Breakthrough

"You really should consider the idea of helping them, you know, Clark?"

He sighed, as he watched the door where Victor, A.C., Bart and Oliver had just walked away throughout.

"I would like that Chloe, I really would." he answered. "But I need to take care of those zoners first. It is my responsibility, and if I don't do something to get rid of the rest of them really fast, I don't know what will happen."

Chloe nodded.

"I know." she said. "But after you do that… I mean, you would be a big help to the guys. Besides, how nice is that? A league of superheroes? I know you like to work on your own, but you have to admit that it's a very good idea."

"Yeah… it actually felt nice, you know, having guys like them around." Clark admitted, thoughtfully. "You know, I felt very comfortable around them… but I know we are still different." Chloe frowned, trying to figure out where exactly Clark was going to with that conversation. "I haven't obtained my powers from a meteor-shower. I caused it. If it wasn't for me, they would probably be normal persons."

"Yes, Clark, but it wasn't for you they would never have acquired powers and---"

"---and would have never had the conscience of trying to save the world. I know." Clark interrupted her.

"That isn't entirely true. Oliver has no powers. He's just very good with an archery on his hand." Chloe pointed, smiling. Clark looked at her. It was true.

Oliver had no powers, but he still had that… hero complex, as Lois had named when she was suspicious about Oliver being the Green Arrow. A couple of weeks ago.

Before Clark himself had dressed as the modern Robin Hood to lead Lois out of Oliver's track.

Before things had gotten a little out of hand they had kissed.

Not going there., he suddenly thought. Not now.

Clark shook his head, sending the thoughts away.

Okay, back to the main topic.

Maybe it wasn't a bad thing, after all. Sure, the meteor-shower Clark had caused had given powers to some people who were just deceiving and ambitious, who used those abilities for bad. But it had also given powers to good people, people like Victor, A.C. and Bart. Maybe Bart had been a little lost on the beginning, but now he, just like Victor and A.C., had a big and admirable goal for life.

And yeah, there was Oliver, who had started with the whole thing. And he didn't even have powers.

Clark smiled a bit as he remembered something Oliver had told him a few months ago, after they had met.

"There's a whole world of people out there, Clark. With your potential, you can't wait for them to come to you."

Clark couldn't help but realize that was kind of true. But Oliver was older and well, he might have a complicated life and all, with the double-identity thing, but he hadn't exactly the obstacles Clark had. He wasn't an alien from another planet, after all.

Clark smiled again, remembering another thing someone else had told him a couple of weeks ago.

"I swear, the guy could tell me he was from Mars right now, and I'd find a way to dismiss it as an endearing quirk!"

"Have you talked to Lois yet?" asked Clark, suddenly. Chloe had a serious look on her face now.

"No. But I'm planning to, once I get back to the Talon."

Now, as Chloe started to talk about Lois, Oliver and the guys again, Clark's thoughts were back to Lois again, before he could help himself.

He frowned. She had told him she thought she was in love with Oliver. And Oliver was gone now.

She was probably somewhere near the 'devastated' area.

"---and you know, you could help choosing a name to the team too," Chloe was saying, a little excitedly now, waking Clark from his reveries. "I mean, just like Bart said; it has to be something really cool."

He looked at her and laughed a little bit.

"I guess Bart has been rubbing off on you, after all." he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, please." said Chloe, chuckling. "I mean, don't get me wrong, Bart is sweet and everything and he speaks a really good Spanish," Clark smiled. "But I have a boyfriend, and--- oh, speaking of him!" she added, pulling out her ringing cell phone from her pocket. "Hello?" she answered. Clark smiled again. "Hey, Jimmy! How are--- what, me? I'm fine, what---" A surprised look appeared on her face. "What? You got tickets to that play we have been wanting to see? But I thought there were no tickets left! How did you do it??" She frowned and smiled a bit. "Oh, your contacts, of course." Pause. She frowned in awe. "Oh, Jimmy… that's really sweet… I'd love to… I just… I kinda can't, I should go see Lois… Oliver left town, and she must be devastated---"

"You know what?" Clark quickly whispered to her. Chloe looked at him, pausing. He grabbed his jacket, which was on top of a haystack. "Go with Jimmy. I'm going to see how Lois is doing."

