Metamorphosis – Chapter 40

Lois and Clark drove in a rented 2003 Toyota Camry. Lois insisted to drive back to Smallville so Clark could spend some more time getting to know Cameron, but before they could reach the town, large billows of smoke appeared in the distance. Clark's eyes go worrisome.

"Pull over"

"What?"

"Pull over; I'm gonna go check it out." Lois pulls over to the side of the road but keeps the engine running. Clark carefully hands Cameron to her. "I'll be right back, I'm just gonna make sure everyone's all right"

"Be careful"

Clark leans across the passenger seat and gives her a long kiss he's wanted to give her since she came back. Cameron broke out into fits of giggles as Lois and Clark were momentarily lost in one another.

"I'll be back," said Clark to Lois and then placing a kiss on Cameron's forehead. "I'll be back, little guy"

Lois held Cameron closer as she watched Clark disappear in a blink of an eye.

"I hope you don't get to run that fast at least until you're a teenager," Lois says to Cameron with a playful grin as the two stayed while Clark tended to damage control.

Clark super speeded and saw a semi-truck turned to its side with the driver unconscious. Clark goes to help him out when a sudden bout of pain took him over and he drops to his knees, clutching his stomach.

"You should have told me, Clark. It never had to be like this"

Clark could barely get a word out, the pain hurt so much.

"Lex?" he murmured underneath heavy breaths. He came out of nowhere. He must've been waiting.

"You think you could hide this from me forever?"

"Please, don't do this." A picture of Lois and Cameron appeared in his mind and he holds on to that image as tightly as he could. "I've… never hurt anyone"

"You hurt me!" Lex bellowed angrily. He takes the green meteor rock out of his pocket. "Who would've thought… Clark Kent, Kansas farm boy from another planet," he snickered. "You make me sick"

"I didn't mean to… hurt… anyone"

"Of course you didn't. Not to anyone, just me"

With barely any strength, he shook his head. "Please," he pleaded his mind and body weakening with every second exposed to the Kryptonite.

"Took me a while, you know, to remember everything. My father put me through electro shock therapy because of you. I went to Belle Reeves because of you. I'm bald because of you. I lost Lois, my best friend, to you!"

Clark tries to filter his words to think only of Lois and Cameron.

Lois waited anxiously for Clark to return, and when he hasn't, she worried.

"Screw this!" she says and Cameron makes a loud disgruntled noise probably at her phrase choice. "Sorry sweetie," she apologized to her son, who now sat in the back strapped inside his baby seat.

Lois steps on the gas. She hoped everything was all right.

"It took me a while to figure things out," Lex says, standing in front of an ailing Clark. "It's too bad, we could've made great friends, but I guess this is the story foretold in the cave walls. Segeath and Naman…"

"Lex, you don't have to do this"

"Do what? Be whom I'm destined to be?" Lex laughed. "What's wrong, Clark?" he taunted. "Or is your name Naman?"

"I'm… not… Naman"

"Even when you're dying, you won't tell me the truth," Lex says highly disappointed. "It's too bad, Clark. Ours was truly the kind of friendship legends were made of. You're lack of faith in me will be your downfall"

"You're… crazy"

Lex kneeled down before him and held the meteor rock to his chest as Clark held his scream of agony. "I may be crazy but I'm not the one pretending to be human"

As she got nearer to the crash site, Lois gasped in surprise as she saw Lex holding the Kryptonite at Clark. She slammed quickly on the breaks but not too fast that it could harm her baby.

She couldn't let Cameron anywhere near that murderous rock.

"Mommy's gonna be right back, sweetie." Lois exited the vehicle and ran towards Clark and Lex.

"Lex! Stop!" she screamed towards them.

Lex looked up expressionless.

"I see we've all come full circle now"

"What are you doing?" Lois knew what he was doing but she needed to get through to him if she were to help Clark get out of this alive. "This isn't you"

"Don't you think it's a little too late to be giving me this speech, Lois?"

"You're not a murderer"

"That's where you're wrong"

"And what would killing Clark accomplish exactly?" She needed to get him away from Clark and she needed to do it fast. Lois forced herself to school her features, refusing to show Lex even an ounce of fear.

"Well, my life and future would be a hell of a lot better without him in it, that's for sure," he says charismatically.

"I look at you and I don't even see you"

"I'm not the one sleeping with an alien"

"Is that what this is all about? Are you jealous, Lex? Are you angry with me because I chose Clark over you? I'm not that gullible… especially not over a guy let alone an alien. You gave me a choice and when you did that, you forfeited our friendship"

"I could've given you anything you wanted"

"What I want…" she began softly. "… is lying hurt behind you… and if you take that away from me, I swear to you Lex, I will kill you"

Lex didn't want to believe her.

"You're not a killer," he says, calling on her bluff.

Lois stood unfazed. "Then again, neither are you," she countered.

Lex clenched his jaw and squeezed the Kryptonite he held in his hand as Clark continued to wither in pain. The sudden sound of sirens broke the former friends out of their stances. Lex reached into his other pocket and revealed another green rock and he held the two in front of Lois to see.

He smiled, dropping one to the ground and holding onto the other as he ran towards his Jaguar.

Lois immediately sprints to Clark's side, grabbing the Kryptonite and tossing it out into the corn fields.

Clark starts to feel to regain full consciousness.

"It's gonna be okay," Lois whispered by him as she lay his head on her lap. Clark reached behind him and held onto Lois practically for dear life. "He's gone. Everything's gonna be fine"

"I'm… sorry," he says, his breathing rapid.

Lois shook her head. It wasn't his fault.

"We'll figure it out. And this time, we'll do it together, okay," she assured.

Less than a minute later, the paramedics and cop cars arrive. Clark hid behind in the corn fields watching from the distance as Lois explains stays behind to answer their questions. Lois insisted that he head back to the farm first and that she'll meet with him as soon as she was done.

Clark breathed in and turned around, bending down to lift Cameron in his baby seat.

"Hey buddy. I'm sorry you had to see all that… or… I don't if you saw anything at all, but I hope you didn't," Clark says to him softly. "Come on, I'm gonna take you home now and we'll meet mommy there, how about that"

Cameron grabbed his fingers and began to play with it.

Clark smiled. He wished he can keep this moment going forever. "Everything's gonna be okay." He looked out into the road once more, making eye contact with Lois before disappearing into the fields.

They had a lot more to talk about now than ever before.

To be continued…