Click Here For TOC I don't have a lot of time today, so I'll post this now. It's the last Friday update, and then starting next week we'll switch to a M/Tr schedule. I think I'll get the rest of the parts measured out over the weekend.
Many thanks to everyone who left FDK! 
I hope this story does not disappoint you. To everyone who is reading, please, let me know what you think!From Part 3:“Not at Gila Bend anymore. Not at---Kansas anymore?”
Nat raised an eyebrow. “Kansas?”
“Where---is---Metropolis?”
For a woman who didn’t seem to know a lick of English when he picked her up, she sure seemed to be mastering it pretty fast. “Oh, Metropolis is far away. Out east.” He automatically gestured with his thumb in the direction of the climbing sun. “Hold it, Lady! Where are you going?!”
He reached out to detain her, but she pushed passed him with a strength he never would’ve guessed her capable of and ran out the door, nearly knocking down the officer who’d just entered.
**********
And Now, Part 4Metropolis.
She had run for several hours, reaching speeds she never would have dreamed of, and hadn't even grown tired. She had asked for directions several times along the way, and with each conversation she had, she found herself becoming more and more fluent in the aliens' tongue. Her mind was absorbing everything like a cloth dipped in water. It was---amazing! Jor-El's predictions had apparently been accurate.
Oh, Jor-El... If only he could have been here, also.
When they were young, he had confided to her his dreams of visiting alien planets and seeing new worlds, of exploring unheard of places far beyond Krypton's own star system. It had been late at night. They were in the Great Observatory, and suddenly they found themselves alone...
Lara shook her head and tried to focus on the unusual skyline before her. It was dawn, and she had at last found the place called Metropolis. Here, she had been told, she could find the one they called "Superman".
Her son.
Lara took in a deep, shuddering breath, then squared her shoulders and prepared to enter the city. She took two steps and then stopped, the air leaving her lungs.
Just what in the name of Rao and Krypton was she going to say to him?!!
'Hello, Kal-El. I am Lara, the mother you thought was dead, but who had actually just abandoned you. How have you been?'
She shook her head. No. There had to be a decent way of starting this conversation. 'Greetings, Kal-El. I don't know if you recognize me, but...I am Lara, your mother. I wasn't really dead. In fact, Krypton never actually exploded....'
No!
Lara sighed and continued her journey into the city. Hopefully, by the time she encountered him, she would have something decent to say.
**********
"Well, if that's all you have to say, then fine! We *will* see you in court!" Lois slammed the phone down and snorted. "Jerk..." she muttered under her breath. She sat tapping the end of her pencil irritatedly against her desk while glaring at the phone, and didn't notice when Jimmy passed by and deposited a timid-looking cloaked figure in front of her desk.
She kept tapping the pencil.
The strange woman glanced around uneasily, then coughed, causing Lois to finally look up. "Er....Ex-cuse me..." she said, softly and deliberately.
Lois leaned back in her chair and studied her. "Yeah? What do you want?"
The woman seemed to flinch at her words. Okay, so maybe she had sounded a little harsh just then. The woman stood a little straighter and pushed back her hood, revealing a slightly drawn face framed by a long, disheveled mess of black and silver hair. "Please...are you...you are Lois Lane, yes?" She had a slight, odd accent.
"Yes, that would be me." Lois automatically took her notebook out of her desk drawer and flipped to a clean page.
"You are...a...friend of Superman?"
Lois sighed. Please, not another groupie looking for an autograph! She was going to have to have a word with Jimmy... In the mean time, she pasted a tight smile on her face. "Yes, my husband and I both know Superman. What can we do for you?"
The woman took a deep breath and looked at her pleadingly. "Please, I....I need to speak to Superman. It is important. Can you please help me to find him?"
Well, this sounded urgent. "What do you need to talk to him about?"
"It is...personal."
Lois frowned, but managed to keep herself in check. "Um, listen; my husband and I are very close to Superman, so whatever this is about, you can tell me."
The woman sighed. "It is about his family."
