There

They presented the body to Chloe’s uncle outside the hospital. All of his troops were arranged behind him in perfect formation. He took it formally, and had a special guard of soldiers ready to carry her into a nearby helicopter with all the dignity they could manage. Lex stood in the front of their group with Pete and Tina close behind him. Chloe trailed in the rear, with Joseph following after her. He seemed quiet and withdrawn. Whatever Clark had shared with him had clearly unsettled him and he appeared to be doing some serious thinking.

As they loaded the body into the helicopter, Lex asked, “Where will you take her?”

“Research facility, most like,” General Lane responded.

“You won’t learn anything from her. My father’s people never could.”

“I don’t doubt it, but it will keep them occupied for a while.”

Lex smiled and nodded. “That she will. Well, what about the rest of us? What other orders do you have?”

“I’m supposed to arrest any LuthorCorp employees that I see on sight,” he admitted slowly.

“A wise decision,” Lex said. “What about LexCorp employees?”

General Lane fixed him with a suspicious look. He wasn’t the only one. “What in the hell are you talking about?”

“LexCorp. It’s an emerging company,” he said with a straight face. “Very small at the moment. Only a handful of employees that I know of.”

“And I wonder who’s the head of it,” Lane growled.

“Well it does have my name attached to it.”

“Lex, if you think a little technicality is going to stop any of this…”

“Of course not, but it makes a nice cover story,” he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small disk, “for this.”

Lane eyed the disk like it was a venomous snake. “What are you trying to pull here, boy?”

“Show it to your bosses and then tell them about LexCorp. I’m sure they’ll be very interested at that point.” He smiled disingenuously at the General and slipped the disk into his shirt pocket. Chloe fought back a laugh as she saw her uncle turn three shades of red. Finally, he shook his head and stalked off, heading towards the helicopters.

“Lex, what was on that?” Pete asked slowly as soon as Lane was out of earshot.

“You remember when I said I got rid of all of my father’s secrets?” he asked, grinning broadly.

“Oh, you didn’t!” Chloe laughed, grinning broadly.

“Well, I got rid of almost all of them. I think that’s the most anyone could expect me to do. I am a Luthor after all.”

“What about this LexCorp?” Pete asked again. “Are you serious about all of this?”

Lex looked up, a funny look coming over his face. He rubbed his shaved head for a moment, apparently thinking of what to say. “I think I am. I want to try what Clark suggested. And besides, I’m still rich, aren’t I? What else am I going do with all that money?”

“And those employees you mentioned?” Chloe asked. “They wouldn’t be…”

“Chloe,” he said expansively, “welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. I can promise you a six figure salary and full benefits for starters. Don’t worry about any responsibilities. We’ll figure out something for you to do eventually.” She laughed and clapped her hands. Lex smiled at her and then looked over her shoulder.

Joseph was standing apart from them, looking out as the sun started to rise. He seemed confused and lost as he stared at it. He noticed them looking and shrugged, going back to studying the sunrise. “I’ve never seen a real one,” he said quietly.

Lex nodded and smiled gently at him. “Joseph, how would you like to stay with us for a while?” he asked. “We can help you get used to this world, to get caught up on what you missed.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Joseph turned and stared at it, his one eye wide with surprise. “I don’t know…” he said quietly, clearly put off by the offer.

“I want to help you, Joseph. I owe you a great deal, after all. A great deal,” his voice trailed off as Lex looked at him. “If you’d let me, I’d like to start making it up to you.”

Joseph hesitated, at a loss for words. “Say yes, you big idiot,” Chloe told him, rolling her eyes. He looked at her and then shrugged and nodded.

“Welcome to the team,” Lex said quietly as he reached out and shook his hand. Joseph looked around at them and then started to smile hesitantly. For some reason, that seemed to Chloe like the perfect way to start the morning.

Here

Lana had just finished cleaning the room over the Talon and as she came downstairs, she was surprised to see that she had a customer. Someone was standing at the bar with their back to her. “Hello!” she called as she came down the stairs. “We don’t usually get customers in this early! What can I get for you?”

The figure seemed to stiffen and was silent for a moment. Lana frowned a little as she moved around the counter. Just as she was about to see them, the figure turned abruptly and kept their back to her. Whoever it was, they were wearing a coat with the hood pulled up over their face. “Are you okay?” Lana asked carefully.

“Yes. Yes, I’m fine,” a girl’s voice answered. She sounded nervous, and there was something about her voice that sounded familiar to her, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.

“It’s a nice place you have here,” the girl said, gesturing around the room. “It’s just like I remember it.”

“Thanks, it took a lot of work.” She frowned and asked, “You saw the Talon before?”

“When I was young. My parents used to take me here.”

“Really?” Lana laughed. “Mine too. Maybe we might have seen each other there?”

“Maybe,” she said quietly. “My parents stopped taking me though. Something happened.”

“Oh, what?” Lana asked curiously.

“They died.” She said it calmly and simply.

“Oh, geez, I am so sorry,” Lana sputtered, feeling herself go red.

“It happened a long time ago,” the girl told her. “I don’t really remember them that well anymore.”

“My parents died too,” Lana told her quietly.

“How do you deal with it?” the girl asked.

