I don't know how long I must have lay there in the darkness. I recall the light from the small opening above shining down into my eyes like some distant beacon, but my body just didn't want to move or acknowledge that I was still in the land of the living. I guess I must have been dazed from the fall, but at least I wasn't dead.

Dead. The word rolled around in my skull for awhile, and then I suddenly remembered why. I wasn't the only one who'd crashed through some weak section of earth. Kent had stumbled through the fissure first. Well, stumbled or worse had been shot. I moved an arm, testing myself, and found my grazed elbow digging into something warm and soft.

It didn't take much imagination to realize I was sprawled out flat right on top of Clark. The farmboy had broken my fall, but at what cost? As I lay there I didn't even sense the rise and fall of his chest even though I was perched on it, and that scared me.

"Clark?" For the first time that day real guilt tinged my voice. I'd almost forced him out here, and now he was lying unconscious or worse because of my selfish attitude. "Clark!" My words came out almost a shriek, and I forgot all about the Luthor goons that could be lurking somewhere above us. For a moment, against my better judgment I even wanted to shake him.

Still Kent didn't answer, and so I finally pushed myself and rolled away from his motionless form. Every sinew in my body ached from the jarring action as we'd both impacted with the rocky cave floor, but I was sure he'd shielded me from death.

Eventually, I dared myself to take a closer look at him. I was already convinced he must be dead or have serious injuries, and a smear of sickly red blood on the cavern's uneven base seemed to confirm my thoughts.

I reached my hand out anyway, and noticed just how much it was shaking. Me, shake, now there was a first! "Get a grip Lane, you've dealt with worse." Indeed, I had seen some pretty gross things in my life, but somehow this felt different- wrong even.

Clark shouldn't be here and he shouldn't be hurt. I don't know where the thought came from. It was like some sixth sense that I wasn't to know was right for many years to come. At the time it seemed crazy, heck I was lucky I didn't break my neck, so why was I assuming Kent should be any different?

I shook myself and edged closer on my knees. I'd had every intention of feeling for a pulse this time, but a large and still reasonably forceful hand shot out and stopped me.

Clark groaned then, and his eyes fluttered open to grimace at me as he held my wrist. "Do you realize how much you weigh?"

I scowled back, but my concern didn't fade with his attempted wit. "I weigh enough," I shot the reply at him while looking him over for bullet holes or at least the source of the blood. "Did they hit you?" I asked after finding no gunshot wounds.

"No." Clark's answer was firm, yet he looked deathly pale, and it was obvious he was hurting. He glanced down then and scowled as he tried to pull up into a sitting position.

I followed his gaze and could at last see the problem. The cavern floor wasn't flat. In fact, it was littered with small emerald rock shards, and what I rightly presumed were meteor fragments.

Kent had landed right on top of a particularly jagged section of the stuff that was deeply embedded in the ground- or rather his leg had landed on it. If his body had taken the green spike he'd have been a candidate for Smallville cemetery.

"Let me look." I felt more confident now. Plaid boy was conscious and I felt back in control. He squirmed a little, but didn't argue as I checked his thigh. He didn't seem to have the strength to fight my prodding.

Thankfully the gash wasn't all that deep. It was angry looking and elongated, but I was sure it was the source of the blood I'd spotted earlier. If that was all we'd both suffered, we were pretty darn lucky. "You'll live." I offered, attempting to sound casually jovial, but he wasn't really listening.

Instead, farmboy was looking around the cave as if his life depended on finding something. At first I thought he was looking for a way out, but in his shape no way was he doing any climbing.

His eyes darted to every darkened corner and crevice, and as I watched he appeared to become increasingly frantic and sickly looking. In the end he seemed to find what he was searching for. "Help me into that corner, please…" It was like he was begging, and I just didn't see the reason. How could I when I'd never even heard the word Kryptonite, let alone know if he remained exposed to it death would follow?

"You shouldn't move. What if you're leg's broken, or you have other injuries we don't know about?" My argument was reasonable, but flawed, and he picked up on my mistake and used it to his advantage.

"We can't stay here, we're right in the light from the opening…" He was panting now, "If Lex's people come back they could just shoot us where we sit. We need to get into the shadows…hide…"

I rolled my eyes at him. It was a valid point of course, but I knew Kent was making up some bizarre excuse. "And your leg?"

