CHAPTER TWO

RESURRECTION

She walked over to the mausoleum and placed a yellow rose on the ground in front of his name. It was a new day, and the sun hadn't even come up. It was dark and cold, just as she was lately.

"I have a confession…"
She hung her head and waited a second. "I miss you, not like you would expect me to miss you…" she started to cry and wiped her tears.

"I guess you never know what you have until you lose it…"

She waited as if she expected him to answer.

"I took you for granted Smallville; I'd do anything to show you how I really feel." And the choking she had to walk away and hug herself tightly. She circled only to come back seconds later.

"I guess it's too late …for…us."

"You'll be disappointed in me, I punched Ollie." And then almost laughing she said, "Actually, I kicked his ass."

She hung her head. "He's hurting Clark, he needs his friend. I told what you would tell him…that it wasn't his fault, and he had to go on….He's so lost, we all are."

She took a deep breath. And looked up and continued…. "I didn't see your Mom…I couldn't, if I saw her, I would lose it, and then she would know everyone would know, and what good would that do either of us?"

"I know, I know, I'm a coward…I promise, I'll see her this week, I've put it off to long. I just know that once I see her, it'll be too real…"

Angry with herself, she started wiping tears and said solemnly, "I promised…promised you that I would take care of you; I said I wouldn't let you get hurt. How could I have been so stupid? All this time, I hated Ollie….But It wasn't his fault…it was mine. It was my own damn fault Clark…I'm so sorry…"

"Isn't it funny? I realize out how much I care after I let you down."

She put her hand on the stone and traced his name.

She whispered to his name that was engraved in stone, "If I live to be a hundred, I won't ever love anyone the way I do you."

She turned and walked into the dark, into the world that no longer held anything for her.

Somewhere behind the walls of Clark's grave a trace of a thought escaped..."Lois?"

She kept hearing this voice, she was surrounded by ice and it kept saying the same thing…
"Your human emotions are clouding your judgment, Beware of your feelings they will betray you."

It was strange; it was talking to her, but to someone else as well. Then she suddenly woke up, only to find herself standing in the middle of the Indian cave in Smallville.

"Not again…" She worried to herself.

"Why am I here?" Lois found herself roaming through the caves, again. It was a constant problem lately. She would wake up and find herself miles from the Talon. It seemed she would get in her car and drive to the cave while she was asleep.

"What the hell is going on with me?"

She turned and ran away, as she always did. She drove back to the apartment as fast as she could, when she walked in the door, she was attempting to be quiet. But, Chloe startled her when she spoke up.

"Lois? Where have you been?" She was worried, and her tone was scolding. Something was going on, and she didn't like it.

Lois of course jumped, and nearly knocked over a small table by the door.

"God Chloe! Don't scare me like that!"

"Where have you been?!"
"I…I…" she wondered if she looked as nervous as she was.

"I just couldn't sleep…It's no big deal…"

"Really? Lois It's three in the morning! Since when do you go driving around at three in the morning on a nightly basis? What's going on with you?"

Lois went on the assault… "Nothing! I told you I just couldn't sleep…what's with the twenty questions Chloe?"

Chloe walked over to a drawer and pulled out a couple of bottles, she threw them on the table in front of them.

"Since when can't you talk to me about what's bothering you?"

Lois just looked at the bottles and then at Chloe. She sat down and buried her head in her hands.

"Lois? Why are you taking this?"

"It's no big deal…"

Chloe sat down, looked at her, and said what she was thinking…

"You know, I never thought I would be asking you something like this, but….Is this about Clark?"

Panicking, she went for a full fledge denial. "Don't be ridiculous!" but she couldn't even look at Chloe when she said it, in fact, she got up, pretended to be mad, and turned around and then spoke. She wiped a tear from her eye before Chloe could see.

"Lois, look me in the eye and tell me this isn't about Clark!"

She looked at her for what seemed like an eternity, she felt a brick wall building up inside her, one where she would keep all those around her out.

She found something to say, it was enough of the truth that she hoped Chloe would back off.
"I haven't talked to Mrs. Kent…I felt so badly for her…she's like a second mother…I've felt…responsible. I promised him, I wouldn't let anything happen to him, and then…I let him down, with a rookie mistake…it's my fault."

"Lois, your not blaming yourself for this are you?"

"I walked in a room without checking it out first, and because of that, Clark is…he's…" she turned around and closed her eyes. "I have to face her, I just can't keep running away…it's killing me."

