Dr. Eliza Danvers, Research Professor Emerita of Biochemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Redwood University, Midvale was a very busy woman. Her planned retirement had somehow become a new job with not only the same full student loads for the courses she had taught when she was a mere Professor, but she also had to prepare papers for the many more conference presentations that she'd committed to before she'd "retired." So she was much too busy to make a habit of watching the evening news.
Not that Eliza minded keeping busy, especially now that both her daughters were working in National City, a two-hour plane ride south. She had a deep passion for her work and it kept her from brooding over her dead husband and empty nest. But tonight, for some reason, she turned on the TV to the CBS affiliate, just in time to hear the news of how flight 237 to Geneva had been saved by an unknown guardian angel. She sat transfixed. She had known that her eldest daughter was flying to Geneva that evening, and the news that all the passengers were safe was a great relief. But she sat, pale and still, watching until the late news at midnight repeated the story with no additional details. At that point, after considerable thought, she went to bed.
Although she wanted nothing more than to travel to National City immediately, Eliza knew she couldn't take any chances. So she called her eldest daughter early the next morning.
"Hello, Alex. How are you? Since you're still here, I guessed right; you were on flight 237?"
"Yes, I was. And I'm a little tired but glad to be alive."
"I'm glad too. Are you going to reschedule your flight?"
"No, by the time I can get there, the meetings I was supposed to attend will be over, so there's no point."
"Well, if you're going to be still around, how'd you like to come home for the weekend? I haven't seen either you or Kara in ages. I was back in Isaiah's dell the other day and the blueberries are beautiful. I've been wanting an excuse to bake a blueberry pie."
A couple of hundred miles to the south, Alexandra Danvers frowned. Even though neither woman liked talking on the phone and kept phone calls as short as possible, this call was not going as she had expected. She certainly hadn't expected her mother to cajole a visit by bribing her with her favorite dessert.
"Sure I'll come. I can use the break. I'll be there Friday around six. Should I bring Kara with me?"
"That would be great. Do you want me to call and invite her?"
"Sure, Mom."
"Then love you and bye for now."
"Love you, bye." And Alex hung up the phone, wondering why her mother had not asked anything about the mystery woman who had saved her plane. She remembered a couple of lines from her late father's favorite detective story and muttered to herself, "'That was the curious incident."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It was just about noon on Friday at CatCo Worldwide Media. As CEO Cat Grant left her office on a way to a lunch meeting, her assistant stopped her.
"Excuse me a moment, Miss Grant, but will you be coming back to the office this afternoon after your meeting?"
"I usually do, Keira. Why do you ask?"
"Do you mind if I take this afternoon off as a vacation day? My sister is driving up to see our Mom for the weekend and I'd like to go with her. We haven't seen Mom for months because she lives in Midvale, about four hours drive up the coast, and we'd like to get there around dinner time if we can. Which means we'd have to leave town around two. I can leave later if you really need me to stay, but the bus that leaves at 5:45 is the one that stops in every town on the way. It doesn't get to Midvale until midnight, and I'd rather avoid taking it if I don't have to. Since the last couple of hours on Fridays are usually our quietest times, I suspect you won't miss me too much. I'll come in early on Monday, before you get here, to get caught up on anything you leave for me."
"All right, Kiera. Go enjoy your long weekend." And Miss Grant walked out to her lunch.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Alex picked up her sister at CatCo Plaza's main entrance just after two o'clock.
"Good to see you. So the dragon lady gave you the afternoon off? I'm surprised. Let's put your suitcase in the trunk."
"Miss Grant's not that bad. Demanding, yes, but it's always in the service of better news."
As the two women left National City behind them, Alex spoke up. "Did you notice anything odd when Mom called you this week?"
"Not really," her sister replied. Why do you ask?"
"The dog did nothing in the night-time," Alex responded without thinking as she had to swerve to avoid a careless driver who suddenly cut into their lane.
"Huh, what do you mean by that?"
Alex knew why she was puzzled, but she didn't want to worry her sister unnecessarily if it turned out she was wrong. So she simply smiled and said, "Never mind, Kara. It's something I can ask her about when we get there. It's nothing serious."
As the drive went on, Alex became increasingly tense. By the time they were on the outskirts of Midvale, she was as taut as her sister had ever seen her.
