Gabe tried not to look any differently at his boss since he found out about the girls' ridiculous plan. He really, really tried. Unfortunately he was failing miserably.

"With last quarter's projections well above the predicted expectations, I want to increase the lower level hourly salaries. Could you send out a memo to the departmental managers notifying them to prepare for evaluation of employee performance before the end of the week?"

"Sure." Gabe scribbled a note to himself and then promptly returned to his internal evaluation of Lex Luthor.

The young man wore impossibly shiny shoes whose makers Gabe Sullivan most likely couldn't pronounce, neat black dress pants and a pink silk shirt rather reminiscent of Lana's former wardrobe. And between requests and cost-estimating Lex Luthor was currently 'oh my god' engaged in obscene acts against a blue water bottle.

Gabe chided himself for thinking such thoughts. Lots of people had oral fixations which had nothing to do with sucking on other things belonging to the same sex.

Gabe immediately stopped chewing on the end of his pen.

'It's nothing', he thought to himself. He could of sworn he remember something from his college psych class about oral fixations being related to breast feeding. And love of breasts was definitely a manly heterosexual trait.

"Are you alright Gabe?" Lex seemed genuinely concerned, "You seem a bit…red".

"I'm…it's just that…it's hot in here."

"It feels fine to me. Are you sure you're feeling well?"

"I'm fine." Gabe summed up his courage, "It's just something the girls were talking about last night."

"Lana and Chloe?"

Gabe nodded his head. "Yes. Chloe and Lana. They're interested…er…worried, no that's not the right word. Concerned. Yes. They're concerned about you."

"About me?" He looked visibly upset at someone being concerned about him.

"Yes." Gabe suddenly felt a pang of compassion for Lex. The boy wasn't much old than Chloe or Lana, just a handful of years above Lois. With Lionel Luthor as his main role model where human interaction was concerned, he was obviously stunted. "How have you been?"

"Um, I'm fine."

"So. What have you been doing lately? Besides work?" That couldn't have come out any more awkward.

"I don't think this is really an appropriate conversation for the work place."

"Fine. Let's take a break from work. Go for a walk?"

Lex leaned back on the front of his desk. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"No." He simply stated.

"I've been busy running Luthor Corp and dealing with the curve balls my father keeps throwing my way. There hasn't been much time for anything else."

"Ok, um…any romantic prospects?"

"Besides the ones that keep trying to kill me? No."

"Alright…um…so, what have you been doing to relax?"

Lex snorted, "Well spreadsheets usually put me to sleep, but I don't think that's what you mean."

"What about friends?"

Lex visibly stiffened, "Business associates only I'm afraid."

"Lex" Gabe practically sighed his name, "You've got to take some time for yourself. If you don't you'll just burn out. You won't have the energy to deal with the company, Lionel …or anything else this town likes to produce."

"Brandy helps sometimes." Lex remarked sarcastically.

"Alcohol is not the solution," Gabe paused thoughtfully, "and I did not just go after school special with you."

The younger man laughed, "You rather reminded me of Jonathan Kent for a moment."

"Well, I wouldn't know. Barring football games and produce deliveries, the Kents generally don't socialize with the rest of us, not that there's a lot to do around here besides football and farms."

"Maybe I could…well, I have been going to some of the football games. Clark's playing now."

"That's a good idea. When's the next game?"

"It's next Sunday. Are you going?"

"Well, yeah. Chloe mentioned something about wanting me to be more active with school stuff." Gabe smirked mischievously to himself. He had never actually been to one, and the prospect of torturing his daughter by appearing at a school function held a strange appeal. "I think the girls mentioned something about a party at the Talon afterwards. We should attend that too."

"Alright, Since it's on a Sunday I guess it won't interfere with business too much."

Gabe smiled, "It's a date."

Lex looked at him inquisitively.

He blushed bright red again and stammered, "I didn't mean…not like that of course."

Lex laughed again, "Of course."

Lana and Chloe couldn't help but stand and gawk at the "backlash" they were now on the receiving end of.

"So we were thinking of forming a Smallville pride group for the school." Dan Cormier, the very burly ex-quarterback, finished pledging his support for their 'true love' and equal rights everywhere. A rather interesting group of football players, chess geeks, track runners, and loners had squeezed themselves into the Torch office also offering encouragement and praise for them, relating their stories of 'being in the closet', and making Chloe feel quite a bit guilty for the subterfuge.

