Nullification

[redraven]

This story is amazing, Cardinal. I absolutely love the way you write, it's so easy to picture every part of the story with all of the detail you put in.

I agree with Nemu, it's good Lana got something out of her marraige with Lex. Can't wait to read the part when Clark and Lana meet again...if that happens, that is. PPMS!

[Cardinal]

Nullification

Epilogue, Part II

Once Clark had found Chloe, he left the library and rocketed into the sky from the front steps. He was out of sight in seconds, but he lingered on for a lifetime in the memories of those who saw him. Theirs were the first confirmed sightings of the man that would become the world’s greatest hero…the first sightings of Superman.

Finding the Planet wasn’t hard since the giant golden ball on its top was visible for miles around. Going inside to find Chloe, without first preparing her for his sudden reappearance, was completely out of the question. So, he found a payphone with a phonebook still attached, and made a collect call to the Daily Planet’s newsroom, claiming to be a confidential informant for Chloe Olsen.

A member of the news staff accepted the call and ran to tell Chloe she had a C.I. on the line. That completely surprised and somewhat intrigued her, mostly because she didn’t have any confidential informants at this time. Perry waved her out of his office, not wanting to interfere with whatever hot story she was covering on the side. He loved it when his reporters showed initiative. Chloe walked quickly, almost to the point of running, and pulled off her right earring before putting the receiver to her right ear.

“Chloe Olsen here, and who am I speaking to?”

Clark couldn’t believe how emotional it was for him to finally hear a familiar voice after twelve long years away. Only the extra measure of control he had gained while in training allowed him to keep from weeping openly on the street. It still took him so long to collect himself that Chloe almost hung up on what she was beginning to believe was a prank phone call.

“Well? Speak up!” Chloe said impatiently. “I don’t have all day.”

Clark’s voice was somewhat deeper than it had been the last time they had spoken, a natural effect of the aging process, and his voice was also shaky with emotion when he said, “Someone who’s been gone a very long time.”

The receiver clattered to the desk top and thence to the floor as Chloe jumped back from it as if it was a poisonous snake. She knew that voice. It was a voice she had begun to believe she’d never hear again, and now her emotions welled up as her best friend, excepting Jimmy of course, seemingly came back from the dead.

“Oh, Clark!” Chloe said through her sobs as she picked up the receiver. “I can’t believe you’re finally back. Where are you? When can I see you?”

“Whoa, Chloe, slow down a bit. I haven’t talked to a single human being in twelve years and you‘re bombarding me with questions.”

“Sorry, Clark,” Chloe said giddily. “I’m just soooo excited to finally hear from you, and everyone else will be too, especially…” Chloe’s speech trailed off in mid-sentence as she realized that especially was in danger and that especially’s very own guardian angel was back in town. Suddenly reverting back to her business demeanor, Chloe said, “Clark, listen to me very carefully. I hope you’re somewhere nearby, because Lana’s in trouble.”

Those were words to conjure with.

Clark had allowed himself to slouch against the side of the phone booth while he was talking to Chloe, but just hearing that Lana was in trouble brought him back to full attention. He listened carefully as Chloe said, “She’s a hostage in a bank robbery at the First National Bank of Metropolis. It’s located at State and 3rd. I talked to her a few minutes ago and she was hiding out in a women’s restroom, but they may have found her by now.”

Focused on the job at hand, Clark barely took the time to thank Chloe for her information before hanging up the phone. He checked the street signs on the nearest corner and oriented himself with a map of Metropolis he had memorized once as a kid. The bank in question was only a half mile away, which meant Clark could be there in seconds.

Lana had finally been found by the crooks when one of them decided to search the rest of the first floor, looking for stragglers just like her. The man had heard her talking to Chloe and had tensely waved her out of the stall and into the lobby with the other thirty-seven hostages.

Lana’s exquisitely tailored business suit was receiving some use its designer never intended as she was roughly pushed to the ground by the man who appeared to be the leader of the crooks.

