It had been a week since Emmeline had called Oliver, and still nothing. After her very surprising and blunt question, Oliver had asked if she really understood what she was asking of him then told her to give him some time to think about it. It'd been so long that she wondered if he'd completely forgotten about her and had thought multiple times about calling him again, but she didn't want to risk him saying 'no' if she did. She could probably learn on her own if it really came down to it, but no one would be a better teacher for her than the Green Arrow.
Her worries about that would have to be put on hold for now because Lana had called her and Chloe panicked, explaining that she allegedly had a stalker. With the big Lana-Lex wedding only weeks away, reporters and photographers were as eager as ever to get a picture of the couple. But someone had decided to go a step further and texted Lana a picture of herself in her bedroom which meant someone had broken in and snapped it just seconds before they sent it.
Chloe looked out the window of her apartment where a crowd was waiting to ambush Lana the second she left the Talon. "The paparazzi's at a fevered pitch, and Lex jets off on a business trip?"
"It's not like he left me unprotected," Lana said softly.
"Well, that explains why Lex's robo-cops are patrolling outside. I can't believe he would just leave the country, knowing that some demented stranger broke into your bedroom."
"I let him believe that it was paparazzi-induced jitters."
"You lied to Lex?"
"I couldn't show him the photo that was sent to me."
Chloe made Lana, Emmeline, and herself a mug of hot tea then joined the other two on the couch. "Okay, first of all, you're staying here until we catch Norman Bates. And second…I need to see that phone."
Lana looked at her doubtfully.
"Lana, it's the only way we're going to be able to track this guy down."
The raven-haired woman reluctantly pulled out her phone and showed Chloe the picture that had been sent to her. In it, she was sitting at her vanity in a silk robe, her hair still wet from a shower, and she was examining a bent chisel.
"I don't think Lex would have minded a picture of you in your lingerie," Chloe teased.
"It's the chisel. I think Lex stabbed Clark with it after the engagement dinner."
Chloe and Emmeline nervously tried to think of what to say next. If Clark had gotten stabbed with this chisel, then Lana realized that it was the chisel that was messed up and not Clark and that meant that she was closing in on his secret.
"So, all of this secrecy is about that which we do not speak of?" Chloe asked.
"Chloe, I'm just…I just want your help catching this guy. I'll find out the explanation about Clark on my own."
"We'll do everything we can to help you," Emmeline gently assured her. She didn't add that she shouldn't be finding out anything about Clark whether on her own or not because it was his secret to share and no one else's.
When Chloe and Emmeline walked up to the barn, they could hear Clark telling his mother, "I spent so much time trying to stay out of the spotlight that pushing Lana into Lex's life put me right in the middle of it."
"Well, it's got to be a lot warmer in that spotlight than it is outside," Chloe interjected as she rubbed her arms.
Emmeline looked at Clark only wearing his usual flannel shirt in 20-degree weather and resented him the tiniest bit for being impervious to the wintry air.
"I'm going to go inside and make some hot cocoa to thaw out those of us who can actually feel how cold it is," Martha smiled.
"Thank you, Mrs. Kent," Chloe told her.
Martha disappeared from the barn and went up to the house.
"You guys look half-frozen," Clark observed.
"Well, like your mom said, we can still feel the bitter cold," Emmeline said, her chin trembling. "And it's bitter with a vengeance tonight."
He looked over at Chloe. "Shouldn't you be next to a fire somewhere, warming up next to Jimmy?"
"I'm on a mocha-mint run for Lana. At least, that's what we're letting her believe. Um, she is hiding out at my apartment."
"From what?"
"Somebody who has taken to breaking, entering, and making obligatory creepy phone calls."
Clark's brow furrowed in concern. "What's Lex doing about it?"
"She…has some very compelling reasons for keeping him out of the picture."
"All right. I'll go back with you. We can figure out a way—"
"No, Clark. She's fine, she's safe. She's got Lex's security guards there. Believe me, no one's going to go near her without them knowing about it."
"There's got to be something I can do."
"There is. I traced the text message to a lowlife shutterbug named Louie Esposito. Now, there's no permanent address, but Jimmy really knows that world, so can you call him and ask him about it?"
"Call Jimmy? Why don't you call him yourself?"
"I can't. We sort of broke up."
"Does this have anything to do with me and keeping my secret?"
"No."
Clark looked at her like he didn't believe her.
"And yes."
"You can't let this happen, Chloe. My lies have already pushed Lana away, and now—"
"She's a lot closer than you think, Clark." She handed Clark a folder that contained the picture of Lana holding the damaged chisel. "This is a picture that creep sent Lana on her cellphone. Anything look familiar?"
Clark looked at the picture. "That's my dad's chisel. Did she see Lex stab me?"
"She doesn't know what she saw. But, Clark, she's been orbiting your secret for years, and I think she may finally be coming in for a landing."
When Chloe and Emmeline returned, they discovered with horror that the mysterious stalker who may or may not be Louie Esposito had snuck into the Talon and left Lana a piece of red lingerie with a threatening note saying she should wear it when the stalker killed her.
One of Lex's security agents, Brady, hung up the phone after speaking with his employer. "Understood, sir." He turned to where Lana, Chloe, and Emmeline were sitting on the couch. "Miss Lang, we have to go."
"Go where?" Lana asked.
"LuthorCorp. It's the only place that I can guarantee your safety."
"Don't you think that whoever's behind this will think that's the first place I'd go?"
"Yeah, that's the first place I would look," Chloe agreed.
"Miss Lang…"
"The only place I'll be safe is the last place anyone would think I'd go," Lana said. "Change of plans. Get the car ready."
