The Edge of Forever (1/2)
Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine.
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Chloe
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Five years after leaving Smallville, Clark and his friends plan a reunion. Clark and Chloe make a decision, Lana and Pete discover something and Lex is late.
Notes: 1) This was written for Teri's ezine Summer Lovin'. It can be found here: http://www.loony-archivist.com/summer/intro.html
2) This story is for Teri, since it never would have been written without her encouragement.
It was summer again.
He could hear it humming around him in the buzz of insects and the quiet creeping of growing things all around. He knew that he could hear it while no one else could. One time, when he was much younger, he had asked Chloe about it and she had looked at him like she didn't quite understand what he had meant, and then she had laughed and told him to quit playing with her. He hadn't brought it up again.
Summer was always his favorite time of year. He could smell it on the air, in the soft fragrance of grass and flowers. He knew that this was something that everyone could sense because his mother had once mentioned it, had said that she could smell summer approaching. She'd also said she could smell spring and winter and snow and rain as well. He'd believed her because he could smell it as well. There's little he couldn't smell, actually.
Seasons change and each one has a smell, a sound, a taste, and a touch. Most people didn't notice it. Most of them just went through life seeing the changes and accepting them, never making them a part of themselves the way he can when he takes it all in.
In times like that he could almost convince himself that he was human. He felt so grounded, so much like he belonged here on this planet, and maybe he does. Maybe he belongs here except for a strange accident of birth. He's more connected to this planet at times like that than almost any other being. It's exhilarating.
It was summer and they were lying in a back field on his parents' property. The field had been left fallow that year, the soil was regenerating itself right underneath their bodies as the soft grasses grew in place of the tall corn that was there the year before. Renewal, he could almost feel that too, imagined that he could hear the soil singing in relief at the lifting of its burden of growing strange green things with yellow ears. It knew it was supposed to be filling with grasses and flowers and all sorts of other native, wild things. The field had gone back to its roots, and so had they.
They had arrived in town around noon. The drive out of Metropolis had taken slightly longer than he had thought, the traffic heavier than normal for this time of year. They had left just before eight, had made two stops on the highway, and had arrived just as his mother was finished preparing lunch for them.
The farm never seemed to change. It was a bastion of yellow in the middle of an ever-changing landscape of green and gold. It was the same that year as it had been the last, as it was every time he came to visit his parents. His father still tended it the same as he always had, although he had needed to hire a few men from town after Clark left for college. His mother still made sure it all ran smoothly, managing it silently from the sidelines and making sure that his father didn't push himself too hard.
She had been so excited when Clark had called two months before and asked if he and Chloe could come stay with them that week. Over the last year, Clark had come home at Christmas and for a week in the spring to help his father with the planting, and to see him again this summer was an opportunity his parents simply couldn't pass up. He had wanted to come more, but his job kept him busy and when he did travel, it was rarely out to farming country. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, they were all places he'd been in the last year. They were all busy, dirty, sprawling. He preferred Smallville, but knew it wasn't the place he was meant to be.
A bird cried overhead and his eyes tracked it across the sky. It was almost lost against the huge blue expanse of sky. He could feel himself relaxing in waves as he slowly reintegrated himself into his old home.
"I wonder if anyone else is here, yet," Chloe said from beside him. She was lying in the wild grass, too, staring up at the sky. They were sprawled out parallel to each other, their hands touching, fingers brushing, but not clasped.
"Mmm," Clark muttered.
He rolled over slowly and moved so that his elbow was planted in the ground and his head was resting on his palm. He looked down at Chloe and smiled. Her blonde hair was fanned out against the ground, looking wild and slightly tangled. Her eyes were closed, and there was a soft smile on her lips that conveyed the peacefulness of the landscape surrounding them. His eyes drifted lower, over her chest and the soft blue tank top she was wearing, down over her bared stomach, and then on to the blue and white patterned shorts, and finally her long toned legs.
Beautiful.
He reached out with his free hand and placed it on the bare, smooth skin of her stomach. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him. Her smile grew until it seemed to light up her entire face.
"Pete was supposed to drive in this morning and Lana's flight is likely just landing in Metropolis now," Clark said softly. "I don't know about Lex."
Pete, who now lived in Oregon, had decided to drive down to Smallville. When Clark had spoken with him the week before, he had said he would likely arrive around lunchtime. Lana had been flying in from England, where she had been studying for the last two years. Clark had tried to contact Lex and see if the older man was planning to meet them, but all of his attempts had ended in secretaries and messages.
It had been five years ago tomorrow that they had sat in the Talon and promised that, no matter what, they would all meet back here in five years. The next day Chloe had left for Metropolis and her summer internship at The Daily Planet. It had been the first year she'd gone with no intention of returning at the end of the summer. A month later, Lana had left for New York, where she would be studying for the year. Then eventually Clark had gone to Metropolis, Pete to Washington to study, and Lex to Singapore, where he would head the Asia-Pacific operations of Luthor Corp for the next five years.
Except for him and Chloe, they hadn't kept in touch anywhere near enough over the years, but Clark had always remembered their words, and a year ago he had started to track down his friends again. Chloe had helped him.
Pete hadn't been too hard to find, but Nell had move from Smallville two years previously, and he'd needed to track her down first before he'd found Lana. Lex was still in Singapore, at least that's what the Luthor Corp people told him, but after about twenty calls to the Singapore office he'd never been able to make contact. He hoped the man would show up, but he had promised himself that he wouldn't be too let down if he didn't.
"Why aren't we having dinner with them tonight?" Chloe asked the question that she'd asked him several times over the last few days. Clark hadn't been able to answer her before, but now he was finally able.
"Because I want to have dinner with my parents," he told her what he'd said every time she'd asked the question previously.
"We can have dinner with your parents anytime," Chloe said reasonably. "We're here for the entire week."
"This time is different," he said cryptically.
She cocked her head slightly and raised an eyebrow at his words.
"Chloe," Clark said softly and lifted his hand from her stomach to reach up and brush a stray lock of hair off her face, "I love you."
"I love you too, Clark," Chloe told him with a slight laugh.
"Chloe..."
"Yes?"
"Chloe... will you marry me?" Clark asked quickly. He sounded less nervous than he had thought he would, and much less than he felt.
As he lay there, staring down at the shock on Chloe's face, he felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down, and waiting to fall. His entire heart was in Chloe's hands right then. If she said yes, it would change everything. If she said no, it would change everything in an entirely different way.
Her mouth opened in shock, and then closed slowly. The smile that had been wiped out by her surprise began to replace itself on her face. Clark's stomach fluttered and his heart pounded. He loved her so much. She had been everything to him for the last four years and he almost couldn't imagine his life without her in it now.
"I... yes," Chloe managed to force out and then launched herself at Clark.
Her body hit his, and they rolled over so that Clark was lying on his back once more and she was partly on top of him.
"Yes?" he asked, almost disbelieving the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"Yes. Oh god, yes," Chloe confirmed for him. "I love you so much."
And then she was kissing him and there was nothing else that either of them could say. She tasted sweet and slightly tangy against his tongue, like the lemonade they had drank right before coming out here to the field. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, tasting and exploring his, and Clark moaned against her. He was instantly hard, aching, and needy.
He found himself growling softly before flipping them over so that Chloe was lying underneath him. He lifted his mouth from hers and buried his nose in the crook between her neck and shoulder. She smelled like the sap from newly crushed plants, clean soil, and warm sweat. It was lovely. He couldn't help but reach his tongue out to take a broad sweep of that sweet spot and taste. She tasted like she smelt, the two senses blending together for Clark and nearly causing him to forget everything else.
His hands were working before he even registered he had moved. He pulled her tank top off and nuzzled his face into the soft, warm valley between her breasts that was made by the bra she was wearing.
"Clark," Chloe protested with a laugh and Clark could feel her pushing against his head with her hands.
Reluctantly he moved his face from her chest and looked up at her. "Yes?" he managed to force out.
"We can't... Not out here."
"Why not?"
"Clark, we're outside," she said loudly.
Clark looked around slowly, using his enhanced sight to scan the area. He saw three birds standing in the field a distance from them, some insects, and Mr. Kendler's dog off in his southeast field, but nothing else. He would need to remember to call their neighbor about the dog later. "No one's around," Clark assured her and then turned back to his nuzzling.
"Clark," Chloe protested again.
He ignored her for the moment, but lifted his head just enough so that he could reach over and lick her left nipple through the fabric of her bra. Chloe groaned and pressed up against him. She wanted this, needed this, as much as he did.
"What if your father comes out here?"
"He won't. We didn't plant this field this year. And I would hear him long before he could see us," he told her seriously.
Chloe accepted that with a little nod. It hadn't taken her too much to be convinced, and Clark was glad.
He returned his mouth to her cloth-covered nipple and this time suckled softly through the fabric. It tasted of Tide and cotton with faint hints of her skin oils mixed in. It tasted like home and safety and comfort. It tasted so much like his future and Clark couldn't help but grin at that thought. Chloe was going to be his wife. He was going to taste Tide and cotton and Chloe for so many years to come.
Chloe groaned and arched up against him again. "Clark," she cried. Then she was scrambling at the fabric that separated his mouth from her flesh and then pale blue cotton was being pulled back to reveal creamy smooth skin.
"Mmm," Clark hummed appreciatively and took the pebbled nipple into his mouth.
After a minute, he switched to her other breast, paying it the same attention with licking and sucking. He lifted her up slightly and then reached behind her and released the clasp of her bra.
The fabric fell away from her skin and she was topless. Clark pulled back and then sat up so that he could remove his own shirt. As he did it, he took the time to admire his lovely partner. The years they had been together hadn't changed the thrill he got from seeing her naked. Her breasts were just right, large, but not overly so, with wide, dark pink nipples that hardened into perfect peaks when he touched her.
