Now Part 4

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Chloe was inconsolable, and nothing Clark said made her feel better.


“We were wrong, Clark. We went behind her back. We lied to her in the worst possible way.”


Clark couldn’t come up with an argument that could rebut hers.


“What do you want to do? Break up? What would that accomplish?”


Clark pulled Chloe close, and she melted against him. It felt good to be in his arms. He was strong, and a constant, solid force in her life.

“I shouldn’t have seduced you,” she said.

“You couldn’t have if I hadn’t wanted you. I should have broken up with her first, though.”

They sat on the end of the bed, holding one another, conflicted and miserable.

“You’ll know she’ll out you,” Chloe said, voicing what was already in Clark’s mind. “Don’t you think you should go after her?”

Clark looked at the bedroom wall, without really seeing it. “Maybe life would e easier for me if people knew what I am.”

Chloe pulled away from him, looking at him with concerned eyes. “You don’t really think that, Clark. You want a normal life, but you won’t have any kind of life. Scientists will take you to be studied—”

“I think I could handle anything man could throw at me.”

“Not if she tells them your one weakness. Clark, this is bad. You have to do something to stop her.” The gravity of the situation was starting to become very clear to Chloe, and it scared her deeply. “I don’t care what she does to me, as long as she doesn’t hurt you.”

“What can I do, short of killing her?”

“Plead with her, threaten her, something.”

“Shhh…” he said, trying to ease her panic. He stroked her face and looked into her wide, frightened eyes. “Calm down. We’ve got a couple of hours yet,” he said, easing Chloe onto her back. “Let me comfort you.”

He worked her shorts and panties down, pulled apart her legs, and began kissing the inside her thighs, working his ways to her entrance, where he slipped his fingers inside. Chloe sighed, and closed her eyes, as all of her worries began to melt away.

At least for a little while.

Kara was really getting on Lana’s nerves. She followed her through the house, asking question after question.

“You’re packing your things. Why?”

“I told you, I’m leaving.”

“But why?”

It was the fourth time Kara had asked the question, so Lana turned to her.

“Because I just found out that Clark is having sex with Chloe.”

Kara frowned, cocking her head to the side. “This bothers you?”

“Yes!”

“Why?”

Before Lana could answer, Clark breezed into the room.

“Don’t try to talk me out of it, Clark.”

“I’m not.”

This gave Lana pause. It was the last thing she expected him to say.

“This is for the best. We should have ended it a long time ago.” Clark felt a twinge of guilt at the look of hurt on her face.

“Fine.”

“You made a threat. You said Chloe and I would pay. Are you planning to expose me?”

Clark waited for Lana to respond, but she didn’t. That was as good as a yes, and it scared him for the first time since she’d made the threat. Perhaps he hadn’t really believed she would actually do the lowest thing she possibly could to him, but then, he had done so to her.

“If you do that, Lana, you’ll ruin any chance I may have at a normal life.”

“With who, Chloe? You plan to completely replace me with Chloe, and I’m supposed to care about what you want out of life? Fuck you.”

“I know you’re hurting, and you want to get even, but just remember one thing.”

She zipped her suitcase and turned to Clark. For the first time since she’d discovered his powers, she was truly disgusted with him.

“Let me guess. You’re going to say something like, you would never do anything to hurt me, no matter how much pain I caused you?”

“No,” Clark said. He looked her in the eye with such intensity that despite her hurt and anger, Lana was keenly aware of what a threat Clark could be if she ever gave him good reason. She felt the cold finger of fear poke at her stomach, and she swallowed.

“I was going to say that I’ve got enough dirt on you to return the favor, and I will. Are you tough enough to spend the best years of your youth in prison?”

“You want to play hardball, Clark?”

Clark smiled with a darkness Lana had never seen before. It chilled her.

“Lana, my idea of hardball is a lot more dangerous than you can begin to imagine. You don’t want me for an enemy. Now get out.”

