Author's note: Once again, I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to my betas, Leela and Artemis. Their hard work has made this a much better fic.

(Our heroes work on their plan to restore the Earth that was ruined by the invading Kryptonians.)

By the time we left the Fortress in the late evening, we'd settled on a plan of attack. Jor-El had confirmed that our plan was possible, in theory at least.

The first part would be Dr. Klein's. Bernie would come up with an experimental protocol to investigate alternate worlds, how easy it would be to get to them, how comparable they were to our own, how "close" they would be if no humans, or other intelligent life, had ever evolved on them, how we could categorize and locate these worlds again if we needed to.

Clark and I had set up a portal so that Bernie could visit the Fortress as he wished. The portal led to a secluded area in the town in Kansas, a few blocks away from Gloria's colony. Klein would be able to walk there, insert his "key" (I saw Clark looking at the metallic octagon with a strange expression), and he'd be whisked instantly to the Fortress. There, he could talk and plan with Jor-El at his leisure.

Nothing would be done, however, until Bernie and Jor-El ran the plans by Clark, Perry, and me. We'd authorize testing – and I personally meant to hold back on any risky experiments until Clark, as the only full Kryptonian (aside from Jor-El, and since he was an AI and not truly alive, he didn't really count), could examine the theoretical basis. Clark wasn't an idea guy like Bernie, but, since he'd had the full download, he would be much more capable of understanding the theory than I would.

Meanwhile, Perry and I would go back to Metropolis, and act normally. We'd try to delay Lex's suspicions as long as possible. This meant that we could only formally meet with Clark on Thursdays for our long-standing lunch appointment.

And Clark, for his part, would continue his usual tasks of delivering the Daily Planet to pretty much all the settlements in North America, cleaning up rivers and roads, doing maintenance on bridges and other infrastructure, helping with undersea and on-the-shore needs at the refinery, being quick transport for people who had an overwhelming need to be elsewhere in a hurry, plowing fields and planting crops, scavenging needed items, keeping the telecommunication satellites in order, etc. Lex was keeping him busy.

We ended by all of us clasping hands (except for Jor-El. He was insubstantial) and swearing secrecy. I still worried about Bernie. He was a guy who would blurt out anything. I mentally advanced our deadline – we couldn't count on Bernie keeping a secret for long. Then it would get to Gloria, and… did she have a conduit to Lex? I'd always thought her a very solitary and self-sufficient leader. But I didn't know. I wasn't sure.

The pressure was on. We had to solve the problem soon, or we'd be found out. And whatever happened then wouldn't be good. As we exited the Fortress, I reminded everybody one last time. "Remember, this has got to stay a secret."

The secret lasted two days. Martha wasn't at the base this morning; it was one of her Metropolis days. She had spent the night with Perry. Their romance had been heating up to the point where they were a known item and were being gossiped about.

It was early morning, and Clark sat in Lex's office, with Lex, Clark, and Chloe going over Clark's planned work for the next few days. The meeting was mostly done when Clark heard a buzzing. He carefully looked around, wondering what was making the sound and also wondering if Lex and Chloe could hear it. There were a lot of things Clark heard that nobody else did. He had learned, way back in his own world, not to mention those things.

Clark got up and poured himself a glass of water, hiding his sudden preoccupation. Lex always made him cautious. Clark never wanted to act differently in any way around Lex. It was all the more imperative now that Clark had such a big secret to keep. His lack of attention did not go unnoticed.

"Clark? Are you OK?" Chloe asked.

"Fine," Clark said, smiling falsely. "I just wanted some water."

The buzz turned into Jor-El's voice and Clark abruptly realized he wasn't hearing with his ears. Jor-El was sending a message directly to his brain.

"Kal-El, come to the Fortress immediately." That was it. No explanation. No repetition. Just "come to the Fortress immediately".

Clark tried his hardest to hide his surprise. Telepathic messages were definitely not in the playbook. He set down the glass. "Well, Chloe, Lex, there's plenty of work to be done, so I'll be on my way."

"Right now?" Lex queried him. Clark supposed Lex had a point. He usually stayed and chatted with Lex and Chloe for a few minutes after they had finished discussing the upcoming business.

"I still have to do my paper route." Clark smiled.

Chloe chuckled. "Only you would call a continent-wide newspaper delivery service a paper route."

Clark returned her smile, itching to get out. "Just doing my bit to keep up the circulation of the Daily Planet." He waved. "Bye." Before Lex or Chloe could tease him any more about being a reporter and a delivery boy too, Clark left the room.

