Hi everyone, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Linda
oOo
Chapter 4
Lana Lang had waited patiently for the past to be undone. Years ago, after passing on the memories to herself, she truly had intended to reverse the spell to reset the past and consequently merge Smallville and her husband back together. But while looking at and touching all the bottles and vials that could make most anything happen, she'd thought that if only she'd been honest with Clark right from the beginning, her husband never would have turned from her.
That germ of an idea had grown and flourished, until that was what she decided to do; go back again, but this time tell both her younger self and Clark everything. Hold back nothing, not her marriage to Lex, his love for Lois in the future, his life as Superman, and finally their marriage and its subsequent failure. She'd let him know that she wouldn't ever hold him back from being Superman, would let him know how sorry she was for doing it previously, and then explain that if he married young Lana, his life would change but only because he'd be with her instead of Lois.
The choice would be his, this time he would be in control of his destiny, and should he decide that he couldn't or didn't want to marry her younger self knowing all of the facts, she would have accepted his decision. She'd be hurt, devastated, but would also finally admit defeat. Afterwards she'd return to her time, reverse the spell merging the two men back together, and then just wait for Clark to one day get over Lois in his own time, without any help from her. Even if he turned away, she would have tried, but not even trying had seemed so defeatist. Unfortunately when she did the spell and found that she'd arrived on the day of the meteor shower, her plan of action changed, and that had been the beginning of the end.
Her arrival on that day had been her first mistake; she'd compounded it further by trying to get rid of her nemesis. Clark's words to her that not even separation could stop him from loving Lois had pounded in her head, and ripped through her heart until she couldn't see straight. She'd thought that if only Lois was out of the picture, then his words would never be true; after all how could anyone love a dead woman?
Since the meteor shower happened long before she was engaged to Lex, and subsequently the time when Lois was unconscious in the Medical Centre, she'd erroneously thought that she was home free. It only seemed logical that the men would be merged back together, and the Clark that was left wouldn't have any memories of the former timelines, or of his love for Lois. How could he dream about a relationship with Lois, if it had never happened in the first place?
If she had just waited until her younger self was alone recovering in the Medical Centre, she could have talked to her, told her everything about Clark, then when he broke up with her, she would have understood why. That would have stopped her from taking up with Lex, and her break up with Clark would only have been for a short duration before they were back together again. He would have seen that she loved him enough to wait for him, and without the spectre of Lex between them, his feelings for her wouldn't have died, and fixed on Lois instead.
But rather than doing nothing, just turning around and going back to her own time, or waiting to talk to her younger self alone, she'd acted rashly, and subsequently messed up so badly, that it was far too late to try and rectify anything once the damage was done.
When she arrived in the past and found it was graduation day, she remembered that despite all the stress and frights that she'd had one after another, beginning with the death of Genevieve Teague the night before, and culminating in angering the Kryptonians when they thought that she'd tried to trick them, this was the day her heart finally found a home with Clark Kent, and his had found one with her. Lois by comparison had been less than nothing to him. So if the woman died during the meteor shower, she would just be another casualty and although Clark would be sorry, he wouldn't miss her, and that thought had spurred her into action.
Knowing that very soon the only thing on everyone's mind would be the meteor shower, and not a woman who looked somewhat familiar, she hitched a ride to town and waited for the chance to sneak into the Talon to steal a headscarf and a pair of sunglasses. After that she just had to wait for the panic to start with the meteor shower, and once it did appropriating a car from Mr Jenkins hire place while all the kerfuffle that was going on was child's play. The only dicey part was ensuring that Clark, his parents, Chloe or Lois didn't see her, but since she was driving an unfamiliar car, not to mention wearing the headscarf and the sunglasses, she managed to go undetected and was easily able to stay well under everyone's radar while keeping the other woman in her sights at all times.
After driving Lois off the road and down into a steep gully, she'd driven like a bat out of hell to pick her younger self up so that she could tell her about Clark and warn her not to let him push her away; but in her haste took a corner too fast and likewise ran off the road herself. That was the end of her grand plan, the car was a wreck, and she was in no condition to be hurrying. By the time she actually made it to the hospital, Mr Kent was dead and Clark had already left for the Luthor mansion to confront the visitors.
She hadn't even stopped to think about that day, to remember it was Lois who'd saved Mr Kent previously. While she was recuperating in the Medical Centre after everything was over, she and Clark had talked about what happened but only in passing. At the time they'd both just been grateful that neither had been hurt unduly, then he'd sweetly brought the conversation around to their declarations of love earlier in the day, and she had been more than willing to follow his lead.
That piece of forgetfulness had cost her everything. She had been so focused on just getting rid of Lois that she hadn't even thought about the woman being there to save Mr Kent. By the time she arrived at the hospital her younger self was with Clark at the mansion, and there would be no opportunity to speak to her privately once he brought her to the Medical Centre. First she'd be surrounded by the nursing staff, then afterwards Chloe and later Clark.
Besides, what could she tell her? That jealousy had caused her to be narrow-minded and hasty, that she might have ruined her life? There was nothing she could tell her younger self that she would understand then, and wouldn't discover one day when the memory of everything that happened came back to her.
She'd returned to her time knowing that her actions had changed everything again, but was unaware of what the consequences would be. By then it was far too late to reverse the spell merging the men back together. The only thing she could do was pass the memory of what she'd done onto herself in the hope that the aftermath wouldn't be too bad, and pray that she could somehow find a way to rectify everything if it was.
So she'd climbed into bed, clasped Clark's wedding ring tight in her hand and slept. When she woke up, everything was changed, and she discovered just how bad things had become after that day.
When she was 18 she didn't know why Clark insisted on taking the blame for his father's death onto his own shoulders, why he turned her away, or why he'd tried to push her and Chloe out of his life, but as she grew older, and the memories of the past timelines, and the knowledge of his origins was revealed to her, she understood at last.
As she hadn't spoken to her younger self that day, and the memories of her former timelines hadn't started to leak through, at the time she didn't know the why of anything. So when Clark became reticent and insisted on pushing her away, she didn't understand why. Losing his father, Lois and Chloe must have hurt, but his pushing her away hurt as well. So she'd pushed back hoping that would be enough to bring him to her as it had in the past, but instead of trying to make amends, he hadn't cared. Not wanting to lose him before they'd even had a chance to be together, she'd gone to him to make peace, she'd sought him out many times, and then one day she'd gone to the Kent farm only to be told that Clark was gone. He'd left Smallville and hadn't even cared enough to tell her.
Finally deciding that she was better off without him, she'd packed her things and went to France. Clark's indifference, his callousness had hurt. She'd put herself out there for him time and again, had made herself vulnerable to him, had tried to be there for him, had shown him how much she cared for six solid months, but now she'd had enough. If he could cut her out of his life with so little regard, then she could do the same to him.
