Sam was starting to settle into his new life in Smallville rather well.

He still didn’t remember any more than he had the first day he woke up there, and Lois, in her own special way, tried to help him, but whatever this was, it wasn’t going to break anytime soon. The doctors weren’t sure what it was, other than a pretty severe case of retrograde amnesia, and since it wasn’t causing any major health problems for him, they were willing to let it be for now. He was just the man who couldn’t remember. Given that he wasn’t around people who were claiming he knew him? He can’t really say he minded. He was sure that if there were people, telling him that he should be remembering things that he wasn’t he would be pretty frustrating, but in Smallville, no one seemed to know him, or claim to know him. He wasn’t expected to remember. He could just be Sam.

That didn’t mean that Lois wasn’t trying to find out who he really belonged to. She was determined, almost like a pitbull in that respect. “No one has no one, Sam,” she’d say to him every time he teased her for it. “There’s someone looking for you somewhere. We just have to find them. And then you can go home, and I can get back to life as I know it.”

(At first she was serious. Now when she said it, there wasn’t as much heart in it. He pretended that he didn’t notice, but when it came to Lois, there was little that he didn’t.)

Regardless of Lois’s opinions on the subject, Sam wasn’t looking forward to leaving anytime soon. Despite being near nothing familiar, he was learning new things about himself every day. He was good with computers, good with research. He actually liked research, which lead to Lois getting him a job as a fact checker at the Daily Planet. It wasn’t the most interesting work in the world, but it was something for him to do during the day, other than watching daytime soaps.

(He didn’t know why he was so drawn in to All my Children. There was something about it that made him feel nostalgic and sad, all at the same time. Even when he was working, he slipped it onto Lois’s TiVo anyway—he wanted to keep feeling that feeling, to try and figure out what it meant.)

( *** )

He wakes up in a field in the middle of nowhere.

That's all he knows.

He doesn't know his name, where he is, or where he's been, but he knows that he's here, in this field, and the field is made of corn. That's all he really needs to know. Well, no, that isn't entirely true. His name would be very helpful. But for right now, he knows that there's a field. There's corn. And he's got this nagging feeling that he's not where he's supposed to be.

He pushes himself to his feet slowly, trying to find some kind of sign to tell him where he is or what he's supposed to be doing there. He catches the flash of headlights, and something in his brain tells him that there's a road there. He dusts himself off and starts stumbling forward, looking for that car, to see if he can get some kind of help.

Every instinct he has screams that this is wrong, but he doesn't know why. He just wants some answers. Maybe that will trigger something. He stumbles out into the street, waves a hand, and tries to get the oncoming car to stop.

Maybe they'll be able to tell him something he doesn't know.

In fact, he's pretty sure they will.