Enjoy.

Lois turned to Lucy. Hmm. She whispered in her ear. Lucy nodded and a look of concentration crossed her face.

Suddenly Lex broke out in spasms. He screeched a terrible howl. But he wasn't the only one-Lex had attempted to implant the timer at that moment-and Clark was in some serious pain.

In an interesting turn of events, however, the timer didn't stay in his wrist because Lex hadn't clamped down hard enough-having gotten 'distracted' by the sharp, agonizing pains that were sparking throughout his body, and paralyzing his mind. Clark hissed with pain, and relief.

For a long moment that seemed to extend for eons, but really only lasted about two minutes, no one said anything.

"What's going on?" Bart finally broke the silence.

"Lucy can control minds. The way Lex stops her from controlling him is through drugging her-because she can't work through the haze. So now she's messing with his head." AC had spent a lot of time talking to her about her powers-and with some lovely little reasoning, he'd come to that conclusion. Which just so happened to be the correct one.

Suddenly Oliver realized that Chloe wasn't saying anything. He saw her passed out. "Lois, check on Chloe." Oliver still had his voice distorter on and his hood up, so Lois would have jumped had she not been chained to the wall.

"Who are you?"

"Lois, please." Lois hesitated, but then her concern for her cousin won out.

"She's fine. Except, you know, she fainted." Chloe had healed Lucy-which included the physical damage/drugged haziness his scientists had almost gleefully inflicted because of her uncooperative stance.

"What's happening to Lex?" He was on the floor, awkwardly floundering like a fish out of water.

"I've trapped him in a thought loop. Basically, all of his twisted and disturbed thoughts have been turned inward. Deciding to be evil encourages feelings of shame . . . and pain." Lucy finally spoke. She was tired and weary. And she was just really tired of being used, so she'd finally fought back.

"So if he ever decides to be better, he can. Well, theoretically. It's not likely to happen." Lucy wasn't an unkind person, she just refused to be a pushover any longer. "If he can heal, he can be free."

She didn't say, of course, that it was unlikely he'd managed to get to that point. This was Lex, after all.

"What should we do with him?"

Oliver noticed that Clark was still in pain, "Well, we should probably start by getting him away from Clark with that kryptonite." Lex was on the ground, a few feet away from Clark.

Everyone looked around at each other.

"This may be a bit of a problem." They were all locked up.

"You know," AC suggested, "If Lucy can get Lex to move away and stop spasming on the ground, then Clark can set the rest of us free after he frees himself."

Everyone just looked at him.

"What? I'm a lot smarter than I look."

They had all exited the building as a group, walking through the halls and up the stairs to the ground floor quietly. It was dark outside. Chloe and Lois had been kidnapped early in the morning, and Clark hadn't found out until late in the evening. Everyone was exhausted. From the mental, emotional and physical toll that this had all taken on them.

They stood right in front of the door to the street outside, until finally, they'd all realized that they would have to leave eventually. Hanging out in enemy territory was a rather bad idea.

Victor had shown up-just as they'd reached the exit-to see whether or not they were okay. Upon seeing that they were indeed fine for the most part, Victor gave them all dirty looks and suggested that if they were to ever go off-grid again, he would let them all die. Then he'd find a way to bring them back to life so that he could do it again. They weren't quite idle threats-that much they could all tell from his icy tone and the serious expression on his face.

Finally, they got moving.

AC was amusingly interested in Lucy, who claimed she couldn't control people with altered human abilities-something about resistance built into the DNA. He took her home with him, to 'take care of her.' There weren't many people like AC, so Lucy jumped at the chance to spend more time with him.

Lois was giving Clark the silent treatment-so the war between them raged on, without anyone acknowledging it. But they could feel the tension-it was nearly palpable.

Bart was just really hungry-so he sped off to eat after signaling to Oliver and giving Chloe a quick hug.

That broke the stalemate.

Suddenly, Lois just sighed. She looked at Clark as if she were about to say something, but she didn't. So she simply left. Clark hesitated, and followed her.

Eventually-without even really noticing it, Chloe and Oliver were left alone.

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

"I meant what I said-I want to be with you. Please give us a chance."

Chloe just stared at him.

"Please." He had been looking at her, and he'd felt the words leave his lips before he'd even really thought them.

She hesitated. "Okay. Saturday?"

Oliver smiled and nodded, then started to leave.

"Oliver?" Chloe called out softly.

He turned around and she slipped into his arms, pressing her lips softly to his.