He walked through the halls of Metropolis base as quickly as humanly possible, Jor-El's message ringing through his mind. He wanted to speed, but that might cause injury to the people he passed in the halls. He waved and nodded as he went by, trying to act normally. Clark made a very quick good-bye to the gate guard, and automatically changed into the spandex. He lifted off as soon as he'd changed, climbing to a high altitude, and then speared down again, heading to the Fortress.

All was chaos when he arrived. A miniature blizzard raged in one corner of the Fortress. Bernie Klein danced ineffectually out of its range, speaking to Jor-El and Jor-El answering.

"You've got to stop."

"I cannot. Only Kal-El or Martha Kent can halt this."

"Did you contact Kal-El?" Bernie hopped from one foot to the other. He wrapped his arms around himself and Clark realized it was very cold.

Clark's greeting drowned out Jor-El's reply. "Bernie. What's going on?" The whistling of the wind made it hard for Bernie to hear him. Clark had to come up and put his hand on Klein's shoulder and repeat his words, calming Bernie.

Bernie's face crumpled in relief. "Clark! Thank God! You're here!"

"Yes, I'm here. What is it?"

Klein gestured toward the miniature blizzard. Clark peered more closely, getting a bad feeling. Hadn't something like this happened in his own world, in his own Fortress? A shock ran through him. His forebodings were real. Behind the wall of wind-whipped snow and searing cold lay an unmoving figure, encased in ice.

"Jor-El! Stop this!"

"It is the intruder control system," Jor-El replied. Was there a note of regret in the AI's voice? "It is part of the automatic protections of the Fortress."

"Disable intruder control," Clark snapped.

The wailing wind stopped abruptly. A few flakes of snow flittered down to add to the icy coating of the intruder.

Clark strode forward, bending over to pick up the small body. He engaged his heat vision to melt the rime that covered the face, and breathed in sharply. He knew that face.

"Miranda? What's she doing here?" Clark asked Klein abruptly. The teenage girl from Gloria's colony was so cold… Clark set her down and bathed her in heat vision, melting away her icy shell. God, she was cold and stiff – was she dead?

"She must have followed me when I went to the portal outlet," Bernie stammered. "I was here talking with Jor-El. All of a sudden I heard her call my name, and then a blizzard started. I should have realized…ever since the surgery she's been following me around..." Bernie continued to berate himself in a low voice.

Clark hardly heard him as he scanned Miranda frantically. He stared past her clothing, focused on her heart. After an incredibly long five seconds, the heart convulsed and gave one beat.

"She's alive!" Clark swung her up and held her to his body to give her some body heat.

"I tried asking Jor-El to let her go, to turn it off, but he said he couldn't do that. He said only you or Martha could do that. I asked if he could call you and he said he would. But he wouldn't stop freezing her."

The avatar stood off to one side, almost apologetic. "In some respects, my programming dictates my actions," it said diffidently.

Clark hardly heard the byplay. He ignored Bernie's plaintive details of everything he'd tried to get Jor-El to stop. Clark felt Miranda, and laid her on the table to apply more heat. He scanned her again with his deep vision and groaned. She was a block of ice, literally. Clark saw the ice crystals in her cells. Her legs and arms had frozen, as had much of her face. The fluid in her eyes had frozen, leaving her wide pupils fixed in a permanent expression of surprise. Only her torso retained the merest tinge of body heat. As Clark looked, her heart labored and gave another despairing beat.

Clark despaired too. How could Miranda recover from this? An appendectomy was one thing. Frostbite to this extent was another. She would lose her arms and legs, be blind, would have horrendous facial scarring. The extent of brain damage was unknown. Even defrosting Miranda with his heat vision couldn't cure the cellular disruption.

Clark swore to himself, bitterly. He'd promised so blithely that he wouldn't hurt anyone, and that he would never kill. And here his Fortress had done just that. Miranda was hanging on to life by a thread. He had to try and save her… but would she have a life afterwards? Unless… unless…

"Jor-El!" Clark snapped.

"Yes, Kal-El?" The avatar was eternally patient.

"This girl is seriously injured. Does the Fortress have healing capability?" It was worth a try.

"Yes, Kal-El."

Clark felt his heart leap. Miranda had a chance. "How can I – "

The avatar gestured, and a palanquin-like platform arose on the other side of the control console. "Place her on the platform."

Clark wasted no time in doing so. He stepped back, Klein next to him, both of them concerned. Miranda looked like some ethereal Snow White, trapped in a frozen sleep. Except… was her heart still beating?

