Smallville Big Bang 2012
Human Nature
Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Lois checked her watch again and tapped her fingers against the battered leather steering wheel while she waited for Clark to come out of the Talon. She watched him drag his feet along the sidewalk, heavy legs stumbled as he forced himself to pick up his knees and walk. His hands clutched his sweater, but even from where she sat she could tell that they were trembling just like the rest of his weary body.
The step up into the truck alone was like watching a newborn on shaky legs.
Lois sighed. “Clark, it’s after dark. We’ve checked every single place in town. Twice. And you know what Chloe is like when she doesn’t want to be found.”
“Lois. This is Chloe. We don’t just give up because she’s hard to find.”
Clark’s chiseled jaw trembled, the muscles pulled taut as he struggled to maintain some semblance of calm. His eyes were drawn to the flickering street light that flashed like a beacon against the harsh black backdrop of night. He closed his eyes and inhaled. Chloe’s scent was all around. The mint from her gum and the soap from her skin. Sex and sweat and honey.
Clark cursed Jor-El. He cursed the Earth and he cursed his destiny. He would find Chloe.
Lois knew that having a father that served in the Military left little to the imagination. She’d grown up a Tom boy, dangling from tree limbs and catching bull-frogs for the terrarium that she kept hidden under her bed. But the look on Clark’s face as his eyes clouded over was enough to frighten her.
“We’ll find her, Clark. Chloe can’t have gone too far.”
Clark slumped his shoulders and nodded his head. When Lois called him Clark, he knew that she meant business.
Lois turned the key in the ignition and moved her hand over the gear shift. She was about to pull onto the street when her pocket vibrated and Chloe’s message tone filtered through the space in the front of the truck.
“It’s Chloe.”
If he’d had the energy, Clark would have rolled his eyes. “Read it then.”
Lois pulled her phone from her pocket and flipped the front cover open. One text from ‘Cuz Chlo’ blinked up at her.
Staying with friends. No need to worry.
“It says that she’s staying with friends and that there’s no need to worry.”
Lois looked across at Clark. “But that makes me worry.”
Clark furrowed his brow in thought. “I didn’t know that Chloe had any other friends.”
“Right, because the two of you are exclusive,” Lois snorted.
Clark’s posture changed, his head touched his chest and his back was rigid and it was that very moment when a tear fell from the corner of his deep blue eyes that Lois knew. She knew what she’d suspected all along.
“You two are exclusive, aren’t you, Smallville?”
Clark shrugged and folded his broad arms across his chest to stave of the cold that had settled in his bones. “I don’t know. Chloe took off before we even got to that conversation.”
Lois cringed. Had she really thrown herself at Clark that way? And in front of Chloe. Her train of thought was shattered when Clark leaned across and tugged at the gear stick until it was in drive.
“Where are we going?” Lois questioned Clark as she signaled and merged into barely-there traffic.
“We’re going to visit Chloe’s friends,” Clark replied, “Any and every one that I can think of.”
“Even Lex Luth …”
“Especially Lex,” Clark interrupted. “Maybe we should try there first. Lex is no stranger to trouble.”
“Clark,” Lois grumbled. “You can barely hold your head up long enough to breath and I’m not entirely sure that your legs can even hold your weight. You can’t confront Lex.”
“I’ll be fine, Lois. But Chloe, she might not be so lucky.”
“I think we should get you to bed for a rest. You have to let your body heal. Chloe is tough; she can wait a little bit longer.”
Lois tried the tough love approach, playing on Clark’s sense of common sense. Briefly, her eyes flickered between the road in front of her and Clark as he shook his head.
“I’m in love with her,” Clark declared in the thick of the silence. “I’m in love with Chloe. I have been for years.”
Lois swallowed thickly. The words from his lips pierced her composure like tiny fragments of shattered glass. She refused to let her emotions influence her actions. Clark was right. This was Chloe.
“So we’re going to Luthor Mansion,” she surmised.
Clark didn’t trust his words not to betray him, so he simply nodded.
