I started the week off by cancelling a dinner date with Helen.

I ended it by proposing to her.

The first time I saw her this week, it was to cancel the lunch date we had following the dinner. She was in her office talking to an ex-boyfriend named Paul Hayden. He offered to take the lunch in my place, but as it turned out Helen couldn't have kept the date, anyway. She was paged, and I was left alone with Hayden who sneered that I should hold onto her, if I could.

I decided to take his advice.

But not before I almost killed him.

I'm jumping ahead a bit, however. Before any of that happened, I was dealing with Lana. She'd been assaulted at the Talon, and Clark, in defending her, had gotten himself in trouble. I stopped by to check on them both, and startled Lana simply by placing a hand on her shoulder. She admitted she was feeling a bit vulnerable. I told her I understood, but she didn't seem to believe that I could have any experience with vulnerability.

Perhaps she hasn't noticed the many, many, many occasions I've spent as someones hostage and/or punching bag.

Rather than point out the obvious and make her feel even worse than she already was, I told her about some bullies I'd dealt with in my younger years. I'd gotten my father's chauffeur to train me to fight, and after learning fought back. Lana said she didn't think she was capable of hurting anyone, but I told her it wasn't about hurting people -- it was about feeling safe.

She agreed to stop by the mansion the next day for a few tips.

I was on my way home when Helen called me, and said her car wouldn't start. So I went by the hospital, and I found Hayden once again hovering over her. I removed her from the situation as quickly as possible, and warned Hayden that it would be in his best interests to stop stalking my girlfriend. He claimed he was just being friendly, I told him I'd let my mechanic be the judge of that. As soon as I dropped Helen off, I called security and put someone on Hayden.

The next morning I got another call from Helen. Hayden was in the hospital, and was claiming I beat him up. I stopped by to talk to the police and Helen, and tried to get Helen to see how dangerous this guy was. She shrugged it off, but admitted the reason she broke up with Hayden in the first place was because his ex had warned her of his violent nature.

I should have put security on her, instead of Hayden, then. But Helen has always been strangely defensive about my interfering with her life, even when it is for her own good. So I did nothing, and left her alone at the hospital to get some coffee before my meeting with Lana.

I ended up getting some for Clark, too. He was outside the Talon picking up litter in lieu of assault charges. I'd have kept him company longer, but Lana was waiting for me at the mansion.

The lesson didn't go very well at first, as Lana seemed to shy away from putting her heart into the training. However, it didn't take very long to find an appropriate trigger to her rage. All I did was point out that she couldn't possibly be angry about having to be saved by Clark Kent again, and she was a perfect pupil. Lana and I have the strangest things in common.

As soon as she left, I decided to head back to the hospital. I called Helen to apologize for my distance lately, and she told me she was busy in the pathology lab. Then she stopped answering me, and I could hear the sounds of a struggle in the background. I sped to the hospital and rushed to the lab, followed by hospital staff.

That's where I found her, beaten, bleeding and unconscious on the lab floor.

As her fellow doctor friends fought to save her life, I tried to get in touch with the man I'd had following Hayden. He was obviously in desperate need of a lesson on how to treat a woman, and I was determined to be his instructor. The sheriff tried to stop me, and to her credit apologized for her incompetence, but I was in no mood to deal with smalltown police with smalltown agendas. I ignored her and continued trying to get in touch with my guy, getting nothing for my troubles but the ringing of the telephone.

I went to Hayden's hotel room.

I wasn't there more than a minute when Clark showed up. He said he'd heard what had happened, and that I should leave it to the police. I ignored him, as well, and tried again to call my security guard. The sound of a ringing telephone in the small room lead the two of us to the bathroom.

My guard was lying in the bathtub, dead.

I waited until Clark wasn't looking, then retrieved the gun and called lowjack to find the location of my security guard's car. I was informed the car was at the train station. Clark went ahead of me as I retrieved the gun I've been keeping in my car since Ms. Dunlevey's car-jacked me.

At the train station, Clark tried to convince me to wait for the police. I told him to wait as long as he wanted, I was going to go take a look around.

I found Hayden and followed him. He arrogantly proclaimed that I couldn't kill him, or I'd go to prison myself. I used a handkerchief to toss him the now unloaded gun I'd retrieved from my security guard, then told him I wouldn't go to prison for self-defense.

Funny how much easier murder seems the second time around. Even if the first one was legally justified.

Hayden startled me before I could pull the trigger by kicking me in the stomach and running off. I got up and quickly followed him through the abandoned train cars.

I found him in the train's kitchen. Or, rather, he found me, and hit me over the head.

With a frying pan.

No, Lana. I have no idea what it feels like to be a victim.

For once, however, the head trauma wasn't enough to knock me unconscious. I got back up and fought with him, but the all-too-familiar pounding made it difficult to focus. Before I knew what had happened, I was on my back and Hayden was standing over me with an axe.

The situation seemed strangely familiar.

As did the sudden unexpected turn-around. The train car suddenly tipped over, knocking Hayden off balance and allowing me to gain the upper hand. I stood over him, gun in hand, and came within inches of pulling the trigger.

But I didn't.

Instead, I knocked him unconscious mere moments before Clark, and then the police, showed up. The sheriff ordered me to drop the gun, and I did so readily, informing her that citizen's arrests were still legal in Kansas. She made a vaguely threatening statement, shaking her head.

The next day Helen was released from the hospital, and I cancelled a board meeting to be with her. She was surprised, to say the least. I told her Hayden was pleading temporary insanity. Helen started to say something, but I interrupted and told her I wasn't going to fight the plea. Then I told her I almost killed Hayden, that I could've gotten away with it, except that one person would've known the truth.

She looked back at me, and asked if it was Clark.

I told her that it was her.

I think that was the first time I've ever seen her truly shocked.

It's the truth, however. In that moment, Clark wasn't the one who stopped me from pulling the trigger.

It seems as good enough a reason as any to get married.

So I proposed.

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