11 years later
Something was up with Danielle lately and Lucas could literally feel it when he was around her, part of the DNA thing but you could just feel not know, and was intent to find out. Unfortunately a half human half kyrptonian female who happened to have Kent/Luthor genes was about as easy to figure out as the combination to Fort Knox. One minute he was finding out he was pregnant, with twins no less, and the next his baby girl was a full fledged 17 year old. Usually she was easy to get along with and open. Lately she was quiet and withdrawn. He and Clark had tried to figure it out, without her knowing of course, but to no avail, although it wasn't like Clark was around much lately anyway. Clark's Superman duties were taking him away from both home and work more and more over the last few months. It annoyed Lucas but what could he do about it except make sure the kids were taken care of?
One Monday after a particularly rough soccer match against Granville the Luthor family, sans Clark, since he was called off on Superman duty and probably wouldn't be back until after the kids were asleep, walked into the castle. This was the girls biggest soccer match of the season, Danielle had a sprained wrist and a bruised calf muscle, Lillian was one giant bruise, it was a bad game but they won, all of the adults had hoped Clark would show up but weren't too surprised when he didn't. Lucas doubted he even remembered the girls had a game today. Chris, Danielle and Julian's long time friend was with them, he had known about their powers and Clark and for a long time. Alexander and Julian headed for the TV room right away.
Julian's voice could be heard through the castle. "DAD'S ON TV AGAIN!"
The two remaining girls and Chris picked up the pace a little to watch Clark on TV, the adults followed close behind.
"Alright boys and girls place your bets." Alex said as his sister and cousin and their friend walked into the room.
"Tsunami." Julian said.
"Earthquake." Came Danielle.
"Forest fire." Chris added.
"Meteor." Alex.
"Volcano." Lillian.
The adults watched in amazement as their kids continued their ritual of betting on Clark's latest rescue. But something ever more interesting caught Chloe's eye. "Lucas." She whispered as she nudged her brother in law.
"What?"
"Look." She motioned with her chin to where Danielle was standing next to Chris who was lightly running his fingertips up and down the small of her back in a comforting gesture. "I didn't know they were dating."
He shrugged. "It's news to me. Lex?" Lucas looked to Lex hopefully for an answer.
"Oh she's not going to tell me anything about dating and boys." Lex answered with a chuckle. "Face it little brother, your little girl is all grown up."
They stopped talking when the television anchor came on the television. "This is Shelly Weatherby live from Japan where Superman has just saved an entire village from a volcano."
"Pay up suckers!" Lilli threw her hands in the air and cheered. "It pays to watch the weather channel." The rest of the teens grumbled as they forked over their cash. "Thank you very much all. Let's do this again sometime." The red head turned and walked out of the room with her winnings.
"God Dani you're 0 for 4 this week." Julian chided his sister from the couch.
She just shrugged and walked out of the room cradling her sprained wrist in the other arm.
Chris looked between Dani and Julian quickly. "I have to go ask her about a story for the paper. I'll be back in a minute."
"K, later man. Guard your nuts, she's in a mood." Julian gave his friend a wave and turned the TV off.
Chloe and Lex had already left the room. "Hey Alex can I talk to Julian for a minute?" Lucas asked his nephew.
"K. Are we still playing Halo later?" Alex asked his cousin.
"Yeah, unless the power goes out." He joked, even with a power outage the boys would not be denied video games.
Lucas sat down next to his son. "How much has she lost?"
"This week or in her lifetime?"
"This week."
"One hundred."
"Dollars?" Lucas asked astonished. "It's only Monday!"
"Well it's not like we play for candy dad." Julian said with a roll of his eyes. Lucas leveled him with a glare. "Sorry."
"Has she seemed a bit off to you lately, besides this new losing streak she's on that is?"
"Just a little agitated, she flipped an old lady off on the way to school today, then again she doesn't like to drive slow. She's Dani, she's always got 15 things going on. She's probably just overwhelmed with school and everything."
"Have you asked her about it?"
"Have you?" The teenager retorted.
"Smartass." Lucas answered with a smirk.
"Dad she's fine. If something's wrong she'd tell someone." Julian wasn't so sure about that, he was telling his dad what he wanted to hear. Secretly he was worried about his sister.
"Sometimes I don't know about her. She's not dating anyone is she?" He asked, still not sure about the Chris situation.
This time Julian was serious. "After the last guy. The one who tried to use her as a semi conductor. She said no boys for at least 6 months."
"Alright." Lucas got up to leave but turned to his son. "You both know that you can come to your dad and me with anything right?"
"Yes dad we both know that. It's been drilled into us since before we were born."
Lucas ruffled his hair. "Alright. Don't you have homework."
"I'm on it." Julian turned off his video game and headed up to his room to do his homework.
Later that evening Lucas knocked on Danielle's door. "Come in." She called form the other side. She was sitting at her desk doing homework, or research, maybe both.
"Hey Pumpkin." Lucas said as he walked in and stood against the wall next to her desk. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, why?" She asked puzzled. She was afraid he was getting close to her secret.
"You just seem a bit distracted lately. Is everything alright at school?" Her eyes said it all, she could hide any emotion she wanted to when she wanted to but her usually lively green eyes were dead.
"Same as always. Torch, class, Torch, soccer, Torch, piss off half the student body, the occasional run in with a meteor enhanced citizen. Did I mention the Torch?" She said dryly. "Same shit different day."
Lucas nodded, he knew when she got cynical she was in a bad mood. "How's the wrist?"
"It'll be better by tomorrow night probably. But I'll keep the brace on a few more days for appearance sake."
"Good idea." He stopped to think, he didn't know how to ask his next question.
"Daddy what's wrong?"
"How long have you and Chris been seeing each other?"
Her eyes got wide and a small blush crept into her cheeks. "Who told you?"
"No one." Okay so maybe Chloe pointed him in the right direction. "I saw it with my own eyes."
She looked confused.
"In the TV room, he had his hand on your back. A few years ago you would have called him a pervert and kicked his butt for doing that." He said with a small smile, he missed those days.
"A few years ago he used to snap my bra and laugh about it." She said with a little laugh.
Lucas chuckled. "Does your brother know?"
