"Have you been able to get any more sleep?" Clark asked.

Emmeline sighed and ran her hands over her face. "Not in the slightest."

"Chloe told me about…well, about what happened with you guys and Lana."

"I feel kind of bad about that. I didn't mean to just completely lose it on them."

"I can't blame you though."

"I guess. Anyway, the reason I'm here is because I was hoping your mom could make me some more of that tea. I don't know how much it helped, but I'm kind of out of options."

Clark felt yet another deep stab in his gut. He needed to tell her why she wasn't sleeping. He knew that. So why couldn't he get his mouth to form the words? "Well, she's in Topeka right now," he said instead, "but I think I remember how to make it. You could also help me do some chores. I know work doesn't sound fun, but maybe if you do enough, you'll be so tired that you won't dream tonight."

"I'm willing to try anything at this point."

Clark smiled, hoping she couldn't tell how guilty he felt. "Then come on outside. I need to move some bags of feed into the barn."

"Sounds like a blast."

The two of them exited the kitchen and went over to Clark's truck where several heavy bags of feed sat waiting to be moved. Clark easily pulled one out and handed it to Emmeline. She forgot that Clark had superhuman strength and didn't realize just how heavy the bag would be, so she crumpled under its weight.

"Holy crap!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry, too heavy?"

"No, no! As a testament to women everywhere, I am committed to finishing this experience."

"Suit yourself."

She took a deep breath and used all of her strength to lift the bag off the ground. She frowned when Clark easily took two bags in each hand and walked them over to the barn. "Show-off," she muttered.

It took them three trips to get all of the bags into the barn. On the last run, they both set the bags down, and then heard the distinct sound of water running. They looked over to the dirtied sink hooked up to the wall and saw a teenage Latino boy washing his hands.

"Hey!" Clark called.

The boy frantically looked up, and when he realized that he'd been caught, he quickly tried to run out of the barn.

Clark quickly got into the boy's path to prevent him from leaving. "Wait. Hold on. What happened to you? Are you all right?"

He and Emmeline took notice of the dirt all over his clothes and the cuts and scrapes littering his arms. The boy looked at them in fear.

"You should get those cleaned up. Why don't you come inside? I promise, no one's gonna hurt you."

Clark, Emmeline, and the boy returned to the Kent home. Emmeline carefully directed him to the chair at the island in the kitchen while Clark handed him a plate of leftovers from breakfast containing bacon and eggs.

"So I think we have milk, orange juice and, uh, lemonade. Guess this would be easier if I spoke Spanish."

"Oh, wait, I think I know this," Emmeline said. "Um…leche…jugo de naranja…y limonada."

"You speak Spanish?"

"No, my dad and I watch Spanish soap operas when we can't sleep. I only know, like, ten words."

The boy looked at both of them and then said clearly, "Orange juice, please."

Clark and Emmeline looked back at the boy, and Clark opened the fridge again. "Orange juice. Your English is perfect."

"I watched a lot of American TV." He looked over at Emmeline. "And for the sake of Spanish speaking people everywhere, please don't speak it again."

Emmeline laughed a little. "That bad, huh?"

"What's your name?" Clark asked.

"Javier," the boy replied.

"I'm Clark and this is Emmeline. So, Javier…why don't you tell me how you got all scraped up and why you were hiding in my barn?"

"Please promise you won't call the police."

"Why would I call the police?"

"Because I ran away from that farm down the road."

"What, Jed McNally's?"

"If I ever wanted to see my mom again, I had to escape from that place."

"You talk about that farm like it's a prison."

"It is. No one was allowed to leave. There was barely enough to eat. My friend and I, Francisco, tried to escape. But we started running, and there was a really loud rumble. Then he was gone."

"Look, um, I'm sorry. I will have to call the sheriff."

"No! You can't. I'm here illegally. They'll send me back to Mexico."

"Mexico? That's a long way from Smallville. How did you get here?"

"Last week, a coyote smuggled 15 of us across the border in the back of a truck. I was supposed to be sent to see my mom. Instead, I ended up at that farm."

"Where's your mom now?"

"She works at a laundry company down in Granville. When my dad died, she moved up north. Saved up money for two years to get me here."

"Your mom must really miss you."