She hardened her heart against him for almost two years, and then the memories of her life when she married Lex, and of when she married Clark starting coming back to her. With each new revelation she remembered one thing after another after another, until the picture was complete, and she had the whole puzzle. She'd lost Clark not because he didn't care, but because he couldn't. She understood then that his father's death at the hands of the aliens had hurt him unbearably, and then she was finally able to appreciate just how consumed with guilt he must have felt even though he wasn't responsible. Lois dying shortly afterwards, followed by Chloe leaving town a week later had hit him hard again and again when he was already so low, and by then he had nothing left to give to her.
For so long she'd thought that Clark's declaration of love on the day of the meteor shower had been a lie, but with her memories she knew just how wrong she'd been. He had loved her, and they would have been together, but she'd lost him through her own actions.
By preventing Lois from being there to save Mr Kent, the subsequent guilt of his father's murder had caused Clark to shut down, close himself off, and refuse to let anyone close; including her.
She'd cried bitterly over that. She'd been so fiercely jealous of her husband's love for Lois, of Smallville's love for the woman when he was engaged to her, that she'd acted impulsively, and hurt Clark in a way that couldn't be repaired. The only thing she'd accomplished was to make the man she loved blame himself for his father's murder, when he was never at fault.
The only positive out of the whole mess, was that she had the time to think about her actions, the past timelines and most importantly to get a better understanding of the spell itself. Since she knew the words by heart, she was able to record it, and to spend time studying it, and this was exactly what she did.
The first time she'd used the spell, she'd had some magical ability, and although she hadn't understood all the ramifications of the spell, she'd used it in desperation when Clark told her goodbye. The second time she'd had no magical ability, no understanding but had once again used the spell in the hopes of finding salvation in Clark's arms through confession. This time she'd had years to decipher the spell; every sentence, nuance, and word was examined from all angles in the hope that she could somehow put right, what she'd done wrong before.
So many times she'd been tempted to just use the spell to go back and stop herself from running Lois off the road on the day of the meteor shower, but ultimately she hadn't been willing to take the chance of possibly making things even worse. So she'd kept on doggedly analysing the spell, and was grateful that for once she hadn't acted without forethought.
On the day when she finally made a breakthrough, and understood that her actions had created a new timeline, but hadn't completely extinguished the old, she'd felt like it was the first time in years that she was able to breathe deeply. Although the world was changed, Smallville and Clark would still exist. Since Smallville was the original Clark he wouldn't disappear, her husband was a part of him so he wouldn't either, and now there would be a third Clark as well.
Her husband and his twin had the magic book, Clark had told her they had an expert looking through it, and further that they were going to reverse the spell without her aid if need be. So when they found it, and she knew they wouldn't give up until they did, they would find not only how to reverse the spell, but how to make it work in the first place. And one thing she knew without doubt was that her husband and his twin would someday arrive, and they'd know that somehow Lois not being there to stop his dad's murder, had led in turn to her own death. However, unlike the last time, this time she wasn't afraid. This time she wanted the men to come. When they arrived and discovered the changes in this timeline, they would strive to rectify it by going back to the past to sort out the mess that she'd mistakenly created.
They would go back to save Lois, to save their dad because they'd know that would be the only way to undo everything. So she'd waited patiently while the years had passed for the timeline to be reset, and she was ready.
Since the time between her marriage to Clark until when Smallville arrived in their timeline was 8 years, and the meteor shower had been a little more than a year before that, she'd had an approximate timeframe for when the men should arrive.
When the timeline was reset, the third Clark would disappear, and she would once again be back in the house that she'd shared with her husband ready to use the spell. However, this time she had an edge. As she'd had years to perfect everything, she'd taken measures so the knowledge of how she'd previously ended up in the wrong time, and what she had to do to ensure the circle of failure was finally broken, was passed onto herself. No matter how fast the men were, they wouldn't be fast enough to stop her, because she was ready. She'd been ready for years, and the next time she would do exactly as she'd planned, as the spell demanded if it was to work successfully; no deviations.
She would go to the past, to the time when Lois was in the medical centre, and this time she would tell young Lana and Clark everything.
If he still loved her younger self afterwards, still wanted to build a life with her regardless of all the mistakes she'd made for love, and with the full knowledge that his future would be with her instead of Lois then ALL the timelines would come back into alignment. Clark and Smallville would be merged back together, and the Clark that was left would be the only one that existed. He would know that her love was true, that all her trust was in him, and consequently his love for her wouldn't waver or shift to Lois because of deception on her part.
If he turned her younger self away, didn't want to take the chance of upsetting the future, she would let him go. She would finally give up, because then she would at last accept that it wasn't Lois, Lex, magic or anything else that had come between them, but simply a lack of love.
It was duplicity that had caused her downfall time and again, it was deceit that had cost her everything, but it was the truth that was going to set her free one way or another, and come what may, she was ready for it.
oOo
2006
When the world stilled the men opened their eyes and looked around, but couldn't see that anything was different. The clearing they'd made was gone, but otherwise the air around them was calm and still.
Zooming his vision around, Smallville swept the farmhouse and barn, the outlying fields and found all empty. "Ok, no one's in the house or barn, and since we first need to ensure that we're in the right time, let's go find out."
They zipped to the house, CK picked up the Daily Planet, and the local Smallville rag, gave both a quick look through and nodded "Both papers have the right date."
Smallville scooted upstairs, before zipping back to the kitchen "The calendar's also showing the right date so we're good."
Clark looked at the clock "According to the time we've still got about 30 minutes before the shower hits."
Taking seats at the island the men looked around "So what now?"
"Now we wait, it'll take us less than a minute to get to the school but we need to discuss what we're gonna do."
"I thought we already decided that?" CK asked frowning.
"We have but..." Shifting his gaze to his other brother Smallville posed a suggestion "Clark, I told you what J'onn said; that Lana was going to pass the memories of being married to you onto herself so that she wouldn't try again right?"
"Yeah." He replied cynically.
"Ok, so she must have done that before going to the past to create this timeline, correct?" He nodded and shrugged signifying agreement "So when this timeline is reset, we'll once again be waiting in the fortress for her to reverse the spell. But I don't think we should wait for her to do it. Even if we don't remember that you were married to her, she'll remember it. And since J'onn told us that Lana decided her only recourse was to wait for us to get over Lois, or we'd never realise that she was the one; hopefully that will be enough to stop her from trying again."
"Do you think it will; it wasn't enough when she tried this time." Clark asked hesitantly.
"I know but what'd you wanna bet that she's been kicking herself for stuffing up so badly, that she's partially responsible for dad being dead, and CK subsequently not having time for her at all." He lifted his hands then dropped them helplessly "With luck she'll figure out that magic isn't working for her and give up. But either way, I don't want to leave it up to her to reverse it, because I just don't trust her."
