When Lara lets go of the railing, this time Clark is ready for what she planned to do and able to grab Lara before she could fall.
For a moment he thinks about taking her back to the ground, but then this is her second attempt to harm herself in only a few hours. So, Clark flies away from Metropolis to take Lara somewhere where she couldn’t do harm to herself.
A few minutes later, Clark lands on an uninhabited island in the Caribbean. When he lands, Clark gently puts Lara back on her feet. She takes a few steps away from him, surveying the area; before sitting down on the sand as if in defeat.
“You planning to keep me here to stop something from happening to me?”
“If you could stay out of trouble for more than a few hours, I wouldn’t have to.” Clark answers, feeling like he’s having this conversation with Lois. In many ways, Lara reminds him of the Lois that he first met all those years ago on his first day at the Daily Planet.
“Well I’m nothing but trouble. So, you’ll probably decide I’m not worth the effort.” Lara says as she draws random patterns in the sand beside her.
“I think you’re worth every effort,” Clark says as he sits down next to Lara on the beach. For a moment, Clark’s comment caused Lara to smile, and Clark recognizes it as Lois’s smile.
“You don’t know me.” Lara points out. Then quietly adds: “According to Naomi, I’m a thorn in the rear the size of the Eifel Tower.”
“Who’s Naomi? Is she who you’re running from?” Clark asks. He knows that Lara is running from someone, and even if it is proven that this girl isn’t in fact their daughter, Clark is determined to help her. Lara goes rigid at Clark’s questions as if she hadn’t been expecting Clark to have heard her. But eventually, she does answer:
“She’s the headmistress of hell. And I wouldn’t say I’m running from her. It’s more I decided to fight their attempts to control me.”
“And why would they try to control you?”
“Because I’m a freak of nature.” Lara pauses for a moment before she continues, “No offense. And they want to use my abilities as a weapon.”
“Who’s they?”
“They call themselves: Bureau 39.” The bottom of Clark’s stomach drops out at Lara’s answer; but he has no time to recover as Lara’s next words are like an additional punch to the gut. “Did you really give me up?”
“What?” Clark’s reaction is disbelief that anyone could ever have concocted a story that he had ever given up his daughter.
“That’s what I was always told: I was the bastard spawn of Superman and that I was given up to avoid a scandal. The Bureau took me when I was around a year old and life spiraled down into hell from there.”
“I never would have given you up willingly, Lara.”
“So, what happened?” Lara asked. And the expression she had on her face is so much like Lois’s ‘interview face’; the one that means that she is determined to get the facts and won’t be swayed until she gets the truth.
“When your mother was pregnant with you, we were excited and preparing for your birth. Just a few days before you were to be born, your mom went to the grocery store and when she was putting her bags in the back of our Jeep, she was shot in what had appeared to be a random shooting. One of the bullets hit her in the abdomen and we were told, went into your lung. The doctor did a C-section to try to save you but had said that you had died moments after you were born.”
Lara is quiet for what feels like an eternity after Clark finished his explanation. Finally, she does speak, and her words feel like another bombshell to Clark.
“That explains the scar.”
“What scar?” Clark asks, wondering what Lara is talking about. Instead of answering, Lara just lifts up the back of her shirt and turns to show Clark the scar on her back.
Along the bottom of Lara’s rib cage on her left side is a light pink scar that is about four inches long. It looked a lot like the scars Lois had from the surgery to remove the bullets from the day of the shooting. Which meant it had healed over the years and is not something done as a means of convincing them that she is Lara.
That scar and it’s placement exactly where they knew the bullet had hit were the final pieces of evidence that Clark needed to finally accept that the preteen sitting next to him really is the daughter that he and Lois had grieved for all these years.
All Clark knows that he and Lois have to do whatever they can to protect her. He needs to get Lara somewhere safe. If Bureau 39 is really involved with Lara’s kidnapping- for that was what it truly was, they need to be careful. From the encounter with Jason Trask, Clark knows that Bureau 39 is relentless in their conspiracy theories. And if they are trying to use Lara as a weapon, they will do anything to get her back.
Whatever they do, Clark knows the sooner that he gets Lois in on what’s happening; the sooner they’d come up with a plan. Clark picks up Lara and flies back to Metropolis. He takes her back to their townhome
“Where are we?” Lara asks. She is looking around her surroundings like she is waiting for someone to attack her at any moment.
“We’re home. It’s safe here, Lara. I’m going to call your mom and see if she can come home. I know she will want to meet you.”
With that, Clark pulls out his cell phone from a hidden pocket in his cape. He quickly dials Lois’s number and begins to count the rings before Lois answers. As he waits for Lois to answer, he watches as Lara begins to study the photographs hanging on the wall.
Lois answers on the third ring. Lois barely has a chance to say anything before Clark says:
“I found her, Lois. And it is her.” Clark doesn’t want to say too much as he isn’t sure someone hasn’t tapped into their cell phones.
“You’re sure. None of the other possibilities we discussed earlier?” Lois asked keeping her questions purposefully vague.
“Positive. Can you pick up Mariah and come home? Things have gotten complicated and we need to regroup.”
“Ok. I’ll be home in twenty minutes.” Comes Lois’s reply. Just before Lois can hang up, Clark cautions:
“Lois, be careful.”
Setting his phone aside, Clark changes back into his normal clothes and goes to check on Lara. She had wandered off as he was talking to Lois and Clark worries that she might have decided to run away again. He finds her on the stairway, staring at the picture of his and Lois’s wedding.
“Was my name supposed to be Lara? You keep calling me that.”
Clark realized that Lara probably didn’t know what her true name is. He wonders what name Lara has used all these years, as she has yet to correct him on the use of a name.
“Your mother and I picked that name for you when we found out that we were having a daughter. Lara was my birth mother’s name. And Elizabeth, your middle name, comes from your Great-Grandmother.”
“Lara Elizabeth.” Lara tries the name out. “I think I could get used to it.”
“What were you called before?” Clark asks. He wants to know what Lara’s life had been like before. Even if it pains him to hear what he didn’t protect his daughter from, he feels like he owes it to her to listen.
“Brat, Spawn, Pain-in-the-rear: they’re all interchangeable,” Lara said.
“I meant what name did you use?”
“Just told you. Naomi would say that names were a human concept. Spawn was what I was called most though, the others were mostly when I shot my mouth off.”
Lara diverts her attention to the photos again, seemingly done with the conversation about her name, or apparent lack thereof. This time she seemingly becomes fixated on a photo of Mariah.
“That’s your younger sister, Mariah. She and your Mom will be here soon. Your mom is anxious to meet you.”
Clark places a hand on Lara’s shoulder, as he picks up an increase in Lara’s heart rate. But as soon as his hand makes contact Lara seems to recoil in pain. Clark can only watch helplessly as Lara slowly collapses to the floor, hands going to her temples as she seems to be having some kind of fit.
