Emmeline grabbed her macchiato from the counter, needing something a little stronger than her usual vanilla bean frappucino today. With a deep breath, she slowly walked to the center of the Talon and sat down across from her biological mother.
The air between them was so thick that Emmeline wondered if all of the patrons could sense the high tension.
"So…" she started, silently berating herself for the horrible way to begin the conversation.
"Emmeline, this is a weird situation," Hannah said gently. "There's no way to sugarcoat it. And…I know that's my fault. I messed up the last time I was here. I can't…undo what I did then, but I can try to do better this time."
"Let's just…completely start over. A clean slate."
"That sounds good. So, you're a sophomore in college now, right?"
"Well, sort of. I had so many credits transfer over when I graduated high school that I'm getting my degree next month."
"That's amazing! What are you studying?"
"Psychology. I'm interning at a clinic in Metropolis, so with the hours I'm putting in, I'm hoping to get licensed for counseling within the next year."
"Wow, I'm impressed."
"What do you do up in New York?"
"I'm an administrative assistant at one of the local elementary schools. It's not very glamorous, I know, but I do enjoy it."
"Do you live in the city?"
"No, I'm about three hours out, which is fine with me. The city is much too crowded for my taste. But I do go and catch a show every now and then if I have the time and money. Which to be honest, isn't very often."
Emmeline took a deep breath and then asked the question she'd been wanting to ask since she'd first called Hannah telling her she wanted to form a relationship with her. "Can you tell me about my dad?"
Hannah's eyes darkened the exact same way they had the first time Emmeline had ever asked that question.
"It's-It's fine if you don't want to talk about him."
"It's not that. It's just…complicated."
If she had a dollar for every time someone told her that. "Complicated how?"
Hannah took a large breath and let it out slowly. "Your father…well, he…"
Emmeline jumped when her phone suddenly rang. She groaned and looked at who could be calling at the worst possible time. To her surprise, it was Chloe. "I should take this."
"Oh, of course."
She got up from her seat and moved towards the Talon's entrance. "Hello?"
"Hey, Em," Chloe said over the phone. "I know you're meeting with your mom this morning, so you know I wouldn't be calling if it wasn't important."
"I know. What's going on?"
"It's Lex. He's missing."
"Again? And not to be callous, but why does this warrant a phone call right now?"
"It's less about Lex and more about supporting Lana."
"Fair enough. What happened?"
"A bomb went off in the tunnels underneath the city, and right now, no one can get in to retrieve him."
"There's tunnels underneath the city? How did a bomb get down there?"
"According to Clark, a woman is holding Lex hostage for some reason out of the million there are."
"How does Clark know that?"
"Lionel was down in the tunnels when the bomb went off. Clark talked to him just as he got to the hospital."
Emmeline ran her hand over her face. "All right, are you at the site right now?"
"Yeah."
"I'm on my way." She closed the phone and looked up at the ceiling. "Today of all days." Emmeline returned to the table where Hannah was waiting. "I'm so, so sorry, but something came up. I wouldn't leave if this wasn't important."
"Oh, no, I completely understand. We can just reschedule for later this week, okay? I have an open ticket, so I can leave whenever I need to."
"Thanks. I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Just go."
Emmeline snatched up her coffee and quickly exited the Talon to go down to the LuthorCorp site where the bomb had gone off.
She walked through the chaotic area where ambulances, police officers, and bomb squad members patrolled the entire site, trying to do their best to rectify this sudden situation.
"Chloe!" she called.
The blonde turned around at the sound of her name.
"Hey, anything happen since you called?"
"No, but Clark's on his way." She then noticed the very man in question approaching them. "Speak of the devil."
"Chloe, any news on Lex?" Clark asked.
"No, and the police captain just nixed the rescue efforts until they can de-bomb the area."
"That could take forever. Lionel said these tunnels are endless."
"Which means Lex and our G.I. Jane will be long gone before they get through all that debris."
"So Lionel was right. Lex could die if I don't go down there."
"Well, don't look to me for encouragement. After what he did to my mom, I don't mind the idea of him cohabitating with the rats for all of eternity."
"Trust me, Chloe. Lately, I've had moments where I thought the world would be a better place without him, but…"
"You don't get to choose who you're gonna save. Not if you're Clark Kent."
"Besides, whatever's in those tunnels may be the first step in taking Lex down."
"Then I suggest you beat the bomb squad to the entrance and human-wrecking-ball your way in before anyone can see you."
Clark looked towards the bomb squad members who were preparing to enter the tunnels.
"Hey, Clark," Emmeline said. "Um, be careful. You know how desperate Lex is to find out the truth about you. Try not to make him even more suspicious if you can."
"Aren't you supposed to be meeting with your mom today?"
"This seemed like it took priority."
"I'm sorry. I know how important this was to you."
"It's nothing that can't wait one more day. You, however, don't have that luxury."
Clark nodded and discreetly headed towards the tunnel's entrance.
Only minutes later, another explosion rocked the entire site.
Emmeline worriedly looked at Chloe. "That can't be good."
