Clark caught up to Pete at his locker when he had to go back there for books.  He had been diligently avoiding Clark ever since he found out that he was an alien. 

"Hey, Pete. Look, man, I know you're freaked out. Don't you think I freak myself out sometimes?"

Pete tried to ignore him, like he'd been doing all day whenever Clark approached him.

"All right, look. You have every reason in the world to hate me.  I've lied to you about who I am.  Sometimes it's like I'm living two different lives and I just can't come out and tell anyone about where I go when I disappear, who I'm with or what I do."

Melissa Henderson gave Clark a strange look before shutting her locker and walking away, having overheard him. 

Clark lowered his voice, "But I need to find that ship."

'Some secret,' Pete thought. 

Clark continued to talk, heedless of who might overhear them and Pete was quickly becoming fed up with the whole poor alien thing Clark had going on.  "The guy you pulled out of the truck, he must have told someone something. I thought we could -”

Pete cut him off. 

"The other day, we were moving the ship. You said it was heavy. You were lying, weren't you? And everyday you missed the bus and still ended up at school ahead of me? You always said you got a ride, but you never got rides, did you?"  Pete's voice got progressively louder.  "Our whole life you were the one person I could tell anything to, and I always did, all my secrets. But you? Everything you ever told me was a lie!  And all you can talk about is what you need to do and who that guy is." 

"Maybe I was right not telling you with the way you're reacting." 

Pete noticed people staring and lowered his voice once again, "Clark, you don't get it, do you? I don't care if you're from the moon. You never trusted me. What kind of friendship is that?"

Pete walked further down the hall and Clark continued to follow him.  "You don't understand what this secret is like for me.  I live a lie almost everyday of my life and there's no way I can ever just be who I am.  What I am."

"I know you can't come out with it publicly, but you didn't have to keep it a secret from me.  I'm not freaked out about it, I mean, it explains a lot."

"Pete..."

"I have to go, Clark.  Class is about to start."

"Oh my god.  It, like, explains so much," Harmony Jackson exclaimed loudly in the middle of the Talon.  "It's such a shame, too."

"I know," Dawn Stiles agreed in an equally loud voice.  "He's kind of hot in an Opie sort of way, and he's like got the best sugar daddy ever.  God!  I wish I could land someone that rich."

Lana continued to clear the table while the entire coffee shop listened intently to the afternoon gossip running through Smallville.

"But don't you just like, feel so sorry for her?"

"Why?  She's like such a loser, pining over someone who's clearly like that.  I mean, she went to Spring Formal with him and everything."

"And he left her there and she's still totally hung up on him.  You can see it."

Lana froze.  They couldn't be talking about Clark and Chloe, could they?

"You can totally see it," Dawn practically replied with glee.  "What a deluded fag hag."

"Excuse me?" Lana said tersely. 

"Yes?" Dawn gave her an acidic smile. 

"I'm curious, who's a deluded fag hag?"

"It's not very nice to listen to other people's private conversations, but since you seem to be so chummy with the freaks, you should probably know that several witnesses overheard Minority Report and Clark Kent arguing in the halls just before fourth period about the latter being very, very gay."

"And since everyone knows about your little reporter friend's not-so-secret crush on him," Harmony added, "that would mean that Chloe Sullivan is the deluded fag hag."

Lana felt a very keen sense of anger build up inside her at their remarks and without much thought, slapped the "we have a right to refuse service" placard down on their table. 

"Get out!"

"Oh my god!  You did not just do that!"  Harmony looked at her as if she had been the one spouting gossip about her friends to a good portion of the town.

"I can call the sheriff if you'd like and he could remove you from the premises."

The girls collected their things and got up from the table with a huff. 

"You are so going to regret this," Dawn informed her before stomping out of the Talon with Harmony following quickly on her heels. 

Lana mentally went over the gossip multiple times before she made up her mind to stop by the Kent farm on her way home.  She decided that she should probably warn Clark either way and they were friends, so he would tell her if the rumors were true or not. 