“You two talk as though you don’t have a Four Person Fidelity Agreement,” said Kara.

Both Clark and Lana blinked and turned to her. They’d forgotten she was in the room with them as they’d faced off.

“A what?” Clark said.

“A Fidelity Agreement. Kryptonian couples use them all the time. It’s basically an agreement that says each person in the relationship will take only one other lover. They’ll remain faithful one another, except when they go to their agreed upon lover. You’ve got Chloe, Lana’s got Lex.”

“What?” Clark said again, trying to wrap his mind around Kara’s latest bit of Kryptonian madness. “What do you mean, she’s got Lex.”

“She had sex with Lex last night, when he came to the house to see her. They did it in the back of his limousine. She’d said they’d done it before, too, just a couple of days before.”

Clark rounded on Lana.

“You crazy bitch! You’re threatening to expose me for sleeping with Chloe, when you’ve been doing the same with Lex!”

Lana glared at Kara, who had a suspiciously mischievous look in her eyes.

“You don’t understand. I had to. He’d caught me bugging his bedroom—”

“Let me help you,” Clark said. There was a gust of wind, and all of her luggage seemed to disappear by magic. “If you’ve forgotten anything, tough.”

Clark watched Lana leave the room, and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed. He was angry, not so much with Lana, but with himself. How the hell had he never seen what she really was? He felt like such a fool.






Kara stood beside Lana’s new car, blocking the driver side door.

“What?” Lana said, feeling uncomfortable wit the other woman’s stare.

“Clark has a good heart. He means well, even if he doesn’t always get it right. He wants a normal life so badly.”

“Your point?”

“Clark hasn’t done anything you haven’t done. Who are you to punish him with the threat of exposing him?”

“There’s no such thing as a Four Person Fidelity Agreement, is there?”

“Of course not,” Kara said, smirking.

“If you knew about me and Lex, why didn’t you say something to Clark sooner?”

“I was waiting for the right moment. Good thing I did.”

Lana took a step forward, but Kara didn’t budge.

“Kal-El’s been living with humans for too long. He’s practically one of you. I’m not, so let me make something very clear: If you ever expose Clark, or me, I’ll kill you.”

Lana searched Kara’s eyes. The girl wasn’t lying.

Opening the door, Kara stepped aside for Lana to get in. Without another word between them, Lana started the engine and drove off. Kara watched her, wondering how long it would take Lana to find her way back to Lex Luthor.




“You’ve gotten yourself into quite a situation, Kal-El.”

Three days had passed, and Clark had yet to be accosted by scientists, or the military. He looked up from the book he was reading. The Martian Manhunter had flown in and now sat beside him.

“Has my secret been exposed?”

“Not as far as I know, but that could change at any time. Fortunately for you, Jor-El took measures to protect your identity should something like this ever happen.”

The Martian Manhunter reached into his jacket. Clark expected him to pull out a disc, or a crystal, but instead, his hand emerged holding a pair of ordinary, square-framed glasses.

“That’s it?” Clark asked, taking the glasses. “This is my big disguise, a pair of glasses? Yeah, I’m sure this will solve all of my problems.”

“Don’t scoff, Kal-El. Your father was a brilliant scientist.”

Clark examined the glasses closely. They looked ordinary, until he focused his x-ray vision on the frames. Inside, they were lined with tiny Kryptonian symbols that pulsed with a faint blue light.

“Should Lana ever decide to out your secret, put these on. The moment you do, they will immediately change people’s perceptions of you. Anyone who has ever met you, upon seeing the glasses, will have their memories of you altered. They will remember nothing that you have ever done that could corroborate her claims.”

“Are you saying their memories will be erased?”

“No. They’ll remember you, but only as a mild mannered…what’s the term human’s use? Nerd, or geek. Even if they look at a picture of you from your past, they will see what the glasses want them to see, until you tell them otherwise.”

“What about people who’ve never met me?”

