Clark, Lois, and Emmeline hiked up the hill to where Chloe's safe house was.

"I know you find it hard to believe, but trust me," Clark insisted. "Chloe's not buried in that grave."

"How do you know that?" Lois demanded.

"I've learned it's best not to ask where he gets his information," Emmeline told her.

"Look, I want her back more than anyone, but don't you think your hunch is a rung on the whole grief ladder?"

"None of this would've happened if I had been there," Clark said more to himself than to the girls.

"Okay, Commando, I don't get you. Half the time, you're all meek 'Yes, Ma' and 'Yes, Pa', and the other half, you are the most overconfident guy I've ever met."

"It doesn't happen to you much, does it? Not being able to peg someone right away?"

"Oh, get over yourself. You are not that complicated."

Emmeline smiled to herself as she listened to the two of them banter. Most people in Smallville got along great with Clark, but this was certainly the first time she had ever seen someone give him such a hard time non-stop.

The three of them reached the top of the hill to find the remains of the destroyed safe house. Only a few beams and stones still stood while the rest was charred rubble.

"This is Chloe's safe house?" Lois asked quietly.

"You mean what's left of it," Clark answered.

"Oh, Chloe. What did they do to you?" Lois walked through what was left of the house. "What exactly do you expect to find here?"

"I don't know, but the FBI sealed the case, even the autopsy reports. Doesn't that sound a little odd?"

"Remind me if I'm ever a witness not to put my life in the hands of the FBI."

"Well, maybe she got out before the explosion."

"They said she walked inside, Clark. I don't know how anyone could survive this. Look, you may be in denial thinking Chloe's alive, but I'm gonna find out who did this to her."

"Em, what do you think?"

Emmeline avoided meeting his eyes. "I don't know."

He realized it couldn't be easy being in the place where her closest friend had supposedly blown up.

"Let's get out of here, Clark," Lois said, speaking for all them. "This place gives me the creeps."

The sound of a helicopter joined the low rumbles of thunder. The three of them looked up to the sky to find a black chopper soaring over their heads flying low enough to the ground for two people in black suits to descend from ropes.

Emmeline looked over at Clark with wide eyes. Technically, they were trespassing on a crime scene and that was extremely illegal.

"Run!" Clark yelled.

Lois and Emmeline turned and booked it away from the burnt safe house. The same chopper followed them and got dangerously close to their heads.

"Duck!" Lois exclaimed, forcing Emmeline down to the ground with her before they were both decapitated.

Once the chopper had passed, they both continued running down the hill into a cornfield. Lois led them through the narrow gaps in between stalks until they got to the dirt road. The chopper flew down behind them and another man jumped down to the ground.

Before Emmeline could do anything to help, Lois began mercilessly beating up the man with skill that even she hadn't acquired throughout all her training with Lana the past couple of years.

The rear of the chopper overheated and the whole thing had no choice but to touch down onto the ground.

"Lois…" Clark said in surprise when he saw the unconscious man from the chopper.

"Well, don't just stand there, come on!" Lois said with a smirk before racing down the dirt road with the others.

With all the dirt covering their clothes and faces, it was clear they were all going to need long showers.


The next day, Emmeline headed to Chloe's tombstone to find that things were not as she had left them. The grave was completely dug up. When she got closer, she found Lois opening an empty casket.

"He was right," she gasped.

"What are you doing?"

Lois nearly jumped out of her skin at Emmeline's question. She quickly closed the casket. "Proving that what farm boy said was accurate. Not sure how he even knew this."

"There's a lot of things about Clark that are really hard to understand."

"I'm gathering that."

"Where's Chloe Sullivan?" a male voice asked from behind them.

The two girls turned around to find a teenage boy slowly approaching them.

"Who are you?" Lois demanded.

"You'd better tell me where she is."

Lois hopped out of the grave and pulled a small can of pepper spray out of her purse. Hiding it behind her back, she walked up to the boy with a smirk. "What? The posse couldn't get to me the first time, so the boss sent you?"

Before Lois had the chance to shoot the spray in his face, the boy's right arm morphed into a long sharp blade and knocked her to the ground causing her to lose the bottle.

Emmeline's eyes widened. He was a meteor freak!

Lois back away as his arm came down again and hacked off a portion of a tombstone.

Suddenly, someone hit the boy on the back of the head with a shovel. When he turned around, pepper spray assaulted his eyes and he fell backwards.

Emmeline was surprised to see that their savior was in fact Lana!

"Are you guys okay?" Lana asked as she helped Lois off the ground.

