"You told Lana your secret?" Chloe exclaimed quietly as she, Clark, and Emmeline walked back to her desk.
"Yeah," Clark replied.
"You're kidding," Emmeline smiled. "You really told her?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Wow!" Chloe said.
When she didn't say anything more, Clark moved his hands in a circle to try to get her to say something else.
She quickly searched for more words. "Um, okay. Geez, after all those years of me yanking on your closet door, what's-what's the real reason for the sudden coming-out party?"
"It was only a matter of weeks before she broke it off."
They passed by the desk of a woman who had just received a huge bouquet of flowers. She started squealing and jumping up and down in excitement.
"But you guys are, like, meant for each other. I mean, you're Kansas's version of Ken and Barbie, except they broke up apparently which is kind of weird."
A man stormed out of the boss's office. "You can't fire me! I quit!" he yelled as he slammed his badge on the nearest desk.
The three of them stared at the man leaving the office before getting back to the point at hand.
"Well, I think I was pushing Lana to the point where I don't know we could have come back from, and I love her too much to let that happen," Clark told them.
"So how did she take the whole 'E.T. phone home' thing?" Chloe asked.
"I'm not sure yet. I was hoping she would have called by now."
The telephone on Chloe's desk rang, and she picked it up to answer it. "Hello? No, this isn't Mr. Foo's Noodle House. Sorry." She hung the phone up again. "Clark, if Lana cares about you as much as I know she does, I seriously doubt anything is gonna change."
"One thing might. I haven't gotten my answer yet. I asked her to marry me."
Both Chloe and Emmeline's eyes widened.
"You did what now?" Emmeline asked in disbelief.
"Well, that one wasn't on the Doppler," Chloe said. "Not even a blip!"
"I know what you're gonna say," Clark sighed. "That we're too young. There's a reason I hadn't told her before. And that there's too much at stake."
"That's funny. Because what I was actually gonna say is there are very few people out there who really know what they want…and are willing to risk everything for it. If anyone deserves to be happy, Clark, it's you."
Emmeline smiled. She wasn't sure if she had feelings for him or not, but there was no use thinking about it now because she had a pretty strong feeling that Lana was going to say yes.
She and Clark just weren't meant to be.
And that was okay. She would find someone in time.
That night at the Talon, Lois hosted a party for Jonathon Kent which they all direly hoped would turn into a victory party.
Lana and Clark arrived together with a shiny new ring on Lana's finger.
Emmeline smiled to herself. She knew she was going to say yes.
"Everyone!" Lois called from the balcony. "Everyone!" When no one noticed her, she put her fingers in her mouth and let out a loud whistle. Finally, everyone turned to look at her. "I just got the heads up from the newsroom. And, ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at our new senator."
Everyone broke into thunderous congratulatory applause and cheers.
They silenced when a news broadcast appeared on the TV.
"Jonathan Kent has just been elected to the Kansas State Senate in a staggering upset over corporate mogul, Lex Luthor," the reporter announced in confirmation.
The whole place burst into louder cheers and applause.
Jonathon, Martha, and Clark went over to take some pictures for the press.
Emmeline went up to Lana. "Hey, you okay?"
Lana looked up from her phone. "Uh, yeah, it's just…Lex just left me a voicemail, and he sounds pretty devastated."
"Well, he did just get defeated in a pretty important election."
"Yeah. Look, I hate to ask this, but you're pretty good at comforting people when they're down, so do you think you could come with me to his place and try to help me cheer him up a little? It'll only be for a few minutes, I swear."
"Uh…sure. I'll be dealing with these kinds of things all the time if I end up being a psychologist, so why not?"
"Thanks."
The two girls got into Lana's car and drove down to the Luthor mansion.
Emmeline was a little nervous about seeing Lex since he had done some pretty questionable things as of late, but it wasn't often Lana asked her for a favor like this. She wanted to help her out because she didn't want to disappoint her, and she really wanted to try to get over her fear of talking to people higher up than her. She had to get used to talking to all kinds of people if she wanted to help them in the future.
They slowly entered the large main room in Lex's mansion.
