Laura woke up several times during the night; Lana took care of the feeding and burping, Clark the diaper-changing. Lana hadn't argued when he reasoned that he could see in lower light levels than she could, and also that he could heat up the wash water. "I won't trip on the way to the lake, and she'll cry less with warm water."

As dawn came, Clark nudged Lana. She was already awake. "Ready to go?" he asked.

"Breakfast first?" she asked hopefully.

"I meant, after breakfast", Clark said. He got out of the tent. By the time Lana came back from the latrine, feeling ratty and disgustingly dirty, Clark had prepared breakfast, obviously using his super-speed. Hot food and tea waited for her. I'm getting a little tired of bear by now, she thought, but kept quiet. Bear was better than nothing, and they only had a few camp meals left.

Clark polished off huge portions, as usual. They brushed their teeth. Then he waited patiently while she nursed Laura and burped her. He dealt with the inevitable diaper mess, and washed Laura. Then he went with them down to the lake, and did the heat-vision-and-super-speed thing to give her a hot shower. Lana moaned in ecstasy as she washed her hair. She dried off and changed into a clean outfit.

She held Laura while Clark went to the lake and washed himself, a little miffed that he washed in super-speed. He had washed and dried his jeans the night before. The bear had ripped off his blue t-shirt; yesterday he'd gone around shirtless, but today he put on the shirt from the sweatsuit.

Clark came to her as she sat on the log near their fire. "Are you ready?" he asked her.

Lana looked around at the campsite. The tent was still set up, their bedding rumpled inside. The pans and dishes of the mess kit sat by the fire, dirty from breakfast. Drying diapers hung on the clothesline, along with some of their clothes they'd washed. Clark's backpack, fortunately not too damaged by the bear attack, stood empty, propped against a tree.

"Are you ready?" she asked dubiously. Clark just smiled.

A blur, a whoosh. Lana looked around. The tent was gone. The collapsible cooking rack and the dishes were gone. The clothesline and diapers and clothes were missing. Aside from the fire, there was no evidence humans had been in this clearing. Clark hoisted his full backpack on one shoulder. Somehow he'd also managed to get a big chunk of frozen bear meat and slung this over his other shoulder.

"You were saying?" he asked innocently. He dropped Laura's carrier-sling at her feet.

"Oh." That was all Lana could say. It still disconcerted her, seeing the alien part of Clark, seeing him use his alien powers. She busied herself putting Laura in the carrier.

"If you're ready…" Clark asked her. Lana nodded, and held the baby close to her. Clark reached out, set one arm behind her knees, one arm around her back. Easily, he lifted her up, holding her across his body; she faced his right side. She put one arm around his neck, the other holding Laura, who had fallen asleep in her carrier. It didn't feel too uncomfortable.

"All set?" Clark asked her.

"Yes", she said, then cleared her throat and spoke louder. "Yes."

Clark began walking, then slipped into a run. It seemed fast to Lana, but she knew it was a snail's pace to Clark. Whatever, it was enough so that they weren't running into trees or getting slapped by branches. She leaned against Clark, her head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat. Despite his running, his heart didn't speed up; it continued its steady, reassuring beat.

"Are you OK?" Clark asked her after a few minutes.

"Fine."

Clark continued running through the seemingly endless forest. Lulled by the monotony, feeling safe in his arms, Lana drifted off into a light sleep.

She awoke with a jerk some time later, when Clark set her down.

"Are you OK?" she asked him in turn.

"I'm fine, but I think it might be time to feed Laura and change her", he said. "And I'd like you to change sides."

"OK."

They took care of Laura. Clark had noticed a stream and stopped by it so they could wash.

"Hungry?" Clark asked Lana.

"No. You cooked me a big breakfast", she replied.

"OK. Let's go." Clark swung her up into his arms again, this time having Lana facing his left. He began running again.