Clark nodded and rolled his eyes "Well I'm with you on that, she hasn't given us any reason to trust her."
"No she hasn't, but then she never did." Smallville's lips curved mockingly "We're like living breathing lie detectors. We know when someone's lying by listening to their pulse, their heartbeat, the tone in their voice, etc correct?" Both men nodded and gave wry smiles "Right; well I'm sure you both remember that the one person we never pointed our finger at for any reason, even when she was accusing us of being dishonest and everything else besides, was Lana. We were far too busy thinking with our dicks to care that she was a two-faced, deceitful bitch. She never gave us any reason to trust her, we just excused everything she did or said because we wanted to get into her pants and stay there."
"At least we didn't trust her so much that we told her about ourselves." CK added relieved.
"No, even when I told her about myself so that she'd marry me, it wasn't because I trusted her, it was because I was desperate not to lose her; there's a big difference." Smallville pointed out dryly, before cheering up lightly "Mind you, when Lana was engaged to Lex and I kidnapped her from the engagement party, when I all but threw myself at her feet time and again, and the final indignity of when I begged her to take me back, I didn't tell her jack shit about myself. Guess I wasn't so desperate after all, huh?" He finished with glee.
"Yeah well congratulations and be grateful that she turned you down..." Clark put in with a soft grunt "...I'm the poor schmuck that she married, and then proceeded to gripe at morning, noon and night until I learnt to ignore her for my own sanity."
The men's lips twitched at the barely hidden moan in his voice; clearing his throat Smallville got back on track "Right well anyway, getting back to the point, I just don't think we should leave the reversal of the spell up to her; we should do it. Even if she doesn't remember this timeline, she'll remember the one where she was married to you, but either way hopefully the memories of all the ways in which she's fucked up will be enough to get her to give up once and for all."
Clark nodded "Yeah, I agree."
"Just a question..." CK waved his hand gaining both their attention "...Once this timeline is reversed, and I'm merged back with you or...you and Clark respectively; are we going to remember what she did this time, so that we don't wait trustingly for Lana to do the reversal to take us back to the original timeline?" He asked politely. When his brothers just looked at him, his lips crooked up at the corners "Just a question."
"I really hate you CK." Smallville put in with a light laugh.
Clark smiled "I hate him more."
He grinned and shook his head "I didn't think so."
"Ok, then let's try and remember it..." At the disbelief on their faces, Smallville swore loud and long "For god's sakes guys, we're aliens. We're from an advanced race, we have all sorts of knowledge and blah, blah; surely one of us can try and remember it."
"Look we've still got at least 15 minutes before we have to leave right?" CK asked soberly. The two men nodded in unison "Ok, so let's fly to Metropolis, buy a pair of red shoes each, and then we can tap our heels three times and say, 'there's no place like home.' I'm sure that will be as effective as our technologically advanced brains." He finished tongue in cheek.
Smallville grinned in appreciation "I really, really hate you."
Clark snorted out a laugh and after a shared burst of laughter the men sobered, looked at their watches and sighed.
"Now I've got a question, how are we going to do this?" Clark put in with a light frown. At the questioning looks from the two, he held out his hand "People are going to be too busy running to pay us any attention. Even the ones who are looking up at the sky won't be able to see us if we fly, because we can move fast enough that they'll just think we're part of the meteor shower. So should we follow Lois around by flying, or on foot?"
"Both; one of us can fly, the other two on foot" CK replied then held up his hand "I'll fly."
The other two nodded.
"What'd we do about Lana?" Smallville asked and received shrugs in return. He blew out a soft breath "Ok, we don't know if after stopping Lois from running off the road, time will reset straight away or take a little time right?" The men nodded "So if it doesn't, we'll make sure Lo gets to the farm to help mom and dad and is there at the Medical Centre, and we'll just have to forget about Lana. We can't do anything with her because once the timeline is reset, we'll be back in the fortress and she'll be back at her house anyway. We just have to hope that by passing the memories of this timeline onto herself, that she doesn't try again."
"Do you really think that she has passed the memories of this time on?"
"Oh yeah, of that I'm positive." Smallville replied swiftly.
"And if it's not enough to stop her from trying again?" Clark asked pointedly.
"We'll worry about that if or when it happens." CK replied and the two men agreed. After a quick look at his watch CK stood "Let's go, we've still got 10 minutes before everything goes to hell, but I'll feel better if we're there before that time."
The two stood and Clark looked at his brothers wistfully "I wish we could talk to dad again."
"I know, but hopefully we'll be able to see him before we go; unfortunately that's all we can do." Smallville put in quietly.
Nodding in accord, the men shared one final look of unity and left.
oOo
The three men floated stationary high in the sky watching the graduation ceremony. From their position they could see the army trucks approaching the town and knew that soon it would all be starting, but for a few minutes they just wanted to see their loved ones again.
Their eyes shifted constantly between their dad and Lois. Seeing their father bursting with life, listening as he whispered sotto voiced to their mom how proud he was of their son, caused a lump to grow in all their throats. When his name was called and their mom, dad and Lois stood up clapping and smiling their eyes blurred. Jonathan Kent had been far too young to die, either today or in a few months when he would be taken from them, he was just far too young.
Smallville and Clark smiled at Lois, they'd only seen her yesterday but she'd been older then. They hadn't seen this Lois in years, but just listening to her breathe, knowing that she was alive, caused their hearts to settle into peace for the first time since learning of her death. As hard as it was for them, they could only imagine how much harder it must be for CK.
CK looked at Lois and smiled wistfully. It was strange to see the woman he loved alive, to look at her face, and hear her voice while he was awake. But Lois wasn't a woman; she was just a kid, not even 21. This was how she'd looked the last time he'd seen her and two months later she was dead.
His eyes shifted to the podium, saw Chloe talking to his younger self and his lips lifted. He knew what they were talking about, but didn't much care. Younger Clark could be enthralled, concerned and obsessed with Lana until the cows came home; for him, it was nice to see the friendship that had existed between him and Chloe once again.
His eyes moved back to his dad then Lois and back again until the tears blurred his vision. He swiped his hand across his eyes impatiently, noted his brothers were doing the same, and at the sound of the sirens and the voice issuing from the loud speaker, the men sucked in deep breaths and nodded to each other.
"This is it, as soon as Lois and Chloe split up, Smallville and I will land then follow Lois on foot; are you both ready?" The men nodded, and although it was hard, all three blanked out the calamity that was raging around them, and kept their eyes and minds fixed only on Lois.
