When Churches Come Crashing Down
Folc4evernaday
Part 43
***
“I don’t get it.” Lucy shook her head. “Why would someone send me my own file on an open case?”
Mayson shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe they want you to take another look at it?”
Lucy read the file aloud, “Gretchen Kelly, age 35.”
“The gunshot wound at close range?” Mayson inquired.
“Yes,” Lucy answered. “Wasn’t she a doctor or something?”
“Private practice,” Mayson nodded. “Her body had been in the harbor for almost a month before we found her.” A silence fell between them. “There isn’t anything else in there besides the file?”
Lucy shook her head, “No,”
“Wonder what the story is behind this one.”
“Maybe she was the first victim of a serial killer?” Lucy suggested.
“Maybe she knew the killer?” Mayson added.
Lucy shook her head, “Either way, this falls more under the Metropolis P.D’s territory than ours.”
Mayson nodded, “Take it down to Henderson. Maybe he has some ideas.”
***
“No,” Lex breathed, reading the finance report on the screen in front of him. “No!” He clicked the mouse repeatedly, hoping the screen would change to something different.
He was broke. Every penny that had been in the Turner Industries bank account the previous night had vanished. He had to figure out where the money had gone. Nothing made sense. “Where is it?” He muttered to himself.
Whoever had dared to take from him would pay.
***
The greenish glow resonated from the control room as Sam Lane and Bernard Klein stood behind the lead-lined casing to protect them from the radiation. Test after test on the substance brought different results back.
“This can’t be right,” Dr. Klein muttered to himself, shaking his head as the lid to the lead-lined box closed and he stepped out from behind the protective cover. They had been working tirelessly to find a way to make Superman immune to the Kryptonite’s deadly radiation. No cure had been found thus far.
Dr. Lane still remained in the dark as far as the reasoning behind such tests, but he played along. “What seems to be the problem, Bernard?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It's like the Kryptonite’s infrastructure is changing with every test. There’s no way to protect anyone from it if it keeps changing.”
“Are you sure these reports are correct?” Sam asked.
“Yes!” Dr. Klein exclaimed emphatically. “Every note and report I have made on Kryptonite since I started testing last year are in this file. Every test is the same but the readings are different. I have never seen anything like it.”
“Let me see,” Sam reached for the file in Dr. Klein’s hands.
Not thinking, Dr. Klein handed the file over to Sam. Sam began reading the report, then flipped back a few pages to compare. Realization dawned on Dr. Klein as he realized what he’d just done. “Sam, wait!”
“What in tarnation!?” Sam slammed the file down and stared Dr. Klein down. “What the hell is going on here?”
Dr. Klein looked nervously at Sam who was pointing at the testing reports from the previous week where Dr. Klein had tested on Superman and the medical reports on ‘Two offspring’ had been marked. “Oh, boy,” Dr. Klein muttered nervously. “It-it’s not as bad as it looks.”
***
“I have no idea.” Henderson shook his head. “I know Dr. Kelly was one of the first victims, but there were a few others found around the same time. There’s no telling what we’re trying to be told.”
“I knew there was something creepy about him. I felt like …. I thought…I just don’t get how I was right. How did Lex become James Turner?” Lucy asked nervously.
“I don’t know, Lucy,” Henderson apologized, “I’m sorry I don’t have more details. I just had this information brought to me yesterday.”
“I had this file couriered to me yesterday,” Lucy added. “Think it's connected?”
“Could be. I just wish we had the smoking gun to connect it all together.”
***
“ACL?” Luthor read off the report on the last 72 hours of activity with Turner Industries’ account. Apparently, Turner Industries had transferred everything to a company called ‘ACL Industries.’ ACL. Those initials haunted him for a long time. It had taken him years to finally build up LexCorp where it could stand on its own without the help of the Carlin family. After Arianna’s parents had passed he’d officially changed CL Industries to LexCorp, dropping her family’s name. She had kept the small company he had created for her after their divorce. Now she was attacking him.
Why?
He didn’t understand. She had gone to such great lengths to bring him back after his fall from Luthor Towers. Why bring him back to destroy him?
***
Lois stared at the images in front of her, shaking her head. She hadn’t expected any of this when she’d opened the envelope Jimmy had handed her. Photographs of Dr. Benzen and Gretchen Kelly sat time stamped on her desk. Reports of ‘resurrection’ procedures and plastic surgery procedures by Dr. Benzen billed to ‘ACL Industries’ sat next to the photographs. None of this made any sense.