She shook her head 'no'. "No. He's Ian's best friend. It'd be too weird. Besides if something bad happened, I don't even want to think about what would happen then."
"You have to tell him eventually."
"I know. But I'll have to either buy him something or distract him with food first." She said jokingly.
He laughed outright at that. She knew how to butter her brother up, plus he had Clark's appetite. "Is that what's been bothering you?"
"I told you nothing's bothering me." LIES!
"Alright. But you know…"
"I know, I can talk to you and dad about anything." She finished.
"Alright we're redundant I get it. Don't stay up too late." He kissed her on the forehead and walked out of the room.
A few days later Dani got hurt yet again in a soccer match and Clark wasn't there again. This time she had a broken finger from where a girl stepped on her hand, it wasn't as bad as the broken tooth she gave the girl who stepped on her hand. Needless to say she was ejected from the game. It wasn't like Danielle to be so careless or violent while playing, something was definitely up. Clark got home less than an hour after everyone else got in, which hadn't happened in almost 3 months. Usually everyone was sound asleep or on their way to bed by the time he got in.
"She got hurt again." Lucas said from the doorway to the bathroom where he was leaning against the frame.
"How?" Clark asked form inside the shower, he had to get the smell of whatever god awful monster he had just fought off of him.
"She got tripped and a girl stepped on her hand. Then she got herself ejected for punching the girl in the mouth and breaking her tooth. I'm sure we'll be hearing from parents or lawyers tomorrow."
"It happens." Clark said as he rinsed the shampoo out of his hair. "She is half human."
"Twice in one week? Let's not even discuss the new violent streak! This is like the eighth time in the past two months that she's been taken to the trainer during a game. He asked me if everything's alright at home and if anything was bothering her. I told him everything was fine but I truthfully don't know."
"I'll talk to her." Clark said nonchalantly.
"Forget talking to her Clark. Try showing up for once." Lucas said a bit harsh.
"It's not my fault. I do try to be there you know." He said in a hurt tone. "How did I know some tar monster was going to attack Hawaii?"
"I know. But there's something going on with her. And this only developed after you started working so late."
"Have you asked her?"
"Yeah and guess what. She's 17!"
"Meaning?"
"I got a 'no I'm fine.' Which we all know is crap." He wasn't even going to tell him about the $350.00 she'd lost on Superman bets this month.
"Chloe maybe."
"No, she knows Chloe will just report back to us. She's dating Chris."
"Chris? Does Julian know?"
"No, she doesn't want to risk it ruining their friendship."
"Is that bothering her?"
"Somehow I don't think it is. Or at least enough to cause her to act so distant."
"Why don't you join me in here so we can talk about this quieter?" Clark asked mischievously.
"Because you smell like tar Clark. And I'm not having sex with you when you're covered in god knows what," Lucas said annoyed and disgusted at the thought of tar sex.
"Fine. I'll be out in a minute." Clark was a little disappointed, but not surprised. Lucas hadn't been as open with him lately as he had been in the past.
"Please take your time. We'll hold dinner." Lucas said as he left the room hastily.
Dinner was not a pleasant experience that night.
"I heard you made the game winning goal Lilli." Clark said.
She shrugged. "It wasn't anything big. Dani passed the ball to the right spot."
"She would have been able to kick it if that girl didn't plow into her." Alex added. "How come you didn't take her legs out?"
"Because hitting her in the face felt better." Dani snapped back
"Oh. Well it's not like you didn't end up in the trainer's office anyway."
"Yeah Dans you spend so much time in there now people are going to start talking." Her brother joked.
"Bite me sideways eyebrows." She said in a non-joking tone silencing her brother and cousin immediately.
"How is your hand Dani?" Clark asked.
"It's fine." She said tersely, as she stabbed a carrot.
"How are those new computers working out for the Torch?" Lex asked.
"They're great. Thanks again Uncle Lex." Dani said, giving her uncle a small smile.
"Maybe we should have pissed off Water Polo players after us more often." Lilli joked.
"Yeah. Then maybe we could get school to buy us a new photo copier." Dani added then went back to pushing around her dinner. "Although I am deriving obscene amounts of satisfaction knowing that they can be seen picking up litter in the park, in matching orange jumpsuits, every afternoon for the next 3 months."
"Yeah I meant to ask you about that, do you have pictures?"
"Pictures, video and audio." She said with a poke at her peas.
"That's a fine accomplishment considering neither them nor us can be within 20 yards or each other outside of school."
"Yes but you forget we have friends with nothing better to do than make fun of them and they are more than happy to make sure these precious few moments are captured on film."
"Can I put those on the internet? Lilli asked hopefully. "After all they really should be commended on their philanthropic efforts."
"You're Satan with a MasterCard." Alex remarked.
"It's part of my charm. Besides they broke all of our computers, and my camera, and wrecked just about everything else in the office. But they left the evil photo copier alone."
"They were probably afraid it would try and eat them."
"What's wrong with the photo copier?" Chloe asked, as someone who had weekly fights with theirs when she worked for the torch.
"Oh, I swear mom the thing's from the turn of the century." Lilli complained. "Plus it has developed a taste for entire reams of paper and silk." Lilli said remembering a run in she had with it the other day that left her wearing her soccer warm-ups for the rest of the day.
"Not to mention the clouds of toner that come shooting out of there every so often."
"Dani is something wrong with your dinner?" Clark asked concerned. She hadn't taken one bite, just pushed it around her plate.
"No, I'm just not hungry."
"You got hurt. You really should eat something."
"I broke my finger." She said as if he were slow. "It's not like I spent a week in the hospital." 'Like you'd notice either way.' She added mentally. She looked at her watch. "I have some stuff to do back at the Torch." She started to push away form the table. "Are you two coming by later to start next week's layout?" She asked her cousins. "Apparently some of our less reliable reporters have finished an assignment or 2 and we need to make space."
"Yeah." Lilli answered between mouthfuls of dinner.
"Can you ask Holly to stop by the Talon on your way in?" She asked her cousin hopefully. "I'll pay you back."
"Can't you?"
"No time, besides it'll be cold by the time you get there."
"Fine." Lilli sighed. "I'll bring coffee. But you owe me."
"Always will."