His *family*? Just what was this woman trying to pull? Lois stood up and looked the woman right in the eye, causing her to back up slightly. "Look, whatever kind of scam this is, I'm not biting! Superman has no family! And I've had it up to *here* with people claiming to be his wife, or his gay lover, or his third cousin's former roommate! We all have! So why don't you just pack it up and save it for the next..." She trailed off when she realized that the woman was no longer looking at her.
Lois turned around and followed the woman's gaze up to where Clark was disembarking the elevator. He must've just gotten back from Brazil...after this woman left, she'd have to ask him how things went with the fire. Clark stopped and got them each a coffee, then strolled down the ramp to the bullpen, a cup in each hand. He plunked hers down on her desk, and leaned over to give her a kiss.
"Hi, Honey." He grinned at her. It must have gone well.
"Hi." Lois smiled back at him.
The woman stared at Clark, gaping.
Clark turned around and, noticing the strange woman, offered his hand. "Hi, I'm Clark Kent."
The woman stared at him, saying nothing, and Lois saw Clark's smile begin to falter. "You..." the woman began, hesitantly, "you are...Clark Kent?"
"Um, yes." Clark cocked his head at the woman. "Are you all right?" He took a step toward her, but she shrank back.
"I...I.." She was shaking. For some inexplicable reason, she looked like she was going to cry. She took a shuddering breath, still backing away from Clark as though he had a ravenous snake attached to his face.
"Ma'am?" Clark stared at her in concern and made another attempt to approach her. "Ma'am, are you okay? What is it? Please, let me help you..."
She shook her head vehemently, tears starting to fall. "I must go!" With that, she turned and fled from the newsroom like Cinderella leaving the ball...
She didn't even seem to notice that something had fallen out of her pocket.
**********
What had she been thinking?!
Tears blinded her, but she raced onward, putting as much distance between her and the "Daily Planet" as possible. She had gone expecting to find friends of her son...
...And had come face to face with the man himself. She just wasn’t prepared for that.
He was not her Kal-El. He was one of them. He was...he was "Clark Kent"! He had a wife, and a job, and most likely, a whole life with many friends and family. How dare she try to interfere, to insert herself into any of it!
She came to the steps of a large building and collapsed, allowing herself to be consumed by sobs.
She had lost everything.
Jor-El was no more.
Her only friends and family were light-years away, on Krypton, and she could never go back.
All that she had left now was her son. But she didn't have him either...not really. She had given up the right to call him Son long ago, and now he was a different man, with a life of his own. A family.
She had no family now.
She was completely alone.
Lara fell across the steps, her tears soaking into her sleeve. She paid no attention when a man emerged from the doors of the building.
"Um, excuse me..."
"<Oh Rao, look down upon a sinner who hides from Your light...>"
"Can I help you?"
"<My life is worthless, and I submit to Your will...>"
"What are you yammering on about?"
"<He is all-holy, He is all----->"
A pair of hands grabbed her and began shaking her. "Lady, you are blocking the entrance to a public building!"
She looked up with bleary eyes at the man who had interrupted her.
After taking in her appearance, the man frowned and reached into a pocket in his clothes. He pulled out a small white cloth, which he handed to her.
"Thank...you" Lara hiccupped and buried her face in the cloth.
"Um, Lady, you're gonna have to leave, or move, or..."
4##################5
**********
Dr. Klein sighed and poured some more tea into their beakers. "Look, I understand. I really do. When my uncle Barry died, Aunt Iris really took it hard. Cousin Wally was afraid she'd never get over it..."
His guest sniffled and took a sip. "I just miss him so much!" She set her tea down and swiped at the newly forming tears in her eyes. A wistful expression formed on her face. "I remember when we were young...when we were not working, we would walk to nice places..." She sniffed. "Often, when people were not looking, he would take my hand and whisper beautiful words into my ear..." Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she brought a hand over her mouth. "Oh! I am being much too personal with you! Please forgive me." She cast her eyes downward, and a splash of light red colored her cheeks.
Bernie lifted an eyebrow. "Um, it's okay, really." He took a swig of his tea. "So...Lara...just what brings you to Metropolis, anyway? I mean, you said you weren't from around here, right?"