The day continued like that, Clark running for one or two hours, then stopping to allow Lana to stretch her legs and take care of the baby. He'd switch the way he held Lana each time. Despite holding her, the baby, the backpack with all their gear, and a hundred-pound chunk of bear meat, he didn't seem tired at all. Clark was more worried about Lana becoming stiff and sore. As the day went on, this became an accurate prediction. Lana kept her mouth shut and didn't mention it.

Clark managed to find another lake as twilight neared. "That's lucky", he said. This lake was quite a bit smaller than the one where they'd spent the past four days. Nevertheless, it was water, and there was a space to pitch the tent.

Lana stood, stretched. She sat down and nursed Laura, hearing the subtle whoosh she'd learned was Clark moving at speed. She looked up to find the tent pitched, a fire made, food cooking, and everything ready for dinner and bed.

"God, I love camping with you", she said.

Clark gave a small laugh. "Is Laura OK?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I think she's fine", Lana said. "You want to hold her for awhile?"

Clark reached eagerly for the baby, looking down at her with deep affection. Then dismay crossed his features as Laura grimaced and squirmed. A smell told its own story of a diaper that now needed changing.

"Just in time", Clark murmured.

They quickly settled into a routine. They would get up in the mornings, and have some breakfast. Lana would eat a meal from one of their dwindling store, not really able to face eating bear meat first thing in the morning. She looked on with interest at Clark shaving – actually, it was more along the lines of using her compact mirror, strategic angles and his heat vision to burn off his stubble. They would take care of the baby, wash, and brush their teeth. Then Clark would pack up the camp. Lana would hold the baby, and Clark carried them, the backpack, and the rapidly decreasing chunk of bear meat.

One time Clark used his super-speed to catch a duck. It was not very sporting, he thought, speeding up on it and grabbing it, but they needed a change from bear. He was grateful for his mother's abortive effort at selling organic chickens – he knew how to wring the bird's neck, gut it, pluck it, and burn off the pinfeathers with his heat vision. They only had the small camp grill to cook on, but Clark was able to roast it, again with the heat vision.

They'd make several stops during the day, and Lana would sometimes walk for a mile or two to stretch her legs and get some exercise. Then, as twilight approached, they'd set up camp for the evening. Clark was always able to find some source of water. Lana would feed the baby as he sped through camp set-up; he would also scout the nearby area. They combined what they remembered and generated a list of plants they were pretty sure were edible. Clark would cook some of the meat, they'd argue about the best way to prepare the plants, and they'd share dinner. Clark would wash clothing, hang it on the line, and dry anything that needed drying with his heat vision. After clean-up, it was usually almost full dark; they'd either sit around the fire for a short time, or retire to the tent and fall asleep almost immediately. Of course, Laura made sure that no sleep was uninterrupted, demanding regular feedings, changings, and attention.

In the morning, they'd get up and do it all over again. At first Clark chafed at their slow progress; had he been alone, or had he been able to protect Lana and the baby, he would have been able to get them home in a fraction of the time.

Then, as the days passed, he began to see their stranding as a blessing. Laura was a delight, every day having some new baby action that astounded them. And Clark and Lana, forced into proximity for so much of the day, spent much of it talking. He held her so close that she could hear him easily despite the wind noise. At first they talked of commonplaces, made small talk; then as the days progressed, they began speaking of things they'd held inside.

Clark enjoyed their conversations. As the miles and days passed, he realized, guiltily, that he was slowing down the pace. Unconsciously, he'd run slower – a subconscious reason to spend more time with Lana?

Clark asked her once if she wanted him to go run off on his own and bring back some food for them. "That would help our supply problem", he said. "Even if I can't take you with me when I run fast, I can go alone and bring back some food."

Lana thought about it. Certainly she'd appreciate some different food. But Clark leaving?

"No", she said. "Clark, I know that probably everything would go OK. But if you left us, and something happened to you…"

Clark understood. "You'd be alone in the wilderness with Laura, with no way to call for help."

"So, I appreciate the thought, but I really don't want you to leave us." Lana smiled. "I just feel superstitious about you leaving us…" Then, teasing Clark, she said, "Of course, I'm still going to complain about the food situation, even though I'm not letting you do anything about it."

