Lex, Lana reflected, said things about being used to uncomfortable silences. She wondered if he had them broken down into sub-categories and if so, how he'd categorize this one. Or did he make up a whole new category: Silences When You're Wondering if the People Following You With Their Adopted Mutant Son Are Actually Going To Follow You to DC or If They're Going to Head for the Hills in a Car You Rented and You and Your Girlfriend Aren't Quite Sure What to Say About Anything That Just Happened.

Lex was checking the rear-view mirror every few seconds. She selected the less subtle though less frequent strategy of craning her neck every few minutes to see whether the Kents were still following. Traffic was light and they seemed to be following close behind. Maybe she should go ahead and be direct about it. She fished out the piece of paper that had the various cell phone numbers on it and called Jonathan's.

"Lana?"

"How's he holding up?"

"I think pretty numb right now."

"I can imagine." Actually, she couldn't, but it seemed like she should say something.

Lex's voice cut across the momentary silence. "Ask if they need to stop for anything. We'll be on the interstate soon."

Jonathan must have heard, since Lana heard him asking, "Son, is there anything you want to stop for? If you want to get anything to eat or drink, or to get out of the car, now's a good time." She couldn't hear Clark's response but Jonathan's voice was raspy with weary tenderness and worry as he spoke to Lana again. "No, nothing."

"Okay. Tell him-" She had no idea what should come next in that sentence. She looked for anything else to say. "Lex, what's the address, in case we get separated?"

"18 West 22nd."

She relayed that and despondently closed the phone, then rubbed her forehead. It had all been a lot to get through, she told herself. Plus she still hadn't figured out how to explain to Nell why she'd taken off the way she had. But then, probably the story would be one she could recycle if she ever took Creative Writing.

Lex must have seen the gesture, since he lifted the hand that was resting on the shift and took hers.

Maybe she'd just tell Nell that Lex took her off for an exciting weekend. She just wouldn't go into every single one of the details on what made it exciting.

***

Lex hated voice mail, answering machines, and anything of that nature. It was like opening a box and finding a description of the contents instead of the contents themselves. They also seemed to have inflections when they announced new messages, which they were emphatically not supposed to have. When they arrived at the penthouse, the red light on the machine seemed to have a reproachful note, as if saying, "I've waited and waited and you never came. No, I don't *mind,* not really. I'm sure you had better things to do." The phone number was very much unlisted and Lex very much disliked the implication that somebody knew he was headed here. He waved the Kents and Lana into the living room and entered the password.

As the message started, he frowned. Lionel might let himself sound querulous and fretful in person but rarely in a message. "Lex? I'm having to leave this message in all the houses.I don't know why you weren't carrying your phone. Or even if you-" *So that the GPS couldn't find me, but never underestimate a controlling parent,* Lex answered mentally, wondering why the mounting near-panic. "This is important, son. Lock yourself in and don't go near any windows or let yourself be visible from outside. Don't let anybody in, particularly anybody who looks like a teenage boy. Something has happened at the Smallville mansion and I-" Now that was something. His father's voice was sounding almost ragged. "If, when you get this message, call me back."

The big question was how much his father knew. He might be genuinely ignorant, knowing only that somebody had slaughtered the security staff and that Lex himself was missing. Or he might know...even more than Lex himself. Not that that would be too much. It wouldn't be the first time that one of his father's schemes included Lex in the near-casualties. He pondered the options. Ignore the call. Call back and play ignorant. Call back and bluff that he knew more than he did. That was his first choice, except for the annoying fact that he had any number of facts but almost no context.

"Clark?" he called. "Would you come here a moment?" Clark approached tentatively, Jonathan and Martha vigilant a step behind, and Lex decided that nothing should make a creature like that seem so hesitant. A being with that boy's abilities should bestride the world like a Colossus...and he should stop the quoting to himself. He replayed the message. "Do you recognize that voice?"

"No, sir."

"Hadn't we established that my name is Lex?" he answered dryly and as Clark lowered his eyes at the rebuke, continued, more gently. "You're sure?"

"No. I mean, yes, I'm sure, I don't recognize it." Lex nodded to himself. Whatever his minor homicidal flaws, Clark had been consistently and transparently truthful when asked a question. Aside from being convenient, it also made him want to get inside the boy's head even more. Had he been trained not to lie? Or even engineered so he couldn't? After all, given that his interactions with his victims had previously all been quite short, that might have been his handlers' choice. If so, then how? Clark's mind was in many ways a more tantalizing puzzle than his physical abilities, given the possibly thousands of layers of complexity.

To understand that process, the results, to sift the secrets, to understand how each part fit together, reconstructing everything...and Clark seemed to have put them in the place of his handlers, judging by the way that he was now calling Lex "sir" and looking to the others for cues on how to respond. This was truly a new world to discover. To understand. The next words hovered at the back of his mind, barely articulated. To conquer.

AN: I'm going to be out of town from about Friday until about the end of the month. I should have email but probably won't be able to post.

And no, I have no idea where this is headed!