This chapter was fun to write and I hope you guys like it. In the next chapter, things are going to get a little crazy, so get ready.

Chapter 3

Leaves of Grass

Back in the library of the Luthor mansion, Victoria had her coat on, but she had decided not to go to Metropolis that morning. After the crazy night she had the day before, she barely slept and thought it would be better to stay at a hotel in Granville.

"But why would you want to stay at a hotel?" Lex asked. "Surely, there are better places to stay while we deal with this."

Victoria smiled at him. "There probably are, but I can't stay in the servant's quarters, haunted or not, and I don't feel up to driving to Metropolis, just to see my father. All I want to do is relax and not have my lamp fly across the room."

Lex chuckled and rubbed the sleeves of her coat with his hands. "I can't blame you for that."

Then he leaned in for a kiss and the moment their lips touched, Lionel Luthor burst into the room, looking quite irritated.

Lex and Victoria glanced at him as he strolled in like a boss and said, "Lex… You have disappointed me."

Ignoring the ghost problem for the time being, Lex stepped away from Victoria and smiled at his father."Hi, Dad, it's good to see you too."

Lionel ignored the sarcasm as he continued to stare his son down. "Would you mind telling me what she's doing here?"

Lex turned to look at Victoria, who put her hands in the pockets of her coat. "She was just about to head to Metropolis. Have a safe trip."

Then Victoria went over to Lex and kissed him once more, before leaving. On her way out, she glanced at Lionel briefly. "I'll send Sir Harry your regards."

Lionel made no attempt to hide the sarcasm in his response. "Swell."

Once she was gone, he shifted his gaze back to Lex. "Was this a ploy, to get my attention? Well done. It worked."

Then he stepped over to the bar to pour himself a glass of scotch, giving Lex a chance to throw in a snarky comment. "I know this is going to come as a shock, but not everything in my life revolves around you."

Lionel poured his drink and turned towards his son with the glass in his hand. "Oh, I understand. So, you're simply… Being swindled."

Lex scoffed at his father. "You can spare me the lecture about family loyalty, Dad. I know exactly what I'm doing."

"Do you?" Lionel asked. "Just remember Lex,empires are not brought down by outside forces. They are destroyed by weaknesses from within!"

Then Lex smirked. "I'm well aware of that. Now, before you accuse me of selling out our family, there's something you should know. I have no intention of letting the Hardwicks take over Luthor Corp. I plan on doing that all on my own."

Lionel paused as he pondered his next few words carefully. From the faint smile that had formed on his son's lips, it was obvious that he had a few good cards in his hand that he wasn't willing to show yet.

Then he chuckled and held the glass of scotch out to Lex. "You get one more chance to prove yourself as my rightful heir. Don't fail me, son."

Lex reached up and took the glass from his father, but before he had a chance to say anything else, a book on one of the shelves by the fireplace fell to the floor with a loud thud, and a look of surprise came over Lionel's face when he saw it fall with his own eyes. It also made him curious when it opened itself up and the pages appeared to turn on their own. Getting the urge to investigate, he approached the book and picked it up from the floor.

He looked it over for a moment and then he began to read the text. "I celebrate myself and what I assume, you shall assume…"

Lionel stopped reading and glanced over at Lex, who was able to cite the next line from memory. "For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."

"It sounds like a description of family, doesn't it, son?" Lionel asked with a smile.

Lex went over and traded the glass of Scotch for the book. "Not our family. Now if you don't mind, I have some important business to attend to."

Lionel chuckled and shook his head at Lex. "I'll let you get back to your business… Just remember, if you betray your own family, then you will truly be alone in the world."

Then Lionel walked out of the library, leaving his son alone. Lex closed the book and looked down at the front cover, now realizing that it was Leaves of Grass that had fallen, so he looked up at the shelf it fell from, feeling confused, and put it back in its place. Once that was taken care of, he let out a sigh and left the library, so he could go out to one of the mansion's many balconies for some air.

Later that afternoon, the Winchester brothers were heading west on I-70, with Metropolis in their rear-view mirror. Sam was reading some textbook and taking notes in the margins of a practice test booklet, while Dean was singing along to AC/DC and having a good time.

When the song ended, Dean glanced over at his brother. "What'cha reading, Sammy?"