She bypassed the house in favor of the barn, not wanting to see Mr. or Mrs. Kent, and waited in the loft for Clark.  Bored, she fiddled with some of Clark's things, before looking through his telescope, which was coincidently aimed right towards her house. 

"Lana?  What are you doing?"

She jumped a little.  "Uh, just using your telescope to see if it's safe to go home."

"Hiding from Nell?"

"Her new boyfriend, Dean."  It was as good an excuse as anything.

"Oh, you're not crazy about him?"

"A long story short, not really.  But I'm a terrible liar, so I've moved on to avoidance."

"You've come to the right place," he confessed.

"What's wrong?

"Have you ever had anyone resent you for telling them the truth?" 

So it might be true, Lana thought.  "Yeah.  Whitney, when I told him how I felt, when we broke up."  She had always thought that Clark had a bit of a crush on her.  If he wasn't gay, then he would take the bait, wouldn't he?  Lana had just declared she was free to date him.

"Wow, you really did it. I didn't think you'd follow through on that. So you think you'll ever be friends again?"

"Someday. I hope. I just wish I'd been honest with him sooner."

"Yeah.  Pete and I, we had a big blowout. I don't know if our friendship is gonna last."

"What did you guys fight about?" Lana asked, hoping that Clark would just spit out the truth.  She had done enough crisis counseling with her volunteer work to know that keeping your sexual orientation a secret from absolutely everyone had very bad side effects. 

"I wish I could tell you."

Clark wasn't going to come clean to her anytime soon.  Maybe if she pushed him, he'd admit it and then she could tell him that it's alright and not everyone in Smallville was as closed minded as he might think.  "Typical." 

"What?" he asked defensively.

"Clark Kent starts a discussion about telling the truth, no less, and when it's his turn to open up, everything is suddenly a deep, dark secret."

"Well, Lana, the stuff about Pete is kind of personal."

"Unlike what I just told you about Whitney."  If she could talk to him about her love life, then he could talk to her about his.  After all, it must be hard to be gay in Smallville and be dating Lex Luthor of all people, if that was true also.

"Lana, have you ever thought that some people are just more comfortable opening up than others?"

"I don't think it's ever comfortable for anyone," she argued, "but if you care about somebody, you owe it to them."  And to yourself, she thought.

"Then you should talk to Nell, tell her how you really feel."  He turned the conversation right back around on her. 

"You're right, Clark. Hiding the truth only keeps people apart," she said, and exasperated, left.

Lana had better things to do than talk to Nell about her boyfriend.

Pete was noticeably missing from school the next day and Lana just needed to talk to someone else about Clark.  She had made up her mind to help him, no matter what, and that meant not letting him keep such a huge secret bottled up inside of him for much longer.

"Chloe, can I talk to you?"

"Sure.  What's up?" Chloe replied, not looking up from her monitor.

"Have you talked to Pete lately?"

"No."  Her forehead scrunched up with worry.  "And he was supposed to let me interview him this afternoon."

"About that accident?"

"Yep."   Chloe turned away from her computer to face Lana.  "What's with the Pete questions?"

Lana pulled up a chair and sat down next to Chloe.  "Ok.  You're Clark's friend..."

"Last time I checked."

"And you know how he keeps part of himself hidden all the time?"

Chloe sighed.  "I've noticed something along those lines."

"Well, I think that Pete now officially knows what it is and I think I know what it is, actually I'm pretty sure I know, but I think we need to do something about it."

"I'm listening.  I'm a little lost, but I'm listening."

"And I think the first thing we need to do is confront Clark about it.  We should have sort of an intervention and let him know it's alright to be what he is and that we still care about him."

"See, this is the part where you lose me.  What Clark is?"

"You know funny that way..."

Chloe still looked lost.

"Clark's special, he's unique, he's one of the unspoken minority in Smallville..." Lana tried to get her point across without coming right out and saying it, because you never knew who was listening in on whom in their town.

It was bad enough the rumors were going around in the first place.  Pete really should have been more careful.

"Oh," Chloe said with surprise.  "I mean, I kind of thought so, but I didn't think you thought so."