Clark chuckled. "Just warning me in advance here, aren't you?"

"Right."

True to her word, a day or so later on, Lana in her usual position in Clark's arms, said, "I would kill for a cup of coffee from the Talon now. Not even a cappuccino or a mocha grande – just plain black coffee."

"I know what you mean", Clark said. "I have dreams myself of sitting down to a hot cup. Just being there at the table, sipping the coffee, and eating one of my mother's muffins."

"Umm", Lana agreed, licking her lips. "Your mother's muffins are the best." She squirmed in his grip, checking Laura in the latter's carrier sling. A thought came to her. "Clark?"

"What?"

"What are you doing about the farm?" Lana was ashamed that she hadn't thought about it before. "I mean, you were doing all the chores there."

"I left my mother a note."

"A note?"

"Ever since about a week after Dark Thursday, we've set up a contingency plan where either of us can call in some temporary hired hands on short notice", Clark said soberly. "I guess you never know what will happen. We wanted to make sure we had some backup for the farm."

"I guess you're right about not knowing what will happen", Lana said quietly.

"Life is uncertain", Clark said grimly. "I think both of us know that."

"Yes", Lana agreed in a small voice.

"But the farm is doing well, and my Mom is doing OK in her senator job", Clark said in a determinedly cheerful voice.

"I'm glad to hear that", Lana replied. "Your Mom's such an amazing person…"

"I know. I mean, you might think I'm amazing, but it's really my Mom who is. She's done so much, lived through so many problems, dealt with so many issues, and she doesn't have my special abilities."

Lana asked quietly, "I don't mean to be rude, Clark…how is she doing now that it's been a year since your dad passed away?"

Clark sighed. "It's been really hard for both of us. I keep on coming in the house and expecting to hear his voice." His voice roughened. "One time, I came in. I really wanted to tell him something and just called for him – "Dad! Dad!" – then I realized he was gone. Then it really hit home."

"I'm sorry, Clark", she said. "I lost my parents at such a young age…" Neither of them brought up the meteor shower. "Your Dad was always sort of a surrogate father to me. I knew I could count on him."

Lana thought she noticed a tear in Clark's eye – or was that just the wind? "He taught me everything. I miss him so much", Clark said, a definite catch in his voice. He ran on in silence for a moment.

Then Clark asked her, "How is your father doing – I mean Henry Small? Have you heard from him at all?"

Lana grimaced. "You know, I really had hopes of having a relationship with him. But, you know, after his wife told me that she was going to divorce Henry because of me, I knew I had to step back. So I did, and three months later they moved to Metropolis and I haven't heard from them since."

"What about his daughters? They'd be your half-sisters."

"I never met them. I don't know if Henry even let them know about me. I wonder if he ever did, because since I married Lex, all sorts of people have come out of the woodwork." She stirred a little bit in Clark's arms, readjusting her position. She said bitterly, "And they all want money."

"Aargh. That's got to be tough."

"Yes. Now I understand Lex a little bit better – he's been getting this all his life."

Clark ran on for a moment, not saying anything. Then he said firmly, "Lana, I'm not the best person to talk to about Lex. You know we have issues. There's a lot of things I'd like to say that wouldn't be very nice. And he is your husband. So I'm just going to be quiet about him."

Lana considered this. "Thanks, Clark. I can see your point. I appreciate it." Deliberately, she said nothing about her own issues with Lex. Did he really trust her? Did she really trust him? He was a billionaire; he'd had so many women. How did she compare to those other women? Did she really satisfy him? Was it true, he only wanted her so Clark couldn't have her? She'd really hoped she could talk to Clark about these things sometimes, but right now…he just didn't seem ready.

"You know…" she said musingly.

"What?"

"Lex doesn't know about Laura yet." And you do, was the unspoken subtext.

"He has a wonderful daughter", Clark said quietly. Just drop this subject, Lana.

"The one I'm wondering about is Lionel."

"Lionel?" Clark asked, startled.