"That's great, that you guys feel so comfortable talking about your experiences now." Lana gave her best smile, looking for all the world like she had won some kind of award.

"We just like figured if you two can do it, and be so public about it all, so can we." Jenny, a rather cute bleach blond girl with a page boy cut chimed in.

"Power in numbers, right." Ali, Jenny's girlfriend and Smallville's last African American since the departure of the Rosses, said as she squeezed the other girl's hand.

"How are your parents handling this?" Chloe couldn't help but ask.

"Mine totally flipped of course, but I'm an adult now so they can't really do much." Fitz offered.

"My dad doesn't really notice anything unless you tell him directly, and I didn't. But my mom said that she had already figured it out, and not to bring it up to my dad until I'm out of the house." Ali answered.

"My mom thinks it's a phase, but she's glad I can't get pregnant this way." Jenny said shrugging her shoulders.

"I'm not actually gay, I'm just here to support you guys," Chad 'The Goth' declared.

"I'm glad you feel that way, Chad." Lana started to take over and organize them all in her own way, "I can talk to the principle about making it official and we can come up with some signs and stuff for the football game this weekend. It'll be both nicely public and small enough to test the waters as far as the rest of the town is concerned."

"I can get some t-shirts screen printed for us through my sister." Jack, the reigning tri-state chess champion suggested.

"That would be perfect."

Chloe watched as Lana spent the next half an hour turning her charm onto each of the people gathered in the cramped room enough to make the guys turn straight again and the girls drool. Her 'girlfriend' managed to come up with plans quick enough to implement within the week and volunteered the Torch's advertising for their group.

Half paying attention to Lana and half mentally planning the layout for the next paper, Chloe looked up just in time to see Clark standing in the doorway and staring dazedly at the first gathering of the Smallville Gay, Bisexual, and Lesbian Coalition (SGBLC), as Lana had coined them.

"Well that should be it for now, unless anyone has anything else to contribute." Lana dismissed the group and gathered her own stuff to head home.

Everyone except for Chloe and Lana filtered out of the office and around Clark who seemed to have become an unmovable object.

Chloe cleared her throat, "Hey Clark, what's up?"

Upon hearing his name, he seemed to snap out of his daze. "Oh, um, I just came in to deliver that article you wanted."

"Are you ok?" Lana asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Clark responded while setting his book bag on a desk and digging through it.

Lana gave Chloe a questioning look and Chloe did her best to nonverbally convey the message that Lana should just go. Surprisingly enough Lana got it, picked her own bag up and caught Chloe a little off-guard by kissing her quickly on the lips before she left the office.

The door shut with a very loud click slicing through the silence of the office.

"Here." Clark shoved a disk towards Chloe.

"Clark, we should talk." Chloe accepted the disk and put it down next to her keyboard.

"If it's about sex, I'm going to be out of here before you can blink."

"Literally?" Her joke didn't quite cut the tension. "So you know? About Lana and me?"

He looked at her sharply, "Kind of hard not to, with all the talk going around."

"Um…I'm sorry I didn't tell you about this, us, before you heard it somewhere else." Chloe presumed she would say something like that if she really was dating Lana. The whole thing made her head hurt.

He snorted, "Lana told me, actually. Right in the middle of the hall before fourth period."

Chloe winced. "Are you ok?"

Clark looked her straight in the eye, "No. I'm really not ok right now, but I don't hate you. I'm just confused and I need to sort some things out."

She raised her eyebrows inquisitively, "So you what? Need time?"

He nodded his head, "That would be good."

"Clark, before you go…you know that if you need to talk about this or anything else, you can call me anytime, right?"

"Sure"

Clark grabbed his stuff and left without looking back.

Clark speeded through his afternoon chores, trying not to throw anything too hard and dwelling on how messed up his love life seemed to be despite the fact he hadn't actually done much dating recently. Deranged seventeenth century witches didn't count. Neither did cheerleaders.

"Clark," his mother greeted him as he walked through the door, "how are you?"

He took a moment to marvel on how everyone seemed to be asking him the same questions lately. "Ok. You know don't you?"

Martha smiled falsely, "Know what?"

"About Lana and Chloe, that's why you're looking at me like that isn't it?"

Martha seemed to sag in both relief and concern. "I overheard something about it at the market the other day. Is it true? Are they…," she made some kind of a gesture with her hands Clark didn't quite recognize.

