Hello, thank you to those who have given me feedback, it's much appreciated. I'm glad people are enjoying this story, or if not enjoying due to the direction it's taken, are at least invested in it.
I hope you all like the update, and just a quick warning there's sex in chapter 14. So those of you who don't like that stuff you'll have to bypass it, and those of you who don't mind it (I love it) enjoy.
Linda
oOo
Chapter 13
Martha stepped out on the porch, saw Chloe and looked around "He went to the loft."
The older woman nodded at the answer supplied to her unasked question "Thank you for giving us some privacy dear."
"That's ok Martha, how is he?"
She raised and lowered her brows then shook her head "Sad, unhappy but I guess we were both expecting that." At Chloe's nod, she smiled slightly "Clark's jut upstairs washing his face, why don't you go on in while I go and call...well Clark in from the barn."
Chloe rose to her feet, but felt that she'd better let the woman know that she might be facing another son who was also not faring very well "Um Martha, I don't know what happened but just be prepared. He was fine and then he went pale and said that he needed to be alone." The older woman nodded "He didn't look good, obviously something's wrong but..."
"It's ok dear, I'll talk to him." Martha stepped off the porch and walked towards the barn, wondering what could have happened. For years she'd had to pretend that her son wasn't hurting; this morning he'd finally opened up, and her heart ached for all that he'd been going through alone. Now she had another son who despite alternate worlds was still her son, and she wasn't sure that her heart could take any more sorrow on behalf of her boys.
Grown men or not they were her babies, and she hated anything to hurt them. Her mother's heart ached for one son who was miserable and married to one woman while in love with another, and her other son who was separated from his fiancé.
She entered the barn and found it deathly quiet, and when she walked up into the loft was surprised to find it empty. She glanced around and her eyes stopped on the broken loft window frame, and the cracked shutters. When she stepped closer she saw the indent of fingers punctured deep into the wood, broken pieces lying on the ground and sighed. Something had happened but until her boy came home there was nothing she could do.
She sat down on the couch, closed her eyes and cried for both her sons, tears that she'd held back while talking to Clark leaked from her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. Once her crying jag had stopped she retrieved the tissues, wiped her eyes, blew her nose, firmed her chin and walked out of the barn and back to the house.
oOo
Smallville stopped high above Oliver's apartment building, closed his eyes and wondered if he could make himself look. He knew that Lois was there, he could hear her heartbeat, but now that he was here he wasn't sure that he could stand to see her with Oliver. She might not be doing anything more exciting then eating breakfast. Her heartbeat sounded normal, so more than likely she wasn't doing anything that he didn't want to see, but it could be after the fact and he didn't want to see that either.
He couldn't, he just couldn't make himself look, he didn't want to see her with Oliver; he didn't want to see something that he wouldn't be able to forget. He began to fly away, stopped and flew back, and after doing this several times finally shook his head and zipped back to Smallville. He landed in the driveway and looked around but couldn't see Chloe anywhere, she wasn't on the porch but that didn't mean that she was in the house. If his mom and Clark hadn't finished talking she wouldn't have interrupted them, she might have decided to beard him in the loft, and deciding to go back to the barn to find her, he turned only to see his mom step out of the barn.
"Clark sweetie are you ok?" Martha rushed over to her son and gripped his hands. The utter wretchedness on his face, and the pathetic smile he tried to project caused her heart twist.
"No, I just..." He stopped, raked a hand through his hair and pulled "Let's go inside mom, I have to tell all of you what I found out this morning."
They walked to the house in silence, up the stairs and stepped into the kitchen to find both Chloe and Clark sitting at the table waiting for them.
At the look on his face, Chloe knew that whatever had been wrong earlier was going to be just as bad as she feared, and Clark felt his stomach clench wondering what his twin had to tell them. Chloe had said Smallville had taken off to the loft and that he'd looked upset. However, by the look of misery on his twins face, he thought that upset didn't even come close to describing how he was feeling.
Once everyone was seated at the table, coffee was poured then the three waited in silence for Smallville to begin. He dredged up a faint smile at the curious expressions on the faces turned in his direction, but had to take a moment to calm his anger and push aside the melancholy he felt creeping over his heart.
"I said that I had a reason for why I told Clark about both of you knowing that he loved Lois..." the ladies nodded "Ok, well I went to the fortress to talk to Jor-el hoping that he'd be able to help me get back to my world. Instead Jor-el gave me a hell of a shock when he told me what's going on and ..." he blew out a breath and finished quietly "...and it's not what we thought yesterday."
"What did he say?" Chloe asked with a light frown.
"I already had an idea of what could have caused this..." He raised his hand forestalling the words when all three opened their mouths "...and I still think I'm partially right but it's an even bigger mess than I realised."
The three looked at each other then turned back to him with identical frowns.
He scratched his cheek, and sighed deeply "Jor-el told me that this is my world." The frowns changed to confusion "I don't have a world to go back to because I'm not in a parallel universe, this is where I belong."
"What'd you mean?" Clark put in shaking his head uncomprehending.
He looked at his twin and tried to smile "I mean that you and I are the same person; we're not two different Clark's from two different worlds. We're the same Clark, and this is my...our world." He stopped and continued "However, someone has tampered with the past and caused this to happen."