"Oh yeah.  I tried to talk to him about it last night and while he all but confirmed it, he said it was too personal to talk about.  But I think he's just afraid that people will hate him for it or something and as his friends, we should let him know that we think it's perfectly fine for him to be different."

"You know, you're right.  I've got to go finish hunting down this story, but afterwards, I'll talk to Pete about it."

"That sounds great!  Then we'll plan something later."

"Cool."

"Lana Lang?"

"Hi, Lex.  I didn't mean to disturb you."

Lex shut his laptop full of boring spreadsheets and stood up.  "It's no bother."  He walked over to his bar and opened a bottle of water.  "Would you like something to drink?"

"No, um..."  Lana didn't really know how to start this conversation, despite the scenarios she had run through in her head.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, actually.  It's Clark."

Lex sighed and settled in for another Clark/Lana teenage angst session.  "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes.  I mean, no.  Well, sort of."  She fiddled with her purse and took a deep breath.  "We're having a sort of intervention for him."

"Drugs?" Lex asked with surprise and concern.

"No, it's just that Clark's different and we, I mean Chloe and I, don't think he's been dealing with it right.  He keeps everything bottled up and I think if his friends just sat down with him and let him know that it's ok to be different, it would be really good for him."

Lex's forehead scrunched in confusion.  "Um...different how?"

"Well, I know no one really talks about it much.  It's Smallville after all, but some people, like Deputy Adams and Mr. Wilson, my Social Studies teacher...well, Clark's different like them."

A moment of silence filled the room as Lex tried to decipher the ramblings of a teenage girl and Lana worked up the courage to just come out with it.

They spoke at the same time.

"He's a meteor mutant?"

"He's gay."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Clark's a meteor mutant?"  Lana repeated his words back to him.

"You think Clark's gay?  I thought he had a crush on you?"

"He might even have a crush on you," Lana blurted before Lex had even finished speaking. 

"You think he's a meteor mutant?"

"Well, there's been some unusual incidents," Lex explained.  "You think he has a crush on me?"

Lana nodded in agreement, thinking back on her interactions with Clark.  He could have special abilities from the meteor shower.

Lex took her nodding as confirmation to his question.  There had always been a certain tension between him and Clark, but he never allowed himself to dwell on it. 

"That explains a lot," their voices chorused in unison.

Lex cleared his throat and looked at the time.  "Aren't you supposed to be in school right now?"

"Yeah, I took a free period to come here."  Lana backed towards the office door.  "I'm just going to go now."

Lex nodded.  "Make sure to let me know when the intervention is going to be."

"Sure," Lana squeaked before turning and hightailing it out of the castle.

"Well, that was interesting," Lex spoke to himself aloud.

Lex spent the rest of the afternoon going over his encounter with Lana Lang.  Meteor mutant or gay? Or both?  A gay meteor mutant?  What were the odds?

Lana Lang thought Clark had a crush on him.  Lex's stomach flipped at the thought.  He'd never really examined that possibility before and he didn't know if he was nervous or terrified or god forbid – excited. 

He'd had his share of straight boy crushes in his lifetime and sure, he could appreciate Clark aesthetically and they seemed to have a certain chemistry, but Lex had never actually been in a romantic situation with another guy.

His father would have killed him – or at least tried to "correct him".

As if on cue, the voice of his father's reading device drifted from his office.  "Hamilton reports finding large concentrations of meteor fragments spread over a large area south of County Highway 17.  These fragments vary in circumference from twenty-four microns to five hundred sixty-two millimeters."

"Interesting reading, Dad."

Lionel's head jerked.  "Lex.  I didn't hear you come in."

"I'm surprised.  Dr. Roland says he's noticed a marked improvement in your other senses since you lost your sight."

"You spoke to Roland?"

"You can imagine my surprise when he told me how worried he was that you'd gone AWOL."  Lex was genuinely surprised that the good doctor had actually told him the truth when questioned.  His father hadn't covered all his bases.  "You've missed your last several physical therapy sessions.  In fact, he says the worst thing for you right now is to be away from your care providers."

Lionel took off his sunglasses.  "Do you have any idea how degrading it is to be constantly poked and prodded by occupational therapists?"

