stoutly.

"Not as of yet. But there are more important things going on..."

"Take that phone of yours, go into the next room there and call your father with an update on your health. Lois, your mother informed me of what is going on with Kal-El. It ends now, are we clear?"

"Daddy, Chloe and I came here because something happened at the house. Chloe and Lucy saw Vice-President Zod try and rape Aunt Moira. She fended him off but he disappeared."

Sam Lane stared at his oldest daughter, then looked at his ex-wife, before looking at his daughter again.

"What are you girls on? I thought I taught you better."

"Uncle Sam." Chloe said, "you have to listen to us. Lucy and I saw some gray guy grab Zod through some mirror. He IS gone. Lucy is at the house now and has called President Luthor. He is sending the Secret Service and investigators there. This has actually happened."

"Christ!" Sam snapped. "What is Lucy doing involved in this? Hell, she works for Lana Luthor!"

"Calm down, Sam." Ella said tiredly. "Lucy saw this thing happen and with her ties to the White House, she probably felt it was best to report it. You said Zod was trying to rape Moira?"

"Yes," Chloe said firmly, "and to be honest, Mom didn't look all that surprised to see that gray guy in the mirror come for Zod."

Sam didn't want to hear this 'Gray Guy Mirror' crap! Zod was on the short list to be detained and he probably escaped somehow. He was betting that when the investigators looked this 'mirror' over, they would find it was an escape door or portal of some sort.

"I'm going to have to call the President. You girls go home. There is nothing for you here."

Chloe reluctantly went to the other room Sam had told her to use, and called her father. She closed the door. Lois grabbed her mother by the hand, hurried out of her father's office, past Gladys and out into the hallway.

"Okay, Lois! Where's the fire?" Ella asked.

"Orin is alive, Mom. You remember him, don't you?"

Ella's face froze. Jesus, Orin Curry was another headache this family did not need! And the only reason Lois and Lucy even knew the Curry's, was because Ella had been childhood friends with Thomas Curry's(Orin's father) wife, Mary.

Mary had married Thomas young and gave birth to a son named Orm. It was actually Thomas and Mary that introduced Ella to Sam Lane. Thomas had been in the military and knew Sam.

By the time Ella married Sam Lane, Mary's marriage to Thomas had taken a severe blow. Somehow, some way, Thomas had met some younger woman, had an affair with her, producing another child-that being Orin. Mary struggled to forgive Thomas and agreed to raise Orin, but at the time, his name had been changed to 'Arthur'.

Years later, Thomas and Mary had opened up a camp in Smallville, near Crater Lake, for underprivileged kids. Ella thought that Lois and Lucy could use a change of scenery and sent them there to be counselors.

Only Lois went. Lucy ran off! Ella spent two weeks trying to hunt her down unbeknownst to Sam! Lucy eventually turned back up but she would not say where the hell she had been, or who she was with. It was also too late for her to begin at the camp, which Ella suspected was the point of running off.

But Lois stuck it out and ended up becoming involved with Arthur, who now called himself Orin. Mary had called her to let her know that SOMETHING was going on between Lois and Orin, but Mary could never catch them doing anything and Thomas never tried to.

"Mom?" Lois asked, interrupting her reverie. "You heard me, right? Orin is back. He never died!"

"Lois, we have other problems to concentrate on than him."

Lois tilted her head.

"Did you know he was alive?" she asked sharply. Ella looked around her pulled her further out into the hallway.

"Yes. Honey, Orin isn't 'right', okay? And when I say that, I mean that if you see him tangling with sea life, don't automatically assume HE will be the loser! His mother was some weirdo that lived in the sea. Or at least that's what Mary told me."

Lois backed back! Good God! No wonder he was associated with Batman and Oliver! And somehow, she had sensed that he could survive Davis's blow. She wondered if he had a hero name as well?

"Lois, we don't have time to revisit the past. I was with your father when we confronted Jor-El and Kal-El. I want you to see another doctor..."

"It doesn't matter," Lois interrupted, "because the brand is gone off of my thigh. That means I'm pregnant."

"No! No it does not! I don't care what the hell Jor-El and Kal-El are trying to pull! You aren't pregnant until we see a real doctor! And let's just keep this from your father until we know for sure, okay?"

"I guess. But I need to see Kal-El."

"Honey, your father has to okay that. He's not going to do that. Not now. Plus do you want to tell him that that scab thing is gone and you might be pregnant with Kal-El's baby?" Ella asked knowingly.

Meanwhile, Chloe had finished telling her father about her good medical news, when she left the other room Sam had assigned her to and over heard her aunt and cousin in the hallway. Lois was actually pregnant with Kal-El's child?

Ella noticed her from the hallway and walked over to her.

"Chloe, you came here in your car or Lois's?"

"Mine." she answered.

"Good. Lois and I have to get back to the mansion and deal with this Secret Service thing and your mother. So I'm taking Lois home in my car. I know you need to talk to your uncle about Davis."

Chloe nodded, swallowing her heartbreak, literally. Ella noticed this, but thought she was upset over her mother.

"Chloe, I will find out what's going on with Zod and this gray guy, okay? I don't know if your uncle will let Jor-El help Davis though. Just don't get your hopes up, alright?"

Chloe just nodded. Lois averted her eyes from the scene. She wanted to see Kal-El but realized she would just have to wait. She needed to see Orin Curry and hear his explanation( which she realized he might have been trying to give her in the car) as to what happened that fateful summer.

Then there was Bruce! She need to get Kal-El out of this place so that he could keep his bargain to help people while Bruce and Oliver were locked up!

Oh and Alfred! She needed to at least make arrangements for his care after his heart attack. It was then that Lois decided that maybe Wayne Manor would be a good place for her mother and her to stay, while the authorities were combing their own house.

