Disclaimer: I still do not own the rights to Smallville.

Rating: PG-13

Author's Notes: So, it has taken me 12 years, but I finally finished this godforsaken chapter. Not sure how people have found this story over the years, hidden beyond the depths of the Smallville section, but thanks to those who have favorited and/or followed it hoping beyond hope that something new would emerge. Hope you all like it. I'm sorry if it does not meet your expectations. Sorry if any scenes feel repetitive from previous chapters or if anything feels out of character; twelve years is a big gap of time and my memory is rusty.

"God, I hate field trips," Chloe complained for the umpteenth time as she and Nicola shifted some of the dirt on the ground to find a rock on their lists. "Especially the ones that involve nature."

"I'm right there with you, lady," Nicola replied sympathetically. "What I don't understand is why does Smallville High make Geology a required science class? It's one of, if not the, least applied sciences. I mean, when in your life would you need to know the difference between obsidian and granite rocks?"

"Precisely."

"But at least you have Lana as your rock collecting partner. I got stuck with someone who has barely said two words to me since we've gotten here."

"Oh, come on, Eric's not that bad."

"You're right, he's not. I mean, he's kinda cute, pretty nice, and, luckily, smart, but he spends too much of his time ogling Holly to be a productive partner."

"Are you two complaining again?" an approaching voice asked from behind them.

"We're not complaining, Lana," retorted Nicola. "We're venting."

"Oh, so that's what they're calling it these days," she teased.

"Ha ha," Nicola replied dryly. "Since my partner isn't going to be very collaborative, I suppose I better find what I can and hope that he isn't a completely worthless partner."

"Good luck," Chloe said to her.

"Thanks, I have the feeling I'll need it."

Nicola left her two friends in search of one of the listed rocks she was supposed to identify and collect. She wandered away from the group, going deeper into the woods, and began to search the ground once again for the rocks on her list. After continuously finding the same set of rocks she had already collected, she began to silently curse her geology partner once again and wished she had gotten Clark as her partner before Pete grabbed him because his x-ray vision would have really come in handy for this assignment. Soon, her luck began to slowly improve when she began to find more rocks on the list, and once she thought she had found an acceptable percentage was found, Nicola circled back to find her friends once again.

It wasn't long before she found her classmates, and as she neared them she finally spotted her science partner. The grin that had spread across her face at finally finding her elusive partner quickly faded into a scowl as she realized he was offering the aforementioned Holly one of the rocks on the list. Nicola was about to walk over to Eric and give him a nice smack on the back, however, before she could, Holly's boyfriend quickly walked past her and made it to the pair first.

She wasn't able to hear what was being said from the distance she stood but, knowing Brent, he was probably spouting threats of bodily harm; an easy deduction considering he greeted Eric with a flick on the ear. Nicola was going to help her partner out, but before she could do that their geology teacher walked past her and approached the three. As Mr. Summers got closer to the trio, Brent led Holly away from Eric. Nicola noticed on the opposite side of where Eric stood, Clark and Pete were walking in her direction, so instead of joining her geo partner and the wrath of Mr. Summers, Nicola made her way towards her two friends. As she drew closer to Mr. Summers and Eric, she was able to hear their slightly hostile conversation.

"Get with the program, Eric!" she heard Mr. Summers scold Eric as she moved past them.

"Dad—"

"It's Mr. Summers at school. You have ten minutes to complete this assignment. You better find every rock."

Nicola's annoyance with her partner began to be replaced by the sympathy she felt for him. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have such a frigid father.

"I'm glad he's not my dad," Pete's voice cut through her thoughts. She smirked at the fact she and Pete were thinking the same thing.

"Aw, come on Pete. How could you not want to live with that cup of sunshine every day?" Nicola joked as she turned to walk with them.

"Right…If having a fifty-minute class is unbearable, I can't imagine how anyone could live with that guy 24/7."

"My guess? Drugs. Lots of em."

"Nicola," chided Clark.

"Relax, Clark it was a joke. Anyway, I think I'm going to go join Eric and see which samples he's found because we apparently won't be let off easily just because my partner is the teacher's kid. I'll see you boys on the bus."

Nicola turned again to find Eric no longer in the spot he had been standing in moments before but was sauntering off into the woods. She hustled to catch up with him, and once she was a few feet behind him, Nicola was about to shout out to him, but then she noticed the blue headphones that were strapped around his head. As soon as she was an arms-length away, she reached out and grabbed Eric's shoulder, turning him around. As he turned to face her, he gave her a questioning look, and then pulled the headphones, which were blaring what sounded like Staind's new CD, off his ears.

"What?" he asked with a slightly hostile tone.

"Don't 'what?' me. I've been looking all over for your sorry ass, partner. We're supposed collecting rocks together for our own assignment, not spending our time finding rocks for other people."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nicola blew out a frustrated sigh and decided to drop the issue.

"Nothing, forget it. Look, I just wanted to know which rocks you've found so far so I don't spend the next ten minutes looking for ones you've already found."

"Oh. Well, I've only been able to find a few."

"A few?"

"Yeah, sorry. It's just been hard for me to find any because my glasses keep fogging up."

"Ah, don't worry about it. Which ones have you found?"

"The rose quartz, meteor rock, and chalcedony."

"Great. Then that just leaves satin spar," Nicola said, checking off the rocks in her notebook. "I'm going to go find that rock, and you can go back to your moping."

"I wasn't moping," Eric replied tightly.

"Fine, your James Dean brooding, whatever. See you on the bus, Eric."

"Yeah, sure."

Nicola glared at Eric's back as he left where the stood to walk deeper into the woods, then she turned and started to head back towards where the bus was parked, searching for the last rock along the way. Her search came up empty by the time she had to go meet the rest of her class at the bus. When she approached the group, she found the students were already loading onto the vehicle, and Clark and Pete were near the end of the line.

"Please tell me that you guys have an extra sample of satin spar I can have," she said to them as she joined them at the back of the line.

"That depends," replied Pete. "What's in it for us?"

"My undying gratitude?"

"Well, then in that case…"

Pete swung his bag to his front and then slipped a hand inside to search for the rock. After a few moments, he quickly pulled his hand out and revealed the exact rock Nicola was hoping for. Pete handed the rock over to her and after she took hold of it, Nicola wrapped her arms around Pete to give him a quick hug.

"Thanks, Pete. You're the best," she said once she let go of him.

A slightly dopey grin spread on his face and he managed to spit out a "You're welcome" in return. The line started to move in front of them and they began to walk towards the entrance of the bus. As Nicola walked onto the bus, she glanced at the occupants and found Chloe and Lana seated near the middle of the bus. There was an empty seat in front of them, so Nicola left the two guys and made her way towards the seat.

"Hey, how'd the hunting go?" Chloe asked as Nicola sat down in front of them.

"Well, I did eventually find my partner," she replied. "And most of the rocks. Luckily, Pete helped me fill my quota with some satin spar. How did you guys fair out?"

"Well, once someone shifted their focus from ranting to digging, we found all of the rocks on the list," replied Lana.

"Nice."

The three girls chatted for several more minutes as they waited for the bus to start their ride back to school, when Mr. Summers climbed on and announced that Eric had gone missing.

"Big surprise," Nicola muttered at the revelation.

"I'll find him," Clark volunteered, catching Nicola's attention.

As Nicola watched Clark walk off the bus, she felt compelled to help find Eric. She stood up from her seat and started to walk towards the front of the bus.

"And where do you think you're going, missy?" Mr. Summers asked abrasively.

"Help Clark find Eric," replied Nicola. "He was my partner, I think I know which direction he might have headed."

"If you must."

Mr. Summers waved her off dismissively, so Nicola hustled off the bus and jogged off into the direction she had last seen Eric. She wasn't surprised that Clark was already nowhere in sight, so instead of trying to find Clark before finding Eric, once Nicola was out of view of the bus, she orbed directly to the spot she had last been with Eric. She quickly played back her conversation with Eric and tried to remember which direction he had gone in before she made her way back towards the bus. Once she remembered which way Eric had gone, she began to run in that direction. She knew by now Clark, with his superspeed, had probably already found Eric, and she wished she could hone in on Clark or Eric and orb to their location, but that was an ability she had yet to master. Suddenly it dawned her what was located in that direction, the dam, so she concentrated on the spot and orbed herself there.

Once she reformed, she found herself on one end of the bridge of the dam and she quickly scanned the area for signs of Clark or Eric. Her attention was immediately pulled to the middle of the bridge where two dark figures lay on the ground. She realized instantly that it was Eric and Clark, so she began to sprint down the road to where they were. Laying near Clark's body was a piece of meteorite rock, and Nicola picked it up to toss it over the dam's ledge. She turned her attention to the boys and her eyes widened once she crouched down next to the two guys as she saw that Eric's jacket was smoldering in several areas. She quickly pulled off her coat and began to pat down the charred flames until they were out.

"Are you guys okay?" Nicola asked them. "What happened?"

"Lightning," Eric managed to sputter out between his gasping breaths. Eric tried to get up, but Nicola pushed him back to the ground.

"No, don't try to get up yet. Just concentrate on your breathing." Nicola turned to check on Clark, who was silently looking at his hand left hand with confusion. "Clark, what's wrong?"

"I burned my hand," Clark replied unsteadily.

"You burned your hand?" repeated Nicola skeptically with a slight scoff. "Hilarious Clark…That's like, impossible."

Clark gave her a look then turned his hand for her to see. Her eyes widened again when she saw the beginnings of a second-degree burn beginning to show on his hand.

"Okay, maybe improbable would have been a better word to use," she corrected herself as she took Clark's hand to examine it closer. "How did this happen?"

"The lightning strike must have temporarily made me vulnerable when it hit me," Clark reasoned, causing Nicola to drop her jaw.

"You were struck by lightning? Oh my God, you two could have been killed up here…well, you know, if you were normal." Nicola lightly brushed her fingers across the palm of Clark's hand where the burns were, causing him to wince. "Sorry."

Once she let go of his hand, the pain Clark had been feeling had dissipated and Clark turned his hand over to inspect it. The burn was now gone, along with the throbbing pain.

"Thanks."

Nicola gave him a wry grin before turning back to Eric to inspect him. He still appeared to be in slight shock. She tried to call his attention, but Eric was still out of it.

"So, what exactly happened?" Nicola asked Clark, which prompted him to retell the events that took place moments before she showed up.

Clark had found Eric standing on the ledge of the damn with a meteor rock in his hand. When he had called out to Eric, lightning struck the metal railing Eric stood on only a few feet away from him, causing him to start to fall from the ledge. Luckily Clark caught the bag Eric had been holding onto in time, but as soon as Clark had a good grip on the bag, he was hit by the lightning and the electric current then moved through the bag to Eric.

"And they say lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place," Nicola replied wryly to his story as she superficially connected with Eric just to check his vitals.

"Yes, I know the improbability of that happening, but it did."

