As I said on ao3 Jason Teague will not be in the story for more personal reasons. Sorry for anyone that wanted to see him make an appearance. Anyways please ignore the somewhat inaccurate process of hiring depicted in this chapter. Had to speed this along a bit.

Part 3

Dean decided he couldn't get back to sleep after the wakeup call he got from John Winchester. He peeked over to the slumbering form of his brother and decided they would both need a shit load of caffeine once he was up. Nodding to himself, he pocketed the keys to the Impala from the nightstand and headed out, determined to find some place that sold some good coffee. It didn't take as long as he thought to find the Talon, a small coffee shop that seemed to be the Go-To place for everything ranging breakfast to lunch.

It seemed frequented mostly by younger patrons. Dean entered the shop hesitantly unable to hide his surprise by how busy it was this early in the morning. A few heads looked his way as he made his way to the counter. For his part he ignored the staring as he sat on one of the stools, looking up at the menu. He figured since it was a small town people were rather tight knitted, knew every face. He was new, essentially a stranger. Dean let the curiosity linger for a little while longer as a woman came from somewhere in the back. She had a motherly appearance; a kind, if a bit weary face with a cautious but friendly smile. The curiosity seemed die down instantly and everyone went back to whatever they had been doing before he arrived. Interesting response, he thought.

"Hey, new in town? What can I get you?"

Dean licked his lips and thought about that. "Two coffees. Both black. One with whipped cream. And uh put them in plastic cups. Gotta bring one back to my brother," Dean said with a shrug.

The woman nodded to a girl Dean could've sworn he saw yesterday. The girl wrote the orders down and smiled up at Dean. "Anything else?"

Dean shook his head, then paused, studying the girl's young, earnest face. She went to school with Clark. That much he already knew. Though he suspected he might know who she was. Leaning forward on his elbows, he said, "Uh. Your name isn't Lana Lang, is it?"

Her eyes widened in surprise and that was enough to confirm it. "My name's Jason Evans. My brother and I just moved into town yesterday and we talked with your friend, Clark Kent," Dean explained, watching her relax slightly. The woman with her had been looking at him suspiciously also relaxed. Her eyes lit up as if she already knew who Dean was, even though Dean was sure they never met before.

"I'm Clark's mother, Martha," she said in answer to the unspoken question in his eyes.

"Oh. Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he said with a blinding smile.

Dean left the Talon an hour later feeling refreshed and somewhat giddy with information he was sure Sam would appreciate. He settled the plastic cup on the table once he made it back to the motel they were staying at. Lana seemed easily charmed when they engaged in conversation at the coffee shop. Then again that wasn't really anything new. Dean attracted a lot of women wherever he went. He plopped himself down in front of Sam's laptop and discreetly opened it, intending to get a little more information on the Luthors to see what Sam was getting himself into. The kid seemed dead set on talking to this Luthor guy and there wasn't anything Dean could do to change his brother's mind once it was made so he had to make the best of the situation.

Before Dean could get so much as typing Sam's password in, he heard his brother shift in his sleep. The sweet aroma of morning coffee wafting in the air roused Sam. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes slowly and focused bleary eyes at Dean, frozen at his laptop. Fingers still hovered over the keyboard once he could see everything more clearly. "Dean?"

Dean shifted uncomfortably, retracting his hands quickly. "Hey man, got you coffee over there," he said pointing awkwardly to the cup that rested on the nightstand beside the bed.

"Thanks. What are you doing on my laptop?"

"Uh. Was gonna check on this Lex Luthor guy," Dean admitted finally, knowing the jig was up.

Sam quirked an eyebrow as he took a tentative sip of his coffee. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. Just wanted to make sure the guy's okay for you to talk with."

"Define 'okay'."

"Okay as in he's not hiding some murder behind his dad's imprisonment," Dean clarified.

"Dean, the guy seems like a grade-A asshole from what Chloe told us and what we've read through yesterday, I'll give you that, but I don't think he's got it in him to commit murder. No one in this backwater town for that matter," Sam said.

