Chapter 14

Setting the Stage

Hearing what Clark had just said to Lana, Martha turned back to face her son with a shocked look on her face. "You don't actually mean to tell Lana everything do you?"

"Yes, Mom. In case you haven't noticed, Lana and I are dating now. She has the right to know exactly who she's getting involved with." Clark paused and looked away from Martha briefly before returning his gaze to her. "Besides, if Lana and I are going to get involved, I need to know now, before we get too deep, if Lana can handle who and what I am. I don't think I could handle it if we got super-close and then she learned everything and then rejected me."

Rubbing one hand on Clark's back to relax him, Martha said, "Okay, I see your point. Just do one thing for me."

"What?"

"Be sure she's someone you can trust with your life before you tell her, because that's exactly what you're doing when you tell her this secret."

"I do trust her, Mom. After all, I'm already trusting her with my heart and that's much more fragile than my life."

After that, their thoughts turned to Jonathan. Martha stayed at the Talon to work the phone bank while Clark returned to the farm to begin searching all over again. At the farm, he met Lex, who apologized for not informing him about Roger Nixon and who also had something to help narrow the search: a map of cell phone towers around Smallville and the areas they serve. Since only one tower survived the storm, that drastically cut down the area that needed to be searched.

Clark thanked Lex for his help and called in some reinforcements in the form of Pete and Chloe. With such a small area to cover, he wanted to go slowly and bring his other abilities into play. Having Chloe and Pete along gave him two extra sets of eyes and brains. Clark figured he'd need all the help he could get. During the search, Clark apologized to Chloe for running out on her at the dance the night before.

"Uh, Chloe?" Once he had her attention, Clark added, "I've been wanting to apologize for leaving you at the formal."

"Oh! Didn't I tell you that leaving in the middle of a tornado to save a friend totally gets you off the hook? Besides, I know you'd do the same thing for me. I mean, you've done that once for me already."

"Huh?"

"Sean Kelvin?"

"Oh yeah."

Clark remembered that night clearly. Now that he thought about it, the parallels to his situation from last night were kind of eerie. In both cases, he had been on a first date of sorts and had left the girl he was with to save the life of the other. The next part of the conversation wasn't something he was looking forward to, but Chloe deserved to hear it from him.

"There's one difference in the two cases, Chloe," Clark said nervously as they walked side by side.

"What's that?"

"When I saved you from Sean, I was saving one of my closest friends. When I went after Lana last night…I was going after my girlfriend."

Chloe had seen the evidence the night before at the dance, so this wasn't too much of a shock, but that didn't make it hurt any less. The guy that she had loved from afar would remain out of her reach. It didn't seem fair to her, but life wasn't about being fair, so Chloe decided to repay his honesty with her own.

"I know, Clark. Anyone that saw you two dancing together last night knows. You two just…fit. I'm not going to pretend I'm not hurt, but I'm a big girl and I'll get over it. Individually, you and Lana are two of my closest friends and I wouldn't want to lose either of you over this."

While Clark was dealing with Chloe, Whitney walked across the street from his family's store to talk to Lana. She was taking a short break for lunch when he came in, so she pointed him to the seat across from her while she dug into her ham and swiss croissant sandwich.

After they exchanged pleasantries, Whitney said, "I know you don't have much time for yourself today, Lana, but I had Mom drive me to your house this morning to get my truck and it wasn't there. I figured you had driven it to work, but it's not here either. Umm, Lana…where is it?"

"I…I had a wreck."

"Are you okay?" Whitney was surprised but quickly gathered his wits. "Sorry, stupid question. If you're here, you're obviously okay. So…what happened?"

Lana wasn't sure just how much she could tell and still protect Clark, so she was picking her way carefully through what happened. "I was driving home, when I saw the tornadoes, so I tried to avoid them. I was paying so much attention to the tornadoes, that I didn't notice the flying mailbox until it hit the windshield." Whitney scrunched his shoulders in sympathy as he imagined the impact. "When I swerved to try and shake the mailbox loose, I drove into a ditch."

"What road is the truck on?" Whitney asked.

"Oh…I managed to get someone to move it last night. I'll have it taken to any body shop you want, just call me and I'll get it taken care of."

"Okay, Lana. Thanks. I'll call you later after Mom talks to the insurance agent."

In reality, Lana had no idea where the truck was. It had been in a ditch outside the north end of town when she had last seen it, but Clark might have moved it again later since it would be hard for her to explain what she was doing on the wrong end of town. All she knew was, she had to talk to Clark as soon as possible.

Late that afternoon, after Clark had rescued Jonathan and Nixon only to need to be rescued in turn by Lex and his gun, the two Kent men were making some hasty repairs to the farm. Martha had told Jonathan about Clark's intention to tell Lana everything and Jonathan had been waiting for a good time to bring it up. Sure that nightfall would bring a visit from Lana, Jonathan decided now was the time.

"Clark," Jonathan called out as he pounded his claw hammer into a fencepost. "Your Mom told me about what happened with you and Lana in the tornado."

"I saved her, but she saw everything." Knowing how well this next part would go over, Clark took a deep breath and prepared himself for his father's onslaught. "I've decided to share the rest of my secrets with her as soon as she's ready."

The two Kent men argued back and forth for quite some time, until Clark ended the argument by saying, "In the end, Dad, those secrets are mine. Mine to keep and mine to share."

Jonathan had no answer for that. Defeated, all he could say was, "I hope you're right about Lana, Son. Because it's your life if you're not."

That went well, Clark thought sarcastically. The entire conversation left Clark in a bad mood and he went to the loft after dinner to stew for a while. And that is where Lana found him late that night after she closed the Talon, sitting on the last set of steps leading to the top of the loft. In her hands was the lead box. She had wondered on the way over here what the box or the necklace could possibly have to do with Clark's secrets.

"What're you doing, Clark?" Lana asked. She had stopped at home to freshen up and change into something clean. She was wearing a pink blouse, blue jeans, tan boots, and her hair was held in place with a simple hair band.

"Thinkin'," Clark replied. He had also changed clothes before dinner, only he was wearing a gray t-shirt and blue jeans.

"About what?" Lana asked as she moved closer and sat beside him.

"Lots of things. About how drastically our relationship has changed the last few days, about how close I came to becoming a national curiosity, about how much my dad wants me to keep my secrets from you, but mostly, about how I'm going to tell you all of my secrets anyway."

Clark's hands were folded together in front of him and Lana put her left hand on top of his hands after shifting the lead box to her lap. She rubbed her fingers over the top of his and said, "I want to know you, Clark, but if this is causing you problems, I can wait."

"No, Lana, I've waited long enough to be with you. I'm not waiting any longer."