"But honey..." Martha paused wondering how she could say what she wanted, but finding it difficult to put into words, and was grateful when Chloe took over "...surely if the past was changed there would now be two worlds not just two Clark's. I mean neither of you were even aware of the others existence until yesterday, so how could you be the same person?"
He turned to his twin and asked softly "Do you mind if I tell them about the fortress?" Clark shook his head but looked down into his cup and giving him a sympathetic look Smallville turned back to the women "When I was in the fortress I found a couple of rooms that Clark's converted into a little apartment. Well it's almost a duplicate of mine and Lois' apartment..." Clark's head flew up at that, Smallville inclined his head and continued "...he also keeps journals there and I read all of them. His journals express his thoughts and what's happening in his life, but in them he's also recorded dreams that he's been having; those dreams are about my life."
"What?" Chloe whispered in a shocked voice, turned to find the same look of astonishment on Martha's face, and simultaneously they both turned to Clark.
He nodded and spoke quietly "I've been having dreams for years, at times they were the only thing that kept me sane; it was only in the dreams that I felt everything was real."
Martha reached out and held his hand "Oh sweetie, why didn't you tell me?"
"I couldn't mom, I couldn't tell anyone." He grasped her hand and squeezed it back. She nodded in understanding but her heart hurt even more, knowing that her boy had been suffering a lot more than she'd realised. However, when Chloe began to speak she turned her attention back to the conversation.
"Ok, so from what you're saying one of you ..." She broke off and started again "How do you know which of you has the right life?" Chloe asked looking between the two men.
"Mine is the right one but it's not that simple." Smallville replied taking a deep breath to try and explain when all three frowned "The burning pain I felt yesterday was because Clark was basically torn out of me to create two of us. So as Jor-el said we both have the right to live..." everyone nodded following along "...but at the moment both of our lives are wrong. This world isn't the way it was yesterday before I came here and found I have a twin, but it's the only world that all of you know. What I mean is that for all of you Clark married Lana when he was 19, but you don't remember him being Superman or living any other life correct?" They all nodded again "Well Jor-el's program wasn't altered by what happened so he knows how things should be and he knows that Clark's life is the wrong one, but so is mine as a consequence." He rubbed his hand over his thigh in agitation "I don't have a world to go back to because this is my world."
He paused and continued softly "The dreams Clark had were real, all of them. They record when I left for my training, travelling, coming back and finding Lois, and just about every moment of our relationship. Clark couldn't have gotten all that information just by wishing things were different, some of it yes but not all."
Clark now understood what Smallville meant when he said they had to get their heads around what he had to tell them. Right now his mind was awash with fragmented thoughts, and he was grateful the women were able to ask questions to clarify what they were being told.
"If he's been having dreams of your life and your relationship with Lois, then that could only happen if he was you. If you were two Clark Kent's with different life experiences he wouldn't have had the dreams." Chloe accepted quietly.
"He might have had dreams but not such detailed ones. He's pretty much documented my entire relationship with Lois, including conversations we've had and things we've done that no one knows about but except the two of us. The last journal finished a couple of weeks after Lois asked me to marry her, which was about six weeks ago." Smallville finished tilting his head.
"You didn't read them all." Clark put in and when his twin swung around, he shrugged awkwardly "There was one in the bedroom that brings us up to my dream last night, you didn't read that one."
"Well I bet if I read it I wouldn't find any surprises." Smallville replied swiftly without a hint of doubt.
Clark felt his heart begin to pound harder in his breast "So you're saying that everything I dreamt ..."
"Was real, everything you dreamt was my life and it was your life. In your journals you said that your life with Lana felt like a lie, a fabrication; that only in the dreams and in your rooms at the fortress did things feel genuine, did you feel like you really belonged." Clark swallowed hard and nodded "Well you were right; someone caused this to happen, they literally stole our lives and now there are two of us." He sipped his coffee and looked into his twin's eyes "Jor-el said that we have to reverse or correct whatever was done, and then we'll merge back into one person rather than being two separate entities, and once that's done everything will be returned to how it should be."
"Who?" Clark asked shortly "Did Jor-el tell you who did it?" He could feel his temper ratch up that some unknown person had messed with his life, causing him to live in misery for years.
"Jor-el didn't tell me but I have a pretty good idea who it was." Smallville replied simply, smiling faintly at the astounded faces turned to him; and shaking his head continued "Yesterday I had a suspicion; today I'm sure that I'm right. I didn't say anything before because I wasn't sure that I had the right to do so, but now that's all changed." All three looked at each other then turned back to him with perplexed frowns "Look whoever did this was obviously hoping to change everything. I don't believe they intended to create two Clarks, I think they intended to change my past and their past to suit what they wanted. However they totally screwed up, and now we have to clean up their mess because if we don't there will always be two Clark's living in one world, and neither of our lives will be right."
"Sweetie, you said that you have a suspicion, can you tell us about that?" Martha asked softly, feeling overwhelmed by everything that had been revealed so far.
