A/N:Sorry about the delay on this. I wanted to havea chapter up a week, roughly, but I had a family emergency that called me out of town for a while. Everything's fine now; my family is all well - but the house is in pretty bad shape. I suppose fires will do that. Anyway, I'm scrambling to get back on track now!

To that end, I wanted to post the next chapter. A little shorter than I'd intended, but I'm already working on the next:D

Restored

Unsurprisingly, it took Clark some time to explain the sudden change in circumstances – or at least the suspicions he had about the change in circumstances – to Chloe. It was both fortunate and somewhat miraculous that she didn't panic when he told her that the two of them were likely in an alternate dimension and might never find their way home. In fact, she took the entire conversation in stride, only commenting with a shaky smile, "Okay, so…I'm not going to pretend like I really know what's going on, but I guess I'll just consider this an adventure of sorts. I mean, it beats studying for exams." When her joke fell flat, she cleared her throat and said a little more forcefully, "So…I just want to make sure I have this straight. My Lois died, and you – and not your dad – somehow brought another world's Lois to our world to make up for it, only then you had to send her back, and now we're in a totally different world to find a completely different Lois so that you and I can go home?"

"Er…that pretty much sums it up, yes," Clark agreed weakly.

"Just checking," she said in a voice that indicated exactly how insane this all was. Clark couldn't entirely argue the point. With a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and asked, "Okay, so where do we begin?"

Clark was almost pathetically grateful that she hadn't flown into hysterics, though he supposed her ability to process and accept everything that had happened probably had a lot to do with the fact that she'd recently met her cousin from another reality. Getting to know a Lois who hadn't died on a mountaintop had no doubt helped Chloe come to grips with the fact it was possible that she and Clark had been transported to an alternate dimension themselves.

Of course, not even this awareness helped Clark figure out what to do next. He hadn't exactly planned any of this, and he certainly hadn't planned on Chloe grabbing his arm at the last minute and thus coming along for the ride. "Well…," he began hesitantly, "I guess…we're definitely going to have to find Lois, since that's why I was sent here, but for all we know, she could be living in another state. So…I think maybe…maybe we should find out what happened to my parents." In all honesty, that probably wasn't going to help them find Lois, but Clark really needed to know why the farm was abandoned, the house boarded up and left in such a condition.

After pondering the matter a little more, he added, "We should also see if we can find out what happened to me, definitely…that is, the me from this world. And I think it would probably be a good idea to find out what the you from this world is up to, as well." In his own world, Clark hadn't really come to appreciate how hard it must have been for Lois to keep the various Clarks, Chloes, Loises, and so on straight in her conversation until this moment, but now he realized how easily a simple five minute conversation could be a headache in the making.

Chloe's eyebrows arched as she asked skeptically, "You think that's going to help us find our way home? Because I'm not sure it will, and…I don't know. I'm just not sure I want to find out what the other me is doing. What if she has a totally lame – or at least an incredibly boring – life? I really don't know that I want to find out that, had things been different, I might have spent my life killing eighty hours a week in a cubicle as a…a fact checker or a research librarian or something."

"Yeah, I know," he agreed. Truth be told, he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to know too much about his other self, either. "But, still…I think we need to know about our other selves if for no other reason than to avoid them. I mean, I'm not sure about you, but I think I'd be pretty freaked out if I ran into myself on the street one day. Or, at least, I would have been a couple of weeks ago. And I really don't want to deal with all the problems that would cause right now, do you?" He chose not to explain that he used to have powers, and if the Clark Kent in this world hadn't decided to give them up as he had, freaking out the most powerful man alive might have dire consequences. When she still didn't look entirely convinced, he added, "Plus, I don't know if this is how things really work, but I've seen Timecop a couple of times, and there was this thing about paradoxes…"

Chloe chuckled and shook her head. "Okay, okay! Never let it be said that Jean-Claude Van Damme movies don't have educational value. I guess you're probably right and we shouldn't take any chances." With a sigh, she looked around the room. "Well, I don't think we're going to find the answers we're looking for here, so I suppose we should head into town. Any thoughts on how we're going to get there?"

