Lex brought Bobby to meet Madison, but after a five minute conversation, Bobby ended up telling Lex to try to get some sleep. Lex resisted, but Bobby wasn't the kind of person he could easily refuse, and Lex doubted he was going to be able to get much done while he was this exhausted, so he finally caved.

He just about had a heart attack when he woke up and realized he'd been asleep for four hours, but the sleep had cleared his head. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, he was able to pull some threads and get in contact with a werewolf who was willing to meet with Helen in South Dakota, a few miles away from Bobby's house. He was able to meet with some of his scientists, pass along some administrative tasks, answer a few questions for Clark about Sam and Dean's current case, and periodically play host and see to Madison's comfort, as well as Bobby's.

Lex felt a bit sorry for Sam—it was late night by the time he was able to work on the tests. Helen was asleep in one of the cell rooms in the lab. She wouldn't be able to get out, any more than the last werewolf he'd had in there for testing, but if she did, Lex would be the first to know. Bobby was asleep in one of the other rooms. He would be able to help if anything happened with Madison.

Lex was ready with a battery of tests for Sam's blood. Thankfully, the Kryptonite infection test came up negative. There were very trace amounts of Kryptonite present in his blood, but that was true for almost everyone who lived in Smallville—in most cases, it didn't even produce enough radiation to be picked up by his modified Geiger counter, and it definitely wasn't enough to hurt Clark. But the test he'd developed with Chloe was able to determine whether the Kryptonite had made modifications to a person's genome. Sam was clean.

From there, he began testing for supernatural "infections," focusing on any and every creature that had any kind of psychic abilities. Lex had never heard of a human-based creature whose first sign of infection was predictions of the future, but there was a first time for everything.

But not in Sam's case, evidently. All of those tests came up negative as well.

One by one, Lex crossed off possibilities from his list. With each negative result came both relief and tension. Lex knew better than most what it was like to be left without answers. Out of morbid curiosity, he ran every test he knew, even ones that wouldn't explain the visions at all. He even checked for demon possession. There was nothing.

He wondered if there was something more alien going on—Kryptonite infection wasn't the only issue they'd run into over the years. There had been toxins from plants, parasites from the Kawache caves, different strains and colors of Kryptonite. The trouble was, those were so rare that Lex had never been able to develop any sort of tests.

Lex glanced up at the clock. Past three in the morning. Bobby was probably going to end up making him sleep through part of the day again, tomorrow.

Out of options, Lex did a visual inspection of Sam's blood under a microscope. Normal. He shifted the sample to view different sections of the slide. Normal . . . normal . . .

Not normal.

Lex blinked, and he looked again.

Sam absolutely wasn't demon possessed. He didn't show any of the behavioral signs, he wasn't emitting EMF, he didn't have high levels of sulfur in his blood, and his blood didn't look like demon blood.

Except for a few cells.

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It didn't make any sense. It was as if Sam had literally been injected with demon blood. Lex supposed it wasn't impossible that a few demon blood cells could cause a person to have powers, even if only temporarily, but he couldn't imagine how it could have happened without Sam's knowledge.

He was debating whether to call Sam in the middle of the night when there was a bang on the door to Madison's room.

Lex put his head down and squeezed his eyes shut. The same thing had happened the night before. She'd beaten against the door of her cell, rattled her restraints, and howled something fierce. The next morning, she'd had no memory of the whole experience.

To prepare for what might be coming—and, for that matter, for housing monsters in general—Lex spent a lot of time reading personal anecdotes written by people who had attempted the same. For Madison specifically, he'd read about attempting to restrain werewolves who hadn't fed yet. Werewolves wouldn't recognize people they had known in human form, and they couldn't communicate or understand human speech. They couldn't be reasoned with, and they were almost impossible to overpower.

Lex couldn't imagine not trying to talk with her, even though he knew it would do no good. That's why Bobby was here, armed.

He knew he didn't have much to worry about, anyway. There was no way she could escape the room—

The door burst open, and there she stood.

Clothes torn, fangs fully grown in, eyes yellow, and restraints hanging off of her. She growled, and he could have sworn he heard her say, "Starving."

"Help in here!" Lex cried out, but Bobby was already running into the room, gun held out in front of him.

The creature that was Madison raced forward at lightning speed, kicked the gun out of Bobby's hand, and shoved him to the floor.

Lex lunged for her as she sprang for Bobby, and he managed to shove her to the side.

Her head knocked against the wall. Her eyes widened as she straightened up and turned to Lex.

Lex swallowed, and a half second later, he was flat on his back with the creature leaning over him.

Without thinking, he screamed, "HELEN! NO!"

And then he waited for death.

And waited.

His eyes slowly opened. She leaned over him, her face twisted in anger, but she didn't strike.

Then she growled, "I'm not Helen."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Is that why I'm here? Because you still love her?" Her voice was like a dog's bark, but somehow he could still hear her, under it all.

"No." Lex's heart pounded, knowing his life depended on what he said next. "I want to help you."

Her breaths came in ragged and short, but a bit of anger had drained from her face, and she backed up, enough for Lex to pull himself to sit.

A gun cocked. "Don't move."

Madison turned to Bobby and growled, then stood.

"He said don't move!" Lex cried.

Madison's forehead wrinkled. "I can't understand him."

"You . . ." New adrenaline flooded through Lex's veins. He had done this once before, years ago. Spoken to a werewolf. But he hadn't been able to communicate with any of the creatures he'd brought in . . .

"Back into the cell," Bobby said.

"Into the cell," Lex repeated.

"I hate it in there."

"I know. But you're the one who asked us to lock you up."

"I'm starving!"

"You won't starve. We're going to help."

"The hell is going on?" Bobby interjected.

Lex pulled in a shaky breath. "Madison, do you trust me?"

She growled, and this time there were no words. For a moment he thought he was done for, or that she was—he knew Bobby wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger, but he didn't know if she could make her kill faster than the bullet would travel.

A gunshot rang out, and she fell back.

"No!" Lex ran to kneel beside her.

"She was going to kill you!" Bobby yelled.

"She wasn't." Lex couldn't explain now. He pulled back her tattered shirt where the bullet had gone in, and he pressed his hands into the wound, applying pressure, not sure what else to do.

Madison's eyes fluttered open. She growled, "I trust you. But can I kill him?"

Lex blinked and took his hands away from her blood-soaked chest. There was no wound. It had healed.

Lex glanced up at Bobby. "Silver bullets?"

"Y-yeah." Bobby looked as shocked at Lex felt.

"But no Kryptonite."

"What?"

That was the difference between those werewolves Lex had been able to communicate with in his teens, and the ones he'd seen since. Kryptonite infection. And if silver bullets didn't kill Madison . . .

He held out a hand and helped her up. "Let's get you back in your room," he said. "Tomorrow's going to be a long day."