...the Kent barn, where Clark is racing up the steps up in a panic. He stops when he sees Lois sitting on the floor in front of a mirror, mascara streaking her face. She's sniffling and sobbing as she clutches Clark's old football jersey to her chest. Her neat updo has been undone in waves of despair. Again, I ask: Whose idea of "traditional" is this? "What's the emergency?" he asks. "Oh, um, f-false alarm," she blubbers. He approaches her with great caution. Man, she is a veritable ball of snot. "You seem kind of...?" Clark can't quite find the right word, so Lois finishes for him: "Kind of pathetic." She stands up and rips off her pearls and apron, blubbering all the while about what a joke it all is. "You're not yourself right now," Clark says, comically horrified. She just cries harder. "Chloe was right to protect you from me," she sniffs. Clark thinks Chloe's just overprotective sometimes, but Lois thinks she was right this time. "She said that I was gonna wreck us, and she's right," Lois says. She cries that doesn't know anything about family time or home-cooked meals. Or waterproof mascara, for that matter. Clark comforts her by saying he's glad she's opening up to him, but there's something else going on here. Man, just tell her the truth, jerkface! Lois sniffles and grows calmer. "I've made a fool of myself long enough," she says with a catch in her voice. It hurts her too much to be around Clark. "I have to leave you." She packs up her suitcase and starts down the stairs. But this is her home, Clark protests. "No, a home is for real," she says. "For always and forever." He takes a breath and promises her they'll be together. "Always." "Do you mean it?" she asks. He does. She drops her suitcase and goes to kiss him. She's all smiles as she lays her cheek against his chest. "I guess we can move my stuff out of the guest room now," she sighs. Clark looks worried.