Title: Full Circle
Author: me_ya_ri
Email: me_ya_ri@yahoo.com
Rating: PG
Challenge: Wave 27 – Crossover: Torchwood
Notes: Set just before S5 Smallville: Lexmas and just after the S2 finale for Torchwood. Everything's AU after that, but presume spoilers for both shows before that. I've adjusted the dates somewhat for Torchwood and Smallville. Smallville is set in 2005 and Torchwood (contrary to its canon) is set in 2003 to start with. All other continuity is the same up until the points indicated. Many, many thanks to my wonderful beta Val for her help under a very short timeline in getting this whipped into shape. I promise I'll get started sooner next time!

Summary: The Torchwood team finds a stray Kryptonian and needs to figure out how to send him home.

+++++

"What have we got?" Jack demanded as he drove through the streets of Cardiff.

It was more like careening through the streets, as the emergency they'd been called to was an explosion, and the police and fire department were there already. The authorities were holding back only enough to keep the heart of the site intact. They were keeping the fire down around the edges but the crater in the middle had wiped out a block of flats, so they weren't going to have long before the government and families came down on them. It was the middle of the night and the buildings had been full of sleeping families, now either dead or desperately injured.

"Either an asteroid hit or a spaceship crash," Gwen said, working the computers. She wasn't that familiar with the equipment yet but, with Toshiko gone, they hadn't much of a choice. "Whatever it was came in ballistic and impacted without any deviation."

"Well, at least they knocked the fire down," Ianto muttered as they arrived at the scene. "Hate to have to wade through fire."

"It'd make for an interesting night," Jack said, grinning as he screeched into the street and parked next to the police cars. "Let's go. We don't have a lot of time."

It felt wrong to be going in with just Gwen and Ianto. Jack did his best to stride in confidently. The rest of the world had no idea that he'd lost two-fifths of his team a couple of nights ago. The rest of Cardiff didn't know that Owen and Toshiko were gone, and they'd never know, so they had to go on, even though they didn't want to. After all the devastation that Grey and John had caused, there was no room for weakness. Jack knew that if they showed any weakness it would start a panic that Cardiff couldn't afford.

"'Bout time you got here," PC Andy Davidson said, glaring at them. He didn't glower quite so harshly at Gwen, but nearly skewered Jack—he obviously still resented losing his partner to Torchwood. "Had a time keeping people out of there, but this seemed more like your sort of thing."

"Thanks, Andy," Gwen said, smiling at him. "Appreciate it. We'll be quick."

"We hope," Jack said quietly as they dodged through the debris of one building into the center of the block, where the whatever-it-was had crashed.

It was quite the impact crater. The block had had six buildings of flats on each side of an alley, but all that was gone. The structures on the corners were husks, burning brightly in the night. Everything in the center was gone, flattened by the blast wave and blackened by the fires. Jack whistled, one eyebrow going up, as Ianto and Gwen scanned the site.

"Definitely alien in origin," Ianto declared, picking his way towards the crater at the center, careful of the spot fires smoldering around them. "Don't recognize the signature, but it's clearly alien."

"Kryptonian," Jack agreed, peering over Ianto's shoulder, with one hand centered on the small of his back. He leaned close enough to feel the heat of Ianto's cheek radiating against his, though not quite close enough to touch. Ianto blushed ever so faintly, head ducking just a bit as a smile flitted across his lips.

"Kryptonian?" Gwen questioned, looking into the center of the crater. Her voice was shakier than he'd heard in quite a while. "Jack, do they fly without ships?"

"Not usually," Jack said, joining her and whistling again, a long, low sound of amazement. "Not unless they've been on Earth for a hell of a lot longer than they're supposed to be."

"Bloody hell," Ianto breathed as he joined them. "What in the world?"

"Nothing of this world, Ianto," Jack said, studying the impact site and its occupant. "Nothing of this world at all."

He was handsome, as all Kryptonians were, with faintly golden skin, short black hair, and a perfect physique. He would be taller than any one of the team, and wider at the shoulders. Oddly enough, his clothes looked like human: tattered jeans, the remnants of a T-shirt that looked as if it were originally blue, and a tattered flannel shirt under a jacket that was probably red. He was even wearing scorched tennis shoes. Of course, all the clothing was burned and torn from the impact. Not a single scratch was visible on the Kryptonian's body. It appeared as if he'd landed on his head, explaining his unconsciousness.

"All right," Jack said brusquely, "we don't have much time. He'll wake up very soon. His race heals incredibly fast, even faster than I do. We need to get him out of here and back to base before he wakes up. We have some things in the vaults that might be able to keep him in one of the cells."

"Might?" Gwen asked, eyes going wide. "Jack, just how strong is he?"

"Let's hope you never find out," Jack responded, patting her shoulder. "Now move! We've got minutes at most to get him secured."

Jack and Gwen used a body bag to secure the Kryptonian, and conscripted a few burly cops to help carry him back to the van. It was a scramble to get him out of the deep crater, but no one could see any details with him in the body bag. Since it was a Kryptonian, breathing didn't matter.

"So…alien?" Andy asked, watching the stretcher with the body go by.

"Asteroid," Jack lied smoothly. "One of the lighter ones that'll almost float. We're lucky it wasn't bigger or more solid, or there'd be a hell of a lot more devastation. This was almost one for the regular scientists, a pure act of God."

"Good," Andy sighed, a lot of the tension draining from him. "After everything that's happened, it'll be good to be able to reassure the public that it wasn't another of those bombs."

"Nope, not a bomb in sight," Jack said, patting Andy's back and hurrying to the van.

He broke every speed limit getting back to the Hub, determined to get the Kryptonian into a cell and under some form of restraint before he woke up. Nothing they had would really hold him back if he was one of the bad aliens, so Jack used the interstellar communicators to Krypton to let the authorities know he'd found a wayward member of their species. He had to leave a message—Kryptonians were the most arrogant species he'd ever had the misfortune of dealing with—since his Kryptonian had started to revive before they'd managed to get the restraints on him. Jack had Gwen and Ianto stay outside to monitor the cell while he went in. He wasn't going to die if the Kryptonian attacked.

"There weren't any ships in the area at the right timeframe," Ianto murmured to Jack before he went in, "but there was a big spike in Rift activity. Be careful, Jack."

"Don't worry, it's me," Jack said, grinning cockily at him.

The Kryptonian was moaning when Jack walked in. He stationed himself across the way from the clear wall, watching the alien carefully. He really must have landed on his head. The Kryptonian shuddered, one shaking hand going to his head. It was a good thing that he was in the vaults. That meant the alien wasn't going to get any sunshine down here. Hopefully, the crash and then healing his injuries had depleted him enough that he wouldn't be strong enough to break free before Jack hit him with some of the special weapons he had hidden in his coat.

"Morning," Jack called to the Kryptonian, "Nasty hangover, I guess."

"Ow," the Kryptonian groaned, levering one eye open to flinch at the dim lights of the cell. "What…happened?"

"You landed on your head," Jack said, tensing as the Kryptonian sat up very slowly and carefully. "Not a smart thing to do, to jump out at 60,000 feet."

"What?"

The Kryptonian's expression was so honestly shocked, so open, that Jack stared at him. This wasn't a Kryptonian. Where were the smug, superior threats? Where was the condescension? He had the green eyes, but they weren't glowing green like every other Kryptonian he'd ever seen, and the fear in those eyes was decidedly odd.

"Look, I know you're Kryptonian," Jack said, deciding to be a bit more forthright. "That's already established. What I need to know is what you're doing on this world when your people are forbidden to come here and there's no evidence of any of your people's ships coming to Earth. Not that it matters. We're going to be sending you straight back to Krypton once we contact them."

"That's impossible," the Kryptonian said, confused.

The confusion made Jack stiffen. He'd never seen a Kryptonian show honest puzzlement. He'd seen them frustrated, angry, condescending, and so downright arrogant that he'd wanted to feed them their hearts, but he'd never seen one confused. Either this one had landed harder on his head than Jack had thought, or something very strange was going on.

"What's your name?" Jack asked, standing free of the wall.

"Um, what's yours?" the Kryptonian asked, finally taking in the cell and appearing very frightened.

"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack answered. He wasn't going to play that game, the one where you went round in circles trying to get something out of each other without offering anything. "Name, Kryptonian. I need to report back to your home world on who you are."

"You keep saying that," the Kryptonian said softly, looking at Jack as if he was crazy.

"Name!" Jack barked, getting an honest-to-God flinch from him.

"K-Kal-El," the Kryptonian stuttered, swallowing hard. "My name's K-Kal-El, son of J-Jor-El and Lara."

Jack glared, making the Kryptonian shrink back against the wall. Whoever or whatever this guy really was, there was no way that he was Kal-El. First, he was cringing. Kal-El never cringed. Second, he was here. There was no way in any heaven or hell that the Kal-El of Krypton would come to Earth. And third, Jack knew that there was no chance that Krypton would ever let Kal-El wander around dressed like that. He had been wearing flannel, for heaven's sake!

"You're an idiot if you think I'd fall for that one," Jack growled. "Kal-El is the ruler of Krypton."

"What?" the Kryptonian said, going so white and looked so honestly shocked that it rocked Jack back on his heels. "That's impossible—Krypton was destroyed shortly after I was born!"

+++++

"Luthor!"

Lex sighed as Jonathan Kent's bellow echoed through the mansion. He didn't know what had set off his political rival this time, but hopefully it wouldn't devolve into fisticuffs. He put on a calm expression and set down the paperwork he'd been studying as Jonathan slammed open the doors to his study and stomped over to Lex's desk.

"I don't know what you're playing at, Luthor," Jonathan growled, "But give him back. This fight is between the two of us. You have no reason to drag him into it!"

