I have literally had this chapter planned out since season one, so I am very happy I finally got to write it. Apologies in advance for the feels.
Emmeline, Chloe, and Lana entered the Talon feeling rather bittersweet. It was nearly time for Lana to leave to Paris, and it was still unknown if she was ever going to come back.
"I guess you're not gonna miss the 5 AM pastry deliveries," Chloe remarked.
"It's weird," Lana sighed. "All I was trying to do was save this place from being torn down. Next thing I know, it kind of took over my life."
As they entered the main room, they saw to their surprise that the Talon had been fixed up exactly like it was before.
"Whoa."
"Yeah."
"I thought they were turning the Talon into a house of heartburn."
"Why would I do that?" a girl's voice said from the stairs. They all looked up to find a young woman around their age descend the stairs and come over to them. "You must be Lana."
"Yeah, but I thought I was meeting Mr. Kerns," Lana told her.
"He's…my dad."
"Oh, I didn't realize."
"Yeah, he sent me to set everything up. I'm Emma."
"Hi," Lana smiled as they shook hands. "Have we met before? You seem really familiar."
"Everybody says that."
Lana pointed to the two girls with her. "This is Chloe and Emmeline. They'll be two of your frequent 'caffeinators'."
"Hi," they smiled at her.
"Hi," Emma replied.
"Just out of curiosity, what's going on with the burrito bar?" Chloe asked.
"Oh, it was all wrong. Everything is perfect just the way it is. Lana, would you mind staying around a little while and showing me the ropes?"
"No, no, it's the least I could do," Lana answered. "Oh, and I wanted to give you these." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys and handed them to Emma. "I found an extra set of keys. Wow, I sort of feel like I'm handing over half of my life to you."
"Don't worry. It's in good hands."
Emmeline and Chloe were once again working in the Torch office late at night when someone else walked in.
"Good evening, Miss Sullivan. Miss Brooks."
Emmeline's heart sped up at the sound of Lionel Luthor's voice. What did he possibly want now?
"Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the hallways," Chloe said sharply.
"All right, you can cut the sarcasm. I'm only here because I need your help."
"With all your resources, Mr. Luthor, what could you possibly want from me?"
"Your friendship. With Lana Lang. A young woman in my care, the daughter of a friend is missing. We can't locate her."
"I'll congratulate her when I see her. I don't know what this has to do with Lana, but—"
"Her father was looking for her. He's disappeared as well." He pulled out a picture of the girl and handed it to Chloe. "She, uh, was Lana's best friend when they were children. So it's possible she might show up here in Smallville. The girl is sick. Very sick. She needs treatment. If she is here in Smallville, I'm sure you'll find out about it. I'll expect a call from you."
As Lionel left the office, Emmeline went over to Chloe and looked at the picture. "Isn't that the new Talon owner's daughter?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, I'm pretty sure Lionel's definition of sick is different from ours. Do you really think she's dangerous?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to see what I can find."
Chloe didn't have any luck when she searched for the girl which was definitely unusual. Chloe could usually find anything on anyone.
However, when Clark stepped into the office, the mystery was quickly solved when she showed him the picture.
"It's Emily Dinsmore," he told them. "They found her father's car abandoned outside of the Talon."
"I knew she looked kind of familiar…" Emmeline muttered.
"Lionel must've nabbed her last year after she pushed Lana off the bridge," Chloe said. "And in the meantime, she's picked up a bad habit of walking through walls."
"At least we know why Lionel's trying so hard to get her back," Clark put together. "He can't let Lex find her first."
"Wait a minute, when did Lex enter the equation?"
"Chloe, Lex has been working with the FBI to try to take down his father."
"Clark, if you knew Lex was looking for dirt on Lionel, why didn't you tell him about his grandparents?"
"Because we never had hard evidence before about what Lionel was doing. Besides, the last time I confronted him about it, it almost got him killed."
"But if we found Emily, then we could prove that Lionel's been illegally cloning people. The thing I don't get is if Emily could've escaped at any time, why did she wait until now for the sudden encore appearance?"
"Maybe she found out she was gonna lose Lana forever."
"Then the question is what would you do to keep someone from leaving?"
