Hey there happy campers, I realise this has been a loooooooong time coming and I do mean LLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG. And I apologise for my false promises and empty claims of updates. Sadly the chlark train has no stops in any Smallville reality at the moment (at least not in New Zealand) so I've been feeling a little (maybe a lot) pissed off at all Smallville avenues - unfortunately this means my awesome Clarkmas story has gone unwritten for a while.

But I'm back! And I make no promises this time, I shall update when I update. It may be today, or tomorrow or next week or next month…(you get the gist?) but it WILL I repeat WILL get completed sooner or later!

I love you guys for hanging in there and appreciate any and all feedback (even if its to tell me off for my less than stellar update situation). I've said it before and I'll say it again I love reviews.

NB this is NOT the final chapter, it does finish on an interesting note but there's at least one more to go I think (unless anyone out there reeeeeelllllliiiii wants me to carry on and can tell me how they think I should) but wait until the last chapter is up as I may find a way to answer the questions you wish answered in that chapter.

Much love guys xxx

Emolee

At that moment Clark marvelled how just four words could have such an affect on ones nervous system. Suppressing his nearly overwhelming instinct to burst into super speed and be at her side Clark's hands shook (more like vibrated to be honest), as he rushed - at a normal persons pace - as much as it pained him, behind Lex. Rushing into the room three things struck him at once, the first was Lana, his Lana, on the floor writhing in agony, the second was his son crying loudly clutching at Chloe for comfort while everyone gathered around Lana, and the third was the torn look in Chloe's eyes. It was obvious to him that she was torn between getting her son out of the room to comfort him, and going to the aid of one of her closest friends in the whole world.

Clark was struck with the realisation that for the first time in his whole life his usual instinct on seeing Lana in pain, or even knowing she was in danger – to save her, was his second instinct today. Surprising not only himself but Chloe in the process, he walked up to her, gently extracted his distraught son from her arms and cradled him against his own chest before pulling Chloe into his side and kissing her softly on the forehead as she leant her head against him sadly. They stood there together watching as Lex clutched at his wife, and the guests organised a car to take them urgently to the hospital, all knowing somehow, that the pains Lana was experiencing were not normal labour pains.

"What happened?" Clark whispered softly bringing Chloe in closer to his side, the closer she was to him, the more of her body pressed against his, the better he felt at that point – though he couldn't keep his eyes off Lana.

Grateful for the contact Chloe leant deeper into the groves of his body, of which Clark had always said over the years were made for her (of course when he had first mentioned it, it prompted her to pretend gag at him, but she had grown to love that too sweet comment), and whispered back "She… she had just t-taken Jonah from me so I could get a…drink and she collapsed."

At the answering gentle squeeze from her husband Chloe had to close her eyes to hold her control, however opening them and seeing Clark watch their son out of the corner of his eye in concern nearly increased the amount of silent tears that were falling softly down her face. Turning her head into Clarks chest to hide her face for a moment, Chloe worked at holding her composure in place and ran through a quick plan in her head as the car to take Lana and Lex to the hospital pulled around out front.

Lex kept glancing up at Clark, Chloe realising that he expected Clark to do something, to rush to the rescue, to save the day – and who could blame him? That was what Clark had done since they had met. But where Clark was aware that he should be doing something, he was one of the few people in the room who hadn't yet grasped the seriousness of the situation, obviously Lana was in pain and he wanted to save her, however at the moment his son was upset and his wife was fighting hard for her composure. Chloe was in fact a large concern to him at that time as, for the lifetime that he had known her she was not prone to losing her composure and the fact that this situation was indeed worrying her was unnerving him. He however understood that short of going up there and yanking that baby out there was nothing he could do for Lana at this moment, though Lana's agony was tearing him apart.