Lois knew that Beresford Road was somewhere near the outskirts of town. The area was heavily secluded, tree-lined for privacy. Almost too perfect, if one were to kidnap somebody as rambunctious as Chloe Sullivan. It boasted a medieval armory with medieval weaponry, a grand ballroom and a wine cellar. That left Lex plenty of space to stash an unsuspecting victim.
She found that the more she thought about it, the more it bothered Lois. The odds certainly weren’t in their favor, but Chloe was strong.
Clark’s jaw was set and his eyes were closed as the old farm truck made the journey along the private road that revealed, piece by piece, the splendor of the meticulously manicured garden beds. He knew that he had to concentrate if he wanted to heal. He would not rest until he knew that Chloe was safe.
Clark did not bother with formalities. He knew that the wheels of the truck had triggered sensors that had alerted Lex via live video feed.
He looked pale as his fingers pried the door open and he pushed it ajar. His feet landed on the cold, hard drive and he swayed, unbalanced, against the force of his own body. Lex was at the door, ready to greet them with a brandy and two of his father’s finest Cuban cigars.
“Would you look at that? It’s Lois and Clark. I wasn’t expecting this kind of arrival. Whose idea was it? Come on. Don’t be shy. Clark. I’ll bet it was Clark’s idea to come and pay me a visit.”
Clark inhaled slowly and blew the breath back out through his mouth. His nostrils flared and whistled as he took up his position. “Where is Chloe?” He asked.
Lex smirked. “I assumed she would be hanging off your very word. Trouble in paradise, Clark?”
“Tell me where she is, Lex?”
Lex cocked his head and considered Clark’s proposal. The game had just begun, and from the look of him, Clark wouldn’t be seeing the first quarter through let alone be standing at half time.
“Tell you what, Clark. I’m feeling generous today. Why don’t you and Lois come inside and take a look around for yourselves? Perhaps then you’ll retreat back to your mediocre little lives and your measly existence and leave me the hell alone.”
Clark sniffed. Still nothing. His eyes bore right through Lex, but he could not see the other side of the room for his shiny scalp.
“Come on, Clark.” Lois tugged at his sleeve, her free arm struggling to hold him upright.
“Lex invited us in. Let’s not be so hasty, Lois,” Clark countered.
Lex stepped away from the ornately carved timber door and held out his hand. He offered one of the uncut cigars to Clark who obliged, and tucked the tightly rolled bundle of proffered, dried tobacco behind his ear.
Lois rolled her eyes and shook her head. The testosterone levels were rising and inadvertently, she’d been thrust into the midst of the formidable pissing contest.
Clark stumbled across the threshold and into the foyer of the mansion. Where the hell was he going to start? He closed his eyes and willed his powers to give him a sign. He strained his ears, trying to pick up her heart beat. He focused his eyes and ears, but it was useless. He and Lois were flying totally and utterly by the seat of their pants, like the blind leading the blind.
As Clark took one step forward, one step right and another to his left, a lone tear escaped Chloe’s eye and coursed a rugged track along the length of her nose. She watched the closed circuit monitor, her eyes following his every move. He was so close to her now, but helpless to find her.
“He’ll never be able to find you down here,” Doctor Reynolds spoke as he took up his stool by the side of Chloe’s bed. “The glass is five feet thick and completely bullet proof.”
Chloe tugged at the leather restraints that held her arms by her side. She closed her eyes and tried to recall the fondest memory of Clark. Beside her a young man writhed in pain. His back arched off the bed and he howled out an anguished cry of pain and suffering. Chloe turned her head to the clock in the corner of the room. Fourteen minutes and twenty two seconds and the sequence would repeat itself.
“Freak,” the Doctor sneered from his seat.
“What’s wrong with him?” The curious courage Chloe possessed gave way to a symphony of questions.
The doctor shrugged and pushed himself from his seat. He retrieved a syringe from his work bench at the far end of the room and returned to his stool, brandishing the surgical grade steel injection.
“The freaks have a concentration of green meteor rock inside their organs. This,” he tapped the glass vial, “Is blue meteor rock whittled down to liquid. When it’s absorbed into the bloodstream, it strips them of their abilities. And then we come in and try to harvest the energy. That’s why you’re here. Mister Luthor thinks you’re a suitable candidate for transplantation.”