"Well, except for the obvious shock, Eric is completely fine," she said as she glanced over her shoulder to look at Clark. "How are you doing? Think you can manage a walk back down to bus?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Nicola moved her attention back to Eric who was slowly snapping out of his reverie.

"Hey, Eric, do you think you're all right enough to try and walk?"

"Huh?" Eric blinked twice, before focusing on her and what she had been saying. "Oh, yeah, I think so."

Eric slowly started to move to get up, and Nicola wrapped an arm around his back to help him stand up. As the three of them started to walk back across the bridge and into the direction of the bus, Eric started to refocus and his strength seemed to be gradually coming back to him. By the time they had walked a fourth of a mile, Eric was able to walk by himself without Nicola's assistance. Once they were about halfway back to the bus, they found themselves crossing paths with Pete.

"Hey guys, I've been looking all over for you three," he said. "I got off the bus right after you, Nicola, but it was like you disappeared into thin air."

Nicola and Clark exchanged a look before she replied, "Yeah, sorry about that. I kind of ran off right away once I remembered where I last saw Eric."

"Ah." When Eric moved past Pete, Pete caught sight of the singed holes the lightning had caused on the back of his jacket. "What the heck happened to you?"

"Lightning," Eric replied without even glancing back at Pete.

"Lightning?" repeated Pete, completely confused. "What's he talking about?"

"There was an…accident on the dam," Nicola began to explain. "When Clark found Eric up there, lightning struck right next to where Eric stood, causing him to almost fall over the ledge. Luckily our boy Clark was there to prevent him from taking a swan dive, but not before the two were nearly struck by lightning again."

She knew she had sort of lied to Pete, but she couldn't very well tell him that Clark had been directly struck by lightning which thereby transferred to Eric, yet they both were now walking around less than twenty minutes later, basically unharmed. She wasn't sure how much Eric remembered, or what he wanted to remember, and she knew Clark wanted this all to fly under the radar, so for now, she decided she'd downplay the whole thing, staying as vague as possible until one of the guys decided what story to tell.

She could tell Pete was skeptical, and who could blame him with the nice singes on Eric's jacket. But he didn't express his suspicions, so Nicola didn't bother trying to further explain.

The four teens trekked back to the bus in a thoughtful silence, each wondering what had just happened on the bridge. It wasn't long before the yellow bus was in their line of sight once more and Nicola saw that some of the class, including Mr. Summers, was waiting impatiently for them outside of the vehicle. As she caught up with Eric's fast stride, she realized that the charred jacket would raise more questions than she would like to answer, so with one swift move she grabbed Eric's arm to pull him to a stop.

"Take off your jacket," she insisted.

"What?" Eric's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why?"

"We don't need everyone to see the burned holes in your coat. That'll just freak everyone out more than the discovery that lightning struck near you almost causing your untimely demises."

"Fine, whatever."

He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it with unnecessary force at Nicola, hitting her in the face. One of Nicola's hands balled into a fist and she was ready to return Eric's uncalled throw a special gift in return, but a hand grabbed her shoulder before she could take her quick steps toward Eric.

"He's so not worth it," Pete's voice came from behind. "Besides, cut the guy some slack, he was almost struck by lightning."

"Yeah, well if he throws something at me again he's going to be struck by one of my fists."

The quip earned chuckles from Pete and Clark, but Nicola just scowled at Eric's back. She stuffed the jacket into her messenger bag as they stepped out into the parking lot where their school bus and classmates were waiting for them. One of the students noticed their approach and pointed their arrival out to Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers turned to face them, revealing a large scowl on his face.

"Eric, where on God's green earth have you been?" Mr. Summers growled at his son. "We were supposed to leave a half-an-hour ago."

"Sorry Mr. Summers," replied Eric, just a twinge of bitterness wrapped around his father's "official" name.

"Well, this is unacceptable. Because of your irresponsibility, we're completely behind schedule, when we get back to campus-" Mr. Summers rant stopped abruptly when he noticed one of the sleeves from Eric's coat hanging out of Nicola's messenger bag. He glanced again at Eric to see that he was not wearing his jacket, so deduced that they must be one and the same. "Miss Lively, may I ask why you have Eric's jacket hanging out of your bag?"

"Huh? Oh…well," sputtered Nicola, trying to think of a feasible excuse. How the hell am I going to explain this?

Mr. Summers, realizing there was something suspicious going on outstretched his hand and ordered, "Hand over the jacket, Miss Lively."

Nicola glanced over at Clark and searched his face for what she should do. He gave her a small shrug, implying it was up to her. She took a breath and then slowly pulled the jacket out of her bag, handing it over to her science teacher. Mr. Summers un-crumpled the jacket out from its balled state and his eyes widened as he saw the scorches on the back.

"How in the Sam Hill did this happen?"

The wheels turned in Nicola's mind as she tried to come up with the best explanation that

"There was a lightning storm centered at the dam. Eric had been leaning against the railing on the when lightning struck next to him, and the sparks caught his jacket on fire a little," Nicola explained, hoping Mr. Summers would let it drop there, but he could sense she was not giving him full disclosure.

"And?"

"What makes you think there's an and?" Nicola asked innocently. It earned her a hard, skeptical scowl from Mr. Summers. She let out a defeated breath before she continued to breeze through the rest of the story. "And he lost his balance, causing him to fall over the railing. Luckily Clark had already caught up to Eric on the dam and was close enough to reach out and grab him before Eric was able to lose his grip from the railing."

Looking at Mr. Summers face, Nicola was pretty sure the vein on his forehead was going to pop out from the anger that was boiling up within him. His jaw was clenched tightly as he gritted to her three male companions, "Is this true?"

"More or less," replied Clark.

Mr. Summers turned to Eric and it was obvious anger was surging through him. He took a couple of short deep breaths, trying to maintain some control over his emotions.

"You four take your seats, I'll deal with you when we get back to the campus," Mr. Summers ordered.

Nicola exchanged another look with Clark, then made her way down the aisle to an empty seat near the back of the bus. On her way to her seat, Chloe gave her a look that Nicola knew meant that she was going to be hounded once they got back to school. Eric started to move towards the back of the bus too when Mr. Summers pulled on Eric's shirt to stop his movement.

"You, young man, are staying up front where I can keep my eye on you," commanded Mr. Summers.

Eric turned to give his father a hard glare before slumping into one of the empty seats at the front of the bus. The bus ride was filled with chatter as most of the students were wondering what happened out there on the dam, and how Mr. Summers will punish Eric. When they got back to school, Clark, Eric, and Nicola spent over 15 minutes once again getting grilled about what happened on the dam and then lectured on the dangers of what they did. Nicola was going to point out that she didn't do anything besides smother some fires and hide evidence, but she bit her tongue knowing that Mr. Summers would see no distinction. Luckily, Mr. Summers had enough sense to not give anyone except Eric any form of punishment for what happened on the dam. Mr. Summers let them go after the lecture, so Nicola drove Pete and Clark home. Nicola dropped Pete off first, and once they were alone, Nicola was able to press Clark about his condition.

"So, how you feeling?" she asked him, concerned.

"Fine, a little tired, though," Clark admitted.

"Hmm, maybe the lingering affects of the lightning. I'm sure after a full night's rest you'll be back to your old self," she assured him.

"I'm sure you're right," agreed Clark.

"I can't believe Eric is so reckless. If you weren't there the idiot probably would have been swan-dived to his death."

"It was a good thing I got there in time, another minute and Eric would have been toast."

"I thought since Mr. Summers is Eric's dad that he would be a little lenient on him, and glad that Eric was okay, but man, Mr. Summers is a hard ass. If you hadn't told me that Eric was Mr. Summers' kid, I would have never known."

"Mr. Summers definitely isn't the most understanding person in the world."

Nicola pulled up in front of Clark's home and put the car in park.

"Alright, get a good night's rest Clark, I'm sure you'll be 100% in the morning," she told him as he opened his door.

"Thanks, I hope you're right."

Clark climbed out of the jeep and shut the door after him softly. Nicola watched with slight concern as he slowly made his way up the front steps of his house. As soon as Clark was through his front door, Nicola put the car in drive and made her way home.

The next morning, Nicola was walking down her front steps to get into her car when her cell phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID before answering it. "Miss the bus again?"

"Something like that," Clark replied, his voice sounding like his thoughts were elsewhere. "Have you left your house yet?"

"I'm just getting into my car now, why?"

"You think you can give me a ride this morning?"

"You want a ride? What's wrong? Don't feel like Speedy Gonzales-ing it today?" she said in teasing tone.

"More like I can't."

"Can't? What do you mean can't?"

"Just that. I tried, but couldn't."

This statement took Nicola aback, and she was stunned into a brief silence.

"You still there?" Clark's voice brought her back.

"Yeah, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around this development."

"That makes two of us."

"I'll be there in a few minutes, okay Clark?"

"Yeah, thanks. See you soon."

Nicola started her car's engine and was soon sputtering down her driveway towards the Kent Farm. It took only a handful of minutes for Nicola to get to where Clark stood on the road that led to his farm, and as she slowed down to stop adjacent to him, she noticed his appearance was somewhat disheveled.

"Hey," she greeted Clark as he climbed into her Jeep.

"Hi, thanks again for the lift."

"Not a problem."

Now that he was closer to her, Nicola was able to get a better look of Clark and was able to more thoroughly examine him. She noticed something on the skin under his chin, and reached out to brush it off. Once she retracted her hand, she saw it had transferred onto her, and realized that it was mud.

"Um…miss a spot showering this morning, Clark?" she joked, showing him the mud on her fingers.

"Very funny. No, I was trying to push my Dad's truck out of a mud patch and I lost balance and fell backwards into it."

"You had a klutz moment? What, was Lana right next to you?" At Clark's ice glare, she continued, "Come on, admit it Clark, the only time you are an awkward klutz is when Lana and her meteorite necklace are in close proximity."

Clark just sneered at her response, not finding the observation accurate or amusing.

"Okay, so there was no Lana factor. Are you telling me you couldn't push the truck out of the mud with your regular ease?"

"Couldn't even get it to budge."

"Okay, so no super speed or strength. That's very weird."

"That's not even the half of it."

"There's more?"

"My nose started bleeding."

The Jeep came to a screeching halt and Nicola snapped her head back to stare at Clark.

"You were bleeding?! You? Mr. Freakin' Invincible?"

"Well, you're taking this much better than I imagined," Clark quipped.

"Give me one of your hands," demanded Nicola, outstretching one of her open palms towards him.

"What? Why?" Clark asked, confused.

"I'm going to connect with you, see if there's anything I can heal."

"And if there's nothing to heal?"

"Then we'll figure out where to go from there."

"Fine," sighed Clark, giving her one of his hands.

Once their skin touched, Nicola instantly made a connection with Clark, searching for anything that looked off. She scanned everything she could think of that might hold the key to Clark's condition, down to his last DNA strand. Everything looked normal, nothing stood out as been injured or altered.

"Well, nothing looks wrong with you. If there was something in your DNA that was tied to your powers it hasn't been altered at all."

