“This is the life,” Sarah exhaled slowly. She lay face down on the hot towels as one of the hotel’s staff massaged her back. She giggled a little as he pressed his thumbs hard into the small of her back, his fingers touching her sides where she’d always been ticklish. Except for a few well placed towels, she was lying naked on the table, and didn’t that add a bit to the excitement, she thought. A few feet away, she could hear Clark breathing deeply as he enjoyed the same treatment from another masseuse. She turned her head enough to watch him, still not believing that he was here with her. The extravagant room, the best suite in the hotel the manager had assured her, the champagne and caviar that he’d sent up, complementary of course, all of it paled beside him. Clark Kent; she sighed, staring at him. Clark Kent.

“Enjoying yourself?” she asked him. He turned his head and smiled back her.

“You have no idea. I can’t believe how great this is,” he said, closing his eyes. The masseuse, a pretty girl with long black hair, smiled at him and started kneading his shoulders more forcefully. Sarah’s good mood started to fray as she watched her.

“That’s enough,” she said to her curtly. She sat up quickly, making her masseuse jump back. She wrapped a towel around herself and stepped down off the table. He tried to offer her a helping hand, but she waved him off. “I’ll take over from here,” she said, a smile flickering across her lips. “Take off you,” she snapped at the girl, “and you too,” she added to her masseuse. His nodded, crestfallen, and turned to go. The girl gave Sarah a frozen sort of smile that spoke volumes and followed him out.

“Alone at last,” Sarah murmured. She put her hands were the girl’s had been and started to knead his shoulders. “How does this feel? Better?” He nodded and sighed, stretching out on the table. Massaging his shoulders and back, Sarah was amazed how hard Clark’s muscles were. “I could probably use a jackhammer on your back before you’d feel anything,” she laughed.

“Probably more than that,” he murmured happily, closing his eyes.

She leaned forward and started to massage his neck lightly. “Now aren’t you glad I invited you out here, Clark?” she asked him.

“Absolutely,” he breathed.

“Isn’t it so much better here in Metropolis with me?”

“Doesn’t compare.”

“Here with me, instead of with that nosy, no-talent hack, Chloe? Or Miss ‘Woe is me, I’m the tragic love interest’ Lana?” she purred into his ear. Clark’s eyes snapped open suddenly and Sarah instantly knew she’d down something wrong. He pushed himself up, frowning almost painfully, staring at her.

“Chloe…” he said, grimacing. “Lana...” He shook his head, one of his hands straying to his temples. “What… am I doing?” he asked, staring up at her.

“No, no, it’s alright,” Sarah cooed to him, wrapping her arms around his head and trying to comfort him. “Everything’s fine… you don’t have to worry about them. You’re happy here, with me,” she said, emphasizing the last two words. After a moment, Clark’s head drooped slightly and he let himself be pushed back down onto the table. He drowsed happily as she stroked his forehead, pushing a lock of his hair out of the way of his eyes. “It’s been a hard time for you, hasn’t it?” she murmured. “You’re so committed to your friends, it’s not so easy for you to forget about them. You’re worried, I understand. You want to let them know you’re okay.” He smiled up at her and nodded.

“Well, I think we can arrange that,” she said quietly.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Any word yet?” Chloe asked Lex as he came back into the room. He folded up his cell phone and sat down wearily.

“Yeah, but I don’t know whether it’s good or bad,” he said quietly. He glanced over at Clark’s parents who were huddled across the room, their heads close together. They looked deep in a worried conversation, most likely about Clark, Chloe guessed sadly.

“The manager thinks I’m crazy and threatened to sue me if I kept calling,” Lex told her. “He said no one like that has been there. But a woman at the front desk swears she saw him take a boy and girl matching their description up.”

“He doesn’t remember them though,” she murmured. “Makes sense; she probably talked him into covering for her.” Lex nodded, glancing at the Kents. “Did she have anything else?”

“No, but she’s going to try and find out what room he’s got them in. It’ll take a little time.”

Chloe looked back at the Kents and winced. “I don’t know how long they’re going to last. It’s gotta be rough on them.” Lex glanced over at them again and nodded.

“Anything?” Lana asked, walking over with Pete.