"I have some history to finish." Alex said. "So I'm home bound for the evening."
"Alright. But you're going to miss all the fun."
"I'll console myself somehow." He said dryly.
"Don't you have homework to finish?" Lucas asked.
"I did it before the game." She started to leave again.
"Actually I thought we'd have a family night." Clark said. Danielle stopped and snorted a laugh. He narrowed his eyes and used a controlled tone. "Something amusing Danielle?"
She rolled her eyes. "I'm supposed to change my plans because you decided to come home tonight?" She asked pissed off. "Great that's just great."
"I haven't gotten to spend much time at home lately I thought it would be nice." He said tensely.
"Well apparently you're the only one. Look I have plans and I'm leaving. I have stuff to do at the paper. You understand, priorities and all." She started for the door again. "I'll see you later Lils."
"Danielle Rachel Luthor you will sit in that chair and finish your dinner and then you will spend the rest of the night in your bedroom." Clark said rising out of his seat.
She stopped and turned to look at her father. "Make me Superman." Danielle said in a challenging tone as she crossed her arms over her chest. Everyone had stopped eating and was sitting staring at the exchange.
'Holy shit. Little sis has finally lost it.' Julian though to himself.
"What did you just say?" Clark asked trying to control his anger.
"I know you heard me." Danielle challenged him.
"Danielle I am warning you. Do not push me."
"Or what? It's not like you'll be here long enough to punish me. Doesn't some small island in the pacific need your help right about now? Go on, fly away Superman. We all know you'd rather be saving people on TV than sitting here with us."
"Dani don't." Julian didn't want her to fight with their dad on a night they may actually get to spend some real time with him.
"Shut up Ian!" She snapped at him. "Go tackle something or find a cheerleader to fondle." She said dismissively. "Now if you'll all excuse me I have a life to get back to."
"THAT'S IT YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR THE NEXT WEEK!" Clark snapped. "UPSTARIS NOW!"
She laughed ruefully. "Like I said. You're never around long enough to make it stick. I'll be home when I feel like it."
Lucas stood as he talked to his daughter. "Danielle you will go to your room as your father told you to." Lucas was not going to let her get away with this.
"You're on his side?" She asked disbelievingly. "I can't believe you of all people are on his side. You always complain that he's never around so now that he's here you just automatically side with him? This is such bullshit."
"Two weeks Danielle." Lucas warned her.
"Why don't you make it three I plan on breaking something on my way out." She stormed out of the dining room leaving shock and disbelief in her wake.
"What was that?" Clark asked.
"That's what I've been waiting for, for the last two months while you've been out saving the world." Lucas said.
Clark was watching Danielle through the wall. She was headed toward the garage and not her room. "Oh she is not getting away with this." Clark stormed out of the room and caught up with Danielle. "I told you to go upstairs and wait for me and dad." Clark said as he blocked her exit.
"No!" Danielle said, pissed off. "Get out of my way."
"Danielle I mean it. You can save yourself from a very long grounding if you do as I say."
"I. Don't. CARE!" She screamed at him as she tried to push past.
"You leave me no choice." Clark picked up his daughter and sped her to her bedroom, then placed her on her bed and left, locking her inside.
"You know she's just going to climb out of the window." Lucas said as he came walking up behind him with his hands in his pockets.
"Then I'll go get her. What was that? Danielle never acts like that." Clark asked in disbelief.
"Clark you've missed almost every dinner and game and everything else for the past three months. You had to expect her to get mad about it sometime."
"Why isn't Julian mad at me?"
"Because you still manage to do guy stuff with Julian. Meanwhile she just buries herself in whatever project or other activity she has going on and acts like the rest doesn't bother her."
"Like the Torch." Clark said with a sigh.
"I wonder where she gets that from." Lucas teased.
"Oh, oh no you share the blame for this mister." Clark waggled a finger at him.
"Fine. Let's go talk to her."
When they opened the bedroom door Danielle's window was open and she was gone.
"Shit." Lucas whispered. "That's it. She just got herself two more weeks."
"You're going to have her grounded here for over a month. Think about it." Clark explained.
"Fine. Go get her." Lucas said.
"Maybe we should just let her vent for awhile. Whatever's bothering her she clearly thinks she can't come to us with it. And she just wanted some solitude away from us or me at least." Clark said as he leaned against Lucas and trying to squelch the urge to throttle his daughter into the next county, if she wasn't there already.
"I think that's a good idea. When are you going on patrol?" Lucas asked.
"Few hours I guess. I really wanted to stay here all night and just wait for the JLA to call me if they need anything but it's been so bad out there lately and now with Dani gone. I can't leave her out there alone all night. I promise I'll be home early though."
"I know it's not your fault. You have a job to do."
"Yeah but at what cost? My own daughter hates me. She won't even look at me anymore. Did you see her stab that carrot at dinner? And you don't seem exactly thrilled with me lately."
"I still love you. Even when I'm annoyed with you."
"I know and I appreciate that, but I just wish I could fix this. I can save entire countries from eminent destruction but I can't figure out my own kid. How does that work?"
"You don't think she's..." Lucas trailed off remembering how frightened and how bad his mood swings were when he was first pregnant with the twins.
"No, no. I x-rayed her to make sure some evil parasite hadn't taken up residence in her body, or that this wasn't some body snatcher, or something else. It's just her."
"Oh thank god." Lucas let out the breath he'd been holding. "You know she hates it when you do that."
"Yeah well I'd rather have her pissed off than scared and alone. Even though right now she appears to be all three."
"How long has it been since you've had a Dani and dad day?"
"Too long. I think she stopped trying to schedule things after the third time I had to leave in the middle of things or cancel all together." Clark closed his eyes against the tears that were forming. "I never meant to hurt her. I thought she understood."
"And she does, we all do." Lucas tried to reassure him as he walked in front of him and hugged him even tighter.
"Umm Dads." Julian cleared his throat as he walked in.
"Yeah Jules?" Lucas asked as he turned to his son.
"I was wondering if we were going to play that game of pool before dad has to go out on patrol."
"We'll be right there Julian." Clark told his son.
