In the family room the atmosphere became charged with expectation as Lois' and Clark's feelings swiftly changed to incredulity. That really was too much to be coincidental!

"Would that be Ben Kershaw?" Clark asked, his eyes narrowing.

For a moment the woman looked poised for flight, but she visibly made the effort to hold her ground. "Do you know him?" Her voice sounded timorous, with just the tiniest edge of something akin to hope.

"Yes, we do," Clark replied, again smiling encouragingly. Ben had thought that his family was lost to him forever. In fact, other than stating that he'd had his reasons for running away at the tender age of twelve, the boy had refused to give any other information about his folks. But now his mother had come to see him. "This is amazing...."

Lois cut in on her husband, sounding a little more cautious. After all, Ben had run away from this woman. "Claudette, may we call you Claudette?" At the woman's slight nod of affirmation, Lois continued. "I'm Lois Lane and this is my husband Clark Kent...."

"You're the reporters who wrote the story about Ben!"

"That's correct! So I'm assuming that you read it." Lois moved a little closer to Claudette. "Is that why you came here?"

Claudette nodded and returned to her favourite chair next to the window. The silence in the room stretched out almost palpably. She took a few deep breaths, as if she were gathering herself for the traumatic confession. "I didn't know where he was until I read your article in the paper," she said to the floor, then raised her head to face the couple who were regarding her with some compassion. "I did try to find him... a few years ago, but the circumstances were difficult...."

"They must have been!" The note of censure in Lois' voice was barely disguised. Before meeting and falling in love with Clark, Lois had never considered herself the mothering type. Yet, if any of her brood disappeared, she knew that she'd move heaven and earth to find them... no matter what the circumstances.

Evidently Claudette had not been fooled. The nervous woman seemed to shrink in on herself. "You despise me," she uttered hollowly, "and you have every right. I let my son go... I abandoned him. I shouldn't be here now... opening old wounds." Claudette rose and took a few steps towards the door, pulling her coat around her like a protective shield. "I'll go. Please don't tell Ben you saw me...."

"LO-is!"

Lois reached out and grabbed Claudette's arm as she passed. "Please, don't go!" She sent Clark an apologetic look and turned back to Ben's mother. "Claudette, I don't know what happened between you and Ben, but you shouldn't leave without trying to talk to him, no matter how bad things were in the past."

"He didn't tell you?" Claudette's glance swung between Lois and Clark.

"He wouldn't tell anyone!" Clark moved closer to the two women. "Not even Superman. All he would say was that he ran away because he didn't get along with his stepfather."

"Is that what he called it?" Claudette said on a sneer.

"Can we take it that's the man who died?" Lois made sure to keep her voice neutral. She knew there were men who abused their families and, judging by what Claudette had said earlier, this man might have been one of them. Maybe the woman had been terrified of him, though Lois still didn't see that as an excuse for a mother not to protect her child. But then, she supposed it was easy for her to assume that, when she was blessed with one of the most gentle husbands on the planet.

"Yes!" The woman was back to monosyllabic answers.

Clark decided to take things in hand. "Look, this is obviously a very painful subject for you, but I agree with Lois. Now that you've come this far, it would be a tragedy for you to leave without seeing Ben. Why don't we sit down and we can talk about it.... that's if you don't mind discussing your problems with two strangers. Though I have to tell you that Lois and I have grown pretty fond of Ben. He's a good kid who just got a little side-tracked onto the wrong path."

"That's probably my fault too," the poor woman admitted guiltily, but she did allow Clark to lead her back to her chair.

"Seems to me that your husband had something to do with it," Lois prompted more kindly as she came to sit by Claudette's side.

"He did, but I was too blind to see it... and when Ben finally found the courage to tell me, I didn't believe him. I just put it down to his being jealous of David.... David was so plausible you see..."

Now that was something that Lois could identify with; Lex Luthor had fooled her for a long time. People believed what they wanted to....

"I thought he was a good man," Claudette insisted, cutting into Lois' thought. "Though maybe I just didn't want to believe that about the man I thought I loved. I mean, it's not the sort of thing that you like to admit -- that your husband is sexually abusing your son." The fact that the revelation was delivered numbly, colourlessly, only seemed to emphasise the horror.

Both members of the reporting partnership had been fairly certain that it was something like this that had driven Ben from his home, and that was what he'd been keeping so wretchedly to himself ever since. They'd even written a series of articles on the heartbreaking problem some years back, so they did understand a little. But hearing it confirmed that their young friend had been a victim of such a vile crime left them stunned and cold.

Surprisingly, it was Clark who was the first to recover. "What about Ben's real father... Mr Kershaw? Didn't he try to intervene?"