"Yeah. See this?" He fiddled with the necklace he was wearing. "She gave me this…to keep me safe. I should've given it to Francisco. We did everything together. He was like a brother to me."

"Well, don't worry. We're gonna find your friend."

Emmeline and Clark walked outside while Javier finished up his breakfast.

"I'm gonna head down to McNally's barn and see what I can find," Clark said. "Can you stay here with Javier?"

"You know that I would in a heartbeat, but I have to go into the clinic today. But I promise that as soon as my shift is over, I'll do whatever I can to help out."

While Clark tried to find Francisco, he dropped Javier off at Chloe's apartment. After Emmeline finished up at clinic, she headed over there to join them.

"Hey, guys!" she greeted as she took her jacket off. "What's up?"

Chloe smiled as she typed something on her laptop. "Hey, we're just trying to see if we can find out where Javier's mom is." The computer beeped as it finished its search. "There are three laundry services in Granville. Your mom must be at one of them."

"All right," Javier smiled. "As soon as Clark finds Francisco, we can go find her."

There was a knock on the door.

Chloe got up from the table. "One second. Write those addresses down."

While Chloe answered the door, Emmeline sat down next to Javier. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah," the boy answered. "Little scare with the sheriff and Clark's mom earlier, but as you can see, it worked out okay. And now after all this time, I'm finally close to seeing my mom."

They looked up to find Jimmy at the door holding a can of whipped cream, and Emmeline blushed when she thought about the connotations behind that little innocent can.

"Hey," Javier waved, completely unperturbed.

Jimmy frantically hid the can behind his back. "Uh, who's your friend?"

"Javier, meet Jimmy," Chloe said. "Javier is Clark's friend from Mexico. He's only been in the country for a couple weeks, and we're all hanging out until Clark gets back."

Jimmy awkwardly smiled when he realized his plans for date night were now nonexistent.

"Sorry," she mouthed.

To his credit, he got over the defeat pretty quickly. "Well, let's get this party started." He looked at Javier and said very loudly while overly enunciating his words, "Javier, you have not experienced America until you've experienced pepperoni pizza."

Emmeline hid a smile behind her hand. So Jimmy was one of those people.

"Isn't pizza from Italy?" Javier asked.

Jimmy's smile disappeared in embarrassment. "Well, that's a-a common misconception. Um, we came up with the cheese angle." He closed his eyes and nodded. "I'm gonna go order."

"Okay," Chloe smiled. She cleared her throat and returned to her seat behind the laptop.

"Is that your boyfriend?" Javier asked.

Chloe looked back at Jimmy who was now ordering pizza over the phone and smiled. "Define 'boyfriend'."

Emmeline nudged him. "That means 'yes'."

Clark quickly entered the apartment. "Hey."

Javier looked up. "Clark. Did you find Francisco?"

"Um, I'm still working on that. Chloe, Em, can I talk to you for a second?"

"Yeah, sure," Emmeline answered.

The two women got up from the table and walked with Clark towards the back of the apartment.

"Clark, what did you find?" Chloe asked quietly.

"Guys, that place is a graveyard. There's bodies buried everywhere. I called the sheriff. He's on his way to McNally's farm."

"I took a look at the farm's property records. Guess which Fortune 500 company so graciously came in and purchased the land after it had been pummeled during the last meteor shower?"

"LuthorCorp."

Chloe nodded.

"Would you guys watch Javier? I'll be right back."

"Of course."

Javier nervously paced in the apartment after they had all eaten their fill of classic American pepperoni pizza while Chloe and Jimmy washed the dishes.

"Javier, you're going to wear a hole in the floor," Emmeline teased.

"Why isn't Clark back yet?" he asked. "And why hasn't he found Francisco?"

"I'm sure he's doing the best he can."

"Hey, Em, can you put these dishes away?" Chloe called.

"Yeah, sure."

She started putting the clean dishes Jimmy had dried off back into their respective cabinets when she heard Jimmy say, "C.K. missed a mean stuffed crust. So where did he run off to?"

Chloe cleared her throat. "Clark just had some stuff he needed to…"

"Look, you don't have to cover for him, Chloe. I know why he left."

Emmeline turned and looked at Chloe nervously.