A familiar face reappeared next to her and she shook her head, breaking herself out of her reverie. “I just got off the phone with Henderson. You’re not going to believe the stuff he got.”
She smiled at Clark as he took a seat next to her. Could he tell how it made her skin crawl to see images of the very doctor that had operated on her and helped take her son away sitting in the photograph having drinks with another dead doctor? This man had lied to her face repeatedly about her son. She hated him.
“I think it’s probably connected. All of us getting stuff like this at the same time can’t be coincidental.” Clark added.
“We definitely need to look at what we’ve got on ACL Industries and figure out why they wanted Lex brought back to life,” Lois said quietly. She was trying really hard to focus right now, but something was eating away at her. She couldn’t figure it out. Jordan was safe at daycare with his teachers and friends. She knew this.
So why did she feel like her insides had been ripped out once more just by glancing at a photograph?
***
She was so close. All she had to do was climb the gate. She’d be back with her son. Her little boy… She watched as the teachers turned around to take the kids back inside. This was her chance…
***
“And based on the evidence before us, we can conclude that Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet is in fact Superman. This concludes tonight’s Top Copy segment. Thank you and Goodnight,”
The haunting image of Dianna Stride disappeared and the screen went black.
Lex smiled easily, clicking the remote to replay the tape.
“…we can conclude that Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet is in fact Superman.”
The television clicked off and Lex smiled, musing aloud to himself, “Well, well, that’s one I didn’t see coming,”
***
“So, pretty much what we’ve got is this ACL Industries wanted Lex Luthor alive for some reason or another. They brought him back to life and gave him the means to pick up where he’d left off. The question is what they wanted him for.” Lois concluded after looking through all their notes.
“Maybe it's revenge. They didn’t want him to die on his own terms. Maybe they wanted to punish him. If they were such fans of his they probably would have gone into a partnership of some kind.” Clark added.
“Not necessarily. Would you want to draw attention to yourself if you weren’t on the up and up with everything?” Lois asked.
“Point taken,” Clark nodded.
“We still don’t know who’s behind this ‘ACL’ or what it even stands for. It could be a shell company for something entirely different.”
***
Gone.
Everything he’d worked for so hard was gone. There was nothing left. The remnants of LexCorp had been destroyed and Turner Enterprises was bankrupt. How would he explain this?
He had to act fast. If he would ever be able to save some shred of dignity he had to take a plan of action quickly.
Lex quickly grabbed what he could from the penthouse and left.
***
“You’re a liar!”
“An alien!”
“How could you?”
The accusing voices surrounded him as he flew through the sky. How had they figured it out? Clark flew higher and higher but the voices seemed to grow closer and closer.
Jimmy’s voice penetrated his thoughts.
“I thought you were my friend. How can I ever trust you again?”
***
“No!” Clark screamed as he sat upright in bed. He looked around, searching for the accusatory voices that had haunted him. No one was there. It was just a dream.
He sighed in relief, relaxing as he sank back onto the bed. His breathing slowed and he could feel himself beginning to drift back to sleep when the high pitch from the baby monitor reached his ears. He winced, reaching over to turn the monitor off. He checked to make sure Lois was still asleep before he carefully slipped out of the bed to tend to Laura.
He knew she needed her rest more than he did. She had cried herself to sleep last night, unable to drift off peacefully. He had been up with her most of the night, calming her cries. She hadn’t had many moments where she was hungry or wet. She was mostly crying from being upset. He’d pick her up, hold her and rock her back to sleep only to repeat the same thing a few hours later. It was going to be a long night.
***
Hannah Dorsey stared at the computer screen in front of her, shaking her head. The disk had been defragmented and repaired in as many ways she could manage. Now all she could do was piece together what little information she could find on the disk and try to recover it.
She had been working for months on this project with Inspector Henderson, now all of a sudden he had gotten a wild hair and decided to put the heat on her for finishing it. Trying to break through the security that had been placed on the disk to begin with was hard enough; now she was expected to do so along with deciphering the programming code that had been left—encrypted –while having Henderson breathing down her neck.
