"You're still up?" Clark asks as he breezes into the bedroom.

"I told you I would be."

"But it's late."

I glance up at the clock.

"No, it's early. I'm gonna go put on a pot of coffee," I tell him while getting up off of the bed.

"You don't drink coffee anymore."

'I know that.'

"No; but I like the smell," I say as I'm walking past him.

"I've got a better idea," he says before grabbing my hand and leading me over to the bed.

"Like what?" I smile.

My smile quickly turns into a frown when he tucks me in and places a kiss on my forehead.

This is not what I had in mind.

"Sleep," He commands. "I'll bring your breakfast up in a little while."

"What if I don't want to sleep?" I nearly yawn, but fight it back.

'Jeez Sullivan, just prove his point why don't you?'

"What do you want?" He smiles; giving me the feeling that I didn't hide the yawn as well as I thought I did.

"Stay and talk with me," I plead. "We haven't really talked in a long time."

"That's because you don't want to talk."

'Here we go again.' I think to myself and roll my eyes.

I should've just kept my mouth shut.

"Clark,"-

"When you want to talk, we'll talk," he cuts me off.

"So you're saying you don't want to talk to me until I tell you my secret?

He shrugs.

"That's not fair," I exclaim as if I haven't learned over and over again how unfair life truly can be. "I didn't do that to you when you wouldn't tell me yours."

"That was different. I was protecting you."

"What if this isn't so different?"

He wrinkles his eyebrows.

"What if I'm protecting you?" I finish.

'I said 'what if'' I think to myself so that I can convince me that I'm not lying.

And I'm not. Sort of. In a way, I am protecting Clark; albeit from no one other than himself, but it still counts.

"I don't need you to protect me. I need you to trust me," he says gently before sitting down beside me and taking both of my hands in his. "

Chloe, think really hard, and tell me the truth."

He makes sure he's staring me straight in the eyes as he asks for the truth.

Is there any chance, even a small one, that keeping this secret from me could hurt you or our baby?"

"I"-

"Don't answer yet. Just think about it; think long and hard, and then answer."

I sigh and close my eyes.

I don't know. I've been able to breathe easy because of Lex's current state of health, and the fact that it's now being induced by Lana.

She didn't mean for me to find out; I just walked in on her tampering with his I.V. one day and made her tell me what she was doing. And when I found out she was keeping him under, she didn't have to tell me once, let alone twice, to keep my mouth shut. Let the bastard sleep forever is what I say.

He kidnapped me, held me for a week, then let me go. I doubt he intended for me to live because he planted a bomb in my chest. Obviously, I survived. And then…nothing.

He just left me alone, which is the part that has me worried even though he probably won't be waking up soon thanks to his fiancé.

It's probably why I'm still having these damn nightmares.

I'm still afraid.

"Chloe?"

Damn. The answer to his question is a firm yes.

I shouldn't have kept this from him.

I hate it when he's right. But I still wish I didn't have to tell him. He's gonna be mad at me for months.

I get my wish as the smell of coffee makes its way upstairs and churns my stomach. I cover my mouth, run to the bathroom and empty my already empty stomach.

"Chloe?"

I don't even have the energy to shoo him away; much less answer him.

Minutes pass and I'm still going strong. It makes me panic. Pretty soon there won't be anything left in my body to up-chuck.

"Chloe!"

I take that back.

"That's blood!"

He doesn't have to tell me that. I already know.

"Coffee," I gasp.

"Is it making you sick or do you need some," he asks without missing a beat.

"Sick."

Half a minute later, I feel perfectly fine. I take a few more seconds to catch my breath and stand, only to have Clark sit me back down.

"Easy Chloe, just a wait a few okay?"

"My phone"-

"I'll get it."

When he leaves, I get up and rinse my mouth out. If I didn't do it soon, I was going to vomit again.

Through the mirror, I can see him walking back in.

He's frowning down at my phone.

'Uh-oh.'

"Why did Lana text 'are you okay?' just now?"

"Text her back and tell her I'm fine," I shrug.

He doesn't do it; just stares at me via the mirror because I haven't turned around yet.

Apparently, he's unsatisfied by that answer.

I turn around and make a grab for the phone. If I don't text her back, she'll probably come over.

Clark moves my phone out of my reach and begins to look through it. I assume he's checking the history. I should've deleted the messages, but I just never got around to it.

I can see the exact moment he puts it all together.

"How does she know to message you every time something like this happens?"

"Clark, I need to message her back," I ignore his question.

I have every intention of telling him what I know; but first I need to let Lana I'm okay before she starts to freak out.

"It has something to do with your secret, doesn't it?"

"Chloe," Lois opens the door without knocking and hands me her phone. "Your girlfriend wants to talk to you."

I quickly take the phone before Clark can snatch it away.

"How'd she get my number anyway?" Lois asks.

"Lana?" I say instead, choosing to ignore my cousin.

"Chloe, I've been"-

"I'm fine," I interrupt before she can say anything I don't want Clark to overhear just yet. "Clark's taking care of me."