"Jor-El!" Clark cried, panicked. "Get started."

Another one of the ubiquitous light beams bathed Miranda. Its brightness made Bernie look away. Clark, not bothered by the luminosity, went to the deep vision. The ice burns on Miranda's skin disappeared. Clark focused in further, magnifying his view. Fascinated, he watched as the Kryptonian technology literally repaired Miranda cell by cell.

A rustle next to him distracted him. "Clark? How is she doing?" Klein asked hesitantly.

"She's going to be OK, Bernie," Clark reassured him.

Bernie sighed in relief. "Well, if that's the case, I'll go back to my calculations… I was working on a new theory there… " He wandered off to his workspace, muttering to himself.

Clark turned his attention back to Miranda. The time flew by, engrossing Clark. He followed the healing rays as they penetrated the skin and went inward. He saw the cracked bones repaired, the frostbitten tissue restored. Miranda's heart sped to a normal rate, and blood circulated through no-longer-burst vessels. Her appendectomy scar, still reddish and inflamed against the normal skin, disappeared under the healing light.

An anguished thought came to Clark. He had had a Fortress in his own world. His father, Jonathan Kent, had died of a sudden heart attack. If he had only known the Fortress could do this – if he had been able to get Jonathan to the Fortress in time –

Miranda stirred, just as the bitter taste of what might have been filled Clark's mouth. A rosy flush spread over her skin. The healing rays switched off. Miranda sat up, and stared at her surroundings in wonderment.

"Clark? What are you… what happened?"

He fought back a rush of anger. How dare she question him when she was the one who had trespassed? And behind the anger was fear – fear that Miranda might die, that Clark might be responsible for her death. And the other fear coursed through him, the fear for her. Now that she knew his secret, she was tainted. When it came out, Miranda would be considered a collaborator, and there would be no mercy. It was just like in Clark's home world – everyone that found out his secret was sorry. Their lives were changed, not for the better. Many had died. Knowing Clark's secret was not a safe thing.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Clark snapped, looming over her, trying to intimidate her by his size.

"Dr. Klein said he was working for you. I wanted to see you again, so I followed him." Miranda didn't cower back, and she met his eyes squarely.

Clark refused to back away either. "Did you perhaps think my business might be private?"

"No," Miranda said, her eyes skittering away. She knew she'd trespassed, Clark deduced. It didn't take much detective ability to figure that out.

Clark shook his head. "Do you know what you've gotten yourself into?" He was just beginning to think through the implications, and his gut clenched at the thought.

"No," Miranda said again. This time her eyes met his, and she didn't look away. "What have I gotten myself into?" She took a deliberate look around the Fortress, her eyes widening as she saw the alien grandeur. "What is this place?"

"It's my base for taking over the world," Clark said sarcastically.

That got Miranda's attention. Her face paled. Now she inched back from Clark, sneaking glances at him from under lowered eyelids. She swallowed several times before managing to squeak out, "Really?"

Clark sighed. His anger leaked away as he saw Miranda cower backwards. He felt unutterably weary. "No, not really," he said quietly. He gave up trying to loom over her, and sat down next to Miranda. Her tension left her at his statement. She scrunched up, pulling her feet away from him, giving him room to sit. "That's what everyone will say, though."

"I knew you were too nice to conquer the Earth," Miranda confided.

"Yeah." Some world conqueror he was, thought Clark. He couldn't even intimidate a snoopy teenage girl.

"We talked about that," Miranda said. "All the other kids wanted to know what you were like. I told them how you took me flying and they were so jealous. Even the adults – they really liked it when you and Martha came to visit. Even after they found out you were Kryptonian they still liked you. They were really surprised that you would get all that stuff for me. They were really scared at first - they were kind of expecting you to, um… "

"Burn everybody up?" Clark asked sarcastically.

"Well, yeah," Miranda admitted.

"That's the point, Miranda," Clark said, trying to get it through her head. "It's dangerous to know me. It's dangerous to get too close to me. You shouldn't be here."

"Dr. Klein is here."

Clark sighed. "Bernie is a special case. I need him."

"For what?"

"Long story. And none of your business."

Miranda pouted. "I'll ask Gloria."

"She doesn't know either." She can't know, Clark thought. Chills ran through him at the prospect of Gloria, the virulent anti-Kryptonian, knowing about the Fortress.

Miranda gave up that topic. "Why is it dangerous to know you? Are you going to burn me up?"

