Chapter 5

No Rest for the Wicked. What About the Good Guys?

Light crept in through the gaps in the curtains, bathing Clark and Lana in warmth. Clark slowly opened his eyes seeing Lana asleep on his chest and smiled contentedly. Last night was the first time they had been intimately together in too long. The only words they had spoken to each other were words of love and every emotion Clark had been feeling recently had combined to form an overwhelming feeling of bliss from the second he had kissed Lana. Trying to be extremely quiet he gently lifted Lana's head off of his chest and placed it on the pillow as he got up out of bed and got dressed.

Lana found him about 10 minutes later sat on the couch with a cup of coffee, staring thoughtfully out of the window. Last night had been amazing for her; there was no other person she felt so safe with or so much love for.

"Nickel for your thoughts?" she asked gently and smiled as Clark turned to face her replying with a weak smile.

"Why did you do it Lana?" he asked sadly. "If you wanted to get free from Lex you could've come to me."

"It was the only way Clark." She said sombrely. "The only way I was ever going to be free was if Lex was dead or I was. He never would've let me just walk away. I know your strong Clark but you couldn't have protected me from Lex forever and you're certainly not a murderer." She walked over to where Clark was sat and sat down beside him taking his hand.

"I saw the look on his face when thought you were dead Lana. He was devastated and now he's under suspicion of murder. I know he's a bad person but he wouldn't kill you. Please come back to Smallville with me and we'll sort everything out." Clark pleaded.

He felt small fragments of his heart fall away as she shook her head. "You don't know Lex like I do. What he's capable of. I wouldn't be safe Clark. I can't come back." Tears started to form in her eyes and Clark felt the same happening to him too but held them back.

"So what are you going to do? Run away? Hide?" he said standing up, his sadness making him angry. "What about us Lana?" Now he was unable to stop the tears from coming. She stood up and put her arms around his shoulders openly crying.

"I love you Clark, more than anything in the world. But I have to go, I can't come back. Please, I just want you to understand this."

"Then I'm coming with you. I'm not letting you go Lana, I want to spend my life with you. No matter what that life is." Like Lois had told him earlier, life was too short to be spent alone, and he had just the right person to spend it with.

"I can't let you do that Clark. You have a life and a destiny that doesn't involve running away." At this moment Jor-El's words flashed in his mind. "You're meant for amazing things, you're meant to help the world. I'd be robbing the world of a hero if I let you come with me."

His heart knew exactly what it wanted but he still couldn't stop the tugging he felt in his subconscious. For most people destiny wasn't something to give much thought to but for Clark, he thought about it on a daily basis. He had always loved Lana and now he felt like he had to choose between love and his suposed destiny.Glancing away from Lana he saw the clock on the wall and realised it was already 9 o'clock. "Lana I have to go. My mum will be wondering where I got to last night and I have all the chores to do. But I'll come back this afternoon and we'll talk o.k.?" Lana nodded and moved in to kiss him. The kiss was soft and loving and Clark was reluctant to pull away. Eventually doing so, he kissed her forehead and left without another word. Lana looked longingly at the spot where Clark had been only moments ago.

"Goodbye Clark."

"No I am not joking!" Lois lane said down the phone. "I know it's hard to believe but just because I work for The Inquisitor…well yes, what's wrong with working for...hello?...hello?" Lois slammed the phone down very frustrated. She had not seen Clark enter and jumped as she saw him in front of her. "Geez Smallville, stalk much?" she said mockingly. Not particularly in the mood Clark ignored her comment and sat down opposite her. Lois quickly picked up on the fact that he wasn't in a joke around kind of mood.

"What was the phone call about?" he asked wondering what had caused her to almost break the phone.

"I was trying to report to the Smallville police department what happened at the dam and what Lex was up to but they just laughed me off. Either because I work for The Inquisitor, which is highly reputable by the way," Clark nodded a "yeah sure" and Lois continued. "Or because baldy pulled one hell of a Houdini and made everything disappear."

"My guess is a combination of both" Clark said. Changing topic Lois asked Clark where he had been last night.

"I stayed at a friend's house," he lied. Lois stared at him in disbelief.

"One, you don't have any friends," she said jokingly. "And two, your mum was worried about you."

"I know," Clark said guiltily. "But there's just things going on at the moment." Lois looked at him sympathetically and reached across the table taking his hand in hers.

"Clark I know things are tough right now, especially for you. You've had a lot to deal with." She didn't want to mention his dad or Lana by name so she just hoped he knew what she meant. "But bottling things up and staying out at night isn't going to help, trust me."

Clark looked around awkwardly not wanting to look directly at Lois. She was being genuine and nice and he found that extremely uncomfortable simply because it was so out of character. "I have chores to do so I best go," he said getting up but Lois kept a firm hold of his hand.

"Look Smallville, usually I'd just let you go off and do your whole brooding thing but not this time. You've got people that care about you and I'm gonna make you realise that." She got up and gave him a smile. "Come on, today we'll do your chores together and we'll get it done twice as fast!"

Letting out a groan Clark couldn't help but think that Lois's helping him with the chores wouldn't be twice as fast but twenty times as slow. He needed to get his chores done quickly because he also wanted to go to the hospital to see Chloe before he went back to metropolis to sort things out with Lana.

Any hopes he had of seeing Lana anytime soon were dashed when Lois's cell phone rang. "hello?" she said. "Mrs Kent slow down tell me what's up?...uh huh…what!?...ok we'll be there right away." She hung up.

"What is it?" Clark said.

"Its Chloe,"

"What's up? Is she awake?" he asked urgently.

Lois looked at him. "She's not just awake, she's gone crazy! She knocked a nurse unconscious and they've had to restrain her!"