Clark woke up early when his dad came in to get Lex. Clark started to get up to start chores, but his dad just told him to go back to sleep for awhile, since he'd been up so late the night before. Lex gave Clark a slight smile, but he limped on the way out of the room. Clark crawled up into the bed and tried to fall asleep, but he couldn't—he was already wide awake, and he was worried about his older brothers. After a few minutes, he tiptoed down the hall and went to sit at the top of the stairs.

Dean stood at the kitchen sink, washing the eggs Clark's mom had collected from the chickens the day before. Lex stood at the counter juicing lemons—Clark's mom made the best lemonade in the world. He smiled a little to himself—being grounded to the house was one of the nicer punishments on the Kent farm. Clark's parents usually assigned house chores when Clark was still upset or hurting over whatever had happened. Mom was always so nice to him, even when she was angry. When Dad gave him extra outside chores or took away privileges, Clark tried to behave better to avoid it happening again; but when it was Mom who disciplined him, he did better because he couldn't stand the thought of disobeying his parents again.

Clark's mom put a gentle hand on Dean's back and spoke to him quietly for a minute, then she did the same to Lex. Clark smiled. They were going to be okay.

Clark's dad called him down for breakfast a few minutes later. Everyone else at the table looked exhausted. Clark figured he was lucky because of his powers. He was never tired. He sometimes got bored and told his dad he was tired, though. Dad got upset when Clark said he was bored from chores, but he gave Clark a break if he said he was tired of them.

Dean and Lex had to stay in the house and wash the dishes from breakfast, but Clark and Sam went out to take care of the horses.

The morning before, Sam had hurried straight to the barn, eager to see the animals. Today, he stopped on their way. "What's out that way?" Sam pointed out in the direction of the abandoned warehouse that Pete always used to dare Clark to go into.

Clark shifted his weight. "Um, nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Lots more cornfields, some trees."

Sam gave Clark a look.

Clark sighed. "And a creepy warehouse I hate."

"That scary?"

"No!" Clark wasn't usually scared of anything, since he was too strong and fast for anything to hurt him, but that warehouse had made him feel so nervous, he'd wanted to throw up. Even more nervous than he felt when Lana was around—and one time, he actually had thrown up when he tried to go talk to Lana. But he didn't want Sam to think he was a wuss.

"Mm." Sam squinted in its direction. "How far off, do you think?"

"I dunno. A couple of miles?" The day after his last birthday, Clark had gotten his mile time down to a minute, but it took him almost five minutes to run out to where the warehouse was and back.

"Hm."

"Um, do you want to explore the town after dinner? Dean is grounded to the house, so you won't have to do your training. We could go explore instead of playing basketball."

"That's okay, Clark. I'd really like to see the warehouse."

Clark stood up a little straighter. "I can show you. I'm not scared!"

Sam frowned, looking him over.

"I'm super brave. And I know the way. You'll get lost if you try to go out in the cornfields and the trees on your own, it's kind of like a maze."

"It could be dangerous, though."

"Then why do you want to go?"

"Because . . ." Sam sighed. "I think there might be clues about where my dad is."

"Oh!" Clark bounced on his toes. "I want to help you!"

"No, Clark—"

"If I come with you, we can ride on horseback. Dad won't let you take a horse by yourself."

"He'll let you take one by yourself, though?"

Clark nodded. His dad had said he wasn't worried about it, because of his strength and because he'd been around the horses since he was little.

"Hm." Sam began to pace. "I don't know, Clark. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I won't! If anything dangerous happens, we can make the horses run away really fast!" The horses weren't faster than Clark, but they were a lot faster than his dad.

"I've . . . never ridden a horse before," Sam said.

"Oh. Well, it's not that hard." Clark remembered that Pete had had a hard time when they first started, but Sam was a lot older. It would probably be easy for him, at least if they were walking.

Sam crossed his arms, looking down. He glanced out in the direction of the warehouse again, then over at Clark. "You promise to run away if anything is dangerous?"

"I promise." Clark wondered why Sam was so worried—the warehouse was spooky, but it wasn't actually dangerous.

"Even if you don't think anything is that bad. If I say it's dangerous, you'll run away?"

"Um, sure." Clark figured he didn't have much of a choice but to promise. Sam wouldn't let him come otherwise. And Clark really wanted to help Sam and Dean find their dad. It would mean they had to leave sooner, but if Clark was helpful enough, maybe their dad would let them visit next summer or even at Christmastime.

Sam nodded slowly. "Okay. After dinner."

Clark grinned.