Lena Luthor saw the vase full of white tulips on her father's grave and kicked it over with contempt. "I can't believe he has the gall to leave them there," she snarled. When she saw her little boy kneel down and reach for them, she snapped, "Leave them alone!"

"Why?"

"Because they're from Superman."

"Why do you hate Superman so much?" said Joseph Alexander Luthor in the persistent way that little children have. He had red hair and blue eyes and delicate features like his mother.

"Because he hates us. He thinks that since we're tainted with Luthor blood, we're evil," said Lena Luthor.

"You know . . . I really wish you would stop telling your son that when you know it's not true."

Lena turned to see Superman standing several yards away. "Do you really need the PR so much that you have to use my father's dead body?"

"I . . . just wanted to pay my respects. You didn't have to kick the flowers over," he said, looking angry.

"Nanny," said Lena, "Take Joseph back to the car." As a young woman took the little boy's hand and led him away, Lena said, "Are you making sure he's dead? Because he is, you know."

"I don't hate you or your son, Lena. I don't want this legacy of hatred to go on and on."

"Not interested in calling me Luthor, Kal-El?"

"I'd really rather not."

"I figured that you've come here to gloat. It's not enough that you ruined his life but he died because of you."

"I didn't kill him. He had cancer."

"Cancer that he got from wearing kryptonite rings to keep you away. He was high on morphine most of the time towards the end because the pain was so bad. When he died, I didn't cry because, really, he was a craptastic father. Most of the time, he'd be away plotting with a new batch of scientists to destroy you or rant and rave about you. Even the last thing he had to say was about you, saying that you must be so happy that his end was coming. In a sense, I never had a father." She picked up the vase and threw it at Superman where it shattered. Looking with disgust at the pieces on the ground, she said, "I don't even know why I did that. It's not like you can feel any of it."

"I feel more than you'll ever know," said Superman and his face was scrunched as if in pain.

"If you don't think that I'm evil then why do you keep watch over me? You know that even though I hate you, I haven't resurrected those stupid experiments. You keep lecturing me about not repeating my father's mistakes and telling me that I don't know everything!"

"I keep watch over you because I failed Lex. This is the least I can do."

"Because you don't want another nemesis?"

"Because I don't want to have to lay flowers at two graves." With that, he flew away.

The End