For Clark [Warning: Graphic torture ensues]

[downsidedarling]

Normally, Eight-Hour's front door doesn't open into a cave.

A lot of things, however, are abnormal about this situation.

"...Ooops," she says as it shuts behind them with a depressing sort of finality. "Um, shit."

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[downsidedarling]

What happens once is sure to happen again, eventually. Anna looks up from the unconscious body through whose pockets she's rifling and freezes as the same photographer from before ambles into view around the corner. There's a moment where their eyes meet; hers are wide with irrational fear, his with shock. He whips out his camera and starts snapping; she sprints forwards, a move he clearly doesn't expect, and snatches it before fleeing up the wall of a nearby building, using windows as handholds.

Though every fibre of her being longs to drop the hated thing and smash it on the pavement far below, she realizes it must mean something to this nameless man. He did her a favour once; she'll return it. She tears out the film, stuffs it in the pocket of her jeans, and scrambles back down to street level, where her assailant is finally waking up. The stranger is nowhere to be seen.

No matter; she knows where he lives, after all. A half hour's trek across rooftops, with a brief stop to buy some tape, and the camera is secured to the outside of the same window she escaped from. That should confuse him nicely.

It's as she's coming to a halt twenty blocks away (mustn't stay in an area he knows) that Anna realizes this is the first time she's smiled since-- then. The thought sends her spiralling into depression once more.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark has heard the story twenty times now. He's kept track and Jimmy just won't shut up about it, cradling the offended camera like it was a long lost child. Mercifully, Chloe interrupts before he can launch into retelling number twenty-one.

"And you're positive it was the same woman we found on the roof?"

"Absolutely. I can't believe I didn't recognize her the first time, but I guess I was just too worked up about possibly getting a good picture of the vigilante. But I mean, it makes sense, doesn't it? If she's still living out on the streets, she's gotta take care of herself to survive." Jimmy sighs and pets his camera again. "And I had that shot this time. Clear as day. And she stole them."

"Sounds like she's surviving just fine if she has enough presence of mind to not want to get caught." Clark doesn't mean for that to sound as bitter as it does, but there's nothing he can do to change it once it's said.

Jimmy just looks at him and Chloe offers a very pointed rebuttal. "Well, maybe someone should try and help her so she doesn't have to do things like this and she doesn't get arrested for assault."

Clark thinks maybe Chloe's half right. He's left it alone long enough and if this vigilante is using violence to justify survival, then someone needs to tell her she's wrong. One night wandering the streets of Metropolis won't hurt.

[downsidedarling]

Anna sees Clark from hundreds of feet away, walking down a back street at night. Later, in retrospect, she'll wonder what he was doing there; at the time she's more concerned with getting away. Luckily she was already on a roof. It doesn't take much for her to cross ten more, going higher each time. Eventually she improvises what can only be described as a nest, somewhere in a place she's heard called Suicide Slums, and cowers there until morning, when she jumps off the side and falls thirty feet to the ground, breaking her neck.

Much refreshed by this, she spends that day in a pleasanter mood than normal - which is to say she allows herself to make eye contact with people once in a while.

It was bound to happen eventually, really. The diner where she and Clark had lunch an eternity ago still exists. It's in the same city. It's no great astonishment when Anna finds it again, daring to venture closer to the Daily Planet than she has in weeks. But that doesn't stop her from staring, desperate with hunger - not the base need for nourishment to which she's already resigned herself, but a deeper, more soulful want that the dead woman is reluctant to name.

A passing businessman mistakes the latter for the former and kindly offers to take her in and buy her whatever she'd like to eat. Numbly, she accepts with a dull nod. It's just as they are leaving that two familiar faces walk in the door.

"...Jimmy, I don't--"

Recognition is threefold and immediate. The stranger (Jimmy) and his girlfriend (Chloe, Clark's Chloe, should never have come this close to the Daily Planet) stare openmouthed in shock. Anna is the first to react, turning to bolt, but Chloe is quicker than her photographer boyfriend and manages to snag a sleeve. Her captive twists desperately, panting, and in her startlement speaks.

"Chloe..."

"How do you--?" the blonde starts, face creasing into a frown of confusion.

In desperation Anna calls out the first words that come to her mind, the words that have been at its forefront since she first heard the news that Jasmine has Kal. "It's my fault," she howls, wrenching her sleeve from Chloe's grip. As she shoulders open the door and flees, causing the entire street to stop and stare: "My faaaault!"

She can still hear that pathetic wail, still feel it bursting from her lips, as she curls up behind a Dumpster hours later.

[hero_farmboy]

"It was so surreal, Clark," Chloe paces in the loft, recounting the story for him once more. He doesn't seem perturbed at hearing this one a few times. "She knew my name and God, I can still hear her screaming." She shivers at that and Clark finally moves from his place near the window to pull her in for a quick hug.

"She probably remembers you from the night you and Jimmy found her on the roof," he assures her, offering a small smile. "And it doesn't exactly sound like she's all there, either."

"She needs help, Clark. Before the police get to her and decide she should spend the rest of her life in Belle Reve. Crazy or not, no one deserves that."

Clark sighs. "I'll go back out, if that'll make you feel better." She nods against his chest and he gives her one more squeeze before sending her back home. Lois can handle the ice cream and chick flick portion of cheering Chloe up far better than he can.

