Clark hadn't shown up for two weeks. By the second week, Kara seemed worried about it. Though Hailey had no idea why. Kara never spoke to Clark when he visited her. Not only that but her employer was Lex Luthor. He was also Hailey's guardian even though she hadn't seen hide or hair of the man. Even the phone calls had stopped. But Clark had been faithful on Sunday evenings.

The last time Hailey had seen Clark he'd been proud of the progress she was making in therapy. She'd even given him the good news that she'd completed high school. Lex had provided a tutor for her. Outside of her therapy sessions and forced participation in group interactions in which she only had to be present for half an hour, she had all the time in the world. Time which she dedicated to her coursework. She was always two lessons ahead by the time the tutor returned. To her surprise, the tutor gave her more work. Whether the tutor intended to slow her down or encourage her drive, Hailey didn't know. Regardless, she finished high school at a record pace according to the tutor. And he had her applying to colleges.

Hailey sat on her bed with her acceptance letter to the University of Metropolis. She wanted to share the news with Clark but the time he usually arrived for his Sunday visit came and went. Right as she was about to give up hope, there was a knock on her door. Kara was out for the evening so Hailey opened the door herself. She was extremely surprised to see Conner. She hadn't seen him since Dick's wedding. But then she frowned. Clark hadn't arrived and Conner, who was also Superboy, was sent in his stead. A movement in the corner of her eye alerted her to another presence. A young boy who couldn't be older than eight. He was fidgeting nervously but was smiling at her.

"Conner, what's going on? Where's Clark?" Hailey said before she noticed the dumbfounded look on Conner's face. She hadn't seen Conner since Dick's almost wedding.

"Hailey?" Conner said in disbelief. "How long have you been here?"

"What?" Hailey said with a small shake of her head. "What does that matter? Where's Clark?"

"Hailey, you were missing. Still missing," Conner said gesturing to her emphatically.

"My dad's on a mission," the boy said and Conner nudged him. "What? Isn't that why mom sent us? So that we could tell her that dad was okay and stuff?"

"Mom?" Hailey said curiously. "Is he your brother?"

"No," Conner said with a shake of his head. "This is Jonathan. He's Clark's son."

"Conner is sort of like my uncle," Jonathan said with a grin.

"That's cool. I've never had an uncle," Hailey told him and gestured for them to come into the room. Jonathan started snooping as soon as he entered the space. Conner stood with his arms crossed and waited for Hailey to close the door.

"You can share mine," Jonathan said absentmindedly while he read the acceptance letter Hailey left on the bed. "Who's Helena?"

"That's mine," Hailey said and snatched the letter from the boy's hand.

"But why did Uncle Conner call you Hailey?"

"Why is your name Helena? Did you change it to hide from your family?" Conner said accusingly.

"Hailey doesn't exist anymore Conner," she told him in an angry tone.

"What do you mean?" Conner said walking towards her. "Tell me what's going on. Why are you here? And why didn't Clark tell anyone?"

"What's going on?" Hailey said angrily. Conner didn't know anything about her. And here he was being judgmental about things she had no control of. "Why don't you tell me, Conner?"

"You ran away, Hailey," Conner said looked away from her. He couldn't keep looking at her if he wanted to keep his temper in check. "Everyone was looking for you. I don't think Tim or Dick have stopped looking, to tell you the truth. And you've been hiding under an assumed name? Why would you do this to your family?"

"Okay, sure. Let's go with the 'Hailey ran away' story. Maybe I did leave Dick's place in the middle of the night because Barbara was threatening to break up with him if he didn't send me back to Bruce. But that's where I went, Conner. Back to Bruce's house. You know, the man who was supposed to be my dad. So I didn't exactly run away. I actually ran back home even though I knew Bruce didn't want me back. And a funny thing happened before I even set foot in the mansion, I followed a man who was running from the manor thinking it was Bruce. But it was some other lunatic with a gun. When I finally managed to get away from him, I came back in time to be arrested because someone had killed Vesper in the mansion. From the look on Bruce's face, he thought it was me. I couldn't blame him. I was covered in blood and holding a gun. But while I was in the interrogation room at the GCPD, the cops were trying to get me to say that it was Bruce or Sasha that had either killed Vesper or told me to do it," Hailey took a breath and turned in time to see Conner staring at her as if she'd gone insane. "What? What part of the story don't you believe?"

