Before Lex had come to live with the Kents, he'd been on quite a few vacations. He'd been to half the theme parks in the country, and he'd seen more countries than he could count. One of very, very few downsides to living with the Kents was that they really didn't travel at all. As much as he enjoyed staying at home, and as much as it had sometimes been frustrating to move around so much, he sometimes missed traveling.

But he thought the county fair kind of made up for it.

The county fair ran for a month that went through a couple of weeks in June and a couple in July. The Kents always had to be there to sell produce at the farmer's market in the fair—they'd missed the summer before because of Lex's adoption, but they went most years—and they brought in a few of their more impressive animals. But they didn't make Clark and Lex help out the entire time; the kids were free for much of the day to wander around the fair, as long as they promised to stay together.

It was big and crowded, but the people were really friendly on the whole. The concerts weren't anywhere near as good as others he had seen, in terms of musical quality, but they were much, much better in that everyone was there to have fun rather than to be critics. Martha made better food at home, but the fair had more food, and more junk food than they were usually allowed. No one was around to limit them, and several of the food booths were family friends who would give Clark and Lex free samples whenever they came around. Lex assumed they wouldn't be able to afford the rides, but one of Jonathan's friends gave both Clark and Lex wristbands that lasted the season, and he didn't charge them.

And unlike at school, no one treated Lex like he was weird or didn't belong.

It was the first day of the third week of the fair, and today was the best day. Because the roller coaster was finally open!

They'd started setting it up on the first day, but there had been some technical difficulties. And now it was ready.

Clark's dad had checked and double checked at home. Clark was four feet tall, just tall enough to ride. His parents were going to be busy with the produce, but they said Lex could take him to ride it after they helped their parents load in for the day.

Once everything was loaded in, Clark was almost bouncing on his toes, wanting to run over to the ride. But his mom kept Lex back for a minute. "It's a busier day today," she said. "You're going to have to keep a close eye on him."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You don't split up. If you have to hold hands going through the crowds—"

"I know, Martha, I promise I'll take care of him."

"I know you will, I just don't want him getting lost."

"You can trust me."

She kissed each of them on the forehead. "I know I can, sweetie." She looked down at Clark. "Have fun. And if it's too scary, you don't have to go."

He gave her a funny look. There was no way he was going to get too scared to go on that ride. He'd been looking forward to it for two whole weeks!

They took off then. Clark ran a little faster than Lex did, but he could hear Lex keeping up behind him. They had to get there before there was too much of a line.

It looked amazing. It was bright red and blue, it went up really high before dropping down super fast, and it even had an upside down part. And the crowds were starting to pick up, but they were just early enough that there was only a short line!

The attendant ushered Lex inside immediately, but he stopped Clark. "Sorry, son, you have to be at least this tall."

Clark looked up at the measuring stick. It was just above his head. "But . . . I am tall enough!"

Lex cleared his throat. "Sir, we measured him at home. He's exactly four feet tall. I think your measuring stick is off."

"This is the one they gave me, and it's the one I have to use. It's for his own safety." He smiled sadly at Clark. "Next year, kid."

Clark felt like his heart was sinking into his stomach. He wanted to cry. He had been so excited!

Lex gently took his hand and led him away from the ride, into the crowds. "It's okay, Clark, it's probably not that great anyway."

"Yes it is! And it's not fair, I'm tall enough! Besides, I won't get hurt!"

"I know, but I'm not going to be able to convince him. Maybe later, we can get Dad to talk to the guy."

Clark sniffled. He doubted his dad was going to be able to convince the guy, either.

"Hey, you want churros for breakfast?"

"No."

"You want to ride the ferris wheel?"

"Maybe later."

"Want to see the horses?"

"I dunno . . ." Clark didn't feel like doing anything now. His whole day was ruined. The whole summer, probably. Maybe even his whole life.

"Well, let's go back to Mom and Dad. They'll know what to do."

Clark nodded, and he tried to follow Lex back, but his legs didn't want to move fast anymore, and the whole crowd was blurry because of the tears in his eyes. Soon, he fell behind.

He called, "Lex?" but his voice was all choked up, and he wasn't anywhere loud enough to be heard over the crowds of people. He took a few steps forward, and then turned, then turned again. Soon, he was completely turned around. He couldn't remember his way back to his parents' booth, either; this was his first time at the section of the fair that had the roller coaster.

He ran in one direction, then another. His eyes filled with tears even worse than before, and he was having a hard time seeing his way around.

He was completely lost.

Lex turned around to take Clark's hand, remembering what Martha had said about walking through crowds, but Clark wasn't there.

He ran back toward the roller coaster—maybe Clark had gone back to try to talk to the guy. But he wasn't there.

He went to the bathrooms. The churro stand. The ferris wheel. The stables. Clark just wasn't anywhere. His heart sped up so fast it was hurting his chest, and his breathing felt like it was stopped completely.