“You shouldn’t hide from us, Missy,” the man said. “We’re in a tight spot here and need all of the hostages we can get…besides,” he added as he looked her up and down, “a pretty one like you will make a good picture for the evening news when we make our demands.”

Lana had two personal bodyguards with her, but they were both sitting with the rest of the hostages and she didn’t know if their guns had been found or not. Even if they had them, though, she wouldn’t allow any gunplay with the lousy odds being two against five. The robber who had found her told his boss that he now had to use the john, so he trotted off, temporarily leaving four of them in the lobby.

Once at the bank, Clark didn’t just run through the front door and start throwing punches left and right. One thing he had learned from Jor-El was strategic thinking. So he flew to the roof of the bank building and used his x-ray vision to see through the intervening floors of the building, until he was seeing the bank on the first floor. He made a careful count of the people who were standing and found four. He had to assume they all had guns and were willing to use them.

Clark tried to pick out Lana, but when he finally found the women’s restroom, there was no one inside and, besides, he had no idea what she looked like from straight overhead anyway.

I can’t play favorites, Clark thought disgustedly, but just this once, it would’ve been nice.

Clark knew his speed and quickness, and he also knew how fast humans can react, even when they are really edgy like those four crooks below, so he knew he’d be able to disarm them without a struggle. He then headed to the rooftop’s stairwell door and sped to the first floor.

Clark was careful, using x-ray vision to check on the four guys in the lobby one more time. From this distance, he could see that two of them had pistols tucked into their jackets along with the shotguns they were wielding. Clark then burst through the door and headed for the guys with the two guns first. All four guys were disarmed before the first one even noticed his guns were gone. Clark quickly bent all six guns into unusable shapes and tossed them into the corner.

It was hard for Clark to tell who was more surprised, the crooks or the hostages. He was just about to advance on the unarmed crooks and hand them over to the police when the fifth crook, who had been in the restroom, came around the corner and opened fire on Clark from point-blank range.

The first shotgun blast staggered Clark just a bit, but before the crook could pull the trigger a second time, Clark had wrapped his shotgun barrel into a pretzel and tossed it in the corner with the others.

The big problem with the shotgun blast was that the S.W.A.T. team outside took that as an attempt on the lives of the hostages and stormed the building. Clark acted quickly when he heard the command given over the police radios. One by one, he began throwing the five crooks out the front door, to the amazement of everyone watching.

The police still came in anyway, and wanted to take Clark in for questioning just because he was dressed like a freak, but the hostages were quick to set the police straight.

“That young man may be dressed in his underwear,” one older lady said, “but he handled those crooks as easy as one, two, three.”

One of Lana’s security guards identified himself and confirmed the old lady’s account to the disbelieving cops. It wasn’t until they checked the bank’s security tapes that they believed the story and ‘allowed’ Clark to leave.

While everyone else in the room waited for the police to take their statements and send them home, they were all staring at Clark and wondering who he was. Some of the younger women were also wondering if they could get his number, and one man thought he was looking fabulous, but Clark had eyes for only one person.

That person had been helped to her feet by her bodyguards, but her entire focus was on the powerfully-built man in primary colors. Seeing him was like reliving a memory which was slightly out of focus. He didn’t look quite the same as she remembered; he was bigger, more obviously manly and his hair was cut close to his head with a funny little spit curl dangling down his forehead, but he was Clark, and that’s all she needed to know.

Unfortunately, the excitement of seeing Clark, on top of the excitement generated by the robbery, caused Lana’s legs to buckle, and she fell forward in a dead faint. Even though her bodyguards were standing next to her and Clark was across the room, he zipped over and caught her before the bodyguards were able to do more than flinch.

