Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A.N. I'm not going to bore you guys with excuses. I will tell you that I will not abandon any of my stories. The chapters might come fast or slow, it really depends on RL. Here is the next update. Enjoy! Oh, and thank you for the continued interest.

Clark stopped breathing at the sound of his name. The name that no one other than his parents knew. He watched as Bella's father started to move closer, taking slow and measured steps until he was mere inches from Clark.

"Kal-El?" he whispered again, his hand itching at his side wanting to reach out and touch the young man in front of him.

Clark didn't know what to do. On one hand, this is what they wanted. They wanted Chief Swan to know something about them, but on the other hand, what does this mean for Bella? Is he from their planet? Is he just someone who took her in? He was reeling from the revelation of him knowing his real name, so he could understand if Bella was just as stunned.

"Dad?" Bella's hesitancy brought him out of the continuous questions rattling around his brain.

Charlie didn't take his eyes off of Clark, but answered his daughter just the same. "Yeah, Bells?"

"You know Clark?"

Charlie broke the contact he had to look at his daughter, to really look at her. He noticed how she hadn't moved from her spot and was nervously twisting her fingers in the hem of her shirt. "Clark?" he asked, bewildered.

She motioned to the man in front of him. "His name is Clark. We met a few weeks ago when he came into the diner down in Port A."

Charlie looked between his daughter and the man she calls Clark, but he knows is Kal-El. Clearing his throat, he took a step back, removing himself from Clark's personal space. "Maybe we should move inside. I have a feeling that you are finally going to talk to me about everything you've been going through since you were a little girl and that Clark here has some questions of his own."

Without waiting for their responses, he walked up the stairs, tripping on the last one and muttering under his breath about finally being able to do something about the state of the house.

Bella was the first to snap out of her stupor when she heard the screen door slam closed and her dad's colorful language following it. She walked over to Clark and took his hand, bringing him back to the present, and pulling him towards the stairs so they could go in and talk to her dad.

As they were sitting, Bella blurted out her first, and to her the most important, question. "Are you my father?"

Clark just gaped at her, while Charlie choked on the beer he just took a gulp of. Sputtering, he looked at his daughter before laughing, a real straight from the belly laugh. When she noticed he wasn't going to calm down, she stood and began pacing. Clark couldn't do anything but sit and watch the scene before him. He couldn't believe she led with that. Well, he could, but he thought she would have waited a few minutes so everyone could get settled before springing that on the old man.

A few minutes later, Bella was nervously chewing her thumbnail and Charlie had finally calmed down. "Bella, this isn't Maury. Of course I am your father." He leaned back and watched as what he said reached his daughter's ears. He watched as she let out the breath she had been holding and as her shoulders released the tension that built up during his little meltdown.

She slumped to the floor, giving her dad all of her attention. "Feel better?" he asked. She nodded. "Good. Now, what else do you want to know?"

"Why didn't you tell me that we weren't human?"

Charlie sighed and rubbed a large, callused hand down his face. "At first, I wanted to give you as normal of a life as I could. Then, when I noticed you started to change, I was waiting for you to come to me, to talk to me, and when that never happened, I buried myself in my work. We've never been good at communication, Bells. I'm sorry if that made you feel like you couldn't talk to me."

Bella was shaking her head before he could finish. "No, Dad. You never made me feel like I couldn't come to you with this. I was in my own head. I was worried that there was something wrong with me and if I told anyone, I would be sent to a padded room."

"Oh, Bells," Charlie sighed before moving to squat in front of her. "You should know that you could come to me with anything. I should have told you when you were old enough to understand that we were different."

He reached out and wiped her tears away with a work roughened thumb before clearing his throat and standing. Reaching down, he helped her up and gave her a slight shove in the direction of where Clark sat. She took the hint and moved to Clark's side, sitting down next to him when he raised his arm out for her. Settling into his side and resting her hand on his thigh, she looked towards Charlie.

"Mr. Swan," Clark began only to be interrupted by Charlie.

"You call me Charlie, Clark."

Clark nodded. "Right, Charlie then. You knew my name, my real name."