Lana looked up at her two best friends and what she saw, even through her pain and random double vision (probably brought on by the pain she decided) that the two Clark's and Chloe's were definitely the most in love pairs she'd seen in a while, and if she could just get her gorgeous child to stop tearing her apart inside and her gorgeous husband to quit crowding her, her new child's birthday could possibly be salvaged. Gently Lex put his arms around his wife and pulled her into him as he sat cradling her in his arms she groaned in the pain of movement. She nudged him in the ribs and grinned up at him, "Watch it."

Lex's eyes widened and he gently pulled his arms away from her missing the teasing note in her voice and focusing on the pain he heard, Chloe noticed the way his hands shook as he wiped them on his thighs. He glanced up at her hoping she could give some direction, in answer to his intense, hopeful gaze Chloe moved forward out of Clark's arms and away from her frightened child, into the role of friend. She knelt down next to Lex and put her hand in Lana's speaking quietly to Lex in the process.

"Lex, I need you to-"

"Chlo I really need her to be ok," Lex interrupted vehemently.

"I understand Lex but-"

"I need her to be ok," he said again firmly with a hard edge to his voice, the Luther resolve beginning to fill him with purpose.

"Lex-"

He interrupted once more, this time causing Clark to frown in annoyance at the tone he took with his 'wife', "I'm not going to say it again."

Chloe smiled in reassurance at Clark before she spoke again, "I need to-"

"Chl-"

"Lex," Clark warned quietly from close behind as he moved forward not to be heard by the crowd gathered around Lana, "you speak to her in that tone of voice again and I will stop making allowances for your situation."

Lex looked behind him and up into Clark's hard but concerned eyes, and the Luther within backed down slightly, again looking to Chloe for instructions.

"Oh so one word from him and you're going to let me talk now?" Chloe narrowed her eyes, and continued talking over the top of Lex as he tried to apologise. "You won't mind if I interrupt you will you? That was rhetorical," she grinned. "Lex," she began again, "I need you to pick her up and gently carry her to the car. She's bleeding but it's nothing to worry about until we get her to the hospital."

Lex quickly looked down at his hands and realised what he thought was sweat he'd been wiping off onto his pants was actually Lana's blood.

Clark breathed in quickly shaking his head a little as his head got a bit fuzzy. Looking down into his sons eyes, who had looked up at his fathers uncharacteristic movements, Clark smiled reassuringly and rubbed Jonah's back a little. "Dad, why's Aunty Lana sleeping on the floor?" he whispered quietly into his fathers ear.

Swallowing hard Clark tried once more to shake off an uncomfortable feeling as he evaded the question "People don't sleep on the floor Jonah, you'd get a sore back!" he smiled.

Frowning Jonah found it hard to believe his Dad when he was acting so strangely but since his Dad never lied he decided to trust that Aunty Lana wasn't trying to sleep on the floor, "So why's she on the floor then?" he whispered again.

Something was wrong, Clark's head was getting fuzzy and he was feeling a little weak, the feeling was familiar to him however, like someone in the room was wearing a piece of jewellery with kryptonite in it – but stranger. Worried now that he was weakening with his son in his arms, Lana in danger and Chloe upset, he gently signalled to Chloe as she was busy ordering the people in the room to do various tasks, arranging to get Lana outside and in a car on her way to the hospital.

Extracting herself from the crowd at Clark's signal she left them to do what she asked and stepped into the relatively empty kitchen with Clark, at the look on his face Chloe's eyes turned concerned and she instinctively reached for her son. He had his 'something's wrong and I'm off to save the day' face on, which usually meant she was stuck with the kids until he needed research done. "Chloe I-"

"You know Clark I know you're acting all alien today – excuse the pun – but I really thought you would prioritize Lana over some-"

"Chlo something-"

"-has just come up, yeah yeah. You know what, Lana is sick Clark." She hugged her son tightly and rocked his sleepy body back and forth as Jonah struggled to stay awake, eyes slowly closing and reopening. "Really sick," she finished on a whisper.

"I know but-"

"But?" she interrupted again.