Clark thought the emotions caused by talking to a familiar voice were powerful, until he held Lana in his arms once again. It was then that the first wave of emotions battered his heart like a tsunami. And like a tsunami, there were multiple waves, each hammering away at his control until he couldn’t take it anymore. Even twelve years of Kryptonian training couldn’t stand up to ten seconds of Lana. He handed her limp body over to the largest of her guards and disappeared into the men’s room just before he collapsed against a wall. Once Clark was well away from the prying eyes of strangers, his tenuous grip on his emotions failed. Anyone that passed by could hear him, but the police just passed it off as a form of post-combat reaction.

It was quite some time before Clark was able to regain any semblance of control of himself. Twelve years! he thought as he sobbed. Twelve years without her smile, the sound of her voice, and the swing of her hips. But most of all, twelve years without her love. Such a sacrifice.

By the time Clark was ready to face the world, the police were ready for his statement. He told them about relieving the crooks of their weapons and even gave them a demonstration to reinforce what they‘d seen on the videos. When they asked him for his name, Clark was at a loss and said, “I don’t…have one yet.” Not for this persona anyway.

Lois had been busy grabbing quick interviews with anyone she could grab as they came out the front door in twos and threes. When she had seen Lana, her friend and boss, get carried out by her bodyguards, Lois figured she had enough coverage on the foiled bank heist and called it a day, volunteering to help take Lana wherever she needed to go. Just as she approached the threesome, Lana began to come to and moaned, “He did it…he’s such a super man.”

Lois had no idea who ‘he’ was until Clark made his way out the front door, resplendent in his blue, red, and yellow, only to be hit by a barrage of shouted questions and flashing lights. The crowd seemed to be twenty people deep, in a semicircle that surrounded the front door. Clark was just glad the police cordon was keeping them back from him. Still, thinking that good public relations couldn’t hurt, he gave them all a smile and a slight wave before launching himself skyward to the amazement of everyone present.

Lois was just as awed as anyone else, but she had nonetheless gotten a good look at the man’s uniform before he left. What stuck out in her mind was the bold S emblazoned on his chest. And then what Lana had mumbled came back to her as she followed a now somewhat conscious Lana and her guards to her limo. A super man Lana said, Lois thought. A super man…Superman, that’s it. The guards knew Lois was part of Lana’s unofficial inner circle and thus allowed her into the back of the car to sit with the still lightheaded Lana.

Lois kept up a distracted one-way conversation with a very pensive Lana while her brain was locked on the idea she had just come up with. Superman, what a great name…that is, if he doesn’t have one already. I sure hope that screw up Jimmy got one clear shot of that guy’s chest before he took off into the sky, or else Chloe may be short one husband come tomorrow morning.

The only thing Lana said during the drive was to immediately overrule her guards when they told the driver to head to Metropolis General Hospital. Activating the intercom, she said in a clear voice, “No. We’re heading back to the Daily Planet.” Her guards knew better than to argue. Their boss was generally a pleasure to work for, but she did not like being crossed once she had made up her mind.

Once back at the Planet, Lana took her private express elevator up to the top floor of the building, while Lois returned to the newsroom. Lana had an experienced newspaperman working as her Assistant Publisher to do the actual daily work of being a Publisher, but there were times she felt she needed to step in and keep the paper on the course she had set, which was why she was officially the Publisher and kept the penthouse office…she wanted everyone to remember she paid attention to what they were, and weren’t, doing.

Both guards stayed in the lobby to keep anyone from accessing her elevator. They would call ahead and alert the two guards on station in Lana's outer office. Riding up alone, Lana reached for her cell phone and immediately asked Chloe if she could come upstairs and join her. She emphasized that this was Lana talking, not the Publisher.

Chloe had been expecting this call ever since Clark had raced off to save Lana. She knew Lana wouldn’t be able to talk of anything else, wouldn’t be able to think of anything else, for hours if not days. Chloe was looking forward to this since it seemed likely to be the first happy conversation they had had about Clark in eons.

Before Chloe could make it to the elevator, she got another call at her desk. She was about to ignore it and go meet Lana when her deskmate answered the call and said it was another collect call. That brought Chloe to a screeching halt and she raced back to her desk to take the call.

