And here's another chapter for ya! Thank you to everyone who's still reading and enjoying my little effort. For those of you who hoped that Clark would make it back to the Fortress on time this go-round? Um, oops? Yeah, one of my favorite eps of Smallville is Hidden, cause I'm a huge hurt/comfort, Torture!Clark fan, so you know I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let him get shot. (is all evil)

Hope y'all enjoy!

Arriving at the mansion, Clark took in the scene with a glance: Lana was lying unconscious on the opposite side of the room; the door that he'd ripped off the vault earlier had been jammed roughly back into place; and two tall, exotic looking beings were standing in the middle of the room, staring menacingly back at him.

"I'm Kal-El. Who are you?" Clark stated, straightening his shoulders and preparing for battle.

"At last! I am Nam-Ek. This is Aethyr. We are the last survivors of Krypton. Join us, son of Jor-El, and we will make this world fall at our feet!"

"That's not going to happen. This world is mine to protect from people like you."

Nam-Ek scowled at Clark's words. The two Kryptonians shared a quick glance to each other, and Nam-Ek nodded at his companion. Aethyr stepped forward, pulling a bracelet off her wrist.

"If you refuse to join us, Kal-El, we will make certain that you cannot interfere," she said.

She threw the bracelet towards him, and Clark instinctively twisted out of the way, turning to follow its path with his eyes. It whirred past his chest. A few feet beyond him, it expanded, becoming a gaping vortex that threatened to pull him into it. Stunned, Clark stared into the whirling morass, perhaps for a moment longer than he should have.

Clark gasped as something hit him square in the back, sending him tumbling towards the gateway. Desperately, he punched a hole into the floor, searching for anything he could grab onto to stop his slide. He found a piece of rebar and grabbed hold. The breath was knocked out of him as his body jerked around and came to a sudden stop.

Clark's feet were at the entrance of the vortex, and they felt strange, almost tingly. He tried to pull himself forward, but he could feel his grip slipping; one finger slid off, then another, and another, until he was holding himself on Earth with only one digit.

"You'll be unable to stop us from the Phantom Zone, Kal-El," Aethyr said smugly.

They turned away, and Clark heard Nam-Ek murmur, "It is done."

Clark had no idea what this Phantom Zone the Kryptonians were talking about was, but, it didn't sound like a pleasant place. He did not intend to leave these two monsters to wreak havoc on his adopted planet. With one last burst of energy, he got his fist around the rebar more firmly and pulled with every bit of strength that he had.

He surged forward, grabbed Aethyr by the shoulder, and threw her behind him, straight into the opening. Nam-Ek whirled around with an astonished look on his face, as he watched his partner disappear into the void. Clark used his distraction to get on the other side of his foe. When Nam-Ek turned around, he didn't have time to do anything but fall backwards at the push of Clark's hand.

The vortex collapsed onto itself and Clark watched as a flat rectangular object spun slowly in its place. He could see an image of the two Kryptonians as though they were pressed against the glass of a window, screaming their discontent. The rectangle moved slowly forward, and then picked up speed. It shattered the stained glass window in Lex's study and quickly shot out of sight.

Clark's gaze stayed trained on its path for a moment, and then he noticed the sun slipping towards the horizon. Recalling Jor-El's words about the consequences of returning on time, Clark knew he was going to be in trouble. He glanced over to where Lana still lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. It didn't matter what punishment his father decided to inflict, there was no way that Clark was not going to take care of Lana.

She stirred as he lifted her out of the debris of the glass cabinet she had crashed into. He moved to the center of the room and laid her carefully on the floor. Lana opened her eyes and looked at him, and then she gasped. Her gaze darted fearfully around the room.

"They're gone. You're safe," Clark reassured her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, as her body relaxed in relief. When she looked at him again, Lana tried to smile. "You saved me again, Clark Kent," she said shakily.

Clark reached up to brush some of the broken glass out of her hair, and was startled by a sharp twinge of pain. The blood on his finger was so foreign; it took him a second to understand what had happened.

"What can I say? It's a habit," he said, consciously pushing the problem of his apparently human state out of his mind. "I'm going to get you to the hospital, okay?"

His mother and father pulled up in the truck as Clark was tossing some broken chairs into a waste bin. His mom gasped in dismay at seeing the house with a huge hole through the center of it.

