The doctor picked up an empty syringe and was about to fill it when Clark went slightly crazy. He held out a hand and was so all fired up I thought he'd bust a blood vessel. "No needles. Just sew my leg up." He was obviously struggling to even speak without gasping.

"Son, it's just a local to numb the area around the wound. I can't suture a gash that large without giving you something to stop the pain."

"Oh yeah, you can." Clark's face screwed up in agony, but he looked to his dad knowing the doctor couldn't move without Jon's approval.

Jonathan licked his lips and gulped. "Please just do as he asks and stitch his leg, doctor." He said it so stoically it was like watching a movie- a bad B movie.

I gawked, forgetting my own aches and pains. "Are you two real? If I get offered pain meds I take them, I don't sit and suffer like some masochist!"

The doctor blinked at me. I'm sure he thought he'd got some wild family circus in his hospital. What else could he assume the way we were acting? He glanced back to Jon and Clark, unsure quite how to react to the whole situation.

Clark broke the moment with a sharp intake of breath. "Will you please deal with my leg!" I thought he was going to pass out then, and I think Jaeger did too.

The harassed doctor nodded to the nurse with him and she started cleaning up the gash to Clark's thigh. Meanwhile, Jaeger decided to take a closer look at his patient because the teen looked pretty sick, maybe in shock even. Clark didn't like the added attention one bit. I've never seen anyone squirm so much.

He scowled at me, and I snorted back. "Stupid, macho plaid boy!" It was then I recognized that I sounded like one of the Kents' pigs. I rubbed under my nose and discovered a huge scab of blood. It was gross.

Luckily for me, or not, there was a mirror on a nearby cabinet. I scooted over and screwed my face up at my own reflection. I looked like I would fit right in on the farm with Clark…wait, it was worse than that, I looked liked a scarecrow! My hair was matted, and I felt sure my nose was busted.

I rubbed at it pitifully. "My nose, I'm sure it's broken, dammit!" I whirled back just as Dr. Jaeger started patching-up Clark's leg. Needless to say, Kent wasn't amused at my self-sympathy. Why would he be when someone was poking a needle through his 'super-skin' and he had to sit and take it or be exposed. I carried on, unabashed. "I'll probably end up like that 'Scabby Abby' girl. I mean a crooked nose at my age…"

I'm not usually that fickle about my looks, but that day I was kind of upset. I'd been through a lot, but then again, so had Clark- a whole lot more than me if only I'd known it.

"You're nose isn't broken, Lois." It was a low growl through gritted teeth. He was like a wounded bear, and a helpless kid all in one package.

"Oh, and how do you know?" I scoffed, "Got x-ray vision have we, Smallville?"

Jonathan's face was a picture at that remark. His eyebrows shot up and he gave Clark such an odd look that I almost came out and asked what was going on. How was I to know I'd hit the nail right on the head?

"I think you should wait outside, Lois." Jon's voice wasn't angry, but I knew he would drag me out if I didn't leave. "In fact, I think you better get yourself looked at. I don't want General Lane on my back for not making sure his daughter got treatment."

I sympathized with Mr. Kent. Daddy would go ballistic when he found out what I'd been up to. And the fact I'd been with Clark at the time wouldn't help. Dad was so over protective sometimes that I could scream. I didn't want to leave the room though, because things were so out of whack it was kind of intriguing and fun.

"I'd like to stay till I know Clark's alright." I said, stubbornly.

Clark flinched as another stitch went in and then expressed an intense desire for me to go. "Lois! Will you let a guy suffer in peace!"

Lex decided to swap sides at that moment, and after I'd supported his cause earlier to get plaid boy here! He took a firm grip of my already bruised arm and curtly escorted me towards the waiting room.

"I think we should go give your father a call…"

I knew he was telling me to move my butt out of the Kents way, but I didn't like it one bit. As we reached the door I spun back around, pulling from his grasp, and it was then I saw the craziest thing.

Dr. Jaeger had completed suturing Clark's leg, and the nurse had just about finished dressing it. Jonathan had moved closer now to Clark's side, and as I watched, in that split second I saw farmboy slip something into his father's hand- something very green and rock shaped. Now I know in itself that doesn't mean a thing, but within seconds a nice rosy color had returned to Clark's cheeks and he was sitting up a lot straighter. He tried to feign still being a lil sore to the doctor prodding him of course, but even then I suspected it was all a front.

What on earth had I just witnessed? I wasn't sure, and my concussed mind didn't put the facts together, but it should have. Clark had known when Lex showed up with his dad that he'd never get away with not going to the hospital. Heck, I would probably insist too- and I had, hadn't I? So, he had done the only thing open to him. He'd grasped a small sliver of Kryptonite from the cave floor, and endured its evil effects until we'd all seen his leg get stitched up just like a normal person. It had been a brave move to risk meteor rock poisoning like that, or a darn fool one. I've chided him over it many times since finding out his secret. Not that it had been the first attempt at something dumb like that. He'd tried holding a piece to make playing football fair on the rest of the team- Martha had apparently bashed some sense into him on that occasion.

Anyway, the big dumb alien's plan had worked. Lex didn't see the rock 'exchange', and I kept my mouth shut as to what I'd been witness too- mostly because it didn't make sense.

I stayed 'bemused' about Clark for a long time after that, just like Chloe, and that brings us right back to where this story began, doesn't it? Now that you've heard my tale, I'll ask my question again. Is love really blind?

I don't know about love, but when it comes to Clark Kent the world truly is short sighted, just like I was. How else could he be Superman and no one recognize him as the ex plaid boy, mild mannered reporter I love so much?

Many times because of my job at the Daily Planet I'll get some member of the public ask me if I know who Superman really is. Well what can I say?

I simply look to the heavens, and subconsciously say to myself, "Know who he is? Oh yeah… heck, I married him!"

I'm guessing that got you all smiling, and thinking my little narrative is over, but there's something else you need to understand and know- something about Clark's biological father. Once I discovered Clark's secret and we became engaged, Clark explained to me the story about Jor-El and what had happened in the cave that day. He also told me he feared his father had truly been the evil man the A.I. had portrayed him to be. Was he? Well two weeks later I was about to meet the man behind the myth…