"No, of course not," Clark said impatiently. "Miranda, don't you get it? Why do you think Gloria kicked me out? Weren't you paying attention? People hate Kryptonians and if you hang around me, they're going to hate you too."

Plus, as Clark didn't say, all the other stuff: People would try to use Miranda to coerce Clark. She'd be taken hostage. Or she'd be tarred with the "collaborator" brush and ostracized – or worse. Martha still got harassment from people for just going out to lunch with Clark. And Martha was a known hero of the Resistance.

Martha! Clark felt his spirits lift. Martha would know what to do. She would know what to say to make Miranda be quiet. She was human. She was a woman. She would know how to talk to a teenage girl who seemed to have a very annoying crush on Clark. Right now, Clark felt clueless, and frantic, and harried.

"Um, yes, I knew you were Kryptonian. You told me." As if Clark didn't remember. "You know why Gloria is so mad?" Miranda leaned forward and almost whispered.

"No, why?"

"Because she liked you," Miranda said. "She really liked you and she was actually thinking of moving everybody to Metropolis, like you wanted her to do. And then she found out."

"Gloria liked me?" Clark was flabbergasted.

"Yeah. I overheard her talking with LeeAnn once. She even said she thought you were really buff, and she wouldn't mind trying you out in the sack, even though you were kind of young, but you must have a thing for older women because you go around with Martha all the time."

"Martha's my mother," Clark blurted out, shocked to his core. If Gloria had had an actual thing for him – and wasn't that creepy, well, even though she was fairly good-looking, but she had that whole "responsible and stern protector of the colony" thing going on and Clark had certainly never thought of her as a woman, strictly speaking – then when he was revealed to be Totally Non-Acceptable, she must have felt the sting. How could Gloria misjudge someone so badly? No wonder she hated him now.

"Your mother?" Now it was Miranda's turn to be flabbergasted. "I thought Martha was human."

Well, gee, wasn't that twisting the knife. "My adoptive mother," Clark ground out. "Anyway, we have to see her. She needs to talk to you." Ignoring Miranda's questions, Clark cast around… there! He had it. He opened a telepathic channel to Jor-El. Getting Jor-El's message had shown Clark this new ability, which still amazed him. Would he be able to speak with Martha this way? Or was it only because Clark was the "owner" of the Fortress and Jor-El was the Fortress AI? If the latter, would Martha have the same ability?

Whatever. It seemed to work with Jor-El, and for that Clark was grateful. "Jor-El," Clark asked, "Can you contact Martha and ask her to meet me in Perry's office in fifteen minutes?" He knew it was one of Martha's Metropolis days, so she'd be at the Planet building anyway.

"Yes, Kal-El," Jor-El replied serenely. There was a moment of silence, and then Jor-El contacted Clark again. "Martha agrees."

Well, that answered the question of whether or not Martha had the ability. So it must not be totally Kryptonian in nature.

Clark grabbed Miranda's hand. It was warm, natural, healed. "Come on." He pulled her to her feet.

"What?"

"We're going to Metropolis." The portal was only a few steps away. They could be at the Planet building in seconds. The fifteen minutes was only to allow Martha to extricate herself from whatever she was doing.

"Ooh! Can you go high up, so I can see everything?"

"What?" Clark got it. Miranda thought they were going to fly to Metropolis. He paused. Why not? If Miranda owed him a favor, maybe it would help Clark's quest for a shut teenage mouth. "Yeah," he said, hardly missing a beat.

Miranda got even more excited and practically jumped up and down.

Clark belatedly remembered something. "Wait here," he told Miranda. He went over to where Bernie was arguing with the Jor-El avatar, scribbling something on the Kryptonian equivalent of a whiteboard. Clark stood patiently in Bernie's field of vision until his presence registered in the scientist's perception.

"Bernie," Clark said, "Miranda's fine. I'm going to take her back home. Stay here as long as you like." And hopefully Bernie wouldn't get back to Gloria's place before Miranda did. Although from the calculations and the heated discussion with Jor-El, Bernie was probably going to be at the Fortress for at least the next few hours.

"Oh! Good." Bernie visibly put aside his concern – Clark could see him mentally transferring Miranda to the Clark's taking care of it file. Bernie said nothing else to Clark, merely turning and resuming his discussion with Jor-El.

Clark smiled. He was lucky to have Bernie Klein on his side. "Jor-El," Clark sent, "if Bernie needs food, or water, or a bed or anything, just get it for him."