“We may have someone who’s seen them there,” Lex shrugged. “It’s something at least.” He turned to Chloe. “Somebody better tell them,” he muttered. She nodded reluctantly and headed over. Once she was gone, Lex put his back to her and started speaking quietly to Lana and Pete.

“Alright, I didn’t want her to hear this, but from what the girl was telling me, it didn’t seem like Clark was trying to get away from Sarah. She said they looked like a couple. Now I’ve never heard Clark talk about this girl,” he smiled dryly, his eyes flashing to Lana, “so I know he wasn’t carrying a torch for her, and somehow I doubt it was love at first sight, so why is he still with her?”

“You still don’t buy Chloe’s theory, do you?” Pete asked.

“Yes and no,” he said. “Look, people change other people’s minds all the time by talking to them. Its called charisma, not telepathy or mind control. Sarah just might be very persuasive, maybe even hypnotic, but I doubt she’s supernatural.”

Pete shifted his feet, staring at the floor. “I don’t know,” he said slowly.

“I think it would take a lot more than charisma to keep Clark away this long,” Lana said with force. “Whitney too,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

“Either way, we-,” Lex started when the phone rang across the hall, interrupting him. Everyone jumped as it clanged noisily. Jonathon let go of his wife’s hands and slowly rose. He walked over to it, seemed to prepare himself for the worst, and picked the receiver up.

“Kents,” he cracked through a dry voice. He listened quietly over the line for a moment, and then smiled and pulled the phone away. “It’s the sheriff’s, they think they have something,” he told everyone, his face relieved.

“Is there anything about Clark?” Martha asked quickly, but Jonathon was already listening again. He nodded into the receiver a few times, turning away from them.

“Either way,” Lex started again, looking back at Lana and Pete, “Clark might not want to leave right away. We might have to drag him away by force.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Lana demanded. “This is Clark we’re talking about; the guy wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“And also the last guy in the world we’d expect to do anything like this,” he pointed out. Lana frowned at him, but couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Lex,” Jonathon called, “they want to speak to you about your car.” He held out the phone and waved him over. Lex nodded and glanced back to Lana before joining him at the phone.

“He’s got a point,” Pete said quietly. “If she tells him to fight back, he will.”

“Yeah,” Lana agreed. “But its Clark, you know? I just can’t imagine him doing anything to try and hurt us.”

“He might not have a choice,” Pete said. Lana glared at him and he raised his hands quickly. “Hey, Clark’s my best friend, I’m not looking forward to this anymore than you are. I just hope we can pull this off without hurting him.” Lana nodded, looking at Chloe and Martha sitting together on the couch.

“What about Sarah?” she asked him.

He winced and glanced over at the couch. “I think all bets are off there. Maybe you haven’t noticed the look Chloe gets in her eyes every time someone says her name. Not exactly a look,” he went on, “it’s more of a killer glint.”

“She’s not the only one,” Lana muttered.

“Pete,” Lex called from across the room, “can you come over here? They want you to give a statement.” Pete nodded and headed over, taking the phone from Lex.

Lana gazed around the room emptily for a moment and then wandered over to the fireplace. The Kents had a large mantle over it, which was almost covered completely with photographs. There were photos of Jonathon and Martha together, much younger than now, probably when they were still dating; pictures of other relatives; but it was the ones of Clark that caught her attention. She smiled at one that had to have been taken when was Clark was six, grinning and waving at the camera in his bathing-suit. There were others, Clark in the snow, working with his father, and smiling with his parents. She picked up one that was just of him, leaning against a fence-post and smiling self-consciously. Taking it back to her chair, she stared at it, her fingers pressed tight against its frame. She barely noticed Pete hang up the phone across the room and join Lex and Jonathon in the hallway, talking together amongst themselves. She barely noticed anything, staring at Clark’s smiling face in the photo and wishing desperately that he was back here with her.

Back in Metropolis, Sarah put down the phone and leaned back in her chair. “There, that ought to nip that little plan in the but,” she said, satisfied. She smiled up at Clark, who was kneading her shoulders quietly. “Now,” she said slowly, that excitement in her belly growing quickly, “what to do next?”