"Of course. I was there when you were born. Your parents were my closest friends. When my wife, Bella's mother, died, I was beside myself with grief. Your mother helped as best she could, while taking care of you. One day, I was angry, tired of all the bullshit, all the pandering and politics. General Zod approached me, knowing how close I was to your parents. He wanted me to be his spy, to report back to him on everything they were doing, no matter how small or insignificant. I told him to go to hell and went to find your father. We came up with a plan that if he asked again, that I was to accept. We needed to know what he was planning. I didn't want to. I had Bella to take care of. She was the only thing I had left in my life that was good. When I went back to our rooms, Zod was there with a sleeping Bella in his arms. He didn't have to say anything. It was his way of saying that he could get to her and I wouldn't be able to save her. I nodded my head in defeat and he left."

"Dad,"

"No, Bells. I need to finish this before you ask any more questions." Looking up at his daughter, he grimaced seeing her tear filled eyes. "I will tell you everything you want to to know about your mother, I promise, sweetheart."

"Alright."

"Weeks went by and I fed miniscule information to him. Little things like what your mother was working on or the work your father talked about. I made sure to leave out anything concerning you. We believed that is what he was truly after. One day, I overheard him stating that he would get what he wanted from your parents one way or another. When I told Jor-El, he sent me to your mom, saying that she would help me, that I needed to take Bella with me. He wished me well and sent me on my way. That was the last time I saw your father."

"So Clark's parents…" Bella trailed off, already knowing the answer when she saw her father's downcast eyes.

"I'm sorry, Clark. If they didn't come with you, then they aren't alive. There was quite a bit of turmoil when your mother sent Bells and myself to Earth."

Clark nodded. "I figured as much. If they were alive, they would have come to find me by now. I am just looking for answers. I'm actually surprised to find them in a small town Police Chief."

"I wish I could tell you what happened to them, but once we left, we had no communication with anyone from home. I had to start over, learn a new way of life, in order to give Bells here a fighting chance."

"Where is home, Dad?"

"Krypton."

"Do you think there are more like us living on Earth or, jesus, any other planet?"

"Bells, I'm not sure, but it's highly unlikely. Before we settled here, we traveled around for a few years. I looked everywhere we stopped, but I gave up once we stopped here, in Forks. It was time to settle down. You needed to live the life of a child. I wanted you to have an education and I figured that this small town would be the best place for that."

"Do you have any idea of what happened to Krypton after you left?" Clark asked as Bella leaned into him, offering him her silent support.

"What wasn't wrong should be the question. While we were there, Krypton's core was unstable, due to the fact that the planet's natural resources were being depleted. While I 'working' with General Zod, he was making plans to overthrow our ruling council. If you haven't found anyone else and we haven't, then it's probably likely that he managed to do what he wanted to do."

"But why didn't my parents come with me? Why send me by myself?"

"I can't - don't - have the answer to those questions for you."

"Well why did his parents send us to Earth? Why not let us stay to help them?"

Charlie looked around and cleared his throat before standing. "How about a drink?" he asked gesturing towards the kitchen.

"Dad,"

"Or some food. We can go to the diner and grab a bite. Maybe-"

"Dad," she tried again.

"Or we can go to the reservation. Im sure Billy and Jacob would love to see you again since you don't visit very often."

Bella stood up and grabbed Charlie's arm as he started towards the front door. "Dad! Stop!" Finally grabbing his attention, his shoulders drooped before he turned to face his daughter.

"What aren't you telling us?"

"Bells, I don't ask much of you, but I am going to ask you to let this go for right now," at the hardening of her eyes, he hastily added, "just until we get something to eat. Bell's, we've been at it for a couple of hours now. Let's go get a bite and when we get back, I'll continue where we've left off."

"Fine. The diner it is. I'll check in the Billy the next time I'm in town." She walked back over to where Clark was still sitting and offered her hand for him to take. "Come on, Clark. The Chief is hungry and avoiding our conversation, so we have to fatten him up before he gives us anything else."

"Hey!"

They both chuckled at Charlie's outraged cry and followed Charlie out the door.