“Is that you, Clark?” Upon receiving an affirmative reply, Chloe said, “Give me the number of the phone you’re calling from and I’ll call you back from a more private location. Okay?”

Lois stepped off the elevator just as Chloe stepped on and pressed the 54 button. In a few seconds, Chloe was alone in the elevator and on her way up to Lana’s office when she dialed Clark’s number. “I watched you in action on TV. You were very impressive.”

“Chloe,” Clark said desperately, “I’ll talk to you for as long as you want about that later, but right now, you gotta help me find Lana. I was gonna ask you all about her, to see if she ever got away from Lex, to see how that baby of hers is growing up, and to find out if she ever remarried…but right now, none of that matters. Right now, I just have to see Lana. I can’t wait another minute, Chloe…I really can’t.”

This is gonna be easier than I thought, Chloe thought. “Since you called me, I assume you know where I work. Am I right?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, Lana’s on the top floor. She has the penthouse office.”

“She what?”

“You heard me and I‘m sure she‘ll explain the details to you later. For now, just fly up there…nice new ability by the way…land on her balcony, and knock on her door. If you do that and you’re not covered head to toe with a frantic brunette in under fifteen seconds, then I’ll give up journalism.”

That was all the push Clark needed.

Chloe then stepped out of the elevator, breezed past the guards, stepped into Lana’s office, and promptly told her that she was about to have a visitor. Chloe then pointed to the large balcony and said, “…out there.”

“Huh?” Lana asked. She had spent the last couple of minutes wondering how to find Clark, short of offering a large cash reward for the whereabouts of the ‘hot guy in blue tights.’ Then she realized the only one who could visit her out there on her balcony was someone who could fly. And the only one who can fly is Clark.

Lana grabbed her purse and headed for her private washroom to primp as much as she could. She looked over her shoulder at Chloe and asked, “When? How much time do I have?”

“Oh, I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t do anything drastic. You know how fast he is, so I’d expect him any second now.”

Lana worked furiously, seemingly determined to fix what was already nearly flawless, in the little time allotted. Chloe ducked back out the door, making sure the door locked behind her. If it wasn’t for the fact that Lana’s office was completely soundproof, Chloe knew she’d have to kick the two guards and Lana’s secretary out of the outer office, because she didn’t expect this reunion to be either short or quiet.

Clark, meanwhile, had been flying several high speed laps around Metropolis in an attempt at bleeding off nervous energy while he thought. I told Lana to move on with her life, Clark thought, but Chloe seemed to say that Lana’s still waiting for me. That was how his thoughts went, until he finally gave in and turned toward the Planet, coming to a perfect landing on the marble flooring of the penthouse balcony.

Hesitantly, Clark strode to Lana’s door, his cape fluttering gently in the breeze, and he knocked. Once, twice, three times, and then the door was flung open wide. Lana hadn’t had the chance to release her twelve-year store of emotions, but seeing Clark here and now, with such a look of hope on his face, did the trick.

Lana’s hurriedly retouched makeup had to suffer through a storm of tears as she collapsed into Clark’s open arms. She tried to draw on his strength as she released twelve long years of heartache, twelve years of missing her other half, twelve years of wondering if this day would truly come.

“Oh, Clark! You’re here, you’re really here!”

Clark stroked Lana’s hair as she buried her face in his chest, and said, “I told you I would find you. No matter how long it took. No matter how far I had to come. I would find you…and I’m here.”

[treker]

very very nice Cardinal. I notice that we still don't know what Lana's last name is. And what's with all the security guards?

Publisher of the Planet? How'd that happen?

I'm just dying to know....it seems from the tone that Lana has waited for her one true love all these years. I hope that's true.

Thank you...

[SVsleuth]

Awesome, Card! Now didn't you enjoy writing this much better than what you first intended when you started this fic?

