When Martha was first contacted by a second cousin she wasn't particularly fond of, for multiple reasons, she fought to keep her tone polite.

Petunia was a rather unpleasant woman who had 'opinions' of how things should be and was only tolerable in small doses. As in five minutes or less small. Martha only sent the woman Christmas cards because she was related to Petunia's mother Rose.

It was only when she read the letter that Martha dared to pick up the phone and call the number provided.

"Hello Petunia."

"Cousin Martha."

"What's this about a threat against your family?" asked Martha, getting to the point.

"I have a niece. Her mother went to a 'special' school and got involved in some rather nasty business that ended up getting her killed, leaving me with their daughter. We kept her because the headmaster of the school made some rather...unpleasant... comments about how he would have a watcher on the neighborhood and we received a rather stern reprimand the one time we attempted to leave her in a decent orphanage. The old man has made it clear he intends to interfere if we try to give her to a better family."

"Why send the letter then?"

"Vernon has been giving her looks that have me worried, and there have been a few incidents in the past three years that have me at the end of my rope. We simply can't keep her anymore, and I was hoping that sending her to a maternal cousin would fit whatever insane requirement that interfering old fool insists on while taking her far out of his sphere of influence."

No wonder Petunia was alarmed. It sounded like the girl might need a firm hand. At the very least, she had the feeling Clark might be a better influence on her.

"When do you want to try and send her our way? I can't make any promises, but we do have a spare room," said Martha.

She could hear the relief in Petunia's voice.

"Her school lets out by next month. I should be able to get a passport by then, along with a ticket. I should warn you that she does have an unusual pet bird."

"How unusual?" asked Martha. They couldn't really afford an exotic pet.

"A white owl. The thing already knows how to hunt," said Petunia.

Martha blinked. That was unusual, but owls were pretty common enough.

Martha talked things over with her husband after the call. So long as the girl behaved he had no issue with taking her in, especially after what Petunia shared about Vernon. All they knew was that Willow attended a rather exclusive school her parents went to that was lead by the same manipulative old man who all but dumped her on her aunt's doorstep in the middle of fall and that she was roughly the same age as Clark. She also had a rather unusual pet.

Clark had no idea that a new person was coming to live on the farm. Martha wanted to keep it a surprise for him. From what Petunia implied, Willow had a few secrets of her own.

A few weeks later...

Martha drove to the nearest air port to pick up Willow. Jonathan stayed behind to keep Clark company.

Martha's first impression of Willow was that she was far too skinny. The girl couldn't have been more than a hundred and fifty pounds soaking wet. She reminded Martha of a kicked puppy that was used to having really poor owners, but still held that slim thread of hope to find a decent home.

It was also clear she had no idea what was really going on.

"Are you Willow?" she asked gently, treating the girl like a skittish animal. The tone seemed to help, just a bit.

"Who are you?" she asked warily, and it made Martha's heart break a little. No child should ever sound so defensive to an innocent question.

"My name is Martha Kent. I'm Petunia's cousin through your maternal grandmother Rose Evans. She asked if my family could take you in because of certain...incidents and because they were having trouble affording two children."

"Why now? Why did she wait over a decade when I know she hated having me in her home?" asked Willow.

Martha had to mentally count to ten.

"I can't say, but she mentioned interference when she did try to leave you at an orphanage. It's likely someone else kept you in that home and that she had no choice," said Martha.

Willow seemed very unhappy hearing that, but didn't comment.

Martha tried to change the subject.

"I heard you have a pet owl."

"Hedwig? I told her to come find me once I landed. Aunt Petunia didn't bother to get a pet friendly plane and I know she would have hated being cooped up through the flight," said Willow.

Martha looked concerned.

"Are you sure that's a smart idea?"

"Hedwig can find me anywhere. Might take her a few days, but I know she'll show up sooner rather than later."

"What kind of owl is she?"

"Snow owl. She was the first present I've ever had and she's pretty patient when I need someone to vent to," said Willow.