As for Chloe, she WAS going to persuade her uncle to allow her to see Jor-El, so she could help Davis, and Kal-El, so she could confront him over his betrayal of her.


Jor-El had been watching Kal-El very carefully, something Kal-El was very aware of...

"Is there something you want to say to me, Father?" Kal-El asked tiredly.

Jor-El chose his words very carefully.

"It is very clear that you have defined plans for Lois and yourself. I take no issue with how you plan to live your life, or who you are going to live it with. But you seem very sure that Lois has these same goals."

"She will." Kal-El said.

"Which means she does not now? Let us begin with your plans to marry her. She has agreed to this?"

"Yes." Kal-El answered. "And I have even agreed to fill in for your precious Bruce and his ilk, in a humanitarian manner."

Jor-El's eyes widened!

"Meaning?"

"Meaning I will help people in Gotham City until Mr. Wayne's legal troubles are sorted out."

Jor-El folded his arms.

"I have to say, Kal-El, this is...er...uncharacteristic of you. And very giving. Unfortunately with our situation, I do not think you will have time for it. I for one, have no intention of spying on my fellow Kryptonians."

"Neither do I. But you see that there are too many safeguards set up here, for us to escape. I think we should just sign whatever General Lane puts before us, then just not do it. What can he do to stop us once we are free?"

"I doubt very much that General Lane has not taken that into account. In all likelihood, he has already found a way to control us from afar, with this poison that keeps us from leaving here now."

"And Zor-El," Kal-El said, lowering his voice, "is this close to finding a way to make us immune to this meteor rock. We do have to think of our people. They are without leadership or instruction. At some point they will leave the safehouse and they won't know how to avoid traps. We have to get out of here anyway we have to."

"I suppose you're right." Jor-El allowed.

It was at that moment, that the door opened and General Lane, a guard and Chloe stepped into the room. Kal-El's eyes locked with Chloe's and he could see that she had her eyesight back. He also saw anger and hurt in them as well.

Jor-El glanced at Kal-El, before speaking to General Lane.

"General, Kal-El and I have decided to take you up on your 'deal'. I would like to hear the specifics." he said calmly.

General Lane eyed him.

"Is that right? What brought on the change of heart? Not that I care."

"If you don't care, General, then I won't bore you with the details." Jor-El replied. General Lane said nothing to that and looked at Chloe, before eyeing Kal-El.

"How about you, Kal-El? Will this be a family surrender or what?"

Kal-El held his tongue for a moment, then replied.

"Yes." was all he said.

"Good. I'm going to have the MP here put a collar on your father, then we're going to another place to discuss how this is going to work. That will give you some time here with my niece. You can apologize to her for your less than gentlemanly treatment of her, while we're gone."

Jor-El glanced at Chloe and then looked away. He was not proud of any of their behavior. Ella had been hurt. Chloe, Lucy and now Lois. He didn't see how Kal-El was going to make this life with Lois work. And that was because he suspected that Lois Lane could never fit in to their Kryptonian world, even if she would eventually be the mother of a full blooded Kryptonian child.

Another MP stepped into the room, and General Lane ordered him to stay with Chloe and Kal-El. Once the collar was on Jor-El, he was severely weakened and sick! It was a good ploy, he thought as he was dragged from the room. With the way he was feeling, he would sign or do anything NOT to feel this way again!

Once General Lane, the MP and Jor-El were gone, the new MP stood at the door and Chloe turned to Kal-El.

"I guess I would ask what this 'deal' is that my uncle wants you to take part in, but I can guess. It doesn't sound like you, Kal-El. You know, giving in to authority and all of that."

Kal-El stared down at her for a moment before answering.

"Is this really what you want to talk to me about, Chloe? I see your eyesight has returned. I am glad of that."

"Why?"

Kal-El felt his patience ebbing!

"How could you ask that? Of course I am happy that you can see!"

"But you'd be happier if you weren't in this room with me, right? I mean Lois and you are having a baby-behind my back, mind you. So I know you want to be at her side. How long was this thing going on? I mean were you pretending to hate her all of this time?"

"Lois is pregnant? As in presently?"

Chloe eyed him.

"How else would I mean it?"

"And you know this how?"

"I heard Lois telling Aunt Ella. You actually didn't know?"

Privately, Kal-El was thrilled! The wedding would take place immediately! Now all he had to do was think of a way to get out of this annoying task Lois asked of him, with regards to Bruce Wayne...

"Kal-El? Did you hear me? Didn't you know?" Chloe asked. It was clear he had went someplace else in his mind.

"No. But I had expected it to happen quite soon."

Chloe's response to that was to slap him! Kal-El did not move until she 'slapped' him three more times! The MP began to move towards them but Chloe got control of herself and told him she was fine. He reluctantly moved back to his post.

"Chloe, I am sorry. I can honestly tell you that I never hated Lois. But..."

"But what?!" Chloe snapped.

"I did not know that I cared as much as I did, until Bruce Wayne began to meander into her life. And I knew he was no good. I also knew he was using Lois. He has been carrying on an affair with Dinah Lance while he was seeing her."

"Alright. Fine. I can't change things," Chloe said, refusing to allow Kal-El to see how much his words were hurting her, "but I am here for my brother. Jor-El needs to reverse what he's done."

Kal-El frowned.

"I don't follow you, Chloe."

"Well here's something else you don't know: Jor-El has been trying to cure Davis with your DNA. He is no longer a creature. What he is now, is YOU! Only it's a 'monster' looking you. So when Jor-El and you get out of here, you need to make sure that your father fixes his mistake." Chloe informed Kal-El.