Chapter Eight
Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville.
Lex slowed to a stop somewhere along an open stretch of road and got out of the car.
"Call me crazy but I'm pretty sure I don't live here," Pete remarked as he, too, climbed out of the car.
"No," Lex agreed. "But I thought that we should probably talk about what Clark said."
"And we couldn't have done that somewhere else because…?" Pete questioned.
"There's too much of a risk at being overheard," Lex explained. There was also, of course, the fear that his father was having him spied on and perhaps even bugging him which would be a far greater catastrophe than some Smallvillian hearing something they shouldn't. He wouldn't mention that, though, as it was a private matter and actually a little embarrassing.
Lana beamed at him. "It's so wonderful how worried you are about protecting Clark."
"And at least he bought us coffee first," Chloe said, holding up her coffee cup.
Pete rolled his eyes but said nothing. Letting Lex pay for his cup had probably been as much of a peace offering as he was going to get today.
"The first question I suppose is whether or not we all believe Clark's story," Lex began.
"Which story?" Lana questioned. "The part about being an alien or the part about him time travelling?"
"I actually find the alien story a lot easier to believe than the other one," Chloe admitted. "We all knew that Clark was different but I, for one, just thought he was a meteor mutant. And who knows? He might have been one that thought that he was an alien if it weren't for this ship that we haven't seen."
"I think we can presume that it exists because there's little point in lying about it," Lex replied. "Although unless they actually saw him climbing out of said ship, it could be a coincidence. It's unlikely but possible."
"I would like to take this time to remind everyone that I did not, in fact, think that there was anything unusual about Clark," Pete told them.
"Yeah but Pete, you're Smallville," Chloe pointed out.
"So?" Pete asked defensively.
"The level of denial the people here are capable of is quite frankly frightening," Chloe explained.
"I don't think we're that much in denial," Lana disagreed.
"Denial about being in denial is, in and of itself, being in denial," Lex informed her.
"And if I admitted to being in denial I would also be in denial so once you're accused of being in denial there's no way to win, is there?" Lana countered.
"I think that Clark is an alien," Pete announced. "After all, we've all seen how he gets around Lana and while part of that is clearly his massive crush on her, she's also been wearing Kryptonite for years and he said that it hurt him. Some of the meteor mutants are actually powered by Kryptonite and it never seems to hurt any of them."
"Well, it does seem to drive them nuts," Chloe pointed out.
"Physically hurt them," Pete amended.
"So we all agree that Clark's an alien," Lana said slowly. "What about him being from the future? Or…went to the future but came back?"
"Well it's either that or he's been investigating my family history because I tend not to talk about Lois," Chloe told her. "I think that Clark did do what he said but that doesn't mean the information is reliable."
"You think Clark would lie to us?" Pete couldn't believe it.
"No," Chloe said. She hesitated and glanced up at Lex apologetically.
In a flash, he got it. "She means that most of Clark's information comes from me and so while he may believe everything that future me said, that doesn't mean that it's all true."
"Well…yeah," Chloe admitted. "But that's not just because it's you. If any of us were Clark's source of information, I'd have to be equally skeptical about them. Like if I pushed too hard trying to investigate Clark and damaged our friendship or even ended it then I definitely wouldn't admit to that."
"You wouldn't do that," Pete said loyally.
"I would hope not," Chloe said, smiling at him. "But who knows? We already had a fight a little while ago when I was being…thorough about that project we had about each other's families. There were inconsistencies with his adoption and I wanted to know more. Now I understand perfectly, of course, but if he hadn't told me and he kept doing things that normal people couldn't do…who knows?"
Lex understood all too well what she was saying. The difference was that Chloe, Pete, and Lana – however much they might want to hide the truth – hadn't been given the opportunity to do so. He had. And he knew without a doubt that if he had done something along the lines of what Chloe had said and ruined his friendship with Clark, no matter what the circumstances, he didn't think he'd admit to it, either. He had already lied to Clark about having anything to do with Hamilton. He'd need to either cut him loose or convince Clark that investigating the Kryptonite (without revealing Clark's connection) was a good idea. It…would probably ultimately be easier to just do the former.
"So what do you think, Lex?" Lana asked him seriously. "I know that twenty-five years is a very long time and people change so you can't possibly know but do you think you'd have been willing to lie to Clark?"
