1

About a month after Lex's adoption was finalized, Martha started giving him a little more responsibility around the house. They'd relieved him of some of his farm chores so he could settle into eighth grade, since the chores tired him out and would have made it difficult for him to get his homework done, but she still wanted him to feel like he was able to contribute to the household.

So she was washing dishes, and Lex was drying them and putting them away. She was caught up in what she was doing and didn't notice that Lex was a bit more tired than usual until there was a loud crash behind her.

Martha turned around. Glass shards covered the floor. Lex stood in shock, hand out in front of him as though he were still holding the glass he'd dropped.

"Oh, what happened?" She took a couple of steps toward him.

He cringed, holding his hands out in front of his face, eyes squeezed shut.

She stopped in her tracks. "Lex, I'm not gonna hurt you. It was an accident." She didn't like the way that had come out—it seemed to imply she might hurt him if he'd done it on purpose. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Ever."

Slowly, he lowered his hands and straightened up, but his cheeks reddened.

She didn't say anything else about it. He was embarrassed enough. Instead, she simply taught him how to clean up the shards of broken glass safely, and they continued putting away the dishes together. He was stiff the whole time, his face bright red.

When they'd finished with all of the dishes, she reached toward him with open arms. He flinched just slightly, but she pulled him into a soft embrace and hugged him for as long as he let her.

2

"Hey, sweetie, we need to talk."

Martha watched the blood drain away from Lex's face as she said the words. He had come home from school in such a good mood, Martha was hesitant to ruin it. But they'd warned him.

She stood in the doorway of his bedroom, and he sat in his desk chair, frozen.

"W-what's wrong?" he asked.

"It's not a big thing. It's just, this morning, you forgot to put the milk away again."

His eyes widened. "I'm so sorry, Martha."

"I know, but this is the third time this week. You remember what I said last time."

He pulled his knees into his chest and gripped at his head with tense fingers. "I'm sorry," he muttered under his breath. "Please . . . I'll never forget again. I won't."

Martha frowned. She'd told him he was going to be in trouble if he kept leaving the milk out, but she didn't give him any specifics. Now, though, she wondered if she had been wrong to leave so much to his imagination. She sighed—even after six months in their home, Lex didn't trust his new parents not to abuse him.

Martha made a mental note to check in with Lex's therapist about how to handle these types of situations. Today, though, she couldn't imagine assigning even the smallest punishment to him while he was in this state.

"Okay, Lex, breathe." She knelt in front of him and reached up to squeeze his shoulder. "It's okay. Just try to remember next time, okay?"

He nodded, and his breathing slowed.

3

Martha couldn't take any more of her boys arguing. She was trying to finish the accounting for the farm at the kitchen table. Lex sat reading a book across from her, and Clark had pestered Lex to play with him about a thousand times.

"Clark," Martha said, "go find something to do by yourself for a little while. Lex, finish the chapter you're on, then go play with your brother."

Lex was clearly immersed in his book. He didn't even look up. "I don't want to play with him. I'm tired of pretending to play basketball with someone who could win every time if he actually tried, and I'm sick of pretending to lose at checkers to someone who can't figure out which way the pieces go."

Clark's lower lip trembled, and he ran out of the room, covering his eyes with his forearm as he went, shoulders hitching. Lex still didn't look up from his book; Martha wondered if he had any idea how much he had hurt his little brother. Martha knew he'd been struggling with bullies at the high school, and he was only acting out because of that, but he also needed to know that what he was doing was unacceptable. Jonathan would probably be able to get through to him better than she would. Besides, she needed to go comfort her younger son.

Martha stood from her chair, stalked over to Lex, and took the book from his hands.

"Hey, I'll lose my place—"

She slammed the book down on the table. "You march up to your bedroom right now, Alexander Luthor, and wait for Jonathan to come up and deal with you." It might be a long wait—Jonathan wasn't due to come back in for lunch for another hour—but that served him right for the way he'd spoken to his little brother.

His response was immediate. His eyebrows shot up, and he fell to his knees in front of her, gripping onto the front of her shirt with one hand.

"No, no, no, I'm sorry, Martha, I'm sorry, don't make me!" Tears filled his eyes. "Please. I'll be good, I promise, I'll do whatever you want. Please!"

She swallowed hard and gently pried Lex's hand away from her shirt, taking his trembling hand in hers. She wanted to ask him what he thought Jonathan was going to do, but she already had some ideas, based on his past. The problem was, she really didn't want to back down, and his therapist had said it wouldn't necessarily be good for him if she did. Lex needed to learn that the worst thing Jonathan was going to do to him was give him a lecture and maybe some extra chores. He also needed to learn that he couldn't treat Clark like that and expect nothing to happen.

Part of her worried that he was coming to trust them even less than he had when he'd arrived. She had never seen him so panicked over the promise of discipline, though she'd never sent him up to wait for Jonathan, either. Then again, maybe the begging was a sign of progress. She doubted he would have begged Lionel; he would have known it was useless.

"He's not going to hurt you." Martha forced herself to keep her voice firm. "He's just going to talk to you. Now go up to your room."

Lex trudged away toward the stairs, wiping at his eyes. Martha sighed and followed behind a minute later, heading into Clark's room first. She picked up the sobbing boy in her arms and rocked him for a moment, murmuring assurances that Lex didn't mean what he said, before taking him with her to go talk to Jonathan. Lex couldn't wait an hour for Jonathan to come into the house. The boy needed to be disciplined, but if they made him wait, he was going to hyperventilate until he passed out.

As Martha walked, she combed her fingers through Clark's hair, kissed his forehead, and cursed Lionel under her breath.

