Happy Thanksgiving! Before I go stuff myself with turkey, dressing, and cranberry sauce, here's another chapter. I'm personally thankful for all the lovely reviews y'all have given!

"Wake up, Clark."

At first he thought he was dreaming his father's voice, but when he opened his eyes and saw Jonathan Kent glaring down at him, Clark realized it was no dream. It was more like a nightmare.

"You have some explaining to do, Son."

"Er…" Clark said, completely at a loss as to how to explain this without his dad somehow blowing his top. "What time is it?" he asked, hoping to stall.

"Probably much later than you thought it was," Jonathan said, his glare not diminishing in the slightest.

"Mmm, is it time to wake up already? I've gotta tell you, Smallville, you may not want to admit it, but you snore," Lois said, as she snuggled into his side without opening her eyes.

"Lois, you need to wake up, too," Jonathan stated.

At that, Lois's eyes snapped open and she gaped up at Clark's father. "Mr. Kent!"

"I'm going to give the two of you five minutes to get decent and get yourselves downstairs," Jonathan said, and then he turned and stalked down the steps.

Clark and Lois didn't waste any time scrambling up from the couch and throwing some clothes on. Lois was frantically trying to finger-comb her hair to get the tangles out, while Clark rubbed fruitlessly at what was probably a semen stain on the bottom of his shirt. He had no idea how that could have gotten there.

They were ready to go down when they paused and looked at each other. Even knowing how much trouble they were in, Clark couldn't help but smile at her. Lois grinned back at him, and they came together for a quick kiss.

"It was worth it," Clark said.

"You bet it was," Lois agreed. "Ready to go and face the music?"

"Yep," he said.

Clark reached out and took Lois's hand and they walked down the stairs and out of the barn. Both his parents were standing in front of the truck, gazing at them with disapproving frowns.

"At least tell me the two of you were safe," Martha said.

Clark and Lois both blushed to the roots, while Clark managed to stammer, "Yeah, Mom, of course we were."

"That's not the problem here, Martha! This should never have happened in the first place. Lois, I need to talk to my son alone, if you don't mind. There are some serious issues we need to discuss."

"If you don't mind me saying so, Mr. Kent, this is a decision that Clark and I made together, and it wasn't one that we took lightly. We've been…sort of involved since prom night, and well, we love each other. This is not a fling, if that's what you're thinking," Lois said.

Clark was so thrilled at hearing her defend their relationship that he couldn't do anything but beam at her proudly for several moments. Lois gave him a little smile and winked at him.

"Clark! As touching as that sounds, you know there are other things to be concerned about here," Jonathan said impatiently.

"Some things are not really that important anymore, Dad. Besides, both Lois and I are over eighteen and we know what we're doing," Clark said stubbornly.

Clark and Jonathan might have stood there glaring at one another for a few more hours if Chloe's car hadn't pulled up beside the truck. She bounded out of her VW and walked over with a big sunny smile on her face.

"Morning, Kents! And cousin," she said with a wink at Lois. "I thought I'd have to drag you out of bed this morning, Clark. What's going on?"

Clark grimaced at Chloe's unfortunate choice of words and he watched as she frowned at the sudden uncomfortable air surrounding them. She took a long look at Clark and Lois's disheveled state, as well as their linked hands, then gave a quick glance at the frowns on his parents' faces. Chloe quickly put two and two together.

"Ohhh," she said, her eyebrows arching in surprise. "Awkward," she muttered.

"Why are you here so early, Chloe? It's barely after 6:30," Clark asked, grateful for the distraction.

"I, uh, wanted to tell you about this strange phone call I got this morning from Gabriel Duncan," Chloe said, obviously still a little distracted by the scene she'd interrupted.

"The tech guy from the Torch?" Clark asked.

"Yeah, he said that Smallville would cease to exist in exactly…" she glanced down at her watch. "Well, now it's fifty-three minutes."

"Have you called Sheriff Adams?" Jonathan asked.

"The good sheriff and I aren't really seeing things in the same perspective at the moment, Mr. Kent," Chloe said with a wry grin.

"Do you think this Gabriel was serious?" Martha asked.

"He sounded pretty serious to me on the phone, and knowing the way things can turn crazy in this town in half a second, I'm not really willing to take the chance that he's not," Chloe said.

Jonathan sighed and glanced over at Clark. "We will finish this conversation at a later time, you two. Right now, you need to go find this Gabriel, and I'll call Sheriff Adams myself."

"Sounds like a plan. You coming, Clark?" Chloe grinned.

"Not without me, you're not," Lois said and punched Clark in the shoulder. She and Chloe shared a smirk at Clark's wince and exclamation of pain from the blow.

"The more, the merrier," Chloe said with a laugh as they moved towards her car.

