Okay, I've tortured you all long enough with that cliffhanger, so here's the next chapter which officially starts Season 5!
I'm not a HUGE fan of this season and I think it was one of the weaker ones, but that doesn't mean I don't have some plans made for our girl...including one particular moment I know many of you are going to like.
I've had several readers over the course of the story ask me what actress I would have play Emmeline. I'm not very good at choosing actresses for my OCs because when writing, I never have a defined face for them so I can never really choose someone who I can see as the character. But if I had to pick an actress for the character, I think Crystal Reed is closest to who I think Emmeline looks like.
Jonathon and Lois quickly escorted an unconscious Martha into the hospital.
Emmeline sat in the waiting room with her head in her hands, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't even process what was happening to her at the moment.
She was completely numb to all of the hustle and bustle around her, taking no notice of all the incoming injured patients and busy nurses trying to take care of them all.
The only thing that brought her out of the prison of her mind was another explosion that struck the already damaged hospital. For a moment, she thought for sure that it was another meteor and briefly wished that it would land on her and kill her.
However, the explosion did not come from a meteor but from two individuals, a man and woman who walked down the hall with extreme confidence.
Jonathon slowly approached them.
"Where is Kal-El?" the strange man asked.
"Who are you?" Jonathon demanded.
"You know where he is," the woman said.
"I'm sorry, lady. I don't know who you're talking about."
The woman looked at him for a moment before grabbing his neck and lifting him up, successfully cutting off his oxygen.
Lois quickly stepped up to the pair. "Okay, everyone needs to calm down and count to ten. Put the nice man down."
The woman looked at her before flinging Jonathon to the other end of the hallway. Emmeline quickly went over to him to ensure he was okay. She helped him sit up, and they both looked back towards the man and woman.
"Look, super freak, you wanna find your Kal-El buddy, you need to start working on your communication skills."
The woman repeated what she had to done to Jonathon and lifted Lois into the air as well.
"I know where Kal-El is."
Emmeline's eyes widened when she saw who had appeared out of nowhere.
It was Lana.
Where had she been all this time?
"He's hiding out at the Luthor mansion. I can take you to him."
The woman dropped Lois who fell to the ground coughing and holding her throat. The man and woman roughly took Lana by the arms and led her out of the hospital.
"Lana!" Lois called hoarsely.
Emmeline and Jonathon quickly got up and went over to her.
"You okay?" Jonathon asked.
"I'll be fine," Lois answered, her voice still scratchy. She looked over at Emmeline. "I should be asking you that. You look like you're falling apart."
Emmeline's eyes began watering again.
Clark rushed to the hospital to find his mother and father. Lex had told them they were alive and that considering the circumstances, they weren't in bad shape.
At the end of the hall, he saw Lois talking on the phone as she rubbed her neck. When she turned and saw him, a wave of relief washed over her. She quickly came over to him and hugged him. It surprised him a little since she always had a sarcastic comment, but the current situation called for different reactions.
"Clark. You're okay!"
"Yeah, you?" Clark asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Have you seen my parents?"
"They are going to be fine."
"Where are they?" He quickly walked through the halls looking for the room they were in.
"Actually, um, we have another problem. Kind of a big problem really. A happy loving couple came through here with super powers and a really bad attitude. It got pretty ugly."
Clark froze when he saw the gaping hole in the hospital wall. "What'd they want?"
"They were looking for some guy named Kal-El. You ever hear of him?"
This wasn't good. People with powers and icy personalities looking for Kal-El? They must've been Kryptonian. And if his past experiences with Jor-El was anything to go on, they wouldn't hesitate to hurt people to get what they wanted.
He turned to look at Lois. "Where'd they go?"
"Lana came and told them she knew where she could find this guy. She said he was hiding at the Luthor Mansion."
Clark started towards the exit when he realized who was sitting in the waiting room.
He slowly walked over to the girl. "Em?"
Emmeline looked up at the sound of his voice. Tears were caked onto her face. Her eyes were bloodshot and teary indicating she had been crying for a long time.
He knelt down in front of her and looked at her with the concerned gaze she loved so much. "Em, I have something extremely important I have to take care of right now. But once it's over, I promise you that I will come by and we can talk about what's wrong, okay?"
Emmeline nodded her head a little but she didn't say anything. She felt like the strange female had grabbed her throat as well and had cut off all of her ways of speaking.
Clark left and Emmeline resumed the pose she had managed to hold for hours now.
That night, true to his word, Clark came knocking on Emmeline's door.
When she answered, his heart went out to her. Her eyes were still glassy, and she looked as if she had aged another ten years.
"You look different," she said, surprising him since he had been making similar observations.
"Why do you say that?"
