Well, this is it! The last chapter of this little story! I thank you all for taking the ride with me, and I hope you enjoy the conclusion.

The sight of the familiar yellow farmhouse was like a balm to his soul. To be truly home when he'd thought he might never see it again, was such a relief that Clark had to stop and stare at the house for a few minutes. He tuned in his hearing, and heard his father on the phone.

"Look, the hospital lost our son! I wouldn't be calling the sheriff's office if I didn't think it was necessary," his dad was yelling.

It had to have been a horrifying experience for his parents. They'd no doubt been told their son had died, then to have his body disappear; it must have been like something out of their worst nightmares, Clark imagined. He sped up to the door and heard his mother gasp as she caught sight of him.

"I'll call you back," Jonathan said and abruptly hung up the phone, staring at Clark in astonishment as he stepped into the kitchen.

Martha was the first to move. She leaped forward to hurl herself into his arms. She squeezed him tight enough for even Clark to feel it. When she reluctantly let him go, Jonathan took her place, hugging his son just as fiercely.

"They told us you were dead," Jonathan said hoarsely.

"I kinda was, Dad," Clark said quietly.

Martha made a sound of distress and couldn't seem to stop herself from touching him, her fingers stroking his arm continuously.

"It was Jor-El, wasn't it? He gave you your powers back," Martha said.

"Yeah," Clark nodded.

"We heard the missile malfunctioned. That was you? You stopped it?" Jonathan asked.

Clark nodded again. He was terrified of telling them about the deal he'd made with Jor-El. Clark knew he should do so immediately, but he couldn't, not so soon. Maybe he could put it off for a couple of days.

"And Jor-El just agreed to give you your powers back? He didn't ask for anything in return?" Jonathan said skeptically.

Damn, his adoptive father knew his biological father just a little too well. Clark supposed it came from experience, after the deal that Jonathan had made with Jor-El to get Clark back from Metropolis and away from red-K had such dire consequences for the Kent family. Jonathan's heart hadn't been the same since.

"He didn't ask for anything, but I did offer him something. I'm going to him for the training he wants me to do."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Martha asked doubtfully.

"I have to, Mom, otherwise… Well, I just have to," Clark said, not wanting to scare his parents with Jor-El's original threat.

"How long would you be gone?" Jonathan said, shooting straight to the heart of the matter.

"I don't know. It could be years," Clark admitted.

"No!" Martha protested. Jonathan's mouth thinned into a grim line.

"I know it sounds awful, Mom, but believe me, this is something that I have to do. I need to learn more about who I am, and Jor-El is the only one who can show me that."

Before his parents could voice any more objections, there was a soft knock at the front door. All three of them looked towards the sound.

"Mr. and Mrs. Kent?" Lois's voice, sounding sad and lost, floated through to the kitchen.

Clark turned back to his dad at hearing her distress.

"Dad, she's the one. I have to tell her everything," he said.

"I know, Clark," Jonathan said with a sigh. He nodded his head towards the front door, giving Clark the okay.

When he stepped around the corner and into the hallway, Lois looked up and saw him. Clark drank in the sight of her. Lois's presence filled an empty space in his heart that had grown since he'd thought he would never see her again.

"Clark," she whispered, and the teary glow in her eyes told him that she'd thought him lost to her forever as well.

Clark took a step forward, meaning to go to her, but Lois practically flew up the hallway and into his arms. She clung to him, burying her face in his hair and he could feel her tears falling onto his neck.

Words seemed unnecessary as they held each other, and Clark wished that they could stay like this forever.

He knew that was impossible.

His parents were kind enough to give Lois and Clark the space to talk and quietly stayed in the house while they went up to the loft. Clark couldn't really think of this place as his Fortress of Solitude anymore, not with most of the pivotal moments of his and Lois's relationship happening here.

Chloe had called right before they left the house and he was relieved to know that she was all right, although he was worried about her when he found out that Gabriel had been killed while they were fighting over the gun he'd stolen from his father. She told him she was fine, and then Lois and Chloe talked for a moment, each cousin glad to know that the other was okay.

"I have so much to tell you that I don't even know where to start," Clark said, once they were seated on the couch.

Lois reached over and took his hand.

"Why don't you start with this miracle today? I watched you die, Clark. How did you come back?"

"I'm sorry," Clark whispered, apologizing for at least the fifth time. "I hate that everyone had to go through that."

"I'm just glad you're still here," she reassured him, giving his hand a squeeze.

"I guess I should start with the meteor shower. The first one, I mean," Clark began and then told her everything. Lois didn't interrupt as he talked, and Clark wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

He got all the way to the part where he'd destroyed the missile before he stopped talking. Clark felt as though he'd just unburdened his entire soul to Lois. In a way, he supposed that was true. He waited anxiously for her to say something. She had listened intently to the entire speech, her attention never wavering for a second. He'd left out the part about leaving for Jor-El's training, figuring he'd better see how she responded to everything else first.

"So you can see through things, run really fast, set things on fire with your eyes, and you're indestructible," Lois said slowly, raising one eyebrow in question that she was getting it all correct so far.

"Yes," Clark said.

"But you can't fly?"

"Um, no. Not so far. I've floated a few times, but I really can't control it," he said sheepishly.

"Well, you need to get on that, Smallville. I expect to be taken for one helluva ride once you get it down pat," she said with a grin.

Clark laughed in relief as she moved over to straddle his lap and leaned down to kiss him. The kissing began to get a little heated and Clark knew he had to slow it down, so he could tell her the rest.

"Lois," he said, trying to pull away a bit.

"Done with talking. Now it's time for kissing," she murmured and kissed him again.

Clark was absolutely enjoying the make-out session, but he had to get the bad news out there before she completely made him change his mind and break his promise to Jor-El.

