Clark, Chloe, and Emmeline walked into the Talon as Clark explained one of his college options.

"University of Miami?" Chloe said in disbelief.

"Yeah," Clark answered.

"I just don't see you trading in your flannels for flip-flops."

"Well, I figure if you've got a chance to start over, why not start over where there's a beach? I am feeling a bit guilty leaving my parents to run the farm without me."

"Yeah, I guess you would be really hard to replace with all your skills and everything."

"Skills?"

"Um, Lois, hey," Chloe called quickly to her cousin. "Can I get a double cappuccino?"

"Yeah, just a sec," Lois smiled. She went to put money into the register when she paused. "We've just been robbed."

Clark looked towards the swinging door leading to the back room. He quickly followed to track down the thief.

Chloe waited a couple minutes and then discreetly followed after him.

Lois sighed heavily before turning to Emmeline. "Wait, let me see if I remember. Vanilla bean frappe?"

Emmeline gave a small smile. "Yep."

"You okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay."

Chloe rushed back inside the Talon with Clark in tow who looked extremely confused.

"Em, I have to take care of something, so can you give Lois a ride back to the Kent farm? Thanks!"

"Uh, wait, Chloe!"

It was too late. Her best friend was already out the door.

Emmeline sighed. If only she knew that it wasn't the best time…


When Lois's extremely stressful shift was finished at the Talon, she hitched a ride with Emmeline seeing as Chloe was off doing whatever it was she needed to do with the confused Clark.

When they started to go inside, they saw that the door was sitting in the yard rather than attached to the hinges.

"What happened to the door?" Lois asked incredulously.

"You know, I tried to open it," Clark started, "and then—"

"Yeah, and then some freak wind came and just blew it right off," Chloe quickly finished.

Clark glanced at her for a second, as if she wasn't telling the truth.

Lois didn't believe it, but she didn't really care that much. "Right."

"So, Lois, do you know where the Kents are?"

"They're in Metropolis for Mr. Kent's heart exam. Clark, you know that."

"Well, not so much. He has amnesia, and he's having a hard time—"

"Again?"

"What do you mean 'again'?" Clark asked.

Lois walked up to him, observing him a little. "Well, at least this time you got clothes on."

Emmeline smiled a little to herself.

"Lois, we need to get his parents back home," Chloe told her.

"Well, that's gonna be a little hard. Mr. Kent has a one-way ticket on the Ambien Express. He's gonna be out of commission for a couple of days. So what happened?"

"Well, the last thing I remember, I woke up in the alley," Clark explained. "I was with, uh…"

"Chloe," his friend told him, reminding him of her name. "I'm thinking he caught up to whoever was behind the 'robbery-in-plain-sight' incident."

"And what, we have a thief with memory repo?" Lois asked. "I guess that could explain why in some weird Smallvillian way how I zoned out eight coffee orders before I found the till was empty."

"I'm gonna go to the Torch and see what I can find out about amnesia."

"Yeah, just leave Mr. Memory Reboot to me. I'm getting to be a pro at this." She looked over at Clark. "But you know what? You're gonna have to put up with PB&J because that's the extent of my culinary skills."

Chloe smiled at Clark. "Okay?"

She started to leave, but Clark quickly stopped her. Uh, please tell me I'm not related to her."

"No, I am. You live with her."

"Clark." Lois tossed him a jar of peanut butter for him to open.

Chloe quickly snatched it away from him. "Uh, you know what? I'm gonna take him up to the barn, see if anything up there jogs his memory."

"All right. Suit yourself."

"Em, can you head to the Torch for me and research amnesia?"

"Uh, yeah," Emmeline answered. "Sure thing."

Chloe creased her eyebrows together for a second. She knew Emmeline well enough to know that something was wrong with her best friend.


The next day at school, Emmeline, Lois, and Chloe rounded the corner and saw Clark talking with Lana.

"How did he get here?" Lois asked.

Chloe looked on at the couple. "Looks like the heart remembers more than the brain."

Emmeline looked over at her friend. It had to be hard for her to watch him fall in love all over again with a girl who wasn't her.

Lana walked away from him, so the three girls started going towards him.

"Come on, cuz," Lois said quietly. "Don't give one more second's thought to those vacant baby blues."

Chloe ignored her and looked at Clark. "Hey, good news. Uh, we traced that day pass we found to Grand View Motor Cross Park. It belongs to a guy named Kevin Grady."

"He lives in Smallville, so we thought we'd go check out the address. Coming?"

The four of them traveled to the Grady residence in order to get some answers.

Clark and Lois went ahead, but Chloe hung back with Emmeline for a second.

"Hey, are you all right?" the blonde asked. "You've been really quiet lately, even for you."

Emmeline sighed. "No. But now isn't the best time to talk about it."

"Tell me later, okay?"

"Fine."

The two of them went up to join Clark and Lois.

"We just want to talk to him," Clark explained.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Mr. Grady answered. "My son is out of town at the moment."

"And by out of town, I'm guessing you're meaning undergoing some kind of treatment at Summerholt Institute," Chloe said icily. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help but notice the parking pass on your windshield."