It was nearly midnight and she still wasn't home. Julian and Lilli had called all their friends, no one had seen her. Lucas called Lionel hoping that maybe she had showed up in Metropolis, if she was there she was grounded until she graduated high school, no sign of her. Chloe called the Kents to see if she was there but they hadn't seen her all night. Lex went out driving to see if he could find her in any of her usual hangouts but nothing. Clark was doing fly overs of the entire state. Dani didn't have his super speed but she could get pretty far pretty damn quick and after 5 hours she could be just about anywhere. But no, he couldn't find her, Dani was the proverbial needle in the haystack. Around 3:00 in the morning Clark flew back home and crawled into bed feeling defeated, and mad and like the worst father in the world. Lucas had already been up there for a few hours but wasn't sleeping.
Slowly Clark peeled his suit off and let it drop to the floor as crawled into bed. "I am the worst father in the world." He said as he flopped back onto the pillows.
"In spite of today's events you have been a pretty great dad. I don't know what's gotten into her but she's taken it a step too far." Lucas said as he stroked Clark's hair.
"Then why do I feel so bad? Something is wrong with my little girl and I can't figure out what it is or make it better. Not that she'll let me, she is so pissed off about something that she doesn't even want to be in the same room with me." He rolled over and laid his head on Lucas' chest.
"It's okay Love. Everything's going to be okay." Lucas tried to comfort him and Clark had done for him in his loft so many years ago.
Clark reached over Lucas and took a picture of the twins off of his nightstand. He looked at is longingly and with a loving gaze. "Do you remember when they were little? Everything could be usually be solved with a band-aid or checking for monsters under the bed. We thought it was so hard then because they were so high energy, but that was the easy part. I miss those days. I miss our babies." Clark said sadly.
"I miss our babies too. But they grew up. We have to accept that or we will never make it through the rest of high school and college with them." Lucas said frankly.
"Do you blame me for not being around more?" Clark asked.
Lucas sat silent.
Clark sat up and looked him in the eye. "Dani said you were unhappy. Do you blame me for not being around more. Let's not talk about this right now. You're worried about Danielle and making yourself upset." Lucas calmed Clark down and gave him a quick kiss.
"Are you sure?"
"Let's go to sleep Clark." Clark laid his head back down on Lucas's chest and fell asleep.
The next morning Jonathan walked into the barn and something wasn't right. The door was swinging open and he knew he had locked it the night before. And he could hear someone breathing in the loft. Slowly, carefully he climbed the stairs, maybe it was Clark. It wasn't Clark. No it was Danielle sleeping on the couch in the loft. He was relieved to have found her and that she was safe. Then he realized that she must have been here most of the night and her parents much be worried sick about her. She looked awful, like she'd been up all night. Just as quietly as before he crept down the stairs and walked back to the house.
"Martha set an extra plate for breakfast." Jonathan said as he walked in th kitched and headed for the phone.
Martha looked confused. "Why?"
"Danielle slept in the loft last night."
"Is she up?" Martha asked quickly, she was happy that they had found her.
"No. I left before she could wake up. I'll wake her after I call her parents."
*RING*RING* The phone next to Lucas' head was obnoxiously loud at 6:30 in the morning, luckily it usually didn't ring that early. Blindly he grabbed the receiver and brought it to his ear. "What!" He barked into the phone.
"Good morning to you too Lucas." Jonathan said calmly.
Lucas rubbed his eyes and tried to sit up but Clark was still on his chest. "Oh sorry Jon. I didn't know it was you. How are you?"
"I'm fine. And so is Danielle."
"Danielle's there? That's great, can I talk to her?"
"She's asleep in the loft. She looks awful, rundown and overworked. Like she hasn't slept in weeks. I was going to let her sleep awhile longer and bring her home after breakfast."
"That sounds great. Thanks. Do you want to talk to Clark?"
"Is he up?"
"Um no but I can wake him."
"No let him sleep. He probably needs his rest after the night you all had."
"K. Thanks again."
"Bye Lucas."
"Bye Jonathan." Lucas put the phone back in it's cradle.
"Who was that?" Clark mumbled tiredly into Lucas' chest.
"Your dad."
"How's dad?"
"He's fine. He's going to bring Danielle home after breakfast."
"What's she doing there?" He asked a little more alert.
"Well we'll find out when we grill her butt when she gets home. This ends today."
"K. I'm gonna take a shower then go to my parents house and kill her."
"No, you're going to stay in bed with me. You only had three hours of sleep last night and only about fifteen hours for the whole week. Superman or not, you can't keep going on like this. Sleep then kill the child."
Clark didn't fight it. He just fell back asleep.
Around 9:00 only about half the house was up when Jonathan walked in with Danielle.
"It's going to be alright kiddo. Your dads are just worried about you."
She just shrugged. "Thanks grandpa."
Clark and Lucas appeared from a hallway connecting to the main foyer. "Good morning Danielle." Clark said sternly.
"Hi." She gave a small wave and was about to head upstairs.
"We'll be up in a minute." Lucas said.
She just nodded and headed up.
"Where the hell were you!" Julian yelled at her as he walked into the room from elsewhere.
"Not now Jules." She said tiredly, still walking up.
"Yes now." He grabbed her left wrist a little hard and spun her around.
"Ow! Let go!" She complained.
"No!" He tightened his grip on her arm causing her to wince in pain. If he wanted to he probably could have fractured her wrist but he was just going to leave Dani with a bruise and a possible sprain. "You were a total bitch last night. Dads were worried sick about you. I went out driving around with Holly to try and find you! Where the hell were you?"
"None of your god dam business now let me go!" She struggled.
"No!" He grasped her wrist even tighter. Clark could see the pain on her face but was too shocked by the exchange in front of him to do anything. "You're dating my best friend and you've been lying to everyone for weeks! You are not allowed to date my friends Danielle! I can't believe you're being such a whiner and putting dads through all that because you have a secret."
"Who told you?"
"Holly, why did I heave to hear it form Holly!"
"Well here's one reason. And Holly has a big mouth! This isn't about that or you! Leave me alone!" With that she smacked him in the forehead and when he let her arm go in his stunned state she pushed him and sent him flying into the wall then ran upstairs.
"You had no right to treat your sister like that Julian." Lucas said as he helped his son up. "You could have really hurt her."
