"What'd you say?" Lois asked.

"Mxyzptlk," Clark repeated.

"That's a mouthful. How in the heck are you supposed to pronounce that backward? I'm not even sure I can pronounce it forward."

"Beats me. Supposed to be a Russian name."

"I was stationed with the General a year in Moscow. That is not Russian."

"I get that now."

"I forgot how entertaining you two are together," Chloe said. "Well, at least now we have a name. Though I thought Mikhail lost his power of mind control, and it was never like this. This is controlling our thoughts and our situations. I can put his name in the search engine and see what he's been up to lately maybe. How do you spell that?"

Chloe was looking in her direction. "Uh, yeah, you realize who you're talking to, right? I've been assigned my own personal copy editor to handle my spelling."

"Let me guess. It's me?" Clark asked.

"Naturally. See? Your memory's coming back to you already."

Chloe worked fast. "Did you know he's the nephew of the prime minister, at least according to this."

"How can he be the nephew of anybody? He's from another dimension. It's definitely time to dig a little deeper," Lois said." While you're doing your thing on the computer, I'm going to call some contacts in Russia and see what I can find out."

He watched the woman that had always fascinated him as she made herself comfortable in a chair and proved she still knew some survival Russian and had a true gift for asking the right questions and saying the right things. She was definitely in her element as he had known she would be even back in high school. Words were her arsenal.

"I got us in to see the prime minister tomorrow at 3:00," she said upon hanging up. "He's bound to be connected in some way to our prankster. It's too much of a coincidence not to be with the similar powers and you recognizing his voice."

"I agree. I hate to have to wait even one more day to get this figured out, but I guess that's what we have to do. I'll call home and make some kind of excuse if Kate hasn't already informed them about our affair."

"Might make things easier if she did. We wouldn't have to pretend."

"It might. One thing is for sure I can't share a room with her knowing what I know. Not that anything happened between us."

"You don't have to explain, and it wouldn't be your fault if it did, but that's nice to hear, and speaking of pretend spouses, looks like Ollie tracked us down here," she said, gesturing towards the window.

"Were you hiding from him?" Chloe asked.

"Not exactly, but I wasn't looking for any more run-ins either. At least, he doesn't seem to have brought anybody holding a straitjacket."

They all moved from the office to the living room.

Lois opened the door for him as he came up the steps. "Did you rethink what I said and decide to join us?"

"No. Apparently you can't have a person committed, even your wife, against their will unless they're a danger to themselves or others. It's completely fine to believe a total fantasy."

"That's good news," Lois said dryly. "Is that all you came to tell me?"

"Don't you see you need help?" he asked pleadingly.

"I get that it's hard for you to swallow, but if you could stay out of the way until this gets sorted out, that'd be great."

He looked past her and saw Clark and Chloe. He noticed that they were regarding him warily. "She's pulled you all into her lunacy."

"Or maybe she's pulled us out of the lunacy," Chloe said softly. "Is it so hard to believe you're married to me?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "That's not it. I would happily be married to you."

"And probably wishing he was," Lois interjected.

His jaw clenched, but relaxed when he focused on Chloe. Finally, he threw his hands up in surrender. "Fine. I'll play along in this little game and then you'll all see the madness of it."

"We could use the help," Clark said amiably.

"I don't even want to talk to you," he said, giving him the cold shoulder. "I left my cell in the car. I'll contact the league and see who I can find that might be able to help even if it only proves I'm right."

"That would be so helpful," Chloe said with a smile. He gave her an answering smile that bordered on flirtatious.

When he came back in, Oliver looked almost smug. "Seems I'm not the only one upset by this turn of events. There is one angry lady outside, and she's holding a baby."

"Lana," Clark said with a groan. He'd really been hoping to avoid the dramatics, but it didn't seem that was going to be possible.