"Oh, Jonathan!" she said.

"We can rebuild a house, Martha. Thankfully our family is safe and together. Heck, I'm sure Clark can fix it up better than it was in no time."

Clark winced as he heard his father's words. "Afraid I can't, Dad," he said as he walked over to give them both a big hug. "My abilities are gone. Jor-El took them away. I think he's done with me."

"I have a hard time believing that after all he's put you through, Clark," Jonathan said.

Clark shrugged. "There's not a lot I can do. I've tried to use the octagonal disk in the caves and it doesn't respond to me anymore. I guess I'm just a regular human guy."

"But that means you can be hurt!" Martha said worriedly.

"So can you and dad, and you've never let that stop you," Clark said with a grin.

"How do you feel about this, Son?" Jonathan asked.

"I'm not sure. Part of me has always wanted to be normal, and now I am. On the other hand, I've always felt responsible for the town of Smallville. I sure can't do much to help them like this."

"I've always thought that you took on that responsibility unjustly, Clark. The first meteor shower was not your fault, and neither was this one," his mother scolded.

Clark didn't answer that accusation, as he knew he'd always feel a sense of responsibility for the tragedies of Smallville.

"Um, one more thing," Clark said, nervously, "Lex and Chloe kinda know the secret."

"What! Are you nuts, Clark? How could you let Luthor know about you? That's so incredibly dangerous. I can't even…" Jonathan spluttered.

"Look, when I put the three stones together, they formed this crystal. The caves became some kind of teleporting device and I suddenly found myself in the Arctic. The crystal made this huge fortress, and Jor-El's consciousness, or whatever he is, was there. He started teaching me all about Krypton. I heard a voice, and when I looked around Chloe and Lex were there! They were in the caves at the same time I was and somehow got pulled along with me. What was I supposed to do at that point but 'fess up?"

"I just don't see this being a good thing, Clark," Jonathan said. "Luthor's always been a little too interested in your secrets."

"His name is Lex, and there is no secret anymore, is there?" Clark said. "Look, I know you both only have my best interests at heart, but the thing is, I trust Lex, and I trust Chloe, too. Both of them have been there for me more times than I can count. And yeah, Lex and I have had our differences, but we've worked them out, mostly, and he only wants to do whatever he can to help me. Course, I'm gonna have to go and tell them that I'm human now."

"You still need to be careful," Jonathan said stubbornly.

"I will be, Dad. I promise," Clark said, agreeing in the hope that it would just let the argument die.

The sound of a car turning into their driveway derailed the discussion. It was a military vehicle, and Clark worried that this would be bad news. The jeep pulled up behind the Kent truck and sat there for a moment.

Then the door opened, and Lois jumped out. She slammed the door and pounded on it with the palm of her hand a couple of times.

"Thanks for the lift, Charlie!"

"No problem, Ms. Lane. But if the General asks, I had nothing to do with this," the man inside the jeep called back.

"I'll deal with him later, no worries," Lois replied. She waved as the jeep backed out of the driveway and drove away.

Lois turned around and headed toward the Kents, who were all staring at her in shock.

"Lois, I thought you were on your way to Metropolis to meet your father," Martha said.

"Here's the thing, Mrs. Kent. Right now, you and Mr. Kent and Clark," she said, cutting her eyes to Clark and away again so quickly, he thought he might have imagined it, "have been more like a family to me than my own family. Lucy certainly doesn't need me right now. But you guys do, and I want to help you fix this mess," she said, waving one hand towards the house.

"Well, of course you're more than welcome to stay and help out," Jonathan said.

"Of course!" Martha agreed. "You're a part of this family, too," she added and opened her arms to welcome Lois with a hug.

"Thanks, Mrs. K, that means a lot," Lois said, with a small sniffle. "Do you two mind if I speak with Smallville alone for a minute?"

Clark felt his heart jump. She wanted to talk to him alone! Then, his heart dropped as he considered whether this was a good thing or not. Maybe she just wanted to tell him to stop bothering her.

"Sure. Why don't you two go check out the barn and see what the damage looks like there?" Martha suggested.

