Metropolis was still attempting to recover from the disaster the media had dubbed 'Dark Thursday', but it had survived worse and would continue to survive whatever else came.

Chloe and Emmeline looked at the newest issue of The Daily Planet and saw an article headed 'Lex Luthor Donates Millions to Rebuild City'.

"Chloe," Clark said urgently as he came over to her desk.

Chloe smirked as she showed him the article. "How's this for a megadose of guilt money?"

"Well, uh, I've got bigger news."

"What happened? Is everything all right?"

"I sneezed."

Emmeline realized that Clark sneezing probably meant something was off since it was pretty much impossible for him to show any kind of cold symptoms, but hearing him say that he did a completely normal human thing with such seriousness made her smile.

"And?" Chloe asked.

"'And'? Chloe, that's not normal."

"Well, Clark, nothing with you is exactly normal, but I wouldn't call sneezing today's headline."

"Every time I've seen you sick, either your powers are wonky or you've been exposed to kryptonite," Emmeline said. "Anything like that happen recently?"

"I mean, I've been working myself pretty hard lately trying to fix the mess I made—"

"Okay, I'm going to respond to that later."

"—and Mom suggested that I may have picked up something from my time spent in the Phantom Zone."

"Well, I guess even Kryptonians can get sick."

"You don't understand. I…I was…" Clark put his hand to his nose to stifle an oncoming sneeze.

"You what?" Chloe smirked as she pulled a Kleenex from a box sitting on the cabinet. "Grab a tissue and get over it."

Suddenly, Clark sneezed which sent a huge blast of wind all throughout the room. Papers went flying everywhere and two women's dresses flew up which they frantically tried to pull back down before they exposed what was underneath.

Chloe and Emmeline's mouths dropped open in shock.

They really shouldn't have been surprised that there was more to Clark's sneezes, but somehow, things just kept surprising them.

"Gesundheit," Chloe forced out, still stunned.

"I tried to warn you," Clark told her. "I've come down with some sort of cold."

"And become a walking air cannon. Let's get you out of here before you blow again."

The three of them started making their way to the door.

"At least I was able to cover half my face that time. This morning I…I blew the barn door halfway across Lowell County. It almost hit Lois."

"Lois, as in Lane?"

Emmeline couldn't help but smirk. "How much of you wishes that it actually had?"

Clark moved his head from side to side, indicating it was kind of a half-and-half deal. "Now she's on a one-woman crusade to find an explanation. You know her, she won't stop digging until she hits China."

"Hm, sounds like someone else we know."

Chloe fake-laughed. "Okay, I'll take care of Lois. You just take care of that cold. We have enough natural disasters around here without having to worry about Hurricane Clark looming off the coast."

Clark suddenly inhaled sharply and put his hand to his nose.

Chloe and Emmeline quickly covered the nearest files to keep them from blowing off the desk.

Clark smiled. "Just kidding."

Emmeline rolled her eyes before quietly laughing. Amidst all the seriousness that was their lives, particularly in the last few days, it was nice to be reminded that Clark sometimes did actually have a sense of humor.

Lois drove Chloe and Emmeline out to where the barn door had landed sticking straight out of the ground after Clark's first sneeze cannon.

"See, I told you," Lois exclaimed proudly as they exited the vehicle. "I am no Chicken Little, and that is no acorn."

"Whoa," Chloe remarked, pretending to be surprised.

"Now, how is that even remotely conceivable? The Kents live miles away from here."

"Okay, it's definitely weird. I'll give you that. But it's not 'Wall of Weird'. It's called a microburst."

"A micro what?"

"It's like a sudden mini-tornado. It happens when there are extreme changes in the temperature. It's actually not that unheard of in the Midwest."

"It was sunny and 75. There was nothing extreme about the weather."

"Well, you might not have felt it. It was probably in the upper atmosphere. But there must have been some sort of change in the barometric pressures."

"Okay, either you've been watching way too much Weather Channel or a year at the Daily Planet has turned you into a hardened skeptic."

"It's called being realistic, Lois. You might want to try it once in a while."

"You were the one who always told me that science can explain only a fraction of what happens in this crazy town."

"And this happens to fall into that fraction. Look, Lois, I still believe in the paranormal. Trust me. But you have to accept the fact that sometimes, the answers you're looking for are no further away than the front pages of your Scientific American."

Chloe tapped the barn door which caused it to fall over. She looked at it awkwardly and began making her way back to the car.

"I don't know how you do this," Emmeline said quietly.

"What?" Chloe asked.