She caught him looking at her and smiled. He blushed softly in response.
"You're so beautiful," he told her and then it was her turn to blush.
He reached down to the waist of his jeans, then carefully popped the button and lowered the zipper. He did the same for Chloe's pants and they both wriggled out of pants and underwear together. He saw her wince slightly as her naked bottom met with the grass of the field. It was soft and comforting to him, but likely itchy and irritating to her.
"Here," Clark told her and reached out to pick his own shirt back up. "You can lie on this. We should probably have brought a blanket, but..." He really hadn't planned ahead for this part of their activities.
"Thanks," Chloe said with a smile and took the soft flannel. She arranged herself on it and then looked back up at him with her wide eyes.
Clark settled himself between her legs and smiled down at her. His cock brushed against her soft heat and they both shuddered.
"Please, Clark," she begged quietly and he could only nod. They both needed this so badly.
He shifted so that he was in the right position and then sunk into her tight, wet heat and groaned loudly. Every time he was inside her, her body wrapped around him, it was like coming home. This was where he belonged, this was where he fit. Chloe was his and he was hers. Nothing would ever be able to change that.
"Chloe," he groaned as he started to move inside her.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and thrust up against him.
Clark felt like he was in heaven. There simply couldn't possibly be anything better than this feeling.
"I love you," she whispered. Her hands clutched at his arms and it felt incredibly possessive.
"God, Chlo," Clark groaned. He thrust deeply inside her, felt her tighten around him, and came almost unexpectedly.
He cried out loudly and then felt her shuddering against him as well. A smile spread across his lips and he buried his face in her hair. Clean, Chloe, grass, sweat, summer. It was all there.
Clark moved to kiss her deeply for a few minutes before eventually pulling out and rolling onto his side next to her. He drew her to him and held her tightly for several long moments.
Time passed, wild things grew quasi-silently beneath them, and the birds that had been standing in the field took flight. Clark watched them as they reached the sky, floated on the currents for a few moments and then headed off to the north. So free, so wild. To be able to fly with impunity was one of his fondest dreams. Now it was reserved for night times in sparsely populated areas and absolute emergencies.
Chloe snuggled against his chest and murmured softly. Her eyes were closed and Clark could tell from her breathing that she had drifted off into a light sleep. She'd only sleep for ten minutes or so; Clark knew this from experience the same way he knew so many things about the woman he was holding. She liked to nap briefly after they made love. It was sweet and endearing and Clark didn't mind it at all. He loved holding her during these quiet times when it was just him and her and the rest of the world fell away.
Chloe moaned softly and started to move against him and Clark knew that she was starting to wake. She nuzzled into his chest and he held her tightly against him. She was so small, so delicate, but she fit just right into his embrace. She was stronger than she looked. Clark remembered the first time they'd made love and he'd been so worried that he would hurt her some way. But he hadn't. She hadn't broken somehow and now here they were still together after all these years. Through school, and graduation, and Chloe's master's program, and a job that took Clark too often out of the city, they had made it. Clark felt like they could make it through almost anything together.
"Clark," she murmured as she woke up against him. He stroked her hair gently and leaned down to press his lips against the top of her head. He felt the soft-rough texture of hair against his lips and smelt the sweet smell of peach-scented shampoo and conditioner.
"Clark," she said louder and struggled against him to sit up. Eventually he reluctantly allowed her to move out of his embrace. She sat up and stared down at him. "You asked me to marry you," she said, her voice full of excitement.
"I did," Clark confirmed with a smile and a small nod. "And you said yes."
Chloe's eyes lit up. "You're going to be my husband," she told him with a laugh.
"God, I hope so," Clark replied. He sat up so that he could pull Chloe back into his arms.
"I have to tell my dad," Chloe said suddenly and pulled away from Clark again, but not far enough to leave his embrace this time.
Clark nodded his agreement with that. Although he knew very well that her dad already had a good idea of what was going on. The week before, when he was supposed to be working late and following up on a story, Clark had driven out to Smallville to speak to Gabe. He knew it was rather old-fashioned asking the older man for permission to marry his daughter, but Clark had felt that it was necessary. Chloe's father had always treated Clark like a son and Chloe was his only daughter, his only child. Clark wanted to do this right and that meant asking her father and making sure that everything was okay. Chloe's father had been delighted and touched by the gesture. He'd also been so sure of Chloe's answer that he'd welcomed Clark to the family on the spot. Regardless of that, Clark had still been nervous right up until the moment that Chloe had said yes. He supposed that was normal.
"Your father first and then dinner with my parents?" he suggested.
Chloe nodded and then smiled brightly and started laughing. Clark was about to ask her what was funny when she suddenly pounced on him again and started kissing him. It was a while before they managed to get dressed and head for Chloe's father's house. That was okay; the world moved on without them for a while.
Chloe yawned, stretched, and hit Clark's head hard enough to hurt her hand. She shook it slightly to dull the pain and then turned to face her boyfriend. Fianc, she reminded herself and then smiled at it. He was her fianc. It was just too wonderful for words.
Everything had gone well the previous afternoon. First they had gone to visit her father. As soon as Chloe had told him that Clark had asked her to marry him, she had known that her father already knew. He was happy, but not surprised. Clark had gone and asked him for permission, she was absolutely sure of it. She had been both touched and slightly offended at that realization, but she instinctively knew that it had made her father happy so she didn't make a big deal over it. He had congratulated them and promised to help them with whatever he could.
Their dinner with Clark's parents had gone just as well. Both his parents were so happy for them, and almost instantly Martha had started to make plans for the wedding. She had insisted that they have the ceremony at the farm in spring and Chloe had felt the rightness of that suggestion and agreed to it almost immediately. It was only right for them to get married there in Smallville where everything had started.
"Chloe," Clark said with a hint of laughter in his voice, "you're glowing."
"I am?"
"Sure are," Clark confirmed.
"I'm happy," she told him. "I'm really happy and I love you so much."
"I love you too, sweetie," Clark said and drew her into his arms.
That's when Chloe noticed that Clark was dressed. He had jeans and a tee shirt on. She peeked under the blankets and saw that he was even wearing socks. He'd already been up that morning.
"You're dressed," she accused.
Clark shrugged. "It's after eight. There were chores to do. I wasn't sleeping anyhow, you know that."
Chloe nodded. It was true. Clark slept so little these days that at first she had worried if there was something wrong with him, but as the pattern dragged on from days into months, they both came to the realization that this must be normal for him. He was down to somewhere between three and four hours now. In a way it was good, he managed to get a lot of work done in those silent, solitary hours between the time he woke and Chloe eventually rose, but in another way entirely it was bad. Chloe liked to wake with Clark pressed up against her body. She liked being held, she liked being cuddled. Usually he came back to the bed before she woke, like today, but it just wasn't the same when she knew he had been gone.
"So everything's done?" Chloe asked. Clark nodded his agreement. In the two or so hours he had worked out there, Clark had probably done more than his father could have done in a week. It was a boon for his parents when he visited, especially when the farm needed to hire as few people as possible to remain in the black. It was too bad that they didn't come there more often, and Chloe resolved that she would make sure that they did so in the future.
"Yep," Clark told her, "And my mom has breakfast ready, so get up, sleepy." He reached down and poked her in the side.
"Hey," she squealed a protest.
Clark laughed and slid off the bed. "I'll meet you downstairs," he said and let himself out of the room.
Chloe sighed and then pushed herself up out of the bed. She still felt tired, but she knew it was time to get up. She looked down at what she was wearing and decided it was okay. She had on a pair of sweatpants and a Met U tee shirt. It was fine. If breakfast was ready then she didn't have time to shower and she didn't really want to dress until she had. She left the room and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.
They had arranged to meet at The Talon at noon. Clark and Chloe were there just a few minutes early. Clark liked being early; being late was something his parents had always frowned on, and as much as he had done it when he was a teenager now that he was an adult, he finally understood what they had been trying to teach him. That and the fact that Lex had once explained to him the psychological benefit of being somewhere first. Clark had never forgotten it and he'd very rarely been late after that piece of advice.
The Talon was much the same as it had always been, although it seemed to lack Lana's flare for decorating now. As far as Clark knew, Lex still owned the place, but once Lana and then Nell had left Smallville, management of the place had fallen to other hands. Sometimes Clark wondered what it must have been like for Lana to leave the place. Had it been hard? Had it been like finally letting go of her parents?
The smell of coffee was so thick in the air that Clark thought he could taste it. It was dark, rich, full of memories. More than any time before, Clark really felt like he had come home. It wasn't like the other times that Clark had come here, with or without Chloe, to visit his parents. In all those times, he had never come here, it just hadn't felt right. And now he was going to see Lana and Pete for the first time in five years and everything was going to be like it had been before he left, or at least as close as possible.
They arrived together just after noon. Lana was staying at Pete's house. Clark had offered his parent's home, and they would have been happy to have Lana, but they didn't have a spare bedroom. Pete's house, on the other hand, was just full of empty space. Even when they had been teenagers it had been a good place to sleep over. Pete's older brothers had both left for college by the time they started high school and they'd always had extra room for whoever wanted to stay. Clark also suspected that Pete wanted Lana to stay with him for a completely different reason.
Pete had always liked Lana, but had never had the courage to say anything about it. It had been kind of ironic considering the number of other girls Pete seemed comfortable with asking out, but Clark suspected that none of them had ever meant to Pete what Lana did. Besides, when Clark had been openly crushing on Lana, it would have been rather insensitive for Pete to make a move. So, he'd never done anything. But now that they were all getting back together, and he knew that Clark was dating Chloe, maybe he'd finally found the courage to do something about his feelings.