"Yes." He nodded "Eight years ago last month, Lois was in the medical centre unconscious when you eloped with Lana..." He turned to Clark and received an uncomfortable nod in reply "But none of you ever found out what happened to Lo, what caused it did you?"
Martha and Clark shook their heads, but Chloe could remain silent no longer "You know what happened."
"Yeah I do." He swept a look around at all three and quietly told them "Last month you, me and Lois came here to stay at the farm for a week." He turned to address Chloe then turned to sweep all of them in his gaze bringing them into the story "When we got engaged mom insisted on throwing us a party, and Lo wanted it to be held here. Well the party was a week away but when Lois woke up the morning after we arrived she wasn't my fiancée; she was 20 year old Lois inhabiting my fiancés body."
"WHAT!" Although it was the voices of the women that rang through the kitchen, all three wore the face of shocked amazement.
Clark felt stunned; the revelations were coming too thick and fast and he didn't know if he could keep up. Last month he'd dreamt that Lois had been lost to him, but those dreams hadn't been clear. They'd been confusing and frightening but not distinct enough for him to understand them, and now he felt just as shocked as the women.
Smallville bobbed his head at their looks of astonishment "Yeah, so I had the 20 year old Lois in my 28 year old fiancés body, and it was while we were wondering how it happened that you..." he turned to Chloe "...remembered the time when Lois had been unconscious in the hospital. So now we knew that while Lois' body was in the medical centre back in 2007, she was actually in her older self's body with us in 2015." He paused to sip his coffee, and held up his hand at their impatient expressions.
"So to put you in the picture, the three of us were trying to figure out how to send her back; Lois meanwhile had just come from the time that Lana was engaged to Lex, and I was making a complete jerk of myself over her. Well Lois was less than pleased to find out we were engaged, and she was hell bent on trying to find a way to retain her memories so that she could get Lana and I back together when she returned to her own time, to avoid being stuck with me herself." He gave a self deprecating grin and didn't miss the amused looks on the faces surrounding him "And then Lo decided to hedge her bets and came up with another plan just in case she couldn't retain her memories. She tried to get Lana and I back together while she was with us in the future, even though I was engaged to her older self and our party was less than a week away."
"You've gotta be kidding" Chloe asked with a smile.
"Oh no even I couldn't make this stuff up." He flashed a smile and noticed that everyone was grinning in return "She was throwing Lana and I together and forget subtle, Lo really tried but she just couldn't do it. She tried talking about our past relationship as if we were the greatest couple in history; she cooed about how happy Lana and I were back in the day; knowing that was a bald faced lie." He shot a quick grin at Chloe "You soon put a stop to that but Lois wasn't going down without a fight." He quickly reiterated the conversation between the two women in the Talon; Lois trying to romantically play up his youthful relationship with Lana while Chloe butted in with talk of AC. By the time he'd finished telling the tale he was chuckling; at the time he hadn't been amused but could now see the humour in the situation.
All three were laughing helplessly at hearing the tale "She actually did that and thought she was being subtle?" Chloe choked out between chuckles.
"Oh yeah, and that was only the beginning. God it was hard to stay depressed around the woman, she really thought she was being cunning. Lois is a great reporter, one of the best but she's a lousy actress because she's much too straight forward." They all nodded in accord, their smiles wide at imagining Lois trying to be subtle and failing abysmally.
"Look let me fill you in on everything otherwise I'll never get the chance to finish ok?" They nodded eagerly, looking forward to hearing what had happened.
He started from the beginning, filling them in on everything that happened and they listened attentively. They could see the pain in his eyes at the harsh things Lois had said to him the first day, laughed at Lois calling her older self Joanne and his younger self Skipper. Their eyes shone with laughter at her less than subtle attempts to throw him and Lana together, their amusement swiftly faded when he told them about Lois dying, they chuckled when he described Lois' cake and chicken cooking episodes, they frowned when he told them about their memories being wiped, and they smiled when he described his fiancés return and their subsequent engagement party. When he stopped talking, they all sat quietly pondering all that had been revealed.
"Lois died?" Chloe asked carefully, getting back to the part of the story that was locked in her mind.
"Yeah, and if you check her medical records I can guarantee there'll be two spikes on her chart showing the incident." He turned to address Clark and gave a smile of chagrin "I didn't remember this until last month so you might not either but..." he turned and looked at all of them "...8 years ago when Lois was unconscious in the hospital, although I was sorry for her I was grateful that it wasn't Lana." He finished softly not missing the hurt look in Chloe's eyes or the remembered feeling of shame in his twins. He turned to his mom and saw sympathetic understanding, and reaching out picked up one of Chloe's hands and his twin followed suit "Chloe..." She lifted her eyes to his "I'm sorry Chlo, I was a selfish jerk..."
"We were." Clark cut in pressing her hand.
Smallville nodded "I apologised to Lois about it when she came back, and I have apologised to you as well but you don't remember that anymore, so I'm sorry Chlo."
Clark echoed his twin "I didn't remember it until now; I don't think I wanted to remember it, but I'm sorry too Chloe."