Of course, they made Clark sit in the VW's almost non-existent back seat. He was folded up like an accordion, but the cousins refused to listen to his logic on why he, as the biggest of the three of them, should be sitting in the front.

"So, Lois and Clark. Who woulda ever thunk it?" Chloe said slyly.

"Oh, hush. I don't want to hear any teasing from you or I'll tell Clark all about the mushy stuff you wrote me about him when you were still a freshman," Lois said.

"That was only a crush, Lo! You wouldn't dare break the bonds of sisterhood!"

"I don't know, sounds interesting to me. What kind of stuff did she say?" Clark asked as he poked his head in between the front seats to grin at Chloe.

She took one hand off the steering wheel briefly and pushed his face back to the back seat, ignoring his laughter.

"You shut up, Kent, or I'll tell Lois about the sappy love poem I found that you wrote for Lana when you were still in middle school!" Chloe shrieked.

"We've already dealt with Lana Lang, so that's hardly a threat anymore," Lois said with a smug grin.

"Lana already knows?" Chloe asked in surprise. "Before your own family?" She gave Lois a glance full of mock-hurt.

"Well, she kinda, ah, interrupted…things," Lois said, blushing.

"Oh, my God!" Chloe said before she started laughing so hard that the car began to weave on the road a bit.

"Chloe! Watch the road!" Clark shouted.

"All right, all right, stop yelling in my ear, you big goof," Chloe said, a few giggles still escaping her. "Oh, there it is. That's Gabriel's house."

The three of them got out of the car and walked up to the porch of the house. It seemed eerily quiet to Clark, and he really missed being able to use x-ray vision at that moment. Chloe pulled out a credit card and broke in through the front door.

It didn't take long for the three of them to search the house, and they were a little freaked out by all the news clippings about meteor freaks covering the walls of one room. They were even more freaked out when they found the body of Gabriel's dad. When they realized what Mr. Duncan's job was, they got scared.

"So Mr. Duncan was the lighthouse keeper for the nuclear missile silos in Smallville. And Gabriel hated meteor mutants. Holy hells, he's planning on nuking the whole town!" Lois said.

"We don't know that for sure, Lois," Clark said.

"It's the only thing that makes sense. What else could make the whole town of Smallville 'gone forever'? That's what he said," Chloe said.

Clark's phone started buzzing in his pocket and he pulled it out to see that his dad was calling. Chloe and Lois were tossing out ideas about what they should do as Clark talked with his father.

He hung up and turned around, his face grim. "That was my dad. He talked with Sheriff Adams and Gabriel has activated one of the silos. The problem is, there's about fifteen of them around Smallville and we have no idea which one he's at."

"We're down to thirty minutes. What are we going to do? There's no way anyone could search all those silos in time," Chloe said with a significant look at Clark.

He shrugged his shoulders helplessly, acknowledging that he could have at one time, but certainly not now.

"Wait a minute. Out of all the people in Smallville, Gabriel called to warn you," Clark said to Chloe.

"He's just counting on me telling his story afterwards," Chloe said.

"But that means he trusts you. Maybe we can use that so we don't have to search all the silos," Clark said.

The three of them quickly came up with a plan, which mostly involved Clark and Lois staying out of sight and Chloe calling Gabriel to get him to come to them. He and Lois watched Chloe on the phone from where they were crouched behind an abandoned tractor.

"So, is this what you and Chloe normally do when you're investigating the mysteries of Smallville?" Lois asked.

Clark turned and saw the twinkle of humor in her eyes. He grinned back at her.

"It usually goes something like this, yeah. Chloe's the brains and I'm just the muscle," he said.

Lois reached out, put her hand on his bicep and squeezed. "I kinda like that about you," she purred.

"Lois, you can't do that now."

"Why not?" she asked, with a perfectly faked innocent look on her face. She knew exactly what she was doing to him.

"You'll get me all…distracted," Clark said.

"I don't know. I sort of like you all distracted," Lois whispered. She leaned forward and put her chin on his shoulder, raising one brow at him in question.

Unable to resist, Clark shifted and gently kissed her. He completely forgot about Chloe for a few moments as he lost himself in the wonder that was kissing Lois Lane. The roar of a motorcycle brought him back to the present.

Clark pulled away from Lois reluctantly, but he was pleased to note that she seemed as affected by the kiss as he was. Her face was flushed, her eyes were hazy, and she was definitely breathing a little harder.

"You are evil," he whispered, ignoring her chuckle, before he turned his attention back to Chloe. Gabriel had indeed arrived and was getting off the motorcycle.

He watched for a minute as Chloe and Gabriel talked, saw her gesturing to the car that they'd shoved into the ditch as an explanation for why she'd called him. Deciding it was time for him to make his entrance, Clark started to stand.