Chloe turned her around and hugged her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I can't find the words anymore…" and that was the truth.

Martha Kent was sitting behind her desk looking through government databases, when Lana walked in the office. The sight of Clark's first love, brought back memories that nearly undone her. Much like Lois, Martha had been bottling up her emotions. She immediately got up, and rushed over to her.

"Oh God Mrs. Kent…I can't imagine what you're going through."

She pulled back and looked at Lana, she rubbed Lana's arms and said…

"I'm so glad to see you…."

"Mrs. Kent, Don't give up, Chloe is working on finding a way to undo this."

"I know, I didn't give up on Jonathan, I won't give up on Clark." She was holding the tears back.

"I have something, I don't know if it will help…but I thought…"

"What? What is it?"

She laid a hard drive on Martha's Desk, and then said… "This is everything I could find in Lex's computer systems that day, everything within a keystroke of his influence…Maybe it can help you and Chloe find a way to undo this…"

"Oh Lana, I can only hope."

Lois found herself roaming the farmhouse, she was looking everywhere, but she couldn't find it.

"It's not there! She heard a voice say anxiously.

"You think?" she answered back sarcastically. She was in Clark's room looking everywhere. In his closet, in his dresser, she looked through his pockets in his red jacket.

"Listen to me Lois…it's not in here!"

"What am I even looking for Smallville? If you want me to help you, you've got to give me a clue!"

"It's not in here! It's…"

"I get that…why me…why can't you find it?"

"I'm dead -remember?"

"Oh Yea, that's why it's been so quiet…." she was defensively sarcastic.

He reached out and touched her, she realized that she could actually feel him, and she started to lose it. He saw her start to cry and quickly squeezed her arms and started to plead to her...

"Lois, please! I need you to pull yourself together…you have to find it for me…"

"Why me?"
" There's not much time Lois!"

"I'm going-I'm going!" she answered with frustration. Suddenly Clark was gone, she found herself surrounded by ice, and a voice was booming all around her

"Your human emotions are clouding your judgment, Beware of your feelings they will betray you."

Lois awoke with a start, and once more, she was screaming Clark's name. Chloe rushed in to find an embarrassed Lois getting up.

"Lois, you want to talk about it?"

"How is it that Clark can even annoy me when he's dead?" She was trying to sound sarcastic, but, it wasn't very convincing, it sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

"We all miss him Lois; it's only natural that you would dream about him."

Lois didn't answer. Her mind was a million miles away. She was wondering, how she was ever going to climb out of this hole of grieve that she had buried herself in.

"Lois?"

"I don't want to talk about Chlo," and then turning around she looked at her and said "Please, just do me a favor and leave it alone!"

"Lois, is it possible that you…"

"NO!" she shouted back angrily, "I told you, drop it!"

"Okay, but if you change your mind and you want to talk…"

"Not in this lifetime." She whispered solemnly and closed the door to the bathroom.

Oliver Queen did the only other thing he knew to do. He made a visit to Swan industries. Virgil Swan had more information about Clark than anyone else did. Two days in a vault that held all the information on Krypton hadn't help him much. There was one hopeful piece of information. According to legend the was a unique artifact that was shaped like a pyramid.

It was the most hope he had felt in a long while. Somehow this artifact was found in the deserts somewhere in Iran in the 1940's buried with other ancient it was today, only the government would know. He left armed with information that just might save Clark and himself as well.

At the Isis foundation Chloe Sullivan was about to have a good morning. Oliver had come in looking more like himself than he had in a long time. and he had good news.

"There's an artifact!"

"Ollie!" she ran up and hugged him, only to notice a bruise on his cheek…She grinned when she realized why Lois's hand was bloody.

"Let me guess, Lois?" she asked as she stroked the bruise gently

"What's that saying about hitting a mule over the head with a two by four?"

"Although, it's usually not another mule doing the hitting." She smiled as she spoke.

"Yea, well-It's just what I needed."

"Lois does have a way of putting things sometimes." She walked around to the monitors she had been sitting at. "Now whats this about an artifact?"

" In 1941, Germany was doing expeditions under the direction of the Third Reich; one of these artifacts had strange symbols on it."

" Kryptonian symbols?"

" When the lost the war, it was recovered by the United States, and became property of the department of defense."

" No offense Ollie, but why are we worrying about an artifact that might have been from Krypton? What difference would that make now?"

" The symbols on this artifact, they translate to one word-Resurrection"