Lois knew something wasn't right before she'd even opened her eyes. She could hear the sound of a busted pipe, dripping water onto the floor, and wherever she was, it had a funky, repugnant smell. It was worse than the smell of the farm, or the scent of Lex Luthor's cologne, and it was not one she recognised. The last thing she remembered was leaving the Talon, but everything after that up until now was nothing but a blur. She couldn't remember arriving at the farm or giving Clark a hard time, only the Talon, and being stood up. As she opened her eyes, she realized that she'd been tied to a chair and attempted to loosen the ropes around her wrists but to no avail.

She lifted her head and screwed her face up at the stiff feeling in her neck. Ignoring the ache that came with even the slightest movement, she scanned the room in search of any clues as to where she was. Her eyes fell upon the pipe that she'd previously heard dripping. It was made of plastic, and the water was dripping down through a crack, forming a puddle on the floor. There was a sticker upon the pipe, but even while squinting, the letters were too small to be read from her distance.

Giving up on trying to read it, she kept looking around until she saw a fire escape door. It was chained from the inside by rusty, worn out chains that had obviously been there a long time. Other than the leaking pipe, the chained up fire exit, and the chair she was tied to, there was nothing to see, nothing to tell her where she was, and she didn't even know if she was still in Smallville.
____________________________________

Chloe didn't notice when Clark and Peter entered the room until their shadows invaded the light that seeped through the blinds. She stopped typing on the computer in front of her and glanced up at them with curious eyes.

"If you came to ask about that rock, the results aren't back yet. It'll be at least another few hours."

"Hello to you too, Chloe." Peter greeted her. "And that's not why we're here."

"Oh." She mouthed. "If you came to hang out, I'm sorry but I've got an article to finish."

"We didn't." Clark shook his head.

"Lois hasn't been home all night." Peter informed her. "We thought that she might be with you."

Chloe rolled her eyes, smirked, and folded her arms across her chest. "Nope. Not here, as you can see…" She stated. "But after what you, Clark Kent, pulled, I'm not surprised that she didn't go back to the farm."

Peter scowled. "Wait, how much do you know?"

"Well, she messaged me from the Talon last night. She said something about you standing her up." Chloe explained. "I didn't check until over an hour later because I was working on this article, but when I did reply she didn't text back. I just assumed she'd gone home to kick your ass."

"I didn't stand her up!" Peter denied.

"You asked her on a date and then didn't show up so… yeah, you did stand her up." Chloe argued. "Not that it's any of my business, but why, Clark? Just why would you do something like that?"

"I was-"

"Please don't tell me that you stood her up because of Lana, I still haven't forgotten our date when you ditched me to go find Lana."

"It has nothing to do with Lana, and I had to save her life, and that's the only reason I ditched you that night!" Clark blurted suddenly.

Both Peter and Chloe shot him a look as he stood there in shock over what he'd just done. Clark looked from one to the other and his eyes finally settled on Peter, who knew exactly what he was thinking and gave him an approving nod.

"Chloe, it's me." He admitted.

"Clark?" She questioned.

"I know that it sounds crazy, but yeah." He sighed. "The other night at the party, during that attack, we somehow got body swapped."

Chloe's face lit up with humour as she listened to his explanation. She had no doubt, after everything she'd seen in Smallville, that he was telling her the truth and not trying to excuse his behaviour. She'd known something was off when she'd stopped by the barn the day before and he wasn't acting like himself. It explained a lot.

"In this town, crazy is normal.' She dismissed. "So, if you're Clark then that must make you-"

"Peter." He finished for her. "Hi."

"And I'm guessing that's why you needed my help finding the identity of the party crasher."

"That's right." Clark confirmed.

"But you came looking for Lois?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know if it's because she's pissed at me, but I have a bad feeling." He explained.

"Hmm…  why don't we try and retrace her steps after she left the Talon?" Chloe suggested.

"I'm not Sherlock Holmes!" Clark scoffed.

"No, but you have a habit of showing up at the right place at the right time and that counts for something."

"It's worth a shot, I guess." He agreed. "We should move now."

The Talon…

Clark's face fell as he spotted Lana leaning over the counter. With Chloe and Peter on either side of him, making a run for it was not an option. Aside from that, they weren't there for no good reason. It was Chloe that had suggested that they come inside and dig for any information.

"I'm going to go poke a few bears, see if I can get anything." She informed the two of them and walked over to her first target; a blonde girl whom Clark recognised from their high-school.

