"So Hera freaks out because Zeus has been two-timing her, with a mere mortal no less," Chloe attempted to sum up as the four of them walked out of Greek Mythology. "So she sends a bunch of snakes to kill Hercules, who is the illegitimate babe in the cradle. It's just family dysfunction of Dionysian proportion."
"Sounds like these people ought to be on Ricki Lake," Pete joked.
"While I don't condone her behavior, Zeus did break his wedding vows."
"Doesn't give her the right to go 'Fatal Attraction' on him," Clark argued.
Chloe laughed as turned as Clark stopped at his locker. "Hey, Clark, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
She, Pete, and Emmeline continued walking down the halls.
"Hey, Em, how's your mom doing?" Chloe asked her.
"She's starting treatments soon," Emmeline answered. "So we're just going to go from there." There was a bit of silence between them before she added tearfully, "It's just not fair, you know?"
Chloe and Pete put their arms around her. "Yeah, I know."
Emmeline had never been more grateful for their friendship.
The next day, Emmeline and Chloe walked into the Talon office to find Clark on Chloe's computer.
"Sure Clark, you can use my computer. Knock yourself out," Chloe joked.
Clark looked at Chloe hardly. "You've been getting emails from Rachel Dunleavy."
Chloe froze and turned to him as Emmeline wanted to become invisible. It looked like another Clark/Chloe confrontation was going to take place, and those were things she absolutely hated to witness.
"You've been reading my emails?" Chloe asked.
"You promised me you'd stop digging into my adoption."
"All I did was post a few notices on adoption websites, to see if I could get some hits. This Dunleavy woman responded."
Clark jumped out of the chair and furiously turned to her. "Oh, so you said 'Why don't you check out my buddy Clark? He may be your son!'"
"You have to believe me, I didn't tell her anything about you, Clark."
"So it's just a coincidence she shows up in Smallville claiming to be my mom?"
"She's here? Clark, what makes you so sure that she's not the real thing?"
"I am not giving you an exclusive on my life!"
"You're not even curious that she might be your biological mom?"
"Why are you so obsessed about my mother? Do I ask you questions about yours?"
Chloe's face saddened. "No, I guess not."
"Yeah, that's because she hasn't shown her face here in years! If you want to find somebody's mother, find your own!"
"I know where she is, Clark! The difference is she's not interested in me."
A guilty look flashed across Clark's face for a second. Emmeline frowned at him. He had taken that way, way too far.
Clark started out of the office, but Chloe called after him, "Since you'll probably never speak to me again, there's something you might want to know. Metropolis United Charities was founded by Lionel Luthor."
Clark paused and then continued out the door. Emmeline immediately rushed to Chloe's side.
"I am so sorry, Chloe," she said. "He shouldn't have said that."
"It's not all his fault," Chloe cried. "I shouldn't have posted anything after he had made it clear he didn't want me involved. I just don't understand why he wouldn't be curious."
"Well, he's lived this way his whole life. It's his normal. For someone to come and start messing that normal up, it just starts getting difficult."
"But don't you want to meet your parents?"
"Yes, someday I suppose. I don't know. It's…complicated."
"I wish I'd known that. Maybe then I wouldn't have pulled this stupid stunt."
"You had the best intentions in mind. And knowing Clark, you guys will make up in a few days."
"I don't know this time."
Chloe grabbed her things and left the office with Emmeline tagging behind her. Pretty soon, Lana walked up behind them.
"Chloe! Hey, I've been looking for you everywhere." When she saw Chloe's teary face, she asked genuinely concerned, "What's wrong?"
"Clark and I just had a massive blow-out," Chloe admitted.
"About what?"
"His secrets, privacy, my pathological inability to curb my curiosity."
"The topic of moms came up too, which is kind of a sore subject for everyone right now," Emmeline added.
Lana nodded, knowing about the cancer.
"How are you?" Chloe asked with fake cheeriness.
"Hey, we can talk about it later."
"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to dump on you."
"If you can't dump on your friends…"
"Exactly. So, what did you want to talk about?"
Lana pushed the two of them towards the lockers. She took out a picture of a man and a woman out on a picnic.
"His name's Henry Small," she told them.
"As in the Smallville Smalls?"
"Very own first family."
"Well, who's the hottie hanging all over him?"
There was a pause before Lana finally stated, "My mom."
"Oh, I'm—I'm sorry, Lana—"
"It's okay. You didn't know. I think he may be my biological father."