Clark thought for a moment before a look of realization crossed his face. "I'd try to make things go back to the way they were before." He quickly went over to Chloe's computer.
"You mean when they were kids?"
"Emily still thinks Lana's her best friend and everything can be like it was when they used to play together."
"Well, you lived next door to Lana. Do you remember seeing them?"
"No. They spent most of their time at Emily's. What we need to do is figure out where that is."
Clark searched 'Dinsmore' through property records to see which places the Dinsmores owned. That way, hopefully, they could find Emily and then they could find Lana.
That night, Pete was driving Emmeline down the road, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how to break the news to her.
"How about we go out for dinner next week?" Emmeline said with a smile. "We haven't done that in a while."
Pete was about to respond when blue and red flashing lights filled his rearview mirror.
"You're not speeding. Do you have a light out or something?"
"I don't think so."
Pete pulled over on the side of the road. The cop approached the car and shined his flashlight on Pete's face.
"Was I speeding?" he asked the officer.
"No, kid, but I'm gonna have to ask you and your girlfriend to step out of the car." He pulled out his badge and shined the light on it to reveal that his name was Frank Loder. "FBI. I just have a few questions for the both of you. It won't take long."
Pete and Emmeline questioningly got out of the car. "I'm pretty sure you got the wrong guy."
"You Pete Ross?"
"Is this about my mom?"
"Federal judges gotta go through a routine security check. I've just got a few questions to ask you. And then I just want to get your girlfriend's opinion on things since sons tend to be a bit biased when talking about their moms."
"Get up!"
Loder pulled up Pete from the pier he had pushed him on, Emmeline still on the ground behind them. A trail of blood flowed from the side of Pete's head and his nose while a large bruise sat on Emmeline's cheek. Both of their hands were handcuffed in front of them.
"You know how to swim, Pete?" Loder demanded.
"Get off me, man!" Pete demanded, trying to get out of Loder's grip.
"Huh?"
"What are you doing?!"
"I'm losing my patience with you!" He threw Pete down near the edge of the pier.
"Stop!" Emmeline cried as she stepped forward. "You'll kill him!"
"Shut up!" Loder yelled at her. "You're next."
Emmeline sank to her knees, furious that she was unable to do anything.
"You're crazy!" Pete growled, pulling himself up. "Don't you dare lay a finger on her. I don't know anything about his secret."
"You're just his best friend." He grabbed Pete's jacket. "You know, you can continue to play the hero if you want, but are the skeletons in this kid's closet worth your life?"
"I'm not telling you anything."
"Oh, I think you will."
Loder pulled his fist back to punch Pete hard in the face, making Emmeline wince as she prepared for the blow.
"Loder!"
Emmeline and Loder turned around to find Lex walking out onto the pier. He went over to Emmeline and helped her to her feet.
"Pete, you okay?" he called.
Pete stood up and looked at Lex in horror. "You're the one who's got this guy after Clark?"
"No, but I have a feeling my father did." He glared at Loder. "Didn't he? He found out you were working with me and paid you off. No wonder you were so anxious to drop the case against him."
Loder slowly walked over to Lex as Emmeline quickly went over to stand next to Pete. "You know, I really don't want a morality lesson from someone willing to rat out their own father."
"So how much did he toss in to do legwork on Clark?"
"You know, if I was you, I'd be worried less about this farm kid and worried more about the homicide charges you're gonna be facing when I throw you back to Metropolis P.D."
"Somehow, I'm not too concerned. I bet your, uh, supervisors would be very interested to know about your unique interrogation methods."
"What is it you want, Luthor?"
"I want you to get back to the case you were assigned." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to the officer. "That's all the evidence you'll need on my father."
Loder looked down at the paper and smiled a little before looking back up at Lex. "You're making a mistake, Lex." He folded up the paper and walked over to where Pete and Emmeline were standing. "These kids are sitting on something bigger than you or even your dad. Isn't that right, Pete?"
Neither of them answered the man. Loder turned around and tossed the keys to Lex before walking away from the pier back towards his car.
Lex quickly went up to the two teenagers and undid their handcuffs. "You sure you're both all right?"
