CLARK had been late as usual, Chloe Sullivan thought, pulling her car along the street. He could have been there in less than three minutes if he had really wanted to, but nooo, he had left her hanging. If it had been Lana, Chloe mused sadly, Clark would have been there in a second, but never, never for her.

Chloe tuned in to a radio station and hummed along to a 'Shania Twain' song. She headed down the street, towards the Kent Farm. Suddenly, a blonde boy wearing a red parka rushed across the street in front of her. She screeched to a stop as the SUV behind her almost tore off her bumper.

"What tha hell is wrong with you?" She cried out.

"Sorry, babe!" The boy called to her and winked. He continued across the street. She was about to go, but a tall, skinny, bald man crossed in behind Bart. He was walking briskly and he was obviously hiding something in his coat jacket. Suddenly, Chloe noticed something. This was the same kid she had seen in The Kent house earlier that day. She could have slapped her self.

She pulled the car over and rushed after him. Chloe began to notice something strange. Wherever Bart went, the strange man went. Something was going on here. She stopped to a slow walk to observe what was going on. She followed the group down an alley. The boy stopped at a soda machine. The man stopped behind him.

"Hey, there, kid."

Bart turned around, raising an eyebrow. "I know you from where, exactly?"

"Rough talking little mouth you got there. Want me to staple it together?"

"Go ahead, Try." Bart was a little scared, but the hell if this moron was gonna get one whimper out of him. "Who are you, I don't even know you."

"You did something, something very, very stupid, you know that?"

Bart was starting to get agitated. "Listen, lump brain. Whatever tha hell I did to you, I'm sorry." He got a soda can out of the machine. "Jesus Christ, can't a man get a little peace?"

The man grabbed Bart's arm and the can dropped to the floor, bounced and was split open, spewing grape soda everywhere. "Listen, you stupid little fu-''

The man was interrupted as Bart shoved his knee up his crotch. The knee slammed in to the man's pants and the man instantly dropped. Bart accelerated, but the man caught him by the ankle. Bart fell to the ground in a puddle. He kicked at the man, but there was no point. The man dragged him up to him and stood up, lifting him by the collar.

"This is an interesting situation, isn't it?" He asked simply. He smashed Bart in the gut. Bart almost vomited. He groaned and clutched his aching stomach. The man slipped his hand inside his pants.

"I don't go that way, man." Bart wheezed out mockingly.

"Very funny." The man slipped out the gun and let go so that Bart fell to the ground. "Have a nice day, Small fry." The man said. He squeezed the safety and for one moment, he enjoyed the moment. His finger went to the trigger and he jerked his finger back, and reached for it. Just as he was about to pull it, A trash can was rammed in to his back. The gun fired though very far away from Bart.

The huge man fell to reveal Chloe Sullivan. She was breathing hard. "Hey, Bart." She said simply.

He smiled weakly. "Hey, Chlaricia."

"It's Chloe."

"Oh, yeah."

She helped him up and he dusted himself off. "I owe you one." He said smiling at her. A beautiful smile she thought. This kid was pretty cute.

"Let's go." She said, breaking the spell. She started out of the alley. Bart followed her. Suddenly, the man jerked up.

"You little bitch!" He yelled. He pointed his gun at Chloe and fired. At that moment, something jerked in Bart's mind and heart. Something that had never happened before. With all his physical strenght, he channeled all the power he had in to his natural abilities. He ran after Chloe.

Time froze. The bullet was in midair. Bart was super speeding again! He rushed after the frozen Chloe Sullivan for what seemed like hours. He dove and knocked her out of the way. She fell to the ground, unconscious as a pipe behind them exploded from the force of the bullet.

