26thJanuary 2006.
Clark could not work out what was going on. He had just woken up on the sofa in his loft; his mind felt hazy. Soon the brain fog began to lift and he realised that he must have fallen asleep. The importance of that day suddenly hit him – this was the day he was going to propose to Lana in a desperate attempt to convince her to give their relationship another shot. He had it all planned; he was going to take her to the Fortress and tell her everything.
Lois opened her eyes, and gave them time to focus. She realised she was lying on the bed in Clark's room or at least the room she had taken over since she moved in. She looked at her watch and realised it was 11am, way past the usual time she would wake up. Her head felt like she had downed a dozen vodka shots and then some. There was no headache, just a cluttered and confused mess in her mind.
She got up, had a quick shower, and headed downstairs to see what was happening. Her long term memory seemed intact; it was more the events of that morning which were all jumbled up.
There was no one in the farmhouse with her, so she headed to the kitchen to make a strong cup of coffee to see if it would help ease her situation. She sat down at the table with the strongest cup of coffee she could tolerate. Suddenly her cell started to vibrate…
She looked at it, and realised that it was a text from Chloe. It was another one of the jokes which she constantly forward onto Lois. She could not face reading it now, so she decided to save it for later.
"Memory full… Delete some files."The message came up on the phone.
Lois groaned, thinking her cell was on the blink as she was never one for taking lots of photos or video clips. She selected the file option on her phone to see what the problem was. There was one file which was taking up a ridiculous chunk of memory. She had to do a double take when she noticed its duration was 1hr and 11 minutes.
"What the hell." She exclaimed to herself, as she selected it and opened it.
She wished she hadn't. It was like something off Triple XXX TV, in fact even that channel was a little tame for this clip. The background was quite dark so it was hard to make out the participants but the groans and screams from them left her in no doubt about what was going on between them. She felt sick.
She thought that her cell had a virus on it which had meant content had been stored on it without her knowledge. She was about to delete it when she heard a familiar voice…
"Let's try something a bit different!" the voice groaned as he rolled on top of his bed mate.
"What the f…." Lois said out loud. "Clark… how the hell did he get his hands on my cell and how dare he use it to make dirty videos with Lana." If it was Lana because Lois was having trouble focusing on details.
Whilst all of this was happening, Lana had arrived at the barn. "You wanted to see me, Clark." She said gently as she climbed the stairs. There was excitement on her face.
"Actually before you start, there is something I need to tell you. I can't believe what has happened to me this morning." Lana could not contain herself.
Clark smiled. "Ok, what is it? You look so happy."
"I have just been offered a two week placement with the Swann Institute in New York…. All expenses paid. This will be great for my astronomy course." She explained.
"You mean.. Virgil Swann."
"The one and only." She beamed.
"So when do you go?"
"Well I am leaving in two hours, so I was wondering if we could take a rain check on our magical mystery tour. I cannot pass up a chance like this." She replied.
Clark was taken aback. He knew he would have to put his plans on hold, but then he came up with an idea. "Look, why don't I come with you?"
Lana looked anything but thrilled at the idea. "I don't think that it such a good idea. I will be working and studying all the time and I will not have any time to spend with you."
"Lex said he would take me to the airport. I need to go now and pack. I will call you when I get there." She announced cheerily as she walked over, kissed him on the cheek, and skipped off down the steps.
Just as Lana left, Lois came up the stairs with such an angry look on her face. "Smallville, sit down."
Clark was still reeling from Lana's news so he did not fight with Lois, and sat down as ordered.
"We need to lay down some ground rules here. I am shocked that you would do this."
"Do what?" he asked, still confused by her ranting.
"Well for one, I cannot believe you used my cell without my permission, but that is nothing compared to what you used it for. "
She pressed play and thrust the cell in his face for him to watch.
Clark watched, his expression changed to one of immediate horror. "How, when…."
She glared at him. "Don't tell me that you do not remember this."
He looked very pale. "Do you remember this?"
Her jaw dropped at his suggestion.
"Clark, don't be sick! Why would I be there?"
He looked at her in disbelief. "Well unless I am very much mistaken, you are just as involved in this as me."
Their argument was suddenly interrupted by woman on the video. "Just like that, Clark!" Lois could not believe what she was hearing, and turned the screen around to look.
