Madlenita: You're welcome! I hope you think this chapter is interesting as well;)
CrystalYuriKim: Lol. Not a lot of people like Casey. Thanks!
Jeremy Shane: Thanks!
The Fallen Sky: Lol. Yeah, there's no need to forewarn me on your rambling and jumping around. I'm so used to that I'd be confused if you didn't do it;)
You know, it's weird. It wasn't too hard to keep Casey and Andrew in character. I guess as long as I remember what makes them tick, I can't go wrong;) But I'm glad you noticed they're more or less the same. Any changes can be attributed to the fact that they're now a year older than they were in "Bring Her to Me.";)
Lex is technically alive, but he's still possessed by Zod…on that other plane that he and Mor-El got sent to. Lol. I forgot you stopped watching Smallville after a certain season. Was it four or five, because canon Lex actually did clone Lana. He's such a freak.
Ah, Casey not telling Chloe about the girl. I actually have that answered in this chapter; but you're definitely not gonna like it. You're gonna think Casey's a brat, but she kinda is, so, oh well…
DarkfirelightU: Thank you! I hope you enjoy the rest as well!
Dizzy78: Awesome! Just kidding, but thanks! And I can't tell you! It's a secret;)
{(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)(O)}
Casey expects Maddie to be asleep. Well, if she were Maddie. She'd still be asleep. Number one, it's the weekend; and number two, it's seven a.m. and the baby shower doesn't start until 3:00. Not only that, but Maddie doesn't have to prepare a thing. The Kents are providing everything. All Maddie needs to do is show up.
But when Casey knocks on Maddie's door, the mother-to-be opens it within seconds.
"What are you doing up?" Casey nearly scowls. It's not that she's mad. She just doesn't understand why anyone in their right mind would be up this early if they didn't have to be.
"What are you doing here?" Maddie counters, stepping aside to allow Casey access to her home. She's completely unaffected by Casey's lack of manners. She's only known the girl her whole life. That's long enough to get used to her ways.
But Casey doesn't move because she doesn't have the time to go inside. It probably wasn't the best idea to leave the kid with Andrew. She needs to get back as quickly as possible.
"Can I borrow your baby naming book?" She asks.
Maddie frowns. "My baby naming book?"
"You don't still need it, do you?"
Maddie can only shake her head as a response. She's a bit speechless at the moment. Why would Casey need a baby naming book? Unless…
"So, I can borrow it, right?"
Maddie nods, trying her best to take an inconspicuous peek at Casey's tummy. But then Casey crosses her arms over her chest, a sign that she's losing patience.
Maddie sighs and heads for her bedroom.
While Maddie's off fetching the book, Casey pulls her phone out and dials Dr. Emil. It's always best to warn him that he's about to be kidnapped before whisking him away. A dizzy doctor is always better than a confused dizzy doctor.
"You were talking to Emil?" Maddie questions, coming in at the tail end of Casey's brief conversation, but she was still able to gather with whom Casey was talking to.
Dr. Emil is no ordinary doctor. He deals exclusively with metahumans and well, nonhumans. He's even in charge of delivering Maddie's baby and Maddie can't help but to assume he'll be in charge of another soon.
"Yeah, I'm gonna pick him up so he can check something out for me, thanks for the book." Casey turns, nearly disappearing but Maddie grabs on to her arm before she can do so.
"Um, did you talk to your mother?" She asks in a tone that suggests they've just headed into taboo territory.
Casey frowns. "Today?"
Maddie nods her head.
"Yeah." Casey answers slowly, eyebrows dipped slightly. What kind of question is that? She talks to her mother every day. Sometimes too many times a day.
"Does she know about the uh…book. Or that you're picking up Dr. Emil?"
"No."
"Oh, um…when are you gonna tell her about it?"
Casey shrugs. "She'll see soon enough. It's not like I plan on hiding the kid. Andrew and Dad already know."
"They do?" Maddie gasps.
