Part 4

Alex was sleeping in his bed. After he left the Talon, he found a motel. He checked in and thought about what happened in the Talon. He felt paranoid. Walking to the motel he felt as if everyone was staring at him. He was asked about attending school. He wasn't sure about anything. He felt uncomfortable around them. He knew he would see them again. But everything seemed familiar. The Talon, Chloe, Lana, and even Clark. They all seemed familiar. He knew he couldn't have known then because if he did they would have recognized them. He didn't know anymore. He just didn't know.

While he slept he was hit with dreams. Some good, but mostly bad. But they were blurry. Not exactly dreams, but not actual reality. He heard voices. Women's voices.

"Remind me I should take more computer classes," he heard himself say.

A giggle. It sounded familiar. A face appeared. Small, petite, blonde, blue eyes.

He woke up in a start. He scrambled for his book and jotted down everything he knew. He grabbed his head in pain as another flash entered his mind.

A sign. "Sorry, we're closed." Women inside, mint green uniforms, waitresses.

"That's it," he said to himself. He turned on the light and sat at the table and wrote, "Restaurant = The Talon. That's why the coffee smelled familiar. I used to hang out or walk by a restaurant, where the women were waitresses and wore mint green uniforms. I took computer classes, or wanted to. I'm a computer geek. That's it. I am. Ok I'm getting there. A blonde girl. Kinda like Chloe, but not."

He was pleased with himself. He was able to retain something from what he remembered. This was ground breaking. Granted there were thousand of restaurants all over the world, where there were women waitresses, but this was something new. He knew the place. He was once there. If he could have more of these minus the pain then everything should come back to him soon.

He put down his pen and crawled back into bed. He stared at the ceiling. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep the rest of the night. He was too wired. The pain subsided. He looked over to the clock on the bed rest, it was almost 6. He decided to wash up and wander Smallville. Some breakfast would be good. Something warm in his stomach would do some good. Maybe he could find an internet cafe and look up restaurants. The bolts in his brain were turning. Ideas were whizzing by and he wanted to go through each and every one of them.

After taking a nice and long shower, he got dressed, got his Smallville pamphlet and went to discover the world.

~

After a long talk Kyle thought he went a little insane. Liz made perfect sense. She was a little extreme, but he couldn't see why no one would listen to her. He thought that if you listened to her theories and wondered about them then it would make sense. You just had to give her a chance. And that's what Kyle did.

"I can't believe we talked for so long," Kyle said yawning.

"I know, we've never done that," Liz said surprised. Time seemed to pass by so fast. They had never even had this long of a conversation when they dated two summers ago.

"Well, I hope we can do that more often," he said. He genuinely meant it too.

"Yeah, what about your dad? He's probably worried," Liz said stretching. After 3 hours of Liz convincing him of what she thought really happened, they talked about other things. It had been the first time since she was able to talk about other things. They talked about the good times they shared with Alex. They talked about television shows and how Kyle was starting to like 'The View'.

"It's ok, he knew I was coming after you, hey I'm hungry and since we're above a restaurant do you think you can spare some food before school," Kyle asked curiously.

"Of course, Kyle, c'mon, I'll fix you the Liz Parker special," she said with a slight smile.

"That's the Liz Parker I like."

They left her room and went downstairs. When they entered the restaurant portion of the building, Max and Tess looked at them. Max felt jealous. He had a flashback of that night in October, when he saw Kyle in Liz's bed. He turned his head to not look at them.

"Kyle, take a seat, I'll bring you some pancakes," Liz said quietly.

Kyle took a seat two booths away from the aliens, before saying a quiet "hey" to the couple. He didn't want to have a us vs. them attitude. He didn't want to cause a schism in the group, when it was clear that they needed each other.

Tess knew something had happened between the two men and she didn't know what it was, "Oh hi, Kyle. What time did you get here?"

"Oh I've been here a while," he said locking eyes in Max, making it obvious he hurt Liz.

"Really? I didn't hear you come in," Tess said, slurping on her cup of orange juice.

"Yeah, well, I didn't think you'd care," he muttered.

He gave them his back and looked for Liz and those pancakes she offered.

Liz was in the back whipping a batch of pancakes. She felt a little different. Happy. She was happy that someone believed her. Finally she had someone to listen to her rantings. She held the bowl of batter as she made circles of it on the pan. Her thought seemed to daze away as she was making them. She felt a little hot. She saw something in the corner of her eye, FIRE!

The fire alarm went off, and Max and Kyle burst into the room.

"Liz!" Max yelled.

Liz went into action and raced for the fire extinguisher. It was getting out of control. When she looked at the flaming pan, Max put his hand over the fire and it disappeared.

"What's happening? What's going on?" Jeff Parker yelled in confusion and worry.

"The alarm went off accidentally," Max said rubbing his hand.

"That damn thing, I have to get a new one," he said, looking at the now turned off alarm, "What are you two doing here? Liz shouldn't you be getting ready for school?"

"Yes, dad, I should," Liz said, walking to the staircase that lead up to her room. She couldn't help but smile. Max still cared about her. She knew that. But things would have to change in order for her to be his friend again.