Chapter 2: Protective Custody
The whole situation was explained to me when the sheriff's deputy arrived later in morning. There was an attacker in Smallville, prowling around and taking people. They were beaten and ultimately left for dead in various fields around the county. So far, this "Smallville Prowler" had killed two people, and I was supposedly the third victim. Yet here I was, still alive, and found by the town's resident billionaire.
The deputy explained that rather than be sent to state led foster care, Lex Luthor had offered to be my temporary guardian, and keep me in protective custody. That way, everyone could keep an eye on the girl that had gotten away from the Smallville Prowler, just in case he decided to come back and finish the job. It all seemed so far-fetched and unexplainable, but I had to remind myself that sometimes this show could be a little outlandish. It was agreed that I would stay at the Luthor mansion during the investigation, and then sent home when my family was found.
I worried about the "sent home" part of the plan. If this was like the adventures Watt created for me, then the family name of "Davis" had never existed. At least, not my branch of the family. There would be no record of me anywhere in the country. And if there was a record, I did not look forward to whatever backstory Zeed had created for it. I couldn't tell the authorities anything about my family, so it was decided that I had some sort of amnesia, or mental block from the attack. In the meantime, the important thing was my healing, and protection.
I spent the rest of the day in the hospital, with Lex popping in and out frequently to check on me. Arrangements had been made for my stay at the mansion, and extra security had been hired and added to the premises. I found it strange that Lex seemed almost excited at me staying with him.
Later in the evening, the stitches in my arm were removed, leaving a distinct scar down my left arm. The doctor bandaged it up and talked to me about after care; he talked about taking care of my cracked ribs and monitoring cuts and bruises, and that the next morning I would be discharged.
I slept soundly that night with little interruptions. It was probably a good thing, since I didn't know what sort of sleep I would get at the Luthor mansion. Once my bandage was changed again in the morning, the doctor prepared medications for pain and sleep to take with me. I was then briefed about my safety by too many people in a one-hour period. I was not to leave the Luthor Mansion without proper escort, the police were looking into the Prowler, and all would be well. Even with all the assurances, I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive about being released.
I ran a finger over the new bandage on my arm as Lex signed some paper with the hospital and police. I was staring blankly at the ground, going over, once more, what Zeed had done to me in my head. Age change, powers gone, and in a place I would never imagine myself ever being in. It made my anxiety grow more and more as I tried to think about what exactly Zeed was planning.
"Are you ready, Maddie?" Lex's voice pierced my worries, and I looked up at him as he approached me.
"Yes, sir," Lex laughed as he led me out of the hospital and to a waiting vehicle.
"You can drop the 'sir' and call me Lex, Maddie." He told me as he opened the back passenger door. "Ladies first."
I blushed and climbed into the car, buckling up as Lex got in on the other side. He signaled for the driver to go, and we pulled away from the hospital and into the heart of Smallville.
It was so strange to actually see the sights of the fictional town. I tried to connect specific places we passed to episodes I had seen of Smallville. The Talon, the flower shop, the Beanery. It all was so familiar, but it had been a long time since I had sat down and watched the show. The only things I could really point to knowing were the people, more specifically the man sitting next to me, who watched me closely before looking at the passing scenery himself.
"I think you'll be comfortable at the mansion." Lex mused aloud. I turned to look at him. "It might be a bit much." He admitted with a shrug.
"All of this is a bit much, no offense." I replied. Outside the town scenery passed into endless countryside, and Lex waited for me to go on.
"Why not put me into foster care, or official police custody?" The question had been burning in my mind since I had woken up.
Lex looked away, and for a moment I thought he wasn't going to answer my question, but he cleared his throat and sighed.
"Would you believe that I feel slightly responsible for your wellbeing?" I furrowed my brow.
"Were you the one who attacked me?" My words were slow and a little accusatory, but Lex shook his head.
"No, because I found you in one of my fields, by my factory." He explained. "When this is all over, I'll find your family and make sure you go home."
We drove the rest of the way in silence, watching the countryside pass by. I was dying on the inside, because I knew Lex wouldn't find any family for me to go home to. In the MCU I had not family to bind me somewhere. It made it easier to go adventuring with Captain America and Iron Man, and help the Avengers.