"Yeah," Casey frowns. She's tempted to ask her what's wrong with her but then she remembers, Maddie's pregnant. She's been acting weird for the last couple of months or so. "I gotta go. See ya at three o'clock." Casey announces. Then she zips off before the pregnant woman can stop her again.
When Casey gets to Emil's place, he's waiting with his eyes closed. He's never been a huge fan of superspeed. She smirks before whisking him away to the farm and setting him down in the bathroom.
"Finally!" Andrew exclaims before high-tailing it out of there.
Casey takes a look at the kid. She's in the tub and she's wet, but she's not exactly clean. She's just sitting in filthy water.
Andrew must've literally sat there and watched her. Casey rolls her eyes. Her brother could've at least washed the kid's hair.
While Dr. Emil checks the little girl, Casey empties the dirty water and starts more. And by the time the tub is filled again, the doctor is finished with the examination. It's brief, but Casey's not surprised. Just how long does it take to check for bruises and broken bones anyway?
"So?" Casey prompts.
"The child's fine, physically." Dr. Emil announces.
"Mentally?" She asks.
"Mentally as well."
"Are you sure?" Casey frowns, because the kid is pretty weird.
Dr. Emil smiles. "I'm not a child psychologist. She's a bright child. She understands and takes direction very well and she speaks with a clarity that's beyond her years; though she seems to be lacking a bit in the social area. If I had to guess, I'd say she was exposed to one too many scientist from birth, or creation," he whispers the last word.
"Yeah, we figure she's a pod baby or something." Casey grins.
"Or something, but other than that, she seems fine." He smiles back before looking down at his watch and frowning at the time. "I have to get going. Um, do you mind?"
"Andrew!" Casey calls
"Yeah?" he yells back.
"The doc needs a ride back."
"Done." He announces, having whisked away Dr. Emil on the word "ride" and coming back in on "back."
"Show off." She mutters.
He grins at her and points toward the kid in the tub. "Aren't you gonna finish that?"
"Aren't you gonna finish pulling the weeds." She fires back.
He sticks his tongue at her. She does it back before shutting the door and facing the nameless girl.
After a quick debate, she decides to start with the kid's hair. It needs the most attention. It's practically ruined; all tangled and filthy. If she's unable to salvage what's there then the kid is in for a haircut.
"Sit down." Casey commands as she approaches the tub.
The child sits immediately. God, why can't Noley be this easy?
"I'm going to wash your hair." Casey explains while leaning the child back so that she can lay her down to rinse out the dirt and soot. That way she can have a better idea of what she's working with.
The child goes down without a fight. Not one protest escapes her lips, nor does she squirm in the least as Casey dips her head back into the water.
Almost immediately the water begins to blacken once again. That's how filthy the kid's hair is.
Casey shakes her head and sighs heavily and lets the water out once more. At this rate they'll get nowhere. The kid needs to be in the shower.
"Stay here, I'll be right back." Casey orders. She doesn't wait for the kid's response. Somehow she knows her command will be adhered to. And when she comes back a few seconds later, wearing her swimsuit and a very tight bun at the top of her head, she sees that she was right to think so. The kid's in the same exact spot.
She steps into the tub with the girl, closes the shower curtain and starts the shower. The child gasps in surprise when the water hits her, but she stays put. Poor kid's probably never taken a shower before. Still…
"Are you alright?" Casey asks.
"It's hot." She answers.
"Shit." Casey mutters while pulling the kid away from the spray of hot water and adjusting the knobs. "You should say something if you're being hurt, like freakin' ow or something!" Casey yells, turning the child away so she can check her back. It's a little red, but thankfully the water wasn't hot enough to burn her.
"Ow?" the girl questions.
"Yes, ow, ouch, owwie. Shit works too." She says the last bit more to herself, but the girl hears her all the same.
"Shit?"
Damn.
"No, don't say shit. It's a bad word."
"Words are bad?"
"Some are." She explains briefly. Then she pushes the child under the spray of water. "Better?"
"Yes."
Casey knows she made the right decision to switch to a shower when most of the dirt and grime from the kid's hair starts pouring down into the drain immediately. This will take no time at all.