"Yes, Kal-El," the avatar replied in his mind, while Clark saw the holographic Jor-El continue to gesticulate and interact with Bernie. Multi-tasking was simple for the AI.

Clark went back to where Miranda waited. The girl had turned her eyes upward and was staring at the amazing crystalline structure. Clark had been awed by the Fortress, too, the first time he'd seen it in his own world. Of course, the Fortress in his world had been partly generated from a crystal contaminated with the blood of a manipulative psychotic bitch, so the bloom had got off that rose pretty darn quick.

"We're all set to go." There was minor awkwardness while Miranda and Clark figured out the most comfortable flying position (Miranda was an inveterate gawker and kept on squirming and turning around to see the next thing), but they came to a rapprochement. Clark ended up wishing he hadn't agreed to fly Miranda back to Metropolis. He'd realized, too late, that carrying her in his arms would only encourage her crush. Now Miranda was comfortable but he wasn't.

Clark rose slowly. He gave Miranda the chance to see the ledges and crannies of the upper levels of the Fortress. He made a final adjustment of his aura before he mentally commanded the force field "ceiling" of the Fortress to let them through. The biting Arctic wind could not penetrate his invulnerable aura, and Miranda stayed safe and warm in his arms.

Clark let Miranda's oohs and aahs roll off him as they flew back to Metropolis. He frantically searched for the right words that would make her understand the seriousness of their predicament. Except it was really his predicament, wasn't it? The more Miranda said, the more it became obvious that their roles were to be The Sweet Innocent Young Girl Who Was Curious And Found Out Something Really Serious, and the Big Bad Kryptonian Monster Who Tried To Keep His World-Conquering Plans A Secret But Was Fortunately Exposed By The Sweet Young Innocent Curious Girl. Maybe Martha could help. She'd better.

Clark paused at Perry's window to open it. When he'd started taking Martha and Perry on trips, Perry had had several normal skyscraper windows removed and replaced with a large window. The large window was able to be opened from the outside unless locked from the inside, and more importantly, it allowed Clark access, and a private entrance. He could get through the large window without undignified squirming or contortions – not the case with the original smaller windows.

Clark landed, setting Miranda down gently. Perry strode from behind his desk to meet them, frowning slightly as he saw the young girl. His eyes asked the questions.

Clark began answering the unspoken query by telling Perry, "This is Miranda Milan. You might have heard me mention Gloria Tanner's colony. Miranda is from there. Miranda, this is Mr. Perry White, the Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Planet."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. White," Miranda said clearly, stepping forward and offering Perry her hand.

"And you too, Miss Milan," Perry replied, shaking Miranda's hand firmly. He cast a glance at Clark, a glance which Clark had no trouble interpreting as What the heck is going on here?

Fortunately, at that moment, Martha entered the office. Clark caught a quick flash of surprise as she saw Miranda. Then Martha smoothed it away, and greeted the girl.

"Miranda. This is an unexpected pleasure."

Miranda smiled shyly at Martha. She looked a little more nervous now that she'd had time to assimilate her surroundings. The penthouse office luxury was very different from the spartan quarters at Gloria's. The grandeur of the Fortress didn't count – it was so obviously alien. But Perry's penthouse office was of human origin. "Um, yes. I really didn't expect this at all," Miranda said as she openly gawked at her surroundings.

Before Martha could reply, Clark said, "Perry, perhaps you could interview Miranda while Martha and I get caught up." Perry didn't even need Clark's significant glance.

"Certainly, Clark. Miss Milan, it's certainly a pleasure to have you here. I'm afraid that everyone in Metropolis knows each other by now, and it's quite nice to see a new face." Perry put on the charm. He gently led Miranda to the other end of the office.

Martha raised an eyebrow. "I didn't expect to see her. Since you're here – " Martha gestured around at the penthouse, "I'm assuming you flew her here. I never thought her parents would give permission."

"They didn't. Martha, we've got a situation." Clark didn't bother to conceal his agitation. "She followed Bernie through the portal. She was at the Fortress."

"What?"

"She saw everything. Bernie, Jor-El, the Fortress…"

Martha's face paled. She saw the implications. "Can she be quiet?"

"I don't know."

Martha watched Miranda answer Perry's questions. Perry had gotten her to give mini-biographies of everyone in Gloria's colony.

"I have an idea." Martha headed off to the executive washroom.

"What?" Clark hissed.

"Just delay her for the next fifteen minutes." Martha disappeared behind the bathroom door. Clark saw a glow in the space between the door and the carpeting but no one else did. He recognized the glow. Martha had gone to the Fortress.