She had a point. Unlike Lois, neither of them had been in a car when they'd been transported over to this world, so they didn't bring one with them. Clark figured there was a possibility that either his dad's old truck or his old motorcycle were still around the farm somewhere. However, given the dilapidation of the farmhouse, it had been quite some time since anyone had been in residence, so it was unlikely that either vehicle would be fully functioning.

"Not really," he said with a scowl. "I'd suggest hitchhiking, but there aren't too many people who come out this way very often. I guess we'll just have to walk, which, with my leg, could take us all day."

With a sigh, he rose to the position he'd taken on the cloth-covered couch while he'd explained the situation to his companion. "I guess we'd better…get…started." Though the beginning of his sentence had been said with grudging acceptance, his voice trailed off at the end. Now, that was strange. His leg hadn't hurt as he'd risen to his feet – and since ignoring the twinge of pain that usually accompanied such a motion had become second nature to him, it was distinctly odd that he hadn't had to do so now. As a matter of fact, he'd probably only noticed the lack of pain because he'd been thinking about his leg at the time.

Moving very slowly, Clark sat down and then rose to his feet again. Still, there was no pain, not even the tiniest twinge of awareness. "Uh…Chloe…," he began awkwardly as he froze in place as if afraid that the slightest movement might undo whatever spell had fallen over him. "Did you notice, by any chance, whether or not I was limping a minute ago?"

A tiny frown line appeared between his companion's eyebrows as she replied, "Uh…no. I mean, I didn't notice, but I wasn't really paying attention. Why?"

"No…no…no reason!" he finally managed to answer lightly in a voice that sounded like he was seriously deprived of oxygen. "Just give me a minute, okay?"

Moving slightly slower than icebergs tended to travel over great land masses, Clark lowered himself down onto the couch again and bent to pull up the pant leg to his jeans. He caught his breath as he pulled the fabric up each arduous inch, and though he tried not read too much into the fact that he'd managed to stand without pain, he couldn't help but be slightly hopeful about what he would find (or, rather, not find) when he uncovered his knee.

At long last, he pulled the leg of the jeans up high enough to examine his knee, and it was just as he'd thought – and, truth be told, feared. There was no longer any scar curving down from his thigh; the memento he'd carried in the years since his last failed attempt to play superhero had disappeared. "Oh, god…" he whispered in a choked voice.

An astonishing mixture of emotions flooded him, and he had to close his eyes and breathe deeply through his nose in order to quell the sudden spate of nausea that hit. He didn't know how to feel at this revelation – certainly he was relieved and overjoyed that the infirmity he'd resigned himself to carrying throughout the rest of his days had disappeared. On the other hand, he was terrified and uncertain if he was really up to the challenge that lay ahead.

Lois had called him Superman, but he hadn't truly believed that wearing that mantle would ever be possible, not for him. Now, however, it seemed he was one step closers to being the man she'd envisioned and one step farther from being the man he'd told himself for years that he had always wanted to be.

If his leg injury was gone, were his powers back? Could he bend steel with his bare hands or walk through a fire unscathed? Could he jump to the top of the tallest building in Metropolis? Could he set the room on fire with one unguarded glance? It had taken him years to adapt to the powers he had once had, to get them under control. It had taken very little time at all to put most of them out of his mind, to remember that he no longer had to check himself every time he gave his parents a hug or shook someone's hand. How easy it had been to lose himself in the fact that he could share a romantic moment with his girlfriend without having to worry that he might set the room on fire if he wasn't careful. In fact, with the exception of his invulnerability, he hadn't really missed having his powers at all.

The very idea that they might be back now completely floored him, and he sat in silence for a long while, processing the thought. In the end, he realized that he had to know for sure. Had his leg miraculously healed in the journey across realities, or was he once again twice the man he'd learned how to be?