When they looked to the ground, the teenager was nowhere to be seen.

"Where did he go?" Lois questioned. "Medieval psychopath."

Lana looked at the dug-up grave. "I guess you'd have to be in order to dig up a grave in the middle of the day."

"Actually, that was me. It's my cousin's grave." She held out her hand for her. "Lois Lane."

Lana politely shook her hand. "Lana Lang."

Emmeline smiled a little. "This wasn't exactly the reunion I pictured, but it's good to see you again."

Lana smiled as she turned and hugged Emmeline tightly.

"I don't understand, what are you doing back?"

"Something just…pulled me back here."

"Sorry you didn't have a more warm welcome."

"It wouldn't be Smallville without guys like him, would it?"

"Wait, you mean this is normal?" Lois asked.

"Chloe hasn't told you any crazy stories about all the weirdos we see here?" Emmeline smiled.

"One or two, but I thought she was just making all of that up."

"Not here. Here, you'd be surprised what's possible."


Over the course of the next few days, Clark did everything he was able to in order to find out where Chloe was. His trust in Lex dwindled a little, but with Lois's help, he managed to find her before the meteor freak with the blade for an arm almost killed her.

Unsurprisingly, it was Lionel Luthor who sent the boy after her. All for the purpose of not having anyone to testify at his upcoming murder trial.

The lengths that man went to in order to stay out of prison always astounded Emmeline even though it shouldn't anymore.

Emmeline went down to the courthouse as soon as the trial was over and Lionel was thankfully put behind bars.

The second she saw Chloe, she bolted over to her best friend. For the first time in months, she hugged her tightly and did not release for a long time. Chloe didn't mind and hugged her back just as tight if not more so.

"I'm so glad you're back," Emmeline said quietly.

"It's good to be back."

"You're okay, right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you all right?"

"Things are looking up now."

Chloe laughed, and the two friends hugged again.


Emmeline walked up the steps to the loft. "Hi, Clark."

"Hey, Em."

"It's been a crazy few days."

"It's funny. You didn't react to seeing Chloe the way I thought you would."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It was just not what I was expecting."

The more Clark thought about it, the more he realized that Emmeline had been acting really weird lately. Every time Chloe had been brought up in conversation or he had talked about the possibility of her being alive, Emmeline had gone silent and avoided looking at him. It wouldn't have been strange of her if it wasn't just whenever that one subject was talked about.

"You knew Chloe was alive, didn't you?"

Emmeline's heart pounded in her chest. Looking away from him, she answered quietly, "Yeah."

How had he possibly found out she knew? Was she really that terrible of a liar?

"Emmeline, everyone has been devastated about this. I have bent over backwards these past few days trying to prove that she was alive when the whole time, you knew? How could you keep something like this a secret?!"

"For the same reason Chloe and I kept your secret last summer when you were in Metropolis! She asked me to! Except in her case, her life was in danger if anyone knew the truth. I had to promise I wouldn't tell anyone."

"Why did she tell you about this?"

Emmeline paused for a moment, recalling everything that happened three months ago. "I was in a really bad place. My mom moved back to New York, Pete broke up with me, and then Lana moved halfway around the world. And she was worried about what might happen if I believed I lost her too."

Clark didn't say anything. He couldn't decide who he was more angry with. Emmeline for not telling him Chloe was alive, Chloe for not filling him in on the plan, or himself for not being there for Chloe when she needed him.

"It killed me to not tell you the truth," Emmeline told him. "But I couldn't risk Lionel finding out she was alive. It was a huge gamble to even tell me."

Clark knew that Emmeline hadn't really had a lot of options about this whole situation, and she was doing what she thought was right. A part of him knew that she had done the right thing. It didn't mean he liked it.

"It wasn't like I could talk to her at all. I had no way of knowing if she was okay. You know…this summer has just been…awful. Everyone I had become so close to was gone. I just…I felt like I had gone back to all the years where I was alone." Tears formed in Emmeline's eyes which made Clark's expression soften. "I needed you. And you weren't there. You're always there. But you weren't this time. Where did you go?"

Clark came up to her and took her into his arms as she cried. He hadn't realized just how much she had been keeping bottled up. He hadn't realized that everyone Emmeline called a friend had up and disappeared all at the same time. Even if she had known Chloe was alive, to not be able to communicate with her at all and to keep something that big a secret must've been nothing short of torture.

A person could only harbor so much hurt and loneliness before they broke. And when Clark had gotten upset at her, it was enough to push her over the edge.

Clark rubbed his hand against her back as he held her. "I'm so sorry."