"Great, so we still don't know what's wrong or what caused this."

Nicola racked her brain for possible explanations, thinking of anything that could be the reason for Clark's situation. Then it hit her.

"The lightning!"

Her loud exclamation startled Clark, and he raised an eyebrow at her outburst.

"What?"

"Yesterday. The Lightning. It must have temporarily drained all your powers or something."

"That's what my mom suggested."

"Well, you know what they say about great minds and such."

Clark was silent for a moment, really taking her explanation into consideration.

"So, you really think it's just temporary?"

"Yeah, I bet you anything. Don't worry Clark, I'm sure you'll be back to your super self in no time."

"And if I don't?"

Nicola frowned at the defeated tone in Clark's voice. She wrapped an arm around him, placing her head on his upper arm as she leaned into him.

"You will," she tried to reassure him. "But, if you don't, then I'll help you adjust to life as a mere mortal."

"Yeah, because you know all about that," he teased her lightly.

"Hey," she said as she moved away from him. "I'll have you know that in Metropolis my mother forced me to keep my power usage to a minimum. So I know how to live a non-powered life."

"Sure you do."

"I do too!" Nicola scowled at Clark, seeing the skeptical look on his face, and was overcome by the need to prove him wrong. "Fine, how about this; for as long as you don't have your powers – or a week, whichever comes first- I won't use mine."

"Any of them? Not a single one?"

"Well, sometimes I can't help when I connect with someone…but all the others."

"And how do I know you won't cheat?"

"I won't," she assured him. "But, if you don't trust my word, then I guess I can connect with you at the end to show you my willpower."

"Fine," replied Clark, although the skepticism was still there in his voice. "And what do I win if you can't resist using a power?"

"Win? Why Mr. Kent, I never took you for the gambling type," she drawled. "But, fine, if you win, I'll do half your chores for a full week. But if I win, you owe me a cup of coffee at the Beanery."

"Just a cup?"

"Well, I know I'm going to win, so I don't want you to pay too severely for your loss."

"A little overconfident, aren't we?"

"Nope, I just know my strength of will. So, what do you say? We got a bet?" She outstretched her hand to seal the deal.

"You're on," Clark replied as he gave her hand a quick shake.

Once he released her hand, Nicola turned her attention back to the car to put it back into gear.

"We are so gonna be late for class," she said as she pressed the accelerator to continue their drive to school.

With Nicola's slight speeding, the two managed to make it to their first classes just before the bell rang. For the full school day, Nicola did not use a single one of her powers, not that any reason to use one of them had come up. She wondered how Powerless Clark fared that day and decided to offer the poor guy a ride home if he needed one. After the last bell of the day rang, Nicola made her way towards Clark's locker once she got her things from her own. When she found Clark he was grabbing things from his locker, and as approached him, she noticed that he looked pretty drained.

"You all right there, Clark? You look like you're about to keel over."

"Gee thanks," he replied dryly as he turned to face her. "I never realized how hard it was to run a set of bleachers before."

"Unfortunately, that's one of the things my powers doesn't help me do with ease, so I can't say I feel sorry for you. But if it makes you feel any better, I will tell you that the more you do it, the easier it gets."

"It doesn't."

"Sorry. Anyway, the reason I'm here: need a lift home?"

"That would be great, thanks. I don't think I even have the energy to walk from the bus to the farm."

She linked her arm in his and they started to walk towards one of the exits that would lead them to parking lot. As they were approaching the doors, they heard a voice calling their names from down the hall, causing them to stop. They turned to find Chloe coming towards them.

"Hey guys, I'm glad I caught you."

"What's up, Chloe?" asked Nicola.

"Nothing really, I was just seeing if you guys wanted to meet up later with Pete and me for coffee at the Beanery. You know, that very nice, small window of time from after Pete gets off from practice and before you have night school."

"I would love to, but I have to meet some classmates to finish up a project before class starts tonight. But, after I drop Clark off, I can come back to help you with the Torch before I need to meet them."

"That'd be great. Clark, what about you?"

"I have a lot of chores to do at home, but I'll try to meet you out there, okay?"

"Good, see you two later then."

Chloe turned to head back to the Torch's office, and Clark and Nicola continued to head toward her car. After Nicola dropped Clark off at his house, she stopped by her own to grab some things she needed for class that night, before heading back to school to the Torch. That afternoon, before having to head to the other side of the school to meet her classmates, Nicola helped Chloe finish the layout of the next week's Torch and figure out how many more stories they needed to have in order to fill that layout before sending it to the presses that weekend. When she got out of class, she decided to check up on Clark to see how his first day without powers was going, but when she pulled her cell phone out of her purse as she made her way towards her car, she found the phone's battery had died. She resolved to instead just head over to his house to see how he was doing.

When she got to the Kent's she first went to the house to see if he was inside, but Mrs. Kent informed her that Clark was in the barn studying. Once she climbed up the last steps of Clark's fortress of solitude, she found him slouched over his desk, his head lying on top of a thick textbook. She quietly crept past him and picked up another textbook, then slammed it hard against the desk. The noise startled Clark awake, and his head shot up from the desk.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" she asked teasingly.

Her remark earned her a nice glare from Clark as he turned to look at her.

"What time is it?"

"Like nine o'clock, old geezer. How you doing?"

"My arms are dead from the bailing hay for two hours and then from another two putting down posts for the fence. And I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open long enough to finish this chapter I need to read for my Spanish class."

"Aw, poor guy," she said as she moved behind where he sat at the desk, placing her hands on his shoulders. She began to knead at the knots that had formed there. "Well, since I'm such a wonderful friend, I suppose I can help you out with both problems. But you will owe me later."

"Mmm hmm," Clark replied as he relaxed under her touch.

As she massaged his shoulders, she leaned over his shoulder to peer down at his textbook. For the next half-hour, Nicola simultaneously gave Clark a shoulder massage and went over how to ask for and give directions in Spanish. Once they were finished with the chapter, Clark was ready to call it a day.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, Lex came over earlier," Clark told her as he walked her out the barn to her car.

Nicola raised an eyebrow at the importance of a visit from Lex at the Kent farm. "Okay… And you're bringing this up, why?"

"He thinks I'm lying to him about the what happened that day on the Loeb Bridge."

"That's because you are lying to him about that day on the bridge."

He threw her an unamused glare.

"You know what I mean. He kept pushing for me to admit he hit me at 60 miles an hour and that I ripped open his car roof to pull him out."

Nicola's brows scrunched together, as she wondered what Lex was up to.

"Why is he bringing this up now? It happened over four months ago."

"I don't know," frowned Clark.

"Well, what did you say to him? Were you able to get him to back off?"

"I gave him a hammer and told him to hit me with it," he admitted sheepishly.

"You what?" Nicola half-shrieked. "Are you insane? What if he had decided to take you up on that offer?"

"Then I would have been hurt as hell, considering I'm power-free right now."

At that moment the pair reached Nicola's Jeep, and Nicola leaned her back against the driver's side door as she considered her next words.

"Lex is the type of guy who can fixate over things and will not back down until he gets what he wants. When you get your powers back-"

"If," interrupted Clark.

"What?" asked Nicola, confused plastered across her face.

"If I get my powers back," Clark reiterated.

Nicola scowled at Clark, rolling her eyes before she continued, "WHEN you get your powers back, you're just going to have to try and not put yourself in a position where Lex might grow more suspicious. Don't give him any reasons to suspect you being anything more than a regular, normal, ordinary, small-town farmboy."

"I don't try to put myself in positions where I use my powers, they usually are thrust upon me."

"Semantics," shrugged Nicola. "All I'm saying is Lex will obsess if you give him even the smallest niblet to keep him going."

Clark mulled this over for a moment and Nicola noticed the pensive look he was giving her.

"What?" asked Nicola, uncomfortable by his stare-down.

"Nothing. It's just…since when have you been Smallville's resident expert on Lex's behavior?"

"I'm not an expert, Clark. I've just noticed some things about him in the months that I've been here in Smallville. I've learned how to read people; observe them to learn their motivations."

"If you say so," Clark replied as he gave Nicola a wry smile, not completely believing her explanation.

Nicola rolled her eyes.

"Just promise me that you'll be more careful around Lex."

"Fine, I promise."

They stood next to Nicola's Jeep for a few moments, and Nicola saw a morose frown spread across his face. She knew what he was thinking, so she wrapped her arms tightly around his torso.

"Everything will be okay, Clark," she murmured into his chest. "You'll see."

"Well, I'm glad one of us thinks so," Clark retorted sullenly.

Nicola pulled apart from him and gave him a pointed glare, but didn't reply to his pessimistic thoughts.

"See you tomorrow?"

Clark nodded in reply, and Nicola pulled him in for one more hug.

"Try to stay positive, Clark," she said as she pulled away from him.

Clark shrugged noncommittally, earning a small frown from Nicola. Nicola turned to get into her car. She turned the ignition and then gave Clark a small wave before driving off to her home.

"How many Chloe Sullivans do you think there are in Smallville who would have an article published in the Ledger?" Nicola's stepfather Brad asked as she moved around the kitchen to make herself a quick breakfast the next morning.

Nicola turned to raise an eyebrow at Brad.

"What are you talking about?"

Instead of answering her question, Brad extended his hand to give her that morning's edition of the Smallville Ledger. Nicola scanned the front page and, sure enough, Chloe's name was on the byline of an article titled "Super Boy: Smallville's Newest Hero." Next to the article was a picture of Eric Summers, and Nicola quickly scanned the article to discover that yesterday some guy made a run for it with Chloe's bag when Eric stepped in to stop the purse snatcher, throwing him 30-feet in the process.

The first thought that hit her was what kind of dumb criminal tries to snatch a purse in broad daylight in a town called Smallville, but she brushed that thought off to focus on the "Eric has powers" part of the situation. It suddenly all clicked in Nicola's mind what happened. Eric, Clark, the meteorite rock, the lightning, Clark's disappearance of powers, and now Eric's sudden ability to toss people like they were pieces of crumpled up paper. The rock and lightning must have somehow transferred Clark's powers to Eric. Nicola wondered if Clark knew about this new development. She pulled the front page off the others and handed the rest back to her step-dad. Without another word, she walked out of the kitchen, breakfast forgotten.

She quickly got ready for school and pulled her phone off her charger before hustling out to her car. As she drove towards the Kent house she turned her cell phone on to find she had a message on her voice mail waiting for her. She dialed her voice mail and discovered it had been from a very excited Chloe.

"Hey Nicola, you'll never guess what happened. Call me back."

Too bad she hadn't thought of turning on her cell phone the night before then she could have found out this information much earlier. Within minutes Nicola found herself driving down the gravel road to the Kent house. She hopped out of her car, paper in hand, and hustled to the door that led to the Kent's kitchen, hoping she hadn't missed Clark yet. She rapped on the screen door and waited for someone to answer. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the door swung open, revealing the kind face of Martha Kent.

"Nicola, what brings you here?"

"Is Clark still here?"

