Warning: Spoilers for the season 4 opener. If you haven't seen that episode, what are you waiting for?

The Power of Suggestion

Part 5: Conversations

"Umm, Oliver? I think we have a problem," Chloe whispered in Oliver's ear. "Does something look a little off to you?" She motioned to Lois and Clark.

Clark had been moody all evening and had recently slunk off to a dark corner for some serious brooding. On the other hand, Lois' face was downcast and when she caught sight of Clark in the corner, she scuttled off in the opposite direction with a guilty expression.

"Indubitably," Oliver said, looking keenly between Clark and Lois. "Something must have happened after Jimmy left."

"What do we do?"

Oliver hesitated for a minute, thinking about the best plan of action. "Go to Lois. Try and talk some sense into her. I'll handle Clark. Let's see if we can't get them talking." He paused, looking back at the sullen duo. "Or at least looking if all else fails."

"Does arguing count as speaking?"

"In their case, I'd say yes."

--

"If looks could kill, that pastry would be a dead man," Oliver said as he bounded jovially up to his comrade who was currently keenly observing a half eaten cream puff. "Glad to see you're enjoying yourself."

"I'm not really in the mood to talk right now, Oliver." Clark's voice was warning.

"I can see that, but when has it ever stopped me before?"

"Is that rhetorical, because I seem to recall a certain Luthor experiment you were very—"

Oliver interrupted him abruptly. "Enough about me, I'm here to talk about you! I haven't seen you since our little brunch the other week. So what's been happening? Faced any hot heads in need of some punch time?" He paused. "Met any hot women?"

"Both," Clark mumbled.

"What was that?" Oliver asked, pretending he had no idea what Clark had meant.

"You know what I hate about women?" Clark cried suddenly. "I hate how they always just assumes things." There could only be one woman from whom Clark was drawing his opinion. "She takes one look at a situation and thinks she knows everything there is to know about it. She never once considers any possibility but the one she knows to be true. And when you try to tell her she's wrong, that maybe things aren't exactly what she thought they were, she blows up. She accuses you of keeping secrets, of not telling her every bloody thing in your pathetic, farm boy life!"

The cream puff was reduced to powder and sickly white liquid as Clark's hand clenched around it. Oliver almost pitied the poor thing. What had it done to deserve such harsh punishment? But, Oliver supposed, better the cream puff than his--or anyone else's--head. Now, however, was not the time to hold a memorial service.

"Dude, you have got to calm down," Oliver said once Clark had stopped for breath. "Lois really did a number on you, didn't she?" Clark glared at him, but Oliver persevered. "Want to tell me about it?"

Clark shook his head no, but after a few seconds started talking in a low, deep voice. "I told her about Kal-El. She didn't take it very well. I mean she did at first, but when she found out Jimmy knew, she kind of exploded. Or I did, I'm not really sure."

"What did she say?" Oliver asked tentatively.

"Nothing really. She was just being Lois." He sounded weary and his eyes were staring pointedly at the floor.

"And how did you respond?"

Clark met Oliver's eyes. "I blew up at her. I told her she should have been able to guess. I said she should have put two and two together!" His face was twisted into a painful expression.

"What!" Oliver shouted. He lowered his voice a tiny bit and continued. "Do you mean to tell me you insulted her? Do you have no tact? How could you do that to the woman you are supposed to be in love with?" He knew he was treading on thin ice considering the person he was berating was a hundred and eighty pounds of super-strong alien muscle and would have no problem squishing him as easily as he had just recently done to the former cream puff, but Oliver was never one to back down from a fight (unless you included that one, really big Luthor monster which he had made everyone in the League swear to forget but was still brought up at parties). Clark had to be forced to face the light.

"I do love her, Oliver! I do! I don't know why I said those things!" He was almost pleading.

"Stop sniveling this instant and get over there and apologize, you green-blooded hobgoblin!"

"Why does everybody keep calling me green?" Clark mumbled as he slinked away in the direction of Lois.

Oliver rolled his eyes. Was he really the only Trekie in this group of sci-fi vigilantes? Maybe Dinah would understand him. His good deed quota filled for the time being, he went off to find her.

--

"What do you want?" Lois asked her cousin briskly as she approached.

"Jeez, way to say hello!"

Lois looked a little sheepish. Maybe that had been a bit harsh and certainly underserved. Chloe wasn't the one she was angry at. "It's been a long day," she said by way of apology.

Chloe nodded in understanding. It had been a long day indeed. "Wannah talk about it?"

Lois met her cousin's eyes for a second. Despite that she was not, on principle, a woman prone to opening up, she never could resist telling Chloe anything. "Clark told me his secret."

"It's about time."

"Everybody likes to rub that one in," Lois mumbled. "As if I didn't know it's taken him a while!"

Chloe decided to pretend she hadn't heard. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Dumb." Lois again met Chloe's eyes. "How could I not have known? I never even suspected! His mother told me had many sides the very first day I met him and I still didn't guess!"

