When Chloe, Lana, and Clark got the bright idea to go horseback riding in the middle of the woods on a rainy day and then invite Emmeline to join them, she wasn't sure who to blame.

While Clark and Lana, no surprise, talked a little ahead of them, Chloe tried to gain control on her own horse as Emmeline rode beside her.

"Okay, here we go," Chloe said nervously. "Whoa! I thought learning to drive my dad's Volvo was difficult. But at least the car came with windshield wipers."

"Chloe, you're doing fine for your first time," Clark threw back.

"Em, how are you doing so well on that horse?" Chloe asked her as her own horse decided to take a 360.

"My parents used to take me horseback riding when I was younger. I stopped when I was twelve. I guess everything I learned stuck with me."

"I'm glad you did so well."

"Oh don't worry, I started out just like you…but worse. My horse threw me off his back and I landed in the mud."

Chloe laughed and then looked around her on her jacket. "I dropped my camera," she groaned.

Clark sighed then smiled. "Chloe, what did you bring that thing for, anyway?"

"I'm not out here doing this butt-bashing thing for fun. These woods are like the Bermuda triangle of Smallville." When she her friends disbelieving looks she quickly added, "No, I'm serious, you guys, people come in here, and when they leave they can't remember a thing. There've been dozens of incidents in the past ten years."

"I'll go get your camera," Lana said.

"Thank you."

Lana turned her horse around and started back down the path.

"The stories in these woods go back to the Civil War," Clark said to Chloe.

"No, Clark, what I'm talking about happened like a week ago. Some surveyors from Rickman Industries came screaming out of the woods, and they can't even remember what happened."

"I'm sure you have a theory about this."

"Kyle Tippet."

"The guy who sells weird sculptures in town?"

"Yeah, don't you think it's odd he lives out here all alone in the woods?"

"Thoreau did."

"Tarzan was raised in the woods," Emmeline added.

"The Unabomber lived alone in the woods too, you guys."

Suddenly, a scream echoed out from behind them that could only belong to one person.

"Lana!" Clark exclaimed. He quickly dismounted from his horse. "Chloe, Em, stay with the horses."

"Uh, okay," Chloe answered.

Emmeline dismounted from her own horse and calmed the other horses down.

"You have a gift."

"More like my family paid hundreds of dollars for lessons."

Not too long after, Clark and Lana came stumbling back while Clark led Lana's horse around.

"What happened?" Chloe asked in a panicked voice when she saw Lana's frazzled state.

"The good news is I found your camera," Clark said. "The bad news is that someone, most likely Kyle Tippet, may have attacked Lana. I'm going to take her home. Can you two get the horses back?"

"Yeah, sure thing."

Emmeline helped Chloe figure out what to do with the horses and the two girls successfully got the four horses back at the stables.

The next day, news traveled very fast that Crazy Kyle was booked for assault against Whitney, but Clark didn't seem convinced.

Chloe looked at the newspaper with poor Kyle on the front. "Tippet hasn't broken hermit status in years and all of a sudden he's one of Smallville's most wanted?" she asked in disbelief.

"Something must have made him snap," Pete said.

"I think it's Bob Rickman," Clark remarked.

"Yeah, but what does our rural Rodin have against Rickman, other than the obvious 'poisoning-the-environment' angle?" Chloe asked.

"I don't know. Could you do some digging, find a connection?"

"Yeah. Absolutely. Sounds like an interesting story." She put two pictures beside each other, one of Kyle and the other of Rickman, trying to find a similarity from first glance. "Tree-hugging hermit versus pesticide tycoon."

Pete took the pictures from her and studied them as well. "What do you think they have in common?"

"Definitely not their personal grooming habits."

Lana suddenly walked into the Torch office to crash their party.

"Lana!" Clark smiled. They all looked at her and noticed that she looked extremely ticked off. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked as he got up and went over to her.

Lana's brow furrowed and she looked over at the other three. "Can you give us a minute?" she said firmly.

"Yeah," Chloe muttered as they all left Clark and Lana alone.

Emmeline didn't like where that was headed. From what she knew about Clark, he always tried to do the right thing no matter what it cost. From what she knew about Lana, she would do anything to defend Whitney, even if she ended up being wrong. That was really going to get her in trouble if she wasn't careful.

She also didn't like how Lana felt like she could just waltz in and kick the three of them out of the place where they worked. If she wanted to talk to Clark, she should've pulled him out of the room. It wasn't her room to begin with.

Lana Lang needed an attitude adjustment.

Chloe and Emmeline spent a lot of time in the Torch office researching everything they could find about Kyle and Rickman. Then the two girls went to the Beanery to meet up with Clark and Lex.

"So, we spent the morning delving into the exotic world of agricultural equipment, and it seems that Kyle and Rickman were partners in the mid-80s," Chloe explained.

"They sold farm equipment?" Lex asked.

"Yeah, they were Salesmen of the Year, three years running. '89, '90 and '91. Then the year after that, Rickman started his own company and Kyle went Walden."

"Wonder what happened," Clark murmured.

"I don't know, but Em found this story in the Smallville Ledger." She handed a news article clipping to Clark.

"'Salesmen trapped in car after meteor shower'," Clark read.

"I'm guessing whatever's going on started that sunny October day, twelve years ago."

"Let's go ask him," Lex said.

"What, you know where he is?"

The four of them traveled to Lex's mansion where Kyle was apparently hiding out. When they got the bedroom, it was empty except for a nurse in purple scrubs.

"Where's Kyle?" Lex asked the nurse.

"Who?" the nurse said, genuinely confused.

"I think I know where he went," Clark said. He, Emmeline, and Chloe all headed out to the woods until they came across his trailer. He was leaving right as they walked up and he didn't look too happy about the company.