The first thing that Clark noticed about his friends was how different they looked. Lana looked older and more sophisticated than she ever had, but more than that, she looked really happy for first time that Clark could remember. She'd always had this shadow over her that Clark assumed had been baggage from her parent's death and that was finally gone. Pete also looked older and more in control. Gone was Clark's goofy friend. He had been replaced by this new version of Pete, who really looked like he could be the law student he claimed to be. He also looked like he had grown since the last time Clark had seen him, and he wondered if that could be true. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to take Pete out of the short category and place him firmly within the average, which was good. Sometimes Clark really hated being so tall, although so few people seemed to understand his objection.
The second thing that Clark noticed about his friends was how much the same they were as they always had been. Lana was still Lana with her soft, friendly, dark eyes and long black hair. She smiled prettily and Clark was surprised to find that the little flicker of interest he had assumed he would feel was simply not there. Lana was just a friend and she inspired no more interest than Pete. Clark breathed a soft sigh of relief at that. He had been a little worried about that, especially now that he'd decided that Chloe was the one he wanted to be with for the rest of his life, but he had still been worried. Pete was also still himself, especially after he smiled at Clark and Chloe and Clark saw the goofiness that still lay hidden in the depths of his eyes. Pete hadn't so much changed as masked his nature. He was still the same person underneath.
"Hey Clark, Chloe," Pete greeted them as he and Lana walked across the room and came to stand next to there their table.
Clark stood up and pulled Pete and then Lana to him for a hug. Chloe came to stand beside him and then hugged both of their friends in turn as well. Pete felt solid in his arms. He hugged Clark back and patted him on the back. When he pulled Lana into his arms she felt small and delicate. He noticed that she smelt really good, like flowers and springtime, but it still didn't make him feel any type of desire to be with her.
"It's been way too long," Clark said as the four of them sat down at their table.
"It has," Lana agreed.
One of the servers came over and took their order. Their conversation stopped while the four of them placed their orders and then waited for the young woman to walk away. Clark, Chloe and Pete all ordered coffee, and Lana ordered tea.
"I can't believe that you're living in England," Chloe said to Lana once they were alone again. She sounded so excited and impressed and Clark wondered if she wished her life were a little more exciting than grad school and Clark in Metropolis.
"I know," Lana said. "I could barely believe it either when I was accepted into the program."
"You're studying history?" Pete asked from where he was sitting beside her.
"Yeah," Lana confirmed. "It's great being there close to where everything happened. And the professors are so knowledgeable. The only hard thing is being so far away from Nell and everyone I know."
Clark nodded his understanding. He honestly didn't know how she could do it, being so far away from everyone. Of course, he didn't see his parents as much as he wanted to anymore, but at least he was close and he knew that they were only a few hours away if he wanted to see them. And he also had Chloe. He simply couldn't imagine leaving her for any length of time.
"It's a two year program, right?" he asked. He seemed to remember her telling him that when he had talked to her on the phone.
"Yeah. I can't believe that it's half over all ready. Then I'm going to have to try and decide what to do with my life after I graduate."
"Are you working this summer?" Chloe asked.
"Part time. I'm taking a class as well. I have the scholarship and I'm lucky that Nell saved enough money for my education that it covers most everything else."
Clark nodded again and tried not to feel too envious of his friend. Things would have been so much easier for him if he'd had the luxury of a college fund, but it simply hadn't been a possibility with his parent's financial situation. So Clark had worked all the way through college. Maybe it had helped him, though, because he'd managed to get a job right out of school, and that had been good for both Clark and Chloe since Chloe had wanted to go to grad school right away and there would have been no other way that they would have been able to afford it.
The server returned and dropped off their drinks. They all thanked her and watched as she left the table.
"You've done really well for yourself," Pete told Lana and turned to look directly at her. Clark was sure that he could still see that spark of interest in the other man's eyes. Clark hoped that it would work out for Pete, since both of his friends deserved to be happy. It wouldn't be easy with Lana so far away, though, and Clark also hoped that he wasn't setting himself up to be hurt even more.
"So have you, Pete, with law school and everything," Lana returned. She smiled and what Clark saw there was enough to give him hope for his friend.
"Clark and I have some news," Chloe said after a moment of silence between the four of them.
"Yeah?" Lana asked.
Clark nodded slowly and took a sip of his coffee. They had decided that Chloe would be the one to tell their friends. She was so excited that it only seemed fair for her to be the one to share their happy news. Beside Clark wasn't always best with those types of situations anyhow; he tended to become nervous and flustered. Chloe reached out and took Clark's hand and laid them on the table in front of them.
"We're engaged," Chloe said happily. On her face was one of the biggest smiles that Clark had ever seen.
"Ohh," Lana squealed. "That's so cool. Do you have a ring?" She looked down and Chloe's hands, but there was nothing there to see.
"No, not yet," Chloe told their friend.
It had been something that Clark had debated with himself for a couple of weeks. On one hand he had really wanted to get Chloe a ring before he asked so that she wouldn't think that it was just a spur of the moment type of thing and so that she knew how serious he was. On the other hand, they'd never discussed whether or not Chloe would want to wear a ring and, since she rarely wore any type of jewelry, he'd wanted wait and talk with her about it. Maybe it wasn't traditional, but with Chloe sometimes making assumptions was more dangerous than anything else. So, the night before they had talked and they'd decided that Chloe would like a ring, but nothing extravagant, and they were planning on going shopping for one before they returned to Metropolis.
"Way to go, Clark," Pete congratulated his friend and reached out across the table to punch Clark on the arm. "I still can't believe that the two of you got together after you went to Metropolis. I mean, in high school it seemed like it would happen so many times and then nothing came of it, and then as soon as you left it's like you figured it out."
"Well not as soon as we left," Chloe said with a laugh.
"No," Clark agreed. "It took another year for us to get it right. It was actually when we were back here over the summer after freshman year that we finally got together."
"We spent a lot of time together that summer and it just sort of happened," Chloe supplied.
Clark smiled as he remembered those days. It had been a long lazy summer of working for his parents during the day and seeing Chloe in the evening. It had felt so much like every other summer he'd ever had, and yet so different because most of the people he'd grown up with were missing. One day he'd just been leaving the house to go meet Chloe for dinner when his mom had commented that it was so nice that he and Chloe were finally dating. Clark had started a protest, but his mom had just smiled at him and shooed him out of the house.
After that he had really started to think about Chloe and what he was feeling for her. It was obvious to him that he liked being with her. She was his best friend now that Lex was gone. They did everything together; she made him laugh and always feel like he belonged. When he was away from her and something happened, she was always the first person he thought of telling, before his parents or any of his other friends. When he'd finally thought about it, he'd realized that the only thing they didn't share was a physical relationship and the more he tried to reason why that was, the more he realized that he didn't know the answer to that question.
So, less than a week later, Clark had finally asked Chloe out for real and they'd been together ever since. They were still best friends and now that they lived together they really did share everything. He loved her more than he had ever thought it was possible to love another person and he knew that she felt the same way about him. Their life together was really good. He was happy, and he was pretty certain that Chloe was happy as well.
"When's the wedding?" Lana asked excitedly.
"We haven't set a date yet. Clark just asked yesterday," Chloe told her.
Clark saw Pete raise his eyebrow at that and he silently promised his friend that he would tell him all about it in private at some point.
"This is so exciting," Lana exclaimed. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Clark's mom wants to do it next spring."
"Where?"
"At the farm," Chloe said.
"Oh, that will be beautiful. It will be all green and the flowers and everything. In the back of the house, right? Where she has her flower garden?"
"Umm hmm," Chloe nodded.
Clark sighed softly and looked over at Pete who seemed to be similarly bemused by the girls' discussion of the wedding plans. Clark smiled at his friend and Pete returned the gesture. He was happy, he really was. And he was glad that he had asked Chloe to marry him, but this seemed like it was going to be a lot more work than he had anticipated.
"I'm so excited for you," Lana said. She was literally bouncing in her seat by then and Clark could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
"Me too," Chloe exclaimed.
"I wish I could fall in love like that," Lana said with a slightly dreamy look on her face.
"So, you're not seeing anyone?" Chloe asked.
"No. I mean, I've dated on and off, but nothing serious, you know. Most of the guys I meet are really serious about their studies and stuff like that. They don't have a lot of time to pursue a relationship. And nothing ever felt right. I always thought that when I met the right person that I would just know, but now I wonder if that's true."
"Sometimes the right person is already there and you just don't know it yet," Clark told her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pete sit up a little straighter next to Lana. Oh yeah, Pete was still interested. Clark would have to talk to Chloe about the situation and see what she suggested that they do about it.
"It's true," Chloe said and leaned slightly into Clark's side. He reached out and wrapped his arm around her. He knew he was smiling broadly, and he also knew that they probably looked too sappy for words, but that was okay. He was in love, he was allowed to look like a fool sometimes. In fact, it was almost expected of them.
"Maybe," Lana admitted. She took a long drink of her tea and then looked around them. "This place hasn't changed too much," she said.
"No," Pete agreed, "although it was better when you were here. You could always make this place feel so alive."
Lana blushed slightly and giggled. It was cute and it was so like her that Clark couldn't help but smile back in response. "Thanks," she said. "It's weird to come back and have things be so much the same and yet just slightly different at the same time."
"It is," Clark agreed with a nod. That seemed to lead to each of them thinking a little bit and there was silence at the table for a couple of minutes.
"Do you think that Lex is going to show up?" Lana asked somewhat absently.
"I don't know," Clark admitted. "I called the Singapore office so many times..."
"And our telephone bill reflects that," Chloe interjected.
"...but he never called back. I really don't know what he's up to or if he plans on meeting us."
"It's strange," Lana said.
"Oh, come on," Pete objected, "It's Lex. You didn't honestly think that he was going to show up, did you?"
"Actually, I did," Clark said. "He promised."