"He who?" Lex asked, raising an eyebrow. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't give me that!" Jonathan yelled, thumping Lex's desk with a heavy fist. "Clark came over here last night to talk to you and he never came home. Give my son back right this instant."

Lex stilled, his heart clenching painfully. He stared at Jonathan, seeing only truth and worried fear in his eyes. Something had happened to Clark. Jonathan wouldn't be here if it hadn't.

"He never arrived here last night," explained Lex, quietly. "I haven't seen him since last Thursday when we fought. I don't know what happened, Mr. Kent, but Clark isn't here."

"Don't lie to me!" Jonathan blustered, straightening up. There was more fear in his eyes now, far more than was warranted if this was just an act, a way to get to Lex.

"I know you may never accept my word on this," Lex said, turning on his computer and calling up the security system records for the last twenty-four hours. "I would never do anything to hurt Clark. He's my only friend, even if we are fighting right now."

There was no record of Clark coming into the mansion. There was no indication of him passing the gates or any of the other motion sensors that Lex had installed on his regular routes into the estate. Lex knew perfectly well that Clark was far more than your average boy, even more than your average meteor freak. It didn't matter. He cared for Clark and would always protect him, no matter how much they argued.

"He hasn't been here," Lex insisted, checking everything again. "What time did he leave?"

"You're serious," Jonathan said, tensing up. "He really never made it here."

"What time?" Lex demanded. "If he was kidnapped, time is of the essence! The longer he's missing, the more likely it is that's he's…. We have to find him quickly, Mr. Kent. Politics are nowhere near as important as finding Clark before something terrible happens. I've been kidnapped enough times to know how traumatic, how dangerous it can be."

Jonathan looked at him, the fear in his eyes battling with the worry for his son. Lex waited, practically vibrating with his worries. Neither of them was going to admit to the metaphorical dead elephant in the living room. They weren't going to say anything about Clark's powers or the fact that if he hadn't come back, it had to be something far beyond the ordinary kidnapping of a political candidate's son. If Clark couldn't free himself, then he was in terrible danger. They all might be in terrible danger.

"Six-thirty," Jonathan said quietly. "He left to run over here at six-thirty last night."

"Good," Lex said, reaching for his phone. "That gives me a starting point for tracking anything…unusual that might have happened last night. We'll find him, Mr. Kent. I won't accept any other result."

+++++

Gwen wasn't sure how much more of this strange conversation Jack could take. He'd been incredibly twitchy the entire time he'd spent questioning the Kryptonian in the cells. Finding out that the boy was some sort of duplicate from an alternate dimension and brought here by the Rift had only made Jack more nervous. Once they'd gotten through to Krypton, and actually contacted their ruler Kal-El, Jack had gone so tense that Gwen was waiting for him to pull his guns and start shooting. She still wasn't sure why. Their Kal-El seemed to be an honestly nice young man, though his double on Krypton was…cold, to put it politely.

"Fascinating," Krypton-Kal said, studying Earth-Kal. "So instead of winning against the Zod followers and Brainiac, in your universe we lost."

"Yeah," Earth-Kal said sadly. "I don't think that's the only difference between our universes, considering your claim your father was always the ruler. Mine wasn't. He was a scientist who didn't want anything to do with ruling Krypton."

"There is also the existence of my younger brother and sister, though that may have more to do with my parents not dying," Krypton-Kal said, nodding. "Well, as fascinating as this discussion is, there's nothing that I can do for you. I will not allow you to come to Krypton. You would be seen as a possible replacement for me, and frankly, you're entirely too human to be allowed on Krypton. Your upbringing clearly warped your personality and intelligence. You've 'gone native' I believe is the human phrase."

"Humans are good people!" Earth-Kal huffed, glaring at his twin. "What is it with the attitude towards them?"

Krypton-Kal rolled his eyes, looking as though that was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard of. Gwen wasn't sure why, but Earth-Kal's response bothered Jack more than Krypton-Kal's response. It was as though he couldn't make sense of Earth-Kal's response, and it made him twitchy. Given how cold and soulless Krypton-Kal was, Gwen supposed Earth-Kal's warmth and humanity was a bit shocking. He wasn't at all like the rest of his race.

"They are a primitive race that will likely destroy themselves in the not very distant future," Krypton-Kal said dismissively. "They are barbaric, violent, and blinded by their baser impulses."

"Your people aren't a heck of a lot better," Earth-Kal growled, glaring at him. "Cold, merciless, and just as violent as the worst humans!"

"How are we supposed to deal with him?" Jack interrupted before the two Kals could get into a shouting match. "He's Kryptonian. Your technology would be far more reliable for getting him home than ours."

Krypton-Kal shrugged dismissively, looking at Earth-Kal as if he was a bug to be squashed. Earth-Kal glared back at him, arms crossed over his chest. Gwen glanced at Ianto, and he was smiling, looking like he wanted to laugh at the two of them. They were rather like watching a pair of twins argue over a favorite toy.

"He is only Kryptonian in biology," Krypton-Kal said as he looked down his nose at Jack. "He is human in all other ways, and thus not one of us. He came through the Rift so send him back through the Rift. This is not our problem, and we will not communicate with you any further on this matter."

The communicator went dark, cut off from Krypton's side. Gwen had to turn away as Earth-Kal and Jack growled in exactly the same way at it. Ianto had already done the same, hiding a laugh behind one fist. Kal huffed, gesturing at the dark screen agitatedly. His movements made Jack stiffen and rest a hand on one of his pockets, probably feeling for one of the weapons he'd hidden away.

"That…that…that jerk!" Kal huffed, completely offended. "What the heck is wrong with my people? Every single one that I've ever met has been the worst sort of jerk, completely horrible! Barbaric? They're a lot more barbaric than humans!"

"Great," Jack snarled, glaring at Kal. "We've got the Mahatma Gandhi version of a Kryptonian?"

"No," Kal said, blushing brightly, "I'm nothing like that, but I don't understand why 'my' people are supposed to be so superior to humans. I never have!"

"Look, we may be stuck with you for the moment," Jack said, pulling one of the truly dangerous weapons that he'd warned Gwen and Ianto to stay away from, "but that doesn't mean you can get away with playing on our feelings. Stop acting like some sort of human clone! You're a Kryptonian—quit pretending!"

Kal blinked, staring at Jack with his head cocked to the side. He didn't seem afraid of the weapon or of Jack. Gwen pushed Ianto back, edging away from Jack. She didn't know if that weapon had a backwash, but she didn't want to take the chance with her sole remaining teammate.

"I'm not pretending to be anything," Kal said in a quiet, confused voice. "This is who I am. This is who I've always been."

"Yeah, right," Jack snarled, using that tone of voice and expression he used when he was furious, driven, and at his most dangerous. Gwen swallowed hard, backing up several more paces. "As if! I've dealt with Kryptonians for a long time. I know what you're really like."

"I'm not like them," Kal said sadly.

Gwen wasn't surprised when Jack pulled the trigger. She was surprised when the flash of energy bounced right off of Kal, ricocheting into one of the walls and making a crater. Kal sighed, reached out, and casually pinched the end of Jack's gun, bending it so that it was useless. Jack made a little hurt noise in the back of his throat that Gwen, still staring at Kal's undamaged chest, found insanely amusing. He was distressed by the damage to his gun?

"You'll hurt either them or yourself if you keep that up," Kal said sadly. "You can't hurt me, sir. I'm invulnerable."

"You can't have absorbed that much solar energy," Jack said, staring at him in shock.

"I've been on Earth since I was two-years-old," Kal said, looking hopelessly sad and lonely. "My parents sent me here as an infant. I didn't know that I was an alien until I was fourteen. I didn't learn the name of my race for months after that. I was raised as a human. When I was sent to Earth, there were chunks of my homeworld that came along as asteroids. They give off a radiation that causes mutations in humans. I thought I was one of the mutations until my parents showed me my spaceship. As far as I know, I'm the only one of my people left in my world, but I never felt like a Kryptonian. I always felt human. I'm apparently going to live a lot longer than everyone else because of what I am, but that doesn't change how I feel."

Gwen eased forward, studying the two of them. Kal looked like he wanted to cry but was being strong. Jack's expression was a mixture of suspicion and understanding. Given his immortality, he probably understood Kal's situation far better than Kal did. They all jumped as the Rift alarms went off. Jack shoved Kal away from the computers and gestured to Gwen and Ianto.

"Come on, we've got work to do," Jack said, glaring at Kal. "You, back in that cell. I'll figure out what to do with you after we get back."

Gwen huffed at Jack's order and put a hand on Kal's arm, keeping him from going immediately to the cell as he apparently had intended. They quickly narrowed down where the Rift event had occurred, Kal watching from the background curiously. Jack and Ianto hurried out of the Hub, Gwen moving to follow them. She glanced back and saw Kal sigh as he looked around for something to do besides sit in his cell. He smiled sadly and nodded to her to go. Gwen started to say something as he picked up a couple of empty coffee mugs, but Jack yelled, and she had to go. She ran for the door and then stopped to turn and run back to grin at Kal.

"Have coffee ready when we get back," Gwen called to Kal.

"Sure," Kal said, brightening up. "Thanks!"

"No problem," Gwen said, wincing as Jack bellowed. "Gotta go!"

+++++

"Where is he?" Lex growled, glaring at the reports his people had compiled. "He can't have disappeared from the face of the Earth again! He must have just been moving faster than normal, beyond our ability to detect."

Clark had a habit of 'disappearing' at odd times, but this time it was far more literal than any of his earlier vanishing acts. Lex gathered up his information and drove to the Kent farm. He knew that he wasn't welcome, but he'd promised to let Jonathan know whatever he'd found. What he'd discovered was so incredible that he had to discuss it with them, whether he was welcome or not.

"Lex." Martha greeted him calmly when she answered the door. She didn't seem surprised to see him, other than the hour. Nine o'clock at night wasn't a normal visiting time in Smallville. "Come in. Do you have something about Clark's disappearance?"