Chloe pressed her lips together and turned her attention to the wall mounted screen on the wall at the foot of her bed. Clark looked pale, his breathing was labored and she was sure she could see the lines of sweat that had trickled from his thick, bushy brow.
Clark will find me.
Chloe mused over every little piece of the puzzle she’d managed to scrounge up. The lake, the rocks, and the ‘meteor freaks.’ She knew that traces of green kryptonite were significant in Smallville. If the blue mineral neutralized the green, then it too had to be found in abundant quantities.
Then why was Clark sick? He hadn’t been injected with the formulation. His skin could not be penetrated by Earth standards. It had to have entered his bloodstream some other way. She watched his face, studied the line of his jaw as he surveyed the far wall, the one closest to her. He really could make the Gods envious with that kind of bone structure.
Chloe ached to reach out and touch him.
Then Lois was by Clark’s side, her hand on the small of his back, and Chloe had to bite her lip. She was still just the token, best friend.
Lois helped Clark to the archway of the sitting room and casually draped his arm around her shoulder. Chloe couldn’t stand to watch them. Pressure built in her belly and ripped through her body. The torment was wrenched from her throat and slipped through her lips.
“Clark,” she cried.
He couldn’t hear her. She could only watch in dismay as Lex dismissed the pair and they left through the front door, as they walked away.
She didn’t see Clark stop at the bottom step. She didn’t see him strain his hearing, concentrating him with every single last ounce he’d had to offer. She could not see him turn to Lois and declare that he’d heard something. She tucked her chin into her chest and tried to make herself as small as possible.
“What do you mean you heard something? I’m talking to you right now and you can hear me. You’re hearing is not what concerns me, Clark. You can barely walk.”
Clark held up his hand and took a step back. He wobbled, unsteady on his painful limbs. He silenced Lois with the simple motion and cocked his head to the side, gritting his teeth and straining at the seams.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was erratic, like she was breathing heavily, it was vague, but it was there.
“I can hear her,” he told Lois, the corners of his smile lifting. “She’s here. I can hear Chloe’s heartbeat.”
Chapter 7
Chapter 6
CHAPTER 6
Lois checked her watch again and tapped her fingers against the battered leather steering wheel while she waited for Clark to come out of the Talon. She watched him drag his feet along the sidewalk, heavy legs stumbled as he forced himself to pick up his knees and walk. His hands clutched his sweater, but even from where she sat she could tell that they were trembling just like the rest of his weary body.
The step up into the truck alone was like watching a newborn on shaky legs.
Lois sighed. “Clark, it’s after dark. We’ve checked every single place in town. Twice. And you know what Chloe is like when she doesn’t want to be found.”
“Lois. This is Chloe. We don’t just give up because she’s hard to find.”
Clark’s chiseled jaw trembled, the muscles pulled taut as he struggled to maintain some semblance of calm. His eyes were drawn to the flickering street light that flashed like a beacon against the harsh black backdrop of night. He closed his eyes and inhaled. Chloe’s scent was all around. The mint from her gum and the soap from her skin. Sex and sweat and honey.
Clark cursed Jor-El. He cursed the Earth and he cursed his destiny. He would find Chloe.
Lois knew that having a father that served in the Military left little to the imagination. She’d grown up a Tom boy, dangling from tree limbs and catching bull-frogs for the terrarium that she kept hidden under her bed. But the look on Clark’s face as his eyes clouded over was enough to frighten her.
“We’ll find her, Clark. Chloe can’t have gone too far.”
Clark slumped his shoulders and nodded his head. When Lois called him Clark, he knew that she meant business.
Lois turned the key in the ignition and moved her hand over the gear shift. She was about to pull onto the street when her pocket vibrated and Chloe’s message tone filtered through the space in the front of the truck.
“It’s Chloe.”
If he’d had the energy, Clark would have rolled his eyes. “Read it then.”
Lois pulled her phone from her pocket and flipped the front cover open. One text from ‘Cuz Chlo’ blinked up at her.
Staying with friends. No need to worry.
“It says that she’s staying with friends and that there’s no need to worry.”
Lois looked across at Clark. “But that makes me worry.”