"I wonder what kind of grandfather he'll be", Lana said.

Lionel as a grandfather. The mind boggled. Somehow Clark just couldn't see him whittling toy trains or taking Laura to the zoo, a balloon in her hand. "I hope he's a better grandfather than he was a father."

He considered telling Lana about Lex's half-brother Lucas, and how Lionel had set up a vicious rivalry between the brothers. Clark had been there when the test turned violent. Even he, schooled as he was in Lionel's duplicity and ruthlessness, was shocked.

Clark settled for saying, in as neutral a voice as possible, "I think a lot of Lex's issues are related to the way Lionel raised him." Then, more fiercely, "Don't leave Laura alone with Lionel."

Lana considered this, mentally chewing it over. Strangely enough, she recognized the importance of Clark's warning; she felt it in her bones herself. She didn't trust Lionel either.

She turned her thoughts to grandfathers. She'd never known hers, both sets of grandparents having predeceased her parents. Mr. Kent would have been a wonderful grandfather. That sparked another train of thought.

"Clark?"

"Another question?" he asked teasingly.

"Do you know anything about your biological parents?" If I had married Clark…

The smile slipped off his face. "They were destroyed along with the planet Krypton when it blew up."

"But how do you know that?" Lana persisted, curious.

Oh God, that's a long story, Clark thought, thinking of all the stuff he'd gone through, with, and in spite of, Jor-El. "It's a long story", he said.

"Please, Clark", Lana pleaded. "How could you know anything? You said you were a baby when you came here. Did they send an instruction manual with you or something?"

Unwillingly, Clark laughed. "I sure wished they did. Especially when I was a teenager and getting my powers. It was like, I'd wake up one day, and I could do something totally weird, something totally alien. And I couldn't talk to anyone about it. No, there was no manual."

Lana made an inquiring noise.

Clark gave up. "No, they didn't send an instruction book. They sent my biological father."

"What?"

"Actually, there is an A.I., an artificial intelligence, that my biological father modeled after himself. It thinks of itself as my father."

"What?"

Clark continued, deciding to tell her the whole story now. "He didn't manifest himself till our sophomore year. He gave me some background on myself and on my home…my birth world. That's how I know about Krypton and its destruction."

"Go on", she said weakly.

"The trouble is, he wants me to be a proper Kryptonian. And apparently, proper Kryptonian behavior includes stuff like not being friends with humans, and world conquest and dominion."

Lana turned pale.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Lana. I'm not going to conquer the world", Clark said in a half-joking voice. "I mean, I see all the crap my mother puts up with. And she's only a state senator, in a smaller state, not even a governor or president. Conquering the world would be a billion times more hassle." He looked at her; they both laughed.

"I've had a lot of fights with him." Clark gave Lana a reassuring smile. Then, fiercely, he said, "Jonathan Kent was my real father. He taught me a lot more about life, and everything else, than Jor-El."

"Jor-El?"

"The name of my biological father." He loped on, Lana breathing heavily in his arms. "Anyway, he's tried to mold my behavior, and get me to do, um, Kryptonian stuff", Clark said, an inward expression in his eyes. "I've fought back."

"Uh-huh."

"Sometimes I regretted the consequences of not following his plans." Clark sounded grim. Lana realized there was a lot more to that story than he was telling her. "But I've managed to break free of his dictates. I command my own destiny now." He realized that Lana couldn't understand the epic nature of that achievement, the long and stormy history between himself and Jor-El, the threats, the blackmail, the loved ones' lives taken hostage.

"The only thing is…"

"What, Clark?"

"Well, actually, now that I've broken free of him, I've realized that he still has things to teach me. And something that, um, somebody said once, was that I was supposed to take training from him to keep Earth from being destroyed like Krypton was."

Lana turned pale again. She looked around at the blue skies, heard the gentle breeze soughing past her, smelled the piney scent in the air. She held the baby in her arms more tightly. "If that's the case, I hope you take the training, Clark", she said cautiously.

"Now I want to. But I can't till I take care of the Zoners—"

"Zoners?" she asked curiously.