"She pushed me off the stairs and into a wall after staying out all night and yelling at dad at dinner." He said exasperated. "When do I get to go crazy and have everyone kiss my ass?"
"I know this doesn't seem fair Julian. Did you stop to think that maybe her mood was affecting your mood?" Clark said calmly.
"No, but you're probably right. But whenever I'm with her lately I feel all out of sorts and want to throw her through a window."
"Thank you for not throwing her though a window and your sister is not crazy. We don't know what's going on but we're going to try and talk to her. And you should know better than to go at her like that you hurt her arm. You are not allowed to use your powers to hurt people like that, you know that. Go do homework or something while we talk to grandpa."
"Fine. I'm sorry. Next time she goes through the window."
"Julian please not now." Lucas gently asked his son. "Besides getting the windows replaced is a real pain." He tried to joke.
"Fine. I'm gonna go see if Alex is up." He shoved his hands in his pockets and walked out of the room.
"What is wrong with them lately?" Jonathan asked.
"We think Danielle's pissed off at Clark. Or more accurately Superman." Lucas said
"And Julian's now mad at her for lying to him about dating Chris and because of their biological kryptonian twin connection her mood is affecting his therefore he wants to kill her."
"When did that start?" Jonathan asked.
"I don't know. I just figured it out on Monday but who knows how long before that." Lucas said.
"Thanks again for bringing her home dad." Clark said.
"You're welcome. Call us later when you find out what's been bothering her."
"Did she say anything to you or mom?"
"Nope. She just kind of started off into space most of the time, she had us both a little worried."
"Alright thanks."
"Bye boys." Jonathan gave a half wave and walked out of the house.
Clark and Lucas watched him go then turned to look at each other. "Do you think we should bring some kind of armor with us?" Lucas asked jokingly.
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Clark joked back and put his arms around Lucas. They stood there just calming down before heading up to confront Danielle. Clark snapped to attention when he heard someone crying softly. "Oh no." He said sadly.
"What?"
"She's crying." Clark said deflated.
They rushed up to Danielle's room as fast as they could, but still at a normal speed. "Dani?" Lucas said quietly as he knocked on her door. "Dani it's us." He turned the handle and let himself in. She was on her stomach in the middle of her bed, one arm under her forehead and the bruised one in front of her and she was crying. She gave no indication that she knew either of them were in the room.
Clark took one look at her arm, which had a nice purple hand sized bruise and decided Julian was grounded for 2 weeks. He sat down on the bed next to her. "Dani sweetheart please say something you're scaring us. What's wrong?" He put a hand on her back and tried to calm her but it only seemed to upset her more because she started to cry harder and louder. "C'mere." Clark said as he gathered the crying girl in his arms, like he used to when she was little, and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry on his shoulder.
"What's wrong pumpkin?" Lucas asked as he sat down next to them, and ran a hand through her silky raven hair.
"Your son's an ass hole." She simply said and continued to cry.
Clark gave a nod. "He's not an asshole and he is going to be grounded for hurting your arm." Clark said, trying to reassure her. "Come on, let dad see it." She leaned off him and wiped the tears from her eyes with her good arm and leaned against her other dad who hugged her gently, holding the bad one out for Clark to examine. "Well it's not broken but he bruised it pretty bad. He's here for two weeks, minimum."
"Dani I know that's not what's bothering you. Tell us please. You're scaring us." Lucas tried to get her to open up.
She nodded and sat quietly for a moment as she tried to calm herself down. After a few deep breaths and a gut check she turned to Clark and looked him straight in the eyes. "What's our rule?"
"What?" He asked confused.
"Our rule. Our big family rule!"
"We don't lie to each other about our powers or kryptonite." Clark said, still not understanding her.
She dropped her eyes and stared at the floor. "Then why did you lie to me? Both of you lied to me, to us!"
"Dani we never…"
Her head snapped back up and she looked angry. "Yes you did. I saw you when you came home from Nevada a couple of weeks ago. You were bleeding and Wally had to carry you home!"
"That was almost 4:00 in the morning. What were you even doing up?" Lucas asked.
"That's not important." She said changing the subject. "But you still lied!" She said, regaining her fire.
"Honey we didn't know you saw I swear." Clark said.
"So it's okay to lie about Kryptonite poisoning as long as no one sees you?" She questioned sarcastically. "I can't even imagine how much trouble I'd get into regarding something like that."
"Where were you at?" Lucas asked.
"I was sneaking upstairs and I heard Wally run in with dad. Everyone was distracted so I followed you all down to the basement and watched. No one knew I was there, I hid in a dark area. I could feel the kryptonite through the wall dad it was stronger than anything I've ever felt before."
"Why?" Clark asked. Why the hell would she put herself in danger like that?
"Because I thought you were dying." Danielle said with a sob.
Now it all made sense. He had been attacked by a guy who was trying to use refined Kryptonite to make steroids, the guy dumped a whole bucket of liquefied green kryptonite on him burning his skin and rendering him powerless. His goons worked Clark over pretty good too, he had to take a few days off work that week telling Perry one of the kids was sick, while he got his strength back. "Oh Danielle." Clark said as he grabbed his daughter and hugged her tightly. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry. I had no idea you saw that."
"Well I did." She choked out. "And the next day when I asked both of you why you took off work and if everything was okay you said you just needed a few days off. And then you went back out on patrol when you weren't fully healed. I heard the argument you two had, daddy told you to stay home he begged you to, but you left anyway."
Having curious kids with super powers could be a blessing and a curse. "Is that what's been bothering you lately honey?" Lucas asked as he joined in hugging his daughter. "Are you worried about dad?" Now he knew why she kept looking up at the stands during the games and her face looked more disappointed that normal when Clark didn't show up and why she got distracted and thrown off her game so easily and why her moods had fluctuated so violently lately.
"Umhm." She said with a nod. "When he's not there I get worried that something bad's going to happen again. Or that he'll die. And…and…" She stopped talking as a new round of tears came pouring out.
"And I've been on patrol a lot lately haven't I? And we haven't gotten to talk or do anything together have we."
"Uh huh." She mumbled.
"And you've been worried for a long time haven't you?"
She just nodded again.