Clark furrowed his brow in thought. “I didn’t know that Chloe had any other friends.”
“Right, because the two of you are exclusive,” Lois snorted.
Clark’s posture changed, his head touched his chest and his back was rigid and it was that very moment when a tear fell from the corner of his deep blue eyes that Lois knew. She knew what she’d suspected all along.
“You two are exclusive, aren’t you, Smallville?”
Clark shrugged and folded his broad arms across his chest to stave of the cold that had settled in his bones. “I don’t know. Chloe took off before we even got to that conversation.”
Lois cringed. Had she really thrown herself at Clark that way? And in front of Chloe. Her train of thought was shattered when Clark leaned across and tugged at the gear stick until it was in drive.
“Where are we going?” Lois questioned Clark as she signaled and merged into barely-there traffic.
“We’re going to visit Chloe’s friends,” Clark replied, “Any and every one that I can think of.”
“Even Lex Luth …”
“Especially Lex,” Clark interrupted. “Maybe we should try there first. Lex is no stranger to trouble.”
“Clark,” Lois grumbled. “You can barely hold your head up long enough to breath and I’m not entirely sure that your legs can even hold your weight. You can’t confront Lex.”
“I’ll be fine, Lois. But Chloe, she might not be so lucky.”
“I think we should get you to bed for a rest. You have to let your body heal. Chloe is tough; she can wait a little bit longer.”
Lois tried the tough love approach, playing on Clark’s sense of common sense. Briefly, her eyes flickered between the road in front of her and Clark as he shook his head.
“I’m in love with her,” Clark declared in the thick of the silence. “I’m in love with Chloe. I have been for years.”
Lois swallowed thickly. The words from his lips pierced her composure like tiny fragments of shattered glass. She refused to let her emotions influence her actions. Clark was right. This was Chloe.
“So we’re going to Luthor Mansion,” she surmised.
Clark didn’t trust his words not to betray him, so he simply nodded.
Lois knew that Beresford Road was somewhere near the outskirts of town. The area was heavily secluded, tree-lined for privacy. Almost too perfect, if one were to kidnap somebody as rambunctious as Chloe Sullivan. It boasted a medieval armory with medieval weaponry, a grand ballroom and a wine cellar. That left Lex plenty of space to stash an unsuspecting victim.
She found that the more she thought about it, the more it bothered Lois. The odds certainly weren’t in their favor, but Chloe was strong.
Clark’s jaw was set and his eyes were closed as the old farm truck made the journey along the private road that revealed, piece by piece, the splendor of the meticulously manicured garden beds. He knew that he had to concentrate if he wanted to heal. He would not rest until he knew that Chloe was safe.
Clark did not bother with formalities. He knew that the wheels of the truck had triggered sensors that had alerted Lex via live video feed.
He looked pale as his fingers pried the door open and he pushed it ajar. His feet landed on the cold, hard drive and he swayed, unbalanced, against the force of his own body. Lex was at the door, ready to greet them with a brandy and two of his father’s finest Cuban cigars.
“Would you look at that? It’s Lois and Clark. I wasn’t expecting this kind of arrival. Whose idea was it? Come on. Don’t be shy. Clark. I’ll bet it was Clark’s idea to come and pay me a visit.”
Clark inhaled slowly and blew the breath back out through his mouth. His nostrils flared and whistled as he took up his position. “Where is Chloe?” He asked.
Lex smirked. “I assumed she would be hanging off your very word. Trouble in paradise, Clark?”
“Tell me where she is, Lex?”
Lex cocked his head and considered Clark’s proposal. The game had just begun, and from the look of him, Clark wouldn’t be seeing the first quarter through let alone be standing at half time.
“Tell you what, Clark. I’m feeling generous today. Why don’t you and Lois come inside and take a look around for yourselves? Perhaps then you’ll retreat back to your mediocre little lives and your measly existence and leave me the hell alone.”
Clark sniffed. Still nothing. His eyes bore right through Lex, but he could not see the other side of the room for his shiny scalp.
“Come on, Clark.” Lois tugged at his sleeve, her free arm struggling to hold him upright.
“Lex invited us in. Let’s not be so hasty, Lois,” Clark countered.