Then he added, "He doesn't like me. And I get it. You're my girl, and the poor guy is madly in love with you. I can't really blame him."

Emmeline smiled to herself at Jimmy's once-again completely incorrect way of thinking.

"Clark and I are just friends. Trust me. That ship is anchored firmly at bay. And as far as him not liking you, that's impossible, Jimmy. Because you make me so happy." Jimmy leaned in for a kiss, but she said softly, "Uh, we have company, remember? Oh, no."

Emmeline turned again and saw that the apartment was short one teenage Latino. And the window was now open.

The young woman bolted down the stairs of the Talon and raced out the back door. Javier was down at the entrance of the alley and he looked at her when he heard the door open. Then he quickly hopped onto a passing truck. Taking barely a second to think about how stupid of a decision she was making, Emmeline ran after the truck as Javier climbed inside the bed of it. Then she hopped on herself just as the truck sped up.

"Javier!" she could hear Chloe yelling behind her. "Em!"

Javier's eyes widened when he saw Emmeline's face from inside the bed of the truck. "Are you crazy?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" she answered. "A little help would be nice!"

Javier got up onto his knees in order to help her over the back of the truck and safely into the bed.

"What's up with this? Why are you running when we've all been trying to help you?"

"I'm tired of waiting, Emmeline. I just want to see my mom."

"I know, but do you really think this is going to work? What's going to happen if you get caught?"

Javier looked away from her guiltily. "You just don't get it."

"Oh, no, I understand."

"What do you mean?"

"My mom died about a year and a half ago from cancer. There's not a day that goes by where I don't think of her. I'd do anything to see her again."

Javier sighed and rubbed his fingers over his necklace. "Oh…I'm-I'm really sorry."

"Don't think that I'm going to stand in the way of reuniting a mother with her child. But I also don't want everything you've been through to be for nothing just because you're impulsive."

"I'm not the only impulsive one here."

"Normally, I'm actually really cautious and think things through, but lately I've been doing a lot that's not like me. And I guess I'm a little more protective when it comes to the strays."

"I'm a stray?"

Emmeline quietly groaned and put a hand to her temple.

"You okay?" Javier asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little headache."

The truck hit a large bump, and Emmeline promptly passed out.

"Emmeline? Emmeline?!" Javier frantically shook her shoulders. "Come on, come on, wake up!"

Beads of sweat formed on her head and she convulsed twice.

Javier started to panic. What was he supposed to do? He didn't have the slightest knowledge of first aid, and it wasn't like he could ask the driver of the truck to help them. How would he possibly explain what the two of them were doing here without revealing his illegal status?

He pressed his fingers to the side of her neck and he could at least feel a strong pulse, but she stayed unconscious. Javier squeezed his knees to his chest while the truck drove down the empty Smallville streets. He could do nothing else but wait.

A full half-hour later, which proved to be the longest half-hour of his life, Emmeline sprang up with a heavy gasp.

"Are you okay?" Javier exclaimed.

Emmeline put a hand to her chest as she tried to catch her breath. This wasn't good. Before, it was just the nightmares, but now they had gotten so strong and vivid that they were forcing her to sleep at random.

"Emmeline?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you."

"Does this kind of thing happen often?"

"No."

"Look…I really appreciate you coming after me, but…what if that had been more serious and…you could've died? I wouldn't have been able to do anything."

"I—"

"I have to go on my own from here. I'll be fine, I promise."

"But—"

"Tell Clark I said 'thanks'."

"Javier—"

Javier jumped out of the bed of the truck, tucked and rolled, and ran off down the road until Emmeline couldn't see him anymore. She closed her eyes and sighed, completely out of ideas to help him. For now though, she needed to get out of this truck before the driver caught her because she'd rather not have to think of an explanation, or worse, have the cops called on her.

Emmeline pulled out her cell phone. "Clark, I could use a helping hand right now."

Clark walked into the Daily Planet after searching for Javier all night and going to the McNally farm that morning as the man himself was arrested. Unfortunately, there was one problem.

"Hey, Clark, what happened?" Chloe asked when she saw him.

"Javier is not the only one who escaped," he told her. "The police had McNally in custody, and all of a sudden he disappeared into the ground."