"I'm really not sure," Lex reluctantly admitted, as he entered the house where he was no longer welcome. "That's part of why I came over, to discuss it with you. You know Clark better than anyone."

"Oh, it's you," Jonathan said, glaring up at him from his seat at the table. "Make it quick. It's late."

Lex didn't glare back at the older man the way he wanted to. It was late, and they had to be even more worried about Clark than Lex was. He laid out the information he'd gathered on the dining room table, Martha removing the centerpiece to make room. Jonathan became angrier by the second as he realized that the recordings and photos of Clark's actions were dated before his disappearance.

"What is this?" Jonathan demanded, waving angrily at the surveillance photos. "Why are you tracking Clark?"

"To keep him safe, not that you'd accept that," Lex said calmly. "You weren't completely accurate when you told me the time Clark left, Mr. Kent. He departed at precisely 6:27:45, not 6:30. That turned out to be significant. He left your house and used super-speed to run over to my mansion, passing these points at 6:27:46, 6:27:47, and then here at 6:27:48. He should have passed this point at 6:27:49, but he didn't. Between this checkpoint and this checkpoint, spaced 200 yards apart, Clark disappeared."

Jonathan's jaw dropped open at Lex's mention of super-speed. Martha's hands flew to her mouth. Lex sighed, regarding them with a raised eyebrow. Jonathan's jaw snapped shut as he glared at Lex, determined not to give anything away. Martha rested a hand on her husband's arm, making Jonathan look at her in surprise. They shared one of those moments of silent communication that always made Lex wonder if telepathy was possible between married people. Martha turned to Lex, a tiny frown marring her face.

"How long have you known?" Martha asked, studying Lex intently.

"That Clark was different?" Lex asked. "From the moment I met him. I hit him with my car, for heaven's sake. That's not something that anyone normal would survive. I knew what most of his powers were within a week."

"If you harm him—" Jonathan growled, only to be cut off by Lex's wave.

"If I was going to harm Clark it would have been in that first week," Lex said dismissively. "I've been protecting him all along, as has most of the town."

They blinked, anger and worry derailed by Lex's last words. Lex sighed, leaning against the table and crossing his arms over his chest. He was continually amazed at how stupid everyone assumed everyone else was in this town. The code of silence made everyone think that their neighbors and friends were complete idiots. The Kent's opinions obviously were no different from anyone else's.

"Your neighbors and friends know perfectly well that there's something remarkable about Clark," Lex said with a tired sigh. "He's very bad at lying. He's entirely too good at risking his life doing things that are impossible and accomplishing them. They know that Clark's different. They all apparently assume he's a meteor mutant, but they're quite aware. However, for the most part, they seem to like Clark and the two of you, so they've been covering things up for him."

"Oh, my God," Martha said, sitting in one of the chairs as if her legs wouldn't hold her anymore.

"I've interviewed the various people who live along Clark's path to my mansion," Lex said, chuckling. "That was entertaining. They'd start by denying that they'd seen anything, which I'd counter with a veiled comment about Smallville oddness and a rub to my head. Most of them smiled at that point, but still wouldn't admit to seeing anything out of the ordinary. However, every time I said that Clark had gone missing, they'd open up. They saw 'a blur' or something 'whooshed by.' Here, where he vanished, one farmer, who had been out in the field, unbent enough to admit that he'd seen a 'red-and-blue blur' go by before a flash of light right here."

He pulled out the details on the exact spot that Clark had disappeared, showing it to them. Jonathan had a shell-shocked expression, but Martha had accepted the news and was focused on what he held. From all indications, it was a perfectly ordinary patch of fields, right in the middle of some corn. Lex's men had examined every inch of that field and found nothing out of the ordinary.

"We found one of Clark's footprints here," Lex pointed out, "and calculating based on his normal stride while running at super-speed, the next one should have been here. There were no more footprints. He disappeared quite literally between one step and the next. I couldn't find anything to show where he'd gone. No radiation, no meteor rocks, no skips, no stumbles, no alien ships leaving crop circles, no holes in the ground, nothing. There were no sightings reported of anything that looked suspiciously like a man flying. He was there and then he was gone. I have no idea what happened, and I was hoping that you might have a clue."

Jonathan and Martha did that telepathic communication thing again, resulting in Jonathan sighing and nodding sadly. Martha looked at Lex, hitting him with that 'I'm a mother, don't mess with my child' expression that always made Lex wince. Lionel couldn't manage to be half as scary as Martha Kent was when her son was in danger. Jonathan disappeared upstairs and into Clark's room. He returned almost immediately, something hidden in his fist.

"We don't know what happened," Martha said, "but we may have a different lead for you to follow."

"This…is Clark's," Jonathan said, dropping the mysterious octagon that had caused so much trouble into Lex's palm. "It's a key. We've already tried to use it, and it didn't work. Maybe it will work for you."

"H-how do I use it?" Lex asked, running a thumb over the writing on it.

"You need to go to the Kawatche Caves," Martha said with a tired sigh. "There's an inner chamber with a table in it. The table has a notch in it. If you drop that key into the notch, something is supposed to happen, you're supposed to be transported somewhere else, to…someone who might be able to find Clark. We've both tried, but nothing happened."

"Be careful," Jonathan said to Lex. "This person might be the one who took Clark. He's done it before, a couple of times. He's not reliable but he does claim to care about Clark."

Lex let out the breath that he hadn't been aware he'd been holding and stared at the key. He thought he might just have passed a test that he hadn't known he'd been taking, though it sounded as if he had another one to pass before he could find Clark. Lex nodded slowly. He was used to handling unreliable allies seeking contradictory goals.

"I'll go over right away," Lex said, straightening up and smiling tightly at them.

"Stop by your home and pick up a heavy parka first, dear," Martha said with a mischievous smile that exposed her dimple. "It's very cold there from what Clark and Chloe have said."

+++++

When they got back to the Hub, Jack smelled coffee. He frowned. He frowned even harder when he found Kal-El drinking the coffee and reading the paper. Ianto squawked and immediately rushed off to check his precious coffeemaker. Gwen raised an eyebrow and accepted a mug from Kal-El, adding her normal fixings to it before wandering off to start her report on the night's event.

"You made coffee?" Jack asked, the words a demand.

"I was bored," Kal-El said with an almost-helpless shrug. "My ex-girlfriend ran a coffee shop for a couple of years so it wasn't hard. I made enough for everyone if you want some."

"It's probably gone cold," Jack said, taking the offered mug and blinking at how warm it was. "What did you do, listen for us to return?"

"No," Kal-El said, smiling wryly. "I just reheated it. Heat vision. Works really well for heating drinks, but very badly for making toast. Took forever to figure out how to make toast without burning it to a crisp."

Jack added triple hazelnut creamer to his coffee and stirred, studying Kal-El who was blushing in a way that would normally have had Jack flirting for all he was worth. Kryptonians were notoriously omni-sexual, but this one didn't seem at all like the norm. Of course, most Kryptonians were stubbornly dominant, and Kal-El seemed far more the submissive type, but that still might be an act, though Jack doubted it. That level of deception wasn't something that Kryptonians excelled at.

"You make toast with your powers," Jack said, watching Kal-El's response.

"Yeah, when I'm in a hurry," Kal-El said, blushing more brightly.

It extended from his cheeks to his ears, up to his hairline, and down into his borrowed shirt. The shirt was too tight for him, outlining every muscle on his body, which made Jack more tempted to flirt, if only he could forget Kal-El was a Kryptonian. Ianto returned, looking mildly approving, which had to mean that his beloved coffee machine hadn't been harmed. He grabbed the final mug of coffee gladly, adding far too much sugar and not enough creamers to it.

"Hmm, not bad," Ianto allowed after taking a sip. "I see you cleaned up a bit, too."

"Yes," Kal-El said, smiling quietly. "It was something to do. I don't have anywhere else to go, after all. Not until you send me home, anyway."

Kal-El studied the newspaper again. Jack frowned. He knew perfectly well how fast Kryptonians could read. He'd memorized that page almost the instant he'd looked at it, but still he sat and stared at it. It looked like a perfectly normal newspaper: nothing odd, no strange events, nothing to make him study it so closely.

"Something wrong with the paper?" Jack asked, nodding at it.

"Oh, no," Kal-El said, shutting it abruptly. "British journalists write differently than Americans. It wasn't what I expected."

"You're interested in journalism?" Jack asked, putting a heavy sardonic twist to the words. "That's weird."

"Not really," Kal-El said, shrugging and then sipping his coffee. "I'm thinking of majoring in journalism in college."

"Why?" Jack asked, honestly curious.

Kryptonians shouldn't be simple to like, though he was so easy on the eyes that it wasn't hard to see why Jack was warming up to him. The alien's pants were nearly as tight as his shirt. Obviously, he'd scrounged through their leftover stuff to find something that would fit. His original clothing had been nothing but rags.

"I want to make the world a better place," Kal-El said earnestly. "I think that I can do it by reporting on crime, pointing out corruption, things like that."

"No, seriously, why?" Jack asked, grinning at him. "Your girlfriend's into journalism? Or is it a boyfriend?"

Kal-El spluttered mid-sip, nearly spilling his coffee down his front. Ianto grinned from behind his computer screen and Gwen laughed quietly. Jack laughed too, grinning at Kal-El. Anyone so easy to fluster was not truly Kryptonian. Once Jack let go of his opinions of Kryptonians, it was entirely too easy to see Kal-El as a nice young man in need of some serious loosening up.

"Oh-ho!" Jack crowed, smirking at the ferocious blush that spread over Kal's face. "So it is a girl!"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Kal-El protested, setting the mug down carefully. "Chloe's my best friend. We're not like that. I just think it would be a good way to help people, that's all."

