"My name is Kal-el although I believe you know me as the Traveller. This is my fiancée, Lois. She is not Kryptonian." Clark could tell he had made a major slip up by the way Lois was looking at him strangely. It seemed they had become engaged without either of them realising it.
"Kal-el!" Dr Swann replied in shock. "I expected a child. How could I have missed your arrival?"
"Dr Swann, I have not arrived yet and will not do for a few months." Clark replied, determined not to go into any details which could jeopardise the timeline. "I am from the future. I did arrive here as a young child in 1989."
"From the future. So time travel is possible in the foreseeable future." Dr Swann's eyes were wide with amazement.
"That is not strictly true. I was helped to time travel by people in the 31st Century."
"So why are you here?"
"There was a time rift in 1989 which would have prevented me from achieving my destiny of becoming Earth's saviour. If we had not changed it back I would have become a force for evil and the results were catastrophic. We have now fixed that rift but the android that tried to change the future is back, and is walking around disguised as Lionel Luthor. We think he is trying to kill you so you cannot advise Kal-el in the future on how to achieve his destiny."
Star intervened. "In my vision, I saw this Brainiac android shoot you in some abandoned warehouse, and then try to blame the murder on Lionel Luthor."
"So Lionel is still alive?" Clark asked.
"It would seem that way." Star confirmed.
Dr Swann looked at Clark. "So what can we do about this?"
"Brainiac is almost indestructible and has most of my powers. I cannot destroy him very easily. We could have sent him back to the future but there is no guarantee that he won't come back." Clark explained. "We need to either reprogram him or shut him down. That is why we need your help with this. "
"If you give me a few more details, I will try and help you. There may be some clues in the transmissions I received from Krypton before it was destroyed. There was a code in the transmission which has allowed me to decipher some of the language. Can you read the symbols?"
"Yes I can but not fluently. I am still learning a lot about my heritage and powers."
"How are we going to do this?" Lois asked.
"I will tell you what I know." Clark pulled up a chair next to Dr Swann. "We are not likely to get disturbed, are we? Lois and I are on the run after busting out of jail an hour ago. Brainiac is trying to frame us, as he knows who we really are."
"No one ever disturbs me if we have a meeting."
"I remember that from the few times we have met." Clark smiled. "You will become a big influence in my life."
Dr Swann smiled, as the two of them started to put their heads together to come up with some ideas…
"We can't let you do it, Star." Clark exclaimed adamantly. "He could kill you."
"I know I can do it and besides millions more will die if I don't." Star replied determined. "In fact if you don't let me, I will do it anyway. There is no other way!"
"You're very stubborn." Dr Swann added.
"I know, but it is one of my better qualities. This will work, trust me." Star told them. "I am not ready to die yet."
"Anyway I think both of you need to leave and I will reconnect with Dr Swann to get some more clues to help our plan." Star continued.
"I am not happy about this." Clark protested. "But I guess I am not going to change your mind."
"No, you're not!" she replied.
Clark picked Lois up. "I will catch up with you later."
They headed to the Kent Farm to see if they could find some safe haven. Clark scanned the area and there was no sign of the police or Brainiac.
Clark knocked on the door, and waited. Martha approached and once she saw them her face lit up. "Thank god you are both ok. The police have swarmed the whole farm to look for you but they gave up when they did not find anything. You should be save here if you want to hide out."
"Thanks, Martha." Lois hugged her.
"I don't believe you did anything anyway." Martha said as she poured them a cup of tea.
"We didn't do anything apart from trespassing on Luthor land."
"What do they expect? You do not know Smallville and there were no signs up." Jonathan said as he approached from the living room. "Those Luthor's are trouble."
"So they said something about you being on charges of trespass and solicitation?" Jonathan changed the subject.
"They got the wrong person." Martha glared at her husband for bringing it up.
"I guessed that!" He tried to smooth it over and then looked at his watch. "We have a farmer's meeting in town now, and if we don't go we might raise suspicions, so if you will excuse us, we will be back about 7. Make yourself some dinner."
"Ok, thanks!" Lois smiled, as they headed out of the door.
She turned to Clark. "Clark, we need to talk."
"I know exactly what you are going to say and it was a complete slip of the tongue." He stammered nervously.
He noticed an odd look of disappointment cross her face. "Oh… I thought it would be." She tried to sound convincing.
He took a deep breath, and decided to take the plunge. "Lo, do you want to get engaged?"
She looked up at him with her nervous expression. Her eyes were sparkling and she was biting the inside of her lip – a sure sign of nervousness.
"Why do you?" She countered his question, expecting his reply to be no.
"Yes, I would love to, but I did not think you would be interested." He looked at her.
"Who told you that!" She was still skirting the subject.
He sighed. "Give me the ring."
She could not make eye contact with him, her heart confused by his request. She took it off, and gave it back to him.
He smiled, and kneeled down on one knee. "Lois, I know we are still young, but the last week has made me realise that I can't imagine a life without you in it. I know it won't be easy being with me and this greater purpose I supposedly have, but I honestly don't think I can live without you. Whether it is 1989, 2006 or any other time for that matter I will always love you. Will you marry me?"
Lois was taken aback by his declaration. Although she knew he had feelings for her, she did not realise how deep they went. She grinned at him. "Yes, Clark… I will."
He placed the ring on her finger and then stood up, and enveloped her with his arms, and kissed her deeply.
When they finally broke apart, he looked at her. "Lois, I would understand if you would like another ring."
She took it in. "No, this ring is perfect but your words mean even more."
"I hope we can jump sometime tomorrow if we can get Brainiac sorted. I will always remember our time here but I think we need to get back to our own time."
Clark cooked them some dinner, but they were interrupted by a knock at the door. He scanned it, and then went to answer it.
"Star… come in."
She came in with a determined look on her face. "We are going to go through with the plan tomorrow morning. I have delved deeper into Dr Swann's memories and I have discovered that Brainiac kidnaps him tomorrow morning. That is probably why the vision was so clear."
"So have we got our plan sorted?" Clark asked as the three of them discussed everyone's role.
Star left before the Kent's came back.
"Hi." Martha said as she walked in the door arms linked with Jonathan.
"Did you have a nice night?" Lois asked.
"Yeah. I think we were the highlight of the night, being back together and all." Jonathan beamed, his happiness at being back with Martha evident.
"There is something we need to talk to you about." Jonathan's expression changed.
"The police are determined to pin something on you. I don't know how easy it will be to get the charges dropped. Lionel has some major influence and now the state's attorney is involved in the case."
Lois looked at Clark. "We are leaving town tomorrow anyway."
At the back of Clark's mind, there was a plan growing bigger by the minute…