Peter picked himself up from the pile of hay and wood he'd landed and dashed for the barn doors as the hooded party crasher made his escape once more. He skidded to a halt and turned back as several thumps, bangs and then an echoing groan of pain came from the bottom of the stairs. Clark laid amid a metal tool box and several tools that'd spilled when he'd crash landed on the floor.

"Clark?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll catch up somehow. Go after him. Use your super speed." He instructed him as his face creased with pain.

Peter hesitated for a second and then took off, too fast for the human eye to catch. Clark propped himself up on his elbows and winced as his side twisted with pain. The only times he had ever felt pain was when he was in the presence of green meteor rocks. He had no doubt that there would be a bruise or two later on to remind him of how fragile he was in this body.

Clark pulled himself up off the floor and jogged towards the barn doors. Both the hooded party crasher and Peter were long gone, with barely a trace. He wrapped his arms around his waist as if to hold himself up, and hobbled outside towards the exit of the farm.

"Peter…"

He sighed, and turned around. He had been hoping to avoid having to pretend to be Peter, but it seemed that his luck was all out after the past few days he'd had. Between Lana's jealousy and everything that had happened since he and Peter had switched bodies, he was hanging on for dear life.

"Not a good time, Gwen." He dismissed her calmly.

But Gwen was having none of it. She marched right up to him and her eyes drifted down to the side that he was holding onto like it would fall off.

"Y- you're hurt?" She questioned and reached out to lift his t-shirt.

In a panic, Clark smacked her hand away and mentally kicked himself when he realized what he'd just done. Gwen took a step back and folded her arms across her chest, and he could feel the frustration radiating off her. He swallowed his nerves and forced a laugh.

"Sorry, I didn't mean that… but it's cold out here." He improvised.

"Forget that, Peter, what happened?" She inquired.

"It's nothing." He insisted.

Gwen's eyes narrowed and she reached for his t-shirt again before Clark could stop her. Lifting it up, her free hand flew to cover her mouth as it revealed a forming black bruise and several minor but nasty looking cuts.

"That is not nothing." She disagreed. "Peter, what happened? Did somebody hurt you?"

"No!" Clark snapped. "I tripped over and fell down the stairs in the barn, now would you shove off?"

Her hand fell slowly back by her side and her mouth hung open in shock. Clark grit his teeth and let out a breath through his nose, knowing that he'd just made a huge mistake as a look of hurt flashed across her face.

"Shove off?" She repeated in disbelief. "No, Peter, I won't shove off and I will never shove off when it comes to you. Never!" The hurt in her eyes morphed to fury, and Clark flinched at her tone.

"Yeah? Well, it's annoying." He muttered.

"Annoying?" She raised both eyebrows. "That's probably the most hurtful thing you've ever said to me… and I'm sorry if caring about you is annoying, I guess I won't make that mistake from now on."

"Oh no…" He whispered. "Gwen, wait-"

But instead of waiting, she ran away and as she looked back, she crashed straight into Peter as he came running back up the driveway.

"Gwen?" He questioned.

"Not now, Clark." She dismissed him and continued running.

Clark stared at Peter, and vice versa, as the latter calmly continued onto the farm. Both were confused for completely different reasons.

"Wanna tell me what that was about?" Peter pressed.

"Yeahh… I kinda screwed up." Clark admitted sheepishly. "Anyway, what happened? Did you catch him?"

"I did." Peter informed him. "Then he got me with a green rock."

"Damn it!" Clark cursed.

"Forget it. We can find him when Chloe gets back to us." Peter shrugged. "But what do you mean that you screwed up?"

Clark felt his cheeks heating up. "Uhh… nothing that can't be fixed." He chuckled.

"Stop being cryptic." Peter warned. "What did you do? Come on, I know you did something because she seemed pretty upset when she ran into me."

"Fine." Clark sighed. "She got concerned about you and I wasn't thinking straight because I was in pain, and I- I kinda told her to shove off and that she was annoying."

"You did what?" Peter yelled. "Why did you do that?"

"I was in pain, something I'm not used to, and it kinda just slipped out. Peter, I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" He scoffed. "You had better fix this, Clark."

"I will, I'll-"

"You'd better." Peter cut in. "I don't want her to break up with me."

Lois grabbed her glass and threw the bottom up as she downed its contents. Each time that someone walked through the door, she looked up, and each time, it was not who she thought. With her patience wearing thin, she rolled up her sleeve and glanced down at the watch on her wrist.

"Seven-thirty. On the dot." She sighed. "This was a mean set up, Smallville."

Rolling her sleeve back down, Lois stood up and grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair. She slipped it on with ease and fluffed her curled light brown hair, setting it free from being trapped between her back and jacket. With no sign of Clark still, she moved towards the exit and stopped abruptly when Lana stepped in her path.

"Lana Lang… Well, isn't this just awkward?"

"Lois, I-"

"Came back for an encore?" Lois assumed. "You do not want to piss me off right now, Lana. I'm already in a bad mood."

"I guess I deserve that." Lana squeaked. "But actually, I wanted to apologize. I don't know if it was the alcohol, but I feel terrible about those things I said last night."

"Don't worry about it." Lois shrugged. "Oh, and you have nothing to worry about. I think he's made himself pretty clear."

A frown crept across Lana's face. "Clear? How?"

"Don't worry about it." Lois repeated, and moved politely around Lana and out through the door.

She folded her arms across her chest as she stalked down the street and her anger grew with each step she took. Her plan was to march all the way back to the Kent farm and give Clark a piece of her mind.