Dean sighed and pushed off from his chair in defeat. Sam was right as usual. Truthfully he didn't like his little brother anywhere where he couldn't keep a close eye on him, and yeah the Luthors seemed like dangerous folks (as dangerous as normal humans could be), but the truth of the matter was that Sam was more than well capable than handling any sticky situation on his own. It was hard to let go after years of ingrained training had him do though. Especially the earlier call from Dad that told Dean to watch out for Sammy, like Sam was still a six year old runt that didn't know his way around a gun.

Finally, Sam looked at the clock on the nightstand with a grimace. He downed his coffee before he addressed his brother, "Think I need to make some kind of appointment?"

Dean rubbed the side of his face. "A top dog like that? Don't think he gets many unexpected visitors. Bet the guy got his whole place set up with cameras."

Sam mulled over the comment, his eyes alight with an idea. "There's probably only one person that goes to see him without having to be invited," Sam said.

For some reason, Dean's thoughts strayed to Clark Kent at his brother's words. "Guess I'll go surprise the coach," he muttered and walked out the room.

Coach Quigley wasn't as surprised as he had been expecting Dean to show his face at the office, waiting behind a stack of paperwork and a cup of fresh, steaming coffee. Well, two. He offered one to Dean which Dean took with some reluctance. It seemed rude to decline so he drank slowly as he waited for Wayne to finish some of his work before he looked back up at Dean.

"I see your brother isn't here. I take it he's not much of a football kind of guy?" It was a joke, Dean knew, but rang with truth.

"Nah, he's not much of sports kind of guy," Dean corrected. "He's more the crosswords-chick-flick geeky type."

Wayne chuckled good-naturedly as if he could just imagine Sam like that, though most of what he had been told so far were lies, including Dean's 'name'. "Here's the application you need to fill out and then I'll be happy to hand you the job." Dean was handed a clipboard of a dozen or so papers.

Dean skimmed through the contents with practiced ease, only reading what he deemed important. Simple enough, he thought to himself in surprise. There were less personal information required to fill as he thought and he took the pen and wrote out all the necessary information within thirty minutes. He handed the clipboard with the pen back and Wayne looked it over. After a couple minutes, he leaned back in his chair and hummed in satisfaction. He smirked at Dean and congratulated him.

"Why don't you come by later today so I can make the introduction?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah. Sure. I'll be there. Will Clark?"

Wayne furrowed his brows at the interest in Clark Kent. "He should be. Why?"

"Kid's got a good arm," Dean said nonchalantly.

"He sure does," Wayne agreed easily. "You know this is his first time trying out for the football team?"

Dean's eyes widened in surprise. "No. You shitting me?"

"Nah, wish I was."

Chloe Sullivan knew weird shit happened in Smallville. Since the meteor shower over a decade ago that hit Kansas, impossible things happened on a somewhat daily basis here. It was in the meteors. The radiation or whatever made people inhuman, changed their DNA. Something like that. And Chloe? She chased after those weird things like a dog after a bone. Maybe that was Chloe's own gift. Maybe the rocks made her intensely, inhumanly curious. Whatever it was, a deep curiosity to understand the impossible or something running much deeper, it was Chloe that noticed the oddity that was Abby first. Well, aside from all the drooling boys.

To be more precise: Scabby Abby. At least that was what everyone called her last year. She wasn't so scabby now. Her skin was flawless. She had smooth hair where as last year it looked like she didn't understand the concept of a comb. And this over summer transformation drove Chloe's weird detector up. Chloe didn't feel an ounce of jealousy as curiosity flared up, along with a low churning in the pit of her guts that said something definitely fishy was going on in here.

"Isn't it kinda weird?" Chloe asked in a stage whisper as she and Lois watched Clark stroll up to press himself casually to Abby's locker in a nervous attempt to look cool. Now that he made the football team, Clark was acting like an obnoxious jock, or at least trying. Chloe still found his attempts cute because as much as Clark was trying to imitate the typical stereotypes found all over high school, he failed miserably and came off as well, a farm boy trying to pose as a jock.