When they'd extended the portal system to the Daily Planet building, Martha had pointed out that having one access point in the executive washroom would be perfect. "After all, you're pretty much guaranteed privacy there." Clark and Perry had laughed and agreed. They'd put the other access point in a basement sublevel.

They hadn't had a chance to use it yet, though. Martha and Perry had expected to have Clark fly them back to the Fortress on their next regularly scheduled lunch Thursday.

Clark saw when Perry figured it out. He dragged his eyes from the washroom door over to Clark, a question in his glance. Clark nodded slowly. Perry nodded back, just a little, and didn't change his expression as he continued to talk with Miranda.

The light flashed again under the closed door, and after a minute, Martha came out. She looked no different.

"What did you do?" Clark asked quietly.

Martha turned her body so that Miranda could not see the small crystal she pulled out of her pocket. Its subtle shimmer proclaimed its alien origin. "Meet the mindwipe crystal. We hold this to her forehead, and Miranda forgets everything about this morning."

"What?" Clark was shocked. "A mindwipe?"

Martha put the crystal back into her pocket. "Clark, think about this for a minute."

"I want her to be quiet, yes, but messing with her mind? Martha, I can't believe you'd do that to her, after what happened to you!" He kept his voice down despite his agitation.

"Clark." Martha said his name deliberately. "What are our options? This is the best one for Miranda. She can't talk about this. It's a death sentence for all of us if she does. We have to keep her quiet. So what are you going to do? Kill her to ensure her silence?"

"Of course not!"

"Lex would."

"I'm not Lex. And I really don't think Lex would a fellow human now." He didn't say anything about himself. Both of them knew that Lex would have no qualms in eliminating Clark.

"Clark, you're naïve," Martha said seriously. "You don't know Lex."

"Whatever. I'm not Lex and I'm not going to kill anyone."

"Glad to hear it. So that's out. So what's our next option? Kidnap her?"

"Come on, Martha," Clark said impatiently.

"Yeah, kidnapping. That would work really well. By the way, Clark, has Miranda's family – have Gloria and her group started looking for their lost lamb yet? And do they know she was following Dr. Klein?"

"I don't know."

"Well, then, we'd better get Miranda back to them fast before they start worrying enough to send people to Metropolis."

"Martha… it isn't right."

Martha looked down. "I know." She looked back up at Clark and asked him defiantly, "Do you have a better idea?"

Clark sighed. He'd come running to Martha to solve his Miranda problem. And her answers were no better than his. Worse, actually. "We could ask her."

"Ask? She's a teenager. Do you think that'll work?" Martha asked scornfully.

"I don't know," Clark said, a small smile playing on his lips. "But I've learned that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things." He held Martha's gaze until she looked away.

Clark strode forward. "Miranda."

"Yes?" The girl broke off her conversation with Perry.

"We want to ask you a favor." Clark took a deep breath, and then launched into an explanation of the political situation, the plan for the Fortress (described here only as getting Clark home), and the necessity of silence. He said nothing about Martha's mindwipe crystal.

Miranda was nodding by the time Clark finished. "Of course I won't say anything. You can count on me."

Martha stepped up. "Are you sure? Are you ready to back that up?"

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked nervously.

"Well, it seems to me that we don't really have a good excuse for you being here. You need some sort of alibi. We can set you up with a good story, but it'll hurt you."

"Hurt me?" Miranda looked a lot less confident now, Clark noted.

"I'll hit you." At Clark's instinctive protest, Martha held up her hand and quieted him as she continued talking to Miranda. "The story will be that you went outside, you fell down a hole or something, and Clark found you and took you to Metropolis for medical treatment. You got bandaged up in Metropolis, and then Clark will take you back home."

Miranda was silent.

"Well?" Martha asked. "Aren't you brave enough to stand up to a little pain to keep your word?" She looked over at Clark. He tightened his lips and looked away. Clark refused to look at Miranda too. He knew, even though Miranda didn't, that the choice was between voluntary and involuntary silence. He would prefer the former. Even though the stakes were his life, and the lives of Perry and Martha, he felt ashamed that he had tacitly agreed to use the Kryptonian crystal on Miranda if she didn't agree.

Was this what it was going to be like? Compromising, eroding his conscience bit by bit? Agreeing to one thing slightly over the line now, and another thing further over the line tomorrow? Martha was supposed to keep him on the straight and narrow, but right now she seemed to be leading him astray.

Miranda clenched her fists. "Yes." She said it in a very tiny voice, but steadily.