Finally together, after all those years. Chloe is right: it's a good thing Lana's office is soundproof, because I think the rest of their day will be spent :bangbang: in there.

Hmm.... I don't see a "The End" - does that mean you're going to give us even more?

I have a feeling you didn't get much sleep last night, if any at all, & had to dash off to work early this morning, so I guess we'll find out that answer later this afternoon or this evening.

Love this story, Card. The best part is that, since Smallville will never tell us what happens after Clark's training, we can just choose to beleve that it happens just like this.

[redraven]

I'm curious about what happened to Lex...and the 'baby', if there was one. Maybe it'll all be explained in the next part of the epilogue after Clark and Lana really get...reunited. Hope so.

Update soon, Cardinal!

[Nemu]

well i agree with all of the above lol...

and i had a feeling that the 2 parts epilogue might be longer...

i hope so... cause from now on you aren't bound by anything except your imagination...

I hope there is more...

[NYC300Z]

There just has to be more! There are still so many unanswered questions! oh man I hesitated at reading this at first when Card wrote it wasn't intended to be happy, but man it was great!

PPMS!

[Hahaveryfunny]

MORE, MORE, MORE! We have got to have are questions answered Card. PPMS!

[kewl]

brilliant card!!! but u still have a lot of explaining to do..... so it should not definitely end there! ppms..

[smallvilleobsessor17]

I agree with everyone else...please write more! This is a phenomenal fic- it has everything in it.

[Cardinal]

Nullification

Epilogue, Part III

Words were impossible in that moment as both Clark and Lana marveled at the very hereness of each other while they held each other tight. At long last, he moved her back to an arm’s length away to allow his eyes to drink in the rounded angles and smooth planes of her face along with the subtle curves of her body, as if to assure himself that she was real. He saw innumerable little differences in the way Lana looked now as a 33-year-old compared to when she was 20, but taken all together, they still added up to the woman he loved. He wondered what other changes she had gone through, and looked forward to having the time to find out.

Clark’s outfit interested Lana, and any other time she’d be asking him all sorts of questions about it, but right now, she had a different suit on her mind. Whether you call it his man suit or his birthday suit, Lana was more interested in what was under the blue form-fitting body suit. With her first close-up look at Clark since his return, she noticed how truly massive he had become. Given her current train of thought, Lana impishly wondered if he’d become bigger everywhere during their lengthy separation.

There’s only one way to find out, Lana thought as she launched herself at him. She grabbed Clark by his golden belt and yanked him inside her huge, but tastefully decorated office. Lana stopped just long enough to pull the door closed behind them, blocking out the outside world.

Clark could see where this was leading, and he was content to allow Lana to set the pace. From what he could tell so far, her pace was going to be frantic, just as Chloe had predicted. He only hoped he could keep up.

In one corner of the huge office, Lana had a couple of large and comfortably overstuffed couches arranged as a conversation nook, facing the glorious Metropolis skyline. That’s where she headed with Clark, though right now, she wasn’t interested in the spectacular view, which was blocked by closed vertical blinds, or in conversation.

“Twelve years, Clark,” Lana murmured. “That’s soooo long to be without you. Welcome home.”

“It’s good to be home,” Clark replied, and he meant it. For him, his home was wherever Lana’s was.

The kisses started flying fast and furious between them, and by the time Lana backed Clark into the front of one of the couches, she already had his body suit pulled down around his waist.

“I think I want you down where I can reach you,” Lana said, just before she pushed him backwards onto the couch. There, that’s better!

Before she joined him on the couch, Lana kicked off her shoes and gracefully slipped out of her designer suit, throwing it onto the other couch, all the while keeping her eyes focused on Clark.

For his part, Clark was vaguely aware of Lana’s bare shoulders and legs as they came into view, but his attention was held by her eyes. He’d always been able to tell that she loved him just by the way she looked at him, and now, after twelve years without even the slightest contact, he could see the love still burning in her eyes. It was all he needed to know: there had been no one else while was gone, there’d never even been a temptation. She had waited for him.