"You okay?" Lana asked. "You, uh, sounded pretty upset in your message. I brought Em, I hope you don't mind."
"Probably shouldn't have called," Lex slightly slurred with his back to them. "I shouldn't do a lot of things, but I, uh…seem to do them anyway." He turned to face them with a drink in his hand. "I'm sure you girls want to get back to the party."
"The party can wait," Emmeline said softly. "Um…I know it must be hard for you, but in times like these, it's kind of helpful to think of what you do have rather than what you lost."
"Oh? Please tell me, Emmeline, what do I still have?"
"A nice house to live in, a good business that's flourishing, those are just a couple things. I'm sure you could think of more if you tried."
"I don't want those things!" Lex nearly yelled. "I only wanted one thing, and now it's been taken from me."
"Lex…" Lana interrupted before he nearly petrified the shy girl further. "I know how hard you worked for this, but I don't think you should take it so personally."
"You know how many people are cheering right now that the, uh, spoiled rich kid lost to some salt-of-the-earth farmer?"
"Well, since when do you care about what other people think?"
"Since I was branded at birth with the sins of my father. Just once, Lana, I wanted to get out from under his shadow, you know? Earn something on my own. Well, consider yourself lucky you never had a father to endure, huh?"
Lana pursed her lips. "Um…I think it's best if we talk about this when you're not drunk."
She took Emmeline's arm and headed towards the door.
"See? Now I've hurt your feelings. Perfect!"
Lana stopped and turned back to face him.
"For this whole campaign, I've managed to alienate everyone I care about. I can't lose you, too."
He turned away and poured himself another drink.
"Lex," Lana sighed. She walked back over to him and put her hand on his arm. "Hey. You aren't going to lose me."
Lex gently put his hand on hers and smiled at her.
Emmeline looked at him suspiciously. The way he looked at Lana told her that he wanted to be more than friends with her. She could be wrong, but when it came to these things, she rarely was.
Lex moved his hand and lightly touched the engagement ring on Lana's finger. "Well, I guess it's a bigger day than I thought."
Lana smiled broadly. "Yeah, it happened so fast, we never really got a chance to tell anyone about it."
"Yeah. So after all the lies he told you, you still chose him, hm?"
Lana lost her smile. "You don't understand."
"How many times have you come to me…wondering what Clark's keeping from you? Why he, uh…disappeared to Metropolis for months? How he rose from the dead?"
"It's not like that now."
"Really? Come on, Lana. I know you. You would never say yes with all the doubts you have. Whatever it is he's been covering up all this time…" He put his hand to her chin. "You know, don't you?"
Lana hardly moved his hand away from her. "Clark isn't hiding anything, Lex."
"After everything I've done for you, how could you lie to me?"
He turned and angrily threw his drink into the fireplace causing it to flare up for a moment.
Emmeline flinched. This wasn't good.
Lex viciously grabbed her shoulders and threw her against the desk. "Tell me!"
Lana grabbed his scotch on the desk and threw it in his face.
While he screamed in pain, she grabbed Emmeline's hand, and the two of them ran out of the mansion as fast as they could.
"I'm sorry, Em!" Lana apologized in a panic once they were safely back in the car and driving down the road. "I didn't know things were going to go that way!" She quickly pulled out her cellphone and called Clark. "Clark, I'm so sorry. I took Em with me and went to see Lex, and he was really drunk."
Clark must've asked what happened on the other end, but Emmeline couldn't hear.
"He knows. I don't how he could tell, but he could tell I was hiding your secret. I didn't say anything to him, but he got really angry."
A pause.
"Um, I'm on Route 40 right before Loeb Bridge."
Emmeline's heart sank when she heard a car honking behind them and headlights brighten the entire car.
"Oh, no. He's coming after me."
Lex pulled up beside them and rolled down his window. "Lana?"
Lana looked over at him in fear.
Emmeline looked to her right and saw a bus coming for them. "Lana!" she cried when she saw she wasn't paying attention since all her attention was focused on Lex.
"Just pull over so we can talk!"