"If it makes you feel any better, I didn't figure it out until junior year and even then I needed help," Chloe said, lightly patting Lois on the back.

"Yeah, but I'm around him like twenty-four, seven."

"And I wasn't back in high school? God, I was virtually his shadow! You've got to stop beating yourself up about this."

"Do you know how we met?" Lois said abruptly. Her eyes unfocused and a soft smile flittered across her lips in a look that clearly indicated that she was going into full reminiscent mode.

Chloe thought for a moment. She knew that they had paired up to solve her apparent murder the summer before senior year, but beyond that, she'd never heard any details. She shook her head.

"I got your message for Clark and was driving down to meet him when a freak thunder storm came up. I ran off the road and ended up in some cornfield. The next thing I know, three lightning bolts hit right in front of me and there's a naked man curled up in front of my car. What kind of man ends up naked in a cornfield? Unless they're drunk or high or something, but we both know Clark just isn't that kind of guy."

Here, Chloe broke in with a shout of "Clark was naked!" loud enough to get some strange looks from the other guests, but they quickly turned away; everyone was used to far stranger comments than that from Impulse. With a self-conscience glance around the room and a hard glare from Lois, she nodded her head for her to continue.

"He couldn't remember his name or anything so I –somewhat reluctantly, I might add—gave him a blanket and a trip to the hospital. He tried to escape. Literally lifted me up out of his way once. I should have guessed then something was up," she added bitterly, but continued on before Chloe could say anything. "It wasn't until Martha recognized him and took him away that I realized he was the one I was looking for. A day later he got his memory back and we kicked some serious helicopter ass! I'd always wondered how he did that. I guess I know now." She laughed ruefully to herself. Suddenly she smiled. "Then I walked in on him in the shower and made sure his mother found out. That was a fun conversation, believe me! I also stole his room for all those months I stayed with the Kents. Revenge is so sweet!" she finished with an appreciative laugh.

Chloe laughed heartily along with her cousin. "I can't believe you did that to him. It's so mean!"

"What, walking in on him in the shower or taking his room?" Lois asked innocently.

"Both! Why did you do it?"

"He was taking too long and it wasn't like I hadn't already seen Clark Jr. in the cornfield. As for taking his room, I did it because his mother wouldn't hear of me sleeping on the couch and Clark irritated me."

"How did he irritate you?"

"I couldn't figure him out. One minute he was as strong and as confident as a peacock-lion hybrid, the next he was a meek farm boy."

"Now that's just ironic," Chloe said with a chuckle.

"Tell me about it," Lois responded. She downed the rest of her beer in one hearty gulp and continued. "Of course he's just as puzzling now as he was then, though I bet he's going to be more so now that I know why. It's kind of hard to place a man in a stereotype that isn't a man, you know?"

"I do know." Chloe nodded her head. "So what irritates you now?"

"Where should I start? His flannel obsession? His constant brooding? How about the fact that everybody—and I mean everybody—at the Daily Planet's in love with him?"

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Oh? And how do you know?" Lois challenged.

"Well I'm pretty sure Jimmy isn't and you certainly aren't." Chloe eyed her cousin closely for signs of a reaction. She was pleased to see that Lois' cheeks were turning a faint pinkish color.

"You're probably right about Jimmy, although I can't be too sure."

Chloe decided to ignore the jibe at her boyfriend and went in for the kill. "But how do you feel about him?"

"Who, Jimmy? He's a nice guy, but not really my type," Lois responded casually.

"Are tall alien enigmas?"

Lois' blush went deeper. She could deny it, but Chloe always had an uncanny ability of knowing when she was lying. "Yes," she mumbled finally.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, cupping her hand around her ear in an exaggerated gesture. "I couldn't quite hear what you said."

"I said 'maybe'. Are you happy now?" Lois said hotly.

"Oh no you didn't! I distinctly heard a yes."

"That was Dinah agreeing to dance with Oliver."

"That's BS and you know it. Dinah would never in a million years agree to dance with Oliver."

"Fine! I give up! Yes, I am in love with Clark Kent! Happy?" Lois cried, casting her arms in the air.

Chloe smiled broadly. "Elated. Now I want to know, have you told him yet?"

"I haven't gotten the chance," she responded defensively.

Chloe glanced at someone over her cousin's shoulder. "Well here it comes so get ready."

"What?" Lois spun around quickly. Clark was walking towards them.

"I think I'll be going." Chloe started to walk off, but Lois grabbed her hand.

"Don't even think about it," she said in a warning tone.

Chloe twisted her arm out of her grasp. "Sorry, cuz, you're on your own. This is one lover's tryst I will not get involved with." She gave Lois an ironic little wave and walked off.

Lois turned to face Clark who was now standing right in front of her. "How you doing?" she asked with fake cheer.

Coming up next: Bart makes his presence known and Clark and Lois finally talk. Read all about it in the next installment of "The Power of Suggestion": "Confessions".

A/N: Sorry for the cliffy people, but I just couldn't resist. But hey, at least I posted on time. I hope you all had a pleasant holiday.