She pulled apart from him moments later. "I'll see you Saturday."

"Leave me alone, Clark." Lois had briefly considered calling a cab-but then Clark had picked her up and deposited her in front of her door.

"Lois, I-"

"I don't want to hear it."

"I understand if you're upset that I'm The Blur."

Lois raised a brow. "No, I'm not. I'm upset that you don't trust me."

"Lois, our relationship has always been complicated, and we generally haven't . . . been close."

Lois understood that, she did. "But when we did begin to get close, you didn't say anything. And that could be because you were waiting for the right moment, but it could also be because you had no intention of ever telling me. So, which is it?"

Clark hesitated, "I don't know."

"At least you're being honest."

"I think I would have told you eventually, but it's hard to trust people with this sort of secret. The few people who know what I am . . . for the most part they found out for themselves, despite my attempts to keep them in the dark."

"So I'm not special. You just try to keep everyone in the dark."

"Lois, I-" She kissed him to shut him up.

"I'm upset with you. And I haven't forgiven you. And I don't want to talk to you right now."

Clark looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head. "I'm confused, what exactly does that-"

Lois had opened the door, walked in, and said, "Good. So am I." She'd then proceeded to slam the door in his face.

She'd cut off his last words-which were essentially that he didn't know what she wanted him to do. But really, it didn't matter. Because she simply didn't know yet.

"I kissed Oliver." Chloe had walked in looking completely dazed.

"I kissed Clark."

"If you were trying to beat me, you really didn't. Ollie's much better kisser."

Lois smiled, "Not true at all. Clark could teach Ollie a thing or two." Lois realized what that meant, "When did you kiss Clark?"

Chloe looked at the ceiling, "Um, uh. Hmm."

"I don't want to know, nevermind."

"It's better this way, Lo."

"So, you've gotten over your anxiety?"

Chloe sighed, "No. I just kind of jumped him randomly. It must have been the excess adrenaline." Chloe plopped herself down on the couch next to Lois.

Lois didn't believe that anymore than Chloe did, but she kept quiet about that thought.

"If you say so."

"I do. Anyway, so how did things go between you and Clark?" Last time she'd seen them Lois had been giving Clark the silent treatment.

"I don't know."

"I get that."

"You really do. Chloe, I'm sorry about what I said while we were locked up because of Lex. It wasn't your fault."

Chloe closed her eyes to gather herself. "It was, partially. And I'm sorry for that."

"When did life get so complicated?"

"I have no idea. But I wish it would stop."

"I told Clark I needed some time to clear my head. To figure out what I want."

"Then you should have it," Chloe stood up from her position next to Lois on the couch.

"I told Clark I wanted to be alone. But that doesn't include you. I don't really want to be alone tonight." Lois wasn't feeling quite safe considering that they'd been trapped in that awful place with Lex a mere hour prior.

"What do you want to do?" Chloe sat back down.

"Just, sit here. And talk." And not break out the ice cream-because that had not ended well at all.

"About what?" Chloe asked hesitantly.

"Anything other than timers, bad guys, heroes and boys."

"We need a new security system."

"We could talk about that."

"I want to do something special for Chloe."

He supposed that if he were attempting to win over Chloe, he should probably start with talking to her closest friends.

"Good luck with that."Clark said simply.

Oliver waited for a moment, to see if he'd open up. Apparently not. He supposed it would have been too much to ask for to have Clark tell him how to romance Chloe.

"How's Lois?"

"She's reeling. We're taking some time apart to see if she can trust me again." Because he'd kept the secret from her-but then again, so had Oliver. But Oliver hadn't known her very long, comparatively. And Oliver and Lois hadn't really had much of a future. And, well, Lois wasn't exactly the best person when it came to keeping secrets. "How's Chloe?"

"She's giving me a chance. She seems a little shaken by all that's happened in the last few weeks."

"Never a dull moment."

Chloe was confused. About just about everything. Except Oliver.

She had feelings for Oliver. Being trapped in that dungeon for most of the day with Lois-even though they'd been unconscious for most of it-had really provided her with some clarity.

Lois was more confused than ever. But Chloe felt like she knew what she was going to do: she was going to give Oliver a chance, to see whether or not they could be happy together.

Chloe didn't want to spend her life alone-but more important than that-she wanted to try and spend it with Oliver.

He was the One, after all.

After this there are two chapters left. One of which is all about forgiveness, and the other of which is all about fluff.