Mr. Grady frowned. "I believe that's nobody's business but ours. Excuse me."

"Look, we're not saying he did it," Clark said quickly. "We just need to find out what he knows."

The older man turned and looked at them for a moment. "All right. Yes, my son is a patient at Summerholt. Last fall, I took both my boys hunting at Autrey Clearing. There was an accident. Kevin was loading his gun, and, uh, I lost my son, Dylan."

"Mr. Grady, I'm sorry."

"Kevin couldn't live with himself. He was, uh…And I didn't know which way to turn, so I…Well, we thought that if Summerholt could help erase those memories, well, then maybe Kevin could get on with his life. Excuse me. Uh, I need to try and find my son. Thank you."

He returned inside his house and shut the door. Chloe, Clark, and Emmeline all turned to look at Lois.

"Look, it tugs at the heartstrings, but I'm not sure I totally buy it. I'm gonna go have a look around."

Emmeline looked over at Chloe. "I'll go wait in the car, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."


That night, Emmeline walked up the steps to the loft. "Hey, any progress getting your memory back?"

"No," Clark answered. "I'm more confused than ever."

"I can only imagine."

"Do you come up here often?"

"Uh, yeah. Especially this year. Sometimes I come when I need someone to talk to, or when I know you need someone to talk to."

"Does Chloe come up here a lot?"

"Um, I'm not sure. I would think so."

"…Does Lana?"

"You know, I don't really think anyone comes up here as much as I do. Is that bad? Does that say something about me?"

"No. I guess it just means we're close."

"We definitely are that."

Clark looked up at the girl. But not so close that he trusted her enough to tell her about his abilities. How close could they be then?

"Is everything all right?" he asked her.

Emmeline laughed lightly. "Even with amnesia, you can still read me like a book." She slowly took a seat across from him. "During sophomore year, my mom got cancer. It healed, but several months ago, it came back. The doctors gave her about six to nine more months to live."

"That's terrible."

"Yeah…"

"Um, how is she?"

"Uh, you know, I didn't come here to talk about such depressing things. How about I tell you something about us? Maybe it would jog your memory a little."

"I guess it's worth a shot."

"Let me see…well, when we first met, one of your old friends was a bug collector. And I guess they were mutated bugs and they all attacked him, so he ended up taking on the trait of nearly every single insect known to man."

"That's disgusting."

"It was even more disgusting when we found his skin in the shower after he molted. He ended up coming after me because he had some weird bug crush on me and wanted to mate with me. All because I just helped him with a paper. You came and saved me. I was really affected by it though and I had a panic attack a couple weeks later. You and one of our other friends were there to help talk me down."

Clark smiled a little. It sounded like he had a really good relationship with her.

"When you got your dog, Shelby, he was a mutated dog with incredible strength. His previous owners were using him to steal money. I found them and called you and Lois, but they caught me. They would've burned me alive if you hadn't gotten there in time. Some time before that, and I'm still not really sure how this happened, you switched bodies with someone. A really bad person. I was the only one to figure out that you weren't exactly you."

"Why just you?"

"I don't know. But I did. And my personal favorite, me, Chloe, and Lana got possessed by 17th century witches at the beginning of the year."

"Possessed?"

"Yeah, can you believe that?"

"Sort of. I guess a lot of weird stuff happens in this town."

"More than I can even comprehend. I don't remember anything that happened while I was possessed, but you later told me that you called for me, and I snapped out of it. Only for a few seconds."

"What about Lana or Chloe?"

"Nope. I was the only one who came out of it when you called."

Clark couldn't understand why he had never told her his secret. From what she was saying, and he seriously doubted she was lying, they were extremely close. Maybe even closer than Lana or Chloe. Lana did let on the reason they stopped dating was because of him. If they were so close, and they trusted each other as much as she let on, why was she still in the dark about him?

"Hey, Emmeline…"

"Em."

"What?"

"Um, you, Chloe, and Lana call me 'Em'. It's kind of a sign that we're friends. Only people I'm really close to call me Em."

"Em, uh…"

Clark wanted so much to tell her about all of his incredible abilities. But his mind kept going back to what Chloe had told him. If he hadn't told her, then he probably had a good reason for doing so as loathe as he was to admit it. If he ended up getting his memories back soon, he would see how he felt then.

"What is it?" Emmeline asked at the long pause.

"Lex showed me the caves."

"Oh, yeah, you used to spend a lot of time down there after you discovered them."

"What about Lex?"

"I think his father was more obsessed with the caves than he was. Lex tried to figure out some of the drawings in there on his own, but from what I know, nothing came of it."

"He said we studied them together."

Emmeline furrowed her eyebrows. "Clark…you have a lot of secrets. And those caves and their meaning are one of them. You studied the paintings in there for hours, but you never shared what you found with anyone."

"Not even you?"

She smiled a little. "Not even me. And that's okay. I get that you have secrets. Everyone does. Maybe you'll never want to tell me them. But I trust you more than almost anyone. So if you don't want to tell me your secrets, as much as I may want to know, I know you must have a good reason for not telling me."