"I'm going to have entirely too much fun teasing you until we get you out of there," Jack laughed, finishing his coffee and passing the empty mug to Kal-El. "You're not going to last five minutes if you can't keep up with the repartee, Kal. Clean that up, and we'll see about finding you some better quarters. We're stuck with you for a bit. No reason for you to be totally useless. You can make coffee and keep the hub clean."

"Ah, thanks," Kal muttered, taking the mug.

He shrugged and finished his coffee before gathering everyone else's mugs. He took them off to wash, apparently willingly. Jack smiled at that, looking at the newspaper that Kal had been so focused on. It was the December 2^nd, 2003 edition from a couple of days ago. He made a mental note to ask Kal about it later, when he wasn't expecting it. Jack thought he'd probably be able to get better information from Kal if he surprised him. He didn't seem to know much about keeping secrets.

+++++

Lex was sweating in his heaviest parka and thickest wool clothes, but he trusted that Martha hadn't told him to make the stop for amusement's sake. The inner chamber of the caves was open, as it had been since the meteor shower. Lex studied the altar, easily locating the slot Martha had spoken of. He'd learned a lot about these caves, but he had not yet learned to read the writing, which left him at a disadvantage. He would have preferred to know what should happen before he inserted the Key.

"Well, if nothing happened for Clark's parents," Lex mused, studying the Key for a second before sliding it into the slot, "I doubt that anything will happen for me."

There was a blinding flash of light, a strange sort of backwards movement, inside out and up at the same time, and then Lex was acutely aware of cold. His lungs were protesting air far too cold for humans. Cold was biting at his cheeks, his ears, and his head. He scrambled into the stocking cap he'd tucked into a pocket, pulling on thick gloves immediately after that. Only after he'd done that and wrapped his scarf around his face did he look around.

"I'll be damned," marveled Lex , staring in awe at the crystal wonderland surrounding him.

"Welcome, Lex Lu-Thor," boomed a male voice, making Lex whirl about, seeking the person who had somehow crept up on him. "Kal-El is in danger, and your assistance is required."

"Who?" Lex asked, suddenly realizing the place itself had spoken.

"He who you call Clark Kent is in fact named Kal-El," the voice said. "He has disappeared from our world and must be brought back, or the world will be destroyed by the entity that you call Professor Fine."

Lex stilled, really studying the place. There was a bank of smaller crystals, which looked very much like an alien control panel. Lex walked over to it, and was rewarded by a glow emanating from them. Lex rested a hand on one of the crystals, not moving it or trying to will it to do anything. He suspected that this place was what the stones had created when Clark united them. The crystalline structure was the repository of 'great power and knowledge' that his father and Genevieve Teague had coveted...and why they had committed murder more than once. This was what Lana / Countess Isobelle had sought. The thought of all that power and knowledge at his fingertips was enough to steal his breath away, if the cold hadn't already done so.

"I'm here to try and find out what happened to him, to save him," Lex declared, starting to shiver, "but I'm not going to be able to do anything if it stays this temperature. I'll go into hypothermia and die too soon. Can you raise the temperature a bit?"

The huge room immediately warmed up enough that Lex was no longer in danger of hypothermia. It wasn't quite warm enough for him to remove his winter gear, but it was much better than it had been. The immediate change of temperature caused Lex to raise an eyebrow. This was an unreliable ally? Perhaps his standards were too low, having dealt with his father his whole life, but this wasn't anywhere near as bad as he'd expected from the Kent's warnings.

"Can you tell me what happened to Kal-El last night?" Lex asked.

"A dimensional rift opened in Kal-El's travel path," the voice said, its impassive voice taking on a grim tone. "Kal-El was moving too quickly to avoid it, and could not have perceived it even if he had been moving at a mere human's speed. He has been lost to an alternate dimension, one that I cannot access. In that world, I do not exist. Had he been sent to a world where I existed, I would have been able to send him back here. A portal must be created to link to his current location."

"Can you…locate him even though he's in a world without you in it?" Lex asked, mind moving far more quickly than normal. He suspected that somehow the entity he spoke to was aware of and able to interact with his alternate selves, and it was a language inadequacy that lead to the I/me confusion.

"No," the voice said, sounding even grimmer.

"Is there any way to send something to him, to mark him so that he can be found?" Lex asked, rubbing his bottom lip with one gloved thumb.

"Perhaps," the voice said. "It will not be easy, but it may be possible."

"Then let's get to work," Lex said, smiling. "The sooner we get him marked, the sooner we'll be able to get him home."

+++++

Clark sighed as he picked up empty pizza boxes scattered around the Hub. Jack had unbent enough to ensure that he got a daily dose of sunlight, had gotten him clothes that fit well enough (though Clark thought they were too tight), and had set him up in a sort of apartment in the Hub. He had no ID that would let him drive or get an apartment, but it was good enough. He missed the farm, his parents, Chloe, and everyone else but, after two months, he'd become fond of the Torchwood team.

He'd finally met Gwen's husband Rhys a couple of days ago. It had taken quite a bit of convincing before Rhys would accept that he wasn't having an affair with Gwen. She'd ended up hauling Rhys over and asking Clark outright if they were fucking each other. Clark's splutter, violent blush, and protests apparently did more to reassure Rhys than anything else. He came over later privately to ask again, laughing at Clark's protests.

Clark had been aware of Jack and Ianto's affair from the first night in the Hub. It was impossible for him not to know about it given his hearing and the noises they made together. They were at it again, off in Jack's office. Clark had never explained just how good his hearing was—he assumed that Jack knew what his powers were. He'd known Clark was a Kryptonian after all. He didn't want to listen in but didn't have much of a choice. He focused on the other noises around him to keep from focusing in on their kissing. He was not going to listen to Ianto's tie being slipped loose. He refused to hear Jack's suspenders being pushed off his shoulders and falling to his hips. Those were not buttons being undone because he wasn't listening. He certainly didn't hear a pair of flies unzipping! Clark gritted his teeth, wondering when he'd become such a voyeur. He hadn't done anything like this before (except with Lex and Lana, but that didn't count).

An odd skittering metallic sound caught his attention, pulling him away from listening to the enticing sounds of foreplay going on in Jack's office. Clark tracked the sounds, homing in on them fairly rapidly. They'd brought in a strange box earlier in the evening and Jack had put it in the vaults. That was where the sound was coming from.

"What's going on?" Clark muttered, using X-ray vision to check on it without opening the containment unit.

The box had changed, morphing into a pseudo-organic writhing mass of tentacles that were scratching against the walls to its containment unit. Every place they touched, the metal dissolved. As its containment weakened, the thing grew. It only took a couple of seconds and it had broken free, tentacles swarming out of a hole in the drawer and seeking for the other drawers.

"Oh, no you don't!" Clark snapped, grabbing the thing and pulling it out of the drawer.

He trusted that his invulnerability would protect him. This world's sun was a little more powerful than the sun back home, so he was stronger, faster, more invulnerable than he'd been back home. The thing squirmed in his hand, trying to wriggle free. Clark could hear alarms going off in the background, Jack and Ianto scrambling into their clothes, but none of that mattered as the thing twined around his wrist, eating his clothes and growing. It took another really hard jerk to rip it out of the containment box. The drawer came with it, attacking Clark with a shape rather like a crab.

"Kal!" Jack shouted, running around the corner with his shirt undone and pants staying on only because of the suspenders pulled back up on his shoulder. "Drop it!"

"It'll gain mass if I do that," Clark said, backing off and holding the thing above his head. "Back off! I can handle this one."

"It'll kill you!" Jack roared.

"Not likely," Clark said, reaching the open area at the center of the hub.

He used his heat vision to start burning the thing away. It made a horrible screeching noise that was somewhere between a scream and metal being torn apart. It didn't take much to make the thing melt back, forming a hard metal core that he had trouble hanging onto. He kept frying it, focusing so hard on getting it up and away from Jack and Ianto that he never realized that he'd started flying. The thing shrank, struggled, and fought. It tried to stab him through the heart but its spikes couldn't penetrate his skin. It tried to escape. It tried to change forms. None of it worked as Clark steadily blasted away at it. In the end, only a tiny seed remained in the palm of his hand and that fried away easily.

"Ouch!" Clark squawked as the last of it disappeared and he nearly burned himself with his heat vision. "Well, at least it's gone before it could take over any other artifacts."

"You going to come down?" Jack called.

"What?" Clark asked, looking around and finally noticing that he was looking Jack's pet pterodactyl in its very startled eyes. He looked slowly down and yipped. The shock of his flying success made him lose control. He felt to the ground, landing in the pool at the center of the hub.

"Are you all right?" Ianto asked, helping him out of the pool. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No," Clark said, staring up to where he'd been flying. "I've never flown before! Wow, I didn't even realize that I had taken flight."

He shuddered, shaking the worst of the water off. It didn't matter how invulnerable he was, he was convinced that he would always hate heights. Of course, the falling out of the sky when he was startled thing didn't help him get over his fear of flying. He knew that he'd have to master it eventually but he wasn't in any sort of hurry to do so.

"Well then," Jack said in that excessively casual tone of voice that told Clark he was in trouble again, "you happen to have any other surprise abilities that you want to tell us about?"

"Huh?" Clark said, blinking at him. "I thought you knew what my powers are."

"If I knew," Jack said, smile going sharp and tight enough that Ianto edged away from Clark, "I wouldn't be asking."

"Oh, well, you never asked so I assumed you already knew," Clark said with a shrug. "I mean, you knew I was Kryptonian so I thought you knew what our powers are when we're on a yellow-sun planet."

He pulled off his wet shirt, wringing it out quickly. Jack looked like he was going to try and shoot Clark again, but they already knew how well that worked. Jack had tried it several times now, always with the same lack of results. Ianto had moved so that he was behind Jack, out of range of any accidental shots.