Clark followed Lois to the barn, trying to be good and keep his eyes off her rear end, but when she turned her head and glared at him, he knew she had caught him. He just grinned at her unrepentantly. It felt good, normal in a way, to be back playing the games they'd been playing for the last couple of months.

The damage to the barn wasn't as extensive as the damage to the house as it had not taken a direct hit. There was still a lot of work to do all over the Kent farm. Clark and Lois walked up to his loft and sat down side by side on the couch.

She didn't speak at first, and Clark wondered if she expected him to start the conversation. He was just wondering how to do that when Lois broke her silence.

"I like you. I like you a lot, okay? But I'm still not sure about this…this…whatever it is with you and me," she said, gesturing with one hand between them, still staring straight ahead at the wall.

"I like you a lot, too, Lois. Who says we can't just take it nice and slow?" Clark said. He was dying to reach out and touch her, but she was so jittery, he was worried it would make her run again.

She took a deep breath and turned to look at him. "I don't know what I'm feeling here, Clark. All I know is that when I thought you might have been hurt or killed in the meteor shower, a part of me wanted to shrivel up and die. I don't like the thought of you not being in my life, as hard as that is for me to admit."

"Okay, then why don't we…" Clark said, and he reached out for her, taking her hand in his and gently pulling, hoping to get her to come to him. To his great delight, she did, sliding closer to him and letting him wrap one arm around her shoulder. "…take it one day at a time and see what happens?"

"I guess we could try that," she murmured.

"I think we need a kiss to seal the deal," Clark said, and grinned when she gave him an exasperated look.

"I'm not sure that counts as taking things slowly."

"Sure it does. Just. One. Kiss," Clark whispered as he lowered his head towards hers.

The first touch of his mouth to hers was electrifying. It was slow and sweet, unlike the frantic relief of the kiss in the hospital, but just as amazing. Then it began to get more intense. Clark deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue in to meet hers. He groaned as he pulled her more tightly against him, wanting her as close as she could possibly be.

The next thing Clark knew, Lois was straddling his lap, and they were making out in earnest: hands wandering, hips grinding, breath quickening. His hands were under her shirt, stroking up and down the length of her back. It was when they started to move around to the front, that Lois called a halt to things. She pulled away from the kiss and put her hands on his, holding them in place at her sides.

"I think that went a little beyond slow," she said breathlessly.

"Yeah, maybe," Clark agreed. "Sorry. It's just that you're so incredible, Lois."

"You're pretty awesome yourself, Smallville, but I think we'd better work on our self-control."

"Clark! Lois! We're heading into town for dinner! Do you two want to go with us?" his mother's voice called from the yard.

They both startled, suddenly remembering that they weren't exactly alone. Lois scrambled off his lap and stood up, adjusting her clothing, and running her hands over her hair.

"There's a reality check, huh?" she said, her grin a little shaky.

"Clark? Are you still up there?" Martha called again and Clark realized he hadn't answered her.

"Yeah, Mom! We'll be right down!"

"I think we should keep this, uh, stuff just between us for now, don't you? I mean, I don't want your mom to think any less of me," Lois said.

"My mom already loves you, Lois. I don't think the fact that you're dating her son would make her think any less of you," Clark said.

She smiled at him, grateful for his words. "Still, I'd just rather we kept it quiet for now. Can we do that?"

"Whatever you need, I can do," he promised and was pleased to see that it made her blush.

Still, even knowing that it was supposed to be a secret, there was no power on earth that could have dimmed his smile as they walked down to join his parents for dinner.

Lex called a couple of days later to let Clark know that he and Chloe were safely back from the Yukon. Clark finished a few chores around the farm and then climbed into the truck to head over to the mansion. As he pulled into the driveway, he saw that Lex already had people working on the damage to the castle.

Whistling a little tune, Clark walked down the hall to Lex's study, where the guy who'd answered the front door had said Lex would be. It was weird waiting to be let in by Lex's people instead of just zipping by them as he usually did.

"Lex, I'm afraid I have-" Clark said as he pushed the doors open. Upon seeing what was going on in there, he let out a startled "Whoa!" and quickly turned back around to face the doors.

"Ever hear of knocking, Clark?" Lex said sardonically, and he heard Chloe giggle. He only hoped she was getting off Lex's lap and putting her shirt back on.

