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Title: Switch
Author: smvlchk
Rating: PG
Summary: you’d never believe me if I told you
Feedback: would be appreciated
Disclaimer: I promise I don’t own them, so please do not sue, just like all my other ones

::Prologue::
Clark shone his flashlight over the dimly lit walls of the Kryptonian cave. If there was nothing else to do, he’d just come down here and enjoy being able to understand it, somewhat. His parents somewhat doubted his ability to read it correctly, mostly his dad, however. His dad was always more reluctant to believe Clark right off hand, even though Clark seemed to always be right.

He also discovered that when he was let down by his family, and friends for that matter, would retreat to the caves. He had been late to school multiple times because he was just carousing around the dirt floor, searching for answers hidden behind the walls of the cave. This time his dad refused to believe that Lex was just trying to help, like usual. Another Lex debate was just what the father-son duo needed. He really wished that his dad would just give it up and give Lex a chance. After Pete, Lex was his best friend.

Clark continued his browsing among the buried secrets of the walls, lost in thought wonder and imagination. It was crazy how he could be so absorbed in the mystery of these caves, he felt it surreal that he was actually studying something left by his own people.

“You’re mom thought you’d be down here,” said a familiar voice, who snapped him back to the present.

Clark spun around, “Lana! You scared me.” He looked up at the wall again, “I like to come down here when I have nothing else to do.”

Lana walked over to him and looked where he was, “I can see why. I’d forgotten how great a place this is.” She looked at a symbol and ran her fingers over it, “I wonder what they all mean.”

Clark nodded, but dared not say anything. He just stood there in silence and watched Lana walk over to the wall with a ledge. She smirked at him, “Too bad you’re afraid of heights.” She hoisted herself onto the ledge and swung her legs on top of it. Carefully balancing herself, she began to walk along the ledge, which slowly and gradually allowed one to walk all the way up to the roof of the cave.

“Be careful,” Clark warned, he took a step forward.

Lana nodded, “Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” She stopped at some symbols and stared at them, running her fingers over them and inspecting them with great interest. “This is really incredible.”

Clark nodded and turned around, looking at more signs. Suddenly, a bird-like animal made a disturbing noise and Lana lost her footing. She screamed and Clark spun around, she was falling rapidly. Clark’s eyes widened and he went into slow motion. He began to run to where she was, defying the human laws of time and friction, she was already five feet from the ground.

His arms swooped under her and he gracefully caught her in his arms. She gasped and a horrified look crossed her face. “Clark!” she began to say something, but Clark could feel her physically shaking in his arms. She pressed one of her small hands against his chest and stared at him, their eyes were level and hers were searching his own. She could have sworn that he was on the other side of the cave, but she was not complaining, she felt her life flash before her eyes.

He felt the pressure of her hand and solemnly looked into her eyes, “You okay?” Lana managed a nod and Clark set her down. She clung to him for support, her knees were shaking so badly, and he wrapped his arms around her. “That was close,” he whispered.

She nodded and said, “I think I’m going to develop a fear of heights. I’m not doing that again.”

Clark chuckled, “Maybe I’m not so wrong after all.” Lana agreed and smiled up at him.

They finally let each other go and resumed their browsing once again. They continued to walk the perimeter of the cave and examine the different Kryptonian symbols. Clark was entranced and Lana had fun watching him be mesmerized by the walls.

“You really like this place don’t you?” she asked, looking up at him. Clark nodded and smiled down at her. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask, can you read them?”

Clark looked away and stared at the wall in front of him. Of course he knew how to read them, but he just didn’t know why. “Of course, can’t you?” he smirked down at her again and she rolled her eyes. Hey! He told the truth! She just thought he was being funny.

“What I really meant was, what do you find so captivating if you can’t really understand it?” she looked on at the wall in front of them. The symbols were interesting, but she couldn’t understand it. She didn’t know how he could spend hours down here just looking at the different signs.

BUT I CAN READ THEM! THAT”S WHY THEY”RE SO INTERESTING!, his head screamed. But since he knew he couldn’t tell her that these symbols were actually from his ancestors who had been here about forty years ago and they weren’t from this planet, he had to come up with something that was just as good. “Well,” he began, heaving a sigh and staring at the wall, “if you look really hard you can sort of depict what they mean. I think that’s why I like them. You can look down here for hours and always see something you’ve never seen before.”

Lana glanced up at him, “You can decipher what these mean?”

Clark shrugged, “Dr. Walden did, but nobody knows how he did it. If he can do it, someone else must be able to. I honestly don’t know why I try.”

“It’s a hobby,” Lana said, smiling, “you come down here like I ride my horse.” He looked down at her curiously. She sighed, “Oh come on. You might not let me in, Clark, but I can tell when you’ve been let down or in a bad mood, or even when you just need time to think.” He turned and faced her, still curious as to what she meant. “Remember when we were freshman,” he nodded sarcastically. She rolled her eyes, “You once told me, when I was sitting in the Beanery, that I resorted back to books when everyone let me down.” Clark nodded, actually being able to remember that day. “You were right, and that was the day that Whitney had broken his promise to take me to Metropolis. Well, believe it or not, I’ve noticed that with you too.” Clark gave her a half smile, knowing she was right. “First you used to just run away from everybody and no one would know where you went. Then you would hide in your loft, but now you come down here and just look around. To me, that is much better than horseback riding.”

Clark looked confused, “But you just asked what the point of coming down here is if you can’t read or understand anything.”

Lana shrugged, “When you’re riding a horse, you don’t run away from your problems, you sort of run with them. You can sort everything through in your mind while you’re riding, but you can’t forget about what actually happened. When you have something, like this, to take your mind off your problems, it seems to be a better waste of your time. You can spend your time thinking, ‘Now what could this possibly mean?’, and in return, your mind wonders and you forget.”

Clark was beginning to understand, “So it’s more of a distraction than horseback riding.”

“Yes, exactly,” Lana agreed. “If I had your patience, I’d be right down here with you.”

Clark lifted an eyebrow, “You think I’m patient?”

Lana rolled her eyes, “Oh please. You are like the most patient guy I know. Patience comes along side the “quiet” label.”

Clark nodded, “I guess I am a little quiet.” Lana rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything. They had been walking the entire time they were talking and had accidentally wandered into another section of the cave that Clark had never seen before. “Whoa, I don’t ever remember this being here.”

Lana looked around, “Well I couldn’t tell you, I haven’t been down here enough to remember any of the symbols anyway.” She walked up to the first one she saw and gave it a funny look, “This is strange.”

Clark joined her, nodding. It was a picture of two crudely drawn figures, one was blue and the other was red. The red one was a man, reaching over his head and to the side in the shape of a prolonged “C”. It was very peculiar and had features that distinguished it from the blue one. The blue one did the same motion, but in the opposite direction and it too had specific features. They both cupped their hands under a knot in the wall and it looked as if they were extending it from the palms of their hands.

What Clark noticed first, while his brain processed the irregular symbol, was that the figures were casting a shadow. The blue one cast a shadow that was in the shape of the red figure, and the red of the blue figure. He looked at it hard, thinking and trying to decipher what it meant. His brain told him that it literally said “reflection” and “switch”, which was reasonable: the reflections switched their positions with the figures.

Lana looked at Clark, “Don’t burn a hole through it.” Clark looked away and then looked at Lana, he chuckled nervously. “Do you know what it means?” she asked.

Clark shrugged, “Not really.” Which was the truth.

“Not really as in you have an idea?” Lana asked.

Clark shrugged again, “Well look at it, the figures cast shadows that are in the shape of the other one.” He pointed to the shadows of the figures and then compared them to the figure. “You probably couldn’t say exactly what it meant, but it’s possible to just guess. That’s what makes it so fun, you can guess and then elaborate on it in your mind.”

“Wow!” Lana exclaimed, “I wouldn’t even have noticed that.” She stared at it. Then she put her hand up and felt the knob, “Look Clark! Do you think it’s a button?”

Clark too put his hand up to it and moved it back and forth, trying to test if it actually was a button. “Yeah, I think it is.” He looked down at her and grinned, “Do you think we should try it?”

Lana looked a little skeptical, “Do you think it could hurt us?”

“Don’t worry,” Clark teased, “I’ll stand in front of you to protect you if anything shoots out.”

Lana rolled her eyes, “Oh thanks. Well why not? I could use a little excitement today.” She grinned back up at him.

Clark smiled, “Okay, but you asked for it!” He stepped in front of her and prepared himself to press it. Lana looked around him and watched him push the knot in, it clicked and he pulled away. They simultaneously took a step back and watched in astonishment as the symbol lit up. The two figures suddenly brightened, the blue shone a bright blue, and the red a bright red. They began trading colors, switching their original blue and red back and forth with each other. The colors began alternating faster and faster until they were just a blur. Lana stole a glance at Clark, who was watching, utterly shocked.

Finally the colors stopped and they were in their original place, but almost immediately they noticed a change. Instead of the colors alternating, the figures themselves traded places, twice, and then everything stopped.

Suddenly, it hit him. An understanding flooded over him as he realized what was about to happen. But before he could do anything, like get them out of the way, a bright light exploded from the wall, making a loud thundering noise. Then, everything went black.

****

Clark moaned and opened his eyes. He was staring motionless at the ceiling of the cave and could feel the dirt and rock combination under him grinding into his back.

Suddenly remembering what just happened, he gasped, “Lana!” He clasped a hand over his mouth and then quickly sat up, staring at his tiny hand. It certainly wasn’t his own! It was a small, dainty white hand that he was looking at. Not to mention his voice wasn’t his either! It sounded like a hoarse, high pitched one of a teenage girl. Just like…

“He” propped himself up against the wall, leaning on it for support. He tried to recap what had happened. He had pushed the button on the cave wall that had caused the people standing in its path to change bodies. His mind spun with the potential, and inevitable, consequences that his actions would have.

Regaining his composure, he forced himself to a standing position and leaned against the wall to the cave. He looked himself over; he was, undoubtedly, in Lana’s body. He let out a nervous laugh, which ended up sounding like a shy giggle. He stopped himself and became serious.

Easing himself away from the wall, he crept across the wide opening in the center of the secluded room cautiously, as if his own body would jump out at him any second. He couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t there, why Lana wasn’t there in the room with him, in his body. This was getting way too weird.

“Lana?” Lana’s voice called out, Clark suddenly realizing how strange that really did sound, he almost laughed at how ridiculous it was. Lana asking for her own name? Strange. He turned the corner and entered the familiar room that he had been most acquainted with. There, huddled against the wall, was his body, with his head buried between his knees.

He rushed over to himself and knelt down on the ground, “Hey! Are you alright?” He asked Lana, in his body, because that she was the only one that could be him.

A red eyed Clark stared back at him, “Clark…” the voice drawled, “what’s going on?”

Clark stared into his own eyes, utterly shocked at seeing himself. It was the most surreal feeling that he had ever experienced and he fell backwards when he saw himself look up.

Lana, too, was visibly disturbed. She gazed into her eyes, looking at herself in a way she had never before seen. She shook her head, this was so unreal.

Clark, however, became panicky and started thinking about what was going to happen now that he was no longer in his own body. Instead, the girl who he was in love with and did not know his secret now occupied it. Would she find out soon? Or did she already know?

