Note: The general idea of this story is the aftermath of 6×21 Prototype combined with the Bones episode 6×22 The Hole in the Heart in which one of the recurring characters gets killed and the two lead characters deal with the loss. The story goes AU from there.

Disclaimer:: I do not own Smallville. The rights to the characters remain with DC and Warner.

It hurt. Both physically and emotionally. His back still ached and his mind couldn’t come to rest.

It hurt. Both physically and emotionally. Her throat was still sore and her mind couldn’t come to rest.

Today he killed a man. It wasn’t the first person who died in battle with him. It wasn’t even the first person recently. But it was a new quality. This wasn’t a bad person. He was a soldier who wanted to defend his country and he was used by his former best friend and was forged into a mindless weapon.

It was a new low in his life. A life that turned from bad to worse ever since his father died 18 months ago. A death that was caused by two acts of desperation. First the choice to tell Lana everything and then the choice to turn back time to save her.

If he was honest with himself he never really wanted to tell her, not even back then. And considering what happened after he broke up with her he wasn’t so sure if he really had made the wrong decision by not telling her. Sure, he pushed her into Lex’s arms but it was her decision to engage in a new relationship so quickly. It was her decision to ignore Chloe’s and his repeated warnings over and over again.

By now he realized that all his attempts to get her way from Lex again weren’t based on his feelings of love for her but in his need to keep people away from harm. If he wanted to, he could have told her multiple times. And was it really love on her part if she could only be with him if she knew everything about him?

No, he didn’t love her anymore. He had changed. She had changed.

But that didn’t help him sleeping either. The events of the day were bubbling to the surface again. Lex was building super soldiers. Why? Why did Lex think it was the right course of action to imprison meteor infected people, study their abilities and put them into regular soldiers? Lex destroyed that man’s life and then he had to take it to save Lois.

Whatever Lex touched he destroyed. This was the second time in a short while a dear person to one of his friends came under the wheels. First Chloe’s mom, now Wes. And despite all his powers there wasn’t much he could do about it – short of murdering Lex. And as much as he despised him, he wouldn’t allow Lex to turn him into a murderer.

Today he’d broken Lois’s heart and she didn’t even know it. He cared about her and it hurt him deeply that she was in pain because of him. If he just could make it better…

He turned restless in his bed from one side to another when suddenly the doorknob turned and he became very still.

Today she lost a dear friend. Another person who meant a lot to her and died prematurely. She didn’t even know what exactly happened. One minute she was in a choke hold when his programming reactivated and the next she regained consciousness and he died in her arms mumbling a stream of so far useless numbers.

Why did Wes have to die? It was a while since she had seen Wes last. But he still held a special place in her heart and Lex had taken that away from her. And what made matters worse was that she couldn’t prove any of it. Senator Burke was murdered by “the mob” and Wes’s body disappeared without a trace. Lex would pay for what he had done.

But how? She worked for a tabloid and she didn’t have any powerful allies. Oliver was somewhere MIA, the General raised the red flag on the whole topic and Chloe didn’t have any leads either. And as dear a friend Clark was, his abilities to bale hay weren’t exactly helpful either.

Why did Wes have to die? What exactly had Lex done to him? How could he turn invisible? How did he gain superhuman strength? And what did this have anything to do with the video she saw before Lionel “retrieved” the Gardenia flash drive?

Why did Wes have to die? Tonight she felt totally alone. Mrs. Kent had returned to Topeka on the red-eye and Chloe was burning the midnight oil at the Planet. But Clark was still there. And despite all their banter Clark was a person she could open up to. He listened and he gave comfort.

Why did Wes have to die? She started to cry into her pillow and she couldn’t find rest. She couldn’t be alone tonight. She grabbed a sweater, a pair of sweatpants and pulled them over her pyjama and her car keys and drove off.

Slowly she opened the door to his room and looked inside.

“Clark?” she asked quietly.

“Lois? What are you doing here? Did something happen?” he was instantly alarmed. Why else would Lois turn up here in the middle of the night?

“Would you mind if I could sleep here tonight?”

Her voice was was still very quiet and it wasn’t the time to ask what was wrong with the Talon.

“No, of course not. Take the bed; I’ll crash on the couch.” Ever the gentleman.

“No, please stay.”

Now that she came closer he could see that she had cried, it was obvious in her face. He didn’t need to ask why she had cried, it was the same reason he couldn’t sleep.

By all rights he should feel weird about this, but he didn’t.

“Okay.”

She removed the sweat suit and crawled under the blankets to him. He instinctively pulled her closer to himself and embraced her.

And for the first time in almost two days they came to rest.

— The End —