"Lois, there's one more thing, and it's pretty important," Clark managed to say, even though he really wanted nothing more than to surrender to her kisses.

Lois sat back and stared at him in bafflement. "You just told me you're an alien from another planet. What else could there possibly be?"

"I have to go away," he said quickly before he could lose his nerve.

"For how long," she asked, her tone flat.

"I don't know. It, well, it could be years," he said. His voice dropped to a whisper by the last word.

She jumped off his lap and glared at him in disbelief. "Years? Years, Clark? What the hell?"

He stood up and tried to explain. "I have to go through training with my Kryptonian father. He's been trying to get me to do this for a couple of years now, and I just really have to go this time."

"Why now? I…I just got you back, Clark. From being dead! Why do you have to leave now?"

Clark hadn't told his parents the whole truth, but as the woman he was going to spend forever with, he felt like he owed it to Lois. Plus, he wasn't altogether sure she'd let him leave without a very good reason.

"When Jor-El healed me and gave me my powers back, he said there had to be a balance. He said that the life force he gave me would have to be taken from someone I love. I offered to go through with the training instead and thankfully, that was enough for him. Otherwise, it could have been one of my parents, you, Chloe or Lex…"

"No great loss there," Lois muttered.

"Lois," Clark said warningly.

"Sorry," she said, although he didn't believe she really was.

"I could never have accepted any one of you being sacrificed so that I could live. I just couldn't let that happen. Can you understand?"

"I do," she said with a sigh. "You wouldn't be, well, you if you were okay with that."

He reached out and wrapped his arms around her to pull her into a close embrace. "I promise you that I will come back as soon as I can. And I know that I really have no right to ask this of you, but…will you wait for me?"

"Smallville, I love you more than anything. I'll wait forever if you want me to," she said with a smile.

Clark grinned and kissed her soundly. When their lips finally separated, both of them were breathing heavily.

"Mostly because I'm sure your daddy dearest will teach you to fly, and I expect to be the first one you take for a special flight," Lois smirked.

"You'll always be first with me, Lois," Clark said with a soft smile.

Clark used the week Jor-El had given him to help rebuild the farmhouse and to say his good-byes to his friends and family. Also, he and Lois had copious amounts of sex. Jonathan wasn't happy about it, but to his credit, he didn't say anything. After all, none of them had any idea how long it would be before Clark would be seeing any of them again.

It was Chloe's idea for all of them – Jonathan, Martha, Lois, Lex and Chloe – to go with him to the Kawatche caves to see him off. Clark had protested at first, thinking that it would be too difficult for all of them, but they convinced him that it was what they wanted to do.

When the day came, Clark felt like a soldier going off to war, only he had no luggage, there would be no one with him, and he didn't have a clue as to when the war would be over.

Clark looked at his parents and tried to memorize their face. He hoped that it wouldn't be too long before he could see them again.

"Thank you guys for finding me in that field and taking me home," he said.

His mom was crying and she hugged him hard. Clark had to laugh when she whispered 'be careful' in his ear. She had always been a worrier. He then hugged his father and laughed at his warning.

"You take everything Jor-El says with a grain of salt, you hear? You know how he can twist things around."

Clark promised that he would and then stepped over to Chloe. She was trying valiantly not to cry but was not succeeding.

"Well, superhero, you better learn a lot, cause you'll have to teach everything to your sidekick when you get back, you know," she said.

"Chloe, you've always been the one teaching me what I need to know. I don't see that changing even after I come back," Clark said as he hugged his friend. He leaned down and whispered, loudly enough for Lex to hear, "Make sure you keep Lex out of trouble, okay?"

Chloe laughed and said that she would even as Lex protested with an offended denial that it was never him that got into trouble.

Clark moved on to Lex, as he muttered, "Why do I suddenly feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz?"

"Does that mean you'll miss me most of all?" Lex said with a smirk.

"No, I'll miss your Ferrari most of all. God, I love that car," Clark said with a fake sigh.

"Jerk," Lex said and pulled Clark into a rough hug, complete with manly slaps on the back. "Don't be gone too long, all right?"

"I'll try not to. Meanwhile, your job is to keep Chloe out of trouble," Clark said and ducked out of the way of Chloe's purse as she aimed it for his head.

With that, he turned to Lois.

"I can't look at you," he said, anguished. "If I look at you too long, I'm never going to be able to leave you."

Lois stepped forward and took his face in her hands. "You'll find the strength to do what you need to do because you've always been the strongest man I've ever known. And I don't mean the fact that you can bench press a tractor."

Clark felt tears gathering in his eyes. This really was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do. Right now, he seriously doubted that he could just walk away from her. She kissed him, and Clark returned it intensely, trying to let her know without words how much he loved her. When the kiss broke, Clark realized he was crying harder than he ever had in his life.

"Please don't give up on me. Knowing that you're waiting is the only thing that's going to get me through this," he whispered, meeting her eyes.

"Never. I will never give up on you. I promise from the bottom of my heart," she whispered back with a tremulous smile.

"Clark, it's time," his father said with a gentle hand on his back.

"Right. I know, I know," Clark muttered and stepped away from Lois, wiping his hands over his face.

He took one last long look at his friends. No, his family! All of them were his family and Clark was going to miss them so much. He wanted to kiss Lois one more time, but he didn't dare because he would not be able to let go, he knew it. At least they would all have each other. Clark let himself be comforted by that fact.

Clark took a few steps backwards towards the entrance to the cave, lifting one hand to wave awkwardly. All of them waved back, with tears on their faces. He made himself turn away and walked into the caves.

He was already counting the minutes until he could come back home.

THE END

Epilogue still to come...