"Sorry, no. He caught the bus about ten minutes ago."

"Of course he did," grumbled Nicola, more to herself than to Mrs. Kent. "The one day where it'd have been convenient for him to miss the bus he manages to be on time. Fantastic."

A concerned frown spread across Martha's face as she watched Nicola emote with frustration. "Is something wrong, Nicola?"

A flitter of embarrassment washed over Nicola, and she quickly thought up an excuse to cover her real reason for her morning visit.

"Oh, no, I just really needed to get Clark's opinion on something before school this morning, but it looks like I'll just have to scour the halls for him when I get to school. Sorry to bug you, Mrs. Kent."

"Not at all, dear. You know you're always welcome here."

Nicola gave Martha a big smile.

"Thanks. Well, I better get going to school."

She smiled once more at Martha then turned to head back to her car. Once Nicola got to Smallville High, she searched the building for Clark. After swinging by her locker, she headed straight for the Torch's office hoping Clark would be there, but not even Chloe was in the office yet. She wandered around the school hoping to find her three friends, but by the time the warning bell rang she still had yet to find any of them. Nicola headed to her first class with a sigh of defeat.

Despite having a couple classes with each of them, Nicola never found an opportunity to talk to her friends the first half of her day. She was about to head to her locker to drop off some things before getting her lunch when she noticed Clark, Chloe, and Pete nearing one of the staircases down the hall and rushed to catch up with them.

"Clark you should have seen it; Eric threw the guy 30 feet," she heard Pete recount as they bounded down the stairs.

"Not only did he recover my laptop, but I got my first by line in the Smallville Ledger," Chloe said excitedly as she looked at the paper in her outstretched arms.

"That's great, Chloe," Clark said, without enthusiasm.

"Come on, Clark, how can you be so blasé about this?"

"The guy stopped a purse snatcher, it's not that big of a deal."

Nicola was about to join in on their conversation when they heard a voice yell, "Chloe, hey." The four turned to find Eric hustling towards them. "Thanks for, uh, getting that story in the paper."

"Thanks for saving my computer, it's my life," Chloe replied, before making a slight grimace. "Okay, how pathetic did that just sound?"

Eric laughed lightly at her remark, and Nicola noticed how Clark looked a little annoyed by their exchange.

"So, who came up with Super Boy?" Eric asked

"I did."

"Really? I like that," Eric told her, a small smile spreading across his face.

"Thanks," replied Chloe with a grin of her own.

Nicola noticed the slight flirtation between the two, but chose not to comment on it at that moment. As Eric moved away from them, Chloe turned to face her friends again with a self-satisfied grin on her face.

"I thought it was kind of lame," Clark said, clearly unimpressed.

"I don't remember asking you," snarked Chloe.

"Clark's just jealous," Pete added his two cents.

"I hope all this attention doesn't go to his head. He needs to be careful," Clark said in his voice-of-reason sort of way.

"Well, you know what Clark, the second you start throwing people 30 feet, I'll write nice things about you too," Chloe teased as she walked slipped between him and Pete, then started to head down the hall.

Nicola threw Clark a knowing smirk and gave him a small pat on the chest before following after Chloe. Even though she knew she had to talk to Clark about this newest revelation about his not-so-lost powers, she wanted to get as much information on the Eric situation from Chloe as she knew. As she moved to catch up with Chloe, she saw Whitney and Lana approaching her, their hands linked as they walked down the hall.

"Hey Lively, up for a pick-up game in the gym?" Whitney asked as she neared the couple.

"And watch you cry when you're beaten by a girl?" Nicola teased, earning a laugh from Lana. "Pass, but rain check."

"Right…" Whitney chuckled, and she saw him roll his eyes slightly as she passed them.

Nicola caught up to Chloe as she reached the door to the Torch's office. She followed Chloe inside, plopping herself onto the couch while Chloe went to sit in front of her computer.

"So, apparently, when I decided to put school before fun, I missed my chance of watching Eric play white knight to your damsel in distress," joked Nicola, earning a small snort from Chloe.

"I am no damsel," Chloe scoffed. "But essentially, yes, you did. And, if you remembered to charge your phone once in a while, you would have known about it before the rest Smallville read it in the Ledger."

"Yeah, yeah. So, exactly how super is Eric?" Nicole inquired, trying to pry some needed information out of Chloe.

"You do realize how dirty you made that sound, don't you?" Chloe teased her friend, throwing her one of her mischievous smiles.

"Oh, shut up. Mind out of the gutter, Sullivan," grumbled Nicola. "You know what I meant."

"He had super freaky speed and strength. You should have seen it; not only could he move in a blink of an eye, he threw the guy like he was a sack of potatoes."

"So he displayed two abilities, huh?" Nicola asked with a frown. She turned on the couch so she could lie across it as she pondered the situation.

"Yeah," Chloe replied, a puzzled look crossed her face and she got up from her chair to move to where Nicola lay on the couch. "Okay, what are you thinking?"

"What makes you think I have any thoughts?" Nicola asked innocently, but there were things floating through her mind. A small part of her had hoped that the meteor rock had given Eric his own power, not all of Clark's, but it seemed a power transfer was the most likely answer since the majority of folks infected by the meteor rocks usually only gained one power.

"Please," guffawed Chloe as she moved Nicola's legs to sit down next to her on the couch, then placed the legs back in her lap "I can see those wheels turning in that head of yours. Spill."

Nicola hesitated to share what was going through her head because they involved Clark's secret, but she knew Chloe would hound her until she gave her something, so she decided to dispense her best friend some half-truths.

"I was just thinking about the field trip the other day. Eric had a meteor rock on him when the lightning stuck," Nicola started.

"And maybe the combination caused a genetic mutation to earn him a place on my Wall of Weird?" Chloe finished for her.

"Precisely."

"Well, as long as he keeps using it for good, I think his meteor freak status could be seen as a positive thing," Chloe decided.

"I guess. So far, though, my encounters with the meteor-infected have not faired so well, but who knows, maybe Eric's different," replied Nicola.

"Perhaps I'm biased because he saved my computer from being stolen, but I think he might be."

"Well, let's just hope you're right because I'd hate to have to help get him a nice padded cell at Belle Reve."

"That makes two of us."

"Anyway, moving on to a more cheerful topic…I was thinking, in celebration of your first by line in a semi-major newspaper, what do you say to a trip to Metropolis this weekend?"

"I'd say that would be fantastic, pending parental approval of course."

"Of course," grinned Nicola. "And maybe once we're there we could meet up with a certain aspiring musician whose day would be made if you were in his presence?"

Chloe made a face at Nicola and quickly got up from her seat to move back to her computer.

"Would you stop with the cupid act, already? As much as you want it to, Trask and I are not going to happen."

"Why not?"

"First of all, he's not really my type."

"Since when is cute, smart, and adorably charming not your type?"

"And second," continued Chloe, ignoring Nicola's comment. "Even if he was my type, he's almost four years older than me, which is something my father would never approve of."

"It's closer to three years, and three isn't really that big of an age difference," retorted Nicola.

"Says the girl who was dating someone almost six years older than her," sniped Chloe.

"Touché," replied Nicola. "Look, I'm sure if your dad met Trask…"

"Stop," Chloe said. "Please, Nicola, I can't take this matchmaking business. I prefer my relationships to unfold naturally."

"You promised me that you'd consider it," Nicola reminded her.

"And I have. Unfortunately for you, I've decided to not date your friend."

"Fine," huffed Nicola. "But when you come to your senses and change your mind, let me know."

"Noted," replied Chloe.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving, so I'm gonna head down to the cafe for a bite. Want me to get you anything?"

"I'm good, thanks though."

"No prob. See you later."

Nicola hopped off the couch and swiftly exited the Torch's office. Her path to the cafeteria took her past the old gym, and as she approached the doors someone walked into the gym allowing the voices inside to trickle into the hall. Nicola recognized one of the voices that floated into the hall, but it was what they yelled something that caused Nicola stop in her tracks.

"Way to go, Clark!" Lana's voice carried from the gym.

Nicola turned towards one of the gym's double doors and pulled it open, what she saw once she entered the gym caused her jaw to drop. Out on the court playing basketball with Whitney, Brent, and Pete was Clark Kent. It's not like she had never seen Clark play basketball before; they've played one on one on the Kent farm lots of times. But he never played basketball at school with other guys at school because Mr. Kent was always fearful that, despite his best efforts to play it safe, Clark might either unintentionally injure another student or accidentally display his super abilities. A smile spread across her face, happy to her friend enjoying himself, despite how terrible he was playing.

"Who's winning?" Nicola asked as she slid onto the bench next to Lana and Holly at the sidelines.

"Whitney and Brent, of course," replied Holly.

"Of course," echoed Nicola, with an edge of sarcasm that went unnoticed by the two girls.

The game didn't last much longer, as Whitney and Brent proved to be better players than Clark and Pete. Nicola approached them on the court as the guys congratulated each other for a well-played game. She moved up behind her friends as they walked away from Whitney, Brent, and their girlfriends.

"Why you grinning?" Pete asked Clark, amused by his friend's chipper state. "We lost."

"I know. Pretty cool, huh?" Clark replied, a big grin still spread across his face.

"Right…" chuckled Pete.

"Nice game guys," Nicola said, squeezing between the two of them. "For a second, it looked like you might have had a chance."

"I'm going to take that as a sincere statement," replied Pete.

"You do that," grinned Nicola.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower before lunch is over, I'll see you guys later," Pete informed them, before hustling to the locker rooms, leaving Nicola and Clark by themselves.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone enjoy losing a game of basketball as much as you, Clark," teased Nicola.

"It was nice to play without having to hold anything back," shrugged Clark.

"Well, it's great to see you enjoying your normalcy."

"It's not all bad, I guess. I was even able to stand next to Lana and her necklace without feeling slightly nauseous," replied Clark.

Nicola smiled at Clark, glad her friend found something positive in his current situation.

"So, I hate to kill your buzz, but should we discuss the Eric situation?"

A frown spread across Clark's face, and he let out a sigh.

"My parents think the meteor rock and lightning caused my powers to transfer to him. They also think it's probably permanent."

Nicola scowled at the thought, "I refuse to believe that. There's gotta be something we can do."

"But what if there's not? Maybe I should start accepting the idea that I might be just a normal, average teenager now."

Nicola was silent for a moment, putting herself in Clark's shoes. What would she do if she lost all of her powers tomorrow? She'd probably fight tooth and nail until she regained her abilities. They were part of who she was. It's not that she couldn't function without her powers; she probably could adjust to a normal life. It's just she knew she would feel different without them. But, she knew Clark's feelings about how he wasn't normal and how he often wanted to be like everyone else sometimes.

"If that's what you want Clark, I'll support you 100%."

"You mean I don't lose my spot in the "We're Not from Around Here" club?"

"Of course not, you will always be a card-carrying member. Besides, if I kick you out, it'd pretty much be a club of one. Unless you can point me into the direction of other teenagers who have non-earthly backgrounds."