"Okay," She says taking the hint; but before I can tell her 'bye' and hang up, Clark takes the phone from me and walks out of the bathroom.

"So," Lois says.

I groan. I'm not really in the mood to hear dirty jokes about me and Lana.

"You're gonna have to start giving me money."

"Why?" I wrinkle my brows at her.

"Because, now I have to go out to get my morning coffee, as opposed to getting it for free here at home."

"Okaaay," I roll my eyes at her and make an attempt to walk past her. She steps in front of me blocking my path, and holds her hand out.

"Now?" I question. I didn't know she was serious; which was really dumb. When is Lois not serious about her coffee?

She nods her head; seriously.

"Fine," I relent "But you're gonna have to move because I don't have any money on me right now."

She steps aside, and follows me into the bedroom. She's so close she actually steps on my heels. Twice.

I fish the money out of my purse quickly and hand it to her; but when she tries to take it, I hold onto it tightly. Not because I'm teasing her, but because Clark just walked in. And he looks…mad.

'What the hell did Lana tell him?'

"Chloe, give it to me," Lois tugs on the money, grabbing my attention.

"Oh, sorry," I mutter and let go. Then I sit down on the bed. Might as well be comfortable when he kills me.

She doesn't even acknowledge my apology as she rushes past Clark, then backtracks.

"Phone," she commands.

He hands it over without looking at her.

She doesn't even notice, her sole focus is on coffee; and she doesn't even say goodbye as she rushes out of the door.

Clark barely waits a second later to begin.

"Lana says she's twelve weeks pregnant; same as you," he states, but I can tell it's a question so I nod my head.

"She said the doctor confirmed it."

Again, I nod my head.

"Not nine weeks or less," he says. Another statement that sounds more like a question.

I hesitate, not knowing where he's going with this; and not sure I should answer at all. It sounds like a trick question to me.

"Chloe?"

I answer truthfully with a negative shake of my head.

He kneels down before me and places both of his hands on my thighs; more so to keep me still than as an intimate gesture.

"That's impossible." He tells me.

I raise my eyebrows at him. It almost sounds as if he's accusing me of something. I just don't know what it could possibly be.

"Just before I found out you were pregnant, three weeks pregnant, Lana fell. I x-rayed her to make sure she was okay. She wasn't pregnant then."

My eyes widen and before I can fully process that information, Clark continues with a, "but you already knew that didn't you?"

I shake my head "no", but he obviously doesn't believe me.

"Tell me what's going on," he commands.

Tell him what's going on? I barely know what's going on anymore. What the hell does he mean Lana wasn't pregnant before? How is that even po- I pause mid-thought as an idea comes to me. An extremely heinous idea.

"Chloe?"

I ignore him and continue to brainstorm.

'Lana's baby is affected by kryptonite; which means she's his still; but'-

I seriously hope what I think happened didn't. I liked it better when I thought Lana got pregnant by Clark the old fashion way.

"What did you just say?" Clark asks while tightening his grip on my thighs. If it weren't for that, I probably wouldn't have heard him; much less acknowledged him. I'm still pretty much in shock; though I shouldn't be. Nothing Lex does should shock me anymore.

"Chloe, answer me."

"What?" I start.

"You said," he swallows a few times before continuing. "You said Lana's baby is affected by kryptonite."

'shit'

I did not mean to say that out loud.

"Did I?" I ask. He gives me 'the look' and I sigh. I knew that wasn't going to work.

I take a deep breath and remove his hands from my thighs. Should he, no, when he gets angry, I don't need him to tighten his grip on me anymore than it is now. I like being able to walk.

He places them on the bed, on either side of me.

They're still too close.

"I know where I was when I was taken," I say when I finally get the nerve.

He blinks at me. I don't think he expected anything quite like that.

"And who took me," I finish slowly, nervously watching his hands as they clench at the sheets tightly.

"Tell me," he commands through clenched teeth.

"But"-

"No buts Chloe." He places a gentle hand on my stomach; on his baby. "Please."

I shrug my shoulders; trying to mentally trick myself into thinking that I don't care what Clark's going to do to Lana's fiancé when I tell him; trying to mentally trick myself into thinking Lex deserves whatever Clark's going to do to him.

"Chloe," Clark warns.

"It was Lex," I finally answer with a resigned sigh. "Lana showed me where he kept us."

"Us?"

"He took us both," I admit.

"And gave Lana's baby kryptonian DNA," Clark assumes.

"I don't think so Clark. I think…"

"What?"

"I think she's carrying our child. Our other child," I clarify for him.

"Two?" he gaps at me. "Twins? You were…"

I watch his entire persona change, and I can literally feel the anger radiating from his skin.

Then, he's gone. Just like that.

I take back what I thought earlier. No one deserves whatever Clark is going to do to Lex.

I almost pick up my phone to warn Lana, but really; what good would it do?

He's probably already there.

~~{(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)(o)}~~

A/N: next post will be Thursday, June 17th