“Clark,” his voice echoed his name in his, or Lana’s, eardrums. “What happened?”

Positioning himself on the ground, he sighed and kept his eyes locked with Lana’s. “It was the symbol,” he was shocked at his own voice, which was clearly Lana’s. “It caused us to switch bodies.”

“Well obviously,” Lana said, rolling her eyes, a little irritated. She too was shocked at the sharp, masculine tone of Clark’s voice, not at all used to the depth of her voice. She tried to regain herself, “Did you know that that was going to happen?”

She watched herself shake her head and heard her own voice say, “I didn’t know until the very last second.”

Lana nodded, his head became very stern and she felt all the bulky muscles in his body tighten. “How come I can read the symbols?”

Clark winced, the information had been downloaded into his entire body, not just his brain and mind. He was afraid of that. Her face turned away, as Clark averted her eyes from the look she had on his face. “Lana, there are things about me…things that you don’t know.”

She rolled her eyes, “Really. Care to inform me?”

Clark stood up in his little girlish frame and watched as Lana picked herself up from the floor as well, she shoved his hands into his pockets mad stared at him…her…Clark in her own body.

Clark opened his mouth to speak what they heard a voice echo from behind them. “Clark?” It was Pete. “Clark are you down here?” They both turned at the sound of his voice and then Clark turned back to face himself, Lana, and motioned for her to respond.

“Yeah, Pete, in here,” she said, Clark’s voice masked over any sign of deception.

Pete entered the large opening and saw “Lana” standing with “Clark”. “Oh, hey Lana!” then he looked a little hesitant, “Am I interrupting something?”

Clark shook his head, “No, no you weren’t.” Pete looked at her a little strange, thinking that was something that would come out of Clark’s mouth, not Lana’s.

“Okay…” Pete looked back and forth between the two. He shook his head and then faced Clark, the Clark who he thought was still Clark who was actually Lana. “Didn’t you remember our history project? You told me to meet you in your loft at eleven. It’s twelve thirty.”

Clark slapped Lana’s hand to his forehead, “Oh I totally forgot!”

Pete stared at her, “What?”

Clark regained himself, “Oh, I, uh…told Chloe I’d, uh, be home for lunch by now. We, uh, usually eat lunch at twelve.” He nodded and then stole a glance at Lana.

Lana wanted to congratulate Clark on his recovery, Pete would never understand what happened. But she also felt like Clark was trying to get away with not telling her something. Plus, she didn’t really want to be stuck in Clark’s body when he could do things in her own life that would be too strange.

“I am so sorry! I got absorbed once again,” Lana said, still not used to Clark’s voice exiting her mouth, “Do you want to do it now or later?” She really wanted him to say ‘later’ because she did not want to try to act like Clark.

Pete looked at “Clark” dumbly. “Uh, now, if that’s alright.” Then he brightened slightly, “I’ve got a hot date tonight.”

The two smiled, reluctantly, and realized that they were going to have to try and act like each other. Lana nodded and replied, “Okay, did you bring your car?” Pete nodded. “Is it alright if I meet you up there in a sec?”

Pete grinned, “Yeah, of course. Bye Lana!” He gave a little wave and disappeared around the corner.

“What’re we going to do?” Lana hissed.

Clark stared up at himself, “We’re going to have to play along until I can figure something out. He took a step towards her, “What do you have planned for today?”

****

Lana pretended to wave as Clark drove away in her car, in her body. She was terrified, and that was a mild way of putting it. She didn’t know if she’d be able to pull this off. She got in the car with Pete and Pete pulled away.

“Good God!” Don’t kill us!” She said, shocked at how reckless Pete was driving. She didn’t know if she’d ever driven with Pete before.

Pete laughed, “Very funny.” Lana narrowed her eyes, but didn’t say anything. “So…” Pete said, starting up a conversation, “is everything alright on the Lana front?”

Lana shrugged, “Of course, why wouldn’t they be?”

Pete looked at her, Clark rather, “Just wondering. I was just making sure you didn’t screw anything up.” He grinned and leaned over and punched Lana on the shoulder.

Lana felt a little uncomfortable, realizing the conversation had just shifted to herself. “Me? Screw things up? Are you joking?” She tried to lighten it up a little and maybe it would melt off. “Besides, can’t we talk? She’s just trying to be my friend.”

Pete averted his eyes, “Okay, okay! Sorry, sorry! I know, it’s none of my business.” He watched as she stared out the window, trying to avoid her reflection in the mirror. He wasn’t paying attention to the road…

“God, Pete! Look where you’re going!” Lana yelled, surprised at the assertiveness in Clark’s voice.

Pete looked back at the road and saw that he was veering off the road. “Shoot!” he gripped the steering wheel and tried to swerve back onto the road. His back tires hit some loose gravel and the car spun around and crashed down into the ditch. Lana lurched forward and felt her head hit the roof. She waited to black out, or for the pain to suddenly overtake her, but it didn’t happen. She looked up at where she had hit the ceiling and saw a huge indent in the shape of her head imbedded into the roof.

She stared at it, completely stunned. Then she looked at Pete, who was rubbing his forehead. A huge gash cut his forehead where he had hit the steering wheel. “God! I am such an idiot!”

The two opened their doors and rolled out. Pete’s side was backed up against the fence and as soon as the car became lighter, minus the two boys, the car slid down against the fence and put an enormous amount of pressure on Pete’s side.

He yelped in pain, but positioned himself so that the weight was not solely resting on him and he was able to heave a sigh. With Clark’s help, he wouldn’t get hurt.

Lana looked around, “Now what’re we going to do?”

Pete stared at him. He was expecting him to hurry to lift the car off of him, instead he was playing dumb and acting like he couldn’t do anything. “Are you feeling okay?” Pete asked.

Lana glared at him, “I’m fine! Why do you keep asking me that?”

Pete shook his head, “Sorry! Sorry!” He groaned as the car slid further down the ditch and more weight was exerted onto his body. “There’s nobody coming,” he said, through gasps of pain, “go ahead and work your magic.”

Lana stared at him dumbly, “What’re you talking about?”

Pete glared at him, “Pick up the damn car and put it on the flippin’ road! God! I thought you’d be racing to help me get out from under this car!” He was beginning to get agitated, had Clark lost his mind? “Don’t play dumb with me,” Pete said, after still seeing the look of confusion on his face, “I’ve seen you lift a tractor before.”

Lana lost all the feeling in her body. Lift a tractor? Clark could lift a tractor? She numbly bent down to grab the bottom of the car, this she had to see. Feeling the sudden awkwardness at having no idea how to execute a lifting procedure, she tried to think fast. Suddenly, everything was still. She glanced at Pete, who had a frozen look of pain etched across his face. Then she noticed that her hair was not moving either, against the wind it would surely be doing something.

Letting go of the car, she backed away and looked around. The trees were stiller than the dead of winter, and looking into the sky she saw that the birds were frozen in mid air.

She stopped thinking about the car and everything at once went back to normal; the trees were blowing, the birds were chirping, Pete was moaning and her hair was flapping.

“Clark, I don’t know why you’re stalling or why you’re acting so strange, but the car is really starting to crush my leg,” Pete called up to her. She whirled around and stared blankly at him.

“Pete, what just happened?”

Curiously, Pete gave out a small moan, and then let out the accumulation of his energy, “What do you mean what just happened?”

Lana ambled back down the side of the ditch, “Everything stopped. The birds were frozen in mid air and everything was deathly quiet.” She looked around, as if the air itself was haunted.

Pete, frustrated and annoyed, began to get really angry. “Dude! Is this your idea of acting normal? Because you are being totally absentminded. Did you lose your memory?” Then he looked a little concerned, “Did Jor-El come back?”

Lana just stared at him. Who the hell is Jor-El? She eyed him closely, “You’re telling me that I cn lift this car, no problem?”

Pete rolled his eyes, “And two more stacked on top of it. Come on, how else did you stack Whitney’s and his goons on top of each other?” He smirked through his pain, “Now come on! My leg hurts!”

Momentarily shocked at Whitney’s name, Lana became determined to see what Clark was actually capable of. She bent down and effortlessly lifted the car off the ground. She stood there for a moment, completely stunned at what she was doing.

Pete scrambled under the car and limped up the side of the ditch. He watched as Clark wasn’t moving from his position of holding the car in the air. “Okay, enough showing off already. I know you can bench more than me.”

Lana snapped back to reality, or what was left of it, and cautiously walked up the ditch and carefully lowered the car onto the pavement.

“Ah, much better,” Pete said, rubbing his hands together, “It’s nice to have you around.? He ran over to the drivers door and hopped in, trying to see if the engine would start up. You wouldn’t exactly call it purring, but the car started up.

Lana opened the passenger’s door and slowly lowered herself into the car.

“No offense, Clark, but today is one of those days when you top the head of the charts entitled ‘Mind Absent from Body’.” He chuckled, having no clue at how true that statement actually was.

****

Clark drove away from the caves feeling very distraught. He had no idea what was to become of himself, in both worlds. He cared less if Pete found out, which he undoubtedly would. Pete could get into trouble, then ask him, Lana, for help. Lana wouldn’t know what she was capable of with his own body and would be confused and blah blah blah.

If it wasn’t Pete, then it’d be his parents. His dad would ask him to hoist the tractor up, or his mom would plead with him to light the fire so she wouldn’t have to dig out the matches. Some way or another Lana was going to find out, he was almost dreading it.

But he knew that now was a time to focus on his on his present time and situation. Here he was, driving Lana’s car, in Lana’s body, with Lana’s clothes and all the accessories that came with it. He thought he was losing his mind.

How was he possibly going to act like a girl? Much less Lana. He was occupying the body of the girl he’d been in love with since the moment he saw her, that was not something that happened everyday.

Maybe, if he was lucky, he wouldn’t have to have any confrontations today, and he could just stay locked up in his…er…Lana’s room.

This was going to take some getting used to.

Amazed that he had already arrived at the Sullivan house, he was disappointed to see Chloe’s VW bug sitting in the driveway. He pulled in next to it and parked the car.

Shutting off the engine, he sat back and tried to regain his composure. He knew he was going to have to confront Chloe as Lana, so he tried his best to put himself in her mindset. If anyone knew every single one of Lana’s quirks, body movements and use of grammar, it was Clark. He’d spent every spare moment watching her since the first time he’d met her. If anyone could do it, it was him.

He sighed and hopped out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him. He casually strode in through the garage and entered the house through the door inside it. He slipped his shoes off, finally experiencing the feeling of having small feet, and walked through the entry.

He saw Chloe sitting at the kitchen table, munching on a freshly baked pizza. He aroma sifted through the air and Clark became painfully aware at how hungry Lana was. Didn’t she ever eat?

Chloe giggled when she heard Lana’s stomach growl. “Well that’s what I made it for! Come on!” She watched as Clark, disguised as Lana, paced over and sat down in the chair opposite her. “I was about to call the police. Where’d you go anyway?” She pushed her chair back and reached for a plate laying on the counter behind her. She grabbed it and slid it across the table to Lana.

Clark’s first instinct was to just grab a piece of the pizza, but he remembered that Lana didn’t have invulnerable skin and wasn’t going to risk burning her hand off. He waited as Chloe handed him the spatula.