Clark sighed. Should have kept my mouth shut there. "That's another long story."

"I'm right here."

"I think it's time to camp for the night." He deflected further questions.

Clark sniffed, followed the scent of water. Soon they were at an acceptable campsite. Clark did his usual miraculous set-up-things-in-five-seconds routine. Lana answered nature's call – the irregular diet, combined with post-pregnancy hormonal changes, was wreaking havoc with her digestion. Clark, of course, didn't seem bothered by that.

Clark went off to forage, returning in about five minutes with a handful of plants. He put together a dinner at normal speed, aided only by his heat vision, whilst Lana fed and changed Laura.

They did not talk as they ate the evening meal; as their rations dwindled, somehow it seemed more important to concentrate on what they had, treat what remained with proper respect. As usual, Clark cleaned up, being the only one of them who could command hot water. Lana felt a little guilty over that, being raised with the idea that whoever cooked didn't have to do the dishes - and here Clark was getting stuck with all the domestic chores, night after night.

Clark and Lana sat companionably by the fire, sitting close by each other, sharing warmth. Lana turned to look at him.

"'Zoners'?" she asked.

"As I said, a long story."

"Come on, Clark. You can't get me all tantalized like that", Lana said.

"Hey, it seems like I've been doing all the talking here. It's time for you to talk."

"What?"

"Fair's fair. From now on, if I tell you something, you have to tell me something."

"Um…"

"Here's the rules. You can say you don't want to talk about it and you don't have to. Or you can not talk about any one or two parts of it, and talk about the rest of it. But if you do talk about it, you have to tell the truth", Clark said firmly.

"But you have a lot more to tell than I do!" Lana protested.

"Oh, I don't know about that", Clark said, tormenting her. "I think you're like Cleopatra – what did Shakespeare say?" Lana gave him a look of surprise. He continued, "'Age cannot wither, nor custom stale, her infinite variety.' I'm sure you'll have plenty to tell."

"But…but…" Lana gabbled. Her mouth opened and closed a few more times. Finally she gave in. "OK."

"Well, if you're going to abide by the rules, I'll start. The Zoners are escaped galactic super-criminals from the Phantom Zone." He gave Lana a smug smile.

She sputtered. "Clark, you can't leave it there!"

"My turn", he retorted. "I'll start easy. Did you ever try contacting Henry Small again?"

Lana looked away. "I did ask Chloe to look him up in Metropolis. She got me his address and phone. I did go by his place one time. I thought about calling him, going up and meeting him….then I decided to let it go, let him take the first step if he wanted to keep in contact with me." She gave a bitter laugh. "I think I've been in the news enough that he'd know where I can be found."

Clark reached out, put a reassuring hand on her thigh.

Lana smiled. "My turn back. What's the Phantom Zone, why are galactic super-criminals in it, and how did they escape?"

"I still think you're getting more information than you're giving", Clark grumbled. "All right. The Phantom Zone was invented by my biological father, Jor-El, as an escape-proof prison to hold really dangerous criminals, not just from Krypton, but from other planets and other galaxies. It's like some weird parallel dimension. If you're there, you don't age, you don't need to eat or drink, but you can hurt and bleed. It's sterile – nothing grows there, nothing changes. It's life imprisonment in solitary, and you're immortal." Clark leaned forward, threw a branch on the fire. "As to why the criminals are there, I assume they broke their laws and got thrown into the Kryptonian slammer."

"If it's escape-proof, how did they escape?" Clark quirked an eyebrow at her, and Lana responded defensively, "Hey, this isn't a new question. It's a clarification of the last question."

"I got trapped in the Phantom Zone." Lana opened her mouth in surprise as Clark continued. "My father had built a backdoor into the system in case someone from our family ever was unjustly exiled there. I was able to use the backdoor, but while it was open, a lot of the bad guys got out too. Now they're on Earth and I have to…take care…of them."

Lana shivered as she thought of aliens, possibly with Clark-like powers, but lacking his upbringing and strong moral code. How could we ever stop them if they went bad?