She pulls the girl out of the water so she can soap up her hair really well; then she pushes her back in.
"Ow." The child gasps.
"What?" Case panics a little.
"It burns my eyes." She blinks rapidly. "It hurts."
Casey rolls her eyes and rinses the shampoo out of the kid's eyes. "You're supposed to close your eyes." She grunts, frowning at just how bloodshot the girl's eyes are. Didn't her pod parents ever wash her hair?
Casey washes the kid's hair with shampoo twice more, then conditions it once before she's convinced that it's clean. She doesn't have to remind the child once to close her eyes during any of it. She's a fast learner. Thank God.
What's even better is it doesn't seem as though she'll need to cut it either. After being cleaned, conditioned, blow-dried and brushed, Casey can see that it's actually kinda pretty, the girl's hair; dead straight, raven black, and it falls down to the middle of her back.
"Alright, now that that's out of the way," Casey mutters as she wraps the girl in a towel and takes her into her bedroom. Well, the room she shares with her two sisters. "Let's see if we can find something for you to wear."
It's Casey's first time going through Noley's drawers, and not because she respects the little twerp's privacy either. It's just way too….colorful in there. Nothing matches anything. Nothing.
Eventually Casey quits trying and just gives the kid one of her t-shirts and a pair of Noley's underwear. She gives her a pair of Noley's jeans too, but the kid starts squirming and tugging on the fabric wrapped around her thighs. She's possibly only ever worn dresses her whole life. In that respect, the jeans probably are a bit constricting. So Casey takes them off for her. Her t-shirt is long enough to cover the child up anyway.
Casey sits the child down at the desk and gives her a notebook and a pencil.
"Can you read and write?" She asks the girl.
"Yes."
"Here." Casey thrusts the book in her hand. "I'm not going to call you Eighteen. It's not a name. So you're going to pick a name out of this book. Write all the ones you like down on this piece of paper. When you're done we'll pick your two favorites. You can use one for your first name and the other for your middle name. You got all of that?"
"Two?" the child questions simply.
"Yeah, two. Why do you ask?" Casey folds her arms. She knew that blind obedience crap wasn't gonna last long.
"Can I have three? Andrew said he has three names. Do you have three names as well?"
Okay, so that's not that bad of a question; not really any defiance either. Just mild curiosity. Casey can deal with that. "Yes." She answers. "I have three names too."
"What are they?"
"Kristin, Clark, and Kent." She grunts. Nobody calls her Kristin though. It's Casey. the initials of her first and middle names are K.C. and they kinda morphed into "Casey" over the years.
"Andrew's names are Andrew, Blake, and Kent." The child frowns. "Why do you have the same name?"
"You mean our last name, Kent?"
"Yes, Kent." The girl nods.
Surprisingly, the million questions aren't bothering Casey. What's irritating her is how little this child knows. She's too old to not know this stuff and it makes Casey want to find the kid's pod parents and slap them.
But she can't, so she answers the kid's question instead.
"Kent is our family name. My mother, father and my sisters and brothers. We all have the same last name."
"Why?"
"It means we belong to each other." Casey shrugs. That's the best she can come up with.
"Who do I belong to?"
It should be easy not to feel sorry for the kid. She doesn't seem sad. There are no tears, no looking down at her feet forlornly, just curiosity. But for some reason, that seems to make it worse.
This kid belongs to no one, and she doesn't even understand how alone she is.
"Let's work on getting your first and middle names first;" Casey sighs. "Then we'll work on your last one later, okay?"
The child nods her head and starts looking through the book.
"Casey!" Andrew shouts. Casey rolls her eyes. He probably wants help with the yard work. Not that she can blame him. They are supposed to be doing it together.
With a command for the child to stay put as she finds the names she likes, Casey goes downstairs, ready to help Andrew finish the yard work and prepared to keep an ear out for the kid; but she runs into her sister, Lizzy.
"What are you doing home?" Casey frowns.
"Mama wants you." Lizzy answers, holding her phone out for her younger sister to take.
