A Girl Called Lori

Chapter 33 - The News

Lena looks over at her phone, and she wonders who could possibly be ringing her on Christmas Day of all times. Some sort of emergency right now is the last thing in the world that Lena wants. Lena just wants to spend a nice Christmas, her first real Christmas, with this little family here, and mostly Kara and Lori, who she loves with all her heart. So, Lena then looks over at her phone, and she sees that it is her lawyer calling her, or at least her main personal lawyer, as she literally has a team of them. Upon seeing this, Lena knows that it can't be anything good. Lena's first thought is that this call is going to have something to do with her brother, or maybe even her mother. Lena thinks that maybe one of them has decided to break out of prison on Christmas day or something. Or alternatively, Lex has become a real comic book super villain, and decided to come up with a master evil plan to take on Supergirl or Superman on Christmas day, in an attempt to ruin Christmas for everyone, because he didn't get a good enough Christmas as a child or something. Lena knows that it is going to be something like that.

"Hello Mark." Lena says, as she answers her phone, taking a deep breath first to gather her nerves.

"Hello Miss Luthor." Mark, Lena's main lawyer replies, "I hope I didn't wake you, or interrupt you or anything. I just felt this call was very important for you to have today."

"Yes." Lena sighs, "I know this can't be anything good if you are calling me on Christmas day. What's happened?"

"As you know, part of my job, as you have directed me, is to keep an eye on all your interests, both personal, and in regards to L-Corp." Mark explains, "This time, I got a call of a more personal nature last night, that I think you should know right away, even though nothing will be able to be done about it until everything opens up again in the New Year."

"What is it?" Lena asks, now getting worried, "Has my brother done something?"

"No." Mark replies, "Last night I received a courtesy call from one of my contacts in the National City child services agency. Apparently, a Mr Stephen Andrews has come out of the woodwork, and filed an appeal to take full custody of Lori Smith."

"What?!" Lena says, shocked, her stomach dropping, this being even worse news than if Lex had broken out of prison, "How.... how is this possible?"

"Mr Andrews is a blood relative of Lori. He's her father's younger half-brother." Mark explains, "Apparently a few years ago, at the time of Lori's father's death, Mr Andrews was on a charity mission, in the middle of El Salvador, and because of that he didn't learn of his brother's death until he returned to the US 9 months later. By this point, he was the only living blood relative of Lori's, but he saw, from a far, that she was in a foster family. So, his story is that at that point he decided he wanted to get his life together, into a more financially stable state, so he could eventually file for custody of Lori. Currently, he is working as a doctor, specialising in child medicine, in New York state, with his practice located in a very posh area of Manhattan."

"You are telling me about his practice, because that means that his clients are powerful people, who can help him, aren't you?" Lena asks.

"Yes." Mark replies, "One of his patients is the deputy attorney general of New York, or at least his child. Or maybe he doesn't just see children as part of his practice. The details aren't very clear right now."

"Mark." Lena says, in a firm voice, "Be blunt with me. How bad is this?"

There is then a pause.

"Bad, Miss Luthor. In cases like this, even though Mr Andrews has had little to no contact with Lori, a blood relation carries a lot of weight, even more so in the case that Mr Andrews is a respected children's doctor, and has friends in high places. Miss Danvers could lose Lori." Mark says.