Her hands feel uncomfortably rough on his skin. When she touches him, he can feel the ghost of larger and softer hands... hands that have no right to be uncallused.

Still Helen is pretty in just the way he likes, mildly exotic with a generous mouth. And if, for all that, he still feels like she's slightly off, slightly less than what he wants, he can chalk that up to never having been in a relationship where he wasn't bound to get screwed by the end. Even with Desiree, all his thoughts were focused on the present. He married her, but he only saw her in the moment.

He can see a future with Helen. Which is as good a reason as any to keep her around. Though not the only reason or even the most important. And he's never told her, or anyone, exactly what kind of future that he sees with her.

Helen is interesting, amusing, and attractive. It's interesting that she met with his father and didn't tell him about it until he confronted her. It's amusing that she doesn't look beyond the surface. And she's attractive in a way that reminds Lex of every woman that he's ever slept with.

Helen is both comfortable and challenging. She challenges him just enough so that he has to exert himself and then relents. As a pattern for a relationship, it could be worse.

And now she's more important than ever. She knows something about Martha and about the miracle at the hospital. Miracles happen around the Kents with a fascinating regularity.

And Clark is almost always at the center of the Kent miracles... and the Kent mysteries.

If Helen turns out to be the key to finding out more about those mysteries, then he'll have been right to have invested so much into this relationship.