Chapter 1

"Alright class, I think that is enough math for today. It is lunch time," Clark said as he walked toward the back of the schoolhouse. The children formed a line behind him, each carrying their lunch pales, as they talked amongst themselves about who had brought what.

Clark smiled as he walked outside to find Lana Lang sitting at a picnic table with two plates of food from the restaurant she ran with her Aunt Nell Potter.

"Hello children," Lana said standing up and smiling at the children. Lana did her best to hide her distaste for children, but she knew she was not fooling them. Whenever Clark spoke to the children they lit up and opened up to him, but when she spoke they answered respectfully with their heads down and then went back to what they were doing.

Clark could not help but notice how beautiful Lana looked in her soft pink dress. Her long hair was pulled up in a bun and she looked at him sweetly as he made his way toward the table.

"You are spoiling me Miss Lang," Clark said with a laugh as he joined Lana at the table they spent each lunch break at.

"You spoil me with your mother's apple pie at least once a week," Lana said with a smile. Clark and Lana had been friends their entire childhood, but over the past year there had been a significant shift in their relationship.

Clark grinned as he sat down across from Lana pushing his glasses back up on his nose. "Chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a biscuit. My favorite," Clark said rubbing his hands together.

"Are you going to the Fall Ball tomorrow night?" Lana asked Clark as she cut her chicken from the bone. Lana knew Clark was too scared of her Aunt Nell to ask her to the dance, but she wanted to make sure he would at least be there.

"Yes I am. My mom is running the dessert stand so I get to help her with that," Clark said. He wanted to ask Lana to go to the dance with him, but he knew that her Aunt Nell did not approve of the two of them being more than friends. Of all the women in Smallville why did his father have to break the heart of Nell Potter?

"Oh," Lana said. "Well, I guess I will have to come drag you from your duties for a dance." she giggled as she sipped her ice tea. Lana knew her aunt would be very displeased with her if she knew she was being so forward with any young man, but even more so that it was with a Kent.

"I will be so engrossed in my work I am not sure I will be able to make time for such things," Clark teased. He loved the dimples that formed in Lana's cheeks when she smiled.

~ .. ~

Lois nodded off for a moment until her head fell forward waking her up again. "How much further to Smallville?" Lois called as she stuck her head out of the coach.

"Ten minutes less than the last time you asked, lady," the driver yelled back.

Lois sighed and sat back with a deep sigh. She was ready for a comfortable seat and a good meal, followed by a warm bath.

"You see that farmhouse?" the man sitting across from Lois asked.

"Yes," Lois replied as she looked out her window at the yellow farm house the man was pointing at.

"Town is about 15 minutes beyond that house," he said.

"Thank you," Lois responded.

The man nodded and placed his hat over his head to block the sun out so he could try to get to sleep. Just as he did there was a shot fired nearby and the stage came to an immediate halt.

"What the hell!" the man yelled sitting up straight in his seat to look out the window.

"Everybody out," a man wearing an handkerchief over his face orders as he stuck a handgun in the window of the coach.

~ .. ~

Clark heard the gunshot in the distance and his ear perked up. He focused in to where the noise came from.

"Listen here buster…" an angry female voice said. "Nobody is taking anything from me. I don't care if you have a cannon aimed at me."

"Is something wrong, Clark?" Lana asked.

"No…I just…I forgot I need to pick something up from the general store for the afternoon lesson. Can you watch the kids while I go get it?" Clark asked.

"Well I…"

"Thanks I will be just a few minutes. Just let them play until I get back," Clark said as he rushed to the other side of the school building.

"Sure," Lana said as she turned to face the children.

A moment later Clark was outside town. He could see a young woman, obviously from the city, judging by her fancy attire yelling at man who had a gun to her face. Two other men were holding out all of the money from their pockets along with their pocket watches and guns for a second robber to take.

Clark swooped in and grabbed the robbers dropping the men's valuables on the ground. He tied the men up and sat them on the doorstep of the sheriff's office before anyone noticed he was around.

Clark knocked on the sheriff's door and then made his way to the general store to buy some candy.

A moment later Sheriff Kent stepped out of jail house to see the robbers tied up on his steps. "Thanks Son," he said under his breath with a proud smile as he urged the men to their feet and into the jail.

~ .. ~

"What was that?" Lois asked as the her hair blew in the breeze as the robbers disappeared before her eyes.

"You calls youself a reporter and you don't even know about the mysterious speedy hero," the man she had been riding with said.

"That is a mouthful obviously whoever came up with that name didn't have a journalistic bone in their body," Lois said. "Who is this hero?" she asked as she pulled out her notebook intrigued.

"No one knows," the man answered as the climbed back aboard the stage. "Mysterious saves started happenin' all over Smallville couple years ago. No one knows who's doin' it on account of he's so fast."

"So he could be a she?" Lois said as she wrote in her notebook.

"No way ma'am this guy is stronger than any man alive. No way it could be no woman"

"Well…man or woman one thing is for sure," Lois said with a twinkle in her eye.

"What's that?" the man asked.

"He is going to make my little paper famous when I find him and write his story."

