So I realized just now I never includes those things about not owning Smallville that everyone else includes... Not sure why they do, but hey - in case you were confused, I don't own any of this. But here's chapter 3! Please review! It really is what keeps me going!

It had been a week, and Chloe was beginning to lose hope. She had sent Bart, A.C., and Elaina out to the ends of the Earth to find Oliver, but there was no sign of him. Bart was speeding across Africa and Asia, covering as much land as possible; A.C. was, as expected, scouring coastlines; and Elaina was assigned the American continent and Europe. But for all of the new and improved satellite technology they were using, Watchtower was of little help.

And Chloe was running out of ideas. She had scanned the planet from every angle and had used every sensor in her arsenal to locate suspicious activity that might reveal the whereabouts of her green-leather clad hero. But the only facts she knew about Oliver's kidnappers were that they were not Kandorian. While it ruled out interplanetary abductors, there were still 8 billion homegrown possibilities.

The days were hard for Lois. She walked into the Daily Planet, and, without fail, expected to see Clark smiling at her, two cups of coffee in his hands.

I guess I know why the coffee was never cold when I got here, Lois thought wryly. She didn't find any comfort in the statement. It was hard to see his nameplate sitting on the desk across from her, but she had decided against informing the new editors of his disappearance. She couldn't explain that he had left to lead his people on a new planet, anymore than Clark could've gotten a tax write-off for community service. It would be easier, in the long run, to let him turn into a missing person whose whereabouts need never be discovered.

But for now, that meant staring at his empty seat, letting his desk – usually spic and span – gather dust and unopened mail.

Nighttime at the Kent Farm had never been lonelier. Clark and Martha had made the place home, but now, without either of them, it seemed like a ghost town. Chloe and Lois sat on the front porch staring into the stars.

"I guess it's supposed to make me feel better? That he's somewhere out there?" Lois asked, gesturing to the stars. "I mean, he's alive and he doesn't have to be two different people anymore. He doesn't have to save the world. He can just be Clark... It's just I wish he was coming back. Everything... it all reminds me of him. He used to walk up those stairs after he got home, and put his jacket there. He held my hand for the first time right over there and there is his barn. And his telescope. And...I guess this is how it's always going to be right?" Lois asked her cousin. "He's going to haunt me no matter where I go."

"You could move, Lois. You don't have to stay here anymore," Chloe answered quietly. "We should figure out what we're going to do with this place. I don't think either of us can deal with an extra farm in our spare time."

Lois smiled sadly. "I couldn't leave though. This was home. Clark was my home."

Tears shining in her eyes, Chloe nodded. "I know what you mean. I don't know what I'm going to do without him. Both of them. He and Ollie... "

"Oliver. I'm so sorry. We will find him. Oliver isn't gone. And I'll be damned if not one of us gets our happily ever after. He's out there, Chlo. We've got the best team in the world looking for him - and there ain't nothin' that'll stop us when we find him."

"Thanks Lois. But it's getting harder to keep up hope. It's already been ten days. If we were going to find him - wouldn't we have already? I mean, what if he's... what if he's..."

"Chloe. Stop it now. Don't even say that. You know Ollie. There's no way. He's a fighter."

Half a world away, a man in torn green leather groaned. He opened his eyes, and shook his head. A drug-induced haze was clouding his vision, and he could barely make out the shapes coming toward him. But then the blackness came again.