Unbeknownst to Lois, she wasn't alone. Each step she took was taken by another, using the shadows of the night sky as cover. He waited until she turned off the main street and into an alleyway, then decided to make his move. Creeping up silently behind her, he clamped his hand over her mouth. Lois' eyes widened, but her consciousness faded before she could act.

"So… Where's Lois? Where's Gwen?" Martha asked as she placed one plate full of food in front of Clark and another in front of Peter.

The two boys exchanged a look and then shrugged simultaneously and waited until Martha trailed off into the kitchen. Neither of them wanted to think about the mess they'd made of each other's lives since they'd switched bodies. Then it crossed Clark's mind, and he glanced at the clock on the wall. His jaw dropped when he saw that it was past eight and he swung his foot under the table, kicking Peter in the shin.

"What was that for?"

"You were supposed to be somewhere half an hour ago!" Clark reminded him harshly.

"Oh no!" Peter protested. "I'm not going on that date. Not after you messed with my relationship."

"I didn't mean to!" Clark defended himself. "I really am sorry, Peter… And as for the date… it doesn't really matter now." He sighed.

"Did it really matter in the first place? You never wanted the date anyway."

"Yeah, but-" He stopped, unable to grasp why he was mad about missing a date that he had no desire for. "I don't know, I just don't want to be teased."

"Why not?... I think she's just giving you a hard time because she's attracted to you."

Clark slammed his fork down on the table as his mouthful of food went down the wrong way, causing him to choke. His coughing continued until he picked up the glass of water next to him and downed it in one big gulp.

"Woah, was it something I said?"

"You know damn well what you said." Clark croaked.

Peter grinned and within seconds his grin turned into a laugh. "I mean, she's attracted to you but she doesn't want to admit it, so she pretends that she can't stand you instead."

"Nah." Clark shook his head. "You're reading way too much into this."

"Am I?" He challenged. "You seemed pretty worried about missing a date you didn't want."

Clark fell silent. He had been caught off guard by Peter challenging every word he ever spoke about Lois. It wasn't something he wanted to admit out loud, and especially not to Peter, but he was right. He was getting way too worked up about a date he had been pushed into.

"I didn't- I don't want it, but I would look really bad if I took it back after you set it up." He covered.

"But it'd look worse if you strung her along."

"All I know is that she's going to kill me now, and despite my powers… she just might be able to."

"Dude, you're almost invincible."

"Yeah, to everyone but her. Trust me, she knows exactly how to aim."

"Hmm, so she's been studying you then." Peter prompted.

"Yes. I mean no! I mean, she currently resides in my bedroom so of course she's probably gone snooping."

"Wait, you mean that you bunk together?" He wiggled his eyebrows.

"Nooo! Hell no, that would be torture. The couch is my bed until she gets called for duty by her dad again." Clark explained.

"Huh, so you can't stand this girl yet not only does she stay here on the farm but you gave up your room for her? Yeah, you must really hate her."

"I never said hate." He protested. "I may not see eye to eye with her, but hate is too strong."

"Well, best case scenario; we swap bodies back and you can set things straight. Worst case scenario; she bludgeons you to death with kryptonite."

"Yeah… God, I hope tomorrow comes fast. No offense, but it sucks to feel every cut and bruise." Clark laughed, and groaned as he felt the pain from it.

Peter rolled his eyes. "I don't know about you, but I'm just about ready for bed."

Clark didn't respond. A weird tingling sensation had started in his feet and traveled up his body and into his hands, leaving him with the feeling of pins and needles. He stared with curious eyes as the fine hairs on his arms stood on end.

"Clark?" Peter questioned.

He still got no response, even as he waved his hands in front of his face. Clark had completely zoned out, but within minutes he snapped out of it without any more interference from Peter.

"Clark?" He tried again.

"I don't know how to explain it… but I got this really weird feeling. Something doesn't feel right."

"Oh, that's the Spidey sense… or, and don't you dare tell anyone this, Peter Tingle."

Usually Clark would have found himself laughing at something that sounded so ridiculous. But the feeling in his gut that something was up has knocked all sense of humour out of his body.

"What is it telling you?" He prompted.

A deep frown settled between his eyebrows and then he got up from his chair too quickly, causing it to fall backwards to the floor with a clattering sound.

"Lois!"

"Yeah, we've already established that you might not be long for this world after missing that date." Peter joked.

"No, I mean she should have been back by now."

"Maybe she's with Chloe?" He suggested.

"Perhaps." Clark sighed. "Chloe would still be at the Torch, we should stop by."

"Please tell me you're not thinking about walking all the way to the high school… I have your super speed, remember."

"Is your only power sticking to things and getting pins and needles?"

"No." Peter answered sharply. "There's also shooting webs, the ability to crawl on walls and ceilings, and pretty neat reflexes."

"No speed?"

"Not unless you swing from building to building on a web."

"Incase you haven't noticed, Smallville's buildings are pretty spread out apart from downtown." Clark pointed out. "It's no bother, we can just use the truck I got for my birthday."

"You mean to tell me that you had another truck this whole time?!" Peter gawked in disbelief.

"Yeah, but I've never used it."

"Now is as good a time as any." Peter concluded.

Clark rushed over to the door, grabbed the keys to his truck off the hook and headed outside with Peter following behind. He stopped when he reached the blue truck that had been sitting idly on the farm since his last birthday and thrust the key in to unlock it. Once they were both seated, Clark fired up the engine.