"I don't know, you just…do. I can't really say what it is."
If only she knew the reason why he was so different…
Chloe had promised she didn't tell anyone about his secret, but he was sure that it had taken all of her willpower to not tell Emmeline. It took a lot of his willpower too.
"Come in," she said softly.
Clark entered through the door, and she shut it behind him.
Something was definitely wrong. It was too…quiet.
"I'm sorry I had to leave so suddenly at the hospital."
"It's nothing new for you."
"Em, what happened?"
"I…I can't get in contact with Chloe. I don't know where she is or if she's okay."
"Calm down, Chloe's fine."
"You've talked to her? Where is she?"
"She's in a hospital…out of town. But that doesn't explain why you were at Smallville Medical Center all day."
Emmeline took some shaky breaths. She had yet to say the words out loud. Finally, she turned to him and said so softly, he almost didn't hear it, "My mom's dead, Clark."
Clark's eyes widened a little. Now everything made sense. "I thought you guys were going to get an ambulance and get out."
"By the time we got back to the hospital from graduation, all the ambulances were busy transporting other people. While we were waiting for one, the meteors hit…"
Emmeline slowly opened her eyes, her head pounding fiercely. She looked around and saw that the damage to the hospital from the meteor was not nearly as bad as she thought it had been when it hit. The force the of the impact had flung her into the nearby wall which was why she had blacked out.
Then everything came back to her.
"Mom?!" she called frantically. "Mom, where are you?!"
"Emm…eline…"
Emmeline scanned the place looking for her mother. Finally, she saw her.
She had been thrown from her wheelchair and lay weakly on the hard floor.
"Mom!" She raced next to her mother and let her head rest in her lap. "Mom, just hold on, please! The nurses will help you!"
"Where's your father?" her mother mustered out.
"I…I don't know." Emmeline looked around. "Dad! Dad!"
Her father came to a few feet away from them.
"Dad, it's Mom!"
Hearing those words, her father bolted up, forcing all of the pain out of his mind. He went over to them and took his wife's hand in his own.
"Come on, Audrey, you keep holding on, okay?"
Audrey smiled weakly. "I've held on for a long time now."
"No, please, Mom…" Emmeline cried.
"It's okay, baby. We knew it was just a matter of time. I didn't have much longer left anyway."
"But—"
"It will be okay. I promise. You're a strong, beautiful girl, and you're going to do great things. I won't ever truly leave you. You know that."
"I…I don't know what to do without you."
"You have so many good people who will be there for you. Your father and Chloe and Lana and Lois…and Clark. They'll help you just like I would."
"It's not the same! I need you!"
"I'll always be there for you. Emmeline, adopting you was the best decision your father and I ever made. I wouldn't trade a single day away that I got to spend with you. It may not be by blood, but you are more of a daughter to me than any blood relation could have to say about it."
Tears poured down Emmeline's cheeks. "Don't go…"
Audrey looked over at her husband, tears flowing from both of their eyes as well. "Nate…thank you for marrying me. You are the light of my life and always have been. I love you so much."
Emmeline's father kissed his wife's forehead. "I love you too, sweetheart. Marrying you was the happiest day of my life. I didn't know I could be any happier. Until the day we brought our daughter home."
"Look after our baby."
"I will. I will…"
"I love you both."
Her mother's eyes closed, sending two more tears down her cheeks.
Emmeline pulled her lifeless mother close to her, sobbing over her body. Her father wrapped his arms around the both of them as they both mourned their beloved wife and mother.
"I held her in my arms as she died," Emmeline said quietly. "You can't know what that's like."
Clark could not find words to say to her. He felt like anything he said would be the wrong thing to say. He felt extremely guilty because he knew that he was partly to blame for her mother's death. If he had just done as Jor-El had asked and found all the stones, the meteor shower wouldn't have happened and Emmeline could have at least gotten a few more days with her mother. He had unintentionally robbed her of those precious moments she could have had.
"It doesn't feel like she's really gone. Part of me is just waiting for her to walk through that door again. But the doctor confirmed she was dead before they could treat her. She was too weak to handle the impact of the meteor crash."
Clark wished he could say something to her. But there was nothing he could ever say that would dull the pain of losing a parent.
"She's taken a part of me with her. I miss her already. I miss her!"
Once more, Emmeline burst into tears. Clark may not have had the right words to say to her, but he could do what he did best. He could hold her when she needed someone to lean on. So that's what he did. He wrapped his arms around her and let him cry into his chest.
Clark had been rather excited about losing his powers since he had wanted to be normal ever since he could remember. But this particular feeling of powerlessness was anything but pleasant. Listening to his best friend's sobs fill the now motherless house, he desired to do something…anything…so long as it would make her smile again.