Once the girls split up, CK flew high in the sky, dodging and ducking around meteors, Clark stayed far on Lois' right hand side, Smallville on her left and each kept her in their sights at all times. They watched as she pulled her car to the side of the road, saw her run up the hill and lay down on the grass to see the devastation that was taking place as the meteors one after another bombarded the town, and when she scrubbed her hands over her face to wipe away the tears, they saw that too.
When she got back into her car and began to drive, it was clear that she was headed to the farm, and all three men became vigilant. When a car pulled onto the road from behind the field of corn it had been concealed behind, and began to follow Lois, their hearts began to pound. Each zeroed their vision in on the driver, and shook their heads at seeing Lana behind the wheel.
As Lana's car began to pick up speed, Clark and Smallville moved in closer, CK swooped down to fly high enough to ensure neither of the women could see him, but low enough that he could act swiftly should Lana make any sudden moves, and all three watched carefully.
Since the men knew where every gully, clear stretch of road and embankment was located in Smallville, it didn't take them long to figure out exactly where Lana was intending to strike. However, since her car was a four wheel drive, and Lois' car was small by comparison, having to watch as the bigger car moved up and forced the smaller one to drive faster, caused all to grit their teeth in anger.
"Son of a bitch!" Smallville swore viciously when two wheels of Lois' car hit the dirt at the side of the road. He wanted to rush forward but couldn't expose himself so clenched his fists tight and waited.
It was clear that Lois was trying to keep the car steady, but it was a losing battle as Lana kept bumping and pushing until finally Lois was forced off the road, the wheels lost their grip and her car began to tumble down the side of the steep gully.
CK swooped down and under, lifted the car up by the axle flew it out of sight from the road, and held it motionless.
Clark and Smallville watched Lana speed away obviously in the mistaken belief that Lois was either dead or injured, and once she was out of view, Cark signalled to CK then both men zipped up high into the sky to wait.
At the all clear, CK flew the car back to the road then whizzed away rapidly, not allowing Lois to see anything but a blur, and joined his brothers in the sky.
The men smiled when Lois got out of her car, walked to the side of the road and looked down over the edge to where both she and her car had been headed moments ago. She scratched her head, looked up, down and around before she began muttering to herself. "What the fuck was that? First some creep drives me off the road, and then an invisible something saves me." She walked around her car, looked underneath, stood and frowned. "Actually, it didn't just save me, it kinda flew the car around for a bit, then held it up in the air for a few seconds...ok for more than a few seconds; it held me up long enough that I was in danger of peeing myself." She scratched her ear before calling out loudly "If you're still around, thank you; not for making me almost wet myself but for the save." She pursed her lips, and held up her hand "Sorry, I know, TMI...um, by the way it's not that I don't appreciate it, but I'll just keep this between us ok? If I tell my cousin she'll just come at me with a hundred questions, then she'll tell Smallville and he'll ask even more questions, and then the two of them will hang around here until you finally show yourself just to tell them to bugger off to get some peace, but they won't give it to you; trust me on that. Also to be honest, I really don't want to be their next freak of the week..." her eyes grew wide and she quickly rushed on; "...not that you're a freak or anything; well you might be, but I'm sure that you're a nice one." She stopped, flushed and coughed. "That didn't come out right, what I meant...oh shut up and stop talking to yourself Lois. More than likely no one helped you, this was just some random something. These things happen...well ok, they only happen in Smallville, but just accept it and be grateful that you're still alive, no thanks to the ASSHOLE WHO DROVE ME OFF THE ROAD." She finished with a screech.
The men's smiles had grown wider the longer she'd kept talking; during her soliloquy Smallville chuckled, CK snorted and Clark had sniggered, but as the last words of her discourse came shrieking out, they had to zip up higher to let out the belly laugh that rushed out of their mouths.
When she got back into her car and drove to the farm they followed, and watched as she helped their dad find their mom, before taking them to the Medical Centre. They continued to x-ray down, smiling at seeing their parents together again, smiled wider when Lois came into the room and their dad called her a hero, then the smiles faded by the destruction the Kryptonians caused as they walked through the Medical Centre. Their faces became hard when the woman picked their dad up by his throat, their hearts burst with pride when Lois stepped in and saved him, and they nodded gratefully when young Lana saved Lois.
"Nothing's happened yet." CK said quietly.
"I know, but I just remembered J'onn said that for everything to reverse, that it will take a little time so we just have to be patient." Smallville replied with a careless shrug.
He nodded and all three kept their eyes on Jonathan Kent, seeing him alive and well caused their eyes to well with tears once again.
"Dad was always great." Smallville smiled sadly "Remember the morning after Lana and I spent the night together, we ran into mom and dad when she was sneaking out of the house?"
Clark grimaced "Yeah."
"I guess Lana forgot that only one Kent was under her spell, because when she tried her shit with our parents by saying they should be mad at both of us, dad very swiftly put her in her place by saying, 'Lana this is about more than just you;' then he very nicely kicked her out." He let out a small laugh and shook his head. "I don't think she was used to being told to mind her own damned business by a Kent, but no matter how politely it was put, that's exactly what dad said to her."
Clark nodded and laughed "Yeah, dad was a right one; remember Chloe said that she saw Lana flying out of the house. Well Lana's problem was that she'd gotten so used to me brown nosing to her, that she forgot adults were different. So when dad told her to get out, she almost ran like her pants were on fire."
CK laughed heartily "So then what happened?"
"Well mom was trying to stay calm, but dad wasn't about to put up with either Lana's or my crap that morning." Smallville recalled cheerfully.
"No way; dad was far from done when Chloe arrived, it was only because of what happened afterwards that we escaped his wrath." Clark smiled slightly. "But dad was far from stupid, he saw through both of us easily. He knew that Lana was a total egoist, completely wrapped up in herself and that I was just a randy kid who took the first opportunity I was given to have sex; and he let us know it, by what he said to both her and me that morning."
Smallville's smile hitched up "Yeah, when dad said there were some conversations he didn't think he needed to have with us, remember our response; 'that's because you and mom don't think I'm normal.' Mom and dad thought of us as special and in a good way, but just because we didn't like getting a bit of home truth from dad, we instantly went on the defensive." He paused and looked at his twin directly. "We wanted them to catch us you know."
"I do know." Clark rolled his eyes "It was our way or thumbing our nose at our parents and showing them how grown up we were."
"Precisely; if we'd really wanted to keep it between us, Lana and I would have gone to her apartment at the Talon. No one would have seen us and no one would have found out, unless we told them." Smallville lips lifted in a small mocking smile "And I think dad knew it too."