Didn’t he know this wasn’t her only project? She was a detective, not an IT. Why had she opened her mouth and told him she was computer savvy in the interview a couple months ago?
***
‘Project K’
Sam read through the file in Dr. Klein’s desk, trying to get a better idea of what his senior was working on. Dr. Klein seemed precautious around him whenever discussing the file with him. He seemed guarded for some reason and he planned to figure out why.
He seemed to be getting somewhere. The origins of this Project K began in Smallville with Bureau 39’s research..
He felt his right pocket vibrate. Cursing under his breath, he reached for his phone, “Sam Lane,” He answered.
***
“No way,” Jimmy shook his head as he watched the television monitor before him.
<<’This is insane!’>>
“Ludicrous,” He muttered to himself.
“And based on the evidence before us, we can conclude that Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet is, in fact, Superman. This concludes tonight’s Top Copy segment. Thank you and Goodnight,”
The haunting image of Dianna Stride disappeared and the screen went black.
<<’There’s no way I would have missed something that big. It has to be a lie. CK wouldn’t lie to me like that. Lois wouldn’t…’>>
He could feel a panic racing through him as he began to recall small unexplainable events that had occurred over the last two years. Trask and his force had been convinced that the substance known as ‘kryptonite’ had been in Smallville, Kansas. Coincidentally, that had been Clark’s hometown. Lois and Clark had insisted Trask was crazy and there was no substance of such. Yet, a year ago, Bill Church Jr. had unveiled his ‘kryptonite paint’ at S.T.A.R. Labs. Granted, the stuff didn’t work, but how did he hear about Kryptonite?
Jimmy stared at his hands, examining the creases of his skin as he sat in silence. He was angry. So many emotions had run through him in the last half hour. He couldn’t seem to concentrate on what emotion he was feeling except the undercurrent one that seemed to remain: anger.
He had been lied to. His friends had lied and deceived him. How was he to trust anything they said or did? He was friends with a bunch of liars.
***
Clark had been in rough shape. He had already dressed and fed Laura. He was dressed and showered but the worry on his face let anyone who thought about asking how he was, know he was far from all right. He held Jordan close as he told Lois about his nightmare from the night before.
“What do you mean?” Lois asked, placing a supportive hand on Clark’s shoulder.
“I mean, it was a nightmare. I kept trying to get away and I couldn’t. Then at the end, one of the voices turned into Jimmy and he was accusing me of not being a real friend.” Clark shook his head. “It was horrible.”
“I’m sorry,” Lois rubbed his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. “We have been under a lot of stress. It’s probably related.…” she sighed shaking her head. She gathered Laura up, motioning for him to follow with the diaper bag. Regardless of what was going on, they both agreed they’d rather keep the normal routine with her and Jordan and hopefully things would go back to normal soon.
“I don’t know,” Clark sighed. “I just never thought of things like that.”
“Like what?” Lois asked.
“Our friends, family… They’re kept out of the loop-- Something that’s a big part of our lives. How would they feel if they found out the truth?”
Lois gave a tight-lipped smile, “I don’t know. I’d like to think they’d understand, but…”
Clark opened the front door and a bright flash filled the corridor as a string of reporters and photographers hounded them with questions. “What in the world?” He muttered under his breath.
“Superman!”
“Mr. Kent, is it true, you are in fact the alien known as Superman?”
Lois glanced at Clark nervously, uncertain with what to do next.
***
Perry White paced his office slowly, looking back and forth between his two prize winning reporters. He wasn’t sure what to say or do at the moment. He was angry. He had been put into an impossible situation.
“Perry,” Lois began cautiously.
“I know,” Perry cut her off. “I don’t need an explanation. Right now I just need a game plan,” Perry sat at his desk and looked at them expectantly. “Well?”
“I don’t know,” Lois shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea how or why Dianna Stride would think such a thing let alone who would leak this kind of thing to the press.”
“Clark?” Perry turned to Clark, expectantly.
Clark just shook his head. “We’re wasting time. This is just a distraction to keep us from stopping Intergang…”
Perry nodded his understanding, “I agree, but right now, the reality is we have a mess to clean up. The suits upstairs are fit to be tied and they want an explanation yesterday. So my question to you two is how do we handle this?”