Lex had a good idea from the medical tests Lionel had put him through after the meteor shower.

"How demeaning it is to be told by a Braille instructor, 'One day, one day, all this will feel natural'?"  Lionel continued.  "You want the truth, Lex?  I was tired of being treated like an object, an invalid.  I had to get away from that."

"So you decided a couple days of Oedipal mano a mano would make you feel better?"

"Your analogy is apt but flawed, Lex.  Blind Oedipus was the son, not the father.  I'll go back to Metropolis."  Lionel moved as if to leave.

"So, uh..."  Lex's father was proving to be just the distraction Lex needed from his earlier thoughts.  "Your sudden interest in Dr. Hamilton was really just a coincidence?"

"I admit I find his work intriguing."  Lionel settled back down.

"He's sick, possibly delusional."

"Never underestimate the value of eccentrics and lunatics, Lex.  Every Arthur needs his Merlin.  Hamilton said that he found some sort of...um...disk, and that you had it."

Lex's spine straightened with tension.  "He's mistaken."  That was broaching on Clark territory, and oh damn, Lex was thinking about him again.

"Oh, even so, I think it may have been a bit rash to terminate his contract."

"Why do you say that?" Lex asked.  'What does he have?' he thought.

"Have you taken a look in the good doctor's barn lately?"

"No," Lex answered.  "But you know, I could use a good outing.  Fresh air and all."

"Lex, wait, before you rush off..." Lionel's voice trailed off as Lex walked with a purposeful stride to his garage. 

"Thanks for the tip, Dad," Lex yelled back through the halls in a rather uncouth manner for a Luthor.  He didn't much care.  If he could see what his father was up to and get a good distraction from thoughts of Clark and not so platonic feelings...well, then it was two birds with one stone.

Lex had a funny feeling as he pulled up to Hamilton's barn.  He had driven at his usual speed when stressed – breakneck – and Lex was mildly surprised he hadn't been pulled over on the way.  But something in the back of his mind urged him to be discreet, so he parked a good distance away and jogged to his destination. 

There were voices coming from inside that he couldn't quite make out, so he crept around to the back where he would be able to slip in unnoticed.

His suspicions were confirmed when Lex spotted Pete Ross tied to a beam in the barn, bloodied and bruised.  Hamilton sat on a stool next to him with a syringe filled with something green.  Lex could only guess it was some sort of liquid form of the meteor rocks.

"Hold on," Pete said desperately, "but I told you I didn't know anything."

Lex knew the guy was a maniac, but this was beyond the pale.  He grabbed an abandoned crowbar off one of the shelves and moved quietly behind the makeshift laboratory counter Hamilton had set up.

"I think you're lying.  I think you're protecting someone and I hope whoever it is, is worth dying for!"

Lex froze and tried to slow his breathing.  He knew who Hamilton was talking about – everything led back to Clark.  Lex had collected his own evidence and seen for himself. And Clark was worth dying for.  'Please think Clark's worth dying for,' Lex tried his best to mentally project.

"Alright, alright!  You want me to talk, here's what I have to say..."

Lex wasn't in the ideal position to attack yet, but he readied himself to have to spring into action a bit early.

"Take that needle and stick it wherever the hell you want because I'm not telling you a damn thing."

Lex moved faster around the table, seeing Pete close his eyes tightly and Hamilton poised to inject him with whatever liquid the needle contained. And then the wall exploded.  Lex took cover.

"Pete!" Clark's voice rang out.  "Put the needle down!"

"No, not 'til he tells me what he knows."

Lex peeked out to see Clark staring at Hamilton's hand as the air between his eyes rippled and the syringe exploded.  Clark walked towards Pete, and Hamilton stopped him, only to have Clark push him across the room and into a pile of steel barrels.

Lex watched as Clark ripped the ropes off Pete with his bare hands like they were made of tissue paper.  Then suddenly Clark flinched back, holding his hand and fell into a table and onto the floor.

"Clark, what's wrong?"

"I'm allergic to the meteor rocks," Clark said weakly.