"Oh yeah I agree, and I think that's also partially why he was so pissed off. However, it wasn't just us that wanted to be caught, Lana did as well, which is exactly why she didn't argue about staying at the farm; regardless of all her; 'I told you we should have stayed at the Talon' crap." He finished in mimicry before continuing "We just kept pushing the envelope until we were caught because that was our sole intention all along. First we had sex in the bedroom while the parents are sleeping down the hall, but they didn't catch us. Well that was a bit of bad luck, so Lana of course had to hang around until we fell asleep. Then she wakes up and just lies there waiting for me to wake up; which I finally did. So there we were just lying there like a couple of morons, when suddenly we simultaneously realised 'oh my god it's morning, how did that happen? The sun never rises every single day, there have been the odd occasions when it's taken a holiday, so how were we supposed to know it was going to come up today. Aw gee, now we're in for it'; but nope the parents never walked in." Clark snorted and shook his head.
Smallville took up the tale with a quick head nod "Yeah, we just couldn't get it right that day huh? And it's funny how neither of us even thought that I should go downstairs first and create a diversion, so that Lana could get out of the house safely, just in case mom and dad were up and around. So we snuck downstairs and finally thank god we were caught. I wonder what act of desperation we would have tried next if mom and dad weren't around that morning." He turned to Clark and asked dryly.
"Maybe sex on the kitchen table?" CK asked tongue in cheek.
Smallville snorted and chimed in "Nope, I think in the back of my mind, my next suggestion was for us to do it in the middle of the town square; I mean someone would be bound to see us for sure."
"Yeah and just in case they didn't we'd have to accidentally knock against the town bell 5 or 10 times to attract everyone's attention, and get them all to come running to see what the emergency was." Clark guffawed.
"Of course, I mean hat's the point of finally having sex, if you're going to keep it to yourselves?" Smallville asked rhetorically before continuing "It's no wonder dad thought we were irresponsible, because that's all our actions showed him. That we were a couple of immature horny kids who wanted to prove to the world we were adults by having sex, and making sure they found out about it." He summed up neatly.
CK nodded then shook his head stupefied "Well I have to agree that both you and Lana wanted to be caught." He tilted his head in query "But did you actually want to have sex, or was it all just calculated for impact?"
Smallville smiled lopsided "We wanted to; I'm sure you remember that sex was on our mind a lot at that age." CK nodded agreeably "Well, I was more than ready to do it but given that it was Lana, naturally I was also eager." His lips twisted cynically "However, the truth is that consciously I might have been saving myself for Lana but subconsciously I would have done it with a $10 hooker. That's borne out by the fact that I wasn't only ready but more than eager to do it with Alicia when I was under the influence of redK; which as you know doesn't make me do anything I don't want to, it just gives me the balls to do the stuff that I want. If she hadn't knocked that redK necklace off me, our marriage couldn't have been annulled, since it would have consummated."
He swiped his hand through his hair, and rolled his eyes "But I can guarantee that if I hadn't been shot that day, poor Chloe would have been the recipient of a lot of phoney bashful confessions from Lana and me, about how humiliated we felt at being caught, etc, etc. We both wanted people to know, we just never confessed as much out loud." He took a deep breath and finished "Well I can tell right now that If Lo and I have kids, I won't appreciate them having sex under my roof either, and I'll damned well have something to say about it if I catch them the next morning too." He finished grimly.
Both men nodded firmly in agreement then all three looked down at their father.
"I wish..." Smallville began only to trail off.
"I know." Clark patted Smallville's shoulder "But like you said, we can't do anything more than what we've already done."
They watched as young Clark come into the hospital, smiled at him and Lois embracing, and nodded when he charged off after learning about the visitors.
"The last time I found out about them..." CK began then coughed softly "...the last time, it was when mom told me they'd killed dad."
The men put their hands on his shoulders in support.
CK's eyes reluctantly moved from Lois to his dad, and just as reluctantly back to her then him again. Two people, both of whom he'd loved and lost. God seeing them both alive, this was the one thing he would have given anything for all these years. To him it wasn't magic that made it happen, it was a miracle.
He looked at his two brothers and sighed "We'd better go, or I won't ever want to." They nodded and began to turn but paused to watch when young Clark arrived, and Lois took the flowers from his hand before she began to tease him.
"You mean to say that Lois helped mom and dad then further saved dad's life, and you were so grateful, that you couldn't even pretend the shitty two dollar flowers you got Lana, weren't for her?" CK looked at his brothers incredulous.
Both men hunched their shoulders in disgrace "We didn't know everything she'd done at the time." Smallville replied apologetically.
CK lifted his brows and waited patiently.
"Yeah and well...he is all of us, so you didn't either." Clark reminded him humbly.
CK's head tilted politely.
"Um maybe we didn't give them to her because they were shitty." Smallville put in eagerly.
CK grunted and shook his head "Maybe we were just the little shits, ever think of that?"
"Frequently."
"All the time."
The two men replied simultaneously with a sigh.
"Well young Clark might not care what Lois thinks now, but as we all know one day he will. So I say good on her for sticking us with that very well placed jab, before handing the flowers back and walking away." CK remarked in a tone of satisfaction.
"That's my Lo." Smallville replied proudly.
"Our Lo." The two corrected immediately.
With shared smiles of brother-ship, the three took off flying to the fortress.
oOo
CK looked around, turned to his brothers and sighed "I haven't been here in years."
"How does it feel to be back?"
He shrugged undecided "I don't know; for 9 years I've lived with hate for anything Kryptonian, so it's hard to just switch back and be ok with it."
"Yeah, but once you're merged back with me it will be ok since we won't remember what happened in this timeline." Smallville replied with a small smile.
"I'll be forgotten?" CK asked with a touch of sadness.
"No, you're me so you'll be very much alive, but this timeline and everything that's happened here will be forgotten, and I'm not sorry about that." Smallville returned gently but honestly.
"Neither am I." CK smiled genuinely, then his forehead wrinkled and he looked between his brothers "Are either of you feeling weird?"
"What kind of weird?" Clark quickly asked.
"I don't know, just weird."
"Are you in any pain?"
He shook his head "No."
"It's gonna be alright CK, this must be it, c'mon sit down."
Smallville and Clark each grasped one of his arms and helped him to sit on the floor before crouching down in front of him.
CK rubbed his face hard before dropping his hands "How are you two feeling?"
"I'm ok..." Clark turned to Smallville "How about you?"
"I'm ok...I think." Feeling a little dizzy, Smallville sat down beside CK and rested his head against the ice at his back "Maybe I'm not feeling so ok, but..."
Clark took a quick look at his watch and nodded "Ok, I've checked the time so if anything happens we'll know how long you were out for..." He stopped and fell hard on his bottom; "...correction; how long all of us were out for." Rubbing his eyes, he looked around and noted the room seemed hazy, and had begun to tilt "Is everything looking strange to you?"
CK began to nod then stopped and closed his eyes "I feel like I'm in a fun house of mirrors."
"Fuck! The pain hurts like hell but this is damn disorienting." Smallville pressed his fingers hard against his eyes wishing the swirling behind the lids would stop.
