"We can still go to your place, if you've changed your mind?"

"It's fine Clark, the farm's closer and it makes more sense." He didn't question her any further and she was grateful. By all logic she should want to put as much distance between her and this town as possible but right now the thought of the Kent Farm was helping sustain her. It was safety. She didn't know why she still felt that way after all these years. It probably had a lot to do with the man beside her.

He had arrived soon after her at the medical centre. He'd been writing a piece on Superman's intervention in a chemical disaster for the first edition when he'd got her message and driven straight to her side. The cops had kept him out for a while but eventually he had talked his way round the Sheriff to see her. His face when he'd arrived at her bedside had almost made her break down into tears.

He wasn't looking distraught right now. Instead, he looked angry. Quietly furious. She knew he wouldn't talk about it with her because he believed his reaction was an irrelevance in the face of what she had been through but she wished he would berate her or rail at the cops or even curse the dead deputy. Because she felt the same way. Along with feeling ashamed and afraid and guilty and a hundred other things she didn't know how to put a label on it yet.

But instead he was speaking calmly and gently and staring at her when he thought she was looking out of the window. Despite the boiling mess of emotions in her stomach, his presence did have the softening effect she had prayed for earlier. He was taking her somewhere safe. She was safe with him.

Right now, with the local police department seemingly compromised by a conspiracy with Belle Reeve, safety was something she prized. More than that though, it didn't matter what she said or thought tonight, he wouldn't judge her. She trusted him totally to accept her in her worst moments. He'd earned it.

"Adams isn't stupid, she's going to realise you missed a lot out of your story." He said this matter of factly, as if they were discussing any ordinary story.

"I know. And I trust her. But I can't trust the rest of them. Until I know for sure that the rot stopped at him, I'm not telling them anything." She glanced over at him. "You agree, don't you?"

"In this case, yes. It's too dangerous to let them know more. But it's not a totally sound strategy Lois."

"I know. But what other choice do I have?"

"Emigrate?" She shot him an annoyed look which he caught. "Okay, I've said it once and now it's out of my system. You can't blame me though. You were in a lot of trouble there," he said this even more gently than before and her eyes welled up. The fact he was treating her so tenderly was scaring her because if he was talking like this, it meant things really were serious and she really had nearly got herself killed and she really was up to her neck in something ugly.

It had happened before though, why was this one so bad?

"I hate it when I lose sources," she said. He nodded, knowing she was thinking of Kate Roberts. As a journalist you felt a certain responsibility towards the people you relied on for information. They put themselves at various degrees of risk for all kinds of motivations, some purer than others but once you began to work together, a bond was formed. She owed people like Jordan and it was her job to shield the from some of the dangers. She'd failed him. If she'd got there earlier, if she'd stayed with after the bar, if, if, if…

"You couldn't have saved him Lois, you know that. He was trying to extort money out of them. And Jim Weathers was unstable. Adams said he'd been on sick leave for two weeks already. His doctor had signed him off for stress. She's not saying anything about ghosts though."

"Can you blame her? We don't even have any proof that this thing extends beyond Jordan and him. It could be one of those, whatever, shared delusions."

"Folie a deux."

"Right." Clark didn't respond. "Right?"

"Maybe."

"You think there's something in it? Have you been seeing them?"

"No. But maybe it's connected to Belle Reeve in some way. Maybe it only affects certain people. But the town has seemed…tense lately. I haven't spent as much time here recently as I used to. Work and stuff."

"Do you think Chloe…do you think she's seen anything?" The painful conversation she had recalled earlier made this question even more important. If she was right, and Chloe had been brought so low by losing Jimmy, what would the actual sight of his ghost do to her?

"You'll have to ask her." He sighed. "But she's been more stressed than usual lately. She's been going out to the cemetery a lot the last few weeks." To see Jimmy. When was the last time she had been out there? After yesterday's funeral, the idea of going back to a grave seemed unbearable. How many of the promises she had made to him had she kept? Had she kept the woman he died for safe? She'd thought that Chloe had begun to claw her way back to a normal life but now she doubted her judgement entirely. If she hadn't been able to see she was in so much pain, what was she missing now?

Clark couldn't have known she was in such despair, he would surely have told her. But with nothing more than a disturbing conversation from almost two years to go on, she wasn't about to raise the topic now. It was a hunch. A very belated hunch, mostly down to the similar words coming from a crazy man's mouth. It wasn't much of anything to go on.