"LANA!" Emmeline screamed when she drove straight into the path of the oncoming bus.
She reached over and yanked on the steering wheel. The car careened to the side out of the bus's path.
It ran onto the grass and proceeded to flip over twice before resting upside-down.
Hearing the crash and a scream over the phone, Clark sped over to the scene, not caring who saw him.
"Lana!" he screamed as he ran over to the totaled remains of the car.
He opened the driver's side door. "No, no, no, Em!" Lana cried. "Get Em! Get Em!"
Clark raced over to the other side of the car. The windshield had completely shattered, and Emmeline had gotten most of the blow.
"Em? Hold on, I'm going to get you out."
He opened the passenger door and carefully pulled her out of the totaled vehicle. As he cradled her in his arms, he felt sick at the sight of her many injuries. He wished she wasn't wearing a white jacket so that he couldn't see the sheer amount of blood there was.
"Em? Emmeline!"
Emmeline weakly cracked her eyes open. She gave a pained smile. "Looks like I saved her this time."
"Em, you hold on, okay? Just hold on a little bit longer, and we'll get you to a hospital."
Through the foggy haze she was experiencing, Emmeline couldn't help but think about how nice it felt for Clark to hold her.
She coughed and blood came out of her mouth.
Clark's heart sank further. She was bleeding internally.
"You need to promise me…to look after my dad," she choked out. "He can't be alone…"
"No, you're going to be fine, you hear me? You're going to be fine!"
"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…"
Emmeline's eyes closed and her body stilled in his arms.
"No," Clark cried, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks. "Em. Emmeline!" He held her close to him and ran his hands through her blood-drenched hair. "NO!"
Lana came around to the passenger side after freeing herself from the car and looked at the scene. Her heart sank as she realized what had happened.
Emmeline had died. And it was her fault.
Clark sped to the Fortress of Solitude in tears with a lifeless Emmeline in his arms, both of them still covered in blood.
He put her down onto the snowy ground and continued to hold her protectively, as if holding her would somehow make it so that she wasn't really dead.
"How could you take her away from me?!" he screamed.
"Human life is fragile, my son," Jor-El's voice answered. "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."
Clark looked once again at his best friend in his arms. He lightly ran his hand through her hair. "I have to save her."
Emmeline meant the world to him. The thought of never seeing her again was far too much for him to handle. What would his life be like without the one person he was closest to, the one person he could confide in on any matter, by his side?
He never truly appreciated her friendship until he was faced with the possibility of her being out of his life forever.
He reached out and took the crystal.
After a very painful meeting with Lana in which she decided that she needed a break from the relationship, Clark went straight to the Daily Planet where he knew Emmeline would be.
"Oh, hey, Clark!" Emmeline smiled as she started to walk inside the building.
Clark breathed a sigh of relief and ran straight up to her before hugging her.
"Oh!" she said in surprise at the tight hug. "Good to see you too."
He pulled away and looked her over.
"You okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just…I'm really glad to see you."
"Yeah. Same. Um, what are you seeing Chloe about today?"
"Oh, nothing important. Um, I hate to ask, but I was in a hurry to get here and could really use some coffee. I'm sure Chloe will want some too. Do you want to get some for us?"
"Uh, sure. No problem. I could use a coffee too. I'll…be back in a little bit."
"Thanks."
Now that Emmeline was out of the way, Clark raced inside to find Chloe and found himself walking a pretty familiar path though the conversation was completely different.
"She's really done this time," Clark told her.
"Done done or downward slope of the perpetual Lana-Clark roller coaster?"
Clark didn't answer.
"Really? What happened?"
"Ready to put on your Wall of Weird hat?" He made them stop walking. "I've lived this day before. I kind of went back in time."
"Right," Chloe scoffed disbelievingly. "What did you do, spin the earth backwards on its axis? Come on, you didn't manage to, uh, pick up the lottery numbers while you were at it, did you?"
Clark looked over to see a delivery man with a bouquet of flowers. "See these flowers?" He opened the doors to the workroom. "They're going to this secretary."
"Margaret? She's a workaholic. She hasn't had a date…in like a year."