"I'm sorry baby."
Lucas glared at Clark, oh things were going to change, and quickly. They sat there for a few minutes trying to calm their hysterical child down, both knowing she was completely justified in her anger and worry. Neither of them knew how to fix this and there was no way to ensure it would never happen again and they didn't want to scare her further or give her a false sense of security. The crying had stopped and been replaced by hiccups and the small sniffles that had replaced those had gone away too but she was still clinging to Clark for dear life. "Dani?" Clark whispered to her. "Dani are you awake?" Clark tried to look at her face but couldn't from the angle he was looking from.
Lucas released her from the hug he had her in and stood up to look at her. He gently moved some hair from in front of her face and tucked it behind her ear. She was definitely asleep. "She's out." He whispered to Clark.
"Can you take her?"
"Yeah." Lucas slid his arms under her and Clark moved her so her head was resting on Lucas' shoulder as he held her. She was deceptively light for the amount of strength she possessed.
Clark stood and turned down her bed then Lucas placed her softly on the mattress and they tucked her in, each giving her a kiss on the forehead and telling her they loved her, before quietly slipping out of the room.
As soon as they were out of earshot from her bedroom Lucas turned to Clark, who was walking with his head down. "How do you plan on fixing this?" He hissed at his husband.
Clark's head shot up and he glared back at Lucas. "You don't think I feel terrible about everything. You don't think I feel completely responsible for what just happened in there and the weeks of torture she put herself through before that." Clark accused him as they walked into their bedroom and he sat on the edge of the bed.
"This isn't just about that anymore. We have to tell Julian what happened too. This is about all of us Clark." Lucas retorted as he closed their bedroom door and walked over to stand in front of Clark. "I want you to scale back on the patrolling."
"I can't…"
"Yes you can. The JLA is perfectly capable of taking care of things when you aren't there. And don't pretend Chloe hasn't been covering for you at work when Perry gets suspicious when you conveniently disappear in the middle of the day and reappear minutes later. Wally and Diana and Bruce and the others are capable of doing more then they have been. I watch the news too, remember? Besides they don't have kids to worry about or a marriage to hang on to." Lucas said with a glare.
"You would actually leave me over this? Fuck Lucas! Why didn't you tell me before that this was bothering you so bad?"
"Because I thought I could handle it and I thought it'd get better and you'd scale back on your own. Apparently I was wrong. And now, Danielle almost had a nervous breakdown, which yes we both share the blame for but still, Superman caused this."
"You do realize we're the same person." Clark said dumbfounded. "Besides who didn't realize our daughter wasn't home at 4:00 in the morning on a school night?"
"Do not try to turn this around on me. She is our daughter meaning we both take responsibility for knowing where she is and she possesses a sneaky gene from both sides. I may have dropped the ball that night but I may have had other things on my mind, or just been too tired from waiting up for you for weeks that I didn't notice. I doubt you'd notice if I took the kids and left at the rate you're going."
"I still can't believe that on top of everything else you'd threaten to leave me over this."
"I would never leave you I'm just saying that our marriage is suffering here too. I miss you and I am tired of doing all the parenting myself lately. It's become nearly impossible to get Dani through a week in one piece lately. And Julian has become so focused on girls that his grades started to slip, I had to go in for a conference with one of his teachers a few weeks ago. I can't be you and me, we always did this as a team and now it seems like everything else is more important."
"I'm sorry I didn't realize until now what I was putting everyone through. This will not happen again."
"Thank you. The only problem is we can't guarantee her that you'll never get hurt again."
"No, but if I'm home more maybe some of the anxiety she's been feeling will go away."
"And if that doesn't work? It's not like we can send her to a psychiatrist to tell them that she's afraid her dad will die saving the world."
"No, we can't have that. And there are still going to be times when I'll have to miss stuff."
"I know. Your dad said something about her looking rundown, like she hasn't been sleeping. You don't think she's been waiting up for you."
"It's not an absurd idea. And this is Danielle. You said it yourself that you had been. She may be having nightmares too."
"I'll have to work that out with her. We'll find a system."
"Good."
Clark reached out and wrapped his arms around Lucas' waist, drawing him closer and resting his head on his shoulder. "I am sorry, not just for this but for assuming that because you hadn't said anything that it didn't bother you."
Lucas brought one hand to rest on Clark's shoulder and let the other card through his hair. "I know I should have said something earlier but I know how much you care about helping people. It's one of my favorite things about you. If I had known what was going on I would have brought it up to you much sooner."
Clark lifted his head and met Lucas' eyes. "Let's never let things get like this again."
"Alright." Lucas' lowered his head and gently kissed Clark on the lips to seal the deal.
Clark deepened the kiss and tightened his hold on Lucas as he maneuvered him onto the bed. They had a lot of making up to do.
----Later that afternoon----
After what seemed like days Danielle woke up with a pounding headache and cotton mouth. Both were remedied to a trip to the medicine cabinet and a bottle of water that just happened to be waiting for her on her night stand. When she finally showered and got changed she went looking for her parents, who she found snuggling on the couch watching TV. As much as she liked to believe that her parents, like all parents, had no sex life at all she could tell from their body language and the content looks on their faces, not to mention the wardrobe change 'Smooth one dads' that something had indeed happened while she had been napping. She cleared her throat before walking in, just to give them the impression that she hadn't been watching in amazement that her parents could still be in love after 17 years and some of her friends' parents hadn't made it past the 5 year mark that was pretty cool in her mind. Then again her aunt and uncle still groped at each other like teenagers when they thought they were alone but that was a different scarring episode for a different time.
Both men looked back at her with matching smiles as they discreetly crept apart from each other on the couch. "Hey sweetie. Are you feeling better?" Clark asked.
"Much." She answered as she walked over and plopped in between them on the couch. She sat there for a couple of seconds with a look on her face that told them something was up.
"What's wrong pumpkin?" Lucas asked, she would never grow out of that nickname if he had anything to say about it.
"I just came in here to tell you both I'm sorry for the way I've acted lately. No matter what was going on in my head I had no right to lie and yell at the both of you and run away and do a few other things I'm not going to mention."
