Clark and Lexy attended to the chores after breakfast, and finished most of them by the time the Kents and Larry returned after lunch. They got out of the car, carried their luggage into the house and took it upstairs. They came downstairs to find Clark in the living room, updating farm records.

"How'd it go?" Jonathan asked Clark.

"Quiet, Pa," he said. "How was the party?"

"Ask Larry," Jonathan said.

Clark looked at Larry.

"It was great, Clark. We played games, and swam in the pond, and told stories around a fire." The boy sighed. "Kansas is wonderful. New Barzon is, too. I hope Kandor is this cool." Clark laughed.

Lexy came in the living room. "Hey, yall. Martha, sad to say the white hen died and we buried her behind the barn. The black hen is sitting on two eggs, but of course they won't hatch because there's no rooster.

"That black hen was always broody," said Martha. "Jonathan, why don't we get some birds or new hatches from Elijah Carvin, if he has them? He sells them."

"Sure."

"I need to go to town," said Clark. "Want me to pick some up on the way back?"

"Sure."

Four hours later Clark drove back from Smallville with Larry, who wanted to go to the library. A half-grown rooster, not yet sporting adult feathers, and ten eggs, which Elijah promised would hatch in a week, were in the truck bed. Larry was leafing through a book on football when he suddenly said, "Clark! Stop! Look at that."

Clark looked on Larry's side and saw a dead nanny goat with one dead kid and another bleating beside it. He pulled the truck over and he and Larry walked over to the animals. The kid backed off, bleating for its mother.

"Looks like they got hit by something," Clark said.

"Yeah, too bad. What are you going to do about that little one? We can't leave him here."

"Her. That's a nanny, not a billy. We'll take her with us. Don't know of anyone around who has goats. They may have wandered a long way."

"To end here. Travelers like us." Larry went after the kid, but she backed away. He put on some superspeed, and caught the kid. She bleated louder for her mother. Larry said. "If we put it in the truck bed, it might jump out." He waited for Clark's answer.

Clark managed not to grin and said, "Can you hold it in the car? You'll need to get in the back seat."

"Sure," said Larry, holding the little nanny so she couldn't wriggle away, the warm, little body snug against him. Clark opened the door to the back seat of the cab and Larry climbed in. Clark shut the door and got behind the wheel. He drove back to the farm, the kid's bleats fading away as it settled down and waited for whatever would happen next.

*

Larry put the kid in a small pen at the farm while Clark went to get Jonathan. The kid stood there silently, watching Larry until the men returned. He tried to coax her over but she wouldn't come to him.

Jonathan caught the kid and examined her.
"She looks healthy, well-fed, about 5-6 weeks old." Jonathan put the kid down and it moved away from him. "I don't know anyone hereabouts who keeps goats. I'll post a note at the feed store and see if someone wants a goat."

Larry's face fell. "I suppose that's best for her."

Jonathan patted his shoulder. "Goats are herd animals. She really needs other goats for company. You can care for her till we find her a home, if you like. She'll need a bottle three or four times a day." Martha walked up behind them.

"Can I?" Larry's face lit up. "I had a pet cat on New Barzon. Is there a bottle?" Where can I get goat's milk for her?"

"She can drink whole cow's milk. We've got enough in the fridge," said Martha. "We don't have a bottle, but I we can work something out." Martha looked at the goat. "Let's go in the kitchen and see."

A half hour later, Larry tried to coax the kid to eat with a plastic soda bottle with a nipple made from a rubber glove. The goat fussed, but drank some milk. Larry filled a bucket with water, and the goat drank a little. Jonathan came over with a bale of straw, and spread it in a corner, making a nest for the goat.

"She'll need milk again at seven and ten. Then in the morning."

"OK," said Larry, watching the goat check out the straw.

*

Saturday night arrived at long last for Lexy, and then passed so quickly. She, the Kents, and Larry went to Smallville Hall and joined the Rosses. They switched partners for several dances. "Our dance," Clark said to Lexy. He held out his hand. They walked onto the dance floor. The music began and they danced. They danced for several songs, until the Kansas Astras took a break.

"Let's get some fresh air," Clark said. They got ice water from the refreshment table and walked out the back exit of the Hall. They sat on a bench, watching couples and groups meander around the lawn behind the Hall. Larry and the Ross triplets strolled around, and a few couples were making out on other benches.

"I've got to go back to Metropolis tomorrow. I won't be able to come back to Smallville for the weekends, but I'll be here on the 18th and 19th." He finished his water. "The storms are arriving in other planets in the system, and the Labs want me to help check them out."

Lexy took his hand, cool from the icy water. "That's important. Not just for me returning home. I...I'll miss you. There's tonight." She looked at him. "Your parents and Larry are in the house. I don't want to sneak around, you know, behind their backs."

Clark looked up at the stars, so far and so bright. "They know I like you." I'm sure Ma suspects how much. He looked at the ground.

"We've only got a few weeks, but if you knocked at my window in the night, I'd let you in."

Lexy looked up at Clark, who leaned closer and said, "I can do that."

*

The days passed quickly. Larry named the goat, Buttercup. She fattened quickly and took to following Larry around the farm when she could get out of her pen, which happened oftener and oftener as she grew. She'd race after Larry when he practiced the exercises Clark had given him to train his new abilities. He'd run fast enough to take flight for a few yards, with Buttercup chasing and calling to him. He practiced lifting an old tractor with Buttercup sometimes climbing on it.

Lexy helped Martha can food from the garden, paint the chicken coop Jonathan and Larry repaired, and cook. The black hen hatched seven chicks and led them around the farm to scratch. The young cockerel began to fluff out adult feathers and to crow, and the other hen followed him.

One night Lexy was reading in bed when she heard Clark's tap on the window. She went to the window and saw him, in Superman blue with red cape, floating against the sky. She leaned out, kissed him, and pulled him in the room.

*

Jonathan and Martha inspected the repairs to the coop when he said, "I think Clark likes Lexy more than he'll let on. She'll return to her planet in a few weeks. Shame. She seems to like him, genuinely like him, too."

"I haven't seen Clark this content since he was a senior in high school and dating Lana. Lois ripped him apart, using him to get to Superman. If that woman had only bothered to get to know Clark. The real Clark, not just the Superman version. Our boy." Martha wriggled a perch, nodding when it proved firm.

"Then there would have been hell to pay. She'd put up with Clark to have Superman. He's our boy, Clark, who does super things. He'd never have been happy with her, always trying to live up to some fantasy in her mind, and knowing he never could."

"So right." Martha tested another perchp for the hens. "We could keep about a dozen hens in here."

"The chicks will grow." Jonathan filled a water feeder for the hens. "Do you think she likes him?"

"I think she loves him." Martha tapped a perch, absently. "The hen hatched five roosters and two hens. Lexy told me she needs to go back to donate marrow to her niece, Sadie, who has cancer. That is, if STAR Labs can actually send her back. If not, she'd stay here, but perhaps at the cost of Sadie's life."

"Cockerels make good fried chicken. The hens will hatch more eggs. I wonder Clark doesn't try to see more of her, while he can."

Martha smirked. "He does. I woke up one night and went downstairs for warm milk. I came upstairs to hear him flying away. Remember, you used to sneak out at, before we got married. Your parents were strict about us staying together here."

"Maybe I'll tell Clark we know he comes to see her, and we're fine with it."

Martha put her hand on Jonathan's arm. "I think you should."