"Let's see," Clark said, holding his shirt out and carefully using heat vision to dry it. "I'm invulnerable. You knew that, of course. Um, obviously heat vision. Also super speed and hearing. X-ray vision. I've got this weird sort of telekinesis where if I pick something up by one corner of it, I'll lift the whole thing. Never have been able to do any other sort of telekinesis—just the touch and able to lift thing. I'm supposed to be able to fly, but I'm not yet. I think it's because I'm afraid of heights. Oh, and there's been this thing on occasion where I sneezed or sighed extra hard and things got blown around but that's only happened twice so I don't know if it's a power or some sort of freak accident." He stopped for a moment to check his shirt. "There we go, dry. Little stinky, but dry."

"All that?" Jack asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Mmm-hmm," Clark said, pulling his shirt back on. "Seriously, Jack, I thought you knew. You seem to know everything else there is that's worth knowing, though you keep secrets a lot better than I do."

Jack stiffened, glaring at Clark. He was fingering the trigger on his gun again, glaring at Clark as if he wanted to try for another bullet between the eyes. It seemed to be one of those things. Jack just had to test Clark's invulnerability and speed on a semi-regular basis.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack snarled.

"You're good at secrets, that's all," Clark said, shrugging. "I've learned how to be fairly good at it, had to in my world because, when I was younger, I didn't have my powers and I could have been experimented on easily. You're just naturally good at it, I think. Kinda envy that. I am so bad at lies."

He shook his head in dismay at himself, knowing he'd ruined his romance with Lana, his friendship with Pete, nearly destroyed his friendship with Chloe, and probably was driving Lex away with his secrets and terrible lack of ability to lie convincingly. His chest itched and he rubbed it absently, wondering whether there had been something in the water left on his shirt. He normally didn't itch like that.

Jack opened his mouth to snap something but paused, staring at Clark's chest. The itch turned into a burning feeling that was entirely too familiar. Clark gasped, looking down and shuddering at the light flaring from his chest. It was happening again, but it couldn't be happening, his father had no access to him in this world and the other Kal wouldn't have anything to do with him, so why was it burning?

Clark staggered backwards, hearing Jack and Ianto's voices but not listening, unable to concentrate. It burned, burned every bit as badly as it had when he was a teenager and ran away to Metropolis. He fell to his knees, tearing his shirt away from the brand forming on his chest. The light blazed brighter than it ever had back home, and Clark screamed as the sensors in the hub went off, registering a huge wash of Rift energy, as if Clark couldn't have told them that. The light faded and he collapsed panting. The pain took a lot longer to subside.

"Kal," Jack said gently in his ear, "Kal, we need to move you, find out what that was. Can you stand?"

"Sorry," Clark gasped, looking up. Jack had been saying something for a while. He obviously must have blacked out for a while because Gwen was there, looking spooked, and Ianto had a mug of black coffee waiting for him. "Sorry, not used to pain. Must have blacked out. Wow, that was a lot worse than last time. What does it say? The brand?"

"This has happened before?" Jack asked, appalled. He helped Clark up and to one of the chairs, studying the new brand on Clark's chest. "Um, looks like the Kryptonian symbol for 'return', imperative form."

"Sounds like my dad," Clark said, taking the coffee gratefully. "Yeah, happened once when I was a sophomore in high school. I defied my father, well, the download of my father in the spaceship I was sent to Earth in, and um, well he marked me with the symbol for the House of El. Did I hear sensors going off? Maybe he's trying to get me back from that side."

Gwen and Ianto worked out what had happened, while Jack supervised and assisted. Clark was still a little too shaky to be much help, not that he'd been given access to the computers yet. He couldn't even surf the Internet. There had been an image feed sent along with the energy that had branded Clark. It took them a bit to decrypt it but, when it came up, Clark went beet red and then white.

*All right, we've finally got it working, Jor-El,* Lex said, his eyes bright and excited as he manipulated the control console for the Fortress. *If anyone can receive this, we're working on bringing Clark back to our world. The mark he's been given is an anchor that will let us find him. There appears to be a large rift of some sort there that's working to both help and hinder our efforts. If you get this, let Clark know that we're going to get him home yet. Everyone's fine, just worried about you. Be careful not to change the future, Clark, though I'm still not sure you can given you're in an alternate dimension. It may take a couple of years in your time stream to get you home, but I think it'll only take a couple of days to a couple of weeks in our time stream. See you soon!*

The image faded, and everyone turned to stare at him. Clark blushed brightly.

"Future?" Jack asked.

"Who was that?" Gwen asked, looking at the image of Lex in his winter hat and coat.

"Why didn't you tell us your name wasn't Kal-El?" Ianto asked.

Clark groaned, setting his empty mug aside to rub his face and gingerly touch the brand on his chest. He didn't care if the thing would help get him home; it was a unwanted reminder of a very bad time in his life. Jack was getting that twitchy look again when he looked up. Gwen was obviously curious, smiling at him. Ianto looked like he was a little hurt.

"Um, well," Clark said, sighing, "for me, it's 2005, not 2003. I didn't want to risk changing the future or messing things up, so I didn't think it was safe to say anything. Time travel seems so dangerous that way, not that I know a lot about it. As for who that was, his name is Lex Luthor. He's a billionaire who lives in town. I suppose that he's one of my friends, though we've done more fighting than being friends lately. He's a genius. I'm kind of surprised he's working with Jor-El, the download of my birth father. Jor-El doesn't work well with anyone, especially me. And Kal-El is my name, my birth name. My adoptive parents named me Clark Kent, but Kal's just as much my name as Clark. Lex knows me, well, knew me as Clark. Obviously he's found out about my name being Kal-El, too."

"We need to have a very long discussion about your past," Jack said, shaking his head.

"If you want…" Clark said hesitantly, wincing at the looks all three of them gave him. He might not want to talk about it, but they all looked like they were going to pester him until they knew everything. He couldn't be too upset about it. He was too busy being worried about Lex and Jor-El working together. He really hated the idea that Lex knew so much about him—he didn't know if Lex could be trusted with the knowledge or if his family was in danger now. Lex's behavior had been so inconsistent lately that he just wasn't sure how he'd react to the knowledge that Clark was an alien. If it had been a year or two ago he wouldn't have worried, but now he didn't know what to think of Lex.

+++++

"Well, at least we marked him," Lex sighed, once their new transmitter shut down. "I hope that someone over there is able to help him, let him know that we're working to get him home."

"I am unable to determine if there is an appropriate receiver," Jor-El said, his voice nearly mono-tone, but with just enough inflection for Lex to determine that he was worried. "There may be, however, the rift which removed Kal-El from this world is very close to him there, shielding him from my scans."

"You can detect that he's alive and healthy, can't you?" Lex asked, stretching shoulders that had gone hard as rock hours ago. He pulled off his gloves. The temperature had risen in the Fortress while they'd worked, Jor-El apparently adjusting it gradually to be more comfortable for Lex.

"Yes," Jor-El said. "However, I am unable to detect more than that. It appears that his activity over the two years of his absence centers almost entirely in the vicinity of Cardiff Bay, in England."

Lex sighed, studying the monitors that Jor-El had created for him. They moved much more slowly than Clark would need—apparently he read at a phenomenal rate, something Lex hadn't noticed before—and the information was displayed in English instead of Kryptonian. He'd learned so much in the last several hours of feverish work with Jor-El. He'd absorbed enough to know that he could spend the rest of his life working in the Fortress and he'd still never learn it all. Lex reluctantly contented himself with discovering the parts that he needed to be able to bring Clark home.

"Why are you letting me help?" Lex asked Jor-El a few hours later as they worked out the initial design of the machine that would bring Clark home. "Couldn't Martha and Jonathan do a better job of it than me?"

"They are not reliable," Jor-El said in an almost prissy tone of voice. "They have fought what is best for Kal-El and the world on many occasions. If this world is not to be destroyed as Krypton was, Kal-El must embrace his destiny. Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent and Chloe Sullivan have all guided him away from his destiny. You have not."

"As far as I know, I haven't guided him at all," Lex said, snorting in derision.

He could see some merit to the statement, though he found it quite amusing that both sides viewed the other as unreliable. Lex suspected that they'd never actually spoken to each other directly. Jor-El excelled at being oblique, and Clark wasn't the best at catching on to anything that wasn't immediately obvious. With Clark as the go-between, it was almost guaranteed that there would be conflict between Clark's two sets of parents. That Chloe knew didn't surprise Lex at all. He'd been the one to bring her back from Canada, after all. She must know about this place and must have interacted with Jor-El to some degree.

"You have guided by example," Jor-El said serenely. "As you have struggled against your father's demands for a higher purpose, you have shown Kal-El that it is possible to stand up for what is right. Unfortunately my son does not understand the consequences of his avoidance of his destiny."

"Well, when we get him back we'll work on that," Lex said, blushing brightly. It felt like his whole head went red.

They finished the design of the machine that would be used to bring Clark home. It was fairly straightforward, at least the parts that Lex would have his people make. Jor-El fabricated the complicated bit from crystal and bits of gold, imbuing it with the Kryptonian technology that was so advanced it practically seemed like magic. Lex's head hurt attempting to understand what it was, how it did what it needed to do. He was aware that he'd only grasped a fraction of it, but it didn't matter. It would do what was necessary—bring Clark home.

The next project was figuring out where it would need to be triggered. They found when they ran the computer models that it wouldn't work at the Fortress or in Smallville. They had to use the machine as close as possible to where Clark was in that world. Their scans of the alternate world showed him centered in Cardiff Bay.

"Right," Lex decided, gathering up the notes, his discarded winter clothes and the crystal. "I'm heading back, Jor-El. It should take about a day and a half to get the rest of the device created if I put my people on it. I don't know if I'll be able to communicate with you."