Thinking about Steve Rogers made my heart just ache. The one thing I had with Steve was that he knew my secret. He was the only one allowed to know that I wasn't from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I told him everything that Watt allowed me to tell, that in my reality he was a comic book/movie character I deeply loved. Steve was upset at first, and didn't believe me, but then he came around and kept my secret. It made my experience in that Universe a little easier to handle, because Steve and I built up a good sibling like relationship. Right then, I was greatly missing that sibling connection with Steve. I knew there was no way I was going to tell Lex Luthor that this was all a different reality, and that I was sent there by a vindictive cosmic being acting like a baby.
Five minutes later we pulled up to the Luthor Mansion, and Lex was quick to come around and open my door for me. I was hating all of this close attention, but I smiled in thanks and followed him inside. I stopped short of the entryway, floored by the dark wood flooring and elegant fixtures all over the place.
"I know it's a bit daunting, but it's home." Lex called over his shoulder when he noticed I had stopped.
"I can't thank you enough for this, I hope I'm not being a burden." Lex waved me off, but I couldn't help the awkward feeling that built up in and around me.
Even in the MCU I had a level of independence; depending on what was happening, I had free reign over going where I pleased, and didn't have to watch what I said or did. Then again, I was twenty-one when I first started out in that universe, not de-aged back to a freaking teenager! This was going to be a big challenge, and I knew that Zeed was watching (and loving) every moment of it.
"You're not a burden, I promise." Lex told me, and with that he gave me the grand tour of the mansion.
He walked me all over the house, pointing out rooms and places that I would definitely need to know how to get to. Of course, there were rooms where I wasn't permitted, and I hardly batted an eye at them. I didn't know if I was going to be staying that long to care. Despite that, I knew that I was going to get lost more than three times, and I voiced this by the time we made it to a guest room that would be mine. Lex laughed it off and assured me he would help me out until I remembered.
"We're not going to go and tour the grounds outside, are we?" I asked when he opened the door to my room and ushered me in.
"It was not on today's itinerary." He said, and I didn't hide the relieved sigh that escaped me. "I hope you find this room to your liking. There are some clothes in the closet that I hope you find suitable as well." He pointed to a door to the right of the bed, and I opened it.
It was a moderately sized walk-in closet, and there were rows of blouses and skirts hanging up. Mixed among them were some jeans and t-shirts, which I more preferred. Overall, the nice clothes looked a lot more girly than what I was used to wearing. Despite being a teacher, I had scaled back my wardrobe by the middle of the year to plain, teaching, or university t-shirts. One a regular basis I did wear business style clothes, but teaching in a pandemic had led me to be comfortable, rather than professional. Pushing past this, I told Lex that what he had gotten would be fine, and thanked him once again.
He left me to my own devices then, and I couldn't have been more relieved to have a moment to myself. Granted, I did spend that moment wandering around the room, looking at what exactly I had at my disposal.
It was a nice sized room, probably the size of a small master bedroom. It had a four-poster bed with fluffy pillows and billowing comforters. Across the room was a large bay window that looked out into the back of the yard, into the exquisite, well taken care of gardens. There were dark curtains over the windows, but they didn't wholly block out the light. To my right was another door, and I poked my head in to see an adjoining bathroom. So, this was a sort of master bedroom, I mused to myself.
I sat on the bed, taking deep breaths as I came to terms with the situation I was in. I had been placed in the reality of the hit 2000s era TV show Smallville, where a younger Clark Kent came to terms with his powers, and was friends with a younger Lex Luthor. It had been all the rage when I was in high school, and I had caught only a few episodes here and there. Zeed was right to put me in a place like this. It made me uncomfortable and unsure of myself. I couldn't worry about that right now, though, so I resolved to think of the matter later.
The rest of the day passed, and so did the night with little incident. The only issue was I had a hard time sleeping. It was all so alien to me where I was, and I couldn't get my mind to settle and feel a little comfortable. It was like a sense of nauseating déjà vu I couldn't really shake. Not only that, but I kept having weird dreams: a strange man pacing in a hotel room. Anger practically radiated off of him in waves, and when he stopped to looking into a mirror on some sort of dresser, I could only see a dark silhouette, with eyes that were a dangerous bright green.
Got away, got away, got away, got away! The words repeated painfully loud in my head. Echoing and reverberating in various levels of volume. It got so loud that I couldn't stand it, and my eyes snapped open, and I saw Lex standing right next to me bed.
"Shit!" I about jumped out of my own skin.
Lex was startled too; he took a step back and had a look of surprise on his face. After the moment of shock passed, he fought the urge to laugh at me. I watched him clear his throat a little to stop himself from doing so.
"Did not expect that sort of language, but I am sorry. I could hear you groaning and crying out in the hall." He pointed a thumb back towards the door after he had straightened up.