She nodded, pressed both of their hands and smiled gently "It's ok, it was a long time ago now and I can see that you are both sorry, so let's just forget about it." They nodded and after giving her a grateful smile, squeezed her hands before letting go. "I guess you must have felt pretty lousy when you remembered it; given that Lois was your fiancée I mean." She asked Smallville quietly.
He nodded with feeling "I felt... well I'm sure you can guess how I felt; but apart from that I also remembered that while Lois was in the hospital I had premonitions, but because my focus was on Lana I connected everything with her, not Lois."
At their curiosity he explained the instances including running to the mansion to check on Lana when Lois died. Clark nodded in accord, his eyes holding one of recollection, shooting him a quick empathetic look, Smallville continued "After Lois was brought back to life and she was sleeping, the three of us were talking about what could have caused her to die in the first place and Chlo, that's when you figured out it was done by magic." When Chloe's mouth opened, he held up a hand, and gave them a concise run-down of their conversation bringing them fully into the picture and the conclusions they had come to and finished by adding the rider "Whoever had caused her to be in the medical centre had killed her and then brought her back to life. We didn't know who it was, we didn't know if it was an accident or not, but we did think that ultimately either someone wanted revenge against Lo for a story she'd written, or they were trying to control Superman because Lois is known as his girlfriend thanks to the media."
"But we never found out?" Martha asked softly.
He shook his head in the negative "No, for the past month all of us including the JLA have tried to figure it out, we've kept an ear out for any news but we couldn't find anything." He smiled at his mom and continued "10 days before Christmas I came here to set up the tree and you told me that I had to let it go or it would end up destroying me." Martha's lips curved in with sympathy "I didn't want to but I knew that not only would you be right, but more than likely I'd end up losing Lois by being too overprotective of her."
They all nodding in understanding and nodding in return he brought their conversation full circle "I told you that Lana was trying to help us figure out how to send Lois back, and that she suggested maybe Lex could have been responsible, but his younger self just didn't know it at the time." They bobbed their head "Well I don't think she was helping at all, I now think she was lying about helping the whole time."
"Why, I mean what makes you think that?" Chloe asked shaking her head a little.
"I didn't think Lex was responsible, but I wasn't willing to overlook anything, so I went to see him as Superman last month, while Jo was in the future with us." He grimaced slightly "Believe me when I tell you that Lex has no love for Lana or Clark, but even though he doesn't like Lois or Superman he does respect them. He was straight with me when he talked about all of us, and by the time I left I was certain he wasn't responsible, but I still didn't take him off the list entirely."
He paused as Lex's words ran through his head once again, the three looked at each other wondering what Lex could have said to put the look of remorse in Smallville's eyes, but no one spoke, just waited quietly for him to begin again. He sighed, ran a hand over his face and once again took up the tale.
"Anyway, Lo and I spend a lot of weekends here at the farm with mom, and the one where I came to set up the tree before Christmas was no different. But that weekend Lois came down with the flu and it was while she recuperating that she found a letter on her computer to herself from Jo. We talked about it a few days later and that's when she told me everything." He paused to take a deep breath before continuing "Before Lo and I started dating, the three of us came here for a long weekend about a year after I returned from my training. Well Lois told me that she knew from that first visit that Lana was in love with me, but she hadn't said anything because she felt it wasn't anyone's business. She'd felt uncomfortable around Lana and didn't know why, but after we started dating she could feel Lana's resentment towards her."
He paused, ran a hand through his hair and sighed "It took 20 months to convince Lois to date me, and during that time whenever I saw Lana she'd ask how my pursuit was going and subtly urge me to give up on Lo. So it was fairly easy to figure out that she resented Lois from the beginning, and even more so after we started dating." They all nodded disturbed by the picture he was painting "Lois said it was Jo's letter that opened her eyes to the full truth; and then she got me to read the letter." He blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair "Jo didn't hold back, she said straight out that Lana hated Lois, and she urged Lo to tell someone because she was worried that Lana could hurt her, and get away with ...well murder basically."
At the women's gasps he nodded, while Clark just stared with a deep frown of concentration on his face "After I read the letter Lois told me that she'd gone to see Lex, figuring that as he'd been married to Lana he'd know what she was really like. Well Lex told her that he believed Lana was capable of doing something; actually he told her that I could too but..."
"Are you sure that you should trust Lex's word?" Martha cut in, trying to play devil's advocate on Lana's behalf but also upset at what had been said about her son.
He threw his mom an understanding look but reminded her gently "Lex had reasons for saying what he did about me mom; you know what happened the night he got engaged to Lana..." She and Chloe nodded, Clark just looked ashamed; he continued softly "...well I wish I could say that my behaviour and attitude improved after they got married, but I can't."
He sighed and rolled his shoulders "But getting back to Lana, both Jo and Lois believed that Lana was dangerous, but she'd gone to see Lex to find out if her intuition was correct. Anyway, before she left his office Lex gave Lois a card with the name 'Wicca' on it. He didn't say anything and there was nothing on the card except for the name and a website, but Lo thought that considering what had happened last month was the result of magic, Lex had given her the card to help her figure it out. I didn't agree with that, but I did agree when she said it was worth looking into. However, between Christmas, being busy at work and Superman stuff, it was only the night before last that Lo had a chance to look at the website, and then she showed it to me. It was a magic shop...one that was owned by Lana." He finished quietly.