"Clark how long has it been?"
He lifted his wrist, peeked at the time, let his arm drop heavily and closed his eyes again. "2 minutes."
The men grew quiet, each waiting for the punch-drunk feeling to pass, and hoping their debilitation would be of a short duration.
oOo
2015
Lana Kent opened her mouth to recite the words of the spell and hesitated. Her brow wrinkled as the memory of what she'd done wrong previously floated into her head. Letting her bag fall from her grasp, she sat down at the kitchen table, rubbed her fingers over her forehead and sighed. God it had been close, she'd almost started to perform the spell and if she had, if the memory hadn't come back so swiftly, she would have screwed up.
She had to put her relationship with Clark out of her head. Don't think about their marriage, or the hurtful words he'd said to her the previous night. Don't think about the day of the meteor shower when she finally gave voice to her love for him and he reciprocated, don't think about Lois, or Lex, or about anything but the day she wanted to go back to. She wanted to talk to both her younger self and Clark, but she could only do that, if she concentrated.
Standing once again, she picked up her bag, and closed her eyes. Breathing deeply a few times, she cleared her mind of everything that could and had gone wrong, concentrated and performed the spell.
oOo
At the shaking of his shoulder Clark opened his eyes, turned his head to see his twin rubbing his hands over his face and looked back at his friend "J'onn, what's going on?"
He frowned unhappily "How are you feeling my friend?"
"Ok, a little bit out of it but it seems to be passing..." He turned to his twin and frowned "You ok?"
"Yeah, J'onn woke me up a second before you so I felt the same way, but I'm starting to feel ok now." Smallville scratched his head and looked around the apartment "Why are we sitting on the floor?"
"No idea, the last thing I remember was you saying that we wouldn't destroy the book until the very last second in case Lana changes her mind." He shrugged confused "We were standing then, or at least you were. I was sitting on the edge of the kitchen table but..." He shook his head and pointed "...I don't remember how I got from that side of the room to over here."
"Neither do I." Pushing up to his feet, Smallville took a few steps forward and picked up the book from the floor before turning back to see his twin likewise rising.
"My friends..." At J'onn's voice both men turned to him "When nothing had happened by 8.30, I went to Clark's house to see if Lana had changed her mind about reversing the spell, but the house is empty." At their frowns, he sighed. "The house is empty, but there is evidence on the kitchen table that she has done something."
"What'd you mean?" Clark asked cautiously.
"There is a box sitting on the bench in the kitchen which contains all sorts of bottles and vials which I believe must contain some magical elements." He paused and finished "There is also a mortar and pestle left carelessly beside it, and a few items on the kitchen table."
"Well you did say that she was going to pass the memories onto herself so she probably needed it for that." Smallville replied somewhat hopefully.
J'onn nodded cautiously "Yes, but where is Lana and why is there still two of you?"
An arrested expression fixed itself on both men's faces "C'mon."
The three men flew as fast as they could to Clark's house, and came to a stop in the kitchen, their eyes tracking over the paraphernalia strewn around.
Swearing silently Clark turned to Smallville "You go one way, I'll go the other and we'll search this damn town to ensure that she hasn't gone anywhere."
Smallville rubbed his brow, dropped his hand and exhaled "She's not going to be here Clark; she knows that we could find her in a heartbeat..."
"Yeah, but where could she go, where the hell did she get all this crap from, and why is it here?" He interrupted waving his hand around the kitchen before raking it through his hair and tugging "She doesn't know any magic so what the hell was she hoping to do?"
Smallville shook his head helplessly, but both turned to J'onn at his small cough "Lana does know magic my friends."
"You said that she didn't." Clark replied perplexed.
"She knew the spell." He reminded them gently "She knew the spell which caused you to be split; she knew it backwards and forwards."
Smallville's eyes widened "I didn't even think of that."
Clark swore colourfully "Neither did I." He paced around the room like a tiger in a cage before turning to his twin "Do you think she's used it already?"
"What'd you mean?"
"Well I remember talking to you one moment, and J'onn waking me up the next, but I don't remember how I got on the floor and neither do you. You were fed up with waiting, wondered what was taking her so long and had just mentioned that it was 7.30, yet J'onn went to check up on her at 8.30, found the house empty then came to find us in the fortress. So what happened in the hour that neither of us remembers?"
Smallville scratched his forehead, swiped his hand over his cheek and chin then shook his head helplessly "I don't know but..."
"Do you think she's used the spell to change our lives already?"
Smallville shook his head "No, if she had we would have felt it, but I don't remember feeling any pain, do you remember seeing me writhing on the floor, or feeling anything yourself?" Clark sighed but shook his head. "Exactly, plus if everything was changed, J'onn wouldn't have remembered that we were waiting at the fortress for Lana to reverse the spell, and surely if she'd messed with the past again there'd now be a third Clark."
"Yeah but how did we end up on the floor, and what happened to the hour that we've both lost?" He asked logically "Smallville; Lana knows the spell which means she could have used it, gone back, screwed up, and reversed it again. And maybe during the time-frame that things were messed up, we were unconscious and didn't even realise that anything was wrong, or we did but have forgotten it now that's she's reversed it and we're back here again."
Smallville blew out a deep breath and nodded hesitantly "That's only speculation..." when his twin's mouth opened he quickly held up a hand "It's good speculation and I'm half inclined to agree with you, but we have no proof. I don't have memories of anything happening, do you?" When his twin grimaced but shook his head, he nodded. "Ok, so whether that happened or not we'll never find out, in which case there's no point in dwelling on it. If she tried something it didn't work, because we're still here."
"Yeah but she's not." Clark pointed out.
"Precisely so let's just concentrate on that." He raked a hand through his hair and turned to his friend "J'onn was everyone still at the farm when you left?"
"Yes my friend."
Smallville looked at the clock and nodded "Ok, so if Lana's used the spell to go back again then at the moment we're safe and nothing's been changed. Otherwise J'onn, Dianna and Chloe wouldn't be at the farm; mom would since she lives there, but the others wouldn't."
Clark nodded in agreement. "If Lana's used the spell to go back to the past I'd suggest trying it ourselves and following her, but we have no idea when she's gone back to." His twin nodded in agreement, and once again J'onn coughed.
"You think you know J'onn?"
"It is once again only speculation, but I think she has gone back to the same time that she did previously for one of two reasons. The first, I have read Lana's mind quite a lot the last two days, so I know how deeply she regrets not telling Clark the truth on the day they eloped." He pressed his lips together and smiled sadly. "At first it was from fear that she was going to lose him, and after she did, it was with the belief that if she had been honest, he wouldn't have had the dreams, and consequently his love for her wouldn't have died. So she might think that by going back, and this time being honest about everything, it will be in her favour."