Lex noticed movement from the corner of his eye and sprung up to stop Hamilton, who was moving with a beaker of the green liquid towards Clark.  Lex hit Hamilton in the stomach, causing him to double over and sending the beaker crashing to the ground and the contents splattering over the demented doctor.

"This ship is yours, isn't it?" Hamilton accused Clark with a crazed glint in his eyes.  "Open it.  Open it!  Open..." he trailed off as he went into convulsions so severe, he blurred. 

"Lex?" Clark asked from where he lay on the ground.

Lex dropped the crowbar and rushed to Clark's side.  "We've got to get you out of here."

"But he needs to go to the hospital," Clark protested.

"No, Lex's right," Pete admitted with a grimace.  "We need to get you out of here."

"Are you alright?" Lex asked.

"Yeah," Pete smirked.  "Never better."

Pete grabbed one of Clark's arms, Lex took the other, and together they carried him out of the barn and away from the vile liquid.

"But I have to help him," Clark protested as they dragged him out the door.  Lex looked to Pete, who nodded and then he braced himself to take Clark's weight fully as Pete went back to check on Hamilton. 

Lex managed to pull Clark to Hamilton's truck where he was able to open the passenger door and set him inside.  He noticed some of the green stuff on Clark's jacket and pulled it off him.  His stomach did flips again when he realized how close to Clark he was. 

"Um, are you going to be ok?"

"Yeah," Clark looked at him nervously.  "Lex, I..."

"Don't worry about it right now.  We can talk later."

"It's too late," Pete said as he stumbled up to them.  "He's dead."

Lex nodded.  "Then we better get the ship."  It was an educated guess, but the look that passed between Pete and Clark was all Lex needed to confirm Hamilton's words and his own suspicions.

"We can use Hamilton's truck," Pete answered.  "I'll just go look for the keys."

Lex looked at the ignition.  "Actually, I think I can hotwire it."

Clark looked at him in surprise. 

Lex winked at him.  "We all have our secrets, Clark."

The spaceship was safely back in the Kent storm cellar and Lex marveled at the absurd hiding place, that and the fact that Jonathan Kent had yet to kill him.

"So, does it do anything?" Pete asked.

"We've always hoped we'd find some answers inside about Clark and where he's from, but we haven't been able to get it open," Martha confessed.

"Clark, look..." Pete spoke again, "I know I sort of went postal when all this started. But after what happened to Hamilton, I realize why you never told me and I'm sorry."

"Well, I guess you had a good reason to be upset."

"And after this, I hope you know I would never tell anyone," Pete continued.

"I know," Clark replied.

The occupants of the room turned and looked at Lex expectantly.  "It's a big secret," Lex said in response from the non-verbal prompts he was getting.  "I can see why you'd need to keep it from even your closest friends."

They continued to stare at him.  Jonathan Kent cleared his throat and looked at Lex menacingly. 

“No one will ever find out about this from me.  I once told Clark that I’d do anything to protect my friends – and I meant it.  I won't tell anyone.”  Lex swore. 

Jonathan looked like he was debating the merits of murder and wondering if he could hide the body well enough.

"Of course not," Martha replied, stepping in between Lex and her husband.  "Why don't we go inside the house and get some something to drink?  I'm sure you boys are thirsty after all that activity."

"Sure," Lex replied.

Martha guided him out from the storm cellar.  "We're just glad you boys weren't hurt."

"There's still one thing," Lex heard Pete say, "Hamilton tried to kill me and he could've told the whole world about you, but you still tried to save him."

"Well, Pete, I couldn't let you die to protect my secret, and I can't let anyone else die either. No matter who they are," Clark replied. 

Lex suppressed the need to roll his eyes.  Clark was an alien and the Kents hid his spaceship in their storm cellar.  Someone would need to get their hands dirty eventually.  

"Man. It's not easy being you, is it?" Pete asked rhetorically.

Clark answered, "Well, the good thing is I've got my best friends to watch my back."

Lex smiled.  He would never admit it aloud, but he kind of liked Clark's corny, naive attitude.  He looked behind him to see that Clark had his arm around Pete and something akin to jealousy flared up inside of him.  

"Pete... I'm proud of you," Jonathan announced.