True to his word, Clark returns to Metropolis that night, this time starting on the opposite end of town from where the diner is. He knows if he were in this woman's shoes (if she has any) he'd be as far away as possible from the scene of the encounter by now.

[downsidedarling]

He's right (and she doesn't). Anna is pacing the floor of the abandoned warehouse she slept in that first night, scratching her arms absently (there's blood splattered in patches across the concrete floor; people will think there's been a murder here, or several), wondering why she doesn't just get the fuck out of this town already. Her hair hangs from her head in matted clumps; she pushes it absently out of her eyes, contemplating for a moment the prospect of bleeding herself out completely in the hopes that a good torch will restore it to order.

At a slight noise, she bolts out the door like a frightened squirrel. So intent is Anna on her mad dash that she doesn't even notice who she passes on the way.

It's highly probable that he notices her, however. The effects of starvation and poor hygiene can do little to disguise the face of Anna Reeve from the eyes of Clark Kent.

[hero_farmboy]

It's hard for Clark not to notice. Once he's certain there's someone on the run from the building, he zeroes in their heartbeat, the easiest way for him to track someone. What he isn't expecting is for it to be a pattern he already knows.

He positions himself a few steps ahead of her, so she'll have no choice but to run into him and catches her easily by the arm, strong enough that she won't be able to get free, but gentle enough not to hurt her.

"Anna?"

[downsidedarling]

The look she gives him is completely blank. Shock, base rodential fear, and total confusion combine to a total of nothingness.

Her first instinct is to bolt again, more thoroughly this time, and the fire's almost on her when she realizes how stupid that would be and opts instead to collapse, crying, into his arms.

[hero_farmboy]

Her physical condition doesn't appear to bother him immediately, as Clark just wraps his arms around her and lets her cry as long as she needs to. It also gives him a little bit of time to try and sort through everything in his mind; that she's obviously been here the entire time she left his house, living on the streets and the vigilante, attacking men who tried to... She'll get an extra squeeze when that particular realization hits him.

Eventually, he takes her by the shoulders and draws her away a little and gives her a good look over.

"We need to get you cleaned up and fed and... whatever else, okay?"

[downsidedarling]

"Sure," she whispers hoarsely in a dull, dead voice like the glint of light from muddied ditchwater, blinking back tears. Her face still bears that blank expression, but it's starting to clear into something else, a bizarre confluence of wonderment, depression, and hope. He doesn't seem to blame her.

[hero_farmboy]

Clark hesitates for a minute, trying to think of the best place to take her. The farm probably isn't he greatest option, because even though his mother would never turn Anna out in this condition, it would only put further strain on things. The Talon apartment... Clark isn't sure he's ready to announce to his friends that the girl he had that valiant attempt with in the romantic department is the homeless vigilante Chloe and Jimmy have been tracking all this time. He could call Lionel but that's a road he really doesn't want to go down unless he absolutely has to.

And then he realizes he has the perfect solution and smiles down at her, brushing a bit of dirt off her cheek. "A friend of mine has an condo downtown. He said I could use it whenever I needed to and I think this counts. You ready for a run?"

[downsidedarling]

"Always," she murmurs with the ghost of a smile, leaning her head on his shoulder and trying to ignore the flood of memories the association brings.

[hero_farmboy]

He picks her up effortlessly and dashes off (just like Kal did), speeding up and around the streets of Metropolis, which pass by like one big blur of light. When he stops, they're in a spacious and sparsely furnished condo, with one wall seemingly decorated like a giant clock.

"The bathroom's upstairs," he tells her, setting her down lightly on her feet. "You go soak in the tub and I'll run out to get us some food. Sound good?" The unspoken question of you'll be here when I get back, right? is left hanging.

[downsidedarling]

"Yes."

She seems to have restricted herself to single-word replies, but she's headed bathroomwards and isn't bolting out the door, so that's promising enough.

The bath is a delight. It becomes even more of a delight when she spots a fluffy grey bathrobe hanging on the door and realizes she won't have to climb back into the same set of clothes she's been wearing for the past month.

[hero_farmboy]

That's good enough for Clark.

When Anna does descend the stairs in her fluffy grey bathrobe, he will be waiting for her with burgers and fries and coffee. And a salad.

"I know it's probably not the best thing to eat but there aren't a lot of options around here." This is only true if one takes his budget into account. "We'll make up for it in the morning when I can go grocery shopping and cook you a proper breakfast."

[downsidedarling]

In the interim her face has reverted to its default state of 'blank and slightly vacant'.

"It's good--" issues forth from her in a broken monotone. "--thanks."

Food is inspected and consumed. Halfway through a burger she stops, digging in the pocket of the bathrobe for a somewhat grimy fifty-dollar bill.

"Yours," she says, holding it out, her voice beginning to take on a semblance of intonation. "That you lent me-- when we met. For clothes."

The manner in which her hand is outstretched denies wholeheartedly the possibility of a refusal.

[hero_farmboy]

When we met? Clark frowns and just sort of stares at the money for a minute before shaking his head.

"I didn't lend it to you. You needed clothes and that was that. You don't need to repay me for anything."