Sure enough, the delivery man handed her the flowers. She started squealing and hugged the man just like before.
Clark walked further inside. "And your boss is firing someone right now."
A man stormed out of the office. "You can't fire me! I quit!"
As the employee walked out of the building, Chloe looked after him in disbelief.
The telephone on her desk rang.
"Don't bother, it's a wrong number," Clark said. "Chinese takeout."
Chloe answered the phone. "Hello? No, I'm sorry. We're all out of egg rolls." Chloe grabbed Clark's arm and quickly ushered him into the copier room before shutting the door. "All right, McFly, do you want to start with 'how' or 'why'?"
"Jor-El. I went to him to try to change things back."
"Back to what?"
"The first time around, I told Lana the truth about me. And I asked her to marry me."
"What?! What-wh-what did she say?"
"Yes."
"Holy crap. What-wh-what was my reaction?"
"A lot like that. But listen, it was a big mistake. Lex was chasing her on Route 40. Em was with her."
"Clark."
"There was an accident, and I didn't get there in time. And Emmeline…"
Chloe sighed, imagining the kinds of things Clark must've seen. "Why was Em with her, and why was Lex chasing Lana?"
"I don't know why she brought Em, but Lex figured out she knew my secret. That's why I've always been afraid to tell her."
"But this time, you can warn her about Lex and make sure that Em doesn't go anywhere. This doesn't mean that you have to lie to her forever."
"Chloe, she knew for less than a day. There's always gonna be someone trying to find out about me, and as long as we're together, they're gonna be watching her every move."
"Does Em know about any of this?"
"No, I didn't want to freak her out. I caught her outside the building and told her to go get some coffee so I could fill you in without her here."
"Don't worry, Clark, we won't let Lana or Em get anywhere near that road. Do you know exactly what time this is supposed to happen?"
"11:02, but there's a problem. Lana's not talking to me right now. I was hoping you could stay with her and make sure—"
"Fate doesn't get a second chance? I won't leave her side. If she doesn't go to Lex's, neither will Em, and both of them will be fine."
The crowd silenced as they listened to the latest news report.
"Jonathan Kent has just been elected to the Kansas State Senate in a staggering upset over corporate mogul, Lex Luthor."
Clark looked up at the balcony. "Wait, something's not the same…" He headed up the stairs to see where Lois was. "Lois?" he called.
He opened the door to the apartment above the Talon. Water flowed across the floor nearly running into a dropped toaster. He walked in the room and found Lois unconscious on the ground.
"Lois! Lois!"
Clark quickly picked her up off the ground just as the floor electrified thanks to the water entering the toaster.
The power went out all across the Talon.
The paramedics were called, and they put a now-conscious Lois onto a gurney as everyone watched with concern.
"Do I really need an audience?" she asked in embarrassment. "Everyone back to the party! There's lots of chocolate cake! Nine cases of merlot!"
"Lois, you were out for a while," Clark said as they wheeled her out. "You should have someone take a look at you."
"Do you need to haul me off to HMO Land just for committing a serious party foul?"
Clark laughed as she disappeared. He may give her a hard time, but when it came down to it, he did care about her.
"Clark!" Chloe exclaimed running up to him. "Clark, I've looked everywhere and I can't find Lana or Em."
"You okay?" Lana asked. "You, uh, sounded pretty upset in your message. I brought Em, I hope you don't mind."
"Probably shouldn't have called," Lex slightly slurred with his back to them. "I shouldn't do a lot of things, but I, uh…seem to do them anyway." He turned to face them with a drink in his hand. "I'm sure you girls want to get back to the party."
"The party can wait," Emmeline said softly. "Um…I know it must be hard for you, but in times like these, it's kind of helpful to think of what you do have rather than what you lost."
"Oh? Please tell me, Emmeline, what do I still have?"
"A nice house to live in, a good business that's flourishing, those are just a couple things. I'm sure you could think of more if you tried."
"I don't want those things!" Lex nearly yelled. "I only wanted one thing, and now it's been taken from me."
