2.

The paramedics checked me over for injuries when they arrived, then wrapped me up in a shock blanket and set me off to the side while they swarmed around the driver. Police and ambulances were all there by this time, and the ruined car was in the process of being pulled out of the river by machinery.

"Morrie!" My Dad's old truck screeched to a halt by the side of the road and he ran down the embankment to meet me. "Sweetie, are you alright?" he asked, putting his hands to my face and looking me over in concern.

"I'm fine, Dad, I'm okay," I said.

My father whirled around to the nearest policeman. "Who was the maniac who was driving that car and hurt my little girl?!" he demanded angrily.

"That would be me." We turned around to find the bald driver had walked up and put out a hand. "Lex Luthor."

My father wasn't the only one who was surprised. Lex Luthor? He was the son of the head of Luthor Corp, Lionel Luthor. Lex was a Metropolis city boy. Got in the news a lot for drunken shenanigans and fancy car wrecks. I'd heard rumors that he'd been banished here to take over Luthor Corp's Smallville fertilizer plant, but…

My Dad gave Lex an extremely ugly look. He did not take the hand. I was surprised - I had never seen my father so unpleasant.

Lex lowered the hand, but continued looking at my father, waiting for him to speak.

"I'm Jonathan Kent," my father forced out at last, with the barest measure of civility. "This is my daughter." He turned to me, wrapped me up in his coat, and started leading me off toward the truck.

Lex Luthor started walking beside me. "Thank you," he said, "for saving my life."

My father stiffened, but I could handle myself. "I did what anyone should have done," I said simply. "No thanks is necessary."

"What you did was extraordinary. If there's any way I can repay you -" Now he sounded unctuous. He felt he had to give me something to appease me.

I turned around. "There is no debt," I said. "I don't need your money, Lex." He stared after me as I walked off.

"Mr Kent," I heard him begin from behind me, "is there any way I can -?"

"Repay me by driving slower," my father said brusquely, and he followed me to the truck.

I retreated to my Fortress that night. Well, that was what my Dad called it. In reality, it was a loft he'd built for me up above the barn. Someplace to be when I wanted to hang out with friends, or just be alone. My Fortress of Solitude, he said jokingly.

It had cinder-block shelves, bright pop-up art graphics on the walls, a second-hand couch that folded out into a sofa bed, and a coffee table. By the back window, looking out over open, starry night sky and fields, was an old fashioned telescope I'd inherited from my father. I used it to stargaze some nights. If I'd been a poet or a painter I could have rendered that view in magnificent detail, but as it was I had to content myself with enjoying the quiet awe that it always filled me with.

But tonight I was distracted. I glanced through the telescope. Looked to the pictures. Looked to the couch. Looked to the shelves.

And everywhere I looked I thought: I should be dead. I should be dead. I should be dead.

Invulnerability. Another weird thing to add to the list. Could anything kill me?

What was happening to me?

My friends congratulated me on my big save the next day at school. I got lots of whispers as I passed in the halls. Chloe insisted I was a celebrity - a real hero, saving the richest and most famous person in town.

I got home, and there was a brand new, authentic Mustang - shiny, perfect, and restored - in the driveway. "Whoa!" I said in amazement, running over to check it out. "Hey, Mom, whose car is this?!" I called out to my mother, who was working away in her garden nearby.

She stood, dusted herself off, and handed me a card. "Yours. It's a gift from Lex Luthor. It came with this."

The card was fancily monogrammed in purple, decorated with the initials LL. Inside was a hand-written, personally signed note.

Dear Morrigan,

I know you don't need my money, but I thought I'd offer it anyway. It's the least I can do. I heard you have a thing for the old fashioned. Drive safely.

Forever in your debt,

The Maniac in the Porsche

"This is amazing!" I squealed, for once openly delighted. "Where are the keys?!" I looked up wildly - and my Mom seemed cautious.

"Your father has them," she said, wincing and nodding to where my Dad was working angrily away at the wood-chipper out in the barn.

Uh-oh.