Finally, he did what he really, really didn't want to do. He went back to the Kents' produce stand.

He forced himself to take a deep breath when they were in view. This was it. He'd messed up before, but he'd never messed up this badly. He'd lost their son. Their real son. He'd always known all of this was too good to be true, that eventually he'd mess up and lose it all. He'd always been very, very careful not to force that day to come. But now it had, and there was nothing he could do about it.

His eyes watered, and his legs shook as he approached the stand.

Martha didn't have to ask Lex what had happened. It was clear as day from the look on his face. Her sons hadn't taken her advice to hold hands while walking through the crowds, and now they'd gotten separated.

But as she watched the look on his face, the blood having drained away and eyes teary, she knew she'd gone the wrong direction that morning. Clark tended to get very scared when he was lost in a crowd, so she wanted to avoid it if at all possible, but there wasn't any real danger to him. Half the people who were working at the fair were family friends of the Kents. As soon as someone saw Clark looking panicked and took him over to the nearest booth for help, he'd be fine.

Lex, on the other hand, was not fine.

Martha alerted Jonathan right away. "Honey, looks like Clark got lost. Can you go find him? I'm going to talk to Lex."

"Didn't you tell them to stay together?" Jonathan asked, without looking up from the bag of produce he was putting together.

"I think they tried. Lex looks like the world is ending."

Jonathan sighed. "I'll go find the little guy."

"See you in a bit."

Jonathan left the stand, and Martha gave a nod to their assistant, while she herself went to meet Lex a little ways before he reached the stand. He was shaking, terror in his eyes.

She put a gentle hand on his back, and he flinched. "I—I'm so sorry, Mrs. Kent, I tried to watch him—"

"It's okay, sweetie, come here."

He looked every bit like a man walking to the gallows as she led him into the storage tent.

As soon as they were alone, tears filled his eyes. "I don't—I can't fix this."

"Jonathan is going to find your brother."

"He's not my brother anymore. I lost him. Just like . . ." He began to hyperventilate.

She lightly tapped the side of his head with two fingers. "Hey. Hey. Look at me."

Lex's eyes moved towards her, though she felt like he was looking through her. She tapped his temple, just a bit more firmly, and his eyes focused.

"He's going to be fine. It was crowded out there, there was nothing you could do. It could have happened to anyone. I wouldn't have sent you out alone with him if I thought he would be permanently lost just because you two were separated for a minute."

"S-so you're not mad at me?"

"Of course not." She looked him deeper in the eyes and said firmly, "You're a great big brother."

He nodded, holding back his tears even as his shoulders hitched.

She pulled him into her arms and whispered, "It's okay, it's okay. I've got you." She held onto him for as long as it took for the shaking to stop, and she kissed the side of his head before letting go.

Jonathan found Clark curled up beside a hot dog stand, face buried in his knees. It wasn't hard to predict that that was where he would be. The summer before last, that was where he'd always gone, the three times he'd gotten lost.

"Son." Jonathan put a hand on Clark's head. Clark jumped up and leapt into his arms. Jonathan easily picked him up. "You gave Lex a bit of a scare, kiddo."

"Sorry, Dad."

"I know." He rubbed the boy's back and let go, setting him down and walking beside him as they headed back to the produce stand. "What happened?"

"We were coming back to you, and we got lost in the crowd."

"How was the roller coaster?"

Clark sniffed. "We didn't get to go on it. The guy said I was too short, even though I know I'm not."

Jonathan frowned. He'd have to talk to them about that. His measuring stick had actually read Clark to be a little taller than four feet.

The assistant was running the produce stand when they returned. Jonathan opened the flap to the storage tent, and Clark ran inside and into Lex's arms. Lex clung onto him so tightly that Jonathan would have told him to ease off, if Clark hadn't had powers. He almost told Clark to ease off, since he was pretty sure he heard something pop in Lex's back, but Lex didn't seem to mind in the least.

When Lex was finally able to calm down, Jonathan walked the two of them over to the roller coaster. He had a short talk with the guy at the front, and the man allowed both of them to get onto the ride. Lex had never seen Clark grin as widely as he did as the lap belt was lowered into place.

It was awful.

Lex had been on good roller coasters before. This one jerked around too hard, and it felt rickety, like it wasn't going to hold together. It was scary in the wrong way. He was sure it was safe, if Jonathan was okay with them riding it, but it felt terrible to ride.

Still, Lex forced a smile as they got off the ride. If Clark liked it, Lex was going to ride it as many times as he had to.

Clark felt dizzy as he stepped off the ride. He'd gripped onto the lap bar so hard, there were little dents in it from his fingers.

Mom had been right. That ride was way too scary. But there was no way he was going to admit that to Lex.

"That was fun, right?" Lex said.

"Yeah!" Clark said.

"Do you want to go again?"

He took a deep breath. He had to go, for his brother. "Okay! Maybe after lunch?"

"Awesome," Lex said, though for some reason, he didn't really smile.