"I appreciate the help, Clark, but I'm done here," Kyle said shortly.

"We know that Rickman used to be your partner," Clark told him.

"That was a million years ago."

"What happened to you guys in that meteor shower?" Chloe asked. Kyle slowly stopped walking. "Trust me, you're not the only ones that were affected by it."

"What's going on with you and Rickman?" Clark said firmly. "How did he get my dad to sell our farm?"

Kyle turned to face them. "You know, until that day, we were the worst salesmen to ever carry a catalog. And all that changed after they pulled us out of that car. With a single handshake we could get people to do whatever we wanted them to do. Buy a tractor. Stand on one leg."

"You're saying you have the power of persuasion?"

"How long does it last?" Chloe asked.

"Until the person does what I tell them to do," Kyle answered. "Could be two minutes, two hours, and then they come out of it without a memory."

"What happens if they can't do what you want?" Clark wondered.

"They keep trying, unless they're forcibly snapped out of it like your friend, Whitney."

Chloe smirked a little. "Well, it sounds good in theory, but, uh, how about you prove it?"

"Chloe…" Clark said a little embarrassed by her actions.

"What? The guy lives in a crappy trailer out in the woods. You'd think if he has this power, he'd use it to sell some of these sculptures."

"It's dangerous," Kyle told her.

"I'm used to living on the edge."

Kyle held his hand out for her. Chloe hesitantly took it and then Kyle grabbed her hand with both of his. Her eyes turned a weird green color as she stared at him.

"You have feelings for Clark, don't you, Chloe?"

Emmeline's eyes widened just a little. This was about to be quite awkward once she snapped out of this. Clark smiled disbelievingly.

"You see him, and you want him. All this time, you've been hiding it. Now you can show him."

Chloe went over to Clark and seductively put her hands to his chest and slowly lifted them higher and higher. Then she grabbed onto his collar and threw her lips onto his. Emmeline's mouth popped wide open at the sight of her best friend kissing the guy they both had feelings for. It would be a lie to say that she wasn't a little bit jealous.

Chloe ended the kiss and faced Kyle again. "Okay, come on! I'm ready." She looked at her friends' faces, specifically Emmeline who looked like she was about to burst out laughing, and her brow furrowed. "What? Why are you looking at me like that? And why is my mouth minty?"

"Let's just say he proved his point," Clark said as he put his hand to his mouth.

A look of realization crossed her face. "Oh…did I just…"

"Don't worry. It was fine."

Chloe put her hand to her head and began blushing furiously. Kyle seemed eager to get off the topic so he picked up his bag. "Well, now that the party trick's over, I gotta hit the road."

"Wait," Clark called. "You have these gifts, but you hid in the woods. Why?"

"Because I was scared that I wouldn't be able to control it and that I'd wind up like Bob."

"What happened between you and Rickman? Why does he want to kill you?"

"He knows that I know his secret. And I threatened to expose him if he ever built a plant here."

"Yeah, but he's been destroying communities like this for years," Chloe remarked. "How come you let him get away from it for so long?"

"Because I wanted to be left alone! As long as it wasn't here, it wasn't my problem!"

"My dad lost our farm because you didn't tell anyone," Clark yelled.

"Do you know what it's like to have to hide because of who you are?"

"Yes, I do. But when you have a gift you can't just hide in a hole and hope it goes away."

Kyle agreed to see Rickman and put a stop to what he was doing and get Clark's farm back.

Meanwhile, once again, Emmeline and Chloe were forced to miss the action that followed and just trusted that Clark would come into the Torch the next day and tell them all about it.

"So," Emmeline said with a large smile. "Nice move back there."

Chloe turned bright red. "You know, I wasn't really all that embarrassed that I kissed him. I was upset that I finally got to kiss the guy I have feelings for and I don't even get to remember it."

"I can see how that would be frustrating."

"You're not jealous, are you? Remember our deal."

"Okay, Chloe, you know as well as I do that if one of us gets him, the other will be happy for her but she'll also be a bit jealous. So yes, I am a little jealous that you got to kiss him."

"Fair enough."

Emmeline was quite shocked to find out the next day that Bob Rickman ended up committing suicide the night before. But she knew better. Kyle had something to do with it.

Before school, she headed out to his trailer to see if he was still there, and he appeared to be just about ready to leave.

"Hey," he said to her kindly. "It's Emmeline, right?"

"Yes, sir. I wanted to see if you were alright."

"Why don't you ask Rickman?"

Emmeline smiled a little and nodded.

"Any particular reason you came all the way out here?"

"We're a lot alike."

"Oh, really?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah. I may not know what it's like to have abilities like yours, but I do know what it's like to close yourself off from everyone. To feel like you don't have a friend in the world."

"You could've fooled me. I saw the way you were with Chloe and Clark."

"You saw a ten minute glance into my life. What you didn't see was the years I spent locked up at home because I was too afraid to talk to anyone. I may as well have lived out in the woods just like you."

Kyle's face softened up a little bit in understanding.

"But all that ended the day I got the guts to talk to join our school newspaper. I work behind the scenes, but I've made a lot of incredible friends now. All it took was a little courage."

"You're an inspiring person, Emmeline. I think you're going to be doing big things one day."

"I don't know. I'm still shy."

"Coming out here to talk to me? That shows that you may not be as shy as you think."

Emmeline thought about what he was saying. He made a really, really good point. Before she met Chloe and Clark, the mere thought of Kyle would make her want to hide out in her room.

And now here she was with him making conversation as if he was an old friend.

"I got to hit the road before more people come looking for me. It was really nice talking to you and Clark. Makes me realize that not everyone is the same."

Emmeline smiled. She watched as he got into his truck and drove away from Smallville forever.

It shocked her to see how much she was changing. And all for the better.