"Uh oh, Lana alert!" Peter muttered.

Clark frowned, but before he could move, Lana was standing in front of the two of them. He gave Peter a nudge, and the latter cleared his throat.

"Lana." He greeted her coldly, knowing how things were between them.

"I don't even know what to say, it sounds so lame but I'm sorry, Clark. For the other night and for everything, I guess I never realized how much I was hurting you."

Peter glanced at Clark out of the corner of his eye, and then looked back at Lana. He didn't know what to say or do, and the decision that had to be made needed to come from Clark.

"Well?" She prompted.

"Lana, I really- I'm kind of busy right now, can we talk about this later?" Peter asked.

"Oh, okay." She agreed. "When?"

"Uhh… how does tomorrow sound?"

"Sure, I'll stop by the farm." She nodded.

"Thanks." Peter concluded.

Lana turned around and walked away in a haste. Clark let out a breath of relief, and flashed a small smile at Peter. He was grateful that he'd managed to handle this one thing without messing up, though he knew he would be dealing with Lana later. Before he could put any more thought on the subject, Chloe came bouncing up to them.

"That was surprisingly easy." She began.

"Find anything helpful?" Clark inquired.

"So, I've spoken to a few people, Lana included, and she mentioned that Lois left this place just before eight."

"Then… she should have been back by at least nine."

"Clark, couldn't you just ask your mom to see the CCTV footage around that time?" Chloe suggested.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. She runs this place, but she doesn't have that power."

"Maybe she doesn't need it. If we can sneak in the back, we can access it ourselves." Peter suggested.

"True, but we're gonna need a distraction… this place is swarming with high school girls and all."

Peter grinned. "Leave it to me."

"What are you up to?" Clark asked, suspicious of the Cheshire cat grin on his face.

Peter wiggled his eyebrows and then lifted his blue t-shirt up over his head. Clark's mouth hung open and he watched, utterly speechless as the former went on to remove his jeans, leaving only a pair of checkered boxers on his person. Much to Clark's horror, he climbed up onto one of the vacant tables, put his fingers in his mouth and whistled. The sound cut through all other noise in the Talon, causing both waitresses and customers to turn their heads. With haste, he clamped his hand over Chloe's eyes, embarrassed as a crowd began to gather around the table, watching with a mix of amusement and shock as Peter danced around in his body.

"Get down from there!" He demanded in a loud whisper.

Peter shook his head and gestured towards the door to the back, which was left unguarded. Several screams and cheers erupted from half the girls in the crowd, along with the yelling of the waiting staff, making Clark's decision for him. Grabbing Chloe by the arm, he pulled her subtly towards the back room and sighed when they made it through the door without being spotted.

"Damn, Clark. Who knew what you were hiding underneath all that flannel?" Chloe grinned.

Clark felt the heat rise to his cheeks. "Let's make it a thing to never speak of this again."

"You're just lucky that Lois isn't around to witness it." She laughed.

"Heh, too late. She's already seen it all."

"Wait, like… all of it?" Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. The whole package." He answered. "And not in the way you're thinking."

"So… you stripped for her?"

"No." He responded. "Hmm, we should try and lock the door."

Clark examined his wrists, specifically eyeing the metal web shooters that he hadn't noticed until the night before. Peter had mentioned the ability, but it'd never crossed his mind to use it. Until now. Narrowing his eyes, he balled his fist, aimed it towards the door and pressed the button to activate the shooter. A wen shot out, but fell to the floor before it could reach its target. Clark aimed his wrist again, this time folding his middle and index finger inwards and pointing only his thumb, index and pinky finger out towards his target. Activating the shooter again, a new web shot out. This time, it attached itself to the door and rendered the handle unusable.

"Uhh… you might want to use one of those webs to blind the camera…" Chloe suggested, and pointed up in the top right corner, where a camera with a blinking red light was watching them.

He smirked and aimed his wrist up towards the camera, shooting another web and watching as it attached itself to the camera. To ensure that it could not be seen through, he shot one more that landed directly on top of the first.

"That should do it." He commented, admiring his handiwork. "We should move now, I doubt Peter's strip dance will keep them busy for long."

"I don't know so much with a body like that." Chloe smirked.

"Still, we don't have the time to hang around." He insisted.