"But Mr. Luthor—"
"Isn't here. So unless you're planning on kidnapping me and holding me against my will, I'm going to go where I want. And if you're interested in my protection, then you'll follow my orders now."
Chloe and Emmeline shared a somewhat nervous glance, something they seemed to be doing more and more often lately. Neither of them knew that Lana could be so demanding and insistent to the people who were technically working for her. She supposed with a creepy stalker after her, it mostly excused the behavior, but Emmeline was certain that her behavior had started changing long before today.
After Emmeline finished up her shift at the clinic, she went straight to the hospital. Martha had called her earlier and told her that after Lana had arrived at the Kent home to hide out for a while, her stalker had shown up and killed Brady before pushing her down the stairs.
Fortunately, Lana wasn't seriously injured, but because of her pregnancy, they were keeping her overnight for observation.
Emmeline went to the room Lana was supposed to be in but found it was empty. At first, she thought that maybe Lana was in the bathroom or perhaps had been taken down for more tests, but there was no evidence that a patient occupied the room, and even more telling was that there were no guards.
She stepped over to the front desk. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Lana Lang. Has she been moved?"
The nurse typed something into her keyboard and then looked up. "How are you related to the patient?"
"I'm a close friend of hers."
"Well, we're only allowing family to see her right now. The security team with her made sure that no one outside of Mr. Luthor knows her location."
Emmeline's brow furrowed. "Was Lana aware that she was being moved?"
"I'm not at liberty to discuss her condition without either hers and Mr. Luthor's permission."
"Well, is there at least someone she knows with her so there's someone who can tell where she is?"
"I'm sure one of the security agents will be with her."
Emmeline stepped away from the desk and glanced back at the empty room.
Then she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Clark's number. "Hey, did your mom tell you what happened to Lana?"
"Yeah, I'm on my way to the hospital now. I think Jimmy and I found out who's been targeting her."
"Well, right now, Lana isn't in the main building of the hospital. I think they moved her, but the staff won't tell me anything because I'm not family. Something doesn't feel right. I think you should get here fast."
What Jimmy and Clark had discovered was that Louie Esposito had a disturbing stash of secret pictures he'd taken of Lana over the past several weeks. It turned out that the reason Emmeline hadn't been able to find Lana was because she'd been moved to an empty wing of the hospital. Esposito had found her there and had taken hundreds more pictures of her as she raced down the hospital hallway, but Clark arrived just in time to put an end to that.
Lana's other security agent, Mack, was forced to kill Esposito when he tried to draw a weapon on him.
Now Clark, Emmeline, and Chloe were in Chloe's apartment looking at the pictures Esposito had taken of Lana. Some of which involved Lana sneaking about Clark's barn with a camera in hand.
"Lana certainly is persistent," Chloe remarked. "I'll give her that."
"Kind of like you were when you were trying to figure out my secret," Clark teased.
Chloe gave him a pointed look. "It just makes me wonder if she had an ulterior motive in hiding out in your bedroom tonight."
"You think that's why she went to my house?"
"Well, I'd like to believe that she went there because she felt safe there, but you don't spend this much time with Lex without picking up a trick or two. I mean, look at all of these pictures Esposito took of her sneaking around at your barn."
She quickly flipped through all of the photos Esposito had taken, and it was truly frightening how many there were of Lana both in the barn and just going about her day.
"Wait," Clark said quickly when one particular picture popped up on the screen. "What was that? That one right there?"
Chloe looked at the board behind the person being photographed. "The Children's Foundation Benefit."
"My mom was there last night…in Metropolis."
"So if Esposito took this…"
"Then he couldn't have taken that picture of Lana in her bedroom."
"Then who did?"
Emmeline's eyes widened in horror. "Who would have access to Lana at all times besides Lex? Who would know her every move? Who would know all the places she was hiding out?"
Clark took a breath when he realized what she was getting at. "Someone on her security detail."
"Right. And who arrived at the hospital right after you got there to save Lana?"
Not needing to hear anymore, Clark sped off.
Emmeline was right, and it was Mack who was stalking Lana in a perverted attempt to 'save' her from Lex. Luckily, Clark was able to save Lana from the deranged security guard after the both fell through a skylight.
"Lana, we need to talk," Emmeline said as she happened to run into her at the Talon.
"Um, okay, but I haven't got long. Lex and I are going out for dinner."
The two women sat down at one of the tables.
"Is this more about how I'm supposed to just trust Clark to tell me whatever it is he's keeping from me?"
"Sort of. When Chloe and I got back to her apartment, Chloe opened her computer and it was asking for a username and password to open a specific folder."
Lana awkwardly looked down at the table.
"And Esposito was definitely a creep, but he wasn't the one sneaking around the Kent farm with a camera. You didn't go to Clark's house because you felt safe there, did you? You went because you wanted to search his bedroom."
"It…it was both."
"Prying into Chloe's personal files, trespassing onto private property, snooping in a young man's bedroom? Lana, all of that is a serious breach of privacy. It's exactly what Esposito was doing to you."
"I just…needed to know."
"You're crossing a lot of lines lately in your pursuit. Why? Why do you need to know so badly?"
"Because…depending on what this huge secret is…I might not marry Lex."
Emmeline took a deep breath as she leaned back in her seat. "Oh."
Awkward silence stretched between them from several moments. Neither of them knew what to say.
Finally, Emmeline sat forward. "I understand, but that doesn't condone anything that you've done. And…if your feelings for Lex are that fragile, then maybe you shouldn't be planning a wedding right now."