“I don’t know, as well as I can,” she replied. “I think about them everyday, but I try not to let myself dwell on it too much. It helps if I remind myself what they’d want for me; to spend all day crying about them or to move on and be happy.”

“That sounds good,” the girl said.

“It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Lana told her. She leaned over the counter, trying to get a glimpse of her face, but the girl started towards the door.

“I have to get going,” she said in a rush as she left.

“We’re always open if you want to come again!” Lana called after her. Maybe it was her imagination, but the girl seemed to pause slightly at that, but then she was out the door, leaving it to swing shut behind her. Lana sighed and started to tidy up behind the counter. As she did, she saw that someone had taken down the photo she’d placed up on the wall. It was the one with Clark, Pete, Chloe and herself in it. She touched it lightly, and then looked up, wondering.

“My mom said you went into town today,” Clark said quietly, watching Lana eat. They were sitting in the barn in the upper loft. At first, his parents hadn’t known what to think of his story when he had arrived home, and it was safe to say that Clark’s parents were used to the unusual. It had taken a lot of explaining, and a little help from Lana, to get them to accept it. In true Kent fashion, they’d offered Lana a place to stay in the house, but she’d preferred to sleep in the barn. She even insisted on taking her meals out there.

“No one saw me,” she said quietly, not looking up from her dinner.

Clark looked at her and then nodded. “I guess you can be pretty stealthy when you want to be, huh?” He hoped that she’d laugh at that, but she didn’t, so he plowed on. “So how are you feeling?”

“A little better, I think,” she said between bites. She ate mechanically, apparently occupied with something else.

“That’s good,” Clark smiled, trying to be enthusiastic. “Oh, I almost forgot,” he said, and dug an envelope out of his pocket. “I sent a letter to a … friend of mine about you.” Lana’s head jerked up, but he motioned for her to relax. “Don’t worry; he’s used to keeping secrets. And he’s pretty useful too.”

“What did he say?”

“Well, he arranged it for you to get a new identity. Anyone you want. He sent some of the things over here and left you a number to call him so you could finalize everything. You have to decide what you’re going to call yourself and everything. He also said he’d get you some money to live on.”

“He didn’t need to do that,” she said quietly.

“Hey, Bruce is rich, and I think something about you made him want to help.”

She considered that as she took the envelope from his hands. “A new identity,” she said, considering it.

“Well,” he said a little uncomfortably, “you can’t really be Lana Lang anymore.”

“And I can’t stay in Smallville,” she told him.

“No, you can. We’ll figure something out,” he promised her. “You can dye your hair, change your name.” She started to shake her head, but he went on over her. “No, you can. Look I promised you I’d stick with you and I mean that. I will.”

“Clark.” He stopped and looked at her. It was the first time she had called him by his name. “Clark, I can’t stay in Smallville. You know I can’t.”

“But I promised you,” he started to say, but she stopped him again.

“I know, and thank you, but I can’t stay here. My whole life has been wrapped up in this place.” She looked down at her lap. “Too much of my life has been in this place.”

“When I went out this morning, I saw a lot of things are different here, and a lot isn’t. I can still see it, my home, my past. Everywhere I look, I just see pieces of it. I saw the street where your ship came down on, I saw Whitney’s house…” her voice faltered. “I saw where the lab would have been.” As Clark listened to her he saw tears start to fall from her face.

“I can’t live here,” Lana said quietly. “I can’t stay here, not as long as I can still see all of those things. I need to leave and find someplace else. Some place where they’ve never heard of Smallville.”

Clark opened his mouth to argue with her, but the look she gave him was so pleading and desperate that all he could do was nod sadly. “How long are you going to stay?”

She picked up her fork and started to push the remains of her meal around on her plate. “I won’t be here come morning. Let’s just leave it like that.”

“I can’t even say goodbye to you?” he asked.

“Please. I just want to fade away and be forgotten,” she said quietly.

“That’s never going to happen.”

“It might be better if it did,” she told him. Then she took a breath and looked at him. “Clark, don’t come after me. Don’t come looking for me. Maybe I’ll be ready to see you someday, but let me decide that, all right?”

He rubbed the back of his neck, thinking it over. “If you think so,” he said slowly. “Just remember that if things get bad, you can always come back here.”

She nodded slowly, and then for the first time, he thought he saw a whimsical smile come over her. “You’d probably just love that, would you? Having two Lana Langs around? Just like a man.”

“Lana!” Clark gasped, a little shocked.

She smiled a little broader, looking at him. “You are more special than you know,” she said quietly. “I’ll never forget you.”

The next morning, true to her word, the barn was empty and Lana was gone. Clark stood in the doorway for a while, looking around aimlessly and then walked to the end of the driveway. Standing at the edge of the road he looked out, but even his eyes couldn’t find her. He imagined her for a moment, walking down the highway, a large bag on her back, a smile growing on her face as she took every step into the great unknown world set in front of her. He hoped that she would drop him a line every now and then. He hoped that she would keep smiling.

Clark walked slowly back to the house. Inside, he could smell his mother’s scrambled eggs and bacon, warming in the pan. He heard his father’s chair scrape across the floor and their soft voices talking together. He smiled to himself as he went inside. This seemed to him the best way to him to start out a brand new day.