On the days when Martha had her classes at the community college, Lex was the one to pick up Clark from after-school day care. It was a short walk from his high school to Clark's elementary school.

Those days were Lex's favorite.

For one thing, the teacher was awesome. She always treated Lex like an adult when he went to get Clark, more so than Lex's own teachers. For another, the other kids at Clark's day care clearly didn't judge Lex for his baldness. They were visibly jealous of Clark for having a cool older brother in high school. And another part of it was that none of Lex's friends from school were around, so Lex didn't feel the need to be casual about his affection for his little brother, either.

But the biggest part was that Clark wasn't old enough to feel the least bit embarrassed about showing how happy he was to see Lex, either. Lex would go to the front table where the teacher was, she would greet him and call Clark's name, and Clark would look up from whatever he was doing—playing on the swings, or drawing, or building with legos—and his whole face would light up in a grin.

Lex would walk him home, and he wouldn't make him hold hands to cross the street like Martha did, and Clark would practically skip beside him and jabber on about his latest spelling test, or about something he drew or made, or—most commonly—about Lana. And Lex would think about how somehow, despite the fact that it was still his fault he'd lost Julian, he'd still managed to have everything he wanted in life. And he'd tell himself that he had to be very, very careful, or he might lose this family, too. So he'd listen carefully to everything Clark said, keeping his hands in his pockets and his eyes on Clark as often he could spare them from the road, and he'd try not to think too hard about how little he deserved this, because he didn't want to ruin these moments by tearing up.

One day, though, Lex arrived to find everyone on the playground in a crowded circle, yelling and shouting. The teacher he knew wasn't at her usual table; another teacher Lex didn't recognize was trying to muscle his way into the crowd, and he assumed that's where the other teacher was, too.

Lex's heart beat hard, eyes skimming the crowd for Clark. When he didn't see him, he raced for the crowd, but arrived just in time for the kids to start disbanding.

The teacher Lex had never seen had Clark by the arms, pulling him back; Clark's face was bright red, and Lex could tell it was taking every ounce of restraint he had not to fight back. The teacher from the front table was standing in front of another kid Clark's age, though a lot bigger than him. The kid's nose was bleeding, and he was crying.

Clark fighting was the last thing Lex had expected. He knew Clark had once shoved a bully through a door when he was really little, before Lex came to live with the Kents, but he also knew Jonathan had been pretty firm with him about making sure that kind of thing didn't happen again. Clark could lose control of his strength and do a lot of damage. He could also expose his powers.

Lex ran over to Clark. "What happened?" he asked, not even looking up at the teacher.

"Is he yours?" The teacher kept his eyes on Clark, also.

"I'm his brother." Adults who didn't look closely at Lex sometimes mistook him for much older than he was.

The teacher finally looked up at Lex. "Your parents are going to have to come pick him up."

"His mom's in class, his dad's working on the farm and won't pick up the phone if you call."

The teacher's brow furrowed—it sometimes confused adults when Lex referred to Clark as his brother, but to Martha and Jonathan as Clark's parents. This time, though, the teacher didn't say anything about it. "Then you two are going to be waiting in the office for a little while."

"Why?"

"School policy. When there's a physical fight with injuries—"

"Yeah, okay, fine," Lex said. Jonathan was going to be waiting for them to come home and help with chores. If they didn't arrive at home at the usual time, his first step would probably be to call the school.

The teacher gave him a very disapproving look, but he led them to the space just outside the office, where Clark and Lex sat on a bench and put their backpacks down at their feet.

When they were alone, Lex asked Clark, "You wanna talk about it?"

"No," Clark said, his jaw set.

That was a first. "Well, Mom and Dad are going to make you."

Clark sighed. "He's been bullying my friends and teasing me. I figure now he won't bother us anymore."

Oh. That made perfect sense to him. He didn't envy Clark in the slightest; with Clark's powers, he would have done the same thing. He dealt with enough garbage from the bullies at his own school. "I think Dad'll understand."

Clark let out a short laugh. "You don't know my dad as well as you think."

"I know he's usually fair."

"He's more scared of people finding out my secret than anything else. He's going to kill me."

"No, he won't. Do you really think he'd expect you to just stand by and let your friends take the bullying?"

Clark shrugged.

"This kind of thing happened before, right? What did he do then?"

"I don't remember."

"Then it couldn't have been that bad, could it? And it won't be that bad this time."