"It's okay sweetie." Clark said. "Well not that you actually did all of those things but we understand why you did them. Truthfully I know what it's like to be in that situation, you were scared of losing a parent and that's not easy. We just want you to come to us in the future instead of bottling it all up the way you have been. It's not healthy and you could have gotten really hurt."
"Besides that I doubt the trainer wants to see you for a long, long time." Lucas joked.
She gave them a small smile. "Yeah but I should have known I could come to you with this, I mean it's kind of been a mantra around here like forever. I don't know why I didn't say something earlier. Now don't let this get out because I will deny saying it under the most harsh of torture but you are pretty cool dads. I know I can come to you with just about anything and I won't get yelled at or judged or outright dismissed like other kids parents would do. You both respect what I have to say and I'm pretty lucky to be able to be upfront and frank with you. If you hadn't noticed I don't do discreet very well, so that just makes life a lot easier."
"No we really hadn't, thank you for clearing that up." Lucas said sarcastically.
"You get your sense of humor from your father." Clark joked.
"Okay. Well I'm going to let the two of you get back to your television and I am going to go talk to Julian and explain to him why he can not dictate who I do and do not date. Considering he dates my friends. This should end in a screaming match but that's okay." She gave her dads a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek each then got up to leave the room.
"Dani wait." Clark called to her.
She stopped and turned to them. "Yeah?"
"You are not grounded this time. But if you pull another stunt like last night it's a minimum of three weeks grounding. Understand?"
"Aye aye captain." She saluted and walked out of the room.
"She's a good kid." Lucas marveled. "And she's going to be alright."
"She really is. Now as for Julian…"
"He's a good kid too, and he took the other thing surprisingly well."
"Yes I know he's a good kid but Dani can be merciless. Which is another thing she got from you." Clarks said as he pulled Lucas into his lap.
"Shush. We'll interfere when the screaming starts."
----3 weeks later----
"Pleeeeease daddy. I won't ask for anything for the rest of my life if you do this one thing for me." Danielle begged as she followed Lucas into the dining room where the family ate breakfast.
"Dani I'm sorry but no." Lucas said as he sat down to his breakfast.
"I don't see why I have to go in the first place." She pouted as she sat down across form him, her brother and cousins were already eating, Clark and Chloe had left for work and Lex was just walking into the room.
"Go where?" Lex asked as he sat down at his spot.
"Luthorcorp field trip." Danielle grumbled as she took a sip of her orange juice.
"Lucas you're making her go on the field trip?" Lex asked surprised.
"Yes." Lucas said. "It's for class I don't see what the problem is."
"That's because you don't work there." Lex deadpanned.
"Well then quit." Lucas retorted.
"If uncle Lex quits can I not go on the field trip?" She asked perkily.
"No and stop giving her ideas." Lucas shook his head. "Your father and I already discussed it. Your brother isn't complaining."
"Gee I wonder why a jock doesn't see anything wrong with getting out of school for an entire day. Especially since his girl friend is in our class. They'd better lock the broom closets." She said sarcastically. "Meanwhile I'll have a days worth of work to catch up on plus my usual load."
"Shut up shorty." Julian said with a glare. "My you're bitchy without your coffee."
"I'm average height, you're freakishly tall." She pointed out.
"Both of you." Lucas warned.
"Fine." They said in unison.
"I agree with Dani." Lilli spoke up. "The Luthorcorp field trip is next to the Daily Planet in mortifyingly, embarrassing and uncomfortable field trips the Luthor children are forced to participate in just because of our class loads."
"Embarrassing?" Lex asked taken aback.
"Come on dad. Think about it. At the Planet you run the risk of running into not one but 3 relatives, all of whom various member of your class lust after." A ruckus chorus of icks, ewws and gagging noises could be heard from the remaining three children. "My point exactly. And all three make sure to meet up with your group and do Q and A sessions meanwhile various classmates are oogling them. Definitely not the highlight of my Freshmen year." She finished with a shiver.
"Or mine as I recall." Dani added. "Then Perry came charging out of the office yelling about kicking asses and taking names and how selling Lois on Ebay isn't completely out of the question."
"I have that field trip next month." Alex said, horrified. "Eww I don't want people in my class looking at Mom! Dad I'm not going!" Alex protested.
"Or you can go to Luthorcorp where there are still fans in our age group." Lilli finished, obviously not concerned with her brother's abject horror.
"It's a whole weird Sean Connery lust thing." Danielle clarified with a grimace. "Very disconcerting when even the teacher is less than 35."
"I am no where near as old as Sean Connery." Lex challenged.
"No but grandpa is, which makes it 1000 times worse." That made Lex and Lucas both visibly shudder. "Exactly. Plus we share the name of the company, and that is hard to overlook."
Lilli spoke back up. "And hard as it is to believe in this oh so enlightened age. Some people still resent that and don't pull any punches about it."
"Plus standing in a building hearing about Luthorcorp in all it's glory surrounded by your classmates while you act like you've never heard it before or having to hear 'Hey Dani where's your office' really doesn't' sound like a good use of my time."
"Plus the pep talk." Lilli added.
"Oh yes, can't forget that."
"What's the pep talk?" Lucas asked.
"It's when either dad or grandpa comes out and talks to your class about economics and business. Uncle Clark told us about it from when he went on the field trip during his junior year."
"With the disappearing chick in the elevator?" Julian asked. "Cause that'd be pretty cool."
"Yep that one. It's basically like home except with 50 of your peers."
"How do you know they'll ask you where your office is?" Julian asked.
"Umm because at least 4 people came up to me in the last week and said 'So Dani I hear they just give jobs to relatives over at Luthorcorp. When do you start?' and then they laughed, like I'm the one barely hanging on to a 2.0 instead of a 4.0. Like I'd ever go into business. And even if I did I'd deserve it way more than those morons simply because I'm better at everything than them and they're petty jerks." She finished a bit defensive. Then turned pleading blue/green eyes to Lucas. "Please daddy, call me in sick."
"I'm sorry but no." Lucas checked his watch. "I have a publishers meeting this morning then lunch with Clark. I do not want to get a call from school saying that you went home sick. Do you understand me?"
"Yes." She pouted.
"Good." He gave her a kiss on the forehead before leaving and gave Julian a pat on the shoulder. "And you stay out of broom closets."