“They won’t be particularly impressed with you. Their inclination will be to trust that you are what you appear to be.”

“A mild mannered nerd.”

The Martian Manhunter nodded. “The glasses serve another purpose. When you’re ready to accept your destiny, and after you’ve trained, they will aid in creating an alternate identity. When you wear them, as Clark Kent, you will appear as one man, but without them, you can take on another identity. Nothing you do without the glasses will be associated with the man who wears them.”

“I could use my abilities without the glasses, and when I put them on—”

“No one will realize any heroic deeds you do were committed by the same person. This is a powerful tool, Kal-El. Use it wisely, and only when you’re ready to fully embrace your destiny.”

“What happens if they get broken?”

“They’re practically invincible. Only you, or Kara, would have the power to destroy them.”

“I have another question. It’s kind of a personal nature.”

“You can ask me anything.”

Clark suddenly felt as uncomfortable as he did on the few times he’d talked with his father about sex. “Well…I noticed that Kara can…can…have sex with a human, but I can’t. A normal human, I mean. How does she manage that?”

The Manhunter blinked, and a ghost of a rare smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “I thought sex with humans is what got you into this mess.”

“Chloe’s not a normal human. She has a meteor power. So unless Jimmy’s got a secret—”

“When you become afraid, or excited, your body secretes adrenaline into your blood. This gives you a surge of strength to either fight, or flee, and heightens awareness. When a Kryptonian wishes to mate, however, their body secretes a chemical that has the opposite effect. It’s an instinctual process, that can only happen when you truly desire to give yourself to someone. You would know this, if you devoted more time and effort to your training. Any other questions?”


“No,” Clark said, feeling relieved. He was with Chloe because he loved her, not because she had some outside influence on him. He suddenly felt strange, light, as though…as though he could fly away.

In the blink of an eye, the Martian Manhunter was gone.


Clark looked down at the glasses, tempted to put them on now, but it wasn’t time. Instead, he held them up to his face, while folded, and looked at his reflection. He couldn’t imagine how the glasses could possibly mask him and fool billions of people into thinking he was two different people, but if the time ever came for him to play the hero, he would give the glasses a try.

Chloe trotted up the stairs and came toward him. “Clark, want to grab something to eat?”

Putting the glasses into a small box, he tucked them away. He’d find a better hiding place later. For now, he turned back to Chloe.

“I thought I’d snatch you up for some personal time before Kara took you out for flying lessons,” Chloe said, wrapping her arms around him. Clark held her close, and told her about the glasses, and planned to tell her more about what he’d learned from the Manhunter about his physiology later, in bed. Chloe seemed to relax in his arms a little more with each word he spoke.

“Never thought I’d say it, but thank God for Jor-El,” Chloe said, grinning.

Clark picked her up so that her face was level with his, and kissed her, while her legs wrapped around his waist. He’d meant it to be a light, friendly kiss, but as it usually did when they kissed, it got heavy, fast.

“You make me so happy,” Clark said.

“Clark?”

“I wish I could stop time, and stay here with you forever.”

“Clark.”

“You do something to me.”

“Clark,” Chloe said, a little more urgently.

“Hmmm?”

“Look.”

He looked down. They were a foot off the floor, and he was so shocked he began to sink.

“Oooh, don’t sink, fly,” Chloe said, grinning broadly.

The smile on her face made that light feeling return, and something inside of him changed. He knew, on a gut level, what to do. Arching his back, so that Chloe was lying flat on him, he zoomed out of the barn. Chloe screamed in delight.

“You’re doing it! Oh, God, you’re amazing, Clark.”

He kissed her again, feeling as though he could do anything, especially as long as Chloe loved him.

“Let’s see what I can do. Hold tight.”

Clark swung Chloe onto his back, and she wrapped her legs back around him. Holding her arms with one of his large hands, and making sure she was secure, he took off into the fading evening, flying fast toward the setting sun.