Side by side, they moved stealthily down the short hallway until they reached another door at the end with a sign attached to the front that read 'Authorized Personnel Only' in bold red letters. Clark reached out and tried the handle, but it didn't budge. Chloe nudged him with her hip and he stepped aside, watching curiously as she reached inside her pocket and pulled out a Bobby pin. She gave him a wry smile and inserted it into the lock. With a bit of twisting and fiddling, she managed to unlock the door.

"Do I even want to know where you learned that?" He questioned.

"I don't think so." She shook her head as she opened the door.

Clark followed behind her into the room. It was no bigger than a closet, with only a desk, an office chair, and two computer monitors occupying it. They exchanged a glance and Chloe sat down in the chair, and pulled it closer to the desk. Clark leaned over her shoulder, resting his arm on the edge of the surface as she dug into the files from the previous night.

"Let's see… seven, seven thirty… Lana said she left just before eight, right?"

"Yeah." Clark confirmed. "Perhaps we should start from seven forty-five and go through there."

"Hmm." She hummed in agreement. "Okay, and for now let's focus on the inside camera so we can pinpoint the exact time she left."

"Right, we should hurry. It's been over five minutes and I don't want my body being ogled by everyone for too much longer."

"On it." She stated firmly and clicked on a clip from the inside camera in the time frame they were aiming for.

The two of them fell silent as they focused on the computer monitor in front of them. It wasn't hard to spot Lois among the many people caught on tape as she was seated fairly near to the camera, and their eyes followed her as she got up to leave, as she conversed with Lana, and then disappeared from the camera's range.

"The outside front camera?" Clark suggested.

"Just getting to it." She told him, and clicked on another clip from another camera.

Chloe pressed play on the clip and they refocused on the screen in front of them. This time, the camera showed Lois leaving the Talon and stalking down the street, though what caught their attention was the person behind her.

"Pause it." Clark instructed.

"Okay." She said, and tapped the space bar, pausing the clip.

"Now zoom in." He added. "I have a feeling that whoever is following her here is the same person who crashed Lex's party."

"And responsible for Lois not coming home last night?"

"Yep. That too." He nodded.

Holding down the control button and Z button together, the screen was zoomed into the footage. Chloe adjusted the clip so that they could get a better look at the person following Lois.

"No way…" Clark gasped.

"It can't be him…" Chloe frowned. "He's dead."

"This has to be a trick."
____________________________________

Barely conscious, Lois looked up through hooded eyes at the figure standing in front of her. He wore a mask and a hood, preventing her from seeing any of their features. She wasn't sure how long she had been tied to the chair either, as time was something that didn't exist in a room with no windows, but each second felt more like a minute.

Since she'd been there, the hooded figure had been in and out of the room several times, yet they'd made no attempt to speak to her and no move to harm her. This time, they'd returned with a plastic cup with a lid on top and a straw poking out of the top, and now they were holding in front of her face. If she could speak, which she couldn't due to the sandpaper feeling in her throat, she'd have told them to shove it.

"Drink." They hissed. "You can't die, I need you as bait."

Lois didn't. No matter how dry her mouth was, she didn't trust them or their drink offer. She would rather be dehydrated than chance drinking from the cup in front of her, and shook her head defiantly.

"Fine. Don't drink." They gave up, placing the cup on the floor beside the chair leg. "Just don't die before Clark gets here… you're no good as bait if you die."

All remaining thoughts in her head evaporated without a trace as it finally clicked with her, the reason she was there. Whoever they were, they didn't want her. They wanted Clark. In those seconds, she pushed through the dryness in her mouth and found her voice.

"Then you- She broke off, coughing as dust filled her mouth. "You picked the wrong hostage."

"Ahhh, at last, she speaks." They laughed. "But I can assure you, I picked exactly the right person."

"No." She denied. "Clark can't stand me… you're wasting your time."

"So what if I am? If you die before he comes, I'll just grab another…"

"Even if he does come, what exactly do you plan to do? My guess is that you've underestimated him."

"When he does come for you, I'm gonna kill him."

"For no reason?" She raised an eyebrow. "Kind of random."

"No, because then I'll be the most powerful person in Smallville and everyone will see me as the hero."

Lois couldn't help but laugh. "You're delusional… heroes don't earn the title by pretending to be the good guy…"

"And what is it that makes me any different from Clark?"

"The difference…" She started. "He has one thing that you don't."

"And what would that be?"

"A heart."

"Hearts don't make you strong, they drag you down and weaken you." They snapped. "Better watch what you're saying… I wouldn't want to have to ruin that pretty face of yours."

"Burn in Hell." She smirked.