“Well?” Chloe asked as she took another bite of pizza. Clark did like wise and looked up at her, not quite sure what to say, “Oh no,” Chloe sighed, “did you go to see Clark again?”

Clark looked up at her, startled, “Is that a bad thing?”

Chloe lifted an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. She didn’t understand Lana’s persistency in pursuing Clark. “So yet another conversation about our favorite farm boy.” She sighed, “Lana, I understand your obvious attraction to Clark, but I don’t understand why you keep going after him. He’s given you very little reasons to go back to him, or to even be friends with him.”

Clark sat back, shocked, he wasn’t expecting this. He did not even think about Chloe, or another one of Lana’s girlfriends, could have an invoice on their relationship.

“Don’t look so shocked,” Chloe stated bluntly, “we talk about this like everyday.” She stared at him with a more concerned look. “The truth is, I’m worried about you. Are you okay? You’ve been especially quiet.”

Clark mumbled solemnly, “Yeah, I just have a lot on my mind.”

Chloe tried not to giggle. Now she knew that Lana had been hanging around Clark too much, that was totally something that Clark would say. She sighed and finished off her pizza.

Clark ate up his piece and was surprised to find himself full. He could have sworn he’d only eaten one piece.

Chloe eyed him, Lana, carefully, “I think what you need to do is relax. You have been way too stressed out lately. Oh! I know! Why don’t you go take a bubble bath?”

****

Lana waved as Pete pulled away from the Kent farm, she still couldn’t believe she’d pulled it off. They had gone through the whole process of the history project and Pete had not suspected anything more. She didn’t think she would be able to pull of being Clark, but she surprised herself.

It helped that they were all in the same history class, but she had chosen to do it on her own since Clark and Pete paired up, and Chloe wasn’t in that class. So she at least knew what was going on. She was surprised at how well she did know the material.

She now snapped back to reality. The Kent’s were in town getting groceries and she was here all by herself, well, Clark’s self. She walked towards the house, feeling the gravel crunch beneath her feet. She approached the gate and bent to unlatch the lock, it was stuck. She pulled on it harder, accidentally gripping the wooden post too hard. She gasped as the lock broke off in her hand, she held it up in front of her and stared at it. It was like it had been crushed by a sledge hammer!

She looked around and stuck it off to the side, where no one would notice it. She hurried through the gate and raced inside the house. She stopped in the front entry and looked around. It was the first time she’d seen it from this angle. The colors were extraordinary and they pulsated with a strong vibrancy. Clark’s color vision was incredible! He had colors in his eyes that Lana had never seen. They were nothing new, they were just so magnificent.

She began to walk towards the stairs, thinking maybe she could just hide in his bedroom all night. She needed to go over what was going on in her head. Maybe Clark could come up with a plan by tomorrow, they had promised to meet each other at her locker.

She bounded up the steps, taking three at a time, she had never experienced being tall and it allowed one to do many things. She laughed as she almost hit her head on the doorway to Clark’s room. Upon entering, she stood frozen in the doorway. She didn’t think she’d ever been in Clark’s room before. She walked around and saw how incredibly clean it was. He had CD’s piled on his dresser and scattered selectively across the floor, but all his clothes were neatly hung and folded in his closet. She was amazed.

As she stopped to look inside the closet, she happened to glance in the mirror. Doing a double take, she stared into the mirror and touched her face. This was way freaky, she was now looking at Clark, it just couldn’t be happening. This was way too unreal to actually be happening.

The urge to suddenly take off her shirt consumed her. She tried to hold it back, but it was too late, she was already taking it off. She had always admired Clark’s body, it was really incredible that a farm boy could have such an awesome figure. She touched his stomach, where the distinct outlines of Clark’s incredible six pack were. She was struck by how firm everything felt, inside and out. It felt like there was a plate of steel under his skin.

She turned around and looked around the room. His bed was in the middle, unmade and torn apart. His desk was off to the side with a computer with a flying through space screen saver, very intriguing. The sight of it drew her to the chair and made her sit down, entranced by the spatial vortex of swirling stars. Her hand rose and moved the mouse, making it stop and she suddenly snapped out of her trance. Why had that captivated her so?

She opened up different files on the desktop and saw nothing but mainly school assignments and pictures that Pete had sent him from elementary school. She clicked on the internet explorer button and the screen buzzed to life. It brought up the Google search engine and a Yahoo! browser. She looked at his history and noticed an amazing assortment of world record sites. She clicked on one and it brought up a picture of a man holding a car above his head and the subtitle read Man Lifts 3,000 lb Car. Clark was obviously obsessed with world records somehow. Maybe he wanted to break one of these records someday.

Then it hit her: she had just lifted up a car this afternoon. What was the deal with that? She shook her head and quickly clicked the “x”, closing the explorer. She stumbled off the chair and collapsed on the bed, face first. What was going on?

Clark was making her three times more confused than she had ever been. He had secrets, that she knew, but she could not comprehend the limits of what they were.

Downstairs she heard the front door open and close, twice, and then heard Mr. and Mrs. Kent talking and laughing. Surprisingly, Lana could hear every word they were saying.

Clark didn’t take the car? Martha asked.

No, he just ran there. I told you he was mad. Jonathan replied.

Is he home?

Who knows? That boy disappears more than the newspaper.

You’d better go check Jonathan, and apologize.

Jonathan became upset. Why do I keep having to apologize for worrying about him? I’m just trying to be a good father and Lex isn’t helping matters anyway.

There was a moment of silence.

Fine Jonathan said I will talk to him. I’ll go check and see if he’s home.

Lana heard him start to come up the stairs and panicked. How would she ever act like Clark in front of his dad? That would be impossible! He would see right through to her. She scrambled under the covers and pretended to be sleeping.

There was a knock at the door. “Clark? Are you home, son?” the door squeaked opened and Jonathan looked in and saw Clark laying on his bed with the covers brought up to his chin, he was laying on his side and away from the door. Jonathan sighed and walked to the bed. He sat down on the end and patted “Clark” on the calf. “Clark, listen, son. I’m sorry that I blew up, again. I just can’t help but think that all Lex is after is your secret, and I’m just trying to protect you.” He looked down at “Clark”, who still hadn’t opened “his” eyes.

Jonathan nodded, understanding that Clark was still mad at him. “Well, when you’re ready to talk, you know where to find me.” He stood up, looking down at him one last time, and then slowly walked back through the door, shutting it behind him.

Lana’s eyes shot open and she stared forward. Suddenly realizing that she had been holding her breath, she let it go. Her mind was racing with thoughts and questions.

****
Clark reluctantly passed up Chloe’s offer to draw him a bath, really not sure about how he should handle washing her body until he figured out how long it would be until they switched back. Now he was lying on her bed, sipping a cup of hot coffee and staring at the ceiling. He’d really gotten them into a mess this time. It was no doubt that Lana had already discovered his secret, Pete or his dad must have given it away by now.

Now what he had to figure out was how to change back. There had to be something on the wall that would tell him what they could do, or couldn’t do.

He knew he was going to have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

****
Lana dressed the next morning and rushed downstairs, Clark’s mom had already called her three times and she still hadn’t brushed her teeth. She walked into the kitchen and saw the buttermilk pancakes sitting at an open spot. Martha smiled at her and motioned for her to sit, “Come on already or you’ll miss the bus!”

Lana smirked and sat down, she dug into the pancakes and finished them off within seconds. Martha just shook her head, “I don’t know how we’re going to afford keeping you around.” She smiled and took his plate.

Glancing out the window, Lana noticed that the bus had just passed. She hopped up from her chair and raced to the window, “Oh no!”

Martha looked at him strangely, “Since when have you been bummed to miss the bus?”

Lana tried to recover, “Oh yeah, I, uh, I just told Lana that I’d, uh, meet her early.” She nodded, “We need to exchange history notes.”

Martha walked over to him and put a hand to his forehead, sarcastically. “Are you feeling alright?” she drew her hand back and stared into her eyes.

“Everybody keeps asking me that! Why wouldn’t I be?” Lana got frustrated, knowing there was something that she didn’t know, but as long as she played dumb she’d find out.

Martha backed away and shrugged, “You always say you’d rather run to school, that’s all. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to dress for work.”

Lana watched her leave the kitchen and head into her room. She stood, stunned, in the middle of the kitchen. Clark ran to school? No wonder his body looks like this!

****
Clark leaned against Lana’s locker, waiting for her to show up with his body. Chloe was already here, they had ridden to school together and she had already begun slaving away in the Torch office while Clark waited for Lana.

He saw her, as him, start towards him down the hall with a stern look on her face. He knew this was going to be a long day.

“Clark! You have some explaining to do!” She said, loud enough for all to hear all the way down the hall. Luckily, the hall was vacant and no one heard.

Clark looked around and put a finger to her lips. “okay, first of all, you need to start referring to me as Lana, we don’t want anyone to get suspicious.”

Lana put his hands on his hips and glared at him, “Okay Lana, you have so much explaining to do, so go ahead.” She crossed his arms and looked at him intently.

Clark shoved her hands in her pockets. He had chosen to wear the pair of jeans that he loved on her, she wore them a lot and he thought they looked great on her. He also put on a light blue t-shirt and wore her hair up in a messy ponytail. “I told you there are things about me that you don’t know. Well you probably do now, but…”

“Cl…Lana…I ran to school! In three minutes! That is a huge thing that I don’t know! How the hell can you run to school in three minutes?” She bent down and stared at him in the eyes.

Clark averted his eyes, “Listen, we can’t talk about it right now. Let’s go to my…your loft after school. Okay?” He straightened up and refocused his eyes.

Lana shook her head, “This is so absurd. Why can’t you tell me now? I need to know.” Clark stared at her, with a downcast face, he didn’t want to tell her right now. He had to gather his thoughts and know how to exactly present his…er…alienship to her, if he told her now, there was no telling what she would do. She got the hint, “Okay, okay. Whatever.” She looked around and then back down at Clark, still not getting used to the fact it was Clark in her body. “Our biggest dilemma, besides how we are going to switch back, is how were gonna…” she bent down and whispered, “clean ourselves.”

Clark took a step back and nodded, he was beside himself. He had no idea how they would do that. “That’s for sure, Chloe told me to relax and take a bath. I told her no thanks.”

Lana gasped, “Oh my God! How are we going to do this? This is so embarrassing!!”

Clark agreed, “Yes, it is. We are going to have to come to some sort of agreement fast because there’s no telling how long its going to be until we get to switch back. I can’t read the symbols any more, so its going to be up to you to help me make a plan.”

Lana stared at him, so he could read the symbols all along. She knew as soon as she woke up in the cave that something was different, she was able to decipher the meanings of the symbols without thinking. Thoughts and questions were racing through her head, she couldn’t really put them all together.

She sighed, “Is there anything I should know, until after school?”

Clark nodded, “Don’t go near meteor rocks, you have a meeting with the principle about next semesters classed during third period and you need to go to the Torch office during study hall to help Chloe map out the next issue. Do you think you can handle that?”

Lana lifted an eyebrow, “Don’t go near meteor rocks? How random is that?”

Clark shrugged, “They make me sick, so if you are around one, you will no doubt feel the same way I do when I’m around them.”