"You know, Alex," Kara remarked, "Mom can't blame you for being on a plane where the engines failed."
"Maybe not, but she's going to blame me for letting you provide help to the pilots."
"That's a bit of a reach, even for her."
"You'll see."
By the time the car had pulled up to the old house on the beach that six generations of the Danvers family had called home, Kara had managed to calm her sister down. As they got their bags from the trunk, the elemental force of nature that was Eliza Danvers grabbed them both in a deep bear hug. Her grip was still as strong as ever.
"Oh, Alex, Kara, I'm so glad to see you both. It's been too long. I should have come down to National City, but my schedule here is so tight this term."
"It's good to see you, Eliza," "It's good to be home, Mom," said her daughters in reply.
"Come on in, dinner's on the table."
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
The first two members of the Danvers family in the Midvale area were brothers Isaiah and Hezekiah who arrived in the mid-1800's. Isaiah, a farmer, staked a good sized farm a few miles out of town on the county road to the north east. Hezekiah, a dry goods merchant took over a large beachfront lot to the north of the town. The two lots were separated by a two-mile path through the woods with a meadow and a lake in the middle, and, because the land on both sides was rocky and unusable, the two branches of the Danvers family effectively controlled the land in between their lots even though they didn't own it. When Isaiah's son died childless, his cousin Obediah Danvers bought the farm from his widow and put it out to rent, an arrangement that was still continuing when Jeremiah Danvers came into his inheritance on his father's death many years later. In all those years, none of the farm's tenants had ever explored the woods behind the property line and so the meadow that Isaiah had found and his family named after him, remained a Danvers family secret. The lake was clear and deep, running out by a creek to the ocean, the meadow was flat, and best of all, there were several prolific blueberry bushes. Over the years, the Danvers men had made some improvements to the meadow. Obediah had cut down a tree and made a picnic bench and table by the lake and Jeremiah had built a small shelter.
Kara Danvers claimed that her foster mother's chocolate pecan pie was the best dessert anywhere, but she freely admitted that blueberry pie, especially when the blueberries came from Isaiah's dell, ran it a close second. So when she walked into the kitchen early that Saturday morning and saw Eliza making sandwiches and packing them in a knapsack while her sister was making breakfast, she had a good idea of what was up.
"Are we going to Isaiah's dell to pick blueberries?" she asked happily.
"Yes," Eliza replied.
Kara's mouth turned up in a grin as she looked at her sister, but Alex's eyes were still puzzled.
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After breakfast, the three women left the farmhouse and followed the familiar path into the woods. The walk gave Alex and Kara plenty of time to think, and they needed it. Last night had not gone as either of them had expected. While Eliza had asked Alex to describe how her flight had ended and how she had got to shore, she hadn't so much as mentioned the flying woman who had saved the plane from crashing. Yet both girls knew that their mother must have heard at least some version of that part of the story. Kara wasn't too worried, thinking that Eliza hadn't chewed her out for using her powers because she was grateful that she had saved Alex' life. Alex, although relieved that she didn't have to defend herself, grew increasingly puzzled as her mother continued to make no mention of the topic. She was once again worrying over the subject as they walked out into the meadow where six generations of the Danvers family had picked blueberries, but the sight of the laden berry bushes took her mind off her concern.
"OK, girls," Eliza said, "I've got twelve pails, we'll pick four each. And there are so many berries I think we can eat two for every ten picked."
The three women set to with a will, and by twelve-thirty every pail was full. They sat down at the picnic bench to have their lunch.
After they finished, Eliza looked at them.
"Alex, you look puzzled."
"I am, Mom," her daughter replied.
"Is it because I didn't ask you for more details about your flight? I did see the newspapers, in case you are wondering."
"'The dog did nothing in the night-time.' 'That was the curious incident.' Yes, I've been expecting you to ask ever since our phone call."
"I'm not surprised. You and Jeremiah did love that story." Eliza then leaned over the table and dropped her voice to a murmur. "Kara, would you mind looking around without your glasses and making sure there's nobody within earshot. I've something to tell you both that must not be overheard."
