Author's Note: Power pissed me off. This was supposed to be just venting, but then the darn thing had to go and develop a plot.

Long, Cold Road

"Lana, you're not a distraction. You never were."

Even as the words left his mouth, Clark could hear the hollow ring to them. What was he doing? He and Lana were over. Faked DVD or no, there was just too much else between them that would never work. Had never worked if he was being completely honest with himself.

'Yeah, that'll be a first,' a nagging little voice in the back of his head spoke up. Funny how his conscience sounded so much like Lois.

"I just don't want to see you get hurt," Clark continued, and Lana smiled at him.

"Clark, nothing can hurt me," Lana insisted. "You and I are equals, now."

There was something that rang wrong with that statement, but the more Clark tried to think about it, the harder it was to focus on anything but Lana standing in front of him.

"Together, we can help make the world a better place," Lana continued, forcefully. "We were always wonderful together, now we can be even better. You'll see; you just have to trust me."

Clark shook his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs that clouded his thoughts. This wasn't right. He shouldn't be up on the roof; not with Lana. They were over and there was someone else –

The feel of Lana's fingers lightly framing his face jolted him out of his thoughts, and he looked down as she gave him a tremulous smile and went up on her toes to lean in for a kiss. Clark hesitated, unwilling to close the distance between them as the little voice in the back of his head screamed at him not to be an idiot.

The reality of him and Lana had never been as good as the fantasy. He'd been chasing after an empty dream for years and he knew it. So, why was he trying to recapture what they'd never really had?

'Because it's Lana, and this is what you've always wanted,' came the immediate answer, and even as his conscience gave up in disgust, Clark leaned down and kissed Lana, wrapping his arms around her waist.

XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX

"Hello?" Lois jerked out of her fitful sleep as her cell phone shrilled, impatiently, the greeting coming out of her mouth on autopilot.

"Hey, Lois, how's Jimmy?" Lois winced at the overly-cheerful tone in her cousin's voice and stifled a yawn behind her hand.

"Chloe, it's three in the morning," Lois informed her, grumpily, after she'd snagged her watch off the table beside Jimmy's hospital bed.

"Oh, sorry," Chloe said, even though she sounded too hyper to be at all apologetic. "I guess I didn't realize how early it is. I just wanted to see how Jimmy's doing."

"Jimmy's sleeping," Lois said, pointedly, hoping Chloe would take the hint. When her words didn't seem to have an effect, she added, "So was I, actually."

"I guess you want to go, then," Chloe said, a little sheepishly, and Lois sighed in relief.

"Yeah," she answered, not even bothering to hide her yawn this time. "I kinda do. I want to get back to sleep."

"Oh, hey!" Chloe exclaimed, before Lois could click off her phone. "I didn't tell you the good news."

"What good news?" Lois asked. "Are you and Ollie coming back to Star City?"

She hadn't been surprised at Oliver's announcement that he was headed back to Metropolis; between Queen Industries and his Green Arrow duties, he was never still. But a similar announcement from Chloe had completely floored her, especially since her cousin hadn't been able to offer a good explanation as to why she was leaving. Lois couldn't understand how Chloe could just walk away from Jimmy like she had; she knew if someone she loved was in the hospital, no force on Earth could drag her away. Even now, she couldn't bring herself to leave Jimmy's side.

"No, we've both got some stuff to take care of here at home," Chloe said, casually, breaking into Lois's thoughts. "This is something better."

"Better than you guys coming back?" Lois asked, squelching the disappointment she felt at Chloe's words.

"This is great," Chloe confided, and despite herself, Lois couldn't help but get caught up in her obvious excitement.

"So?" Lois pressed, insistently. "You woke me up this early; you can't keep me in suspense forever."

"Clark and Lana are back together," Chloe gushed.

For Lois, it was like getting cold water dashed in her face. She blinked in stunned amazement, fairly certain from the look on her face that she was doing a credible impression of a goldfish.

"What?" she finally managed to choke out.

After the wedding reception, and that little scene in the hospital, she'd been half-expecting something like this, but she couldn't believe just how much it hurt to have her suspicions confirmed.

"Yeah," Chloe went on, oblivious to Lois's shock. "I convinced Clark to give Lana a second chance."

Chloe's words were like a knife to her heart.

"You told Clark that he should get back together with Lana?" Lois echoed, weakly.

"Well, I could tell that he was considering it," Chloe prattled on. "I just gave him a nudge in the right direction."

"Right direction," Lois repeated, surprising even herself with the bitterness in her voice. "What about Lana stomping all over his heart?"