"Lana owned a magic shop and what happened to Lois 8 years ago, which affected her last month in your time was caused by magic." Chloe clarified in a voice soft with pique.
"Yes." He nodded in agreement and sat forward leaning his forearms on the table "The day after Christmas Lana came to the farm and I told her about Jo's letter, leaving out the bit about her being capable of hurting Lois. When I asked her outright if she was in love with me and hated Lois because we were together she said yes." He clenched his teeth as his anger began to rise "Anyway I told her that we shouldn't have any further contact, Lois was my priority and I wasn't going to allow her to be uncomfortable, knowing how Lana felt about her. I felt sorry for Lana but told her goodbye because as sorry as I was for her, I wasn't so sorry that I was willing to have her around, or let her hurt Lois."
He paused and took a deep breath then turned to face Martha "Mom, you told Lois and I that we had to be careful, not to trust Lana because she could see herself as the woman scorned and if so, who knew what she would do." Martha felt uneasy at what she was hearing but tried to keep her face clear and took his hand hoping to impart some comfort to him. He smiled shakily and pressed her hand before finishing up his narrative in a quiet voice "The night before last Lo and I found out that Lana owned a magic shop, yesterday I was suddenly here meeting a man who's my twin, who married Lana when Lois was in the medical centre 8 years ago, and today I find out that because someone's tampered with the past, Clark and I are the same person and our lives have effectively been stolen." He finished then sat back in the chair, picked up the now cold coffee and sipped before putting it back down.
"You think Lana did it?" Clark asked forthrightly.
"Yes I do." He replied bluntly.
"I think you're right, especially considering that you mentioned in your world..."
"My time." Smallville cut in swiftly.
Clark nodded "Sorry, in your time Lana refused to take you back and married Lex, and in mine she initially turned me down but came back later and we eloped." He raked a hand through his hair and felt both his stomach and heart churn.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you say anything about this yesterday sweetie?" Martha asked quietly.
"I couldn't mom, at that stage I was still under the belief that I was in a different world, and considering Lana married Clark when she was 19, I figured she couldn't have known what her older self had done. I thought it was possible she wasn't responsible since she would have had no reason to try and steal me from Lois, seeing that she was already married to Clark." He rubbed his brow shakily "But now I think that's exactly what she tried to do. I don't know what she hoped to gain last month by switching Lo with her younger self, but I think ultimately she was just trying to change our pasts so that we did end up together. Whatever she tried this time partially worked because Clark and her are married, but she messed up. Not only are there two of us, but I know what my life should be like, and Clark's been dreaming about how his life should be because he is me."
They all chewed over what he said and nodded in agreement; turning to his twin he addressed him "Clark I think it's obvious the dreams you were having were memories of our life. Either Lana couldn't suppress them, she didn't think that she needed to since your life was going to be changed anyway, or she never gave a thought to the fact that you'd have any memories at all. But when your mind wasn't active, when it was at peace and asleep, your memories of our life leaked out into your dreams. I think if you try to access them now they won't feel like a waking dream anymore, because you now know they are real memories."
Clark swallowed hard "I...for so long I've felt a guilty for enjoying the dreams, but I didn't want them to stop either. I tried not to think about them consciously but there were times that I did." He looked down at the table and confessed softly "Whenever Lois was around I remembered us in the dreams, or if I had a particularly happy or sad dream I couldn't stop from thinking about it during the day, but I've tried not to."
He looked up and saw that his twin had a sad smile on his face, then turned to his mom and encountered a look of sorrow. His eyes flew to the window as his mind churned wondering what he could say that would remove the look from his mom's face. But when she began to speak, he quickly swung back to face her, realising that she wasn't upset with him, she had been upset for him.
Martha reached over, placed her hand over his and squeezed gently, "Sweetie, I think you should try. If all of this is true and by everything that's been said I believe that it is, then I agree that both of your lives have been stolen, and you have nothing to feel guilty about."
Chloe nodded emphatically at Martha's words "Your mom's right Clark, if you were dreaming about a life with Lois then you have nothing to feel bad about, because she was your fiancée before everything was changed." She couldn't suppress the anger in her voice and didn't even try, turning to Smallville she addressed him "Do you think that Lana knows?"
"Of course she knows Chloe, she did this." Clark said quietly.
"No Clark, older Lana did this, but for all we know her younger self might not have any knowledge of what happened." Smallville corrected just as quietly "Lana was 19 when she married you, and we don't know how older Lana changed things. She could have planted a subliminal message in her younger counterparts head, and Lana really might not have any idea that her older self was responsible for what happened last month, or know anything about what's happening right now."
Clark nodded shortly but still couldn't suppress his anger at Lana. He wanted to know if his wife was aware of everything, and wondered how in hell they were going to find out. If Lana had full knowledge of everything she'd never admit it and unless she did that, trying to find out how to fix it was going to be nigh on impossible.
Smallville turned and addressed his mom and Chloe "I know you probably haven't because more than likely after what Clark and I have already revealed you would have said something by now. But have either of you had any dreams, flashes, anything about ...well everything being wrong or different?" Both men looked at the women and neither was surprised when the ladies shook their heads but couldn't stop the small feeling of disappointment.