"Tell me about it," Lois exclaimed, wrinkling her nose at the scene they were being exposed to. "This is why high school sucks."

Chloe cocked her head to the side, surprised her cousin was being this open about something as trivial as school. Lois looked back at her with a long suffering sigh. "Baby cuz, come on. High school has got to be the most depressing place ever. Why can't people be more open about being themselves? Their true selves? All anyone cares about is trying to fit in and essentially lying about who they really are."

Chloe considered that for a moment. She got what Lois was saying but she also understood why Abby would want to change her appearance. It was just the way she went about the change. A summer dedicated to completely changing a person's appearance. She thought back to her earlier inspection of Abby and wondered if this was truly a meteorite weird or a more normal (yet) somewhat obsessed with beauty weird. Either way, Chloe decided it would make for an interesting article.

Clark joined them a moment later as Abby sauntered away. He was eager when he talked about her, like her appearance changed something in the way he looked at her now, like appearances made all the difference in someone instead of personality. Chloe decided she disliked this Clark a little more. He was trying way too hard now a day to convince people he was a jock because he made the cut. Abby isn't the only person who changed, Chloe thought.

School couldn't have passed by slower. Chloe found herself seated on the edge of the bleachers by the field after school. Coach Quigley introduced the new blonde guy that Chloe met yesterday. Jason Evans. It was interesting to find him the new assistant coach. Interesting and somewhat surprising. Chloe admitted that she hadn't been expecting to see him so soon. She leaned back to watch as Jason whistled a few times and whipped out orders to the football team as easy as breathing.

"No! Come on, Clark, that's not how you do it. Here, stand back. Let me show you guys how it's done," Jason said and all the guys stopped and hurried out of the obstacle course. He went through the mini course with practiced ease, his movements quick and graceful. When he got to the end, he looked up with a smug smirk to the silent awe of the football team. It was funny because while Jason was a huge guy, most the football team towered over him and was bulkier and all the guys looked wiped, sweating in the hot glare of the sun. Jason hadn't so much as broke a sweat.

For a new guy, Chloe liked him. He seemed decent, both he and his brother. For some reason though, there was a familiar churning in the pit of her guts as she watched him hand a bottle of water from the cooler to Clark. He patted his back and said something too low for Chloe to hear but whatever it was, it had both them and a few other guys near laughing. She tried to stomp down on the uneasy feeling boiling in her guts.

Lois came by a couple minutes before the end of practice and whistled appreciatively, her eyes lingering on both Clark and Jason. "Who's the guy next to Clark?" she asked in a low whisper.

"Jason Evans," Chloe whispered back.

"That supposed to mean something?"

"New coach," Chloe said with a shrug.

"Oh." She paused for a moment. "He's hot."

Chloe rolled her eyes and they both watched as Clark turned and caught sight of them before jogging on over.

Lex Luthor was studying the map again. He was getting closer to figuring it out he was sure. Just a little more time and maybe a little more money to invest in its secrets, and he'd have the whole mystery unraveled. He looked up as he heard a sharp knock on the door to his office. He wasn't expecting company today. He sighed as he figured who it could be. What came to mind were several names and none of them were all that appealing to have a confrontation with.

"Come in. It's unlocked," he called out.

The door creaked open and an unfamiliar face popped in. A young man that looked vaguely like Clark Kent with a mop of brown hair and large, dark eyes walked in without preamble. He stopped to stand just a few feet from Lex, his eyes intense to study Lex. Lex cleared his throat, making the other man jump slightly in surprise.

"Who are you and should I be calling security?" Lex asked.

The young man laughed and rubbed the back of his neck in a nervous gesture. "No. Calling security would probably be a bad idea."

Lex arched an eyebrow. "Why would it be a bad idea?"

"If you call security now, I can almost guarantee your life will be in danger."