"It makes sense; when I confronted Lana, I made it clear that I didn't appreciate the way she deceived me 8 years ago." Clark agreed with a soft nod.
J'onn inclined his head "She thought about your words a lot afterwards."
"What's the other reason J'onn?"
"The other reason is also something that Clark said to her." He smiled gently at his friend. "You told Lana that nothing, not even separation from Lois would stop you loving her." Clark bobbed his head lightly, J'onn sighed deeply "She has also thought of this quite a lot. The last time she went back, she went to the Medical Centre and talked to Lois while she was unconscious. So if younger Clark rejects her, she might think her only recourse is to get rid of the competition, and with Lois out of the way, you would love her only."
The two men drew in swift breaths. Turning to his twin Smallville saw the same determination burning in his eyes "We have the book; we know the spell so let's do it."
"I'll go get the book, come back here and we can check to see if there's enough left over to do the spell, if there is we'll go." Without giving him time to reply Clark left.
Smallville patted his friend on the back "Thanks J'onn, if you hadn't checked up on Lana and then come to the fortress who knows how long we would have been out for, and she might have had time to do something." He paused and shook his head "Thank god she didn't, or if she did we don't know about it."
J'onn inclined his head briefly "Would you like me to go with you my friend?"
He shook his head "No J'onn, hopefully by us being in the past, no one here will even miss us, but I'd like you to stay here just in case you're needed."
"Then I will do so."
Clark returned with book in hand, flipped to the correct page and checked to ensure that not only were the right properties available, but that the quantity was sufficient "We need some more stuff."
"I was thinking that if Lana's gone back to the day we asked her to marry us, then that's the fourth day. So it's probably best if we get there a day or two beforehand; what'd you think?"
"Good idea." Clark replied firmly.
"When you packed your stuff and took it to the farm; did you leave any clothes behind?"
"Yeah some."
"Ok, so can you go and buy the stuff we need, while I pack us some clothes?"
"Yeah, I'll be back soon." Without further ado, Clark left the house once again.
"J'onn would you mind letting mom, Chloe and Dianna know what we're doing. I'm really hoping no one will even notice that we're gone but in just case."
"Certainly my friend" He slapped him on the back "Good luck to you both."
"Thanks J'onn, and thanks once again for all your help."
"You are welcome." With a smile he dematerialised and departed.
oOo
After swiftly packing some clothes for them both, Smallville returned to the kitchen to make order from chaos, just to keep busy while waiting in a fever of impatience for his twin to return. Clark did so five minutes later, and while he quickly made up the mixture, Smallville studied the spell carefully, then the book was stored in the bag, and the two men looked at each other.
"Ok, so should we go to the second or third day?" Smallville raised his brows in query.
Clark thought about it for a moment before answering "It was the fourth day we begged Lana to take us back, and if we go to the second day we'll just be waiting around for my wife to show up, so let's go to the third day. That'll still give us 24 hours before our younger self makes a jerk of us and starts begging young Lana to take us back."
"Good idea."
"So where are we going to stay?"
"At the farm..." He replied promptly "...I think we should tell them some of what's going on, and I want to stay close to ensure that our younger self doesn't do anything stupid; like eloping with Lana while we're otherwise occupied."
"Definitely." Clark smiled with a slight inclination of his head "But if we tell them are they going to remember us being there? We don't want to do anything that's just going to mess up the future any more than it already has been."
He pursed his lips for a moment before answering "Once Lana fails, and she's going to because I'm not going to let our younger self screw up our lives, she'll give up and return to the future right?" Clark nodded "Ok, so when she reverses the spell, taking us back to the original timeline, no one's going to remember anything, including your marriage, because it'll be like it never happened, which should be the same for us going now."
Clark nodded slowly "Yeah but Chloe did remember seeing Lana, then again that was only in the second timeline. She didn't remember seeing Lana the first time, because Lana hadn't gone to the past the first time."
"Exactly, in the original timeline when Lo was unconscious in 2007, older Lana didn't go to the past and talk to her younger self, which is why young Lana married Lex. So as older Lana didn't go, Chloe didn't remember seeing her because there was nothing to remember." Smallville summed up.
"And as Lana's going to reverse everything it will be like we've never gone to the past either." Clark shook his head and shrugged in defeat "Then again for all we know we've done all of this before, but I don't remember it and clearly you don't either, so we should be safe right?"
Smallville likewise shrugged "I think so, it's all pretty confusing but that makes sense to me. However, if we don't tell them what's going on, we'll have to skulk around Smallville and not only is the town not big enough for that, but more importantly I don't want to leave our younger self alone with Lana, not the older or younger version. Wherever he is, one of us is going to be there too."
"Agreed; speaking of which, do you think we should tell them Lana's responsible?"
Smallville rubbed the back of his neck and sighed "Ah hell, for now we'll just play it by ear. If one of us says something to cover up, the other will go along with it, but it'll be best if we don't say anything about Lana's involvement until or unless we have to."
"Ok, but I'm not going to pretend that I love her."
"It wouldn't make sense if you did since we're going to be there to stop young Clark from marrying her."
"True, so let's go."
"Are you ready?" Clark nodded, and firmed his grip on the bag which contained some clothes and the book.
Smallville recited the spell, and as the world began to shift and distort around them, taking on a kaleidoscopic hue, they closed their eyes and waited for the world to calm around them.
oOo
Day Two: 2007 – Kent Farm
Chloe drove into the yard of the farm, left her car sitting in the driveway and made her way to the house. She'd just lifted her hand to knock when the door was pulled open.
"Come in dear, I was keeping an eye out for you." Leading the younger woman to the island, Martha placed a hot cup of coffee in front of her "Clark's just doing his chores..." When the girl yawned hugely in response, she smiled "Why don't you go upstairs and have a shower? You've been at the hospital most of the night, so a nice shower and then breakfast before having a sleep will make you feel better."
"Thanks Mrs Kent...um I don't have any clothes though."
"Well, if you don't mind borrowing some of mine you're welcome to them."
The younger girl smiled gratefully "Thanks again, I'm pretty tired and really wasn't looking forward to driving back to the Talon."
"Well you go upstairs and jump in the shower, and I'll leave some clothes in Clark's room for you."
Nodding Chloe turned for the stairs then turned back "Lois didn't wake up last night."
"I know dear, I rang the Medical Centre first thing." Martha smiled softly "But that doesn't mean she's not going to wake up today, or maybe tomorrow; it just means that we have to wait."
Chloe swallowed back her tears and nodded "Yeah."
Seeing the fear in the young girl's eyes, Martha hoped that she was right and not just supplying false hope, before giving herself a mental shake not to be silly. Of course Lois was going to be alright; she was physically fit, healthy, young and strong. Whatever was wrong, she'd pull through.