"He's never showed his face. What makes you think you can make him come out the shadow's an talk to you?"

"My womanly charms will have him begging me to write his story," Lois smiled.

"Huh. No offense ma'am, but I'm not so sure you have any of them there charms."

Lois glared at her companion as the stagecoach pulled into town.

~ .. ~

"I am back," Clark said with a smile as he walked up behind Lana. He had a bag of candy in his hand.

"Candy? Candy was the thing you needed for your lesson plans. I had to sit with these…these," Lana stopped herself. She took a moment to regain her composure. She did not want Clark to know how upset she was with the children. "You left me with these little darlings to go get them candy," Lana smiled.

"Yes it is a reward for the kids that answer question correctly in our geography lesson this afternoon."

"Sound fun," Lana replied sweetly. "I should get back to the café. Nell probably needs my help with the lunch rush."

"Goodbye Lana," Clark said with a smile.

~ .. ~

"There you are," Nell said with a sweet smile as Lana walked back into the café. "Alexander Luthor is here. He just asked my permission to escort you to the Fall Ball," Nell whispered.

"I don't-"

"Don't you dare Lana Lang. You are not turning down an opportunity with a Luthor to wait around for a Kent," Nell said between clenched teeth. "Here is his lunch take it to him and for goodness sakes smile a little bit.

"Good afternoon Mr. Luthor," Lana said with a smile as she carried his tray to his table.

"Please call me Lex," Lex said with a smile. "Will you join me?"

"I just had my lunch," Lana said with a smile, but I would be glad to have a cup of tea while you enjoy your meal.

"I would be honored," Lex said gesturing to the seat across from him.

~ .. ~

Lois took a deep breath as she stepped off of the stagecoach. The driver sat her bags on the road next to her and hoped back aboard the stage and headed out of town. Lois saw the building that would house her paper right away. It was a little run down and needed a paint job, but it was nothing a little hard work couldn't fix.

Lois's father had already had her printing equipment sent in from Metropolis and she could hardly wait to get started, but first she needed to find the boarding house to get cleaned up.

Lois looked up one side of the street and found a doctor's office, the sheriff's office, a general store, and her newspaper office. She turned to see the other side of the street housed a barber's shop, and a saloon.

Lois decided to go to the sheriff's office. He could surely point her in the right direction. As she crossed the street a man standing outside the saloon hollered at her.

"Hey pretty lady. If you are lookin' for work. Im a hirin'"

"Not a chance," Lois said with a huff as she sped her pace up a bit.

Lois knocked on the Sheriff's door and waited a moment. When there was no answer she knocked harder and longer.

"Hold on," a man said as he opened the door amused.

"Sorry," Lois said.

"Are you the lady from the stage?" the Sheriff asked.

"Yes I am I-"

"These men here say they would have gotten away if you had of just gave them what they wanted."

"Possibly, but that is not why I am here. I-"

"Didn't you have a Daddy that taught you if a man has a gun to your head you do what he says?" the Sheriff asked.

"My father is a general in the United States Army so guns do not scare me. Those men are just lucky Mr. Speedy Pants showed up to take care of them. I was seconds from putting my heal in their throats," Lois said raising her skirt to show off the pointed heals of her boots beneath it.

"Mr. Speedy Pants," Jonathon Kent said amused.

"Yeah you know that guy that runs around saving everyone so fast they never see him," Lois said knowingly.

"Yes I know who you are referring to. I have just never heard anyone call him that before."

"Well I am not entirely convinced he is a he so maybe I should call him or her Mr. or Miss Speedy pants…of course it could be a married woman so it could be Mrs. Speedy Pants. I will-"

"Ma'am…What did you want?" Jonathon asked wandering where a woman learned to talk so fast. He was quite enjoying the change. The young ladies in Smallville were nothing like her. She did however, remind him of a young woman he had met in Metropolis many years earlier. Her name was Martha.

"I was hoping you could give me directions to the boarding house. I am Lois Lane. I am starting a news paper down the road there and I need to get freshened up and get something to eat before I get to work."

"Ah yes your father is the one who bought that building. Didn't they tell you what that building used to be?" Jonathon asked.

"No," Lois said getting a little annoyed. Why did small town people always have to ask a thousand questions? That was her job.

"The boarding house."

"Okay great…so where did the boarding house move to?" Lois asked.

"It didn't. Mrs. Temper died and nobody wanted to run it."

"So there is no boarding house?" Lois asked. That was a bit of a set back. She did not really have money for a hotel room, but it would work until she could have her bed sent from Metropolis. Then she would sleep in her office. "Where is the hotel."

Jonathon started laughing. "Hotel. That is funny. Miss Lane we do not have a hotel."

"So where do people stay when they visit Smallville?" Lois asked.

"Nobody visits Smallville. You either are born here, have family here, or you don't come here. I tell you what. You can come stay at my farm," Jonathon offered.

Lois remembered the Saloon owners offering of a job and shuttered. "I am not that kind of girl"

"I am not that kind of man. You can stay with me and my family until you figure things out," Jonathon offered.

"Thank you," Lois said.

"I will take you home and introduce you to my wife. It is about time for a lunch break anyway."