"Makes sense, seeing as Jed McNally is 100% certified meteor freak. I checked into the Planet's archives, and it looks like our farmer friend was buried under a mountain of kryptonite."

"That's why he went missing for three days, and it may explain his ability to move underground."

"Being a human rototiller definitely helps with the harvest. In the last year and a half, his farm has tripled in productivity. It sounds like he was being his own personal border patrol. I mean, if anyone ever tried to leave, he made sure they wouldn't live to tell the authorities."

"I can't believe it. The same Jed McNally who used to go fishing with my dad is now a murderer."

"Hey, Clark, if anything could turn a law-abiding citizen into a card-carrying serial killer, it's kryptonite."

The police scanner on Chloe's desk crackled. "Unit 12. Suspected stowaway on bus headed toward Granville. Suspect Hispanic, early teens. No ID."

"Javier," Clark realized.

"I've been monitoring the police scanner in Granville. Absolutely could be—"

Clark sped off before she could finish her sentence.

"Hurry, Clark."

"I'm going to head to the farm and wait for them there," Emmeline told her.

"Okay. Jimmy and I are gonna head to Granville and try to track down Javier's mom. I'll call you if we find her and we'll bring her to Clark's."

"All right, sounds good. I really hope he's okay."

Javier walked inside the door to the Kent home.

And found someone waiting for him.

"Mamá!" he exclaimed as he ran to her.

The young woman began crying as she tightly enveloped her son in her arms. "Javier!" When she pulled back, she realized that he was covered in dirt. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Clark saved me."

Clark smiled at him. "Javier should get to a hospital to be checked out."

"No. We can't. No hospitals."

"Hopefully, you won't have to worry about that anymore," Martha interjected. "I'm doing everything in my power to get your family legal status."

"Mom, you can do that?" Clark asked.

"I'm working on it. I've been talking to Esperanza. Javier seems like an amazing boy, a boy I'd be proud to see as a citizen someday."

"What about your position on the Senate?"

"Sometimes when you're dealing with extraordinary people, you need to take a risk. That's a lesson I learned from my son."

Emmeline smiled warmly as she watched a son reunited with his mother. "Come here," she said to Javier. "I know some basic first-aid, so I should at least be able to take care of anything minor for now."

"Are you feeling better?" the boy asked as he sat down at the dining room table.

Emmeline pulled out the Kents' first-aid kit and started to work on a couple scratches and cuts on his arms. "Yeah, I'm fine. Though I could've done without being ditched last night."

Javier looked at her sheepishly. "I'm sorry."

"Well, the important thing is that you're back with your mom, so I guess I can find it in me to forgive you."

Clark cleared his throat just as Jimmy and Chloe were about to kiss. "Aren't you two still on the clock?"

"C.K," Jimmy smiled. "Just the man that I wanted to see. Look, I'm a straight shooter, so we should probably just get this out in the open."

Clark looked at Chloe with a confused expression.

"I know that you got your issues with me."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The whole Chloe-and-me thing. And, hey, you know what? I get it. But what I'm about is working through it. Do you play hoops?"

Clark tried to think of how he should answer while Emmeline and Chloe looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

"Great. Cool. Then we will, you know, go play a little one-on-one, and we'll just leave it out on the court. 'Cause I'm your bro, not your foe." He held out his fist. "Ring that bell."

Clark looked like someone had just told him he was an alien from another planet and lightly fist-bumped him back.

"There it is." The young photographer happily exited, looking like he had just solved the problem of world hunger.

Chloe laughed. "Please don't ask any follow-up questions."

Clark held up the latest issue of The Daily Planet featuring Chloe's article about Jed McNally. "Well, nice byline."

"Hey, thanks. Yeah, it wouldn't have a happy ending if it wasn't for you, though."

A distraught expression crossed his face.

Chloe looked at him pointedly. "Come on, Clark, you put a psycho killer away, and you reunited a mother with her son. I mean, there are only so many hours in the day."

"Well, see, that's the thing. No matter how many people I save, I can't solve the world's problems."

Emmeline put her hand to his shoulder. "No one is expecting you to. All you can do is the best you can every day, and that'll be more than enough."

Chloe smiled. "She's right. I don't know anyone else who does more for this world than you."