"Here we go," he muttered.

Before he could fully straighten up, Lois pulled his face around for one more kiss.

"Be careful, Clark," she said quietly.

"I will be," he said with a soft smile. "You stay here. We don't want to spook him too much."

He stepped out from behind the tractor and took a few steps into the road.

"Gabriel! Which silo did you activate?"

Gabriel glared at him, and Clark was taken aback at the coldness in his eyes. He'd remembered Gabriel as being the quiet sort, but he'd always seemed nice and eager to help.

"I know Smallville has its problems, but killing innocent people is not the answer," Clark said. Gabriel looked at Chloe, and Clark heard him murmur something about trust.

He was pondering whether he should tackle Gabriel and see if he could make him confess which silo was active, when the boy turned back around. Gabriel pulled a gun out of his waistband and fired without another word.

The bullet slammed into Clark's lower chest, causing him to stagger back a step. Immediately, he heard both Chloe and Lois screaming his name. He could see Chloe trying to get to him, but Gabriel blocked her, pushing her back towards his motorcycle.

He's kidnapping Chloe…I should stop him, Clark thought, but things began to get fuzzy. He fell to his knees, bringing both his hands up to touch the wound, as he stared down at the hole in his chest in confusion. He coughed and blood streamed out of his mouth, horrifying him with its bitter taste.

Clark felt himself starting to keel over, and then hands grabbed at his shoulders, trying to keep him up. He looked up to see Lois with tears pouring down her cheeks, terror flickering in her eyes. She was crying, screaming at him, and pulling on him, all at the same time.

He wasn't sure what she was trying to accomplish, but all of a sudden, Clark was so tired. If he could just lie down, just for a moment, he thought that he might feel better. Lois couldn't hold him, and he felt her hands slip off his arm as he fell backwards to the pavement.

The sky is such a pretty blue. Gabriel's going to mess that all up. I still have to stop him, Clark thought as he stared straight up. He felt someone touching the bullet hole, applying pressure, and he grunted a little because, wow, that really hurt. Looking over at Lois, he saw that she had one hand on him and had her phone in the other, screaming at someone to get to Route 87 immediately. She was yelling that it was an emergency, and she needed help now.

Clark wanted to reassure her that he would be all right, even though he really wasn't sure at all that he would be. He hated to see Lois so upset. He tried to speak her name, but all he could manage was a garbled mumble. She looked down at him, and he heard her say 'hold on, Clark, hold on'.

Then everything went dark.

He became aware again for just a few moments in the hospital corridor. The stretcher that he was lying on careened through the hallways. Hands poked at him, pulling his shirt off and applying more pressure to the wound, which still really hurt.

Clark thought he caught a glimpse of his mother and father, and he was ashamed that they had to see him like this. He knew a quick moment of sorrow at all the trouble he'd caused them over the years. Then someone put a mask over his face, and it all went black once again.

The next time Clark woke up, he felt soft hands touching his face, and someone was speaking softly to him. He tried to focus in on the words.

"…moment I saw you, I knew you were something special, Smallville. But you know how stubborn I am. I didn't want to admit that I liked you, especially not to you! Thank goodness you were even more stubborn, huh? The last couple of months have been the most amazing ride of my life, Clark. You have to hurry up and get better so we can keep that ride going. You wouldn't want to disappoint me, would you? After all the hard work you put in getting me to change my mind?"

He heard her chuckle, but Clark could tell that she was crying at the same time. The last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt or disappoint Lois. He struggled to open his eyes, so he could look at her and tell her so.

It felt like they were glued shut, but Clark finally managed to force his eyes open. Lois was crying, and he felt guilty because she'd once told him proudly that she hadn't cried since her mother's funeral. Clark hadn't been sure that was anything to be proud of, but it was so typical of Lois, trying to put on a brave front for the world.

Lois smiled when she saw him looking back at her, and he wanted to tell her that it would be all right. Before he could open his mouth, it felt as though every bit of strength in his body was sucked right out of him, and he sagged back against the bed, his eyes closing again. The room filled with the sounds of beeping monitors and alarms, and Clark wished they would stop. It was too loud and suddenly, everything hurt.

He heard other people coming into the room, and then he was being poked and prodded at again. It annoyed him because all Clark wanted to do was rest. If they would just leave him alone and let him rest, he would be fine.

A jolt of something sizzled through his body, causing him to jerk upwards. He cursed these idiots in his head. Couldn't they tell they were hurting him? He just wanted to get away! There was a light in the distance, growing steadily brighter as Clark stared at it, and he noticed that the closer he got to it, the less the actions of the hospital staff hurt. They jolted him again and Clark surged towards the light, desperate to get away from the pain they were causing.