Chloe nodded and smiled after him as he walked out of the barn.

"Jimmy?" she said. "Clark is going to give Lois a shoulder to cry on, so, I'll go with you. What time does the play start? Okay, then. No, no need to pick me up at the Talon---hey, are you at the Daily Planet?" She waited for him to answer. "Oh, good, 'cause I need to stop by there to grab some papers. Wait for me, I'll be right there." She grinned. "Miss you too. 'Bye."

Trying not to feel guilty, she closed her phone, grabbed her purse and headed towards her car, thoughtfully.

She could talk to her cousin later. Now, she would enjoy her boyfriend's company. Smiling a bit, she turned the engines on.

About comforting Lois, that could only mean someone would have to cross those solid walls, and Chloe was absolutely sure Clark would do a good job.

Three knocks at the door.

That should be enough to make her acknowledge his presence.

He slowly walked in her apartment. She was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear noises coming from her bedroom. When he had knocked, the noises had stopped.

Lois walked into the living room and jumped a little when she saw it was him.

"Smallville!" She tried to uncover her surprise and turned her back at him, walking to her room again. He didn't need his X-Ray vision to tell she was wiping tears, quickly erasing each and every sign that might give him the idea she had been crying. "You knocked." she said from her room. "Now, ain't that a miracle."

Clark fought against a smile. Even in times like that, she still had enough nerve to banter with him. He walked after her.

"If you came to talk to Chloe about some freakin' article, she's not here." Lois informed, still not turning to him.

"I know, she was at the farm." he said.

"Oh." Lois merely said.

Clark looked to her messy bed. There were clothes everywhere and her half full suitcase was opened.

She had been unpacking.

Indeed, she was taking her clothes out of her luggage and violently throwing them on the bed.

Without knowing exactly what to say, he sighed.

"Want some help?" he asked.

"Why, trying to find that green lacy lingerie you saw the other day?"

He tried hard not to blush at the memory

"N-no," he babbled. "I just---"

"Never mind, it's not like I'm going to use it anymore." she said, strictly.

Five excruciating minutes of silence passed, as he watched her walk frenetically around the room, picking up clothes and throwing them on the bed.

"Lois, I'm…"

"Look, Smallville, I know what you're doing, and I'm gonna ask you to quit it." she said, with a tone of voice harsher than the usual, closing her luggage with a loud noise.

"I just came here to---"

"Let me guess, you came here to check if Lois Lane isn't crying her heart out, is that it?" she interrupted him, and he jerked his head back at her abrupt tone. She laughed mockingly at his silence, gesticulating with a blouse in one hand and a pair of jeans on the other. "Of course, because you think you know me so well and you thought I'd be wallowing myself in my misery, wasn't it? You thought I'd be shuffling around in deep pain---"

"I didn't come here to see you wallow in your misery." said Clark, interrupting her, now. "But I do know you and I can tell exactly when you're okay. And right now, you're not."

She glanced at him. It was brief, but Clark saw that her nose and her eyes were a little red.

"Well, let me tell you something, Smallville," she said, folding the blouse and the jeans in a very strange way and putting them on her closet. "You got it wrong, I'm fine."

"Are you?" he asked, kindly.

"Yes!" she replied, harshly, as a defense response to his fond voice. "Relationships come and go, that's the natural order of things, and I'm not going to sit around moping like some people."

Clark ignored it and started talking.

"Lois, a couple of weeks ago you came to me saying you were in love with Oliver." Again, she just glanced at him. "It would be very heartless of you if you weren't feeling miserable inside, which I know you are."

Now, she dropped a dress she was holding and threw it back on her bad, aggressively.

"What you're just going to call me heartless because I'm not brooding? I'm sorry, but I'm not the kind of person who goes whining around every time I get a foot on the ass---"

"No," said Clark, still with a calm voice. "You're the kind of person that prefers to hide what you're feeling so you don't have to show everyone else what's really going on inside your walls---"

