Author's Note: This is a Smallville AU, from approximately the end of season three.

What Happens In Vegas

Chapter One

"Clark, it's been too long."

Clark looked up from the books strewn about him on the grass at the sound of the familiar voice. He smiled at the sight of Lana crossing the expanse of the South Park at Metropolis University. Standing, he held his arms out as she rushed into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. She gave an involuntary squeak of surprise when he hugged her back hard enough to lift her straight off the ground.

"Clark, put me down!" Lana yelped, laughing, and Clark swung her around in the air before placing her back on her feet.

"How was Paris?" Clark asked, as Lana brushed her flyaway hair back behind her ears.

"Paris was wonderful," Lana told him. "I learned so much at the Art Institute."

"Does that mean that Smallville will soon be hosting Lana Lang's first gallery opening?" Clark asked, a gently teasing tone in his voice.

"Oh, I'm not ready for that," Lana insisted, quickly. "But, I do have something big I want to talk to you about."

"There's something I wanted to talk to you about, too," Clark replied, fingering the small box that he'd been carrying around in his pocket for the last couple of weeks. "But, you should go first."

"Oh, no," Lana said, her eyes darting from side to side as she suddenly couldn't look Clark in the eye. "You go ahead."

"Okay," Clark agreed, easily, still smiling, although Lana's sudden evasiveness made him feel uneasy. "You've seen all those news stories about the new hero in Metropolis, the one everyone's been calling Superman?"

"Of course I have," Lana said. "I even got to see him in Paris. He was diffusing a bomb on the Eiffel Tower."

"I know," Clark told her. At Lana's quizzical look, he elaborated, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Glancing furtively around to make sure that no one was paying any attention to them, he unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt and pulled it open, hearing Lana's astonished gasp.

"You're Superman?" she breathed, almost reverentially, reaching out to brush the bright blue suit hidden under his regular clothes. "How long?"

"About a year," Clark told her. "Right about the time I decided to major in Journalism, actually."

"And right after I left for school in Paris," Lana finished, a rueful smile gracing her features. "I always knew I'd been holding you back, somehow."

"Lana, no," Clark interjected, quickly, but Lana shook her head, silencing him.

"You and I both know that you'd have been flying a long time ago if I hadn't been tying you to the ground," Lana said, matter-of-factly. "Going away to Paris, getting away from us, may have been for the best for both of us."

"What do you mean?" Clark asked, confused.

"It gave me time to grow up," Lana explained. "Gave me time to find out who I really am."

"Actually, our year apart gave me some time to think, too," Clark told her. "I thought a lot about us, and there was something I wanted to ask you, Lana."

"Clark, I've been seeing Lex," Lana blurted out, suddenly, and the ring box that Clark had taken out of his pocket fell from his suddenly-nerveless fingers to hit the ground. Neither of them noticed.

"Lex?" Clark echoed, stunned. "Lex Luthor?" he repeated, skeptically, even though there was no one else that Lana could have been referring to.

"Ever since Lex gave up his campaign for State Senator, he's been a whole new person," Lana told him, earnestly. "He told me that conceding the race to your father, even if it meant getting disowned by Lionel, was the best decision he'd ever made."

"How – how long have you two been seeing each other?" Clark asked, feeling numbness settle over him as Lana's revelation sank in.

"Almost a year," Lana admitted, and the shock of hearing that Lana had essentially been lying to him since she left hit him hard. "Lex went to Paris to get away from his father's influence," she added, but Clark barely heard her.

"A year," he repeated, stunned. "You couldn't call and tell me that things were over between us?"

"I didn't know how," Lana said, tears in her eyes.

"We talked almost every week!" Clark exploded, suddenly furious with the young woman standing before him. "Every time you called me, you lied to me."

"I didn't want to hurt you," Lana tried to explain.

"Well, you failed at that," Clark said, bitterly. "How could you not tell me that you and Lex have been dating for a year?"

"We're engaged, actually," Lana said, her voice small, her words a knife into Clark's heart. "Lex asked me to marry him," she added, apologetically, seeing the hurt expression on his face. "I said yes."

Clark nodded, unable to say anything in response. There wasn't anything really that he could say.

"I'm so sorry, Clark," Lana said, tearfully. "I never wanted to hurt you like this."

Clark sighed, knowing she was telling the truth. For all that she was an incredibly giving person, when it came to matters of the heart, Lana seemed to have a blind spot for how her actions affected other people. And Clark had a hard time staying mad at her when he'd known all along that she was that way; it was how they'd gotten together after Lana had broken up with Whitney.

"We're thinking that we're going to stay in Smallville," Lana said, rushing to fill the silence. "Metropolis is so expensive, and it would be nice to raise a family in a place that feels like home."

"Right," Clark said, tonelessly, as he watched his dreams crumble to dust before his eyes.

"I won't tell anyone your secret, if that's what you're worried about," Lana hastened to reassure him, but Clark shook his head.

"I told you my secret because I trust you," Clark told her. "That doesn't change just because we're not dating, anymore."

"You'll find someone really great," Lana told him, eagerly, as they lapsed into an awkward silence, again. "Someone really special, who's just perfect for you."

Clark only nodded, again, figuring that she was only trying to make him feel better. Stooping, he snatched the ring box off the grass and shoved it back into his pocket, gathering his books into his arms. He brushed his lips across Lana's cheek in a quick kiss, forcing himself to ignore the fresh onslaught of tears that glittered in her eyes.

"Have a good life, Lana," he wished her, and then he turned and walked away.