"Five years ago," Pete reminded him.
"Still," Clark said.
He wanted to protest Pete's lingering dislike of the older man, but Chloe's hand descended on Clark's arm and reminded him that it wasn't really worth the fight. During their high school years, Lex had become Clark's best friend, but Pete had never quite been able to accept him. In a way Clark understood how Pete could be angry with Lex, but really, anything that had been done to his family had been done by Lex's father, and Lex had turned out to be nothing like the elder Luthor. Clark had often wished that Pete would just let the past rest where it was.
"So, what do we want to do this afternoon?" Chloe asked and suddenly changed the subject.
"I wish that Nell still lived here," Lana said. "We could go riding. That's something that I've really missed doing since leaving Smallville."
"Maybe we can just go out to the farm and hang out like old times," Pete suggested. He turned to look at Clark, "What do you think the chance of your mom making pie for us is?" he asked.
Clark laughed at that. Pete had always loved his mom's pie. It didn't seem to matter what type it was: apple, cherry, or lemon. Pete liked it all. And more often than not, Clark's mom had been ready with the pie when Pete came over as well. Clark was pretty sure that it wasn't a coincidence. She probably loved to see someone enjoying her baking as much as Pete.
"Oh I see your evil plan now, Pete. Come back to Smallville and eat my parents out of house and home."
"Well..."
Clark laughed. "I'm sure that she's already got one baking for you, Pete," he assured his friend. "I mentioned that we might come by this afternoon."
Pete's eyes lit up and he was out of his seat almost immediately. "And we're waiting for?" he asked.
"Nothing," Clark replied after looking over at Chloe and making sure that she was ready to leave as well.
The four of them stood up, went to pay for their drinks, and then headed out towards the farm.
"It's good to see them," Chloe said once they were in their own car and headed back to Clark's parent's place.
"It is," Clark agreed. He couldn't quite make himself sound as happy as he should. He was still worried about where Lex was and why he hadn't shown up yet.
"I'm sure he'll come," Chloe told him gently.
"I hope so," Clark replied. "I just worry that he hasn't contacted me at all." He hoped that nothing had happened.
Pete and Lana ended up staying at the farm all afternoon reminiscing and watching movies. The four of them had dinner with Clark's parents and went out to the barn for a few hours.
The barn was much the same as it had been when Clark was a teenager, and whenever he visited he went out there to do upkeep on the place. He had thought about taking it apart last year after he had graduated from college and knew that he would be coming home less frequently, but Chloe had convinced him not to. The barn held a lot of memories for the two of them and it had a great deal of sentimental value. It was a great place to just go and hang out together when they visited his parents.
Pete and Lana had left to go back to Pete's place soon after dark and that had left Clark and Chloe alone in the barn. They had made love out there watching the stars and then fallen asleep on the old couch under a blanket. That was why Chloe found herself waking there the next morning with Clark kneeling beside her and shaking her gently.
"Mmm," Chloe mumbled and snuggled into Clark's side.
"Morning, sweetie."
She reached out to stretch and one of her arms hit the back of the couch. Chloe's eyes opened wide and she looked around her. "We're in the barn, Clark," she told him.
"We are," Clark confirmed with a smile. "I brought you some jammies so that you can go inside and take a shower without having to put your clothes from yesterday on."
Chloe blushed slightly and then looked under the blanket that was covering her. As she had suspected, she was naked. She groaned inside and could only hope that no one had come into the barn yet that morning other than Clark.
"I went and met my dad outside this morning, if that's what you're worried about, Chlo. No one's come in here, honestly."
"Okay," Chloe said and then sat up and started to dress herself. She could feel Clark's eyes on her as she moved, but she didn't mind. She was glad that he thought she was beautiful, even if she didn't always see it in herself. To her girls like Lana were beautiful, but girls like her were just pretty. She had long ago convinced herself that it was okay, but Clark always made her feel like she was wrong, that she really was beautiful.
"What are our plans for today?" she asked as she finished pulling the soft cotton shorts and top on.
"Hiking, swimming," Clark told her, "maybe some riding. I'm going to go visit our neighbor and see if he'll let us take his horses out for the day."
Chloe groaned slightly. She'd never been the best at riding and next to Lana she looked like a complete amateur. Spending her first twelve years in Metropolis had made sure that she had never even seen a horse up close until she came to Smallville. And the first time that Clark had coaxed her on to one had been a disaster.
"It will be fun," Clark insisted. "And I know that Lana really wants to do it. We'll go as slow as we need to."
Chloe nodded slowly and tried not to feel the pang of jealousy that was rising up inside her. She knew that Clark thought of Lana as a good friend and that he would do the same for any good friend who had expressed an interest in doing something, but still. This was Lana Lang, the girl that Clark had a crush on their entire high school career. And when she had left, it had taken him an entire year to get over it. She knew that Clark had chosen her, but she couldn't help but wonder if he would reconsider now that Lana was back, even if just for a little while.
"I love you," Clark said and bent down a little bit to kiss her deeply. "Come on," he said once he had released her lips. He took her hands in his and pulled her up from the couch. "Mom said that breakfast is in fifteen minutes, so if you want to have a shower before that we should go in now."
"Okay," Chloe agreed and followed Clark into the house. She was still a little bothered by the Lana situation, but she was resolved not to let it get to her too much. Lana would be leaving at the end of the week and then it would just be her and Clark again and everything would be fine.
Mandy, Mr. Kendler's dog, came running up to Clark's side as soon as he stepped foot on the property. She barked and sniffed Clark and then sat back on her haunches and panted happily. It suddenly hit him that in the excitement of asking Chloe to marry him, he hadn't called and told Mr. Kendler that his dog was out in their fields the day before. He felt a twinge of guilt at forgetting, but it was soon dropped, since the dog had obviously gotten home safely.
"Hey, Mand," Clark said fondly and reached down to scratch the large dog behind her ears. Mandy was a large German Shepard cross of some sort. She was darker and slightly heavier than a purebred dog would be and Clark suspected that she might be part Black Lab or something like that. "You wandered a long way yesterday, didn't you?"
Mandy just panted back at Clark and then stood up to follow him as he resumed his movement towards the front door. Clark had always liked dogs and Mandy was a good one, even if she did wander a little bit more than anyone would have liked. He had often wished he'd been allowed to have a dog as a child and even now he wished that he could get one. But he spent too much time at work and Chloe spent too much time at school. It simply wouldn't be fair, not on them or the dog.
Clark reached the front door and rang the bell. [This sentence is kind of awkward. Maybe it should be "Mr. Kendler's truck was parked nex to the front of the house, so he had to be around here somewhere.' The rest is kind of redundant.] Mr. Kendler's truck was parked up next to the front of the house, so he had to be around there somewhere. He didn't know if the older man would be in the house, but it was the best place to start. If he weren't there, then Clark would just take a scan of the rest of the property to find him.
"Mr. Kendler?" Clark called out after a minute or so of waiting on the doorstep but there was no response.
"Where is he, Mand?" Clark asked the dog.
Mandy just panted at him and waged her tail. No help there.
Clark smiled absently and leaned down to pat the dog again. When he was done, he straightened up and used his x-ray vision to scan the barn and other out buildings in the area to see if Mr. Kendler was in any of them. Strangely, Clark didn't find the man. He found the chickens, and three of the man's four horses. At first, Clark thought that two of them were missing, but then he reminded himself that his parents had told him that Star, the first horse Clark ever remembered riding, had passed that spring. So now there should have been four horses. Molly, Prancer, and Ben were all there, but Midnight was missing.
"Odd," Clark muttered to himself. Midnight was Mr. Kendler's favorite horse, and if he was missing, it probably meant that the man was where ever the horse was.
He wandered around the back of the house to see if there would be any indication of where Mr. Kendler had gone. Around the back on the house was the tractor, so Clark scratched off another possibility on his list of places his neighbor could be. He was getting confused and had just decided that he likely wasn't going to find the other man when Mandy started whining behind him.
Clark turned around and looked at the dog. She was whining and pawing at the ground next to a large metal bowl. Interested, Clark went over and looked at what she was doing. The bowl was stainless steel, and didn't appear to have anything in it. He didn't know what it was until he realized that there was a second, smaller plastic bowl next to it. In the plastic bowl was a brown, dusty substance. Clark leaned down, touched the brown power with his fingers, and then brought them to his nose. It was... dog food. Mandy's food dish. Which likely meant that the large metal one was for water.
But it was empty.
It had been warm the day before, but it hadn't been so warm that the entire bowl would have been empty this morning if it had been filled the previous day. And besides, if Mr. Kendler had been there, he would have noticed the lack of water and filled the bowl. So the man had been gone since at least early the day before, if not longer.
"Where is he?" Clark asked the dog again. Mandy barked and panted.
She must have been thirsty, Clark realized. He quickly picked up the bowl and took it over to the tap that was on the far side of the back door. He turned on the water, and Mandy didn't even wait for him to start filling the bowl before she was lapping at the stream of liquid. When she was done, he filled the bowl and placed it back where he had found it. Clark scanned the farm buildings again until he found the dog food in the barn with the other bags of animal feed and went and retrieved that for Mandy as well.
She ate quickly and looked up expectantly at Clark when she was finished.
"I don't know," he told her. "The truck's here. Where would he have gone?"
Clark knew that short of breaking into the house, he was unlikely to find any clues to where the other man was. And he didn't want to take that step quite yet, besides if Mr. Kendler was missing then the police would want to look in his house and find it as undisturbed as possible. All that left was going back to his parent's house and telling them what he had found.
"Stay here. Be a good girl," he told her and Mandy barked her agreement. Clark took off in the direction of his parent's farm, careful to avoid the road as he ran.