"What if I do? You can't blame me for trying to protect myself from being hurt!" she asked looking at him, her voice unusually high-pitched, which shut Clark up. "I let him in a little and look how that turned out! Me, heartbroken, disappointed and alone, walking around my apartment unpacking the bags I had packed because I actually thought we were going somewhere! Literally!" She was now walking from her bed to her closet, tossing her clothes on her closet without even folding them. "I just can't believe it! I mean, is it some stupid karma, or something? Every single time in my life, when I thought I had met a decent guy, it turned out he was a jerk or a psychopath! And now, when I do meet a great guy who actually makes me fall for him---BAM! He runs out of the city and leaves me, saying he just can't stay and how he hopes that one day he can explain to me why!" Clark opened his mouth to speak, but he quickly closed it. He recognized in her outburst a way to set free what she was feeling inside, so he did what he knew he should do. He let her talk. "I mean, I was tired of his disappearing acts, but I didn't care, not as long as I had him there, and now I just don't! I mean, wanna leave me? Fine! Just tell me why, 'cause I wanted to understand, I did, with all my heart, but how could I when he just left me without telling me the hell why?!" Clark frowned. She had almost all clothes on her closet now, and her voice was getting shriller by the moment. He was used to see the strong, unbreakable Lois. He had never seen her in a breakdown like that, and he hated the way her eyes filling with tears ripped his heart in the middle. "Sure, he didn't want to hurt me, no one ever does, but damn, it always ends up happening anyway!" She ferociously blinked against the tears and, tossing the last jeans on her closet, she started pacing around the room, her voice absolutely teary. Clark started to walk towards her. "But it is going to be okay, right, it always does, it's just right now, I feel like crap, and I'm feeling silly because I'm freaking out and this stupid heartache and these stupid tears just don't go away, and I just---"

She was still pacing around the room, frenetically, bravely fighting against the tears, turning to every side and not facing anywhere in particular.

When Lois turned around one last time, she gasped in surprise when Clark's large body collided against hers. Feeling his strong arms wrapping themselves around her, she struggled, trying to fight him.

"I'm fine, Smallville, stop it, I---" Her voice was quivering. She choked and she tried to push him away, but she just couldn't. She didn't know if it was because he was so damn strong or if it was because, deep down, that was just what she needed, but she just couldn't.

So she did the only thing that was left for her to do. She cried. Not only for Oliver, but for every frustration she had bottled up during the past years. She cried, wrists clenched and resting on his chest. He tightened the hug while she buried her face on his neck and the tears that were threatening to fall cascaded down her cheeks.

Clark didn't know exactly what had made him walk towards Lois and hug her like that. He just knew he had to do anything to ease her pain, because he didn't like to see her that way.

For one second, for one scary fraction of second, he hated Oliver for hurting her. Shaking the thought away, he just held her in his arms, feeling an unexpected pain on his heart every time he heard her sobbing.

Clark frowned a little when he realized that was the first time since they had kissed he wasn't feeling awkward around her. Well, if that was it, they should definitely hug more often.

He widened his eyes.

Shaking that thought away as well, he held her even closer to him and tried not to inhale the pleasant and citric perfume coming all way up from her hair.

Okay, maybe that was exactly what she needed, Lois thought, feeling him slowly swaying from one side to another and resting his chin on her head. And as much as she hated to confess, she had to admit that it felt very good. He was so large and so strong that Lois, even being tall, felt incredibly tiny on his arms.

She sighed, and Clark tried hard not to gulp at the feeling of her hot breath against his neck.

"This sucks…" she said, punching him lightly on the chest, on the spot her wrist was touching. He stood in silence. Her voice was stuffed, because she was still with her head buried on his neck. "I mean, not the whole hugging thing, don't get me wrong, you're pretty good at it," she quickly added and just as quickly, she wanted to kick herself. "I meant the whole break-up stuff. It sucks."

Clark laughed softly. "Yeah, it does."

Letting go of a breath she didn't know she was holding, Lois pulled apart, and immediately both felt a strange loss.

Lois rubbed her face to wipe the last trace of tears. She looked at him.

For the first time, since they had kissed (even though she didn't know it had been Clark yet), she was the one feeling awkward. It made him smile.

"You just…" she started, clumsily. "… pretend you didn't hear all that."

He just kept smiling. She breathed out. "Great," she said, rolling her eyes, exasperated. "Now I feel stupid."

"Don't," he said. "We all have nervous collapses once in a while."

"I don't!" she said, freaking out again, a little. "I don't have breakdowns, I do NOT collapse! Collapse is stupid!"