Martha cleared her throat.

"I'm proud of you too, Lex," Jonathan said with much less enthusiasm.  "But I do hope you realize what a tremendous responsibility knowing this secret is. And believe me, it's not gonna get any easier," he lectured gruffly.

"That's my dad's way of saying welcome to the family." 

Lex smiled and shook his head as Martha laughed quietly. They opened the back door and walked into the Kent kitchen.

"Oh, Lana called," Martha announced. 

Lex groaned and lowered his head.  When he looked up, everyone was staring at him.  He smiled.

"She said that she's going to come over tonight to talk to you," she continued.  "Do you already know about it, Lex?"

"Um...yeah," he admitted.  "You might want to consider hiding."

Clark raised his eyebrows.

"Just some friendly advise," Lex added.

"She what?" Pete asked.

Lex stood in Clark's loft with Pete and Clark, having been reluctant to discuss Lana's suspicions in front of Jonathan and Martha.

"She thinks Clark's gay," he reiterated.

Clark's mouth opened, shut and then opened again.  "Why?"

"I don't know, but um...she said that Chloe thinks you're gay too."

Pete burst out laughing. 

Clark looked mortified. 

Lex started to chuckle himself.  "Not that there's anything wrong with that."

"Oh, very funny."

"They're coming over for an intervention."

Pete laughed so hard, he was starting to tear up.

Lex put his hand over his mouth and tried to keep a straight face.  "They're concerned about you keeping it bottled up and secret," he said before succumbing to his own laughter.

It was a few moments before Lex realized that only Pete and him were laughing.  Clark stood with a stony face, glaring at them both.

Pete seemed to take in Clark's reaction at the same time and sobered up immediately.  "Um, I should take the truck somewhere and wipe it down," he announced awkwardly before sprinting down the stairs and out of the barn, leaving Lex alone with Clark. 

"Lana also..." Lex started.

"She what?" Clark asked defensively.

"She um...thinksyouhaveacrushonme."

Clark stared at him with a blank face and Lex stood silently, refusing to repeat himself.

A few minutes went by with Clark staring at Lex and Lex staring back at him.  Enough tension filled the air to cause Lex to speak again, "It's alright if you do."

"Is it?" Clark demanded.  "You seemed to think it was pretty funny."

"I thought you were straight!"

"I am!  I think.  Clark moved away from him, towards the couch.  "I mean, I like Lana and Chloe and..." Clark trailed off, mumbling as he sat on the couch and buried his head in his hands. 

"And what?"

Clark mumbled into his hands again.

Lex walked over, kneeled down in front of him and grabbed his hands, forcing them away from Clark's face. 

Clark raised his chin and looked Lex in the eyes.

"You can tell me anything, Clark," Lex assured him.  "Nothing could make me walk away and I'd do anything to protect you.  I know you might not know that right now..."

"I know.  It scares me."

Lex laced his fingers with Clark's.  "It scares me too."

"I think I might have a crush on you," Clark whispered.

Lex blinked as words failed him.  He wasn't prepared for this moment.

"I know you probably don't feel the same way."

"It's not that.  I've just always been with women, but," Lex paused to take a deep breath and tried to calm his racing pulse. "I'll admit that I've had some feelings..."  He cleared his throat.  "...for you – that aren't just friendly."

Clark's eyes widened and then he was leaning down and kissing him. 

His lips were soft and gentle and Lex found his hands moving, seemingly of their own accord, up to cup Clark's face.  Their kiss deepened and Lex felt himself trembling.

"I knew it!" the voice of Lana Lang echoed shrilly off the wooden walls of the barn. 

Clark pulled back the same time he did and they turned to find Lana looking triumphant and Chloe seemingly in shock with her mouth hanging open.

"I knew it," Lana sing-songed through a smile.  "It's alright, Clark.  Chloe and I came over to tell you that we knew you liked boys and we wanted you to know that we're completely, one hundred percent, supportive of your preference."

"We did?" Chloe asked as if in a daze.  "We are?"

"Yes, I told you at school," Lana replied.

"But...but I thought he was a meteor mutant," Chloe protested.  "You didn't say he was gay!"