She nodded sadly. "That is...correct." Lara heaved a sigh. "It was my husband's dying wish that I come to this pl---country; I believe he was hoping that I could reconcile with our son. However, I have come to realize that this is impossible."
"I see." Bernie set his beaker down on the table. "That's really sad. So, where are you staying in the mean time?"
Lara's eyes shot wide open, and she stared at him with an expression that closely resembled horror.
Was it something he'd said?
She closed her eyes again, then raked a hand through her hair and groaned. Although Dr. Klein couldn't understand a word she said, he imagined he could guess a few...
"You...do...have a place to stay, right?" He quirked an eyebrow at her.
Lara lowered her hands from her face and shook her head. "No, I do not. Where could I go, anyway?
Bernie thought for a moment. "Well..." he said, "There's a hotel not too far from here, with reasonable rates..."
The woman sighed. "I have no money. I brought nothing with me."
Dr. Klein's eyebrows climbed into what used to be his hairline. "Wow. You really didn't think this trip through!"
She shot him a glare.
Bernie put his hands up in surrender. "Okay, sorry." He reached for his beaker and took another sip. "If you want, maybe I could give you a few bucks and you could stay at the Y."
She cocked her head at him. "Y?"
He shrugged. "Well, because it's inexpensive, and anyway, it would just be temporary..."
She held up her hand. "Er, no...I mean, what is Y?"
Dr. Klein blinked. Lara sat across from him, staring blankly. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then decided not to walk into the obvious Abbot and Costello routine. "The YMCA. They'll let you spend the night for about fifteen dollars. Lots of people go there who don't have anywhere else." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bills. "Here..."
Lara shook her head and turned away. "No. Thank you, but no. I could not take anything from you."
He still held the money out. "Come on, take it," he insisted. "It's not like you'll owe me your first born child or anything..."
A strange look came over her face, and she stared at him silently. Bernie started to feel uncomfortable, but then she spoke again. "No. Dr. Bernard-Klein, we are still strangers. It would not be proper for me to take a gift from you, but I thank you. Perhaps, maybe I could do some work here to earn money?"
Bernie nodded, understanding. "Like a job? Sure! I'll see what I can do. You said you and your husband were both scientists, right?"
Lara gave a nod.
"So, you already know your way around a lab?"
She turned and looked around the room, taking in all the equipment, rats, and chemicals. "This laboratory is...much different from the one at home..." When she finished looking around the room, she gave a nod of satisfaction and continued, "but I am sure that I can learn quickly."
Bernie smiled. "Great. Maybe we can hire you on as an assistant. You'll be heavily supervised, of course, but that'll be good while you learn the ropes and get the hang of things here."
She had a pretty smile. In fact, it seemed to take a year or two off the rest of her face. "That would be good. Thank you, Dr. Bernard-Klein."
"Now," he said, rising to his feet and extending a hand to help her up, "let's see about getting you a place to sleep. And maybe a little something to eat. If you don't mind me saying, you look awful..."
**********
It couldn't be. No, it just couldn't be what it looked like. The implications... Clark turned the sphere in his hand, studying it intently. How? How did she get this?
"Clark..." He could feel Lois' hand on his shoulder. "We should probably put that away. People are starting to look."
Clark looked around the room. Sure enough, people were pausing in whatever they were doing to stare at him and Lois. Others were casting intrigued glances at the door which the strange woman had so recently bolted through. Clark nodded and tucked the globe into his coat pocket. "We need to call Mom and Dad."
"Let's go there," Lois said. "I'll tell Perry we have a family emergency, and then we can..." She made a little flying gesture with her hand.
Clark agreed, then stared back down at the globe. Before Lois could leave, his head snapped up again. "Lois, what if---" A look of horror crossed his face, as he suddenly thought of the unthinkable. "What if something..."
Lois placed a hand on his arm. She looked like she was about to say something reassuring, and she opened her mouth, but then she closed it again and frowned. "Clark," she said at last, "we've been through a lot before, and so have your parents. Whatever hap---whatever's going on, we'll get through it." She gave him a brief kiss on the lips, and then turned, bound for Perry's office.
**********