I walked over to my Dad, who saw me coming and sighed, turning everything off and taking off his ear protectors and goggles. "I know how much you want it, Morrie," he said. "But you can't keep it."

I became reserved to hide my disappointment and anger. "Why not?" I asked bitingly.

"Morrie, we're still going to fix up your old Mustang -" my father tried.

"Why. Not."

"Because the Luthors are crooks!" my Dad shouted, losing it. "Do you remember Mr. Bell? We used to go fishing on his property? How about Mr. Guy? He used to send us pumpkins every Halloween. Well, Lionel Luthor promised to cut them in on a deal. He sent them flashy gifts, just like this one. Only once they sold him their property, he went back on his word. He had them evicted."

"Your father is right," said my mother, coming up behind me. "We've known the Luthors to blackmail people who have done them kindnesses in this town. They're bad sorts. They can't be trusted."

"So both Lex and his father have done these things?" I confirmed.

"... No," my father admitted at last. "Lex doesn't run anything. It's all been Lionel."

"So you're judging Lex based on what his father did," I said flatly.

"Morrigan, you're being a little naive," said my mother, unimpressed. "Who exactly do you think taught Lex all his business practices?"

"But not everyone turns out like their parents, or even likes their parents!"

"Do you want to take that chance?" my father asked.

"Well I'm not saying he's a saint. He's paying us off so we don't sue him. It's not like he's just doing it out of the kindness of his heart -"

"Where the hell do you think the money came from that bought that car, then?!" my Dad shouted, pointing at it. "Do you think it came from Lex or any of his work?! Who did it come from?!"

I couldn't answer, my jaw tight. Because my father was right. It came from Lionel.

"Morrigan, I think you may have to face up to the idea that the only reason you're defending Lex so heatedly is because you want the car," said my mother evenly. "You don't even know him."

"We'll fix up the old Mustang and return this one," said my father. "End of discussion."

I stood there, fists clenched, silent for a moment. "... I think you're mistaking my idealism for greed," I said at last. "But if you want to return the car, go ahead. You're my legal guardians; you can do whatever you want."

The tone was cold and disdainful, a physical reminder that they were not my biological parents. They flinched. I turned to walk stiffly up the stairs to my loft.

At last, my father softened. "Sweetie, I know you're upset," he said. "But it's normal -"

And that was what made me snap. The buzz word. Normal.

"No, Dad!" I yelled wildly, whirling back. "The point is that I'm not normal! Do you have any idea what it's like, knowing I may never be able to have sex with a human man without fear of losing control and hurting him?! Knowing I can do better and never being able to?! Knowing that if people knew the truth about me they'd see me as a freak?! Wondering why the hell God made me the way I am?!

"I'm not normal! I'm in this situation because I'm not normal! And for the first time I'm being congratulated, because that was a good thing, and now you're taking that away from me!"

My parents looked pained.

"What about this?!" I'd lost my head completely. "Is this normal?!" I ran over, turned the wood chipper on, and stuck my arm in. A dull thunking grated against my arm, not even painful, and then the wood chipper made a great whirring noise and broke.

"Morrigan! No!" My parents had run over, pulled out my arm - and it was totally unharmed.

"I didn't dive in after Lex's car," I said heatedly. "It hit me at over sixty miles an hour. Does that sound normal to you? I'd give anything to be normal."

I walked toward the loft. "Morrigan," my Mom called after me. "Would you like the truth?" All of a sudden, she sounded tired.

I turned back, pausing, confused. "Yeah," I said. "Some truth would be nice. But about what?"

"The day of the meteor shower twelve years ago, it was close to Halloween. Everyone in your age group was three years old, which means you would have been as well." The age of three. When I'd been adopted. "We were driving by open fields when the meteors hit. One landed in front of our truck. It flipped over and we were knocked out. When we woke up, you were standing there next to our truck, looking at us. You were a little toddler girl, completely naked. We'd never even seen you before.

"We wrapped you up in blankets and started walking around in the aftermath, trying to figure out where you'd come from. And we - we found a spaceship," she admitted. "A little pod, large enough only for one child.

"The meteor shower was bringing you."