"Chloe, I need your help," he said through clenched teeth as he sat motionless on the couch. He was no longer certain why he was trying to stay so still – was he afraid that one wrong moment might bring the full force of his powers back to him or take any chance of ever getting them back away for good? "I…I need you to find me something. It doesn't matter what it is, really, but…uh…something metal would be good. Something hard. The harder it is to break, the better. Check the…check around the fireplace and see if you see a poker or something around there. If not, I need you to look around a little until you find something, okay?"

"Clark, what's wrong?" she asked in concern as she stepped toward him. "Are you feeling okay? Does your leg hurt? I'm not sure that there's any aspirin lying around anywhere, but I might be able to find you…"

"No," he interjected, cutting her off. "I'm…my leg's okay. And I'll explain everything to you in a minute, okay? I just need you to do this favor for me first." When she looked at him in confusion but didn't seem inclined to do as he'd asked, he added, "Please."

"O-okay," she agreed with a halfhearted shrug as she began her quest. When she didn't find anything in the living room, she walked into the rear of the house to continue her search. The entire time, Clark sat motionless on the sofa, swallowing heavily as numerous possibilities careened inside his skull.

Finally, Chloe returned with a dingy old mop she'd managed to unearth from somewhere, and she offered it to him with an apologetic smile. "Sorry, it's the best I could do. It's pretty sturdy, though; I tried to break it in half, but I couldn't do it."

With trembling hands, Clark reached out and grabbed the wooden handle. "Thanks," he breathed. "This'll do fine." Closing his eyes, he sucked in a deep breath and grabbed the wooden pole in both hands and then, as easily as snapping a toothpick, he broke the mop handle in two. That he could do it so easily was almost a surprise.

"Okay," he said firmly as he stared at the broken grain of the wood. "Okay," he repeated again, trying to inject a slightly more confident air into the word. "Okay," he said for a third time. "Well, this is unexpected."

"Uh…yeah," Chloe said. "If I knew you were just going to break it in two, I'd have grabbed you the broom and saved you the trouble. It already had a broken handle."

He shook his head. "No, I wasn't…Chloe, there's something I need to tell you, and when I tell you this, I really need you to not freak out. Okay?"

Chloe's eyebrows shot upward. "You mean you have something to tell me that's going to be harder to swallow than the fact that we just travelled to another dimension to find the woman you were destined to love, who just happens to be another version of the cousin I lost when she was sixteen?" she asked skeptically.

"As hard as it is to believe, yeah," Clark said with a nod. "Okay, look…you remember how Lois told you that the two of us had to see my father and you couldn't come along? No…wait. That's not how I want to…Okay, you know how…uh…you know how Lois said that she knew a man in her world who was…um…well…that he could fly?"

Nodding, she said slowly, in a voice that indicated clearly that she was not seeing where he was going with this. "Yeah."

"Okay, well…" He really had to stop saying okay. He was beginning to sound like he had a bi-syllabic nervous disorder. "She was talking about me."

He couldn't entirely hold the snort that Chloe emitted against her; his statement did sound a bit absurd, particularly coming from him. "Yeah, right," she said, rolling her eyes. "You know, I appreciate that you're trying to alleviate some of the tension in the situation, but I really don't think that now is the time to be cracking jokes."

"Chloe…it's true," he said and then had to pause so he could swallow heavily. "I'm going to tell you something that you can't tell anyone. Ever. I-It's important. I know we don't know each other very well, but Lois swore that I could trust you and I'm going to have to take her at her word because we don't really have another choice. I'm…different." He couldn't quite get up the nerve to confess he was an alien, but considering the fact that he had his work cut out for him without adding that little bombshell to the mix, he didn't think it mattered.

"There are things…things that I can do…well, I could do…I can do them again, I guess…" He shook his head as if trying to get everything to fall into place. "When I was younger, I used to have these abilities that were…well, they were remarkable, really. I was really strong and faster than you can believe. There was almost nothing that could hurt me physically. But then…I lost my powers. It's a long story how, and none of that really matters right now, because the point is that…I have them back. At least, I think I have them back. I'm pretty sure."