"Don't worry", Clark said, giving her an outwardly confident smile. "So far I've gotten a bunch taken care of."

"A bunch?"

"Well, there's still a few more of them out there. I'm working on that." He shifted his position, stared into the fire. "My turn again. What did you suspect about me, and for how long, before you found out?"

It was Lana's turn to move uncomfortably and look at the flames. "Well, I've known ever since freshman year that there was something a little funny about you. In fact, it's ever since the tornado I've been wondering." She poked a stick in the fire, watched sparks fly up into the sky. "Now I realize that I really did see you in the truck, in the tornado, saving me. But then I had a head injury, and you denied everything, and then I really started wondering if you were right and I was hallucinating."

"I'm sorry about that", Clark said in a soft voice.

"And then as the years went on, you kept lying – I could tell you were lying about things. And I was wondering if you were a meteor freak, and I could understand, if you were, why you didn't want to tell anyone about it. And then, it was weird –"

"A word that tends to come up often when discussing Smallville", Clark interjected.

"Yes. It was weird. Sometimes I'd get to the point where I assumed that you did have some crazy meteor powers, and then you'd be normal. It really threw me off."

Lana poked the fire again. "You know, Clark, now that I've seen what you can really do, I'm still wondering about that. I mean, that time with Perry White, your hands were bleeding. And on this trip, I've seen you break tree branches with no gloves or anything, and your hands aren't even scratched."

Clark smiled as he remembered that day – it was one of those days that seemed funnier in retrospect than when it happened. "Do you remember we had a solar flare that week?"

"No."

"Well, I did, because it was important to me. I think my abilities come from the sun. When we had that flare, my powers were glitching all over the place – sometimes they'd work, sometimes they'd go into overdrive, and sometimes they wouldn't work at all. Rescuing him was one of those times where they didn't work at all. So I got rope burns on my hands."

Lana considered that. "Then you went to save him and you didn't have any special powers?" she breathed. "Wow."

Clark brushed it off. "You know, he was right about the tractor."

"The tractor?"

"You remember he said it fell from the sky. Everybody just assumed he was drunk."

"I remember that."

Clark started chuckling. "But he was right. My dad had asked me to lift up the tractor so he could get at the underside to fix something. The solar flare was glitching my powers and they were in overdrive. I went to pick up the tractor and ended up tossing it into the air." Clark laughed. "Then, when I went to see where it landed, Perry White just happened to be standing there, waiting for the bus. To him, it looked like I just came out of nowhere, because I was super-speeding there." Clark laughed harder. "I mean, he saw all these crazy Smallvillian things that were happening, and me and my parents were the only ones who knew why, and everyone else just thought he was just a crazy drunk with the DT's…" Clark broke off, unable to continue, laughing.

Lana started giggling too, drawn in by his infectious laugh. "The mystery explained at last", she said. "I'm glad it worked out for him."

"Yeah, we were both lucky. And I hope he's changed his life for the better." Clark's laughter died down.

"How did you get trapped in the Phantom Zone, Clark?" Lana asked, taking his pause as her opportunity to get in the next question.

Clark stopped laughing as he remembered that time. "Zod trapped me in there."

Lana gasped, turned pale again. "Zod?" She began hyperventilating.

"Lana! Calm down!" Clark said, taking her shoulders in his hands. "What do you know about Zod?"

"What do you know?" she countered. Clark let her go, leaned back, sighed, apparently realizing that he had to talk first.

"OK, here's the short story. Zod was a megalomaniac dictator back on Krypton. My biological father stopped his life of crime, got him imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, and his body destroyed. Zod swore vengeance on my father and his family - by implication, me. When…um, conditions were right, Zod sent Milton Fine to prepare his way. Fine was masquerading as a teacher at Central Kansas A&M, but in actuality was a Kryptonian computer artificial intelligence."

Clark gave Lana a brief smile. "Does this sound crazy enough to you yet?"

She nodded. "Go on", Lana said.