"None that I'm aware of," grinned Clark.

"Then, I guess I'm stuck with you," teased Nicola.

Slowly, Clark's face turned more serious, as he remembered something he wanted to ask Nicola her opinion about.

"Have you ever thought about what it'd be like if everyone knew about your powers?"

Nicola raised an eyebrow at the question, but answered him honestly.

"Like all the time. It never ended well for me in my imagined scenarios. Are you asking this because of Chloe's superboy article in the Ledger?"

"My parents always made me afraid to reveal my powers, like everyone would freak out if they found out the truth about me. But after one show of power, everyone thinks Eric is this awesome super hero."

"Clark, it's just day one. This is the shock and awe stage. I'm expecting Mulder and Scully to drive up in their Ford Taurus and take him away any day now."

"I don't think Mulder and Scully gather up super powered people, because, you know, they're fictional."

"You know what I mean. I'm waiting for the G-men to make their presence known."

"So you think it's been worth it, keeping who we are a secret?"

"Honestly, Clark, I don't think most of the world is ready for us yet. Maybe a few more years down the road."

Clark sulked a little at this thought. Nicola gave him a comforting touch on his shoulder, then told him she'd let him go freshen up before class. As Clark moved towards the locker room, Nicola remembered her quest for sustenance, so she began to run down to the cafeteria to get food before they closed everything up.

The rest of Nicola's day held nothing eventful, and after her final class, she had to head back to her to photography class to pick up some negatives she had left hanging in the dark room. As she made her way to the parking lot afterward, she noticed that many of the students were hurrying to one of the side exits in an excited flurry. Curious, Nicola followed the mob of people out the doors to see what the excitement was all about. As she was almost at the exit she heard what sounded like a car crashing into pavement from outside.

"Eric!" she heard Clark yell as she made it outside of the school. She couldn't hear the next words Clark or Eric said, and she wasn't sure what was going on, but she assumed Clark was saying something to try to calm Eric down. She tried to push her way through the crowd quickly, so she could be there to back up a powerless Clark against the newly-powered, and now clearly psychotic Eric, but the gawkers were making it difficult for her.

Nicola was nearly at the front of the crowd when she heard Eric glower loudly, "Now shut up and get out of my way!" Before she even had a chance to react from her place in the crowd, she watched in horror as Clark was quickly tossed like a rag doll across the parking lot. Her heart dropped as she heard the sounds of Clark crashing on top of a car and windows shattering upon contact. For several seconds, the world around Nicola was a haze, and she stood frozen in shock at the sight of one of her closest friends lying in a crumbled heap on top of a car. She didn't hear Holly tell Eric to get away from her and Brent and then call him a freak, nor notice as Eric supersped away. All she saw was her friend laying unconscious, bleeding from the head. It was the shouting for someone to call an ambulance that snapped her out of her reverie, and without a second thought, she ran to Clark's side, not caring as she knocked people out of her way in the process.

She was risking things by connecting to Clark in public, and since she was using her powers she was technically losing her bet with Clark, but she wanted to make sure that nothing major was damaged in the attack. Nicola touched Clark's hand and quickly searched for any and all injuries. Two of his lower ribs were cracked on the left side of his body where he initially struck the car, but luckily there was no hemorrhaging. He was mildly concussed from knocking his head against the car roof, but no damage to the head or brain beyond that. The only other injuries she could see were several spots of internal bruising. If there had been no witnesses, she would have healed all injuries, but as it were, she couldn't do much without suspicion being cast on her and Clark. So, Nicola healed the more crucial injuries, the cracked ribs and concussion, slowed the bleeding from his forehead, and left superficial injuries, like bruised ribs and other lacerations.

"Nicola, the ambulance is here," she heard Chloe say, pulling Nicola out of her connection.

"Thanks for the heads up," Nicola replied, turning her attention to Chloe, who Nicola noticed had tears in her eyes. She placed a reassuring hand on her friend's arm. "Don't worry Chlo, he's gonna be fine. Just some bruises."

"You sure?"

"Positive," she assured Chloe, giving her a small smile.

They moved away from Clark as a medic attended to Clark as he lay atop the car. The two paramedics were split between looking at Clark and Brent, and as one was examining Clark, he started to come to again. Slightly disorientated, Clark slid off the top of the car to his wobbly two feet, despite protests from the medic that they should put him on a scoop-stretcher in case there were any spinal injuries. Nicola rushed to his side to help him balance a bit better, wrapping her arm around his back. He groaned as she touched his bruised side.

The paramedics insisted that Clark had to be transported to the hospital via their ambulance, and Clark tried to refuse, not wanting to burden his parents the cost of an ambulance ride. When Nicola insisted she would get Clark to the hospital, the medics stated that by law they were required to take Clark as he was a minor with no parent or guardian to refuse transport.

"But that's if it's a medical emergency, and he's only sustained minor, non-life-threatening injuries. Furthermore, Kansas State Law states that a patient of any age may refuse care if they are of "an age of understanding", meaning, if a patient has the capacity to understand the medical condition and risks as explained to them then they have the right to refuse medical treatment even if they are legally a minor. I'm not trying to prevent you from doing your job, I'm just trying to point out that you have one unconscious patient who will take all of your attention during the ride to the hospital, so you might as well let the second, conscious patient with non-life-threatening injuries get an alternative mode of transportation to the hospital."

The medic stared blankly at her for a moment, clearly taken aback by her argument. He looked over at his partner, who was signaling to him that they needed to work together to put Brent on a stretcher, then back at Clark and Nicola.

"Okay, you've made your point," he sighed, then went to pull a binder out of his bag. He handed Clark a form and quickly explained what he was going to be signing. After he took back Clark's signed form, he left to help his partner with Brent.

"Come on, Clark, let's get you to the hospital. Maybe we'll even beat the ambulance there," said Nicola, as she helped him towards her car on the other side of the parking lot. She asked Chloe to grab Clark's backpack, which he dropped in the rush to stop Eric. Pete helped Clark into the car, and both Chloe and Pete got in for the ride to the hospital, despite Clark's protests that they didn't all need to come. It was long before they were rolling into the ER's parking area and helping Clark inside.

Once inside the hospital, Nicola had managed to convince one of the nurses to let her wait in the exam room until the doctor came to check on Clark again. She sat on the doctor's stool next to the exam table that Clark was perched on.

"How you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a truck."

"Well, you pretty much were. What were you thinking, Clark? Eric could have killed you!"

"I had to try and stop him. Those are my powers he is using, if he hurts anyone, it will be my fault."

"No, it will be Eric's own fault. He is out of control. Someone needs to stop him before he hurts anyone else."

Clark could tell by the look in her eyes that the "someone" Nicola meant was herself.

"No, you can't go after him, he's too dangerous. Let the police handle it."

"The police? They have even less of a chance against Eric. At least with my powers I can figure out something to put a leash on him."

"No way, it's too risky."

"Why is it that only you are allowed to play hero? I am fully capable of taking care of myself."

"Eric is a loose cannon, I don't want you getting hurt. Besides, maybe he's calmed down now. Maybe his parents can get through to him."

"But what if he can't be reasoned with anymore?"

"Then we'll figure something out. Just promise me you won't go after him alone."

Nicola frowned, contemplating the situation. Clark was right, even with her powers, there was a good chance Eric could out-speed and overpower her. She would have to come up with some sort of plan first.

"Fine," she gritted in agreement. She was going to talk more with Clark, when the doctor walked into the room. "I guess this is my cue to leave. I'll be in the waiting room, Clark."

Clark gave Nicola a look that she knew meant she better keep her word and not go after Eric. Nicola gave Clark a reassuring smile before exiting the room, even though the wheels in her brain were turning to figure out a plan to stop Eric. She joined Chloe and Pete in the waiting area where Chloe was pacing like a maniac, the sight distracting her momentarily from her brainstorming. Once she reached Chloe, Nicola made her come to a stop by placing her hands firmly on Chloe's shoulders.

"Chloe, stop. He's fine, okay? He didn't even break anything."

"I know, it's just seeing him flying through the air and then smash into the car…" Chloe trailed off.

"I know. But he's going to be okay," Nicola repeated.

Behind Chloe at the entrance of the hospital, she saw Clark's parents walk through the door.

"Hey, I'm going to get some air, why don't you and Pete tell Mr. and Mrs. Kent where Clark is, alright?" Nicola told Chloe.

"Yeah, of course."

Chloe grabbed Pete out of his chair and the two walked over to the visibly panicked Martha and Jonathan. Nicola felt stifled in the hospital, so she moved to the entrance so she could go outside for some air. As she stepped outside a town car pulled up in front of the hospital's entrance, she knew who the passenger was before he stepped out, and she glanced around to see if there was somewhere nearby she could hide. She didn't have the energy to deal with him right now, and she knew that if he started talking to her she might start tearing into him about the accusations he threw at Clark the other night.

"Nicola," a voice reached her ears, causing her to freeze in place.

Crap, she thought to herself. There goes my plan of cowardice hiding.

Nicola took a deep breath, and then slowly turned to find Lex approaching her. He sported a black suit with a patterned dark purple tie, and the sight of him made her heart flutter more than she wanted it to.

"Lex," Nicola greeted a little colder than she intended. "Here to see if Clark's actually injured?"

Lex visibly flinched at her words and harsh tone.

"I came to see if he was okay."

Nicola raised a skeptical brow, clearly not believing him.

"So, I'm guessing Clark told you about my visit?"

"Yeah, he did. Accusing a friend that they're lying about being hit by a car at 60 miles an hour and then ripped off the top of said car to save your life is insane, Lex. Even for you."

"If you saw the evidence-" insisted Lex.

"I don't care about the evidence, Lex. You're alive, Clark's alive; that's all that should matter." Lex was about to say more but Nicola preemptively cut him off. "He's in a room on the first floor if you want to check his wounds. Maybe the doctor will even let you see the x-rays."

Nicola pushed past him to go back inside the hospital to find Chloe and Pete. Once inside she discovered they were still in the waiting room.

"Mr. & Mrs. K told us we should head home and that Clark will call us when he's back at the farm," Pete informed Nicola as she joined her two friends.

"Okie doke," Nicola replied. "I'll drive you guys home then."

"Actually, I have to go back to practice, so if you don't mind, could you drop me off at the school?" asked Pete as they walked toward the exit.

"Not a problem," replied Nicola, as they walked past Lex who was entering the hospital.

"What's he doing here?" Pete asked disapprovingly.

"He probably heard about Clark's injury through the Smallville grapevine," Nicola shrugged, trying to feign disinterest.

"Should we tell him what room Clark's in?" Chloe asked.

"Lex is resourceful, I'm sure he can figure it out on his own," replied Nicola.