“I love you, Lana,” Clark said quietly, feeling the inadequacy of those few words. “If you only knew how much…”

Lana shushed Clark with a finger to his lips. “I expect you love me just as much as I love you, Clark. And given how much I love you, that’s saying a whole lot.”

Lana’s patience and absolute commitment to him humbled Clark, making him wonder how he could ever hope to be worthy of her. His eyesight had begun to blur, when Lana brought him back to the matter at hand by asking him if he’d like to help her with her underclothes.

Clark readily agreed, and as he leaned forward and reached out with his hands, he was struck by the contrast between how shyly Lana had asked him compared to the boldness of her initial attack. That only reinforced in his mind the fact that it would take time for him to learn all of the many complexities of the woman before him, but he knew it would be worth it.

Some indeterminate time later, Clark and Lana were cuddled together on one couch, sheathed in nothing but their skin, and basking in the afterglow of their lovemaking. It was only then, wrapped in Clark’s arms, that Lana finally let go and allowed herself to cry. Clark understood the need completely and said nothing, but just held her a little bit tighter.

When she was finally capable of speech, Lana said, between sobs, “I knew you’d come back, Clark, I just knew it! I never gave up hope.” And then, she added something that struck him as being somewhat funny, but he struggled to not laugh because she was being so serious. “I sure hope you learned something useful while you were gone.”

“Yeah, I did,” he said solemnly, “but I so deeply regret having been gone this long. I…I don’t know if I would’ve gone there in the first place if I had known it would take twelve years.”

“It’s over with, Clark. We can’t change the past.”

Not anymore, anyway, Clark thought.

They talked of inconsequential things for a while, leaving the serious topics for a later time by an unspoken mutual agreement. At one point, while they were goofing around, Clark gave Lana a naked piggyback ride around her office. Curious, he stopped by a window and ever so slightly twisted one slat of the blinds so he could peek out and see Lana’s breathtaking view of Metropolis.

“I bet it’s nothing like seeing it from your viewpoint high in the sky, though,” Lana said.

“I really don’t know,” Clark admitted. “Today’s the first day I’ve been able to fly, but I promise to take you up for a flight any day you want so you can see for yourself.”

“Really?”

“Of course! We’ll just need to wait for darkness so no one will see us.”

Eventually, the realities of life intruded upon their idyllic afternoon in the form of hunger pangs. Lana had been privately amazed that no one had called her while Clark was with her, but a quick chat with her secretary on the intercom revealed why. Chloe had sent the girl home for the day shortly after leaving Lana alone in her office and had planted herself behind the desk. Once there, she had ruthlessly and cheerfully blocked each and every attempt anyone made to contact Lana, whether by phone or in person. Lana thanked Chloe, sure that her best friend knew exactly what had been going on.

Lana had some calls to make, but figured Chloe didn’t know the right numbers, so she made the calls herself. First, she called her personal assistant, who had been spending most of the day running several errands. Lana told her to drop whatever she was doing and instructed her to instead buy several pairs of men’s sweats, an equal number of boxers and pairs of socks, and one pair of athletic shoes. She was then supposed to deliver that entire mess to Lana’s home before calling it a day. Lana had had to estimate Clark’s sizes, but felt confident she was reasonably close.

Next, she called her home and told her chef that she would be having a guest for dinner, and that he had a large appetite. That last comment drew a half-hearted protest from Clark, which sent Lana into a giggling fit. Her final two calls were to her chauffeur, to ask him to have her limo ready at the front of the building in five minutes, and to her helicopter pilot, so he’d have her helicopter ready at a nearby helipad in half an hour.

With both of them now fully dressed, Lana looped her arms loosely around Clark’s waist and pulled him in for a casual kiss. She had always enjoyed the sight and touch of Clark’s impossibly soft lips, and was gratified that while his muscles had become harder during his long absence, his lips hadn’t.