An hour passed.
Which was far too long for Clark to be down inside the tunnels, even if he was hiding his abilities from Lex. With each passing minute, Emmeline grew more and more anxious that something was dreadfully wrong.
"Hey, Clark, it's me again," Chloe said over the phone. "Where are you? I feel like your stalker ex-girlfriend." She closed her eyes in embarrassment when she realized what she'd just said. "Uh, even though I was never your girlfriend. It was just an analogy. A bad one. I'm sorry. This is awkward. Okay, call me. Bye."
Emmeline smiled a little. "I'd love to see his face when he hears that message."
"Whatever."
"Hold up," one of the bomb squad members called. "That second blast dropped another ten feet of rubble."
"Does that mean you haven't found Lex Luthor?" Chloe asked, quickly walking up to the man. "Have you found anyone yet?"
"The inner tunnels caved. After those explosions, the whole area's completely unstable. There's no way anyone's getting in there by hand."
Chloe's brow furrowed when she noticed something green on the man's shoulder and she reached out to touch it. "What's on your vest?"
"Dust from meteor rocks. It's all over the place down there."
Emmeline's heart plummeted into the ground as she met Chloe's equally terrified eyes. If there were meteor rocks down in the tunnels, then Clark wasn't going to be able to save anyone, including himself.
Emmeline stunned herself when she realized that the first person she wanted to talk to about all of this wasn't her best friend standing right next to her.
She wanted to call Oliver.
Of course, that was ridiculous and impossible. If she called Oliver about something like this when it wasn't remotely related to her training, he might stop the lessons altogether, and she definitely couldn't let that happen. Besides, they'd only had four lessons so far. Why on earth would she want to call him?
"Emmeline?"
Emmeline quickly turned around and saw her mother walking towards her. "Hannah? What are you doing here?"
"I turned on the news back at my hotel and saw what was going on. I figured this was where you ran off to. I thought I could come down and, you know, offer my support. But…I can leave if you want me to."
"No. No, please stay."
"Any updates?"
"It's Clark. He went inside to help, and we haven't heard from him since. I…I don't know if he's even still alive."
"Don't do that. Don't start thinking about the worst-case scenarios yet."
Chloe came up beside her. "Hey, we should go to the Luthor mansion and see how Lana's doing and find out if she knows anything."
"Okay, good idea." She turned to Hannah. "Can you stay here and call me if anything happens?"
"Of course," Hannah answered.
"Thank you. We'll be back as soon as we can!"
"Hey, I've been calling you all morning," Chloe said urgently as she and Emmeline burst into the main room of the mansion. "I thought you'd be with search and rescue."
Lana sat at Lex's desk and slowly closed the laptop she'd been using. "I thought I'd be more useful here. Any news?"
Chloe looked at her suspiciously at her unusually calm demeanor. "No, that's the problem. Because I'm not a Luthor, no one will talk to me. What have they told you?"
"That they'll tell me when they know something."
"Crap. Lana, Clark went into those tunnels a little while ago, and we haven't heard from him since."
For the first time, Lana looked concerned, and she walked around to the front of the desk. "Clark's down there?"
"He went down to help, and now even the bomb squad can't find a way in."
"But he'll be okay, right?"
"I don't know."
"But he's…I mean, he's Clark."
Emmeline recalled the conversation she'd had with Lana at the hospital. She wasn't sure which parts of Clark's secret she knew, but now wasn't the time to bait them about it.
"Chloe—" Lana started.
"Lana, whatever it is that you know or think you know about Clark, he's not invincible. He has a—"
"Weakness."
"Look, Lana, he will die if we don't find a way in there soon."
Lana sighed and then said somewhat reluctantly, "I think I know another way in." She quickly went back to the desk and opened up the laptop. Using Lex's username and password, she logged herself in and revealed several confidential documents and folders.
"Exactly when did you learn how to pole-vault over Lex's firewall?" Chloe asked.
"I figured that if Lex was gonna look over my shoulder, it was time for me to start looking over his." She clicked on one of the files and a map appeared on the screen.
"Are those the blueprints for the tunnels?"
Lana looked at her hardly.
"You were sitting on the Holy Grail all morning, and you didn't tell anyone?"
"I thought you said there wasn't much time."
"If you'd showed someone this sooner, then we wouldn't have spent the last two hours worrying if Clark was still alive," Emmeline told her.
"Then let's not waste any more time worrying."
Emmeline agreed that now wasn't the time to discuss this, but she wasn't about to let Lana off the hook so easily.
Quickly looking over the blueprints, the three of them found another entrance to the tunnels where the bomb squad could go in and find the two missing people below.
Once the police and the bomb squad were alerted to the second entrance, everyone got into their cars, one of them containing the three young women, and raced there as fast as they could. Only seconds away, another blast rang out and Emmeline could see fire spew out of the very entrance they were driving towards. She felt like she might be sick.
They were too late.
As soon as the car stopped a few feet away from the grated entrance, Lana, Chloe, and Emmeline hopped out of it.
