Clark Kent flopped down on the couch in his barn, just the slightest bit exhausted. He'd been heading home from the park, happy about where he and Lana had suddenly started going, when he'd been sidetracked by another Krypto-freak. It was nothing major, but he was beginning to think that Smallville definitely needed to be bottled up and kept separately from the rest of the world. Too much weirdness in this little town.

He stood up again to go downstairs and take care of a few chores when he heard a creak coming from somewhere in the barn. He rushed down towards the area from which the noise had come, coming to a sudden full stop in front of Alicia Baker.

"Alicia," Clark said, taking up a sudden defensive stance. "You're out."

Alicia smiled earnestly, her large, eloquent eyes searching Clark's own. "Yeah," she replied. "I am. But you don't need to worry, Clark. I didn't escape from Belle Reve or anything. They let me go now. I'm cured."

"Cured," Clark stated blankly. "Your powers are gone?"

Alicia shook her head, her eyes still locked onto Clark's. "No, not exactly. They gave me this," she said, raising her arm. She pulled the sleeve of her sweater down to reveal a lead bracelet on her right wrist. "It releases trace amounts of lead into my blood stream, pretty much keeps my powers at bay."

"Will it completely destroy your powers?"

Alicia shrugged. "I guess we'll find out in a year, at the soonest."

Clark nodded, unsure of what to say.

"I really am cured, Clark," Alicia said again. She reached over and took one of his hands between both of hers. "I'm not here to terrorize you; I'm not here to murder Lana. I'm here to apologize."

"Apologize."

"I'm sorry Clark. For last year. I didn't mean to get all Glenn Close on you. It was never my intention. I was…fractured."

"So what are you going to do now?"

Alicia let the Kryptonian's hand out of her hands and shrugged. "I don't know. Move away, maybe. Go somewhere where nobody knows me, where no one sees me as some sort of Krypto-freak. Somewhere where people will look at me and just think of me as a normal, blonde haired teenager who's maybe a little cute, a little perky, who would make a good friend. Or a good girlfriend. Somewhere where I can have a life."

"I hear that Gateway City's nice," Clark offered. He didn't know what else to say. Here was a girl who he could have had something really special with, a girl who could so easily have been "The One". She was bright, smart, beautiful, and she had powers. She had powers and she understood what it was like to be so rampantly different from everyone else around her. Here was a girl who had accepted him for who he was, no questions asked, no doubts raised. She would have been the perfect girlfriend if she hadn't been such a thundering psycho-loony the first time around.

"Gateway City," she said, almost off-handedly. "Yeah, either there or Coast City. Sun, beaches, warm weather throughout. Could be fun." Alicia paused, looked away, hesitated, and then made eye contact with Clark again. "Could be lonely."

"Alicia…" Clark replied, stepping back a step or two. He knew where this was leading, but he also knew that it was impossible. Smallville was his home. There was no way he could just uproot himself and move away with Alicia.

He paused in mid-thought, shocked. He realized that, just a moment ago, he had considered moving away with Alicia. That was all sorts of wrong.

After all, he was with Lana, now, right?

She nodded, understanding all to well what Clark was about to say. "I get it, I do. You can't come with me."

"Alicia, if things would have played out differently…"

"You don't need to explain yourself, Clark. But, can we at least, I don't know…go out? One last night on the town?"

"Sure, yeah, we can definitely do that," he added. "The ice-skating rink's open tonight."

"Great…I'll see you there at seven?"

"Yeah. Sure. That works."

"Great," Alicia replied. "I'll see you then." The young blonde stood on her toes to kiss Clark on the cheek and then turned around and walked out of the barn.

Clark watched her leave, and then turned as he picked up a pitchfork, ready to do his chores when he noticed an extremely fast yellow and red blur go speeding past the barn. Clark immediately dropped his pitchfork and rushed after the blur. He arrived a couple of seconds later in his kitchen, to see Bart Allen talking to his mother.

"Bart, hey, what's up?" Clark asked casually, giving his friend a quizzical look.