Clark continued. "Fine, ah, arranged a way for Zod's soul to escape from the Phantom Zone. Zod's soul possessed Lex's body."

"Oh." Lana said, staring into the fire. The information was overwhelming.

"What did Zod do to you?" Clark asked quietly. He'd wondered about this for a long time. That had been around the time they'd been most uncomfortable with each other, not talking, and Chloe hadn't been able to find out much either.

Lana looked away, not talking. Clark heard the baby move around a little on her blankets. "Lana?"

"God, that was a horrible time", she said softly. "Lex got taken up by the ship. When he came back, I thought he was the same, but then on Dark Thursday, he was a totally different person. Now I know why he called himself 'Zod'."

"And?" Clark prompted.

"I met your mother and Lionel in your barn. They were talking about killing Lex with some special knife. I knew I was the only person who could get close enough to do that." Lana deliberately didn't say why she would have the opportunity to get near him – she didn't want to think about her attempted seduction, trying to stab him, and failing.

Lana got up, paced around the fire. "I tried to stab him, but he was too fast for me." She walked a little faster as she remembered that time. Mixing up the sequence of events slightly, she said, "Zod stabbed me in the hand."

"Oh, God, Lana", Clark said softly. He got up, took her hands in his, ran his fingers over the scar in her palm. He hadn't realized the cause of that before.

"I lost consciousness. In the hospital, I saw Lex again. By that time he wasn't Zod anymore. I don't know what happened." She gave an inquiring look at Clark. "You had something to do with that, didn't you?"

Clark sighed. "Now that it's true confessions time, yes." He poked at the fire. "I got out of the Phantom Zone and came to the mansion. You were unconscious. Zod and I had a fight. He was stronger than I was, but I was able to defeat him by using a Kryptonian artifact of my father's. My biological father", he added, as if she couldn't figure that out.

Lana heard him, guessing again that there was more to the story than Clark was telling. She also knew, from his tone, that he didn't want to tell a lot more.

Clark continued. "I was able to…cast out Zod's soul from Lex's body. Fortunately Lex's personality hadn't been destroyed." The firelight glinted off his eyes as he gave her a sober look. "I was fortunate he didn't remember what he'd done while he was possessed."

"I know. I met him in the hospital and he didn't remember", Lana said. She shivered. Remembering those days…she didn't want to talk anymore.

"Clark, let's go to bed", she urged him.

He looked up in surprise, then said, "Sure."

With his usual quick cleanup, it was only a matter of a few minutes before they lay together in the tent.

"Hold me, Clark", Lana pleaded. He took her in his arms. She was trembling. "I was remembering Dark Thursday. Zod was so…so…inhuman. He was going to reshape the world and he didn't care if everyone died. It was like we were bugs to him and he could just step on us. We didn't matter."

Clark wordlessly hugged her.

"I'm sorry about this…that's why I was so afraid of you…at the lake…when I found out", Lana whispered.

"Oh, Lana." Clark said. "I don't know how I can…what I can do…" He reached for her hand, gave it a reassuring squeeze. "All I can do is try and convince you by my actions…" He hugged her again. "I was brought up here on Earth. Everyone and everything I care about is here. This is my home now. I want to keep it…and all of you…safe." He spoke quietly but with intensity.

Lana gave a ragged laugh. "Clark, you've convinced me so far. You could have hurt me—" He gave a small noise of protest. Lana continued, "—or you could have just left me up alone at the lake. Instead, you've come to find me and save me, and I've taken all your time, and kept you away from the farm and your mother."

"It's no trouble", Clark murmured.

Lana rolled over to face him fully, careful of the baby lying between them. "Clark, it means so much to me that you do care. Not just about us, but about people you haven't even met. And the whole planet."

Clark gave a little embarrassed squirm. "Gosh folks, I'm speechless", he said in a credible imitation of the Cowardly Lion receiving the medal at the end of the "Wizard of Oz" movie. Lana smiled. She could tell Clark was uncomfortable with the praise.

"Good night", she said, and turned back over. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.