Instead of talking again he looked at her like he used to when she was acting irrationally, and waited for her to realise he wasn't going to talk again until she took a breath and calmed down.

Chloe would have missed it if she wasn't glaring at him so intensely, the slight tightening of his chin, the tautening of his lips, the hardening of his eyes. Her whole world suddenly flashed into focus, readjusting itself to the one person in the universe that was as important to her as her children, "What's wrong?" she demanded in a typically Chloe fashion.

"Nothing I'm just worried about Lan-"

"Don't give me that," Chloe's eyes narrowed in concern deflecting his evasion and stepping closer to him aware that her son has finally given in to sleep, and gently rubbed his back as she invaded her husbands personal space as she was prone to do when she was around him.

"My head," he admitted. "I'm feeling a little bit woozy."

"Woozy? Since when does the man of steel feel woozy?"

"Man of steel?"

"Oh never mind," Chloe dismissed the slip of the tongue and reached up to touch his forehead. "I wouldn't know if you were burning up anyway," Chloe murmured frowning, "does an alien even get a higher temperature when they're sick? You had a fever back in high school, do you think it's that again?"

Clark shrugged noticing everyone was moving out of the house as they escorted Lana to the car and on her way to the hospital. "Maybe we should go with her."

"I'll go, you put Jonah back to bed and check on Lara," Chloe touched his check softly looking into his eyes, "Woozy?" she asked again drawing him back to his problem. "Doesn't sound good boy scout."

Of it's own accord Clark realised his hand had moved to hold hers against his face, turning his cheek into her touch and kissing the palm of her hand. He found that even though he was distracted by Lana and his own weird afflictions, Chloe's eyes were mesmerising when they were looking at him with such love and concern, and not only that but the simple caring touch of her hand to his cheek made his heart swell with love and his body swell with, well, you get the picture. At that thought Clark's cheeks flushed bright red and he moved quickly away from her, one moment he was standing there responding to her touch and the next, he was on the other side of the bench in the kitchen looking embarrassed.

His actions so reminiscent of there teenage years, caused a surprised and delighted laugh to escape Chloe before she could control her reactions. Momentarily forgetting he technically still was of that mindset, she had inadvertently treated him like her husband instead of a friend. "Sorry Kent, I forgot," she grinned.

"No, uh, my…fault," he stammered again even more embarrassed by his reaction to his reaction than by anything else at that point.

"Clark?" Chloe prodded when he stood there staring at her and no saying anything.

"Oh, sorry," Clark answered, trying to ignore the way she was fading in as he watched her. "Here's what we're going to do. You go with Lana now, quickly, before they leave. I'll sort the kids out then leave them with Mum and Dad to come and meet you at the hospital."

"Deal," Chloe agreed, "Do you want me to take Jonah upstairs?" she asked aware that the 'woozyness' he was feeling may endanger her son.

Reading her thoughts Clark frowned, "I'll take him," he answered firmly.

"Ok," she said simply gently handing over their son, trusting him completely in his decision. As she turned to leave, kissing her son gently on the forehead to say goodnight, Clark grabbed her arm and swung her back around. Locking eyes with her the whole time he bent his head down slowly toward hers moving his hand from her arm to the small of her back as he pressed her closer towards him. Their eyes cloase as his lips touched hers gently at first, sweetly, then deepening as he moved her up against him their child cradled between them. Pulling away slowly he looked into her eyes again, saying everything he possibly could with no words, then almost fiercely smashing his lips to hers for a fleeting moment he nudged her in the direction of the door as he heard the ambulance doors closing behind Lana outside. A little bit dazed (Clark noted with a great deal of satisfaction) Chloe rushed to the door looking back once with a knowing look in her eye, waving goodbye.

Turning to walk up the stairs with Jonah a small smile played on Clark's lips, that was some goodbye kiss…he grinned glad she had realised that that would be their last as husband and wife, at least in this reality…