Notes : Ok, last part of chapter 2 (yay!). Out of curiosity, is anyone still reading? ;) :: hangs a big wooden sign around his neck with "Will Work for Feedback" written in messy red paint. ::

I can't figure out which category to keep the story in. General seems to encompass all the categories while embodying none of them which makes it both appropriate and inappropriate at the same time. If I could plop it in under 5 or 6 categories at the same time I'd be happy as a clam.

Update : Ok… I wrote umpteen million continuity errors into this one tiinnyy section. Stupid me. Anyway I'm going to do my best to fix it up. This part is a complete non-event but it contains a necessary plot point.



Shadows : Chapter 2d

Clark had rarely been to the police station, the only occasion within recent memory being when he went to see Kyle Tibbet. Thinking back to the train wreck of incidents that had built up in Smallville over the past year he was amazed that it hadn't become a permanent home. Clark had barely stepped in the front door of the school that morning before the vice principle met him with a police officer and a polite request for his attendance at a follow up interview. Politely phrased anyway, perhaps the request part was debatable.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of a federal agent descending on Smallville, it certainly cast the situation in a different light. Clark didn't know why no one else at the hotel had heard the scream, he was fairly sure it had been anything but 'muffled' or it would never have reached him all the way over at the Talon. But the explanation seemed to have appeased the agent and that was the important thing. Clark didn't mind helping the police, but giving the FBI even a hint of his abilities was the worst possible event he could imagine.

To him the conversation outside the office had been perfectly clear. Obviously the disappearance of Stacy Valentine (who Clark was fairly sure he'd never met) had been extremely interesting to the agent. For some reason he'd immediately assumed the two events were connected and Clark couldn't help but wonder why. Pushing aside his nonsensical musing Clark let his eyes wander over the desk in search of clues he really wasn't expecting to find.

Simple lamp, laptop computer, several open file folders, coffee cup… his gaze was drawn back to the file folders when his mind belatedly recognized the content. One showed some kind of interview report from the hotel, another was a transcript of the statement Clark had made to the police on their arrival and the last….

The last was the guest list including names and credit card information that the police had taken from the hotel.

He sat and stared at it, debating for a moment. He shouldn't. It was technically wrong. But as a practicality, when balanced against stopping a killer, the infraction would seem completely unimportant. A brief cliché concerning a very hot road and the preferred choice for paving it flashed through his head but he quickly dismissed the thought as out of proportion. Turning he noted that agent Philips was involved in an in depth argument with someone, a police officer, the subject of which was not immediately apparent. Reaching into his school bag Clark pulled out a notepad he'd been using for some homework and a pen, then he turned the note pad over to expose the more solid cardboard that was its backing.

It was a long list, he might not have much time, and you could only do so much with paper before it was simply torn to shreds.

Reaching across the desk he grabbed the several page long guest list and dropped it in front of himself. He then set about copying all the information as fast as humanly, or in his case inhumanly, possible.

It took him about ten seconds to copy all the names and numbers down in the kind of miniscule neat printing he'd seen other students use on their physics test formula pages, barely managing to fit the entire five page list on the single eight by eleven piece of cardboard. He could have done it faster, but at the beginning the cardboard had looked suspiciously like it might ignite and he'd forced himself to slow down.

Clark first placed the original list back in the file folder, then dropped his newly created copy in his bag along with the pen. He then sat back to wait for the agent's return.