"What tha hell?" The man screamed. He got up and ran after Bart. Bart instinctively dodged the blow and struck out his foot, effectively tripping the man. The man tripped over his foot and landed on the floor. His head slammed in to the concrete and blood spewed out of the ugly cut. Bart looked down at the unconscious man and girl. Something strange had happened. He had assumed he couldn't super speed anymore. He tried again, running across the alley, but all he did was jog. He tried again and again. No effect. He sighed sadly. He could work on it later. With that last thought, he hitched Chloe up on his shoulders and headed out of the alley, leaving the unconscious man behind.

CLARK arrived at the Kent Farm. He entered in through the surprisingly open front door and in to the parlor. What he saw surprised him.

Jonathon and Martha stood around the couch. Bart was sitting on it and Chloe was strewn across with her feet on his lap. She was unconscious and there was a little bit of dried blood on her forehead, though there were already bandages there.

Clark hurried towards the sofa. "Oh, my god!" He said worriedly. "Is she o.k.? What happened. What happened?"

Jonathon spoke up, "Cool down, son. Chloe here saved Bart's life."

"What exactly happened?" Clark asked incredulously.

"This guy, that I don't even know. He tried to kill me for some reason. If your friend hadn't been there, I'd have been sprayed all over the alley by now." Bart turned back to Chloe. He looked down at her admirably.

"Wow. Is everything o.k. I think I'll X-Ray her." Clark said coming up behind the couch.

"No need for that," Said Martha, waving him away. "She's already been X-Rayed. Dr. Seiners says nothings been broken. The worst injury she got is a sprained thumb and it'll be healed in less than a week."
"There's something I need to tell you," Bart said, speaking up, "All of you."

THEY were now in the loft. The ceiling fan overhead wasn't helping much but there wasn't much else they could do. Chloe was in the house, sleeping peacefully in the guest bedroom. Martha was sitting across the table, holding Bart tightly in an embrace. Jonathon and Clark were sitting side by side across from them.

"You said there was something you wanted to tell us?" Clark said.

Bart swallowed. "Yeah." He pulled gently out of Martha's embrace.

There was an awkward silence for a minute.

"And that something is….?" Jonathon asked.

"Clark, you were right." Bart admitted.

"Right about what?"
"If I had really wanted to get away from the scientist, if he blinked, I'd have been in California."
"Bart. Oh, no, Bart." The realization dawned on Clark.

Bart turned back Clark's parents puzzled expressions.

"Mr. Kent," Bart started firmly, "I wasn't abducted."

"You what?" Jonathon was surprised. "What are you-''

"They caught me." Bart started. "They caught me super speeding one day. I was. I didn't know."

"Wait a minute," Jonathon grabbed Bart's arms, "Who caught you speeding? Who tell us." He was inadvertently shaking the young boy.

"The gguy I was tttelling you about. The scientist. His name is….. Phillip. Phillip Rafferty. He, Hhhheee offered me some money if he could just run tests on me. III didn't know. I'm sorry."

Clark stood up and stalked out of the barn angrily.

Bart's head was in his hands and his whole body was shaking. He was almost weeping now. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Despite the betrayal and the overwheming revelations, Martha's motherly instinct took over. She took the sobbing boy in her arms and let the tears drip all over her brand new GAP sweater. She rubbed his shaking shoulders gently.

He looked up, his eyes glazed with tears. He turned to Jonathon. Bart cleared his throat, "Mr. Kent," He said, his voice sore. "I understand if you want me out. I just need to get my stuff, and I'll be outta here in a- ''

He was interrupted by Jonathon's embrace. There, amidst the love and warmth of the Kent family, he let out all the grief.

CHLOE groaned as she stretched. She rubbed her sore forehead and looked around. It was the guest bedroom of the Kent house. She knew immediately because she and Pete had slept over here many, many times over the years, of course not in the same room though.

She swung her legs over the bed and managed to stand despite the pounding headache. She recollected her thoughts. What tha heck was she doing here? The last thing she remembered was…..was….well, nothing. All that she- Whoa! Wait a minute. The Bart kid! She had saved his life. The last thing she remembered was a gun being fired, right at her. If so, why tha hell was she still alive? Or was she alive. She pinched herself just for good measure and stalked over to the window.