***
Superman landed outside the Daily Planet, determined on his mission. He stood by the elevators, waiting patiently for their arrival. Several people stared at him uneasily but he ignored it. He had to find Jordan’s parents before it was too late. Amanda was smart. She wouldn’t stay in one place for long. She would move. He had to stop her, but a situation like this was foreign to him. He had lost control before. He had let his anger dictate his actions. What if that happened again? No, he needed help. He needed the real Superman to help him. He could redeem himself with this. He would help them stop Amanda and he would be redeemed for the wrong he had done.
The elevator dinged. The doors opened. He took a deep breath as he stepped inside the elevator car along with the clerks that had surrounded him. He would do right today.
***
“What in the Sam Hill is going on out there?” Perry muttered under his breath. Lois and Clark glanced towards the windows to the Editor-In-chief’s office.
“Oh, my…” Lois gasped, “Is that?”
“Well, I’ll be darned,” Perry smirked, “speak of the devil..”
“Tell me about it,” Clark muttered under his breath as Superman entered the office.
***
“What’s going on?” Carol from Marketing asked, craning her neck over the throng of reporters that had crowded in the middle of the bullpen.
“Did you see him?” one reporter asked, pointing towards the Editor-in-Chief’s office.
“Who?” She looked around, trying to see who they were referring to.
“Superman,” he responded.
“What?” She asked, “Where?”
“In the Chief’s office.” He pointed again towards the office to illustrate his point.
“No,” She shook her head. “What’s Superman doing here?”
“Who knows.”
***
Perry had left the office to let them have some privacy, but all they’d been able to do was argue with one another. He had known. This Superman double had known where Amanda was. She had been stalking their son…watching their every move and he’d done nothing. How could he do such a thing?
“Why should we believe anything you have to say?” Clark asked angrily. “You worked with this woman, helped her…”
“I never helped her!” Superman argued.
“You didn’t stop her!” Clark snapped back, stepping closer as he continued his confrontation. “You knew she was stalking my son and you did nothing.”
“I …” He stopped. Superman looked from Clark to the steely expression that covered Lois’ face. There was no explaining his actions right now. Neither of them would be open to listening to him. “You’re right. I can’t excuse anything I did but I can help right now. I’m telling you, he’s in danger. She’s been at that daycare every day ….watching…but she didn’t show up today.”
Lois glanced between Clark, then Superman and grabbed the phone, “I’m calling the daycare…” Before she could finish both Clark and Superman had disappeared.
***
She’d done it. She was inside. She just had to find Jordan. She would take him back and all of this would be over. She had a home picked out in Gotham. A perfect hiding place. A new home…
“What are you doing here?” the woman asked as Amanda pulled out a gun, entering the classroom where the babies slept.
“Taking what’s mine..” she said softly. “Hand him over…”
“Amanda…You walked right into a trap..” she smiled, pulling out a syringe as she placed the baby in the crib. “A very deadly trap.”
***
“What do you mean you don’t know what happened???” Clark asked angrily as he held his son close.
“All we know is there was a security breach and we went into lockdown. When the police got here there was no one here. The teacher’s aide that was temping today for Jordan’s classroom was gone as well.” The director said shakily. “Mr. Kent, we have the most state of the art security system. No one can get in and out of here without an access pass and no one can take a child out of here without a code…”
“…but she tried,” Clark said, shaking his head, burying his face in his sleeping son’s shoulder.
“…but she didn’t succeed.” The director reassured him. “Like I told Mrs. Kent. It's impossible to leave the perimeter without an access pass.”
Superman looked around the room, scanning for any clues. “None of this makes sense. She was obviously here. What stopped her?”
“We don’t know…” the director said shakily.
Henderson interrupted, patting Clark on the shoulder, “Kent, I know you’re shakin up right now, but I need to get a statement from you and Superman for the report when you get a sec.”
“Yeah,” Clark nodded, following Henderson outside. There had been no call for help. There had been no warning. His little boy had almost been kidnapped again… Here he was the strongest man in the world and he couldn’t even protect his son from this deranged woman. When would it end?
***
Miranda smiled down at the unconscious woman beneath her as she sharpened the blade in her hand. “It’s a pity you couldn’t have just done your time like you were supposed to. You were supposed to take the fall for Lana Lang’s murder like a good girl. Didn’t Tony teach you anything?”
***
Jimmy raked a ragged hand through his hair as he took a seat on the couch. It had been a rough day. Lucy’s voice behind him caught his attention, “Okay, so, I know I’m late. Don’t hate me.”
