Chapter 16 – Leaving

Clark stood outside the door with his eyes closed. He was barely able to stand for the nervousness that was taking over his body. When the door opened, he just stood and stared. "Clark? What do you need?" She wasn't very happy to see him; come to think of it, she hadn't been very happy for a few days now.

"I came to drop this off," Clark stated as he held up the envelope from Lex. Lana grabbed it, inspected the contents, and walked back into the dorm room, leaving the door ajar.

"Guess my school loans will be taken care off," Lana blandly spoke as she threw the envelope on the desk. Clark pushed the door open and noticed that no one was there except for her, so she must be talking to him. "You coming in?"

"Yeah, I really didn't know if I was invited after the last couple run-ins that we've had. Lana, I…" he started.

"No, I'm really not prepared for another one of your very lame and long winded explanations. Frankly, I'm very tired of everyone trying to appease little Lana. Just be straight with me." Lana stood in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips as she waited for Clark to say something.

Clark sat on the bed, thinking. "Ok, I admit to almost sleeping with Simone. I was under hypnosis and wasn't thinking for myself. Look, she had me almost kill Lex, and regardless of how I felt about him, I wouldn't have willingly killed him. You know that." He took a breath. "I don't know what was going on with Luthor, if anything, but I still love you. You can take it or leave, I don't care. I want you to be happy."

He could see Lana lift her chin and nod in acquisition of his answer. She turned away from him but he could hear her quietly sob to herself. He knew that as long as he didn't tell her the truth, nothing would ever change. Turning back to him, she sat next to him on the bed and looked at her hands. "Can you ever tell me the truth? I know there's something about you Clark." She looked as Clark shook his head no.

"Lana, I…"

"Don't worry about it Clark. You're not the only one who's not talking to me. I can't get Chloe to talk to me either. I'm a basketcase." Clark looked at her as she started pacing the dorm floor and then peered at the desk where she had strategically thrown down the envelope. It was plane ticket.

"What's going on? You can still talk to me regardless."

Lana stopped in the middle of the room and concentrated on the floor. "I've decided to leave."

"Leave?" Clark got up and walked over to her, taking her by the shoulders. Did he hear her right?

"Yeah, I'm going back to Paris. I'm leaving on Friday."

"What about school – your friends?"

"Clark, quit kidding youself. My friends? Chloe's Lex's new woman and you're his best friend. I haven't seen or heard from anyone in days and when I did see all of you, I was defintely not welcome." Lana pulled tissues out of box and turned her head. Clark was devastated. He took her by the shoulders from behind she pulled away from him. "No, Clark, not this time. I just want to do this on my own. I realized that was what was in the way. I have followed other people too long with their destinies and never made my own. I followed Whitney, you, Chloe, Jason, and then Lex. It's time for me to be my own person." Lana suddenly straightened up as if a weight had lifted from her. She grabbed the doorknob and opened the door. "I'll talk to you before I leave, but I have a lot to do."

Clark stood in the center of the room dumbfounded; she had finally let go of her demons, him included. He hugged her, the first truly friendly hug with her in years, and walked out the door, letting his hand slip from hers. He expected the usual longing gaze as he walked away, but the door shut quickly as he could hear her pick up the phone and make college withdrawal plans.

Chapter 17 – Pow-wow

"How's this one?" He yelled as he tossed another book over the library railing to a very agile Chloe. Missing the book, she ducked just as Clark walked in and caught it. Her eyes opened wider as she smiled and Clark nodded not to give away his secret. Lex leaned over the railing and grimaced, thinking he had hit her. "Sorry. Hi Clark. What's your unexpected visit for?"

"You know Lex I thought with the new you, we might get past that whole making me feel bad for coming and visiting." Clark smirked as he met Lex at the bottom of the stairs in a handshake.

"Funny, so what's up?" Lex asked as he picked up a stack of books from the floor and put them on the coffeetable. Chloe had already grabbed several and sat down on the couch. "Excuse the mess ; we're sifting through the reading material to leave here, the ones that Chloe would like to keep, and the ones to toss. You have to kind of walk around the boxes."

Clark threw a glance at Chloe as she shrugged. Neither really wanted to see Lex move but it was his choice. In the past week he had regained everything from his bout with Jason and Lana. He and Clark had talked about how he had originally broken up Lana and Jason for Clark's benefit, but admitted he remembered that he had ulterior motives. Clark cursed under his breath knowing that he was right all along but couldn't possibly be angry with Lex now.

"Well, did you guys know that Lana is moving? Leaving?" Chloe dropped the box she was holding as Lex looked up from flipping through a book.

"What?!" Chloe sat down on the couch, unable to close her mouth.

"I just got back from Metropolis and she's leaving for Paris on Friday."

"Are you sure," Lex asked while Chloe still sat in awe.

"She told me she had to find herself without us." Clark sat down in the chair and started flipping through one of the books that Lex had purchased about the anceint writings on the cave walls. "You going to keep this?"

"Nah, take it. That mess isn't interesting to me – it's not going to get me anywhere in life except following around old Native Americans in burial grounds. Or in caves, which I'm not real interested in either anymore." Clark looked at Chloe, who was smiling at the thought that Lex was finally not a person to worry about being in Clark's business. "What? I remember why I was interested in them but there's nothing there. Now, back to our present issue – if this is what she wants and you're not going to be straight with her about whatever you're hiding from her, let her go. Besides, I have this feeling that Lana isn't your destiny."

Clark and Chloe looked at each other and then at Lex. "How can you say that? He's been pining over her for years – longer than you have been here."

Lex wrapped his arm around her shoulders and smiled, "I just know – it's hard to explain." He pecked her forehead and went back up the stairs. "Now, I'd like to get this part of the library done today so if you both are going to sit there, I'll pay one of the maids overtime to catch." Clark and Chloe looked at each other and then repositioned themselves under the balcony. "Clark, it's heavy – incoming," Lex announced as a book came flying over the bansiter.