Part 2
Fandom: Smallville
Pairing: Clark/Chloe
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Five years after leaving Smallville, Clark and his friends plan a reunion. Clark and Chloe make a decision, Lana and Pete discover something and Lex is late.
Notes: 1) This was written for Teri's ezine Summer Lovin'. It can be found here: http://www.loony-archivist.com/summer/intro.html
2) This story is for Teri, since it never would have been written without her encouragement.
It was summer again.
He could hear it humming around him in the buzz of insects and the quiet creeping of growing things all around. He knew that he could hear it while no one else could. One time, when he was much younger, he had asked Chloe about it and she had looked at him like she didn't quite understand what he had meant, and then she had laughed and told him to quit playing with her. He hadn't brought it up again.
Summer was always his favorite time of year. He could smell it on the air, in the soft fragrance of grass and flowers. He knew that this was something that everyone could sense because his mother had once mentioned it, had said that she could smell summer approaching. She'd also said she could smell spring and winter and snow and rain as well. He'd believed her because he could smell it as well. There's little he couldn't smell, actually.
Seasons change and each one has a smell, a sound, a taste, and a touch. Most people didn't notice it. Most of them just went through life seeing the changes and accepting them, never making them a part of themselves the way he can when he takes it all in.
In times like that he could almost convince himself that he was human. He felt so grounded, so much like he belonged here on this planet, and maybe he does. Maybe he belongs here except for a strange accident of birth. He's more connected to this planet at times like that than almost any other being. It's exhilarating.
It was summer and they were lying in a back field on his parents' property. The field had been left fallow that year, the soil was regenerating itself right underneath their bodies as the soft grasses grew in place of the tall corn that was there the year before. Renewal, he could almost feel that too, imagined that he could hear the soil singing in relief at the lifting of its burden of growing strange green things with yellow ears. It knew it was supposed to be filling with grasses and flowers and all sorts of other native, wild things. The field had gone back to its roots, and so had they.
They had arrived in town around noon. The drive out of Metropolis had taken slightly longer than he had thought, the traffic heavier than normal for this time of year. They had left just before eight, had made two stops on the highway, and had arrived just as his mother was finished preparing lunch for them.
The farm never seemed to change. It was a bastion of yellow in the middle of an ever-changing landscape of green and gold. It was the same that year as it had been the last, as it was every time he came to visit his parents. His father still tended it the same as he always had, although he had needed to hire a few men from town after Clark left for college. His mother still made sure it all ran smoothly, managing it silently from the sidelines and making sure that his father didn't push himself too hard.
She had been so excited when Clark had called two months before and asked if he and Chloe could come stay with them that week. Over the last year, Clark had come home at Christmas and for a week in the spring to help his father with the planting, and to see him again this summer was an opportunity his parents simply couldn't pass up. He had wanted to come more, but his job kept him busy and when he did travel, it was rarely out to farming country. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, they were all places he'd been in the last year. They were all busy, dirty, sprawling. He preferred Smallville, but knew it wasn't the place he was meant to be.
A bird cried overhead and his eyes tracked it across the sky. It was almost lost against the huge blue expanse of sky. He could feel himself relaxing in waves as he slowly reintegrated himself into his old home.
"I wonder if anyone else is here, yet," Chloe said from beside him. She was lying in the wild grass, too, staring up at the sky. They were sprawled out parallel to each other, their hands touching, fingers brushing, but not clasped.
"Mmm," Clark muttered.
He rolled over slowly and moved so that his elbow was planted in the ground and his head was resting on his palm. He looked down at Chloe and smiled. Her blonde hair was fanned out against the ground, looking wild and slightly tangled. Her eyes were closed, and there was a soft smile on her lips that conveyed the peacefulness of the landscape surrounding them. His eyes drifted lower, over her chest and the soft blue tank top she was wearing, down over her bared stomach, and then on to the blue and white patterned shorts, and finally her long toned legs.
Beautiful.
He reached out with his free hand and placed it on the bare, smooth skin of her stomach. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him. Her smile grew until it seemed to light up her entire face.
"Pete was supposed to drive in this morning and Lana's flight is likely just landing in Metropolis now," Clark said softly. "I don't know about Lex."
Pete, who now lived in Oregon, had decided to drive down to Smallville. When Clark had spoken with him the week before, he had said he would likely arrive around lunchtime. Lana had been flying in from England, where she had been studying for the last two years. Clark had tried to contact Lex and see if the older man was planning to meet them, but all of his attempts had ended in secretaries and messages.
It had been five years ago tomorrow that they had sat in the Talon and promised that, no matter what, they would all meet back here in five years. The next day Chloe had left for Metropolis and her summer internship at The Daily Planet. It had been the first year she'd gone with no intention of returning at the end of the summer. A month later, Lana had left for New York, where she would be studying for the year. Then eventually Clark had gone to Metropolis, Pete to Washington to study, and Lex to Singapore, where he would head the Asia-Pacific operations of Luthor Corp for the next five years.
Except for him and Chloe, they hadn't kept in touch anywhere near enough over the years, but Clark had always remembered their words, and a year ago he had started to track down his friends again. Chloe had helped him.
Pete hadn't been too hard to find, but Nell had move from Smallville two years previously, and he'd needed to track her down first before he'd found Lana. Lex was still in Singapore, at least that's what the Luthor Corp people told him, but after about twenty calls to the Singapore office he'd never been able to make contact. He hoped the man would show up, but he had promised himself that he wouldn't be too let down if he didn't.
"Why aren't we having dinner with them tonight?" Chloe asked the question that she'd asked him several times over the last few days. Clark hadn't been able to answer her before, but now he was finally able.
"Because I want to have dinner with my parents," he told her what he'd said every time she'd asked the question previously.
"We can have dinner with your parents anytime," Chloe said reasonably. "We're here for the entire week."
"This time is different," he said cryptically.
She cocked her head slightly and raised an eyebrow at his words.
"Chloe," Clark said softly and lifted his hand from her stomach to reach up and brush a stray lock of hair off her face, "I love you."
"I love you too, Clark," Chloe told him with a slight laugh.
"Chloe..."
"Yes?"
"Chloe... will you marry me?" Clark asked quickly. He sounded less nervous than he had thought he would, and much less than he felt.
As he lay there, staring down at the shock on Chloe's face, he felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down, and waiting to fall. His entire heart was in Chloe's hands right then. If she said yes, it would change everything. If she said no, it would change everything in an entirely different way.
Her mouth opened in shock, and then closed slowly. The smile that had been wiped out by her surprise began to replace itself on her face. Clark's stomach fluttered and his heart pounded. He loved her so much. She had been everything to him for the last four years and he almost couldn't imagine his life without her in it now.
"I... yes," Chloe managed to force out and then launched herself at Clark.
Her body hit his, and they rolled over so that Clark was lying on his back once more and she was partly on top of him.
"Yes?" he asked, almost disbelieving the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"Yes. Oh god, yes," Chloe confirmed for him. "I love you so much."
And then she was kissing him and there was nothing else that either of them could say. She tasted sweet and slightly tangy against his tongue, like the lemonade they had drank right before coming out here to the field. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, tasting and exploring his, and Clark moaned against her. He was instantly hard, aching, and needy.
He found himself growling softly before flipping them over so that Chloe was lying underneath him. He lifted his mouth from hers and buried his nose in the crook between her neck and shoulder. She smelled like the sap from newly crushed plants, clean soil, and warm sweat. It was lovely. He couldn't help but reach his tongue out to take a broad sweep of that sweet spot and taste. She tasted like she smelt, the two senses blending together for Clark and nearly causing him to forget everything else.
His hands were working before he even registered he had moved. He pulled her tank top off and nuzzled his face into the soft, warm valley between her breasts that was made by the bra she was wearing.
"Clark," Chloe protested with a laugh and Clark could feel her pushing against his head with her hands.
Reluctantly he moved his face from her chest and looked up at her. "Yes?" he managed to force out.
"We can't... Not out here."
"Why not?"
"Clark, we're outside," she said loudly.
Clark looked around slowly, using his enhanced sight to scan the area. He saw three birds standing in the field a distance from them, some insects, and Mr. Kendler's dog off in his southeast field, but nothing else. He would need to remember to call their neighbor about the dog later. "No one's around," Clark assured her and then turned back to his nuzzling.
"Clark," Chloe protested again.
He ignored her for the moment, but lifted his head just enough so that he could reach over and lick her left nipple through the fabric of her bra. Chloe groaned and pressed up against him. She wanted this, needed this, as much as he did.
"What if your father comes out here?"
"He won't. We didn't plant this field this year. And I would hear him long before he could see us," he told her seriously.
Chloe accepted that with a little nod. It hadn't taken her too much to be convinced, and Clark was glad.
He returned his mouth to her cloth-covered nipple and this time suckled softly through the fabric. It tasted of Tide and cotton with faint hints of her skin oils mixed in. It tasted like home and safety and comfort. It tasted so much like his future and Clark couldn't help but grin at that thought. Chloe was going to be his wife. He was going to taste Tide and cotton and Chloe for so many years to come.
Chloe groaned and arched up against him again. "Clark," she cried. Then she was scrambling at the fabric that separated his mouth from her flesh and then pale blue cotton was being pulled back to reveal creamy smooth skin.
"Mmm," Clark hummed appreciatively and took the pebbled nipple into his mouth.
After a minute, he switched to her other breast, paying it the same attention with licking and sucking. He lifted her up slightly and then reached behind her and released the clasp of her bra.
The fabric fell away from her skin and she was topless. Clark pulled back and then sat up so that he could remove his own shirt. As he did it, he took the time to admire his lovely partner. The years they had been together hadn't changed the thrill he got from seeing her naked. Her breasts were just right, large, but not overly so, with wide, dark pink nipples that hardened into perfect peaks when he touched her.