Turning for the cupboard, she pulled out the oatmeal and began to prepare breakfast.
oOo
When all was still the men opened their eyes, looked around and noted that although they were still in Clark's kitchen, it wasn't the same one they'd been in only minutes ago.
"Well this is my house, or it's the one I'll own with Lana in a few years. It just looks a little different at the moment." Clark confirmed.
Smallville looked around, saw the faded wallpaper and carpets, the furniture which was somewhat musty but still in good condition, and turned to his twin with a light frown "It's a nice place, I mean the furnishings and stuff has to be changed but overall it's nice; so how'd you afford it?"
"The owners were pretty desperate to sell; they inherited the house from their mom but didn't want to live in it. By the time Lana and I came along it had been vacant for quite a while so they accepted the offer we made."
"I'm surprised no one bought it before you did." Smallville replied walking from the kitchen towards the front room.
"Yeah, but this isn't a big town with lots of people coming and going, so they were happy to get it off their hands, and we were lucky to get it for the price we did." Clark shrugged uncaring "Anyway, let's go find out if we're in the right time."
Smallville nodded, walked into the hallway with Clark one step behind and pulled open the door before stopping on the porch "Ok, so the first day that Jo was in the future with me was November 5th, we're hoping to be here on the 7th; what date did you marry Lana?"
"November the 8th."
"Well at least we know that time was running parallel, I wasn't sure if the dates when Jo was in the future and Lo was in the medical centre were the same but obviously they were, so that's something."
"You think it's significant?"
"Nope, it just saves me the hassle of keeping the dates straight." He frowned lightly "Ok, we need a newspaper, but I don't want anyone to see us until we know for sure that were in the right time, so I'll go to Metropolis and be back in a minute." He left and returned a few minutes later "We're in the right year, and month but we got the day wrong..." Blowing out a light breath, he showed Clark the paper "It's the 6th, so it's only the second day."
"Ok, well we need to remember what happened on the second day." Trooping back into the house, the men stood in the lounge room and thought quietly "On the first day nothing happened. I mean we found Lo, took her to the hospital, asked Lex if he was responsible, and that was pretty much it. It was on the second day that we started to look into what could be wrong, and Lana helped us right?"
Smallville nodded "Yeah, we were at the Medical Centre sitting with Lois when Lana turned up and offered to help find out what was wrong; that was before mom arrived."
"Right and mom took over around lunch time, I remember that because when we went back to the farm, Chloe had lunch ready and afterwards we all went sleuthing." Clark summed up.
Smallville bobbed his head in accord "That sounds about right, but can you remember what time we left for the hospital in the morning?"
Clark rubbed his brow and shook his head "No, look did you check the time when you were in Metropolis?"
"Yeah, it was about 7.20am."
"Well I don't think we went that early; remember Chloe stayed with Lois all the first night. She came back to the farm the next morning, had a shower, breakfast then went to have a sleep, and we left for the hospital afterwards." Clark finished with a satisfied smile.
Smallville frowned lightly "Are you sure we left after breakfast and not after morning tea?"
Clark likewise frowned, bit his lip then shook his head "No because today's the morning of the second day, and for the first two days we were all still cautious enough that we wanted someone to be with Lois all the time."
"Ok, so either they're all having breakfast or they will be soon; so let's go."
Pushing back from the wall they'd been leaning against, they once again made their way outside.
"Smallville..." At his name, he turned "Since it's only the second day we might have to stay for longer than 24 hours."
"I know, but we can't do anything about that. We'll just give them some bull about having to stick around for a couple of days. We know that Lana's going to turn up, and although we have a good idea of her intentions, we also know that her plans could change if things don't go her way; so we'll just have to take our cue from her."
Clark heaved out a deep sigh and nodded "Ok, so for now how do we do this? Do we just go into the house and tell them or what?"
"Yeah, it's direct, to the point and there's no bullshitting around, we don't have time for that. J'onn thinks Lana will try again like she did with you; which means on the fourth day, but for all we know she might decide to turn up early. So maybe it's a good thing we landed here on the second day instead of the third." At the curiosity in his twin's eyes, Smallville shrugged "If Lana thinks confessing all is the way to ensure the two of us stay happily together, then wouldn't her success be even more certain if she convinces young Lana to go to our younger self with hand on heart before, he puts himself out there begging her to take us back."
Clark looked at him in patent disbelief "Are you kidding? He already thinks the sun shines out of Lana's bum. So if she goes to him on bended knee first, he won't give a damn what she's done."
"Not that he...or I should say we; ever did." Smallville replied cynically.
"Not that we ever did, no." Clark agreed with a firm nod "But if she goes to him first, he'll be even worse than we ever were, and there'll be absolutely no dealing with him after that."
"Exactly, so as I said, maybe it's a good thing we're here today. At least this way if Lana does turn up tomorrow, just by being here early ourselves means that we can ensure that no version of Lana get's even the slightest opportunity of talking to him alone."
"Maybe we can cut down the odd's even further." Clark posed thoughtfully "It was spending time with Lana on the second day, that started us thinking about getting her back right?"
Smallville shook his head quickly "We never stopped thinking of that, this just gave us the opportunity to do it."
"Yeah, but prior to this Lana wouldn't have anything to do with us, so maybe we can limit his association with her even further by going to the Medical Centre and waking up Lois. With Lo awake and fine, the two of them won't need to spend time in each other's company trying to find out what's wrong with her." Clark's lips lifted in a half smile "J'onn showed you the spell Lana used, and we have the book, so why not?"
"I'd agree with your suggestion except we'd have one very big problem..." At the twinkle in Smallville's eye, he titled his head curiously "Lois; if she sees two older versions of Clark Kent she'll have a billion questions, and won't want to leave with us until we satisfy her curiosity." His lips crooked up "Her curiosity won't be satisfied in two minutes by the way, by which time the doctors, nurses etc will be there, and then they'll start asking questions. Once they call Chloe to let her know that Lo's awake, everyone from the farm will arrive en masse with even more questions."
Clark shook his head "Yeah, Lois is a troublemaker alright."
"But she's my troublemaker." He replied smugly.
"Ours" Clark corrected smiling "Ok, so we'll go to the farm and talk to them before waking up Lois."
Smallville nodded in agreement.
They sped to the farm house and came to a stop beside the barn. X-raying the house and yard, they found their mom cooking breakfast, young Clark feeding the chickens, and Chloe walking down the stairs into the kitchen.
They waited patiently until young Clark was finished his chores, had retreated inside to wash his hands and took a seat at the table with the women, before walking forward.
Standing on the top of the stairs, they turned to each other, nodded in unity, Clark pulled the door open and they walked inside. The three people seated at the table turned at the opening of the door, saw them, and stared. To say they were shocked was an understatement.
The men smiled in unison and called out simultaneously "Hi mom."