Clark quickly entered the Torch office with more questions about his history. "Chloe, I—" He stopped when he saw Lois sitting at Chloe's computer with Emmeline looking over her shoulder. "Lois."

"Clark, you've got to look at this," Lois said urgently. "Chloe called and told me to download some files she e-mailed from Summerholt."

"How'd she get in?"

"I've learned never to underestimate Chloe, especially when it comes to helping you."

Clark came around the other side of Lois as she played a video on the screen.

Kevin looked panicked while tied up to a table. "You don't have to do this! I won't tell anyone, I promise! I won't tell them what happened. I know it was an accident. I know you didn't mean to!"

"Kevin didn't kill his brother," Clark stated.

"Whoever erased Kevin's memories must've planted some new ones," Lois put together.

"How could someone do that? Let Kevin walk around thinking he killed his own brother."

"Someone who obviously can't live with themselves."

"I need to find Kevin."

"And where are you gonna find him?"

"Where his brother died seems like a pretty good place to start."

"Wait a minute. Didn't his dad say that the accident happened at—" The two girls looked up and saw that Clark was gone. "…Autrey Clearing? Clark?"

Emmeline laughed a little. "It's nice to know that even though he has amnesia, some things are just never going to change."

Lois sighed. "Come on, I'm calling the police and then we're going to Summerholt. I think they've gotten Chloe. I haven't been able to reach her since she emailed me these videos."

"Man, I hate that place…"

Lois and Emmeline quickly drove down to the last place Emmeline wanted to be. Whenever Summerholt came into the picture with anything, something bad followed. She couldn't understand how this place hadn't been shut down yet.

Lois stormed up to the front desk. "I need to see a Dr. Grady."

"Just sign in," the receptionist answered shortly.

"I'm not signing anything. Get up off your chair and go get him."

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Look, this guy's kid robbed me, then plucked the last forget-me-not petal from my friend's brain. You will let me back there, and you can do it with or without handcuffs."

"Like I said, if you would sign in, I'll let someone know that you're here."

"What part of this isn't getting through to you? The last time I spoke to my cousin, she was here. And I'm sure the psycho is holding her back there somewhere."

Sheriff Adams approached the desk. "Ms. Lane."

Lois reluctantly backed down.

"Maybe they pay you enough to be rude, but I doubt they pay you enough to do time in the county jail."

The receptionist lost her smugness.

Emmeline looked down as she smiled a little. While Sheriff Adams was quite intimidating, it was certainly good to have her on their side.

The three of them rushed back to go find Chloe, but they were not prepared for what they saw.

Two huge pillars had crashed on Clark. But he was holding them up with his two bare hands.

"Wow," Lois exclaimed.

"Dear God in heaven," Sheriff Adams said quietly.

Emmeline put her hand to her mouth. "I knew it…"

Clark pushed the two pillars away and they crashed into the opposite walls. "Lois," he greeted awkwardly. "Sheriff. Em."

Lois's eyes remained wide. "I guess I shouldn't call you Smallville anymore."

Kevin looked at the situation and knew what he had to do. He pointed his hand at Lois, Sheriff Adams, and Emmeline, and a bright green line of light came from his fingers and directed to their foreheads. Then he did the same to Chloe.

They all blinked as the line of light disappeared.

Emmeline looked around her. How exactly had they gotten to this room? Weren't they just talking to that awful receptionist?

"Clark, what are you doing?" Lois snapped. "Are you just gonna stand there all day, or are you gonna untie her?"

Clark, Lois, and Emmeline quickly began untying their blonde friend from the table where Dr. Grady had been trying to wipe her memories.

The police swarmed in and arrested Mr. Grady.

"Why would anyone keep coming here after multiple doctors got arrested…?" Emmeline mumbled to herself.


"So…full memory recall?" Emmeline asked as she entered the loft once more.

Clark smiled a little. "Yeah."

"Two amnesia occurrences in less than a year. That might be a record."

"Well, I still can't remember anything from the previous day. But better a day than a lifetime, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did anything incredibly interesting happen?"

"Not with us, no. I just recollected a few memorable moments from the past few years."

Clark noticed her usual smile was refusing to appear on her face. "What's wrong?"

Emmeline laughed quietly. "I'm always amazed by how well you read me. Um…I was going to tell you yesterday, but with your memory loss…I didn't want to have to explain it twice."

"Explain what?"

Emmeline took a shaky breath. "My mom's in the hospital."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah. But it's only a matter of time now."

"I can't imagine how hard this must be."

"You know, I've known it for months now, but…now that it's actually happening…I don't know what to do."

"You don't have to."

"My mom is dying, Clark. And they can't save her."

Clark slowly approached her and wrapped his arms around her. He could never imagine going through what she was going through. Just like all the other times she had come to him when she was hurting, he let her cry in his embrace. If he knew one thing, she had to let out all of these emotions or else she was just going to hurt more. He felt a little honored that she always came to him for a shoulder to cry on. He knew how hard it was for her to open up to people, but she always allowed herself to completely open up to him. They shared a tighter bond than even he sometimes realized.

His thoughts went back to what happened in the lab at Summerholt. He couldn't help but wonder…how bad could it really have been for Emmeline to finally discover his secret?