Casey rolls her eyes, realizing Andrew had been trying to warn her; not complaining about how unfair it is for him to be doing chores while she babysits the most obedient child on the face of the planet. If Lizzy's here offering her phone, it means her mother had been calling her phone and she didn't pick up.
Her mother hates it when she can't get into contact with one of her children, and Casey knows she's about to get an ear full.
"Hello?" she answers.
"Casey! Why haven't you been answering your phone?"
"It's on silent."
"Why?"
Casey shrugs her shoulders. Not that Chloe could see it. And it's not like her mother waits for a response either.
"Well, are you okay? I just got off the phone with Maddie…"
"What?" Casey mouths at Lizzy easily toning out her mother. Her sister's staring at her a little too hard. If she didn't know any better she'd say she was being x-rayed.
"Casey!" Chloe shouts.
"I'm listening." She lies. She hasn't heard a word after her mother said something about getting off the phone with Maddie.
"Are you in some kind of trouble?"
"You tell me. Exactly how much trouble is leaving my chores undone worth?"
"What?"
Casey frowns down at her sister's phone. She spoke plain English. What does her mother mean by "what?"
"Maddie said you borrowed her baby naming book…" her mother trails.
Oh, Casey gets it now. Her mother thinks she's in that kind of trouble. That she's pregnant. As if she would be stupid enough. "I did borrow her book." Casey answers. But she doesn't offer any more than that even though she knows what her mother's asking; what she wants to hear.
"Why?"
"Because I needed it."
"For what."
"To name a kid.
"What. Kid. Casey!?"
"The kid upstairs." Casey relents, having been difficult enough for the day.
Her mother's sigh of relief could be heard from miles away without super-hearing. "Casey, how many times do I have to tell you and Andrew not to bring animals in the house?"
"But"-
"No buts. I don't care if it's a kryptonite infected goat that can shoot fifty liters of milk from its eyes. Get it out of the house."
"Here! You do it." Casey yells, thrusting the phone back at my sister.
Lizzy blinks at her.
"Go get the kid and bring it downstairs. Mom wants it out of the house!" she yells.
"Don't be upset Casey, it's not like this is a new rule." Lizzy frowns.
Casey only glares back. Okay, so maybe she's brought a few animals in the house. She's not a people person, but animals… She can deal with them just fine. They're way less annoying. Sometimes she can't help but to bring in the ones that are newborn, or stray, or injured. But it's not like she intends for them to stay in the house indefinitely. Just for a little bit.
Lizzy rolls her eyes at her sister's stubbornness before going upstairs.
When she opens her bedroom door, she expects to see a baby goat napping on Casey's bed. Instead, she sees a child, a human child, sitting at the desk.
The child stiffens slightly then turns around. Locking eyes with Lizzy. And Lizzy's gut twists. The kid looks awfully familiar. It's the eyes. The shape of them; and that hazel color. From far away, they look brown; but close up, you can see the mixture of green and gold in there.
"Mama." Lizzy whispers into her phone.
"Yeah."
"The um…the kid, she's a human kid."
"Human?"
"Yeah."
"Stay there with her. I'll be home as soon as I finish my errands."
"Okay."
Lizzy hangs up and approaches the child slowly. "Hello." She says "What's your name?"
"I'm finding one." the little girl answers, tilting her head to the side slightly and regarding the new person who's just come into her life.
"Finding one?" Lizzy asks as she gets even closer to the child.
"Kristin said I have to write the ones I like down. Then I can pick the two I like the most."
Lizzy frowns. No one calls Casey Kristin.
Unable to contain herself any longer, the child reaches her hand out slowly, grabbing on to a lock of Lizzy's hair. "It's like fire" she whispers in awe.
"So, whatcha got so far?" Lizzy asks, attempting to change the subject. She's always gotten embarrassed over the praise she gets for her wild red hair, but getting it from such a small child is a bit weird.