"You are so good at doing damage control. Chloe, I'm a horrible liar. And I'm even worse when it comes to Lois because she asks so many questions and makes so many theories all at once that it's impossible for me to keep up and come up with an excuse for each thing she says. I mean…I'm going to end up blowing Clark's secret at this rate. He'll hate me, and I will never forgive myself."

"Okay, calm down. Clark will never hate you, so get that out of your head. Look, I know that lying isn't the most noble thing to do, but we have to do it to protect him. And honestly, you'll be surprised how fast you can cook things up when you do it enough. But if it's really tough for you, instead of flat-out lying, just dance around the truth. That's the next best thing, and Clark himself will tell you that because let's face it, he's not the best liar either."

Emmeline wasn't Lex's biggest fan, but even she felt like he really got the short end of the stick more than he deserved. Lex was missing…again. Which considering all that he did on Dark Thursday, it really wasn't that surprising. Someone was bound to be curious about it or be out for revenge.

And even though Clark was on his last leg, he was still trying to save the day.

He entered the Daily Planet panting and covered in sweat. Both his legs and hands were trembling from his weakened state.

"Geez, you look terrible," Emmeline remarked. "I haven't seen you this bad since the whole Silver K freak-out."

"Yeah, I feel pretty terrible too. I bailed out of super-speed around 3rd Avenue and jogged the rest of the way."

"Then take a seat," Chloe said gently as she led him to the chair next to her desk. "Calm down. But if you feel even the slightest inkling of a sneeze, you cover your face and Ziploc it shut, okay?"

Emmeline handed him a cup of water from the nearby water jug so he could catch his breath and replenish the lost fluids.

"I went to Lex's mansion," he finally said somberly. "I saw Lana."

Chloe looked at him sympathetically. "So you know about their new domestic partnership?"

Emmeline shook her head. For all of Lana's accusations about secrets when it came to Clark, Lex had just as many if not more and she didn't understand how Lana was willing to look past his but not Clark's.

"It's like we don't even know each other anymore. I told her about Lex. She, uh…she made a phone call to someone named Robert Pontius."

"The highest-paid Sam Spade in Metropolis?"

"Maybe Lex knew he was in trouble. I want to talk to this guy and see what he knows."

Chloe keyed in some information into her computer to see what came up on Robert Pontius. "When you escaped from the Kryptonian Land of the Lost, I bet you didn't think that you'd be rewarded by having to save Lex Luthor while battling a raging head cold, huh?"

"Not exactly the goodbye gift I was expecting, no."

"I guess heroes don't get sick days."

"They also don't put the world in jeopardy on an annual basis. I'm no hero, Chloe."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Emmeline told him. "You are forced to make incredibly difficult choices that the rest of us can't even fathom. No one, not even you, can see the future."

An address popped up on Chloe's computer.

"There it is," Clark said. "515 Grant Street."

Chloe stood up from her chair. "Okay, let's get out of here."

"Chloe, this could be dangerous."

"Yeah, especially for you. I mean, you barely got here. You need to conserve your energy."

Clark inhaled again.

"Oh, no…"

He covered his mouth with both of his hands and managed to only send a couple of papers flying this time.

"Quick hands. You're getting good at that."

The three of them made their way to Robert Pontius's office to see if they could find any information about what might've happened to Lex.

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked Clark who had managed to cool down but still looked like he needed a 24-hour-long nap.

"Perfect."

They looked around the office and were quite surprised to find that it was really nice and well-built, like something a CEO might have.

"I was expecting ceiling fans and cigarette butts," Chloe said.

"I think this guy can afford central air."

She opened up the laptop sitting on the desk and typed a few keys before sighing. "All right, I'm a decent hacker, but I'm not a miracle worker. You know, you really don't give me enough credit for this stuff. It's not easy."

Clark stared intently at the far wall. "Guys."

"With these encryptions, it's gonna take me hours to get into Lex's account."

"Guys! There's a hidden door in the wall."

Emmeline scoffed. "Of course there is. Every private investigator needs one."

Chloe left the desk and came up behind him. "Even with a stuffy nose, you still got it."

Clark went over to the steel and gripped the side of it. He managed to crush some of it over, but then he started panting and had to stop.

"What's wrong?" Chloe asked.

"Guess I'm not a hundred percent."

"Yeah, I can see that. Looks like your batteries are running seriously low."

"Mm-hm."

Chloe furrowed her brow in thought. "What about a sneeze?"

"What about it?"

She backed him up all the way to the desk. "Clark, if your sneeze could blow a barn door seven miles across Smallville, I bet you anything you could take that one out no problem."

"Chloe, I just can't force it."

"Why not? You can do anything."