To reinforce his plea he abruptly strained his eyes at his injured thigh. What he learned from squinting at a torn jeans leg baffled me, but when he looked back up he gulped and said, "It's not broken."

I stood up then and couldn't stop a small derisory laugh. "Gee, don't tell me, Kent, you're going to be a doctor when you grow up!" I didn't intend to sound quite so mocking, but he looked so sick I thought it might jolt some sense into him. It didn't.

Instead, Clark began trying to drag himself to the back of the cave where he'd indicated earlier. If I'd had any sense I would have spotted the lack of meteors there, but I was so angry and scared that I didn't. I did, however give in and gave him a hand.

Wow, I can tell you one thing, alien farmboy's are not light, and I told him so! I mean, come on, I had to get my own back after his comment about my weight!

As I propped him up against the cave wall he seemed to breathe a little easier. At the time I thought it was my imagination, but of course it was not- he was further away from the deadly green radiation there.

"Thanks." Clark let out a huge sigh that looking back was definitely one of immense relief. He still shook a little though, and so I took of my own small jacket and put it over his legs like a blanket. I was no medic, and so quite wrongly guessed maybe it was shock, not meteor poisoning.

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine now." Clark's puppy dog eyes abruptly settled on me, and his brow furrowed. "What about you? Are you sure you're alright?"

I licked my lips and tasting a salty, iron-like tang realized he was staring at me because I had a patch of dried blood on my face. Even though he was the most hurt, he was worried about me not himself. I recall thinking Jonathan Kent had raised a real gentleman- a bit of a geek, but still someone far too self-sacrificing for today's world. "Nothing an Aspirin and two days in bed won't cure thanks to your thick hide!" I smirked at him, and couldn't help but notice the corners of his mouth crease in a slight smile back.

I turned then, hands on hips to take a second look at the height of the fall we'd taken. It was a vast drop, and the breach we'd smashed open was blatantly wide enough for Lex's, or whoever's men they were to have found us by now. I mean, they had to have seen us just vanish, right? So why hadn't a gun barrel been poked our way yet?

I didn't mention that to Clark. He had enough to worry about. Instead, I shielded my eyes from the cascading light that permeated the opening, and looked around our underground tomb.

My memories from the original Kawatche cave were pretty vague, but one thing was sure- this place was different. "There are no cave paintings in here…"

I glanced back to plaid boy and he was already nodding in agreement. I was tempted to offer the jibe 'We're not in Kansas anymore, Smallville' but I stifled the urge. It was probably a wise decision, or knowing what I do now, Clark might have decided enough was enough and zapped me with his heat vision just for my snark.

"It's like some antechamber the Natives never had access too. Maybe no one ever has." Clark seemed fascinated by the natural hollow, and as I was trying to fathom an escape route, I felt sure he was playing 'Indiana Jones'. Even though he was pretty immobile with his leg, his narrowed eyes began scanning every inch of the cavernous room for some hitherto unknown item. I thought maybe he'd bumped his head from the fall to suddenly be so intrigued by a stupid cave, but then he knew a lot more about Kawatche legend than I did.

"I don't suppose you have a cell phone?" I was being the practical one. He didn't answer so I assumed the answer was no. "Mine was in my purse, which I dropped at some point…maybe it fell with us." Abruptly it hit me that I too would have to start scouring the fissure. The only difference was I had two good legs and might actually be of use in finding something instead of squinting at the stone walls.

I edged forward, hunting through the dark shadows and crevices for my purse. It might not even be in the cave, but heck, I had to try.

"Lois!"

I whirled at the timbre of his voice. It had sounded so pleading and petrified at the same time. When I saw Clark's expression I didn't understand what the problem was. His eyes where almost popping out and one of his hands was outstretched, pointing in the direction I'd been searching.

"Lois…" This time Clark's tone was softer. Almost a whisper in fact. "Don't move any closer to that wall." He beckoned with his hand for me to rejoin him, but that only made me turn back and stare.

I never could stand being told not to do something. "What's the matter, afraid there's a witch besides me down here ag…" I never finished my sentence. My heart leapt into my throat, and I joined the farmboy's wide-eyed gape.

There was another presence in the cave, and I was now staring right at it.