The child doesn't answer, so Lizzy peers over the little girl's shoulder to see for herself. There's only one name down on the paper so far and it makes her frown. Not because there's only one name there, but because it starts with the letter E. The child is supposed to be picking the names she likes the most. And since baby naming books are in alphabetical order, one would think there would be a few more names down. Some beginning with the letters A, B, C, and D, right?
Maybe not, Lizzy changes her mind quickly. Maybe the child is picky. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it seems to make sense as Lizzy takes the time to admire the child's handwriting. It's extremely neat for a girl her age. Surprisingly, Noley's got pretty decent penmanship too. She just over does it with the loops and swirls. But this child's handwriting is elegant, and more than that, it's very precise, controlled. It's then that Lizzy takes another look at the name the child chose and she smiles. "Elizabeth? That's my middle name."
"What are all your names?"
"Moira Elizabeth Kent." Lizzy frowns. Not only is that an odd way to ask for someone's whole name, but her middle name. Elizabeth. She was given the same middle name as her mother's best friend, Lana. That's who the child looks like! The lack of red hair threw her off for a bit, but there's no denying it. Despite the raven black hair, the child is a dead ringer for Lana. Or the Lana she knew; who actually had been her Kryptonian great aunt possessing Lana's body….it's a long story.
Lizzy'd spent so much time with her disguised aunt that she can't believe she didn't recognize her sooner; but then again, it was the red hair, or lack of, that threw her off for a moment. Her aunt must've been dying her hair red that whole time, because the black her suits the child much better, looks more natural. And that makes sense, her aunt dying her hair red. She was a redhead before she began possessing Lana's body after all. Maybe she kept it dyed so that at least one of her features would resemble her old self.
"You belong with Kristin and Andrew." The child states as a fact unknowingly interrupting Lizzy's thoughts, then goes back to finding names in the book.
Still Lizzy answers, albeit a bit absentmindedly. "They're my siblings, yes."
The child doesn't reply. It seems to Lizzy she's not going to, that she's done talking to her. It's just as well, she's got to go downstairs, call her mother. Now.
"Okay, well I'm gonna leave you to that." Lizzy pats the child on the head gently and goes downstairs.
"Why didn't you bring the kid with you?" Casey taunts as soon as she sets her sights on her sister.
"You could've told me she was human." Lizzy sighs.
"You're the know-it-all." Casey retorts.
Lizzy bites her lip. No she's not. If she was a know it all, she'd know why that child upstairs looks so much like her aunt had.
Casey frowns at her sister, wondering what's going on in her mind, and Lizzy immediately answers Casey's unasked question. "She looks just like Morgan."
Casey gasps. "I knew she looked familiar," she agrees immediately. "The black hair threw me off."
"Me too." Lizzy sighs, pulling out her phone.
Casey grabs her arm. "Don't tell Mom."
"Why not?"
"Not yet, just wait, Okay?"
Lizzy narrows her eyes suspiciously. "What are you gonna do?"
"Nothing."
And she's not going to do anything crazy. She just wants to wait for her father to come home first. There's this weird feeling Casey's been getting ever since the child first told her that the others died in the fire, and it's that the kid has nowhere else to go. Nowhere safe. And Casey's the type to bring in stray animals, always has been.
Her mother is always the first to tell her she can't keep it, whereas her father usually fights to let her enjoy the animal's company for a few days. And though Casey realizes the kid isn't an animal, she's also not like any other kid she's encountered either. She's extremely easy to deal with. Casey wouldn't mind her sticking around for a little while, and since it's always her father that wants to let her keep her stray pets, even though the kid isn't technically a pet, it's her father that she wants to see the kid first. Not her mother. She'll probably try to send her off with a good foster family, probably Bart because the kid's fast and he's really good with kids.
"Then why-" Lizzy starts off, but Casey cuts her sister off with a simple, "Please."
Lizzy relents, going back out to finish her errands. Casey never asks her for anything. She guesses it won't harm anyone to wait to tell her mother how much the child resembles Lana Lang.
{(O)(O)(O)}
It's nearly two hours before Chloe walks through the door.