She caught him looking at her and smiled. He blushed softly in response.
"You're so beautiful," he told her and then it was her turn to blush.
He reached down to the waist of his jeans, then carefully popped the button and lowered the zipper. He did the same for Chloe's pants and they both wriggled out of pants and underwear together. He saw her wince slightly as her naked bottom met with the grass of the field. It was soft and comforting to him, but likely itchy and irritating to her.
"Here," Clark told her and reached out to pick his own shirt back up. "You can lie on this. We should probably have brought a blanket, but..." He really hadn't planned ahead for this part of their activities.
"Thanks," Chloe said with a smile and took the soft flannel. She arranged herself on it and then looked back up at him with her wide eyes.
Clark settled himself between her legs and smiled down at her. His cock brushed against her soft heat and they both shuddered.
"Please, Clark," she begged quietly and he could only nod. They both needed this so badly.
He shifted so that he was in the right position and then sunk into her tight, wet heat and groaned loudly. Every time he was inside her, her body wrapped around him, it was like coming home. This was where he belonged, this was where he fit. Chloe was his and he was hers. Nothing would ever be able to change that.
"Chloe," he groaned as he started to move inside her.
She wrapped her legs around his hips and thrust up against him.
Clark felt like he was in heaven. There simply couldn't possibly be anything better than this feeling.
"I love you," she whispered. Her hands clutched at his arms and it felt incredibly possessive.
"God, Chlo," Clark groaned. He thrust deeply inside her, felt her tighten around him, and came almost unexpectedly.
He cried out loudly and then felt her shuddering against him as well. A smile spread across his lips and he buried his face in her hair. Clean, Chloe, grass, sweat, summer. It was all there.
Clark moved to kiss her deeply for a few minutes before eventually pulling out and rolling onto his side next to her. He drew her to him and held her tightly for several long moments.
Time passed, wild things grew quasi-silently beneath them, and the birds that had been standing in the field took flight. Clark watched them as they reached the sky, floated on the currents for a few moments and then headed off to the north. So free, so wild. To be able to fly with impunity was one of his fondest dreams. Now it was reserved for night times in sparsely populated areas and absolute emergencies.
Chloe snuggled against his chest and murmured softly. Her eyes were closed and Clark could tell from her breathing that she had drifted off into a light sleep. She'd only sleep for ten minutes or so; Clark knew this from experience the same way he knew so many things about the woman he was holding. She liked to nap briefly after they made love. It was sweet and endearing and Clark didn't mind it at all. He loved holding her during these quiet times when it was just him and her and the rest of the world fell away.
Chloe moaned softly and started to move against him and Clark knew that she was starting to wake. She nuzzled into his chest and he held her tightly against him. She was so small, so delicate, but she fit just right into his embrace. She was stronger than she looked. Clark remembered the first time they'd made love and he'd been so worried that he would hurt her some way. But he hadn't. She hadn't broken somehow and now here they were still together after all these years. Through school, and graduation, and Chloe's master's program, and a job that took Clark too often out of the city, they had made it. Clark felt like they could make it through almost anything together.
"Clark," she murmured as she woke up against him. He stroked her hair gently and leaned down to press his lips against the top of her head. He felt the soft-rough texture of hair against his lips and smelt the sweet smell of peach-scented shampoo and conditioner.
"Clark," she said louder and struggled against him to sit up. Eventually he reluctantly allowed her to move out of his embrace. She sat up and stared down at him. "You asked me to marry you," she said, her voice full of excitement.
"I did," Clark confirmed with a smile and a small nod. "And you said yes."
Chloe's eyes lit up. "You're going to be my husband," she told him with a laugh.
"God, I hope so," Clark replied. He sat up so that he could pull Chloe back into his arms.
"I have to tell my dad," Chloe said suddenly and pulled away from Clark again, but not far enough to leave his embrace this time.
Clark nodded his agreement with that. Although he knew very well that her dad already had a good idea of what was going on. The week before, when he was supposed to be working late and following up on a story, Clark had driven out to Smallville to speak to Gabe. He knew it was rather old-fashioned asking the older man for permission to marry his daughter, but Clark had felt that it was necessary. Chloe's father had always treated Clark like a son and Chloe was his only daughter, his only child. Clark wanted to do this right and that meant asking her father and making sure that everything was okay. Chloe's father had been delighted and touched by the gesture. He'd also been so sure of Chloe's answer that he'd welcomed Clark to the family on the spot. Regardless of that, Clark had still been nervous right up until the moment that Chloe had said yes. He supposed that was normal.
"Your father first and then dinner with my parents?" he suggested.
Chloe nodded and then smiled brightly and started laughing. Clark was about to ask her what was funny when she suddenly pounced on him again and started kissing him. It was a while before they managed to get dressed and head for Chloe's father's house. That was okay; the world moved on without them for a while.
Chloe yawned, stretched, and hit Clark's head hard enough to hurt her hand. She shook it slightly to dull the pain and then turned to face her boyfriend. Fianc, she reminded herself and then smiled at it. He was her fianc. It was just too wonderful for words.
Everything had gone well the previous afternoon. First they had gone to visit her father. As soon as Chloe had told him that Clark had asked her to marry him, she had known that her father already knew. He was happy, but not surprised. Clark had gone and asked him for permission, she was absolutely sure of it. She had been both touched and slightly offended at that realization, but she instinctively knew that it had made her father happy so she didn't make a big deal over it. He had congratulated them and promised to help them with whatever he could.
Their dinner with Clark's parents had gone just as well. Both his parents were so happy for them, and almost instantly Martha had started to make plans for the wedding. She had insisted that they have the ceremony at the farm in spring and Chloe had felt the rightness of that suggestion and agreed to it almost immediately. It was only right for them to get married there in Smallville where everything had started.
"Chloe," Clark said with a hint of laughter in his voice, "you're glowing."
"I am?"
"Sure are," Clark confirmed.
"I'm happy," she told him. "I'm really happy and I love you so much."
"I love you too, sweetie," Clark said and drew her into his arms.
That's when Chloe noticed that Clark was dressed. He had jeans and a tee shirt on. She peeked under the blankets and saw that he was even wearing socks. He'd already been up that morning.
"You're dressed," she accused.
Clark shrugged. "It's after eight. There were chores to do. I wasn't sleeping anyhow, you know that."
Chloe nodded. It was true. Clark slept so little these days that at first she had worried if there was something wrong with him, but as the pattern dragged on from days into months, they both came to the realization that this must be normal for him. He was down to somewhere between three and four hours now. In a way it was good, he managed to get a lot of work done in those silent, solitary hours between the time he woke and Chloe eventually rose, but in another way entirely it was bad. Chloe liked to wake with Clark pressed up against her body. She liked being held, she liked being cuddled. Usually he came back to the bed before she woke, like today, but it just wasn't the same when she knew he had been gone.
"So everything's done?" Chloe asked. Clark nodded his agreement. In the two or so hours he had worked out there, Clark had probably done more than his father could have done in a week. It was a boon for his parents when he visited, especially when the farm needed to hire as few people as possible to remain in the black. It was too bad that they didn't come there more often, and Chloe resolved that she would make sure that they did so in the future.
"Yep," Clark told her, "And my mom has breakfast ready, so get up, sleepy." He reached down and poked her in the side.
"Hey," she squealed a protest.
Clark laughed and slid off the bed. "I'll meet you downstairs," he said and let himself out of the room.
Chloe sighed and then pushed herself up out of the bed. She still felt tired, but she knew it was time to get up. She looked down at what she was wearing and decided it was okay. She had on a pair of sweatpants and a Met U tee shirt. It was fine. If breakfast was ready then she didn't have time to shower and she didn't really want to dress until she had. She left the room and headed down the stairs to the kitchen.
They had arranged to meet at The Talon at noon. Clark and Chloe were there just a few minutes early. Clark liked being early; being late was something his parents had always frowned on, and as much as he had done it when he was a teenager now that he was an adult, he finally understood what they had been trying to teach him. That and the fact that Lex had once explained to him the psychological benefit of being somewhere first. Clark had never forgotten it and he'd very rarely been late after that piece of advice.
The Talon was much the same as it had always been, although it seemed to lack Lana's flare for decorating now. As far as Clark knew, Lex still owned the place, but once Lana and then Nell had left Smallville, management of the place had fallen to other hands. Sometimes Clark wondered what it must have been like for Lana to leave the place. Had it been hard? Had it been like finally letting go of her parents?
The smell of coffee was so thick in the air that Clark thought he could taste it. It was dark, rich, full of memories. More than any time before, Clark really felt like he had come home. It wasn't like the other times that Clark had come here, with or without Chloe, to visit his parents. In all those times, he had never come here, it just hadn't felt right. And now he was going to see Lana and Pete for the first time in five years and everything was going to be like it had been before he left, or at least as close as possible.
They arrived together just after noon. Lana was staying at Pete's house. Clark had offered his parent's home, and they would have been happy to have Lana, but they didn't have a spare bedroom. Pete's house, on the other hand, was just full of empty space. Even when they had been teenagers it had been a good place to sleep over. Pete's older brothers had both left for college by the time they started high school and they'd always had extra room for whoever wanted to stay. Clark also suspected that Pete wanted Lana to stay with him for a completely different reason.
Pete had always liked Lana, but had never had the courage to say anything about it. It had been kind of ironic considering the number of other girls Pete seemed comfortable with asking out, but Clark suspected that none of them had ever meant to Pete what Lana did. Besides, when Clark had been openly crushing on Lana, it would have been rather insensitive for Pete to make a move. So, he'd never done anything. But now that they were all getting back together, and he knew that Clark was dating Chloe, maybe he'd finally found the courage to do something about his feelings.