"No, I'm sorry honey; I haven't had any dreams or anything else."
"Neither have I, sorry guys."
Martha chewed her lip, her mind ticking over and then asked the question that she was afraid she already knew the answer to "Clark..." when both her sons turned to her she smiled minutely "Sorry, um..." reaching over for Smallville's hand she picked it up and squeezed so both boys would know who she was addressing "...this is your world..." He nodded "...that means everyone who's here are the same people...including Lois." She finished softly and apologetically.
He swallowed and nodded, and the realisation slammed into Chloe and Clark at what Martha had revealed, and Smallville had already known.
"Lois who is Oliver's girlfriend now, is your Lois; she was your fiancée wasn't she?" Chloe asked with sympathy, and at his abrupt nod she blew out a breath "But because everything's changed, she doesn't know about the two of you."
"Yes she is and no she doesn't." He replied in low tones "It was while we were outside on the porch that I realised that my fiancée is now Oliver's girlfriend." She nodded in understanding of just why he'd looked so wretched before he'd stalked to the barn.
They sat in silence until Smallville asked outright "Do you think we should tell Lois."
"No." At Chloe's blunt response they all looked at her with curiosity, she bit her lip but continued bravely hoping that what she was going to say wouldn't completely deflate the men "Lois is happy with Oliver. She's not going to just accept the fact that she should be engaged to you, when you've been married to Lana for the last 8 years, and the two of you have never been anything more than friends."
Martha agreed with a slow head nod and the men while sad, accepted that Chloe was right but it was Smallville who confirmed it "You're right Chlo, I know Lois and she can be extremely stubborn and inflexible. She won't just accept that someone's messed with her life while she's been unaware of it; she'll just think it's a load of crap."
Clark felt slightly deflated but couldn't give up hope. Now that he knew the truth, now that he felt free to talk about what had been going on in his life, he couldn't just bottle down the rising emotion in his heart. He was still angry about what had been done, but felt liberated, as if the chains that had bound him for years were loosening and would soon be gone.
"So what do we tell Lois when she arrives?" Martha asked.
Smallville closed his eyes for a moment and sighed "We lie and tell her what we thought was true last night; that I'm here from another universe and I need help to get home." When his mom smiled and patted his hand, he smiled in return grateful that she wasn't angry about having to lie, but he hated the necessity of doing it anyway, especially to Lois.
"I was thinking, your mom and I don't remember anything being different but Lois might." Chloe put forward softly and at the swift looks thrown in her direction continued "Clark had dreams, so there's nothing to say that Lois hasn't been having them as well."
Smallville frowned slightly "But if you and mom never sensed anything was wrong, why do you think Lois would?"
Chloe wasn't one to give up "You and Lois were most affected by what happened, so she might have had dreams like Clark did, or felt that things were slightly off but couldn't quite put her finger on what." She looked at all of them in turn hoping they agreed with her.
"I might only have had the dreams because Smallville and I were split in two though Chloe. Before this happened we were one person, so all this time I've been dreaming of my life before it was changed and taken from me." Clark reminded her, but even though he was putting forward the argument, he still couldn't suppress the burst of hope that Lois could have dreamt of their life together just as he had.
"He's right Chloe, if Lois has been dreaming about me, or our life together, she might not be inclined to say anything. Lo's not comfortable with 'woo woo' stuff as she calls it, plus you said it yourself she's happy with Oliver. She won't accept that we should be together, especially given that at this point in time, we never have been." Smallville said softly sending his friend a smile of thanks for trying.
"They're right dear." Martha said quietly "And if we're not going to tell Lois the truth, then how do we ask her if she's been having dreams without alerting her to why we want to know, and then finding out what kind of dreams she's been having."
Chloe's eyes moved from one to the other as they spoke then put forward another suggestion "Ok, well we can make it like a conversation. We can start talking about dreams we've had and get Lo to join in, or we can say something about...I don't know, how our lives aren't the way we imagined they were going to be when we were in school. That way we can find out what we want to know without making Lois feel ambushed."
"The second idea won't work because you wanted to be a reporter and you are, and Clark and I wanted to marry Lana and he is."
Chloe rolled her eyes in exasperation "Hell Smallville we're going to be lying to her anyway, so why not take it all the way and lie about this as well. We can make up someone and mention how they said their life isn't the way they thought it was going to be when they were younger, or we can say that you and Lana aren't married and that's what you thought was going to happen when you were a kid; or we can use the first suggestion." She blew out an irritated breath "Tell me truthfully, do the two of you want to know or not?"
The two men looked at each other, Clark nodded but Smallville was undecided "If she's been dreaming of our life but still chose to be with Oliver, then I don't think I want to know." He said softly looking down at the table.
"Smallville, if she's been dreaming of your life together of course she was going to want to stay with Oliver." His eyes lifted to hers in confusion "As far as Lo's concerned you've been off the market for 8 years, happily married to Lana." She replied gently.