"It's an algebra book," Sam answered, without paying much attention to him.

Dean laughed. "Why would a law student need to know anything about algebra?"

Sam gave his brother a dirty look. "I'm trying to study for the SAT! Getting a perfect score on it is the only way to get into Stanford!"

Losing interest in the conversation, Dean frowned and turned the volume down on the cassette player. "Okay, Sammy, good luck with that. We should call that Clark kid, so he knows we're on our way."

Sam finished writing down his notes and glanced at his brother. "Okay, I'll call him."

Then he took out his phone and dialed Clark's number. After a few rings, he picked up and Sam said, "Hey, we're on our way. We'll meet you at the Beanery in a couple hours."

Dean turned the music down a little more and listened to the conversation as Sam asked, "So, what are you up to over there? A blood drive, huh? That's cool. Hopefully the cookies are good."

Dean shook his head and scoffed. "I think you met your long-lost twin, Sammy."

Sam rolled his eyes but remained focused on the discussion. "We'll see you then. Okay, bye."

Sam hung up the phone and went back to his studies, so Dean glanced at his brother with a grin and cranked the music up as high as it would go.

"Dean!" Sam cried. "Can you turn that down?!"

Dean held a hand up to his ear and laughed. "You gotta speak up, Sammy! I can't hear you!"

Sam scowled at him. "Jerk!"

"Bitch!" Dean shot back.

Then Sam shook his head but said nothing else as he did his best to focus on his studies. Dean went back to singing along and ignoring his brother while he continued having a good time.

When Clark got the call from Sam, he had just gotten out of school and was hanging out with Lana on her Aunt Nell's porch, to talk about the blood drive. After stepping away to take the call, he returned to the wicker couch where Lana was waiting for him, just as he was putting away his phone.

"Who was that?" Lana asked with a smile.

"That was one of my cousins from out of state," Clark answered. "They're coming to stay for the weekend."

"Sounds fun," Lana commented as Clark sat down next to her. "I'd really like to meet them while they're here."

Clark glanced at Lana with a smile. "I'm sure they'd like to meet you too. I was just telling them about the blood drive."

"So why the secrecy?" Lana asked, suddenly confused.

Clark's deer in the headlights look started coming on, so when his smile faded, he faked a new one. "No secrecy, Dean just listens to loud and obnoxious music. It was blasting out of his speakers when I was trying to talk to his brother, so it was kinda hard to concentrate."

Even though he was technically giving another excuse like he always did, it was also accurate, since he had definitely heard AC/DC blasting out of the car stereo. It just wasn't quite loud enough that he needed to go off alone to take the call, but for the time being, Lana seemed to buy it.

"Speaking of the blood drive," she said with a chuckle. "Are you sure I can't convince you to donate? I know you're afraid of needles, but I think you're a lot braver than you say you are."

"What do you mean?" Clark asked.

There was a gleam in her eye when she grinned at him and said, "You weren't too afraid to dive into the river to save Lex or pull Whitney out of his burning truck. You should give yourself more credit."

Clark's fake smile became a genuine grin. "Won't they check my blood pressure beforehand? What'll they do if it's too high?"

Lana frowned. "I guess I didn't think of that. If it's too high, they might not even let you donate anyway."

"That's what I was afraid of," Clark said. "It would be pretty embarrassing if I went through all that trouble, only to be turned down when I got there. Anyway, my cousins will be here in a couple hours, but I still have to get my chores done before then."

Lana nodded and looked down at the clipboard she was holding with all of the donors' signatures on it. "Well, have fun."

Clark remained seated beside her, without moving, and he continued to smile at her. "Alright, I'll do that."

Lana looked up at him again and laughed. "I guess I'll see you around."

Then their conversation was suddenly interrupted when Nell came out of the house looking quite worried. "Lana, can you come inside please?"

Clark looked up at her, surprised, and Lana got up when she saw the worried expression on her aunt's face, suddenly looking afraid. "Aunt Nell, what is it?"

"Whitney's on the phone," Nell told her. "His dad just had a heart attack."

Lana glanced down at Clark for a second and then she hurried into the house with her aunt. Once he was alone, Clark got up off the couch and headed back to the farm. After hearing the news about Mr. Fordman, he suddenly felt bad for Whitney and hoped that everything was going to turn out okay.