"I don't know Clark, ghosts? Real ghosts? Some days I don't even believe in an afterlife, let alone spirits determined to have the last word," she sighed, her fingers drumming on her thigh. Somehow the smell of her would-be killer's cigarette had made her desperate for one herself. She almost laughed out loud at the thought. Maybe instead of murdering her with a bullet between the eyes, the cop could finish her off from the grave by making her take up smoking again. "Though you'd better believe I would be coming back to set you straight if I died first."

"I can believe it," he smiled.

"Me defying all natural laws is standard though…this? This I can't swallow."

"Stranger things have happened in Smallville," Clark pointed out. "We're going to have to rethink this whole thing. Whoever Summers' killer is, it may turn out that the people who enabled his release are far more dangerous. The people at Belle Reeve either acted themselves or on behalf of someone else but either way they'll be even more desperate now to cover things up. Even if Weathers wasn't following orders by killing Jordan, if they're exposed, they're looking at serious jail time."

"But until we know that there aren't other cops on their payroll, we can't let the police handle this." Clark looked at her briefly, his brow heavy with the knowledge of the terrible situation she had found herself in. "We both know that to protect myself, I'm going to have to pursue this." She could see he was growing distressed again so she tried to appeal to his reason. "I've been in worse spots Clark, don't panic."

"I got you into this one." His fingers tightened around the steering wheel. "I was insane."

"You think you could have kept me away from this? If I hadn't been out of the office so much recently, Perry would have handed me this one, so forget it. If it's got Superman's name on it, it's got my name on it," she said sourly.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Maybe I don't want 'Number One Super-fan' on my gravestone."

"Lois, Superman doesn't define you. You were the one who helped define him." Lois frowned at him as they pulled into the farm's front yard.

"How do you work that one out?"

"He owes you more than you realise."

"Yeah, I helped him come out of his extra-terrestrial closet," she snapped. "My professional services have been much appreciated." She grabbed her purse and got out of the truck. The cops had confiscated her clothes for forensic testing but fortunately they hadn't kept her bag, or the items she had secreted in the lining. But as for clothes, she was reduced to wearing one of her reserve outfits, rescued by Clark from her car, which she kept for puking, bleeding, drenching emergencies. For some reason, if there was a mess to be made, she was splatter central and Smallville was left pristine. Clark followed her to the front door, an unhappy expression on his face. As he removed his keys, he paused.

"Anyone who reads the Planet, no, anyone who reads, knows that you mean more to Superman than just that. They did a feature on you in the Enquirer on you carrying his alien lovechild Lois. Why do you think I worry so much about your relationship with him? It's always made you a target." Lois ducked her head. Clark had never spoken about her and Superman in this way before. It was easier if they didn't acknowledge she wasn't an entirely objective reporter when it came to the superhero. So why the hell was he starting now? Weathers hadn't been trying to pop her because she was standing in the way of a love affair with the Kryptonian.

"Clark, the reasons those stories and jokes are so lame is because they have no basis in fact okay? There's nothing between us and there never has been!" Clark didn't seem consoled by this so she continued, "And I would have thought you of all people would know better than to believe all those nasty jokes made at my expense!"

"Don't be crazy, you know I think all those stories are trash." He took hold of her arm and stared at her in that Other Clark Kent way. The way that made her feel slightly light-headed, as if he had x-ray vision and was looking straight through to her brain. He was also standing a little too close to her. They didn't stand like that and the 'good friends' line was about ten inches behind him. He wasn't noticing though, instead he was still talking at her. "But I also know that he doesn't look for you first in the press scrum because of the stories you write."

"Then why?" She shrugged off his hand and snatched the keys from him, jamming them into the lock.

"Because you're Lois Lane, that's why." She looked up at him and was jolted by a flash of something she hadn't felt in a long time. Clark had a habit of going missing at awkward moments but he also had a talent for making you believe there was no one else he'd rather be with. When he said things like his last utterance, she had no doubt he meant every word. Unfortunately, with him standing so close and her having such a crappy day, she was feeling more than just gratitude for his generosity of spirit in staging a defence of her irresistability.

She was feeling like she wanted to run her hand over the front of his shirt, thread the other hand through his hair and pull him down towards her so she could…

"Okay, he hit my head a lot harder than I thought," she groaned and pushed the door open. Clark hurried after her, pressing his hand to her forehead and staring in her eyes.

"The pain's getting worse? Are you okay? You feel a little hot. Maybe we should get you back to the hospital…"

"Oh god."

"You're definitely feeling too warm. Your cheeks are flushed Lois!"

"I'm fine." She struggled away from him again but he was still peering at her intently.