"I said he was different," Lana insisted.  "Special.  One of the unspoken minority."

Lex could practically hear the italics in her voice.

"You didn't say he was gay!"

"I was trying to be discreet.  It was bad enough Pete was blabbing about it out in the hallway at school."

"Wait, what?" Clark asked, finally finding his voice.  "Pete what?"

"Yeah, I know," Lana looked at him sympathetically.  "Dawn Stiles and her groupie, Harmony, were talking about it at the Talon."

Lex stood up.  "What did they say, exactly?"

"That Clark and Pete were arguing in the halls yesterday about Clark being gay, and then they called Chloe a 'deluded fag hag'."

"They what?" Chloe replied aghast.  "Oh...I could just.  I mean, I guess they were right about Clark, but I could just..."  She made a vague choking motion with her hands.

"I wasn't arguing with Pete about being gay!" Clark practically yelled.  "I was...um..."

"Arguing about Clark being friends with me," Lex answered for him.  "Clark told me all about it."

"Well, I can see how that could be misinterpreted," Chloe snapped, "there are rumors.  But of course, I see now that they're true."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but it was fairly personal."

Chloe sighed.  "Well, I hope you're not keeping any other secrets from me, Clark Kent."  She wrinkled her eyes at him.  "You don't have that spaceship Pete and the guy in the hospital were talking about stashed away somewhere, like in the attic, do you?"

"Nope," Clark replied, hands in his pockets.

"Hmm."

"Well, then we need to talk to you, Lex," Lana announced, "since you're dating Clark."

Lex swallowed hard.

"Yes Lex, what are your intentions towards our friend?" Chloe asked with a menacing smile.

"Well, I..."

"Alright, enough," Clark intervened.  "I'm happy you two are so supportive, but you're not grilling Lex tonight."

Oh great, Lex thought, the torture session would be postponed.

"I should go," Lex announced.  "I've got things to take care of."

Clark gave him a small smile and blushed.  "I'll see you later."

"Yeah, bye," Lex offered weakly as he walked swiftly down the stairs.  As he left the barn, he glanced up to see Lana and Chloe tracking his movements like a couple of predators.

Lex managed to get a couple of calls in to some shady associates which cleaned up the mess at Hamilton's barn before he went back to the castle to inform his father that he hadn't found anything.

"There was nothing there, Dad." 

"Well, he must have moved it. Or someone took it," his father argued. 

"Come on, the helicopter's waiting."

"No, no, I'm not going back to Metropolis. Not just yet."

"What about your treatment?" Lex asked in a carefully controlled voice.

"I'm afraid those charming physical therapists will just have to come to me," Lionel replied. 

"I hope you're not staying because of a sudden interest in alien spacecrafts."

His father chuckled.  "Of course not. I'm staying because I want to spend more quality time with my only son," Lionel said with just a slight hint of sarcasm.

"Good. Because this was probably a hoax," Lex informed him. 

"Are you hiding something from me?"  Suspicion filled his voice.

Lex decided that distraction was his best weapon at the moment.  "Well, there is something I wanted to talk to you about." 

"Yes?"  Lionel reached out towards him, grasping onto his arm.

Lex suppressed a flinch.  "I think I might be a bit..."

"Yes?  You can tell me anything, son."

"I hope so, after all we've been through," Lex replied.

"What is it then?"

Lex covered Lionel's hand with his and stepped closer.  "I think I'm gay, Dad."

Lex smiled as his father's whole body jerked in surprise and he snatched his hand away.  "You know, I think Metropolis might be a good idea after all."

"Are you sure?" Lex asked.  "Because I thought you could stay and we could bond some more.  I could tell you about this guy I'm interested in."

"No!"  Lionel shouted.  "Call in someone to take me to the helicopter, Lex," he ordered in a softer, more controlled voice.

Lex was used to this kind of response from his father towards him, and while it hurt just a little, it meant that Clark's secret was safe for the moment.  Lionel wouldn't pursue Hamilton's allegations any further from Metropolis.

Lex watched Clark and Pete playing basketball from the shade of the Kents' front porch, having begged out of their little one on one game.