“God, I’ve missed doing that,” Lana said. “You tend to take for granted the pleasure of giving a simple kiss to the one you love, until you can’t kiss him anymore…and then it becomes the most precious thing.”

“Agreed.”

“Following my helicopter home should be easy enough for you, don’tcha think?”

“Child’s play,” Clark said, with mock disdain. The whole concept of flying was still new to him since Jor-El had imparted the knowledge to Clark in such a way that he hadn’t needed to practice to learn to control the skill. So today’s flights were actually his maiden voyages.

Clark didn’t remember seeing a helipad on the Planet’s roof, so he asked, “Where will you get picked up?”

“Oliver Queen, that dear man, lets me use his. Chloe told me you and Ollie are good friends, so I figure you know where his building is already…right?”

Oliver and Lana know each other now, Clark thought, and they’re close. That’s good. I’m glad she’s had someone looking out for her…and as far as that goes, someone to help her adjust to her obviously immense wealth. Clark had a pretty good idea where her money had come from, but he wasn’t about to bring up that subject. If she decided to talk about it, however, he’d be happy to listen.

“Clark?” Lana asked, when she received no reply.

“Uh…Oliver’s helipad…yeah, gotcha…I’ll be there, somewhere far overhead.”

After one last, lingering kiss, Lana shooed Clark out onto her balcony, from where he immediately launched himself skyward, not stopping until he was well out of sight of anyone in Metropolis. Clark then located Oliver’s helipad far below and waited.

Lana was filled to overflowing with joy and energy and a lot of other good things she couldn’t even think of at that moment, and those good things needed an outlet. They got one when she left her office and met Chloe. The two of them couldn’t say anything about Clark in front of the bodyguards since they knew no one had come up either the elevators or the stairs and entered her office since before she had come back from the bank robbery, so Lana pulled Chloe back inside her soundproof office and shut the door, using the excuse that, ‘you’ve just got to see this, Chloe.’

Once the door was shut, Lana started jumping up and down, threatening to break the heels on her Jimmy Choo shoes, as she screeched, “Chloe!! Clark’s back! And he still loves me! AAAAAAAHHHHH!”

That last primal scream was hard on Chloe’s ears, but was a balm for her heart. She had been Lana’s primary source of support during Clark’s absence. There were many nights when Lana had been feeling down, wondering when Clark was coming home, and Chloe had been there for comfort.

Chloe, in turn, had been amazed that Lana always said ‘when Clark was coming home,’ never ‘if.’ Her steadfast refusal to admit there was even the slightest chance that something might have happened to Clark had been a source of inspiration for Chloe. Together, the two best friends had kept each other going. Lois had helped out some, but not being privy to Clark’s secrets, there were a lot of things they couldn’t tell her.

When Lana calmed down, Chloe hugged her ferociously and said, “I’m so happy for you!”

“Oh, I’m so happy for me too.”

Both women laughed at that and then Lana said, “I’d stay and chat all night, but I’ve got to go.”

Already knowing the answer, Chloe asked, “What’s the rush?”

Lana rolled her eyes and replied, “I’ve got a date with the absolute hottest guy. I’ll have to remember to introduce you two sometime.” Lana grabbed her small purse and headed for the door, with Chloe right behind.

Thirty minutes later, Lana was climbing into her helicopter for the ten-minute flight to her sprawling estate located in the rolling countryside west of Metropolis, with Clark following her from a discreet distance overhead.

[Max001]

The only fic... ever where the epilogue is twice as long, and twice as good as the actual story

God you're such a good writer. I would kill for you're talents.

[deanyouk]

An absolute brilliant story Card, I cant wait to know what happened to Lex.

[Nemu]

That was good!!!

Now... for a sec there I thought that Lana was going back to Smallville...

I wonder when that discussion will come up...

PPMS!!!

[kewl]

excellent update!! there's still a lot more that we ought to know card, so keep em comin'