The first thing that Clark noticed about his friends was how different they looked. Lana looked older and more sophisticated than she ever had, but more than that, she looked really happy for first time that Clark could remember. She'd always had this shadow over her that Clark assumed had been baggage from her parent's death and that was finally gone. Pete also looked older and more in control. Gone was Clark's goofy friend. He had been replaced by this new version of Pete, who really looked like he could be the law student he claimed to be. He also looked like he had grown since the last time Clark had seen him, and he wondered if that could be true. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to take Pete out of the short category and place him firmly within the average, which was good. Sometimes Clark really hated being so tall, although so few people seemed to understand his objection.
The second thing that Clark noticed about his friends was how much the same they were as they always had been. Lana was still Lana with her soft, friendly, dark eyes and long black hair. She smiled prettily and Clark was surprised to find that the little flicker of interest he had assumed he would feel was simply not there. Lana was just a friend and she inspired no more interest than Pete. Clark breathed a soft sigh of relief at that. He had been a little worried about that, especially now that he'd decided that Chloe was the one he wanted to be with for the rest of his life, but he had still been worried. Pete was also still himself, especially after he smiled at Clark and Chloe and Clark saw the goofiness that still lay hidden in the depths of his eyes. Pete hadn't so much changed as masked his nature. He was still the same person underneath.
"Hey Clark, Chloe," Pete greeted them as he and Lana walked across the room and came to stand next to there their table.
Clark stood up and pulled Pete and then Lana to him for a hug. Chloe came to stand beside him and then hugged both of their friends in turn as well. Pete felt solid in his arms. He hugged Clark back and patted him on the back. When he pulled Lana into his arms she felt small and delicate. He noticed that she smelt really good, like flowers and springtime, but it still didn't make him feel any type of desire to be with her.
"It's been way too long," Clark said as the four of them sat down at their table.
"It has," Lana agreed.
One of the servers came over and took their order. Their conversation stopped while the four of them placed their orders and then waited for the young woman to walk away. Clark, Chloe and Pete all ordered coffee, and Lana ordered tea.
"I can't believe that you're living in England," Chloe said to Lana once they were alone again. She sounded so excited and impressed and Clark wondered if she wished her life were a little more exciting than grad school and Clark in Metropolis.
"I know," Lana said. "I could barely believe it either when I was accepted into the program."
"You're studying history?" Pete asked from where he was sitting beside her.
"Yeah," Lana confirmed. "It's great being there close to where everything happened. And the professors are so knowledgeable. The only hard thing is being so far away from Nell and everyone I know."
Clark nodded his understanding. He honestly didn't know how she could do it, being so far away from everyone. Of course, he didn't see his parents as much as he wanted to anymore, but at least he was close and he knew that they were only a few hours away if he wanted to see them. And he also had Chloe. He simply couldn't imagine leaving her for any length of time.
"It's a two year program, right?" he asked. He seemed to remember her telling him that when he had talked to her on the phone.
"Yeah. I can't believe that it's half over all ready. Then I'm going to have to try and decide what to do with my life after I graduate."
"Are you working this summer?" Chloe asked.
"Part time. I'm taking a class as well. I have the scholarship and I'm lucky that Nell saved enough money for my education that it covers most everything else."
Clark nodded again and tried not to feel too envious of his friend. Things would have been so much easier for him if he'd had the luxury of a college fund, but it simply hadn't been a possibility with his parent's financial situation. So Clark had worked all the way through college. Maybe it had helped him, though, because he'd managed to get a job right out of school, and that had been good for both Clark and Chloe since Chloe had wanted to go to grad school right away and there would have been no other way that they would have been able to afford it.
The server returned and dropped off their drinks. They all thanked her and watched as she left the table.
"You've done really well for yourself," Pete told Lana and turned to look directly at her. Clark was sure that he could still see that spark of interest in the other man's eyes. Clark hoped that it would work out for Pete, since both of his friends deserved to be happy. It wouldn't be easy with Lana so far away, though, and Clark also hoped that he wasn't setting himself up to be hurt even more.
"So have you, Pete, with law school and everything," Lana returned. She smiled and what Clark saw there was enough to give him hope for his friend.
"Clark and I have some news," Chloe said after a moment of silence between the four of them.
"Yeah?" Lana asked.
Clark nodded slowly and took a sip of his coffee. They had decided that Chloe would be the one to tell their friends. She was so excited that it only seemed fair for her to be the one to share their happy news. Beside Clark wasn't always best with those types of situations anyhow; he tended to become nervous and flustered. Chloe reached out and took Clark's hand and laid them on the table in front of them.
"We're engaged," Chloe said happily. On her face was one of the biggest smiles that Clark had ever seen.
"Ohh," Lana squealed. "That's so cool. Do you have a ring?" She looked down and Chloe's hands, but there was nothing there to see.
"No, not yet," Chloe told their friend.
It had been something that Clark had debated with himself for a couple of weeks. On one hand he had really wanted to get Chloe a ring before he asked so that she wouldn't think that it was just a spur of the moment type of thing and so that she knew how serious he was. On the other hand, they'd never discussed whether or not Chloe would want to wear a ring and, since she rarely wore any type of jewelry, he'd wanted wait and talk with her about it. Maybe it wasn't traditional, but with Chloe sometimes making assumptions was more dangerous than anything else. So, the night before they had talked and they'd decided that Chloe would like a ring, but nothing extravagant, and they were planning on going shopping for one before they returned to Metropolis.
"Way to go, Clark," Pete congratulated his friend and reached out across the table to punch Clark on the arm. "I still can't believe that the two of you got together after you went to Metropolis. I mean, in high school it seemed like it would happen so many times and then nothing came of it, and then as soon as you left it's like you figured it out."
"Well not as soon as we left," Chloe said with a laugh.
"No," Clark agreed. "It took another year for us to get it right. It was actually when we were back here over the summer after freshman year that we finally got together."
"We spent a lot of time together that summer and it just sort of happened," Chloe supplied.
Clark smiled as he remembered those days. It had been a long lazy summer of working for his parents during the day and seeing Chloe in the evening. It had felt so much like every other summer he'd ever had, and yet so different because most of the people he'd grown up with were missing. One day he'd just been leaving the house to go meet Chloe for dinner when his mom had commented that it was so nice that he and Chloe were finally dating. Clark had started a protest, but his mom had just smiled at him and shooed him out of the house.
After that he had really started to think about Chloe and what he was feeling for her. It was obvious to him that he liked being with her. She was his best friend now that Lex was gone. They did everything together; she made him laugh and always feel like he belonged. When he was away from her and something happened, she was always the first person he thought of telling, before his parents or any of his other friends. When he'd finally thought about it, he'd realized that the only thing they didn't share was a physical relationship and the more he tried to reason why that was, the more he realized that he didn't know the answer to that question.
So, less than a week later, Clark had finally asked Chloe out for real and they'd been together ever since. They were still best friends and now that they lived together they really did share everything. He loved her more than he had ever thought it was possible to love another person and he knew that she felt the same way about him. Their life together was really good. He was happy, and he was pretty certain that Chloe was happy as well.
"When's the wedding?" Lana asked excitedly.
"We haven't set a date yet. Clark just asked yesterday," Chloe told her.
Clark saw Pete raise his eyebrow at that and he silently promised his friend that he would tell him all about it in private at some point.
"This is so exciting," Lana exclaimed. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Clark's mom wants to do it next spring."
"Where?"
"At the farm," Chloe said.
"Oh, that will be beautiful. It will be all green and the flowers and everything. In the back of the house, right? Where she has her flower garden?"
"Umm hmm," Chloe nodded.
Clark sighed softly and looked over at Pete who seemed to be similarly bemused by the girls' discussion of the wedding plans. Clark smiled at his friend and Pete returned the gesture. He was happy, he really was. And he was glad that he had asked Chloe to marry him, but this seemed like it was going to be a lot more work than he had anticipated.
"I'm so excited for you," Lana said. She was literally bouncing in her seat by then and Clark could almost see the wheels turning in her head.
"Me too," Chloe exclaimed.
"I wish I could fall in love like that," Lana said with a slightly dreamy look on her face.
"So, you're not seeing anyone?" Chloe asked.
"No. I mean, I've dated on and off, but nothing serious, you know. Most of the guys I meet are really serious about their studies and stuff like that. They don't have a lot of time to pursue a relationship. And nothing ever felt right. I always thought that when I met the right person that I would just know, but now I wonder if that's true."
"Sometimes the right person is already there and you just don't know it yet," Clark told her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pete sit up a little straighter next to Lana. Oh yeah, Pete was still interested. Clark would have to talk to Chloe about the situation and see what she suggested that they do about it.
"It's true," Chloe said and leaned slightly into Clark's side. He reached out and wrapped his arm around her. He knew he was smiling broadly, and he also knew that they probably looked too sappy for words, but that was okay. He was in love, he was allowed to look like a fool sometimes. In fact, it was almost expected of them.
"Maybe," Lana admitted. She took a long drink of her tea and then looked around them. "This place hasn't changed too much," she said.
"No," Pete agreed, "although it was better when you were here. You could always make this place feel so alive."
Lana blushed slightly and giggled. It was cute and it was so like her that Clark couldn't help but smile back in response. "Thanks," she said. "It's weird to come back and have things be so much the same and yet just slightly different at the same time."
"It is," Clark agreed with a nod. That seemed to lead to each of them thinking a little bit and there was silence at the table for a couple of minutes.
"Do you think that Lex is going to show up?" Lana asked somewhat absently.
"I don't know," Clark admitted. "I called the Singapore office so many times..."
"And our telephone bill reflects that," Chloe interjected.
"...but he never called back. I really don't know what he's up to or if he plans on meeting us."
"It's strange," Lana said.
"Oh, come on," Pete objected, "It's Lex. You didn't honestly think that he was going to show up, did you?"