Her Kryptonian foster daughter quickly looked around, put her glasses back on and said. "We're the only humans within a two-mile radius. If anybody is hearing us it's by means of a drone or a bug and I don't see anything that shouldn't be in our clothes. Nor do I see any drones in the sky."
"Thank you, Kara. Not just for this, but for saving Alex' life the other day."
"You're not mad?"
"I could never be mad that you used your powers to save Alex. But it brings up a point that I should have talked to you about earlier.
"That prohibition on using your powers that Jeremiah and I drummed into your head? It was for your own protection. We wanted you to grow up and learn what a normal human life was like, so you'd be able to fit in when you wanted to. We also knew that it would be a disaster for you if knowledge of who you are and what you are got out into the world before you could fit in. But you are an adult now and that changes things. From now on, you make your own choices and especially you make the choices about when and how you use your powers."
"Alex, I need you to hear what I just said. From now on Kara makes her own choices. But I can't just say that without thanking you for all the effort, and all the care you have given Kara over these years. When she arrived, your father and I needed your help to look after her. And through the years you have done that and far more than we ever thought you'd have to. When we lost Jeremiah, I needed your help even more. You knew it, and you stepped up and met the challenge. In fact, I can't think of a single challenge in your life that you have not handled well. I have pushed you very hard, Alex and, in some ways, I regret that. I was often too tired for you, too focused on either my work or on Kara's special needs to give my full attention to you. But I am so proud of you, don't think for a moment that I'm not."
"But I do have a couple of other things to say to Kara and you should hear them too."
"Kara, knowing you, you will find other planes and other Alexes in your future. And being the girl you are, you will want to help them. So feel free to do that. But there's something you should know: just because I've stopped commanding you not to use your powers doesn't mean that I don't have any advice for you if you do use them. I've been around this planet for years longer than you have. I know it better and I've made a whole bunch of mistakes living here and I may have gained some wisdom from that experience. I may know some things you need to know so that you can use your powers more wisely. And the first thing you need to know is this: not everybody will be on your side even though they see you doing good."
"What do you mean?"
"I just wish that I had had this little talk with you earlier. Because if I had, you might not have opened the can of worms that you did open by not keeping away from the plane afterward, which let you be photographed."
"That wouldn't have done any good, Mom," Alex commented. "There were witnesses on the bridge who saw Kara holding up the plane, even though they didn't get photographs."
"I hadn't known that," Eliza replied. "But either way, the situation is this. People know there's a mystery flying woman out there, somewhere. And I have to tell you that there are some people out there who will have a very good idea of who that woman is and they are, at best, not entirely friendly towards you."
Both of her daughters sat bolt upright at this statement. "Who are they?" asked Kara.
"Who they are is a secret department of the federal government called the Department of Extra-Normal Operations or the DEO for short. They have been around ever since Superman began his work and their job is to prepare to fight any aliens who turn up on this planet with hostile intentions. At the very least you should be ready to meet them, because they will certainly want to meet you, even work with you."
"How do you know about them?" Alex cut in, eyes intent.
"Because they had somehow followed Superman to Midvale the day Kara arrived on earth. Then they sent agents to check out every new arrival in the town. And those agents were still here the night that you let Kara take you flying and they saw the two of you come back home. The only reason Kara didn't grow up in a lab somewhere as a prisoner of the government is that Jeremiah not only put his knowledge of Superman at the DEO's disposal, he quit his job at Redwoods and went to work for them full time. And he was on an assignment for them when he was killed. They told me he died in a plane crash, but I don't trust them. And I really don't trust the chief of the agents who tried to take you away that night. He was a man named Hank Henshaw."
"Thank you, Eliza," said Kara as Alex turned pale. "At least I'm forewarned. I think I'd better talk to Clark about this."
"That might be a very good idea," her foster mother agreed. "But let me say this again. You're not a child now. You make and live with your own decisions. But I am proud, not to mention grateful that you decided to help flight 237 the other night. That was the act of a true hero, on a par with your cousin. But please, be careful. I've already lost Jeremiah. I don't want to lose you, too."
Kara Danvers looked at the foster mother who had given her so much and heard Eliza's heart in her voice.
"Thanks for the warning. I'll be as careful as I can, Mom."
It was the first time Kara had ever used the term.
"Then that's all we can ask."