"Ohhh, I guess I'm feeling another one coming…" joked Clark, tilting his head to the side. Lois seemed to jump back to her old self and eyed him annoyed. But she was smiling.

"Very funny, Smallville, very funny." she said, sarcastically, poking him on the arm. She looked up at him, a little relieved.

Back to normal. Normal was good.

"I know it feels like the world is going to end, but the feeling usually goes away after one day or too." Clark said, warmly. Lois rolled her eyes.

"Oh wise one, there was no need to give me this piece of wisdom." she said, and Clark smiled to see her witty tone back. "I've been through break-ups before, this one is just a little harder. I know the terrible feeling will fade away after a couple of days. And I also know, Smallville, that sitting in the couch eating ice cream and watching a movie – preferably not a romantic one – is very helpful. You should try it yourself."

"I'll think about it." he replied. They stood in silence for a second, Lois looking around the room and Clark watching her. "Lois, I'm really sorry."

She sighed.

"So am I." she said, pondering for a while if she should go on. Well, she had pretty much blurted out everything before, so it wouldn't hurt if she kept talking. "He was… he was a great guy, and… in spite of the whole… disappearing issues, I actually thought we could go somewhere." She stared fixedly at her suitcase, now empty and closed.

"Maybe…" Clark started, carefully. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to be."

Lois gazed at him. "Yeah. Maybe."

They looked at each other for a second then looked away, scanning the room.

"You know," started Clark, taking Lois away from her thoughts. "You may have to organize your closet all over again, because you kind of---"

"Tossed the clothes in there without even folding?" she suggested.

"Yeah, something like it." he answered, nodding.

"Well, then I better get to work," she said, sighing and patting his shoulder, smiling faintly at him and standing in front of her messy closet.

"Good luck." he wished. "I'm gonna go too."

"Okay."

"I need to go back to the farm, lots of things to do."

"Yeah."

He was a wonderful friend, Lois thought. He really was.

And yeah, the feeling of loss would disappear and the wound would heal.

In spite of all the pain that was now left, it had felt good to fall in love. Maybe Clark was right. Maybe she just wasn't meant to be with Oliver.

Once again, she thought she had found the right guy. And once again, she had been disappointed.

But Lois smiled a little as she remembered what Mrs. Kent had once told her.

"Maybe you have to get through all the wrong men… so you can recognize the right one."

She just hoped it didn't take her too long to recognize it. Because her fear was still there; what she had said to Mrs. Kent that same day, it was still going on. What worried her was that when the right guy finally appeared, she would be looking the other way, and she would miss him completely.

"You have to keep a closer watch.", Mrs. Kent had said. And well, it was not easy.

But then… maybe it was easier than Lois thought. Maybe the right guy was closer than she thought and she was just not seeing him.

She smiled slightly.

But guys whose smiles could light up a barn were certainly an item.

"Hey…" Lois heard Clark say. She turned her head to look at him again. He had walked towards her bedroom door, but was now looking back at her. He gave her such a gentle smile that it made her feel warm inside. "Are you alright?" he asked, kindheartedly, just to be sure.

"No," she replied honestly, in a way Clark had never seen before. "But I will be." She smiled teary. Clark smiled back at her and walked out of the room, headed to her apartment's front door.

When he was almost touching the door handle, he heard her uneasy voice call after him.

"Smallville?"

"What?" he automatically answered, turning around.

Clark saw her staring at him from her bedroom door, fighting against what seemed to be an inner battle.

She bit her lip, and he couldn't help but find it adorable. After a few seconds, Lois finally spoke.

"Thank you."

Clark smiled widely.

She faced him, surprised at the way her stomach suddenly seemed to fall down to her knees.

"You're welcome." he said, looking at her for a few seconds then turning around and leaving.

Shaking the scary and unexpected sensation away, Lois walked back to her room.

She had broken-up with her boyfriend, she was vulnerable and needy, that was all.

And Clark was just a good friend.

That was all.

A friend who definitely knew how to hug.

Rolling her eyes, Lois stood in front of her closet. And before turning her full attention to her muddled clothes, she unwarily grinned a bit to herself as she remembered how Clark's kind smile had made her feel warm and comfortable.

Just what she needed, coming from a friend's smile.

A smile that could very well light up a barn.