"There never was a Mr Kershaw, unless you mean my father and he died when I was a kid. I was only sixteen when I got pregnant and the boy ran out on us when he found out he was responsible. I was a single mother, and being that in a small town Like Mount Farrell, where I came from, wasn't easy."

"How about your mother -- didn't she help you?" Lois asked without much expectation. No one knew better than she that mothers could often be flawed.

"Sometimes... but she was too busy landing husband number three to care much what happened to me and her grandson. Whenever she succeeded she and her 'catch' were off to Vegas, though they did leave me with a roof over my head and some money in a bank account -- they'd even drop by a few times in between trips to bankroll me and Ben, but the help they gave was pretty grudging and sporadic. Ben and I had to fend for ourselves. So I suppose I was fair game for David Dailey when he drove through town. He was a gentleman, not real handsome, but nice, and he treated me like a lady It was a whirlwind courtship. We got married within four weeks, and Ben and I moved in with him. He lived in the next big town to Mount Farrell."

Claudette seemed lost in her memories, so Lois chose to prompt her. "When was that?"

The haggard woman shot Lois an almost irate look, as if she were loathe to be pulled from her contemplation of what she had once thought of as happier times. "Let me see... I guess Ben was around seven at the time. Yes, that's right, cause just after we moved, David threw a huge party for Ben's seventh birthday... balloons, birthday cake and he invited all the kids in the neighbourhood... there was even a clown. David owned a successful car-dealership and you have no idea how good it felt not having to eke out a living. I was sure we were all going to be so happy, but Ben never took to his stepfather. Only I put it down to jealousy. Ben and I had always been on our own together, looking out for each other. I was sure he was angry because he had to learn to share me with someone else.... You know how hard it is for some kids to adjust to new things?" Claudette searched the faces of the two people for some sort of understanding. "How was I to know what was really going on? David seemed so good... and he tried so hard to win Ben's approval. Everyone else thought Ben was just being difficult."

"Everyone?" Clark asked, trying to keep the edge from his voice.

"David's family, his friends... David was very well liked. No one had any idea of what he was doing. And for a long time, Ben wouldn't say what was wrong. He just became so silent and withdrawn... and sometimes he'd get angry and throw terrible temper tantrums."

"I'd say he was entitled!" Lois scoffed.

"Lois, don't!" But Clark's reprimand was without force. To tell the truth, he too felt annoyed that this woman had allowed her son to be hurt in such a terrible way by the man who should have been protecting him.

"No, she's right. You can't know how much I've condemned myself for letting it all go on for almost five years, right under my nose. Though, looking back, I don't think that it began immediately we moved. I don't think David was so sure of his ground then. He waited until he had me completely under his spell. I thought I'd found a good husband and one who wanted to be a caring father to Ben. How could I have been so wrong?"

"I'd think that he must have been a very devious man," Lois found herself responding to that last desperate question.

"Yes, he was! Even when Ben ran away, he kept up the pretext. He didn't even seem to blame Ben for stealing the money from the cash-box in the garage."

"You did try to find Ben?" Clark now found himself in the role of the prosecution.

"Of course! We filed a missing persons report and when the police couldn't find any leads, David went to the trouble of hiring a private investigator. I read the reports you know... but it was all for show. My husband was very good at keeping up appearances. I found out later that he knew the PI from college and that he was another of David's filthy cronies."

"So no one was looking for Ben?" Clark really didn't need to ask to know the answer.

"No! Not then... not until after David was killed in a car crash. Afterwards his brother and I started cleaning out his den and checking the computer. He never let me go in there, and even the cleaning lady was only allowed to do the basics. I thought it was his home office. He'd often take clients in there... but it turned out they weren't men who were interested in buying cars -- they had a different type of merchandise in mind."

"That must have been quite a revelation," Lois found herself shivering inside at the thought.

"Oh yes! We found it all locked away... those terrible tapes and the photographs. Even photographs of my son. I think that my heart broke then. Doctors will tell you that's a physical impossibility... but it isn't. It hurts so much and I deserve all my pain." Claudette's voice was desolate and Lois and Clark didn't doubt that she'd already tried and found herself guilty. "I really did look for him after that. I hired a good Private Investigating Agency, but they told me not to expect too much. They said it had been too long. I'd given up hope until I read the Daily Planet and saw your story about Ben."

"I'd guess you just knew it was your Ben? A mother knows." This time Lois' statement was accompanied by a small gentle smile.

"Yes, but the Agency got in touch with me; they did some checking -- found out the boy probably was my son. I've been trying to decide ever since whether I should come or not, but me being here is a mistake." Claudette shook her head despairingly. "Before he left, we had another huge fight. He'd tried to make me see the truth one last time but we just ended up arguing again. How can I expect Ben to forgive me?"

"Don't you think that Ben deserves the chance to answer that question himself?" Lois prompted, determined to stop the woman from leaving. "And if you run now, you'll never know if a reconciliation would have been possible. You'll always wonder."

