Urgent knocking filled the air at 6:30 the next morning. Lois answered the door. Her ponytail was a mess, her robe hadn't been tied and was slipping off one of her shoulders, and her eyes were half open.
"Smallville, do you know what time it is?"
"I came to pick up Lilly."
Lois gestured toward the couch, "She's asleep, although I have no idea how through all that loud knocking."
He came in and tapped her arm. "Lilly, Lilly? We have to go."
"10 more minutes, Daddy," she said, turning her face to the cushion.
"She calls you Daddy?" Lois asked in a sleepy but amused voice.
"She's half asleep. Lilly?"
At last Lilly woke up and was a little startled at her location and young-looking parents, before she remembered.
"Let's go to my house," Clark said.
"Don't I get to eat first?" Lilly asked.
"My mom will fix you breakfast."
"Smallville, what the heck is your problem? Let the girl eat. There's no rush. You want cereal?"
"Oatmeal, if you don't mind."
"In that case, you might want to fix it yourself. My oatmeal tastes more like soup."
"I like it that way."
Lois gave her a strange look, before she went to make it. Clark also gave her a strange look.
"What?" she whispered. "I'm used to eating her bad cooking. It's what I grew up on."
"You actually like your mom's cooking?"
"Not all of it. You do most of the cooking but I like Mom's soupy oatmeal."
After Lilly ate, she and Clark stood up.
"Now that breakfast is over, I'm going back to bed," Lois said. "You can see yourselves out."
Lois headed for the bedroom and Lilly and Clark headed for the door.
Once they were outside, Clark asked, "What's going on? Why are you here?"
"We should wait until we're at the farm, so nobody overhears."
Her last few words were said very slow and she wasn't looking at Clark. Clark followed her gaze and saw her looking at a young man out for a jog. The young man was smiling at her.
"What are you doing, young lady?"
"Dad, I'm 19. I'm not a little kid."
"Do you realize that he is old enough to be your father and that he is probably someone else's father in the future?"
"I didn't think about it like that. You want to super speed to Mamaw's?"
He smiled and they took off. Clark made it back first.
"Just wait until you're an old man. I'll beat you one of these days," Lilly said.
They went in. Martha was sitting at the table, waiting for them. They sat down at the table too and began the conversation.
"Zod, from my time, has taken over a body here and is trying to keep you and mom from getting together, so your children don't get born and help stop him."
"Who's body?" Martha asked.
"That's the problem. We can't really do anything until we find out. We just have to wait and look for suspicious behavior."
"You look great, Lilly. How's Jason?" Martha asked.
Lilly looked surprised. "You remember Jason?"
"He is my grandson," Martha said, laughing.
"It's just—never mind. He's fine. He's in his senior year and then he's planning on getting a degree in journalism."
"What are you studying?" Martha asked.
Lilly looked pleased at her grandmother's interest. "Art. It's really fun and I'm good at it. I'm going to be a teacher."
"That's wonderful, sweetie," Martha told her.
"Carol—" Lilly started to say.
"Who's Carol?" Martha asked.
"My little sister. There's 3 of us."
"Yeah, I remember her from a dream," Clark said.
Lilly and Martha gave him weird looks.
"Anyway, as I was saying Carol hasn't decided what she wants to be and she's already a junior. I suggested being a professional wrestler. She gets in physical fights almost every day at school and she always seems to win. I'm surprised she isn't in reform school."
"Doesn't she have an unfair advantage with her powers?" Clark asked.
"No, Carol never developed powers. Which is probably a good thing. She's the most aggressive person I know. She makes Mom look like Ghandi and that's not easy. Jason has powers but he rarely uses them to fight. He doesn't believe in using violence, unless he absolutely has too. He hasn't joined the Justice League yet. I don't think he's going to but I guess you really don't know what that is, do you? I'm still kind of hungry."
"Would you like me to fix you some eggs and bacon?" Martha asked.
She hesitated before accepting.
---
It was still fairly early in the morning, when someone else knocked on Lois' door but Lois was up this time. She hadn't been able to get back to sleep. There was a petite, blonde girl at her door.
"Can I help you?" Lois asked.
"Yeah, I'm Carol," she said, as if Lois should know who that was.
"Carol who?"
"Carol Kent."
"What is this, a Kent family reunion? If you're looking for Lilly Kent, she's at the Kent farm."
Carol started to turn away but turned back. "They didn't tell you, did they?"
"Tell me what?"
"I can't believe they're leaving you out of the loop. How many times have they tried and failed? You know why it is, don't you? It's the same reason they try to leave me out. We don't have powers. That's why Lilly got chosen and that's why I got Jor-El to send me back, vote or no family vote."
"What are you talking about?"
Carol out her arm around Lois. "I've got a lot of explaining to do."
Lois let her into the apartment. The same way she had let Lilly in last night. She wasn't usually so open to letting complete strangers invade her personal space but she got warm and protective feelings around them. It was almost the same kind of feelings she got around Martha, Clark, and Jonathan, before he died. Maybe she had a weakness for people with the name Kent.
TBC