The tension was a bit thick between Clark and Chloe just like it was between Emmeline and Pete. But things were slowly beginning to die down. Currently, all of them were at the Talon watching one of Emmeline's favorite classic horror movies, House on Haunted Hill.

"Now I'm going to knock on the other wall," Lance said to Nora on the screen. "When you hear me, you knock on this wall."

"What is she, crazy?" Pete murmured. He then yelled at the characters, "Hey, get that candle and get your butt out of there!"

"I don't think she can hear you, Pete," Clark laughed.

Emmeline smiled at the two boys' banter.

"Guys, hit the mute button okay?" Chloe said sharply.

Nora stood back up and came face to face with a very scary-looking old woman. Everyone in the theater jumped as the music intensified and Nora screamed.

Chloe and Emmeline chuckled at the good old-fashioned horror movie jump scare. Their smiles disappeared when they looked over and found Lana's hand on Clark's. Lana awkwardly took her hand away when she realized what she had done.

Emmeline blew a puff of air out though her cheeks. As if Chloe needed more of that put on her. Things were already difficult enough with Lana and Clark.

The next day, Chloe and Emmeline entered the Torch office to find Clark on one of the computers.

"Uh, sorry, Clark," Chloe said awkwardly. "When you turned in your press pass, you relinquished all of your computer privileges. I don't mean to be hall monitor, but it is school policy."

"I'm trying to help Lana," Clark answered.

Chloe hung her coat up on the hook. "Of course you are. What are you saving her from today?"

"She's being haunted by a girl who died six years ago."

"Okay, I'm piqued."

"So am I," Emmeline added as they came over to him. "What's going on?"

"She thinks it's a ghost, but I'm not so sure," Clark explained. "It's not like people haven't come back to life around here."

"Even though it goes against my natural slant towards all things Wall of Weird, I think there's another explanation for this," Chloe told him. "Look, Lana's been through a lot in her life. Maybe this haunting is a way she's dealing with it through her subconscious."

"You think she's seeing things that aren't there?"

"No, I think to her, they're very real."

"She's not crazy."

"I wasn't saying she's crazy. All I'm saying is there's a lot of things about Lana you don't know. I mean, you don't hear her crying in her room at three o'clock in the morning. What you see is just a mask."

Emmeline sighed. On several different occasions when she had stayed over at Chloe's house for the night, the both of them had heard Lana crying in her room, but they both knew that there was nothing they could do to help.

"Why are you telling me this?" Clark asked.

"Because she talks to you. Now regardless of what's going on between us, she's still our friend."

Chloe started to leave.

"Chloe," Clark called. "Thanks."

"Lock up when you're done?"

Clark looked at Emmeline. "How is she doing?"

"She's working through it. Besides, she's got me."

Clark smiled. "How's your mom by the way?"

"All healed up. We're going out tonight to celebrate her recovery."

"I'm so glad to hear she's okay."

"Yeah. Um, how's your mom doing? You know, with the baby?"

"Everything is just fine. The pregnancy is doing great and both the mom and the baby are in perfect health."

"That's great news. Are you excited to be a big brother?"

"Yeah. But I'm also kinda nervous."

"Don't be. Any baby would be lucky to have you as a brother."


Clark headed back over to the old Dinsmore house after he got the news that the clones of Emily had disappeared mere moments after he and Lana had been there.

When he got to the stairs, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he ran into Emmeline.

"Em, what are you doing here?"

"I heard about what happened," she answered. "I guess Chloe's interest in the strange and weird has rubbed off on me. I wanted to see for myself."

The two of them walked down the stairs and looked over to find a little girl, Emily, sitting in a rocking chair, reading a journal.

"I saw them," Emily said to them softly.

"The people who took everything away?" Clark asked.

Emily shook her head. "The sleeping girls. Why are they like me?"

Clark knelt down to her level. "Emily—"

"My daddy said I can't remember anything because I had an accident."

"You don't remember anything because you didn't write that. A different Emily did."

"She's the girl buried in the graveyard, isn't she?"

"Yeah. This is her story. But you have to write your own."

"Why would my daddy lie to me?"

Emmeline went to other side of her and knelt down as well. She gently reached out and touched Emily's arm. "Sometimes parents don't know how to explain the truth to their children. It could be hard for them to hear."

"He probably thought that telling you the truth would make you feel different," Clark added. "But there's nothing wrong with being different. I'm different too. It doesn't change who we are."

"Yes, it does."

Emily got up and sped off faster than Emmeline could process.

"Clark, did you see that?" she asked.

They both stood up and met the brightness from Lex's flashlight.

"Lex, what are you doing here?" Clark demanded.

"I could ask the same of you two," Lex replied. "I met Emily Dinsmore. You can't blame me for being a little intrigued after I found out she died six years ago."

"So you don't know anything about the lab that was down here?" Lex just looked at Clark with a questioning expression on his face. "They cloned Emily here. That's why your father's been refining meteor rocks."

"What are you talking about?"

"There were jars of them right where you were standing."

Lex looked around for a second. "Before Dinsmore left LuthorCorp, he was, uh, developing a technique to speed up cell growth. He claimed he could incubate a rabbit embryo to adulthood in a matter of days."

"He's been using the meteor rocks as Miracle-Gro. That's why Emily looks like she's 10 years old already."

"All ethics aside, it's an astonishing accomplishment."

"Yeah, well, tell that to the little girl who doesn't know who she is."

Emmeline looked from Lex to Clark. Only in Smallville could someone successfully clone his daughter.


For reasons Emmeline didn't fully understand, Emily disappeared after nearly killing Lana. She had reason to suspect a Luthor had something to do with it, but she didn't have any proof of that.

"Em," Pete called. He came up next to her as they walked through the halls. "Look, I don't want to do anything to freak you out, but I was hoping you'd grab a coffee with me at the Talon this afternoon. I just want to talk."

Emmeline sighed. "Sure. Why not?"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'll get a coffee with you."

As she watched Pete walk off, she sighed again. She wasn't sure she was ready to open herself up to him again, but she knew that she had to start letting him back in eventually.

It was time to start over.