He’d completely forgotten. They were supposed to go out for dinner tonight.
“The office was a madhouse. I’m not sure what’s going on, but security has been insane.” Lucy continued.
Did she know about CK? Was this all just an act? She had to know. She was Lois’ sister. Lois wouldn’t keep something like this from Lucy…or would she? He glanced over at her as she stared back at him expectantly.
“You okay?” She asked.
Something clicked in the back of his mind. She didn’t know. She had no idea what was going on.
“Uh, Luce, we’re gonna have to cancel for tonight.” Jimmy began apologetically.
Her face scrunched up in concern. “Why? What’s wrong?”
“You’d better sit down,” He continued, gesturing to the chair across from him.
“This isn’t good, is it?” Lucy asked as she took a seat.
“No,” Jimmy shook his head as he stood up. “Uh, listen, do you want something to drink? Something to eat? Chocolate maybe?”
“You’re offering me chocolate? Oh, my God! What happened? Is someone dead?” Lucy began to get frantic.
“No no nothing like that,” He reassured.
“Just tell me, please,” She pleaded.
“Fine,” He nodded his head. He ran a ragged hand through his hair, “I really hate this.”
“Just tell me. I’m kinda freaking out here.” She prodded.
“Someone trespassed on a daycare facility this afternoon and tried to take Jordan with them.” Jimmy blurted out.
“What?” Lucy gasped in shock.
“That was too blunt, wasn’t it?” He asked when he saw tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry, Luce, I hate being the one to tell you this.”
“Where’s Lois?” Lucy asked abruptly.
“I … I don’t know. I’d assume at home, but honestly, I really don’t…” Before he could finish she was gone. “Hey, Luce, wait up!” He called after her, grabbing his jacket to follow.
***
The newsroom was abuzz with activity as the staff continued to comment on what was going on in the Editor-in-Chief’s office between the reporting duo of Lane and Kent and the Man of Steel.
“I guess that story was a bunch of bologna after all,”
“I mean, you can’t deny the facts. Look, there’s Superman and Clark Kent in the same building standing next to one another,”
“Why would Dianna Stride make up a story like that? You have to wonder…”
The newsroom was abuzz with activity as the staff continued to comment on what was going on in the Editor-in-Chief’s office between the reporting duo of Lane and Kent and the Man of Steel.
Superman had walked into the newsroom with a purpose, finding the reporting duo and requesting a moment of their time. Now, holed up inside Perry White’s office spectators continued to watch, wondering what the trio could possibly be discussing.
“What in the Sam Hill is going on out here??” Perry White’s voice boomed across the newsroom as he exited the main conference room. “Get to work!”
The newsroom switched back to the normal mode of reporters running from one end to another, chasing down leads. They left their questions of the man of steels’ intentions alone for the moment as they focused on meeting their boss’ needs at the moment.
***
Bureau 39? Why did that sound so familiar? Sam continued to ponder as he walked through the corridors of S.T.A.R. Labs until he was back at Dr. Klein’s lab. Ellen had called him away to inform him of Jordan’s attempted kidnapping. It had taken some reassurance on his part but had finally talked her down.
In a situation like this, he knew the last thing Lois needed was for him and her mother hovering over her. She didn’t seem to answer well to their attempts at trying to help. Since he only seemed to make things worse he figured staying away was the best thing he could do at the moment.
“Dr. Lane?”
Same was mildly surprised to see Dr. Klein at his desk. He nodded, “Dr. Klein,”
“I heard what happened. Is everyone all right?”
Sam nodded solemnly, “Yeah, everyone’s fine. We’re just in shock.”
“You know you don’t have to be here. If you’d rather be at home with your family I’d understand.” Dr. Klein pressed.
“I’m fine. I’m of no use to them right now.” Sam reassured. “I figured I could at least help here.”
Dr. Klein nodded. “Pull up a seat.”
***
“Lois, are you sure you’re okay?” Lucy asked skeptically as she wrapped her arms around her sister.
“I will be…” Lois said trying to portray a calm she didn’t feel. “Clark’s with Jordan right now. He said he’d bring him back as soon as he was done with Inspector Henderson.”
Jimmy was aloof. Not really saying much as he stared at the ground while Lucy did her best to comfort her sister. “What did he say when he called? Did they catch Amanda?”