"Oh, that was just a big misunderstanding," Chloe said, dismissively. "No, they worked all of that out."

"Oh," Lois said, softly, not knowing how else to respond. If Clark didn't seem to care that Lana had walked all over him, why should her opinion on it be important?

"And you're probably breathing a big sigh of relief," Chloe said, in a knowing tone, startling Lois.

"Why would I be relieved?" she asked, confused.

"Oh, come on," Chloe scoffed, lightly. "All that stuff about you falling for Clark, that was just talk, right?"

"Right," Lois echoed, feeling the knife in her heart give a vicious twist.

"I mean, you and Clark?" Chloe went on. "Talk about tossing oil on a fire." A teasing note in her voice, she added, "You should have seen the look on Clark's face when I told him."

"You told Clark?" Lois asked, feeling slightly numb to this newest shock. "What-"

Her voice choked up, and she closed her eyes as she took a deep breath to try and compose herself.

"What did he say?" she asked, hating the plaintive note she couldn't quite manage to get out of her voice.

"He looked like someone just smacked him," Chloe told her. "The idea is crazy, when you think about it."

"Yeah." Lois managed a weak laugh despite feeling like her heart was being ripped in two. "Completely crazy. I don't know what I was thinking."

'And if I say it enough times, I might even convince myself of that fact,' Lois thought, bitterly.

Chloe was still going on about something, probably more about the happy couple, and Lois couldn't take anymore.

"Chloe," she said, abruptly, cutting her cousin off mid-sentence, "I've got to go. I'm really tired, and I need to get some sleep."

"Sure, okay," Chloe agreed, blissfully unaware that she'd just shattered Lois's heart. "I'll talk to you later. Give Jimmy my love when he wakes up."

'You should be here to tell him, yourself,' Lois wanted to snap, but Chloe had already hung up the phone.

Feeling suddenly very numb, Lois snapped her own phone shut, and then gave into the sudden fit of anger and hurled it against the wall. Her phone broke into several pieces upon impact, and Lois felt a quick surge of satisfaction that was tempered when she realized just how much it was going to cost to replace the phone.

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them back with an effort. She was not going to waste any time crying over Clark Jerome Kent. If he didn't want her, then, damn it, she didn't want him, either.

Yeah, that didn't help.

"I can't even lie to myself," Lois said, ruefully, her voice filling the small room.

At the sound, Jimmy stirred, restlessly, and Lois caught his hand as it strayed toward the tube in his throat.

"You are not allowed to pull on that," Lois told him, firmly, even though she knew that Jimmy was still more than half out of it and couldn't understand a word she was saying.

Jimmy quieted down at the sound of her voice, slipping back into sleep, and Lois sighed as she tucked his hand back under the sheets.

"At least you seem happy to have me here," she said, quietly.

XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX

"Guess I can give these well-heeled puppies a rest."

Lois started to walk past Clark as a slow song started playing, but he caught her hand and stopped her from leaving, giving her a small, shy smile when she looked back at him curiously. Clark tipped his head toward the dance floor and Lois relented after a few seconds, allowing him to pull her out on the dance floor.

They started dancing with nearly a foot between them, but soon Clark pulled Lois close enough that his breath tickled her cheek. Lois shifted in his arms, seemingly unwilling to look anywhere but at his face. Clark angled his head down, trying to catch her eye, but she seemed to be deliberately avoiding his gaze.

Then, another one of the wedding guests bumped into Lois, sending her stumbling into Clark's embrace. He tightened his arms around her waist, keeping her on her feet, and he could see her swallow, nervously, as she finally looked up at him. To his surprise, the same heart-pounding fear that he was feeling was reflected in her eyes.

Lois stepped closer to Clark, placing a hand on his chest and a jolt of electricity ran through his body. Clark tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her even closer, and he bent his head down to hers. Lois tipped her head back, and Clark leaned down close, his lips almost brushing hers…

"Lois," Clark whispered, and then the tranquility of his dream was shattered by the shrill scream of the smoke alarm.

Still half asleep, Clark bolted out of his bed and out into the kitchen, which was filled with thick gray smoke. Clark zeroed in on the stove and grabbed the burning skillet off of the burner, dumping it in the sink and turning the cold water on full force. The steam that hissed loudly off the skillet only added to the smoke in the kitchen, and Clark sucked the smoke into his lungs, opening the window and blowing it out into the back yard.

