Smallville and all of its related elements are copyright © 2001 - 2007 Tollin-Robbins Productions, WB Television and DC Comics. Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

9. Lana returns to the farm.

Anger flooded into Lana like a dam collapsing after years of weathering. He had hurt her in every humane way possible—loved her and dumped her, made promises and lies, and now, he had run out of ways that made sense. Now, he was an emotionless alien that pursued her for her looks alone, played her like a marionette and discarded her without a second thought.

It was unimaginable.

She thought of those things that had come out of the ship, how they had slaughtered humans without a second thought, and then she remembered what had hurt them.

The meteor rocks.

Her hand crept to her throat, where, for years, a stone had hung. It was bare now, and she turned her head toward the fields on either side of the church. On the right was Lander's field, where meteors from the second shower had landed.

She ran, tripping over the anomalies in the ground, until she saw the crater—lined with shining green rocks. She grabbed a smallish one—just large enough to be enclosed in her fist—and began running back to the church.

Chloe arrived as she did, stepping out of her car just as Lana got close. Lana took her keys from her hand in one deft swoop, apologized quickly and jumped into the car, locking the door. Shaking, she forced the key into the ignition and drove away.

It barely took any time to reach the Kent farm. Her driving was erratic, and she almost hit the SUV that was still waiting in the drive way. She was still breathing heavily from her last run, but she pushed herself onward. She ran into the barn and up into the loft, clutching the meteor rock in her hand.

As she reached the top of the stairs, she stopped.

Clark was curled up on his couch, his knees brought to his chest. There was a jagged hole in the barn wall opposite him and light shone through. It reflected off the wet trail that traced its way down one cheek.

He winced when he saw her, feeling the effects of the meteor rock already.

"You want me dead," he said, sounding devastated, but unsurprised. He sounded like Clark again—normal, brooding Clark Kent. He sounded like a human farm boy, not an alien.

"Is it an act now?" she asked. "You heard me coming and decided to bring on a few tears to confused me?"

He shrugged. "Wasn't really paying attention," he admitted. "Didn't notice you were here until you stomped up my stairs."

"So you act for yourself then," she stated. "You pretend to be human even when no one's here."

"Lana," he said softly. "Lana, go back to your wedding. Go be the beautiful bride that you were meant to be, but don't do this. Stop coming back to me. I haven't got anything to offer."

"All of that," she whispered, "it was the act. Saying it was an act was the act. You're just Clark Kent, aren't you? You're no different than you've ever been."

"You said you wanted to move on," Clark pointed out. He looked down at his knees, and then unclasped his hands, letting his legs come down to the ground. "I thought hating me would make it easier."

She nodded slowly. "Yea," she said, "it would have."

She dropped the rock on the ground, and it rolled slightly before stopping just in front of her. Clark pulled back slightly, the pain too much coupled with the hurt of what he'd done.

Lana turned away from him and moved down the stairs, the rock between him leaving him unable to follow.

When she got back to the church, she enlisted Chloe and a dozen hired hands to help put her back together. She knew, somehow, that he had been trying to do the right thing, trying to let her get on with her life without him.

But even now, knowing what she knew, she couldn't force herself to stop loving him. Not the shadow of him, the Kal-el who took over for a brief span of time—that wasn't the real him. She loved Clark, but she knew that he understood better than anyone the consequences of them being together.

He was an alien, and he had the capacity to be just as cruel and destructive as those invaders had been. He didn't though—he saved lives, he helped on the farm and he loved; it was for those reasons that she believed that he would always be the same Clark Kent.

It was for those reasons that she would always love him—just a little.

END