"Actually, I did," Clark said. "He promised."
"Five years ago," Pete reminded him.
"Still," Clark said.
He wanted to protest Pete's lingering dislike of the older man, but Chloe's hand descended on Clark's arm and reminded him that it wasn't really worth the fight. During their high school years, Lex had become Clark's best friend, but Pete had never quite been able to accept him. In a way Clark understood how Pete could be angry with Lex, but really, anything that had been done to his family had been done by Lex's father, and Lex had turned out to be nothing like the elder Luthor. Clark had often wished that Pete would just let the past rest where it was.
"So, what do we want to do this afternoon?" Chloe asked and suddenly changed the subject.
"I wish that Nell still lived here," Lana said. "We could go riding. That's something that I've really missed doing since leaving Smallville."
"Maybe we can just go out to the farm and hang out like old times," Pete suggested. He turned to look at Clark, "What do you think the chance of your mom making pie for us is?" he asked.
Clark laughed at that. Pete had always loved his mom's pie. It didn't seem to matter what type it was: apple, cherry, or lemon. Pete liked it all. And more often than not, Clark's mom had been ready with the pie when Pete came over as well. Clark was pretty sure that it wasn't a coincidence. She probably loved to see someone enjoying her baking as much as Pete.
"Oh I see your evil plan now, Pete. Come back to Smallville and eat my parents out of house and home."
"Well..."
Clark laughed. "I'm sure that she's already got one baking for you, Pete," he assured his friend. "I mentioned that we might come by this afternoon."
Pete's eyes lit up and he was out of his seat almost immediately. "And we're waiting for?" he asked.
"Nothing," Clark replied after looking over at Chloe and making sure that she was ready to leave as well.
The four of them stood up, went to pay for their drinks, and then headed out towards the farm.
"It's good to see them," Chloe said once they were in their own car and headed back to Clark's parent's place.
"It is," Clark agreed. He couldn't quite make himself sound as happy as he should. He was still worried about where Lex was and why he hadn't shown up yet.
"I'm sure he'll come," Chloe told him gently.
"I hope so," Clark replied. "I just worry that he hasn't contacted me at all." He hoped that nothing had happened.
Pete and Lana ended up staying at the farm all afternoon reminiscing and watching movies. The four of them had dinner with Clark's parents and went out to the barn for a few hours.
The barn was much the same as it had been when Clark was a teenager, and whenever he visited he went out there to do upkeep on the place. He had thought about taking it apart last year after he had graduated from college and knew that he would be coming home less frequently, but Chloe had convinced him not to. The barn held a lot of memories for the two of them and it had a great deal of sentimental value. It was a great place to just go and hang out together when they visited his parents.
Pete and Lana had left to go back to Pete's place soon after dark and that had left Clark and Chloe alone in the barn. They had made love out there watching the stars and then fallen asleep on the old couch under a blanket. That was why Chloe found herself waking there the next morning with Clark kneeling beside her and shaking her gently.
"Mmm," Chloe mumbled and snuggled into Clark's side.
"Morning, sweetie."
She reached out to stretch and one of her arms hit the back of the couch. Chloe's eyes opened wide and she looked around her. "We're in the barn, Clark," she told him.
"We are," Clark confirmed with a smile. "I brought you some jammies so that you can go inside and take a shower without having to put your clothes from yesterday on."
Chloe blushed slightly and then looked under the blanket that was covering her. As she had suspected, she was naked. She groaned inside and could only hope that no one had come into the barn yet that morning other than Clark.
"I went and met my dad outside this morning, if that's what you're worried about, Chlo. No one's come in here, honestly."
"Okay," Chloe said and then sat up and started to dress herself. She could feel Clark's eyes on her as she moved, but she didn't mind. She was glad that he thought she was beautiful, even if she didn't always see it in herself. To her girls like Lana were beautiful, but girls like her were just pretty. She had long ago convinced herself that it was okay, but Clark always made her feel like she was wrong, that she really was beautiful.
"What are our plans for today?" she asked as she finished pulling the soft cotton shorts and top on.
"Hiking, swimming," Clark told her, "maybe some riding. I'm going to go visit our neighbor and see if he'll let us take his horses out for the day."
Chloe groaned slightly. She'd never been the best at riding and next to Lana she looked like a complete amateur. Spending her first twelve years in Metropolis had made sure that she had never even seen a horse up close until she came to Smallville. And the first time that Clark had coaxed her on to one had been a disaster.
"It will be fun," Clark insisted. "And I know that Lana really wants to do it. We'll go as slow as we need to."
Chloe nodded slowly and tried not to feel the pang of jealousy that was rising up inside her. She knew that Clark thought of Lana as a good friend and that he would do the same for any good friend who had expressed an interest in doing something, but still. This was Lana Lang, the girl that Clark had a crush on their entire high school career. And when she had left, it had taken him an entire year to get over it. She knew that Clark had chosen her, but she couldn't help but wonder if he would reconsider now that Lana was back, even if just for a little while.
"I love you," Clark said and bent down a little bit to kiss her deeply. "Come on," he said once he had released her lips. He took her hands in his and pulled her up from the couch. "Mom said that breakfast is in fifteen minutes, so if you want to have a shower before that we should go in now."
"Okay," Chloe agreed and followed Clark into the house. She was still a little bothered by the Lana situation, but she was resolved not to let it get to her too much. Lana would be leaving at the end of the week and then it would just be her and Clark again and everything would be fine.
Mandy, Mr. Kendler's dog, came running up to Clark's side as soon as he stepped foot on the property. She barked and sniffed Clark and then sat back on her haunches and panted happily. It suddenly hit him that in the excitement of asking Chloe to marry him, he hadn't called and told Mr. Kendler that his dog was out in their fields the day before. He felt a twinge of guilt at forgetting, but it was soon dropped, since the dog had obviously gotten home safely.
"Hey, Mand," Clark said fondly and reached down to scratch the large dog behind her ears. Mandy was a large German Shepard cross of some sort. She was darker and slightly heavier than a purebred dog would be and Clark suspected that she might be part Black Lab or something like that. "You wandered a long way yesterday, didn't you?"
Mandy just panted back at Clark and then stood up to follow him as he resumed his movement towards the front door. Clark had always liked dogs and Mandy was a good one, even if she did wander a little bit more than anyone would have liked. He had often wished he'd been allowed to have a dog as a child and even now he wished that he could get one. But he spent too much time at work and Chloe spent too much time at school. It simply wouldn't be fair, not on them or the dog.
Clark reached the front door and rang the bell. [This sentence is kind of awkward. Maybe it should be "Mr. Kendler's truck was parked nex to the front of the house, so he had to be around here somewhere.' The rest is kind of redundant.] Mr. Kendler's truck was parked up next to the front of the house, so he had to be around there somewhere. He didn't know if the older man would be in the house, but it was the best place to start. If he weren't there, then Clark would just take a scan of the rest of the property to find him.
"Mr. Kendler?" Clark called out after a minute or so of waiting on the doorstep but there was no response.
"Where is he, Mand?" Clark asked the dog.
Mandy just panted at him and waged her tail. No help there.
Clark smiled absently and leaned down to pat the dog again. When he was done, he straightened up and used his x-ray vision to scan the barn and other out buildings in the area to see if Mr. Kendler was in any of them. Strangely, Clark didn't find the man. He found the chickens, and three of the man's four horses. At first, Clark thought that two of them were missing, but then he reminded himself that his parents had told him that Star, the first horse Clark ever remembered riding, had passed that spring. So now there should have been four horses. Molly, Prancer, and Ben were all there, but Midnight was missing.
"Odd," Clark muttered to himself. Midnight was Mr. Kendler's favorite horse, and if he was missing, it probably meant that the man was where ever the horse was.
He wandered around the back of the house to see if there would be any indication of where Mr. Kendler had gone. Around the back on the house was the tractor, so Clark scratched off another possibility on his list of places his neighbor could be. He was getting confused and had just decided that he likely wasn't going to find the other man when Mandy started whining behind him.
Clark turned around and looked at the dog. She was whining and pawing at the ground next to a large metal bowl. Interested, Clark went over and looked at what she was doing. The bowl was stainless steel, and didn't appear to have anything in it. He didn't know what it was until he realized that there was a second, smaller plastic bowl next to it. In the plastic bowl was a brown, dusty substance. Clark leaned down, touched the brown power with his fingers, and then brought them to his nose. It was... dog food. Mandy's food dish. Which likely meant that the large metal one was for water.
But it was empty.
It had been warm the day before, but it hadn't been so warm that the entire bowl would have been empty this morning if it had been filled the previous day. And besides, if Mr. Kendler had been there, he would have noticed the lack of water and filled the bowl. So the man had been gone since at least early the day before, if not longer.
"Where is he?" Clark asked the dog again. Mandy barked and panted.
She must have been thirsty, Clark realized. He quickly picked up the bowl and took it over to the tap that was on the far side of the back door. He turned on the water, and Mandy didn't even wait for him to start filling the bowl before she was lapping at the stream of liquid. When she was done, he filled the bowl and placed it back where he had found it. Clark scanned the farm buildings again until he found the dog food in the barn with the other bags of animal feed and went and retrieved that for Mandy as well.
She ate quickly and looked up expectantly at Clark when she was finished.
"I don't know," he told her. "The truck's here. Where would he have gone?"
Clark knew that short of breaking into the house, he was unlikely to find any clues to where the other man was. And he didn't want to take that step quite yet, besides if Mr. Kendler was missing then the police would want to look in his house and find it as undisturbed as possible. All that left was going back to his parent's house and telling them what he had found.
"Stay here. Be a good girl," he told her and Mandy barked her agreement. Clark took off in the direction of his parent's farm, careful to avoid the road as he ran.
Part 2