"Lex…" Lana interrupted. "It's sort of a good thing you called me out here. I was kind of looking for a reason to get some air. Clark and I had our last fight."
There was a really long pause before he turned to face her. "Last, huh?"
"I kept, um…waiting for that armor to crack, but…I thought that if I was patient enough, he would finally let me in, but…I guess people have armor for a reason."
"Uh, this seems like a personal conversation, so I'm just going to wait outside," Emmeline put in.
She quickly exited the set of double doors. She knew she should just go back to the car, but a part of her couldn't help but stay and listen in.
"Lana," Lex said. "I hate to say this…but it's possible Clark's never going to trust you."
Emmeline furrowed her eyebrows. That was a terrible thing to say to someone who was dealing with relationship issues.
Unless…Lex had an ulterior motive…
"I don't understand," Lana said quietly. "Why would you lie to someone you love?"
"…I wouldn't."
There was a long moment of silence and Emmeline wondered what was happening. Lex had started to sound kind of fishy to her.
"Wow, I'm sorry…sorry," Lex said quickly.
"It's okay," Lana answered. "I'm just gonna…I'm gonna go."
She raced out of the room and was a little embarrassed when she saw Emmeline near the door. However, the only thing on her mind was getting out of the mansion as fast as possible.
"You okay?" Emmeline asked the nervous driver. "What happened?"
"Believe me, I do not want to talk about it."
Lex's car pulled up beside Lana's. "Lana!" he called through the window. "Listen, I'm sorry! Can we talk about this?"
"Lana!" Emmeline screamed when she saw a bus heading right for them.
"Watch out!" Lex cried at the same time.
The bus stopped mere centimeters away from Lana's car.
Lana hurriedly pulled over, and Emmeline put her hand to her chest as she tried to catch her breath.
"Em, you okay?" Lana asked quickly. "I'm so sorry!"
"No, no, I'm fine."
The two girls got out of the car despite the fact that they both had jelly legs from the near-accident.
While Lex started talking to Lana, Emmeline looked over towards the trees.
She made direct eye contact with Clark. She didn't know how he knew that they had nearly gotten killed, but she breathed a sigh of relief.
He painfully watched Lana and Lex interact, then she watched him speed off into the night.
Emmeline put on a black dress and a black headband. She had hoped she wouldn't have to wear this outfit for a long time, but it seemed that wasn't the case.
Her father stepped into her room. "You ready?"
Emmeline sighed heavily. "It isn't fair…"
He put his arm around her shoulder. "No, it isn't. But we need to be there for him. For his mother too."
"I know."
"Come on."
The funeral for Jonathon Kent was an all-too-familiar scene for Emmeline with the exception of the painfully white snow that fell around them.
Once the coffin had been lowered into the ground, people started to disperse from the sorrowful scene.
Emmeline turned back around to look at Clark who still stared down into the hole in the ground.
She looked at her father for a moment before walking back to her friend.
Clark picked up a handful of dirt and slowly let it fall onto the coffin.
Emmeline came up behind him. She lightly put her hand on his back before kneeling down next to him. Then she too picked up another handful of dirt and dropped it inside the hole.
She knew it wasn't much, but the small gesture at least let him know that she was always by his side.
It seems like an inappropriate time to write an author's note after such a depressing ending to the chapter, but I'm doing it anyway.
This was the 100th chapter to "Wish"! I cannot believe I've made it this far. We are now a little less than halfway through the story (since you've seen by now that I do a chapter per episode, there are 217 episodes thus there will be 217 chapters).
I want to take this moment to thank all of my readers. In all seriousness, you keep this story going. There were so many times I got frustrated or lacked inspiration and wanted to quit, but the thought of disappointing you all helps keep me writing.
I cherish each review I receive, and for those of you who leave me suggestions, I really do consider a lot of them, and some of them have even made their way into the story.
There are so many times this story has taken a route differently than I imagined, but that's okay. I enjoy telling Emmeline's story and getting surprised on her journey just as much as you all.
Thank you to everyone who has followed Emmeline's story so far, and I hope you continue to do so!
:)