The light was so close now that he could feel the warmth of it shimmering over his skin. He hesitated for just a moment, as it suddenly struck him that he would be leaving Lois, and his parents. Forever. Clark half-turned, thinking that maybe he should go back and fight to stay.

But he'd gotten too close, and the light pulled him in.

Standing in the middle of the Fortress, Clark gasped as he turned around in surprise. He had no idea what had happened. Maybe this was the Kryptonian version of heaven? Glancing down at his body, Clark saw that his clothes were clean and there was no pain anymore, so no wound either?

Before he could check, he heard someone speak.

"Kal-El, I am pleased that you are all right."

Clark squinted at the figure standing at the other side of the Fortress. It looked like…Lionel Luthor? What the hell was going on?

"How do you know that name?" Clark asked.

"You are my son."

"Jor-El? But how…" Clark said. He was so confused, that he didn't even know what to ask.

Lionel/Jor-El walked slowly towards Clark. "When this body was activated by contact with the last of the stones, it became an oracle of Kryptonian knowledge. A vessel that I could inhabit to help you if you should need me."

"I don't understand. I was just at the hospital. I…I think I died. Am I dead?" Clark asked fearfully.

"Your mortal journey is over, yes, but your destiny is too important. You will be granted the return of your natural gifts. This does not come without a price, however. The life of someone you love will be exchanged for your own."

"What? No, I don't want that, I would never want that!"

By this time, Lionel/Jor-El was right in front of Clark, and he could see the strange light shining out of Lionel's eyes, a definite unearthly gleam that could only be Jor-El.

"You disobeyed me, Kal-El, and I warned you that there would be consequences."

"Just don't bring me back, then! I don't want anyone to die for me!"

"The universe demands balance, Kal-El. This world still needs you and your abilities. Are you willing to turn your back on them for one simple life?"

"Yes, if I have to! I can't bear the thought of mom or dad, or Lois…" He shuddered at the thought of any of his friends or family paying the price for his own foolishness.

He grasped desperately for anything that might make Jor-El change his mind. Clark sensed that Jor-El was extremely angry at his son for not listening to him earlier, and this 'life for a life' was nothing more than a vindictive punishment. What could he offer that might appease his father?

"Wait! What if I agreed to the training? I will come here and stay as long as you need me to and I won't leave until we're finished, I promise."

Jor-El paused, looking at his son thoughtfully. "You would stay the entire time I need you to? Even if it required several of your Earth years?"

Clark swallowed nervously at the thought of being away from his family for what might be years, but he could bear it if they would all be alive and waiting for him when he got back.

"Yes."

"Hmm. Interesting," Jor-El mused. "Very well. I will allow you to return to your home for one week to bid farewell. You will be back here on time."

Jor-El didn't give any threats as to what would happen if he wasn't here, but Clark wasn't going to take any chances. He would return as ordered.

"Remember that I love you always, my son," Jor-El said.

He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Clark. There was a hum of energy and Clark felt it shimmer over his body and deep into his skin. He took a deep breath, feeling the return of his abilities like regaining the use of a lost limb. Clark hadn't realized that he'd missed his powers until that moment. As much as he sometimes wished he could be normal, his gifts were a part of him that could not be denied.

Clark sped along the back roads of Smallville after coming out of the Kawatche caves. The nuclear missile was just cresting over the tree line, and Clark changed direction to head towards where it had originated. Once there, he could see that it was already almost a couple of miles up. He crouched, gathering all his energy as he knew this would be the biggest leap he'd ever made. That flying thing would certainly come in handy right about now.

He pushed off as hard as he could and caught the last few feet of the missile, jamming his hand into the metal itself so that he could hold on. Clark spared one glance backwards at the ground rapidly getting further away, before concentrating on moving upwards. Using his fingers as pitons, Clark slowly made his way to the top of the missile, moving a little faster when pieces of the missile began to break away as it made its ascent.

The air was becoming thin, so Clark took a deep breath and held it. He had discovered some time ago that he could hold his breath for a couple of hours before he needed to breathe. Clark quickly x-rayed the cone of the missile, looking for the warhead. He ripped part of the covering off and pulled the warhead out. He threw it as hard as he could away from Earth's atmosphere and winced when it exploded. Clark didn't want to think about the damage that could have done to Smallville.

The ordeal left him exhausted, and Clark didn't let go of the cone as it fell back to Earth. He just hung on for the ride. When it finally crashed, Clark stood up and shook off the dirt. His clothes were in tatters from re-entering the atmosphere, but he didn't care. Right now, he just needed to get back home as quickly as he could. Clark glanced around, trying to get his bearings. He listened for a moment. As near as he could figure, he was somewhere in Wyoming, so Smallville should be southeast.

TBC