maraonlaidrex

-- It had been a long few weeks for Roy, but he was looking forward to this. He had been planning this with the foster family he had been set up with courtesy of Bruce, and he was over the moon.

He waited by the car, arms folded, while he waited for Lian to come out. He wanted so badly to be the man that Lian had always told him he was when she was younger. Dick had always insisted that he was, but...

The number of beer cans he had to clean out of his car before today begged to differ. He was trying so hard to stay sober, but it wasn't easy. Waylon had told him it wouldn't be. This wasn't like the first time he was getting clean.

Maybe if the grades were high enough....

Lian shook her head, zipping up the pouch. The Smiths were nice enough. It was nothing like the horror stories she heard at school about foster families, they were nice, had a normal house, but.....could anyone blame her for just wanting to be back with her dad?

She knew she couldn't be, that he had to get 'better', but still.

'Lian, your dad is out front!"

That's why she had to make the most of the day today. If she could only see him on certain days, they were going to be the best days. Shoving her feet into her sneakers, Lian ran down the stairs and tried not to throw open the door in her haste.

"Dad!" She exclaimed, nearly jumping off of the steps to hug him. "I've-missed-you, I-have-so-much-to-tell-you! How's-everyone?" She asked in a rush.

"Yeah, yeah...that sounds good." She swallowed around the lump in her throat. "There's...alot to show you. If your archive crystals are anything like the ones at the academy....they lack emotional and social context."

"Yes, really. The whole point of me moving to National City was to find you, and honestly I thought it would take much longer than this. Still, then I got word of you working for CatCo, and there was a celebration party tonight. Figured the best chances of running into you would be here, and also getting a job at the same place you work. I can't go back home knowing you're here. Though my adoptive father is probably gonna think I ran off because of some girl, he'd be right, but he doesn't need to know that," Jake laughed.

Jake was amused by the excitement coursing through Kara right now, and he was happy that she was happy; he could just imagine the loneliness she must have felt, having seen on the news about the other Kryptonians, and hated himself for not being there.

Once the sounds of the crowd faded a bit, Kara let out a breath and looked up at him. "There, now we can talk a bit more freely..." And realizing she was still holding his hand, she dropped it while her cheeks burned. "I-uh, sorry.." She coughed, shaking her head. "--Anyway, where did you crash land? My pod followed Kal's, so I crashed in Kansas, but ended up growing up in Midvale."

Still the thought of him being at work every day made her grin. "Got it in one, it's like Dev-Em all over again. I just hope you don't have to break Paul's nose, though he would probably deserve it."

Let the radiation take me too. I'll lie in the ground next to you and next to mom. I am one tiny life. What difference does it make whether I live or die?

Being myself doesn't make me feel more normal. And it never will. Because my normal life ended the second my parents put me on that ship. And that makes me... so... mad.