"I was five, Lex, I didn't know any better. I think he put me on a time out or something. Maybe gave me a hand slap."

If Clark was being literal about the hand slap, it sounded pretty pointless to Lex. "Well, maybe I can talk to him."

"Le-ex," Clark whined. "Please don't. You'll just make it worse."

Lex highly doubted that. He was a lot better at making his case than Clark was. But if Clark wanted him to stay out of it, he could do that.

A few minutes later, Jonathan's truck pulled up in the parking lot. It was all too easy to read his face as he stormed up to the office. He grabbed Clark roughly by the arm and led him into the office; Lex followed close behind.

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"I'm here," Jonathan announced to the lady at the front desk. "Can I take him?"

She looked up from her computer at him. "Thank you for coming, Mr. Kent. We need to get you scheduled to attend a disciplinary meeting. Until you've had the meeting, Clark won't be allowed to attend classes."

"Understood. I'm available tomorrow morning, if that works."

"I'll get you set up. I've got the incident report drawn up, please sign here to acknowledge it?"

Clark glanced back at Lex with a look that said, Told you so.

Lex swallowed. He was still sure that as soon as Jonathan knew the full story, he would ease off.

Jonathan's knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel on the way home. Lex sat beside him in the passenger's seat; Jonathan adjusted the rearview mirror so he could look at Clark when he wasn't watching the road. "What happened, Clark?"

"The guy kept bullying Pete and Greg and me."

"So you beat him up? We've talked about this"

Clark just looked down at his lap.

"Did he hit you first?"

"No, I hit him."

"Did he hit anyone?"

"No. He was just being really annoying."

"Son, I am very disappointed in your behavior today."

"I know," Clark whispered.

"How many times have we talked about being careful with your powers? And keeping your secret?"

A single tear streaked down Clark's face, and Lex felt his stomach clenching from all sides. The only upside to Clark crying was that now Jonathan would ease off.

"Well? Answer me!"

Lex's heart jumped into his throat. "Don't you dare yell at him!"

Jonathan looked over. "Lex—"

"He was just trying to defend his friends, can't you see that?"

"Alexander. This is not about you."

"Yeah, well, it is now, because you're bullying my little brother."

"Son, I'm warning you—"

"He's a hero, you know that? His powers make him a hero, and he protected his friends—"

Clark cut in, "Lex, stop! Dad, I didn't mean to—"

"Silence. Both of you. I don't want to hear another word until we get home."

Clark burst into silent sobbing.

Lex glared at Jonathan. "You're unbelievable. Are you even hearing him?"

"Keep talking, and it's a week's grounding for every word."

Now Lex felt like beating someone up.

It felt like an eternity before they pulled up to the house. A part of Lex had been looking forward to seeing Martha, thinking maybe she could fix this, and he'd forgotten that she was still at class and wouldn't be back until it was time for her to make dinner.

Regardless of anything else that was happening, there were chores to be done. The three of them worked silently, keeping a bit of distance from each other. Clark worked in silence, but every now and then, a tear traced its way down his face. Lex worked at triple the intensity he usually did, trying to keep his anger from boiling over. He should have known. Jonathan wasn't any different from his own dad. If anything, he was worse, because he'd made Lex believe he was different. He didn't listen; he didn't care; he was just letting Clark suffer and cry, when Clark hadn't even done anything wrong.

When Martha did arrive at home, Jonathan told Clark and Lex to keep working outside while he went in to talk to her. Lex wanted to follow him in and make sure Martha got the full story, but he didn't think he could risk any more direct disobedience, since Jonathan was in such a foul mood.

She was the one who came to get them in the barn. Her voice was gentle as she said, "Clark, go meet your father in your room. Lex, sweetie, stay with me for a minute."

Clark walked toward the house, but Lex gave Martha a look and followed him, calling back. "I'm not letting Clark go face Jonathan alone."

"I want to talk to you," Martha said. "We can talk in the house if you want. Then you'll be able to hear if something bad is happening upstairs."

Lex wasn't sure how that would help. He wasn't afraid for Clark's physical safety. But he quickly realized she wasn't going to negotiate further.

They walked together into the house, and Clark made his way up the stairs while Martha came to stand across from Lex in the kitchen. "Lex, there are parts of this story you don't know."

"Jonathan's not even listening."

"We pay more attention than you think. We've been hearing about this bully for weeks."