"Your pupils are dilated. I'm taking you back right now."

"God help me Clark, quit playing Doctor with me!" As soon as the innuendo-laden words left her lips she regretted them. Clark seemed unperturbed though.

"Sorry. Are you alright?" She nodded miserably. "Okay. I'm going to run you a bath. And get you some night clothes. But you're not getting any sleep tonight," he said gravely and left to go upstairs, not noticing her wince at his last comment.

"Doesn't look like it," she sighed as she crashed on the couch. He was referring to the fact she needed to stay awake in case she did have a concussion but his choice of words had been even more unfortunate than hers. And the day had promised so much! On the plus side, he hadn't noticed the awkwardness. She could probably have done the dance of the seven veils and he would have been trying to stick a thermometer under her tongue. Musing on Clark's cluelessness helped her to calm down, so by the time he'd come back downstairs she was feeling herself again. She was just having a Smallville flashback due to extreme stress, like an acid trip but with sweatier palms. Besides, just because she no longer wanted to be with Clark didn't mean she had completely forgotten he was an attractive guy. She sometimes found herself still responding to him but it meant nothing. She'd wanted a cigarette in the car after all. You could still have cravings for the things that were bad for you.

He helped her to the bathroom where she sat in hot water and tried to forget Jim Weathers, Tom Jordan, ghosts, guns, Chloe, Maurie, Superman and Smallville. But trying to relax wasn't a great idea either. When she began to slip down into the water, she jerked herself awake and got out hurriedly. She was starting to feel very, very tired and she still had to wait out a whole night of Clark's head injury house arrest. She gingerly felt the butterfly stitches holding the cut on the back of her head closed. It could have been worse though. A lot worse. Unbidden, a memory of the two corpses swum to the fore of her mind. At least her brain was all in one piece. Despite ample evidence to the contrary. What had she been thinking getting hot and bothered by Clark downstairs? Clark's supportive nature might falter if she launched herself at him. Especially since she hadn't corrected his assumption she was dating someone else. What would have helped was if he was seeing someone at the moment. Nothing was a quicker splash of cold water on Kent urges than the thought of him rolling in the hay with some hottie and the friendly intimacy they shared was always dialed back a notch when the other was in a relationship.

She dried herself with one of Clark's fluffy red towels and dressed in the clothes he had laid out for her. She'd been surprised by his outburst about Superman. If anything she'd expect him to get intense about the main drama of the evening. Well, Smallville had his own peculiar thought processes, she'd known that a long time. As she returned downstairs, she found him cooking up pancakes and went to join him in the kitchen. For a while they talked about inconsequential things and Lois found the aches in her body dimming. He even managed to make her laugh with some lame jokes. It didn't matter that she knew he was trying to distract her from reality, the effect was the same. Once he had served up, they sat opposite each other at the table and began to pile in. Between mouthfuls she studied him thoughtfully as he talked about his mom's upcoming state-sponsored trip to China.

When Weathers was pulling his bad cop, worse cop routine, she'd been thinking about him. Somehow the idea of him steadied her. He was a landmark she could orientate herself by. If she could look around him and see him, she knew she was alright. And when he wasn't around, if she was deliberating over whether to replace the toner, she would imagine what Clark would do. Then she'd ignore his voice and ignore the toner as well. Or if Cat Grant was raving about a glamorous party she was heading off to after hearing Lois had been covering an accident in the sewers, she would try and summon some Smallville stoicism. Nine times out of ten, it failed and she ended up throwing a stinking jacket in her direction, but just sometimes summoning the Kent spirit worked. Sometimes he made her a better person.

"What? You're looking at me funny. Have I got syrup on my chin?" He tried to lick a non-existent spot of goo off his face and she bit her lip to prevent herself from smiling. Once he'd reassured himself he wasn't smeared in sugary mess he looked at her expectantly. "What's the joke then?"

"Why are you single Clark?"

He frowned, "I thought you had a long list of exactly why I'm not suitable dating material. It's up to ten pages now isn't it?"

"I'm having it bound. But you're a good guy. I should fix you up with someone." Clark shook his head sharply, a horrified look on his face.

"No way Lois! Absolutely not! I am not interested in meeting anyone new. I mean it." She shrugged her shoulders and moved a pancake from his plate to hers. "Promise me?"

"I swear I won't try and fix you up with anyone new," she said solemnly, one hand on her heart and the other held aloft.

"Good," he sighed, stealing his food back from her. "Just so we're clear."

"Crystal," she nodded. After all, there was nothing new about his ex-girlfriend Terry.