"Together?" He guessed, "yeah, it's true. Lana told me herself and I…um…I saw her kiss Chloe this afternoon."

Her eyebrows raised at the last part, "Wow. So how are you doing with all this?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, I keep thinking it's not really different from Lana and Jason, except that it's Chloe. And I know that doesn't really make sense, but I guess it'd be more like if Lana were to ever date Pete. It's weird."

"Just because Chloe's your friend and you've had feelings for Lana? Or is it because…you know?" Martha was back to gesturing again.

"What? Because they're both girls? No, I think I'm fine with that." Clark looked up at his mother, "Are you alright with it?"

"Yes! Your father and I have always encouraged you to keep an open mind about alternative lifestyles, so obviously I'd be perfectly fine with it." She declared.

"You've always seemed more liberal, but I bet Dad's weirded out by it."

"You'd be surprised what your father's fine with. I bet you if you brought home a boyfriend for dinner Jonathan would be perfectly accepting of him." Martha felt partially proud that she managed to say that out loud and partially mortified that she did it.

"He would?!" Clark exclaimed skeptically and then blushed bright red, "I mean, I didn't…I"

"Of course he'd be perfectly fine with it, as would I." Martha grabbed his hand, cutting off her son's stammering.

Clark stood speechless until he glanced down to their hands and realized that his were still filthy.

"I should wash up for dinner," he said before bolting upstairs as fast as he could go without using his powers.

"Smallville's first pride group has officially been formed." Chloe announced to her father at the dinner table.

Gabe groaned, "You two are still going through with that?"

"Sure." Lana smiled brightly. "We're even going to organize some stuff for this weekend's football game. You'd be surprised how many other people came out of the closet when we did."

"But we didn't come out of the closet." Chloe argued, "We just lied and pretended to come out of it."

"Whatever. You know what I mean." She countered.

"What exactly are you going to do at the game?" Gabe asked cautiously.

"We're not completely sure yet, we've just started to get stuff together." Lana replied.

"It's just that I don't want you girls doing anything too drastic. My boss is going to be there."

"Of course he is, Clark's playing." Chloe stated, noticing the over joyous expression that came over Lana's face with her father's statement.

"That's perfect!!" The other girl seemed to almost squeal.

"What's perfect?" Both Chloe and Gabe asked simultaneously in dread.

"I've been looking for a way to approach Lex about all this. Sunday will be perfect!" Lana ignored the warning expression that appeared on Gabe's face.

"Now Lana, this is about Lex relaxing away from work, not hooking him up with a high school quarterback." He told her sternly.

"I won't do anything to make him feel uncomfortable." Lana declared, slightly abashed. "But this will be the ideal opportunity to subtly nudge him towards the possibility."

"Subtly?" Chloe asked doubtfully.

"Yes, subtly." Lana scrunched her face up, "Quit looking at me like that. I can do 'subtle'."

Chloe snorted and then speared another piece of broccoli on her fork.

"I mean it Lana. Don't harass him about this. He's not in a good place right now." Gabe cautioned.

"That's why I'm doing this. To help Lex." Lana looked imploringly at Gabe, "I just think that he shouldn't be alone and Clark could be a really good match for him. They're both flawed and strange in their own way, but they seem like they would go together. Then neither one of them would have to be alone anymore."

Lana closed her bedroom door while cradling the portable phone to her ear.

"Hey, how've you been?" Jason's voice sounded on the other end of the line.

"I've been fine, been keeping busy."

"School and stuff? Look, I know the separation was my idea, but I've been thinking that maybe I could come back to Smallville this weekend. Maybe for the football game?"

"The football game?" Lana echoed back at him.

"Yeah. I could see you and see how the team's doing."

"How the team's doing?" Lana asked stiffly.

"Sure. I was their coach."

"No, it's fine. As a matter of fact I just spoke to some of them this afternoon. They're good. Things have changed around here a bit since you left, but everyone's fine." She informed him.

"That's good." He said with a sigh. Lana could hear a some people giggling in the background and a female voice telling the others to shut up.

"Anything else?"

"Listen Lana, no matter what happens with us, I'd really would like to be friends. I still don't think that we should keep being involved romantically, but I miss you."

"I've got to go."

"Lana…" He sighed so softly she almost didn't hear him say her name.

"We can discuss it this weekend. Goodnight Jason."

"Goodnight then." Lana listened until she heard the click, then hung up her receiver.