"I've seen people get hurt time and time again because of who I am and what I can do," Clark said evenly. He wasn't going to get angry. He couldn't get angry. It was better to keep a calm and rational head about all of this. Lois was understandably upset. It wasn't exactly shocking to find that she was annoyed enough to argue with him about this. In one way, it showed that she was a lot less like Lana. The thought wouldn't have even come to him if Lois hadn't have brought her up earlier, but now that it was there he couldn't help but compare. Lana had been a lot more aggressive about figuring him out, but once the truth was there she'd been fairly easy to deal with. Lois, on the other hand...
"Take Chloe, for example. Do you know how often she's put her life on the line to keep my secret safe? Do you know how many times your cousin has almost died because of me?" Clark shook his head. "I might have been protecting myself in a way, but it wasn't just about me. People get hurt all the time because they're so close to me. And you, I never imagined that you'd get this -"
He had already gone too far with that one. They both knew what he had been about to say. Lois Lane was too close to him now. He cared about her too much.