"You will," Jor-El said serenely. "Your father, Lionel Lu-thor, has become my Oracle. I am able to speak through him, to use his body as mine when needed. Keep him close, and you will always be able to contact me directly."

Lex suppressed a shudder at that thought. It was bad enough to have to keep his father around, but to have him close while he was apparently insane was worse. Lex blinked, cocking his head at the control console.

"You're the reason he's crazy?" asked Lex, a little offended.

"He is not insane," Jor-El said. "He has been transformed into my Oracle. He is quite sane, simply buried inside of his mind so that I may use him for my purposes."

"Couldn't happen to a nicer guy," Lex muttered, nodding. "All right. I'll take him out of Belle Reeve and bring him along. Try to keep him from acting too oddly, please. It would disrupt our progress on saving Clark."

+++++

"Heads up," Clark called out, grinning at Gwen as she ducked under the huge chunk of debris he was carrying into the Hub.

The last six months had been fun. Once Clark had admitted to his past, told them about himself, Jack had finally let him join the team. He seemed to realize that in his world Clark was doing what Torchwood did. Just as they dealt with the aliens and the Rift, he'd dealt with the various meteor mutants and disasters that seemed to plague his home town. Cardiff was very different from Smallville, of course. It differed from Metropolis, too. Clark found that he liked Cardiff with its opposite-side-of-the-road driving, strange place names, and historic architecture. History was everywhere, not just at museums.

He'd obtained a fake ID with Jack's assistance, was receiving a wage (which had been enough to give him a heart attack when he got his first paycheck), and had his own apartment close to the Hub with a beautiful south-facing wall of windows. He wasn't sure he liked that it had been Owen's apartment, but it was a beautiful place and he made it his own with pictures of Kansas, blue and red pillows on the couch, and a big throw blanket with a crow on it. Rhys had fun sending little cow figurines in with Gwen for Clark to collect. His mug at work was shaped like a cow, much to Jack's amusement every morning.

"I still can't figure out how you do that," Ianto said, dodging around Clark and his load.

"Just do," Clark said, chuckling.

"Puzzles me how you don't go through the grating on the floor," Jack commented, standing exactly where Clark was planning to set the stuff down.

Clark lifted the load over his head and looked at Jack. Jack didn't appear to notice, looking at the grating under Clark's feet. Clark shifted the load to one hand and tapped his foot, one hand on his hip. Gwen started laughing, making Jack look up and laugh.

"What? Am I in your way?"

"Perpetually," Clark said, grinning at him. "Scoot, will you? You're worse than the cows!"

That made everyone laugh. Jack moved off to the side, and then helped Clark sort out what pieces of the pile of debris to keep and what to cannibalize or destroy. It took several hours, right up to the nightly renewal of his brand. Gwen had set up a special cell where he could go for it. The reinforced walls had withstood his occasional hits as he flailed, and the cell was soundproofed well enough that he could scream if he wanted to. Sadly, the place almost felt like a little piece of home. It was a safe place, all for him.

"Got another few clips of info," Jack said once it was over and he was helping Clark back up. "We're getting a better picture of what your friend's up to."

"Good," Clark panted, swaying a little. "Wish this wasn't the only way for them to communicate it."

"You okay?" Gwen asked as Clark rejoined them in the center of the Hub.

She always worried that the brand would get worse, that he'd be really hurt, but it hadn't happened yet. Clark knew that it wouldn't. Sure, this had gone on twice as long as it had the summer he ran away to Metropolis, but the brand never got worse. It hurt while it was being renewed, and then it just itched over the next twenty-four hours.

"I'm fine," Clark said, plopping into his chair. "Tired and in need of moo-juice, but fine."

Gwen snickered and waved goodbye, heading home to Rhys. Clark made a small batch of coffee before heading home. He needed it to get going again after each of these events. Ianto had disappeared into the depths of the Hub. Jack sauntered over, leaning against the edge of Clark's desk to study him with his arms crossed over his chest. Clark looked back, raising an eyebrow. He was finally getting used to Jack's mercurial personality. The way he went from genial to homicidal at the drop of a hat was disconcerting at first but, once he'd realized that Jack was fiercely protective, it made sense. Just like Lex, he'd do whatever he had to do to protect his home and his family, the only family he had: Torchwood.

"So," Jack said, "Tell me about Lex."

"What about him?" Clark asked, swirling the coffee in his cow mug to make Jack grin.

"Why is he doing this?" Jack asked. "What does he have to gain in getting you back?"

"I…really don't know," Clark said, frowning. "I've never been able to figure Lex out. He's actually a lot like you, except he's much smarter."

"Oh, thanks," Jack said sarcastically.

"No, seriously," Clark said, laughing at Jack's expression. "Lex is a genius, a true genius. His father's rich, but Lex has been running his own business for years and he's only a few years older than me. Brilliant, an incredible scientist, a killer businessman and, for some reason, he's been my friend since we met. I don't know why he's helping me get home, though."

He'd been trying to figure that out since the first night he was branded. He knew why Jor-El was doing it. He thought that Clark belonged to him, what with all his 'destiny' talk. If it had been Mom or Dad, it would have made sense. He was their son. Of course, they wanted him back. Lex was only his friend and, in many ways, his mentor. He didn't know if that was a good enough reason for why Lex was going to such lengths to save Clark.

"How'd you meet him?" Jack asked, pulling up Gwen's chair and propping his feet up on her desk.

"He hit me with his Porsche, and knocked us both off of the Loeb Bridge and into the river," Clark laughed. "I was fourteen. I kind of freaked when I dove down and found he was knocked out. I ripped open the roof of his car and pulled him out. I had to give him mouth-to-mouth since he'd stopped breathing. The meteors I told you about, they took his hair and gave him the ability to heal very quickly. He's been fine ever since, barring people knocking him over the head and kidnapping him."

"Huh, so the genius has known about you from the start," Jack said, nodding thoughtfully. "Makes sense I guess. He must feel very protective of you, kid brother or something."

He waggled his eyes at the 'or something' but Clark thought his heart had stopped at the start of his sentence. Lex knew. Lex had always known. Clark swallowed, setting his mug aside so that he wouldn't break it. He rubbed his chest and then his face, trying to calm down. Jack and the others had told him often enough in the last few months that his tendency to panic was his biggest problem. If he could calm down before he said or did anything, he always did the right thing. It took a few seconds to regain control. When Clark had a grip on his emotions, he found Jack studying him with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't realize that he has to know?" Jack asked.

"Um, no," Clark said, blushing. "He never said anything, just little hints and occasional questions. He never really confronted me on it."

"That's like confronting someone who you think is gay," Jack snorted. "You just don't do it. You could be wrong and look at all the damage you might do to them if you were. No, you support the person, protect them, and make sure that they understand that you're there for them. I'll bet that he's told you many times that he'd be willing to talk to you about anything, anytime you want to talk. He's defended you against people who might hurt you. He's been there after something 'strange' happened, just because he was 'worried about you' or 'felt like coming by'. Am I right?"

Clark nodded, shaking at how well Jack was describing his relationship with Lex. That was exactly what had happened. All the times he'd saved Lex, Lex had never demanded an answer. He'd asked what happened, with a hopeful look in his eyes that was always crushed when Clark lied to him. It was part of why Clark had never been able to lie convincingly to him. That hope had made Clark feel too guilty.

"How about your neighbors?" Jack asked, grinning. "Do they make odd comments from time to time? Your friends? You know, I'll bet that a lot of people in Smallville know that you're different, Clark. You've said that there's a code of silence. They're all keeping quiet, hiding what they know because they like you. It's not just your parents protecting you. It's everyone you know and help. Lex might be your best protector because of his genius and money, but you've got more allies than you think you do."

"You have fun making my heart stop, don't you?" Clark groaned, slouching down in his chair. "Yes, all of that has happened. Repeatedly. I always thought they were idiots not to notice, but I guess they did. I just don't know why they wouldn't say anything."

Jack snorted and dropped a foot off Gwen's desk to nudge Clark's foot. Clark grinned and didn't nudge back. He knew what he could do, and even if he'd seen Jack come back to life a few dozen times now, it was a horrible thing to see him hurt.

"Nobody wants to be wrong," Jack said, returning his foot to the desk. "Nobody wants to embarrass people. Nobody wants to be hurt. They all want to be trusted. To be told a secret like that is to be judged trustworthy at the highest level."

"That's why he always looked so hurt when I lied," Clark breathed, feeling like an idiot.

"Yup," Jack said with a wicked grin. "Not that I trust you, of course. You're still a Kryptonian. You're just a useful, halfway decent Kryptonian, unlike the rest of your race."

"As long as you stop trying to dose my coffee with your memory drugs," Clark laughed, rolling his eyes. "I swear, for a while there I thought that British coffee tasted different than American coffee from all the drugs you kept dumping in my drinks."

They both laughed. Clark sighed, making a face as he thought of Lex. He'd tried so hard to stay friends with Lex but had lied to him all the time. He was trying just as hard not to be friends with Jack, Ianto and Gwen—since he knew he'd be leaving any time—and telling them the whole truth about himself. Neither way had worked at all. Trust meant friendship. Jack, despite his dislike of aliens, Gwen and Ianto were his friends, the closest friends he'd ever had other than Chloe. And Lex.

"I wonder if I can make it right when I get back," Clark said sadly.

"Be honest with him," Jack advised seriously. "The guy is saving your ass, Clark. He's earned full honestly from you. Besides, he already knows. We see that every night when we get his messages and the specs for the device we have to make."

"Have you ever made that mistake?" Clark asked, expecting Jack to clam up and go away. "Not trusting someone that you should have trusted and it led to disaster?"