He nodded in understanding, but was still undecided as to whether he wanted to know or not, but ultimately came to realise that he needed to know. Clark had the dreams; he needed something from Lois no matter how small. He knew it was a long shot, but he had to know that something of their relationship had survived Lana's machinations, even if it was just something that was locked in his beloved's subconscious.
"Do you think Lois has been having dreams?" Clark asked in a restrained but hopeful voice.
"I don't know but it's possible. She might have done but they may not have been like yours; but even if she hasn't had dreams, every now and again she might have had a flash or something similar." They bobbed their heads uncertainly so Chloe tried to clarify her thoughts better "What I mean is that something could have happened, it didn't have to be anything big or even of major significance, but it could have caused Lois to have a flash of her life with you, sort of like déjà vu."
"But wouldn't she have said something?" He asked with a frown.
She shook her head firmly and scoffed "No way! Think about it, enough flashes of a different life and someone like Lo would probably think that if she talks about it, people will laugh at her assuming she's talking about reincarnation or something." They all nodded in agreement at her assessment "We know that we're not talking about reincarnation, but that is the connotation others would put on it. Hell Lois could think that and wonder if she's going nuts, but until we find out we won't know."
"Ok, so we have to get her talking and find out if she's had dreams or flashes without her suspecting why we want to know, and without her feeling too afraid to speak up in case we laugh at her." Smallville frowned and shook his head "And I know what Lois is like, so I have no idea how in the hell we're going to be able to do it."
They all looked at each other and shrugged helplessly "We'll worry about it later." Chloe nodded decisively "Maybe it'll come to us when she's here." She tacked on hopefully and at the dry look from Smallville, flushed pink "Oh leave me alone."
He grinned, shared a smile with his mom and twin then frowned when Clark suddenly blanched "What's wrong?"
"I just realised, I know I should have put it together before but I didn't and...god." His head drooped down then lifted and they all saw the simmering anger in his eyes "Before all this happened Lois was your fiancé, hell she was my fiancé right?" Smallville nodded in confirmation "It just hit me. Everything you said about what happened last month has been stewing in my mind and I just realised...' He trailed off trying to reign in his anger but found it getting higher instead of abating "We were the same person; which means that up until yesterday I was you and we were both engaged to Lois." Smallville nodded again "But because Lana changed things, for me the last 8 years have really happened because I've lived it, but realistically we were only split yesterday." His twin nodded for a third time "So while Lois' body was in the hospital in 2007, she was actually here with us now, and I was trying to convince young Lois; Jo that my feelings for Lana were just puppy love and long over, but back in 2007 I was busy eloping with Lana." He scrubbed his hands hard over his face, then pushed his chair back and paced around the kitchen. "She knew. Somehow Lana knew that I was engaged to Lois in the future, and she got me to marry her when I was just a stupid kid who didn't know any better."
"Clark..." Martha said quietly feeling her heart hurt at the self condemnation on his face.
"She knew mom, she must have known." He growled cutting her off.
"We can't assume that." Smallville pointed out.
"Then why did she change her mind?" He flashed back, the temper flaring hotter in his eyes "When Lois was unconscious in the medical centre we both begged Lana to take us back, but at that point there wasn't two Clarks, there was only one. Our lives only diverged when Lana came back to me that afternoon and we eloped." He finished bitterly raking his hand through his hair before striding back to fall into the seat at the kitchen table "She had to have known."
"Honey, I think we have to find out before we condemn her." When he looked up, the anger in his eyes was still visible, but the pain was fast overriding it. Reaching out Martha picked up his hand "I'm not saying she doesn't know, but we do have to find out first."
"And we can't confront her if she does." Chloe posed quietly, when they all swung towards her she grimaced "I think it's safe to assume that if your wife..." She broke off at his slight moue "...sorry Clark but she is. Anyway if she is aware of everything, then I think it's also likely that she would have ensured to retain her memories of her life when she married Lex instead of you; after all forewarned is forearmed." They bobbed their heads "Ok, so if she has memories of her other life for lack of a better word, then we also need to know if she still has the power to screw around with people's lives if and when she pleases."
"You're right dear; that was 8 years ago for us, so she might not have thought she needed to keep up with the magic stuff. After all she's been married to Clark all this time, and that was what she wanted, but we can't take the chance that she's not capable of still doing something that could make things even worse." Martha concurred quietly.
Smallville's eyes widened "God, she killed Lo and now she's messed with my life, but if she thinks we're onto her more than likely it will be Lois that suffers because instead of resenting me, she hates Lois."
"Yes she does." Chloe said quietly and when all eyes swung towards her she shrugged uncomfortably "I've seen the way she looks at Lois, I didn't want to believe it was hate but with everything that you've told us, and remembering Oliver's party, I know now that's exactly what she feels; hate."
Martha nodded in accord "Yes, I saw it at Oliver's party as well and like Chloe I didn't want to think it could be that, but yes it is."
"What happened at Oliver's party?" Smallville asked with a slight frown.