Seconds later, the color drained from her face, and she was out cold on the floor…
Clark picked Lois up and placed her on the sofa. As he did, something on her left hand caught his eye. He lifted her hand up and realised that she was wearing the ring meant for Lana.
He tried to think back to the events of the last few days and he remembered everything so when had all this kicked off. He realised it had probably happened during the night, and he had no doubt that the culprit was Red K, although it was odd that he did not remember what had happened, as he had in the past.
He heard his parents approach the barn; he panicked and decided to intercept them as he did not want them finding Lois out cold. There would be too many questions which he could not answer.
He ran down the stairs. "Hi mom, dad."
"Hi Clark. We have just popped in to grab some stuff for the Talon party. We are almost ready but we will let you know if we need anything." His dad explained as he headed into the house.
His mom smiled at him and whispered. "Clark, a visitor will be arriving in a few hours. Could you bring them by the Talon. Your father will be thrilled to see them."
"Who is it?" Clark asked curiously, although his mind was still caught up in the mystery of his sudden relationship with Lois.
Martha noticed Jonathan coming out of the house. "Clark, I will tell you later. It is a very old friend who has been a lot of help over the years."
His parents left, and he headed back up to the loft. Lois was sitting up rubbing her head. "What happened, Smallville? I had this ridiculous dream that we had videotaped ourselves doing the horizontal mambo."
Clark laughed nervously. "Lois, it seems it wasn't a dream but I have no idea how or when it happened."
She looked giddy again but then managed to compose herself. "Maybe we were drugged somehow. Chloe once told me how she had made out with you when you were under the influence of some sort of parasite. It could have happened again."
"You seem calm whatever the reason." He replied.
Her face went red. "Clark, I am anything but calm. But getting worked up about it is not going to help. It has happened now; we cannot remember it; it was a mistake so let's just move on with our lives."
"But I cheated on Lana." He was horrified at the realisation.
"Well not strictly. You were not yourself when it happened. Let's face it, we would never be bed partners unless there was something major affecting us. Anyway I am going for a lie down to see if I can work out what happened. " Lois explained as she felt something on her finger.
"What's this?" She asked as she twirled the diamond engagement ring around her finger nervously.
"It is the ring that I was going to use to propose to Lana before she fled off to New York on work experience." He announced. "I have absolutely no clue how it got onto your finger."
She smiled, took it off and give it back to him. "Clark, for what it is worth I think you are making a mistake asking Lana to marry you. Let's face it, you are only doing it so she will stay with you."
His face suddenly showed his anger. "I do not appreciate you sticking your nose in something which is not any of your business."
"Well, I will leave you to get back to your usual moping now Lana has walked out on you." She sneered, and walked out the barn, regretting her words instantly. She was going to turn around but she realised it would just make matters worse.
Lois's words had hit a raw nerve, but mainly because she was completely right. He decided to spend some time trying to work out what had happened.
She lay on her bed, the recent events were swirling around in her head. Suddenly she got the urge to have another look at the video. She tried to convince herself that it was so she could look for clues, but deep down she knew it wasn't. She pressed play.
Clark paced the loft for almost an hour before he decided that the only person who could help him come up with an answer was Chloe. He decided to tell Lois about his decision so he headed over to the house.
As he climbed the stairs, he scanned Lois's room to check if she was sleep. He soon realised she was in bed but asleep. He knocked on the door gently.
"What do you want?" she shouted sounding very flustered.
He suddenly realised what she was watching. His hearing confirmed it. He pushed the door open, revealing a very flushed Lois. "Smallville, get the hell out of my room." She screamed as pulled the bed clothes up covering up for her lack of clothes.
He smirked. "Why are you watching that?" he decided to wind her up.
"I was looking for clues." She replied. "It does not make sense."
"Come here." She changed her tune, and patted the bed for him to sit next to her .
He gulped, but was intrigued. He sat next to her and then asked. "What doesn't make sense?"
"This video is showing two people very comfortable with each other. Smallville, we barely have a functioning relationship so how can we have sex without things being very awkward. I don't think this is us. It is manipulated."
"Do you really think?" he said, distracted by the noises coming from the video.
"There is no way that we would do anything like this. In fact I am almost jealous of the couple. Because they look like they are having such an unbelievably amazing time." She announced in a somewhat embarrassed tone. "That proves that this could not be us, because let's face it, if it was, then it would be a quick fumble in the dark and it would be over."
He took exception to that, and for some inexplicable reason, he plunged her lips on to hers…