Lana took a step forward, her arms were still crossed, but her face showed more of a concerned look. “Clark…” she hesitated, “were you affected by the meteor rocks?”

Clark looked away, “No, I wasn’t.”

****
Chloe motioned to Pete, who was opening his locker in the deserted hallway. She was peeking around the corner of the hallway across from Pete’s locker. “Ssst! Pete!” she waved her hand and motioned him over.

He gave her a strange look, but walked over. “Since when are you one to spy?” he asked sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and then pointed down the hall. “Look.”

Pete looked, he saw Clark and Lana talking by her locker, deep in conversation. “Whoopie! Clark and Lana are talking! Can you tell me something that would make the headlines?” He began to walk away.

Chloe grabbed his arm and spun him around, “No! Look at them. Watch what they do.”

Pete lifted an eyebrow, “What? Did they kiss or something?”

“No,” Chloe said bluntly, she looked back at them and whispered, “it’s like they swapped personalities. I’ve known both of them long enough to know that isn’t how they usually act.”

Pete stared at Clark and Lana, Lana dug her hands into her pockets and Clark folded his arms and shifted his weight to one side, like Lana always did. “Hmmm. I see what you mean.” He looked at Chloe, who was staring at him like it was the news of the century, “What? What do you want me to say? It’s not like they haven’t been around each other not to know each other’s quirks.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, “One of the side effects of having a best friend. No, I’m serious. Yesterday afternoon Lana came home and wouldn’t talk, she said two things the entire night. I think she went to see Clark, but I’m not sure. We talked, or I talked, and I came to the conclusion myself.”

Pete smiled, “One of your many gifts.” Chloe slapped him on the arm. “Chloe, I found Clark and Lana in the caves yesterday. Clark and I were supposed to study, but he forgot, so I went looking for them. It’s nothing big, she’s just trying to be his friend.”

Chloe stared at him, “Well then why didn’t she say anything to me? Isn’t that a little more suspicious?”

Pete rolled his eyes, “Oh come on Chloe. Do you really think this is that big of a deal?”

She whirled around and pointed down the hallway. “Is that normal?” she asked in a hushed hiss, “Have you ever seen them argue without one of them storming off? They are standing there, like a couple of debate students trying to figure out a problem.”

Pete turned to walk away, “Maybe they do have a problem. Since when is the Clark/Lana front such a big surprise to you? They’ve been going at it since…well for a long time. I don’t think there’s a story here, Chloe, sorry.” He walked back to his locker and left Chloe standing at the corner. He was beginning to think something was up, but he didn’t want to hint at anything unless he knew for sure. If it had something to do with the caves, then he certainly didn’t want Chloe investigating, which is what she’d undoubtedly do.

****
Lana hurried down the hall towards the Torch office, she had to be careful not to suddenly break out into one of Clark’s speed modes where everything would suddenly become still, it was like she was moving in slow motion. That had accidentally happened twice already, not including her three minute trip to school. Luckily, Pete had been the only one around, and he seemed to be all too familiar with the event.

She burst through the door of the Torch, making Chloe drop the files she was holding, “God, Clark. I usually know when you enter a room anyway.” She shook her head and bent down to pick up her files.

“Where’s…Lana?” she asked, catching herself before she said “Clark”.

Chloe picked up her files and set them on her desk, “Well, hmm, its fourth period so let’s see. Oh, she’s probably in class like the other four fifths of the student body.” Why am I not surprised you’re looking for her? She added to herself.

Lana rolled her eyes, “Right.”

“You of all people should know where she is,” Chloe said, sitting down at her computer and beginning to type.

Lana gave her a weird look, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Chloe looked up, a flash of hurt crossed over her face, but it disappeared as suddenly as it appeared. Because you know every single aspect of her life, that’s why, she wanted to scream. She didn’t though. “Never mind. Is something wrong?”

Lana shook her head, “No! Nothings wrong. Thanks, I’ll see you later.” She waved and then scooted out the door, not hearing Chloe mumble, I hate it when you do that. Luckily, she knew where her fourth period class was. She made her way to the English wing and cautiously crept past the door of her classroom. Clark was sitting in her spot, as he should be, and reading a book. She crossed to the side of the door where the teacher could not see her and tried to get Clark’s attention.

“Sssst!” She hissed, ever so quietly. Jeremy, her partner, looked up and saw her, as Clark, and smiled. Lana motioned for him to get Clark…er…Lana.

“Lana!” Jeremy whispered, leaning over to her.

Clark looked up and saw himself standing in the doorway. GAH! That was a little creepy. He got the message that Lana needed to talk to him and he stood up and walked over to the teacher’s desk. “Is it alright if I go to the bathroom?” he asked.

The teacher looked up and smiled, “Yes, of course Lana. Here, take this.” She quickly wrote out a pass and handed it to her.

He smiled, “Thanks.” He walked towards the door, hearing Jeremy and his buddies snicker as he walked out. Lana grabbed him and began pulling him down the hall. “Whoa! What’s wrong?”

She stopped and leaned him against a locker, he suddenly felt very intimidated. She did not know the length of his strength. She stood up straight and searched for words. This was hard. “I…I have to go to the bathroom.”

Clark couldn’t help but smile, and giggle a little, “Then go!”

Lana’s eyes widened, “That’s all you can say? ‘Then go’? This is serious!”

Clark shrugged, “I already went.”

****
Clark walked up the steps to his loft, from a perspective that he had never experienced. He saw himself standing by the window, staring out and leaning against the half doors. It was a common thing for him to do, and it was spooky that Lana could pull it off as him, but he had never seen himself do it. It was strange, cool and creepy all at the same time.

Lana turned at the noise he made walking up the squeaky steps. She smiled and leaned with his back against the sill, hands in the pockets and a pondering look. Clark smiled back and joined her at the window, she turned and stared out it once again. Neither said anything for several minutes.

Lana too a deep breath and finally spoke. “You know, I always felt there was something about you, like what I’m experiencing. It seemed like sometimes you would just disappear way too suddenly. Chloe and I used to talk about that. She told me that you would vanish out of thin air while you two were talking. I initially thought she was just imagining it, or letting her wild mind create the rest of a story that just wasn’t there.” She looked over at him and gave him a confused smiled, “But then you started doing it to me too, after we started hanging out a lot. And what confused us even more was how you were always able to be there when we had gotten ourselves into trouble. Like with Ian Randall, and even Tina Greer. It was amazing how you could always be in the right place at the right time.” Clark closed his eyes and nodded solemnly, knowing that he did, in fact, have a habit of doing that.

Lana heaved a sigh, “Then other times I thought that you were freakishly strong. You would pull me out of impossible situations, like the tornado or from, well, a meteor freak, like Tina. I could never figure out how you did it, there had to be an explanation for why and how.”

Clark looked at her sympathetically, “I tried not to be too obvious.”

She focused her eyes and dug into his mind, “If you can do all these incredible things, like lift Pete’s car from a ditch and set it on the road, why do you try to remain anonymous?”

Clark averted his eyes and started playing with his hands, “My parents always told me to keep my abilities a secret because if anyone found out they’d take me away to a lab and run all different kinds of tests on me. When I was little, I accepted it. But now that I’m older, I question that myself.” He looked up at her, “Sometimes its more satisfying if the only audience you have to please is yourself.” He shrugged and looked away again, “I feel responsible too.”

Lana shook her head, “See, that’s what I don’t get. You always apologize for things you had nothing to do with.” She hesitated, her eyes bore down on him, “Clark, what’s up?”

Clark sighed, this was it. “Lana, I’m not normal. I never was, and I never will be. I’m not like you, Pete or Chloe, or my parents.” Lana watched him closely, he was really nervous. She softened her gaze and tried to listen closely. “When we were freshman, I pulled Lex out of the river after his car went over the bridge.”

Lana nodded, “I remember that. But what does that have to do with anything?”

Clark looked up at her, “His car hit me at sixty miles an hour and flung me over the bridge with him.”

Lana gasped, and she sounded like a cow giving birth. Clark did not have the voice to gasp, it wasn’t in his vocal nature. “Wow!”

Clark nodded, “That entire day had been weird, my dad wouldn’t let me play on the football team and I ran out on them. The next morning Lex gave me a truck. It was the coolest truck I’d ever seen, red with two white stripes and an incredible engine with…well it was cool, I won’t bore you with the details. My dad wouldn’t let me keep it.”

Lana rolled her eyes, “That’s Jonathan Kent for you.”

Clark nodded, “I didn’t understand, I wasn’t trying to be conceded or anything, but I did save his life. My dad said that I was experiencing a normal feeling. I got so mad that I ran over to the chopper and stuck my arm in it.” Lana’s eyes widened. “I knew nothing was going to happen, nothing can break my skin. He was shocked and I ran up into my loft, really angry. He comes up after me a couple minutes later and tells me ‘It’s time, son’.” Clark laughed, “I was thought it was weird. But he pulls out this…object thing, it looked like something you’d put into a computer, like an enormous floppy disk. I didn’t know what it was, it had symbols on it like the one’s in the cave. He told me that he’d tried for years to decipher it, but it wasn’t in any language known to man.” He turned and looked up at himself, staring into his alien eyes.

Lana stared, bug eyed and trying to comprehend what he was implying. “No language known to man? What’s that supposed to mean?”

Clark sighed and looked at the telescope, “My dad looked at my telescope and I knew that he was telling me that I was from ‘up there’. I totally did not believe it.”

“He told you that were an alien?” Lana asked, with a little laugh.

Clark nodded, “Then he brought me to the cellar and showed me my ship.”

Lana fell silent and looked down at the ground. Shaking her head, as if she didn’t believe it, she looked back up again, laughing a little. “Is this a joke?”

Clark shook his head, “Do you see me laughing?” She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “After he showed me the ship I ran off, faster than he could blink, and didn’t come back for a long time. That’s when I ran into you at the graveyard.”

Her head shot up, “The graveyard. That’s why you were crying?”

Clark shrugged, not remembering if he actually did cry, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he actually had. “Yeah.”

Lana shook her head again, “If you’re an alien, how did you get to earth? Your ship must have somehow been noticed on army scanners, like how they detect for enemy war planes, wouldn’t it have?”

“Not if it had decoys, something that would cover it’s landing,” Clark said, hinting at the truth.

Lana looked a little confused, but her eyes widened and then narrowed, “Please don’t tell me that it was the meteor shower!” Clark averted his eyes, he could see the pain in her face, knowing that that was the only way that it could have happened. She looked away, hotly, and stared out the window, squinting her eyes. “I can’t believe this. This can’t be happening.” Clark closed his eyes and leaned against the window, using it for support. She whirled around, “I can not believe you never told me! You told Pete! What? Didn’t you think I’d understand?”

Clark looked up at her with pain, “No! I thought you’d do this! When I knew that my arrival killed your parents, I wanted to jump into that creek with Lex and just stay there! Then when Chloe told me her theory on the meteor shower, I freaked and ran out. Then Whitney found me and tied me up in the cornfield with your necklace tied around my neck! I have paid the consequences for coming, and I don’t even know why I was sent here!”

Lana shook her head, “I don’t believe this.” She grimaced and then disappeared.

