Chapter 36

"Something smells good," Clark said as he entered the kitchen.

"Doesn't it?" Lois whirled around with a wide grin on her face. "I'm actually doing it, Smallville. I'm cooking!"

Clark laughed. "Shall we call Perry so he can put out an extra edition?"

"Very funny."

"Where's mom?"

"Upstairs changing. Let's just say that flour is not my friend."

"But your day went okay? I mean, it does smell wonderful in here."

"Clark, what's wrong?"

"Why would anything be wrong?" he said as he turned away to set down the stack of books he'd been assigned for the night.

Wiping her hands on a dish cloth, Lois went over to him. When he didn't turn around immediately, she grabbed his shoulder and turned him to face her, saying "Hey, look at me!"

Their eyes met and she felt her heart sink. "It's bad, isn't it?" She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. "Okay, lay it on me. I want to hear it."

"Lois, it's nothing. Really."

"Now why don't I believe that? Come on, let's go outside to talk."

"But the cooking! Don't you need to watch it or something?" he asked sullenly.

She crossed to the bottom of the stairs and yelled, "Mrs. K.! Clark's here. We're going to step outside. Will the oven be okay?"

"Sure, Lois. I'll be right down. Almost finished."

"See! All taken care of. March, soldier!" And he allowed her to push him out the door, down the steps, and onto the gravel driveway. About ten feet from the back door, she ran around to get in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. "Okay, what did they say?"

He looked all around and up at the sky, avoiding her eyes at all costs and crossed his arms. "Nothing. The results of those tests aren't even ready."

She placed a hand on his chest, and immediately he backed slightly away from her. "Okay…" She drew out the word thoughtfully. "Then what is wrong?" She tilted her head to the side and placed her hands on his folded arms. His reaction was swift. Again, he backed away from her just a little, quickly stuffed both hands in his pockets, and he looked at the ground. It was quite plain to Lois; he was scared of even touching her. "Clark! If you don't start talking, I'm—"

"They tested my strength on Thursday night, then Friday night, and again this morning," he said quietly.

"I'll bet you passed."

That earned her a smile at least. "With flying colors. Lois, in two and a half days, I got stronger."

"Well, that's a good thing, surely?"

"No. I'm talking a lot stronger."

"Define 'a lot' for me," she demanded.

"Does 'I broke their machines' do it? Lois, I'm 24. All those books they've had me reading… There's something in one of them about how a human's body reaches its peak at 25, then you technically start dying. The cells throughout the body begin not to replace themselves at the same rate. Anyway it's some idea like that."

"You're worrying about dying at 24? Clark, that's just stupid! Besides, you keep telling me you're not human."

"Right. But suppose a Kryptonian's life span is different and that number of 25 is a little higher for me. I mean there was this guy I met …Dax-Ur…he came from Krypton and stayed here for over a hundred years. When I met him, he looked like he was maybe in his fifties, sixties at the most."

"You mean there's another super Kryptonian living on Earth? Clark, that's big news! Why didn't you—?"

He shook his head. "Brainiac killed him."

"How? But you're indestructible. He should be—?"

"He was living as a human, Lois. He had—" Clark stopped. The whole subject of Kryptonite had still not been covered. He just couldn't start it with talking about the blue version. "The point is what if this doesn't stop when I'm 25? What if my peak isn't then, but much later? Lois, since I was little, these abilities have increased in number, in … I thought flying was the last… I just don't know where or when it's going to stop."

"Smallville, hug me," she said, and he wondered how she could put such sweetness into a literal command.

He smiled and started to extend his arms to her, then paused. "Which kind do you want? Initiatory or retaliatory?"

"You're making up words, Kent. Just do what you're told."

And he did. His arms around her felt like home. Resting his chin upon the top of her head, he reveled in inhaling all the various scents that clung to her: her shampoo, that light cologne she always wore, the more recent smells of the various things he'd be having for dinner, and the one true, unique scent that screamed Lois Lane. One hand traveled up her back to play with her hair.

"Huh!"

"What?" The single utterance had awakened him as if from a trance.

"No difference. You aren't hurting me at all. How about that?" She looked up at him and grinned. "Now, moping over? Brooding done? Because there's a meatloaf in the oven of that kitchen that I made with these very talented hands. And you are the tasting dummy. So get your butt of steel in there and park yourself at the table, because your Teflon tummy has a job to do."

She was able to finish the sentence just barely, when Clark looked up from her to see a large caliber bullet heading straight for her back. With time frozen all around him, he followed the bullet to its source and found the man holding a long range rifle crouching in the tall grass at the farm's boundary. Thinking fast, Clark caught the bullet, allowed himself to slip back into the slowness of life around him, and pulled Lois downwards, twisting at the last moment so she was underneath him, lying flat on her back on the gravel.

"Lois, play dead," he said urgently.

Finding herself suddenly on the ground was a surprise. "What—?"

"Go limp!" He was covering her from the man's sight with his own body, wondering if he was going to take another shot, perhaps at him, but the sounds he was now hearing were sounds of the man getting into a car and starting the engine. He thought he'd done his job.

Lois stirred beneath him and he snapped at her, "Lois, just, for once, do what I tell you to do!"

"Okay, okay," she breathed, and, closing her eyes, she let her body relax.

He picked her up and carried her into the house, all for show, in case they were still being observed.

His mom panicked when she saw them. "Clark! Lois!"

"Hey, Mrs. K.!" Lois jumped down from his arms as soon as they were clear of the door. "I'm fine. But I have no idea what that was all about. Smallville, care to enlighten us?"

Clark was standing still, concentrating. He was listening and watching, his hearing tuned to a cell conversion from a mile away, his vision powers stretching themselves by first seeing through the wall and then into the far distance.

"Smallville?"

"Lois, it was the same guy. The hitman. What was his name, Benson?"

"You're kidding! He's in jail."

"Not right now, he isn't, and I'm getting a little tired of putting him in there too, only to find him out again and coming after you."

"Well, go!" Lois waved her arms at him. "What are you waiting for?"

"He's on his way to Metropolis. We've got time to eat." He turned to refocus on her. "Besides, I can always find him later."

"What?!" Lois was surprised. "Clark, he tried to kill me. Again. Call me crazy, but I think it's probably more important to get him locked up again than it is to taste my cooking."

"You're not crazy, but, according to him, you're dead," he said thoughtfully, "and I think maybe you should stay that way for now."

"Wait a minute, what's going on in that brain of yours?" Lois could see the wheels turning behind his eyes.

"Lois, he got out a second time of a Metropolis jail. He must have had help."

"Inside help," she supplied.

"Exactly. And Senator Jurgens is essentially ruined, even if he doesn't end up going to prison. He'd have no reason to risk having someone kill you now."

Martha spoke from the bottom of the stairs. "This has to go higher."

"And what's higher than a senator?" Clark turned to look at his mom.

"A cabinet member? I don't even want to think of any position higher than that." Martha shook her head.

"Or a Supreme Court Judge?" Clark suggested. "An extra pick on that for any president would change the make-up of the court, and affect—"

"Supreme Court rulings for decades," Martha finished for him.

"Lois, there's got to be something you found out that you are not even aware you know."

"Oh!"

"What is it?"

"The rolls!" Lois ran back into the kitchen to put them in the oven.

"Mom, I think you've created a monster."