A couple of hours later, the Winchester brothers finally arrived in Smallville. When Sam pointed out the Beanery up ahead, Dean pulled the Impala into a parallel parking space on their side of the street, directly in front of the old Talon.

As soon as they got out, Sam looked up at the abandoned building. "Hey, Dean. Do you remember this place?"

Dean looked up at it from the driver's side of the car and nodded. "Yeah, I remember staying in that apartment up there, just after the meteor shower. We were lucky it was open."

The neon sign on the building's facade was no longer operational and it was completely dark inside. Sam went over to the front doors and put his hands around his eyes as he peered in through the glass. "It's empty in there."

Dean went over to his brother's side and noticed that part of it had been converted into a flower shop. "I wonder how long the theater's been closed."

Sam turned and looked up at the coffee shop across the street. "We can probably ask Clark about it when we see him."

Dean turned towards the Beanery as well and they both crossed the street together. As soon as they entered, they looked around for Clark, but the place was packed, and they didn't see anyone that they thought looked like him.

"This place is kinda nice," Dean said with a smirk. "But I'd rather hang out at the Wild Coyote."

Sam scoffed. "I'm sure you would. Where's Clark?"

Dean shrugged. "No idea."

They both walked around, looking for him. At some point, they walked past a guy in a red flannel shirt, without realizing who it was. He glanced up at them from a table by one of the front windows, where he was sipping on a coffee and reading a book he brought to help pass the time, but neither Sam nor Dean paid any attention to him.

"Maybe he's not here yet," Sam suggested.

They turned to leave, but then the guy in the flannel shirt got up and asked, "Are you guys looking for someone?"

"Yeah, we're looking for Clark Kent," Sam replied.

Then the guy smiled. "You must be Sam and Dean. I wondered if that was you when you walked past me."

They both gave him a confused look and he asked, "Is something wrong?"

Sam raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "No, it's just that you look a bit… different than we expected."

"I do?" Clark asked, still confused.

Dean looked him up and down and added, "I expected a nerd with glasses."

Deciding to change the subject, Sam gestured towards Clark's table. "Anyway, we should talk about your friend's ghost problem."

The three of them sat down and when their waitress came, the brothers ordered coffee and Dean asked for some pie, before they got down to business.

Dean folded his hands on the table and looked over at Clark. "Sam filled me in on the way. I think we're dealing with a poltergeist, and it sounds like it's just warming up. We need to get into that mansion before things get worse."

After hearing what they were up against, Clark agreed. "I'll talk to Lex and see if he'll let us check it out. It's the weekend now, so we should have all the time we need."

"Maybe you could call him," Sam suggested. "See if he's busy and ask if he'll let us in tonight."

Clark took out his phone, just as Sam and Dean's drinks arrived, and he dialed Lex's number.

Lex was on his way home from the fertilizer plant when his phone suddenly rang. He quickly glanced down to see who it was and when he saw that it was Clark, he answered. "Hey, Clark. What's going on?"

On the other end, he could hear the typical sounds of the coffee shop in the background, as Clark said, "Hey, I was wondering if you were home yet. Some cousins of mine came to visit and they know a little bit about ghosts. I was hoping we could come by the mansion tonight to look around."

Lex chuckled as he went over the very same bridge where he crashed his Porsche a few months earlier. "What side of the family are they from?"

"Kent," was Clark's reply. "I never got to meet my grandpa, so Dean's been telling me about the fishing trips they went on when he was little."

"That's nice," Lex said. "What do your cousins think about my little stow away?"

Clark paused for a second, before breaking the news to him. "They think it might be a poltergeist. If that's the case, then things are worse than we thought."

When Lex heard that, he became a little more concerned. "I'm almost home. If you guys want to stop by, I'll have Darius let you in."

"Okay, we'll come over when we're finished up at the Beanery," Clark said. "See you in a bit."

Then they hung up their phones and Lex hit the gas, so he could get to the mansion a little faster. At this point, he was eager to meet some more members of the Kent family and was hoping they could help him understand Clark a little better. Though he was concerned about the haunting going on in the mansion, he was more interested in learning about the accident on the bridge and why his friend wasn't telling him everything.