Lana rubbed her temples and glanced up at Lex who watched her intently with sharp eyes. As much as she wanted to, she simply couldn't separate the fact from the fiction of his story, and resigned herself to just listen to the rest.

"So the medication that you were giving me was actually a synthetic hormone?" she asked.

"No," he answered. "The medication was for you. I switched out your prenatal vitamins shortly after you returned from Paris with Nell. When you were put in the hospital after your fall down the stairs at the Kent Farm, they ran several tests on you."

"What kinds of tests?"

"Among other things, a sample of your amniotic fluid was taken and analyzed. My team was able to reconstruct the fluid using that sample mixed with a liquidated form of meteor rock."

Lana's eyes went wide. "That's why its green," she gasped, surveying the containers. A realization hit her, and she whirled back to him. "You poisoned our baby with meteor rock?"

"It was the only way that I could keep it living under such circumstances."

"Lex! You know how dangerous meteor rock is!" she shrieked at him. "The things it can do!"

He stepped towards her with a determined look. "It was that or end the pregnancy outright. I was not going to risk your life."

She pushed her anger down and turned back to the containers, walking over to them slowly. "Which one is it?" she asked.

Lex hesitated, and she could tell there was something that he didn't want to say. Turning his back on her, he took a breath (to steady his nerves?) and then said, "The extraction was successful. We were able to remove the baby and transfer it to the artificial womb." A pause. "But we were not able to sustain its life. The baby died after only a few days."

Lana shut her eyes and felt her knees grow weak. Feeling dizzy, she fought the urge to vomit, and gripped a nearby metal table for support. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she felt the anguish of losing her baby for the second time.

Lex walked over to her, and laid a comforting hand on her back, which she promptly swatted away. "You could have told me," she accused. "Why did you lie?"

"I wanted to wait until I had good news to give," he said. "After our baby died, I had my team of geneticists clone his DNA."

"His?"

"Yeah," he softened a bit, giving her a quick smile before continuing. "There were originally more than this, but they didn't all survive. All but one of the first batch died within a week, and there have been several more created since then."

"That's why they're all different sizes?" Lana asked, daring herself to glance at them again. The mother in her sparked to life again suddenly at the idea that her children were in danger. Wanting not to care, she tried to swallow a hard knot that formed in her throat, but it just wouldn't go down.

Sensing her vulnerability, Lex placed a hand on shoulder and squeezed lightly. Surprising even herself, she didn't push him away this time. She was too confused and had been bombarded with way too much information.

"So all of these are mine?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Ours," he corrected.

Wiping her face and nose, she stepped up to the nearest container to read the identification tag printed on its side.

ID# 0371-59

D.O.C. 26 Mar 07

Sex: Male

Type A-

"What does DOC mean?"

"Date Of Creation," he answered. "It was the day that their cells first began dividing, and they were added to the artificial womb."

"That was only a few weeks ago. Why is the baby so large?" She peered into the green liquid at the fetus, which measured at least seven inches in length. It had hardly any fat on its body yet, but looked more like a real baby than many of the others that were obviously younger.

"A growth stimulant has been added to make them age faster."

Memories of Evan popped into her mind, and she felt panic. "Will that hurt them?"

"It doesn't appear to. Removing them from the womb should revert them back to normal aging function."

"You mean when they're born?"

"Yes." He rubbed her back absently, obviously pleased by her questions (and the fact that she wasn't presently attempting his murder no doubt).

Looking around at the room they were in, Lana felt sad for them. This is what they have to look at: an empty, dirty room with no mother to talk to them and keep them safe in her body?

"Lex, why are you keeping them here?"

"It's protected, I assure you. My guards saw you drive up and were instructed you leave you alone." When she started to protest, he added "Now that you know about them, you can come and see them if you want. Children do need their mother."

She shivered at that, feeling strange and a little inside out at the thought. Mother to all of these clones? Impossible.

And yet, there it was. Her baby had survived in a way, and despite her misgivings about Lex and the unusual way that it happened she felt a sprig of hope for the first time in far too long.

Lana knew that she was still angry, but at the moment she couldn't feel it anymore. Everything was numb, and she let Lex take her home. When they got into bed, he put his arms around her and she didn't cringe at his touch like she so often did these days. Instead she sighed, and leaned into him.

Sex for them had to be hard and fast usually, so that she could separate him from Clark easily in her mind. This time though she didn't have it in her to be brutal. Through the darkness she looked into his eyes and begged them to speak to her truthfully.

The connection they had to each other, which she had thought was long gone, still existed by a single thread, and she clung to it in an effort to find a temporary peace within herself. The tears began before their lovemaking ended, and then afterwards they came in a watery rush, bursting from somewhere deep inside.

She couldn't put into words how she felt, but Lex held her all the same as she cried herself to sleep. She would sort herself out tomorrow. Everything is always better tomorrow.