Chloe raised an eyebrow at her friend's answer, but said nothing, while Pete agreed with Nicola's semi-bitter statement. The trio was soon in Nicola's Jeep and headed to the school. Once there Chloe decided to head to the Torch's office to edit some articles for the next edition. Even though Nicola wanted to immediately set after Eric, she had no plan of action. Also, Chloe had reminded her that she needed to go through photos for articles in the next issue, as well as contribute an article this week. So Nicola followed Chloe into the Torch's office and sat in front of one of the computers. She spent the next hour typing an article about Smallville High's win over the Granville Buffalos' football team, trying to ignore the urge to think about the Eric situation.

Once she was finished with the copy, she half heartily clicked through the photos on her SD card. Her mind started to become more focused on how she could stop Eric than which football action shot should go with the article she just typed up. Even with her own powers, she wasn't sure she could stop a human wrecking ball like Eric. He definitely was stronger than her, so obviously she couldn't overpower him. Also, Clark's powers made him insanely fast, faster than she could probably pinpoint her telekinesis abilities on him. There was the additional worry that if she tried to stop Eric with her powers, she would expose herself to him, and he would tell anyone who would listen how Nicola Lively has powers. She could try to do a memory wipe so he wouldn't remember she used her powers, but she had never tried that ability before as her mom warned her how much energy that would take out of her and it had the danger of giving the recipient permanent brain damage.

"Okay, what's going on?" Chloe's voice broke through her thoughts.

Nicola suddenly realized that at some point she had begun pacing around the office as she racked her brain for strategies against Eric. She halted in place and turned to Chloe with a blank look on her face.

"Is this about Lex? Did something happen at the hospital?"

"What?" Nicola made a face. "No. I was thinking about how I need to stop Eric before he hurts anyone else. Or worse, accidentally kills them."

"It's not your job to stop the bad guys, Nicola. Let the sheriff's department deal with him."

"You expect Sheriff Miller and company to stop someone like Eric?" scoffed Nicola. "Eric's going to squash them like a bug."

"Well, unless invulnerability is a power of yours that you failed to mention, I think you are just as susceptible to the aforementioned squashing."

"I can't just sit around and do nothing when I'm the only one around who even has the slightest power to stop him," Nicola glowered at her friend.

There had to be something that could put her and Eric on a level playing field. Even if she could surprise him from behind with her telekinesis, nothing she could do would immobilize him. Maybe she could teleport behind him and then grab on to him so she could connect with his mind, then make him lose consciousness somehow. But, there was no guarantee that she could connect to him faster than he could fling her away from him with a flick of the wrist. She never had to worry about Clark with these powers, so she never really put any thought how she would go about stopping him. But then again, she knew the one thing that could bring Clark to his knees: meteor rocks.

METEOR ROCKS! That's it! Maybe by gaining all of Clark's powers, Eric might have also gained Clark's one vulnerability. It might be a big assumption, but it was the only lead she had. She just needed to find meteor rock, maybe melt it down to make a pair of special cuffs, and she could temporarily contain Eric.

"Ok, you're creeping me out with that grin," snarked Chloe. "What's going through that brain of yours?"

"I have a plan," Nicola replied. She couldn't tell Chloe her real plan because she'd have no way of explaining how she knows a meteor rock could possibly weaken Eric. She decided instead of telling Chloe what said plan was, her best plan of action would be to grab her bag and run out of the Torch's office to start her search for meteor rock. Unfortunately, Chloe decided to run after her.

"A plan?" she heard Chloe repeated skeptically from behind her.

"Yep. Don't worry, it's going to work."

"Any chance you want to clue me in?"

"No, because you'll just try to talk me out of it," Nicola retorted, as she tried to think of the fastest way to get meteor rock would be.

"That's because I'm the only one of us thinking rationally right now."

Nicola stopped and turned to face Chloe as she said, "Maybe. But, I'd rather try and be wrong, than not try and Eric puts someone into a coma, or worse kills them."

"Fine, what can I do to help?" relented Chloe.

"You can stay here, work on the Torch, and keep far away from Eric Summers," Nicola replied as she turned to start a quick pace towards the exit of Smallville.

"You can't be serious," sneered Chloe as she kept up with Nicola's pace. "I'm an invaluable asset."

"I know, but I can't risk Eric using you as a hostage."

"I'm not some goddamn damsel in distress. I can handle myself."

"Maybe against other meteor freaks, but Eric is too fast and too strong."

Nicola wished Chloe would stop arguing with her so she could concentrate on brainstorming where she could easily find meteor rock. For a town that seemed to have enough meteor rocks to alter massive amounts of people's genetic makeup, there wasn't a quarry where she could easily pick up some meteor rocks. There was the woods, but even there who knows how long she would be scouring the ground for a rock. Then it hit her. They just had to collect meteor rocks for geology class, so Mr. Summer's science room should be full of them. So, Nicola turned towards the nearest stairwell to go up to the third floor for the science room.

Chloe was still following her as Nicola walked up to the geology room's door. Nicola grabbed the door's knob to discover the room was locked. She cursed, wishing she had a lock pick set on her so she wouldn't have to use her powers out in the open, but after a quick glance around making sure no one was around, she quickly orbed herself inside the room. As she tried to remember what Mr. Summers did with the samples after they turned them in, she heard a knocking at the door.

"Okay, mind letting the non-teleporting human inside the room?" she heard the muffled voice of Chloe ask.

Nicola rolled her eyes before walking over the door and unlocking it for Chloe. She turned back around and continued her search for the rocks.

"And exactly why are we in the geology classroom?" Chloe asked as Nicola started to look through the cabinets for the containers that held their samples.

"Looking for something."

"That's vague. I'm not sure what you would find in here that would help you against Eric," said Chloe.

After finding the cabinets empty, Nicola moved to the small closet in the back of the class that held some supplies. As Chloe watched Nicola scour the closet for whatever it was she was looking for, she pondered what it could be.

"Damn it, it's not here. He must have taken them home to grade," Chloe heard Nicola mutter to herself as she walked back out of the closet. Then it hit Chloe.

"You're looking for the meteor rocks, but why? How will that help you stop Eric?" Chloe asked, confused momentarily. But, then she quickly had a theory. "You think you can somehow use the rocks to take away Eric's power, or maybe transfer the powers to yourself. Nicola, that's insane. There's no guarantee that will work. At best, you'll get his powers, which might turn you into a raging sociopathic meteor freak. At worst, whatever conduit you try to use could kill you."

"Well, it's the best plan I have," retorted Nicola, glad her friend was able to come up with a theory she could pretend was her own plan. "I can't just stand around and do nothing."

Nicola's cell phone started to ring, momentarily saving her from having to convince Chloe that she had to stop Eric. She glanced at the caller ID and saw her caller was Clark.

"Clark, how are you doing? Did the doc give you the all clear?"

"I'm about as good as can be expected, nothing seems to be broken the doc said. My ribs are killing me though. That's kind of why I called, I need you to meet me outside of Nell's flower shop."

"Um, okay. Why?"

"I'll explain when you get here."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks."

Nicola hung up her phone and started to walk towards the door.

"That was Clark? Is he okay?"

"Yeah, the doctor confirmed Clark didn't break anything, luckily."

"That's good to hear."

Nicola gestured to the door for Chloe to exit so she could lock up behind her. Once Chloe was in the hall, Nicola locked the door, then teleported to the other side.

"What did he want?" Chloe asked as soon as Nicola corporealized.

"He forgot his backpack in my car and wanted me to bring it to him," Nicola lied. Though, technically, it was only a half-lie; Clark's backpack was still in the backseat of the car.

"Really? That's it?" Chloe asked skeptically.

"As far as I could tell by his request. Anyway, I might as well do that now, unless you prefer I try to go after Eric with no meteor rock instead?"

Chloe rolled her eyes at Nicola.

"Promise me you're not going to go after him by yourself. At least bring me as backup if you're going to do something stupid."

"I promise I will not go after Eric by myself," she said as she held up three fingers. "Scouts honor."

"Right," scoffed Chloe, slightly skeptical of her promise.

"Ok, well I better get going. You gonna be burning the midnight oil?"

"Not tonight; my dad wants to do a family dinner to celebrate my article."

"Aw, that's sweet of him," replied Nicola. "Tell him I said hi."

"Will do. Can you tell Clark I'm glad he's okay, for me?"

"Of course. See you later, chief," Nicola said with a mock salute, then turned on her heel and walked towards the parking lot exit.

Fifteen minutes later Nicola was pulling her Jeep behind Clark's truck in front Nell's flower shop, wondering why Clark wanted her to meet him here. She saw his truck was empty, so she decided to wait a few minutes before calling him to see where he was. As she drummed her fingers on her steering wheel, there suddenly was a short tapping on her passenger window, startling her. She looked over and saw that the offending knocker was Clark. She clicked the doors unlocked, and Clark climbed into the passenger seat next to her.

"So, wanna tell me why I'm here?" asked Nicola, getting straight to business.

"I need you to heal my the rest of my injuries."

"Is this so you can win the bet?" Nicola joked. "Don't worry, I already lost earlier today when I checked on your vitals, so you sir, have already won."

"Nicola, I'm being serious," replied Clark, a serious look on his face.

"Sorry," she replied. "You know I don't mind doing it, but, I could have done that later tonight at your house. Why meet downtown? Why the urgency?"

Nicola could see Clark's hesitation in how to answer her, and then quickly realized what he was up to.

"You're going to try to go after Eric." Nicola frowned. "No, Clark, that's too dangerous."

"But someone has to stop him, and I'm the only one who knows the full extent of his powers."

"Clark, you got lucky the first time he went crazy on you, the next time you could end up with more serious injuries!"

"I know, but these are my powers. Even though I don't have them anymore, I still feel like I'm responsible for them."

"I told you, I should be the one to go after him. I can try using my powers to stop him. Plus I thought a way I could take him down."

"And I told you I'm not letting you put yourself in danger," insisted Clark.

"Oh, but it's okay for you to put your own life on the line?"

"I'm the reason he has these powers, I should be the person to stop him."

Nicola frowned, as she realized there was nothing she could say to stop him from going after Eric.

"Fine, but exactly how do you plan on stopping him? Cause my plan involved meteor rocks, but those things apparently don't show themselves when you actually need them to be around."

Clark moved his hand up so she could see the fist he was making, and slowly opened it, allowing the length of a necklace chain drop out. Once Nicola saw the small meteor rock that hung from the chain, she immediately recognized it as Lana's most prized possession, and mentally kicked herself for not remembering the most obvious source for a meteor rock. Though, in her defense, that wouldn't have been nearly enough rock for her plan to make a pair of handcuffs, so that's probably why she didn't think of the baby-sized rock.

"Ok, so I guess we had the same game plan. Alright, I'll heal you on one condition: I'm going with you."

"I told you it's too dang-" started Clark.

"That's the deal. Take it or leave it."

"Alright," conceded Clark. "As long as you make sure to keep your distance."

"Deal. Now, let's get this over with."

Nicola took one of Clark's hands, and concentrated on healing Clark's injuries. She didn't heal them one hundred percent, but enough where it didn't hurt with every move. She rationalized to him that if he was completely healed when he went back to the doctor it might look suspicious.

"So, where to?" Nicola asked, as she disconnected from Clark and then started up the car.