Martha waited patiently for Willow to go through customs. There was a bit of minor confusion, mostly due to the fact Willow had zero idea she was even coming to America as Petunia had basically shoved a passport and a set of plane tickets in her hand and ordered her to board the flight.

However after about twenty minutes, Willow was putting her school trunk into the truck and cautiously getting into the passenger seat. There was a bit of a mix-up for a moment, as she got on the wrong side but that was cleared up soon enough. To be fair, she was used to English cars, which had the steering wheel on the opposite side of the car.

An hour and a half later, they drove onto the Kent family farm.

"Wait, so you didn't tell your son that I was coming or that I might be living with you?" she said amused.

"We thought it would be a fun surprise for Clark," said Martha with a laugh.

It definitely was a surprise. Clark's expression hearing that his British cousin might be moving in was pretty amusing.

Jonathan Kent was an early riser by nature. So you could imagine his confusion when he smelled the coffee already brewing despite the fact Martha was right next to him in bed.

Martha woke up to the smell as well, and looked just as confused. Clark tended to sleep in, and it wasn't even six yet. So who made the coffee?

Going downstairs revealed a half-awake Willow, reading a book.

"Willow? What are you doing up this early?" asked Martha.

"Aunt Petunia had me making all the meals. I just learned to wake up really early...it's a useful skill when you're in a boarding school with three other girls, two of which tend to hog the showers," said Willow, holding back most of a yawn.

"What time did you get up?" asked Martha. Johnathan merely helped himself to some coffee. Now that he was up, there was no point in going back to sleep since he would be working in less than an hour.

"I think five-thirty. I normally get up at five-fifteen, but I was a bit jet-lagged."

Martha sat down next to her, with another cup of coffee.

"Clark doesn't get up until at least six-thirty, and Jonathan usually takes the extra time before sunrise to read the paper. Besides, I know you're still jet-lagged from the trip," said Martha.

Willow tried to hide her yawn, but wasn't very successful.

"Go back to sleep Willow. It's not healthy for a girl your age to try and work through jet lag," said Martha, using the "Mom" voice.

Willow blinked, but obeyed the order. She was out like a light the second her head hit the pillow.

Jonathan and Martha shared a look. It was obvious from the start that Willow had a rough childhood, but she was still a good child like Clark. They just needed to get her used to the idea that she didn't have to be so guarded all the time.

A week later...

Getting Willow used to the farm was both easier than Martha predicted, and a challenge they weren't expecting.

It was easy, because Willow was very similar to Clark in several ways and didn't complain about the work or having to do chores.

It was difficult, because Willow was showing a lot of signs that she had been abused and neglected for a very long time and that her trust had been broken more than once by the adults in her life. Fortunately she still opened up a bit to Clark, but trying to get her to admit anything about her previous home life was like pulling teeth without pain killers involved...or straps.

So you could imagine Clark's surprise when he was putting out hay bales...only to look up and find a massive, if rather majestic, white bird staring him down.

"Um...hi?" he said confused. It didn't look native at all.

"Prek!"

Clark didn't speak owl, and he thought the talons on that thing were sharper than they had any right to be. He knew he could probably handle anything it tried to do to him, but he worried about Willow.

Of course his luck seemed to be against him, because Willow came outside to find out what was taking him so long.

"Willow, watch out! There's a large bird..." Clark started to warn her, but what she said next had him doing a double take.

"Hedwig!"

The white bird took off, and to his complete disbelief it landed perfectly on Willow's closed fist. She easily transferred it to her shoulder, where it sat calmly and without any hints of aggression outside of preening her hair.

Clark was dumbfounded.

"Willow... you know this bird?"

"She's my owl. I thought your mom said I had an unusual pet?"

Clark vaguely recalled his mother telling him something of that nature, but he thought it had to go through customs first.

"Why an owl?" he asked finally.

"A friend gave her to me. You know how some people train falcons to catch small animals? She has roughly the same training, though she can also deliver letters."

"You're kidding," said Clark.

"Nope. It's rather common in Europe to use owls to deliver the mail in certain areas," said Willow. "If you want to pet her, you can...she's tame so long as she likes you."