****
Clark didn’t bother calling after her, he knew that she could get farther than she knew and he knew that he needed to give her time to cool off and think things over. He had almost felt like his father when he was talking to her. He turned around and stared out the window.

“Lana?” asked a voice. He turned around and there was Pete standing at the top of the stairs. Clark looked away, afraid of how long he’d been standing there. “Did Clark just do what I think he just did?” Pete had seen “Clark” sprint at full speed down the stairs and outside.

Clark nodded solemnly, he wanted to tell Pete, but he didn’t know if he’d believe him. Pete walked over and looked down at him, Clark was suddenly very nervous. He hoped he wouldn’t try to kiss him or anything. “Do you know?”

Clark looked away, “Pete, I’m not Lana.”

Pete lifted an eyebrow and smirked a little, “Okay…who are you?”

“I’m Clark,” he said.

Pete laughed, and then he became serious. He put on a confused face and shook his head. “What?”

Clark sighed, “In the caves, yesterday, I was looking around and Lana came. We wandered into a back room of the cave and saw this really weird symbol. I couldn’t decipher what it was, but it meant something like “switch”. There was a button that you could press, and being the naïve people that we are, we thought it would be fun to press it. So we did and it made us change bodies.”

Pete stared at him, slightly grinning, “Whoa, that’s crazy!”

Clark lifted an eyebrow, “Do you believe me?”

Pete shrugged, “Sure, why not.”

Clark nodded, Pete knew him well enough. “How long were you standing there?”

Pete shrugged again, “Long enough to see Clar…Lana…whoever that was…race out as you, I only heard the last of the muffled discussion. What happened?”

Clark moaned, “I had to tell her. She ran to school this morning, and I guess she helped you out with your car.” Pete nodded. “I told her about Lex and then the truck he gave me and because of the fact that my dad wouldn’t let me keep it, it led to me finding out who I really was.”

Pete nodded, “That was probably the best way to tell her. I take it she didn’t agree?”

“I don’t know, it seemed like she was okay with the alien bit, but when she connected my arrival with the meteor shower, then it all just really set in.” He sighed and sank into a chair. Pete sat down on the couch across from him.

“Do your parents know?” Pete asked. Clark shook Lana’s head. “Chloe was suspicious about you two, she thought you had changed personalities by the way you were arguing in the hall this morning.”

Clark lifted an eyebrow, “You saw us?”

Pete nodded, and then laughed. “What?” Clark asked.

Pete laughed again, “You don’t know how weird this is.”

Clark stared at him, “Yeah, I do. I’m in HER BODY!”

Pete smiled widely, “Have you taken a shower yet?”

****
Lana ran out of the barn, everything was as still as a picture. The sun was starting to set and the sky was getting dark. Nothing would help her mood, though, she was in pure shock. She passed Pete at the bottom of the stairs, who hadn’t seen her take off but she was sure he’d be able to feel the effects of her speed. It was no doubt that Clark would tell him about their secret now.

Secret! Secret, secret secret! She was tired of that word! She would dismiss it from the English language if she could. She hated that people took everything so seriously and that everyone was just trying to protect her by keeping secrets. Clark had done that for years now, always saying, as an excuse “I was just trying to protect you”. She wanted to scream back at him “Protect me from what?” There was nothing she could find in her mind that would tell her what Clark would be protecting her from.

Now she realized that he was really trying to protect her from the truth. Protect her from knowing him. The only thing she had wanted in the last year was for him to let her know him. He had welcomed her in after a long struggle of what will work out between them, and then something happens, like he runs off to Metropolis and leaves her mourning back at home for three months. They had gone through this so many times and she was sick of it. She was hoping that something like Clark sharing his deepest secrets with her would help.

Were secrets ever what they seemed? When you wanted to know something for a long time, does a secret develop or does it become a natural part of your life? Clark’s secretiveness was annoying, because it hurt when he wouldn’t open up and share why something happened or why he couldn’t do something, or why he ran away. But it was natural for him to do, and it seemed to go along with the boy. You couldn’t have Clark without having everything that was associated with him, secrets included. She had been willing to deal with it, she had told him that when he had written her off after he had come back from Metropolis. He wasn’t willing, though. He was just trying to protect her.

Lana was now walking along the edge of a river, deep into the woods. She had no idea where she was and it was starting to get really dark. She looked ahead and squinted, she could barely see anything. She sighed and kept shuffling along the bank. A stick or a rock would cross her path and she’d kick it, sending it flying ahead of her to the point where she couldn’t even see where it landed.

It was now pitch black and she could barely see where she was walking. She stood still and tried to concentrate on the ground to see where she was going. She heard a noise behind her and spun around, her heart beating rapidly was satisfied with a rustle in the bushes. She looked at it hard, trying to see what it was. It was just too dark.

Suddenly, she was looking right through the bush. She gasped, everything was freakishly visible. Every ant and every tree was visible to her eye, not a leaf could escape her vision. She saw that a squirrel had startled her and heaved a sigh of relief. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the transparency disappeared. She jumped.

Putting her hands to her head, she fell to her knees. Staring up into the starry sky, she began to scream, “What other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Come on! Tell me!” She huddled over her legs and buried her head in her hands. This was so unreal, she felt as if she would wake up any second it was so like a dream.

Struggling to her feet, she stumbled along the bank and kept walking, cautiously and carefully.

Suddenly, a pain seized her, a pain like no other that she had ever experienced before. It ripped at her heart and made every muscle in her body go weak. Her strength failed her and she dropped to the bank and slid into the soft, wet sand. Everything around her became mushy, but she could only notice the pain within her body. She struggled to keep her eyes opened and glanced around.

She could only see a soft green glow coming from inside the river water, pulsating and vibrating, making ripples on the water. What was that?

****
Clark and Pete sat around in his loft, feeling very uncomfortable, while Lana ran around, who knows where, and did who knows what. Pete thought that he believed Clark…or Lana…or whoever was sitting there with him. It was too crazy for anyone to believe it, though, there was no reason for him not to believe it. He was purely confused.

They hadn’t said anything for at least twenty minutes, both lost in their own reel of thoughts. Both of them thought it would be better for Lana to cool off before they went looking for her. There was no telling how far she’d gone or how upset she was. Neither of them knew if she knew the length of Clark’s abilities.

Clark stood up, feeling his leg brush softly across Pete’s pant leg. Pete smirked and pulled his legs in, allowing the dainty Clark to pass. Clark rolled her eyes and walked to the window. He couldn’t sit still and had been up and down all day. He stared out the window, scanning the blackness for any sign of himself, running, sulking or…whatever.

There was a noise behind them on the stairs and they both turned around, not too surprised to see Martha standing there. “Lana! Pete! I didn’t know you two were here,” she exclaimed with a smile.

Clark smiled awkwardly and Pete stood up, giving him a look that said “I can handle it”. “Yeah, Mrs. Kent. We’ve been here for a while. Clark said he’d be right back, but then again, that’s ‘Clark time’, not necessarily our time.”

Martha smiled and giggled, “Yes, you can never be too sure of his timing. Well I was just coming up to tell him I have dinner just about ready, but obviously I can’t do that. If you two would like to join us, your more than welcome. I made too much anyhow.”

The two smiled and Clark answered this time, “That would be wonderful!”

Martha smiled back, “Great, I’ll set two extra seats at the table. It’ll be ready in about five minutes.” She waved a little and walked back down the steps.

Pete turned with a perplexed look on his face and stared at Clark, “Are you crazy? You’ll cave or something!”

Clark shrugged, “I want to be here when she comes back and this’ll give me a good excuse. Besides, I don’t feel like eating pizza and my mom made potato soup.”

Pete arched an eyebrow. “Super smell?” he asked sarcastically.

Clark walked past him, “I may have lost all my abilities, but I know my mother’s soup when I smell it.” He grinned, “Also, she spilled some on her shirt.”

****
Lana drifted in and out of consciousness, only figuring how much time had passed. The green glow from the river bottom got brighter and brighter, and it felt strange to her that as the glow intensified, the pain in her body did also. She tried to move her arms to grip firm soil, but she could barely lift them. She didn’t know what was happening, and she wasn’t trying to hard to fight it.

Instead, her mind drifted to thoughts about the events of the day. How she ran to school in three minutes, how she didn’t break a sweat in gym class doing stairs, how Clark told her he was an alien, and how she’d looked right through the bush not too long ago. Thinking about them separately, they made no sense, but when she tried to put them together, they made more sense than ever. It explained who Clark was and it answered every little question she ever had surrounding him.

She was almost a little disappointed. Even though Clark was the “Man of Mystery” and the “Fort Knox of Secrets” and you never knew where he was going to show up next, it was who he was. No matter how many times he’d been late, or never showed up, or refused to hand over the littlest bit of information concerning himself, or a circumstance, it made Lana want to know him even more. She would sit in her room at hours on end, just trying to contemplate what he was capable of. She never imagined this.

It was disappointing in the sense that she no longer had a mystery in him, everything was out there and up front, in her face. There was no man behind the mask in him, she knew him now. Wasn’t that what she wanted? Yes, it was. And she was happy, for that much, but it almost spoiled the fun of being able to think about Clark and not knowing how to answer the amazing things he did.

But now she knew, and there was no turning back. She had no choice now, so she had to try and deal with it. The first thing that popped to mind was why he never told her, or never thought he could trust her. He had sent Whitney back to her, oh so long ago, because he knew that she could handle the news about his father, Whitney had told her that. She was surprised, because she had thought that she and Clark were going to have something going, not exactly sure what that would mean, but she had a pretty good idea that Clark did not have what happened in mind. Why had he so willingly sent her to Whitney, but when it came to his own problems, or secrets and troubles, he could not feel like he could confront her?

Then she remembered what he had said to her, up in his loft.

“I can not believe you never told me! You told Pete! What? Didn’t you think I’d understand?”

“No! I thought you’d do this! When I knew that my arrival killed your parents, I wanted to jump into that creek with Lex and just stay there! Then when Chloe told me her theory on the meteor shower, I freaked and ran out. Then Whitney found me and tied me up in the cornfield with your necklace tied around my neck! I have paid the consequences for coming, and I don’t even know why I was sent here!”

That was why, but it didn’t make sense. He had hurried so through the statement that it was all just a blur. Why did he say he had paid the consequences for coming? Those weren’t consequences, those were results, effects, after-tastes of his arrival on earth.

Thinking about “arrival”, she shuddered. She could not believe he was an alien. That was insane. But he clearly had all the evidence pointing in his direction.

Snapping from her thoughts, she felt a sudden surge of pain grip her stomach. She groaned loudly and glanced down at her hands, which were imbedded into the mud beside her face. The skin was wrinkling and it had a tinted green casting over them. She moaned as she lifted his hand and brought it closer to her face, examining it carefully. She turned it back and forth, looking from the palm to the back and wincing as she did so. What was it about this that brought back a distant memory?

This was the exact way Clark reacted when he was around her, sometimes at least and not as much lately. She noticed it especially during her freshman year, his skin would become a tinted green and he would look like he was about to puke. But that had stopped a little during sophomore year, and rarely ever happened this year. What was different these last two years than freshman year?

