A/N: Alright, I've been really trying to limit the POVs to Clark and Lex, but I'm going to have to diversify just a little to paint a full picture, for this arc.

Chapter 37 - Discovered

Jonathan had to remind himself, over and over again, that it wasn't Clark's fault that all of this was happening. If he couldn't control his physical reactions to green meteor rock, then he couldn't control his mental reactions to red meteor rock. He had made the bad choice to buy the class ring, but he couldn't have known it was going to have this effect on him.

Clark had been on edge for awhile now. Maybe it was something about the tornado, or possibly even something about starting high school—it had been a strange year. This was the first year Clark had really started to use his abilities outside of making farm work easier, and Jonathan still had very mixed feelings about that. It wasn't surprising, though—it was only to be expected that there might be some growing pains as Clark went through his teenage years.

But today had been strange, and it was more than just Clark's attitude. He had pulled up in a bright red Ferrari. Where had he even found a car like that?

It wasn't important. What mattered was that Jonathan didn't know where to even begin to look for his son. What's more, while Clark was acting compulsive, Jonathan wasn't sure if Clark would continue to keep his secret under wraps. Lex already knew it, which was bad enough, even though Jonathan was fairly confident the Luthors were out of their lives for good. But if Clark started showing off his powers to even more people, it was only a matter of time before their lives got much more complicated than they already were.

On a whim, it occurred to Jonathan that if Clark was running away, impulses running high, he might try to take Lana with him.

He gave a quick shout to let Martha know where he was going, hurried out to his truck, and drove to the Talon.

Clark wasn't there. Neither was the Ferrari. But while he was here, Jonathan pulled over and went into the coffee shop, where Lana was working behind the counter.

She gave him a soft smile. "Hi, Mr. Kent. Can I get you anything?"

"Thanks, Lana, but I'm actually looking for Clark. Have you seen him?"

Lana's face fell, and she looked away. "I'm not the person you should be asking."

That was the last thing Jonathan had been expecting to hear. "So you haven't seen him?"

"Not since he took me out last night and abandoned me for another girl. After he started a bar fight."

"Bar fight?" Red meteor rock or not, that boy was grounded. "So you have no idea where he could be?"

"Probably with Jessie."

"Who's Jessie?"

"A new girl at our school. Clark took off with her during our date."

Just then, a tall, skinny girl in a strapless top and torn jeans ran up to the front counter, stepping right in front of Jonathan and facing Lana. "Have you seen Clark?"

Lana glanced up at Jonathan, worry in her eyes, then back at the girl. "I'm sorry, I haven't."

"He was supposed to meet me, we . . ." The girl wove her fingers into her hair and stomped away.

"Jessie, I'm assuming?" Jonathan asked.

Lana nodded. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Kent."

Jonathan let his breath out. "So you don't have any other ideas about where he might have gone?"

"I . . ." Lana winced and shifted her weight. "Um . . ."

"What? Where?"

"It's just, I'm not even sure if it's true, and I don't think he'd want me to say . . ."

"Please, Lana, we're desperate. Even a place to start."

"Well . . . I don't know. But there have been a couple of times when I saw Clark talking with Lex Luthor."

The Ferrari. Jonathan felt his jaw clenching, but he didn't want to jump to unfair conclusions. "Is it possible it was just a chance encounter?"

"Maybe. But the couple of times I've seen them talk to each other, they didn't sound like they were just passing by. They sounded like close friends. And one time, Clark told me not to tell you that they'd been talking to each other. Ah." She lowered her head. "I shouldn't say any more, he's not going to be happy with me."

The corners of Jonathan's vision were turning red. He could feel his pulse in the whites of his eyes. "Thanks, Lana," he said.

"I hope you find him," Lana called after Jonathan as he went, but he barely processed it.

Clark had broken his promise—he hadn't stayed away from the Luthors. He'd been visiting with Lex behind Jonathan's back, lying to his parents. Those couple of encounters Clark had had with Lex—at the plant the day it had been taken hostage, and the day the cattle had all died—those hadn't been coincidences at all. Clark had planned it.

Jonathan had made it clear to Clark how he felt about the Luthors. He'd told him this was the one and only thing he would stand firm on, and Clark had gone behind his back. He doubted Clark had done it intentionally, at least at first. He was sure Lex had lured him away, probably made him all sort of promises or maybe even threats. Maybe even made Clark believe that Lex was his friend.

Jonathan slammed his foot on the gas and took off toward the mansion.

He was absolutely going to kill Lex Luthor.

Lex paced in his study, rubbing the back of his neck.

He'd told Clark to wait, but he wasn't sure exactly what either of them was waiting for. He had no idea what to do about this. Clark hadn't been exposed to any toxins that Lex knew about, and even if he had, he wasn't going to answer questions about where he'd been and what he'd eaten and touched. Not without repeated threats, which Lex wasn't willing to make. He couldn't possibly carry them out.

On the off chance there wasn't something wrong, and this was the new Clark, Lex was going to have to deal with some more serious questions. Lex couldn't keep Clark locked up forever. Sooner or later, he'd have to let him out—and despite Clark's earlier comments, Lex knew exactly what Clark was capable of. The thought terrified him.

If he was honest himself, the only reason he was stalling was because he was wracking his brain for any solution that didn't involve calling Clark's parents. If it really was a drug, Clark might start to sober naturally. But it had been a full day . . .

