Chapter 6

Day Six.

Kent is going a little crazy.

He misses his life. His friends. His family. Most of all, he missed his girlfriend.

Everyone saw it.

Especially Clark and for a while, he knew that being around Lois of his world was enough to help him get through the loneliness he was feeling but now, he believed, being around Lois was a painful reminder of what he lost.

It was a feeling Clark could relate to.

Alone, Kent stood against the wall staring out into the window as the rain poured hard against the glass. In his hand was a photo. Something to help keep him grounded.

Or to help him from losing his mind.

With all the powers he possessed, he's never wanted anything more that to use it to find his way back.

"Can you tell me about her?"

Kent is startled for the first time.

"Excuse me."

Clark stood in front of him with his arms crossed.

"About Lois, I mean. Can you tell me about her?"

Kent weakly smiled. "What for? All you have to do is get to know her and you'll know exactly the kind of woman that she is."

Clark let out a nervous chuckle. "That's easier said than done. She's not exactly easy to open up, especially if it's about herself."

Having been there himself, Kent nodded understandingly.

"You'd be surprised. Lois has always been hard headed, even when we're together. She hates being told what to do. It's how she grew up. Having no one to lean on for so long, it taught her independence. When I finally broke through to her… when she finally trusted me enough, she opened her heart to me and my life has never been the same."

Kent smiled thoughtfully just thinking of her, forgetting for moment that he wasn't talking to another version of himself in world he didn't belong in.

"I envy you," Clark admitted unintentionally bringing Kent back down to reality.

Kent didn't respond to that one in particular but he did hand Clark the photo he's been staring at for the last few days.

Clark reluctantly took it from him and was surprised by the warm feelings that erupted inside of him as he looked at the photo of Kent and Lois holding one another on a bridge above a river colored green.

"It was taken in Chicago last spring. It was a gift from her after I a short story I wrote was published. I like to write in my spare time and she encouraged me to share it with people."

Clark smiled and immediately knew that would be the kind of thing Lois would do. He looked back at the happy couple in the photo and smiled some more, the envy he felt moments ago were replaced with longing. He's always known that Lois was beautiful but he never really let himself think of her any other way.

"You two look very happy."

Kent smiled looking over at the photo too.

"Yeah. We were there during St. Patrick's Day weekend when they dyed the river green. We shared our first kiss in that city. A couple of months later, I finally got the courage to ask her out and she said yes." He laughed just thinking about what he was going to say next. "After our date, I told her about myself and she slapped me."

Clark's eyes go wide. "She slapped you?"

Kent chuckled at his reaction. "At first, she did. Then she kissed me. It all worked out."

"Wow."

"Yeah. She's one of a kind."

HONK! HONK!

A red Fusion pulled into the driveway. Lois and Mrs. Kent exited the vehicle under heavy rainfall. Kent quickly made his way out to help and Clark went to follow. In their haste, neither noticed the photo that belonged to Kent was left alone on the windowsill.

Thunder boomed loudly across the sky as Clark and Kent helped the ladies bring their things in the house.

When they were all in the house, Mrs. Kent remembered something she left behind.

"Wait. I've got to go back out."

"No, mom. I got it. It's pouring hard outside," Clark insisted instead.

Martha nodded. "It's my briefcase in the back seat."

"Okay."

Meanwhile, Kent provided Lois with a dry towel.

"I don't get you two," she observed.

"Get what?" he wondered curiously.

"I've been around Smallville long enough to notice a few things, and one of those things is his complete immunity to the change of weather. It could be freezing and he wouldn't be shaking. You're like that too."

Kent shrugged. "Strong genes, I guess," he lied abhorredly. It wasn't a good feeling.

"Right." Lois turned back. "Hey, where's Clark?"

"Oh, he just went to grab my briefcase."

Lois nodded and headed towards the window, moving the curtains sideways to get a better view of the driveway. She didn't see Clark outside.

"Mrs. Kent!" she yelled. "Clark isn't – " she picked up a photograph from the corner of the windowsill and her mind went still, but Martha's voice took her out of her frozen state.

"What's wrong, Lois?"

Lois spun around stuffing the photograph into her left back pocket and stared at the woman who she has regarded as a mother since coming to this small town.

"Clark. He's not out there."

"What?" Kent interjected.

Martha face turned alarmed.

"Maybe he went to the barn," Lois assumed.