"Lois is right. You owe it to Ben to let him make his mind up."

"And if he rejects me?" Claudette stared long and hard at Clark.

"Then you learn to live with that... even though it's the hardest thing you'll ever have to do. You owe Ben that as well." The sorrowing woman's shoulders dropped in defeat and Clark went on quickly. "But that might not happen. Ben isn't the boy who ran away from home.... He's made some pretty bad choices too. Why don't you go see him... let him know that you came for him."

*****

A few minutes later Clark walked into Ben's room while Lois waited outside with Claudette -- just in case the tragic woman's resolve weakened.

"Hey, kids, I think you've stayed long enough in here for today," Clark said with just a hint of steel. "Poor Ben will be exhausted playing with that game."

There was a collective moan from the Kent kids but they didn't argue. Ben was a little disappointed too, though he couldn't deny he was tiring.

"I'm sorry, children, but I have to agree with your father, and I'm in charge," Nancy announced, a laugh robbing her stricture of its sting. "Let's get this thing packed away for now. You can come back another day and continue to save the world from alien invaders."

"Come on, you guys, say goodbye now and you'll find Mom in the corridor. I'll be along in a moment. I just have a few things to say to Ben."

The three children filed past their father as he held the door, assuring Ben they'd be back. Then Clark purposefully closed the door. He sighed uncomfortably. Now that the moment had come, he wasn't exactly sure if this was the right thing to do. "You have another visitor, Ben."

"Oh, okay," Ben said with just a small amount of curiosity. It wasn't often he got so many people dropping by and he wasn't about to turn company down just because of a little tiredness.

Nancy stood, recognising the slight change in Clark's lighthearted manner of earlier. Her long years in the nursing profession warned her that this unknown person wasn't a casual caller. Was it the police, or someone from the DA's office? Yet it was unlikely for them to arrest Ben on Christmas Day -- after all it was a holiday. And it wasn't as if he could run anywhere.

"Should I go?" she enquired, though truthfully she was loathe to leave the boy, whom she regarded as her surrogate son.

"No, Nancy." Clark gave a tiny smile of approval. "I think Ben might need your support."

At last Ben recognised the worry that lay behind Clark's forced cheerfulness. "Hey, what's all the mystery about? Who is this visitor?"

"Someone who's come a long way. I hope you don't mind, but I thought you might want to see her." And Clark opened the door again, ushering a fair-haired woman inside... a woman who looked vaguely familiar.

Ben would never know which part of his anatomy recognised her first. He was only aware that his heart was beating so hard it was drowning out the sound of everything else within the room. He didn't know how long it was before he could force out that one word.

"Mom?"

Next to him, Nancy sat abruptly, as if her legs would no longer hold her upright, while the
silence dragged on.

Meanwhile, Claudette stared in fixation at the boy she hadn't seen in over three years and her heart broke anew. Lois and Clark had warned her about his injuries, but she hadn't been prepared for this. He'd been through so much hurt; he really didn't need her adding to his troubles.

"I told you this was a mistake." She frowned at Clark and turned to walk away, but he stood his ground, blocking her exit.

Finally, Ben found his brain connecting up with his mouth again. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about you on the news -- read about you in the paper. I had to come and see if it was really you.... Find out how you are?" Claudette sounded raw and she was visibly shaking.

"As you can see... I'm not doing too well!" Ben threw that at his mother, the years of neglect and bitterness surging to the forefront of his mind and colouring his voice.

The woman who was once the most important person in his life took a few apprehensive steps into the room. "I'm sorry, Ben, for your pain." She looked as if she wanted to say more, but didn't quite know how. How do you tell your only child that you're sorry you destroyed his life? Behind her, Clark slipped noiselessly from the room.

"Why should you care anyway? You didn't before!" Years of pent up anger drove away Ben's fatigue.

"That's not true," she cried out agonisingly and walked further forward, while she visibly tried to calm herself. "It might not have seemed so... but I always cared."

"That's garbage! I always knew you cared for him more than me!" That was a kid's petulant cry, but Ben was no longer a child and he curbed his rancour, asking bitterly instead, "Is he outside?"

"If you mean David, then no. He died over a year ago!"

There was some moments of silence while Ben absorbed that piece of momentous news. The pervert was dead -- he should be glad, but he only felt numb. "Well don't expect me to shed any tears!"

Claudette closed the distance to her son's bed. "I don't and I haven't shed many for him either. Not after I found out that you were telling the truth about what he was doing to you... and other kids. We found certain evidence in his den...."

"Good for you," Ben growled sarcastically. "And don't expect to come waltzing in here and imagine that I'll take you back."