When Lex's security guard informed him that Jonathan Kent was waiting for permission to enter at the front gate, Lex knew he should be terrified. But he couldn't help but feel relieved when Jonathan walked through the door into the study, even though he looked absolutely livid.

"Thank God you're here," Lex said.

"Do you know where my son is?" Jonathan all but shouted.

"I have him, don't worry. But he's not himself, Mr. Kent, I don't know what to do—"

"Take me to him. Now."

Lex swallowed—he'd have to walk Jonathan through the experiment room, and Lex had a pretty good idea of exactly what Jonathan would think of that. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."

"You kidnapped my son. I will be pressing charges. Take me to him if you don't want to make things any worse for yourself."

Lex made the mistake of hesitating.

"NOW," Jonathan bellowed, and Lex jumped, leading the way down into the experiment room.

"I don't know what was happening with your family," Lex said as they walked, "but Clark was trying to run away from you. I was afraid of what he might do, and . . . I locked him up."

"You should know that he can get out of a locked room, Lex."

"Not this one. There's trace amount of meteor rocks in the walls."

Jonathan's face turned pale, and he stopped walking for a moment. "How do you know about the meteor rocks?"

The jig was up, one way or another. Lex might as well be honest at this point. "I helped Clark figure out what was causing his powers to fail."

"And you used it against him."

"The room has a carefully calibrated concentration of the meteor rocks. It doesn't hurt him. It just neutralizes his powers."

"Why do you even have that room?"

"As a precautionary measure. I didn't originally build it for him."

"You took advantage of his weakness!"

"Only to keep him from running away. Admit it, Mr. Kent, you were afraid of that, too."

Jonathan scowled. "How did you even know he wanted to run away?"

"Because he told me. He asked me to come with him."

"And why would he do that?"

Lex didn't say anything. He let Jonathan work it out in his own mind.

His expression darkened. "How long?"

"Since we met, more or less. But Mr. Kent, I'm not sure this is the best time to talk about that. Clark's been acting differently. Do you know why?"

"It's a ring he's wearing. Have you seen it?"

"I'm not sure." Lex had been a bit distracted by the coat.

They reached the door of the experiment room. Lex took a deep breath. "Mr. Kent, I want you to hold an open mind about this until we have a chance to talk."

"No promises."

"Whatever you think of me, especially after seeing what's in this room, our first priority right now is helping Clark."

Jonathan just stared at him.

Lex sighed and opened the door.

Jonathan stepped into the experiment room, and his eyes darted from one piece of equipment to another. Lex could feel the weight of how obvious it was that everything was designed for Clark—treadmills, weights, hydraulic presses, medical scanners, probes, sensors, computers. Pieces of evidence from fights Clark had had with meteor mutants. Photos of meteor rock samples and diagrams of its molecular structure. Even pictures of Clark—microscope images of his blood, X-rays, various tissue scans.

Lex could practically see the steam coming out of Jonathan's ears. "We can talk about this later," Lex said. "Clark's in here."

He led the way over to the prison cell, entering first and keeping his pendant held up in front of his shirt front. Clark stood defiantly in the back corner of the room.

Jonathan stalked into the room and crossed his arms. "Take off the ring, son."

Clark smirked and looked over at Lex. "Some friend you turned out to be."

"Clark!" Jonathan lunged for him, grabbing his arm and reaching for his hand.

Clark shoved his father back. He didn't have his powers, but he was still an angry teenage farm boy, and the shove was enough to knock Jonathan back.

"Hey!" Lex held up the pendant. "Take it off. I will use this."

Just for a moment, Clark's bravado broke. He flinched slightly, and then his scoff sounded forced. "In front of my dad? You wouldn't dare."

"So you're gonna make me stick this in your pocket and pry the ring off your finger. Okay." Lex made a show of fumbling with the spring release button.

"Okay, stop!" Clark pulled the ring off and threw it at Lex. "Happy now?"

It was dead silent for a moment as horror overcame Clark's face. "Oh no . . . oh no . . . Dad—"

But Jonathan had already whirled to face Lex. "What on earth are you thinking?"

"Mr. Kent, I understand—"

"Dad, stop." Clark put a hand on his father's shoulder. "It's not his fault, it's mine."

"He's a Luthor."

"He's my best friend."

There was a moment of eerie stillness.

Then Jonathan lunged for Lex, slamming him back hard against the wall and keeping a grip on the front of his shirt. He coiled back a fist, and Lex, dazed from the impact with the wall, didn't fight back.

But Clark did. With none of his speed or strength but all of the reckless confidence of someone who usually had both, he darted forward and caught his father's hand mid-stroke.

And screamed as the bones in his fingers gave a sickening Snap!

He fell to his knees, cradling his hand, tears filling his eyes. Jonathan dropped down and put a hand on his face. "Son, I'm so sorry, are you okay?"

"Get him out of here!" Lex threw open the door of the cell, and Jonathan helped Clark to his feet and walked him out of the room. As soon as they were out, Clark sighed with relief and let go of his hand.

Jonathan breathed hard, keeping his hand on Clark's shoulder, but he turned to glare at Lex. "Come on, Clark," he said. "Let's go."

"No, Dad, Lex is—"

"Clark." Lex shook his head. "Go home."

Clark shrugged off his father's hand and approached Lex, throwing both arms around him. "I don't want to lose you," he whispered.

Lex hugged back, but he let go quickly, aware of Jonathan's eyes on him. "Don't worry about me. Take care of your family."

Clark nodded, and he and Jonathan left the experiment room.