Chapter 13

"One hour, Chloe! You've weren't even gone one hour. How could this have happened?"

"I know. I know. What was I supposed to say? I had to think fast."

"It's not your fault. I just—"

He shook his head again, at a loss for what to say. He resumed pacing back and forth, stopped and looked at Chloe, as if to say something, then resumed pacing again. He reminded Chloe of a large panther in a cage.

"How's she taking it?"

"Were you not listening just now? I told you she was pretty upset. She ran off before I could try and explain."

Clark shook his head, "I'm not worried about Lana--what about Lois? You said Lana had a melt down in front of her. How did Lois react to that? Is she okay? Do I need to talk to her about it? Where is she, by-the-way?"

"Oh. I just thought you meant . . . oh, well, Lois handled herself fine. I mean, she's Lois, y'know? And anyway, she doesn't remember your history with Lana. She's in the house. I told her I had to talk to you about what the doctor had to say." Chloe was taken aback by Clarks' concern over Lois instead of Lana.

"Good thinking."

"It's what I do--usually."

That managed to garner a slight grin. And then he let out a long sigh.

"So, you're not mad? I thought you'd be freaking out about Lana finding out the way that she did."

"You know Chloe, I don't owe her anything. How many times was I the last to know about things in her life? She didn't tell me about Jason, or Lex. I think she's got a lot of nerve to be mad about it, especially at you. If I had married Lois or anybody else, it's not your news to tell."

"O-kay. Who are you and what have you done with Clark?"

He chuckled a little at her jibe. "She's with Lex now. I've got to close the book on that chapter of my life."

"True. But even still, I think that somebody needs to tell her what is really going on."

"Why?"

"Ok, let me walk you through a scenario . . . she goes home tonight, upset about what happened. She tells Lex and he gets a burr under his saddle that he is going to investigate this wedding. He finds out it didn't happen, he outs us all. We wind up with egg on our face."

"Right. I wouldn't put it past Lex to stir up trouble just because he can."

"Exactly."

"Can you go clear things up with her? I can't go. And I don't cant have her come here."

"You bet."

"You know, maybe this isn't such a bad cover story, after all."

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, I had some time to go through the house after I got back from checking on Lionel's story."

"--I meant to ask you about that."

"His story checked out. There really was an education bill. I hate that I waste so much time checking and rechecking his stories over nothing."

"I know it's hard—but you had to check it out."

"Right. Well, as I was saying, I had gone through the house, making sure that I cleared out all the pictures of Lana and that I only had pictures of Lois. I realized that there weren't that many of Lois. Then I realized that she might start to question where our wedding pictures were, so I was thinking I was going to have to see if you and Jimmy could do something in photoshop, which would create more problems later. So this solves that problem."

"Yeah, I follow. I'm really glad you are taking this so well. I honestly thought this conversation was going to go differently."

"What else you have done or said Chloe? If I had been there myself, I would likely have gone worse."

She nodded and got up from the couch. "Well, I better get going. I have a paper to finish and I still need to talk to Lana."

"You're leaving me here alone with Lois?"

"Well, Yeah." She called back to him as she descended the stairs from the loft.

He followed her down the stairs. "But, what if she tries to kiss me again?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. Do what comes natural—kiss her back."

"CHLOE!"

"What, what the big deal Clark? Kissing Lois can't be that unpleasant."

"It's not. It's not unpleasant at all."

"Well, what's the problem, then?"

"That IS the problem."

"What do you me--?" She shot him a quizzical look, and then she began to see his meaning. "Oh. OH!"

"I don't know Clark. Tell her you've got a headache."