A/N: This chapter begins partway through 1x12, Leech. Clark has accidentally transferred his powers to his classmate, Eric Summers. When Eric tried to use these powers to hurt someone, Clark tried to stop him, and wound up in the hospital.

Chapter 7 - Invulnerability

Lex watched the animation of Clark getting hit by his car for what must have been the hundredth time.

He wanted to believe it wasn't true. He really did. But the way his car had been peeled open from the top, the evidence from Roger Nixon, and the fact that he'd seen it with his own eyes—seen Clark collapse over the front of the car as it collided with his body at 60 miles per hour—made it impossible.

The fact that Clark had become so angry and defensive when Lex had asked about it was yet another confirmation in Lex's mind. If Clark was telling the truth, he would have been confused by Lex's insinuations, not angry. He might have even teased him. He wouldn't have started yelling and trying to get Lex to hit him with a hammer to test whether or not it would hurt.

Lex didn't know what to believe. Clark had to be lying, but aside from that, Lex didn't have an explanation. He had encountered enough impossible things and strange people over the past few months that it wasn't far beyond the bounds of his imagination that Clark might have some kind of mutation—strength, or invulnerability, or super-adrenaline. Maybe even immortality.

And if Clark was special, what was so bad about that? Why would Clark hide it? Clark and Lex had started referring to each other as best friends, but Clark still wasn't honest with Lex.

Did Clark think Lex would look at him differently for having abilities? Clark had to know that Lex, of all people, would be the last to judge him for something like that. Clark had never judged him for his baldness, or for his family's reputation.

Did Clark think Lex would tell people his secrets, or try to take advantage of him? He would never. Lex would have done anything he could to protect Clark and support him. He would never, could never, betray Clark.

The irony of his thoughts hit him like a speeding car to the gut. He was literally watching footage he'd blackmailed out of an investigative reporter, who he'd sent to spy on Clark's family. Meanwhile, he was thinking about how his loyalty to Clark and how Clark should have trusted him. Lex was a traitor and a hypocrite: no one should have trusted him.

But clearly, he couldn't trust Clark either. From everything he had seen, it was impossible for Clark to get hurt.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. A text from Martha Kent.

Three words: Clark is hurt.

Worrying about Clark's physical safety was new for Martha. She'd run into the hospital to see his ribs bandaged up from his encounter with Eric, then she'd had to physically help him get dressed so he could leave the hospital. All she wanted was to wrap her arms around him tightly and soothe away his pain, but a quick hug from her had caused him to wince at the pressure on his ribs.

They were just leaving the examination room when Lex appeared around the corner in the hallway. "Clark, I just heard," he said.

Martha greeted Lex, then offered to wait for Clark with Jonathan. Based on what she'd seen of how much Lex cared about Clark, she knew he'd want to see for himself that Clark was alright. She didn't need to hover.

Even from down the hall, where she stood with Jonathan and waited for Clark to catch up, she could hear most of their conversation. Lex apologized for something he'd said, and Clark made such snide comments in return that Martha had to suppress the urge to stalk over and scold him. They seemed to make peace, but in the end, when Lex offered to help, Clark simply limped away from him.

She would question Clark about the way he was treating his friend later, when Clark was feeling a little better. For now, she wanted to make sure Lex was okay, since no one else would.

Maybe she shouldn't interfere—whatever was happening was between Lex and Clark. She glanced back at Lex and caught a glimpse of the look on his face, and her maternal instincts kicked in.

"I'll catch up in a minute," Martha said to Clark and Jonathan, and they headed out to the car.

Lex was still staring after Clark by the time she reached him.

"Hi, Lex."

He broke his gaze away from Clark and turned to her. "Is everything alright, Mrs. Kent?"

"I'm sorry, I just . . . I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation. Clark's under some pressure right now."

"He's upset with me. He has every right to be, I haven't been trusting him."

"What do you mean?"

Lex turned his face away from her. "You'll hear about it from him, anyway."

"I want to hear it from you. What's wrong?"

He swallowed and looked her in the eyes. "I haven't been trusting him. I thought . . . well, it doesn't matter what I thought. I accused him of lying to me, and I was wrong."

She blinked in surprise. It was rare to see someone so openly admit to their own wrongs, and it certainly wasn't a trait he'd learned from his father. "What happened, Lex?"

His face turned pink. "You remember how Clark and I met, when my car went over the bridge?"

She nodded. She was afraid she might know where this was going.

"Well, it sounds crazy when I say it out loud, especially now that I know I was wrong about it, but . . ." He shook his head. "I could have sworn I hit Clark with my car. I thought I saw him getting hit. And all evidence from the trajectory of the crash confirms it, according to the investigators."