Jack's face shut down and his eyes went flat. Clark flinched. He'd obviously hit a sore spot, though he wasn't sure what it was. Jack turned away, looking towards his glass-walled office. He was quiet for a long time but he didn't leave. Clark stayed still, barely daring to breathe. Sometimes Jack would tell him off or try to shoot him again when he got this way, but sometimes—very rarely—he'd start talking. Clark sometimes thought he learned more about life in those rare moments than he had in his entire existence.

"Yes," Jack said, sighing. He didn't meet Clark's eyes, sitting motionless for another long moment while Clark waited. "I…used to love a man named Captain John Hart. He's from the same time as me, another Time Agent. We were lovers together, had a baby even, but John was dangerous and a little unstable so we broke up. When I was a boy, aliens attacked my home and my little brother Grey was with me. I lost him in the attack. I tried to find him. I really tried, but I couldn't. He'd been taken. He was tortured by the aliens for years. It changed him. John found him, freed him for me, and only then discovered how changed Grey was."

Jack sighed, visibly swallowing before squaring his jaw and turning to look Clark in the eyes. His eyes were so haunted and filled with pain that Clark winced. He really hoped he never had anything happen to make him look that way.

"Grey enslaved John and then sent him back to destroy my team," Jack said. "The control bracelet was on his wrist the whole time, Clark. I could have seen it, done something. John kept saying 'pay attention to me' and I never did. I was too focused on my team, too consumed by what I thought and what I wanted, too blind to see what was right in front of me. He needed me to save him, and I didn't notice until it was too late. Owen and Toshiko died because of my inability to trust John and see what was right there the whole time. Don't do that with Lex, Clark. No matter what history there is between you, Lex was able to put it aside to save you. Be there for him when he needs you."

Clark blushed and studied his hands. He'd already done just that a few times, been so concerned with his own needs and fears that Lex had been left out to dry. He'd been given electroshock therapy because Clark wouldn't tell him the truth. Clark buried his face in his hands, remembering so many occasions in their relationship where he'd failed Lex. Their entire friendship was a litany of Lex helping Clark and Clark failing to trust him, failing to help him in return.

"Don't beat yourself up over the past, Clark," Jack said, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Every day, every minute, is a new opportunity. When you get back, you'll have a chance to start fresh. It might take a while for him to believe the trust is real, that you're there to stay, but if you're honest with him, it'll work out."

Clark hadn't noticed that Jack had stood up, too wrapped up in his worries. He nodded, still too upset to talk. It was hard facing the knowledge that he'd messed up so many times with someone who meant so much to him. He opened his mouth to say something—probably something stupid—when Ianto walked in on them.

"Well, that's all done," Ianto said, looking at the two of them so close together and frowning. It was almost exactly the same frown that Lana used to have whenever she caught him and Chloe alone, working head to head on a story at the Torch. "Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt."

"No, it's all right," Clark assured him, standing up. "Jack was just telling me not to be an idiot with Lex when I get home. I'm heading back to my apartment, guys. See you tomorrow."

Clark took his cow mug to the sink and rinsed it out. He glanced back at Jack and Ianto on his way out, and smiled to see them kissing. Ianto's hand slid down the back of Jack's pants, and Clark blushed as he hurried out of the Hub and up to street level. There were more levels of comparison between Jack's relationship with John and Clark's with Lex than Jack realized. Clark was beginning to understand that all the banter and teasing between them had always had sexual undertones.

He wanted Lex as his lover when he got home, not just as his friend. He didn't run home, instead walking, taking his time and thinking about everything. It had been nearly nine months since he'd arrived in Cardiff. In that time he'd thought about his parents, Lex, and Chloe nearly every day. He'd only thought about Lana from time to time, when something brought her to his mind. He sighed when he realized that the one thing that consistently caused him to think of Lana was guilt. He associated Lana with feeling guilty, not with love, happiness or laughter.

"Who's better?" Clark muttered to himself as he let himself into his apartment. "The girl I can't trust and feel guilty about, or the man who has protected me from the moment I met him and who's busy saving me right now?"

He didn't need to answer the question. He already knew. Clark shook his head and went to bed. Tomorrow was another day, and there would be more strange things, more reports and lots more to do. He might not need much sleep but he did need some. He fell asleep with his ears still tracking Jack and Ianto making love to each other, inspiring dreams of Lex coming to his bed and doing incredible things with him.

+++++

Lex sighed, looking out over the Cardiff skyline. It had taken entirely too long to construct the machinery. It had taken even longer to obtain permission to set up his 'experiment' in the Plaza, but tomorrow night he'd finally be able to bring Clark home. Two and a half weeks for Lex had equaled out to just over two years for Clark, but they were finally going to be in the same place at the same time.

"Have my father brought here," Lex ordered his guard.

"Yes, sir," the guard said, before bowing and hurrying out of the suite.

Lex looked down at the Plaza where his machinery was being set up. He'd spent nearly a million dollars so far in bribes for the permits to set it up. Some of the contractors thought it was a special science experiment, while others believed it was a temporary art display. No one except Lex and Lionel/Jor-El knew what it really was.

"Shall I stay, sir?" Lionel's attendant asked after the older man had been brought in to stand next to Lex.

"No, I'll take care of him for now," Lex said. "You can go. I'll call you when you're needed."

"Thank you, sir." The attendant left the room with a polite nod.

Lex sighed, studying the equipment and mentally matching it to their plans. It looked as if everything was going together properly. Of course, he'd have to check it tomorrow but, so far, it looked like it was working. Blank-faced, Lionel turned his white eyes towards the plaza, and then looked back at Lex.

"It is almost ready," Lionel said in Jor-El's voice. "Soon Kal-El will be returned to this world to take up his destiny."

"Yes," Lex said, sighing. "They have all the information they need on their side?"

"The plans for their device have been sent continuously since we first made contact with Kal-El," Lionel/Jor-El said. "Even allowing for any difficulties receiving them, they should have all the details by now. Once our machinery starts up, we will be able to match to theirs and create a gate for him to come home."

"Good," Lex said, nodding firmly.

They both turned and studied the complex mechanism again. Lex couldn't help but worry. Jor-El was always certain of everything, but Lex wasn't. There were so many ways that the attempt could go wrong, and so much that he still didn't understand. Clark's destiny was only one of those things.

"Jor-El," Lex said, "About Clark's destiny. What exactly is it? You said something about Professor Fine and the destruction of the world, but you've never clarified that. Is it possible that Fine could disrupt this?"

"It is possible that the Brain Interactive Construct, the one that you know as Fine, might attempt to disrupt our activities," Jor-El said. "That is why I insisted on certain energy patterns in the machinery's harmonics. It is not completely secure against it, but it will hold it off long enough for us to retrieve Kal-El. Kal-El's destiny is to stop the Brain Interactive Construct from creating a new Krypton and destroying the human race."

"Clark?" Lex gasped, staring at Lionel/Jor-El. "Clark has to save the world all by himself?"

"He must save the world," Lionel/Jor-El agreed. "How he accomplishes that has not been determined."

"Well, he won't be doing it alone," Lex declared.

He snorted, crossing his arms on his chest to smirk at Lionel/Jor-El. Lex did not intend to let Clark face Fine alone. The farm boy was far too innocent and prone to trusting people in authority. No matter what had happened to him in that other world, Lex seriously doubted that it would've made Clark any better at judging people. You could take the boy off the farm but you could never take the farm out of the boy. Not that Lex would ever want to try. These last few weeks had only confirmed his feeling for Clark. He loved Clark, no matter whether Clark ever returned the sentiment, and he always would. If all he'd be allowed to do in the future was guard Clark's back and give him advice, then so be it. He'd do what he could, just as he had from the very first day he met Clark.

+++++

"Got it!" Ianto said, grinning at Gwen in triumph. "We finally have the last piece of the machinery needed to send him home!"

"Is he all right?" Gwen called to Jack who was hovering over Clark as he recovered from his nightly torture. Two years and she still hadn't gotten used to it.

"He'll be fine," Jack said, helping Clark up off the floor.

Gwen sighed, deliberately not watching Clark's struggles to stand upright. She didn't care what anyone said, these nightly brandings were taking more and more out of him. In the beginning, he'd been up within a few seconds. Now it was taking as much as half an hour for him to be able to stand and nearly eight hours before he was back to full strength. They needed to get him home before the damage being done was too severe for even Clark's constitution to be able to heal.

"That's the last piece," Ianto repeated, smiling grimly. "Our schematic is complete."

"Do we have everything we need to make it?" Jack asked as he helped Clark back to his chair where he immediately collapsed, head lolled back and eyes shut.

"Looks like we've got pretty nearly all of it," calculated Gwen, her fingers tapping on the keyboard. "I think that we can probably have this knocked up in about a day or two."

Gwen rolled her eyes as Jack and Clark snickered at the words 'knocked up.' They could be such juveniles. She wondered as they started assembling the parts they needed if it was an American thing or if it was just something that went along with being young, functionally immortal males. It took almost eighteen hours to gather the parts, construct the sections, and then set up the machinery needed for Clark's return home. Gwen felt like a slave driver, pushing the guys to keep working and get it done. Rhys called several times, wondering when she'd be home, but she always put him off. The others might not see the urgency, but Gwen did. They needed to get Clark home. She could almost sense that every minute mattered.

"I just realized something," Clark blurted out as they cordoned off the area above the hub with the help of Andy and the police.

"What?" Gwen asked, wondering which of a dozen different directions she should go next.

"This is it," Clark said, eyes wide. "I'm really leaving. Once this is finished and we make contact tonight, I'm going home. I won't see any of you again."

Gwen looked up at him, mouth open on a comforting remark that wouldn't come out. She'd been avoiding thinking about it. Clark was like a little brother to her by now. He was sweet, kind, and the gentlest man she'd ever known. He'd become a part of the Torchwood team. They were losing another person, as completely as if he'd died. She shut her mouth, nodding at him with tears in her eyes that she wasn't willing to let fall. Clark's bottom lip wobbled a bit, and he shut his eyes, taking a deep breath that he let out slowly.