"So this super speed thing. How fast are we talking, twenty, thirty miles per hour?" Pete asked.

"Yeah, something like that."

Clark missed a shot and Lex smiled, knowing he had to have been holding back.

"What about the x-ray deal? Have you ever used it to look through a girl's..."

Lex raised his eyebrows and met Clark's eyes as Clark blushed and glanced his way.  "It only works when I focus and I do not use it to invade people's privacy."

"Ah, come on."

"I'm serious."

Clark made a shot in the basket. 

"So you're telling me never once have you looked in the girls' locker room?"

Clark caught the ball as Pete threw it back to him.  "Well... maybe once."

Lex chuckled. 

"That's my boy."

Clark missed another shot and Pete grabbed the ball again.  "So does this mean you've been holding back on court?"

"A little bit." 

"So what are you waiting for? Show me what you really got." Pete challenged him before tossing Clark the ball.

"I don't think you want to go there, Pete."

"Bring it on."

"Alright."

Clark threw the ball back to Pete. 

"Now we all know if I come out there and guard you, you're not getting anywhere near this hoop," Pete bragged.  "I don't care what kind of powers you got."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Lex yelled out in response.

Clark smiled at Lex, face lit up, and winked.  Pete tossed the ball back to Clark and he started to dribble the ball. 

"Let's go."

Pete advanced toward Clark, trying to block him. But instead of running forward, Clark jumped high over Pete's head, soared through the air and put the ball in the hoop.  Pete caught the rebounding ball, looking floored.

Clark smiled at Lex again and he felt all warm inside.  Lex thought he might be behaving a bit like a teenage girl, but somehow couldn't bring himself to feel the least bit bad about it. 

"This is gonna be fun," Pete declared.

The screen door opened and shut as Martha came out onto the front porch, carrying two glasses of iced tea. 

"Having fun?" she asked him as she handed him one of the glasses.

"Sure," Lex replied.

"So, Lex.  I heard your father left."

"Yesterday evening.  He had to continue his physical therapy in Metropolis."

"So I heard," she replied.

He sighed.  "Things get around quickly in this town, don't they?"

"Oh, yes.  And there are some other rumors I was going to ask you about."  She sat down on the porch next to him.

Lex took a large drink of the tea, pretty sure Martha wouldn't poison him in front of Clark.  "Yes?"

"But then I saw how you were sitting out here, watching my son, and I decided to go with a different approach."

Lex nodded and turned to face her. 

"He's sixteen."

Lex inhaled sharply.  "I know."

"If you break his heart or do anything inappropriate, I'll kill you," she said with a smile on her face.

"I know."

"And if Jonathan finds out, I'm don't think I'll be able to stop him from killing you."

Lex nodded.

"However, Clark's been more happy today than I've seen him in a long time."

"I'm happy to hear that," Lex replied honestly.

She smiled warmly at him.  "Tread softly."

"Mom?" Clark asked, walking up to the porch with Pete behind him.

"Yes?  Oh, Pete, your mom called and she wants you home for dinner."

"Sure thing, Mrs. Kent."  Pete set the ball down on the porch and grabbed his book bag.  "I'll see you later, Clark.  Lex."

Lex nodded and watched him as he walked down the driveway. 

Martha stood up and handed the other glass of iced tea to Clark.  "I need to go back inside to finish dinner.  Why don't you two stay out here until Lex has to go," she politely instructed them.

"Yes Mom," Clark replied and looked at Lex questioningly. 

Lex waited a few seconds after the door had shut.  "She knows."

"What do you mean, she knows?"

"About us," he explained.

"Oh."  Clark shuffled his feet in a way Lex couldn't help but find adorable.  "So, there's an us?"

"Of course.  I would hate to let the Smallville rumor mill down."  Lex smiled.  It was a habit he was developing lately.  "So, is your dad close by?"

Clark looked around and surveyed the farm.  "He's still down in the south pasture.  Why?"

"We got interrupted last night," Lex replied before reaching out to Clark and pulling him closer for a proper kiss.

Pete was right. 

This was definitely going to be fun.

End