Stay away from meteor rocks…

A voice suddenly popped into her head. Stay away from meteor rocks? How random was that? Then she remembered, that was what Clark had told her before school started. He had also said that they make him feel sick in a way that was indescribably painful, which was what she was experiencing now. She jerked her head through the soft mud and stared at the entrancing glow coming from the middle of the river. It was green, and glowing, still.

Why did it glow? Meteor rocks never glowed! They just…were there. Was there something about Clark that caused them to glow? If there was, she was in deep trouble.

The pain overtook her once again and she felt herself drift off into unconsciousness.

****
“Have you had enough, Lana dear?” Martha asked, standing up to fill Jonathan’s bowl.

Clark touched her stomach, if he ate another drop he was sure her belly would explode. He still could not figure out how she could eat so little and fill up so fast. “No…Mrs. Kent. I’m so full. It was absolutely delicious!” he smiled and then glanced at Pete, who was furiously stuffing his face. “But I think Pete will have more.”

Pete looked up, blushing slightly. “This is incredible.” Martha giggled. She set Jonathan’s bowl in front of him and then took Pete’s bowl to fill it up as well.

“So where did you say Clark went?” Jonathan asked as he took another bite.

Pete shrugged, “He didn’t say. He was just kinda like, ‘I’ll be right back’, you know how Clark does that sometimes. Then he just dis…ran out.” He stole a glance at Clark.

Jonathan looked at Clark…er, Lana, “Really? Were you talking about something that was unsettling? Was he angry when he left?”

Clark averted her eyes, “We did kind of get into an argument, that may be why he ran out.”

Jonathan nodded, then shared a look with Martha. Neither of them knew what to make of it, Clark hadn’t been talking to either of them recently.

****
Lana woke up from her unconsciousness. Feeling no pain subsiding, she struggled to reposition herself from his face plant in the mud. She got her head to turn, but other than that it was useless, she had no strength left.

Not knowing what else to do, her mind drifted off again, hoping that Clark would come searching for her. He had no reason to come looking, she had totally bashed him, in every sense of the word. But that was who Clark was, he was the hero type. No matter what she did, he was always there to help her out. She and Chloe had given him a pretty hard time in the past, yet he still rescued them from the trouble they were in.

Like with Ian, she and Chloe had pretty much told him off, but he still showed up at the dam and saved them. Why and how it was impossible to tell, at the time, but now she fully understood the whys and hows. It made sense.

He also had a way of resisting people, or looking through them, not literally. He would always try to see the good side of someone before he made a judgment. When he did make one she often didn’t agree with, she would automatically assume that he’d jumped to conclusions or was just jealous. But the guy had instincts like a dog. He could fit two seemingly random pieces of a puzzle together, make it make sense, try to convince everyone he was right, and then end up being right. He’d been right about so many things so many times that she wondered why she kept doubting him.

That’s the thing about Clark Kent, he’s never there when you want him, but he’s always there when you need him.

Every muscle in his body went limp. Why did it matter what “nationality” he was? The whole concept of Clark Kent was his heroic attitude towards everyone and everything. It didn’t matter who they were, he would help them. He didn’t view himself as anyone special because he didn’t draw attention to himself, he’d rather remain anonymous. Furthermore, he didn’t conceal his ability to help. He didn’t say, ‘These humans are so helpless! Why should I help them?”

He did say he felt responsible for the meteor shower. Maybe his subconscious was telling him that helping people was how to make up for causing all the pain and turmoil that happened fourteen years ago.

“He killed my parents!” She shouted. “How can I live with that?”

A little voice popped into her head, it wasn’t her own, and it wasn’t Clark’s. This voice asked her a question.

How could an innocent little boy, the age of three, cause a meteor shower that wiped out the city of Smallville?

Lana tried to shake it from her mind, it didn’t matter what he was or wasn’t capable of at the time, he was still associated with it.

…I don’t even know why I was sent here!

That was Clark’s voice, echoing as clear as a bell inside her head. He had said that to her in the barn before she ran off. He didn’t know why he was here…that was interesting.

She suddenly became very emotional. She temporarily pushed the pain aside and focused on her thoughts. She had judged him before she really knew the whole story. Tears welled up inside her eyes and rolled slowly down…his cheek, she choked back more tears.

“I’m sorry Clark!” she mumbled.

“So then the sea cucumber says to the mollusk…”

Clark literally threw his head into his hands, curling over in his seat on the couch. Pete was telling jokes and everybody’s sides were aching from laughter, he had an endless supply of them.

Clark pressed her hands to his ears and tried to stop the loud buzzing noise that was going off inside his ear, but it was coming from inside her head.

“Lana, is everything alright?” Martha asked worriedly, she stood up and walked over to sit by her on the couch.

He still had her hands pressed up against her ears, but then the buzzing stopped and a low hum echoed within her head. I’m sorry Clark! A voice said. He stood up, that was her voice…Lana’s voice. How could he hear Lana’s voice when he had her body.

I didn’t take the time to think!

There it was again, and it was still her voice. He shook her head and opened his eyes. “Oh sorry, I just got a really bad headache,” he laughed nervously. “It’s late…I should be getting home anyway.”

Martha looked up at her sympathetically, “Yes, you get some sleep. You’ll see Clark in the morning.”

Pete stood up as well, “Would you like me to drive you home?”

Clark nodded, “Yes, that would be great. Then I don’t have to walk.” He turned to his parents, “Thank you so much for dinner, it was delicious. Tell Clark I said good-bye.” They waved, then grabbed their coats and headed out to Pete’s car. They heard the Kent’s yell goodbye to them from inside.

They stopped outside of Pete’s car and he looked down at Clark. “What is it?”

Clark looked up, horrified, “I think the switch is happening!”

****
Pete stepped on the gas, they were shooting down the road at eighty miles per hour and they both felt a rush of adrenaline surge through their bodies. Clark kept getting the buzzing effect in his head and he related it to the noise he heard when the ship key was misplaced. By using it, he would direct Pete in the direction that he felt the noise was coming from.

They had to turn around once because Lana’s sense of direction was no where near as good as Clark’s. He thought it had been coming from the east, but it was actually coming from the west. Pete did a U turn and headed in the opposite direction.

“Any change?” Pet asked.

Clark shook his head, “I can’t tell, but it isn’t getting worse, like it was when we were going the opposite direction.” Pete nodded and looked ahead. “Wait! STOP!” Pete slammed on the brakes and the car started to swerve, he turned into the veer and the car came to a halt on the right side of the road, and thankfully still on it.

He stared at Lana…Clark… “What is it?” he asked.

Clark took his hands from his head. “It stopped, turn around and go back the other way, slowly.” Pete groaned, but complied. He spun the car around and started creeping along the road. The buzzing came back and Clark opened the car door. “Okay, stop here, park the car and then follow me.”

Pete nodded and let him get out. He looked around and saw an abandoned farm house to the left. He drove in there and parked the car, hiding it from the road. He jumped out and ran across the street and through the cornfields to catch up with Clark. He caught up with him in no time. “What did you hear?”

Clark shook her head, “I don’t know, but for some reason I think she’s in trouble.”

Pete shook his head, “I can’t believe your running after her when she totally bit you man.”

Clark stopped and turned to face him, “I cant either. Oh, wait. Yes I can. SHE HAS MY BODY!” He turned and kept running.

Pete rolled his eyes, and then began jogging behind him, watching him concentrate on his ears and the direction they were going.

Presently they came to the edge of the woods, where the path wove off and disappeared into the thick trees. “Do you want me to hold your hand?” Pete asked, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Clark frantically brushed Pete’s hand off her shoulder and turned and slapped him in the face, “That’s probably the only chance I will ever get to hit you.” He smirked. Pete rolled his eyes and put a hand to his cheek, massaging the blow of Lana’s hand. “Okay, I can’t tell which way the buzzing is louder, so we’ll need to split up. Do you have your cell phone?"

****
Lana relaxed as she felt her mind drift off into a deathly sleep. She could no longer put off or ease the pain coming from the meteor rock inside the river. The power was just too great and the radiation too strong.

There was something about her situation, her moment of being, that really showed her how ironic the whole thing was. It was like this “switch” had happened to show her who Clark really was, and not just his being an alien. When she thought about too hard, the depth of what “alien” meant really confused her, but it no longer bothered her. But when she contemplated who Clark was, the hero of their town of Smallville, it brought her to a realization that she could not comprehend his destiny. He was an incredible person and not just because he wanted to rid the town of their misery, but because he actually cared enough about other people to risk himself, risk exploiting himself. He had something that no one else would dare to grasp. A sense of immortality surrounded the human nature of Clark Kent.

The “switch” happened, she acknowledged, and there was a way to get it reversed, there had to be! What could that possibly be?

Pain gripped her once again and the thought brushed from her mind. Her deep sleep was causing realistic dreams, and realistic thoughts and ponderings. They were helping her sort out what was happening.

Clark would know what to do in her present situation. He would devise a plan that he could escape from even the depth of pain such as what she was experiencing now. Couldn’t he? Wouldn’t he know what to do when there were meteor rocks around?

Maybe that’s why he hung out with Pete, so that he could pull him out of this swamp if a meteor rock had him trapped. Because he could obviously get himself out with very little trouble if there was no meteor rocks, the guy had the strength of a hundred men, it seemed.

Clark was probable for this situation, he was the only one Lana could think of that kept this many secrets hidden, boiling up inside himself. She could only imagine the willpower it took to contain his secrets. He had to live everyday knowing that someone may fall into his life, learn his secrets, and expose him. She wondered if she would ever have been able to do that.

He was undoubtedly the strongest guy she ever knew, in all senses of the word. Yes, he could bench press a tractor, but that wasn’t what mattered to her right now. What mattered was that she understood the strength it took to actually protect his friends from the truth, for surely the truth would have been dangerous to them. If Lana or Chloe would have known about his…his…abilities, they may not have been able to accept Clark as a real friend. They would always be expecting him to save them, which was something, she now understood, was something he would have detested and would have surely drove him to Metropolis sooner.

She understood that Clark wanted to be normal, which was why he went to a public school. If he or his parents didn’t think that he could handle a normal life, they would have home schooled him or something. She felt he had done an incredible job of acting normal, he had fooled them for a long time. Sure they knew there was something else about him, but she never, ever, expected this.

Her eyes shot open, there was still hope. There was still hope that she could face Clark once again and tell him these things. There was still hope.

I understand Clark.

“Lana? Lana!” She sighed, now she thought she was hearing her voice calling her own name. “Lana! It’s Clark!” Right, Clark, like you would even know where to start looking for me. I ran miles away from your barn. “Lana! Can you hear me?” The voice was still there, echoing throughout the dark, cold woods. She didn’t know whether to just ignore it or actually consider that Clark was there looking for her. “Lana!” she could have sworn that was Clark’s voice.

Her heart started racing. Of course it was Clark! He was looking for her! “Clark!” she mumbled. There was no more energy left in her, no more power to utter a single word that could save her life.

“Lana! Say that again!” her voice rang. He heard me? She thought. How could he have heard me?

“By…the river,” she called out, her voice getting weaker by the moment.

****
Clark heard her, by the river, is what she said. He rushed to the bank and looked around. He could see nothing but wet dirt and trampled soil. He looked up and down the length of the water, he could see nothing. But then, something caught his eye.