"Hey!" Jack snapped as he and Ianto arrived with another chunk of the machinery. "I thought you were in a huge rush. What is this? Break time?"

"No!" Gwen snapped, whirling on him. "We've got too much to do for breaks!"

None of them spoke of Clark's departure again, not until the machinery had been completely assembled and the tools had been moved off to the side. Gwen looked at her watch and smiled. It was nearly time for Clark's nightly torture. They'd made it. It wouldn't happen again. Jack put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, making Gwen smile bravely at him.

"It's really done," Clark said in awe. "Wow, it looks just like a Stargate, only cooler."

"You watch entirely too much TV," Jack said, sighing and rolling his eyes. "Besides, it doesn't look a thing like a Stargate. No locking chevrons and such."

"Better back everyone off just in case there's a kawoosh," Clark said, grinning at Jack who pretended to look disapproving. "You can never be too careful, you know. Those kawooshes can be dangerous."

"Enough," Gwen groaned, shaking her head at the two of them. "How do we turn it on?"

Ianto pulled out the schematics. They all studied them, Clark leaning over their shoulders since he was tall enough to see that way. Gwen wondered how quickly she'd get used to not having him around to be big and strong anymore. No more cow mug. No more Kansas farmer jokes. No more sunbathing on the roof, damn it! She was really going to miss that view. Worse still, she'd never managed to get really good shots of him in his Speedo.

"Looks like we don't turn it on," Jack said, sighing once they'd all determined that there was no ON switch. "It's all up to your long-distance friend, Clark."

"He won't let me down," Clark assured them, his voice a little nervous despite his obvious efforts to look confident.

They waited, watching the clock as the minutes and then seconds counted down to Clark's nightly torment session. Gwen thought she was going to claw her way out of her skin when the Rift monitors they'd brought up finally started registering a rise in Rift activity. At the same time, the gate started shimmering. The circle of space in the center shimmered like a pool of water that had a pebble dropped into it. The Rift monitors went crazy, and suddenly Gwen found herself about twenty feet further away from the gate, along with Jack and Ianto. She still wasn't used to Clark's super speed. The turmoil in the center of the gate had erupted outwards and would have enveloped them if Clark hadn't moved them.

"Told you to watch out for kawooshes," Clark teased, grinning at Jack.

"Oh, shut up," Jack groused, glaring at him.

"I don't see anything different," Ianto said, frowning.

The gate had cleared, showing the other side of the plaza. There was a faint shimmering effect around the every edges of the gate but that was it. Gwen frowned. They moved around the gate and Gwen gasped. A completely different set of cordons showed through the gate. A tall bald man in an expensive tailored suit stood at a control console, frowning until he looked up and spotted them. His face lit up like the sun coming out from behind a cloud when he saw Clark.

"He is so gay," Jack muttered to Clark and getting a glare in return. "Don't try and deny it. That's the most obvious look I've ever seen in my life, short of looking in a mirror."

"Shut up, will you?" Clark muttered to him, blushing at Gwen's laughter and Ianto's grin. "You don't behave yourself, and I'll hug you before I leave."

"You better!" Gwen said, cutting them off before they could start sniping each other again.

She opened her arms for a hug and Clark engulfed her, lifting her right off of her feet. She laughed through the tears she finally couldn't hold back, clinging to him long after she knew she should have let him go. Clark had tears in his eyes too, as he finally set her down.

"You take care of yourself," Gwen ordered. "I'll worry about you."

"I will," Clark promised. "Take care of them, too, will you?"

"Of course," Gwen promised in turn, grinning and wiping her tears away quickly. "Someone has to keep this place from smelling like dirty socks."

"Hey," Jack said, mock offended. "I'll have you know I wear clean socks!"

Clark shook Ianto's hand, only to be pulled into a hug. She couldn't hear what Ianto whispered into Clark's ear, but Clark turned beet-red so it was probably some sort of sexual advice. Clark and Jack studied each other, Jack fingering his gun while grinning.

"One last shot for old time's sake?" Jack asked, laughing.

"No thanks," Clark said, grinning at him. "I don't want to squish another of your guns."

"There's not much more time, Clark," Lex called through the gate. "Hurry and say goodbye."

"Right," Clark said, nodding to Lex.

He turned back to Jack and squeaked,as Jack suddenly grabbed him and kissed him hard. Gwen sighed, hands on her hips. He couldn't have done this before? Ianto looked a little worried, and Lex looked as if he wanted to reach for a gun of his own by the time Jack let Clark go. Clark's stunned expression made Jack laugh.

"Go on, kid," Jack said, pushing him at the gate. "That's how we say goodbye in the fifty-first century. Thought I'd make your farewell memorable."

"Clark?" Lex called, cutting off anything Clark might have been about to reply.

"Coming," Clark called, nodding goodbye to them all.

He dove through the gate, and it rippled again. When the ripples calmed, they got a brief glimpse of Clark reaching out and taking Lex's hand, and then the power faded, leaving them with a big metal arch and an empty plaza. Gwen bit her lip, refusing to let the tears fall.

"We have got to quit losing team members," Jack sighed, rubbing Gwen's back and then holding her when the tears won.

"Maybe we should recruit someone new," Ianto offered quietly.

"I've got a couple of people I'm thinking about," Jack said, kissing the top of Gwen's head before letting her go. "Let's get this taken apart and put away before something else happens."

Gwen sighed, helping them take the structure down. The work went a lot more slowly than while they were putting it together, but eventually it was down and the plaza was back to normal. Gwen packed up Clark's things from his desk, running a finger over his cow mug.

"We'll all miss him, Gwen," Jack murmured quietly, rubbing her back. "Go home. Rhys needs you."

"I know," Gwen said, putting the mug away. "Just wanted to straighten everything up first."

"Go home," Jack said, taking the box away. "Just because he's gone doesn't mean we are. We'll be here when you come back tomorrow."

Gwen nodded and went.

+++++

Lex sighed as they finally took off. It had taken a lot less time taking the machinery down than it had putting it up. Clark's help had made it happen almost magically. They'd been out of the Plaza and back on his private jet in less than an hour, including the drive through the late-night traffic to the airport. Lionel/Jor-El was with his attendant in the rear of the plane, and Lex was finally alone with Clark.

"I can't believe I'm really home!" Clark exclaimed, beaming at Lex in that same old way.

"Hopefully it wasn't too bad," Lex said, a little on edge because of that last kiss. He'd always sort of assumed that Clark was his, other than competing with Lana and maybe Chloe. He hadn't thought that Clark would find another man to love. He'd never seemed even slightly bisexual to Lex.

"No, they were really good to me, even Jack," Clark said thoughtfully, watching Lex as he prepared a drink. "Took him about nine months to loosen up around me, but eventually he accepted me. He made me a part of the team. I'll really miss working with them. They were such good people and two years is a long time. How long has it been here?"

Lex took a big gulp of his whiskey, reading far too much into that 'accepted me' comment. Clark had fallen in love. It showed in how he moved, the way he'd matured. Lex hadn't wanted to see the signs when Clark had first arrived. He'd grown a lot in the two years he'd been gone. His heart hurt at the thought of Clark's inevitable pain. Losing someone that you cared for always hurt. He refused to admit that he was talking about his own pain, not Clark's.

"It's been two weeks and three days for us," Lex said, coming back over to sit in the chair opposite Clark. "Your parents told everyone that you went on a vacation with me. So far, the Smallville Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy seems to be keeping everyone from speculating."

Before he could sit down, he found himself pulled into Clark's lap and held there by arms that felt like steel bars, not flesh. Lex gasped, trying to pull free, but Clark pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around Lex's back and then pulling him into a kiss that made him drop the tumbler of whiskey with a whimpering moan. Lex didn't think anything at all as Clark kissed him into submission, fingers making little circles on his scalp. Eventually Clark loosened his grip enough that Lex could pull away if he wanted. He pushed closer instead, tangling his fingers in Clark's hair and making him gasp. Eventually, they had to come up for air, or at least Lex did. He wasn't entirely certain that Clark needed to breathe, even after that kiss.

"Always knew, didn't you?" Clark asked, the look in his eyes making it clear what he was talking about.

"Of course," Lex smirked. "I'm hardly an imbecile, Clark. It was obvious you were different from the moment I met you. I was waiting for you to trust me, but this was more important. Whatever you choose to tell me is your decision. I won't demand anything out of you."

"Except maybe more kisses, and I hope you'll ask for a blowjob or two," Clark said with a wicked grin that surprised Lex more than anything else had so far. "I certainly intend to ask you for a few things, like some chains. Maybe some whips, too. Mom and Dad can deal with it. This taught me exactly what I've been looking for all along."

Lex's stomach decided to flutter between his throat and his toes. He traced the line of Clark's jaw with one trembling finger, groaning as Clark turned his head and sucked it into his mouth. He'd have to ask Jack had taught Clark so that he could replace those memories with better ones of his own.

"Love you, Lex," Clark breathed once he let Lex's finger go. "Watching Jack and Ianto together, listening to them, taught me exactly what you mean to me. I love you and I really want to make things work between us. You've been protecting me all along, and I was too blind to see what it was. Say you're interested? Please?"

Lex laughed, leaning in so close that their noses were nearly touching. Clark's arms wrapped tightly around him again, strong and so very gentle. He could feel Clark's breath against his lips, Clark's warmth pressed up against his chest, and damn if he couldn't feel Clark's erection pressing against his thigh. Maybe he was assuming too much if Jack was with the other man, not Clark. He'd have to ask later but, for now, there were more important things to do.

"I've been waiting for you," Lex whispered.

"No more waiting," Clark promised, "no more waiting and no more lies. Please?"

"Yes!"

The End