Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville. If i did, i would be the happiest girl in the world.

Set: post Leech

Clark Kent woke up one Monday morning, his pillow wet with blood and a sharp pain erupting in his arm. Wincing as he tried to sit up, he called out, "Dad! Something's wrong!"

Jonathan and Martha rushed in. "Clark, what's wrong?" Jonathan asked his son as he rounded the corner into his son's room. Seeing Clark's current state, both parents ran to his side. "What happened, son?"

"I—I don't know. I just woke up like this," Clark said, trying to stem the flow of blood coming from his nose.

"Does anything else hurt?"

"Yeah, my arm. Oww..." he grimaced as his mother tried to move his pained limb. "Mom, aren't you supposed to be in Metropolis today?"

"I was just about to leave, but I'm going to call off my meeting. Do you have any idea why this is happening again?" Martha asked worriedly. Meanwhile, Clark, too weak to protest her cancellation, merely groaned in response.

"You haven't gotten struck by lightening again and not said anything, right, son?" Jonathan said in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood. Clark shook his head. "It's been a month since you and Eric got switched. Could it be an after effect?"

"Maybe."

"Have you been near any meteor rocks lately?" questioned Martha. "You've been fine until today, I don't think that would be it."

"Well," Clark swallowed and bit his lower lip. "There was the second LuthorCorp field trip. We saw the whole plant this time, even 'level three.' Maybe there was something there." He tried to reach over onto the nightstand to pick up his phone, but his arm was too weak and he dropped it back down to his bed. "Mom, can you call Lex and, umm," losing his train of thought, Clark was indeed slowly dozing off. "Can you ask him if there was anything unusual that they were using in the plant?"

"Of course, honey," Martha whispered, kissing her son on the forehead and taking the phone into the hallway. "Hello, this is Martha Kent...hello, Lex. Why I'm fine, how are you? That's good to hear. I'm calling about Clark. He's sick today, and he thinks it might have something to do with the trip his class took to the plant. Oh, I see. Are you sure? Okay. Thank you, Lex. All right, I'll be sure to tell him that. Bye." She walked back into Clark's room. "Lex says there's nothing at the plant that could have caused this."

"Anything else?" Clark murmured as he turned on his side and curled up, cradling his injured arm and trying to stay warm.

"He said that he hopes you feel better soon."

Smiling slightly, Clark sighed, "He's a good friend."

Jonathan opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped at a stern look from Martha. Instead he said, "Listen, Clark, your mother and I should go get started on some farm work, if you need anything, just give us a shout. Okay?"

Clark nodded as he slowly drifted off to sleep. He may not have needed to sleep too much when he had his abilities, but when he didn't, it sure caught up with him. Once or twice he thought about getting up and going to school, but the farthest he got was lifting his head a half inch off the pillow before falling back to sleep.

"Hey sleepyhead!" a voice called.

"What the...ugh...it's you," Clark muttered cynically, forced to wake from his slumber.

"It's good to see you too, Clark," Chloe quipped, taking a seat on the foot of his bed. "What's going on? You've never been sick before."

"There's a first time for everything, right?" Desperate to go back to sleep, Clark closed his eyes again.

"Wait," Chloe added excitedly. "I brought friends!"

Opening his eyes a tiny crack, Clark could make out a very blurred, very dark figure entering his room. The only part of the form that wasn't black was the very top, an immaculately peach-colored haziness. "Your mom said you weren't feeling well, so I decided to drop by and see how you were doing."

"Hi Lex. Sorry you have to see me like this..." Clark managed, trying to conceal his desire to fall asleep again and be left alone. Great, he thought. The worst I've felt in a month and two of my best friends are here. Now all that's missing is—

"Lana had to finish something up at the Torch and Pete had practice, but they said they'll both be here later," Chloe further said. "But until they get here, you better see this." She stood up and turned on the television, while Lex silently moved in and took her seat. Pretending not to notice, Chloe smiled to herself and found the Metropolis News Network. "Here it is."

Lifting his head, but still partially unable to see, Clark was relieved when Lex reached around his shoulder and helped him sit up. While the sports reporter was rambling on about the Metropolis Sharks' most recent win, Chloe and Lex started telling Clark the background of the story.

"As you probably know, Eric's being held in the mental hospital in Metropolis for observation. You know," Chloe started. "To make sure he doesn't go around trying to kill people."

"But last night, he disappeared from the area where they were holding him," Lex continued. "Broke right through the wall."

"And we're not talking drywall, we're talking cinderblocks!" Exclaimed Chloe. "And now they can't find him. There's a huge search party going on and—"

"I know where he is," Clark interrupted, throwing off his covers and attempting to get up.

Lex forcefully held him down, saying, "Clark, you're sick. You need to rest."

"I'll pick up some coffee at the Talon, all right?" He replied, pulling on a pair of jeans and dashing out the door. When he was out of the line of vision of the other two, he got ready to take off, but, when he found that he had again lost his speed, he instead turned and ran down the stairs and out of the house, headed for the one place that he knew Eric would be.

Chloe looked at Lex confusedly. "That was strange."

"I'll say. Where do you think he's going?"

"I don't know, but I don't think he'll get too far in the state he's in."

"Should we go after him?" Lex wondered.

"Are you kidding? No one's ever been able to catch up with Clark Kent."
This is my first Smallville fic. Please read and review! This is a four chapter story. Mariah