Clark hasn't been in once; it's a busy day today. A major earthquake in California and a few bombing's in the Middle East, just to name a few.
Casey understands that those lives are more important than that of a child who's completely safe in her care, but she still can't help wishing her father had come home before her mother.
"Kristin." The kid calls before Chloe can greet, or scold, her daughter.
Casey runs up the stairs.
Chloe frowns at her daughter's retreating back. No one calls her Kristin. She hates that name. She was told that Andrew and Casey found the child in the rubble of the Luthor Mansion. She can't imagine Casey would've introduced herself as Kristin to the child, but she must've. How else would the child have known that name?
"Mom, I'm getting a snack," Noley says. Chloe doubts she's hungry. She just ate, but Chloe nods her consent anyway and follows Casey up the stairs.
Once Casey's in her room, it's more than obvious the child is waiting for her. "Are you done?" she asks, coming to stand beside the child.
The kid nods her head. "Yes. I found the ones I like."
"Well, lemme see." Casey says while taking the piece of paper from the child's hands. Then she frowns. There are only four names on the piece of paper. Elizabeth, Isobel, Lana, and Margaret.
Casey takes a deep breath. Lana Elizabeth Lang; that was the full name of her parents' deceased friend. And that's who the child resembles. She doubts it's a coincidence that the child likes those two names. She hopes the other two, Isobel and Margaret, hold very little significance. But she's not gonna hold her breath.
"Casey I"- Chloe's opened the door to her daughters' bedroom and is about to demand a moment alone with her when she sets eyes on the child and she forgets what she wanted to talk to Casey about. "Lana." She whispers.
"That's one of the names on the list." Casey says, handing her mother the piece of paper.
Chloe blinks demanding her eyes to bring everything else back into focus. Then she frowns. The List? "What list?" she asks, she's till in a bit of a shock, because her voice barely registers higher than a whisper.
Casey points to the piece of paper in her hand. "She doesn't have a name, so I told her to write down the ones she likes. Those are the ones she likes."
As Chloe looks over the list her eyes widen. Unlike Casey, she understands the significance of Isobel and Margaret. Margaret Isobel Thoreaux was an ancestor of Lana's. She went by her middle name, Isobel; and she was a witch who was burned at the stake centuries ago.
Clark got the pleasure of meeting her their senior year of high school, when Isobel had been possessing Lana. And Chloe and Lois had the pleasure of being possessed by Isobel's friends. She doesn't remember their names, or anything that happened that night in fact, but she does know that it had been her eighteenth birthday.
"Which two do you like the best?" Casey asks the child.
She doesn't think for long before she says, "Lana and Isobel."
Chloe's heart skips a beat. She would've felt much better if the child had said Margaret and Elizabeth.
"Okay, and if you had to be called one all the time," Casey continues. "Which one would it be? Which one do you want to answer to?
Which one will it be little girl. Do you want to be constantly called by my good friend's name, or by her evil witch of an ancestor's? Chloe thinks to herself.
"Isobel." The child says, and Chloe's heart sinks a little.
But Casey keeps going.
"Isobel Lana. Nice. Now all you need is a last name and you're all set."
"Kent." Chloe says before she can even think it through. All she knows is that if this little girl asks for her last name to either be Lang or Thoreaux, she'll pass out.
"Really?" Casey grins and actually hugs her mother. There's no way the kid's not staying now. If her mother's on board, then her father will be too.
Chloe nods her head slowly, mechanically. She didn't ask, but she can easily put two and two together. The child doesn't look like Lana in a way that she could be an offspring. She looks like Lana as in an exact replica. Meaning, this child belongs to no one. Was probably made in a lab somewhere, maybe even in the Luthor mansion since that's where she was found.
It won't be kidnapping to keep her. There's no doubt in her mind that there are no records of this child's existence.
"So I belong to you?" The child asks, taking a step toward Chloe. "You will be my Maman?"
Maman? Isn't that French for mother?
Wasn't Isobel from a small village in France?
Oh Chloe, what have you gotten yourself into now?