Chapter 18:

As Clark stepped walked through the back door of his house, he saw his mother cooking up a meal in the kitchen.

"Hey mom, is Cevin here yet?"

"No, not yet sweetie but I think your dad and Lois have just pulled up, could you go help him out with her luggage, I don't want him to do any heavy lifting."

"Luggage? Mom, how long is Lois gonna be staying here anyway?"

"Clark! Lois will be staying here for as long as it takes her to get back on her own two feet!" she answered firmly, for the person who has become so much like the daughter she never had.

"I'm sorry." He said as he planted a kiss on her cheek and walked out the door to find his father helping Lois out of the truck. As he was doing so, Clark saw that Lois was saying something to Jonathon. Had he been an ordinary human he wouldn't have been able to hear what she was saying, but of course he wasn't. Not that he needed to eavesdrop to know what Lois was saying. He guessed that it was something along the lines of I could do it myself.

Sure enough he was right.

"Mr. Kent, not that I don't appreciate your help or anything, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. You and Mrs. Kent will never know how much I appreciate getting me out of the hospital as well as everything else you've done, but Senator I'm not an invalid and perfectly capable of getting out and walking by myself see? Ahh!" she yelped as she lost her footing and was about to crash into the ground, if it wasn't for Jonathon standing right next to her who prevented her from losing the battle with gravity.

Clark was surprised that he was about to go into super speed, just to stop her from falling. It was then that he realized how fragile she really is. The guilt of his earlier words had chosen that moment to hit him at full force. His heart felt like it was going to explode, and he didn't have the strength to raise his head anymore, let alone the guts to look Lois in the eye.

He continued his approach toward them. Slowly, very slowly. Hoping that Lois wouldn't see him.

Clark had no-such luck, as soon as she had steadied herself, she looked up to find Clark headed in her direction. Taking ginger-steps and head sunk low. Her first reaction to his seemingly depressed state is that he and Lana had split! Her heart, for some unknowing reason, ached for him. She wanted to walk up to him and cradle him in her arms. After all, banter and jokes aside he was her best friend. Next to Chloe of course!

When he looked up at her, she noticed that he had no tears in his eyes, and that he a shy, almost guilty, smile on his face. When she looked deeper into his eyes she realized that there were no hints that he'd been depressed earlier. They only radiated what appeared to be genuine happiness at seeing her despite the fact that they both knew that she would be kicking him out of his own room again.

"Hey Smallville, looks like I'm about to invade your personal space again." She said teasingly.

He looked up at her and gave a genuine smile, "I'm just glad to see that you're alright Lois. Hey dad, let me take that for you." He said as he reached out and took Lois' suite case from his father.

"Thanks son, are you all set to leave?"

"Yeah, he should be here any minute, I'm gonna take this up to my… I mean Lois' room," he said with a twinkle in his eye as he looked at Lois, who smiled back in return, "then hopefully he'll be here, it's noon."

"Sounds good."

As they walked towards the house the front door burst open, revealing a very excited Shelby running to welcome the new arrival, followed by Lois' customary sneezes.

"Oh, I was hoping I wouldn't have to run into you, you dumb mutt," she said annoyingly as she continued her sneezes, whilst Clark grinned and Mr. Kent roared with laughter. As they got closer to the door, Mrs. Kent came out and the two women embraced in a long hug.

"Lois sweetie, I'm so glad that you're going to be staying with us. Now I want you to head upstairs, shower, and hop straight into bed, you'll be having all meals from there."

"But Mrs. Kent…"

"No buts Lois, Senator's wife's orders." She said jokingly.

"Sure thing Mrs. Kent."

Turning towards the front door, they all walked in to the big yellow house, Clark was first, as he was in a hurry, and a little nervous about spending the day with his brother. Followed by the rest of the family, all of them failed to notice the small, black car, making its way smoothly up the driveway.