Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except Lacey, and believe me, she wishes I didn't. Everyone else belongs to Warner Brothers, DC Comics and all sorts of people that are not little old me.

Four

"So that's how you draw a Balrog."

Jason White looked up at Lacey with a look of awe. "Wow. You're really good at that."

Lacey couldn't help but smile as she ruffled the mass amount of hair on his head. One day she was going to sneak a pair of scissors to those locks. "My mom liked to draw, so I learned from her."

"Balrogs are a little scary. Do you think Superman can beat one?"

Had it been an adult she was talking to, Lacey would have said no way in hell. The Balrog would have cracked Capeboy open like piñata all to get to the not quite candy insides.. But this was a kid. A cute little kid that looked so damn innocent. She grinned at him. "Superman doesn't have to take them on. A great and powerful wizard named Gandalf takes care of them. They can't beat him."

"Really?"

"Really. And if that doesn't work, I can scare him away with the contents of my refrigerator."

Jason made a face at her. Apparently tales of her kitchen efforts had actually spread to the child population of Metropolis. When she found out how, someone was going to be skinned alive.

"Hey, you two."

Lacey and Jason looked up to see Lois Lane and Richard White standing next to the desk. Jason practically leapt into Richard's arms with a grin that matched Richard's. "Hey, little man."

Jason's mother ruffled his hair with a serene smile. "Did you behave yourself, munchkin?"

Jason grinned and nodded. "Yeah! Lacey taught me how to draw a Balrog and how to play poker."

His parents exchanged a look and Lacey shrugged. "All I had in my drawer was a deck of cards and for the life of me, I couldn't remember how to play Snap."

After a few more polite comments and a thank you to Lacey for playing emergency babysitter for an hour and a half, the family left, leaving Lacey alone in the newsroom.

Well, not completely alone. She could hear the sound of someone typing. She looked around and noticed that Clark was at his desk. For a moment she wondered why he didn't just go home to finish his work at super speed, but then she remembered.

He'd want to be near Jason, just in case. Or maybe it was for comfort.

Lacey bit down on her lower lip while she stared at his back. Poor guy. Lacey didn't really know what to think about this world. Lois seemed even more in love with Richard then ever as of late, despite the secret of Jason's parentage. This world was a little skewed from what she thought was canon.

Maybe that was putting it lightly.

Lacey found herself wanting to help Clark out. With what, she didn't know. But she knew what it felt like to be the one that didn't belong. She was feeling it now. She picked up a piece of scrap paper and crumpled it into a ball.

Clark was either faking, or completely lost in his thoughts, because the paper ball hit him in the back of the head. He turned in his seat to see Lacey playing up the innocent act by reading a Forbes magazine with Bruce Wayne on the cover.

The act may have been more effective if the magazine wasn't in Spanish and Lacey's inability to speak anything but Lacey Speak wasn't already well known on their floor.

A tentative smile fought its way to Clark's face as Lacey dared to sneak a look at him.

It was a start, Lacey thought.