"I'll check it out," said Kent and left the house immediately. He ran in real time into the barn and saw Clark nowhere in his sight. He begins to grow worried. Clutching a fistful of hair from the back of his head, he wonders out loud where he could be.

"Come on, Clark. Where the hell did you go?" he muttered to nobody.

Then it happened again.

The sky cleared and the colors in the sky reappeared.

Kent rushed to the window and focused his vision out into the field and towards the spot that Clark had found him in.

And there he was.

He stood motionless looking up in the sky.

Kent didn't know what he was doing.

"CLARK!" he called out to him in hopes that his super hearing would pick up on it.

But nothing.

Without another second wasted, he super speeded out of there but it was too late. As soon as he did, a huge bolt of lightning struck down from the sky.

"NOOOO! CLARK!"

He stopped at precisely the spot he was in and found nothing.

Not a trace of Clark Kent.

Kent fell to his knees and traced the spot he should've been in. Swallowing hard, he looked up into the dark skies. The storm is dying out and he was alone.

"Oh no."

"Mister. Mister, are you all right?"

Clark opened his eyes and found himself lying next to some concrete structure. He tried to move but it felt like he got beat up with a hammer made of Kryptonite. He looked around and blinked several times to clear his vision when he felt another light touch against his shoulder.

"Mister?"

Clark pushed himself up, leaning against the white concrete wall for support.

"Mister. I'm sorry, but you're not suppose to be here."

Clark shook away the feeling of nausea. He tried his best to focus. He looked at a middle-aged Caucasian with a broom in his hand and wondered who he was and what he was doing here. Once he got up, he looked at the white wall that he had his hand rested on and couldn't help but look up, up and up.

It was over 500 feet high.

Fifty feet wide.

Clark gulped because he's seen this place before.

He knew where he was.

And it's not Kansas.

"What do you mean he's gone?" Martha asked her voice shaken by what Kent had just finished telling her.

Clark was gone.

Disappeared.

She felt Lois's hand intertwine with her own and for a moment, she allowed herself the comfort and support.

"It's gonna be okay," the young woman said softly.

Martha's hand trembled in response.

Lois looked at Kent, her eyes boring into his, hoping that there was a way to fix this. To get him back. For the first time since learning everything that has happened here, she wanted Clark back where he belonged.

Home.

Kent's eyes glistened with unshed tears.

He didn't know what to do.

Clark speeded back to Smallville, slowing his arrival before he hit the entrance to the family farm. He still wasn't quite sure what happened and how he got to Washington but he was hoping Kent was here to explain to him.

He rushed through the front porch, passing a barking Shelby along the way.

"MOM! KENT!"

The place was quiet. He saw the truck outside so he knew that someone was home. He tried again.

"MOM! ANYBODY HOME!"

"OH MY GOD, CLARK!" yelled a woman from the back yard. The screen door opened from the kitchen where his mother appeared.

She runs to him, embracing him tightly.

"Oh sweetheart, you're okay!" she said with tears springing in her eyes. "Your father and I were so worried."

"Dad?"

"SON!" The front door opened and closed.

Clark froze at the sound of his voice.

It couldn't be.

Slowly, he turned around and he faced the last person he knew for a fact he would never be able to see.

His father.

Softly, he says "Dad?"

Clark's knees weakened and he nearly collapsed against the floor if his father hadn't been there to keep him from falling.

"Son, you're all right. Oh thank God," he whispered in his ear as he hugged his son protectively. "We've been looking for you."

Martha stood behind wiping her tears before joining them as Clark continued to cry, holding his father a little tighter like he was afraid that he'll disappear.

"I missed… I missed you so much."

Clark did little to stifle his tears.

"It's okay son, I'm right here," Jonathan soothed, holding his son lovingly as he always had when he and Martha first brought him home. He let go of his son briefly, holding his face in his hands. "Everything's going to be okay."

"You're back, and that's all that matters," Martha added.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Mrs. Kent," a woman said as she opened the front door carrying a dozen box of donuts form Crispy Krème. "I brought some – " and then the contents in her hands fell to the ground as she saw whom the Kent's held in their close embrace.

Clark saw her and froze all over again.

His parents slowly helped him up to his feet as he stared at the woman who looked back at him in a way he's never been looked at before.

Love.

"Clark," she uttered softly, finding her voice.

"Lo – " before he could even finish, Lois Lane assaulted his lips with a passionate kiss.

End of Chapter 6