Pilot – Third Chapter
Clark felt himself falling through the air slowly and twisted his body over so he could see what was going on. The water sprayed up around him as he fell into the river. He could see the car drifting in front of him and supersped towards it. He ripped the roof off just as a voice yelled Clark! inside his head. Clark, are you all right?

I'm perfectly fine Rors, the other guy's not though, Clark thought back. Just give me a sec.

Gotcha, came the reply before Rory withdrew from their connection.

Clark grabbed the guy, experienced a moment of shock as he realised the man was bald, and dragged him to the shore. Rory was standing there, and when Clark pulled him out, she knelt down and leaned over his chest.

Listening to his heartbeat Rory said, "His heart's beating but it's really faint. And I can hear water in his lungs."

"Right. Well, you do something about that and I'll call the police and an ambulance," said Clark.

"Speaking of the authorities…" Rory said as she placed her hands on the man's chest. "How are we gonna explain the fact that you're not hurt?

Suddenly what had happened caught up with Clark. "Rory…" he whispered. "That car hit me. How fast do you think it was going? I mean look at what happened to the bridge. It's got a gigantic hole in it! I know I don't bruise easily and I can touch hot stuff without getting burnt and sharp things without getting cut but… Anybody else would've died," he said the last bit in a voice so low that no-one could have heard it – except Rory of course.

Suddenly the bald guy started to cough up water and Rory leaned back on her heels. He looked up at her and his eyes widened. "Am I dead?" he asked.

"No," replied Rory. "My brother dived in after you and pulled you out of the car."

He looked up at Clark and said puzzled, "But… I could've sworn I hit you." He looked back at Rory and her face was the last thing he saw before blacking out.

Clark, however, didn't realize this and said to him, "If you had, I'd be…" He trailed off and looked at Rory, then at the bridge. "I'd be dead," he finished.

About 20 minutes later
"All right, well, that should be all," said the officer interviewing Clark. "You don't seem to be hurt and neither does your sister, so you're both welcome to leave."

"Thank you, officer," replied Clark. The man left and Clark walked over to his sister, sighing a little in relief. "Know who the other guy is yet?" he asked her.

"Nope," she answered, "But he's pretty important from the looks of things."

"Clark! Rory!" called the voice of their father. He walked quickly over to them and hugged Rory as he said, "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine Dad," came Rory's slightly muffled voice from his jacket. He let go of her enough to let her breathe and said angrily, "Who was the maniac driving that car?"

"That would be me," came the answer before Rory or Clark could say anything. The bald man held his hand out to Jonathan and said, "Lex Luthor."

Jonathan ignored the hand and looked at Lex condescendingly. Finally deciding to answer he said brusquely, "Jonathan Kent. And these," he gestured to Clark and Rory, "are my children."

Lex decided to ignore his rude brush-off and said, "You have two," here he paused, searching for the right word, "extraordinary kids there Mr. Kent." His eyes flicked to Rory. "If there's any way I can repay you…"

"Drive slower," said Jonathan shortly. "Come on Clark – Rory." With one final look at Lex, Jonathan left with Clark and Rory.

God, she's beautiful, was Lex's next thought. He shook himself a little and reminded himself that he didn't even know who she was, and that her father and most likely her brother too were very overprotective. Still…

Lex turned to look at the crane pulling his ruined car out of the river to take his mind off it. He frowned when he saw it and thought, There's no way the roof could have come off like that when I hit the bridge.

So how had that happened?

At the Kent farm that night
Rory only had enough time to glimpse the Kent kitchen before her mother hugged her so hard she thought she might snap.

"Mom," she complained cheerfully, "I'm fine, Clark's fine, Lex was fine, we're all fine, but I won't be for much longer if you don't let go of me!"

"Sorry," said Martha, letting go of her daughter and latching onto Clark. "But what happened? We just got a call about an accident on the bridge and then your father took off." She glared at her husband who smiled at her innocently and shrugged.

"Well," said Clark who, seeing as he was invulnerable, wasn't hurt by his mother's hug, "I was on the bridge thinking when Rory came up. We talked for a while, and then she asked if I wanted to go home now. So I looked up at her and this car was coming towards us. I knew I only had a split second to respond and I knew that Rory's invulnerability doesn't work very well so I grabbed her by the arms and threw her to the side. The car hit me; I fell in, ripped the top of the car off, pulled Lex out and swam to shore. The end."

