"It will take a little bit of time to come to terms with it."

Lizzie listened to Clark as she broke the fourth glass of the evening. She stood in his apartment, still not sure what had happened to her as Clark decided to pour her a glass of wine. He ran his hand down the small of her back as he did so. She kept herself quiet; watching as he easily pulled a glass from the cupboard.

"How long does it take?" she wondered, her voice low as she did so.

Clark shrugged. "It took me a while to be delicate with things, but I was a baby. I learnt at a young age."

"I guess," Lizzie lamely agreed. "I don't think he is going to help me, Clark."

"I know."

"So...I'm stuck like this," Lizzie sighed as Clark dropped his hand from her, his gaze questioning as he looked up to her, his brow arched as he did so. "I didn't mean anything bad about it."

"I know," Clark promised, pressing his lips into her hair before he handed pulled a straw out of the cupboard and dropped it in the wine glass. He looked down at her, a small smirk on his face as she looked up to him and laughed hollowly, nudging him in the shoulder and shoving him a fair distance from her.

"What?" Clark wondered. "I don't want you touching my wine glasses and breaking all of them."

"You ass," Lizzie complained, bending over and sipping the alcohol throw the straw. "I need to learn then."

"You do," Clark said, a small compliment coming from him as Lizzie dared to pick up another glass. She managed not to break this one and she smiled once, content with no more shattered glass for the evening.

Clark took a few steps back to watch her, his arms folded over his chest as he contemplated all that had just happened. This was not what he had wanted for Lizzie. He never thought that she would be like him. He never considered that she would similar to him.

"What is it?" Lizzie wondered as she turned around, the glass held lightly in her hands. "I know that you're thinking of something, Clark."

He nonchalantly shrugged at her, shaking his head back and forth.

"I'm just worried, Liz." Clark admitted. "You've been flying through the skies dressed as yourself. Someone is bound to recognise you. They will hunt you down until they find out who you are. Look at what they tried to do to me, Liz."

She took a moment to gulp loudly, sipping on the wine as she peered over it to look at Clark.

"I wish that you would have stayed on the rooftop," Clark whispered. "I don't want this for you, Lizzie. I don't want them to look at you...like Whitney used to look at me...I don't want you to go through what I went through."

She placed the glass down and moved over to Clark, daring to wrap her arms around his waist. He inhaled sharply before twisting his hand into her limp hair, pressing her cheek against his cheek as his other hand rested on her back. She said nothing for a few moments, deciding what she could say to Clark.

"I'm scared," she finally whispered. "I don't want this, Clark...I know how hard it has been for you...but...I don't want to fly or anything else. I leave that to you."

"You don't have to use them like I do," Clark promised her. "You don't need to don a cape and help me. That is not what I want for you, Lizzie."

"But we'll get through this, won't we?" Lizzie checked with Clark. "We'll find a way through it all."

"Of course we will," Clark said, his chin resting on top of her head. "We always have done."

...

"Clark!"

Lizzie called for him as soon as he re-entered the apartment after saving some civilians somewhere. He found her sat on the sofa with her laptop on her lap. Locking the doors to the balcony; he walked to the sofa and slipped down next to her.

"I'm on YouTube," she complained to him. "Clark, people are commenting about me. They know who I am...everyone who works at LexCorp knows me. How can I get out of this? How can I avoid it?"

"You can't," Clark weakly replied.

The evidence was on her laptop screen. It was staring him in the face. There was no way he could deny anything that had happened.

"What about you?" Lizzie began to worry. "If they see you with me then they'll be able to figure out who you are, Clark. They'll see it like Lex did. You know that he will be spouting about whom you are and who I am."

Clark ran his hand down the back of his neck as he heard her say that. If the press wanted something then they would find it. Clark could tell Lizzie that much. He took a moment to wrap his arm around her shoulders, feeling the tension which sat there. He knew that she was scared. She was petrified about what would happen to her and him.

"Oh God," Lizzie complained, almost on the verge of hyperventilation. "I've ruined everything...I've ruined it all..."

"No," Clark sternly replied. "You weren't to know what he would do to you. You had no idea what would happen, Lizzie."

"But you warned me," she protested. "You told me that he was trouble."

"I didn't think he would have done this to you," Clark commented. "I never thought that he would go this far. I didn't think it would be possible."

"And now...now we're...I'm..."

"Sh," Clark soothed her. "Lizzie, look at me."

He drew her gaze back to his with the small movement of a finger under her chin. He looked down at her, his orbs intense as he did so. She stared back as he pushed the tears from her cheeks.

"You are not to blame for any of this, and I won't let you beat yourself up over it. Do you understand me? Neither of us wanted this, I know. But it happened, and we will deal with it as well as we can do."

"I know," Lizzie sniffed.

Clark said nothing for a moment as he heard the phone ring in his apartment. He pecked her on the cheek before answering it.

"Clark Kent! What have you done to Lizzie?"

"Hi, mom," Clark drawled back. "I guess you've heard."

"Heard?" Martha snapped the word back to him, continuously pacing up and down in her living room, the cord from the telephone following her as she went. "Clark, the press are camped outside her apartment and are waiting for her to come out."

"What?" Clark snapped.

"Some old PA of Lex Luthor's told them it was her. I suppose a good sum was paid for it."

Lizzie heard the information from the phone, her ears picking up on every piece of noise audible. She closed her eyes and closed her laptop, placing it on the floor for a few moments. She pulled her legs into a ball and inhaled sharply, resting her chin on her knees as Clark began to worry.

"Right," Clark mumbled. "I see."

"You need to get her out of Metropolis, Clark. She can't be handling this well. I remember you when you were younger. How did this happen? Is it something to do with you two...well...consummating the relationship?"

"No," Clark replied, a small red blush on his face. "It has nothing to do with that, mom. Lex stole Zod's body. He managed to make blood cells like Krytponians and injected Lizzie with it before taking the plunge himself. He had one antidote to change back and I used it on him...Lizzie...he won't tell her how to make any more of it."

"Bastard!" Martha snapped and Lizzie chuckled at hearing her.

"I know," Clark numbly agreed.

"If they've found her apartment then they are bound to find yours soon, Clark."

"No one apart from Lex knew of our relationship."

"People will start to claim they've seen Lizzie. They'll tell the press and the press will find you. It is only a matter of time, sweetie."

"Where can we go?" Clark wondered; his voice low as he did so. "What can we do, mom?"

"Bring her back to Smallville for a while," Martha said. "You two can stay with me for a while if you need to. Her mom has called me and she is worrying. She says she can't get hold of Lizzie. I'll tell Ellie that she's fine."

"And how long will we be able to hide there?" Clark wondered from Martha. "No one knows who I am. I don't want anyone to know who Lizzie is. You know that they will want her for questioning like they did me."

"Sometimes you need to figure these things out together," Martha forced herself to shrug. "Just get on the first plane home, Clark."

"Okay," Clark agreed with his mother. He bid her goodbye and looked to Lizzie.

She was already stood up and ready to go. She wanted out for a while. She needed out for a while. Clark smiled at her and the pair of them began to pack a bag so that they could return home for Smallville; the place it had all started.

...

A/N: So thanks to everyone reading and all my reviewers! There will be more to come...but, you will have to wait for 10 days as I leave for Greece tomorrow morning! I do hope you will review in the meantime and stick with me!