"Alright. Bye dad."
"Bye daddy."
"And you, please behave yourself and do not scar my children." Lucas joked with Lex as he left.
"I make no promises."
"Fine but you're paying for their therapy."
"Consider it taken care of."
"He didn't say anything about getting myself sent to the hospital." Danielle said under her breath.
"All four of you are going to school. Aren't you going to be late?"
"Damn. Everyone in the car." Julian said as he finished his breakfast.
"I'm driving in myself, are you coming with Lilli?" Dani said.
"Yeah."
They all got up to shuffle out of the room and to their respective cars. Lex caught Danielle on the way out. "Dani come here."
"Yes?" She asked as she stopped next to his chair.
"Do you have your Luthorcorp ID?"
"Yes."
"Alright." He took out a business card and a pen. "I know how boring these things can be. Use this code with your ID and you can go exploring all over the building, if anyone stops you just show them your ID." He quickly wrote down 6 numbers on the back of the card. "But you can not get caught by your teachers. Understand?"
"Yes uncle Lex. Have I mentioned that you are my only sane and favorite relative?" She said with a smile.
"You're welcome, now go before they leave without you."
"Alright. See you later." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and ran out, tucking the card in the backpack.
----Luthorcorp----
The field trip was not quite so boring as Danielle had envisioned, or Clark had told her, but that was largely due to one of the cheerleaders falling in the fountain in the main atrium while a group of football players near them were roughhousing as they waited for their respective tour guides. All the offending parties were given a weeks detention and Dani had gotten some great pictures of the annoying blonde in the fountain and whining as she was helped out. 'Heh that's a keeper.' She thought to herself as she tucked her camera back in her messenger bag.
Although now Lionel was giving his usual awe inspiring speech to the group of upperclassmen. Not that Danielle didn't respect her grandfather or find what he had to say interesting but she had heard it all before, plus having people look from Lionel to her then whisper to their friends was starting to annoy her. Not that it wasn't anything she'd dealt with before but she was starting to feel trapped.
"Dani please tell me you know a secret way out of here." Holly whispered to her.
"Oh don't worry. I have something much better. Just wait until my grandpa leaves, he may notice if I'm gone." Danielle whispered back to her friend.
"K."
Lionel finished his speech, not drawing any attention to the fact that his 2 oldest grandchildren were in the group, but Danielle gave him a small wave, as did Julian, then the groups were headed off. The teenagers were eagerly packing into the elevators when there seemed to be no room left in the car.
"We'll catch the next one." Dani gave her tour guide an innocent smile as she held back with Holly.
"Alright Danielle. You know where we're going."
"Thanks Margie."
The doors closed and Holly and Danielle quickly rushed off to another bank of elevators and punched in the code Lex had given her earlier.
"Where are we going?" Holly asked.
"Anywhere we want. But I figured we could stop by my uncle's office and play some PS5 for awhile."
"PS5? We're at Luthorcorp and you want to play PS5? Can't we get the story on some kind of hostile takeover?"
"This is my family's business Holly. Besides there are very strict guidelines in my house. Dad and Aunt Chloe aren't allowed to write Luthorcorp stories and neither am I. That means no snooping."
"You're no fun when you play by the rules."
"Yeah I know. It pains me. But it also keeps me from getting my car taken away."
"Good point. So PS5 it is."
They got off at the floor with the executive offices and Lex's secretary greeted them. "Danielle you are supposed to be on a field trip."
"Uncle Lex told me to come up and say hi to him and grandpa. Are they in?"
"No they both have lunch meetings. But I suppose you can go wait in your Uncle's office if you want."
"Thanks Christie." Danielle and Holly went in and played video games for awhile before getting bored.
"Alright we do this at home. What else can we do?" Holly asked as they put the game away.
"We can go back to our group. It's been over an hour, they have to know we're gone by now."
"Alright. Let's go." They were about to leave Lex's office when a group of masked men burst in.
"What's going on?" Danielle asked.
The men didn't answer her they just grabbed her and Holly. Both knew it was useless to try and fight them off but did so anyway.
When they got to the reception area the men stopped. "IF you don't stop struggling you're going to wind up like her." He pointed to Christie who was laying face down on her desk in a pool of blood.
"Oh god, Christie." Danielle said pained at the scene.
"That's right. Now move it."
A few minutes later they were in Lionel's office. Danielle and Holly were both sitting in chairs in front of Lionel's desk while 2 men held them at gunpoint. One man made a call on his cell phone and then sat down behind the desk.
"Please do whatever you want with me but let Holly go. She is not a Luthor, she's no good to you."
"That's where you're wrong little girl. See not only do I have Lionel Luthor's granddaughter but I have a friend of hers. Now having PR spin the story of how you died would be easy but I doubt this company would be able to survive the nose dive in stock prices if an innocent little high school girl was killed in the process while on a field trip no less." The man laughed mercilessly. "Speaking of, I think it's time to give grandpa a call." The man turned on the speaker phone and dialed Lionel's cell phone number.
'How's he know that?' Dani thought to herself.
"Neither of you say a word unless I tell you to or you both die on the spot." The man warned as Lionel's phone rang.
"Hello?" He answered. Danielle could hear her father and Lex in the background. They must have all met up after the meeting, or there was no meeting at all and didn't want to be bothered by work crap during lunch.
"Lionel Luthor?" The man asked.
"Yes, who is this?"
"I am the man holding Danielle Luthor and her little friend hostage."
"Excuse me."
"You heard me. I'm sure you have security cameras in here to prove it."
"I don't believe you." Lionel said with a controlled calm in his voice, Danielle knew that meant he was tense and didn't want anyone to know.
"You speak." The man gestured to Danielle.
"Grandpa." Danielle said shakily.
"Sweetheart are you alright."
"Yes."
"Good. Who is with you?"
"Holly."
"Okay sweetheart, stay calm and do what they say. We'll be right there."
"No grandpa don't, they have guns."
"Don't worry about that." Lionel's voice was tight and controlled. "You are going to be alright."
The man cut in. "That's enough family bonding. Look Luthor either we get fifty million dollars and a helicopter in the next hour or these two learn to fly."