He turned around with a wide smile, but it quickly fell off his face when he didn't find Lois like his sleep-addled brain was expecting. Instead, Lana stood in the middle of the kitchen, a sheepish look on her face and a spatula in one hand.

"I was trying not to wake you," she apologized, as Clark tried to wrap his brain around just what was going on.

Memories from the previous night came flooding back, and Clark remembered kissing Lana on the roof of the Daily Planet. Remembered inviting her back to the farm to sleep in the guest room when she told him she couldn't keep imposing on Chloe. Remembered sitting in front of the fireplace until early in the morning, talking until they both retired to their respective rooms.

He wondered just what the hell he'd been thinking.

"You looked so tired, I just wanted to let you sleep," Lana told him, while he stood there in shock. "I wanted to cook you breakfast, but I guess I turned the oven on too high."

"Lana," Clark started, but she talked right over him.

"Some of it might still be salvageable. I don't know what came over me; I'm usually a much better cook than this-"

"Lana, this was a mistake," Clark said, quickly, before he could lose his nerve.

"What, breakfast?" Lana asked, with a giggle. "It's not a pretty sight, I know, but-"

"This was all a mistake," Clark told her, firmly, not willing to let her distract him. "I think you should move to a hotel for the rest of your time in Metropolis."

Now it was Lana's turn to stare at him in shock.

"Where is this coming from, Clark?" she asked, confused. "What about last night?"

"Last night was a mistake," Clark stated, firmly.

He may not have remembered why last night happened the way it had, but he knew for sure it wasn't going to happen again.

"Clark," Lana repeated, crossing the kitchen to stand in front of him. "Clark, I don't understand."

"I don't really understand, myself," Clark admitted. "I just know that we never should have gotten back together. Even for a night."

"But – but you love me!" Lana protested, staring up at him with eyes that were suddenly filled with tears.

Looking down at her, Clark could literally feel his resolve weakening. He had loved Lana, once upon a time; would it really be so hard to fall in love with her, again?

His question went unanswered, though, when a distant explosion rocked the air and the ground suddenly shook, throwing both him and Lana to the ground. Clark scrambled back to his feet, riding out the shockwaves of a second explosion, and then sprinted out the door, speeding down the road to Metropolis, where the explosions had to have come from.

He reached the Daily Planet, and found the place in total chaos. People were pouring out of the doors leading out onto the street, screaming and panicking. Clark snagged the arm of the first passing person he could reach, and found himself looking at a frazzled, slightly frantic Ron Troupe.

"What happened?" he demanded, of the other reporter. "Who's been hurt?"

If Troupe thought his questions were strange he didn't question it, Instead, he just pointed up at the globe.

"Top floor," he gasped, his voice rasping painfully. "Your buddy Queen was meeting with a bunch of shareholders."

Clark nodded, shoving Troupe in the direction of a newly-arrived ambulance, and then sprinted into the building and up the stairs, arriving at the top floor in seconds. He ripped the already destroyed door the rest of the way off the hinges and stepped into the smoke-filled room.

Ten people were sprawled around the room, having been blown to different parts of the room by the explosions. Clark focused, and picking up on a faint heartbeat, zeroed in on the unconscious figure half-buried beneath the heavy oak table. Lifting the table off, Clark drew in a sharp breath as he saw Oliver lying on the floor, covered in blood and burns.

Clark eased Oliver into his arms, zipping down the stairs past a team of firefighters rushing up into the room. Back in the street, he carried Oliver over to a nearby ambulance, easing him onto a stretcher to the surprise of the medical techs in the ambulance.

"He was upstairs," Clark told them, as they moved immediately to help Oliver.

"Was there anyone else up there who'll be coming down?" one of the techs asked, while his partner hooked Oliver up to an oxygen mask.

Clark shook his head, regretfully, thinking of the lack of heartbeats he'd heard from the other occupants of the room.

The tech nodded in understanding. "We'll take care of him," he said, gesturing to Oliver. "You may have saved his life, getting him down here as fast as you did."

Clark just shook his head, again. "I didn't do enough," he told the confused tech.

Walking away from the ambulance, Clark could see Lana standing at the edge of the crowd, but he ignored her. He needed to figure out who had tried to kill Oliver and the Daily Planet's shareholders, and he couldn't do it if Lana was constantly nearby. Not when he still couldn't sort out his feelings for her. But first, he had a phone call to make.

Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, Clark dialed Lois's number, anxiously waiting for her to pick up. But, instead of the reassuring rings he was expecting, a cool, mechanical voice came over the line.

"The cellular customer you are trying to reach is out of service…"