"Wow. You okay?"
"I think so. I want to find out everything there is to know about him. And I thought maybe you could help." When Chloe didn't answer right away, she added quickly, "But if you don't feel comfortable, it's—"
"Actually, I'm flattered. It's nice that someone trusts us enough with their big family secret."
"Then you'll do it?"
"You know, I could tell you where he went to college, I can tell you how many outstanding parking tickets he has, I can even pull up his dental records and let you know if he flosses regularly. But if you really want to know who he is, I would suggest using the high tech research device called the doorbell."
The three girls smiled at each other, before Lana walked away.
"Wow," Emmeline breathed. "I think we've hit the serious friendship mark. And two parents in one day. I'm waiting for one or both of my parents to show up now."
"Wouldn't that be something?"
Emmeline headed home and found her mom and dad in the living room.
"Hey, Mom," she smiled. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine for now. We actually wanted to talk to you." Her mother motioned for her to take a seat on the couch. "Listen, honey, I know that this is going to be hard for you, but I don't want you to focus too much on me and lose focus on school or your friends. I'm going to be fine, alright? The doctors have said that the cancer should be easy to remove. I've just got a difficult run ahead of me."
"I know. But you're Super Mom. You can handle anything."
Her mother laughed. "I'm glad you see me that way."
"I'm going to get some homework taken care of."
"Alright."
Emmeline headed back upstairs and took out her books. Then the thought of her bedridden mother getting cancer treatment filled her mind and she couldn't help but begin to cry.
The next day, Chloe and Emmeline were at Chloe's locker when Clark came rushing up to them.
"Chloe, I'm so glad I found you."
Chloe's eyebrows furrowed. "Okay, there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear again."
His eyes softened a little. "We both did and said things that we regret. I know I did."
"Look, you have to believe that I would burn my press pass if I thought it would come between us."
Clark just smiled. "No, you wouldn't. It's too much of who you are. And right now, I need it."
The three of them went to the Torch office and Chloe went straight to her computer and began researching.
"If Rachel Dunleavy did buy a house in Smallville, she'll be listed with the county clerk. It's just going to take a minute to get a hit."
Clark came over and sat next to her. "Chloe, what I said about your mother…I was way out of line."
"It's cool," Chloe shrugged. "We all have family secrets, I guess. She left when I was five, so…I came downstairs and….there was my dad, trying to make waffles. He never even really explained why she left. It was weird."
Emmeline's heart panged for her best friend. Why did all of them have family problems?
"I'm sorry."
Chloe turned to him teary-eyed. "It's just hard thinking you weren't good enough for someone to love."
Clark gently put his hand on hers. "Don't ever think that."
They looked at each other for a solid five seconds, and Emmeline was secretly hoping that they would start kissing. Unfortunately, the computer beeped and ruined the moment.
"Oh, uh, there is no record of Rachel Dunleavy," Chloe confirmed.
Clark paced a little bit around the room before saying, "Um, try the name Lucas Luthor."
"Okay, you're going to have to explain that one to us later." She typed in the name and an address came up onto her computer. "Oh. Bingo. There's his address."
The two girls looked around and saw that Clark was gone.
"Ten bucks he doesn't explain where he got the name Lucas Luthor," Emmeline said.
"I will gladly not take that bet," Chloe smiled.
"And hey, if you ever want to talk about your mom, I'm here for you."
"I know. The same goes for you."
The sound of footsteps sounded on the steps to Clark's loft. He turned and saw Emmeline coming up. It pleased him that she was becoming a familiar face up here.
"Hey," she smiled. "I guess we've heard the last of Rachel Dunleavy."
"I guess so. So, um, how's your mom?"
"That's the number one question people seem to ask lately. It's okay, I ask her the same thing every time I walk through the door."
"When's she starting her treatments?"
"This Friday."
"That's good."
"Yeah."
From the tone of her voice, she didn't sound too happy. "Is that a bad thing?"
"No, it's not that. It's just…once she starts these treatments, she's going to look different. She's going to look sicker, and then she'll lose her hair, and she'll be really pale and thin. And she won't look like my mother."
"But all of this is just a phase, and then she'll get better and be back to normal."
"I just…can't stop thinking about how my mother, the person who raised me to be who I am, is going through this and all of the hardships she's about to face. It just isn't fair."
"She's going to get through this, Emmeline. I promise."