"Nothing that's just it, Lois didn't do anything, but when she was dancing with Clark I saw Lana look at Lo, and the look on her face was distinctly unpleasant, no that's too tame." She raised her hand, closed her eyes and brought that night back into her mind "Intense resentment that's what I saw, but it came and went so fast that it barely registered." She opened her eyes and nodded firmly "I don't see Lana much as I don't come here very often, but I still knew that she was aware that Clark wasn't happy. However it was only at Oliver's party that I realised Lana knew her husband was in love with Lois and was upset about it, but I didn't think about it any deeper than that because Lo's with Oliver and doesn't come here much anyway."
Martha once again nodded in agreement "I've felt sorry for Lana because she was trying so hard to make the marriage work despite the odd's stacked against her but now..." She sighed deeply and shook her head "...and yes it was while you were dancing with Lois that I saw the look Chloe's talking about. What was odd is that Lana's animosity seemed to be directed at Lois, and yet it was clear that it wasn't her that was 'wearing the willow' for you but the other way around." She patted Clark's hand when the colour flooded his face "Sweetie it wasn't obvious, I'm just your mom and can read you very well."
"I noticed but then I've known you for a long time, and I already knew how you felt." Chloe put in with a small smile.
He nodded and asked quietly "Do you think Lois knows?"
Both ladies shook their heads but it was Martha who spoke "No honey, I don't think Lois has any idea at all."
He blew out a deep breath and rubbed shaking fingers over his brow "So what we do?"
"We find out what Lana knows and we keep it to ourselves, we find a way to change everything back without alerting her to what we're doing, we find a way to take any goddamn power away from her, and then we fix it." Smallville had started out calmly but his voice had grown stronger and by the time he'd finished his earlier anger was clearly back and radiating in his voice.
Martha reached over, picked up his hand then looked down. Right now she was holding one hand of each of her sons trying to calm both their agitation but could understand their anger. She had one son who had been miserable for years, who had loved Lois for years and who had just found out that Lois had been his fiancé before his life was stolen.
Her other son, who was still the same son had been happy and in love until yesterday, but his fiancé was now someone else's girlfriend, Lois who had loved him yesterday, loved Oliver today because she had no idea their lives had even been tampered with. Her mother's heart hurt for both her boys and began to fill with anger at Lana, but she ruthlessly suppressed it. Anger would get her nowhere, but Clark was her son, her baby and she didn't take kindly to the knowledge that Lana had hurt her son for her own selfish ends, and used love as the excuse to do it.
Chloe rubbed her forehead and looked at the three people sitting around the table "Ok, to sum up we're going to tell Lois that Smallville is from an alternate universe, and we have to find out if she's had any dreams of her life with you."
Smallville took up the baton and supplied the next part "We also need to find out if Lana does have knowledge of everything and if she still has the power to mess with people's lives."
"And we need to find a way to stop her if still has the power, and then we need to find a way to change everything back." Martha put in softly.
"Anything else, like maybe solve world peace?" Clark asked lightly causing Martha and Smallville to lift their lips at his attempt at humour.
Noting the abstracted expression on Chloe's face, Martha let go of her son's hand and reached over to touch the younger woman fleetingly on the arm "Chloe, have you thought of something else we need to do?"
Chloe gave herself an internal mental shake and smiled slightly "No, sorry there's something..." She paused and ran her hand through her hair trying to explain "You know how it feels when there's something you should know; it could be important but you just can't quite remember it?" They all nodded "Well that's how I feel, like I'm trying to grasp onto a memory but its elusive and just out of reach."
"Don't think about it dear, if you let it go and don't try to force it, it will come to you." Martha suggested stolidly.
Chloe nodded, smiled and let it go.
Turning to his twin Smallville moved onto the next item "Clark have you told Lana that I'm engaged to Lois?"
He shook his head and quietly listened when Smallville explained their decision to keep it a secret from Lois to avoid hurting his feelings the previous night.
"Thanks, Lois probably would have found it funny and teased me, so thanks." Smiling slightly he sent them all a swift look of gratitude for their combined protection of his feelings.
"I still think it's a good idea if we keep it under our hats though." Smallville put forward and seeing their confusion he elaborated "Lois might not believe us, but if she's been having dreams like Clark and gets pissed off about it, she might confront Lana. If she hasn't been getting dreams she might not believe us but still think it's funny and inadvertently say something when Lana's around; we can't let her do either of those things." He took a deep breath and continued "We'll tell both of them that I'm from an alternate universe and we don't tell them that Lo and I were engaged. Right now we don't know what or how much Lana knows, and the last thing we need is for her to go after Lois if she finds out that Clark and I are the same person, and we're both aware of how our lives should be. Lo and Lana are unknown quantities at the moment, and we can't afford to set either of them off."
Everyone nodded "This is getting harder all the time." Chloe frowned.
"I know but we have to keep as much up our sleeves as possible until we know how to begin fixing everything."
They all nodded and with a sigh Clark stood up "I've got some chores to do around the farm, so I'd better get to it."
"Do you want some help?" Smallville offered, he nodded in reply and with a wave the two men left the kitchen and stepped outside.
Once on the porch, they looked at each other "Ok, well you know all the stuff that has to be done around here, so how about you take care of the livestock, I'll get the eggs and take them inside then and we can do whatever has to be done." Smallville nodded in agreement, the two separated and both were soon caught up in mindless busy work that both found essential at present.