"My mom said that something happened at Eric's, so I think we should start there."

"Okie doke. Let's get going then."

Nicola headed off in the direction of the Summers home. The only reason she knew where it was located was because she once drove past a TP'd house, then learned afterward that the house belonged to Mr. Summers. Less than 10 minutes later, they were pulling up the street the Summers' house was on to see chaos surrounding the home. From the distance, Nicola could see a flipped sheriff's car on fire, and debris in the street. Several neighbors were in the streets gawking at the scene. Nicole knew there was no way to drive any closer, so she parked her Jeep several houses down.

She pulled her camera from her bag so she could take some picture as she and Clark walked the rest of the distance to the Summer's house. As they got closer to the home, Nicola's mouth went agape at the destruction of and around the Summers home. Not only was their white picket fence was in shambles, but there was car sticking out of their roof. It looked like a tornado had blown through the house. Nicola snapped some more pictures as they waited for Sheriff Miller to finish speaking with the Summers. Once they were done talking, Clark walked over to speak with them, Nicola close on his heels.

"Clark? Ms. Lively? What are you two doing here?" asked Mr. Summers, surprised to see his two students there.

"We were worried about Eric," replied Clark.

"It's a police problem now. Damn kid's out of control. Look what he's done to the house," Mr. Summers told them, clearly exasperated.

"Do you have any idea where he went?" Clark asked.

Mr. Summers hesitated to answer for a second, but then answered, "He talked about getting rid of it. He said there was only one place he could do that. Whatever that means."

Without another word, Mr. Summers turned and went back towards his home. As Mrs. Summers turned to follow her husband, Nicola and Clark started to head back towards Nicola's car.

"Getting rid of it?" Nicola repeated what Mr. Summers had said. "He thinks he can get rid of the powers somehow?"

"He must think something at the dam can reverse what happened."

"Okay, to the dam we go."

Once they got back to the Jeep, Nicola promptly started the engine and started to head towards their next destination.

"You sure you don't want to find a bigger piece of meteor rock?" Nicola asked as she drove them towards the Smallville Dam. "You usually are able to fight through Lana's necklace's effects."

"We don't have the time to search for another rock. It'll have to do."

"Ok, so what's your game plan once we get there?"

Clark pulled something from the floor of the Jeep, revealing a leather box. As he put Lana's necklace into the box, Nicola wondered how she didn't notice he brought it into her car earlier.

"This box is lined with a lead armor, so I can surprise him with the necklace when he gets close."

"And then?" prompted Nicola, wondering what his big plan was.

"Then, I don't know. I'll figure it out once we're there."

Nicola internally groaned at Clark's "plan", which involved not really having one.

"How about you distract him while I orb behind him and put the necklace around his neck?"

"But that would risk exposing your powers to Eric. Besides, how do you know you can reappear behind him quick enough?"

"Good point," admitted Nicola. "Fine, we'll try your way, but when I see things getting hairy I'm going to intervene, whether you like it or not."

"Fine," agreed Clark, knowing there was nothing he could say to stop her from doing so.

They drove the rest of the way in silence as each envisioned how the confrontation with Eric was going to go. Nicola parked as close as she could get to the Dam's pedestrian bridge, and then she and Clark started to jog towards it. Once they got to one end of the bridge they could see a dark figure in a trench coat at the center of the bridge, balancing on the edge of the railing.

"Eric!" yelled Clark, running towards him. "Eric!"

Once they were closer, Eric turned to glance at them, an almost psychotic smirk on his face. Eric's intent to jump was clear when he did not back off the ledge.

"Eric, don't!" pleaded Clark, gripping onto the lead box.

Eric continued to smirk at Clark and Nicola for a second, then he slowly spread his arms out and leaned forward. Nicola's mouth dropped as Eric plummeted to the raging waters below the dam. Part of her instinct wanted to use her telekinesis to stop him from falling, but she knew that Eric would survive the dive because Clark would have when the powers belonged to him. She didn't, however, know if Eric knew that. If he didn't know how indestructible he was then he just tried to nose-dive to his death.

"Oh my god," stammered Nicola. "Is he trying to kill himself?"

"I don't know, but I have to get down to him!" insisted Clark. "Stay here!"

Clark started to run towards a nearby maintenance stairway that would take them to a lower level of the dam. Nicola knew Clark was just trying to protect her, but she couldn't just stand by and let Clark try to take down Eric on his own. She considered teleporting down to save some time, but she instead followed Clark to the stairs, since she couldn't be sure that Eric wasn't already somewhere nearby watching them. After a couple of minutes of running, Clark was the first to make it to the fence that would let him overlook the water below, shouting for Eric while Nicola was still bounding down the stairs. Before she could make it to the last step, Eric suddenly appeared between the stairs' gate and where Clark stood, in front of a fenced generator.

"You should have let me go the first time, Clark!" she heard Eric yell to Clark. "It would have been better than living like this."

Nicola wasn't sure if Eric knew she was also around, so she slowly and quietly crept closer to them, staying in the shadows.

"Eric, why did you jump off that dam?" Clark asked as he walked closer to Eric.

"I was testing myself to see if I have any limits," replied Eric. "Apparently I don't."

"Look, you can adjust to these abilities. You've just got to give yourself some time," pleaded Clark.

"How do you know, Clark?" asked Eric, skeptical of Clark's insistence.

"I'm…I'm just saying you got to give yourself some time."

Nicola watched as Eric took a step closer to Clark, wondering if she should intervene, but she knew Clark would want her to stay out of harm's way.

"Oh, so in time, my parents won't be scared of me?" scoffed Eric. "The girls of my dreams won't think I'm a freak. The cops won't be after me."

"I can help," said Clark.

"I don't want your help Clark," replied Eric, as he grabbed Clark by his jacket. Eric then quickly tossed Clark through the fence that surrounded a generator on the dam, causing Nicola to wince. Nicola had to use every ounce of willpower she had to not run over to Eric to stop him from going after Clark. As Eric walked over to Clark, Nicola moved closer to the two of them. From her new angle, Nicola could see Clark glance at the now empty box that lay next to him. She watched as Clark looked around for the necklace. She tried to scan the ground for the green rock, but from her distance, she couldn't see anything.

"If they're gonna treat me like a criminal, then I'm gonna give them something to be scared about," glowered Eric.

"It's not the answer," Clark said as he crawled backward away from Eric, before turning away to get on his feet.

"Come on, Clark," Eric said as he grabbed Clark again. "If you had the power to do whatever you want, what would you do?"

"I'd stop people like you," said Clark.

"Nothing on this earth can stop me," replied Eric.

"Eric, don't!" Nicola shouted, as she could tell Eric was gonna throw Clark again. She had begun to run towards them, but before she even took her second step, Eric tossed Clark backward into one of the generator walls. It happened too fast for her to stop with her telekinesis, and she cringed as she heard the loud groan of pain from Clark. As she neared them, she saw that Clark had found the necklace on the ground next to him, and he went to grab it.

"You're wrong," said Clark as he gripped the necklace.

Eric turned and smirked as he walked away from Clark.

"We'll see about that."

Nicola wasn't sure what Eric was gonna do, but she needed to give Clark some time to do whatever he can with the meteor rock. So, against her better judgment, she rushed over to where Eric was about to grab a wire from the generator.

"Eric, you have to stop!" she tried to reason with him.

"What are you doing here?" snarled Eric, letting go of the cable.

"I'm here to make sure you don't hurt anyone else."'

"You think you can stop me?" Eric laughed. "That's cute."

Eric pulled the wire out from the generator and as soon as he turned around he was surprised to find Clark already on his feet. He moved to attack Clark with the exposed wire, but Clark grabbed Eric with the hand the held the meteor rock necklace in it. Both males screamed in pain as the sparks from the wire shot through both of them, and Nicola watched as a green glow enveloped them. The generator shorted out, and the boys both fell to the ground as the electricity stopped flowing out from the wire.

"Clark!" Nicola ran over to him and crouched down next to him. "Clark, are you okay?"

She placed a hand on his shoulder, and the weight on her chest was lifted when she watched the scratch on his forehead heal itself. Clark began to regain consciousness and started to slowly sit up. He grimaced and shot up quickly as he realized pain was emanating from his closed fist. Nicola saw the veins pulse in his hand as the necklace dangled from his hand. Realizing that meant his powers were most likely back, Nicola snatched the necklace from his grip and moved to the lead box that laid on the ground next to them. As Nicola put the necklace into the box, Clark went over to Eric to see if he was all right.

"It's so cold," moaned Eric. "It's so cold."

Clark got up and turned back to Nicola.

"One of us should call an ambulance for Eric," Clark said to Nicola.

Nicola pulled her cell phone from her pocket and flipped it open.

"Stupid small towns. I don't have any service. One of us will have to go up to the main road to get reception."

"I'll go," said Clark. "You okay watching Eric while I'm away?"

"Shouldn't be a problem," she retorted, looking at the pitiful form at her feet.

Clark to a step to supersped away, but Nicola grabbed him by his shoulder before he could move any further.

"Wait, how are you, Clark? Back to your old self again?"

"Yeah," he replied, turning slightly towards her again. She could see the slight disappointment in his face. "Seems like it."

"You don't seem too happy about it."

A deep sigh escaped his mouth, and he gave a small shrug.

"I was kind of getting used to being normal for once in my life," admitted Clark. "Not having to hide something about who I am."

"I'm sorry. I know it's no consolation, but, you'll never have to hide who you are with me," she told him.

"Thanks," Clark replied, with a small smile. "I better go get that ambulance."

Nicola gave Clark a small nod, then he supersped away, leaving Nicola alone with Eric. She crouched down next to the shivering almost-supervillain, frowning at the sight. She wondered what Eric thought happened. Will he suspect that the powers transferred to Clark, and if so, will he tell anyone? Not that anyone would believe him. She considered testing her powers on Eric and see if she could erase a part of his memories from his mind to be safe, but she didn't want to risk frying his brain completely. As much as she wanted to hate Eric for all that he did, she mostly just felt sorry for him. Not that it was any excuse, but his behavior was clearly a result from an abusive fatherly hand and bullying from jerk classmates. She

As much as she wanted to hate Eric for all that he did, she mostly just felt sorry for him. Not that it was any excuse, but his behavior was clearly a result from an abusive fatherly hand and bullying from jerk classmates. She wished could have done more to stop him before things got so out of hand. With all her powers, she was useless. Her parents' rules to not reveal her powers seemed to be forever engrained in her, and self-preservation kicked in instead of taking action. She just stood there while Clark got tossed around. And even though she knew Clark would tell her that she did the right thing, that he didn't want her to risk herself, a large part of herself was mad that she didn't do more than her feeble distraction attempt.

"The ambulance should be here soon," Clark's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts, startling Nicola.

"Ah! Now I know understand why my step-dad always complains when I suddenly orb in front of him," joked Nicola, clutching her chest as she stood back up and turned to face him.

"Sorry," Clark said sheepishly.

