Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lois tapped her foot impatiently. She was at the Smallville Library waiting for Jeff, who was unwilling to talk after sending his stupid text last night. The dance had ended at midnight, so they all had arrived home almost by one o'clock. Then Lois had to wait for Chloe to get out of the bathroom, Jeff sent his stupid text so here she was in the library at eight o'clock chugging down her second latte. Lois made sure to get three to-go orders from the Beanery. The first one had barely lasted the drive, and now she was almost done with the second one and Jeff was late.

"You're late!" Lois shouted as she saw Jeff walk through the front doors.

"Shh! It's a library."

Lois rolled her eyes. "We're the only two morons here besides the librarian. Everyone else is sleeping."

"Yeah, well, I figured we'd want the privacy. Is that for me?" Jeff asked pointing at the other latte. With a huff she pushed it towards him as a bribe to start talking. "So, when we got back to the mansion, Julian and I went into the kitchen and got some cookies. Julian went to sleep before I did and started reading these out of boredom. They were at the table."

Jeff pulled out a few pieces of paper and Lois began to read. "Steak with mashed potatoes and turnip greens. Fried chicken and mac and cheese. What is this?"

"It's Benji's menus he's planned. Look," Jeff turned the pages back. "Salmon eggs benedict with seasoned potatoes."

"You are very mean. All I had for breakfast was a pop tart. Just explain this before you're wearing that latte."

"This is what he served for breakfast the day after Julian woke up. He couldn't have been in that coma."

"You lost me."

"Julian was in a coma for a year. For a full year his body had not eaten solid foods. As a precaution he should have been given a liquid diet for the first few days. At least twenty-four hours. This proves Julian or Clark or whoever it is we've been talking to wasn't in that coma."

Lois opened her mouth to speak but had no words. It was such a small thing. But what Jeff had said made sense. A watchdog of a brother like Lex would have taken every precaution once his little brother woke up. "So…that means…"

"A squared plus b squared is equal to C squared." Jeff said in a louder voice.

"Huh?"

"You have to take side A and square it. Then square side B…" Jeff's voice trailed off as Lois noticed he was watching the librarian who had just passed them with the book cart. "We're in the library because it's a plausible place for you to be."

"I never come in here."
"You're flunking Algebra. I'm smart. Finals are in two weeks. You're studying."

"Fine, but what's with the cloak and dagger?"

"Think about it. Who would have a motive for turning Clark Kent into Julian Luthor?"

"You lost me again."

"Work with me!" Jeff raised his voice. "Okay, you mentioned last night that even as Clark Kent, he was adopted, right? So, there exists two possible timelines. One: where he is adopted by the Kents and meets Lex freshman year, works at the Torch, and has that study group at the Talon. Two: he is adopted by the Luthor's and everything is as we know it."

"Timelines? You're suggesting someone time traveled into the past just so the Luthor's adopt him instead of the Kents?"

"Yeah. And who benefits?"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait. Time travel? Really? It's so…so…"

"Impossible? Weird? Lois, what did you think you'd find?"

Lois stared intently at her Styrofoam cup. What had she been expecting? For all the episodes of X Styles she watched, the amazing had never been found. Each episode either ended with the supernatural having a natural cause, or they always left with the mystery of the week still unsolved. Just a ray of hope remained that the unexplained would be found one day. After all this investigating, and all her hoping for there to be Julian clones, deep down she figured the cause would be ordinary. Definitely not something supposedly fictional like time travel.

"I don't know. I was really banking on the clone theory. But, fine. Theoretically speaking…why don't you just tell me? It's too early."

"Lex. He gained a brother he obviously cares about."

"So, Lex literally rewrote history to get a brother? But, if they were friends, was it necessary? And how?"

"As to the 'why', that's information we may never get. As to the 'how'," Jeff pulled out a comic book, "I'm thinking magic."

Lois looked at the Warrior Angel comic book he brought out. The title read "The Fortune Teller Strikes Again!". "I don't read comics so explain."

"It always seemed strange to me that Lex hired a magician for the Warrior Angel benefit he threw. The Fortune Teller was such an obscure villain. He could have gone with actors fighting as the Doom Legion, or singers as the Court of Crows, or a light show as Pyro. The point is, I think this is our lead." Jeff pulled out a poster for Lex's charity event. A magician wearing a green suit was prominently displayed.

"The Astounding Zatara?" Lois sighed. It wasn't much of a lead. But then, neither had been Lana Lang and that turned up something. This was most likely another dead end. But, if it was fruitful, this meant the door to time travel and actual, real magic was opened. Lois shook her head in disbelief. What was next? Aliens?

So that's it. The small detail Lex missed was breakfast. Clever? Stupid?