"Oh, um, sorry," I mumbled, rubbing sleep from my eyes.
"Nothing to be sorry about. It was kind of funny." He winked at me and I glared back at him.
I sat up in the bed and spotted a small digital alarm clock on a little table by the bed. The red LED lights told me that it was ten o'clock in the morning.
"I figured I'd let you get some rest," Lex sat down at the edge of the bed. "Were you having a nightmare?"
I rubbed the back of my neck with my left hand, and looked off to the large bay window. A part of me wanted to say no, but something about the pacing man with bright green eyes made me nervous. Plus, Lex had clearly heard me making sounds of distress. If I had my powers, I would have blown it off and then investigated myself, taking care of whatever was at the end of that path. I felt that I was at the mercy of everyone around me, and I absolutely hated it.
"It was a repeating dream, the same thing over and over again, even when I did wake up and try to shake it out. I just saw this random guy, pacing a room. He kept saying 'got away' over and over again. He was really, really angry." I chewed my bottom lip and watched Lex as he thought about what I had told him.
"Interesting," He breathed. "I'll have to let the sheriff know." I cringed a little. At the mercy, again! "Oh, that reminds me," Lex clapped his hands on his knees, and then got to his feet. "The officers brought your property back earlier this morning."
"My property?" I asked perplexedly.
"Yeah, the stuff you had on you when I found you. Get dressed, I'll mee you in my study." He gave me a knowing look, silently letting me know that this was a test to see if I remembered exactly where his study was in the house.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Challenge accepted! I rummaged t hrough the closet and managed to find a Smallville High School t-shirt: a golden yellow thing with red lettering and an image of a crow on the back. I pulled it on and a pair of worn jeans. I laced up some black tennis shoes and quickly brushed out my brown hair and pulled it into a ponytail. I worried that Lex would get the wrong impression of me, and that he spent money on the clothes, but looking closely at them, I figured he may have borrowed them from people in town.
I wonder if some of these are Lana Lang's, or even Chloe's? I thought to myself as I stepped into the hall, prepared to pass my first ever Lex Test.
I walked purposefully through the halls, only doubling back a couple of times before find the study and entering. Lex sat at his desk, fiddling with some papers, and looked up. He smiled proudly, and I couldn't help but stand a little straighter, proud of myself for passing the test.
"Simple style, I like it." He motioned at me, referring to my choice of clothing. A new blush rushed to my face; I was starting to hate that he could make me blush so easily.
"Yeah, I'm not a frilly person. Unless there's a reason to be, I guess." I looked around the study, taking in the decorations and amenities: a pool table and fire place, and a wall dedicated to bookshelves with small busts of important philosophers. I spotted a small cardboard box on a coffee table and pointed at it.
"Is that my stuff?" I asked.
"Yeah, take a look through it. I doubt you'll want the clothes, they aren't really salvageable, but there are a few things I think you'll want to keep." Lex stood up and joined me as I rummaged through the box.
I took out the ID that confirmed my name and age to the doctors and authorities. I put it in my pocket, and went through everything else that was inside. Lex had been correct in the clothes I had been wearing not being salvageable. They were covered in dirt and blood, and torn up in several places. I pushed them to the side, finding a fancy looking MP3 player and headphones. I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. It was strange, and very 2000s, but I had to remind myself that it was technically 2002 right now. I took it and laid it on top of the coffee table. I went through the pockets of the pants in the box and pulled out a few wads of money, and a folded-up piece of paper.
Right then, the phone at Lex's desk rang. He rushed to answer it, leaving me with the box of my things. I quickly unfolded the paper and looked it over quickly. At the top of the paper a name stood out in dark ink: Watt. I clutched the paper a little more, pulling it closer to my face to read the scant message that was on it.
Don't worry about me! Stay strong, there are others on your side. Take comfort in the music, and TRY everything to make it.
I read through the note several times as Lex talked on the phone behind me. In the background I could hear the conversation winding down, so I quickly refolded the note bak up and stuck it in the pocket of my jeans. I pushed the box away gently, not wanting to see the bloodied-up clothes I had been found in. I held onto the MP3 player as Lex came back and gingerly pick up the box.
"Everything good?" He asked and I nodded, smiling.
He took the box in his hands and placed it on his desk. While he did that, I absent-mindedly patted my pocket, reassuring myself that the note from Watt was still stashed there. I took a deep breath to keep myself from crying out in joy, because now I knew I still had people on the outside.
I knew that I had someone still on my side, looking out for me.