He watched as Chloe chewed on this inside of her lower lip as she watched him silently, and he wondered what was going through her mind. Actually, he didn't have to wonder all that much; from the look on her face, he could tell that she clearly believed that he'd somehow shaken a screw loose in the trip across dimensions and so it was going to be up to her to get the both of them home where they belonged.

Before she could suggest a couple very nice doctors he could talk to, if they even existed in this world, Clark rose awkwardly to his feet – though he knew he no longer had to make allowances for his injury, it was going to take some time to train his body to remember that fact. "Look, I can show you," he said as he headed purposefully toward the front door.

He knew it was absolutely vital that he convince Chloe of the truth of his words as quickly as possible – even as the two of them searched for Lois, he was going to have to teach himself how to control his powers all over again. It wasn't going to be easy, and there was no way he was going to be able to do it alone.

Clark didn't even bother to check to see if Chloe was trailing after him as he hit the front porch; he cast a glance around the yard. There had to be something. The problem was, he wasn't sure which of his powers to test first. For a second, he considered trying to jump over the barn, but he was still nervous about putting too much pressure on his newly healed leg. He thought about testing his speed, but that would be a strain on his leg, as well. Furthermore, with as out of practice as he was, he might not be able to stop until he'd hit Metropolis.

He was loathe to try his heat vision, because he wasn't looking forward to accidentally burning down the house he'd grown up in. If he used his x-ray vision, there was every chance he'd creep Chloe out. While proving he was invulnerable would probably be an easy task, he had been vulnerable for far too long to be overly eager to attempt to injure himself just yet. So that left strength, but he didn't see anything in the immediate area that would be suitable for a practical demonstration. Where was his father's old tractor when he needed it? Maybe it was in the barn, he concluded.

Poking his head through the open doorway, he peered back into the shadowy recesses of the barn and saw the object he was looking for. As he walked towards it, he saw that it was as broken down as everything else on the farm – at least two of its tires had gone flat, causing it to tilt at an askew angle, and almost its entire body was covered in rust. Trailing his hand over the hood to the engine, Clark wondered once again what had happened in this place. What had happened to his parents, that they would leave the life they loved so much behind?

Putting the thought out of his mind for a moment, he turned to Chloe, who was still looking at him like she thought he might be a few tacos short of a combination platter. "Okay, you ready?" he asked as he walked around to the side of the tractor and hooked both hands under his base. Bracing himself, he tried to remember to distribute his weight evenly as he lifted and to not lift too high too fast – he didn't want to send the tractor flying, after all. It was a little hard to remember to do all of these things, however, as a little voice in the back of his mind was occupied with hoping that he wouldn't throw his damn back out to heap further humiliation upon himself when this failed.

Looking at the skeptical expression on Chloe's face, Clark tried to ignore the doubt that told him to give up now while he was ahead. His leg was miraculously healed; he shouldn't tempt fate. But that was exactly what he was doing in this world, after all. Tempting fate. So, before he could waste another second doubting himself, he lifted.

The tractor came easily off the ground, and Clark couldn't quite suppress an exultant cry as he held it high. It had been so long – and he'd been so desperate to put his "otherness" behind him – he'd forgotten the heady feeling that came from the wonder of everything he had once been able to do so easily. For a few seconds, he reveled in his newly returned power, the awareness of a thousand different possibilities that stretched before him – the knowledge that he was maybe one step closer to being the man he'd seen in Lois's eyes.

One look at Chloe's face, however, reminded him of every reason he'd given his remarkable abilities away. She looked stunned and scared, and she took an unsteady step away from him as he slowly lowered the tractor to the ground. "Oh, my god," she breathed unevenly, and he saw her scamper back a few more feet as he scooted around the side of the tractor to approach her. He stopped in his tracks when she lifted her hands defensively and demanded, "Who…what are you?"