I struggled to comprehend this. "But - but the adoption papers -"

"They were forged," said my father. "Three was the age of your neighbor, little Lana Lang, so that was the number we picked." He reached into his pocket, and took out a metallic tablet wrapped in cloth. I took it. Strange geometric writing was carved vertically into it. "You came with this," my father said. "We've tried to decipher it for years. But it's not written in any language known to man."

"... Prove it to me," I said at last, my eyes wide.

And so, in the dusky shadows, they took me down into the storm cellar and pulled off a piece of tarp covering what I'd always thought was a broken piece of machinery in the corner. It really was a metal pod - with little front wings for steering.

I started backing up. The green meteor rock allergy. I'd killed Lana's parents. All those people had died because of me. I was a freak. I was an alien.

The idea of aloneness filled me again. No. No. No.

"Why - why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" I gasped out.

"We wanted to protect you -" my father began.

"Protect me from what?!" I snapped. I felt like a cornered snake.

"From this," my mother said loudly, giving me a hard look. "This feeling you're experiencing right now. But Morrigan - you're destined for great things. I wish you could see that." She gazed at me sympathetically.

Tears filled my eyes. I was an alien. That was all I could process. I was a humanoid alien. More than that, I was the only alien. I was alone.

I speed ran away, leaving my parents' figures behind me.

I went to Justin's house. I wasn't sure why. I just started running, running away from everything, and my feet led me to their own place.

I ended up in front of Justin's house, knocking on the door that night. His mother opened the door, and stared at me in surprise. "You're the Kents' daughter," she said.

I can't imagine what my face looked like. I was pale, wide-eyed, almost physically, viscerally ill. "Yeah," I said. "Is - is Justin in? I'd like to talk to him about something."

Justin came down and we sat alone on his front porch. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

I opened my mouth, and realized I had no idea what to say. I worked on it for a while and then said, my voice choked up, "I learned something about my parents tonight. My - my biological parents."

"I didn't even know you were adopted," he said, surprised. "What did you learn?"

"I don't want to talk about it. But I - I just needed to be with someone -" My voice was jerking, halting.

He nodded, somewhat uncomfortable. "Okay." And we sat in silence. I was thinking maybe I'd made a mistake, coming here.

And then I just came out with it. "Justin - when you're an orphan - you spend a lot of time wondering what life would have been like if, you know. If they were still here. If you would have felt normal. If you would have been happy. I just - feel like my life was supposed to be something different. I… I mourn the life I don't have. I'm alone." Tears had filled my voice again. "I'm completely alone."

Justin leaned in and hugged me. "No, you're not," he said quietly. And for a moment some of the terrible weight inside me lessened. I relaxed into his body heat. A few tears leaked into his shirt and he hugged me tighter.

We sat like that for a while.

"I've always really liked you, Justin," I whispered. I hadn't even meant to say it. But he turned down to look at me in surprise.

I straightened, gasping, blushing. "I - I mean -"

But he was laughing softly. "Seriously?" he said. "I thought I was the one who liked you. I didn't think you'd ever really noticed me. You kind of give off that vibe of being completely independent of anyone."

"I could never not notice you, Justin," I said, smiling shyly.

"You know," he said, "you're kind of adorable when you're embarrassed." He sounded amused. I blushed and smiled bigger. "Hey," he said, "... do you want to go to the homecoming dance with me?"

I could hardly believe what I was hearing. My heart thundered in my chest.

"... Yes!" I said breathlessly, ecstatic.

And suddenly having to return Lex's car didn't seem so bad anymore. The guilt and loneliness were still there… but they had lessened.

I went quietly back to my house that night. My parents were waiting up in the kitchen. They stood when I arrived -

"Why did you take me?" I asked. "Tell me that. You find an alien child. Why keep it and hide it from harm?"

"... We'd always wanted a child, but had never been able to have one," said my mother. "And you were just so small and alone and helpless - it felt like fate." She shrugged.

"We love you, Morrigan," said my father. "You have to know that."

"... I do," I admitted. "I do know that." And I went forward and hugged them.