"I really do appreciate you going out and buying me some clothes," Louise said.

"Yeah, yeah," Lana replied, as she pulled a box down from Clark's closet shelf. "It was as much for me as it was for you."

Louise examined herself in the dresser mirror. "I'm not sure about a business suit though."

"You're looking for a job, aren't you? You have to dress up for an interview."

Louise sat down on the edge of the bed and Lana did too, putting the box down on the floor.

"If you want to thank me," Lana said, "you can help me go through this box. I could use a second opinion."

"What exactly are you doing?"

"We're going to have a table at our engagement party to display things that symbolize our relationship through the years."

"So you knew Clark before Lois did?"

"Yeah, way before. We have an on again, off again romance but this time it's going to stay on."

Louise looked a little horrified. "You were never on while he was married to Lois, were you?"

"Don't be absurd. I'm not that kind of girl and Clark is certainly not that kind of guy. Here's his football jersey but considering I was dating his assistant football coach, that's probably not a good one to use."

"You dated his coach?"

"Yeah, his name was Jason actually. I can't believe Clark would have chosen to name his son that."

"Why not? I can see not naming a child after someone a parent dated but ex's exes could be quite a list and there's only so many names in the world. Besides it could be a family name or maybe they just liked the meaning."

"No need to get defensive. I was just making a comment. Look here's a picture someone took of us at the prom," she said handing it to Louise, so she could look at it.

"This should definitely be included. I like your dress."

"Thanks. Oh my goodness."

"What?" Louise asked, putting the picture in the keep pile.

"He has a picture of him and Lois at the prom too."

"The same prom?"

"Yeah, they actually went together. It's a long story but because of it, they got the traditional prom picture taken. Ours was taken with someone's camera phone. I had no idea he would keep a picture of them at the prom."

"Can I see it?" Louise looked at it, extra curious because she wanted to see what she would have looked like as a teenager, had she been one. "I finally found a difference between me and the real Lois. I would never wear pink unless it was underwear, where no one could see it. That is one ugly dress and I don't like the way her hair is styled either."

"I'm pretty sure Lois felt the same way," Lana said, distracted as she dug through the box in search of something. "She was possessed, the reason they went to the prom. Look at this! More Lois mementos."

Louise put the Lois and Clark prom picture in the discard pile and looked to see what Lana had found. "Newspaper articles?"

"From the high school paper. Articles that were written by Lois. He even had them laminated."

"Don't forget some of these things might have belonged to Lois."

"No, I knew her. She wouldn't have kept a picture of herself in what she would have defined as an embarrassing and awkward moment. Even if she kept the articles from the Torch, she wouldn't have laminated them. It would have made it look like she liked journalism and really I don't think she did back then. No, believe me, Clark is the laminator."

"Okay, so what? I don't see the big deal. He clearly liked her to some degree to marry her."

"The big deal is I was supposed to be his high school crush. That's one thing that belonged to me. Lois was there for a very small part of senior year, he shouldn't have anything from her during the high school years. It should be all me. He was supposed to love me."

"I'm sure he did--does love you."

"Do you know why we broke up the last time?"

"Uh…no."

"Lois. He called me Lois, a Freudian slip of the tongue. He'd fallen in love with her without even realizing it."

"Well, that's all in the past and if he didn't care for you, he wouldn't be marrying you."

"You still don't understand," Lana said, tearing up. "We didn't remain on very good terms after we broke up. In fact, I didn't even see him again until Lois' memorial service. Lois and I weren't best friends or anything but she lent me an ear and hand a time or two and I wanted to show that I had no hard feelings for her or Clark. Clark and I started to hang out as friends after that. He needed people to talk to and people who could recall some Lois stories. Clark likes me and Jason likes me. I've never stopped loving Clark. It just made sense for us to get married. It takes away some of the loneliness but not a day goes by that Lois doesn't come into the conversation. Do you know what that's like? She's dead! She's dead and she still has first place in his heart."

"It's like competing with a ghost," Louise said sympathetically.

"No," Lana said, her voice shaking with emotion. "She's flesh and blood now."

Louise knew she was referring to her. She laid a hand on Lana's shoulder. "I won't be here forever."

The phone rang.

"It's probably Clark calling to see how things are going," Lana said, wiping her tears away with her hand. "It'll be obvious by my voice that I've been crying. Can you answer it?"

"Sure," Louise said, going into the living room where it sat on the end table. She hesitated before answering it though. What if it wasn't Clark and whoever it was could recognize Lois' voice. She answered it, deepening her voice to sound like a man. It wasn't very effective but effective enough for a phone. "Hello?"

"Clark?" came a woman's voice.

"What?"

"You're not Clark. Who is this?"

"Who are you?"

"Chloe Sullivan. Who are you?"

"Butch."

"Butch? What?"

"I work at the Planet with Clark."

"Really? What department?"

"Sports."

"I see, well, Butch, is Clark there?"

"No, but his fiancée is."

"Let me talk to her."

"Hold on a second." She covered the mouthpiece and asked Lana. "Do you feel like talking? I think she said her name was Chloe Sullivan."

"I guess," Lana said, coming into the room to get the phone. "I've put everything back in the box, for now at least. Can you put it on the shelf for me?"

"Who was that?" Chloe asked, when Lana got on the phone. "And don't tell me it was a man."

"Nobody important. Why did you call?"

"Clark's being evasive on telling me about the person that he thought looked like Lois yester…oh my gosh. That was her, wasn't it?"

"No, it wasn't--"

Lana was cut off by the sound of a shelf full of contents falling, followed by a long, loud string of cuss words in Louise's normal voice.

"I'd know that voice anywhere. I'll be there as fast as my car can take me and she'd better be there when I get there," Chloe said, hanging up before Lana had a chance to explain.

TBC