"Except sneeze on command. It's a reflex, not a circus trick."

"…Then blow."

Clark looked at her flatly. "That's not funny."

"I'm not kidding. Clark, with a sneeze like yours, that says a lot about your lung capacity. Now just take a really deep breath and blow it out as hard as you can."

"That's a steel door, it's not a birthday cake."

"When has that ever stopped you?" Emmeline asked.

"I don't see anything else working," Chloe added. "Come on. Let's see what you got. Huff, puff, and blow this door down."

Clark sucked in as much air as his lungs would allow and then blew it all out at once. The door and then some crashed into the secret room as the three people stared in awe at the accomplishment.

Emmeline let out a small laugh. "Have I mentioned how much fun it is to be your friend?"

"Good thing you didn't have garlic today," Chloe joked.

They walked inside the damaged secret room and began looking around.

"Hey, what's this?" Emmeline said, picking up some documents from the desk.

Chloe looked them over. "Okay, so either Pontius is interested in purchasing a used-furniture warehouse or—"

"—this is where he thinks Lex is," Clark finished, looking at a picture of a warehouse.

"Taxi's leaving. Let's roll."

"You guys aren't rolling anywhere. In my condition, I can't guarantee either of you guys' safety."

"We don't want a guarantee, Clark. We want to help."

"Then go back to the Daily Planet. Wait for me there."

"Clark, I don't—"

Clark sped out of the room before either of them could protest any further.

Emmeline sighed. "It's fun except when he does that."

After Clark rescued Lex (and Lana who had gone after him) from a man named Orlando Block who had been determined to see Lex's super-abilities that had expired when he was freed from Zod, Emmeline stopped by the Kent home.

Clark answered looking even worse than a couple hours ago. He was pale, sweaty, and looked a breath away from passing out.

"Hey," she smiled sympathetically. "One thing my mother left with me was a recipe to make the most amazing tea. I brought some over for you."

Clark took the powder from her. "Thanks."

She smirked at him. "Come on, I know you don't know how to make it and even if you did, you probably wouldn't, so are you going to let me in?"

Clark laughed lightly and moved aside.

"Don't you dare sneeze while I'm making this. I do not want to be cleaning the powder off the kitchen floor."

"Yes, ma'am."

While Emmeline began brewing the tea for him, she looked over and said, "You do realize that as soon as you finish drinking this, I'm forcing you up to bed and not leaving until you're asleep."

"You're so bossy."

Emmeline smiled a little. "My mom used to say the same thing."

"I guess you took care of her a lot, huh?"

"Yeah. When you're that sick, you don't exactly do the things you should until someone forces you. And someone should force you to take a break and stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders."

Clark looked down at the floor. "But it—"

"I swear, if you say it's your fault one more time…"

Clark closed his mouth.

"You…have been put in this position that no one else could ever understand. I won't pretend I know what it's like. I don't have a clue. But I also know that this world isn't perfect. Bad things are going to happen. It's just the way life works. I had to tell myself that all the time when I kept blaming myself for Mom getting cancer."

"Why would you blame yourself for that?"

"I don't know, I thought that if they hadn't adopted me and hadn't had to take care of me, they would've had the money to get rid of the cancer for good."

"If it wasn't you, they would've adopted someone. And…it's entirely possible that the cancer would've come back either way."

"You see what you're doing, right? Telling me I wasn't to blame? You should take your own advice."

She finished the tea and handed him the warm mug.

He sipped the drink and sighed. "Your mother was a miracle worker. This is amazing."

Emmeline smiled. "Told you. Now come on. Walk upstairs and get in bed before you pass out."

"I don't pass out."

"You don't get colds either, right?"

Clark rolled his eyes, but he begrudgingly walked up the stairs to his bedroom.

"I'm sorry you burned yourself out. I can't imagine how hard you must've been working for that to happen. I guess aside from your powers and where you were born, you're just as human as the rest of us."

"I think we're all due for a relaxing day. How about we all go to Crater Lake this weekend?"

"I'd love that. Assuming you're all better by then."

"With this tea, I won't be surprised if I can sprint to the moon and back."

"Okay, now you're just overdoing it. Can I trust that you're not going to go joyriding tonight after I leave?"

"I don't think I could get out of bed right now if I wanted to."

"Good. Sleep in tomorrow, okay? Chores can wait. Your health comes first. Promise."

"Em—"

"Promise?"

"Fine, fine, I promise."

Emmeline smiled again. "Feel better. I'll see you this weekend."

Clark sighed as she closed his bedroom door.

This tea was great and all…but why did seeing her smile always rejuvenate his energy like nothing else ever did?