"I didn't know any of that," Conner said.

"No, of course, you didn't," Hailey said sitting on her bed in exasperation. "It doesn't get any better from there. So I'll give you the cliff notes. I asked for Dick to be present before I answered any of their questions. When the cops left me alone, a woman posing as a CPS worker kidnapped me. She kept me imprisoned until I managed to escape. And I've been here since then because the doctors told Lex that I needed therapy to be able to reintegrate into society since I had lived through a harrowing event."

"Lex? As in Lex Luthor?" Conner said through gritted teeth.

"Isn't he like your other dad or something?" Jonathan said curiously as he rummaged through Hailey's desk. Conner shot him a look that the boy didn't notice.

"Yeah, he's my legal guardian now that Hailey Thomas was erased from existence. He recognized me when he saw me. He contacted Bruce to tell him where I was but according to Bruce, he never had a daughter named Hailey," she said with a fierce glare. "I didn't do anything to my family, Conner. Since, according to Bruce, I never had one."

"Lex could've been lying to you," Conner said sympathetically.

"Except that Clark confirmed what Lex told me. Is Clark lying too?"

"But that's not possible," Conner said with a small shake of his head.

"Mom says that Bruce is an asshole," Jonathan said as he turned the pages of a textbook. Then he shot Conner a pleading look. "But don't tell dad I said that!"

Conner sighed. "Maybe Bruce is but Dick and Tim, they haven't given up on you, Hailey. Can I tell them where you are so that they can come to see you? They'll be relieved to know you're here and safe."

Hailey shrugged. "I don't know if I'm ready to believe that."

Conner walked up to her slowly and hugged her. "I'm happy you're safe and I'm sorry about everything you had to go through. If we would've found you sooner…"

Hailey pulled away from him. "You wouldn't have been able to find me. I was in a place that kept me hidden from Superman. How would you have found me?"

Conner's eyes widened. Jonathan too looked over at her and then closed his eyes with his fists tightened.

"I'm not ready to see them," Hailey said and wrapped her arms around her middle. "I need time to think about what you said. But if you want to tell them that I'm safe, I wouldn't mind."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Conner said with a small nod.

"I'm sorry, too," Jonathan said and walked up to the bed where she was sitting. He reached out for a hug and Hailey picked him up to hug him.

"Thanks, kid."

"Hey, if you're my dad's goddaughter does that mean you're sorta my sister?"

"Um," Hailey said and chuckled. She settled Jonathan on the bed beside her. "I don't think it works that way. But maybe it does sorta make us family. Like cousins?" She looked over at Conner. But he shrugged in response.

"Cool!" Jonathan gestured to the letter. "Does that mean you're moving to Metropolis?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Awesome!" Jonathan said and jumped up. "And you can come to visit and we can go to the park and…" He continued to list things one after another. Hailey grinned and Conner smiled at the young boy.


Tim didn't know what to make of the words that Conner had just spoken. Had he really heard him right? Had he really just said that Hailey was safe? Safe?! What the hell did that mean?! How was she safe? And why didn't Conner bring proof of life? Was it really that hard to provide that? Conner wouldn't say anything else. Tim didn't know how Conner knew that Hailey was safe. But he was going to get it out of him one way or another.

"Tim?" Conner said in a weak voice. "Why are you doing this?"

Tim had a piece of kryptonite out and was watching Conner squirm on the floor of his bedroom. They were in San Francisco, at the Teen Titans tower. Tim had locked the door to his bedroom and he knew no one would be able to get in or out. Conner Kent was at his mercy and if he didn't tell Tim everything he knew, things would definitely get worse for him.

"I know you have more information, Conner."