4

Despite his run-ins with school bullies, Lex was doing quite well at Smallville High. His teachers had mostly good things to say about him, at least academically—some were more ruffled by the boy's tendency to call them out on mistakes than others were, but Martha figured that they could work on tact. As long as he wasn't being blatantly disrespectful, she wasn't too worried.

It surprised her when he hid his report card at the end of the first semester.

Martha knew he'd done it because she knew exactly when report cards were supposed to come out, and for the week leading up to that day, Lex was unexpectedly helpful about bringing in the mail for her.

She didn't mince words with him. She called him down to the living room and asked point blank, "Where's your report card?"

He gave her a look of obviously-fake confusion. He wasn't as good at lying as he thought he was. "How would I know?"

She took his chin in her hand. "Don't play games with me, Alexander Luthor."

He cringed. "I didn't want you to get mad at me."

"Then hiding your report card was a very bad decision. Go get it."

He paused only a moment before getting up and disappearing up the stairs. He came back and held it out to her. She gestured for him to sit beside him on the couch, and she opened the envelope.

All A's, except for one B in history.

Martha looked up at Lex, bewildered. "This is a good report card. Why would you think we'd be upset?"

"My history grade."

She frowned down at the singular B. She wouldn't have thought much of it, but history was usually his favorite subject. "Well, that is unusual for you. What do you think happened?"

"I failed an essay because I . . . didn't exactly follow the prompt like he wanted me to. It pushed my grade down."

"Why didn't you follow the directions?"

"Because the prompt was wrong."

She nodded slowly. If the failed essay had pushed him down to a D or F, she would have asked him to talk to his teacher about it, and she might have offered to accompany him for the conversation. As it was, they could talk about that later. She was more concerned about the fact that he still hadn't figured out they weren't going to abuse him. "This is a good report, sweetie. I'm proud of you."

Lex looked away, but he smiled, ever so slightly. "So, I'm not in trouble?"

"Not for your grades. We're going to take you out for ice cream." She kissed the top of his head. "But not this weekend. You're grounded for hiding the report." That was the standard sentence for lying in their household.

Lex lowered his head.

5

Martha had heard horror stories from her friends who were raising teenagers. She was never quite sure what they were talking about. At fifteen, Lex was amazing. He rarely complained about doing his chores, he helped Clark with his homework, and he was usually very sweet and respectful.

He did miss his curfew once, which had Martha tearing her hair out with worry. After talking it over and debating whether to go easy on him because it was his first infraction, Martha and Jonathan decided to make a statement instead. They decided to ground him and give him extra chores for two whole weeks. They figured it might be kinder to deal with his misbehavior exactly once, than have to punish him repeatedly.

When Lex came home, they talked to him about how worried they'd been and how much they loved him until tears filled his eyes. They explained that he was forgiven, but that there were still consequences for his actions, and they gave him his sentence.

Lex looked hurt, and he spent some time alone in the barn the next day, after which he returned to the house with swollen eyes and red cheeks. Other than that, though, he didn't complain about the grounding. He was fairly quiet for the duration of the two weeks, but he didn't resist the extra chores, and he didn't ask for an early reprieve, even when the grounding ran through a party he'd been looking forward to. When his grounding ended, Martha and Jonathan had one last talk with Lex before releasing him, and they each gave him a long hug and reminded him, again, that he was forgiven.

Lex didn't smile, and he stiffened instead of hugging back. A couple of days later, Martha found him out in the barn. He was still doing all of the extra chores they'd assigned to him while he was grounded, and he still wasn't spending any time with his friends after school.

"Lex." She came and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't need to do this."

"I was bad," he muttered, and started working even harder.

"You made a mistake, but you've already paid for it. It's over, sweetie. We told you, we forgive you. Do you not believe us?"

He shrugged and continued working.

+1

Martha never thought she'd be the kind of mom who would get upset with her son over a grade that was less than an A, but Lex quickly proved what he was capable of. Any more than one or two B's meant he was slacking off in class, not doing his homework, or talking back to his teachers.

During his sophomore year, his first quarter report card came in with two A's, four B's, and one C.

She didn't scold him about his grades right away—they'd have that conversation later. The party he wanted to go to was more important to discuss. Martha knew the party host's parents—they were out of town this weekend. Nothing good was going to happen if he went.

"You're not going to that party," she told him.

"Yes, I am. I already told my friends I would."

"Well, you didn't ask me first. Besides, you have homework to do."

"It's Friday night! I can do it tomorrow."

"No, you won't. You have chores, and riding practice, and your little brother is going to want to play with you."

"Sunday, then."

"You're not putting your homework off until the last minute to go to a party. Your grades are slipping."

"They're almost all A's and B's!"

"And can you honestly tell me you've been doing the absolute best you can in school?"

Lex rolled his eyes.

She crossed her arms. "Don't you roll your eyes at me, young man. I expect more from you, Alexander, or you can spend every Friday evening at home until your grades pick up."

Lex looked away, and spat out a foul word under his breath, clearly directed at her.

Martha's jaw dropped.

She knew she should be angry. Her own mother would have washed out her mouth with soap for that kind of language, and Jonathan's would have slapped him across the mouth.

But Martha felt no anger. Her throat choked up, and she had to fight to contain her elation. This was far from the first time Lex had mouthed off to her, but it was the first time he'd held onto his rebellion even after she'd threatened him, and it was definitely the first time he'd sworn at her. Any other mother would be livid with his behavior, but she hadn't been this happy in a long time.

Her son trusted her. Finally, he felt safe. Finally, she could deal with this the way she needed to without worrying about whether he'd believe she loved him when it was over.

She swallowed her euphoria, raised her eyebrows, and breathed to give him a tongue-lashing he'd never forget.