"I don't." Claudette's face looked ashen, but she'd found the courage to say what she'd come so far to tell her son. "I should have believed you then, but I made a judgment call and the sad thing is that you had to pay the price for my mistake. And how can I ask you to forgive me when I can't forgive myself?" She took a few deep breaths, praying she wouldn't break down. "But for all that, I couldn't stay away. I had to come and find out for myself... and to say I'm sorry. I just needed to know that you were alive... somewhere. I have no expectations."

She started to turn round to leave when Ben's voice forestalled her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm leaving," she explained dully. "It's clear that you don't want me here!"

Ben shrugged, his feelings surprisingly doing an about-face. "I didn't say that. You've come a long way for such a short visit."

"Further than you think," Claudette gave a tiny smile. "I went back to Mount Farrell, after Dav... after he died. Your grandparents eventually got tired of travelling and moved back home. And I couldn't go on living in his house after I'd discovered his dirty secrets. I couldn't bear it. I sold up and used some of the proceeds to hire a Private Detective to look for you."

"Better late than never, I suppose," Ben commented, the cynicism back in his tone with a vengeance.

"That's what I thought, though it seems I was wrong. But I've said my piece. I can't make you do anything you don't want to -- I wouldn't even try. So I'll be on my way."

"No, wait!" Ben searched his mother's face. She looked so much older than he remembered her. It had been a few years, of course, but she looked like she'd had a rough time. Maybe he wasn't the only one who had suffered. "About that judgment call, I've made some huge mistakes in that department myself, so maybe I don't have the right to condemn anyone else. I don't know how I feel about all this, but I don't want you to go. I'm not saying we could ever get back to the way we were once, but we do need to talk." A huge unexpected yawn interrupted his speech. "Only I'm tired and I'd probably fall asleep on you right now. I do that, you know. It's the medication." Ben attempted a grin, but failed miserably, tears starting to fall instead. He tried to dash them away, but was hardly successful, since his bandaged hands were clumsy.

The women on either side of his bed rushed to help him, but it was Nancy who reached for the tissues and dabbed gently at Ben's face. Claudette gave way to the other female with just a tiny attack of envy.

As soon as Nancy had dried Ben's tears, she turned her attention to the distraught mother, holding out her hand in a friendly manner. "Hello, I'm Nancy Kominski, Ben's nurse."

Claudette managed a weak smile in return as she shook the proffered hand. "And I'm Claudette Dai..." She halted, as she sent her son an apologetic glance. "Claudette Kershaw," she announced with determination, finally consigning her life as Dailey's wife to the dim and distant past.

Ben brightened at his mother's words, but he wasn't completely ready yet to let bygones be bygones. "Nancy's more than my nurse... she's my friend... and I'm going to stay with her when I get out of here. She'll be my foster-mother."

The tears which Claudette had been unable to cry for so long threatened to spill now, but she wouldn't let them fall. She'd given up any rights she might have had to her son long ago, and she would not begrudge him the happy home that this woman was offering. She forced another smile, only this one was genuine. "Good! That's good, Ben. I'm happy that you have someone to take care of you. You deserve the best. I'm glad I came... and that you didn't have me thrown out. Thank you for seeing me." Claudette bowed her head and whispered, "Goodbye, son."

Once more Ben found himself conflicted as he watched her turn to leave. "Mom!" He surprised himself by calling after her, and when she swung back, he sent her a tiny lopsided grin. "I'm not that tired. You don't have to go yet."

"Ms Kershaw, why don't you stay for a little while," Nancy suggested pleasantly, her kind heart moved by the younger woman's harrowing situation. "And, if you don't mind me saying so, I think you should spend some time in Metropolis and come visit Ben again. You both must have a lot of catching up to do."

"What do you think, Ben?" Claudette asked, anxiously chewing on her lower lip.

"I'd say it wasn't a bad idea... if you wanna stay, that is!"

Those few words transformed Claudette into something of the pretty woman she once had been and now her smile was from the heart. "Then I guess I'd like to stay.... Only, I'd have to find a hotel or something."

"You'll have a hard time finding anything on Christmas Day," Nancy surmised sensibly. "Why don't you come home with me for tonight and we can figure out something more permanent tomorrow?"

"Oh no, I couldn't impose!"

"It's no imposition, my dear, though you'll have to take potluck on the food situation. I had my lunch here at the hospital and I was just planning on ordering takeout later."

"Takeout is fine. But you really don't have to offer me a room for the night...."

"Mom, I'd give up arguing," Ben advised, now grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "I've never won an argument with Nancy yet when she's doing her 'mother-hen' impersonation."

"Then I'd better say yes, Nancy.... And thank you, both of you. This is so much more than I'd hoped for."

"It's a start, Mom. I don't know where we're gonna end up, or even if we'll get there together. But it's Christmas Day -- a good day for a new beginning.

*****

tbc