"And I told you that Hailey wasn't ready for you to know more," Conner said through gritted teeth. "She's safe. I thought you would be happy to know that!"

Tim sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. He put the kryptonite away.

"I am," Tim said resigned. He sat on his bed and stretched out a hand to help Conner up. "But she's been missing for so long that I was starting to think she was dead, Conner. I need more information. I need to know how you know what you know. I need to know where she's been. Because I never bought the story that she ran away. She wouldn't have done that. She loved Dick. And Dick...I've never seen him so broken. After what happened with Jason, I never thought…" Tim stopped talking. He took in a short breath and looked up at the ceiling. "I never thought Bruce could fall even deeper. He's a shell of who he once was. I never even see Bruce anymore. Only ever interact with Batman. Why do you think I'm always over here instead of Gotham? Why Cass decided to move to Hong Kong? She has a sister she never met and a dad who can't bring himself to treat her like a daughter. Please, Conner. Help me help my family." Tim said and looked at Conner with tear-filled eyes. "Tell me something else about Hailey other than she's safe!"

"She's in a trauma center," Conner said with a drawn-out sigh. Tim stared at him mouth agape. "She didn't run away, she was kidnapped. And she managed to escape. That's all I know about that. She didn't want to talk about what she's been through. But she seems happy. She's planning to go to college once she's released. And there are a few other things that she found out about that have kept her from reaching out to her family."

"What other things?" Tim said quickly. He was absorbing everything Conner was saying and wanted to know as much as he could before he would be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Did you know that Lois says that Bruce is an asshole?"

"Um, no," Tim said confused about the non-sequitur. Though Tim was aware that that was the impression most people had of Bruce or Batman; both, really. That was neither here nor there. Tim gave Conner an annoyed glance.

"Well, she's right. He is," Conner said. "But maybe he wouldn't be if he knew the truth, I imagine." Conner turned so that his knee came up to rest on top of the bed and he was facing Tim fully. "Look, Hailey is in a good place. She just isn't ready to see you or Dick. But when she is, she will reach out to you. And if I'm not mistaken, you will respect her decision because if you don't, Tim, you might lose her forever."

"I don't understand."

"She's hurt. And it's not my place to tell you why," Conner said with a sigh. "I told her that you and Dick haven't stopped looking for her. And she believed me. That was the only reason she let me tell you she was safe. Everything else I told you, I shouldn't have. And now I'm going to feel guilty every time I see her." Tim shot him a disbelieving look. "If I see her again. And no, I'm not telling you where she is."

"I get it," Tim said and away from him.

"Look, I understand. Family is important. Just next time, don't go straight for the kryptonite, man. That was harsh!"

"I know," Tim said and smiled at him softly. It was a guilty-but-not-really kind of smile. "I am sorry. I overreacted. But I'll make it up to you."

"How?"

"I found an offshore lab that belongs to a subsidiary of LexCorp we can destroy."

Conner raised an eyebrow. But then he thought back to how Lex was helping Hailey. He shook his head.

"It depends," Conner said softly. "What are they doing in that lab?"

"I haven't gotten that far into my investigation. I thought you would want to thrash it while we figured that out."

"Pass."

Tim's eyebrows shot up.

"Not everything Lex does is bad. I mean, I'm only alive because of him. And I'm sure he's done other good things," Conner said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Tim said with a soft chuckle. He never thought he would see the day that Conner would lose a bit of resentment he had for Lex Luthor. But Tim couldn't help but feel about it. Because holding onto bad feelings of any kind was never a good thing. He learned that from watching Bruce. He hoped he never became that bitter and was glad that Conner was ready to move past his own feelings no matter how apt they were considering who those feelings were directed at. "Maybe a few." Tim looked down at his phone. "I need to call Dick."

"Alright," Conner said standing up and heading to the door. "Better you than me."

"Yeah, thanks," Tim said without any real bite. He sighed heavily and then brought the phone to his ear. He was glad he was on the opposite coast. It would be harder to shoot the messenger if the messenger wasn't even in the vicinity.