"Uh, you invited me over, Lex. Ever hear of 'There's a time and a place for everything'?" Clark said, and peeked over his shoulder.

Thankfully, the two of them were no longer locked in a passionate clinch and were standing there completely dressed. Clark turned back around and looked at the two of them, eyebrows raised in question.

"When, exactly, did this happen?"

"We spent quite a bit of time talking in the Yukon and on the plane home. We discovered we have a lot of things in common, don't we, Lex?" Chloe said with a sly smile.

"That we do, Miss Sullivan," Lex said as he leered back at her.

"Ooh, I love it when you call me that," Chloe said, and stepped closer to Lex to give him a lingering kiss.

"Okay! Third person in the room!" Clark said, as he put a hand over his eyes.

"All right, you prude," Chloe said.

When Clark looked, they were separated once again. Clark moved to sit down on the couch, and then thinking about what had just been happening there, sat in one of the chairs instead.

Lex smirked at him, and he and Chloe sat back down on the couch where they'd been. They didn't start kissing again, but Chloe did snuggle up comfortably against his side. Lex indulged her by putting an arm around her.

"That looks so weird," Clark muttered.

"No weirder than you and Lois," Chloe retorted. Then she bit her lip. "Oops, I don't know if your crush was still supposed to be a secret or not."

"I already knew. Clark confessed his undying love for Ms. Lane to me the other week," Lex teased.

"I did not!" Clark said. "Okay, maybe I did," he amended at Lex's knowing look.

"And how are things with you and Ms. Lane going?"

"Will you stop calling her that?" Clark asked, exasperated. He didn't understand why Lex and Lois had this insistent dislike of each other.

"It's her name, isn't it?" Lex said with an elegant shrug.

"Yeah, but the way you say it, it sounds so…snooty."

"Snooty? Clark, I thought I'd worked on your vocabulary better than that," Chloe said with a laugh.

"What can I say? I'm a hopeless case, obviously."

"So, how are things between you and my dear cousin? I heard that Uncle Sam was furious that she'd decided to stay in Smallville rather than go look for Lucy."

"Yeah, he gave her a really blistering lecture on the phone. He was yelling so loud, she couldn't even hold it up to her ear," Clark said, feeling a little guilty that Lois and her father were on the outs because of him. Still, he couldn't help but be thrilled that she had stayed.

"Uncle Sam has a really quick temper, but he usually comes around. Personally, I'm glad Lois isn't off chasing Lucy. She did far too much running after her sister when they were younger, if you ask me," Chloe said.

"I'm glad she decided to stay, too," Clark grinned. "As for the two of us, let's just say I'm making some progress and leave it at that."

"Hmm, something tells me the farmboy has traded in one secret for another. So mysterious," Lex said.

"Er, yeah, about that other secret? Well, the one that used to be a secret, I mean?" Clark said. "There's really not too much to protect anymore."

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked.

"Jor-El took away my powers. I'm human now."

"I assume he had a reason for punishing you in that manner?" Lex asked.

"I had to save Lana from those two evil Kryptonians, and I couldn't make it back to the Fortress before sunset. So he's punishing me, I guess," Clark said with a shrug.

"Well, all I can say to that is you've got terrible timing, Clark Kent! Lex and I were so prepared to be the mastermind and sidekick, respectively, behind your brawn, and how are we going to do that when you don't have the juice?" Chloe said. She sat up and put her hands on her hips in mock irritation.

Clark couldn't help but laugh a little at her pretend pique as he said, "Sorry?"

"It would be interesting to run some tests on you now, though. Supposedly, your alien physiology hasn't changed; you're just no longer super-powered," Lex mused.

Clark felt a tremor of alarm at Lex's words. "Uh, not so crazy about the idea of being a lab rat, Lex," he said nervously.

"Don't worry; it'd be nothing more than what the average human goes through at a physical, Clark. From what Chloe's told me, your skin has always been impervious to needle pricks before, so this could be an opportunity to give us some insight into what makes you tick."

Clark was still a bit uncertain, but Lex looked so excited, and at least it didn't seem to be an 'I want to lock you in my secret dungeon lab and experiment on you' excited. He consented to Lex running a few tests, but they all agreed this was probably best kept between the three of them, and away from his parents.

TBC