It was quiet. It was almost always quiet in Smallville, a fact that usually annoyed Lois, but today she found comfort in it. And most of all it made her feel closer to Clark being in the town he grew up in, in a way that didn't distress her like the empty apartment did.

Then again as she passed some of the people who'd been at the service, they would smile with recognition and many of them would ask how she was doing and that made her feel like screaming. Instead, she would smile and say she was just fine. What did they want to know? That she felt dead inside? That everyday was a struggle? People never really wanted to know that even with all their small-town friendliness.

Martha was going to meet her in front of the courthouse with her truck as main street was just a short walk from the small airport. She greeted Lois with a hug and it felt nice even though she hadn't come from a hugging sort of family.

She drove them straight to the graveyard and it was just how Martha had said. The coffin was laying open and the dirt was thrown everywhere, leaving a gaping, yawning hole.

The tears hit hard, tears of anger and sadness mixed together, but Lois didn't feel bad about crying in front of Martha, a woman strong in her own right, whose motherly nature made it seem okay to cry, right even. She was also perhaps the only person on the planet who could fully understand what she was going through. "Who could be so cruel and then stupid to leave it like this where we'd have no choice but to notice?"

"I don't know," she answered, her strangled voice letting Lois know she was weeping too.

"What have the police said?"

"The sheriff's theory is Clark had a personal effect that appealed to someone at the funeral, but the grave robber was about to get caught, so he or she took the whole body with them and buried it somewhere else. He said he'd look for the culprit, but there's not much interest in finding someone who's already dead and there wasn't much to go on. He'll likely end up having the coffin buried again and let the case drop. And of course I couldn't tell him differently, couldn't tell him the real reason someone would be interested in Clark's body."

"And I can think of only 5 living people who knew Clark's secret: you, me, Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and Lex Luthor. Lex has gone off the deep end. No one would take him seriously if he revealed his identity and he has nothing to gain now if he did. I don't know Diana very well, but I know her enough to think she wouldn't do it."

"So you think Bruce did it?"

"I want to believe he didn't. He's stopped branding people, he respects Clark's sacrifice, but he had some strong paranoia. Maybe he thinks there'll be more Kryptonian attacks in the future and he wants to know everything that can be known about them. Maybe he's afraid someone will find his body and create another Doomsday, I don't know. But he's where I'm going to start. I will get to the root of this. I promise."

"I know you will."

She stared momentarily at the surrounding headstones. Most of them marked Kent. Generations of Kents were buried here. Only one was missing. "Does this town have a hotel?"

"It doesn't and even if it did, you'd still be staying with me. I know you were never officially my daughter-in-law, but you would have been. To my mind that makes you family and no family of mine's going to stay in a hotel."

"Yes, ma'am," she said with a smile.

sss

Lois was still laying in Clark's bed the next morning. Not sleeping. She rarely slept anymore it seemed like.

"You want to come to church with me?" Martha asked.

She'd forgotten it was Sunday. Her eyes went to the cross that often hung around Martha's neck. She suspected her faith was keeping her going like work was keeping Lois going. "I've got a plane to catch at 10:30." And she couldn't handle being in the sanctuary where Clark's body had been laid out. The smallest bit of light had steamed through the stained glass window onto his body that day, making him look like some kind of saint before the day had completely clouded over. The image was still strong in her mind and she would break up to go back and see the inside of that church again.

"Just lock the house up when you leave if you remember to. I left you some breakfast. Take care of yourself, honey," she said, giving her a quick hug.

"You too, Mrs. Kent." But before the older woman had made it out the door, she said, "Do you know some still worship him? I saw an article about it online. The Church of Superman, they call it. 5 churches and growing. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."

Martha shook her head. "Clark would have hated that. He did hate that. I wish he were here to set them straight. I just wish he were here." She left on that sad note.

She wondered what the Church of Superman would think to know their savior had been raised a Methodist. In fact, though he hadn't attended church every Sunday by any means, he had talked her into going to a church service on Christmas and Easter. And she'd caught him praying before a meal more than once.

He'd never claimed to be a god and hadn't wanted to be. He hadn't even really wanted to be seen as a being from another planet though he accepted that true enough mantle to keep people from looking for an alter ego. He'd really just wanted to be seen as a man, who was trying his best to help people.

She stared up at the planets and stars on his ceiling. Had he always suspected his alien origins? No, she was fully positive Clark was just a genuine nerd and she loved him for it.

She smiled as she remembered how he had asked to move in with her.

"I've been thinking," he'd said over dinner after they'd been going out for about 9 months, "that you have a tendency to find yourself in some pretty dangerous situations."

She shrugged. "Comes with investigative journaling, I guess. But as much as I always appreciate your help, most times I could have gotten out of the situation on my own. Don't forget I was an investigate reporter long before you came to Metropolis."

"I know, but I think your name being connected with Superman's has made those situations go up and I think someone should keep an eye on you."

From almost any other person, that would've made her mad, but coming from Clark she thought it was sweet. She supposed that was a side effect of being in love. "You have anyone in mind for the job?" she asked with a trace of humor.

"Yeah, me. I was thinking that we spend so much time together what with working together and spending our evenings going on dates that living together wouldn't be a huge leap. It'd be more cost effective, convenient, and safer."

She'd never lived together with anyone before. That level of commitment intimidated her. No, it didn't mean they'd walk down the aisle by any stretch of the imagination, but it did mean taking a step in that general direction. Heck, she'd never even been in a relationship that long before and she'd been afraid of ruining a good thing. But when he took her hand in his and smiled his gorgeous smile, she'd found the courage to say yes.

And his finding out she was grouchy in the mornings until she had her coffee, that she snored, that her housekeeping and cooking skills weren't up to snuff hadn't sent him running for the hills. And he was just perfect. She laughed quietly at that thought in her mind because she knew full well he hadn't been. He'd had a tendency to mope, he'd been compulsive about neatness and grammar, and he often let people take advantage of him because he was too nice. They'd had their fair share of arguments because of some of their differences, but it had never dimmed their love.

She twisted the diamond ring she still wore on her finger. He'd never gotten to ask her to marry him. And she often wondered how he would have proposed. Would he have gotten down on one knee, would he have asked her with the Metropolis skyline below them, would he have hidden the ring in a dessert? And had he wondered what she would have said? She would have said yes, a resounding yes.

In fact, if she could turn back the clock, she wouldn't have moved in together with him at all. She would have married him. It's what her traditional, Midwestern values boyfriend had wanted in the first place though he hadn't voiced it, knowing she needed time to come around. As much as she'd loved him, she'd still held a part of herself back in fear they couldn't make it as a couple. A fear he'd never shared. Their love had been one thing he'd never doubted.

She brought the ring over her heart. No, she couldn't change the past, but she could bring him back where he belonged, beside his father in his family's cemetery.