"And you haven't done anything?"

"We've done a lot. The boy who's been giving Clark and his friends trouble had two deaths in his family this year, including his father."

Lex couldn't muster up a lot of sympathy for someone who had bullied his little brother.

"There's been progress, and none of Clark's friends have been hurt."

"You were the ones who taught me that words can hurt as much as fists."

Martha took a deep breath. "You're right. But words can also heal. Fists can't. And we've been talking to Clark about how to handle these situations and reminding him that violence isn't the answer."

"If that kid was bothering Clark, he deserved a bloody nose."

"Clark could have killed the boy with one punch. He didn't deserve to die."

Lex hadn't really thought about it that way. He didn't want to agree with her; he didn't want to say he understood or that he'd been wrong. But he was breathing in to say something, when he heard a loud sob from upstairs. His voice caught. "I'm not letting him do this." He began to march toward the stairs.

Martha ran after him, grabbing his arm. "Lex, stop—"

Lex whirled around and yelled, "Clark wasn't trying to hurt anyone! He didn't mean to! He was trying to protect his friends, and you—" Lex's breath hitched. "It's not his fault he has powers."

"I know."

"Jonathan has to listen to him, he has to . . . he can't . . ."

"What do you think is going to happen, sweetie?"

Lex's voice caught. A little voice in his head reminded him of all of the times he'd gotten in trouble with the Kents; it had never, ever turned out all too badly. But . . . "He's crying so hard."

"Why do you think he's crying?"

Lex wanted to say it was because he was scared, but that just didn't quite ring true. But if it wasn't fear, he really had no idea.

"He feels guilty, honey. He knows he shouldn't have hit that kid."

"But—"

"If he didn't think he did anything wrong, he would stand up for himself. He's young, but he's not helpless."

Lex didn't know if he could believe that. It wasn't how Lex himself dealt with things. Maybe Clark was just different. "What's Jonathan going to do?"

"What's the worst thing he's ever done to you?"

" . . . Grounded me for two weeks."

"Well, Clark is about half your age. I think a week is the worst he would give him."

Lex paced his breathing, like his therapist had taught him to do. Martha was right, of course—he didn't have to be afraid of what Jonathan would do to Clark, not really—but even a harsh word felt like too much when Clark had been trying to do the best he could about the situation. "It's not fair," he said.

"If Clark thinks it's unfair, he'll say so."

Lex didn't know what to say about that, but he didn't get a chance to speak. Jonathan came down the stairs at that point. He went first to Martha and told her, "He's going to help me with extra chores for as long as he's suspended, after he finishes writing an apology note."

"That sounds reasonable," Martha said.

Jonathan turned then to Lex, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Son, I'm going to tell you the same thing I told Clark."

Lex braced himself for the worst, even though he had no idea what Jonathan was about to say.

"I'm very, very proud of you. When you care about someone, you care very deeply, and you do everything you can to protect them."

Whatever Lex was expecting, it wasn't that. His throat choked up.

"But there's a right and wrong way to protect someone. You know that, don't you?"

"I know," Lex said, and now he felt like crying.

"Son, I need to apologize to you."

Lex blinked. An adult was apologizing to him? His father had never, ever apologized. His mother hadn't, either, except sometimes for his father's behavior.

"I lost my temper with you in the car, and I didn't help things. I should have done better. Can you forgive me?"

"I—yes." How could Lex have said no?

"Thank you, son."

"I'm sorry, too."

"And you are forgiven. As you always will be."

Lex almost smiled.

"I want to talk more about the best way to protect someone, but right now, I think you should go see your brother."

"Really?"

"Go."

Lex didn't have to be told again. He took the stairs two at a time and threw open the door to Clark's room.

Clark's eyes were red and puffy, but he wasn't crying anymore. He was sitting up in bed reading a book. "Hey," he said, setting the book aside.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I was just being stupid at school."

"It's not stupid to stop a bully."

"I could have made things worse. I knew that when I hit him, Lex, it was just a bad choice. That's what Dad said, anyway."

"And you agree with him?"

Clark shrugged, sniffling. "I mean, he's right."

"And you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm just mad at myself."

Lex nodded slowly. He could have trusted Jonathan. "I'm going to go talk to Dad."

"You should. I always feel better after."

Lex pulled Clark into a quick hug, and he went back down the stairs. Somehow, despite everything, he felt safe.