An eerie green glow pulsated from inside the water about a hundred feet down. It was so small that Lana’s eyes could barely see it. But it was there. Clark whipped out her cell phone and speed dialed Pete. He picked up on the first ring, “Yeah, you find her?”

“Run, the direction I did. I went straight. There’s a meteor rock in the water!”

****
Pete ran as fast as he could and caught up with Lana…er…Clark. He bent over and put his hands on his knees to try and catch his breath. “Did you find her?” he asked, puffing a breath out into the cold night air.

Clark shook her head, “I looked up and down the bank of the river, but I couldn’t find her…uh…my body.” Pete nodded, “Okay, why don’t I go to the opposite side of the river and we can look as we walk down.”

Clark nodded, “Alright.” Pete waded through the river onto the other side of the bank. The water rose to his stomach, but no further and he crossed in a matter of minutes. “Okay!” Pete shouted, “Start walking!” Clark nodded, even though Pete could see him.

They began making their way down the river bank, cautiously picking up their feet and surveying the land for any sign of footprints. They reached the spot where the meteor rock was directly out in the water. Clark stopped and looked around, she should be around here, somewhere. He turned in every direction and then took a step backwards. He tripped over something and went tumbling to the ground, “Whoa!” he yelled.

“What is it?” Pete called.

Clark rolled over to her stomach and pushed himself up. He looked at what he tripped over and his eyes grew wide, “Lana!” He didn’t know whether to smile or pee his pants. “Lana! Can you hear me?” He heard Pete frantically wading across the river. He knelt down beside Clark and helped him roll his body to his back side. He wasn’t moving.

“Pete! The meteor rock!” Clark said, pointing to the water. Pete nodded and ran back into the water. He dove down and retrieved the rock from the bottom. Coming up to the surface again he looked at Clark, “What should I do with it?”

Clark stared at him, “Throw it as far as you can!” Pete nodded, silently kicking himself for not doing the obvious. He threw it and it went sailing through the trees. Seconds later they heard a “splash” and knew it was far away.

Clark turned back to his body, with a helpless girl trapped inside. He waited for Pete and together they pried her out of the mud and heaved the body further back up the shore, and leaned him against a tree.

“Clark?” a soft voice asked. Clark was startled, it sounded like Lana’s, but he didn’t say anything. He looked at Pete and then back at himself. “Clark…I understand…” Lana was definitely saying it, but it wasn’t his voice.

Clark hushed her, “No…Lana, shhhh.” He wiped the mud from her face with his fingers, he still had Lana’s voice which was really weird.

“I didn’t think…I could accept it…but…I understand…I’m sorry,” Lana said, and her head drooped to one side. His body toppled over and he and Pete looked at each other in horror. He didn’t just die, did he?”

“No!” Clark shouted, “You’re not going to die on us!” He bent down to begin giving her CPR, but before he could a bright light shot out of his eyes, the one’s on his body, not Lana’s. Pete was thrown backwards and Clark did a summersault, landing a few feet away from where he originally had been.

They stared as his body was lifted from the ground, his feet remained touching the dirt terrain that they were sitting on, but the rest of his body looked as if he were slumped in a chair, like during American Lit.

Another light pulsated from his body and exploded in the air, sending a deafening blast thundering through the woods, echoing off every tree and every rock. Light shook them from their positions and they stared, terrified into the swirling mass of light. Clark was entranced, and felt himself stand up walking peacefully and unharmed towards the twirling vortex. He entered the light and one more explosion rang out.

Pete tried to stand up to race after Clark, but his body was being pressed against the ground, as if he were the one under the influence of kryptonite. He watched as Clark entered.

The last explosion sent Pete hurdling into the water, face first. When he picked himself up and looked back at where the swirling vortex of light had been, he only saw Clark and Lana lying strewn on the ground.

****
“Clark!” Pete raced through the water and up the bank and knelt down by Clark’s body. He was hoping that that was the switch that had to be made for them to switch back to their original bodies. He hoped that that wasn’t the way that Clark was dying. No one knew if he would die the same. If Clark died after being around kryptonite for too long, would he just stop breathing? Like humans did? Or would he self destruct, convulse, like what had happened just now? Would it be a big display, or would it be peaceful?

He shook Clark, desperately trying to arouse the unconscious figure. To his relief, Clark opened his eyes.

****
Clark’s eyes flickered open and he squinted through his mud caked face to see Pete kneeling over him and shaking him awake. “Clark! Man, is this you?”

Before Pete said anything, Clark felt different. He felt his body stretching over a larger amount of ground and he felt the strength of Pete’s hand gripping his bicep to rouse him. He sat up and wiped away the mud from his eyes. Pete smiled, knowing that Clark was back.

“I’m me!” Clark stood up and grinned from ear to ear. He jumped up and down, bouncing over the slick mud, surprised that there was no lasting side effect from the kryptonite. He looked over his arms and legs, touching them to make sure they were really there, and then brushed a hand through his hair. “YIPPPEEE!!” he shouted and jumped up and down again, the last one he jumped high and landed with a record breaking THUD.

“Clark!” Pete said, barely above a whisper. He was now kneeling beside Lana, who was not moving and had not moved since the light blared, and she had been in Clark’s body. Clark stopped his joyful rejoicing and turned to look at her. She was lying there, seemingly peaceful and motionless. She had done nothing to deserve her present state.

He knelt down beside Pete and picked up one of her small dainty hands in his own. “Should you give her CPR?” Pete asked.

Clark didn’t reply. He stared at her, entranced by her motionless figure. She had not a spot of dirt on her, yet she was out like a light bulb. Why was she possibly experiencing something that was obviously meant for him? She had suffered while in his body, but she shouldn’t feel it now. I…should…be…. “No…” he mumbled. “Pete! Meet me at the hospital!” He picked Lana up in his arms and turned back towards Pete, who grabbed his sleeve.

“Would you please tell me what you suspect! I hate it when you run off and I know nothing!” his eyes looked hurt.

Clark eyed him and knew that he should tell him what he thought. “Our bodies and minds switched back, but I also think that what we were experiencing right before, like our health, also switched. I think she is experiencing the side effects of the kryptonite that I should be.”

Pete looked confused, “Do you have your powers?”  Clark  nodded. “Well what are you waiting for? You don’t want her to die!” Clark’s eyes widened with remembrance and he turned and took off running and disappearing into the thick dark wood.

****
"Doctor! I need a doctor!" Clark yelled as he ran into the emergency room. A nurse at the reception pressed a button and a silent alarm rang out through the interior of the hospital.

Two male doctors ran out. "Uh, blue, we got a code blue here! Bring a stretcher!" They hurried over to Clark and Lana and told Clark to lay her out on some chairs.

Clark obeyed and carefully laid her down. "What happened, son?" one of the doctors asked.

Clark stared blankly, how was he supposed to answer that? "Well...uh, we were taking a walk...and...no...um...well to tell the truth, im not exactly sure what happened. It all happened so fast."

The other doctor looked up at him, "I'm afraid we're going to need more than that if we're going to help your girlfriend here, buddy."

Clark looked away, but searched his mind for an explanation. "I think she may be experiencing some side effects of some kind of drug. I dont know how she got them, and I'm positive they weren't intentional. But I have no idea what they could be. It was like, one moment she's here, the next she's totally out." Fast thinking Clark, he told himself, but totally dumb.

Doctor two accepted it. "Okay, we'll move her into the drug aide to check for drug poisoning. Meanwhile, son, I need you to fill out some paperwork."

Clark nodded, "Where?"

Doctor two nodded towards the front desk, "There, would be nice. I will also need you to notify her parents."

Clark looked away, "She doesn't...really have any..."

The doctor looked confused, "So what...were you two living together?"

Clark shook his head violently, "No no no. She lives with a friend...do you want me to call her friend's dad?"

Doctor two shook his head to process the information. "Uh...yeah. why dont you do that. Does she have any other relatives close by?"

Clark thought about nell, he shook his head. "No."

"Okay, well hurry and do the paper work.''

Doctor one lifted his stethsoscope from her chest and loked up, "She's not breathing."

****
Clark’s eyes widened and his heart dropped. What was going to happen now? She wasn’t breathing…that wasn’t something a doctor should just say “She’s not breathing”, it should be, “SHE’S NOT BREATHING! GET SOME OXYGEN IN HERE!” or something. Clark narrowed his eyes, “Are you just going to stand there?”

“Son, we have to wait for the stretcher to get here. I want to help her as much as you do. With the stretcher they’ll bring everything we need to keep her stabilized.”

Clark shook his head, he couldn’t believe it. Just then, the doctors pushing the stretcher hurried in the room. They rushed over and immediatley began to work on Lana. “You better go fill out that paper work, son.” Doctor 2 said.

Clark nodded, and reluctantly turned away. He walked back over to the reception desk, “uh, I’m supposed to fill out some paper work for my friend I just brought in.”

The nurse smiled, “Yes, here you go. It’s just basic stuff, if you don’t know her blood type we’re going to have to call someone immediatley who does.”

Clark looked over the paper, “She’s AB positive.”

The nurse smiled, “I will plug that in right now.” She turned back to her computer and began speed typing, it seemed to be very natural for her. Clark smiled back and turned around, going to sit down to fill it out. He stopped and watched as Lana was being strapped into the stretcher, more of a portable hospital bed. She already had tubes delivering oxygen through her nose.

I see the pain you’re going through
It’s not something I can undo
I wish I could be there instead
It should be me, not you
Don’t give up now
There’s too much to see
To much more air to breath
I can give you reason to stay
Just don’t…don’t go away

****
“Clark!” Pete yelled as he ran into the lobby. “I got here as fast as I could. I called your parents, that’s alright, isn’t it?”

Clark didn’t respond, he just stared at his hands. “She wasn’t breathing.” Pete caught his breath and dropped down into a chair. “oh,” he said blankly. Clark nodded.

One of the doctors that had been helping him out first walked calmly into the room. “Clark?” he looked around and spotted him and Pete sitting a short distance away. He smiled and walked over to them. Clark stood up, “Doctor?”

He was wearing a name tag now, “Emerson, please. Well I have good news, Lana is going to be alright. We were able to stabilize her almost immediately. Looks like all she needed was chemical refresher, we cleaned out her system and flushed it. We think we got whatever was in there, out.”

Clark lifted an eyebrow, “Was there anything in there…uh…unusual?”

Emerson looked suspicious, but he motioned for them to follow him. He began leading them through the halls and into the normal corridors of rooms with patients. “Well, yes, we did find something strange. Her blood contained an incredibly large amount of the gas “krypton”, and we have no idea where that came from. But we got it out and she seems to be as good as new.” He stopped out side her room and the boys stared in at Lana. She was propped up in bed reading a book.

“Well, I’ll leave you alone now. If you need anything,” he said, slipping out his card, “this is my emergency card, you can contact me if there are any problems.”

“Thank you, Emerson.” Clark said, heaving a sigh of relief. Emerson smiled, turned and walked away. Clark turned to Pete, “Wow. That was close.”

Pete nodded, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

Clark hesitated, “Aren’t you coming with me?”

Pete shook his head, “Dude, after what you’ve just been through? I know better than that.” He smirked, “I’ll watch out for Gabe and your parents.”