Lex stepped away from the ornately carved timber door and held out his hand. He offered one of the uncut cigars to Clark who obliged, and tucked the tightly rolled bundle of proffered, dried tobacco behind his ear.
Lois rolled her eyes and shook her head. The testosterone levels were rising and inadvertently, she’d been thrust into the midst of the formidable pissing contest.
Clark stumbled across the threshold and into the foyer of the mansion. Where the hell was he going to start? He closed his eyes and willed his powers to give him a sign. He strained his ears, trying to pick up her heart beat. He focused his eyes and ears, but it was useless. He and Lois were flying totally and utterly by the seat of their pants, like the blind leading the blind.
As Clark took one step forward, one step right and another to his left, a lone tear escaped Chloe’s eye and coursed a rugged track along the length of her nose. She watched the closed circuit monitor, her eyes following his every move. He was so close to her now, but helpless to find her.
“He’ll never be able to find you down here,” Doctor Reynolds spoke as he took up his stool by the side of Chloe’s bed. “The glass is five feet thick and completely bullet proof.”
Chloe tugged at the leather restraints that held her arms by her side. She closed her eyes and tried to recall the fondest memory of Clark. Beside her a young man writhed in pain. His back arched off the bed and he howled out an anguished cry of pain and suffering. Chloe turned her head to the clock in the corner of the room. Fourteen minutes and twenty two seconds and the sequence would repeat itself.
“Freak,” the Doctor sneered from his seat.
“What’s wrong with him?” The curious courage Chloe possessed gave way to a symphony of questions.
The doctor shrugged and pushed himself from his seat. He retrieved a syringe from his work bench at the far end of the room and returned to his stool, brandishing the surgical grade steel injection.
“The freaks have a concentration of green meteor rock inside their organs. This,” he tapped the glass vial, “Is blue meteor rock whittled down to liquid. When it’s absorbed into the bloodstream, it strips them of their abilities. And then we come in and try to harvest the energy. That’s why you’re here. Mister Luthor thinks you’re a suitable candidate for transplantation.”
Chloe pressed her lips together and turned her attention to the wall mounted screen on the wall at the foot of her bed. Clark looked pale, his breathing was labored and she was sure she could see the lines of sweat that had trickled from his thick, bushy brow.
Clark will find me.
Chloe mused over every little piece of the puzzle she’d managed to scrounge up. The lake, the rocks, and the ‘meteor freaks.’ She knew that traces of green kryptonite were significant in Smallville. If the blue mineral neutralized the green, then it too had to be found in abundant quantities.
Then why was Clark sick? He hadn’t been injected with the formulation. His skin could not be penetrated by Earth standards. It had to have entered his bloodstream some other way. She watched his face, studied the line of his jaw as he surveyed the far wall, the one closest to her. He really could make the Gods envious with that kind of bone structure.
Chloe ached to reach out and touch him.
Then Lois was by Clark’s side, her hand on the small of his back, and Chloe had to bite her lip. She was still just the token, best friend.
Lois helped Clark to the archway of the sitting room and casually draped his arm around her shoulder. Chloe couldn’t stand to watch them. Pressure built in her belly and ripped through her body. The torment was wrenched from her throat and slipped through her lips.
“Clark,” she cried.
He couldn’t hear her. She could only watch in dismay as Lex dismissed the pair and they left through the front door, as they walked away.
She didn’t see Clark stop at the bottom step. She didn’t see him strain his hearing, concentrating him with every single last ounce he’d had to offer. She could not see him turn to Lois and declare that he’d heard something. She tucked her chin into her chest and tried to make herself as small as possible.
“What do you mean you heard something? I’m talking to you right now and you can hear me. You’re hearing is not what concerns me, Clark. You can barely walk.”
Clark held up his hand and took a step back. He wobbled, unsteady on his painful limbs. He silenced Lois with the simple motion and cocked his head to the side, gritting his teeth and straining at the seams.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
It was erratic, like she was breathing heavily, it was vague, but it was there.
“I can hear her,” he told Lois, the corners of his smile lifting. “She’s here. I can hear Chloe’s heartbeat.”
Chapter 7