Thanks for the encouraging words. I hope you like this part!

Stars and Water

Chapter 30

Kate found herself missing Bart as she chased Nick around the house. Nick had been moping ever since Oliver and his friends had left for Europe so she'd decided to cheer him up with a game. His response had been an enthusiastic "Okay Mommy, let's run!" and they had.

"Tag, you're it!" She called triumphantly. "Now it's time for lunch, we can't play in Mommy's lab all day. We need to eat lunch and then it's back to preschool for you and back to work for me. I can't run another step."

Suddenly an armed group of men crashed through the doors and into her lab. "Run!" she screamed at Nick and grabbing his hand found she had reserves of speed she had never touched before. She ducked as she heard gunfire and the sound of shattering glass. A hand grabbed her and yanked her behind a shelf full of books as more gunfire blasted the area where she had been.

"I've got her Matt!" yelled the man who still held her firmly by the arm as she struggled to get away.

"Get her out of here Scott, I'll try and cover you." came the reply.

Then she heard another voice protesting. "What the hell are you doing Matt? Which side are you on anyway?"

"The right one." answered Matt, and Kate heard another burst of gunfire. Scott pulled her arm hard in the direction of the exit and she found herself running fast to keep up. Then he dropped her wrist and picked up Nick so they could move faster and she allowed him to carry her son.

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Clark slowed down enough to be seen and caught up with his Mom and Lionel as they stepped outside. After greeting his Mom with a warm hug and Lionel with a cautious handshake he walked together with them down the sidewalk. His feeling of uneasiness had been increasing all day and it hadn't helped that Maria didn't return his calls. When he'd stopped by her dorm her roommate had said she was at class and then told him about a study group Maria had mentioned meeting for lunch. Clark thought it was odd Maria hadn't told him about it but then they hadn't spent a lot of time talking last night.

A glint of sunlight on metal caught Clark's eye and the flash was followed by the all too familiar sound of a high powered rifle being fired. Clark searched for the bullet and found it as it sped towards Lionel. Using his heat vision he melted the bullet, and then he sped to where the sniper was located. Never allowing himself to be seen he knocked the man unconscious, and then picking him up as though his two hundred fifty pounds was nothing, Clark delivered him to Lionel.

"This creep nearly put a bullet in your head." He told Lionel. "I'm sure you'd like to see that it doesn't happen again." Maybe this was what he had felt was coming, Clark thought. He discarded that thought when his feeling of something horrible about to happen loomed over him more than ever. "Mom, I have to go. I'm worried about Maria." Clark apologized and gave his Mom a tight embrace before he disappeared. Maybe it was time to use that tracking device, he thought, and he headed to Chloe at the Daily Planet. If anyone could find Maria it would be Chloe.

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After Clark had left the dorm that morning Naomi tried to tell herself that Lex wouldn't hurt Maria. It wasn't a very convincing lie. The events of the morning wouldn't stop playing in her head as she remembered the last time she saw Maria.

Naomi had met the ambulance and had guided the paramedics into her room, talking nervously all the while. Two of the white jacketed men had strapped Maria to the gurney while a third had handed Naomi an envelope. She had held it tight in her shaking hands while watching wide eyed as they wheeled Maria away. What did Lex want with her anyway, Naomi wondered, as she opened the envelope and fingered the cash inside. The sick feeling in her stomach told her that she had done an evil thing.

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Lex watched as Maria was transferred from the ambulance to his private jet. She hadn't begun to wake yet but she would soon. By then they would be miles away over the Atlantic, soaring at 30,000 feet, far beyond anyone's aid. Lex wanted her wide awake for what he had in store for her there.

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Chloe sniffed the air and her eyes went wide in alarm. "Yes Lois, I do smell smoke, and I don't think it's one of the employees sneaking a cig in the bathroom again. They stood up and looked around for the fire in a room that was becoming smokier by the minute.

Chloe gasped and grabbed Lois, turning her to look at what she saw. Smoke had begun rolling in under the doors and there were flames creeping up one of the walls. She and Lois dashed for the door farthest from the flames but it wouldn't open.

"It can't be locked. It must just be stuck." And Lois tried kicking the door while Chloe moved to another one. When none of the doors would open panic began to build in Chloe. She remembered the construction worker who stayed behind and worked on the doors as she and Lois ignored him. He must have done something to keep them shut. They were trapped and it didn't seem like an accident. It must be Lex, she thought.

"Clark!" she screamed without thinking. Lois looked at her in disgust.

"What on earth is the farm boy going to do about this, assuming he could even hear you?" she asked as she tried dialing 911 on her cell phone, "Great, no service." A crash sounded behind them and they turned in time to see a section of the wall collapsing and flames shooting up to the ceiling in a wave of heat. They grabbed each other and held on, crouching behind a desk, prepared to die together as the flames raced towards them.

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Kate was gasping for breath and holding her side as she ran. The man, Scott, was leading her through the lab and out an emergency exit as though he knew the building better than she did. As they crashed into the bar on the door she looked back and saw someone entering the hall, he was holding his arm and staggering and she noted there was no gun in his hand. Scott glanced back when she gasped, "Matt!" he exclaimed and it was clear to her he was torn with a desire to help him but when he looked down at Nick his jaw clenched and he turned his back and pushed the door open.

Once outside Kate made a decision and reached for her son. "You can't leave your friend behind." She said, nodding her head in Matt's direction. "I'll take Nick and keep running. Where are we going?"

Scott looked at her, surprised, and passed the terrified boy over to his Mother, where he clung tight with his face buried in her shoulder. "There's a white Toyota Corolla, around the side of the building." He studied her for a moment and then reached in his pocket and handed her the keys. "Start the car and wait if you can. If you see anyone besides us coming, floor it." Scott ran back into the building, pulling the gun from beneath his jacket as he went.

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Maria's head hurt. It felt as though a hot knife had been inserted behind her eyes and left there. She could feel she was on a soft chair; her arms were on an armrest, her head on a pillow. She wondered if Naomi had called the paramedics. Maybe she was in the hospital. Maria cautiously opened her eyes and Lex's face filled her vision causing her to jerk away with a gasp of horror, Lex laughed. "Hello beautiful, how nice of you to join me." he said pleasantly, as though she were a guest.

"Let me go Lex, please." She pleaded, even though she knew it would do no good.

"Oh I will let you go, but not until you've told me everything I want to know about Clark Kent." he smiled an icy cold smile that came nowhere near touching his eyes.

"Then I guess I'll be staying a long time because I won't tell you anything." Maria answered, furious that her voice would choose that moment to tremble.

Lex's smile grew into a rapacious grin. "Sweetheart you are going to tell me everything I ask. As a matter of fact you will rush to spill it all once I give you this." And Lex pulled a syringe out of his pocket.

"Wha…What is that?" stammered Maria, barely able to get the words out past the terror that was filling her. She frantically looked around for an escape only to realize they were in Lex's private jet. Now she understood why she wasn't tied up, even if she ran there was nowhere to go. She looked out the window at the sunlight reflecting off the clouds. It looked like heaven up here, and then she looked into Lex's insane eyes and saw hell.

To be continued…

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