Thanks very much for the reviews! Sorry for the lack of update, my email account doesn't like me. It's hiding outside my bedroom door ready with an axe. Don't worry though, email accounts don't have hands. ;)

Mindgames

Part 2

The sweet scent of apple pie baking in the oven greeted Clark's nostrils when he skidded into the kitchen.

Nearly dropping the scalding hot pan of custard in surprise, Martha Kent looked up at her son who, as ever, was there to take it off her hands.

"Thanks, Clark." Martha said gratefully, and pulled on her oven gloves to retrieve the pie. Even with her back turned she told Clark to leave the custard alone, and he gave her a sheepish smile, licking custard off his thumb as she glanced back.

"Sorry, Mum."

She just gave him a pointed look before closing the oven door and motioning in the vague direction of the barn. "Your father's out fixing the tractor."

"Again?" Clark asked incredulously.

Martha smiled indulgently. "Sometimes I wonder why he didn't just marry the thing instead of me."

Clark grinned and dumped his bag on the floor. His grin quickly faded as he caught sight of the Torch assignment Chloe had set him.

"Mum, are you any good at journalism?" He began, fishing the paper out of his open bag and laying it on the table.

"Math is more my forte." She replied absently, stirring the custard. "Why?"

"Oh, Chloe set me this assignment… I'm supposed to write this article on how the addition of loudspeakers to announce classes improved the school community as a whole. And it's supposed to be over a page long." He stated forlornly, scuffing his shoe on the kitchen tiles.

Martha let out an involuntary laugh but hastily forced her expression back to seriousness at her son's face. "If I were you I'd use a large font, then." She told him, still smiling slightly despite herself. "And stop scuffing your shoe Clark, it'll take me forever to get that out."

"Sorry, Mum." He said again and sighed, sitting down and staring intensely at the assignment as if it would write itself.

"There's something else." Clark added a few minutes of comfortable silence later.

"Uh-oh." Martha commented, turning to look at him. "What happened now?"

"Nothing really happened… it's just… don't tell Dad ok? But I think Chloe knows something about me." He explained nervously, staring at his hands.

"Uh-oh." She reiterated, and took a seat opposite her son. "You think or you know?"

"It's just little hints really, she keeps touching on it without really admitting anything… I just… I don't know, perhaps I'm imagining it." He glanced up at her worriedly.

"Well it's certainly real enough to ask me about it, honey. Go talk to your father." Martha urged.

"No, not just yet… he'd only get worked up and get out the shotgun or something equally drastic…" Clark smiled weakly with an attempt at humour, and she patted his hands before standing up.

"Well ok, but I want you to promise that if anything else happens you'll tell us. Both of us." She said reluctantly.

"Alright." Clark gave in, and kissed his mother on the cheek before super-speeding out to help his father with the tractor.

"What's this?" Lex demanded, thrusting a newspaper under his father's nose.

Lionel glanced offhandedly at the headline, took a leisurely sip of scotch then sat up. "I believe it is called a newspaper, but if you'd like to be a bit more specific, son-"

"I have no time for mind games. You know what I'm talking about." Lex snarled, tossing the paper onto the desk. "A top security patient, under the added security of Luthorcorp, might I add, escaped from Bell Reeve yesterday and 3 guards mysteriously die in the process. Yet all I find on the front page of every paper in town is the earth-shattering newsthat there will be no annual Spring Fair as planned. Care to explain?"

"You know as well as I do this is a precarious situation, the authorities I'm sure are working around the clock to find… Aaron, was his name? The last thing this investigation needs is media pressure." Lionel said as if that explained everything, refilling his glass.

Lex looked at his father for a second in sheer disbelief, "And you took it upon yourself to see personally that none of this leaked out. How noble."

The sarcasm bounced off Lionel like water off a duck's back. "Yes, well, this disturbed young man needs to be- corrected- before he can hurt anyone else, Lex!"

Lex leaned forward, "Then I have no doubt you'll have no problem explaining your noble intentions on visiting Mr. Asidian last night to the police." With that he straightened up and strode to the door.

"Is that a threat, son?" Lionel's voice halted him at the door.

Lex turned back slowly. "Surely you can differentiate friendly warnings from threats by now, Dad? " His voice dripped with sarcasm, and at the frustration he succeeded in producing on his father's face, he sauntered from the room, a triumphant smirk on his own face.

End of Part 2

Like? Not like?