Clark had never petting a large bird before...the chickens were more livestock than pets. But he had to admit, he could see some of the appeal stroking Hedwig's feathers.

And he managed to hide his amusement at the reaction his parents had to Willow's pet. Once they calmed down and realized that Hedwig really was trained, they learned to ignore her presence. Willow was very meticulous when it came to taking care of her pet bird.

Martha looked at Clark.

"Have you seen Willow recently?"

Clark blinked.

"I thought she headed back to the house an hour ago."

Martha started to get worried, but thirty minutes later Willow came back looking a little irritable. Her owl flew ahead of her, before landing on a post.

"Where were you?"

"I got lost," said Willow. "Why?"

"Wandering off alone is dangerous! What if you got hurt?" scolded Martha.

"I would have had Hedwig send a note. I always carry a pencil and a small note pad on me," said Willow dismissively. "Besides, I had her lead me to Clark, so I found my way back eventually."

Clark winced at the look on his mother's face. He wisely backed away in the hopes he wouldn't be in the line of fire.

Willow looked more confused than anything over why Martha read her the riot act for wandering off alone, since she was still getting used to the farm. If she had been in England no one would have cared unless she stayed gone for over twelve hours, if that.

Willow was sitting on the edge of the roof, looking very confused as to Martha's reaction to the fact she had been missing for close to two hours.

"Penny for your thoughts?" asked Clark, sitting next to her.

"Why did she react like that?" asked Willow.

"She was worried about you. We had no idea where you were and you could have been seriously hurt," explained Clark.

Willow looked at him baffled.

"Seriously? Back in England no one would have paid a bit of attention to the fact I went wandering around for a couple of hours. I know my aunt is probably happy that there's a strong chance I won't come back, after all."

Clark wisely said nothing about that.

"She only got mad because she cares. After all, you're not used to the area or the local dangers like snakes and since we didn't know where you were there was a high chance you could have gotten hurt."

Willow snorted.

"Snakes are the last thing I need to be worried about. And I've dealt with a few bumps and bruises before. If I had gotten hurt, I would have sent Hedwig to let you know I would be late getting back or something. A sprain is hardly the worst injury I had to deal with over the years."

"How does it feel being grounded?" asked Clark.

"You mean how exactly do I feel about the fact I'm not allowed to go anywhere for the next two weeks without you or your parents as an escort and the fact I'm basically confined to visual range of the farm?" she asked snorting. "At most I'll find a place to read your school books...your mum has been hinting that she's seriously considering enrolling me at Smallville High School when the term starts."

Clark oddly looked forward to that. Though Willow hadn't been at the farm long, he already thought of her as a little sister, one that needed to be loved and protected.

"So what were you really doing for the past two hours?"

Willow blinked and looked at him.

"There's no way you would have gotten 'lost' on the way back to the house. You know that path well enough not to take a wrong turn and it was a straight walk back," said Clark.

Willow wilted a bit.

"I contacted the bank that has my inheritance to let them know I was seriously considering staying here. I'm sick of that bloody school in Scotland and if I went back they'd only send me to the Dursleys again, regardless of whether your mum signed the custody papers or not. They sent a representative to discuss moving the bulk of my finances to America, or at least the closest branch."

"Why didn't you tell mom that?" asked Clark.

Willow winced.

"I don't think your parents understand the true ramifications of taking me in," she said.

Clark waited expectantly, so Willow took out a necklace that had been partially hidden by her shirt. It took him a moment to see two distinct rings that looked both old and very expensive.

"I'm nobility twice over thanks to my dad. Since he's gone and I'm still technically a minor, I have to do most of the arrangements myself so that I can still claim my titles when I reach my majority. Your mum isn't actually qualified to handle the details, since she's not my legal guardian yet," explained Willow. "Particularly if I wish to continue my education."

Clark was stunned silent. His little cousin was a noble?!

Willow shivered, as she only had a light shirt on. She carefully got up and went back inside...Clark did the same soon after. Willow had given him a lot to think about, some of it less than pleasant like the fact she basically implied no one had cared enough to scold her for going missing for hours at a time back in England.