Lois shook her head inaudibly, unable to hold back the tears.
***
Dr. Klein breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Sam Lane leave for the night. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Sam Lane’s company when he was working. He enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of bouncing ideas off of his new partner. Unfortunately, it wasn’t easy to work when Sam was around. He wasn’t in the loop on Clark’s secret and that made things complicated, to say the least at work. Having Sam here while he was working on Project K made him uncomfortable, to say the least.
He understood Sam’s reasoning behind wanting to stay in the lab. It was easier to dive into work than deal with the emotions behind the situation he was being faced with. Having your grandson kidnapped not once but twice was something he himself couldn’t even imagine. He didn’t know what to say in a situation like this.
***
Laura stared back at her quietly, tugging on her mother’s hair as she slowly drifted back to sleep. The entire household had been in an uproar since the news of Jordan’s attempted kidnapping had come to light. Martha and Jonathan had been their usual concerned and loving selves and her mother had been her usual overbearing concerned self. She wasn’t sure what she was at the moment. She felt numb. After hearing the initial news she’d done nothing but cry; now she felt unable to shed a single tear.
Laura had refused to go to sleep, searching for her father and brother among the faces that continued to look over her. Lois had no way of explaining either one’s absence to her young daughter. Clark was still at the police station with Jordan. How long did it take to give a statement?
The soft murmurs filled the room as Laura finally drifted off to sleep. Lois breathed a sigh of relief and laid her in her bassinet. She quietly tip-toed to the other side of the room and turned off the light, being sure to keep the night light turned on for her. She wanted to make sure Laura was asleep before allowing herself to relax and give into the emotions the day had brought on.
“Is she asleep?” Two strong arms encircled her waist from behind as she felt her husband’s breath against her right ear. She nodded, turning to face him. She cried when she saw her son’s sleeping figure resting on his chest.
He looked as worn down as she felt. The small wrinkles of worry covered his forehead. His hair looked like he’d run his hands through it with anxiety at least a hundred times. Unable to respond to his question at the moment, she grabbed Jordan from him, holding him close, unwilling to let him go. She felt Clark wrap his arms around her, pulling her to him. “He’s okay,” he whispered over and over to her. The tears fell at their own accord, raining down her cheeks and the tension and anxiety from the day began to dissipate as he held her in his arms.
He let out a sigh, resting his chin in her hair, “I’m sorry,” He whispered. It was a small phrase, but it seemed to be the key that unlocked the floodgates of emotion for both of them. She felt the burning sensation behind her eyelids as her cheeks filled with tears. At the same time, she could feel the moisture against her hair as he cried with her.
***
Sam tightened his hand around the small flash drive that rested securely in his pocket. He would discover the secrets of Project K. The more he dug into it the more curious he became. Why was Dr. Klein so secretive about this project? What did he have to hide? Anytime questions arose about it, he froze. Was it a government project or something personal? No, Dr. Klein didn’t seem like one to have much of a personal life. It had to be something bigger.
He would figure out just what that something was…as soon as he was home on his computer able to go through the files he’d downloaded. He hated deceiving Dr. Klein, but he’d been left with no choice.
***
Hannah Dorsey sat at her desk with a smug expression across her face. She’d surprised even herself with her skills today. The entire disk had been recovered and she now discovered the secrets Red Dixon had been trying to tell everyone. It was sad he’d been killed before he’d been able to expose the criminal.
Now, it was up to Hannah to see that justice was served.
***
Unbelievable
Sam stared at the screen in disbelief. Everything he’d ever wanted to know about Superman was right here in front of him. He’d done research after research trying to develop a clone. Unbeknownst to him all he would have had to do was approach his son-in-law and so much time and effort would have been saved.
His daughter was married to Superman. This was a hard concept to wrap his mind around.
How had she ever agreed to a life like this? Living with someone of a different species? Had she known all along? It was hard to imagine. His grandchildren were a one of a kind. Would they have abilities like their father? How would they adjust?
He stopped a moment, uncertain of where his train of thought would go next. So many emotions raced through his body.
He held back tears, fighting hard to suppress the painful tears he’d been fighting most of the day. There was no fighting them off any longer.
***
TBC...
Last edited by folc4evernaday; 11/01/16 10:44 AM.