She saw Clark stalk out of the barn, angrily. She grabbed her jacket off of the bed and ran out of the room after him.

CLARK was furious. Goddamit! They had sheltered him. Cared for him. Fed him. And this is the thanks they had got. He walked out in the Kent compound. He tried to calm himself down. He knew if he didn't, someone would get hurt. "Hey, Clark!" He turned to see Chloe hurrying towards him.

"Hey, Chloe." He answered, sullenly.

She slowed down to a brisk walk with a confused expression on her face. "Did I do something wrong," She asked, reffering to his exceptionally cold greeting.

"No," Clark replied, sticking his hands in to his jeans pockets. He forced a smile to his face. "How're you sticking up."

"You seriously do not wanna know." Chloe said pointing at her bandaged head.

Clark sighed. "That's good."

"So, not that I don't appreciate the hospitality, but how'd I get here?"

"Bart brought you. You saved his life, you know."

"Yeah, I remember." Chloe said, noting the distaste when he said the blonde boy's name. "So, what's crackin', cracker jack?"

"Excuse me?" Clark looked at her puzzled.

"Well, you were never really a 'jolly' ranger, but you were never ever Mr. Doom either. What's wrong, Clark. Are you o.k.?"

Clark swallowed. "Yeah, it's just that….."
Chloe waited for a second, allowing him to get his bearing.

"Listen, Chloe," Clark started, "If someone lied to you about something, something that you expected them to tell you, and you trusted them, and it hurt you very much, what would you do?"

Chloe inwardly winced. Just like their situation. She was still hurting that Clark didn't have the guts to tell her about his big 'secret'.

"Well, I'd tell them how much it hurt me, and I'd let them know that they could tell me ANYTHING at all." She said meaningfully.

"Thanks," He said.

"I'm assuming this isn't about Lana?"

"No," Clark said. He remembered something. "Speaking of Lana…" He ran back to the house at a normal pace. Chloe shook her head in wonder.

CLARK pulled the truck in to SMALLVILLE MEDICAL CENTER and shut off the ignition. He had since dropped Chloe of at her car. He hadn't said one word to Bart. There was an awkward silence around the house, and all he could think of was getting out.

Clark got out of the truck and slipped the keys in to his pocket. Then he headed inside. The medical center wasn't a strange place to him. He had been here many times. He went to the top wing. He passed a couple of rooms and waved at a couple of familiar doctors and nurses. Lana wasn't on the Critical floor. So he headed downstairs to the directory and asked for Lana Lang and Jason Teague. Jason was in the Critical section though, and unconscious. Lana wasn't in a critical condition, but she was sleeping.

Clark entered the room. She was sleeping peacefully, her long beautiful hair around the pillow. He studied her sleeping. Then he approached the bed. He laid a pile of a dozen roses he had bought earlier beside her bed.

"There's some stuff I need to tell you, Lana." He said out loud. Though he felt a little weird talking to a sleeping person, he couldn't control himself. "You don't know how much I love you, Lana. Back in the Talon, I almost died when I saw you laying there, so helpless and alone. Oh, god, Lana. I wish there was something I could do to make up to you for the past four years. I've been in love with you since we were kids. I should have listened to Pete and Lex. I should have gone for you. I love you so much, Lana." He swallowed and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Lana opened her eyes slowly. Tears were rolling down her eyelids, and she was shocked at what she had just heard.

"I love you too, Clark…." Lana said, as the tears ran down her cheeks.

METROPOLIS

The Luthor Corp helicopter landed on the helipad. Lex and Kristena stepped out. There was a man standing before them on the helipad. Kristena stuck out her hand. "Kristena… Kristena Hilda."

The man shook her hand. "I know who you are," He said to Lex. They shook hands.

"Doubtlessly." Lex said coolly. "Few people don't. The question is…. Who are you."

The man stuck out his hand. "Rafferty. Phillip Rafferty."