Prior to Lois coming to Smallville, Emmeline hadn't even been aware that Chloe had one Lane cousin much less two.
But Lucy Lane's sudden and unplanned appearance in the small town changed all of that.
The girl who was about their age was extremely beautiful and was very nearly the definition of perfection.
As she explained all of her talents and achievements to her and Chloe, Emmeline struggled to find a single flaw with her.
The three girls walked into the Talon to introduce Lucy to the famed delicious coffee (not to mention it had been a while since Emmeline had had herself a vanilla bean frappucino) and found Clark talking with Lex.
What was unusual was Lois behind the counter wearing an apron clumsily trying to fill orders.
"Whoa, is that Lois with a tray?" Chloe smiled. "Hey, cuz!"
Lois gave them a thin smile as she took the tray with a customer's order on it and hurried over to one of the tables.
"Yes, it is," Clark replied. "It's kind of like a free floor show. Have you two been catching up?"
"Um, yeah. Lucy's just filling us in on all her hidden talents. She was a violinist for the Zurich Youth Orchestra."
Lucy smiled modestly. "It was nothing. It's just a hobby."
"Given their reputation in Europe, I highly doubt that," Lex told her.
Clark quickly looked between them. "Oh, sorry, Lucy, this is—"
"Lex Luthor," Lucy finished for him as she shook Lex's hand. "I read your profile in Fortune magazine a couple months ago. I thought your theories on the future of American business were very interesting."
Emmeline wondered how Lucy seemed to know everything about anything. Was there anything the girl couldn't do?
Lex smiled, clearly impressed with her knowledge. "Well, I'd be curious to know what you think of my piano skills. Drop by the mansion. I'd love to play with a serious musician."
A loud crash rang out through the coffee shop. They all looked over to find that Lois had dropped her tray, and a glass cup had shattered everywhere.
"Oh, crap!" Lois exclaimed, kneeling down to pick up the glass.
Chloe laughed lightly to the others. "I'm gonna go help her out."
As Chloe went to help her poor cousin clean up the shards of glass, Clark looked towards the back of the Talon.
"Lucy, who's that guy staring at you back there?"
Lucy and Emmeline turned around to see where he was looking, but neither of them saw anyone out of the ordinary.
They turned back around with questioning looks.
"Who was it?" Emmeline asked.
"I'm not sure…"
As it turned out, even the most perfect people weren't perfect.
Lucy had gotten in trouble with a loan shark and now owed fifty thousand dollars to a man from Germany.
Chloe pulled up the man's profile on her computer. "His name is Marcus Becker. He's a bouncer at a club called Kronos in Zurich with a résumé chock full of felonies. Apparently, this club is a front for the kind of people that you don't want to owe money to."
"I wish she'd just tell Lois," Clark said.
"She doesn't have to."
The three of them turned to find that Lois had entered the Torch office.
"I knew her hop, skip, and a jump over the Atlantic wasn't because she missed her big sister, and if this guy is bothering Lucy, then I'm gonna find him. We're gonna have a little talk."
Lois started storming out of the office, but Chloe quickly pulled her back. "Lois, before you go all Lifetime heroine, remember that this is not the school bully she's dealing with."
"Seriously, she is in trouble," Clark insisted. "But I think I know someone who can help."
Lois and Clark headed over to Lex's mansion to ask for some assistance with Lucy's situation.
"Chloe, don't take this the wrong way, but I have never met cousins like yours before," Emmeline said to her best friend.
Chloe smiled a little. "That's probably a good thing."
"Kind of makes me feel glad I'm an only child."
"Have you ever wished for siblings before?"
Emmeline thought back to her childhood. "Sometimes. When I was growing up, I wished that I had someone who would help me open up and make friends. What about you?"
"I mainly wanted someone when Mom left us. I just wanted one person to know exactly what I was going through."
"I can understand that."
"Did you parents not ever think about adopting another child?"
"I think they always wanted to give me a sibling, but it was just too expensive to adopt again. And we all knew Mom couldn't get pregnant, so unless a miracle happened, I was going to remain an only child. They're probably thankful they got me instead of some wild and crazy person."
"I guess being an only child really isn't too bad, is it?"
Emmeline smiled as she went next to her. "No. Because I met you. And you are more of a sister to me than anyone. You gave me everything I ever wanted from a sibling."
Chloe smiled broadly, touched by her words. "You're like my sister too."
Emmeline took back pretty much every thought about Lucy Lane being perfect. It turned out that the loan shark, Marcus Becker, was working with Lucy to weasel money out of Lex. It almost worked too, but after Marcus kidnapped Lois and Lucy, Lex and his men quickly caught up with them. Unfortunately, Lucy managed to evade Lex's men and took off. No one knew if or when they would ever hear from her again.
"Hey," Chloe smiled as she and Emmeline approached Clark in the hallway.
"Hey," Clark smiled back.
"Have you recovered from Hurricane Lucy yet?"
"I just hope she changes her ways before she gets herself hurt."
"You know, it never fails. Keeping secrets always leads to trouble. I don't know which is more difficult: being the one keeping the secret or the one who's being duped."
By this point, Emmeline was aware that there was some secret between Clark and Chloe that she didn't know. And while Chloe knew the secret, Clark didn't know that she knew. So ever since she had found out this secret, she had been baiting Clark and trying to get him to tell her his secret so everything could be out in the open.
Emmeline just wanted Clark to confess whatever the secret was because maybe if he realized Chloe knew, he would confide in her as well.
"Have you, uh, talked to Lois?" Clark asked, quickly changing the subject.
Apparently, the big confession wasn't going to be today.
"She's been holed up in her room all day. She took it all pretty hard."
"Yeah, well, ever since I could remember, the one thing Lois has always wanted is to protect her little sister."
"I guess no matter how bad you want to, you just can't save everyone."
Chloe smirked at him. "But it doesn't stop you from trying. Does it, Clark?"
She smiled broadly as she Emmeline headed towards the Torch office.
"I have some big news," Emmeline announced to Chloe and Clark as they worked on the next Torch issue together.
"What is it?" Clark asked.
"I think…I've decided what I'm going to study next year."
"Really? What are you thinking?"
"You know…it was actually a conversation that you and I had our sophomore year. I don't remember what exactly we were talking about, but you asked if I had ever considered a job in psychology because I'm really good with people one-on-one. That kept coming back to me these past few weeks. Because you were right. A few years ago, I could barely even look at someone, much less hold a conversation with them. The mere thought of talking with someone about their problems would send me straight into my room with the door locked.
"But…when Lucy was here, it struck me that even though I had never met her before, I wasn't really uncomfortable around her. It's because of you guys that…I'm not afraid of talking to people anymore. I still don't do crowds very well, but I'm a lot better at dealing with people one at a time. So that's why…I'm going to study to become a psychologist."
Chloe and Clark smiled at her.
"That's great, Em!" Chloe said. "It's perfect for you."
"It gets better. At Central Kansas where I've decided I'm going to go, there's a group of professors who agree about the effects the meteor rocks have on people. And there's a whole class dedicated to it." She laughed lightly. "PSYC 412. Psychology of the Meteor-Affected."
"You're kidding," Clark laughed.
"No. After everything we've dealt with in the past few years and seeing how these people act and how getting their powers affects them, I want to be able to help them."
Clark smiled fondly at her. "You're going to help a lot of people, Emmeline. I'm sure of that."