"Yeah," interjected Rory, "but not quite the end. I used my powers to move the water out of his lungs, he came to for like 5 seconds then he went unconscious again. Clark called an ambulance and told them about the accident, I made up the story that we hadn't been hit and that Clark had dived in after him and pulled him out."

"Show-off," muttered Clark and Rory stuck her tongue out at him.

"Anyway, I'm gonna go have a shower. Sorry for worrying you, Mom, and you too, Dad," said Rory.

After dinner in the barn loft
Clark leant over his telescope and looked up at the sky. He then glanced around the loft and when he turned back to the telescope, it had 'slipped' down so it was instead pointing at his next-door neighbour's house. He looked through the lens and smiled when he saw Lana walk over to the chair outside her house and sit down.

Then his heart sank as Whitney came up behind her and hugged her. He watched as they talked for a while. His heart sank even further as he watched Lana take off her precious meteor rock necklace and put it around his neck instead.

Why would Lana do that? he thought, already knowing the answer but not wanting to think it. That necklace is the most important materialistic thing in the world to her. Rory said she hasn't taken it off since the day she got it. Clark put the telescope away and went back into the house.

The next day when Clark and Rory arrive home from school
Clark walked up the driveway thinking about the events of the past day. Rory walked next to him, however while Clark was looking at the ground, Rory was looking around at the farm. Then she saw something that made her exclaim and run forward. Jolted out of his thoughts, Clark looked up and saw what Rory had: a brand new red truck with a big bow on the front. "Whoa," breathed Clark.

"Mom! Who belongs to this?" asked Rory reverently.

"You and Clark do," said Martha smiling. "Oh – here's the card."

Clark supersped up and grabbed it out of her hand before Rory could. "Dear Clark and Rory, always in your debt, the maniac in the Porsche." He looked at the truck and said, "It's ours??"

"Awesome!" yelled Rory. "Where are the keys?"

The smile on their mother's face changed. Now it was less of an I'm-so-happy-for-you-two smile and more of a you're-gonna-have-a-really-hard-time-of-it-now smile. "Your father has it," she said to them, pointing at the barn.

Rory groaned which explained Clark's feelings exactly. "Come on, let's go," he said to her. She followed without replying. They walked into the barn and saw their father working with a mulcher.

He saw them standing there, turned the mulcher off, pulled his earmuffs off and walked over to them. "You can't have it guys," he said preparing himself for a fight.

"Why not?" asked Clark.

"Do you know where the money that bought that truck came from Clark?" their father asked them. "That money came from dishonesty and broken promises."

Now Rory spoke up. "Dad, did you consider that maybe this is just a thank-you gift? I mean, if it wasn't for us, he'd be dead by now."

"So you think you deserve a prize?" Jonathan shot back.

"No," said Rory. "Listen, how about you drive the new truck and we'll drive the old one? Everybody wins!"

"It's not about winning Rory, it's about living a normal life!" Jonathan said frustratedly.

"Yeah? Well what's more normal than fighting over who gets to drive the truck tonight Dad?" asked Rory.

Clark had finally had it so he spoke his mind. "Normal?" he said loudly. They both turned to look at him as he walked over to the mulcher. Holding up his arm and shaking it, he said, "Is this normal?" Clark turned the mulcher on and shoved his hand into it.

Rory shook her head dispassionately, but Jonathan panicked and ran forward. He grabbed ahold of Clark's arm and tried to yank it out. Finally succeeding, he stared at the arm in disbelief as he realized that while the shirt's arm was completely gone, Clark was completely fine.

"The story we told the cops was a lie, Dad," Clark said passionately. "I didn't dive in after Lex's car; it hit me at 60 miles an hour." He pulled his arm away from his father and said to him yearningly, "I'd give anything to be normal. But I'm not."

He turned and went upstairs, into the loft. Rory looked at Jonathan then followed her brother up the stairs.

Martha had come in at the end of the argument and said to her husband, "I think you should tell them Jonathan."

"Remind me why I have to do it again?" asked Jonathan. "I mean, you were the one that wanted to keep them."

"Yeah, but you promised you would," laughed Martha.

"No I didn't!" Jonathan protested.

"Well, too bad. You're their father; they should really hear it from you," retorted Martha.

Jonathan sighed and shook his head.

"Don't forget the... you know. The thing," Martha reminded.

"I'm going, I'm going," said Jonathan crossly.

"Good," said Martha. It was time for their kids to know the truth about their powers, not to mention their identity.