"Investigators?"

He lowered his head. "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Kent. I had no right to sneak around behind his back, or to be deceptive to your family."

"Lex—"

"It's just, Clark has saved my life three times. Every time, it seems like it should have been impossible. I should have died that day on the bridge, and I should have died twice since then. I just want to know why I lived. And I want to know why strange things keep happening in this town. I'm so sorry, Mrs. Kent, I never . . ."

Martha let her breath out. No wonder Clark had been short-tempered with Lex. Clark acted that way whenever anyone was getting close to discovering his secret, and he'd lost a few friends over the years because of it. In those situations, Jonathan tended to tell him he'd done the right thing, that keeping his secret was more important than their friendship.

She agreed that keeping Clark's abilities secret was important, but she couldn't help but feel that Clark could handle himself differently to avoid hurting people. After all, keeping the secret was as much for their protection as it was for his own.

The friends Clark had pushed away over the years had been kids with stable families and other friends to fall back on. Lex didn't have that—losing Clark could be devastating to him. Of course, her first responsibility was to her own family, but she didn't want Lex to suffer either. He didn't deserve to lose Clark's friendship—his only friendship—just because he happened to be curious and better at seeing through Clark's lies than Pete or Chloe.

Hiring investigators to look into the strange events in Smallville was taking his curiosity to a bit of an extreme, but it was clear to Martha that he had never meant to hurt Clark with it. He'd been a good friend to Clark, and if Lex assumed that Clark was being honest about having no secrets to keep, the truth might have had nothing at all to do with Clark—Lex might have discovered a completely different explanation for what happened on the bridge.

He'd just wanted the truth.

In her opinion, he deserved it, and he could probably handle it. Lex could take care of himself in a tough situation, had the resources to protect himself and others, and cared about Clark enough not to betray him. He would have been a perfect confidante if Clark had wanted to share his secret, though she knew better than to suggest it—she didn't want to think about what Jonathan would say if she did.

He shifted his weight, eyes darting around the room. He was clearly wracked with guilt and floundering in her presence. In her mind, though, the guilt he was feeling was far out of proportion to the harm he'd done.

"Lex, I want you to listen to me."

His eyes traveled upwards, though his head still hung.

"Anyone would have been suspicious. Anyone would have wanted to know more about that. You're right—you've gotten incredibly lucky a few times over the past few months, and you have every right to try to figure out why. In the future, I want you to be more honest with us, but I understand how hard that must have been, when you didn't think we were being honest with you."

He squeezed his eyes shut.

She waited until they opened, then said, "Look at me, Lex."

He did, though he winced.

"I'm not angry with you. I'm not."

Ever so subtly, she could see him trembling. She was getting through to him, but she needed to make her point before he lost any more dignity than he already had.

"I don't know whether Clark is upset. But even if he is, he won't stay upset for long." She'd talk to him. Regardless of the circumstances, it wasn't good for a fourteen-year-old to be holding grudges.

"It will never—" his voice broke— "happen again, Mrs. Kent."

She sighed. Clark's abilities weren't hers to tell about, and even if it was, he didn't have them anymore. She didn't think Clark would be getting his powers back any time soon. "Clark is an ordinary kid. You saw that today."

"I know. I'm calling off the investigations."

She nodded, but she was still concerned about him. "Can you be honest with me about something?"

He half-smiled. "I think owe you that much."

"Were those investigations really about Clark?"

He shoved his hands in his pockets and paced a couple of steps. "I hoped they'd turn out to be. If there was something different about him, that would mean that somehow, I'd gotten lucky enough to have a superhero for a friend. Of course, if there wasn't . . ."

"Then you'd be the one who was different." She smiled gently. "Well, maybe you are. You've saved his life a couple of times, too, you know."

"Maybe. But those situations have always been easier to explain."

She nodded in understanding. "You weren't trying to invade Clark's privacy. You were trying to understand yourself. The investigations weren't about our family, they were about you."

His jaw pulsed. "It sounds pathetic."

"No, Lex. You wanted to find the truth. Yes, you did it the wrong way, but you learned from that. I imagine Clark let you know his feelings when he first found out."

He nodded, shame etched into his face.

"I'm sure you've more than paid for your mistake in guilt. You apologized, we forgave you, and now we move on and try to be more open with each other in the future."

"You make it sound simple."

"It isn't always. But this was rooted in misunderstanding, which we've cleared up. No one got hurt, and it's over." She squeezed his shoulder. "We miss you, Lex. You should come over for dinner sometime."

He looked down at her hand on his arm, then back at her. "I'll check my calendar."