"Should we tie him up or something 'til the authorities get here?" asked Nicola.

"No, I'm pretty sure we don't have to worry about him going anywhere," replied Clark. "I called my dad and Mr. Summers to let them know I found Eric. They're both on their way now too."

"Good. Maybe one of them will be there before the ambulance arrives."

Clark absently nodded his head in agreement, pursing his lips together as he considered how to tell Nicola what's on his mind.

"You should go," Clark blurted out.

"What?"

"My dad will be here any minute, and when I tell him I got my powers back, and he sees that you were here when I did it, he'll wonder if you know about my secret."

"Got it. How are you gonna explain how you got here, though?"

"I'll tell him you dropped me off on the bridge, and I told you I'd call you if I needed to be picked up."

"Ok, that sounds plausible, I suppose. Do you want me to give this back to Lana for you?" Nicola asked, grabbing the lead box from the ground.

"No, I can do it," he replied, taking the box from her hands.

"Right," half-smiled Nicola, knowing Clark wanted to see Lana himself. "Well, I better get out of here before the cavalry arrives. Call me when you get home so I know everything went okay."

"Of course," replied Clark.

Nicola moved back towards the stairs that led up to the bridge and jogged up to her car. She made sure that she drove a route that would be different than the roads that Jonathan Kent would drive to get to the dam from the Kent farm. The drive was longer, but it was worth not having to worry about Clark having to field questions from Jonathan on why he saw her driving past him when Clark claimed Nicola merely dropped him off by the dam.

As she neared town, Nicola decided she would need caffeine to stay up for her homework, so she stopped at the Beanery before heading home. Business at the Beanery was luckily dead that evening, so she was able to get in and out quickly. It wasn't long before she was pulling up to her home. As she got to her door leading to her basement bedroom, she realized that it would probably best if she let Chloe know about the Eric before she heard from other sources. She didn't want to interrupt Chloe's family dinner with a call, so she waited until she was able to get in front of her computer and wrote Chloe a quick email, knowing Chloe checked it every evening for any story tips from some of her sources.

'Breaking news: Eric Summers goes on a rampage at home, destroying property,' Nicola wrote. 'Don't fret; photos are attached. Before you freak out, I did not go after Eric. Clark wanted to a ride to the Summers' home to talk to Eric. He was long gone by the time we got there. Current location of Eric: unknown.'

She added the lie about not knowing where Eric was in the hopes that it would make Chloe believe she didn't go after Eric like she had promised. After hitting send, Nicola decided to change into some pajamas before getting started on her homework. It was just as she was starting to work on assignment at her desk when Clark called, as promised. He assured her everything was fine, and that his dad didn't mention anything about her role in the situation.

"Did you get a chance to give Lana her necklace back?" Nicola asked.

"Yeah, I also gave her the lead box with it," he replied.

"Ah. Did you try to convince her to keep her necklace locked away in it?"

"I told her that I didn't want her necklace to hold her back," Clark replied. "She's been holding onto the memory of her parents for so long, that I feel like she's never going to be able to move forward in her life."

"I see. Well, I suppose you gave her some sound advice. Hopefully, she'll make use of it.

"I hope so," he replied. "Well, I better get started on my homework, I've kind of been slacking on that department this week."

"I think you've earned yourself a free pass this week, Clark," Nicola teased. "If I were you, I'd milk it while I can."

"Whatever you say, Nicola," laughed Clark. "Have a good night."

"Night, Clark."

She grabbed her book for English off her desk, then moved towards her bed, placing the phone on the nightstand before stretching out on her bed. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but as she lay on her bed engrossed in her book for English class, her ringing cell phone broke her concentration. Nicola glanced at her alarm clock and saw that it was nearly midnight. She frowned, wondering who would call her this late at night. Her first thought was it must be Chloe wanting more details. She picked her phone off her nightstand, and her stomach dropped when she saw the name that was on the screen. She hesitated a moment, contemplating whether to just ignore the call, but her curiosity got the best of her.

"A little late for phone calls," she said into her phone.

There was no reply on the other end of the call, and for a moment she wondered if she had been pocket dialed. But, then she heard a sigh escape the mouth of her caller, so she knew there was actually someone on the other end of the call.

"If you're going to call me in the middle of the night, please don't be a creeper about it," she snarked into the phone. Nicola waited another moment, giving him a chance to say something before deciding whether she should hang up on him. "Lex, you better say something, or I'm going to hang up on you."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have called," he finally replied, and with a click the line was dead.

Nicola frowned at the phone in her hand. She didn't want to care about Lex, but she knew something was wrong. She could hear it in his voice. And even though she despised what he did, choosing business espionage by way of seducing a British bombshell over whatever their relationship was, her heart hurt at thought of Lex being in any kind of pain. She called him back on her phone, but it went straight to voicemail. Before she knew what she was doing she was changed out of her pajamas and inside her jeep, driving towards the Luthor mansion.

It wasn't until she was pulling up to the mansion's gates that it really hit her that she had driven herself to Lex's home. She pressed the intercom, and immediately regretted her decision of driving over in the middle of the night.

"Is that you, Miss Lively?" she heard the familiar voice come from the intercom's speaker.

"Yes, Enrique," she replied. "Sorry for the late drop by, but I got a call from Lex and thought I should check on him."

"Of course, I'll buzz you in. I can let you in through the service entrance."

"Thank you."

The gate began to slowly open and Nicola drove towards the entrance of the mansion. She pulled into the parking area under the carport and then hopped out of her car to walk towards the service entrance that was to the left of the main entryway. Nicola knocked on the door and it quickly swung open to reveal Enrique. He gave her a curt smile and gestured for her to enter.

"Mr. Luthor is in the library," he informed her as she moved past him to enter the hallway behind him.

"Great, thanks," she smiled. "Does he know I'm here?"

"Yes, he was informed," Enrique replied, apologetically.

"Right. Well, I suppose you do want to keep your job," she teased. "Is it ok if I see myself to the library?"

"Of course," nodded Enrique.

Nicola thanked Enrique then left him to walk towards the main part of the mansion. The doors to the library were wide open, and she immediately saw Lex sitting in one of the leather chairs in front of the blazing fireplace, his back to her. Her mind flitted back to a time she blithely lounged across his lap in that chair, but she shook that memory off as quickly as it appeared. Next to Lex, on the side table, was a nearly empty liquor decanter, and she could see him bring a glass of caramel-colored liquid to his lips; she assumed it was brandy.

"You didn't have to come," Lex suddenly broke the silence of the room, startling Nicola briefly.

She considered her words carefully for a moment as she walked over next to him before she replied, "I was worried about you."

"Your concern is unwarranted. Feel free to leave and get back to detesting my existence."

She frowned as she watched Lex empty the rest of the brandy in his glass and then turn to grab the decanter next to him. Nicola moved closer to him, and placed her hand on top of his that was wrapped around the decanter.

"I don't detest you, Lex," she said softly, looking down at him.

As he slowly looked up to meet her gaze, Nicola felt her residual feelings rise up from the pit of her stomach. He looked at their touching hands and then slid his out from under hers.

"You could have fooled me," he snarked, as he placed his glass firmly on the side table.

She noticed that underneath the glass, there was an envelope with a picture slightly hanging out of it. Curiosity getting the better of her, she moved the glass aside and picked up the envelope. Her eyes widened as she pulled the visible photo out from envelope, realizing whom it was a picture of. The envelope was quickly snatched from her hands by Lex, as he stood from his seat, moving away from her and towards the fireplace.

"Lex, I…." started Nicola.

"Please, don't," Lex cut her off. "I know you think I got what I deserved."

"That's not what I think," Nicola insisted following him to the fireplace.

Lex took one more glance at the picture she had been looking at, then tossed it, and the envelope, into the fire.

"I don't know why I was surprised by the information. I know my father gets off on making my life a joke."

"Lex," she softly said his name again, her heart aching for him. She reached out and clasped his hand in hers.

Lex looked down at their entwined hands, and then back up at Nicola. His right hand suddenly found itself cupping Nicola's face. She instinctively closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. His lips were on hers before she realized what was happening, and she could taste the liquor on his tongue. Lex enveloped her in his arms, as Nicola lost herself in his touch and kisses for a moment, until the need for oxygen suddenly sobered her up. She placed her hands on his chest and gently pushed him slightly away from her.

"I'm sorry Lex, I can't do this," she said. "I care about you and I hate to see you hurting, but it doesn't change things. You chose to be with Victoria over me."

"I didn't choose Victoria over you; I was doing what was best for my family's company."

"That distinction doesn't change how I feel."

"How about the fact that Victoria is now out of my life for good, does that change anything for you?"

"Is that because you found out she was with your father?"

"No, I broke things off with her before I found out about that dalliance."

"So, then you found out what she and her father were after?"

"Victoria was spying on me for intel that would help Hardwick Enterprises buy out LuthorCorp. I fed her fake information that convinced Sir Harry to buy a worthless company that opened them up for a takeover."

"I see," Nicola stepped back to put more distance between the two of them. "Well, I'm glad that your decision to blow up our relationship wasn't all for naught."

"You know that was not my intention," Lex reached out for her hand, and she let him take it.

He pulled her closer to him.

"Intention or not, that was the result," she countered. "And that's not something I can just suddenly get over. You hurt me; a lot."

"What can I do to make things right?" Lex asked.

"I don't know if there is anything you can do," Nicola replied. "I think we're just at two very difference places in our lives, and maybe it's for the best things ended before one of us got too invested."

'Namely, me,' Nicola thought to herself, saddened. She was only seventeen, but she wasn't ever going to rule out finding the person she was meant to spend the rest of her life with just because it was too early in her life to find them. Some small part of her had hoped the dashing millionaire was that person, but it was clear that the things they valued most were vastly different.

"It's not in my nature to give up on what I want," Lex said, breaking through her thoughts.

"I'm not a 'what', Lex, and it's not up to you."

"But you can unilaterally decide that we're done for good?"

"I wouldn't say it's unilateral. You definitely swayed the decision in a certain direction."

Lex was silent, as he stared at their linked hands. Nicola followed his gaze at their linked hands, and she could feel her heart beat against her chest.

"When you change your mind, I'll still be here," Lex said finally.

Nicole looked from their hands and up at Lex's face. She slowly pulled her hand out from his grasp and once again took a step back.

"I wouldn't waste too much time waiting," she retorted sadly. "It's late, I should get back home before anyone notices I'm missing. Hopefully the next time we see each other, we won't be having this same conversation for the thousandth time."

She started to walk towards the door but stopped just as she got to the frame. She turned to face him.

"Lex, I hope you know you deserve to be happy," she told him. "Even it's not with me, you deserve to find whatever or whomever it is that makes you happy. Don't ever question that."

Before he could muster a reply, she moved out of the room and down the hall. There was a dull ache in her heart as she made her way back to her car. She felt like she was closing the door on a chapter in her life she wasn't ready to close, but she knew it was for the best. At least, that's what she kept trying to convince herself as she drove herself home.