"Yeah, we're fine," Emmeline said quietly.
"Clark was probably right confiding in you instead of me," Lex said to Pete. He gently put a hand to his shoulder. "He couldn't ask for a better friend. Come on."
The three of them started walking away from the pier. "I thought that guy was gonna kill me," Pete said. "I guess we owe you a thanks."
"I'm sure when the time comes, you'll do the same for me."
Lex drove them both back to Pete's abandoned car, and Pete quickly drove Emmeline back home before her parents got nervous. She would just tell them she stayed the night at Chloe's after working at the Torch and that she fell or something to explain away the bruise.
When they reached her house, she got out of the car and gave Pete a quick kiss. "Hey…" she said when she noticed the look on his face. "Are you okay?"
"Em, there's something I have to tell you," Pete told her.
"Okay, what is it?"
"I…" He took a deep breath and just decided to say it quick like ripping off a bandage. "I'm moving to Wichita with my mom."
Emmeline felt all of the air rush out of her in one breath. "Wait…what? I…I thought you were going to stay with your dad and finish out senior year."
"I was. But…I changed my mind. I just…have to leave. I need a new start and I can do that now if I go with her."
"But…what about us?"
"As much as I'd love to try to do the whole long-distance thing since I think we could make it work if we tried…I'm not going to do that. Because it's not fair of me to do that to you. I don't plan on coming back to Smallville anytime soon, so it's in our best interest to just…"
Pete couldn't finish his sentence when he saw Emmeline's eyes watering. He knew this wasn't going to be easy, but this was much worse than he had anticipated.
"I need to go," Emmeline said quickly as she ran in the house.
Pete let out a sigh as his own eyes began to fill with tears.
As Pete put the last box in the car, he turned at the sound of a car door opening and closing. There was Emmeline.
"Em, what are you doing here?" Pete asked.
Emmeline smiled a little. "You didn't think I was going to let you leave without me seeing you off, did you?"
Abby looked at the two of them. "I'll just leave you two alone to talk for a minute."
"Thanks, Mrs. Ross. Uh, congratulations on the job."
"Thank you."
Abby turned and went back inside the house to make sure neither she nor her son had forgotten anything.
Emmeline played with her hands. "So, this is it."
"Yeah," Pete answered awkwardly.
"Wichita, huh? Probably won't be as exciting as Smallville."
"Em…" Pete took her hands in his and pulled her close to him so their foreheads were almost touching.
Tears formed in Emmeline's eyes again that she had previously sworn she was going to hold back. "I want you to get that fresh start you talked about, and I'm glad you get that chance…but I would be lying if I said I wanted you to go."
"You say that, but I have not been a great boyfriend to you."
"No, you've been an amazing boyfriend. You were there for me throughout my mom getting cancer, through the whole custody battle, through everything."
"But I have kept so many things from you. You would hate me if you knew how much there is that you don't know."
"Do you mean what Loder was talking about with something about Clark? Pete, if that's not your secret to tell, then how can I be mad at you for that?"
Pete laughed lightly. "You give me too much credit. What did I do to deserve you?" After a small pause, he said gently, "If there was ever a reason to stay, Em, it's you. Look, one day, you're going to meet someone, and you're going to love him even more than you loved me, and you're going to marry him, and it's going to be the happiest day of your life. I'm just sorry I can't be that guy for you."
Emmeline gently hugged him for a long time, unwilling to pull away from him. "Good-bye, Pete."
"Bye, Em."
Emmeline turned and walked away from him back towards her car. She slowed her pace and looked back at her boyfriend. They made eye contact for a few seconds. Before she could stop herself, she ran back towards him and threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the lips.
"I love you," she said softly as tears streamed down her face.
"I love you too."
She kissed him again before he forced himself to pull away from her. Abby came back out, and she could not deny that her heart panged for a moment when she saw the tears on Emmeline's cheeks. A part of her could not understand why her son wanted to come with her, but another part of her knew that the past couple of years had been very tough on him and he just wanted to start over. But leaving all of his friends, especially the girl he loved, could not be easy.
Emmeline waved as the car departed from the house. She watched it until it disappeared from sight.
Then she collapsed into sobs on the ground.