Clark nodded, “Thanks."

****
Clark watched as Pete walked back to the lobby. He was such an incredible guy, such an incredible friend. He hated that they had to be so distant sometimes, it seemed like they were worlds apart at times. He wished he was given more credit in situations like this, he was truly an important part of getting out of the trouble they had put themselves in.

He turned back to look through the window and looked at Lana. She hadn’t moved from her position, still reading her book. He sighed, anxious for what was about to be said, and opened the door.

Her head jerked up and she smiled faintly as Clark shut the door behind him. She put a book mark in her book and set it on the stand beside her bed. Clark pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning forwards, and fidgeted nervously.

“We have a lot of talking to do, huh?” Lana said softly, equally nervous.

Clark nodded, hesitating, he said, “What did the doctors say?” He already knew, but he wanted to know how much she knew before he suddenly blurted out what was wrong, not like it was bad news.

She looked at her hands, and nodded slightly, “They said…they said I have a heart condition.” She looked over, solemnly, at Clark, who’s face had turned a ghost white. He wasn’t expecting this. Were the doctors waiting for her to tell him the bad news. “They said I have a heart condition that…I…would not be able to take another heartbreak.” She kept a straight face for a moment longer, but she couldn’t help but break into a small smirk.

Clark practically wiped the sweat from his forehead. She wasn’t serious…about the heart condition anyway. “Glad to see your sense of humor has returned as well,” he said sarcastically. “Well, we wouldn’t want that to happen,” he said smiling.

Lana shook her head and for the next couple of minutes the room fell silent. The soft murmur of Lana’s extra oxygen was the only sound that echoed violently through the room.

“I’m sorry…about the way I reacted,” she said, looking at her hands again. Clark began to protest but she looked up and put a finger on his lips. “And I know that we could sit here forever, going back and forth, saying ‘No I’m sorry!’ In my mind, everything has been said and everything is right again. The only thing I need to say is, I think I understand.”

Clark looked away and his eyes wandered around the room, “I don’t expect you to understand.”

Lana shrugged, “Maybe you underestimate me. But I do, Clark, I understand. I understand your obsession with helping people, I understand how hard it is to keep your secret and carry on a double life, the one that we see. You’ve made up your mind that you have to have it one way or another.” She looked deep into his eyes, she knew she hit the spot. “You have no idea how hard it was for me to see that so clearly. While I was laying there in the mud, all I could think about was why you didn’t feel like you could tell me, at first. Then, as the time crawled by, I became painstakingly aware of how little control you had over the whole situation. If you didn’t use your abilities for this cause, what would you do? You couldn’t just lock yourself up in your cellar and be afraid of what you could do.”

Clark stared at her blankly, amazed at how well she could put into words what he could never really put his finger on. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you now. There’s no way I could have put my life into perspective like you just did.”

Lana smiled, “Well, I’ve had a long time to think about it.”

They both paused, knowing what the other was thinking. “You want to ask or should I?” Lana said.

Clark sighed. “What was it like being in my body?” he asked sarcastically.

Lana pouted, “Aww. I wanted to ask first.” She giggled, “Well, I don’t know if you’re able to tell this, but it felt like there was a strip of metal under your skin, like a thick unbreakable bone.” Clark laughed. Lana lifted an eyebrow, “What?”

Clark shook his head, “That’s probably because there is…not literally I don’t think. My skin is invulnerable.”

Lana’s eyes widened, “So you are bullet proof?” Clark nodded solemnly. She smirked, “So the whole thing with Van…”

Clark shrugged, “Well he was using meteor rock bullets on me, so I wasn’t bullet proof then. I almost did die.”

Lana shuddered. Then she smiled and slapped his shoulder, “I cannot believe I didn’t keep asking you. I knew you were!” She hesitated, “So what about the tornado?”

Just as she said that, Chloe burst into the room, followed by Pete, and shortly after by Gabe and Clark’s parents. “Lana! Ohmigod are you alright?”

Clark stood up and watched silently as the room flooded with people and they each took their turn consoling Lana. Lana looked up and over at Clark and smiled, they shared a look.

The swirl of chaos within the room became deadly silent as they’re eyes locked. Everyone was bustling around and they hardly noticed the look the two shared. Clark gave one last nod and turned to his parents. Together they walked out into the corridor. Taking one last look in at Lana, Jon put a hand on Clark’s shoulder and led him down the hall.

Lana smiled as she watched them leave, knowing that this, for sure, was not the end.

~The End~

Epilogue

Clark shone his flashlight over the dimly lit walls of the Kryptonian cave. If there was nothing else to do, he’d just come down here and enjoy being able to understand it, somewhat. His parents somewhat doubted his ability to read it correctly, mostly his dad, however. He knew now that he would be a little more careful about what he really looked into, before he put his friends in danger.

A crunching noise behind him made him look around to see who was there. Lana emerged from around the corner and smiled as she walked over the freshly laid wood chips. “You’re mom thought you’d be down here,” she said, smirking.

Clark smiled, “Yeah, I like to come down here when I have nothing else to do.”

Lana walked over to him, “I can see why. I’d forgotten how great a place this is.” She looked at a symbol and ran her fingers over it, “I wonder what they all mean.” She looked up at him and smiled again, “It’s hard to believe that we were just saying those things only a couple days ago.”

Clark frowned, “It’s hard to believe you’re already out of the hospital.” She smirked and nudged him with her elbow. “But I’m glad you’re feeling better.”

Lana nodded, “Yeah, me too. I…I don’t know, I feel that I don’t really deserve to be…living?”

Clark lifted an eyebrow, “Lana, you can’t blame yourself for reacting the way you did. I would expect nothing else.”

Lana shrugged, “That’s the thing about you, Clark. You understand so well.”

“I’ve had a lot of practice,” he said, smiling faintly.

She leaned against the wall and stared up at him, “So what does this mean?” Clark gave her a quizzical look. She shrugged, “Does this mean we can be together?”

Clark looked away, “You really want that? Even after you know who I really am?”

Lana put a hand up to his face and made him look at her, “Clark, you are still Clark. You are still the same boy that’s saved my butt a million and a half times. You are still the one that’s always there for me when I need someone to talk to or spill my guts out to. No matter where you’re from, it can’t erase everything we’ve been through.”

Clark gazed into her eyes, and then his eyes dropped to the floor. “When I went to your house, as, uh, you, Chloe talked to me.” Lana’s heart sank, what had Chloe told her now? “She was saying all the things that I was doing, and I never realized I was. When I said that we couldn’t be together in the first place, I meant it because I thought I would put you in too much danger. It was inevitable that when we were together, you’d find out, and I didn’t want to hurt you.” He put his hand on her shoulder and softly rubbed her soft skin, “But now…you know…but I still feel like I’m going to hurt you. I didn’t think that you’d want to know the real me.”

Lana took his hand in her own, “Clark, that’s my decision to make. And I do. You’ve never given me a reason not to want to.”

Clark sighed, “What about Metropolis?”

Lana shrugged, “You probably have an excuse for that.” She smirked, “That’s not important anymore. We’ve put that behind us, you just need to trust that I can be there for you, like you’re there for me.”

Clark nodded, “I want to know you too.” They looked at each other for a moment, and then Clark bent down and planted a kiss on her lips.

Everybody wants to be loved
Every once in a while
We all need someone to hold on to
Just like a helpless child
Can you whisper in my ear?
Let me know, it’s alright

It’s been a long time coming
Down this road
And now I know
What I’ve been waiting for
And like a lonely highway
I’m trying to get home
Oh oh love’s been a long time, coming

You can look for a lifetime
You can love for a day
You can think you’ve got everything
But everything is nothing when you
Throw it away
Then you look in my eyes and I have it all
Once again

It’s been a long time coming
Down this road
And now I know
What I’ve been waiting for
And like a lonely highway
I’m trying to get home
Oh oh love’s been a long time, coming



****

Bloopers

*Second Cave Scene*
Kristen (as Clark): wincing Lana, there are things about me…things that you don’t know.

Tom (as Lana): puts hand on hip Really. Care to inform me?

Kristen: I’m an alien! I killed your parents!

Tom: NO! NOT MY PARENTS!


*Chloe’s house: First Chlana scene with Clark in Lana’s body*
Kristen (as Clark): Sees Chloe sitting at the kitchen table, munching on a freshly baked pizza. The aroma is strong and Clark realizes how hungry Lana is

Allison: giggling Well! That’s what I made it for!...Okay this is way too weird. Thinking that Tom is inside Kristen! Oh gross! Can I have a glass of water?

Director: Allison, this is the fourteenth cut! Can you just not think about it?

Allison: takes a sip of water I’m trying!

*Tell me Everything: Loft scene*
Tom (as Lana): Clark, what’s up?

Kristen (as Clark): sighs Lana, I’m not normal. I never have and I never will be. puts hands over head to symbolize monster Be afraid! I’m an alien! I killed your parents!

Tom: drops to knees NO! Not my parents! Why not my aunt Nell? But my parents? How could you do this to me?

Kristen: puts hands on hips I’m sorry Lana, but this is the truth.

Director: har har. CUT!

*Joker: Pete telling jokes*
Sam: How many women with PMS does it take to change a light bulb?

Kristen: gripping sides from laughter How many?

Sam: positions himself in girly stance and puts on girly voice One! ONLY ONE!!!! And do you know WHY? Because no one else in this house knows HOW to change a light bulb! They don't even know that the bulb is BURNED OUT!! They would sit in the dark for THREE DAYS before they figured it out. And, once they figured it out, they wouldn't be able to find the light bulbs despite the fact that they've been in the SAME CUPBOARD for the past 17 YEARS! But if they did, by some miracle of God, actually find them 2 DAYS LATER, the chair they dragged to stand on to change the STUPID light bulb would STILL BE IN THE SAME SPOT!!!!! AND UNDERNEATH IT WOULD BE THE WRAPPER THE STUPID LIGHT BULBS CAME IN!!! BECAUSE NO ONE EVER CARRIES OUT THE GARBAGE!!!! IT'S A WONDER WE HAVEN'T ALL SUFFOCATED FROM THE PILES OF GARBAGE THAT ARE A FOOT DEEP THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE HOUSE!! IT WOULD TAKE AN ARMY TO CLEAN THIS STUPID HOUSE!

Director: laughing hysterically That’s a wrap!

*Mud scene: Clark is Lana and she is stuck in the mud*
Tom: wakes up from unconsciousness. Feels the intense pain, reacts with a clenched jaw. Struggles to reposition himself. Mud cause him to slip and he does a face plant in the mud Mmm chocolate! Way to replace the mud with chocolate Sam, very funny!

Director: SAM!!!!!

*CPR*
Sam: kneels down next to Kristen Should we give her CPR?

Tom: glances at Sam At the same time?

Sam: smacks his forehead, knowing he screwed up the line. Hesitates. Sure!

Kristen: moaning NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

*Hospital Clana Scene*
Kristen: shrugs Maybe you underestimate me. But I do, Clark, I understand. I understand your obsession with me. I understand your inability to control your emotions. I mean, look at me! I’m hot! …..oh….wait….that’s not my line, now is it? *smacks forehead*

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