Clark gave the two young women a gentle smile. "Thanks. I should probably get back to the barn. I still have some chores to do since I was interrupted yesterday."

Barely seconds after he had left the room, Emmeline's head began to ache again. "No," she said quietly. "No, please, not now, not here."

"Em?" Chloe said. "What's wrong?"

Emmeline stumbled into the copier room, hoping to get even a modicum of privacy from what she knew was about to happen.

Chloe anxiously followed her. "Em?"

"Chloe—" But before she could say anything else, her eyes closed and she fell to the floor.

"Emmeline!"

Emmeline's head twitched and her body lightly convulsed as her eyes quickly rolled back and forth beneath her eyelids.

"Em? Can you hear me?"

"Um, I'm on Route 40 right before Loeb Bridge."

"Oh, no. He's coming after me."

"Lana?"

"LANA!"

"Em? Hold on, I'm going to get you out."

"Looks like I saved her this time."

"You've waited for this for so long…I couldn't let you lose it after all this time."

"Please, Em…hold on…"

"It will be okay. Because…I saved her…"

"NO!"

Clark carried her into a snowy place, the blood covering both of them sharply contrasting the white. "How could you take her away from me?!"

"Human life is fragile, my son," a strange voice answered calmly. "You knew her life would be exchanged for yours."

"Don't make her pay for my mistake! If I hadn't told Lana the truth about me, Emmeline would still be alive! You have to let me fix it!"

"Your powers on Earth may seem extraordinary, Kal-El, but we are not gods."

"This was not her destiny! And you know that! There has to be a way! There has to be a way to fix this! Please!"

"There's one trial you have yet to experience, but you must heed my warning. The tide of fate is impossible to stop. Even if you are able to alter one course of events, the universe will find others. There is only one crystal."

A small crystal ejected itself out of the collection and floated before him.

"Once you make this choice, there is no second chance. Decide carefully."

"I have to save her."

Clark reached out to take the crystal and then there was a flash.

Emmeline sprang up with heaving gasps.

Chloe quickly grabbed onto her to prop her up. "Em, Em, it's okay, it's okay, calm down, I'm here, I'm here."

The brunette tightly clutched onto her as she let out wracking gasps and sobs. Chloe gently rubbed slow circles on her back and sighed as she ignored the people staring into the copier room.

This wasn't good.

Emmeline walked into the barn, her eyes glassy.

Clark turned to look at her, and his throat tightened. Chloe had called him and told him what happened at the Daily Planet right after he'd left, and he knew that as much as he'd tried to deny it, the time had come. Emmeline remembered what had happened a year ago.

Why hadn't he told her about this sooner?

"Is it true?" Emmeline asked softly.

Clark opened his mouth to answer, but once again, he couldn't form any actual words.

"Did I die? And you turned back time to try to stop it from happening?"

The young man sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, it's true."

A sob ripped its way out of her throat. "So…so I'm only alive…because your dad died instead of me."

"Em, it's not that simple, it's…"

"You knew that's what was causing my nightmares, didn't you?"

"I mean…I thought so, but it doesn't make any sense. That timeline didn't happen, so you shouldn't have remembered it. There's not technically anything to remember."

"But I do. I even saw you in the Fortress of Solitude."

"But you…you weren't…" She wasn't alive when that happened. Even if she did remember the events that had occurred that night, she shouldn't know about that part.

"So this entire time, you watched me fight that crippling exhaustion and didn't do anything about it?"

"I…I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't know if it would help either. I was afraid it might make things worse."

Several tears slipped down her cheeks. "I guess…I can understand why you were hesitant. And I don't know if I'm the one who deserved to live rather than your dad, but…"

"Em—"

"But I am terrified…that one day…you are going to resent me for this. For taking your dad away from you, even if it wasn't intentional and I didn't have control over it. And I wouldn't blame you if you did. But you are my best friend. And I know that if and when that happens, I won't be able to handle it. I can't even stomach imagining you looking at me like that. So…let's…stop…before that happens."

"No, wait, I don't—"

Emmeline shook her head. "It's better this way, okay?"

Clark watched in stunned silence as she exited the barn, her soft cries hurting him more than kryptonite.