"Oh, Bart was just asking me to watch over the Talon for a few days," Martha Kent replied, giving her son a sweet smile. "It seems that Lana has to go out of town for some business, and she needed someone to watch over the Talon. She sent Bart."

Clark nodded, "I see."

"Oh, Bart, can I offer you anything? Coffee, juice? A soda maybe?"

"No thank you, Mrs. Kent. I'm good. I'd like to speak to Clark a moment, though."

Martha nodded and grabbed her purse, saying, "That's okay. I should get over to the Talon anyway. Has Lana already left?"

"She will in a couple of minutes," Bart replied, watching Martha walk out the door. He then turned to Clark. "Problem," he stated simply.

"What's going on?"

"Z'anna, Lana, and I are heading over to Salem for a few days. There's someone there who can help Lana. Here's the address," Bart said as he quickly scribbled down the address that he had memorized from Zatanna's slip of paper. "We'll take a couple of days to get there, I think, and then spend a couple of days there. Zatanna wants to take her car and actually use it, though I don't know why. I mean, she has me, the fastest man alive. Anyway, can you meet us there?"

"I'm going to need more information, Bart…" Clark replied after listening to Bart's insanely quick jabbering.

"I don't know much more, Clark. Just…meet us there, alright?"

Clark nodded slowly. "When, exactly?"

"Dude, I have no clue. I'm not even sure what's going through Z'anna's head. Maybe two days?"

"Got it."

"Great. See ya then," Bart replied, nodding. And with that, he zipped off again, in a lightening blur of red and yellow.

Clark quietly rolled up the address and stuffed it in the back pocket of his jeans. He realized that he'd better get some work done before his date tonight, and then start prep time for his sudden trip to Salem.

This was going to be one hell of a week. He could just feel it in his bones.

John Constantine sucked in his breath as he put out his third cigarette of that hour. He ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair and rubbed his baby blue eyes.

John was tired, moody, and not just the slightest bit upset. The twenty-three year old felt like screaming, he did, especially with the letter that sat in front of him.

A bloody 'Dear John' letter. Hi-freaking-larious. Part of him wanted to take his head and bang it down on the bar counter in front of him, keep on banging until he lost all consciousness. Another part of him wanted to go out and kick some demon ass from here to hell and back. Well, okay, maybe not back again. Any demon sent there should stay there, as far as he's concerned.

John took another gulp of the scotch in front of him and picked up the letter that his precious Zatanna had written him weeks ago, and that he had just received today due to the fact that he'd been out of town on business for awhile. He glanced over it again, reading Zatanna's apology to him, telling him that she had found someone else, his mood growing ever the more bitter over Zatanna's kinder words of apology.

Deep down inside, he knew Zatanna wasn't out to hurt him, but God damn it, why did she have to go on ahead and dump him now? She'd been the one bright spot in his life lately.

John ripped the letter to shreds and let them sit on the counter, ignoring the harsh look of the bartender. He then grabbed his leather duster and started to walk out of the bar, ready to go catch the next flight or train to Smallville, so he could get his girl back.

He looked at his watch and noted that it was two-twenty-four am. He wondered if any transport to Smallville would be available at this time.

As he walked out into the night and headed towards his car, he heard the familiar sound of a portal opening not far away, followed by the unmistakable sound of a woman in horror.

Wasn't that typical?

Smallville would have to wait, he realized, as he hightailed it towards the sound of the scream.

Writer's Note: So, I have no idea yet on why Zatanna's insisting on driving them to Salem when Bart could very well make a quick two second trip between Salem and Smallville and take both Lana and Zatanna there. Or maybe I do have an idea as to why…hmmm…. Hehehehe. Yes, Clark will definitely appear in Salem. He has to. His appearance there will be a catalyst for some interesting things…And yeah, Mark, the wizard quote? It was actually a nod to your story, lol. Seemed like a good idea and all. Anyway, I really hope you guys like where this is headed! Keep on reading and reviewing, yeah? Your people's input seriously means the world to me!