Relief flooded through Emmeline's entire body when she saw Clark getting up off the ground right next to the entrance. Without wasting another second, she ran over to him.
"Clark!" she called.
Clark barely had time to turn around before Emmeline threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
"I thought you were dead," she said softly. "When we heard there were meteor rocks down there…" She pulled away and saw his singed shirt and the dried blood all down his left arm. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I'm fine," he assured. "I draw power from the sun, so as soon as I got out into the daylight, everything healed."
It was then she realized that he was glancing behind her. She followed his line of sight right at Lana. Emmeline knew she shouldn't feel hurt when Clark was alive and Lana had been the one to help find him, but the now-familiar painful feeling in her gut told her that she hurt all the same.
"I'm glad you're all right."
She began walking towards Chloe, pausing for a moment to witness Lana run up to him and caress his arm before remembering that it was supposed to be Lex that she hugged first.
Hannah stepped out of one of the arriving cars and headed towards her. "Did Clark make it out?"
"Yeah. He and Lex are a little worse for wear, but they're going to be okay."
"That's great news. How are you?"
"I'm just relieved. Hannah, before we were interrupted, you were going to tell me about my dad. Do you think we could head back to the Talon and finish that conversation?"
"Look, Emmeline…I want to tell you about your father, but…I just need you to give me some time, okay?"
"Okay."
"He loved you though. I can tell you that."
Emmeline's throat ached. If he'd loved her, then why had he left? She wanted to know so much more, but she knew Hannah wouldn't answer her questions yet. How long would she have to wait?
"I will go buy us some more coffee though. Something tells me that you need it."
"Sounds good."
That evening, Chloe was back at the second entrance to the tunnels, looking over the blueprints for them and trying to piece together the reason they existed.
"Chloe," Clark called, all cleaned up from his adventure that morning. "I've x-rayed these tunnels over a dozen times. They all just seem to lead to Reeves Dam."
"Maybe so, but if Lex was willing to go up against Tomb Raider for them, I can't retire my reporter's notebook just yet."
"I still don't understand how you thought to come out here. Lex said no one knew about those tunnels, not even—"
"Lana?"
"…She led search and rescue out here?"
Chloe nodded once.
"I guess I had it all wrong. This whole time, I thought that Lex had forced her into that marriage, but…now I don't think he did."
"Don't give up on your hunch just yet, Clark. Lana knew about the other entrance to those tunnels the whole time, and it wasn't until she heard you were down there that she magically produced them."
"Lana was gonna let Lex die down there?"
"I think the Luthor mansion has a lot more secrets than we realize."
"Today, we begin working on your physical combat," Oliver stated, tossing Emmeline two boxing gloves. "You can't think that archery was the only thing I was going to teach you."
"I guess I had a feeling it was coming eventually."
Oliver slid on two punching mitts. "All right, fifty punches with the left hand, fifty with the right."
Emmeline weakly punched his left hand with her right.
"That was pathetic."
"Thanks."
"Do you honestly believe you're going to hurt me?"
"Cut me some slack, it's the first day I'm doing this."
"I have never cut you slack, and I don't plan on starting now. Here's what might help. Say one thing you're angry about, and then punch."
"That's kind of personal."
"There are no boundaries in this relationship. I thought you knew that by now. And I watched you waltz in here carrying at least five pounds of baggage. If you don't let it out, you're not going to be able to focus. So let's have it."
Emmeline sighed and held up her hands again. "I…am upset that my meeting with my mom got interrupted by Lex being in trouble yet again."
One punch.
"I hate that my own mother is a complete stranger to me."
One punch.
"I hate that she still won't tell me about my father after all this time."
One punch.
"I'm so angry with both of them for giving me up."
Two punches.
"I feel guilty for feeling that way because I love both of my adoptive parents more than anything."
Two punches.
"I am so tired of pining after Clark when I know he will never like me the same way I like him."
Two punches.
"I hate that he has reduced me to this. To some girl longing for something she can never have."
Two punches.
"I'm sick of constantly hearing about how much he loves Lana."
Three punches.
"I hate that he doesn't even see me when she's in the same room."
Three punches.
"I hate that this entire year, I have tried to be Lana's friend and get her to understand things from a different perspective, and she throws it all back in my face."
Four punches.
"I hate how she can say and do pretty much anything she wants and no one calls her out on it!"
Four punches.
"I hate how much he loves her because right now, I don't even understand why he loves her!"
Five punches.
"I hate that I will never be good enough for him when I know that I am good enough for him!"
Six punches.
Emmeline dropped her hands, sweat beginning to form on her temples.
"Better?" Oliver asked.
"Am I a terrible person for saying all this?"
"We're in a judgmental-free zone. While you're getting your anger out, you can say whatever you want."
Emmeline smiled a little and held her hands up again. "Good to know."
"You know, for the record, having feelings for someone doesn't make you weak, even if that someone doesn't have the same feelings for you. You have a lot of well-earned confidence because as much as you like Clark, you haven't let yourself be defined by how he feels about you. I don't think he's 'reduced' you to anything."