Yes. Absolutely. His mind drifted back to that woman that he'd been warned against marrying before he was sure that she was pregnant. Why hadn't he been told the identity? He might not know her but he didn't know any Desirée Atkins' or Helen Bryces either. While making sure that someone really was pregnant was always a prudent move, it would make even more sense for him to know and to be on the lookout for whoever he had been fooled by in the future. It didn't make sense not to tell him unless there was another reason not to tell him.
Was this woman someone important to Clark? At the moment that boiled down to Lana or Chloe and he couldn't see either of them pulling something like that. But then, they could be just as much a victim as he was if Clark's comment of them turning vengeful was any indication. It could always be someone in the future who was important to Clark but wasn't now. While Lex couldn't see himself ever dating someone that Clark himself was in love with (such as Lana), if they were on less-than-cordial terms he might consider it. But even if they were still friends and Clark wasn't interested in the woman, Clark would likely not react well to hearing that, say, Chloe had been hurt in that way.
"Lex?" Lana repeated.
"There are some things that I would never lie about," Lex said carefully. "Julian is one of them. And there are some things that don't make sense to warn about if it's not true, like with Belle Reve. If something is sufficiently big enough then I can't possibly lie about it because there's too high of a risk of Clark finding out. Smaller details, maybe, but the smaller details don't really matter, do they?"
"I don't know," Pete said doubtfully.
"It's not like he's trying to justify any lies he did tell," Lana pointed out. "He's just speculating on what he'd do twenty-five years into the future. What do you know about yourself twenty-five years into the future?"
"I'm a senator," Pete said smugly.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Well don't just expect it to somehow magically happen. You'll need to work for it."
"I guess the question is what we do now that we know about it," Lex mused. "We are all okay with this, right?"
"Oh, absolutely," Chloe assured him. "This might limit what I can and can't publish but it's not like anyone really believes my theories anyway. And a true reporter never backs down from a challenge."
"I know," Lex said grimly.
"You know, if we stay on good terms then one day you'll always have a non-hostile reporter out there," Chloe pointed out. "Just, you know, in case you're the news."
"When I'm the news," Lex corrected.
"I think I'm okay with it," Lana said slowly. "I mean, I know intellectually that it wasn't Clark's fault that this happened."
"But you can't help but blame him?" Chloe asked, worried.
Lana shook her head, surprised. "Oh, just the opposite! Even if it had somehow been his fault, I just can't work that out in my head. Clark is a good guy and he's apparently put a lot of work into saving me from my many, many, many insane stalkers. It's a little weird but this is Smallville."
"Pete?" Chloe inquired.
"I'm getting there," Pete admitted. "I'm actually more concerned about the fact that I'm apparently driven from Smallville in the future."
"You're not worried about accidentally telling someone?" Lana inquired.
Pete shrugged. "Who would I tell? Clark's parents know and now so does Chloe. You and maybe Lex would be the only other people that are ever consistently around when weird things happen that I could slip up around and now I don't need to worry about that."
"Which brings us back to what do we do now?" Lana reiterated.
"I'm not sure that there's anything we really can do," Lex replied. "Clark knows a lot but even if everything he said is true it's mostly for big future events, not the day-to-day things."
"He only identified a few mutants," Chloe added. "Ian is a threat and Ryan and Alicia aren't."
"For now we just try to support Clark, keep his secret, and maybe help him out on occasion with the meteor mutants," Lana decided. "Though I think that would be more in researching than in actually fighting them for obvious reasons."
"What about the longer-term future?" Pete asked.
"That's harder to plan for," Lana told him. "Even knowing what I do about Clark and about my own potential future, I don't know where I'm going to be five years from now, let alone twenty-five."
"One thing I know for sure is that I am definitely going to talk him out of wearing underpants on the outside of his clothing," Pete said seriously. "I mean, I don't care how striking it looks or whatever, it's embarrassing and I would feel embarrassed knowing him."
"We should also try to get a different color outfit," Chloe suggested. "I mean, talk about an eyesore."
"It might look nice," Lana defended him.
Chloe laughed. "Please, Lana. You've seen the kind of clothes Clark dresses himself in. Without our direct intervention, he'll show up in primary colors and spandex."
"The spandex is probably necessary for freedom of movement," Lex pointed out. "But I agree about the colors."
"Although God knows if we'll ever convince him," Pete said sadly, shaking his head.
"Surely there's something more pressing he'll need help with than wardrobe advice," Lana said, rolling her eyes.
"Maybe," Lex agreed. "But we're not likely to be able to figure it out today. We'll just need to be there for him and help him deal with whatever comes up when it comes up."
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